Sir Alex Ferguson has praised the effort of Dimitar Berbatov today following his goal and assist against Fulham.
The manager claims it was important for the Bulgarian striker to get a goal for himself after missing a couple of headers earlier on.
“The work by Berbatov was fantastic football and he just laid it on a plate for Wayne who took it well,” Ferguson said. “He is intelligent, he has good composure on the ball and he adds to the team all the time. The making of the second goal was absolutely superb. It was very important, because he had a few opportunities, but he took one.”
Man Utd News 24/7
Couldn’t agree more. And I was happy he scored with his head too, although it was going to take something special to miss that!
The handling of Berbatov could be the key for us this season. Not taking anything away from Wazza and the season he has had, but knowing when to play 4-5-1 and when to play 4-4-2, will be very crucial.
HAVE GOT TO ADMIT IT GOT IT WRONG ABOUT BERBATOV AND IM PLEASED ABOUT THAT THE LAD IS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER HIS WORK RATE HAS IMPROVED RECENTLY AND THAT WAS MY BIGGEST MOAN BUT LETS HOPE HE IS COMING RIGHT AT THE RIFGT TIME
The team is playing well and Berbatov. Too. Keep it up lads!
Best assist there has ever been in the history of football! Rate it even higher than Nani’s assist for the Almunia OG and Obertans assist for Owen’s second against Wolfsburg!!
Berbatov and Rooney are class.
Lets hope Rooney can score a minimum of 7 goals in the last 8 Premier League games, this would put him at 32. I would also love to see him put in a few in Champions League to be top scorer in both leagues and pass the overall tally of Ronaldo’s 42.
I really feel sad when Berbatov gets all the negativity surrounding him, I think positivity from the fans can help him on the pitch, sing his praises, let him know we are behind him. He is on 10 goals and 6 assists in the Premier League and I am behind him to get a few more.
That surely is the best assist of the season. Yet.
Costas @ 21:46: “The handling of Berbatov could be the key for us this season. Not taking anything away from Wazza and the season he has had, but knowing when to play 4-5-1 and when to play 4-4-2, will be very crucial.”
AGREED. This is the key point of “BerbaSceptics” – for all his skill and ability, he’s not a full-timer. But, as a “part-timer” – to be used in special situations – he’s a fantastic asset.
The guy’s skill and ability were never in question – it was finding a way to make the most use of those assets in a way that complemented WayneRooney, who is the MainMan.
What’s important for the “BerbaFans” to realize is that SAF has had to learn how to optimize Dimmy’s contributions by rationing them – not just playing a 4-4-2 as if it’s some sort of written-in-stone system.
catotraa @ 22:12: “Best assist there has ever been in the history of football! Rate it even higher than Nani’s assist for the Almunia OG”
Surely, you jest. It wasn’t even the best assist today – that was the defence-splitting pass from Nani to WayneRooney which found a way through SIX Fulham defenders to put the ball on a plate for Wazza to slot it home. Indeed, Nani’s assist for the second goal against ACMeeeelan was better, too.
@denton davey
Personally, I am content and happy with how Berbatov is utlised in 2010. He has been used almost to maximum effect. I like him as a player, but at United not every game is for him. At the same time, I hope that fans that don’t like him(not you of course), will realise that he is not a complete waste of money or a flop.
Lets hope he stays fit for the rest of the season and we have 2 first choice options in attack. We know that Kiko will have a say in the title race at some point, but we shouldn’t burden him too much.
Berba was awesome today……im chuffed for him.
Fergie is now using him the right way and its reaping the rewards. It ‘s not just today but I think for the last 4 or 5 games he has been good but today was excellent. He just floats around the pitch and brings people into play. He was orchestrator second half. A class act. Him and Rooney when played in the 4-4-2 are building up a decent partnership which can only flourish. He seems to be working alot harder off the ball as well and starting to look as though he now believes he IS a United player. Its all about confidence. I reckon he is gonna be a proper player for United over the next season or two. A joy to watch especially live. Was good to see his name getting sung today.
berba is coming good – did you see the turn of pace and the hold up play? great stuff!
i liked that he is getting chances too. he is the silk to rooney’s steel! if we can harness both consistently, its gonna be really tough for all defenders!
ooohhh…cant wait for the liverpool game – how i’d love to see benitez crumble at OT – thats secondary of course, i wouldnt mind even if we play crap and still win – maybe our other star striker OG will turn up for the game and score a hattrick – that would be as satisfying!
Very good performance from Berba, but please lose the gloves.
Berba is a class act and has hit great form in good time.
If we win next three matches, I do not see any reason why not, we will be in a very strong position.
Berbas work rate has been superb recently.
As with all things in life, persistence pays off…..eventually!
Huge part to play in our run in methinks.
@denton davey
“that was the defence-splitting pass from Nani to WayneRooney which found a way through SIX Fulham defenders to put the ball on a plate for Wazza to slot it home.”
totally agree with that. looked like a simple pass but when you see the replay from above angle, you can see the sheer brilliance of it.
although berba’s was just as good, the way he picked the ball out of the air and cut between two defenders. he’s really fast even on the ball.
Berba’s great and i’m really happy he got a goal for all the work he’d done.It’s so annoying hoe the commentators keep on saying “Ohh,Lazy play Berbatov”,”sloppy work from Berba”.Why don’t people understand that not everyone needs to run to do brilliant things.Berba’s got an exceptional footballing brain.
Nani,he’s frustrating at times,but oh well,he gets into wonderful space,just that his decision making is not too good.But he’s improved a whole lot though.
Rooney-need i say much.i love the boy to bits.and it finally feels so nice to have Rio and Vidic playing together.it feels safe
Whilst i have been critical of Berbatov in the recent past,i have to say yesterday he was brilliant.Over the last three or four weeks he has shown his class..he even out paced two of their players for Rooney’s second yesterday..humble pie and large come to mind..
Jay @ 7:01: “Nani,he’s frustrating at times,but oh well,he gets into wonderful space,just that his decision making is not too good.But he’s improved a whole lot though.”
No question the guy has loads of skill, pace, and power; what is “frustrating” about his decision making seems to result from situations where he slows down play rather than just getting on with it. In those circumstances, he twists himself into knots when he thinks about what to do – as opposed to just playing it first-time.
Hey Scott. Can you point me to a site where I can see all the statistics about Berbatov, including key passes, run distance, tackles won and etc? I need it to shut my mate up…
Berba is Sheer Class. His Ball control, positional awareness, vision, and confidence on the ball are among the best i’ve seen. he has had 6 official asists in thr PL this season, but he has actually been involved in a few more goals than that. i can remember a couple of Valencia’s crosses for Rooney’s headed goals, were as a result of Berba, having the vision and awareness to release Valencia with enough time and space to supply the perfect cross. for a lot of the goals, he is our “Assist behind the Assist.” Lol (can i copyright that). He is certainly getting more confident and looks like he is enjoying himself more and more… Keep doing what you do Berba.
ps, i’ve been seeing the Word ABU on here a few times. what does it mean??
actually itt’d be a good idea to have a glossary of united terms like ABU, Dippers, Bitters, etc, so newbies can get upto speed quite quickly. lol
FOREVER UNITED
He had an awful game until he had the luck to come up against smoker Chris Baird and beat him for pace. He was rubbish and the people admitting they were wrong about him are just idiots. He frustrated for 70 minutes and gets a tap in header at the tail end of the game. In the end he’s getting praise based on his crisis of confidence because he certainly wasn’t the most notable player on Sunday.
@brett talking total shit like that i’m guessing your not even a utd fan
Who the fuck are you Wayne? I’ve used this blog for months.
i’m a utd fan your slagging a utd player after he had a good game,what kind of utd fan are you.not a very good one thats obvious
Look- we can argue the bit out about any of my points. But you are just making a sweeping statement. He was useless for much of the match. He missed our best chance with an easy header from a Nani cross. He was sent through 1v1 and checked back which was rubbish. He was getting frustrated and being ineffective as per usual.
Let me put it this way. If you are going to turn round and dispute the fact that chris baird is terribly slow and a heavy smoker fair enough. But you can’t, so stop bothering me with your cliched putdowns.
brett1985 – Well mate you must be the only one thinking like that, even denton admits it was his best game. He was superb yesterday. Really do wonder now.
brett1985 – Can you name the players in our squad who you think could control a 40/50 yard long ball perfectly with their first touch? You might not be impressed with Berbatov taking on two players before providing a ball for Rooney to score from (for whatever reaaon!) but surely you recognise the skill involved in getting in to that position in the first place?
As for people complaining about having to retype name/e-mail for comments, as you will see in the post about the new design (I know, I’ve hidden it well!), we are working on it. If you have any problems, pleasure put them in there, like the others have.
dumi – abu – anyone but United.
The fact his name is getting sung from the stands now tells its own story.
The crowd where getting frustrated with Berabtov around me anyway and his name wasn’t getting sung. King Eric et al: You seem to be under the impression people are warming to Berbatov. This may be true for a few non thinking fans but what does his recent goals and performances do to address any of the criticisms? Nothing. A game against Wolves where his contribution to the winning goal was to for some reason be on the half way line, laying a 5 yard pass to a defender and loitering pointlessly outside the box as Paul Scholes does the business.
He was omitted from the Milan matches and as they were the vital matches of late I have to say I find the agenda of some slightly irrelevant.
Scott: It was good control but the reason he is getting credit is because he outran chris baird. I mean honestly. Why do we need this pretense about Berbatov. The lavish praise he gets for games against Wolves and a tired Fulham side is very contrived. Papering over the cracks- ignoring reality- works well except when it comes to the big games when Fergie gets it right and benches him.
Oh Brett the Stretford End were singing “dimitar berbatov , one look at city and he said fuck off” Are you implying that all United fan are idiots and just sing because they feel sorry for him? No they realise proper talent. Tell me this how do you think we would do at home against all those teams that park the bus? Berbatov is key in these games. You just will not give credit will you for fear of going back on your word, you must be a minority if you didn’t think he performed yesterday. Rooney certainly appreciates him so again he must be a mug as must all the players and Fergie.
Furthermore brett just read your post again and you really are condescending . “non-thinking fans”. So is that the Stretty, East stand and North Stand then? As his song was being sung from all those quarters.
There was no chanting about Berbatov audible from the East stand probably because at the time the Fulham fans were being given a send off. Look I am not trying to be unreasonable or condescending. I have no doubt that after the goal he was given a chant which is hardly determinative of the overall feeling of fans towards him. What fans think in private, is not what they bring to the stadium. Random chants are for the priviledge of club legends. As such there is very little to determine what fans REALLY think about Berbatov at the ground.
What I am trying to do is to be honest. When he missed the header in the first half around me there was cursing and a big of a collective groan. He was put through one vs one in the second half and checked back. This would probably have been another groan save for a not very convincing handball appeal from a Rooney shot. He also had a good chance with another header which went wide. This was an ailing fulham team after a busy week and away defeat to Juve. We needed to win and it was no surprise that we hit them for three in the second half. Chris Baird is a smoker and you could choose to view my remarks about him as humerous if you want. But instead Berbatov ‘outpacing him’ is treated as a serious point designed to prove his doubters wrong…
Last point: non thinking persons are to me those who actually made up invalid criticisms of berbatov in the first place. Yes. If someone felt that Berbatov did not score enough belated 90th minute goals, well Berbatov certainly proved that wrong… (sarcasm off). What did his goal against Fulham do to counter the salient criticisms about Berbatov? Do you know what those are?
Berbatov disappointed on Sunday but made up for it with his assist and belated goal. It’s not the basis for praise I’m afraid.
Brett – Is there ever audible sound from the East stand? Berbatov’s song was sung several times by the Stretford End yesterday.
After the praise Tevez got last season after scoring 5 goals, with our fans chanting over the top of Fergie’s end of season speech for him, I’d say Berbatov’s contribution is more than worthy of praise. Our fans look like a right uncultured bunch. Give us a busy cunt who didn’t score over a skilful player with the best touch in the league any day! Christ, it’s embarrassing.
Despite playing with a knee injury for months, and missing a month with that injury, he is the highest scoring second striker in the league.
Scott
You are probably right about the sound from the East Stand, there was only a small pocket of us singing at all. We didn’t hear any Berbatov chants from the main stand and I wonder what these were a response to or where they random? For the record I viciferously condemned any of the embarrassing Tevez sign him up chants and you’ve reminded us all that we have fools amongst us.
Anyway I don’t wish to get lost in a lot of sub points. I believe Berbatov is getting priase from the boss to boost his confidence which after missing chances was flagging. Second, in defense of myself, as it seems to be required, Berbatov did missed 2 headers and declined a 1v1. It is the personal choice of people on the blog to give weight to those incident and the goal he scored and his assist as they see fit. But where me and king eric seem to have a misunderstanding is that though we both know that we disagree with eachother- he doesn’t seem able to identify at all why I have reached my conclusion.
Berbatov missed two headers and scored 1. He messed up one promising chance and assists another. That is a mixed bag.
i’ll always support and cheer any player playing for united irrespective of his playing standard.We should not forget berba chose united and not city. that alone has put him up there for me.he’s not crying for sitting on the bench.he plays,puts in a decent shift and is a model professional which we expect him to be. he is class.
@bret….say what you want.berba deserves to be appreciated.i’ve never seen anyone slack of a united player the way you did…shame on you…
Brett – Wayne Rooney misses chances. He miscontrols the ball. He gives it away. But he is still the best in the world (in my opinion lol). All strikers miss chances – if they didn’t, it would 9 or 10 nil every week.
Out of interest, Rooney has had 115 shots this season. 54 on target. 25 resulted in goals. So that means 53% of all shots Rooney had this season haven’t even hit the target. Only 22% of his shots have resulted in goals.
Berbatov has had 56 shots. 26 have been on target. 10 have resulted in goals. So the ratio of shots to shots on target, as well as goals compared to total shots, pretty much matches Rooney.
Do we judge players by why they don’t do, or what they do do? My glass is half full, so I would rather look for the things our players do well instead of trying to point out the things they don’t do well.
Hey, Scott, I love the way you always have a bag of great stats to back up your words
:):)
Scott
I have tried to verify your stats and got different numbers. It doesn’t really matter though because Rooney misses far fewer easy chances than Berbatov and people know that. What is curious here is that by and large I’ve been stating what happened in the match when the people that oppose me are intent on having me overlook negatives. To me missing an easy chance is very bad and not something to be glossed over. At the very least I don’t see why on missing 3 easy chances- a player merits special praise. Ferguson is trying to boost a frustrated players confidence which he needs to do as Berbatov has to endure the bench against major opponents like Milan.
@Scott: with all due respect, what a silly stat? It’s like comparing the goals saying Rooney had 32 and Berba has about 10+ without taking into account that Berbatov has played waaay less. The stats would of course favour Berbatov who has played less than Rooney and automatically has taken less shots.