Dimitar Berbatov picked up on illness on the way to Japan meaning he made the journey over there but was unable to play. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed the trip had several benefits, including how well it had allowed the team to bond.
“It was terrific for the unity of the team,” said Fergie. “I think the players all enjoyed their time together. When you’re at home in England you tend to go off in different directions after training. Some players go home early after training, some hang around to practise, some linger around the canteen having their lunch. There are all different ways they behave regarding their lifestyles. But when they’re all away for a long spell like we’ve just been, they’re together, they communicate very well, and that’s more important than anything. There was a fantastic atmosphere among the squad.”
Berbatov seemed to be bringing smiles to his team mates faces, after initially being a bit of a loner when he first joined the club.
Since returning from Japan, Berbatov has assisted the winning goal against Stoke and scored the winning goal against Middlesbrough, but believes our lack of goals is not something to worry about.
“We are having a lot of 1-0 wins but sometimes it is because we are missing a lot of chances,” said Berbatov. “You lose your concentration sometimes and the teams we are facing are defending very well. Middlesbrough were very good on Monday night. It would be nice to get a second or third goal but 1-0 is enough. You still get the three points. We are not really worried about it, but maybe we must work on our concentration in the final third of the field. The boss tells us all the time not to lose our concentration because it will be very important in the crucial games coming up. So we will keep working on that and as long as we keep making chances, hopefully the goals will come.”
Lest we forget, in our opening 10 games last season, we scored just one goal or less on 9 occasions. The most important thing at this stage has to be collecting the points and keeping the pressure on Liverpool and Chelsea.
Against Boro, we had a further 7 shots on target and 17 off target other than the goal we scored. Against Stoke we had a further 4 shots on target and 9 off. Against Spurs we had 6 shots on target, 4 shots off, but no goals. Against Sunderland we had a further 7 shots on target, 15 off, yet couldn’t score until injury time. Against City, we had a further 5 shots on target, 4 off.
Clearly, we’re creating the chances, we’re just not putting enough of them away. Whilst I’d rather us win 3-0 every week, I’ll take all the points we can get at the moment. If we go on to win the league by winning 1-0 every week, I won’t complain. However, I do feel we’re just waiting for things to click. Once we get Chelsea out of the way, we’ve got a run of fairly easy fixtures. If we just relax, start putting away our chances, then our confidence should grow and grow over the next couple of months.
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Well… all these 1-0 wins have gotta provide a positive somewhere… ie… No Rio, No Evra… so we aint doing that bad…
I am pretty confident that we wont concede more than 1 in a game… so as long as we can double up on what we have been producing goals wise then i think we are on a banker to win the league..
Especially as the others have gotta come to OT to play us.. i think that will play a big part in the league for us… and also Champs League.
Agree with you Scott, what matters is the the 3 points, we just have to go through Chelski and win the 2 games against Wigan and Fulham, and I feel like Evra’s absence has alot to do with the performance, don’t you think?
and yeah Berbatov’s reaction after he scores is getting much better than that attitude he had
Totally agree 3 pts ,bird in the hand etc , but come the end of season we know it will be tight, so goal differance should be a concern .
Berbatov is warming to the task , great to see him doing his thing .
Yep, I enjoyed Berba’s celebration after the almost dour expressions of past goals.
Yes the 3 points are all-important, but let’s be clear, I disagree that we shouldn’t care about a lack of goals or the way we create them. I don’t want us to become the new version of Mourinho’s Chelski.
I lost count of the amount of times on Monday night that I glanced at the penalty box when one of the wingers received it out wide, only to find no-one in there (or the vertically-challenged Rooney). Ji can’t cross for shit, unfortunately, and Ronaldo is hardly the new Beckham when it comes to crossing.
If we’re going to play wingers out wide, then get the taller CF’s in the box (Berba, Manucho) and get the wingers in who can cross (Nani). If we’re going to break on the counter, replace the slower more pensive players with speed and precision (Tevez and Anderson in place of Pele and Berba). Or am I oversimplyfying matters?
Oh and Scholesy should be starting, IMVHO. Even Carrick applauds the lad’s ratio of range:precision of passing, and that’s saying something. I’m sure SAF thinks that if we can win w/o him during the congested period, it’s better, and I can see the merit in that argument, but I’d rather we were 3-0 up with him playing from the get-go and then sub him, than bring him on at 0-0 after 60 minutes looking for the breakthrough.
Finally before I forget, anyone notice that thieving bastard Lampard robbing Ronaldo’s free-kick style?
Reminds me a lot of ’96, we kept grinding out 1-0′s (Cantona usually scoring). Turned out to be a nice little season for us, didn’t it?
Come to think of it, that was the “can’t win anything with kids”-season. Alan Hansen, what a tool…
Re: EastStand Yes I saw Fat Lampards free kick!! Whats all that about? Bless him must have been watching video s of Ron then trying to copy down training ground!
1-nil to TheLads is perfectly acceptable – before they go out and throttle the opposition. After the game, 1-nil is usually a downer for us and a huge let-off for the other guys.
I, too, was astonished by the spontaneous excitement from Berbatov. Perhaps this was what SAF had in mind when he discussed the “team bonding” that occurred when the players were together for the Japan trip.
What most pleased me about the goal against ‘boro – apart from the fact that it gave TheLads three points and those chokers nothing – was that Scholes was running into the box and Berbatov was stationed on the penalty spot. I think that if the opposition are going to park-the-bus in their penalty box then TheLads need to station themselves there and hope for ‘lucky bounces’ and ricochets because it’s proving to be too difficult to consistently thread the ball through eleven defenders.
1-0 wins are fine, we should start coupling a more creative player with Carrick against some of the lesser teams though to break them down as I think someone mentioned, either Scholes or even Anderson. Fletcher’s improved vastly but he still lacks the vision or the ability to get into the attcking third in dangerous positions. I’m sick of the Berbatov media chatter, he’s not worth £30 million, he doesn’t look happy, Craig Burley telling everyone apparently he hasn’t played well again. He’s fine, he’d just joined a new, massive club and and is clearly the kind of person that likes to get into something properly before he starts celebrating like a madman. I think his performances have been good as well, I thought he was quality against Middlesborough, linking up with Rooney and having to do most of the midfield’s creative work, working back and as usual hardly ever losing the ball. Ferguson came out and said he was quality which was good to hear because at the moment the media chatter is being hi-jacked by the people who are asking whether he’s worth the £30 million which is a pointless debate and blatantly wrong, there’s no player in Europe can bring what Berbatov brings to a team.
in this conjested period,the three points definitely matter more than the amount of goals we score. but all the missed chances are becoming worrisome,even though its only a matter of time before the goals start coming (a la rentboyz).i do think fergie needs to start playing ando or scholesy with carrick to create more chances because they have the ability to open up teams. fletcher has done really well this season but he doesnt have that creative spark that can bring a moment of brilliance.also,i think the main reason why we havent scored that many goals is that berba plays toooooo deep.the last time i checked he was a number 9.he should be in the box or the final third.all his goals have been in the penalty area.he’s never there for a cross and he’s never there for a simple tap-in.all these flick ons and pretty passing is nice but leave that up to wazza/carlito/cr7 and then we will convert our chances.i kno berba aint no poacher in the box like ruud (those days werent pretty, lads) but he’s got to do more running in the box and stop coming to the half way line to collect the ball.
Twinnyd – exactly right about Berbatov’s positioning.
I’m in two-minds about Fletcherinho – on the one hand he clearly provides a sound defensive shield for the central defence as is witnessed by the small number of goals allowed when he plays; BUT, on the other hand, he ain’t no offensive genius which is probably likewise witnessed by the small number of goals scored by TheLads when he plays.