After clearing 22 of United’s astonishing 81 crosses on Sunday, the 6ft 7ins centre back admitted that he was glad to have Manchester United bombard him with crosses.
The youngster, who learned his trade in non-league football with Darlington, said: “I’ve never headed that many balls since the Conference.
“We knew that was going to happen and I was happy for them to play like that. I’m six foot seven. It helps when dealing with those sort of balls.
“When we started dropping further back we wanted to get more compact and make them play around us because we had the strength in numbers.
“Manchester United still have amazing players – on another day they could have scored more often but we defended really well.”
After this result, questions are being raised as to whether David Moyes is woeful with his tactics, or whether luck simply has avoided Manchester United this season. The game against Arsenal in mid-week will be a good chance for Moyes to show that he does infact have the knowledge to lead this Manchester United team in the right direction.
That said, it has to be sais that Fulham had their tactics spot on when facing the Red Devils. They forced United out wide and relied on their height in the centre to bail them out time and time again. Kudos to them.
– Sam Rowbotham
