Chelsea winger, Joe Cole, has sung the praises of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville today, claiming they’re where he wants to be.
“I look at Giggsy and just think he’s the guv’nor, what a legend,” says Cole. “I’ve just got so much respect for him. And Scholesy and Gary Neville, all them boys. It’s the way to go, especially Giggsy. I got his shirt a few years back and I’d probably say it’s one of the best shirts I’ve got. I’d like to be able to be playing like him at his age.”
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One Chav$ki player who doesn’t have his head up his own backside all of the time.
Its a shame because he will never be able to achieve something like that at a club like chelsea…United’s ethos is what allows us to have players with the unique qualities of Giggsy, Scholes and Nev.
These boys make me very proud!
Match day report everton all over Chelsea and they take the lead and keep on attacking Chelsea but a slight bit of magic and drogba scores a cracker, then everton took the tails between there legs and hide scared it’s now rent boys 2-1 and everton look like they are gonna take a beatin and a half, thanks for 11 minutes of hope everton
2-2 Everton vs rentboys…
agree with dilardo/afromanc
skilled, liked by opposing supporters, keep his head down… too bad he plays for chelsea. obviously we’re biased united fans, but when a giant and historic club like united exists (biggest in the world) with iconic players likes giggs, scholes, nev- most if not all of the other opposing players/clubs will never have the opportunity to live up to their example and even come close to achieving the same legendary reverence.
the amazing bit is how much nev is universally hated by other supporters yet i would find it hard to see how he wouldn’t be acknowledged by all to be a legendary star like giggs and scholes with all his dedication and achievements.
Every player in the world wants him to be like him
off topic-
drogba looks unstoppable at the moment. come on everton! saha looks out of sorts today, but maybe he can do us a favour.
just as i type it!!!!
saha!
3 all
UNBELIEVABLE 3-3!!!!!
I’m sure there are more goals in the Chelsea game. Cannot see Everton holding on.
Saha! Please hold on Everton!
Joe Cole – That is very nice of you to say. Looking up to the right role models.
I see that Chelsea are pressing a lot. If they score late, you can expect the usual, “stuff of champions crap”…
Shearer interviews Berbatov on BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/default.stm
It feels really weird watching it. You keep thinking that Berbatov is sniggering and thinking “You had two opportunities to come here and turned it down? You muppet Shearer!”
Wes is back.
Kuszczak-Fletch,Wes,Vida,Evra-Valencia,Carrick,Ando,Park-Rooney,Giggs.
Bench:Foster,Owen,Berbatov,Welbeck,Obertan,Gibson,De Laet
BRING ON THE CHAMPIONS!!!!
So we have Berba and Owen and Obertan but using none.
Pointless.
Everton have done a job on Chelsea.
Now it is time for United to take advantage.
Come on!
cheers costas! thanks for the team sheet.
yes!
chelsea draw! city draw!
come on united!!!!
Well done Everton. If King Eric was here, i am willing to bet he would say, how soft Chelsea ae becoming without Essien.
Anyway, it’s up to us now. I hope the current team will be enough. Maybe Valencial will partner Rooney. He is quite dangerous in the center as well.
shitty drew 3 all and that little bastard Bellendamy got a red card ……
Our chance to get level is today. If at the start of African cup we are still on Chelsea’s heels we have an amazing chance.
You are welcome rooninho. By the way, you won’t hear Michael complain because he was benched after scoring a hat trick in midweek. Like Tevez did after his 4 goals against Blackburn last year.
Obertan and Owen deserved to start after their performances against Wolfsburg. But Fergie knows best. Come on United!
I was also hoping that Owen would start, but keep in mind guys that the games come thick and fast now. On Tuesday we have Wolves at OT where Berbatov, Obertan and probably Owen might start.
Come on United!
Carew doesn’t start for Villa. Heskey and Agbonlahor are the front duo. I didn’t know that Downing ended up at Villa,lol.
Does anyone one have an english stream?
We should have enough with this line up.
I admit to not being Parks biggest fan, but hopefully he can prove me wrong today.
COME ON LADS!!!
Fletch to score a brace from the back.
Its a good bench too. If we need it, we have attacking options on the bench
Maybe Park will be a right back? Just a crazy idea..
I called Fergie’s bluff with Wes though.
We’ve got wesley we’ve got wesley we’ve got wesley brown!
I’d love to see gibson and obertan get a run out today. Obertan is sheer class unlike that cunt nani.
Well the fact that Obertan makes the bench and Nani doesn’t speaks volumes about how Fergie rates each one at the moment.
Macheda didn’t make the bench though.:(
City, draw, chelsea draw, what a wonderful day. Lets grab the 3 points and we’ll be laughing at the top come jan. Already the rentboys are missing Essien, what’ll happen when Drog’s gone?
Come on 7 nil win for united top of the league
I don’t think rushing brown back is a good idea, he’s probably not 100% fit…but heck what do I know, we’ll see in a few minutes.
Lol GHTT i was just about to say that. Piece of cake!
Given that the gap was 5 points a week ago, even 0.5-0 is good enough for me.
Wistle blown it’s offical congratulations to Ryan GIggs most capped premier league player
Links for the game anyone
?
Costa buddy what a day it’s been so far 3 points here and I’ll be singing for sheamus tonight
Fletcher seems so natural at right back. Frustrating game so far upfront.
Agree. He looks like he’s been playing there all his life.
shit they scored
Shit
@DB9 Thanks for the link to Berba’s interview. He’s rather charming. Funny how he didn’t deny thinking Hansen says stupid things. Shearer, on the other hand, is a bit of an idiot.
Might be a blessing in disguise really. We haven’t seemed to have any sense of urgency up front or in the middle till now.
The commentator said that Hargreaves has had another setback, is that true?
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
no need to panic.
Stop putting articles about Gerrard, Scott. We have one of our own.
Guted.
good day gents,good results all day, i had you lot down for a2-1 on my acumilator,but i had chelsea down for a 3-0,i can see this game turning into a physical war
Hope you have a special article for Rooney calling him a cheat like you do of all your rivals’ players.
Shit! That was a dive by Rooney? Pretty disgraceful!
Yeah Rooney didn’t need to do that. I guess Fergie will change some things in the second half, things are not going too well right now. We are losing possession far too easily.
so , no link then ?
i don’t think park has held possession everytime he has had the ball
They are really shit in defence. We have to score in this match.
Evras left boot
Im watching it on sopcast, free software. You can go on rojadirecta.org , search manchester united and choose a stream. Some streams require software (like sopcast) and theyll indicate “p2p” next to it. If not , therell just be a “NO”
http://www.atdhe.net/10946/watch-manchester-united-vs-aston-villa
Embarrassing from Wayne. Disgraceful really
We should get on Berbatov, maybe then we could get some accuracy and not so much sloppiness. Why don’t need 5 in midfield at home to Villa. And maybe Obertan on for Park.
The dive was jus plain embrassing tbh. Chin up though, we were the better team, just didnt take our chances like they did. Im sure Fergie will sort this out. Come on United!
@GHTT: I will root for Sheamus anyway, hehe.
On to the game. I think it’s really an unlucky day. You expect from this makeshift defense to have bad moments, but we have been unlucky on the final third. It’s a very open game. Once we get the equaliser, the second one might not be far behind. We can do it!
Oh and shame on Wayne.
I’m so disappointed in Wayne. He’s made us all look like twats.
Park off Berbatov on
Anderson off Owen on
Valencia off (doesnt even bother shooting when he is free on goal) and Obertan on
All these subs are needed at half time
No messing around waiting for 15 minutes
A win would destroy Chelsea’s confidence
Attack attack attack
Maybe De Laet should have started as a right back? Fletcher is starting to look like a midfielder playing as a right back and plus, we really need him in that midfield.
Park has to come off – I think that will be the early change getting either berba or owen on – given the pace of the game, I’d actually have owen on. His reactions and positioning is much more suited to this game than berba’s leisurely style. If things don’t change, giggs off for the berba/owen. Switch any of the names with obertan, and thats fine with me as well.
looks like we need to move Fletch into miodfield insteadf of Anderson and get De Laet into right back …..change Valencia for Berba and go for them. others have already said it we are giving the ball away to easily …..
Maybe Obertan can step up the pace on the left cos Park is not at the races today…..
FIRE UP THE HAIR-DRYER SAF and fire some fucks into them……
we just cant lose today as i will get ripped by some Vanilla supporters come next Monday
I don’t think we’ll sub Valencia, ok he isn’t shooting but he can create.
Yea, Rooney really shouldn’t have dived. But will this be ignored, just as the media ignored stevie me’s dive a few weeks ago? hell no, of course not. Saint stevie would never dive.
I expect Owen or Berba to come on second half. Frustrating for Rooney up front, him playing lone striker isn’t really working. We just have to win, villa haven’t won at OT for 20 odd years or something. We should switch to 4-4-2 and hopefully we’ll get a goal early on. Carrick, Evra and Fletch have been our best players so far.
@ spacemanspiff
you are saying like it has happened only once. We can’t hide the fact that Wayne is a diver. We have to live with that.
Great first half in terms of entertainment but poor in terms of decision making in the last third.
And also, thank you Kus for keeping us in this game. I would expect Fletch to offer an apology to Kus for that rant after what was clearly Fletch’s error, and Kus saving his ass..
Yeah, get Fletcher back into midfield and play De Laet at right back. De Laet is a good player so he’ll do fine there and we need Fletcher in midfield.
If we have to make a substituion, it should be Owen for Park. With Owen, you know you will create openings. However, there was a reason Fergie chose 4-5-1 for this game. Our defense is patched up and Villa have come at OT like they are Brazil!
if we can create 8 more chance, we can score 3 goals in the second half
vital we score before the hour mark to give us 30 minutes to finish off the job
Drew Vader – Villareal anyone ? You are too forgetful, mate.
I think Scott and a lot of other on this site need to get off their high horses and acknowledge that the best players in the world are also the best at exploiting refs into believing good dives. The fact that makes them the best competitors also makes them try to exploit the rules to the greatest extent. which is why I never understood why Ronaldo was blasted on this issue even on this blog. Stevie Me is just a bad diver, he looks pathetic when he does that -that doesn’t mean he’s the only one though.
Fletcher is needed in midfield but he’s been doing well at RB.
Corea, how many times has he dived since the Arsenal game in 2004? The Villarreal game and which other one? I don’t think he does it at a rate that we should call him a diver. He just let the team and himself down today.
wayne’s too good to go down that easy. if there was any contact it looked slight at best. lucky to just get a yellow. hopefully he can get some proper chastisement in the dressing room for that behavior. if we are going to go on about other divers we can’t ignore our own players doing it.
hopefully he can make up for it with a couple of goals. anyway, it all makes for good drama. bring on obertan and owen! come on united!
@ Mahesh
Oooh, Cmon!
Anyway, i am to watch the second half. I hope we win and the dive is the only debatable point of this game.
Come on United!
@ Costas
i dissagree with you very rarely but this time you don’t make me a proud person. there were not a few cases when Rooney dived or tried to. I’m not a clerk, i am not writing down all cases but it happened pretty often for me to think like that.
Mahesh – Stevie me does a starfish and it gets completely ignored by the media. He’s not the only one, many players dive, but if it’s a utd player then it’s a different story. I can already picture ‘disgraceful Rooney’ headlines.
Corea – All I am saying is that on the diving issue, its fine to laugh at Stevie Me but if that implies that he’s the only one, and that we have saints in our team, thats just false. A lot of people on here said after Ronaldo left that one positive out of it was that we wouldn’t have defend his diving and can therefore have a good go and players like Gerrard. I think thats what I have problem with. I think diving is just sadly a part of this game, and the best players in the world are also the best at exploiting it best.
Owen on. Of course. It was 8th placed team in Germany. But Fergie knows best.
Owen is on.
Or something like that.
Fze- I’m not talking about the media, I am talking about our attitudes towards diving.
@ Mahesh
“and the best players in the world are also the best at exploiting it best.”
of course it means Rooney is not one those “best”
giggs off. is he injured??i would taken park off
What, a hat-trick away against the German champions not good enough?
Come on United!
Does Rooney dive as often as Stevie me does?
I think Rooney should be off later in the second half for Berba if we still haven’t scored, he’s already on a yellow, and Owen usually scores when partnered with Berba.
what are we doing
@ Fze123
Actually the only other occasion I can recall is the one against arsenal when we ended their unbeaten run. Rooney is not that frequent a diver.
park off please
rooney..start playing properly
hope we dont drop points today.it would be a golden chance wasted to put pressure on chelsea
can we stop giving the ball away
what use is berba on the bench
Watch Villa waste at least 10 minutes in the second half and this scum ref will only give 3 extra minutes
BRING on BERBA and OBERTAN
Rooney is starting to piss me off with all the balls he is giving away
Park is not doing anything
Fucking time wasting
Are you watching Martin O’Niel? This is where the injury time comes from
Rooney is seriously out of form today
He should have scored 3 by now
How many chances doer rooney need to score?
1-1 seems our best chance at the moment
we are doing nothing
Shocking defending.one long ball and the whole defence gets caught out.
if we dont get at least 6 minutes…this ref should be shot
Sayyid.1 1 looks diffi.last 10 mns we have been shit
rooney the worst player on the pitch?
Rooney is having a poor day.some shots are great others are rubbish.credit to villa.defending very well
rooney has been a disgrace today
15 mins to score 1 goal
another waste by rooney
for goodness sake…we have been a joke today
we barely deserve a draw
At this point I don’t care if we lose by 5 , put carrick at right back and get Fletcher in cm. Carrick<Fletcher . Carrick=sad maker
let’s not lose our heads and start slagging the players. they’re working for it, we just have to see if the work finally pays off. get behind the lads!
One of those days..
“Rooney has been disgraceful today” give it a rest, that made me laugh
2 goals please. a draw wouldn’t change things! get stuck in lads!
Get stuck in lads
save of the match. come on lads!
Don’t slag the players, for fucks sake. They’re working their butts off. What did people expect, half our squad is unfit, and villa are always hard to play against.
Rooney’s corner have been awful, can’t get past the first man. !
Rooneys passes have been off but his work rate has been second to none
we gotta win games like this if we want to win the league ….a real off game….too slow at the start everyone was just going through the fucking motions . they should be ashamed of themselves
Well done villa.rubbish performance.rooney was a disgrace.will villa fight for the title?
3 mins injury time wtf? it should’ve been 10 for fucks sake
Rooney so uninspired. Owen after the break, it should have been Berba. We didn’t need poachers, we needed thinkers on the field.
3 points off the top, not bad. We are learning right now.
Congratulations Villa.
Rooney so uninspired. Owen after the break, it should have been Berba. We didn’t need poachers, we needed thinkers on the field.
3 points off the top, not bad. We are learning right now.
Congratulations Villa.
Well done villa.rubbish performance.will villa fight for the title?
Btw it’s their first win at OT since 1995.
GHTT
who gives a crap about work rate
i can give 100% work rate
rooney was crap today and fergie should off made the changes much earlier
what is fletcher doing being wasted at RB. we could have been top but now we are 3pts behind
villa deserved the victory
what the fuck all you supporters
seriously
all you do is moan when things arent an auto win
i saw a decent game, high tempo, lots of good individual performances
but none of you say Villa defended great
Got what we deserved today. Gutted
OMFG. How did we drop points like that? I am fuming. The Referee is fucking retarded. 3 minutes? Wtf? Didnt he see all their players all over the fucking floor wasting time? Ughhh. 1 step forward two fucking steps back. We conceded a stupid goal, and were too wasteful with our chances. There wasnt any urgency in our play like usual when we are fucking losing!!
Chelsea drop points and what do we do? Bottle it like always. We jus seem to make it harder for ourselves. Shameful.
Pathetic in the final third. The kind of possession we had, we should have battered five or six past villa today. As it is, we were terrible. Can’t say much more really. Gutted. It was one of those performances, where you always felt there was a goal coming from minute one and never did.
we missed fletcher(that Fletcher in the midfield not defense), yet again…..
JD — I hear what you’re saying dude, but was it Villa defending great, or was it United players passing it directly to a white shirt over and over again?
fze123 if we had 100 minutes we would not have scored
Fergie should never have played Park in a negative 4-5-1 formation
oh well
Wolves beware…7-0 on tuesday hopefully
Fair play to Villa. I doubt they will have a better performance this year. As for us? It was one of those days in my book. Nothing went well. 3 points of the top isn’t the end of the world. I have a feeling VIlla will cause more upsets down the road.
@Corea: I am not counting incidents either. In my opinion most players dive. The problem is that some of them develop a reputation for that. Ronaldo, Drogba and Gerrard have that reputation. Rooney doesn’t because he doesn’t dive as often. That’s what i am saying.
what the f*ck was that ? Rooney was an absolute shame. less than poor i guess. he needs to buck up if he wants to be somebody at United. and today’s performance shows the diff between him and cristiano ronaldo.
as for carrick, i dont even know why Sir took Ando off instead of him. he needs a passing lesson from Scholesy. poor performance. friggin disappointed with the lads. the rentboys drew their game, and we didnt take advantage of it. total !
Fuckin whore of a result….. Fuck of Wes brown.. Rooney u cunting diving Cunt.. So unlucky today…
fuck carrick/fuck valencia/fuck brown/fuck rooney.
Chelsea drop more points and we drop the fucking ball. If we don’t retain the title this season we have no one to blame but ourselves. Pathetic sad shitty performance. We are sorely missing a midfield general and a commanding Captain. Today we played like headless chickens.
I need whiskey.
We played a good game, specially during the second half, but when a team like aston villa decides to put 11 players in their box there’s not much we or anyone could do. Plus if it weren’t for Friedel we would’ve taken the 3 points. We weren’t lucky enough, simple as that. And sayyid, who would you’ve put as a rb? or you’d rather have ashley young run free?
miss a good chance to joint top in é league. alot of è lads look very tired, didnt play well, but was good enough for a draw i tot. not meant to be in é end, very sad with é result. very noticeable today, rooney decision making & passing is very poor, works very hard though muz admit. well, probably one dont deserve anything for diving ya?! disgraceful really.
Fergie shouldn’t have started with a 4-5-1, we had 2 defenders back so there was no need to fill up the midfield. Had we started with a 4-4-2 with Rooney and Berbatov upfront we would have scored early on. We really should have took our chances, we were the better team but credit to villa, they were up for it and defended well. We really should have took advantage of the rentboys dropping points though.
Rooney worked really hard, infact every player did, this is just an off day. We are 3 points off the top, chelsea are starting to look weak without essien, imagine how they’ll be when drogba is off to the ACON. No need to panic,
Nervous during the game, but so cam after. Who would have thought Everton will earns US a draw at the SB. 3 points not bad looking at the way we develop right now.
2 half. One and a half chances and nothing else.
*calm
rooney was the culprit today. trying too hard to assist others, when he should have gone for it himself.
A day to forget. Just wasn’t our day, we didn’t have a percent of luck. We are 3 pts behind which isn’t bad cos we are usually 5 pts behind after the break. We are starting to become better (leaving this game) and we play Chelsea and Liverpool at OT!
IN FERGIE WE TRUST!
By the way, slagging the players isn’t the best thing to do. Like it or not, these are the players we have for the rest of the season and they didn’t lose any title today. And they weren’t playing alone you know. Villa are a very good side this year.
Chelsea also have to feel gutted because they dropped points to a worst opponent. It’s all still in the melting pot.
credit to villa! united didn’t take their chances. here we go with the doom and gloom! berba had the best chance but friedel came up big.
fucking gutted! i’m getting off this thing before the upcoming wave of negativity drives me bonkers! the worst bit is when the glory hunting whinging posts start to pile up. win lose or draw, if the lads are working for it, which i thought they were, credit goes to the team that beat them. the chelsea match was worse because that felt unfair. this was a fair result for villa considering all things.
time to get over it, thank god for the wife and kids. chin up mates!
JD
if we played like the Chelsea match then no one will critisize the team as we played to our ability but were unlucky
today we were a shambles for keeper (crap kicking, slow release), Fletcher (not bomming forward like a RB), Brown and Vida (poor for the goal), Evra (played well as usual), Giggs (anonymous), Park (waste of space and time), Carrick (misplaced passes and not enforcing the game), Valencia (refuses to use his left foot and refuses to shoot), Rooney (diving, crap corner, crap free kick, crap passes..worst game he’s had as a Man U player), Berba (missing that easy chance), Owen (had no service), Gibson (at least had a go)
Really well done Villa and yes Rooney was shit. Everyone was trying though and they seemed to work hard, but Villa went even farther. In the end our creativity was really down and some chances that we could create were wasted. Bar hitting the bar Rooney was atrocious. Too many long shots to nowhere and really bad first touch. I think that most of our players were average. With some luck it could have been different, but we had our share of luck this season already. Not sure what else to say. We wasted a good chance to equal Chelsea in points, but thanks to Everton the damage was minimal. SAF should play with 2 up front in all home games, but then again he tried to control the midfield to limit chances and help our patched up defense. The most of the season is still in front of us, but we should have gotten something our of this game.
This one has to go down to poor team selection. At home we have to play always with two strikers, especially in the premiership.
It is ashame not to take advantage of rent boys slip.
Pathetic….. This team is not going to win the league. What the fuck is Park doing starting a game like this? He should be playing carling cup games at the most, what a useless player. I’m fucking furious after this toothless display. Injuries are no excuse, apart from Fletch playing at RB and that useless korean starting, that was a very strong lineup. Anyone saying Gibson is United quality because he can shoot should just look at his performance today, take away his long range shooting and he would be lucky to get a game in the chammpionship. It’s obvious we need a creative midfielder if we are to compete for the title. I hate to say it, because I like him very much, but Ando needs to step it up, it’s not enough for him to run around and work hard, he needs to start scoring and creating goals, and same goes for Carrick, he is way off his game. Compare the two of them with Lampard and Fabregas and it’s clear we still lack qaulity in the centre of the park. If Neville lifts the premiership trophy in may, it will be because Chelsea bottled it and not because we are the best team. /end rant
I’m not too worried. I would be more worried if we lost and didn’t dominate possession like we did. As it is, we did dominate possession and what we need is more guile and creativity in the final third. SAF has to play two strikers up front. Rooney was terrible today, but in general we have to play to our strengths and playing a 4-4-2 is it. We had a decent enough defense on paper today for us not play just one up front. Anyways, damn does this blog help in just bringing my blood pressure down.
Oh CMON! Wolfsburg ? 8th in the league. Don’t pretens you didn’t know.
I am so f* possitive right now. We have every chance right now to still win the league and all these teams give this to us. We have time to improve and we have to do just that.
Hope we learn frm this…We need Rio back so badly…
MOTM – Evra. My ratings:
Evra 7
Valencia 6
Fletcher 6
Brown 6
Rooney 5
Vidic 5
Kuszczak 5
Carrick 5
Giggs 5
Berbatov 5
Anderson 4
Gibson 4
Owen 4
Park 3
Someone said that the players looked tired. That’s also a valid point. There’s a group of players(Carrick,Fletcher,Evra and Ando) that have played non stop recently. And we are talking about 4 of our biggest workers.
By the way, that was Villa’s 1st win at OT since 1983. Seems like we are breaking all of the OT traditions recently…
Maik
Richie de Leat hasnt had a bad game for us yet
Should have been
TK
De Leat
Wes
Vida
Evra
Valencia
Flecth
Carrick
Obertan
Rooney
Berbatov
Fze123
I completely agree with you. Why the 4-5-1 formation at home against Villa. I do understand why Fergie would play that against the other top3 but Villa, seriously.. Rooney was plain awful today, reminded me of Tevez, i hope its jus a one off. Berba should of came on earlier. Giggs should of stayed on and berba on for park. I hope you are right about Chelsea and that they do drop points.
-Losing to Villa at home? Fucking disgraceful.
Sayyid, would De Laet have coped at RB? would he have coped with Young? is he experienced enough yet? NO. This is why Fletcher was playing there today. And we would have gotten a goal if we were given more time. We were desperate for one.
In my opinion it was a good performance, we just didn’t make well use of our chances. Why the fuck are the people slagging the players, the same people who were wooing over them after the Wolfsburg game? Pathetic. Today’s result is not the end of the world. Fuck Rooney fuck carrick? Fuck off.
The way some of you guys are acting, you’d think our league title ambitions were over.
Yes, we played like shit. Rooney in particular was wasteful and incompetent but, then again, I personally feel the attacking parts of his game have pretty much evaporated. He’s no longer the rampaging beast he used to be, though he can still be quite unplayable on the occasional day. Villa defended average; there were many times we were in the final third and just a simple pass would’ve done the trick. Too many flicks and tricks as well as passes that aren’t weighted very well. I don’t know why we play like this, given that our team isn’t exactly renowned for playing the full 90 minutes with clean, crisp passing. Good thing is that SAF looked pretty pissed at the end and he will sort this out.
And whether or not we got a couple minutes of extra time is frankly irrelevant. I always think you should play the game assuming it’s only 90 minutes and get the job done in the amount of time allocated. Relying on extra time to get the occasional lucky goal is insufficient.
But at the end of the day, we’re still only 3 points off the top and Chelsea will certainly drop points. Even if Arsenal win their following two games and are level with us on games played, they will be tied with us. No big deal. I expected a loss given our situation; I would’ve expected a draw or a possible loss even if we had our full team anyways. Villa are tough to play against and we didn’t have enough to put us through.
sketch
we are Man Utd and we should never lose a home match and play negative formations
we’re only 3pts behind but this was a great chance to pile on the pressure on those scum Chelsea
I wonder what Fergie has to stay
Lets hope Villa finish 4th because of these 3 pts and deny the dippers
berbatov with the amount of money that we bought him, couldnt even find the back of the net with a simple tap in. why did he try to volley the ball ? f*king cunt bulgarian. your hair sucks by the way !
and why did Sir took off Giggsy at half time ? god, that was just wrong. He was our playmaker. in the secong half rooney TRIED to be the playmaker but it went terribly wrong. We should’ve subbed Ji Sung with Obertan. He would’ve cause trouble to the villa back four.
A shameful result today. really. and a painful one too. emotions are running high now. FUCK!!
Costas – If tiredness was the issue, then I’m worried, and we are in real trouble then over the holiday period. I don’t think it is tiredness, at least it shouldn’t be right now.
I think sometimes its also a case of have sooo much possession and control, that you know a goal is coming, and so you think less than you should. I think today the players, including Rooney had this sense of inevitability about a goal and so slacked off in the mental dept.
the only consolation today is that I’m not a Chelsea fan. Wouldn’t want Arsenal getting 3 points tomorrow though.
Would you people calm down!? How can you start writing us down when we’re only 3 points behind with more than half the season ahead of us!? We were unlucky, and though we’re used to winning no matter what, we’re always going to lose one game or another. The better team will be decided come may, and that’s that.
i think the reason most of us are disappointed is because apart from the fact that it wasnt a great performance chelsea dropped points and it was a great chance to get level with them and put pressure ahead of the ACON.The momentum would have shifted to us. credit to villa though.really good well drilled hard working side. some people are saying they defended well.Sorry but anyone who saw their games against Chelsea and Liverpool will admit they didnt defend as well as those games and gave the ball away too many times. we were out of ideas in the final 3rd.and apart from 3-4 saves friedel didnt have to do much.wish we had them away rather than at home. we have struggled at home all season but been good away of late
what the fuck is going on here?when we won the game against west ham,wolfsburg & etc…everyone was praising those players..when we lost a game like this..then we’ll start hearing people slating those SAME players..this is not fair guys..they are man utd players..we should be behind them in time like this.I’m sure we’ll bounce back..chelsea is not so far away.
BELIEVE!!!
Its time fergie seriously consider moving rooney into midfield to run things from there. If the boy wants to give away every opportunity for someone else then might as well be doing it in the center of the pitch and playing with ando.
Between berbs owen kiko and danny he wont be that missed.
Pinhead – go and fuck yourself. a simple tap in ? are you kidding ?
@ IcelandicDevil
So what team will win the league? chelsea who have drawn against everton, whom we managed to win against comfortably? chelsea who will be weakened when losing players to the ACON? or maybe you fancy the dippers or gooners for the title?
@Mahesh: It’s not something unusual mate. United after Ch.League games always look not as fresh. Especially when some players play all the time. At the same time, look at the Villa side(who had a week’s rest) of the first half. They were full of energy. We could barely cope with them. That’s why SIr Alex opted to slow the tempo down.
@Fze123 Agree with De Laet part and yes it’s not the end of the world. Player slagging is just people expressing their frustration. I know it’s not constructive and all, but that’s the whole point of ranting. Saying we played great but were unlucky after every defeat is just pointless.
@ Costas I thought they haven’t won since 1995. 1983. That is very long, they must be ecstatic.
Bit of a knee-jerk from IcelandicRed there. Though, I agree that Gibson is not United quality. I hope those recent goals have ensured we get an inflated transfer fee from Sunderland or Wolves or whoever signs him in the summer.
Time to restore Fletch to midfield and put Richie Delight at RB.
fze123
this is the stage you have to give players chances. if we keep on saying ow hcould he have coped with xyz he will never get a chance. i was wondering how evans would cope with drogba and anelka last season at the bridge but he did a great job.its all about giving players their chances.da laet has deen well whenever he has been given chances.
Maybe putting Berba as a playmaker is the solution ? I don’t know. Carrick was quite good today but i am much more confident about the distribution when Scholesy is on the pitch. Maybe it’s just post factum.
@Pinhead: A tap in would mean that the ball in on the ground. Not in the air and at pace like it came to him. Berba’s natural instinct is to volley. Can’t fault him for that. And he wasn’t our only problem today. And neither was his hair. Geez…
fze123
Since1995 they havent won at all.1983 was the last time they won at OT
well done villa….for parking the bus after you scored
@Fze123 :
1995 was the last time they beat us in the league. 1983 was the last time they beat us at Old Trafford. Either way, it had to happen at some point unfortunately.
And credit to Martin O’Neil. In the last year, he has won at the Emirates, at Anfield and at Old Trafford.
@Pinhead, fuck off u dickhead with ur nonsense rant!
Is it just me or does anybody else here thinks we just can’t take a corner well?? Seriously the service our players in the box get from a corner is pathetic!! Overall i think it just wasn’t our day.. Villa defended very well.. Credit to them..
PS: We need Hargo.. When is he coming back??????
Jack
It our fault for playing so crap against their bus
Every team parks the bus against us each week but we looked tired today
Im suprised Obertan wasnt involved and Berbatov didnt come on earlier
Park and Nani should be sold…buy David Silva for the left wing
Corea – Go and fuck your mama! you’re saying berba should be the playmaker, and carrick was quite good ? you’re not talking football then. he’s not up to the standard of this, carrick that is. not this season. total schmucks those two
@ Sketch I guess Fergie was trying to protect the defence more. Really strange formation at home in the league. It didn’t work against Villa unfortunatley.
@ Orez I understand it’s frustration but not when people start saying berbatov bought for 30 million and couldn’t ‘tap in’ the ball, we won’t win the title etc. Honestly what did they expect, this is villa we were playing against, who are challenging for a top 4 spot.
jack
dont be a sore loser mate. you cant blame them for doing that.they parked the bus only in the last 20 mns to be fair.otherwise they gave us enough chances and gave the ball away many times.this is just the start, we got games like wolves and hull coming up.they will be worse than villa.we were not good enough lets admit that and move on.
smudger
Have we even scored a goal from a corner this season?
We’ll still win the league but it was so disappointing today
I hope berbatov is fit enough for a start next weekend
We are lacking q
@Smudger: Sad but true mate. Giggs is the only one who can take a good corner or free kick. We are wasting Vida’s aerial presence.
I adore Park! I know his weaknesses but i love him.
David Silva ? Cmon! Obertan played really gooв every time he came on but it was against the weakened opposition. I still think he should play but it’s not that simple. Look at the whole situation from a different perspective. It’s only 3 points and we are still searching our best game.
@ Costas – i love you my friend.
It was a dissapointing result to be sure, Pinhead u are a complete pinhead in ur comment previous, berba came on and made a big difference with a great effort (equally great save) and a very near assist to carrick. The volley attempt can hardly be called a tap in as it came at him very quick. Thought gibson made a difference with ando having a very average game, evra was poor for once fletch was out of position and looked it. The only positive i found from this game was rooneys drive and will to fight for every ball. Dunno why giggs was subbed only back from injury so maybe that played a part. Still its early in the season and with the africa coming up chelski can only drop more points
Giggsy isn’t good at corners either. For my liking. His corners lack speed.
@ Costas
I agree Giggs is still our best dead ball specialist..
We need Hargo sooooooooon.. Any news on Hargo?
@Corea: Apart from the Rooney dive, we agree about everything else today. And don’t pay attention to certain people. Today we found out that Berba and Carrick aren’t good for United. Next week it will be someone else.
ghtt
wolves coming up in midweek.lets hope we can get a few more back by then.
@ Corea
The problem is there is no one in our team currently who can take better corners then Giggsy!
@Smudger: Maybe Nani can hit dead ball with pace and accuracy, but i don’t know where his head is recently.
Hargo is taking his time from what i hear. Fergie is probably outting him through the same program he out your namesake in 2007. He needs to built his fitness.
Complete disgrace someone having a go at berbatov there. People like that do nothing to help the team after a defeat but still expect to join in the party when we something at the end of the season.
Plastic is an understatement.
@ aig alex is god, if we are going to start giving more chances to De Laet at RB then they should be against lower oppositions, and then when he starts to get more comfortable and get a bit of experience he should be playing against tougher teams, like villa. Maybe he wouldn’t have coped if he was thrown in there today.
@ Costas so that’s another record gone. It had to happen some day, I agree.
The +ve thing today was dat we just lost a single goal in terms of Goal difference..
I know who I taught was bad today, but for anyone on this to be saying shit about Wayne Rooney need to check themselves. A disgrace a diving cunt and shite. What the fuck are you people on,anyone who talks shite about a world class player who had an off day , they are a disgrace in my book and I know people who call Rooney a cunt and they are scouse. Anyone running down Rooney were ranking over his hatttick 2 weeks ago and are a bunch of sheep, no nothing hypocrites
Sorry for my earlier comments and my fault words.
3 points behind, not a bad thing i guess. with chelsea still to come to Old Trafford. I just think we need to put Fletch in the middle again with Giggsy. Two strikers and wingers. and that would be Obertan on the left and Valencia on the other side. Rooney should step up his game though. The first 45 mins was quite good for him, the second half, upside down. The role as a playmaker was not quite set things up for him. With no real movement from either flank and two up front.
Again, im sorry. BELIEVE !
@ kylelaw84, it’s like that after every defeat. I don’t even know why I bother to respond to them deluded idiots.
@Fze123: I agree about De Laet. I think the Wolves game is a good opportunity for him. Whether Rafael is fit or not, he should start. Don’t worry about the records. The year City broke their OT voodoo, we won the Ch.League and the Pr.League. Sometimes they become a burden. And to be fair, if any Aston Villa side deserved it, this side did. So much for missing Barry…
Sooner or later this was gonna happen. We are lacking creativity in the final third. With just a little bit more patience, better final ball or better option selection we would have scored three or four today.
Tonight showed how match we lack a proper leader on the pitch. Rooney was trying to do everything by himself, at the end, to no avail. As good as they defended we should be able to score at Old Trafford.
Unless Giggsy was injured, I would have brought Berba or Owen on for Park at the beginning of second half.
Lets hope that this will be a lesson well learnt and people wis start p
Aig your right mate my dates are mafuddled
Say thanks to Louis. We are 3 points behind.
Worrying points. Valencia doesn’t want to use his left foot. He is still a good player but every time he has a chance to play and improve the situation using his left foot he wastes it. I’m afraid his tactics could be discovered sooner rather than later. Rooney can’t play as an lone forward against the “parking the bus” teams with the quality Villa have.
Xyth
agree
@Corea: I am afraid they are already starting to figure Valencia out. He didn’t manage to make many crosses today. He needed to do something special to get away from his markers. But that doesn’t mean that he is useless. Beckham was also a bit one dimensional, but he perfected his strengths and became a key player for us. I hope Valencia can do the same over time.
I don’t like to mention but gibson should not be coming on. He pass a lot to the opponent. We need some quality players and Giggs should not be coming off even though he is off the pace in the first half. We had a great chance to close the gap but today we are disappointing although we had so much possessions. We only make the keeper save 2 or 3 shots. Welbeck on the bench? Nani is more of a threats than him. Alright feeling heated now, guess i go cool off.
hope we hammer wolves.worried about fulham next weekend . also a lack of clean sheets is bothering me. Vida is a great defender but i feel he has not been the same since torres tormented him at OT last season.he has been shaky to say the least although playing with different partners and injuries havent helped either
I would of taking Carrick off for Richie rather than my man Gibson I’d of put fletch in midfield.
@AIG: I hope today was a wake up call.We have to win all our games until the new year. I am also worried about the Fulham game, but we surely can’t performa as bad as we did last year. Vidic does seem a bit shaky,but i doubt it’s from Torres. I think he needs a regular partner. Last season we went on our clean sheet streak once he and Evans started geling together.
I mention in the previous post we are lacking creativity in the middle of the park and we short of one player that can makes life easy for us. This match shows us. Rooney can’t do it along. Park makes some good pass but overall is disappointing. Carrick is bad? At least he can pass accurate from far range than Gibson. Evra should play left wing. Obertan should come on rather than gibson. At least we can cross from left wing too. Valencia got 2 defenders on him all the time. Left wings is weaker when no left winger there when gibson comes on. Rooney play on the left wing in the final minutes.
@ aig alex is god
I kinda agree wid you on Vida.. The commentators here on Fox Soccer(US) mentioned abt the same game. I think currently he doesn’t luk like d old marauding Vida.. But i am sure.. he ll be fine.. he has had a few injuries and don’t forget he came back from a Flu..
What is a bit disappointing is that this year we find it easier on the road than at OT. Both in the League and in Europe. I guess we are better on the counter.
aaaahh, no need to panic boys. we’re not in crisis. other than defense problems, we’re fine. It’s our off day. and lets not forget, this is Aston Villa we’re talking about. the team with good attacking play. and they’re actually aiming for the top four. unlike the scousers.
Few mistakes here and there are not that bad. Well atleast our lads know that they have to step up a gear to win the league. We’re in a fine form now. its just a blip i would say.
just look at the rentboys, cech is their weakest link this season. just couldnt connect quite rightly with their back four. and with essien out, im happy enough to see mikel filled the gap there. and look at fwank and joe cole, terrible form tht makes me happy. with ACON coming, i’d be worried if im a chelsea fan. that would mean no drogba for their strikeforce. and who was that boy trying to do a Macheda fr chelsea ? hahahahaha
so just relax boys. take it easy on the lads. and fairplay to villa. great performance especially at OT.
@ Xyth, agree with you about Park, he was in effective. Fergie normally always get’s it right but the team formation wasn’t spot on today.
@ Costas – It’s sad to see a record like this and our unbeaten european home record gone in one season. If losing this record means winning the title in may then all will be forgotten. It happened and Villa deserved. If anyone deserves a top four spot it’s them, more than spurs. Martin really is getting them playing well, losing barry hasn’t affected his team at all.
Personally loosing is part of the game but loosing 4 in 15 odd league matches, l’m not sure abt that . on the other hand we ve not had that many draws either (as compared to previos seasons). Rooney tried to hard but nothin came off maybe bcos of dunne’s presence (he neva seem to have a good game against him)and l tot we started well today. Why wasn’t there an onslaught in the last 20 mins? and l’d recommend some players to go to the sch of set piece taking (if there was one). villa have always been solid in the last 2-3 seasons but we do beat them sometimes too easily (ronaldo?).
PS l luv all manutd’s players past present and future
It was the first game when i actually thought Carrick was good.
Goodnight Costas, AIG, ПРЕЕ and the others. A little bit drunk.
Today will be another day. Keep the red flag flying high!
corea
good night mate.the good thing is we have to wait for just 3 days to get this defeat out of our system rather than 2 weeks like the chelsea game.you win some you lose some.thats fine.we will bounce back.
we didn’t play ritchie (why?) because he doen’t have the experience? but l tot he’ll gain experience by playing or can he just sleep and wake up the next day with experience? lookin at rafael last season game against arsenal he came and did good played gr8 against robinho, l tot that’s how u gather up experience!
Night Corea. I also agree about Carrick. Maybe i should go and get a bit drunk myself.
@AIG: I think there are two negatives to take form today. One is, as i said above, our OT form in general and the second is a 4th defeat before Christmas. Last year we had 4 defeats all season. I think that’s a lot. But this year it’s a different league. The big 4 are all dropping points more regulary. I hope it’s the last one for this seasson.
I see all the “rooneys a disgrace” talk has died down those saying it must be watching xfactor or 8:38 is past there bed time
costas
4 defeats is a lot but chelsea too have lost 3. Think 80 points will be enough to win the league this season.i dont think it will be our last defeat of the season as we have emirates, wastelands still to visit and other big games at home.However it is the fact that we are getting a tad unpredictable that is worrying.no one expected us to lose to burnley or draw at home to sunderland or lose against a struggling dippers side.similarly everyone expected us to et hammered by chelsea and beaten by wolfsburg and struggle at Stoke, West ham but we were good in those games. getting consistency back is the key. we have to win all our home games.thats been the key to us winning the league all, these years.however we have lost 1 home game all these years so maybe thats out of the way now
@GHTT: It’s probably X-factor…
What can i say? Rooney has some big shoes to fill this year. But say that Ronaldo was our leader and savior up until last summer. He could never ever win a match on his own. Rooney can’t do that thing either. The most imprtant thing for United at the moment is to get our defence in order. We can’t keep on leaking goals like that. Agbonlahor has basically scored the same goal he did last April!
@AIG: As you said, we could do some more unpredictable results in the coming months. United have done over the years. For example, after the Tottenham game last December no one expected us to win 11 on the trot. This year we can’t make a run like that because the League is tougher. But if we win 7 or 8 in a row, then we will be top at the end of the run.
Anyway. I will go and cool off a bit. Bye guys and lets hope Wolves are in for a backlash.
As an Arsenal fan, I don’t know why United fans are acting as if its the end of the world. Villa beat LPool 3-1 at Anfield, I think.
They will definitely cause Arsenal problems.
I really hope we take advantage and win tomorrow to get back into the race, if only for a little while.
Problem is, we all know how Arsenal will play and we all know whta LPool will do, close down like mad men!
Up the Arsenal!
Arshavin is a brilliant CF, but RVP is such a miss.
United missed Fletcher today. I think he’s become their most important player, which is amazing considering how shit he was a few years ago.
O well guys, could have been worse (!).. people should understand it’s extremely difficult to play against 11men behind the ball, but I don’t think we would have scored in another 90 minutes! And Villa only had that one real chance.. Good thing the next game is coming so soon
Missed out today folks! Good job Everton bailed us out and the rent boys have hit a bad bit of form. With hindsight I think we may have been better off bringing Obertan on in order to stretch the Villa defense the full width of the pitch as it all became very congested in the middle after the substitutions. I do hope Fergie has words about diving, it is not on at all. Strange how Rooney got booked and stevie starfish didn’t though eh? Oh well, a missed opportunity or got away lightly today either way a big shame. As for these idiots coming on here calling the players (one who even called Rooney a cunt!) do the real United supporters a favour and fuck off! Thankyou.
Villa had 2 good chances, but Kuszczak saved the 2nd.
I’m happy that he’s finally getting time at United. I always believed he was better than an in-form Boruc.
pat, you’re pathetic
Football, Bloody Hell !
Congratulations to the Villans – an away performance in which they did what was necessary AND THEN kept UTD at bay.
The view from this corner of the red side is that Wayne Rooney was on fire at the beginning of the match and then just fizzled out. IF Nani made that many errors, that many give-aways, miscontrolled the ball so often, and made so many shoddy passes, he’d be swinging from a lantern on Deansgate. But Wayne can do no wrong.
To my eyes, the key to the Villa victory was that they were unflappable, they kept their shape, kept UTD outside the penalty box, and gave Brad Friedel a pretty easy day.
A missed opportunity but, thanks to the Toffeemen, not a disaster so much as a bump on the road. Shit happens.
Poor Pat!
Talk this morning about united needing torres and I said we had a one and sold him to everton, today Saha was out 15nd man. I’m gettin too drunk to type but love united 19 is coming and I love Rooney carrick was my problem of the match today , WTF happened this guy over the summer, yes Fletcher is world class get to grips with you inferiority complex and start playing like we know you can
Denton Davy:I agree but FFS when was th last time you went down Deansgate? we got the electric now!! The lanterns are all gone mate.
Some of you so called ‘fans’ don’t half say some silly shit. To those of you slating the lads, 2 words, FUCK OFF. Off days are a part of football and EVERYONE, yes, EVERYONE has them! If anything, SAF needs to ask himself if he got his team selection correct. Which many, true supporters would probably say no, he didn’t. At home against Villa and on the back of Owen’s wolfsburg hatrick he surely had to be selected. To be fair their lineup was more attack minded than ours was it not? And we are the bloody home team! Tactics aside, Today wasn’t our day, simple as that but you can’t blame the players because everyone gave 110%. I still can’t believe some of the tosh that came out of some of your mouths. Very sad.
Horrific result! Dropped on my knees twice, at Rooney’s effort of the bar and Vidic’s header deflected of the line. We dont play well at all, Park slows things way to much down, Valencia ain’t his usual self flowing forwards, Rooney is great first half, except a pityfull “half dive” as I’m seeing Dunnes leg getting in his way, but he definetively shouldnt drop dead grounded.
Villa beats us, and its 100% purely our fault, nevermind the ref giving us 30% of our righteous added time. Fucking disgrace seeing the lads passing on a opportunity like this to boost our position and crush chelskis confindence, but that’s just like us. Happend last year aswell.
Loosing at OT is always horrible, but that just makes it worse.
Still good chance to win the league as far as i’m concerned, but things obviously has to be better than this! Rise above it, shake it of and take our trophy home!
BELIVE, and I mean it! you always say “belive” after a win or something like that, but history shows this is when we really have to belive. This is when the boys counts on us to belive, and belive we shal!
so I say
BELIVE UNITED
I should also add that those people who think that Carrick played well today shouldn’t judge him by his own standards !
He provides almost no drive from midfield and is a very passive player when what’s needed is aggression and determination. Those qualities just don’t seem to be a part of his tool-kit – and, he never played one of those defence-splitting passes but, then, he never does.
Say what you like about Villa, we simply weren’t good enough today. Villa will naturally go ultra defensive upon gaining a lead. Nearly all teams resort to such measures when taking a lead at OT, and it’s our job to make them pay. We lacked the basics in trying to do that. Passing simply wasn’t good enough, players didn’t want to receive the ball, and the movement was non-existent. I don’t know what the fuck we were up to.
Speaking of basics, when Villa were attacking in the first, why did we keep showing Downing and Young back onto the inside? Both players were on their weaker side, so they’re naturally going to cut back inside, which is exactly what Young did for the goal. It’s so elementary that we should have been sending them down the outside, making them use their weaker foots.
On team selection, it baffles me why we start with only Rooney at home. Towards the end of the first-half our game plan equated to sending it over the top for him to run onto it. Never going to work. We’ve got a striker on the bench who’s riding high following a hat-trick in midweek. When he does get on, the mood has been set and he struggles like fuck.
If I was to be unfair and single out anybody for a woeful team performance, step forward Park. Terrible. He was completely bullied every time he got the ball, constantly breaking up moves.
When you consider that our crossing was so shit, it also begs the question, why didn’t Obertan feature? He was another who made a big impact in Wolfsburg. To be fair to Gibson, compared to what we had, he looked like a world beater after coming on.
Anyway, fuck it. After the last couple of weeks, I can only complain so much. Time to learn and move on.
i said earlier, Rooney was the culprit today. Fans have the right to slag off players.
I am not angry at him for hitting the bar. Not at all. And no, I am not angry at him for the “dive”, which i dont think is a dive. And again, no, I am not angry because we lost, but I am angry because he tried too hard to set others up, when clearly he has the clearest path, the best chance.. In the first half, he tried too many thru passes to Valencia, when it was clear he had the clearest chance to score.
I think the armband was affecting his mindset today. I hope SAF will not give him the armband again anytime soon.
Anyway, it’s just one loss. We still have a very big chance to win the league. I do hope Rooney will learn from this, and set his mind firmly as a striker, not just a ball passer upfront.
COME ON UNITED
BOUNCE BACK ON TUESDAY!!!
ok lets be real.. rooney hasnt been performing for a long time..
even with that hat trick against portsmouth.. other than that i thought he was poor.. his passing and flicks have been awful..
and he has to stop playing park.. what good does obertan do on the bench?
seriously… come on fergie.. use the players
im sure everyone would agree even nani is better than park..
i would have been happy if nani was playing
but im sure we will bounce back and hammer wolves!!
united united united!
Iv just got back from the game n still cannot believe we lost,just feels so hard to take wiv Chelsea dropping points!!! I’m not one for judging the manager but was supprised that Rooney was on his own,but sayin that we scored 4 at pompy n west ham with the same formation,so I’ll put it down to one of those days,n a bounce back on Tuesday night,we’ll never die!!
Gutted. AIG – Villa for the title? Come on man, I thought you were a responsible geezer! Seem to remember them like this last year only to peter out in January. No way will they win the title pal.
Have not read all the posts but the first few I saw were the usual knee jerk shite. An off day, simple as. Villa were excellent. Defended superbly and broke with real pace. Heskey is the biggest softest shit I have seen play. A joke. How many times does this happen, the other teams fuck up and we don’t capitalise. Too many 6 out of ten performances. Get back on track by hammering Wolves on Tuesday. We won’t win every game we play, its as simple as that. What would be the point of even having a league if we won every single game? The season ebbs and flows. We are gonna suffer home defeats. Nowt else to say today to be honest as pissed off. I would however be more concerned to be a rentboy. No wins in 4 now and about to lose their best players. Does not bode well. No need for United to panic.
spot on king eric, chelsea fans should be worried more than us..
we’l be back on tuesday.. just to finish
formation should be this in my opinion
PIG/vds
rafael(de laet) brown vidic evra
gibson scholes anderson
valencia rooney(owen) obertan
or maybe
PIG/vds
rafael(de laet) brown vidic evra
fletcher scholes
valencia rooney obertan
owen
with valencia and obertan bombing down the wing.. and providing crosses for owen and rooney… then could easily swap bring berbatov off for owen and switch rooney for berbatov… but we definetly need to score goals on tuesday against a much easier wolves side
No need to panic as long as Fergie stops playing Rooney on his own at home. Today isn’t the first time he’s struggled badly in that role.
@dentoncdavey:
I always like your insight about our games. About Carrick though. Who should we compare with him if not himself? Unfortunately, he won’t turn into Xabi Alonso. That’s who he is and who he has been ever since he came to United. And considerig the Carrick we saw at the back end of last season and at the start of this one, he was quite good. Unfotunately, the weak link in that midfield today might be Anderson. They just don’t click well together.
disappointing today lads…..especially the manner of the defeat. I always expect us to create plenty of chances at OT and tbh villa probably shaded the clear opportunities and that is very poor considering we were at home. Fergie made some strange decisions today and I feel this is what cost us the game, on the other Martin O’neill got his tactics spot on, we were harried and hassled at every opportunity and because of this Fletcher playing out of position, got caught out far too many times ( for the goal also) and Park looked very, very average when put under a little pressure. Even when we changed the system at half time, park should have come off and giggs should have dropped to the left. We were lacking creativity and the game was crying out for Obertan as the last sub and Sir Ferg puts on Gibbo!!
I’m surprised there are fans slating Anderson when Carrick was piss poor all game, I though Ando drove us forward well and we lacked that drive once he went off.
Carrick has been the most disappointing player for me all season, his passing seems to have gone backwards from seasons before and if he continues to play as poorly as this, I would hope Fergie gets rid of him before his transfer value diminishes entirely…..
All in all, not the end of the world but we missed a great opportunity to completely close the gap today and I cant help but feel these types of chances will not come around too often expecially after the African CoN.
I do hope I am wrong about that tho, let me know what you guys thought about carrick today and this season as a whole as I am not impressed, but would like to hear what you guys think.
Cheers
It has been a miserable day, but i finally found something to cheer me up. Apparently, Newcastle have proposed an exchange. Macheda for….Steven Taylor!
Aha…Denton Davey. I find you are in agreement with me about Carrick. His passing was the most effective part of his game, I always hoped he would add goals and dominate midfield, but this season his passing seems to have gone backwards, his passing has been average and even though he has never been able to dominate the midfield or add a significant amount of goals to his game, his passing was always second to none.
I hope Hargo comes back soon, I wanna see Ando, Hargo and Fletcherinho in midfield together, unbeatable I tell ya!!
Another thing I forgot to mention was that set pieces was appaling from us today! 80% of the time we did’nt even manage to beat the first man and that is ridiculous.
The strange thing I always find with Rooney is if he tries a difficult through ball 9/10 he will put in a dangerous ball but when it comes to the simple passes he nearly always messes it up be it under hitting it or mishitting it so the defender has a chance. Its just at times seems he gets a little complicity when things are easy.
And today there was a couple of times in the second half that really ruined a move of potential. Twice early in the second half Rooney had the ball central, he had two options Owen and Valencia. Both made good moves, Owens was the harder pass but was makable and offered the most direct threat. Valencias offered a more indirect threat but he would have been in behind the defence to either take a shot or slide it across goal. Rooney took the easier option of Valencia both times but underhit and placed it too close to the defender when he didn’t have to play with such small margins that it was intercepted.
I also have to say Kuszack was at fault somewhat for the goal. He really can’t handle crosses and I get the feeling the defenders realise this too as they then get nervy (Its harder to see this season as it could be the mix and match of defence, but when he has played behind first choice defence lineups in previous seasons you see that he goes to shreds with crosses they would have handled with VDS)
The cross today was a good one, and there was a great run BUT he was in no mans land and made it easy. I suspect with Foster in goal it may have gone in as he has shown issues with coming for balls too but I think he would have atleast made his mind up and tried to get to the cross rather than hesitate and then decide to do nothing which would have atleast made the chance harder. He really does seem to overthink his decisions and then talk himself out of coming for so many balls, if he would just act insensitively like he does for his general shot stopping which is great
@Rewind: The corner/free kick situation is starting to become ridiculous. Vidic is wasting his energy running up and down for them. You would think that these things would get practised a lot in training. Giggs is the only one who can make a good delivery.
aig – intelligent not”responsible geezer”.
United really do miss Fletch in the midfield.
Our corners, even most of Ryan’s are awful.
Vidic looks half the player of last season at the moment. I put that down to injuries and niggles. Would love a fully fir Rio/ Evans and Vida partnership. With Edwin in goal and Pat at left. Those who slate John O’Shea will now hopefully see what an asset to the team the lad is. Could have covered any of the back FIVE positions of late.
What the hell was wrong with Kuskac today? His kicking was woeful and he was taking an eternity to distribute the ball at times. You would think we were 5-0 up. He just looked confused for most of the game. Very strange. I honestly believe that both he and Ben suffer from nerves at home in front of the big crowds. They both play blinders away from home but really struggle at Old Trafford.
Just to put some perspective on things. In arguably United’s most successful season ever 98/99 we had an awful record of draws away from home at one stage. Couldn’t buy a win. I honestly do think people think United should and will win EVERY SINGLE game. Football is not like that. You will always suffer unexpected disappointing results. Remember the hammering 6-2/3 by Southampton or the 5-1 drubbing by Newcastle? Even the 4-1 twatting by the dippers last season. Didn’t turn out too bad in the end. United will bounce back, we always do. When have we ever made it easy?
Anyway lets get back on track with a hammering of Wolves on Tuesday.
Tomorrows game is a strange win. Don’t want the dippers to win as I never want them to win any game but I don’t want Arsenal getting too close. A draw would suit me.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/635697/pound1BILLION-CHINESE-TAKEAWAY-AT-MANCHESTER-UNITED.html
@King Eric: The problem with the 98-99 season, was that the pace was different then. That season we won the league with 79 points. This year, that tally might not be enough. The top 4 have dropped a lot of points this season, but the champion will still have to gather 80-85 points. We lost nothing today, but things are starting to get serious. We have to get on a run of wins now that Chelsea are starting to crack.
Regarding our defence, i would also love to see us have a healthy reliable back 5, but at the moment the only defender doing himself justice is Evra. I think Vidic will get better once he gets a few games. I said it yesterday. I would have prefered it if the Wolves game came first. And to be honest about Tomasz, i have never rated him that highly. He is a a goalie with great reflexes, but his kicking and his dealing with crosses at times leave a lot to be desired.
- I hate to question fergie but he got the team wrong, fergie should have played 2 upfront and I am not being arrogant but it is an average villa side. what people forget is there is very little mobility in the villa midfield, and you take young and gabriel out of the villa side they lack pace to really cut united open.
@ fergie should have played 352 get loads packed into midfield, you get the punch upfront and because united have no one left in defence just play a 3 in defence. again I will say villa are an ordinary side who just used their strength to play like a spunge sit back and hit us on the counter attack it was like besiktas, rooney I am not being nasty was awful today it was like everything he hit was off target or he was never going to score.
Jack – Woah! Fucking hell. This could be BIG news. It could also be bollocks as it is the NOTW.
Costas – When is Edwin back? What is wrong with him? Cheers.
we will hear a statement on teh same bullshit they are not selling which if the takeover is serious they should sell with this financial state.
on the game hey we lost we will bounce back but I do feel we need a striker if fergie is not trusting berbatov and owen to start, and why didnt obertan start who could have giving us that creative spark that valencia park rooney carrick never give united.
I am not going to bitch and moan but a dissapointing day at the office arghh
@King Eric: Fergie said that he could be back next weekend. We could really use him at Fulham i might add…
I wouldn’t think too much about this takeover talk. Would the Glazers even consider selling anyway? The serious story is the one i mentioned above. Newcastle proposing a Macheda-Steven Taylor loan exchange!
Oh, i forgot.Edwin got injured in the Everton game when he collided with Cahill.
I will agree with Fergie that it was a bad day at the office. If Rooney’s shot was 10mm lower, it would have gone below the bar and we would have been level at half time. I should add that Fergie had an off day too. Not with the way he started, but with his substitutions.Personally, i would have kept Giggs on and brough Obertan on.
@ Costas the glazers should be selling now with the financial state of today they would skyrocket their fortune and they could teqnically call themselves billionaires. if these people hava insane money I would rather this happen be debt free and we could even see old trafford get the expansion invest in the team and see the fruits of our off the field success, even though my dream for united would see the club owned by the fans which every club should.
On his day Richard Dunne is a top class defender. Cannot believe Citeh practically gave him away and spent twenty fucking million on the buffoon Lescott.
@ rooney the new king. Every club should be owned by the fans but in reality some of our fans sold their shares when money came knocking all those years ago. If every supporter placed £100 a year for 10 years towards United there would easily be enough to gain a significant stake in the club but its never going to happen. We’ll watch the team, buy the merchandise etc. When it comes to proper stuff like this English mentality equates to fuck all being done except moaning.
@rooney the new king :
I was just thinking how ironic it is that we were talking about this yesterday. No one is in the Glazers’ mind. Are they even feeling the heat? As long as the club is succesful, i don’t think they are.
The Chinese consortium might be a good alternative,especially if it means losing this 700million baggage. But there is something that i am always wondering about in these instances. Why would these guys buy debts? Granted, United will make them a lot of profit, but it will never match the current debt will it?
@King Eric: Not to mention that Villa also made a smart move when they sold Barry. They don’t even miss him and he hasn’t exacty lit the Wastelands on fire.
By the way, seems like Chelsea are already feeling Essien’s absence. Like you predicted i think.
@ Costas well it is like if you are in vegas you win a fortune and say well thats the peak on what I win. another thing with ronaldo gone the value of the club can devalue with united now champions it is best to sell now because we do not know where united will be in 1 2 3 or 4 years time. sell why the club is at its best that is why, and costas you are right it is ironic but many have talked about the glazer recently since the summer.
if I was the glazers and I was offered has it has been reported sell, because that offer may never come again and that is the peak of the value of united they are not worth more and getting a billion from football when you get little money back from football.
@rooney the new king:
The way you put it, it makes a lot of sense. The Glazers could very well look at things from that point of view. They have been talked about recently, because i think they are having problems refinancing the debt o something like that.
If this offer is for real, i wish the Glazers accept it. We won’t become a PLC again, so we might as well have an owner who has taken care of the debts. I still don’t understand why they would do it though. Abramovich also payed off Chelsea’s debts and he never got his money back did he?
Costas – Yeah but not just Essien’s absence. The whole set up really. The fact their squad is basically the same as the last 3 years. The fact Ancelotti is no genius like the media would have us believe. He couldn’t live with Capello in Italy. When the going gets tough he can’t handle it as I have been saying for months. Already he is threatening players with the axe and publically slating them. The fact they ain’t actually that good. The fact Ancelotti is playing all the “top dogs” almost every single game. The fact of the ACON. The fact that United will win 4 on the trot.
I would just like to point out, to those who are startign to back the rumored takeover
Would anyone just dump 1B to buy the club? Seriously they would put the debt somewhere, would they not? I’m not any finance guru, but I would think logic will tell you, nobody in the world will just throw 1B to buy a club. And just to put things into perspective, Abravomic did not just throw money down for Chelsea to spend, it was listed as a loan. So if things turned ugly, Chelsea could well be forced to pay back the sums spent. To owe money to the bank or to owe money to some individual? You choose
King Eric has long as fergie is in charge we have nowt to worry about, still I am pissed off we did not take advantage of chelseas slip up still we need a striker I think or someone who will score week in week out.
Fuck the ginger scrotumface.
At least the Chinese LOVE anything Manchester United. And they actually watch the stuff.
I’m all for it.
@ manchuchu now how in the fuck do you know that, I am not being funny that has got to be the worse statement I have read from a naive fan, who thinks all the problems of our debts will be saved by some unfounded report of a chinese takeover who may not have the best intentions also.
quite a few chinese guys have combined to collect the 1 billion
is that right?
and there is a report saying 2 of them have been to old trafford a few times and are united fans.. so sounds good if glazers are in trouble
well its really up to the glazers.. but this could be a could thing for u
anyway the team should concentrate on winning.. thats wot we need to do to keep producing trophies
we have a star in the making.. and hes not being played and it is actually costing us at times.. im sure you all know who i am talkin about
What would everyone think if Rooney was a midfielder?? i reckon he’d be one if not the best midfielder in the world, his got everythink. work rate, tackling, creativtee, he’d be a class midfielder i reckon, i’d love to see this.
Van der sar
Brown Ferdiand Vidic Evra
Valenica Rooney Flecther Giggs
Owen Berbatov
rooney the new king: I have been a MU supporter since ’82 you waterhead. If you think anybody is out there willing to drop a billion dollars into a club to watch it torpedo than you seriously need to see a shrink.
But sure if you love the current regime under an absentee owner running increasing debt with little knowledge of what he’s doing then sure… feel free to back the status quo.
I said I’m all for such an approach if it were to materialize. I didn’t say it will save the club. I’d prefer owners with the club’s interests at heart rather than a some fatcat yank who doesn’t know his arsehole from breakfast.
lol jack.. yeh on previous performances he would be great.. but recently?? you serious lol.. he hasnt bin able to pick out an easy pass.. either under hit or over hit.. one of them.. normally we are used to nearly all perfection passes… but im sure he’l improve.. we definetly need him to be at his best!!
fergie needs to play berba more.. he can defo pick out a pass!
obertanthenewstar
yeah in the last couple of months his passing has been poor but first half today it was class and he held it up well and everything, abit poor in 2nd half but got back and won some tackles and plus rooney in the middle means all 3 of our strikers get to start..it wont happen though
yeh in the first half his passin was good.. lol rooney reminded me of tevez today.. commitment and work rate with no end product.. most of his passes should have actually bin shots… he was too unselfish i guess?.. but we all know he will be back soon and banging them in!! the rooney we all love
P.S.. have you realised that anderson only plays well if hes alongside a defensive midfielder?.. e.g fletcher or hargo
he doesnt play well with carrick or even scholes.. unless theres 3 midfields.. e.g anderson gibson scholes.. but with a 4-4-2 formation.. he plays better with a defensive mid.. maybe because he was naturally a attacking player.. but where has it gone?? lol some of ando’s passing was awful but i thort he was the one driving foward from the midfield out of him and carrick
manchuchu I know the glazers are asses if you actually read my posts when me and costas were debating this subject last night you will know what I think. like I said these chinese ppl may buy thr club and we are still in the same situation. to say these chincese ppl love united after watching them twice does not mean they love united.
obertanthenewstar
andersons a good little player, doing alright lately, what you doing up so late?? lol
hope we smash wolvez and pompey get something from chelsea
yeh yeh ive always rated anderson.. he’l be a great player.. im sure of that!
haha im just watchin UFC.. what about you mate?
yeh truee we need to put a few past wolves to get back on track
why cares about this Russophilic rent-boy?? He’s a prostitute and gets his arse battered by a certain oil oligarch……….
I shouldn’t have bothered going to today’s match….it was a bag of shite…I’m sick to death of boring, braindead Carrick can’t we sell him and get some decent midfield creativity please?
We need creativity upfront. Badly.I think Sir Alex will by a superstar in January, maybe Villa or Dzeko. That would do nicely.
By our standard we’re having a very poor season and we’re lucky the other teams are just as shite. Also, I was embarassed by Rooneys dive today. I thought that kind of behaviour would go away when we sold Ronaldo.
dzeko.. villa?.. i dont think he’l get either 1 of them.. i think we need the creativity in midfield dont you think? maybe a david silva would do nicely.. and maybe a def midfield player.. i know hargo’s coming back? but wasnt he ment to be back already??.. i herd hes had another setback.. or maybe we could find a midfielder with both defensive and creative attributes? that would be awesome.. any ideas??
naaaaa…..i dont think j cole can be a legend like giggs in chelseaaa…first of all,he just cant rule out his injury sagaa…and second,chelsea dont have a player age 34 or something these days and to be like giggs u gotta be 36 at lease…in my opinion,if there a player like 34 in chelsea,theyll sell the player….look at makelele,sheva,bridge..
http://www.tribalfootball.com/man-utd-striker-berbatov-underwent-knee-surgery-503641
Obvious why SAF threw Owen after the break.
@ denton davey
Carrick was good today. You talk about his defence-splitting passes, but i actually thought he provided some of them. He wasn’t that passive.
I will be honest with you. I have never rated him that highly. He is passive, he can’t put a strong tackle, he is a soft player. But today seeing the perfromance we put in i was forced to single some players out because the team performance as a whole wasn’t convincing. There has to be some bright side.
King Eric. Hi mate.Good Morning.I kind of have a feeling it will be a surprise team in the reckoning for the title along with us and the rentboys.saying that you are right that their squad lacks strength in depth an they could collapse like last season in the latter stages.but villa have done well so far especially against the big teams and arent easy to break down or beat at home or away.neither the rentboys nor us are taking charge of the title race.as i said earlier Think 80 points will be enough to win the league this season.i dont think it will be our last defeat of the season as we have emirates, wastelands still to visit and other big games at home.However it is the fact that we are getting a tad unpredictable that is worrying.no one expected us to lose to burnley or draw at home to sunderland or lose against a struggling dippers side.similarly everyone expected us to get hammered by chelsea and beaten by wolfsburg and struggle at Stoke, West ham but we were good in those games.even the rentboysa re struggling now and didnt expect them to lose at wigan or draw yesterday.its up to spurs,shitty or villa to stay close to the top 2.villa have done that and credit to them for beating all the last years top3,2 of them away from home.that happens very rarely.the thing that added to my frustration was the fact that it was a chacne to get level with the rentboys and shift the momentum our way.was hoping we could go on an uneaten run like last year.not meant to happen though.we like doing things the difficult way.i know villa for the title sounds silly and i admit i gave them too much credit.now just hope we can get some Consistency.
CHEERS!!!!!!
King Eric.
just disappointed mate.i want united to win every game.not a kneejerk reaction but it hurts badly now when we lose.if i were a shitty supporter i wouldnt be too diappointed but being a united fan you are not used to losing games.that hurts badly.admit that the villa for statement was far fetched.
Thanks Corea. Berbatov having an operation would explain a lot. It’s amazing he was even on the bench. It’s too bad that in the last 6 weeks he hasn’t been able to help out. If we get Berbaton and a decent back 5 fit for the long haul, we can go on a winning run.
Diouf to score 15 goals in the second half of the season
I hope so GHTT.
For the record, i know a lot will be made about Rooney’s dive, but will any media cunt ever talk about these disgraceful time wasting tactics that teams often use when they are holding onto a result? When did Heskey become so fragile anyway? And not only that, Chelsea’s 12th man only gave us 3 minutes of extra time! Where did that come from? It should have been at least 5. I am not making excuses in any way, but if we are going to go on a crusade to clear football from cheats, we should do it on all levels. Faking injuries to waste time is just as bad as diving in my opinion.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11945_5768499,00.html
There are a lot of dickheads on here today…. “Fuck off wes brown”, “Rooney you diving cunt” etc. Are these people actually United fans?
Rooney’s dive was embarassing yes, but he got up and IMO put in a good shift. More of his passes were wayward than usual but he found good positions and worked his ass off. Do you forget he was just inches away from scoring a cracker? We definitely missed Fletch in midfield and I think that when Giggs went off we lost most of our creativity.
Valencia had one of his poorer days for final ball, but shit happens – he’s far exceeded my expectations of him this season and one bad performance doesn’t mean he’s shit.
I must say I was surprised not to see Obertan getting on the pitch because he’s the type that could get inbehind the defence and get in a good position for a cross.
“I went to see the manager and said, ‘I’ve hardly played boss’.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not letting you go. I need you’.”
—
almost made my eyes water.
What on earth would have happened to us if Fletcher left in 08?
Fletch’s absence in the Rome final will always be a debatable point. Who knows if we would have won with him? One thing is for sure. The team isn’t the same without him. He has been absent from the midfield in 3 of our 4 league defeats(the one he was part of was the Bridge defeat where we were better than them). And i think that Carrick and Anderson are at their best with him as their midfield partner. From now on, i don’t want to see him as a right back again…
@ Costas
the only answer to Fletcher absense will be Hargo. But it will be soooo hard for Owen to win his place in the team from now on. The answer is to play both of them against the Barca type of opposition or away games and the fact that Hargo is universal player does help the issue.
Can’t wait.
I have a feeling Hargo will be out for the whole season. Every now and then we hear he suffered a minor setback in his recovery. Then Fergie comes out and says it’s a confidence thing, or Hargo pushed himself too far in a training session. We have seen him training with the other players but he’s just doing ball work separately, which means he still has a lot of training to do when he is fully fit. This itself could take two months. There’s 5 months left in this season, if he’s back by early Feb, how long will it then take him to hit form and become half the player he used to be before his injury? He hasn’t played football for over a year. He will also be likely to pick up a few knocks and feel pain in his Knees, it’s inevitable. He was expected to be back early Nov, then we were told he could be back 25th in time for the Besiktas game.
I am not trying to sound negative but if he is not back by Jan or Feb then he probably won’t be playing at all this season. He and his versatility have been missed terribly, if he was playin yesterday at RB then Fletch would have been in midfield and we could have won the game.
Hargo’s situation resembles a bit the one Neville was in during the 07-08 campaign. Only he and Fergie know that the status really is and per the club’s policy, i doubt we will get many updates. Maybe he is going through the same progam Alan Smith did in 06-07? Either way, i doubt we will see much of him before February.
At times I think the Glazers get alot of stick thats uncalled for from Fans. Really as far as owners go they have been great, I mean seriously would we really prefer Hicks & Gillette (Who just bitch at each other and bitch at the Manager, try and replace the manager, wouldn’t let the Manager do his job, bought the club with a business plan that had no chance of ever working as it required them to win the big things regularry which they haven’t done for decades and which to do would require investment which they can’t make etc) or Abramavich (Who buys players over the managers head for inflated fees, who has interfered with team selection, who lets a player dictate some of the clubs decisions undermining the manager, who lets managers go when he falls out with them personally, who lets managers go because he disagrees with something they do, who often loses interest leading to fans to panic that he may pull out demanding his money back and leaving them with outgoings that they cant cover etc) or Citeh lot (Who take the Real route of just throwing money at buying players just to stop other having them with little thought about building a team and then when things don’t work due to buying players rather than building a team they will blame the manager)
We don’t know what the Chinese lot are like but with 6 billionaires the chance of hicks/gillette bickering has to increase and I suspect they would just start throwing money at everything which isn’t the United way. I could even see them bringing Chinese players in and demanding they are played for the money alone. We know what we have with the Glazers and personally I think its better the devils we know
I just took a look at the NOTW gossip-claim that some guys from Bangkok want to pay the Glazers U$ 1,000,000,000 for ownership of UTD.
While I don’t think that this is complete non-sense, I do think that the article’s understanding of the sale-price is low. From what I understand, the Glazers have about U$ 250,000,000 of their own money, plus another U$ 700,000,000 in debt loaded onto the club. So why would they sell for a profit of “just” fifty million ? I would expect that they would hope to double the money the invested – i.e., U$ 250,000,000 – which would make the sale price closer to U$ 1,250,000,000.
About Carrick – I’ve read the comments by Costas @ 0:08 and Corea @ 6:43, and, respectfully, you guys have not convinced me. I still don’t understand what Carrick does that makes him valuable – yeah, I know, he’s been at UTD since 2006 and in that time the club has won 3 EPL, 1 CL….. But, I would put those achievements down to Ronaldo’s maturation in 2006/7 and then explosive super-development in 2007/2009. (His presence made a huge difference although I am not sure that his absence will !)
Someone earlier wrote that they didn’t think that Wayne Rooney dived – I agree; from the replays I saw, the defender “forced” his right leg sideways and that threw him off balance. He was running fast so a small nudge – or even a gust of wind – might have thrown him off balance. We’ve seen that happen before. It’s a moot point – and endless video replays might (or might not) settle the issue: I back video replay but some circumstances just can’t be resolved.
What is more evident from the view of my naked eyes is that Wayne Rooney played terribly yesterday, especially after Giggs was substituted. His poor play was compounded by Valencia’s refusal to shoot or to use his left foot.
But, shit happens and while yesterday has to be understood as an opportunity spurned, I still think that it was a bump on the road. Just imagine how awful we’d feel IF the RentBoyz had won !
@dentondavey:
I was just responding to what you said about not comparing him with his own standards. I think that’s what we have to do for each player. What does he have to offer that no other midfielder does? I really can’t say. In my opinion, you have to be inside a football ground to appreciate the full work of a midfielder and i haven’t been able to do that with Carrick. I think though that Fergie appreciates his passing and how he can get control the pace of the game for us. For whatever reason, he hasn’t been able to do that effectively in the past 12 months.
Costas: “What does he [Carrick] have to offer that no other midfielder does? I really can’t say. ”
Neither can I.
My point was that if you compare yesterday’s performance to his own standards then he was OK but if you compare his performance to what would be expected from someone in his position then it’s just plain disappointing – no drive, mostly backwards passing and very few attempts (and no success) at “defence splitting balls”.
I’m not denying that Michael Carrick has done some very good individual things but what seems missing to me is the sum of the parts. I don’t think that his inclusion in the team-sheet adds much – except an 11th man. In that regard he’s rather like ThreeLungPark whose contributions also escape me.
I much prefer having Nani on the field – sure he might be “frustrating” but he does produce end-product, not consistently but with regularity. Similarly, Obertan seems to be an end-product producer – neither Carrick nor Park can make that claim.
I get the point that the paucity of end-product from Carrick might have to do with his position but that point really doesn’t make up for his lack of drive and his sideways passing. He slows down the game which is not a bad thing but he seems incapable of speeding up the game – or keeping up with a fast-paced game – and that is a very bad thing.
Wakey well the glazers deserve everything they get, you have got to be an idiot to think the glazers have been great. all the money real madrid have wasted the irony could be cristiano ronaldo maybe their only good signing they have made in years.