Another win for United in the pre-season, making it six out of seven for the summer of 2009. A 2-0 win over the sixth best side in Spain is good preparation for the Community Shield on Sunday, as we’re ten days away from the season!
Positives
Antonio Valencia – The press have questioned, repeatedly, how Sir Alex Ferguson reckons a Wigan winger who’s scored a handful of goals over the past few seasons is going to replace Cristiano Ronaldo. They’re missing the point. Valencia is never going to be a 20 goal a season scorer, but I’d fancy him to be behind at least that many goals at the end of this season, including his assists. He created both our goals last night and judging on the way he played against Boca Juniors and Bayern Munich, he is fully prepared and ready to run at Premiership defenders.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who became a centre forward and winger in one last season, seemed to grow tired of taking defenders. Maybe he had been kicked one time too many, maybe he just couldn’t be bothered, but despite his blistering pace, he seemed reluctant to skin his opponent. In Valencia, we have a player who is all too eager to take a defender on! He is a United winger. He’s a Kanchelskis and he’s a Giggsy. He will burn the full-back and put a ball across the front of the goal, whilst the rest of the lads queue up to put it away. Or he’ll do the defender then come inside and have a crack himself. What more could we ask for?
Ritchie De Laet – The Belgian played a blinder on the last day of the season against Hull, bombing up and down our left wing. It was a similar story last night, however this time it was the right wing he bossed, alongside Valencia.
He was able and eager in attack, yet still confident and composed in defence. He made several great challenges, including an extremely clean and strong tackle in the box as his opponent steamed in. Given the positional problems we’ve had with the 19-year-old da Silva twins, who are firm favourite with the fans but clearly lacking the defensive know-how at present, you wouldn’t believe De Laet was just a year older than them. All our full-backs need to be looking over their shoulders after tonight.
No Ronaldo – It is of course always going to be a nervy time when your best players move on because whether it’s conscious or not, your team evolve to playing in a way that best suits these players. Our attack became so one-dimensional with the superb finisher Ruud van Nistelrooy in the team. Get the ball, pass it to Ruud in the box. Get it, pass it to Ruud. Run with the ball, pass it to Ruud six yards out. When you’ve got someone who scores 150 goals in 219 games, then you’d be fucking mental not to try and give him the ball within scoring range whenever possible. Whilst not quite a rigid as that with Ronaldo in the team, clearly a lot of our play was centred around him, and it worked fabulously well for us. But now he’s gone, you never really know where our attack is going to go.
Against Valencia, all of our attacking players were working hard, with the ball going down either 
wing. They would come in centrally, they would put in a cross from the byline, they would burst in to the box. You didn’t know where the next attack was coming from and what it would look like. It was totally unpredictable and therefore thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Tom Cleverley – The latest youngster to get in to the team and score a goal. As every other player in the pre-season has seemingly gone to effort to take out any smile out of their celebration, (it’s so uncool to look happy about scoring in the pre-season, didn’t you know?) Cleverley ran to the Stretford End after scoring, jumping and throwing his fist in the air. That’s the way to do it lad!
Negatives
Michael Owen – After a really good pre-season so far, scoring four goals, Owen was a disappointment last night. He had four really good opportunities to score and for a couple of them he really should have done better.
The disappointment wasn’t his performance so much though, as there were plenty of positives to his game, rather the reaction it will obviously bring about. The tabloids love have an opportunity to have a dig at United and love to have a dig at Owen, so already he’s having the pressure heaped on him. But if he’s good enough, he’ll handle that, and save his goals for when it matters!
What was encouraging was Owen’s movement and positioning. He was on the shoulder of the last man time and again and it was all too obvious what we bought him for. If he can get behind the defence of Boca Juniors, Bayern Munich and Valencia, then it bodes well for the Premiership. The guy can finish, it was an off night yesterday, but he looks good for the coming season.
Hi GHTT and Boogeyman. To answer your question Boogeyman, no i didn’t see anyone from ROM. It would have been hard anyway. My schedule got messed up and i arrived at OT just in time to get my Giggs shirt from the megastore and watch the game.
I also believe that there were a lot of first timers yesterday. Nothing wrong with that though. Some regular fans who go to OT every week can get complacent and start shitting on the team the minute a pass goes wrong. So it was a good change of pace i felt, even though the Mexican wave got annoying after the 2nd time.
2 points:1) Owen’s positioning is the key. The goals will come. He hasn’t had so many clear cut chances wth Newcastle for an entire season! 2) We created almost every opportunity from our pressing. I like that SAF has instructed our wingers and strikes to get more at the opposition.
PS Don’t worry about the name guys!
@GHTT: Did Emily enjoy herself?
Costa,since you like stats,I’m gonna put one out for you.
Emily Best Pickering,at the tender age of 3,has seen more matches live at OT than you,AIG and me combined.I don’t know AIG’s age,so that’s a total of 27+15+AIG’s age. lol
Hey Costas — I was pleased that the lads put on a good performance and got the win for you yesterday. I don’t remember if we played Juve or Inter, it was one of those two, last year at this time and that game was f’ing awful! So at least this one had some cut and thrust to it.
valencia was a monster !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he played so well and i think delaet was incredible also, i was sad when they both came off i wish i could see more of them, our right wing is fearsome! ………….on the other hand our left not so.
Tosic has been disapointing the last few games, SAF is right in the fact that he is too lightweight at the moment, against EPL defenders he will get slaughtered.. you could see he was being harrassed into back passes to easily and at one stage the midfield wasnt looking to pass the ball out to him when he was alone (because of his earlier gaff no doubt) very disapointing.
Cleverly is way to young, i just dont feel he is ready for us just yet, maybe 1 more season on loan. I think we might need to buy a left winger?
Anderson was bollocks again, are we playing him to deep is that his problem? I know he piled on the KGs this offseason.
GIBSON was spectacular and i hope to see more off him.
Yah. There are some positives stuff yesterday. Kusczack was good last time He look very confident and calm compare to his previous seasons. Foster seems to be low in confident and not sure what to do. As for Cleverley and De Laet, they both did really well. Cleverley looks good however, he need more direct play if he wants to be in the team. Now we lacking a player with giggs previous skills and that is to run past the defender. I notice Ronaldo do tend to stop getting past defender. Valencia for me is well placed on the right for the giggs style. Valencia is a right sided giggs. However, we are lacking left sided midfielders. Tosic looks over whelmed by the crowds and his passing and dribbling looks at time stuck and can’t penetrate well. However, i bet with more experience he could come good as he had talent in him. Nani performance is good with his more precise and direct play with less dribbling. If he can maintain that, definitely will be a big plus. Carrick for me looks out of sort yesterday. Anderson and fletcher is really brilliant in the midfield, if anderson can score some goals, i bet he could be the first starting for brazil in a few years time. Ronney looks good in the 2nd half as he dribbling and calmness makes himself more space and room to pass the ball forward. Berbatov as i have always said, his play is a best attacking midfielder. Look at his passing, he definitely created more chances for us in the 2nd half than the 1st. Owen for me is alright and will be good for the coming seasons as he had make himself so much chances and looks dangerous from his headers coming behind the defenders. For me he only had 2 good chances that he missed out of the 4. he should have score 1 but don’t worry. He will come good. My concern for is Tosic, carrick and our defensive midfield. Carrick need to be on form for the most matches as this could make a good season for us. Tosic needs to adapt quickly to the atmosphere and confidence to gain more chances in the first team. As for our defensive midfield. We really lacking one. I know Owen hargreaves is coming back however, is it sure he could maintain the fitness and not be injured anymore? Our defensive area is a really big problem. If we could have a good one there, then anderson, valencia, carrick, fletcher can all concentrate more on attack and needn’t be worry about defence too much and thus not running back too fast and with more energy and stamina in them, they can create more chances and more opportunities.
Our defence is really awesome with ferdinand looking in very good shape with positioning, awareness, calmness, commanding, leadership. As for other defender, well done did really well. I was surprise by how many youngster we had. There is gibson, macheda, welbeck, cleverley, De Laet, and many more. They can’t be really good however, they can their jobs pretty well when given. De Laet positioning at times looks better than Silva twins. Looking forward to more youngster giving challenge and make up to the big stage. Our team looks to be in good shape as no more big egos. Completely agree with scott and Jig Said, “I think we have a team without ego (well, in comparison to the rest of the football world). In players like Evra, Vidic, O’Shea, Brown, Neville, Scholes, Giggs, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Park, Valencia, Rooney, Owen – we have hard-working role-models who will inspire our youth players to work hard & contribute to the team/club not work for individual spoils. This work-ethic and dedication is more akin with traditional Utd values, we don’t need or want pre-Madonnas.”
Costas – Glad you enjoyed it mate. Yes I noticed a lot of groans last night the minute Carrick misplaced a pass or Tosic didn’t control the ball well enough. I am sure at one point (but it may be for summat else) that Berba got BOOED a couple of times he got the ball? I sincerely hope not.
Valencia > Ronaldo – I didn’t think Ando was too bad last night, played some cracking balls. Has had a pretty good pre season.
Why are people wanting a defensive midfielder? As I have said time and again we have DARREN “IMMENSE” FLETCHER!
Yeah got to admit the team spirit seems excellent.
My random thoughts from last night….
I wish Gibson would teach a class on how to properly strike a ball. My Lord he packs a punch.
If we could blend PIG’s reflex shot stopping ability with Fosters ability to kick and distribute well, we would have a mighty fine keeper. As it is though, I’m not sure I would be ready to have full faith in either of them, which I hate to say. PIG looks like he shits himself every time the ball gets played back to his feet, and half the time it ends up in the stands. But when Foster gets it, its almost reminincent of a Carrick pass. And they could both improve on dealing with crosses/decision making. I hope they figure it out.
Cleaverly looked cool calm and collected on the ball. Where does he play for the reserves? Is he a center mid? I think its obvious he is heavily right footed so I’m guessing left mid isn’t his natural position. Which quite frankly makes his performance all the more impressive.
Why was Evra out there doing his best Ronaldinho impression? He was pulling out fancy tricks and flicks all over the place.
Berba had a sprint up the right wing which I swear was faster than anything he gave us all year last season! I had to rub my eyes and make sure it was really him and not Nani/Valencia.
Evans was calm and did everything with a cool calmness. I was hoping to see some more of Catchcart though. Maybe next time.
Tosic put in a couple very dangerous corners, and I think he would be good to have on all set pieces…. But other than that, I’m not so sure. He’s smaller than Evra and doesn’t have the lightening pace of a Giggs. Those are tought standards to hold him up to but, alas, thats the world we live in at United I guess.
Does anyone else ever wonder how on earth they organize the first team training sessions? We must have 40 players out there that all need to be involved somehow. We have enough for 2 full 11 on 11 matches, easily. And I bet there would be some good battles in there too. Like maybe Rafael playing RB for one side, going up against Fabio playing LB for the opposition. Or Rooney going in for challenges with Vidic. (My money is on the Serbian monster)
And on the same subject, I think we could have a United B team that could easily finish in the top ten of the league. But maybe I’m being crazy. (hell, I think we could field an Under 23 team that could avoid relegation… Isn’t that young German keeper with the two names supposed to be outstanding? And what about the lad Amos?)
Hey Drew. Good points. The squad looks fairly big because SAF keeps pulling them out of the hat like rabbits! He could have went with O’Shea, Nani and Park from the start, but he chose to give De Laet,Fabio,Tosic and Cleverley opportunities.
The Juve match was last year. We lost to Inter a season before that. But i was glad the lads gave us a good showing now that i was in there!
@King Eric: It was great watching first hand how immense Fletch is! No booing for Berba that i can recall. And a very nice reception for Owen too. If he keeps making spaces for himself like that, the goals will come. At Newcastle, he would have to wait for 4 games to get as many chances!
Negatives – The bloody traffic!
Oh yeah and what was with the mexican wave last night? First time I’ve ever seen it at OT.
chris20legend – you have indeed made yourself look a bit of a twat. I went last night and for the record i’ve had a season ticket for 4 years and been to enough away games to go to the chelsea fa cup final. We went because it was somethin to do on a wednesday night. Thought the thing about owen was that he was rarely offside, if at all. We all know he can finish and that will come. If was tevez or rooney furthest forward, they tend to stray a bit and don’t get the chance in the 1st place. Excited about valencia. Only problem now is that i’m desperate for us to sign david silva, he’s absolute quality. 25mil, bargain!
Good article. Agree on most points.
Midfield seems an issue to me as well. Carrick is class but he needs consistency and he needs a more reliable partner to help with the muscle where we have at times been out-hustled. Anderson really does need to step in the absence of the excellent Hargreaves. Fletcher is fine and while I think the criticism he has received over the years has been unfair, you get the feeling he’ll do a fine job but could he step it up to another level? I have doubts.
I read elsewhere that Eric Harrsison reckons Rafael Da Silva would make a great winger and perhaps that’s his best position. If that’s so given his problems with positioning at times and with De Laet coming along nicely perhaps that’s what needs to happen.
In any case, I’m trusting Fergie with all this. I reckon there will be less rotation this year. The emphasis will be on consistency.
@Chris20legend……your a fanny
Chris20LEGEND
taught it was bleedin hillarious listning to the 60 thousand plus day trippers and glory hunters etc who wouldnt get a ticket for a league match tryn to create a bit of atmosphere….
Calling people day trippers and glory hunters for turning out for a meaningless friendly is out of order.Many of these people will only be able to get tickets for such matches but still contribute to the coffers of the club.Taking your child to a game like that gives them the buzz and creates future supporters.Saw lots of wide eyed kids singing UNITED on Wednesday and thought it was fuckin great.They are the future fans and if that is the only game they ever go to I haven’t got a problem with it.