Sir Alex Ferguson has praised Darren Fletcher today for his reaction to the red card, but concedes he isn’t hopeful of getting it overturned by UEFA.
“I am not optimistic at all,” said Ferguson. “We have to do it for Darren and sometimes in these situations, you never know. But I don’t think it will be overturned. The referee made an honest decision.”
On the television, the first viewing made the referee’s decision doubtful and the second viewing confirmed he had got it wrong. But Sir Alex Ferguson honestly claims from his seat it looked like a penalty and isn’t quick to come down on the ref. Given the way Chelsea players reacted to the referee, Ferguson is full of praise for how Fletcher reacted.
“Darren is quite a placid lad,” Ferguson added. “He is not an over-emotional boy. He just accepts it. He takes great credit for the way he handled it. I honestly believed the referee made the right decision at the time. From his angle – and from mine – it looked like a penalty. It was only when I saw the replay that I saw that Darren had managed to get his leg round Fabregas and flick the ball away. Darren is an honest player, so honest if he had been an old stager he would probably have let him go on and score. But he was still determined to try and do his job and prevent a goal. In the process he gave away a penalty.”
Man Utd News 24/7
Another reason to win the final – for Fletcher!
I don’t have much hope either.
On Monday we will know.
Fletcher and Hargreaves will surely play next season’s final at Santiago Bernabau, that i know because we are Manchester United.
atleast Fergie has made an appeal for it.looks like Barca are not even bothered about Abidal’s red.but chances are very very slim
It’s worth a shot. We will find out on Monday whether our appeal has been successful as this is the day when UEFA’s disciplinary body sit down to discuss the matter.
Im really surprised and pleased at how we’ve gone about this in general. That interview there from fergie could have been so much different. Take a bow!
Well..if getting Fletcher back means Abidal will also be back..no thanks! They are by far more weakened with the loss of their 2 full backs, getting just 1 back will help them a lot. As sorry as I feel for Fletcher, we need to have our sights on going on to win this match, which we can do with our *still* strong midfield.
BELIEVE and you will get results
its a long shot but one can only hope and pray that events at stamford bridge last night and the comments made by the players and hiddink compared to the reaction of fletch and our gaffer would encourage UEFA to look through our appeal seriously and rescind the red card.
we have every right to feel aggrieved but we’ve conducted ourselves admirably
Very honest admission from SAF!
I am gutted for Fletcherino but I have to admit that my nerves have already started doing me for the derby….can’t wait for Sunday!!!!
Who will replace Darren do we think? Scholesy, Giggsy or possibly Park and rejig the wing a bit. If Giggsy plays as well as he did in central midfield against the rent boys we will be ok. Love Paul but him and Carrick struggle together. Anyway I am not really concerned about the over rated cunts at all. More bothered about Sunday now. On our present form we should do Citeh with relative ease, even if it is a derby.
Bit twisted but there’s a part of me that doesn’t want this decision overturned, unless Barca get Abidal back because we would never hear the last of it…I’d rather we won fair and square and weren’t left open to accusations of unfair advantage. Our problems compared to Barca are paltry, they hardly have a defence left, and it wasn’t too great in the first place so regrettable as it is, I think Fletcher will rightly remained suspended.
Final could be the same formation as wednesday with Giggs in for Fletcher for me and rely on Ando and Carrick doing the bulk of the work, although he may include Berbatov somehow.
Barcelona have not appealed Abidal’s red card- you have 24 hours after the game to appeal…United DID appeal…so if Fletcher’s does somehow get appealed, Abidal’s won’t
I don`t understand why United and Barca don`t make either joint or simultaneous appeals around the 2 unjust red cards. Both Fletcher and Abidal have been rob by poor decisions. UEFA always want to be seen to be doing the correct thing and a joint appeal would give them a way of reversing these to the joint benefit of each side thereby allowing them to maintain their wish to be viewed as the keepers of fair play. A joint venture gives UEFA a way out of this mess with no loss of face, which matters to them a whole lot more than what is right and proper. Anyone know if United have given any thought to this. I think it might just work.
http://www.skysports.com/video/clips/0,23791,15855_5298968,00.html
Skip to 3:04 or watch it all on 3:04 SAF says “we have to do it for darren.”LETS BELIEVE!
Barcelona didn’t even bother with the appeal, luckily for us!
well looking back at our chances in the final i would suggest that we would be better off with fletcher in our team and i dont mind eric abidal’s red card overturned too coz fletch is a kind of player who could break barca’s possesion and tempo and help us in having possesion coz i somehow feel barca will give us a hard time if he’s not around….
What ever happens to Fletcherino, I am very much optimistic abt the Final. We have a strong enough squad to win it. WE SHALL OVERCOME!!
Anyone with a video of the Road to Rome?
Wilfred – I really don’t think they will give us such a hard time. As I keep repeatedly saying to the point of boring people why oh why do the media keep reeling out this “fairy tail” about Barca been the best team in Europe. Simply put they are not. Ando, Carrick and I reckon it will be the Giggs Meister will run that midfield and we will show the media cunts who the best team is. Our back line will deal easily with “the best attacking force in World football”. As if they are, we will show who is the best on the 27. It really is getting me angry this Barca “love in”. Nobody but nobody counters and attacks like United but we have also grit and steel unlike their silky greasers in midfield. Messi must be THE most over rated player today. May get stick for this but it fucks me off. United are a much better team in every department. Further to this who will win the battle of the managers and their tactics. That is rhetorical!. Sir Alex who has been in the game for thirty odd years or that Mourinho clone who has been in the game 8 months. United all the way, regardless of Fletch’s loss.
If You block Xavi and Iniesta…thats it barca are dead. The front 3 of henry messi and eto o CANNOT DO F ALL IF THEY DONT HAVE THE SUPPLY FROM THOSE LITTLE TWO.
All the english teams have done them over like that…For all there 100% possession and 999.000 goals in la liga. V the power houses of the best lge in the world they are shown for what they really are…playground bullies in an inferior league. Where teams come out to play and barca rip em to shreds…cannon fodder.
HOWEVER…FLETCHER.
Personally if we had everyone fit…i would have has fletcher and Hargreaves in the centre with scholes above them. Those 2 would win the ball…crunch, tackle, press, cover, harry, protect the back 4. Negate Xavi and Iniesta totally. And Schosley Rooney Ron and Berba or Tevez would rip em to shreds.
With no natural ball winner…no natural holding player…no ball winner. Barca will pose more problems without Fletcher than Chelsea would have. Andersons the closet we have….but he aint a cruncher holding player off the ilk of makelele gattuso. Hargreaves is…and Fletcher is fast becoming one.
Look at fletchers OPTAS stats
8 out of 12 games played in clge.
Most yards covered = Darren
Most Blocks = Darren
Most Tackles = Darren
Pass completion 80 odd %…second only to scholsey.
So will deffo miss him. Cos our other players eg carrick aint of that ilk.
And we cant go like for like with barca in there…cos even though they’ll keep the ball and pass it side to side all day long…they will get some joy in the end.
Solutions?
O shea centre? Gibson? Ando just to sit? Or forget all that and lets go at them….carrick Scholsey and Giggsy in the centre…lol
Messi is class…..but foe me there best player and the one that makes em tick is Iniesta. I watch la liga every week and have done for years….and he is their main man.
Very Scholsey like in his pomp
PS. Scholesy is the best ever
suhayl am waiting for your positives & negatives against City.
Manchester United will beat Farce a loner because we are Manchester United. So long as they play Eto’o we will win because he is simply SHIT. So overated. UNITED.
I was going through some of the old posts and I just discovered something.
Rafa Benitez is/was registered on RoM!!Go through the comments on this post,(http://therepublikofmancunia.com/7-reasons-liverpool-were-trophyless-again/) and look out for someone called sparq and read his posts.
I am sure it’s Rafa.
suhayl – absolutely agree that iniesta is their main man and he’s Scholes-like, though nothing close to the original, one and only.
im relishing rooney vs messi on the left wing
@ jake
@king eric
@furrball
You guys have identified barcelona
Strength and that’s Iniesta.when he plays with Xavi in central midfield behind Henry,Eto’o and Messi. They feed those three and set the tempo of the team. I think
fergie might put Park in the midfield alongside Carrick & Anderson and may put
Tevez upfront. Barca’s defence hasn’t
always been the strongest part of their
makeup. When I watched them play away to
Valencia and drew 2-2, they struggled to
cope when valencia pressed and harrassed
their midfield and denied them space. Even
the Chelsea game showed what how you
can stop Barca and neutralize Messi, iniesta
and Xavi. Over the 180 odd minutes barca only created 3clear chances: bojan missed header from 5 yards, Eto’o chance in the first few minutes at Camp Nou and then of course Iniestas goal at the Bridge. So it shows that the way English teams play is something which La Liga sides fail to cope with. Now that they have lost Dani Alves, Abidal and Marquez it means that Yara Toure who would normally play in centre midfield will probably be moved to play alongside Pique and Puyol will be moved to right back and Sylvinho will be at left back.
It means that their defence is a lot weaker than before plus the midfield will feel the loss of Yaya Toure as he’s been playing well there. Obviously would have loved Fletcherino to be playing,but it’s unlikely UEFA will overturn the red card.he will get opportunities in the future to play in ECL finals since I think this Man U team have the know how,players and belief to dominate this competition and win many more finals like Madrid did in their heyday as long as we have SAF, CR7 and Rooney et al. I’m glad we’re playing Barcelona as it’s fitting we should beat them in the final and show the world why we are the best team inEurope and the world.
First things first though, we need to beat City on Sunday and then Wigan and Arsenal. We need to wrap up the title as quickly as possible so that our players can focus on the final and rest and prepare properly to beat Barcelona.
park played a blinder the last time we played barca putting the brakes on barca so hopefully he can come in for fletcher and have a similar efffect. i cant see anybody else in the team pulling off the demolition derby fletcher had in both arsenal ties.