City supporting journalist, Stuart Mathieson, has written in the Evening News that Manchester United have now been handed the advantage because of the postponed matches.
Why? “It will leave City just 72 hours to prepare for the visit to Old Trafford, while United will have had the comparative luxury of putting their feet up for eight days.”
Before the change in timing, United were due to play City between our games against Leeds and Birmingham, and between Burnley and Hull.
The change in matches now means we have to play City in the second leg of League Cup semi-final just four days before we face Arsenal at the Emirates. I struggle to see how this gives us an advantage.
City can play a weakened team against Scunthorpe then their strongest team against United. When do we get to play our weakened team? In a game which decides whether we’re going to Wembley or not or in a game essentially worth six points at the top of the table?
There is also the chance that in the middle of that eight day period when we can “put our feet up” we will play against Hull, with our game having to be rescheduled because of the League Cup change. Neither United or Hull are still in the FA Cup so the weekend that other teams are playing in the Cup, we could play our league fixture, although this is yet to be confirmed, but would put an end to our lengthy rest.
Another issue is that after the bitterly disappointing performance and result against Leeds, United should have been ready to come racing out of the blocks against City, ready to make amends over such a stinging recent defeat.
Both teams have currently got a few injuries, so from that perspective, we both see the benefit from have extra time for them to return.
Read Stuart Mathieson’s “Postponement hands advantage to United“.
Man Utd News 24/7
Stuart Mathiesons post should of been called “already making excuses”
Yeah, have to agree here. Mathieson’s usually sound, but this obviously doesn’t hand an advantage to either side. It’s a Manchester derby – despite the fatigue, both sides will be up for it.
I’d rather we come “racing out of the blocks” for a Premiership game (i.e. Birmingham) than for the Carling Cup. 3 points is more important – Premiership obviously more important than the CC. If we can’t get ourselves up for City (see Leeds) then that means we have serious issues at the club. After Fulham I thought we wouldn’t see another half-hearted performance but it seems I was wrong……
Firstly it was citeh’s moron of a CEO Cook who decided it wasnt safe enough for their fans to get from stockport to the wastelands and
Secondly thats what happens when you get through to the next round of the FA Cup, MORE GAMES! Twats… besides the Hull game will eventually be moved to the saturday
What a disgrace of a football club are Man United? After playing just 66 games last season, they have the nerve to get knocked out of the FA cup at the third round for the first time in 20+ years and have a week’s rest before a League Cup semi final. It’s a conspiracy!
By the way, where was this fucker when United were forced to play against City 60 hours after the Milan game in 2007? And lets not forget that City denied us the chance delay the fixture for 24 hours.
off topic: by the way when talkin about eastlands: Am I the only one who heard, that the arab who bought shity, actually wanted to buy united??
He usually hides his bias quite well, but he obviously forgot to take his blue tinted glasses of when he wrote that article.
I’d always thought he was a United fan.
advantage or not, it’s all subjective. personally i would like to think it will disadvantages us more. é mental state & é urgent need to put things right after é leeds result would probably subsides abit with the birmingham game in between. watever, come on United!!
“Why? It will leave City just 72 hours to prepare for the visit to Old Trafford, while United will have had the comparative luxury of putting their feet up for eight days.”
Before the 1st leg,we’ll have to play Birmingham and Burnley.Fergie will most definitely prioritise the league games while City’s main focus will be on the first leg so they’re likely to rest some key players of theirs.
Then the league game against Hull is up next.We need to get a lot of consistency in the league so I don’t expect Fergie to be taking these league games lightly at all.Which means he could play out his best team to get the job done.
And then surely,Fergie will be prioritising the league game against Arsenal just as much as he’ll be doing for the the 2nd leg.
All our league and cup games are vital,so I agree with Scott,the bloke who claimed that we have an advantage is talking utter nonsense.
With this match being put back it does give city the chance to spend a few hundred million on players before they have to play the champions.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=721218&sec=england&cc=5901
“tick tock, tick tock…”
Bollocks!
A city fan? Why the fuck does he go on United in Press then? Fuck him off.
Hello by the way.
sanj –
I preferred the BBC headline. Manchester City post “massive” loss. Seems to be a bit more apt.
Tick tock indeed though.
Fergie junior named new preston boss, a few of our young players cud be on their way to preston in the near future.
I thought he was a united fan king eric, he’s never of united in press.
willierednut – Hi. Yeah like Becks.
Sanj – They have the fucking nerve to say we are skint. As soon as their owner fucks off, which he will, they will be left in a right state.
willierednut – Yeah so did I. I wonder how many of the others are bitters?
If you’re a pro footballer, training as often as they do, 72 hours is plenty rest between matches FFS! I for one would hope that SAF keeps a relatively unchanged team throughout these fixtures as needless tinkering has fucked this seasons campaign around! Stick with a first 11 and make the changes as and when needed, not for the sake of “Resting” players!
Wasn’t he sniffing around Real Madrid last week???? I think if he was offered a more attractive play thing he may well upgrade?
Or maybe he wishe’s he was a united fan, im sure most of them do.
Why the fuck is he winging the game was at Eastlands for fuck sake. Couldnt city find some unemployed from manchester to clear the snow, I mean clearing the snow from a football pitch is hardly fucking rocket science is it. Its not the building of the pyramids, the building of the great wall of china. Perhaps these arabs arent so fucking used to work after all, wasnt it them that came out with if Mohammed wont go to the mountain then well bring the mountain to Mohammed.
City twat, its fucking snow and the switch of dates is your fault. I realise SkyNews has got a wide on over some snowfall but Im in 40cm of snow with -25 degrees centigrade and a freezing wind but my day still goes on as planned.
i bet you will never find deluded and most dumb guys than bitter blues it puzzles me how dare them even try to compete with us ? Is it for the pride of the city ?Or is just for the hatred and derby rivalry ?
If there is one thing the city fans should be doing is to thank manchester united for the good they have done to the city in general. The tremendous job they have done to bring manchester to international recognition.
Away from that, i was looking at their bluemoon website (is it their official site??) and came across some “awards of the decade” and din’t help but wonder, do these guys really have a history ??
Just look at some of this:
GOLKEPPER OF THE DECADE
shay given
its no doubt given is a great shot stopper but for the man signed in 2009 leaves a big question mark about their past. I would have particularly loved to see their no.2
and the following awards of the decade:
)
DEFENDER otd – richard dunne
MIDFILDER otd – ali benarbia
PLAYER otd – dunne
ACADEMY PRODUCT otd – shaun wrigh phillips
GAME otd – city 4-3 spurs fa cup (surprised they dint award our 4-1 loss there or do they now know the joy behind a 4-3 win ?
GOAL otd – swp vs man utd ( surprised ? Me not. they dont usually score crackers,or do they ? )
FLOP otd – vincente matias vuoso ( flop among flops )
WORST MOMENT – relegation 2001 .
)
FUNNY MOMENT – gary neville “feeding the goat”. ( i hate to remember this
that sums up the awards of the decade and it actually comes from their official web-site
Sometimes footballers seems to amaze me 72 hours i ain’t enough for the them to rest ? Thats 3 good days for christ sake !!.
They should consider our local league where a team travels by bus hundreds of kilometers on friday and proceeds to play two consucutive matches on saturday and sunday and you will never hear them complaining of fatigue.
player of the decade-dunne? Isn’t that the player they fucked off as soon as they got some money and replaced him wi shitty toure n overpriced lescott even though he wanted to stay? Thats dunne ain’t it? No fucking class at all that club
Aren’t Utd supposed to be fielding a “weakened team” against City? There’s the opportunity to field one now.
I know there’s been a lot of talk of united signing silva but wat about the kid at sevilla diego capel.
@ sppbhrghming (man that username
anyway yeah its dunne the one they sold to “balance the books”
sppibsihmkcrkg has one of the best user names on here apart from mine.
what a team sppibsihmkcrkg made up
unreal
@ willerednut
ive always rated capel and after the perfomance at camp nou,surely he is worth a bid.
@ ghtt
yours has become somehow a trademark its a pity i had to change mine
obertan fold em
the best keeper that played for them in the last 10 years ?????????????????????? didnt they have one of the greatest keepers of all time playing for them in the last 20 years him and his son
Very modest ghtt lol.
why did you have to change it
i came up with mine readig one of scotts posts along time ago and terry came across as a twat in it so i changed it
i was called a united fan then changed to an irish united fan but gotta hate just stuck around for years now
@obertan fold em
It cud be an option in the summer if valencia want to much for silva.
willierednut
I just gotta love me
@GHTT
Hopefully I can change my username in May also!
I would like to deduce the following which I have learnt since we letLeeds beat us:
United lost to Leeds who used to be once upon a time our challengers
Leeds beat Manchester United who have one more championship than MC
City fans are aping down with United because they only have more money than us – that’s about it.
Cue the debt.
Leeds went down because of debt but had no global appeal and fan base unlike Manchester United
City want United to go down like Leeds (like every other non believer – cue the media response – perfectly timed!) but do not balance the argument by saying that as a global brand and a global draw – it becomes increasingly difficult for United to simply break as they so choose to wish
United are in debt because the Glazer’s are not addressing the problem – nearly five years on instead of reducing it they have increased it and at the same time increased prices for fans. Unacceptable
Cue the hatred
As mentioned we win they hate us – we loose they hate us further – they will never acknowledge us – our achievements – the success of the manager.
For that reason Mourinho is the perfect answer for SAF – who knows – unlike City fans who are deluded by telling us that the future is blue – we’ll just take every thing at one at a time.
Chin up then
well ta very much ghht. Ball ache to write it everytime! I’m on mobile and it won’t accept it on predictive ha
Seeing that City are trying to attract cheap(for them) players like Vieira and Veron, I wonder if the Arabs are already feeling the pressure. They did have record losses in the past year…
Costas, I find it laughable that they targeted Veron. What a bunch of jokers. I don’t watch much of Serie A, but I find it hard to believe that Vieira can offer much at this point in his career. How many midfielders are they going to have? Every world class player knows that they are a joke… probably why no one wants to go to the Wastelands.
Stuart Mathieson is a bit of a joke, really. Haven’t bought Manchester Evening News since he started writing reports of our matches and doing the ratings.
If Neville retires at the end of the season (has he signed an extension, BTW?) I hope Fletch becomes our captain. We look so much stronger with him in midfield, and most of our defeats this season have come without Fletch in the side. Especially in the derby’s that are often a bit tougher physically. (Liverpool, Leeds. In both games it looked as if the formation was 4-0-2.
@ProperMancsAreRed
I read a stat somewhere that United have lost only 2 of our last 60 some-odd matches when Fletcher has started in midfield for United. I’m not sure of the exact stat, but it is impressive nonetheless.
Here it is, not sure of its accuracy, so don’t kill me:
“The incredible statistic is that in the last 2 years, we’ve only lost 2 matches when Fletcher was in midfield: at Chelsea recently, and at Fulham last season when Scholes was sent off in the first 15 minutes.”
@Sanj
Yeah, I saw that somewhere too. We just need either Carrick or Anderson to step up and deliver alongside him now, or bring in a more creative central defender. OR have two creative wingers in Valencia and say… Di Maria?
Does anyone know if Giggs is the only one of the old guard to have signed a new deal?
Central midfielder, of course. My bad, sorry.
@ProperMancsAreRed
I believe only Giggs. I don’t think Neville should be offered one, I love the lad, but he just seems past it. Too slow, too injury prone and Rafael has shown glimpses of his raw talent. Once he bulks up (grows?) he will be our RB for years to come. I think Fergie was being a bit conservative with his 5 years claim about the twins. Scholes is a 50/50, I think he still has much to offer, but a player of his talent seems disappointed with his production nowadays. After playing at such a high level for so long, he seems like he is finally realizing his legs aren’t what they used to be. Also, wouldn’t mind that Nani + cash deal for DiMaria- granted I am being a YouTube scout.
@sanj
Seba had a good season in South America, but still…I guess the summer will show us their intentions.
I can confirm the stats you mentioned.
In 08-09 we lost to 5 games and Fletch was only present in the Fulham one(where he started as a righ winger). And this season he was only in our midfield at the defeat at the Bridge. An interesting stat(not that they tell the whole picture) is that Anderson has started in 10 of our last 12 defeats.
I reckon Neville should be offered a coaching role, perhaps with the youth team. Yes, he’s slow and he’s never been a technical genius, but his attitude is always spot on, and mentally he’s gotta be one of the toughest in the game.
With Scholes I think he deserves another year. He’s been a bit part player since 07/08 now, but he somehow keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat when he’s picked.
I read somewhere earlier this season that he was willing to move (probably Oldham) to get more regular first team football?
willierednut
has there been more silva rumours recenlty?
Off topic – I see Barca got beat at the Nou camp last night in the first leg of the copa del ray. This following a 0-0 draw in the league. Just shows you winning is the easy part, sustaining it is a different ball game all together.
Just another sad blue nose making excuses..
I really think the Arsenal game is one of the, maybe even the, most important game of the season so far. I mean, if Arsenal would win tonight’s game against Bolton they are 1 point above us. Alright, it’s not that big of a gap and I certaintly don’t see us ending up third but it does mean that nothing else but a win will do at the emirates. I think SAF will feel the same way so I don’t consider us playing our strongest side against city. But other than that I think we have decent chance winning the city game with our 2nd team. At the very least our boys will put up a fairly decent fight. Remember, it’s a 2 legged game so even a draw should be suficient, especially when you consider that the 2nd leg will be played at our home ground.
king eric
watched the game last night after the stoke-fulham game, it was serioulsy boring me to tears, messi on from the start and had 1 decent effort, sevilla went 1 nil up then that big swedish bloke scored, the funny thing is as they were showing the reply of the goal, sevilla went up the other end and won a pen!..all in all still a boring game of football, the commentator said that copa del rey doesnt get serious till the semi finals fuck sake!!
You know guys, I think with Barcelona we are dealing with a machine. The problem in my view is that they replaced one of their key parts: Eto with Ibrahimovic. The formula isn’t working out like it did last season. And to tell the truth, it’s easy having one fantastic season. How do you follow that though?
costas
they won 6 titles or something last year, how can any team follow up to that? still barca i feel will be team to beat this year in the champions league
@Ulster Red
Obviously they can’t win as many this season. That’s not what I meant. The Ch.League alone was a source for 3 of those titles. In my opinion, the most impressive thing about Barcelona last season was their goal tally. That’s what I was wondering. Can they play fluent football like that again? Especially when they have replaced Eto with Ibrahimovic, who is not a bad striker by any means. Just different than Eto.
As far as the Ch.League goes, after the first round we experienced,it’s hard to put your finger on anyone, although I feel that Real might have the upper hand. I think what they have going for them, in contrast to Barcelona, is that they are hungry to win it again. Other than these 2, you can never tell with Jose Mourinho, so Inter could prove a tougher nut this season. I won’t say anything about Man United, because it’s tough to predict the team’s form and injury situation at that time.
if we kept our first team squad fit (hard to ask) then i think we have as much chance on anyone, form is temporary class is permanent!
Ulster Red:
Yeah I agree. I said it recently. With Valencia settling down, a team consisting of a core group like VDS, Vidic, Evans(if Rio can’t get back to his best),Evra,Valencia,Carrick,Fletcher and Rooney have a great chance. We need these players fit. And of course, having Ryan in the side won’t do any harm either!
the scholes to oldham rumours have been going on for yrs. Sure i read a quote from him saying though that he couldn’t see himself going down the leagues though. And also think neville should be put in charge of visiting scouse fans when we play liverpoo. Could imagine him leading em over the m60 after few drinks in centre ha
Costa
“it’s easy having one fantastic season. How do you follow that though?”
you got that right some times it cant be followed
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2004/05/15/arsenal040515.html
I follow everyting this prick writes on MEN about United and 99% of it is anti-united and negative press, how has this knob end actually allowed to write about us when he is clearly anti-united. Fucking cunt
exaclty costas the players you mention are our core and if fit im happy with what we have, and have no doubt number 19 would be on its way!
I thought Stuart Mathieson was a united fan, he has been reporting on united for 2 and half decades hasnt he
I see the “United in decline” bandwagen is gathering pace. Every fucking man and his dog writing us off now. Do people think the likes of Gill are that daft they are gonna take on debts they can’t repay. Anyone would think these people have inside information. Come on United show the fuckers.
lol thought it was only me that noticed the biasedness the m.e.n writes
King Eric – who is writting united off today because I cant bear listening to talksport with the to twats who are on at 4 today. or looking at the newspapers on the internet I just block it out now. check this funny piece done by the loser shitty boss. I still am laughing mancini called tevez a (world class top player), and he managed to put tevez in the same sentence has ronaldo.
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/premiership/manu/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/01/05/SOCCER_Man_City_Nightlead.html&TEAMHD=manu&DIV=prem&TEAM=MANCHESTER–UNITED&RH=Manchester–United&PREV_SEASON=
rooney the new king – I read it earlier mate. What a joke. Mancini WILL come unstuck if he tries to take on United and Fergie. We have seen it happen to Dalglish, Keegan, Wenger, Jose, Rafa.
EVERY fucking paper is charting our downfall. Second in league and winners of our European group. If we are in decline what the fcuk are the dippers? We have experienced awful defeats before albeit not in the FA cup under Fergie. Southend and York spring to mind. It was a giant killing and twenty minutes in it had bad result written all over it. Hoping we hammer Brum on Saturady to shut the abu’s up.
Those two idiots on talk sport at 4pm are now moaning that it is unfair to City and the Chavs that Platini and Wenger have said that no club in Europe should spend more than they earn on players. They should try and encourage the young ones to stay and break though then. Jokers.
Don’t know about Mathieson but what happened to Stuart Brennan? He used to be the United correspondent but now he only reports on City, writing some typically “bitter” articles to boot. I remember him being very anti-Glazer and pro-FCUM when he was writing United stories. I wondered if he’d been demoted to covering City as punishment for his outspoken views on Glazer. Anyone know the story with that guy?
I think we are going to batter brum this weekend. Hell hath no fury like Sir Alex scorned.
King Eric – I always thought watching golf was boring to watch these 2 idiots are even worse LOL. in it amazing those managers you have named where are they now. One is in italy fighting the italian press and struggling, and the other has not seen a piece of silverwhere in half a decade the rest need I say more.
People said fergies transfer record has been aveage the past 3 or 4 years, well it is not fergies fault anderson nani berbatov have not done what he expected from them and hargreaves is unfested with injurys. For me that is all down to the players, they have let him down but how many thought when they were signed many fans were were exited. but people forget vds carrick vidic evra park valencia and maybe overtan have payed off for fergie its just a phew have not done it week in week out.
weak signings since 2005
anderson nani berbatov tevez hargreaves
quality and useful signings
vds park vidic evra larsson carrick valencia obertan rafeal fabio macheda
@rooney the new king
I would disagree about Anderson and Tevez being weak signings. Anderson is still very young. Scholes was not running a midfield when he was Ando’s age, and neither were the other ‘world-class’ mids (Gerrard, Lampard, Xavi, Iniesta, etc.). The only exception is Fabregas, and he is just that, an exception. Ando had a fantastic debut season and a disappointing second. Becoming a midfield maestro requires a lot of mental training that usually comes with experience and time. I would give him a few more years before branding him a weak signing. When we sign such young players, we forget how young they are and how they are still improving day in, day out. As for Tevez, signing him for 2 years at 5 mill a year was brilliant. Letting him sign with Citeh was even more brilliant.
Also, Anderson is adjusting to a new position, which might have stunted his growth at the club.
rooney the new king – Agree but lets hope that Berba, Anderson and Hargreaves turn out to be successes. Anderson has definately got the talent to succeed as we have seen what he is capable of. Just needs to do it more consistently but he is only 21 still. I still reckon Berba can make the difference to United this season and just cannot wait for Hargreaves to return. It is getting daft now. There just seems to be no word. End of January last we heard. Has anyone got any pictures of him training at all?
I watched the game again on Monday night and have to say the criticism of Berbatov was harsh . He provided fantastic balls for Owen and I think Valencia to finish them off. There were far worse than him. I slated Anderson when I got in from the game but having watched it again he was one of United’s better players on the day. Anyway just want to forget about that shambolic performance. I am still getting cold sweats in the night about it.
Sanj – Hi mate. Completely agree. Anderson has the potential to be a star.
Heard an interesting stat last night. Xavi hasn’t scored since last April.
Granted, he has been adjusting for almost 3 years… haha.
@King Eric
Hi, mate. Interesting stat about Xavi… though he generally isn’t a big goal scorer is he? The Berba criticism has always been harsh, though I have slowly started getting frustrated myself. I know we always say that Rooney and Berba both drop too deep, they are too similar, etc. etc. However, I know this sounds a bit outlandish, but do people really think Sir Alex hasn’t noticed this? Perhaps he actually wants Berba to keep doing what he’s doing? Obviously the departure of Ronaldo has aided Rooney’s goal return, but maybe he wants Rooney to get the goals and Berba to provide a diversion of sorts and the link up play, who knows. I just wish they played together as effectively as I have imagined them. It boggles my mind how effective he was at Spurs and with Robbie Keane, then again it could be that opposition defenses don’t park the bus as they do against United. I just hope the partnership flourishes soon. I still think Berba has a lot to offer.
King Eric and sanj – I got an even better state steven gerrard has scored 5 goals this season. That means both berbatov and valencia have teqnically scored more goals just throwing that out.
I said some have not done it because their reputations I expected much more.lets look at tevez, yes he scored some important goals but his overall performences and when ronaldo and rooney were unavailable he could never raise his game and he missed quiet a lot of sitters, city and bolton come to mind very overated by the english press and a lot of united and shitty fans.
anderson – well it is a retarded way of looking at it but I expected a sensational player especially how he wa at gremio porto. I thought we would have a driving powerul forward? that could run at defences and score some belting goals in andersons early days he was almost like how goerge best played the game. but he does not seem to have the goals the passing range or the ability to dictate games.
hargreaves – it is simple he picks up way to many injurys just like liverpools new CM signing this summer, dont forget he was available in 2005 for nothing.
berbatov – well when you see him at spurs and you see him at united 2 totaly different players. At spurs he was a confident player made some great assists scored about 20 goals a season he even run at defences at times and he was a more direct player. At united a player whos confidence is shot, it is like someone is telling him stay away from the goal never go direct and just pass the ball to rooney valencia and giggs and he has no clue what his position is which is part of the reason why he is not playing great.
Sanj – I have been getting frustrated as well. I am just hoping he can become the player we know he is at United. He has shown it in patches but not consistently enough. He has a stop start season . Just as he was showing some form like Wolfsburg and a couple of games around that time he got an injury.Then we had the international breaks. Still think he can be the difference for United as he is capable of breaking down a team with a moment of magic. I would imagine like you say he has been told to drop deep but we know what Rooney is like. I am interested to see how it all pans out.
If I hear another word about us signing Silva I’m gonna fucking vomit.
@ulster red
Sorry it took so long to respond, havn’t heard any rumours recently about silva but the kid capel cud be be an option.
willierednut
nah ur alright mate, think the poster above you has a health problem, transfer rumours make him vomit, big lad you need to get that checked out!!!
Liverpoo make me want to vomit, not signing top class players lol.
is right, what about citeh signing a massive player? fuck it we should get keano back to ruff pat up!!