Manchester United have played with Park Ji-Sung at left, alongside Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher in the centre of our defence, following the cripping defensive injuries United dealt with. This happened to coincide with when Edwin Van der Sar was also out injured.
It is strange then that Chelsea are only one point ahead, given their only really significant injury this season has been Michael Essien, but that is counter-balanced by Owen Hargreaves’ injury for us. It certainly should fill us with hope for next season, when we almost certainly won’t encounter such bad luck. Can you imagine where Chelsea would be in the league with Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack playing as their centre backs?
“Without those defensive injuries it could have been very different,” said Fletcher. “At one stage we had one fit defender in the squad. No team has been able to cope with that. We had three or four games in that position and ultimately it has cost us. If you are going to win the title in England you need a settled defence.”
Man Utd News 24/7
I agree entirely, I still maintain that if we had a consistent back four with Vida and Rio we would have won the league weeks ago.
This business about injuries is an excuse – BUT that doesn’t make it less true.
The same is also true about the debacle in Rome last May when Hargreaves was missing, Fletcherinho was red-carded against TheArse, and it became evident in subsequent weeks that Anderson and Carrick had been injured.
I think it is a combination of things that have led us to be in this position but Fletch is right that this is one of them. As I have said before United have had a few opportunities to take advantage of a Chelsea slip up but have failed to capitalise on it. A few poor performances where we have looked one dimensional. An over reliance on Wayne Rooney. Expecting Berbatov to play in the 4-3-3 system out of position and yet still be effective. An average midfield lacking creativity. The goals not being spread out more evenly. But it is a great suprise we are only one point behind after United were supposedly dead and buried after the loss of Ronnie and Tevez.. The ABU’s will be spitting blood if Wigan do a job on the rentboyz. Your hate makes us stronger!
Fletch has the right idea but i think Chelsea’s biggest loss this season has been Bosingwa who gets
in more dangerous crosses than any other player and of course Ashley Cole was injured for two
months.
I have never seen a season like it before. We have been ravaged by injuries yet as Fletcher had pointed out we are only one point behind with a slim chance of winning it. I will be in te North Stand tomorrow praying till the end!
Plus the fact Steven Gerrard threw the game so gifting the Rentboys three points. It would be sweet justice and Karma for us to win the league tomorrow.
BELIEVE
Cry me a river…. we had Mikel, Kalou and Drogba at the AFrican Nations cup for 6 weeks, No Essien since November, Cech out for 6 weeks, Ashley Cole and Ivanovic the same…. No one complained when Chelsea had to play Essien and Ferreira in central defence which handed United the 2007 title
No excuses.
I can only remember the fulham game where we had a totally crippled defence. the back 4 in the remaining games was good enough for us to get a result
arsenal and chelsea too have had their injuries so we really cant point that out apart from that one league game
Wow..it’s such a lame excuse!
Well said Ola Ray, you forgot Bosingwa mate, he is out for most of the season.
If anyone wants to complain about injuries, take a look at Chelsea’s last 3 – 4 seasons first!
Anyone else see what YSB Lawrenson said about United on BBC sport website?
He reckons United “have had a good season but have not coped that well without Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez”.
Er…Rooney, Valencia, Nani?
What a cock…
@Ola Ray: I’d keep my head down if i were a rentboy around here, There’s no referees here to get you the result you need.
@gerkeo
Haha, it’s funny because it’s true!
@ ola “rent” ray.
Yeah! U had ivanovic and ashley out but didn’t u have natural defenders 2 cover 4 em? Didn’t u have ferreira n zhicourff? I bet if u tried playin frank and lamps in central defence 4 close 2 5matches u’ll be fighting with spurs 4 4th position…”drogba mikel and kalou went 2 d nations cup”. Yeah i know dat. But u had anelka d pilgrim upfront , u had ballack, lamps, deco, belleti(whose only ability is hitting weird shots) and others…about playing essien n ferreira been used at CB.THAT PROVES OUR POINT. We used midfielders at CB we are a point behind u (and can still win it, remember moscow? Where JT fell? ). Hw many points was d difference that season? More than one…now i’m not tryna find an excuse 4 not winning but what u said made me spit!…UNITED WE STAND!!
sweet jesas what is this
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1274287/SEMI-EXCLUSIVE-Chelseas-Premier-League-title-hopes-tatters-Manchester-United-Liverpool-agree-points-coalition.html?ITO=1490
@ghtt
read about it too earlier. what a twat. if he’s trying to be funny, i’m not laughing
@GHTT THOSE dailymail guys r nothing but zombies!. They’re trying 2 wind us up. Its clear that d ABU’s r elated chelski seems like winning d EPL…
besides the nations cup period when we missed drogba, kalou, mikel and essien up to now, we’ve had bosingwa out for how long folks? manu cry-babies, you must be having the shortest memories ( thanx to the special on!) – how happy were you with the blues collapse then? and you think of having another chance nxt season? with neville, giggs, scholes,v.d .s and brown while king carlo’s replacing the ballacks, ferreiras, decos, hillarios, belletis, carvalhos and even J Coe/kalous?
@sophiepaddy
I think we have coped well, would be have done better with Ronaldo and Tevez in the team? Probably. Have we missed them greatly? Not really.
All teams suffer from injuries but what tends to compound the problem is the timing of them. True, the rent boys have been without Essien and Bosingwa for months but they had cover. Yes they lost players to the ACN but don’t I remember games being postponed in England whilst that tournie was on? Sadly Utd lost all their defence apart from Evra AT THE SAME TIME. Not spread over the season, but all at the same time. No team would have coped and Utd lost valuable points during that period.
If rent boys want to come on here and bleat about their own injuries, then take a breath, understand what the article is saying and then make a reasoned comment. If all of that is too difficult for you, I’d suggest you go back to doing your homework….
story abt point coalition is true . just saw it on tv
Lets look at the situation at Chelseas this season:-
Firstly a new manager who has taken time to get to grips with the best formation for the team and no PL experience.
Secondly the ACN and 6 weeks without Drogba,Essien,Kalou & Mikel.
Thirdly the Terry debacle affected his form drastically for a while.
Fourthly serious injuries to Essien,Bosingwa,out for most of the season plus bad injuries to Carvalho,Ashley Cole.
The above more than compensates for the injuries that utd have had earlier in the season.
The truth is that the utd squad is not as strong as last season and Chelsea have done very well to be on the verge of winning the CL given the above.
we have had our fair share of injuries as well.
but obviously our team has more strength in depth than yours.
It’s annoying when people use the injury excuse – Chelsea can equally say they missed key players at key times… how can that be used as an excuse, it’s part of football
yeah we had injuries and we may or may not have done better if we didn’t have so many injuries. But regardless I’m proud of our boys, the manager and all coaching staff,. We were written off at the start and many of our fans accepted that this would be a transitional period. So all in all a successful season it must be said and if anything it will propel us forward next season.
Onwards and upwards
(btw its not over YET like the champions league final wasn’t over YET when brave jt stepped up to fuck up)
The injury crisis is one of the reasons. It’s not about the amount of defenders missing. I will just say that with Nemanja in the team, our results at Fulham, Birmingham, Villa and Everton could have been a different story.
we got fucked over by the refs and not having some sort of video replay system on key decisions quite frankly borders on being criminal with so much at stake in nearly every game not just utd but every team it doesn’t make any sense to me.its the only top pro sport world wide that doesn’t have it
If Chelsea fans don’t appreciate us using injuries as an excuse, we could always talk about how many red cards and handballs Terry has escaped over the season, the Malouda red card at Portsmouth as well as the hatchet jobs by referees in the games between the two clubs(12 points of difference between the two clubs were decided in those). Not to mention Saint Stevie’s glorious assist to Drogba last Sunday.
As far as the injuries, I will reiterate that we must not shrug this off as freak luck and move ahead. It’s not normal to have so many injuries and changes have to be made.
@ Costas – how about no one use any excuses and accept the season as it is, Is that so hard to do?
gotta hate – It is a wind up mate. Anyway my email is fucked still so will make my way up to the blaize on Sunday. Wear a big hat or summat!
@Tony Starks
It’s not hard, but the title won’t magically end up at the Bridge will it? When(if) you lose a title, you tend to analyse what in your mind went wrong. Fletcher says how costly the injuries were and i wrote that they played a part, but it’s not just the injury problems. And I mentioned other factors that I feel might have played a part.
Of course there’s the subject of our squad problems, but that’s something that I think can be discussed once the season is over.
king eric newton heath jersey green and gold scarf big colourful woll hat
gotta hate – right mate, will keep an eye out. What time do you get there? Our coach always arrives well early. I will be in Manchester about 1 ish.
king eric we are aiming for 12 but id say itll be 12 at the latest
COME ON WIGAN-oh and united aswell
@Burnley 0:1
@Liverpool 0:2
@Chelsea 0:1
Villa 0:1
@Fulham 0:3
@Blacburn 0:0
This season we failed to score in 6 Premiership matches matches. Therefore our attackers bear huge part of the blame if we do not win the Premiership this season. Had we scored just a single goal per all above matches we would have potentially had 5 more points.
mukoko – Get fucked you fucking illiterate rentboy. How many European Cups have you got? How many League titles? You are a fucking joke. United still have the best away record in the league and the best defence despite us having no defence for half the season. You ain’t fucking won the league yet you arrogant cunt. You slag off Scholes and Giggs etc but lets look at your old boys shall we? John Fucking Terry? Say no more. Our lads are fucking winners pal not greedy chav cunt’s. You are fuck all pal and you know it. United WILL be a whole different animal next season. Samll club, no history, no class.
God I fucking despise Chelsea.
HOB – Verge of winning the “CL”? Don’t fucking think so pal. You have never won a European Cup have you? No have you fuck.
I can add from what fletcher said, we could add the robbery at stamford bridge I will repeat what happened.
rooney is deemed offside for a perfectly good goal he scored
valencia is brought down in the penalty area by ferry
the free kick which lead to the goal was never a free kick
evans is pulled back by drogba which lead to ferry to score the winner
I could add the offside goal at OT, maloudo intentially smashes a pompey player which is not only a straight red but the FA do nowt about it, ferdinand getting a hilerious 4 match suspension. I could add key players who have left united which have weakened uniteds fire power which have benifted the chelscum, the amount of luck chelsea have also added. Chelsea do not deserve to win this league title, they have been insanly lucky lets not forget how stevie me gifted chelsea victory, the anfield crowd dead and the piss poor pethetic performence they showed was enough evidence of throwing the game. Anyone say chelsea deserve to win the league needs their brains bashed in, it should be us top of the league not that scum down that shit hole they call london.
PPL forget its only a point in it which says to me they do not deserve to win it, also the insane amount of things that have gone against united should have been too much for united to be in a title race. we will have got to 80 plus pts with all these problems, for me to be on 82 pts after the horrific amount of scenarios is quiet frankly have amazed me. Come next season if united can pick a settled spine and team like keep the same GK CB’S CM AN CF’S and pla 442 more we will win the league for many more years to come. fergie has allot of pieces its how does he get the pieces to fit, and what does he do with some players that may need playing time or leave, the boss has allot of thinking to do and lets hope come 2011/2012 will have a new team ready to really break new records has next season is a transformation has faces move on.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that injuries at the back will eventually cost us the title. If we were lagging far behind Chelsea losing games with our best side then I would be concerned, but if we can have an injury free season next season, then we will definitely reclaim the title. Let the cunts enjoy their double this season cos we will be back. I know I’m sounding like a defeatist, baring in mind there is still one game to play, but I will be astonished if Wigan get anything at Stamford Bridge on the last day. Sorry to say that guys, but it’s just a feeling I have.
Gifted Chelsea the title?
Aint over yet, unless I ‘ve missed the weekend. Chickens and counting comes to mind.
Come on the Pie Heads.
Come on Utd.
Chelski fans are d same world over! Bunch of zombies!
I’d love to agree with ya Fletch, but i think we’ve just come up short this season and the rentboys have had their fare share of injuries as well. Considering all the problems we’ve had this season, it’s a miracle we’ve taken it to the last day, all in all, i’m proud of our lads.
Well said Fletch, like a true Scot lol says it as it is.Of course it would have been over ages ago.
@XYTH, Care to check the defences that played at Burnley and Fulham, thats the point Darren is making mate.
But it aint over is it.
Ps you have been fucking ossum this season Jock,I just wish you would buy some clearisil. lol
See I don’t see it the way Fletcher does, it does sound like we’re making excuses. Even though our injury list has been horrific this season it happens. The game against Fulham we had sent too many of our kids out on loan and we should have put faith in one of the youngsters, it couldn’t have been any worse than it was. You don’t forget the basics in football and the nerves may have done the players coming in some good. Phillip Bardsley starting @ right back vs Benfica a few years back is an example of this in what I believe was his debut.
I find it astonishing that despite losing all key players bar Evra for major portions of the season we’ve still got the best defence in the league. That in itself is amazing. Where we have played poor has come down to team performances the dippers, Villa, Sunderland @ home, instantly spring to mind. Some of it has been bad luck with refs but that happens.
On a positive side, this squad is relatively young especially in midfield they’ve gone through the experience of a major injury crisis 2 seasons on the trot and that can only hold them in good stead for the future.
bollocks.
just like Chelsea had no injuries,
and didn’t play 4 or 5 matches with half of the squad away in ACON.
excuses, excuses – hate them.