Scholes vs Adam from Tuesday Night

Charlie Adam was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread.

However, although he caught the eye and was behind both of Blackpools goals, there are questions about his wider play that need answering.

The general consensus is that, for the first 60 minutes, Adam bossed it, whereas Scholes was more the man in the last half an hour. However, when we look at their passses for the first hour, a different story is told.

Scholes kept the ball masterfully. Eighty-seven percent of his passes found a teammate, although very few were played centrally forwards. You can almost see an invisible wall around the Blackpool box. Almost every pass is played more laterally than vertically on the pitch, too, a bullet for those obsessed with calling Carrick a crab but singing the praises of Scholes at every opportunity.

Adam, meanwhile, really couldn’t give two hoots what happened to the football. Even accounting for the fact that a number of his passes appear to be crosses, a completion rate of 43 percent is absolute rubbish. There are a load of lines running from the middle up the Blackpool half towards the United box, most of which are red. Adam also appears to occupy a triangle, whose point is 25 yards out from his own goal. Scholes covers the whole pitch.

So, what changed in the last thirty minutes to swing the game?

Quite simply, Scholes and Ferguson kept faith with their game, whilst Holloway felt the need to tinker. Charlie Adam was busy running all over the place trying to influence the game in the first hour, to some effect, but in the last 30 minutes Holloway kept him marooned out on the right, unable to exert the same influence, as he tried to contain Manchester United.

You do NOT try to contain Manchester United.

Scholes was suddenly freed up to run the game, and whilst his passes were just as consistently accurate, they were also far more penetrative, including the goal he made for Berba to win the game.

It’s a temptation other managers often fall into when they’re up against United, but as we have seen time and time again, if you invite us onto you, we will punish you.