Football Managing Rule 101: How to beat United
Ask the FA to review the decision of making Mike Riley, who the press called a Manchester United fan, the referee.
Phil Jagielka fouled Danny Welbeck in the area as the last man and it should have been a penalty and a sending off. Riley waved play on, no penalty was given and Jagielka was allowed to stay on the pitch. The fact that Jagielka scored the decisive penalty added insult to injury!
When I saw our line-up today I thought we were going to get a leathering. Everton are a quality side and like Ferguson said before the game, they’re hungry for trophies.
With half an hour played and United on top I realised that Ferguson’s idea was spot on. He had counter-balanced Everton’s thirst for success with the desire our young players had to prove themselves.
Welbeck struggled out on the left and I’m not entirely sure what Ferguson was thinking to play a right-footed teenage striker on the left wing! He worked hard though and should have earned what would have been a winning penalty for United ten minutes from time.
It was brilliant to see Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic paired up again. Foster didn’t really have a save to make in two hours of football and that was down to their efficient defending. This bodes well for our crucial Premiership game on Wednesday.
Starting the da Silva boys was a risky strategy but it proved effective. Despite Fabio only having one first team appearance to his name and Rafael being out injured for months, they were strong defensively and added to our attack. The future is bright knowing we have these two to man our full-back positions.
Statistics will tell you that Riley doesn’t have a habit of giving United penalties and isn’t a United fan, but raising the question stopped the ref giving a stonewall penalty to us, which would certainly have guaranteed our place in the final.
Had it been our first team I would have been more reluctant to dwell on this crucial decision, whilst still aggrieved, but the fact that we had so many of our Reserves fighting for it out there and we were denied a goalscoring opportunity by the foul, then denied a penalty, makes the situation entirely frustrating.
Good on our boys for putting on a performance tonight. Clearly the priority for Ferguson, and for the fans, is the Premiership and Champions League. There’s no way Fergie will put out a team like that for Pompey or Arsenal in Europe. The decision to give up on the FA Cup will only be vindicated if we beat Portsmouth on Wednesday.
I’ll be supporting Everton in the final but we all know if they can’t beat a team largely made up of our Reserves in normal or extra time, they’ll be no match for Chelsea.
Man Utd News 24/7
everton for the cup
vidic for player of the year
anderson for the future
berba’s peno for americas funniest home movies
united for a quadruple
me for my bed
i felt for rio missing his peno
cause he deserved to score
vidic and anderson-son-son where unreally good
Fuck berbatov. That lazy cunt can fuck off back to spurs for free ! Wtf was he trying? And why start with Rio for penalties when you have Tevez? Crap!
I hope people dont start demanding we bomb Berbatov out for missing the penalty, if he’d had converted it we would have been going oh what a genius what a classy penalty.
That’s the way it works sometimes and he was clearly gutted…I’ll stand by him!.
When I saw the line-up I expected to lose and there were more positives then negatives to come out of this match
Positives being our fantastic group of youngsters proving they can handle a Wembley occasion…Fabio-Rafael-Gibson-Welbeck-Macheda-Foster all did the best they could against one of the better sides in England…I would have liked to have seen them rewarded for it but none the less good effort and made me happy.
Bring on Pompey!.
def a penalty from jagelka on wellbeck. not gutted about result at all, should mean players will be dying to get to champions league final also.
five
oh shut up, berbetov is a total disgrace he should be sold in the summer oh leave him alone bla bla bla he is a joke, no way let the real united fans keep commenting on this lazy average idiot that berbetov really is, if that was an attitude of an academy player he would be thrown out of the club without a blink of an eye. I will say again
we won the carling cup 2006,2009 without berbetov
we won the 2007 and 2008 premiership titles without berbetov,
we won the 2008 champions league without berbetov
we won the 2008 world club cup witout berbetov see a ring to it,
and then he has the nerve to say he wants to be like the rest of the team well with attitudes like that no wonder he has no winners medals because thats the type of idiot he is.
Scott, i would be inclined to agree with you about Everton being no match for Chelsea but for the fact that teams that have beaten us in recent seasons have gone on to win the cup! It was mentioned in a little more detail by someone on the previous thread. Overall, Riley is a spineless wimp of a ref, our young uns did us proud and SAF was right to have played them. The real full time bin dippers will have to endure their neighbours winning a trophy AND us winning several!
We won the 2007/08 double without Messi so if he’s available let’s not buy him…
Would be fun to see what FA has to say about the decision to keep Riley on the match – if it wasnt for the fact theyll be quite about it, and the media wont ask any questions apart from “Why did Fergie pick that lineup?”.
Well played by the youngsters and they actually deserved the win. Shocking decision from Riley who once agian did well to show how pathetic the refs are. Good job running a respect campaign with monkeys like that supposedly being the ones that “deserves” it – put a bucket over his head and he’ll die before figuring out why he cant breathe.
Umbriago,what a comment . i heard during the week that united could get buffon . by micheals way of thinking just tell him to fuck off cause van der sar won medels in red
Umbriago
another way to defend berbetov open your eyes people he is a piece of shit. messi would improve our left side of our side and torres could improve our attack, berbetov is the latter he makes our side worse and thats a fact. ronaldo rooney tevez is our best strike force and thats a fact.
“I hope people dont start demanding we bomb Berbatov out for missing the penalty, if he’d had converted it we would have been going oh what a genius what a classy penalty.”
While I agree with that statement, that is not the point. The kids shed their blood and tears out their today. It was up to Berbatov to set the tone by knocking that pk in with conviction. He had absolutely no reason to decide to take such a risky penalty; it was an unnecessary decision that only reflects poorly on his sheer arrogance (speaking of which, what has he even done to merit his overrated self-esteem?). As the role model figure for the young reserves and – at the very least out of respect for their hard efforts – he should really have at least TRIED. I realize PKs are always a crapshoot but his pathetic effort just puts me over the edge.
However, I think we should still judge him on his overall contributions at the end of the season. People all make mistakes but he really needs to change his attitude and start working for the team. I’m sick and tired of seeing him make an amazing pass and just stare while admiring his handiwork instead of making runs and getting into better goalscoring positions.
What sucks most is his lazy attitude. Its like he’s being forced to play! What excuse does he have for that pathetic attempt at a penalty? And again why didn’t Tevez take one yet he always scores penalties? Positives though with the kids coming thru. But oh! Wait, Berbafuck had to come and spoil that too. I fuckin hate that lazy cunt! I always stand by him but today was the nadir! Aaaagh!
gotta hate tiny tears
I am right you are wrong and thats a fact on berbetov, and I am in the long line of united fans who share my view and thats a fact blinded idiot. berbetov is shit and thats a fact
if timmy had of went the other way it would of been a genius peno
As Rio said,the pressure from the media has forced the refs to not give us penalties that we deserve.And from tomorrow it will get worse.We ruined the Quintuple headlines for them so they will trash us.I didn’t care about the FA cup.We have won it one time in 10 years and we are STILL the side with the most cup wins.United this season have been fighting all the odds from the start.I was 100% behind Fergie’s decision to use the kids and make turn this competition to what it really is:A joke friendly.There is one thing i want from our players this season:the title.We win it and then the media cunts along with their darling the FSW can piss off.
Cue the blame of Berbatov who was brighter than Tevez in the short time he was on the pitch.
I am right you are wrong and thats a fact on berbetov????????
micheal are you the fsw in disguise
as i said before if timmy had of went the other way it would of been a genius peno
get over it , he missed
totti fuckin chipped the ball in to a keepers hands once
does that mean he’s shit
berbatov is every bit of the player you taught he was on deadline day
gotta hate tiny tears
BUT IT DID NOT DID IT, cant you see that. if you cant see the fact that berbetov is the biggest waste of money then you know nothing about the game, and by the way dnt bring ferguson into this debate that I am saying he has lost the plot because he bought veron so dnt try and use that excuse
riley should not referee any match, even my mother commented on how crap he was.
moyes pulled a fergie with his riley is a united fan comment…the youngsters did themselves proud, playing against the 6th ranked premiership team and only losing on penalties…berba…bad penalty take but i think we were bound to lose a shoot out, glad it didnt cost us 3 pts nor that it’d been in the CL, onwards and upwards from here on…
micheal if you think berbatov is shit
i dont wanna talk to you about football
he was excellent when he came on today
then he missed a peno
so you call him shit
berbatov missed ONE penalty. other players have missed in the past and not got the same stick
like scott, i was expecting a leathering . the attitude of some people on here stink
gotta hate tiny tears
and by the way I had a log on name on the bbc606 forum called rooneyronaldounited and I said in the 07/08 season that berbetov was crap I was always against the buy I said on redrants he was overated and shit. a spurs player is one thing but a united player you are having a laugh
For every good £30m buy theres an equally pathetic one. For every Rio theres a Veron..and for every Rooney there’s a Berbacunt.
i know off the subject but andersons penno was class hes gotta score properly soon hope its a winner and he gets booked for his mad celebration!!
gotta hate tiny tears
living in denial you are wearing red tinted specs, he did nothing in the game cmon tell me one thing he did today, did he score a goal nope, did he create anything nope, did he test the keeper nope, did he make defenders life hell nope, why dnt scott put a poll up is berbetov a waste of money or a success and I can bet all the money in the world people will mostly agree that he is a waste of money you are out numbered.
I will say it time and time again in two words SELL BERBETOV
micheal i havent seen your on this say anything possitive
you are the plastic of all that is plastic and unless united win everything and everygame by at least 8 then you have nothin good to say
i love manchester united as much as my daughter
and i fucking love my daughter
so because one guy doesnt score a peno i have to blame everything on him
that firstteam line up for a semi final to get to penos is a fantastic day at the office in my eyes
Don Pablo if they don’t fit into the United style of play that doesn’t make them useless.Veron was definitely not pathetic.He really tried to make it work but it wasn’t meant to be.He had done well with his career before that.Forlan is also finding his niche elsewhere.
Let’s face it…Berbatov just doesn’t seem to give a fuck he is playing for one of the greatest clubs in football. And if he does, he doesn’t fucking show it. Today, yet again he had the chance to become a hero. He had 30 minutes against a tired defence and all he could muster was the same lazy effort we have grown accustomed to.
Yes, the man has talents – no one is doubting it. But he was being compared to Cantona by Fergie, can you lot honestly fucking see The King in berba? No way? Not even if he played for 10 years…Berbatov has always been a bit of a mope, even when he was in Germany, even when he was at Spuds. There is no reason to expect him to suddenly change just because he now earns more and with some of the more gifted players.
Sorry, but after todays performance i really hope SAF benches berbatov and gives the young lads who bust their gut a chance to take his place. We don’t need lazy cunts who score once every 10 games to ruin a style of football that last year yielded the highest and this season is 3rd…
Sell Berbatov in the summer, and don’t sign Tevez (who has began to look increasingly like a very very very expensive version of kuyt). Both players are well short of being 30 million pound strikers and will never give us enough goals.
Sign the likes of Aguero, Villa or E’too as these are 20+ goal a season strikers and have shown they can bang in the goals.
Fucking sick of watching a toothless bunch of forwards not creating enough chances and then fluffing the penalties by not bothering to give it a real wack.
Alot of positives to be taken from today’s performance but yet again certain people are looking for the usual scapegoat. Todays its Berba. If not him its Ronnie. If not him its Phelan. Grow up and get behind United.
As sad as it is to say (and I expect I’d get some shell for thinking this), watching our young kids play today was a lot easier on the eye than watching the first teamers lately. We should play our reserves more often haha
Don Pablo
you said it all there and you are totaly right.
english european champions without berbercrap
i vote king eric for the king of the world
beleive what this man says
hustler – Not at all, I quite agree with you.
gotta hate tiny tears
I know 6 season ticket holders for over 3 decades who all agree he is a waste of money, a plastic for seeing how rubbish he really is
what’s with all the hating on this forum? some people will like berbatov, some won’t. doesn’t mean that people of either faction are plastics or idiots..
Aaaargh! Even Jagielka’s admitted it was a penalty! No chance of Riley doing likewise. Wimp.
Unlucky today your lot.
Your kids bode well for the future, as do ours. I don’t think though overall either side was ‘better’. Certainly no side was on top for a long enough period to justify having won in normal time.
the two kids at full back were really good.
Berbatov is overrated and always has been. It’s like putting David Nugent in your side – good at a certain level but not beyond that and not good enough for the like of the European Champs etc…
As for the penalty. That was a disgrace (not that I’m too bothered as you can understand).He should be made to play with the kids next week for trying to take the piss instead of trying to make sure he scored.
We were poor today by recent standards but we got the job done in the end. We will have to play a lot better than that in the final if we are to stand a chance. I’m sure the majority of scouse-hating Man U fans will want a Chelsea win?
And let’s not forget.Berbatov has given us points.He scored the winner at Bolton,against Boro and set up the winner at Stoke.And may i add that all 3 were priceless because the games were heading perilessly to 0-0.
Blue i am with you in the final.I still have respect for Neville,Saha and Howard.One thing that you have in your way.The last 5 teams that knocked us out of the FA cup have gone on to win it.
I had a feeling we were going out tonite, and strangely enough, i’m ok with it. The quintuple was a pipedream. No other team in the world, not even Barca can win that many games in a full season. It’s basically impossible. It was a media created buzz that fans caught onto. I doubt any of the players actually believed it would happen (and if they did, it was only as a way of motivating them). In reality we had to lose one, and in all probability even two.
The treble is what achievable. We should win the champs league and the prem. That’s a realistic goal. But i’m afraid with our current form and the likes of Berbatov and Tevez really out of form we lack a cutting edge to our attacking play.
We break out of defense, but there is nobody who looks like they can score a goal except for Ronaldo and Rooney…and when they have an off day, we just look cumbersome out there.
I really hope the players take this defeat and come out focused for the rest of the games we have left. Our reserves did well and some of the lads should be proud of their effort, but when you have two 30 million pound players on the pitch you really expect them to shine…and Tevez and Berbatov have had more dull moments this year when we all expect and want them to shine.
This is not an overreaction. You all know both players have been average and bordering on poor, and this is why despite being better off they most teams we still aren’t comfortably placed as we should be.
Blue – No not at all . I think most proper United fans will want Everton. Well played and hope you do the rentboys.
costas
WOW even though it was a mistake from the bolton player
King Eric: Sense at last! Some people on here sound just like dippers it makes me sick! Congratulations to Everton and I hope they go on and win it now. I am proud of the boys today not one of them bottled out of anything in what was a tough but fairly contested match. It was also good to see no attempts to get people booked and sent off that we usually see in the really big games with liverpool chelsea and arsenal. Berbatov at least had the balls to take a penalty, if as some suggest ie. ‘he didn’t give a fuck’ why did he do so? Give him a break, he wants to be a United player and has the skill to be so, he hasn’t exactly set O.T. alight this year but in all honesty who has?
Blue: Best of luck in the final, you’ve knocked out the top team, the second position team, now go and make it the third position team.
Blue, wish you well in the final, hope you do it. Give that FSW something to dwell upon. A long hot summer for him and your bin dipping neighbours i hope, watching Neville lift a trophy!
Rob the Red
if an academy player acted like berbetov he would be shown the door.
Berbatov is ranked #3 striker in the Premier League according to the Actim Index*, behind Nicholas Anelka and Gabriel Agbonlahor.
http://www.premierleague.com/page/Top10Strikers/0,,12306,00.html
I’d say this is very impressive considering he has scored half of his goals in the Champions League (two against Aalborg and two against Celtic). He is doing a job for us and people need to distinguish between a languid player and a lazy player. You would never call Cantona or Ibrahimovic lazy but they both share Berbatov’s playing style. Berbatov has been tracking back for United more than I ever saw him do at Tottenham, has a class touch and links up very well with Rooney. I don’t see what’s not to like.
——
*How is the Actim Index calculated?
Complex mathematical formulae were devised to calculate the value of each player’s contribution, match by match. In simple terms, the Actim Index comprises six calculations:
* Calculation 1 – Assesses a player’s contribution to a winning team, based on points won by the team when he appeared.
* Calculation 2 – Assesses a player’s performance in each game, by allocating points for actions that positively contribute to a winning performance such as shots, tackles, clearances and saves. It also takes points away from players for negative actions such as yellow/red cards and shots off target.
* Calculation 3 – Allocates points based on time on the pitch.
* Calculation 4 – Allocates points for goal scorers.
* Calculation 5 – Allocates points for assists.
* Calculation 6 – Allocates points for clean sheets.
Umbriago
so ronaldo was not top of the league of assists last year look what he done that year and I will give you 42 reasons.
Have to admit alot of you guys are idiots..wait till the end of the season and Berbatov scores some winners in the league and maybe champs lge final and wins it for us and all you calling him rubbish will be hailing him.Just cause the man misses a penalty doesn’t mean he’s crap.he’s prob the 2nd most skillful player we have behind Ron so stop moaning and get behind the Team like most proper fans would!!!
Well it’s not just calculated based on assists. It’s based on tackles, clearances, shots on target, goals scored, distance covered and minutes played. I recall Berbatov covering 10km in matches but I can’t find the stats to support it. He just makes things look effortless in the same way that we notice Vidic over Ferdinand because Ferdinand has a greater technical ability and is able to read the game better which disguises his presence on the pitch.
I still think he will come good in time and that demanding his sale is premature. Don’t forget how much Ronaldo frustrated us in his first few seasons here and how happy many fans would have been to get rid of him.
we should be proud of our young team they did so well against a good everton side hopefully we’ll focus on winning the league now.
Umbriago – Hear what you are saying but Ronnie was only 17. Anyway I am of the belief that he will come good.
Umbriago
ronaldo was 18 to 21 years old, berbetovs close to 29. you can come up with stat after stat after stat the reality he is he is out of his depth at united and thats a fact. ronaldo rooney tevez could get from A to B in such quick time on the counter attack berbetov has lost us that option
SELL BERBETOV
WRONG!! Beating Pompey on Wendesday should’ve happened regardless. Vindication will come if and when we win the league AND CL. Personally I would’ve taken the FA Cup over the CL becuase we can actually win the FA Cup. Europe isn’t happening…..sorry.
Right, i couldn’t be bothered to read all of the comments so sorry if this has already been said but based on the comments i have read:
1) The assumption made earlier on about what messi would do for us….to bring in such a hypothetical argument does not support your point at all…..if only georgie best was playing…
2) I read somewhere that berbatov is ‘shit’….are.you.fucking.mental? yeh granted his penalty wasn’t the best, but before that his hold-up play was class, if you look back how many times he set up the first phase up?
3) United lost today not because we were poor, niether team were great by any means, we lost because we didn’t take our chances, inexperienced or otherwise, and we have bigger fish to fry.
Ferguson will stick by his team selection and so he should….it’s just time it didn’t work.
Bottom line is Micheal is ridiculous. I do not think most thoughtful United fans agree with you. He has a different style but he has unsurpassed technical ability and skill. He is creative and as Umbriago pointed out with evidence he is a fantastically skilled hard working player. He tracked back today, ran all over the pitch and was simply unlucky in a PK shootout which is mostly luck. You can be as closed minded as you want but if you had some evidence besides some sub-par performances coming back from an injury I might listen to you. But since you resort to absolutes without any real evidence besides pure idiocy this is really a pointless post.
Our young players played well today and were unlucky not to win. We had good chances, had great passages of play where we dominated Everton and should have been rewarded a penalty. Moyes played his cards right with his comments as Everton got the benefit of the doubt from Mike Riley all game long. The only think I am disappointed of was the officiating. I feel we were robbed but their is no reason to lament and no time. A big game this week verse a in form side. It won’t be an easy game and we need to be defensive sound. Vidic and Rio played fantastic tonight and I fully expect a clean sheet against Arsenal if they match today’s performance.
David Moyes’s performances and good work at Everton haven’t gone unnoticed at Man United. Congratulations to him and his team especially Phil Neville, Tim Howard and Louis Saha. Everton fans already have something to shout/brag about at Merseyside this season. Hope that they go on to win the FA Cup and silenced the Red half of Merseyside further.
Firstly,Micheal is acting like a twat.
Secondly,we’re leading the league and are in the semis of the Champions League.
Thirdly,Berbatov is a class player.Penalties are nothing more than luck.
Ronaldo missed a penalty in the European Cup final.
Did you call him shit?
No,because we won.
So stop blaming Berbatov.
No Michael I wont shut up because what I said was right.
Penalties are always 50-50…the likes of Totti and Di Canio and Postiga in Euro 2004 have all attempted the sort of penalty Berbatov tried yesterday and when those went in they were hailed as geniuses if his went in the same would have happened.
Howard anticipated that Berbatov would try something cheeky and saved it, if he didnt it would have been a classy penalty.
And I think Pooja posted a thread on the forum showing how much distance Berbatov actually does cover..he’s a different type of player to Tevez-Park but we all knew that when he came in. We are using him as a pathetic scapegoat for our loss when he certainly isn.t
Man up and accept a defeat for once we have no divine right to win everything.
We were robbed! Sure Berbas penalty was crap but that won´t stop me thinking he is gonna be crucial for our future. CR7 also missed a penalty last year – remember? All u Berbatov haters get off his back and get behind our team – they need it now more than ever…
The fuss that Moyes brought up before the game about Mike Riley being a Man United fan… Then in the post match interview saying that Referee’s do not get influenced?! Why kick off in the first place you absolute grade A gimp.
No wonder Rio and Vidic were confident enough to take a penalty, after keeping Fellani the big lump of shite out of the game for soooo long.
I hope Everton win the cup, but they will get smashed by Chelsea in the final. I sincerely hope I am wrong by saying this.
Oooodz – pointe dout in another thread (please read gimp)
Press to Moyes: ‘Do you know that it is claimed Mike Riley is a Man Utd fan?’
Moyes: ‘Is he? If he is that is a question you should put to the FA and not me. Are you trying to cost me money?’
So Moyes didn’t at any point say ‘Mike Riley is a Utd fan’ or ‘Riley willl be influenced’.
It was a penalty, no one except that stupid prat Beglin thinks it wasn’t, but he got plenty wrong in the game- not least calling a foul on Cahill after he had turned Vidic inside out and was clean through on goal – despite the replay showing he DIDN’T touch Vidic (and you can see by Vidic’s reaction and his joke with Cahill that he knew the ref was wrong). I think he did that to ‘even up the score’ – after all, going on what happened at the end can you say with any certainty you would have scored that penalty in normal time any more than I can say Cahill would have scored
Good luck for the run-in boys. Make it 18.
Blue – Cheers pal. Hope you do the rentboys in the final. Above all else how funny would it be to see the dippers biggest rivals pick up a trophy or two a piece?
What do you expect from a dirty, lazy spurs cunt? worst 30 million you ever spent.
listen, whats done is done you keep saying about your reserve team etc, but the team we where playing in my eyes where missing our ronaldo and rooney, in Arteta an the Yak, just cos they have been out for ages and we have been winning doesnt mean we dont miss them
i like United and have a lot of respect for you, My dad is a United fan from Manchester and me ma is a Kopite from Liverpool (probable cause for the divorce) you are always the second team i look out for (bar Preston)
solets not forget the enemy of our enemy is our friend
KOPITES ARE GOBSH1TES