Sir Alex described the home defeat by Blackburn Rovers as a disaster, but what did he really expect from the decisions taken by him on a day of birthday celebration?

The team set up was asking for trouble.

We continue to take these lower level teams too lightly, and picking out of form players plagues the performances.

For this game he reinstated David  De Gea, who i nickname Dracula for his fear of crosses. He was singled out before the Stoke City game as a hater of high balls and so with Yakubu, and Samba up for the first free kick from 50 years away, he froze at the sight of the ball and Sir gave marking duty on Samba to Dimitar Berbatov who gave a penalty away for 1-0.

Rafeal Da Silva in midfield with Park Ji-Sung…..what was he thinking?

Michael Carrick was praised for his defensive performance against 10 man Wigan in a 5-0 win, was never tested there but was found wanting here. Phil Jones is letting his Duncan Edwards/Roy Keane comparisons go to his head. It was woeful.

We hardly tested their keeper in the first 45 mins and we virtually scored with our first shot on target on 60 minutes.

Antonio Valencia was excellent, Nani was pathetic, so all attacks were down the right.

At halftime Sir Alex saw the error of his ways and went 4-4-2 with Anderson joining the fading Park in central midfield and Da Silva demoted to right-back. Good call as the right side continued to provide the threat.

On the left the hapless Patrice Evra continues to fade into the worst player I’ve seen at that position for 20 years, he has lost his form, his way, his passing, his tacking and frankly he needs to go away and rest and get his act together.

We can’t play with people out of position and out of form.

Javier Hernandez is in a slump, Wayne Rooney was rightly dropped and Sir Alex hadn’t practiced his pre-game excuse on ESPN when he said Rooney had trained badly and was suffering a few strains. I hope the strain isn’t off-field paternal or female issues again, because his form has been awful since September and we need him back in the frame.

Those i haven’t mentioned did ok, Welbeck ran and ran, effort 10/10 but result 2/10. Berbatov looked languid, slow, uninterested and scored 2, as per usual there.

All in all it was as Sir Alex said, a disaster. We lost at home, City have the easier run in and our second-string’s form has been woeful.

We need to learn a few facts:-

1) We don’t have a squad that’s good enough so play the best players all the time

2) People can’t play out of position and play well

3) Form matters

4) We need to beat the lower teams and pray against the good ones, Spurs would murder us on this form

5) Our Club needs player investment

We are out of the Champions League, out of the Carling Cup, probably going to be out of the FA Cup and so don’t let us slip out of contention for the League.

After all that’s all we have left, well aside from the Europa League!

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve