I wonder when we will look like scoring again. The only league game in the past month or more where we’ve caused our opposition serious problems was against Stoke, when we battered them 5-0. Against the likes of Sunderland, City, Villa and Arsenal we have completely dominated the game, in terms of possession and shots, yet have struggled to pick up the points.
Today was yet another example of ‘one of those days’. Of course it was predictable that bag of shite keeper Heurelho Gomes would have the game of the season against us, making great saves for chances from Giggs, Park, Carrick and Vidic. But that doesn’t excuse not finding the back of the net with the wealth of talent we have on offer.
Looking at our past five games in the league, we’ve created more chances than our opposition and dominated possession.
Arsenal (away) 53%
Villa (away) 63%
City (away) 54%
Sunderland (home) 72%
Spurs (away) 67%
Out of a possible 15 points, we’ve picked up 8, scoring just 3 goals. That is not good enough.
I’m not concerned at this stage, because like every year, I still think we’re going to win the league, however, that doesn’t mean that our football isn’t entirely frustrating at the moment. We’re making life needlessly difficult for ourselves and it’s going to be an uphill struggle when we return from Japan.
I’m not one of these sad Dimitar Berbatov critics, but we do need to see more from him soon. I think he’s a touch of class and I’m pleased we bought him, but he’s had enough time to settle now and I’m looking forward to seeing him step up to the plate. It needs to be sooner rather than later though. He was booed as expected, but this didn’t make him buckle to the pressure and get rid of the ball. He was confident and competent, but lacked that extra special something.
Paul Scholes did make a difference when he came on and hopefully he’ll be fully fit come the new year. Having his creative eye on the pitch can only be a good thing for us.
Whilst it most come as a surprise to many regulars, I’m getting pretty much full to bursting with annoyance where Cristiano Ronaldo is concerned. Aside from the fact his form isn’t one we would hope for of late, his behaviour on the pitch is getting embarrassing. How can we be taken seriously when we criticise players for kicking lumps out of him when he’s petulantly swiping out at the opposition, as he did with Dawson in this evening’s match. What at first appeared to be an accident was clearly shown as intentional with a replay, Ronaldo kicking out at Dawson as he jogged off. Unacceptable.
We don’t seem to have anything new. It’s the same old stuff from us every week and our opposition have us sussed out. We probably won’t be beaten by their tactics, with teams at home and away choosing to absorb our pressure rather than come out to beat us, but we’re not winning enough either. We are dropping points because of our inability to think outside the box.
Dawson and Zokora were outstanding today, we should have the ability to counter-act that and get the better of them. The same can be said of Aston Villa’s Lauren and Young. But we should have something on offer that betters these players, even when they are having a cracker of a game.
Fortunately, Chelsea and Liverpool aren’t too special at the moment either, but today was a big opportunity missed. Must do better.
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Becoming a bit of a concern that we have become wasteful in front of goal this season. I’m worried we are gonna end up with the same tally of league goals as we did in the 2004/05 season.
Even though i agree completely with the above written aricle , it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong.
for eg Tonight the overall performance was great except the lack of goals. We perhaps need a ruthless finisher who can convert these numerous golden opportunities into goals. It does get extremely disappointing to end up with a single point after such a performance.
Hopefully Sir Alex will sort it out quickly and hopefully things will improve from here on. Have to stress that we could have done nicely with a win today what with the dippers n arses dropping points. Very disappointed
I am sorry. But the tactics were just pathetic
Why was Park taking all the corners? And why is park playing as a regular first teamer. Nani should be given chances
Why wasnt Fletcher substituted earlier?
Why was half fit Scholes bought on when we had Anderson on the bench?
Same for Giggs.
Many many questions and not many answers. We havent put up one overall great performance this season. Are we missing Queiroz?
I am just very very angry and disappointed
Very frustrating and disappointing. With each game that comes I keep saying to myself “this is the game where everything will click and we will get a bag full”. One or two would do but just aint happening at the moment. Not overly concerned yet tho as I am sure everything will fall into place second half of season and we will be full of goals. Hope Rooney doesn’t get a ban as we really do miss him. Just hope ‘ammers do Rent boys tomorrow.
twice the top 2 have dropped points , n twice we havent made gud use of it… when was the last time it was so frustrating??
United’s patient build up play is one thing, not being able to string together a single pair of passes in their third of the pitch is another. All our posession, Scott, has come outside that region. And that is bloody irritating because it goes to show that we aren’t able to make space up front at all. AT ALL.
Bloody hell. Isn’t Carrick in the team for that reason? Scholes didn’t get too much time on the ball, but what the fuck was the midfield up to? Not a single decent chance created in play from the central midfield region today.
And Tevez is seriously missing out due to his lack of pace. He’s got to play a different role to the one he’s playing right now. A more hold-spray role, as opposed to the hound-tire one…
Very few plus points, apart from our defence and Van Der Sar, Vidic and Rio were brillinat yet again, and Rafael handles Lennon pretty well. Also Scholes is back, massive plus!
Tevez was unusually quiet today not his self, Ronaldo very quiet by his high standards. Berbatov fast becoming a joke, he was bloody useless yet again! I am crying that we have splashed over 30 million pounds on him, 30 bloody million! That is a ataggering amount of money that doesnt bear thinking about and what do we get? Well absolutely nothing!
‘a draw with the champions’thats whats written on their official site .that sums every thing up all the teams will play 4 draw against us hoping 4 asurprisd win tottenham tried to attack but not enough
What else does Anderson have to do to get starts in big games? He’s a level above the other central midfielders in the squad (apart from Scholes)… Its such a shame, what a waste of talent
Tony Starks: Love Anderson but reckon Carrick is the better mid fielder at this time. Ok not today but past few performances have been excellent.
I am not on a witch hunt on Berbatov by the way, the minute he bloody puts some effort in and improves I’l be first to eat humble pie and say how wrong I was, but I seriously doubt it!
We have signed players before i.e Diego Forlan, now Diego struggled for goals in his United career aswe know, but we all had a soft spot for him because he tried his heart out and he scored some bloody important goals for us, like against Southampton last minute winner, Chelsea last minute winner, Villa at home late equaliser, and of course 2 goals at Anfield who could forget!?
But I dont feel like defending Berbatov at all, because not only is there no end product from him, his effort is absolutely pathetic! What a massively over rated player, if you look through his career (and he is 28) you will see he hasnt acheived anything of note, and no super club has ever been that interested. 30 million? Not worth 5 million
I can understand why people are infuriated with Berbatov and yes (Gary, I think it was you who said it) comparisons with King Eric are way, way off the mark, but there’s nothing we can do about it except get behind him (unless Citeh come in with a £50m bid, lmao!).
The Spurs fans lost patience with Bent on a number of occasions last season and got an almighty ribbing from the Gunners fans (and most of the media, to be fair) for the price tag, but they got behind their man, and now he’s given them a decent return (12 goals all told so far, isn’t it) this season.
Even in the Teddy thread, you can see that Teddy went through sticky patches in his first season before going on to do the Treble the season after.
Admittedly, his performance today was poorer than usual and his languid attitude must’ve cut those lads who went down today to the bone, at a time when we needed to push on and take advantage of the The Hungry Ones’ result .
We needed a plan B, today and didn’t have one. Just sad that SAF doesn’t have the same faith in Manucho that Queiroz did, I think he’d've been the perfect physical presence we required after we found out that passing the ball to death wasn’t going to work.
Oh well, could be worse, they could’ve won. Roll on this WCC and let’s come back one trophy to the better and get on with the second half of the season. We still have the rest of the Big 4 at home!
The players we have out isnt the problem its our tactics we miss Carlos Queiroz badly! i was more worried about him leaving in the summer than ronaldo and this is why, time and time again we’ve had all the possesion but not had the right tactics to win us the match against villa,liverpool and spurs today we had the tactics all wrong and its cost us.
So now its Berbatov that is the scapegoat? people slate Berbatov for his lack of effort now things arent going right but before it was Rooney being used as a scapegoat saying he needs to cut down on the workrate and start scoring goals. GET A GRIP, Berbatov is a class little player and how do you all expect him to get goals and play well when NONE of the team are playing well the tactics are wrong and until Fergie gets an assistant with good tactics things wont change.
We havent been bad this season and we’ll still finish in the top 3 but were very average at the moment and dont look like winning the league.
I think Berbatov had a good game today, his game is not about running all over the place like Rooney.. his final balls were just 5% or so off target otherwise he almost created some fantastic chances.
He’s been injured too so I can definitely excuse that. How can you say his effort was pathetic today? He created many situations for the other players but we just could not capitalise… as for Ronaldo…
I thought Teddy really well in his debut season, he shone in important games that year, like away to Arsenal scoring twice altho we lost 3-2. Teddy was a class player, always a threat, amazing the air, a better “Touch” than Berbatov!!!
He has scored two league goals against Stoke and West Brom at home, arguably the two worst teams in the league, 2 goals against a poor Aalborg side away from home, and 2 offside tap ins against an equally pathetic Celtic who are hopeless away from home. Over 30 million pounds? Im amazed Fergie was willing to pay such a price for him! People are talking about Robbie Keane being a joke, well Berbatov isnt far behind him!
Is it a quibble to say that the style of play – not the tactics – are the problem ? For my liking, there’s just too much sideways movement and not enough “pick-and-roll”, “one-two” driving towards goal. With both Berbatov and Tevez in the starting line-up, there was no “center forward” and, for reasons that escape me, today was a day when Ronaldo played mostly on the wing. He didn’t seem very bothered, either; but that’s another story. Right now, the best chance of scoring seems to come from either a free kick or a corner when Rio and Vidic give the attack a spearhead.
Whether you want to call if “Plan B” or “AnAlternative”, the build=up is too slow and far too “patient”. It seems to me that teams who set themselves up to defend – and are willing to settle for a draw from the get-go – have a better chance of success than opponents who are willing to play open, attacking footie. Today, for example, in the first twenty minutes it was only the crowd noise that gave away which team was the so-called “home team”. Spurs sat back and hoped to hit UTD on the break; otherwise, the game was mostly played in their half – and this was a team that had its best central defender in street clothes and lost him mate after about a quarter-hour.
So, to answer the question – I think that UTD’s PlanA is sussed.
I agree Davey, I think our style of play/approach to the game was far too Continental and we simply didn’t have a Pippo Inzaghi to lump it up to/tap in any chances we created, to justify it.
Quite why neither one of Berba or Carlito took it upon themselves to play as the out-an-out striker for the entire match is beyond me. Effectively we had 2 holding mids and 4 forwards an no-one on the shoulder of the defender to push them back. Dawson and co. were quite happy for us to pass it around and try the fancy flicks in front of them.
Can’t believe we had 14 corners and didn’t profit from a single one (apart from Ronaldo’s disallowed goal), either. Not like us at all.
Take it from an Arsenal fan- having your whole approach, mentality and style sussed out by the dredge of long ball teams is soul crushing. On a side note, will United take their first team to Japan?
Berbatov did a great difference this season but I think he was under the pressure of their fans and scoring for us. Ronaldo’s cancelled goal was sort of clean.. I mean, in the replay it’s obvious that he didn’t intend to touch the ball with his arm (actually he didn’t move his arm) and the commentators said the same but according to English referees you shouldn’t mention that or blame it as their fault BECAUSE “what ever they say or do is perfectly correct” !!
We really missed Evra today and this winter is going to be bad if O’shea is playing in his place for the 4 games!
Ronaldo, what can I say? Couldn’t penetrate a block of butter with a hot chain-saw. He has been quite predictable.
The game was probably the most boring I have seen and we just didn’t look bothered. Have some of our players become bored of winning? Has the double success of last year taken something away from them?
The only good thing about today is the fact that the dippers only drew.
2009 is going to be huge for us now, it’s going to have to be.
@ Jonny: what makes it worse is that this isn’t the United way – we usually have a fallback plan if anything goes wrong, be it finesse for brute force when brute force isn’t working, or vice versa.
And yes, the first team is going out to Japan. Just how many of the supposed first XI play, is another matter. Personally I’d like to see more of the fringe players get a run out, even in the Final, although I reckon SAF might field the 1st XI against the likes of Al-Ahly or LDU if we get to the Final.
@ Fred: To be fair, we’d be complainin’ if Bentley had done the same thing and actually got away with it.
On the bright side, our kids showed us how it should be done and thrashed the ‘dippers lot 1-3!
He was booed as expected, but this didn’t make him buckle to the pressure and get rid of the ball. He was confident and competent, but lacked that extra special something.
I just checked at our record in the first nine away matches over the past 16 seasons.This year is not our worst points tally,but it is the worst attack with just 8 goals.Maybe our style has become to predictable but i think that our problems have to do with bad player management.For example,United were awful in the same fixture last season and yet we rallied at the end.Today the team seemed to tire after the 80th minute.Last season he brought Anderson and Nani on and their energy forced Spurs to sit back.Where were they today?I am not disrespecting Scholes and Giggs but for how long are they going to come to our rescue?When i saw the double substitution i was afraid we would lose the match.I would understand it if he brought on one veteran and one youngster(i.e. Anderson-Giggs or Scholes-Nani) but bringing them both on?3 years ago,these substitutions would have won us the game,now it was too much to ask.I will not diss Berba.It must have been an emotional day for him.When we were struggling at the 01-02 season,Keano refused to blame the newcomers(Blanc,Veron and Ruud) and he was right.Where was the Fifa world Player of the year today?And on a final note,SAF seemed a little bit too relaxed in the end,as if the pont was enough.I didn’t like that sight.
Gary, well put. Berbatov slows down our attack with way too many touches. He doesn’t fit our style of play, and he is dropping way too deep. I bet if he lurkes in the box, throw in some never say die attitude and get decent service, he’ll shine.
As for Ronaldo, that kick he throwed was stupid, yes, but I do feel the need to speak his cause. He’s more of a teamplayer now than he has ever been, I’ve never seen Ronaldo more unselfish than today. Seems like he’s lost his confidence (over-confidence is a sign of no confidence, lads). He’s come back from injury, but never got his season started, getting lots of kicks in the process. He didn’t look particulary interested either, and with no support from United-fans, I bet he feels like the whole world hates him and that we dosen’t value his contribution.
Fact is that we’re dependent upon his magic, whether you like it or not (Scott).
We should get “Viva Ronaldo” going again big time, as I’m pretty sure he’d reciprocate that with some fantastic performances, beating defenders just like last year. The lad needs some confidence – just like Gomez got from his fans. And look what a performance he gave today.
I think United should have brought Klass Jan Huntelaar, he would have been half the price and there is no doubt he would outscore Berbatov, and goals win you games!
I think our next signing should be a bed, and we can put it just outside the oppositions penalty box, then Berbatov can jump in and out of bed during the game as the ball comes towards him.
come on guys why the doom and gloom? Since the fixtures came out i’ve always felt if we were 6-8 points off the top after all these away games we’d have a great chance of winning the league. We’re 6/7 points behind and have a game in hand. People who call berbatov lazy need to look up the word in the dictionary as i’m pretty sure i saw him tracking back into our area today and apart from scoring i felt he had a nice touch as well as going past their defenders with ease. What you’ve got to remember is it’s a different game to playing with spurs as you have 2/3 players always on you.
Our biggest problem is we fuck about too much on the edge of the area. We play too narrow and pass the ball one time to many and lose possesion. I’m not worried as i think it will come, we’re now 5 matches unbeaten (in the league) and i can see us stretching that to 15-20 matches. The fixtures are in our favour now and if we don’t make a decent challenge we don’t deserve to be champions.
1) The only player worthy of more than 5/10 today was Park (Maybe Rafael)
Ronaldo – should be on the bench at best for the whole of Jan or until he bucks his ideas up. He seems to miss intentionally and is half the player he was last season. Payback time from him?
2) Why, oh why, oh why can’t we score???????
3) Answering my own question, it appears that EVERY goalie, no matter how poor a season they are having, raise their game to a new stratosphere when playing United – Gomes is a prime example.
4) It’s almost as though the season is scripted which will answer why pundits are still talking up United as potential Quadruple winners and why SAF left the dugout smiling and only “frustrated” i.e. Oh bother, never mind
5) Change your return tickets from Japan to Friday guys – you are currently not good enough to be World Champions. Maybe rest some of the “stars” and play Manucho, Possebon, Gibson, Evans etc, guys who have hunger for winning.
6) Chelsea will beat West Ham after 3 draws from their rivals.
7) We are missing Quiroz. I wonder if he’ll be back next season, like the last time he left and why he hasn’t been replaced.
9) We again have huge amounts of possession, yet can’t convert that into goals. Our forwards have been described as the most lethal (on paper) in Europe, have cost a fortune but cannot currently do the biz.
10) Maybe Tosic will make a difference in the New Year.
A couple of points to raise… firstly, it’s worth pointing out that we’ve only scored two goals less than at the same stage last season (29 last year, 27 this)… so, in the grand scheme of things, we’re not exactly suffering a goal drought… it’s just that we’re having quite a tough run of games at the moment… which leads me to my second point…
It’s also worth noting we’ve only scored one goal in our last three away games (Villa, City and Spurs)… why? In my opinion, it’s because teams are much happier to merely contain, rather than try and win their games at home. For me, I don’t think that teams have ‘sussed us out’, it’s more that, because United are the best in the league at keeping possession, the opposition are now setting themselves up tactically to stop us, rather than concentrating on their own team strengths…
How to combat this? A tough one, but, for me, what worked well last season was what I called ‘the fluid front four’ of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Giggs / Nani / Park (any one of those three)… they interchanged very well, so defences couldn’t cope with their movement.. but also, and most importantly, the tempo in the top third of the pitch was much higher… the ball was being passed into feet a lot quicker, and it unhinged defences… this has become tougher with the arrival of Berbatov – class player that he is – he doesn’t provide the same movement up front… so my view is that it should be more ‘horses for courses’ with him – play Rooney and Tevez as first choice, and play Berbatov only when the opposition suits…
I think that Berba has been over exposed.Last year we had a winning formula,so they should have carried on with that and slowly eased him into the side.But Berba is not to blame.We knew what kind of a player he is before we bought him.I will say one final thing that maybe the light at the end of the tunnel.As far as i can remember,every side that has won the Champion’s League did suffer a hangover at the first months of the next season.Now given that we were also going strong for the championship,it’s quite possible that we have the same problem.It’s clear that the side doesn’t have the energy to go the extra mile.We were desperate in salvaging the games against Sunderland and Aalborg and today we didn’t look fresh.Hopefully the trip to Japan will provide the much needed breather.Either way,the team will start to click,let’s just hope that when it does we will still have all to play for.
WOW!! Is it me or have our performances taken a dive this season? Didn’t Fergie say we would see a marked improvement from the squad this season? Didn’t Fergie say that by October, we would have hit top gear? Didn’t Fergie say that we were just unlucky in front of goal? I’m finding it hard not to be pessimistic when we are not even playing well. It’s not about the results, but simply our performances. Not to talk about all those predictions and prophecies by Fergie unfortunately failing to come to fruition.
Earlier this season, we were creating chances and missing loads and instead of Fergie to address it then, he chose to ignore it and claim we were unlucky. Now we can’t even create chances, or even convert the few ones we get. Why is this team – the same one which conquered the PL and Europe last year – unable to create decent chances at will? Why do we look like a team that lack chemistry and basic skill sets such as 1-2 passing, accurate set-pieces, crossing and possession play? Why do we look like we are unmotivated and not hungry enough for three points? Why do we look like we are huffing and puffing our way to draws, wins and losses?
If someone can answer those questions, I will be glad. Because my answer is Fergie and his band of dimwits he calls the coaching staff. If it’s not clear that something is wrong with our squad that originates from poor management, coaching and training, then maybe some have to look closer. The tactics have been awful, the substitutions worse and the attitude of Fergie even more appalling. When was the last time you saw Fergie all giddy after losing two crucial points? Today he was busy prancing about the touchline entertaining the Tottenham fans when we were losing the opportunity to close the gap at the top of the table… wasn’t it him who said this was a very crucial game? Then why was he so happy at not only a disappointing result but a poor performance? Therein lies the cancer eating away at this team.
I will still be optimistic, as United have proven time and again that you can never doubt their ability to conquer all, despite setbacks. However, we are currently looking incoherent and clueless as to how to create and convert genuine chances, especially against opposition that defend in numbers. It has become a recurring theme this season and I bet u Tottenham won’t be the last team to employ this tactic against us. What makes me afraid is that if we can’t find a way out of this mess, we might be looking at a lot of draws and losses, which might result in a loss of silverware.
i’ve said all along we needed someone like hunterlaar. a goal poacher is what we’re missing. and a proper target man. berba looked average today (i know he did a couple of good things), but he looked a bit scared. thought parky was man of the match and seemed to be the only one trying. even carrick, who’s looked great last few games, was out of sorts. worrying all round really.
Please stop these ludicrous “Berbatov = lazy” comments; he’s “languid” but when he needs to put it into a higher gear then it’s just amazing to see how fast he can run. But, more to the point, Berbatov/Tevez/Rooney need to act like FORWARDS and quite drifting back into the midfield – let the other guys do that job. Having Berbatov/Tevez/Rooney poncing about in the middle of the park seriously constricts Ronaldo’s space/options – whether you “like him” or not, he’s our best attacker and the others should be deployed to make the most of his talents. As matters currently operate, instead of a proper UTD 4-4-2 what we are seeing is some sort of 4-6-0. It’s up to SAF to sort out this congestion in midfield and sideways passing – like I said before, it’s all about a style of play and not tactics. Teams like Aarlborg, Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa and damned nearly Sunderland should NEVER, NEVER be getting draws with TheLads.
Scott, can’t disagree with anything you said and a lot of very good comments subsequently. Haakon made a valid point i thought, concerning Ronaldo. His overall demeanour does suggest -somewhat incredibly- that he IS suffering from a lack of confidence and/or love! We supporters really do have to decide if its time to forgive. Like most things in life, if you do things half -heartedly you have no “power”. Support, belief, desire are infectious and our players aren’t imune to that. It begins with us. I know there are those out there that will never forgive and those who are finding it oh so hard, but we DO have to decide. Is it not time?
we need new attacking cm’s
I don’t know about you guys, but I am not that unhappy with the result. Tottenham are a decent club. Infact, they drew with Chelksea at their home ground earlier this season, not to mention Arsenal.
A draw against the Spurs (AWAY) isn’t that bad a result. The points table will even out by the time the other top 4 teams visit the M 16 imo.
Let SAF be. I don’t think we need to be questioning SAF’s tactics. They have worked for quite some time, and successfully too. I just think this was a genuinely tough fixture considering the form and talent within this Spurs side.
For a team without Evra and Rooney, two key components when it comes to our attack, i thought we coped splendidly. I mean you could see Ronaldo and Park struggling to gel with O’Shea in the same manner they do with Pat.
But i must agree that bringing on both Giggs and Scholes was a bit of a shocker. I would defo have preferred Nani to Giggs.
Maybe SAF knew something we didn’t.
@ Anon…agreed . spurs away is not a bad place to draw . also , its fuckin pathetic that people start pointing fingers at sir alex . whatever happened to – ”fergie knows best”!!
I think many of you so called United supporters are quite unreasonable in your critics. It is always hard to play an away game after a European night, proven for many years that teams struggle after their mid-week exertions. United had have to play Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs away all after midweek games. And to be where we are now, I think we should be glad. Berbatov critics for this game against was unfair also. If you compare the performance between Berba & Tevez, I would say although Tevez looked the busier of the 2, but Berba had more important touches. My feeling is that we did not buy Berbatov for 90 mins of running. We bought him for the 3 sec of magic when we really need it.
Getting on SAF back now! Unbelievable.
Ask all of the Man. United supporters who should manage United.100% will tell you SAF.He is still the best in the business.Critisizing him for a particular team selection,doesn’t constitute getting on his back.Personally,i believe that United’s current position in the Premiership(which is not a disgrace-look at Arsenal) is a mixture of everything.Berba and the other players are still getting to know each other,the team is still hangover fro the highs of last season and our fixture list was cursed.SAF will eventually figure out how to use Berba.Also the hangover will soon pass.At the 99-00 season we got into top gear after the trip to Brazil.Let’s hope for more of the same here.As for the away games we had to play at the first half of the season,all i have to say is that not even Scolari would have given us these fixtures.We played away at 9 teams that all ended in the first half of the table last season.Now that is over with.
Agree with Haakon comments.
How many people really think Ronaldo would carry his form of last season into this season, even after his op. It isn’t going to happen.
Yeah, he has been a twat (I was one of the supporters who wanted him out in the summer) but he is here. Lets support the boy and stop picking on everything little thing he does (like the majority of the world is already doing).
I was bloody frustrated yesterday like of all Utd supports – I wanted to blame someone but at the end of the day the whole team has to take responsibility. Lets not forget this away match was ‘again’ after a champions league fixture.
Come on West Ham!!
costas, iv just read most the posts on this page n noticed i agree with near enough everything that uv been saying….Untill ur last one….
Fergie has grown old & has mellowed out way too much as a result.
Every game this saeson this has been painfully evident. How could he beleive bringing scholes and giggs on last night would tip the game in our favour?!! It was clear that Anderson/nani had to come on, inject some pace into our play.
You mentioned it above,, i wouldnt beleive how jovial Fergie was in final few minute n even after final whistle…all shits & giggles, I couldnt beleive my fuckin eyes!! whats happened to the big man? Hes fukin lost it.
Everyone is on here trying to find the reason for our poor form, blamin this palyer and the next. Problem is its the entire squad that is out of sorts (Except Wazza/ Carrick id say). Fergie and Phelan has fucked the mentalities of Tevez, Anderson & Nani this season. These players have serious quality, thery the futuyre of our team arguably. Since Carlos Queioz has gone these players have been shunned byond beleif! Surely this aint a great idea considering they have just lost their ‘go to man’, translator and friend?You can see on their faces, they are really questioning how they are being treated…v, unfairly.
I think alot of our problems are stemming from Fergies new tactic of making our poorer players 1st team regulars!! I know Fletcher has improve dthis season, n has enjoyd some form there is no need for him to be deployed every game…ESP when anderson is back to his usual self!! Why couldnt we have played Carrick and anderson yesterday? We would have won. would have made all the diffrence. Stupid shit like this is happening every week!
Last week VS Sunderland, @ home to a managerless team in bottom 3…..Why did Fergie feel he had to play Park when he is obviously a more defensive option than Nani? Why didnt he just say to Nani, “HERES 90MINS SON, GO ENJOY URSELF”?? Nanis attacking zest would have helped us win that game more comfortably without a doubt! Became even worse when he thrown Nani in at the deep end vs Alborg the next day!! The boy aint match fit so how can he be expected to perform???
Dont get me wrong i really hate Ronaldo after his theatrics in the summer. Cunt. I feel his poor form though is down to Parks inclusion every week. The opposition know that Park will provide little threat so too much emphasis is put on Ronaldo in every respect! With Nani on the left atleast he would create more spoace for everyone with his speed and direct running. Not to mention his crossing ability. Dobt think iv seen park go to the by line whip a cross in my life!! Its all to pedestrian, too weak, too fucking slow.
This has been happening sinc 1st day of the season, Think back to the Liverpool game, we were going along just fine till we made an atroscious substitute n it went down hill from there! Every game this has happened, poor- awful decison making on every level is costing us dearly.
Last season we proved to ourselves and evryone else that we have the squad to dominate football for yrs, so much attacking threat, strong defence, great players all round.
The only way ion which a team of our quality can undersperform is through poor management. Simple.
Maybe its a hangover from last seasons highs, maybe the team is still gelling n geting used to everyone…
I just feel fergies age and change in demenour is having a major affect on the squad. Im not syaing sack the boss, i love the man, im happy to see him aroiund, i just feel we need to make changes to the back room staff and quick. We need to replace Phelan coz he clearly aint bringing anything to our style of play? were playing like mugs out there, look like we could play for hours without scoring from what i can see.
Just wish we had CQ back already…….He was undervalued greatly….for the last couple seasons we have been buying alot of latin players, brazilain, portugese, argies etc, quite unusual for our club. This has clearly been down to Quiroz! This important section of our squad have now been abandoned and are left with Fergie and Phelan. You can imagine the dialog between them all cant you!!?
ask Sir Alex at the start of the season if he would take being 3pts off the top in mid dec after this horrible fixture list which see us play all the top teams away after CL fixtures, and my guess is he will bite your hand off it. So if “fans” like realred thinks this is unacceptable, maybe he shld go apply for the job
RealRed: You put alot of faith in Nani but in my opinion he aint a United player. Wrong attitude for a start and everytime he gets a chance recently he has been frustrating to say the least. We are all putting far too much emphasis on missing CQ. I know he was a great coach but we just need to get on with playing our game again and the results will come.
yeah, agree with Marquiz. To suggest that Fergie is off his rocker is a bit too premature and “jumping to conclusions” for my liking.
Listen, the man won the Champions League AND the PL less than 6 months ago. He couldn’t have rusted SO fast!
For those who are banging about Carlos Queiroz, just check out how Portugal have been performing! I’m not against that guy being at United, but he ain’t no messiah.
If u look at it, the only bad results in the league for us this season have been
1-1 vs Newcastle at home, this was the very first game of the season for us.
1-1 vs Everton away, a bit of lousy defending cost us here, Rio had an off day.
Apart from that we have been decent. Yes the losses at Anfield and Emirates have been hard to digest, but these are results you can’t avoid sometimes. Last season we won at Anfield, and drew at Emirates. But we also lost to Man City TWICE. This time around, we have picked up 3 points fewer at Anfield and Emirates, but we have already made that up with the win at Wastelands. IF we are able to beat the other top 3 guys at home, and looking at how Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have been playing THAT is possible, and maintain reasonable form against the other teams we should be able to win the league again.
Anon: Agree pal too much emphasis placed on the departure of CQ.
correction, 4 points fewer is what we have picked up from our away visits to Ars and Liv, but thrashing City at home should recover that one pint deficit over last season.
Have to agree with some of the points made by realred.
Especially the ones considreing the dialogue n the general undervalued importance afforded to the Latin squad members.
CQ was the real translator n influence which led to their buys n his absence has greatly reduced their role in the 1st team this season. When has Nani last started a EPL match for us? I mean he was touted to be one of the bright prospects for the future when we bought him n now he looks completely out of form n lacking in confidence even when he makes his irregular appearnces.
I would much rather have the skills of Nani over the efficiency n toiling by Park. Plus he’s much better on the corner delivery. Yesterdays corners by Park were pitiful to be polite.
Those wishing to get Queiroz back might get him back quicker than they expect if he has another couple of poor results with Portugal.
Yes, I was stunned by SAF’s shits and giggles attitude at the end of the match, but that was pretty much it. You might even question his subs, but I thought both Giggsy and Scholesy did well when they came on (and you’s wouldn’t have been complainin’ about them had Giggsy’s free kick gone in), so it can’t be that.
What you have to understand is that there’s still the second half of the season to go yet. SAF is having to delicately balance the teamsheet with the demands and rigour of being in 4 comps at once, so that we don’t blast everyone away at the beginning of the season and then fall away at the end. Chelsea have had that tough decision taken away from them, inadvertently, through injury, and will still be able to maintain once the likes of Essien and Carvalho come back. On the other hand, apart from Hargo (and Wes who’ll be back soon enough) we have pretty much a fit squad.
I sincerely hope it pans out the way I think it will because all those who are calling for SAF’s are going to look like right fuckin’ chumps come the end of the season.
I think that our points are good compared to the matches played so far, I mean come on! Chelski, L’pool, Arsenal, Man city, Blackburn, Everton and Tottenham all away. We shouldn’t compare results to last season’s because all teams are showing their best against us, they always confess it to the press before the match (that they always show a different performance when playing Man United) Hopefully it’s gonna be easier when we play those at Old Trafford.
* I think that’s why players from other clubs look like they’ve won the title or something when they draw or win against United. pathetic!
We can compare if we want to, because in the end they come out exactly the same way.
Chelsea away 07/08 (Lost = 0 points), 08/09 (Drew = 1 point)
Dippers away 07/08 (Won = 3 points), 08/09 (Lost = 0 points)
Arsenal away 07/08 (Drew = 1 point), 08/09 (Lost = 0 points)
Citeh away 07/08 (Lost = 0 points), 08/09 (Won = 3 points)
Blackburn away 07/08 (Drew = 1 point), 08/09 (Won = 3 points)
Everton away 07/08 (Won = 3 points), 08/09 (Drew = 1 point)
Tottenham away 07/08 (Drew= 1 point)), 08/09 (Drew = 1 point)
Total: 07/08 = 9 points
Total: 08/09 = 9 points
carrick and scholes/anderson in midfield, can’t play both fletcher and carrick when you’re trying to break defending teams down as good a player as fletcher has become because then berbatov starts dropping into midfield to do the creative work…start giving nani a chance, as hard as park works, i think nani is working hard too in his games and he gives us that edge on another wing with an occasional burst which Park isn’t capable of. I don’t know whats up with Ronaldo, I wouldn’t know where to begin and someone suggested confidence and this could be a point but unhappiness/disinterest seems more likely…tevez, well £32 million isn’t looking great money at the moment but I’m sure he’ll get in to some form…this world club championship might be a good opportunity to sort ourselves out a bit, give evra a game maybe to keep him active
East Stand: some interesting stats there pal. still a long way to go and as you have said those criticising SAF are gonna look pretty daft hopefully come May.
I try comparing points like what eaststand has done, and it puts it into perspective. There’s no need to worry at all. We’ll hit top gear after christmas, even if we find ourselves 10 points behind. I point to february where we have 4 home games. We should then have a good picture of where we are and if we’re still 10 points behind then, i’ll forgive some of you for worrying.
Jake – nice point about the way that Berbatov comes deep when both Fletcher and Carrick play together. Berbatov was bought to be the lead striker – he has to discipline himself to do that job.
On a related note – I just finished watching the ‘ammers hold the RentBoyz to yet-another home-draw. From being a complete fortress, Stamford Bridge has proven to be something of an albatross for our main rivals. They’ve now dropped 14 points at home.
Another related note – twice in three weeks, the RentBoyz and the Arse and LiverPoo have failed to take advantage of TheLads’ failure to max out on away games. Someone up there is watching over SAF.
if we can keep eking out 1-0 winners like we did against Shity, (the one against Sunderland was too close for my liking) we can win this league by not hitting top gear at all!
the CL is a diff proposition though
Think we’ve got problems? Rent Boys held again at home. 14 points dropped.
Turns out our result was not a bad one in the end, although a win would of been handy.
@Whiteside10: thanks for the goal stats, I’ve been wondering how worse off we were compared to last season.
To the users who are surprised at the people blaming Fergie, head over to redrants, people are already calling for Fergie to retire, calling Berbatov, Berbawhore and saying Fergie is senile, i swear I’m not making this up
http://redrants.com/tottenham-v-manchester-united-match-thread/comment-page-7/#comment-41400
I think that Whiteside10 has said it all. Really, the big change in United is the speed of play. Last year we were able to turn teams over with the transition from defense to attack. That quick transition does not exist any more.
Berbatov has slowed us down. He is not a bad player and I am not criticizing him, but he has definitely changed the way that we play. Unfortunately, I think that we currently don’t have the sophistication to play at the speed we do with Berbatov in the team. Astounding to think that we might lack the sophistication to play, but consider the amount of time that we had the ball against Sunderland and Spurs and only one goal. There was no one there to unhinge those teams. Scholes usually offers us that. However, he did not have a lot of time to do that yesterday. Hopefully he gets fit enough to play 55-75 minutes a game as the season really gets underway.
the best part from standing in the pissing rain at whl was fergie’s header and then seeing him take off his hat and take a bow infront of all those spurs fans near the dug out . i will never forget it. Reasons why its not happening for us is a lack of goals, an overly patient build up to attacking in games and a too much dwelling of the ball in the centre when we’re in need of a goal. Missed Evra bombing down the left and wayne’s hardwork in keeping the oposition penned in. Tevez should of stayed on and Anderson should come on for fletcher.
Ah well as one red sang heartily on the way out of that north london hellhole
FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW ,COS UNITED ARE GOING TO TOKYO, THEY’LL BE A FEW REDS BUT THEY’LL BE PISSED OUT THEIR HEADS COS UNITED ARE GOING TO TOKYO
AND
VIVA DA SILVAS,
VIVA DA SILVAS,
RUNNING DOWN THE PITCH,
DON’T KNOW WHICH IS WHICH,
VIVA DA SILVAS
em yes i am frustrated with the draw.. but the way we draw was more disappointing than the result itself. It was a BOREdraw.
I am a big fan of Ando, I praised him really a lot last season. But this season so far, I think he has been a pale shadow of himself. He set a high standard last season, but this season I dont see much improvement from him yet. But I would still say, this is somehow affected from Queiroz’s exit.
I really hope he will show us his magic again, his superiority that even eclipsed Gerrard last season.
And about our players’ behaviour recently, it very embarrassing. But FA themselves are a disgrace to the game with all the stupid decisions..