Dio: Ronaldo, United state of events after Blackburn and before Inter

As always although I am not really inclined I'll offer the reality behind a few Man United story-arcs during and after beating Blackburn 2-1.

Nani was so very poor. However, his best pass all game--the only decent one--the only one that wasn't shit--put in Rooney who did fine to slot it past Paul Robinson who was very passive and did nothing to contend the shot at point-blank range.

Ronaldo scored a belter of a free-kick from an angle--which I think is his first this season direct, when he had so many last year--and again, I will say, keeper Robinson was behind his wall and didn't have his hands up and well, top-flight players shouldn't be able to score generally without putting the ball very close to any corner of the net without it reflecting a little dubiously on the goalie.

Robinson should have done better on both goals. Brad Friedel would have at least gotten a point from this game! I'm a United fan but I know it's true. Do you?

Big Sam thought Rafa fouled Pederson for a penalty, as Rafa jumped in and got beat and then used his arms to pull himself around and back up to Pederson, who went down very agreeably when he could have scored with any concentration or confidence. Rafa knew where the ref was behind him so he got a bit cheeky, but he got away with it through his own guile, not Howard Webb's bias.

Many people say Webb is England's best referee but that is actually based on knowledge and experience from last campaign because Webb has grown pedantic this season, over-elaborating and remonstrating, sort of like a younger, camp Patrick Stewart doing theatre.

Rob Halsey is the country's best referee mainly because he plays down incidents, generally--generally--not beng overly persnickety about fouls, usually letting players get on with it and he doesn't like taking out his cards. Carding players is a weakness for Webb and many others used as compensation for being unable to inadequately control the players with their personalities.

A good ref will only talk to the captains--besides general banter, of course--and card players for dissent only after clearly warning them they better STFU with whining "fack off" nonsense. A good ref will not call anything he didn't see completely, and will only disrupt the game if he's certain of a transgression. Then, he'll tell his line judges not to call offsides if part of the player is onside because the advantage goes to the attacker per UEFA rules designed to make football more flowing. Anyways none of them do this regularly and I think the reason is the pressure created by the atmostphere, but Halsey does better than any others in England this year.

Ronaldo was carded for a clear dive. I think that's the first time Ronaldo was carded for diving this season--he has tried to clean that up. But, when he gets in these immature moods, crying and whining all the time--you could see his gushing relief when he scored--he does a real disservice to himself and most United fans would tell you they wouldn't mind him leaving to Madrid next season as long as we buy someone like Ashley Young or Karim Benzema with the money and get long-term Paul Scholes replacement Wesley Schneijder as part of the trade. Maybe it's just me, actually! The thing I hate most about Ronaldo is he's so insecure about how good he is. Last year he knew how good he was. This year he has no confidence and he expresses it by whinging, kicking-out, blaming teammates, mocking crowds, diving. Furthermore, he isn't playing nearly as well because he doesn't have the confidence to take guys on like he did when he was 19, 20, 21, or 22. He's gotta run at players, get to the byline, do some chop moves, change directions, foot on ball, change of speed, driving at 'em.

He appeases himself too much with the more pusillanimous option when matches are so often crying out for him to change them. Just comes down to confidence and pressure and he was none of one because he's got too much of the other, really ever since missing his penalty against Chelsea in Moscow.