Scott is otherwise engaged so today’s live blog will be run by Jack. He’s almost as good. Honest.
Man Utd News 24/7
Recent Entries
- Tribute To Eric Steele
- Moyes may move for Fellaini – and why he’s the right player for United
- Fan Thoughts On Manchester United’s Season 2012-2013
- United cut interest costs by £10m a year
- TOP 5: Sir Alex Ferguson’s Greatest Challenges
- STATS: Our defenders compared to Chelsea’s, City’s and Arsenal’s
- Rio: Who wouldn’t want to play for United?
- RoM Reads
- STATS: Season review – The defence
- Keane: Thanks for chanting my name
Categories
Alexander Büttner Anders Lindegaard Anderson Antonio Valencia Ashley Young Ben Foster Betting Blog Busby Babes Carlos Tevez Chants Chris Smalling Competition Contributing Writer Cristiano Ronaldo Current Players Danny Welbeck Darren Fletcher Darron Gibson Da Silva Twins David Beckham David De Gea David Moyes Dimitar Berbatov Domestic Cups Edwin Van der Sar Eric Cantona Europe FA Fans Federico Macheda FIFA Football News Forum Gabriel Obertan Gary Neville Injuries International Interviews Javier Hernandez Ji-Sung Park John O'Shea Jonny Evans Just For Fun Kits Legends Live blog Louis Saha Manchester United News Match Day Match Reactions Michael Carrick Michael Owen Nani Nemanja Vidic Nick Powell Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Owen Hargreaves Past Players Patrice Evra Paul Scholes Phil Jones Poll Pre-Season Rants Reclaim Our Club Rio Ferdinand Rivals Robin van Persie RoM's Best Articles RoM At The Audi Cup Roy Keane Ryan Giggs Shinji Kagawa Shop Sir Alex Ferguson Site News Sponsored Post Staff Stats Tomasz Kuszczak Tom Cleverley Transfers/Rumours UEFA United > England Video Wayne Rooney Wes Brown Youth Zoran Tosic
Links
Meta
© 2006-2013 Republik Of Mancunia: A Manchester United Blog by Scott the Red | Privacy Policy
sweet first comment! Rooney for Hattrick
VDS-Neville,Brown,Evans,Evra-Valencia,Carrick,Fletcher,Park-Rooney,Berba
lol a rooney hatrick would be nice but i’d take any sort of win!!
very difficult away game this, but a win puts us top at least until chelsea play so lets put the pressure on them!!
any sort of win -i’ll take!!
even if OG strikes again and again!! woohoo!
still think one of our defenders are due a goal here. expect everton to score as well – so looking at 3-1 to us. hopefully 2-0 to us, even better not so nervy!
cheers! enjoy the game!
wouldnt mind seeing evans or evra get a goal
off to watch the game. good luck to us.
Lung420
evras last goal is amazingly the 7-1 against roma
I am off too. Good luck to us!
Berba strikes hee hee 1 zip
scott, can we run a “Berbatov – we told you so.” To all the idiotic doubters on here???
phew! thought that came off the cross bar then
good game so far
That was some bullet. No fucking chance for Howard
bastards ……defence yet again….
1-1
Typical – another wonder goal against us.
fuk sakes!!!!
Evans is starting to really worry me.
good ball from berba for rooney who shuda scored
fukin hell that was close
some good footy from everton
Christ, Rooney was bloody awful in the first half
Good job Berbatov has been amazing
everyone exept vds valencia and berba has been SHIT.. rooney wake up!!!!!
Damn it! Shit defending for their goal. I don’t know who to blame more. Wes or Jonny. Carrick and Fletch have to pick up their game and control the tempo in 2nd.
Am I the only one who thinks Rooney is havin’ a bad game :\ Well I hope he changes my mind in the second half.
Whar was Carrick’s mission today ?
Even game. у started really well, Berba has hit some good form but when i started to think that this will be an easy game for us came Everton’s goal.
Bring Scholes for Carrick please Fergie.
Fair scoreline at the end of the 1st half. Berbatov looks very intrested today, good for him. Just as i expected Rooney looks quiet today and a bit tired too.Everton played better for last 15-20 mins at the end of the 1st half.Brown and Evans looking nervous as usual.Not up for the game
Rooney’s touches have been bad and he’s wasted possession a lot. Our best performers this half have been Neville, Berbatov and Valencia
A few decent moves, great goal from Berba, the rest of the team, with the possible exception of Valencia, have been rubbish, I imagine the hairdryer will be on a pretty high setting during half time. Good game to watch, but United have got to get a grip on things right from the start of the second half.
…Say what you will, although he looks class on occasion, Berbatov just does not seem to fit into our attacking style of play and indeed totally slows us down at times. Great take for the goal, however and, like i say, he is a class player, but i just don’t feel he is the style of player we need to partner Rooney. I look forward to the partnership with Diouf when it materializes. I don’t write on this blog too often, but read it every day and i have my opinions gents. Here’s hoping for more goals from us in the second half……
vidic has to come on for evans asap….the lad has been crap for the last couple of games…
@Farhan Borst
Nah, Rooney hasn’t been good so far. Berbatov has looked better so far. The good thing with Rooney this season is that you expect him to get better in games.
I think Corea is right. We are missing Scholesy’s composure today.
Am i the only one who feels Rooney is looking a bit tired
We cant deny it everton have very skillful players in arteta,pienaar,bilya………saha,donovan,osman and the only red shirt matching them outthere is berbatov. We need to be more creative in the second half and maybe bring on scholes for carrick.
Meanwhile, is it true valencia is dumb ? Or does he really speak
aig alex is god – maybe. but i expect him to score everytime even when he is a bit off. this is a characteristic of a massive forward.
Let’s hope the hairdryer does it’s job again!!!! Our players need to wake up soon.
Wazza has been playing non stop for 16 games. I think he still has something left for today.
Wayne will come alive second half
Comments regarding Carrick belong in ineffective today ????
being*
Hope Vida gets a run out today
Owen on to save our asses maybe now?
gary neville! fuck!…the second goal is his fault – he left the runner! shit!!
stop playing him and get rid of him plssss
What the fuck!??
we’re just complete shit after european games! not up for it at all.. NOT ONE OF EM’
Yet again we let a lead slip by. Our defence cost us dearly today, although everybody was crap today.
Come on!! That was so clooose. Rooneeeeyyyy. Shit Shit Shit.
The whole squad bottled it today. We were really awful.
What a load of shite!!!!
SAF…..YOU GOT IT WRONG AGAIN…..
YOU ARE QUICK TO BLAME OTHERS BUT TODAY THE TEAM YOU CHOSE WASN’T UP TO IT.
we fucking dont deserve to get anything from this game … !! we were horrible yes?
sigh…thats it for the weekend – dont count on wolves to do us a favour – what a fininsh by rodwell – no wonder we want him
again – we need to sort out our defence – wats up with nev in the right back – pls just let him retire in peace and honour – he really, really looks slow and sloppy man – relying on whinging and trying to get fouls all the time
Rooney don’t play well and we are dead. He could be burnt out and no one to replace him. Evans was poor today. 2 goal goes through him. Not good enough today.
Can’t blame the midweek European fixture can we? Everton have one had as well. But shite. The midfield was ineffectual against a very slight Everton midfield. The corners were abysmal. The defence cannot always be blamed when the midfield is not that great.
Oh and sign Rodwell.
we should have stuck to the 4-5-1… dont change what’s not broken … aararrrrgggghhhhh
the midfield really lost everytihing to everton – they were up for it and we werent – the second balls were all theirs
very, very poor indeed – whats up with vidic on the bench and why not have ando and diouf on the bench too – at least they should be fitter than owen….crap
i dont believe it – such a horrid performance… sorry being the usual emotional response
i know nev can still whip the crosses in, but pls he is still a rightback after all…defend pls…
team selection totally wrong – the midfield needed to be 3 especially with only fletch and carrick – how could we match up with the everton midfield???
aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh……
Well done to Everton. We were well beaten.
When me, Corea and AIG were not celebrating too much after Tuesday, it wasn’t because we are hard to please. It was because there were warning signals. And we ignored them. Just like we ignored the warning signals after Inter last year.
Nothing more we can do now. Hopefully, this is the last time we will see Brown and Evans together in defence. Starting Tuesday, we must play Rio, Vidic or both in every game.
Fuckin Rooney. His 1st touch was poor all around today and I can’t fucking believe that he just gifted their third goal right at the death when we needed an equalizer. But the whole team has been poor and the back four really need a boot to the back from the gaffer.
And you know what, just fucking give the Chavs their title now. We never ever take full advantage of points dropped by them. They dropped 3 and we manage to drop 3 in a more devastating fashion than them. Holy fucking god!!
@sinred
Yep. Everton also played. We just had flight miles. If that can be used as an excuse. Oh well. If we do lose the league, it won’t be because of today.
Can’t stand Carrick anymore. He has to play ballet. Not singling him out, just a cumulative opinion.
If Berba wasn’t injuried just can’t understand why he was substitued. Obertan for the game of this importance and difficulty ? Not a chance Fergie!
valencia really pissed me off he was awful. Like I have said united’s lack of firepower will in the end cost united the title. The team was awful simple has that, and the fact remains we short of some star quality in certain area’s add the fact our signings over the past phew years have not worked out.
Our midfield had no bite. Bugger all creativity!
What a dismal, dismal performance, it was never going to be easy, but the lack of fight was disappointing, even after the away game mid-week. That should have been another 3 points to wrack the pressure up on the rent boys, but unless Wolves have a miracle, that’s back to a 4 point gap. Hope this is a blip as United were starting to get the machinery working well. Here’s hoping for that Wolves miracle then.
well & truely beaten by everton today. well done rodwell.
é whole team looks tired. é defence doesnt look comfortable é whole game. tot SAF kill our very own chances when he brought on scholes/obertan for berba/park. unless they have havr taken some knocks, cos i tot berba was our best player till then. park had a goof game too, winning quite a few balls.
these are games where titles are won or lost. like last season, ê defintive moment was kiko’s winner vs villa which won us é title.
guess i need to have more faith.
Come On United.
Nope, not good enough.
Berbatov is a good player but his tendency to hold the ball for too long and his slowness did not bring anything to the game. Yeah sure he scored once but it’s just not good enough.
One thing though our defense has been very sloppy. I said this before and I say this again, we were lucky not to be conceded more than 2 goals at San Siro, Milan. We couldn’t go on like this, and today it proved to be costly.
Our defense apart from Evra was RUBBISH. Especially Neville. He’s been a great servant but he has passed his prime time. I don’t know about Wes Brown really, he looks like he’s trying to be classy but man..he just doesn’t defend well enough. Evans looked confused throughout the game to be honest.
All in all, credit to Everton, they deserve this and we don’t. Let’s hope the rentboyz got beaten today.. one can only hope
Evans just played wank just like in Milan. Positional awareness n Reading of the game fucking poor.
As for berba, surely time to go….
You couldn’t make this up. When we have to score in the end of the game Fergie throws Owen after substituting Berbatov (the best player) some minutes earlier.
We just handed rent boys a huge lift. We started OK, but after they equalised, we completely lost it when we should have gone and controlled the game. Apart from Berbatov, everybody let us down today badly. Neville, Brown, Evans, Evra were absolutely rubbish today. We could not hold the ball, we could not pas it … Everton did not have to be great today to beat us. We did half of the job for them. Anyway well done to them.
What an-anti climax after the midweek win. I fear that at the end of the season we will look back and say this is the day we lost the premiership. I hope that I am proven wrong but this is one defeat to many.
A bad result and the usual culprits slagging Fergie and Rooney et al. Get a fucking grip. Awful day. Fair play to Everton.
A load of shit. players didnt show up today. dont know what happened over at the san siro but its still got the team in a trance. The defence was awful today and the midfield did nothing to help. TBH no one put in a shift today (evra was okay). Damn when we look bad we look really bad. something needs to be done in the middle of the park, control of the ball is proving very elusive for United at the moment.
Without sounding all doom and gloom, i think it’ll do more harm than good winning the title this year, rousing the lads up to defend a 5th title in the EPL maybe too much to ask, in fact i think thats the problem we have now.
Man this was some crappy footbal from United, i wonder whats going on through fergies mind
@Corea:
The whole team looked like they were carrying a heavy baggage.
Can’t wait for Vida and Rio to get back… A makeshift defense that played their 3rd match in the week is always going to concede. Evra needs a rest definitively, so does Fletch. And Gary can’t be playing this matches anymore. Love the guy, and he still has a very nice eye for crosses, but his defending is awful.
How can you play Obertan when you don’t give him chances on OT when we crash some of our opponents ? We couldn’t do it the easy way. After Berba’s goal i actually thought we were running away with the game.
Everton showed up all our weaknesses. Any team prepared to fight for possession will get a result against us. No more red glasses please face the facts we will be lucky to win anything this year.
@shak
What did Berba do wrong again? Did he get outmuscled by Saha? Nutmegged by Piennar? Or gifted Everton their 3rd goal?
There were worse players out there.
fergie shud hv brought on owen much earlier…
Why is it that everytime i watch football in this fucking pub united lose ????
@Corea:
I have to disagree with you, he was not our best player.. not even close. Evra was probably ours. Berbatov is like Eric Cantona minus the charisma and enthusiasm.. sometimes goals too.
Costas – I will still say how fergie went into the season with such a lightweight options of strikers. Valencia was the one who really was so poor, united were awful and it comes to a point where united are has bad as chelsea. But where was the hunger in the team, this result has been coming like last year carrick valencia were poor.
Honestly at the people slagging Berba. Rooney was more dire than him today and people still blame him.
@corea: I think Berba got himself a slight injured
Costas – Spot on mate. Not gonna say owt aside from we NEED Vida and Rio back. We CAN play Wes and Jonny but just not together at the minute. Evans has really struggled these last 2 or 3 games. Looks like he has his boots on the wrong feet, Can he actually clear the ball?
TheRadLegion – oh cmon! even a blind person saw that Berba today had everything. Skill, determination, fighting spirit. He didn’t have service.
Easily our best player.
@Rooney the new king:
If Valencia was poor, I don’t know what to make of Neville.
this is not a blip – we really need to sort things out. we were not as hungry and we were not as compact as a team.
calmed down a bit now, but yes, it looks like its gonna be a 4 pt lead at the top again -. and chelski’s remaining games are much more manageable than ours.
we are going to find it really tough. need to kick off, we just never really kicked off yet this season, just spurts but not consistent yeah?
why havent we made fletch the captain? nev cant stay on much longer can he? is it me or does anyone else notice that nev just cant cut it anymore? sigh… sure the whole team was uite dismal, but as captain whatd he do to inspire the team – with his defending? bollocks eh?
sigh…need to cool off for a little while more, i guess….
not even going to watch the chelski and wolves game – its only gonna make me feel worst…if they win, its 4 pts and im going to go crazy, if they lose….then shit, we bottled a weekend to regain the lead…so thats a no brainer – im turning off the telly!…..
still a true red, no doubts, juste expressing my views and shouts!
ciao all
No complaints today outplayed the second half, need rio and vida back asap. Was surprised saf brought of berba and valencia our 2 best 2 players imo.
Why Rio was so inaccurate during the Hull game ?
Yes, i also saw Berba was slightly injuried. The other idea is that Fergie wants to be very careful with him.
Oooh and everton really knows how to beat van der sar or is their goal wider than the rest ?
@Corea: Fighting spirit? Look at saha now thats what I’m calling a fighting spirit.
shak – instead of blaming berbatov blame the defence and players like valencia and carrick. brown and evans had no calmness what so ever. and like ppl say you go from back to midfield to attack, all brown and evans done was hoof the ball away time and time again they had no composer. while carrick kept giving the ball away, while fletcher did not have the bite to snap at the heels of everton.
@RTNK
Disagree about Valencia. He and Berbatov were the tow of the most lively players in the first half. In the second half? None of them, apart from Evra, showed up.
I will maintain that it has nothing to do with the attack. That’s 38 goals conceded in 41 games. It’s pathetic.
On a side note, I was watching this game on HD quality, boy those pitch looks like a sponge.
TheRadLegion – closed topic. i saw what i saw. you saw what you say. end of.
I just can’t imagine what Carrick brings to this team. Help me pleeease.
Berbatov lose every ball in the 2nd half. Can’t control the ball well like saha. If we could have Saha, Rooney job could be so easy. Evra looks tired today. Carrick really gone missing. Fletcher alone can’t do much. Park is the most penetrating player and he is gone. Obertan can’t deliver a good ball from the left yet. Scholes came on too late. Neville had no legs to run. Brown was good i thought.
the defending was shocking, the team was out played, out fought and embarrassed by an average everton team, Fergie needs to get the hair dryer out and ship brown out, hes been shit for far 2 long and is overrated by far to many reds
@Rooney:
I agree.
As I said above, we were lucky not to concede more than 2 goals at San Siro Milan. We could not go on like this and it was proved today.
Evans looked confused throughout the game. Wes Brown was slow as usual. Neville has passed his prime time.
Brilliant performance by Everton. Immediately after the Chelsea game it was obvious we were going to have it tough here and it proved to be that way.We looked tired and it showed today and we play West Ham again 3 days later.
Its advantage Chelsea and Arsenal are back in it. With their fixtures you have to consider them now.
i said on Wenesday the result at the San Siro was deceptive. We didnt deserve to win that one and it showed today. We played the same way. Better team for 30-35 mins in the whole game but poor the rest of the game
4 points behind at this stage is a lot. Dont know what to make of it.
I just don’t understand some fans here. Just because Rodwell scored against us doesn’t mean we now have got to sign him. He is a defender, not a striker ffs.
Anyway, this was a very dissapointing performance. I don’t understand why Fergie started Vidic on the bench. He knew how tough and pumped up Everton will be today, so surely he should have put out our strongest defence? Brown should never play at CB again. Ever. Evans should have recieved another public hairdryer from the manager; I was actually waiting for Fergie to do that. Our defence really let us down today. VDS should have saved the third, but what did it matter. We were losing anyway. Credit to Moyes’ men, they have been superb for the majority of this game.
Rooney was just awful today. Surprisingly Berbatov had a better game and should have stayed on, he looked more of a threat than any of our players did. It will be interesting to see how Rooney does from now on. Will his goal scoring streak stop now, like it has many times before? He has been poor for his own standards. Gave the ball away far too many times.
Valencia was one of the best players today and taking him off was totally unnecessary. Infact we may have levelled had he stayed on. The formation wasn’t the reason we have lost today. Our attack AND defence let us down and after Berb scored we were too wasteful in front of goal and should have made better use of the dozen corners and chances we had.
This has been the case for us far too many times this season: we had a chance to got top and pressurise Chelsea but AGAIN we bottle it and blow that chance. The gooners are now 2 points behind us. There are not a lot of league games left to play, but the league is far from over as we still have to play the rentboys.
If Fergie does not sort out our defence then it will cost us the title. When our defence is weak, our attack suffers = we drop points.
@Kel:
I agree. People tend to dislike Park, but he played very well. I was surprised to see him substituted. While I thought Valencia played okay, I was hoping that Obertan would replace Valencia.
aig alex is god – West Ham ? It’s at home. Do you really worry about the game ?
1 points behind yet.
Brown was good. Neville was good. Don’t know what game some of us watched today..
Costas – Cmon yes the attack works against poor defences like pompey wigan arsenal, but against teams like everton the attack is found out that the team needs more firepower and veriaty.
btw…berba did well considering, rooney tried too hard, was off and looked tired, brown and evans still have not clicked and dont seem to be on the same wavelength, evra was not fantastic too, though he did relatively well to track back several close calls, scholes hardly got a touch when he came on, park was hardworking as usual but not what we needed today to unlock everton, valencia did get several crosses int, but distin was there all the time, carrick was too slow and was under pressure all the time – he is afraid of the tackles thats why – he doesnt stand up to the tackles and nutmegs, fletch tried but he and carrick as 2 man midfield just could not handle the everton midfield, vds did what he could but his defence was not up to scratch, did owen get many touches? sigh…whole team is going to be shot i think, even the reserves are going to be screwed by the old man
sigh…. dont slagg berba too much, he did what he could today considering the rest of the team, he was not that bad
actually it is uite easy to play against us – we are predictable and easily outmanouvered if you think about it…just lock up a couple of our players, and thats it…
oki, going to take a cold shower to cool off now….
and RED SAM, pls change pubs…lol
I love Chelsea! They really are pathetic. Hugging each othet before the game. What a team spirit!
the team play tired football today. probably too many games, i dunno. those slagging valencia, u have such short memory. wasnt him our biggest threat in é game at san siro? those slagging berba? didnt he score our only goal today? i admit this is a bad phychology lost, may have cost us é title. if ferdinand & nani were available, things might be different, i dunno.
@Corea
The problem with Carrick is that when he is not playing well, the whole team shuts down. The defence isn’t protected properly and Rooney has to track back to get the ball. Add to that Fletcher not playing well today and you have a team outfought.
@Red Sam
i worry about every game but ill be positive and say we will win that one. Not that negative
I think Rooney is too tired and need a break. Isn’t Paddy Evra the only player playing more minutes than him this season?
@RTNK
What good with that do? We start the game well enough and go 1-0 up. Everton start their long ball routine and Saha is outmuscling our defenders. Even if we had more variety in out attack, how many goals would we need to win in there? Go 3 or 4 up? I am not denying that the team runs out of ideas in attack, but the defensive structure isn’t helping matters either.
@TheRadLegion
Yeah. He seems to be tired so i think that must be the reason. But its really amazing that Obertan comes on. He havent play a game since October and fergie put him inside waiting for miracle to happen. Valencia play well but he couldn’t handle 2 players and Neville didn’t support him well enough. Rooney seems to have the whole world weighted on his shoulder. If he wants to become the best player, this type of game he should really have won.
Costas – Carrick is a midfielder who can’t tackle, can’t put a strong foot in and can’t outmuscle. Really hope Scholes will play for another year.
Berba was our best player by a mile.. Set up rooney, set up carrick they both should have done better.. Rooney was so poor that an old man would have done better
@hurr
That’s right. Rooney will hopefully get rested against West Ham. Evra is a different story. Fabio was injured on Thursday.
I didn’t know Berba limped off, thought he was just substituted. He sure does need to have a surgery after all.
Just wait and see jack rodwell’s new pricetag in the tabloids.
It is fuck all to do with Rooney being tired. He was playing at Goodison and it was always on the cards he may have a stinker. Normal service will be resumed.
fze123 – We are 5 points in front of Arsenal mate. Would imagine it will be two at 4.45
I hate these mid day kick offs.
Fergie had opportunities to rest Rooney but the problem is that Rooney wants to play and Fergie didn’t want Rooney to lose the momentum. Tough because you can’t rely strongly on any other player.
Gary neville has been a great player for us down the years but the time has come for him to make way for rafa da silva. This game has gone now, no point obsessing about it.
Man i dread being shown up like this. some things really need to be sorted out sooner rather than later.i’ve said it so many times, our midfield needs to improve, its all well and good having these guys bulked up and being combative, but when are the coaching staff at United going to instill a “control mentality” when the midfielders (in fact all players) are on the ball.
The attempted distribution of the ball today from carrick and fletcher today was abysmal, and when that failed Evans decided to thump the ball forward aimlessley. I was afraid that rooney’s goal scoring form and position he’s been playing in recently make some of the players believe they can just thump the ball in the area. Its just really annoying watching a team that can play as well as we do, play as badly as we did against everton, Especially after doing an Italian Job over Millan, looks like we didnt learn our lesson.
Hopefully next time we win a big game, we will look at it from a realistic point of view without covering up obvious weaknesses.
As far as the title is concerned? Well, I am ready for anything right now.
Valencia was really dangerous first half, but didnt seem to have the fight in him in the second. probs a lot to do with him not getting the balls he needed from an extremely poor central midfield. same goes for Berbatov, he was brilliant but was holding up the ball too much in the centre of the park as he wasn’t getting the service from Carrick and Fletch, had to track back to get it and didn’t have the pace to race forward with it. i don’t think either of them deserve the shit they’re getting in here.
i’m gonna say it..Rooney was shite today!! his first touch was awful over and over again. obviously he is our most dangerous player this season but that doesn’t mean he’s immune from criticism when he’s crap. i can’t believe people are slating Berbatov and Valencia and not mentioning Rooney.
a bit of clarity, please!
I miss the game… Can somebody tell me is everton better than milan? Fuck no!!! What happened to us???
Spot on king eric fcuking early kick – of jinx strikes again.
Costas – i think it is a better to forget about the title and just try to take things easier. At the end of the day i as well as you thought that this season might actually turn out to be a transition.
@ King Eric
The gooners will win today and they will be 2 points behind us. Sunderland haven’t looked great lately, but maybe, just maybe they can snatch points of them today. And early kickoffs have not done us great favours in the past.
@Corea
Could be. Maybe we will give the Ch.League a real go now.
Corea – fergie cant rest rooney because united dont have another world class forward. PPL need to stop using tiredness has an excuss everton played midweek and look at them.
@HENKE17
Rooney’s carried us for most of the season he’s aloud to have a bad game now and again.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11667_5962134,00.html?
fuck off to madrid.
Own Goal play badly today, that cost us é game, end of. he didnt even have a sniff at é everton goal today. Fuck, sell him Fergie i say.
if u guys have notice, evra has been in his usual self in é last 4-5 games. mind u, he hasnt play badly, juz no longer é ‘best player on é pitch’ performance. could be a case of burnout i guess. played too many games. a victim of his own ability. too fucking good for SAF to rest him. rooney, more of a one off game, i hope. his ball control in é first half was awful. lost é ball which resulted in rodwell’s third goal as well.
so disappointing. the fact that a half-injured berbatov was our best player says it all
COME ON WOLVES !!!!
We have now played the Chav’s, Scousers, Everton, Villa, Spurs and Arsenal away. Only really Citeh now and ain’t too worried about those cunts. We can do it still lads.
Carrick was pathetic. Maybe a blessing in disguise he got sent off the last day.
@rooney the new king
tiredness wasnt a excuse, it’s an observation.
@Corea
I have to wonder really what is the attraction of the Fascist? We’re the team that is really firing up, 3 league titles, 2 CL final 1 win. Money and glamor triumphs it seems…
Forget about the title? What have you been smoking?
The biggest concern for me is still the defence. After being given enough chances to prove he’s still of some value to the side, Neville has consistently failed to do so. I hoped not to see him starting again after the Leeds game. That’s how bad our injuries still are.
Brown and Evans as a partnership is of as much concern to me. They never fill me with confidence, not even when they were the pairing during our emphatic win at the Emirates. Brown was torn up many times by Arshavin before we went on to dominate. He’s looked as bad as that all season and you have to wonder what effect that is having on Evans. Evans needs an experienced player besides him, somebody who’ll lead by example. Brown is the senior player of the two, and he isn’t carrying out that role.
Whether it’s Vidic’s injury clearing up or Ferdinand’s suspension finishing, we need one of them back as soon as possible.
Well, the players did look more tired than the Everton ones. So either two things happened. The travelling took a lot out of us or our fitness isn’t what it should be at this stage of the season.
GREAT WIN FOR THE BLUE SCOUSERS.
Moyes really out-managed SAF. Why were Park and Berbatov not substituted at half-time; the midfield battle was not being won with a 4-4-2; Park was irrelevant and – apart from his goal which came from planing centrally AND forward – Berbatov was pretty anonymous; Evra was marginalized and Fletcherinho’s assets (determination and energy) were being wasted. Scholes and Obertan should have been brought on at half-time to change the momentum; by waiting, SAF ceded the momentum to Everton and when the changes were made, there wasn’t the time to turn it around. I couldn’t figure out bringing on Owen in place of Valencia since he had been UTD’s outstanding player in the first half and it’s not like Valencia was tired after playing only 30 minutes in Milan. The goals from Everton were all well-taken – no complaints about the defence; credit to their attackers. It wasn’t like their three goals came from just three chances – Everton had three or four more excellent chances, as well.
THIS was a big, big downer – what chance is there that Wolves can somehow draw with the RentBoyz ? I think that this game will be the turning-point in the season. Two games in Liverpool = no ponts.
For me, the lesson of today’s game was that there should be NO MORE 4-4-2. The upside just doesn’t compensate for the downside.
Oh, well, such is life; I’m going out to buy some milk at OXXO and to curse our outcast state.
@ costas
It takes me longer to get home from Old Trafford(12 miles) than it does to fly from Milan
Im sorry you cant use tiredness as an excuse, just weren’t good enough. Michael carrick getting a lot of stick today, cant say i disagree he was poor today.
DAMN YOU DROGBA !!!!
Rentboys 1 up.
Just listening to five live. The fucking Geordie cunt just LOVES the fact that we got beat and Drogba has put them one up. Ain’t reading any papers or watching football till West Ham on Tuesday now.
Fergie used tiredness quite a lot as a reason for the performance. We haven’t had the worst record after flights to Italy. This is probably the worst performance after a trip to Italy.
I think people should not forgot that we’ve won 3 titles in a row. We’re going for an unprecedented 4th. We are putting up a decent show this season. Yes, we’ve had these disappointing defeats especially when we seem to be getting close. This season has been strange for everyone Chelsea,Arsenal us. We’ve been on and off this season. We’re going through a mini transition.
We’ve gone one step back today, but regardless of the Wolves result we still have to play Chelsea at home. We haven’t had our central defenders for most part of the season. Its to early to say the title race is done imo.
@sinred
Exactly. All things considering, we’ve done well to stay in this title race. Another thing that we have to consider, is that maybe this team isn’t as hungry as it was 2-3 years ago.
Fucking hell, I knew we would play shit today!! Everton are one of those teams I hate playing coz you never know what Utd team will turn up!! I wouldnt blame anyone player to be honest tho, it was just one of those games. The worst thing for me about the game today was that Everton weren’t even that good, they just worked hard and thats annoying.
We can still win the league but we can’t keep letting points go like this and expect Chelski to do the same!! Come on lad’s, let’s get back on track and step it up for Tuesday and smash the hammer’s!!
Bebeto – maybe i didn’t use the appropriate words but i still believe (of course) we can win it. I just thing we should take things easier and think of a possible title like it is a bonus.
Cue the berba haters, they never let us down.
dont worry mufc!
We”ll never die!
United 4 life!
I am so bloody frustrated at the way we played. Why is it that we do this!!!Wheni it’s time to put pressure on the leaders we just fuck up. How many times this season have we done that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Fuck!!! i am furious with evans, carrick and rooney. I know rooney have been carrying us through but to play a game this bad at a time like this when we need to catch the rentboys..and MISS a bloody golden opportunity when berba put him thru..my god..i am furious with the body language that they were showing on the pitch…no fucking urgency..or hunger to press. What the fuck was evans doing?????? he looked real bad for the last 3-4 games. Rodwell just waltz passed him. WTF?? When our defence play like this, it gives the opposition more confidence to attack us. Showing nervousness and lack of sharpness is not the right attitude for a supposedly top defender. To me personally, he cost us the game..ol’ johnny!! In milan, he was also the culprit..and the game before that…i think in the last 2-3 games..goals have gone in becoz of his incompetence..not sayin’ that brown is any better. Even for the second everton goal..what the hell was neville doing..everton’s attacking players were just running rings around us…waltzing pass our supposedly top defenders at their own whims and fancy..when did our players start thinking that they have the divine right to win matches playing this badly…i fucking feel gutted that when our opposition plays with more hunger and we do not at least just match them in the hunger department…please don’t use tiredness as an excuse as everton also played midweek..BLOODY HELL…they bloody well better pick up their lazy bums and start dishing out more responsible displays of football otherwise just forget about achieving the record 19th title…or for that matter, even winning any type of trophy this year…FERGIE..PLEASE TRY TO SORT THIS NONSENSE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t believe the attitude of some of the moron ‘fans’ that post here.
“steamdigit Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:23 gary neville! fuck!…the second goal is his fault – he left the runner! shit!!
stop playing him and get rid of him plssss”
He makes one mistake and should be shipped out? Uh, no.
“TonyBee Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:35 SAF…..YOU GOT IT WRONG AGAIN…..
YOU ARE QUICK TO BLAME OTHERS BUT TODAY THE TEAM YOU CHOSE WASN’T UP TO IT.”
How many times has he got it wrong versus right? Yeah, fuck off with your ALL CAPS for no reason and criticism of the best manager of all time, the team didn’t perform as we wanted, get over it. We’re second in the league.
“steamdigit Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:41 we should have stuck to the 4-5-1… dont change what’s not broken … aararrrrgggghhhhh
the midfield really lost everytihing to everton – they were up for it and we werent – the second balls were all theirs
very, very poor indeed – whats up with vidic on the bench and why not have ando and diouf on the bench too – at least they should be fitter than owen….crap”
Where to start.. we played 4-4-2, we were at 1-1. Changed to 4-5-1, went down 2-1. How is that better? Because Ando and Diouf are playing in the reserves – Ando just got a sixty minute run out to get back to fitness so why would they put him in? Fitter than Owen? How isn’t he fit, training constantly and waiting for his moment? How many posts exactly do you need to make on the same match?
“shak Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:45 Evans just played wank just like in Milan. Positional awareness n Reading of the game fucking poor.
As for berba, surely time to go….”
Yeah, he scored and had a good run out..so, err, deserves to go? What planet are you on?
“TheRadLegion Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:51 @Rooney the new king:
If Valencia was poor, I don’t know what to make of Neville.”
Unbelieveably stupid. Valencia set the goal up and was running at people, how is that poor, why pick up on those two?
“King Eric Said,February 20th, 2010 @15:47 A bad result and the usual culprits slagging Fergie and Rooney et al. Get a fucking grip. Awful day. Fair play to Everton.”
Spot on.
Its really funny that people were crying out for 4 4 2 at one point.But SAF stuck with Rooney upfront on his own with Giggs (another huge loss) and Valencia/Nani on the wings and now when he goes for the 4 4 2 people are out to get him again.
Berbatov shouldn’t have been subbed but maybe he was carrying a slight knock, who knows. The only thing that worries me is the lack of a reaction when we concede a goal. This season we never get the feeling that we are going to score. United must score, they always do.
Deserved win by Everton as gutting as it is better team on the day won,
SAF or SOMEBODY!! needs to tell Johnny Evans he’s not david beckham, im sick of seeing him attempt 60-70 yard passes and failing them every time, whats worse, is he usually does it with his left foot. EVERY TIME HE PLAYS HE DOES IT.
We did look tired. Berbatov was good today. Set up a near goal,scored a goal and his hold up play was good as well.He looked more involved than Rooney today which is very rare.
lol@ the early kickoffs. It is very simple.You play poor, more often than not you get results like that. The San Siro result was an exception.
@AIG
Nothing to do with being tired mate, just lackluster.
@ Red Typhoon
Evans is a young player who is going through a rough patch. Not the first one to have one and definitely not the last.
@sinred,
Exactly..i agree with you..the lack of reaction when we concede a goal..i do not know why…the past seasons, the team always has this edge about them..even when we are two goals down..i feel we can still get back at teams..but one reason i feel that we can’t do that this season is becoz of our defence that plays like a bunch of amateurs at times which in turn gives the opposition confidence to attack…i am sure a lot of teams that watch us this season knows that if they keep attacking us..without our first choice defence…we will panic…and concede “soft goals”…IMHO..I personally feel our weak link this season is our defence and to some degree our defensive duties in midfield is just not up to the mark…maybe when we have our first choice defenders back and match fit…things might be more solid..but till then..if evans and brown and neville do not get their act together..we will be in for a torrid time…PLEASE FERGIE,,IN YOU WE TRUST…
well I wont be going anywhere near the papers we already know whats going to be said.
@willierednut
maybe. but i felt we looked a bit jaded today. Think even SAF mentioned that.We have to recover fast because we have games coming thick and fast now.We can rest some players against West Ham for the Carling Cup Final
we were just simply the second best in every aspect of the game. and Evans cannot play with Brown in central defence. they are calamity together.
We maybe cud have done with ando’s energy in midfield, i hope he starts on tuesday.
The team has to mentally strengthen up. Whenever we concede against the run of play or early we seem to lose our self belief and confidence.Milan,Birmingham and today are some examples.Last 2 years we scored many late goals and came back when being down despite many setbacks
DAMN YOU AGAIN DROGBA !!!!!!
Rentboys 2 up.
@sinred..i know he is a young player and going through a rough patch..it is so obvious..but to sometimes be totally off in a few games consecutively and not even try to put in a hard shift is unacceptable..at least in my humble eyes..i would not want to slag any player off..especially our players…but i feel that not taking responsibility when we have the best chance to really start putting pressure on the leaders..is something that they have to look at…i am not just saying that evans is the only one who should up his ante…a few of the others did not really look interested either…..hopefully this will act as a catalyst for our boys to start a winning run till the end of the season..
Anderson should have been brought back to the squad a week or so ago. We can’t play the same midfielders week in week out and not expect them to get tired.
Bloody drogba..frickin twat!!!
I almost hope Fergusons kicks a boot in someones face after today. Disgraceful performance.
We had a day off today. Rooney and Evra must be rested even though they are the best we have in our squad.. It is not the first time we lose after a european match. We must regroup and look forward ,there are still points to play for.
the fuckin gooners are also playing their hearts out..they are 1 up and looking like they would add another 2 or 3 before the end of the game..the bloody rentboys are also leading…why do we make things so bloody difficult for ourselves..feeling disappointed right now is an understatement…we should be shoving fire crackers up the rent boys arses right now..but what do we do..blow the fire crackers up in our own faces..i’m sorry guys..but i just cant hide my disappointment with our boys today…bring on the next game..quickly..!!
Our tough fixtures imo
Liverpool H
Chelsea H
Manchester City A
Tottenham Hotspur H
Chelsea’s
H Manchester City
H Aston Villa
A Manchester United
A Tottenham Hotspur
A Liverpool
the Berbatov question is a tough one – I’ve been 100% supportive since he signed, I’ve criticised supporters writing him off and I’ve been patient whenever he’s disappeared and left us looking like a 10 man side, but the more this season goes on the more I can’t see things working out for him with us. He’s an undeniable talent and I think he should be considering a move away to secure regular first team football, because if you look back at most of our Big games and Finals since he signed, he’s rarely trusted to play any part by Alec. Im beginning to understand why.
I can’t agree that it was a disgraceful performance. Brown, Carrick and Evans especially were awful, Evra and Fletcher just looked like they were playing on an empty tank, completely worn out, and Rooney was trying too hard I thought, but although we didn’t play well, Everton really deserved the win and our performance, while below par, wasn’t anything remotely close to the disgraceful performances we have seen in our other losses this season. Still feel like this is one loss too many and it will take something miraculous for the rentboys not to win it now.
For a while after 1-1 I had a feeling this would be our game, some great play and chances were created but margins were not on our side. The second half was awful; far too many ball losses in the midfield, and clearings from the deep defence were easily picked up by the opposition. It’s not fair to single out any players in particular – the team (manager included) had a bad day at work.
All teams will drop points in the run-in of the season. Everton is in great form, and their fighting spirit brought them the game. We’ll just have to get over it; a weak performance by the team today. We (and other teams too) will have to suffer such days, and this is the beauty of the game.
This PL season has so far proved to be full of surprises – but we can’t seriously call this result a surprise: when you play like this against a decent team, you’re going to lose.
If anything – todays’ result should put the hunger back in the squad.
i hope we smother liverpool and chelsea at home..i really do hope for that..bloody dipper cunts..
I’ve only seen 1 other comment today about Park’s performance – being described as irrelevant. Are not 99% of his performances iirelevant? I just cannot see what he brings to the team.
There didn’t seem to be any real leadership out there today, and neither do I remember Tim Howard being tested at all. Just too many players off colour the same day – looked like a real hangover from Tuesday.
Paul Parker @ 17:39: “the Berbatov question is a tough one … the more this season goes on the more I can’t see things working out for him with us….if you look back at most of our Big games and Finals since he signed, he’s rarely trusted to play any part by Alec. Im beginning to understand why.”
Another convert ! welcome to the club.
Berbatov is a terrific player BUT NOT the guy to team up with WayneRooney.
Also, playing Berbatov and Rooney commits the team to a 4-4-2 and – despite all the so-called “traditionalists” – this formation doesn’t work with the current squad of players. Actually, it really doesn’t work against any side with a solid 5-man midfield. Today, for example, we were swamped in the middle and that just shouldn’t happen.
I also think that part of Moyes’ strategy was to set up in a narrow defensive formation and that that’s why Valencia go so much time/space on the right. Moyes seems to have understood that Valencia can’t cross the ball well enough so that the two forwards (Rooney and Berbatov) could beat Heitinga and Distin in the air. Like I wrote earlier, where are the Nani-bashers now ? Valencia needs to be able to do more than just drive to the bye-line and fire the ball into the compressed body of humanity in the penalty area. For that to work, he has to be inch-perfect and he rarely is.
I see where you’re coming from, Corea.
It’s my belief that, aside from the Carling Cup – which, for many, on its own would be considered a mediocre season – our best chance of success will come in the Premiership. I rate our chances in the league a whole lot more than our chances in Europe. Given what another league title would also mean with regards to rewriting the records, I think we should be concentrating more on domestic success.
Of course, we shouldn’t give anything less thn 100% in Europe. Whilst that’s the case, I’m still going to be looking at any progress in the Champions League as a bonus. It’s all about the Premiership for me.
BLAME IT ON RIO AND VIDIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 GOD SAKE WE WANT THEM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bad Day.
RentBoyz now four points clear; TheArse just two points behind.
Where are all the nani haters now, they’ ve just moved on to berba now.
Exactly what i meant
http://www.rs.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2010/02/20/1799536/manchester-united-comment-only-rio-ferdinand-and-nemanja
We did look jaded but our overall play was poor. We started poor, settled down a bit and got our goal but failed to hold on to the lead long enough. Once Everton equalised there was only ever going to be one team winning this game. At the end of the day, until we get our first choice defence back we’re going to be open to results like this. Our defending was once again dreadful, We need Rio and Vida back ASAP. Conceded 5 in two games and if we’re honest, as good a result as it was at Milan, they could and probably should have scored more against us! Arsenal and Chelsea both keep clean sheets today and until we get our defence back I think we’ll struggle against good teams! West ham midweek is a must win and an opportunity to claw the 2 goal difference Chelsea have opened up on us again!!!!! Proper bad day at the office!
Better start looking over our shoulder too. Anyway. Until the Liverpool game, we have West Ham(h), Wolves(a) and Fulham(h). We must win all 3 and pray that the difference is less than 4 points.
@Denton Davey
I think Distin deserved MOTM, he was quality today and saw off most of our delivery into the box. He didn’t put a foot wrong.
…
I agree 100% our current squad doesn’t suit 4-4-2 at all and when I saw our squad I was worried we weren’t treating this as a HUGE game, because in HUGE games Berb doesn’t start. We would’ve posed a bigger threat if we had an extra player in midfield from the start and Rooney up front alone. This season we need to be more modest, our midfield needs all the help it can get and with 4-5-1 we look far more dangerous this year. Everton’s goals involved their players running at ours with pace and I think we missed that today because “only half” of our delivery was going to Rooney. Until we find his perfect partner I think he plays best alone, he’s proved it time and time again this season. Perhaps if Berbatov showed the same determination to get on the end of things I’d feel differently. Vidic would have buried the header he missed at the far post. Thats not to bash Berby, but I now understand why Alec doesn’t pick him for BIG games. I just wish we looked at this like we did the Milan game. THIS WAS A HUGE GAME. Berby was never gonna start at the San Siro and if we were serious about retaining our Crown I would have prefered to see him on the Bench, replacing Rooney to rest him. We’ve got to bounce back from this and do better, but long term I agree, Berby unfortunately isn’t the perfect partner for Rooney and we’d be foolish to change Rooney’s game to accomodate the partnership. If we’re spending 30 Million on strikers Rooney deserves the best possible match money can buy. Unfortunately it isn’t Berby.
not read many posts above but… People seem th be blaming Berba again… the guy scores the goal, the game being 1-1, then gets taken off and we lose 3-1.. did he make Everton score 2 goals by sitting on the bench or something?
What about Rooney, Valencia, Carrick and Park and Fletcher? – where were they in the second half?
It seems everything, including global warming is Berbatovs fault
@mikekelly12
United have the squad to put 2 teams out if they wanted.
Plus United are no way out of the title race although it is getting a concern that we never seem to be able to put the pressure on Chelsea at the moment. I am happy though that we are only 4 points behind since we have had so many injuries in the back 4. We have been able to mount some sort of title challenge. The midfield lacks invention and no I don’t think Berbatov is the answer to that. I’d rather have him in the squad as an option and I’m sure at some point in the season he will score a goal worth his weight in gold but meanwhile the critics are out for him. I have to admit I am one of those fan’s who doesn’t believe we needed Berbatov and didn’t think he would fit in to the team and since SAF hasn’t played him much this season I think I might be right.
AC Milan were all over us for large periods of that first half and when Seedorf scored it looked like they could turn it on at any point to score another goal. Which is where the midfield lacks that mental toughness of keeping possession and keeping calm playing easy passes rather than panicking under the pressure. When United went 1-0 down in 2 mins I was thinking “here we go again!” Let’s see if the players sink or swim here and they suprised me. Didn’t clam up, rode their luck (alot) and made them pay. Alot of average players in that midfield now though.
@PAUL Parker
I love the 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation. It has served us well for years.
SAF tried to play 4-4-2 but I think he realised that we were drawing or losing too many games playing like that. After Ronnie and Tevez left perhaps he thought the current squad couldn’t play 4-3-3/4-5-1 so he opted to bring Berbatov in to fit in to that 4-4-2 formation which quite frankly might work against the weaker teams in the league but not anyone really in the top half of the table.
Perhaps today SAF was trying to keep Berba happy and interested by playing 4-4-2 instead of a £30.75 million striker being left to warm the bench. But that team was capable of winning that game today.
lets all not lose hope!!!
GREAT WALL OF MANCHESTER UNITED!! ( RIO ::::::::::::VIDA)
will return!!!!!!
Sustaining success is so hard ! but so ,so sweet when we achive!!!!!!!!!!!
ONE UNITED!!!!!!!!
LUHG.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@alpha_rs… yes but did we not change to that formation after Berbatov got taken off? We were still in the game then…
I thought it was a strange decision to bring of valencia wen he was our only outlet.
can’t believe some of the hypocrisy here.one minute its ‘we have goals from all parts of the squad’ and the next its ‘Rooney doesn’t play well,we suffer’.yea we’ve got defense problems and it’s shown clearly against milan and today.its simple,we just didn’t play well enough.when our defence is distorted and rushed,naturally we lose possession so easily.i don’t think the attack is a problem,we’ve created a number of chances today.it’s the defense and the sooner Vida and Rio get back,the better. ‘Give the Chavs the title’?hope stays till the final whistle blows-that’s all i have to say.hypocrisy is seriously appalling.no wonder United fans are labelled ‘glory-hunters’ cos the true ones are being marginalized by the few black sheep.when we beat arsenal there’s some who go ‘Cristiano-who’,and just after losing a game,after collecting great wins all the while, we succumb to doom?we just didn’t play well.full stop.let’s just get over with today and make sure we respond well.
hmm we were pretty shit today.
right back and leftback is good, but centerback seriously needs sorting out.
evans did nothing to stop jack rodwell from scoring, and no one was providing the ball into the box enough for rooney or berba to get the ball.
i cant believe the comments about berbatov on here
he fucking scored a goal and did nearly everything attacking wise for us
still gets taken off and all you haters say “time to go for berba”
your a disgrace.. what did rooney do today that was better than berbatov?
and how many minutes has rooney had on the pitch compared to berbatov?
remember berbatov is still injured?.. i know rooney has done well in nearly every game.. but has berbatov had that chance? he doesnt even fucking play… how do you expect him to score when hes on the bench??
onto carrick.. well its simple hes shite.. where the hell was anderson?
anderson can atleast tackle and hold players off the ball.. carrick cant do fuck all.. fergie should have left berbatov on as he was the only way that was doing anything.. valencia tried but couldnt do anything..
evans was shite… so was brown.. we need rio and vidic back asap!!!!!!
PAUL Parker – when united lose players in the quality of ronaldo and tevez I think any teams tactics are fucked, esp when guys like berbatov valencia owen dont seem to offer anything new to the team. You add the fact united dont have any consistant backline. I would like someone tell me when was the last time united won 2 or 3 games in a row. But for me the main problem is the wide areas the striker situation and the defence, united dont need an overhaul but these area’s need sorting out, many know this was coming look at last season since march 2009 things have been going downhill since then and the everton game sums up that we go from one extreme to another. 2009 was a anoying year 2010 has been a nightmare so far.
@Tony Starks
That is very true. Can’t make excuses for that but perhaps should have started with the tried and tested and proven 4-3-3 formation.
Left a few first teamers on the bench to rest up and let a few other players prove themselves.
Berbatov is the cause of global warming?! Hehehe.
That one made me laugh. Must admit though for that kinda money you would have thought he would be a first team regular. Berbatov will at some point be the cause of United winning an important game with a touch of invention and brilliance. I am not a fan of his though.
can’t stand the way how some opinions are contructed here.berba to go.he was probably the only productive player today.so saying that he has to go is crazy.
giving the chelsea the title?its really disgusting how some here can even think this way.everton were great today,and we were terrible.jaded.so we lose.and hell breaks loose?its simply appalling to see the reactions of glory-hunters after a bad game.
obertanthenewstar – there are 25 reasons why rooney has deserved an off day. guys like valencia berbatov owen nani need to step up, rooney is human and when ronaldo had that great season he had back up from the likes of VDS brown ferdinand vidic evra scholes carrick anderson fletcher hargeaves nani giggs rooney tevez, unfortunetly for rooney and united no one is stepping up when rooney has an off day add uniteds best defence is never playing.
@alpha_rs, “Berbatov will at some point be the cause of United winning an important game with a touch of invention and brilliance”
yes if he gets to play im sure he will.. what can he do when hes sitting on the bench.. today the whole team played shite.. but he scores a goal and sets up two easy chances (rooney and carrick) who should have done better.. berba is class hopefully berbatov and diouf/owen start against west ham as rooney clearly needs a rest along with evra.. maybe fletcher for anderson
Just got back from work so haven’t had the luxury of watching the game to comment but it looks like it was a tight and even first half but Everton stepped up to the plate in the second and United didn’t.
Sounds like Wazza had an off day today but if we can forgive one player this season for having a ‘day off’ it’s Rooney!
All in all I’m not overly disappointed, we have some very winable games coming up and Chelski lost at Goodison too so onwards and upwards.
LUHG
rooney the new star.. yeh i agree rooney has deserved a off day.. but does that means he cant control a football and simply not be able to score a tap-in? rooney is class i know but come on these are simple things.. when berbatov misses a hard chance everyone gets on his back saying hes shite for missing that etc….
Tony Starks Said,February 20th, 2010 @18:19
not read many posts above but… People seem th be blaming Berba again… the guy scores the goal, the game being 1-1, then gets taken off and we lose 3-1.. did he make Everton score 2 goals by sitting on the bench or something?
What about Rooney, Valencia, Carrick and Park and Fletcher? – where were they in the second half?
It seems everything, including global warming is Berbatovs fault
___________________________
Can’t speak for others mate, but I really do think Berbatov’s inclusion effected our game today. I’ve supported Berby all this time, but today my suspicions have been confirmed. Talented as he is he doesn’t suit our current squad. Yes he scored, but at what cost? We don’t suit a 4-4-2 this season bcos our squad has been weakened with departures and injuries, so I was prepared for an ugly and gritty campaign this year grinding out results. I was also prepared to possibly lose our Crown this year but thank God chelsea and liverpool have been absolutely shite this year for no good reason. Rooney has kept us out of the fight for fourth place and thats all been down to our 4-5-1 formation. In our big games Alec always goes with this system, so I really wish Alec considered this match like the game in milan. Thats all im saying, Berbatov Lovers can rest assured. Rooney understanably had less opportunity on goal Today as half the opportunities were going to Berbatov. Also, we had one less man in midfield due to our second striker… so thats why im saying Berbatov shouldn’t of started today, nothing personal, its just that imo he’s not worth losing an extra midfielder for, and he’s not worth limiting Rooney’s opportunities for. Yes our defence is still shakey and patchy, and yes more then one of our midfielders fell asleep, but surely thats even more reason to put an extra man in midfield and leave Rooney upfront to act as a constant threat? So like I said, Yeh he scored, but at what cost? IMO 4-4-2 wasn’t worth it.
….
Thats my take on the match anyway, we looked poor starting 4-4-2. This season we’ve done amazing to still be in the title race, or should I say ROONEY has been amazing playing upfront on his own. In my opinion, I think if its not broke don’t try and fix it against an in-form Everton team away from home.
Back from Goodison. My thoughts on today.
Terrible defensive performance all round. Evra looks knackered (and who can blame him with the amount he has played this season), Neville’s crossing was quality but defensively he sadly showed why retirement is looming for the legend, Evans looks woefully short of confidence and Brown I am afraid I just do not rate at CB. I wish Fergie would play him at RB. The sooner Rio and Vidic get back, the better. Hopefully against West Ham. VDS was OK but I wish he had been more vocal at the back.
Valencia started of well but faded as the game went on. Park was his usual industrous self with little end product. Fletcher and Carrick both had mares. Carrick is a good player but he has these kind of games every now and then. I will put Fletcher’s down to tiredness. He has played a ridiculous amount of games, just like Evra.
Berbatov did well, with a lovely strike to put us 1-0 up. But I stand by what I have been saying all along- he isn’t the man to partner Wayne Rooney and he doesn’t fit in to this team. Rooney was just dreadful but one bad game was to be expected after his run of form. I expect it was a combination of that, tiredness and frustration.
Whatever Anderson has done, I wish Fergie would forgive him as I feel he could have made a big different today in midfield.
Onwards and upwards. Lets take it out on the hammers
@obertanthenewstar
I think the problem with Berbatov is his style of play.
If he pulls a trick and it comes off it looks brilliant.
If it doesn’t come off it looks shite. Theses reactions being at such extrmemes coupled with his perceived lack of effort on the pitch means he can either be class and brilliant or lazy and slow.
Currently the 4-3-3 formation is about being fluid, quick, and dynamic and Berbatov unfortunately does not fit in to that.
You are right though the whole team played shite and thay all should have done better. That team was good wnough to win at Everton today but credit where credit is due. They had a go and it paid off.
off topic.. but that Owusu-Abeyie for portsmouth looks brilliant
wednesday was a good day at the office… today was a bad day… it happens…as long as the players dont let their heads drop and come out fighting hard……
alpha_rs
if we play two decent cm’s for example fletcher and anderson
then we can play 4-4-2.. but with carrick.. he cannot tackle.. cant hold a player off.. lacks pace.. therefore fergie has to play 4-5-1 to make up for this.. 4-4-2 would definetly work if we played 2 strong tackling midfielders(HARGREAVES COME BACK!!!) then 4-4-2 would work but soon as we switched to 4-5-1 we made it easy for everton… there was no one up top to hold up the ball as berbatov was doing… therefore they had more of the ball and punished us.. dont know why rafael wasnt playing but it didnt work for us
Fuck me. Some people just are looking for an excuse to slag Berbatov. He was by far the best player for us today and yet people are having a go at him.Rooney had an off day. he has been immense for us all season so no complaints. I guess even if he has an off day till the end of the season now we cant say anything. You may have donewell in all games but when you dont turn up you deserve as much flak as others. Rooney was giving the ball away way too much today.
Are people trying tos ay if we had played 4-5-1 we would have won for sure?. is SAF silly not to understand what formation we should play?.The formation was right. The players just didnt turn up,simple as that.
well I thought united looked ok when berbatov was on, when berbatov was taken off and united went to 451 united looked even worse
Jay Said,February 20th, 2010 @18:53
can’t stand the way how some opinions are contructed here.berba to go.he was probably the only productive player today.so saying that he has to go is crazy.
giving the chelsea the title?its really disgusting how some here can even think this way.everton were great today,and we were terrible.jaded.so we lose.and hell breaks loose?its simply appalling to see the reactions of glory-hunters after a bad game.
________________________________
Again can’t speak for others but listen, a 4-5-1 with Rooney is the reason we’re still in the title race and not fighting for third, and if we intend to retain our crown we should have shown MUCH MORE RESPECT to Everton and played them like we played Milan. In my opinion we were poor because Berbatov started. Thats not an insult to Berbatov. Football is more complex than that mate. Our team right now is too poor to field a 4-4-2 against any in-form team. Alec wouldn’t DARE play Milan 4-4-2, or Chelsea or even Arsenal, and thats because he realises that OUR CURRENT SQUAD is better off with the extra midfielder then Berbatov upfront. Thats why if you go back over the majority of our biggest games Berby has been on the bench with Owen. Our defence needs the cover, and a 4 man Midfield isn’t strong enough against strong teams this season. Thats life mate, glory hunters need to realise that. IMO Berbatov starting was a Risk and a gamble, smart money would’ve been on starting with 4-5-1 against Everton away from home. We need to treat every remaining game as a FINAL if we are to retain our crown, now you tell me how many minutes Berbatov has played in our Big Finals since he joined? Exactly. I respect his ability, and I’ve supported him thus far, but im no MUG. If he isn’t good enough to start against Arsenal or Chelsea then we should show Everton much more respect at their ground and play 4-5-1 for the win. So like I said, yes he scored, but at what cost? Personally I would’ve perfered an extra Midfielder than an extra striker. I doubt they would have had the space to run at us for 2 goals with an extra man in our midfield covering our dodgy defence. I think Alec chose Berbatov knowing it was a Risk and a Gamble and unfortunately it hasn’t paid off this time. If Berbatov couldn’t complement our team in Milan, he shouldn’t of started today as it was just as important IMO – with Arsenal 2 points off us and Chelsea 4 points ahead I hope Alec treats our remaining matches like Finals, and we all know what role Berbatov plays in our finals despite having amaing talent. He’s on the bench mate, and today I can say I finally see why. Its nothing personal, its just this season our team is too “poor” to afford his “luxury” gameplay.
rooney the new king
exactly… there was no one up front for the hold up play therefore everytime we would lose it easily and it would be pretty easy for them to break down our super makeshift/tired defence
paul parker
okay then explain to me why we conceded two goals when we switched to 4-5-1 when berbatov was taken off..
let me hear this….
the reason why united are so poor now is the defence is all over the shop. obvious united cant outscore teams away from home and united need someone better to patner evans because brown offered no calmness.
denton davey – 4-4-2 formation did work before Everton scored an unnecessary goal. And Berba was our best player showing signes of a player who badly wants to deliver. Everton goal changed the momentum. The reason for that ? Tiredness maybe.
PPL also forget the poor crossing of valencia, how many times did valencia get into good positions and hardly put a good one in except for the goal which came off a everton player.
Rooney the New King – I agree mate. thats why im saying for this season we need to start playing more Realistically. Its just my opinion but I think our choice to lose a midfielder to gain Berbatov was a mistake that cost us the game. Rooney is far more likely to bury a chance than Berbatov, yet his opportunities were shared with Berbatov, plus, LESS delivery was coming into the box as we had a midfielder less to accomodate Berby. To me thats Lose/Lose and I was so disappointed to see him starting TODAY. We’ve got West Ham and Wolves coming up, hardly guaranteed games but definitely an easier challenge than Everton in-form Away. Its nothing against Berby from me, perhaps I shoulda typed with Kid gloves and said “For the Good of the Team, Berby should’ve been sacrified today for a midfield player” because thats all im saying really – its obvious for anybody watching. Alec wouldn’t play 4-4-2 against Chelsea or Arsenal, so why do so against Everton that just beat Chelsea? We’ll bounce back and I haven’t for a second suggested its more then a bad result, but lets not bullshit ourselves, Berbatov in big games isn’t wise this season because we NEED an extra midfielder to cover our weaknesses until reinforcements arrive.
yeh i agree @rooney the new star.. brown is better at RB but there was no one else for today’s game so he had to play there and it didnt work out for us.. rio is back now and looks like vidic should be back but he was on the bench before and then sat out so not really sure.. hopefully they are both back because we really need them back!!
Fuck off Everton about sums my feelings up today
Pissed off about the result but I suppose we all underestimated Everton a bit. Everton without Cahill and Fellaini looked a bit of a walk over but most of all I was shocked Ferdinand wasn’t playing. Uniteds back line just isn’t the same without him. Berbatov scored but otherwise in the match he didn’t sparkle, especially as he hasn’t played for a while I thought he would of stepped up and claimed a place. Before you all rant at me I like Berbatov and Im not one of those that diss him whenever the chance arises. Evans has looked terrible the last 3 or 4 times he’s played. Possitionally he’s bloody good but he panics, he cant clear a ball, his passing out of defence isn’t too hot, basically he doesn’t look too clever with the ball at his feet. Hes a great prospect but like all good youngsters if you play them too much too soon they spoil (even though its not his fault due to injuries). Obertan when he came on was no super sub, I suppose he was knackered after thursday in the reserves even though he was taken off early. I’d like to see his shoulders up and really having a go. Owens contribution when coming on was non existant. The rest were ok, it was just a day when nothing gelled and we came bump back down to earth after a good win against Milan. Poor old West Ham on Tuesday they’re going to get a face full. Would like to see Evans rested.
Berbatov the fucking scapegoat again. It beggars belief.
PAUL Parker – I think formation and tactic wise ronaldo and tevez are huge losses, tevez at times he compensated our static midfield by chasing down players maken them do mistakes which we benifted alot from and ronaldo gave us alot of ariel threat pace that has now been lost. Add the fact alot of our goals which came from ronaldo rooney tevez are now souly on rooney’s shoulders. and the huge factor 442 is lost, one idiot said rooney has benifited from berbatov patnering rooney which is complete bullshit, rooney is only benifiting from the fact he is played throuh the middle.
like I say ronaldo had back when he had that great 42 goal season. because defence midfield and attack was very consistant very phew changes, now we have no rythem the defence midfield and attack are rotated every game. I dont even know uniteds best attack anymore or defence whoch those 2 areas have bene a key factor in uniteds success the past phew seasons.
anyone know a man utd irc channel?
let me know
rooney the new king Said,February 20th, 2010 @19:16
well I thought united looked ok when berbatov was on, when berbatov was taken off and united went to 451 united looked even worse
______________
yeah, but by then everybody had been running around playing 4-4-2 and I don’t think we have the squad for that right now. Starting with 4-5-1 keeps us solid and doesn’t stretch our midfield as much, thats why we’ve gotten good result using it. Today we didn’t control the centre of the park, and had to work harder, so after playing 4-4-2 for so long im not surprised we couldn’t adapt to 4-5-1 quickly. We should have started 4-5-1 and if that didn’t work change it to 4-4-2 and bring on Berby. Im surprised we played so openly with our weaknessess away from home. Alec would never start with Berby in a 4-4-2 against Chelsea considering our injuries and suspensions, so why on earth did he do so today considering Everton SPANKED Chelsea? Thats where my comments are coming from.
_____________________
@ obertanthenewstar, read everything im saying and it should make sense to you, but just incase – BERBATOV HASN’T BEEN A REGULAR THIS SEASON, so having him in the team today means we were one man down in midfield, and all im asking is “was including Berbatov worth it?” Yes he scored but at what cost? Im not expecting anybody or everybody to agree with me but by God I wouldn’t expect anybody to have problems understanding. Its very simple, I would have prefered to see an extra midfielder instead of Berby.
but like I say of the 2 key area’s defence and attack are rotated way too much then no wonder the team is all over the place. no question alot of united’s sources of goals are now from even phew individuals. since the 07/08 season our goal sources were from 3 players, we were awful in attack last season and this seaso our main sources for goals is now from mainly rooney. united need sort the balance out wide, and united need the striker situation sorted and in the summer I expect a striker signed and reshaping the defence.
Jay – Spot on man at 18.36. Some of the comments on here after a defeat actually make me feel sick. “Berba must go” “our midfield is shit”, “Valencia is shit”. Get behind the fucking lads. Wouldn’t want to be with you in the fucking trenches. Would rather be alongside John Terry!!
Carrick isn’t shite he just had a bad day. As Costas eluded to when he plays well United tick. Calling for fucking Anderson who frankly HAS been shite when called upon is a strange one. I like Anderson but he has done nowt to warrant these calls.
@rooney the new star
a new striker? why do we need a striker.. we got rooney owen berbatov and diouf… remember him? diouf is class and would be able to handle that kind of game.. should have been on the bench and brought on.. dont think owen touched the ball more than once when he came on.. diouf is stronger, got more pace and offers a aerial threat.. fergie needs to realise thats what we need and start playing him.. maybe a start in cc final??
I really hope Anderson comes back. We need him otherwise our only hope in midfield is Scholesy who would have played today from the start if he was 5 years younger.
Sir Alex kind of shot himself in the foot when he decided to suspend Anderson from the squad. Scholes was never going to start 2 games in 4 days, so it was either Berbatov or Gibson. I think he made the right call and Berbatov was one of our best players while he was playing. United defended badly today and on Tuesday. Everton just capitalised on our tiredness and the fact that Brown was playing instead of Rio. Amazing how Rodwell converted his chance better than Inzaghi did on Tuesday.
rtnk – How the fuck has 2010 been a nightmare? Aside from the Leeds defeat and City in the first leg, prior to kick off today we were unbeaten.
PAUL Parker – you sure? Everton spanked us? lol
They beat us and thoroughly deserved their win but I really wouldn’t call it a spanking. Today though………….
@obertanthenewstar
And Kiko!
No one is slagging off Carrick, Rooney and our two centre backs the way they are slagging Berbatov. They were the most terrible today. I keep reading the same “He does not fit into our system” bull shit over and over again, well of course he doesn’t as we have been playing a 4-5-1 on a regular basis apart from today, and considering Rooney’s great form of late he was the obvious choice up front. This is not Berb’s fault, nor should it be the reason why he should leave just because “he doesn’t fit into our system.” We won’t be using this formation forever and Berbatov will play his part this season and the next.
Unfortunately he was the only player who posed threat, scored and set up a few chances today. People say he slows down our attack…Well, after he went off, we had not attack whatsoever. We looked more of an attacking team when he was on the pitch.
Read some of the comments here. You should understand that this season builds a platform for the years ahead. We all have different opinions but you can’t build a team in 6 months. I was delighted Fergie played Rafael in Milan game. This was a calculated risk but we must give them chances.
Paul Parker – You cannot blame Berbatov for United playing poorly in a 4-4-2. Ridiculous mate, no offence. Carrick and Fletcher BOTH had stinkers that was the problem .
Also why the fuck is Valencia getting stick?
Costas – LOL i was first
))
@King Eric
Not saying that Ando should have started, but he should have been back in the squad mate. He wasn’t all that bad before the Shity game. He was starting to gain some form.
2010 has been fine so far. But this season has been full of adversity. From everywhere. We might win the title, we might not. At this point, it won’t matte that much to me. Life’s too short.
@ Paul Parker … I half agree with you, half not. I agree that against the big teams this year, we have needed to play 4-5-1 because without the extra guy in the middle, our midfield can’t cope (and I think that was obvious against Barca last year, too). But what I don’t get is when you then start crapping on about how this proves Berba isn’t good enough. Er … Berba’s a striker, isn’t he? So if we don’t have a middle 4 who are good enough to contain the top teams, how the fuck is that berba’s fault? How the fuck would any STRIKER fix that? Pick your favorite striker in the world, now put him in the team alongside Rooney … would that suddenly mean 4 in the middle would start working? I don’t fucking think so. Given our squad, we aren’t capable of fielding a 4-man midfield that can win the battle against other top teams. And that means we have to field 5 there and play Rooney upfront. But it also means that ain’t Berba’s fault, and if/when he leaves, hiring another top rate striker will be a waste of money. As long as we need a 5-man midfield for top games, having a second top-rate striker is a pure luxury because he won’t be used in those games. Which also means Berba probably will leave, and that hiring a top-rate replacement will be virtually impossible, unless we patch up the midfield first, because world-class strikers don’t want to be on the bench in the big matches.
I think Berba will leave, and I think he should for his own benefit. The idea was for him to partner Rooney. Last year, the team was fucked around to accommodate CR. That meant Rooney was stuck out on the left, which also meant there was not a hope in hell of him and Berba forming any sort of partnership last year.
This year they’ve been together … except that now, for the big matches, berba can’t play because our midfield is so weak it needs a 5th guy. The irony is that I think there are signs of the Rooney-Berba partnership beginning to work.
Berba was our best player today. He was taken off to accommodate a system change from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1, but that didn’t work and we fell apart.
Really need to fix that midfield…
@Corea
Co-Co strikes again.
PAUL Parker – there was nothing wrong with the formation, for me the 5 players which cost united the game was neville brown evans valencia and carrick here are why I am single out these 5
neville – he was good going forward but he was caught out time and time again when everton attacked neville’s side, and everton made neville look his age in football terms
brown and evans – I am putting both of these together, they both were has bad as each other, the one thing defenders at their best do his bring a calmness to feet from the back and give it to the midfield who can start off the attacks, time and time again they could hardly keep the ball they did not give it to carrick and fletcher enough, and all they did was boot it up field like the bolton team does.
carrick – he was one of the reasons why the centre midfield had no calmnes, he kept given the ball away he was out muscled time and time again and his ste piece free kicks summed his game up. He hardly stamped his autority on the game and fletcher was having to do bth jobs which is partly why fletcher lacked the energy which serves him well.
valencia – he is not the greatest talent in terms of offering the team veriaty and another dimension that nani can offer the team at at times, and today he showed why he is at times very one dimensional. But valencia’s strength’s is hugging the touchline and putting in good crosses, valencia time and time again got into good positions and hardly put in a decent cross. When that did not work he did not do anything else and he did not cut inside enough making him very pridictable today
Goatinaunitedshirt – “shocked to see Rio not playing”. He was banned mate. That is the ban over now.
Costas – Oh I agree mate, Anderson SHOULD have been in the squad. We have always made it hard for ourselves. This season looks no different. At least we can get back to winning ways on Tuesday and don’t have to wait a fortnight like last time we got beat. Infact our upcoming games are well winnable.
,,,,,,,, in theory.
My theory. Play Berba and Owen against West Ham, rest Rooney. It is also a calculated risk but games are coming thick and fast. Play Anderson.
But Fergie won’t do it. 4 points behind and we must win next 3 games.
Dont want to be negative but i dont think we are going to see anderson anytime soon. Probably Gibson will start against West ham along with Scholes.Surprised SAF hasnt said anything on Anderson or why he is out. Lets rest a few on Tuesday and give our best in the Carling Cup. We wont get closer to winning a trophy this season.
obertanthenewstar – LOL those 4 are not enough when 1 of those 4 you mention are only scoring week in week out and also one of those 4 cant fit into a 433 formation, and rooney still is not comfortable playing on his own upfront he needs support.
owen is close to being past his best if he is not already
berbatov is not getting any younger and he is still is up and down
diouf I doubt he will make it he is propably another manucho and rossi will be moved on.
I remember back in 2004 many say before united bought rooney, we dont need rooney we already have van nistlerooy saha solkjaer forlan and now smith back then. PPL need to get out of their heads that players they rates are not up to it and there are far better players out there who could do a better job. Dont forget when united bought vidic and evra many fans said we dont need these 2 we already got ferdinand brown pique heinze o shea in those positons, every team needs improving. But for this summer the main priorety is getting a CF it is a must.
I ment 3 of those 4 cant fit into a 433 formation.
@King Eric
Well, under nomal circumstances, we would win all of 3 of the next games. I hope today was just a blip. So sad that we have ruined this good tradition that we had at Villa Park and Goodison Park. Until the 08-09 season, we had fantastic records at both stadiums.
aig alex is god – so after Carling Cup you won’t follow United ?
rooney the new star
diouf wont make it? have you seen diouf play?
he scored against burnley… and scored 5 goals for the reserves
and ur tellin me he wont make it? his movement is excellent!! the amount of times he gets behind the back four is amazing.. yes i know its reserve football but i didnt see welbeck/kiko doing what diouf does.. diouf is a talent and he will definetly feature in our first team soon i hope!
@King Eric
You wouldn’t want some of us on here in the trenches you’d prefer John Terry. Well I can tell you King Eric he wouldn’t be with you! He’d of snuck out to go and fuck your wife. lol
Come on people we had an off day and all you slating Valencia, fucking wake up. He is our best player most days.
aig – Hello mate. I may have read your post wrong but are you basically saying lets give up on the league and just go for the carling cup? That is NOT how United operate as well you know. They will be going for the lot as usual and one bad result today ain’t gonna change that. Every SINGLE player today was a 5 or 6 . Infact some were 3 and 4′s. Berbatov was our best player today as you rightly concur. Still 33 points to play for and the Chav’s have to come to OT.
Lucky Gooners, they have the easiest fixtures coming ahead. What is so frustrating is that it seems that whenever the rentboys drop points, we drop points too. We just don’t thrive on their mistakes, neither do we capitalize.
The premier league trophy is the only trophy we should be focusing on this season. I don’t care if we lose the CC final or get knocked out by Milan, the title must be won by this club this season. It will one of the best achievements this club has ever had; considering all the hardships we have come across.
RTNK – How the hell can the likes of Diouf, Berba and Owen score when they don’t even play? Get real my friend Fergie is NOT gonna go and spunk 30 odd million on another striker. Diouf WILL make it at United.
goatinaunitedshirt – ha ha. Funny as fuck mate.
Costas – Yeah but even now we are capable. Lets not forget how well we have been playing of late and move on to the next games. Get this one out of the system. The main and probably ONLY concern for me at the minute is the back 4. Get them sorted and we will be ok.
@Fze123
You don’t care the Dippers fans shoving 5 times, 5 times down your throat? I value both the league and CL the same now. Both are crucial to knock the Dippers off their fucking perch!
rtnk – Diouf won’t just be another Manucho as you put it. Have you seen him play? I know it is early but the lad looks a fucking gem. Great finisher, great pace, movement and hassles the defence. Did Manucho score on his debut for the first team and bag a hat trick in the reserves?
@ Costas, until the 08/09 season, we held fantastic records in England and Europe, which no longer exist. So next time a record is broken this season, don’t lament on it as when you look back, you will remember how many records we have lost in trying to win title number 19.
No I am completely with Fze123 on this. The league is the main thing for me.
king Eric
Hi mate. Good evening
missed the word ‘probably’ in that post. I mean to say we wont possibly come closer to coming a trophy this season.The league isnt in our hands again and we have to rely on Chelsea slipping up and have Arsenal to bother about as well. The champions league really looks a step too far this season. I think we can rest a few and still beat West Ham. West Ham are doing well of late though. Player coming back and results going the right way for them so we cant be complacent.
Look people, weve just played Milan, Arsenal and Villa not that long ago, weve played some tough matches and its caught up with us a bit. No worries. Had we of lost today against Burnley or the Hammers, then I’d be pissed off but realistically we lost to Everton and the team Davis Moyes has created is worthy of praise. That maybe is why Moyes name has come up as a possible replacement for SAF should he wish to retire, which i hope to fuck he never does. We lost not against a better side but a side who fought harder on the day but understand this Everton are the best side on Merseyside and they will take 4th spot.
I really can´t believe all the knocking. We have no right to win every game. OK I agree we haven´t chosen the best game to put in a stinker but it´s not the end of the world ..yet.
I personally think that we looked a little jaded today. I hate to say this but I think it´s true. At this time of the year we need people like Ferdinand and Vidic and they aren´t there. I really think Wayne should have been rested today. I think the hard game in Milan has showed up today.
Our centre of defence was knowhere today, unfortunately, which didn´t help.
@King Eric
Well, we both have followed football long enough to know that these defeats can happen. I will probably do a search to see how United perform in League games after knock out games in the Ch.League. But don’t be surprised if the amount of wins is less than 50%.
I am not making any predictions about the league, but if we get Rio and Vidic back for good and Chelsea slip up somewhere, then the Chelsea game will be the perfect opportunity to finally overtake them.
@ hurr, yes I don’t care because I will shove ’19 times, 19 times’ down their throats in response. Or ‘Europa League, Europa League’. We deserve the title more than any team after all we had to suffer through this season.
@Fze123
Of course mate. I would sacrifice all of them for title number 19. I always enjoyed playing against these two sides, but nothing lasts forever I guess. And in fairness, both Villa and Everton have made strides in recent years.
Bring back Ronaldo.
And Saha.
And Pique.
And Cantona.
We were tired from midweek,thats all it was …..simple.
king Eric – I think you are are blind if you think united dont need a striker and propably a phew other positions that are a worry. and why do you think only rooney plays all the time especially the big games, because he is the only good striker united have got. berbatov had a good game but he is not good enough for united. owen I think is nothing more than a squad player, diouf I dont think will make it if he was playing that well he would have played more like against pompey.
I think in general united are depseratly short of strength in depth in attack. For me I thought a phew weeks ago the team would improve and go on to win the league but it has shown united have been found out against good very well orginised teams who defend well especially when united are away from home, united are a shadow of the team that won the 2 premiership titles european cup in the 06/07 and 07/08 seasons even though those sides had alot of holes in those squad.
I said just after the arsenal game we will see what united can do against teams like everton and villa who are well orginised and defend very well, and we would see if united are really are back in buiness. But today summed up the weakneses in the squad. Like the decline and depleted defence, the midfields lack of domminance and goals, and uniteds lack of strength in depth in the striking department. Add the fact united no loner a threat from set pieces
that post is not a knee jerk reaction I have said all the long united need a striker to not only help rooney but sometimes united can rest rooney. But the squad has stagnated a bit and it needs that impact player to really give the place a real lift.
don’t think we lost today because of the attack – we lost because we couldn’t defend… we’ve scored goals for fun this year yet somehow our strike force is rubbish? if only we had a first choice defence this year we’d be miles ahead in the league by now – yet we are only 4 point off
Piss poor performance, but we have to look ahead to the West Ham game on Tuesday and hope we get the 3 points. No margin for error now.
rttnk – We will agree to differ pal but how the FUCK can you say Diouf “won’t make it”? Silly comment. As Tony Starks says we have been scoring for fun this season. It is the defence that let us down as it did at Fulham . We desperately need one of Rio and Vidic back preferably both. It has fuck all to do with Everton being organised (which they were) it is because we simply didn’t turn up again. If we played our normal game of course we would have won. We couldn’t defend, we couldn’t string a pass together and we looked knackered. As I say mate we will agree to differ but its no surprise you come out with this shit whenever we lose. The last few weeks you have been saying how well we have done and we will win the league. As someone said correctly what use will bringing in a thirty million striker do? Fergie is STILL gonna go 4-5 1 away from home. He would just be sat on the bench a la Berbatov. I ain’t ” blind” either but I know what Fergie and United are all about and that isn’t going throwing good money after bad on the back of a defeat.
Not over by a long way yet and I will hold that BELIEF till the Chav’s are lifting the trophy. We beat West Ham on Tuesday and then the Rentboys draw against Citeh next week after a tough trip to Milan and we are back to 2 points . Beat them at home and its all good. This is all theoretically speaking of course but not beyond the realms of possibility.
rtnk – You say Rooney is the only striker playing all the big games . Well away from home yes that is true but I think you will find at home in the majority of big games Berba starts. Arsenal and City at home for example. I would also bet money that he starts against the dippers and Chelsea and possibly Milan. Although I reckon Fergie will go 4-5-1 for that game. This isn’t because Berba’s shite he just prefers to pack the midfield.
Bit annoyed to be honest. You are basically saying our defence , mid field and attack is shit! Joker.
Infact I may be wrong. Don’t think Berbatov did start against Arsenal at home. Anyway 5 goals in 5 games isn’t too bad. What are the other teams in the Premier league second strikers tallys like? 30 LEAGUE goals between Rooney and Berba now.
King Eric
I know you wont give up mate but i think thats wishful thinking. Ok. Chelsea have to come to OT but we are not going to win that game for sure.They have been excellent at home and will beat city who play at Stoke in midweek. We also have Liverpool in March and of late they are doing well against United who dont seem to be up for the games against Liverpool. City away wont be easy as wont be tottenham at home.
A draw today and 3 points in it i would have been happy because one win loss change can get us back on top but todays defeat also shifted the goal difference by 4. It may come down to that ,you never know.
We have had injuries but that cant be used as an excuse. We were lucky to avoid major injuries in the last 3 years so they will catch up at some stage. After playing majority of the games this season you expect better from your centrebacks than not being able to head the ball properly and hoofing long balls aimlessly.
Things can go as you say. I am just stating the other side of the picture
King Eric – I did not say the entire structure of the team is poor, there is a lot of quality but there still needs some balancing out to do and identifying players positions like getting a fit defence, what is the bestt mield it 2 or a 3. who are the best 2 wide players and who is best to patner rooney. like getting a spine to a team again, have I been saying throw money no I did not. I said the team needs investing in the striker departmant because the fact remains that is the area which needs investing. I said the team has done well to even be in the title race, I thought the team would push on and win the league but it depended on how united do against everton and villa dont miss quote me.
you can have 2 strikers in a 433 system but it depends what one’s can fit into that system. ronaldo rooney and tevez have proved they can fit into a 433 system because of their style fits that system, they interchange the problem is owen and berbatov have no pace, they cant outmuscle opponents and their movement is very pridictable.
I said diouf wont make it because I have seen these playerss come and go, manucho rossi campbell add macheda and welbeck now, alot of promiss but they fizzle out and are moved on. Unless he is starts playing I have my doubts.
There’s nearly 30% of the PL season remaining, that’s 33 points to play for, with a 4 point deficit to make up. And we’re all doom and gloom because……?
The last team to win a PL having lost 6 games, was, erm, in fact United. So we’ll do it again. Besides this season is a strange one. Most teams are capable of taking points of each other and there is are some genuine new challengers to the top four places. Things are slowly changing, but United are still there or thereabouts.
We have kept ourselves inside the top two places during what has been arguably the worst defensive injury crisis in SAF’s reign. We have the chance to pick up the first silverware of the season next week and we are 90 minutes away from dispatching Milan to claim our place in the last 8 of the Champions League (again).
Dreadful season? By whose standards? You must have us confused with Pompey or Liverpool.
The glass is very much half full for me. Metaphorically speaking at least, I need to get a refill now
Cheers.
Seems a few of you are surprised that Vidic didn’t play today. Why exactly? He’s been touted to return before every match for the past two months, but never does. When are you going to wake up and smell the coffee?
“rooney the new king Said,
obertanthenewstar – LOL those 4 are not enough when 1 of those 4 you mention are only scoring week in week out and also one of those 4 cant fit into a 433 formation, and rooney still is not comfortable playing on his own upfront he needs support.
owen is close to being past his best if he is not already
berbatov is not getting any younger and he is still is up and down
diouf I doubt he will make it he is propably another manucho and rossi will be moved on”
Ahhhhahahahha. More idiocy? Rooney IS comfortable on his own, hence two against AC Milan and all the other games he’s scored in as a 4-5-1. But, I don’t like the formation, personally.
Owen scored a hat-trick in the CL and won us the game against City, do you watch him play?
Of course! That’s why they signed Diouf, to move him straight on, not from all the time they spent scouting him. The goals he’s scored and the variety of traits he’s shown off are what, nothing but another Rossi? Bullshit kneejerk shite.
@Stateside Aussie: 20:05
Spot on mate.Berby’s good enough to get in a 4:4:2 system for any team with a decent midfield.No world class striker is going to sign if he is just going to sit on the bench in all the big games unless he rotates with Rooney and I can’t see anyone on this site going for that option and I don’t think Rooney would be too pleased either.
@Fred
At least he made the bench this time! Honestly? Even if he played today, things wouldn’t have been better. Not when he hasn’t played a game for 8 weeks.
Hi. My name’s Jonny Evans and you’re watching Jackass.
He was on the bench against City too. Just a token gestures, imo. At least Rio is back from suspension now, thankfully.
One last thing – Neville, Owen and Obertan have no business playing in anything other than home games against shite opposition.
RE:Rooney the new King
like King Eric says, with you it seems we are the greatest when we are winning but when we lose, everything is doom and gloom.
we have a very good team. we have our weaknesses but so does every team. we had a stinker today. it wasn’t pleasant but football is like life itself. you just have to move on and focus on the future.
I am not saying the lads should get a pat on the back. I hope Fergie ripped in to them and reminded them of the high standards expected when representing our great club. but lets not act like everything is the end of the world
we will bounce back against west ham and i am still confident we will win four in a row come may. and even if we don’t, so what? hardly a disaster. incidents like munich were a disaster. not winning one title isn’t. and if we don’t, the lads will buckle down and work even harder to make sure they make up for it next season
Can someone tell me why he substituted dimitar,in my opinion hes was posing the most threat,at least some threat
maybe it was his knee,dunno
i went to the game today, and have heard about wembeley tickets. the glazer twats have created a executive package for £700 offering all remaining home games including milan and q/f and s/f if we get there, AND they are offering wembely as a sweetener for FUCK ALL. they have said loyalty pot members aren’t involved as it isn’t away and distributed to united fans who rarely go and will spend cash on merchandise, now am ticketless and i’ve missed 3 aways all year due to work, and spent thousands just like other big reds have, and am now relying on a second ballot to see my beloved club fight for another trophy
they takin the piss.
also…
if united hadn’t taken on this debt they could have froze ticket prices in 2004-2005 and still been 100 million pound better off, glazer out
LUHG
spencer – do not even go there, dont even put words in my mouth to try and justify your pts you look like a complete gimp. when the team looked to be on the up a phew weeks back I said we will see how we do against villa and everton. fact remains the team is found out against well orginised teams defences. fact remians united are light upfront. yes it is west ham a winnable game. and tell me when was the last time united won 3 games in a row.
Always Be Closing – you and King Eric says well how do I know he will not make, well how do you know he will make it. My pts on the striker department is its not enough, rooney cant be rested because the other strikers are not doing it. Unless diouf is starting games I dont see him making it. ok then why did united sign manucho rossi tosic have they or did they start games.
@rat1p – I presume it is because of his knee.
@vidic will get ya 15 – they are scum. LUHG
FZE @ 20:00 “of course he doesn’t as we have been playing a 4-5-1 on a regular basis apart from today, and considering Rooney’s great form of late he was the obvious choice up front. This is not Berb’s fault, nor should it be the reason why he should leave just because “he doesn’t fit into our system.” ”
You are personalizing this too much. It’s not about whether or not he was “at fault” but, rather, whether his inclusion benefits the overall team play.
This is, I think, what “Paul Parker” has been arguing – and it is what I think, too. Also, I don’t think that the “midfield is crap” is much of an argument when they are playing two-against-three in the middle.
The nostalgia about 4-4-2 seems to me to be, well, “nostalgic”. The game has moved on and 4-4-2 is no longer the way the game is being played. Similarly, the game is no longer played 5-3-2; most teams set themselves up in some version of a 4-5-1 and that’s just the way it is right now. Trying to play 4-4-2 against five in midfield (or, rather, two against three in central midfield) just doesn’t work in big games.
The issue with Berbatov is that he is simply NOT a versatile player – he only plays his game at his speed. That’s just the way he is – he can’t be changed so the result is that “the issue with Berbatov” is one to do with him being a square-peg-in-a-round-hole.
I’ve often been accused of being a big “BerbyBasher” but I also acknowledge that he has fantastic touch and great skill. However, this current UTD squad has been at its best when WayneRooney is best-serviced; that just doesn’t occur when he’s paired with Berbatov. That’s a pity, it’s a shame but it’s also reality. At least, it’s the reality that I have observed in watching almost all of UTD’s matches this year and last.
King Eric @ 20:02: “Also why the fuck is Valencia getting stick?”
Could it be that while he was almost always open on the flank that he never hit the target with a cross – Distin had a field day. For him, it was like picking cherries. Maybe that’s what people are saying.
There are so many people who come on this blog after we lose with ridiculously negative comments and start slating individuals! We didn’t play well today and were beaten by a team that deserved to beat us. The reason for the defeat I believe is due to a mixture of poor defending and tired legs, not due to any one individual. I assume that all the slaters on this blog will refuse to celebrate when we win silverware this year….. oh, and I bet you’ve been joining in the celebrations since the City win! Proper fickle boys, you should maybe take your support over to Eastlands!!!
rntk – I may be wrng but a few weeks ago, Hull, Burnley, City and Arsenal. There may be that Citeh defeat in there I can’t remember, I don’t really care.
Some good posts in the last few.
Watched Inter v Sampdoria. I said the other week I hadn’t watched Serie a since the mid nineties. Having watched that tonight I won’t be watching another game. Inter down to nine men (AGAIN) and Sampdoria could not beat them. They were fucking woeful. 1 chance all second half. Its good to see Mourinho’s teams haven’t changed. Dirty, cheating cunts. Diving all over the place. Eto’o resorting to a pathetic dive which he got booked for. The Rentboys are lucky as usual as they are facing an Inter team that had to work with two players less for most of the game.
Talking of managers Moyes has done himself no harm in becoming a candidate for Fergies job. Not just today but have said it for ages. He is a superb manager. His teams are bloody difficult to beat especially at Goodison. Well organised, tough, technically good and fucking hard working. Look at today as prime example. TWO products of his youth academy came on to get the decisive goals. Inspired substitutions from Moyes. Some of his signings on a shoestring have been excellent. Cahill, Fallaini, Pienaar, Arteta, Heitinga, Saha, Neville. Not to mention the like of other youth players that he has brought through like Osman and loan players like Donovan. He is a tough Scot much like Fergie and I reckon he could do a job at United. Is he a big enough character to handle a club the size of United? That is my only query.
Interesting interview with Pat Evra post match. He was saying that before the game the players were suffering he thought with the high of the San Siro. He said players were saying just before kick-off they felt tired and their legs were aching. He said it wasn’t an excuse but the mentality just wasn’t right leading up to the game.
denton – Not gonna talk about Berbatov as we both know how each other feel but you make some good points in that post at 23.54 with regard to the midfield. You are right most teams do now set up in some kind of 4-5-1 . It was clearly apparent today that the first time Fergie goes 4-4-2 away from home we were completely over run in the middle of the park. It will be the last time he will go that formation in these games .
mikekelly12 – Spot on mate.
Wonder how much the price tag on Jack Rodwell will be now?
much rather moyes to tnsso, like you say davey everton are a good side, but shouldn’t be doom and gloom we beat arsenal away city in the cup milan away. its a set back but with rio back after west ham evans emerging(ok was shit today but still class) nani looking to be hitting potential we should take the hurt from these scouse cunts and use it to hammer west ham and use the momentum in to the final sunday,
come on united
talkin about 4 million i think, be worth a punt,still wish we’d got ramsey
Forget Rodwell, we could have done with Phil Neville in our team! No once can say for sure how bad this blow is. We have gone on to win titles after bad defeats. A 3-2 loss at OT against Derby in 97, a 3-1 defeat at the Dell in 96, the 4-1 loss to the dippers last season. The title deciders might be the 2 home games against Chelsea and Liverpool. And in between, there is a tough trip at Owen Coyle’s Bolton.
But it all comes down to the defence imo. Just, dreadful numbers all around. 38 goals in 41 games, no clean sheet on the road since the the trip to West Ham and we have already conceded as many Premiership goals as we did the entire 08-09 season.
G’day all
I’m back from… well I’m back
United were brilliant against Milan when they knew they were in for it
Seedorf got lucky with the goal as Rafael was out of position – no matter good stuff for the kid – that exposure
As for today – I actually believed that not starting with Rooney would have been good – he was tired and you could see it and he might not think he needs a break but for him to be extraordinary for the rest of the season it would have helped not starting him.
His first touch today was again excellent – but funnily enough his second touch and that for most of the time was off – cue the moment he takes on Howard and then Phil Neville of all people knocks him off the ball when he’s about to score!
I think that was the turning point of the match and United could not keep up the levels – understandable but still it was upsetting – they (Everton) just did to us what we have been doing for fun for a while now to everyone else – and that is exposing teams by battering them with speed and efficiency. Of course Everton outmuscled us too – something they know they could do because we had the harder game in mid week – for crying out loud they didn’t have to go very far for their own match!
Unfortunately for us we find ourselves back to 4 points again. Not a problem yet but we have to claw as many points back before the London mob come to us. Buckle up then!
Again – our players must take responsibility for there actions. Rio was stupid against Fagan and got himself a four match ban – although it’s obvious that the FA made an example of him – but we have to quit complaining about the FA – our own players should know that we are subjected to special treatment for authorities to make a point/any point against us. Also although Nani’s tackle was no horror show – he was stupid for going in like that considering the referee on show. Two players who would have been valuable against Villa and Everton and may have made a difference.
All players should be vigilant against such actions/reactions for future reference.
Well done to Everton for totally bombarding us and spotting a weakness in our play – we didn’t do ourselves no favours when we never came out and battered them after the 2nd half had restarted. If we had done – I reckon we would have maybe have done better.
Berba both makes me laugh and cry. Some of his football was brilliant today – at other times – he refused to go or run after the ball after failing to bring it down in one Berba style swoop – unacceptable of a United player. Plus how did he with his height miss that header from Rooney’s floated pass? Again an X-file if you ever saw one. I wonder what SAF will do with him since he hasn’t even started much after the Leeds match…
I thought bringing on Obertan was weird when they were going at us – surely Gibson should have come on to add some midfield steel. But who am I to question the gaffer – after all the team were bubbling after beating ACM so why the deflated performance – I have no idea
I know one thing though – I still love my team and as long as I believe and all you do with me – then we will make it. Believe
“rooney the new king Said,
February 20th, 2010 @23:44
Always Be Closing – you and King Eric says well how do I know he will not make, well how do you know he will make it. My pts on the striker department is its not enough, rooney cant be rested because the other strikers are not doing it. Unless diouf is starting games I dont see him making it. ok then why did united sign manucho rossi tosic have they or did they start games.”
How is that even an argument? I don’t know if he’ll make it as a player, I really hope he does, though. However, you don’t know that he won’t make it, so why are you pissing on our players before they’ve even had their chance? Diouf has scored in the first team and multiple times in the reserves (in not many games), he’s striker material and showing fantastic promise. Diouf isn’t starting games yet because we signed him in January you pillock. What have they got to do with Diouf? Did they score hat-tricks in the reserves after less than two months a the club? No is the answer you’re looking for.
I agree that we looked tired out there today and it was a disappointing showing. We needed to rest Rooney but surely he will be rested on Tuesday before the Carling Cup final. Diouf might get the start then but the reserves is a totally different level then the EPL. With that said we need to give him games so he can continue to grow. I was also confused about the Obertan substitution but he has been performing for the reserves and maybe Fergie thought he could take advantage of P. Neville. To be fair he never got fully into the game because we were simply out played in the second half.
Chelsea dropped points to Everton so it isn’t the end of the world. Ya it is harder now but no need for panic. Vidic is on the mend, Ferdinand’s suspension is up, and we should see them back in our defense which should give us much needed support. We have given up far to many goals as Costa pointed out. I have always tried to explain to my friends who are Barca fans that the main reason they have been able to be so successful as of late is their backline. You have to have a strong defensive foundation so your attacking play is allowed to flow and take risks. Everytime we took risks it seemed we were about to be punished today. Evans to me has regressed this season and now I am wondering if choosing Evans over Pique was the right choice. The jury is still deliberating on that for me but he needs to turn in better performances.
With all that said we have the best manager and we have faced tons of adversity this season. We are finally getting our players back and I think we could serioulsy win out from here. Chelsea will drop points or at least find it very difficult not to. They are in pole position but one slip and we are right back in it. No need to panic. COME ON UNITED!
Are you all out of your mind?
i would happily take a four point gap behind chelsea even if it was seven games remaining let alone 14.
chelsea are overrated MASSIVELY.
I believe and CAN GUARANTEE THAT IF UNITED CAN WIN 6 MATCHES IN A ROW , manchester united will be top and will stay there.
i also think that if we win the carling cup the whole squad will be revitalised as man united are a club that senses trophies as if it were sensing blood.
Park is a waste of space. For an ‘attacking midfielder’ his goals to games ratio is pathetic…Being able to run a lot dosen’t make you a good footballer.
Gary Neville..Thank you for everything you have done for the club, but enough is enough.
Jonny Evans was ok last year alongside either Rio or Vida. Im sure he will come good, but already looking forward to seeing Smalling.
There is a long way to go in the title race yet. But we can’t afford to lose many more games in this season of crazy results!!
L.U.H.G.
get a life.the defence was bad,that shook the team in every department and it didn’t help that we played a mega game against milan where we defended hanging on our lines.it’s probably the only the United ‘fans’ aka glory hunters who can actually say lets think about the carling cup.RUBBISH.yes we want and have to win it next sunday but its shocking to see how some think all’s gone after 1 game.if we had played like yesterday against a mediocre team,we may,just may,have won.i don’t get why people can be such hypocrites.a week ago,it was “Valencia is a vintage winger,he’s fit in so well’.today its “Valencia doesn’t provide new dimensions to the team”.Listen,its cliched but its true-United we stand,divided we fall.When we play bad as a team there isn’t one person whom you can entirely blame.Everton were good and sharp.We were jaded tired and shoddy.like what Sir Alex’s said.We were well beaten.So can we just move on to West Ham and continue our trot towards the title.Glory -hunters step aside.
Credit to everton for playing better than us.every player has been critisised by many fans amd some crazy fans are even critisising berba.its surprising not a single supporter has critisised park.Guys accept it park is absolute rubbish.He is pathetic.A wingers duty is to score goals or atleast to give asists.he doesnt do both so whats the use of playing him.I still believe we can win the league.but we have to be consistent.
I cant see what problem certain fans have if someone criticizes our players.I dont do it myself but after a defeat every fan has right to be critical.We do praise our players when they do well so as fans we have the right to criticize them too.
@rtnk
i agree that United need a new striker. I think Diouf will do well but Have my doubts over Berbatov despite his good performance yesterday. lets hope he can do well in the tricky games from now on.Someone said Michael Owen scored a hat trick.so what?. is that what you are going to say all season.Then why does SAF start him in one game every month? and not have more confidence in him.Berbatov is 29,Owen is 30. We need another striker around 23-25 years old with Diouf and Rooney.
People are still bashing Berbatov? Rooney was awful (probably because he was tired, but still awful), and people still find reasons to blame Berba?
Un-freaking-believable.
Even at the end of the first half it was apparent that rooney was not getting enough of the ball and barba was playing as if he has done plenty after scoring a goal. also, this season everytime we have played against hard working teams we have been found wanting. for me the problem is still the midfield. it plays very well against attack minded teams who leave lots of space in the midfield, but when we come up against hard working teams who defend and battle as a team specially in the midfield we go into our shell and play defensively and more often than not loose the game.
bad day at the office and at the wrong time too.
We’re now 4 points behind Chelsea and 2 infront of Arsenal.
We need to regroup and focus on the next game. We can still win it
But need to beat West Ham. That will put us 1 point behind them
Having played a game more. I believe on the weekend as we beat Villa in
The CC, they will draw. Meaning if we beat Chelsea at OT we’ll go top by 1
Point.
At the end of the day we Rio and Vidic back at the centre. Johnny is young and still learning the game at the top level and he’s getting invaluable experience money cannot buy.
We all want United to win, and every time we loose it hurts.
What we learnt from the game was that their first goal was preventable. Long balls should be cut out and the ball that dropped into open play should have been picked up by our midfielders.
SAF and the coaching staff should be focusing on the defence and midfield.
aig – There is nowt wrong with criticising players after a bad defeat. I have done it myself but its just comments like “Berba must go” even though he was our best player yesterday or “SAF INSTEAD OF BLAMING OTHERS ADMIT YOU GOT IT WRONG AGAIN”. Things like that are a disgrace mate. Or people coming on saying United are the best thing since sliced bread then after one defeat say we are fucking shit.
No offence mate but you weren’t following United in say 95 when we sold Hughes , Ince and Kanchelskis. Everyone was saying we are fucked who will get the goals. Season or so later step up a certain PAUL SCHOLES from the youth system.
Trust in Fergie THE greatest ever British manager.
By the way who is that 23 or 24 year old striker YOU would buy? Don’t say Dzeko mate. He is a target man and that’s it. Don’t want to go back to that predictable shite.
I was at the game yesterday and not really happy with a few performances! First of all our defense was awful, sorry but Nev is just too slow for the prem and Baines and co had a field day down the left.
Brown or Evans along side Vida or Rio are great but together not good enough. Evans decision making and distribution is still devloping and he got caught out a few times. I wont jump on his back though although I thought he alongside Nev was our worst players.
That said 3-1 flattered Everton, they deserved their win due to commitment and passion and our lads looked tired and down beat.
Rooney didnt have a good game and for me crazy subs that I could not work out? I would have took Rooney off and left Berba on with five in Midfield. We need to look after Rooney and he cant play at this temp for 60+ games a season.
Bad day at the office but we move on, must win at home on Tuesday now!
@King Eric
Well there must be some good striker. Its our scouts job to do that. Maybe we will have to spend a bit more but if a player is worth it,why not.Dzeko always has been my choice and i am sure he will do well.The club surely must be keeping an eye on other players and having transfer targets. Surely Benzema wasnt the only striker we had on our list last year, or was he?
Jesus, just read this today, I can’t see whats so hard for some of you to understand, so rather then cut and paste responses I’ll summarise:
…
I thought playing 4-4-2 was the main factor in why we lost yesterday. If im not mistaken, we played 4-4-2 to accomodate Berbatov. Therefore, including Berb in the team yesterday played a role in why we lost. None of this is his fault. Nor is it a denial of his God Given Ability. Thats all im saying Fellas. So to the POMMY – I didn’t blame Berbatov for us losing mate, your para’s weren’t necessary, refer back to the above. To the other guy, I didn’t say anything about us getting Spanked you read that wrong, I said Everton spanked Chelsea so why did we select Berb yesterday when we DARED NOT TO at the Bridge? 4-5-1 played a role in our Performance there. We played 4-4-2 against Liverpool with Berbatov and LOST, he hasn’t started against our big Rivals since. If I knew some of you would be so bloody sensitive about Berby I’d have omitted his name altogether. Seriously, instead of Berbatov I could have said Santa Claus, I could have told you ALEC MADE A MISTAKE STARTING WITH SANTA CLAUS IN A 4-4-2 AT GOODISON PARK AFTER CHELSEA WAS JUST SPANKED THERE. At the risk of upsetting Berbatov lovers everywhere, I believe we should have sacrificed his undeniable skill to give Young Evans and Second Choice Brown some COVER with a 5th Midfielder. HOW DO YOU THINK WE BEAT MILAN IN MILAN? We didn’t respect our oppenents enough yesterday, and I believe we could have beat them if we played 4-5-1 as did in Milan. The End. Considering what im saying is so simple im not going to explain it again. Agree or Disagree but for the love of God UNDERSTAND
denton davey Said,February 20th, 2010 @23:54
FZE @ 20:00 “of course he doesn’t as we have been playing a 4-5-1 on a regular basis apart from today, and considering Rooney’s great form of late he was the obvious choice up front. This is not Berb’s fault, nor should it be the reason why he should leave just because “he doesn’t fit into our system.” ”
You are personalizing this too much. It’s not about whether or not he was “at fault” but, rather, whether his inclusion benefits the overall team play.
This is, I think, what “Paul Parker” has been arguing – and it is what I think, too. Also, I don’t think that the “midfield is crap” is much of an argument when they are playing two-against-three in the middle.
___________________
Precisely mate, at least somebody sees things how I see it. Its not personal against Berbatov at all. I’ve been supporting him since he signed, I rated him before he signed, but yesterday our TEAM needed an extra midfielder to cover our defence more then we needed an extra striker – thats all im saying. So I agree, people are definitely “personalising” things too much. Our second choice defence needs all the cover it can get, so I agree mate, an extra midfielder in a 4-5-1 is a wiser choice then an extra striker in a 4-4-2
King Eric Said
Paul Parker – You cannot blame Berbatov for United playing poorly in a 4-4-2. Ridiculous mate, no offence.
King Eric Said
denton – you make some good points in that post at 23.54 with regard to the midfield. You are right most teams do now set up in some kind of 4-5-1 . It was clearly apparent today that the first time Fergie goes 4-4-2 away from home we were completely over run in the middle of the park. It will be the last time he will go that formation in these games .
_______________________________________
Mate, me and Denton are making the exact same point.
We’re criticising the choice of 4-4-2 with Berbatov yesterday. So when you agreed with him that we were over-run in midfield playing 4-4-2 your actually agreeing with what I said above, and when you said that Everton should be the last time we play a 4-4-2 instead of 4-5-1 in big games your also agreeing with what I said already. So your first post to me was “Ridiculous” mate, but no offence yeah?
Paul Parker – Hello mate. I knew you would think that is what I meant regarding the formation and Berba but I didn’t. What I meant was IF our midfield were all playing at the top of their game then we could go 4-4-2 in certain games. The fact we lost yesterday has nowt to do with Berbatov but many different aspects. The midfield being piss poor yesterday being one of those factors.
Paul Parker – Just read your full posts and find them very patronising. You say we should UNDERSTAND but it may help if you put it into some kind of paragraphs. Who the fuck is “the POMMY”?
King Eric Said,February 21st, 2010 @18:49
Paul Parker – Just read your full posts and find them very patronising. You say we should UNDERSTAND but it may help if you put it into some kind of paragraphs. Who the fuck is “the POMMY”?
____________
Haha, sorry mate, the Pommy knows who he is. About your earlier point, I now understand your original point. Your blaming the Everton game on the poor form of our “first choice” midfield in a 4-4-2. I understand now. With my original point, I’ve already acknowledged Giggs and Nani are both out, and of course I know the current form of our best midfield players isn’t 100%. I’ve acknowledged that, which is why for the vital Everton game I thought we shouldn’t have risked a 4 man midfield, I thought we should have simply continued doing what we’ve BEEN DOING which is add an extra man in a 4-5-1 – and thats why I mentioned Berbatov in the first place, not because of his form or his worth to the team, but because of the cost of including him. He’s a great player, BUT considering the form of our midfield and acknowledging our back four is no where near first choice, I was just saying Berbatov should’ve been sacrificed so we could play 4-5-1 and hide our deficiencies. I can see and even agree with your positive approach by expecting more from the midfield. Im just being sceptical and pessimistic, I want the 19th / 4th Title this year and im happy for us to do it cynically and ugly. Winning is Winning. We want the 19th and the 4th Title.
Paul Parker/King Eric – interesting back-and-forth. To my way of thinking, the 4-4-2 can’t be successful against a five-man midfield (or two against three in the center) UNLESS you have Superman and his Wonder Dog as your “two”. I don’t think that Fletcherinho and Carrick/Scholes is a poor or deficient or mediocre midfield duo but they can’t do the job IF they’re outnumbered and left to deal with three opponents. It’s really not much more than simple arithmetic – two into three won’t go !
That said, I’d really like to see Valencia given a go as the lead-man in a three-man midfield (with Fletcherinho and Carrick/Scholes) so that Nani can play right-inside and Anderson (or Obertan) can play left-inside. It seems to me that this will make the most of the talent available while playing the formation that seems to work best nowadays. I know it’s a bit of a reach to think about stationing Anderson in that role but he is actually the only natural left-footer among the midfielders/forwards so I think he deserves a run-out playing to his own maximum advantage.
another thing – I don’t understand why people thnk that the CL is a bigger “reach” than the EPL. Right now, UTD have a huge advantage that “should” see the team through to the final eight. Assuming that that is OK, then there are two home-and-away meetings and a winner-takes-all final. A level playing field. IF UTD had won on Saturday then the playing field in the EPL would be more-or-less level but being four points behind the RentBoyz really tilts it in their favour.