1. The bad days make the good days feel so much better. As far as bad days go, this, as an isolated event, is almost as bad as it gets. It obviously would be a lot worse if it was the final and City had actually won something but it feels pretty fucking awful. It’s not just losing, it’s losing so stupidly, without putting up enough of a fight. The game just seemed to pass our lads by and after I had thought so highly of our winning mentality this season, that was desperately disappointing to witness.
2. Thankfully, this day isn’t in isolation and we do still have a record 19th league title and European Cup semi-final to win. That’s not a great comfort right in this moment but it will be in the morning. Let’s get some perspective. Today was City’s biggest game for over three decades. Today wasn’t even our biggest game this week.
3. Michael Carrick has been a panto villain for lots of reds for a few years now. He used to be a very good player but he’s gone off the boil for a while. Over the past few weeks though, he seemed to turn a corner, particularly with his displays against Chelsea. He’s been playing with a new confidence which has seen him putting in great tackles and actually passing the ball forward. Even today, he was looking really good… and then his casual pass put us 1-0 down. People look for scapegoats. People seem to need scapegoats. Carrick hasn’t made it difficult at all to be the scapegoat today. He crumbled from that point on and now we have to fear he will return to that meek, unadventurous and hesitant player that somehow managed to get himself a contract extension. Hopefully not.
4. The next player to claim scapegoat status is Dimitar Berbatov, who had a poor game before he was subbed. He had two great chances early on and was dispossessed far too easily. In the first half, a ball came over the top in the box and his first touch was awful. When his touch lets him down, you know it’s going to be a bad day for him. He looked unhappy. I suppose when the greatest manager that has ever lived has been telling you he doesn’t fancy you for the big games for three years, it’s difficult to believe in yourself. He didn’t even get 10 minutes with a striker alongside him. I do wonder why the manager thought starting one striker was an acceptable way to go in to a game like this. Attack, attack, attack? Hmmm.
5. The third scapegoat, and for me, the player most culpable for today’s result, is Paul Scholes. These kind of games need the experienced players to step up and despite otherwise putting in a good performance, the one thing, more than anything else, which stopped us from winning today was going down to ten men with 20 minutes to play. Yes, Berba missed those chances, yes, Carrick made a costly mistake, yes the team generally lacked the composure and aggression needed to win, but those things can be undone and rectified. There’s nothing you can do once you’re off the pitch and with City’s defensive abilities by far their greatest strength, that was the knock out punch. It’s the kind of stupid thing you’d expect Mario Balotelli to do, not a fucking 36-year-old who has played in more Manchester derbies than the whole City team combined. The manager defended him afterwards, clearly keen for him not to retire at the end of the season, but Scholesy will be pig sick tonight.
6. At the final whistle, instead of celebrating with his team mates, Balotelli came to the United fans. Anyone would think he cared less about City…? The angry reaction of Rio Ferdinand, Anderson and co. was a sight to behold.
7. You win as a team and you lose as a team. You can point out the failings of individual players as much as you like, the fact remains we didn’t do enough to win it today. Let’s hope we do enough in the 8/9 games that remain.
Quick Reactions To Derby Day Defeat…
April 16, 2011 215 Comments
Man Utd News 24/7
Chin up reds, we still have two bigger competitions to win, and I’m still confident we can pull on through, come on United!
fair play scott, i think fabio should’ve started imo or at least come on earlier, o’sheas wing play is pretty poor.. and two up front like you said. I think Ando shoulve been brought on earlier as his pace stength and drive was needed. Fergie should have gambled , sadly his safe decisions went against him, but onwards to St Jamess Park
UNITED
Thanks for making me feel marginally better Scott, but i’m absolutely fuckin gutted. Bolton, Stoke, I will pray hard for your success.
Great read. “Today was City’s biggest game for over three decades. Today wasn’t even our biggest game this week.” Classic line, really adds some much-needed perspective.
we’ve got to use this defeat as a springboard, just as we did when we lost to Portsmouth in 07/08. we can still have a better year than chelsea did last season.
Cant believe it, how does one miss such a glorious pass, just a tap in.aaahhh
Well said Scott. Scholesy and Berba helped carry the team early in the season and one bad game won’t change that for me. However, I have a weird feeling that both of them are into the last months of their United careers.
Berba’s shot confidence was to be expected I feel. I think there was a quote from Sir Alex’s in yesterday’s papers where he said why Chicharito was prefered. And knowing how Berba’s psychology works, I didn’t think he could carry the team today, particulary in a 4-5-1.
As for the City goal, first time we’ve made a mess of sending the ball back to VDS. In such grand fashion anyway. Hopefully it will be the last.
Well done Scott – well said well written – well done
Need to move on – each of our matches are important – we fucked up on one we carry on no going back now – it was always about 19 – anything else will be a bonus…
They beat us good luck to them – that’s about it though – we have our own destiny to complete
Their biggest game for 3 decades. It wasn’t even our biggest game this week. Summed it up perfectly. I’d be more gutted if Chelsea had of knocked us out of Europe. We’re still in with a chance of two trophies. It’s a sore one, but in all honesty, we didn’t show second half. Onto Newcastle now, need those 3 points and hopefully Spurs will do us a favour as well.
A mere hiccup,we pick ourselves up,dust ourselves down. No looking back ,move onwards. The bigger rewards are just on the horizon. Never say never.
In the end we cannot win them all. What has made us stronger down the years is the way we respond to setbacks. Let’s go on a new run and get 9 straight wins.
I agree with scott, despite the fact scholes is a legend he isn’t exemped From criticism, we can’t get sentimental at united and scholes fucked up big time, and he has a few times in his career on the pitch and costing the team but he makes up for it for being a brilliant midfielder and that will never change.
Carrick will have to put this disappointment aside, come out fighting again and put in a quality performance against newcastle, he is prone to playing square passes and that has cost the team today.
Overall we have move on, can’t dwell on the past, we need to drive on and hopefully meet our targets, we all need to stop all this treble, double bullshit. it’s never over till it’s over and we gotta keep going as arsenal are a threat, chelsea are sniffing to pounce as wel.
We needed Giggs today, he could have change the game with his incisive passing and composure under pressure. Its now in the past, lets march on from here, lets give newcastle a good game
I’d like to know how the manager justifies paying Michael Owen £30k a week to keep him sat on the bench with 10min to go at 1-0 down. Instead, we bring on a full-back. If the manager thinks Owen isn’t up to it, why even put him on the bench?
It’s easy to question the gaffer when we lose, but his subs today seemed poorly thought-out.
Costas … yeah, I’ve got that feeling about Scholes and Berba too.
Scott is right. Yes it is always stomach-turning when you lose a match, especially to a rival, but tomorrow morning we need to put it in the past. This was City’s season, and to be honest, the FA Cup has not been a priority for United since 1999. We abandon the competition to play in some pseudo world tournament for God’s sake.
I loved the reaction of Rio sticking up for a teammate. maybe I am wrong or have a short memory, but i dont remember a player going that all-out in the defense of a teammate since Roy Keane did that for Gary Neville at Highbury.
Balotelli’s Diabolical Actions Sparked FA Cup Bust-Up
http://www.theunitedreligion.com/2011/04/balotellis-diabolical-actions-sparked.html
@Gopher Brown … “I’d like to know how the manager justifies paying…” well, I know what you mean, but the answer is very easy. He justifies because, over two and a half decades, he has brought this club more success than we ever dreamed of, and his ratio of getting it right to getting it wrong is way better than it has any right to be at this level of professional sport. So that’s how he justifies it, mate. Same with Berbatov, who is my favorite player. How do you justify leaving out the leading scorer in the club and the whole league this year? How do you justify dropping such a player to the bench, while he’s still in peak form, in favor of a cheating, money-grabbing cunt who tried to stab us in the back and has been way out of form for months and months?
But it’s the same answer I gave you, and if I don’t like it, or Berbatov doesn’t like it, or whoever, then we are all welcome to fuck off — because you know what? None of us is charged with keeping this club where it is. It’s ruthless, mate. It is absolutely without pity or compassion, and it certainly doesn’t always make sense, but that’s the nature of the job, and it has to be that way. Success is simply too difficult to attain, and too difficult to keep, for any of those things to come into it. End of.
real gutted man…losing and knocked out in the semi-final is always hurtful…
and the fact losing it out to nearest rival really add some salt into our wounds..
i wanna ask u guys if u notice….what did balotelli do?what is exactly happen when the match was over?
i didn’t know it because after the added time announced i couldnt bear to watch and just shut off the telly.. really need some explanations here…
Too much doom and gloom for my liking. You’d think our season was over today. No it ain’t, not by a long shot. So, we’ve been knocked off the horse, we just pat ourselves down and go again. Also, we don’t know yet if Scholes will retire, or Berbatov will be sold. Lets not speculate now, about comings and gongs. TWO trophies, still up for grabs. Lets go fucking grab them!
Well, I can say that not having Rooney certainly affected our game, but we can’t always rely on him for everything. Time to really step it up in the league and CL.
Much as I love Scholesie, he let himself and us down today. I fear that this game will convince him that his time is over. We’ll always love him and consider him one of the greatest players ever to wear the shirt.
Fergie didn’t go for pace today and some of the players looked tired. Ando, Fabio and Fabio would have been better than O’Shea, Scholes and Park, who looked exhausted long before the end. Fergie’s been adventurous in the cup run but today he went conservative and we paid for it.
I know Fabi has a twin but he doesn’t have a clone – make that Ando, Fabio and Giggs
Start the letter writing campaign to get Mario suspended. If he did come over to taunt United supporters then he should be banned like Gary Neville and like Adebayor.
It pisses me off that there is no standard set of rules or precident for anything that happens in this sport.
I have been a Reds fan since 1982 but I’m not too one-eyed to deny when we’ve been totally outplayed. To borrow Evra’s famous line, it was like men versus boys. Pushed off the ball at every chance. Berba, Nani, Park and Valencia were all timid and ineffective. How many incomplete passes did our lads chalk up? I can only put it down to being tired from the midweek CL game. But this is another reminder to Fergie that we need a new midfield. One of the worst United performances I can remember.
@gopher: seriously, the manager had no option but to bring on fabio. o’shea was shot and not offering anything going forward. yes, it is a knockout competition, but who would you take off to play Michael Owen, who has played 18 minutes, which were pitiful, since the end of January? We were left short with Scholes’ sending off, which forced SAF to make another defensive-minded change that you failed to mention with Berbatov coming off. When assessing, assess the whole not just one little part … It makes you sound like one of those entitled twits who claim to be a Manchester United supporter.
Yeah, we’re all experts, after the fact. The manager called it right, whoever got the first goal, would win the game. Sadly, the berties got it, not us.
OK lets get a fucking grip. Carrcik put one foot wrong in the whole game and it was a very bad mistake I havr to admit. Paul Scholes made a ridiculous tackleto get sent off when even though 1-0 down we still were totally in the game. VDS kicked very poorly for their goal and Berba missed 2 guilt edged chances. Nani and Park were shokcing (in their defense they were tired) but all we can look at is Carrick. Carrick has been in the form of his life and got us through versus Chelse. Since he has joined the club he will probably win 4/5 league titles and be in 3 champions league finals. Will people please stop fucking picking on him and realize what a quality player he is. Yes he fucked up today and misplaced one pass that lost us the game but Sir Alex picks him week in week out at the center of midfeild for over 5 years, surely Sir Alex knows better than us????
was a awfull nite. very embaracing….what a massive play, what a stupid things that carrick did and Berba?….ohhh no comment…should see JOS not effective…i’m really dissapointed
19 is what it’s all about this season. We’re not a treble winning side, no `chance.
Shame that we’re so poor at the new Wembley..Fear for us if we get there in the CL – Schalke are no walk over.
But, as I said, this season it’s all about 19..
This is not good. Not good. I need to see the Stretford end change City’s gauge come September.
I wonder if the funds for this summer’s transfer window would be reduced if United did pull off the Treble? Just a thought.
I love Berbatov but I have to say his miss today was so bad it almost looked deliberate.
Giggs had to be rested no problem there but why did he put scholes when Anderson youthfull athletisism could have carried the fight to City.
Carrick made a mistake, get over it, Saf made two and so did Berba
The dreadful thing must not happen that Shitty win the FA Cup this year. Bolton or Stoke must do their duty and win it. I’ll miss the Stretford End counter otherwise.
What kind of satisfaction did Mario want after the final whistle? his team won the game, but he decides to act like a cnut? no class whatsoever. I’m glad Rio stood his ground and didn’t hurt Mario, god knows what the FA would’ve done to him.
You have to take the good with the bad, and if we win our 19th this year it will be a successful season. And if we win Europe we’ll be dancing in the streets, with this day long forgotten. Yes, this loss hurt BADLY, but losing to Stoke or Bolton would’ve hurt nearly as much. The Berties had some luck on their side today and we didn’t. I don’t even want to think about scapegoats because it truly takes a team to lose a game. We just had rotten luck today. But if there’s a scapegoat to be singled out it’s that cunt Bernstein. Rooney was badly missed and it just enraged me to think that his missing this game was intentionally planned and probably celebrated by that asshole who runs the FA. Karma will take care of Bernstein and they better hope they bring their best in the final because the joke could be on them. We have Newcastle to think about and 3 points. And Fergie will be coming off of his touchline ban soon. I’m looking forward to putting these FA-induced handicaps behind us and getting down to business and winning the next 11 games. We’ll never fucking die!!!
1. Make sure we don’t get on the wrong side of the ABU FA. even though we know they are cheating we can’t do much more about it and if they give us a ban we HAVE to serve the ban even though we think it is unfair. No more swearing at anything. NO more foolish tackles, no more abuse of refs. We have a target on our back. We must be cautious. No one cares about us except us.
2. Fergie and rooney return so i believe we can still hold out for at least ONE trophy.
3. the boys have already exceeded my expectations in Europe so i’m proud of them no matter what they do but i am also confident of beating schalke.
4. COME ON UNITED!!!!
And, an additional word about Berbatov. I doubt Rooney would’ve done much better today if he were alone up front. We look infinitely better with two up front. Still, we had two great chances to score and we couldn’t get it done. In my opinion we wouldn’ve had 10 more solid chances to score with 2 up front the entire game. I think Berba is tremendous, I love watching him play. Ideally I would’ve loved to have seen him with Chico or even Owen but Fergie decided not to go with that. I defer to the master, I can’t criticize someone who is the best at something who’s ever lived. Like I said, put this behind us and it’s on to the next one. Still two Cups to lift!
God does this one hurt.
But what does now puta smile on my face is all the chitty fans walking aboutas if they have actually won the cup.
Think of how much more enjoyable it will be when they lose the final.
Does anyone know what Super turdio did at the end?
Agree that quite a few of our team looked shot today. But carrick and Berba?
Carrick has not been the same player since he was shredded by Xavi and Inestia twice once for england and then in Rome.
My theory about Berba is that he actually cares TOO much and he freezes when he pulls on our shirt.
Will there be any funds in the summer?
Number 19 a must.
Wait for the predicted “MASSIVER SHIFT IN POWER” shit that will be all over the papers.
David bernstein should be well proud of himself got shitty to a final
The ABUs sicken me. They’ve talked themselves into the position of being able to claim that anything less than the treble is a bad season for us, when before a ball was kicked they doubted we’d even be in the top four. If the lads, or their luck, last for just a few more games we’re Champions again.
As for the City fans. Fuck them. There is nothing they can buy, nothing they can win, nothing they can steal which will make them a fraction of the club we are. They are City, we are United, and for that reason, whatever the score, we always win.
I dunno how to describe the performance. Diabolical. And spot on Scott abt the winning mentality the whole team looked tired. City wasn’t even good but because our performance was far far far worse and Scholes had to pick up a needless red.
I dont mind us losing to a side playing a beautiful football or even losing to a team who’s determined as hell a la relegation fighters et el – but Ciddy weren’t even close to those and yet we allow ourselves to be beaten by the likes of those disinterested mercernaries. Seriously..
I guess that’s why its just so painful . They weren’t even THAT good.
City celebrated so high last night, as they already win the trophy.. poor them, they forget there is Final match to play…
I’m depressed. Bring on Newcastle, quickly.
We have won the FA cup more times than anyone else. If it was not City, no one would be that bothered. The FA cup is third in importance.
This year the ONLY cup that matters is winning the Premier League and getting No. 19. I don’t care about the FA Cup or the Champions League. In fact I think the squad we have will really struggle against Barcalona or Madrid to be honest as we do not have enough stength and creativity in mid-field and lose possession too easily this year.
Realistically, we CAN WIN the Premier League and we really need our players to be as fresh as possible because Arsenal players have two less games to play than us in the coming weeks – actually make that one less game as they have a game in hand. Also our players who played today and against Chelsea looked knackered at the end.
So screw City, the Sheik will probably be over thrown before City get anything more than the FA cup if that and it will never feel as good because they are only here because of money, they did not earn their success, it was bought for them. They cannot buy history. They are just the new kids on the block flashing the cash and history counts.
So forget City – we are spending too much time thinking about them, it flatters them to much. They are nowhere and even if they win the FA cup so what. They are not in the same league as United, Liverpool, Madrid, AC Milan when it comes to history. and they never will be. Welcome all challengers.
The ONLY thing I care about is No. 19 – we have to reach that. I am more interested in Arsenal losing or drawing against Liverpool than what the hell happens to City.
@NBI: I would have to argue with your first point with the FA Cup being our third importance, because I would say that the Carling Cup, based on when it happens, is more attainable trophy for United.
Cmonn guys cheer up.Winning the treble or double or fucking Arsenal’s quadruple
was never our aim before the season started or even now.Our main aim is to win the #19 and we should win that.
Lets give our 100% in the europe and who knows we may have our luck there.
We hav eto be positive and be proud of our guys of what they are doing this season.No one expected us to perform like this and no one including ourselves expected united to go for the treble so its great.One or two good buys next season we may well challenge for the treble or even fucking Arsenal’s so called quadruple.
BELIEVE GUYS.
I think we needed this little slap in the face to give us time to reflect. I think this will be a good lesson learned as we move on and take the double. UNITED!
Two players go for the ball. One raises his foot thigh high. The other does the same. One gets the ball. The other pulls out and takes his eyes off the action. One gets hurt. The other gets sent off. I don’t believe it was a sending-off offense. If anything, players leading in with their studs thigh high should be sent off. Why, in a 50-50 challenge, does the loser get punished? It makes no sense to me.
Be fair to Carrick, I don’t think it was a bad pass, more like even better anticipation from Toure, unfortunately for us. Could you see Park being the one to do the same? It’s nowhere as bad as StevieG looking at Drogba and then passing it down the line for him right?
The team lost as a whole and will need to face it together. The last thing we supporters should do is to try to single some players out for the blame. Why didn’t we create more chances? Why didn’t we put those half chances in? Did VDS give a free pass to Toure’s shot? Had we just a little more luck, it could’ve been a very different result.
I don’t think we were as dismal as the performance against West Ham in the CC.
Now all we can concentrate on… is wishing Bolton/Stoke being up for it in the Final. Got a feeling it’ll be Bolton and they might just frustrate City enough. By then, who knows, Spurs might be breathing down City’s neck and they might fail to perform under pressure. Nothing’s for certain. Just ask Arsenal.
Scott,
I am glad you criticized Scholes. He can’t do that to his team-mates in an FA Cup Semi-final! His tackling blights his stellar career. Too often (in the last few years) he has been a liability card wise. Still a legend, but needs to be criticized more for the reds and yellows. I still believe we can win two trophies.
And to be very honest, this “Today was City’s biggest game for over three decades. Today wasn’t even our biggest game this week.” is just self-consolation. Before the game, we were pleased to have a chance to deny them a trophy for another season. I’m gutted with the loss and I’d rather we have beaten them but then crazily lose to Bolton/Stoke.
Just when was the last time we won when Berba was our lone striker? Even if we won, Berba as a lone striker has never been a good choice. The best ball control he may have, but he somehow lacks the mentality as a lone striker.. this is Fergie’s mistake i afraid..
I need three days to get over this..
one thing that has been mentioned is that Carrick & Scholes cannot play together. They are two similar players and how both of them played today was a shock. Constantly running into one another, and both going forward at the same time or defending too deep. It should come as no coincidence that United, as SAF admitted, got better once Scholes went off.
It was a somewhat selfish, reckless tackle, but with genius you take madness, which was on display from both Scholes and Berbatov today.
#MOVEON
Any news on Fletch?
There were lots of similarities between yesterdays game and our loss to leeds at OT…Same listless…aimless display which only united can come up sometimes…We need to reply…
Feel very bad for Paul Scholes…this by all counts is his last derby…but fair call…this red card proves carragher should have been sent off for the foul on nani…
Today was not our biggest game of the week…is not really correct…it was big and we loss…we lost not because the other team was brilliant…but because we lacked the desire…as Balatolie…he has no idea what he is getting into…He should have seen keano around…but I feel the lads will be able to get back at him…
The reason I am absolutely gutted is because we have handed it on a plate for City to win their first major trophy for 35 years, meaning that banner will have to come down. I hope and pray that either Bolton or Stoke beat them in the final, but let’s be realistic here, the winners of yesterdays semi are going to win it. We had an incentive to deny them that but unfortunately we didn’t show up in the second half. We paid the price just like we did against Barcelona in the European Cup Final, and that was not scoring when we was on top. Best of luck Stoke or Bolton. Also, this sickens me to say this, but good luck Liverpool for today. I just brought up bile after saying that!
Newcastle’s coming up and that’s all it matters, it isn’t the nicest away grounds to go to, but we have to forget this and freshen up. I’m certain Rooney and Chicharito will start up front, but there i go again starting to feel torn up about Berba.
@ StatesideAussie and @Costas
I see you guys have mentioned about Berba’s future, and i hope i’m wrong, but that could be one of the outcomes. Because he’s a quality striker, and he’s definitely wanted at other clubs too. The only thing that makes me hope not is Berba’s attitude. All his interviews, comments, post-match thoughts, have convinced me that he loves and respects United too much to leave. Remember how he’s questioned why would he want to leave United when asked? I hate to see him with such low confidence, and we’re at fault for that.
About Scholes, i want him to sign a year more, but he’s a strong headed man, and he makes the final choice. To me, i feel he’s made more rash decisions and tackles this season yesterday included, but yet that doesn’t undermine his brilliance he’s displayed. He may not have hogged the headlines like Giggs, but i still see one more year in the man.
It was simply a wierd day for me. It wasn’t exactly an off-day, cos obviously all our lads know the intensity and importance of the game. We weren’t up to standard, and could it be the fact that we’ve had a hugely big games over the past week that took some sting out of us? Possibly. We came into the game on the back of a massive victory and city from a torrid defeat. You know its the fact that we were not up to standard, when you find that even TonyV was below his usual brilliant self. We could have approached the game with 2 up front, that could have been better, and that’s my only qualm. Other than that it’s purely a team defeat.
I’m starting to develop a deep hate toward the stupid Berba and Carrick bashers.The usual misgivings of Berba and Carrick bashers are rubbish. Its stupid to blame Berba or Scholes or Carrick. If you can do that, why didn’t you blame Rio, Vida, VDS? And Evra? And Nani, TonyV and Park who were slightly anonymous? How convenient eh, to channel all the discontent toward Berba and Carrick. This ain’t tennis, its a team sport if you noticed, and to me this applies all the more to Manchester United. Even if the error of conceding was from an individual player, we have all the capability in the world to do a comeback, score the equaliser or grab a winner. We didn’t do that yesterday. That fizz was missing yesterday. I’m confident of getting back on track on Tues, that’ll prove our mettle. Come on guys, focus for Tues, cut the blame game out and let’s get behind the team.
Off Topic
http://www.herald.ie/sport/soccer/mancini-fergie-had-it-easy-2621601.html
Mr.Mankini, Sir Alex didn’t have 200 fuckin million to spend in his FIRST YEAR. Nor did he inherit a squad of 500 million. So just STFU…
Damn!!! Thought we could’ve won the game but didnt put much of a fight. And now I am feeling absolutely gutted and furious. Why wasnt Hernandez starting? Berba on his own was a bad choice. Now hope we win the remaining of our games and end the season on a high. But I still feel so bad right now, nothing will make it go away. Damn you shitty……..
Sorry Scott. I know Berbatov has been great but in big games he has always been found wanting! Anyway, time to move on.. and win the double again and replicate the 2008 season!
Not feeling upset, gutted or anything else. But I’m just thinking of this scenario.
Had Fergies won the Treble, or even the double, would the Glazers have been prepared to give Fergie a heap of money to strengthen the squad for next season? Apart from a good GK to replace VDS, Fergie may, according to the Glazers, have a squad good enough to win the title next season.
Now as we all know, the present squad needs an injection of about 4 or 5 good players, with some of the existing players moving on. All in all, money is needed to do that.
As I said, with a domestic double under his belt, would Fergie have been given the money he wants to make the changes he wants?
I doubt it very much.
So the defeat by City may have been a blessing in disguise.
Morning everyone.
Mornings do lend a sense of perspective. After hitting rockbottom last night, the bigger picture doesn’t seem all that bad right now. I really don’t give a fuck about a trophy that even Portsmouth manages to win. It was the manner in which we went down that was frustrating. Anyway, let’s hope the lads can bounce back on Tuesday.
@Gaurav
Have you forgotten the Liverpool game already? They were shocking misses, I agree, but when has the Berb ever done well in a 4-5-1? With all due respect, I think SAF deserves as much stick as Carrick or Berba last night.
Anyway, let’s hope it was a one-off. We have one distraction less now, which might even turn out to be a good thing.
I was a sad but thank God i have get over it, i am now maturing, if it was 1 or 2yrs ago, i will shot down my laptop for 1wk, i will lost my apittete, i will be very angry with everyone around me as if they were the couse of my team been defeated. We really miss creativity(wazza, and giggs) we should have played 4.4.2. It is time for fergie to give anderson more chances, that guy is the best mildfielder we have now, he tried alot yesterday. Pls fergie play anderson more. We need, Sneidjer(schols replacement), nuri sahin(he is better than sweinstieger he is a playmake the best player in german league, for hargo replacement,),. and alexis sanchez (we all know what this guy can do, a cr7 type of player, replacement of owen) .GGMU
I know theyre local rivals but……….”Come on Bolton do it for Nat”!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jimmy1978 –
I don’t understand why people are so quick to criticise Scholes. Were you also just as quick to do the same on Cantona and Keane? yes it was a bad tackle but honestly was it a turning point in the game? After the first half an hour we struggled to get a grip on the game. We can all blame Berbatov, Carrick, Scholes and the gaffer but we’re living in dream land if we think we have the right to win every match we play.
The thing that makes me sick is that fuckwit bernstein had something t do with the rooney ban…i feel like saying he upheld the ban just to make sure city had a chance, but i wont if i do i will be just like them bitter cunts from stockport..
Morning guys. My main worry this morning is what we don’t get affected by this and we beat Newcastle. At least when we were knocked out by Everton in the 2009 semi, we played a second string side and really deserved to go through. Plus, we had an easy home game against Portsmouth in 3 days. Tuesday will be harder and the players need to take out their frustration on the pitch. In a positive way of course.
@KingOfStretfordEnd
Hi mate. Yeah, I don’t think the Berba situation is looking good. Not because he missed those two chances. Fuck no. But I can’t see this situation continuing. Berbatov is a player that relies a lot on confidence. Plus, like someone above said, maybe he cares too much at times and lets anxiety get to him. I really don’t mind that Fergie relies more on Rooney and Chicharito. That partnership has looked impressive in recent weeks. But we are not getting the best of Berbatov that way. He is not someone that will sit around the bench game after game and then come on for 15-20 minutes and win it for us. He can do it once or twice, but he is no Sheringham or Solskjaer in that respect.
SAF made mistake sending Berb as a lone striker.
Berb lack of movement and positional sense in front of goal so someone else need to do footwork
I think that MUFC can win against Madrid or Barca because
1. If MUFC make final then it will be home game.
2. Chica only need 2-3 half chance to bury opposition so deadly in front of goal which is counted in
Big game.
3. If MUFC meet Barca then Chica’s speed break thier high defense line easily.
4. If oppsition start sit deeper than usual then midfield have more breathing space to play which is
happen in Chelsea game.
League & Cl title are quite doable so no need to depress.
#Team need new central midfield enforcer which is lack almost 3 seasons
Fuck I hate city, liverpool, arsenal, chelsea and berbatov.
Some of the comments on RoM yesterday were a joke, we are spolit with success yet when one bad result comes round so many fans chuck their toys out of their pram and go off on one.
Get over yourself, top of the league and into semi-finals of the Champions League – a pretty good consolation if you ask me.
Trust Scott to make your day feel better.”Today was City’s biggest game for over three decades. Today wasn’t even our biggest game this week.” I nominate this for quote of the season. I was feeling a bit down today for many reasons (one being United’s loss) but that quote just made my day. Thanks Scott!
@Costas, I agree that this defeat is different from both the Portsmouth and Everton defeats for many reasons most of which you’ve already mentioned. But I do expect us to put in a stronger shift against Newcastle as a result of that. We’ll have to see how Liverpool fare against Arsenal today. Everybody expects them to rollover but we can’t be so sure always.
Regarding Berba, I still feel he works nicely with Rooney. Berba up top and Rooney playing the role he has been playing behind Hernandez for the past few days. Berba hit his top form when Rooney came back towards the end of last year. Even though Rooney was not playing quite well, his movement helped Berba and he did score a lot of goals as a result.
Whether this will be Berba’s last season, I am not sure. But I will note that even the footballing mastermind hasn’t figured out the Berbatov puzzle. It’s been two years and even SAF is still unclear as to how to accomodate Rooney and Berba especially now that we’ve Little Pea added to the equation. That is the only reason I am afraid of Berba’s future is that if SAF does not figure out something.
Bchilds – spot on mate.
Stone – I hope you’re joking about the last comment.
Costas – you’re right about the Newcastle game, we need a kick up the arse every now and then and going into the final games of the season, if we had to lose one game it would have been yesterday. Yes we all want City to continue winning fuck all, but I’m far more focused on United winning trophies than what City do. We need to refocus and finish off the season. Number 1 focus – Number 19. Anything else is a bonus. Shalke will be a tough tough game especially with their support they’re a mad bunch, but like you said Costas – Newcastle up next and that’s what we need to focus on.
We lost because of Berbatov he may have scored goals at the start against crappy teams but when it comes to important games he always messes up if he had scored the two goals at the beginning we would have got through !
2 years in a row we have lost champions because of him it’s a joke !
@stone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHN23Jpzux4
Didn´t want the FA cunts stupid cup anyway. And best of all, City will choke against Bolton/Stoke as they always do. Just one bad day at work.
Still amazed that Barry and De Jong was still on the pitch after 20 minutes, then I remembered that Mike Dean´s employer is the FA.
“the one thing, more than anything else, which stopped us from winning today was going down to ten men with 20 minutes to play.”
Utter nonsense. United were one down at that point thanks to Carrick and had a striker utterly incapable of doing anything. You know Berbatov is an experienced player, too? Don’t you need your 30m + players to ALSO step up in big games? Aw, he’s fragile is he? He certainly looked it after missing some sitters and getting a knock.
We didn’t look like getting into the game with 11 men. Of course, we might have done but it wasn’t on the cards. The damage was mostly done.
No mention of Park? It wasn’t his fault that he was the worst player on the pitch, but playing Berbatov up front supported by Park was bizarre. Manager’s fault, that one.
How bAD WE ARE WITHOUT ROONEY
Good Morning Reds
Lovely day – can’t wait for the next match – a lot to look forward to – the title most importantly
Off for a few days so I’m not sulking – just off for a few days
Wherever you are and however you are do remember
When they tell us that we are dead – look around – we just lost a match – we are grateful that we are here and can still do what we have to do
The greater privilege is ours – Manchester United just ran out of time yesterday – I hope that time will be on our side for whatever we have left remaining to do.
For United
I refuse to get into a slanging match before I go
I am sure my friends will put in place whoever disrespect the club
Disgusting beyond belief especially what we have managed to do the last few weeks
Sometimes you just wonder…
Great article, very composed – surprisingly.
I know it’s hard for Utd fans to explain these losses and then dart looking for scapegoats, cos we are used to so much success but as RoM said last night as well, we just got to suck it up.
The manager knows who he will get rid of in summer be it berbatov or anyone else, let’s just get behind the lads at Newcastle and look for a response – that we usually get! CL #4 & PL #19 wouldn’t be bad would it?
Get your chins up lads let them have their moment they will forever be living in our shadow.
MUFC.
Rooney on the picth would have been match won. We are finally beaten by FA-cunts, refrees and ABU-mediahype. Even if it only was for denying Shitty it feels terrible.
Berb need to study how to play as lone striker.
At least one guy need to work with opposition defenders in team that is why team playing at least one forward.
Berb often fall back to midfield area; so opposition players come out and pressing our team midfielders thus whole team suddenly struggle.
when Chica play, opposition defender stay deep so our team player can find a lot more space and control the game; The striker role is such an important job.
Berb is very good player and can score amazing goal; ball skill is second to none but he is scoreer not a striker imo.
@MG
Nothing to talk about. In a few weeks the same people will be in the same holes they were this whole season.
Enjoy your time away.
People say that they will pray hard for Bolton’s/Stoke’s success. But I assure, they were not praying for us when we played City. They prayed for our downfall because they believe they have a better chance of lifting the cup against City than against United.
It’s tough being the best. The whole world unites against you. Now I know how Caesar felt. Anyways, who cares? They can all go to hell.
Morning fellow red and death to those who disrespect the club and its players. Take care MG doubt much will happen between now and Tuesday.
Felt ok this morning till I read comments from stone and nani 22 both of you are stupid cunts. Fuck off elsewhere your comments arent wanted here nor appreciated.
@Debred – the FA Cup is not bigger than the Champions League. So Scott’s right, this wasn’t even our biggest game this week.
Such is life,you win some,you lose some.We can move on and get back to winning ways on tuesday
In big games you rarely get 5 or 6 chances. In the Champions League final although they passed off of the park Barca didn’t get 5 or 6 chances they created two clear openings and they scored from both. Thats what big teams and big players do.
Often you get United fans on the net and on the boards laughing about how we routinely do over Arsenal these days and its true we do but those games often aren’t a reflection of the poverty of Arsenal’s side. What usually happens is that they overcomit we hit them on the counter and whereas we make our pressure and our attacks count. People trying to make excuses for Berbatov’s misses, particularly the second one from 5 yards, are ignoring this fact.
In the big games, the big players take their chances. Yaya Toure had one chance and he made it count. Berba had two and he didn’t. Don’t tell me Chicharito wouldn’t have at least scored one of those and if he does we got a completely different game on our hands. The boss indicated as much in his post match interview.
If you get chances and you dont take them you deserve to lose. How many times have United rode out a storm and hit a side for 6 by taking our 1 chance when the side we played missed 3 or 4? In top class football its that consistency that sorts out the men from the boys. At the highest level you cannot expect to get 5 chances before you score. We had our chances and we blew them. Simple.
Berbatov is not a big game player. When the onus is on him to provide for us his shyness comes out and he loses the composure he has become renowned for. He’s alright when he has a strike partner beside him to take the pressure off of his shoulders but when he’s put in the spotlight…I thought he’d gotten over it but once again on the big occasion he shrunk. He hasn’t got the mentality to succeed at a big club.
Thanks Scott.
That has helped me get over feeling blue.
Come on United lets get number 19 in the bag.
United4eva. Your argument is full of flaws name me one game where Hernandez has started up front on his own and scored? I think you’ll find he hasn’t. We’ve been playing 2 up front for most of this season including big games. Chelski, dippers, l’arse in the cup why change it? 2 front men should have started yesterday. Maybe within time Hernandez can play up front on his own from the start but until then we will never know. Only player in the squad 4-5-1 suits is Rooney. Must feel good to wait to release this year long frustration you have on Berba. Pathetic.
already looking forward to tuesday guys, its said already you win some you lose some. and i want to win against Newcastle. No time to moan guys its squeaky bum time
oh the glee on the sunday supplement cast’s face must be priceless. i’m still not going to listen to their shit though. i’ll bet it’ll be blue shit rising opps… sorry moon rising
Spot on slim. Haters always come out with their asinine opinion when we lose only to disappear again. In some peoples eyes if Berbas chance were the only ones we were going to get we have to do better as a team. Roll on Tuesday, hopefully see a few goals and a cracking match. It will take those blue bitter cunts an eternity to reach 10 titles let alone 19!
Good read and some positive comments.
We were poor yesterday and very negative, luckily I was taking a leak when I heard an almighty roar and knew the Shit had scored. Can’t comment on Scholes because I havn’t seen the challenge on tv and was to far away to see it.
Loved the atmosphere yesterday the pre match jumping around, chuckin beer and chanting everything Utd.
Its a set back but at the end of the day but we have to bounce back and Beat Newcastle.
Stoke and Bolton will look at that shit yesterday and fancy their chances in the Final.
On the Berba subject, this is what Fergie said in a very recent interview:
“It is unfortunate for Dimitar because he is a fantastic player,” said Ferguson of Berbatov’s present plight. “But the reasons are obvious.
“The emergence of Hernandez in the last couple of months has been startling. He is improving all the time and is getting stronger. It is very difficult to leave a player out when he hits that kind of form. Every manager and every player in the country has faced that situation in their career when someone emerges to challenge you. It is the horrible part of being a footballer.”
Sorry how this might come off, but in my opinion, Fergie didn’t have to go there in public. He is the best at man management and he had to know that this would only add to Berbatov’s anxiety ahead of a game like this. In a way, yesterday it felt like Berbatov was trying to convince he belongs at United and that’s ridulous for someone who’s the top scorer at United and the League. You never had Ruud, Andy Cole or Dwight Yorke go through so much doubt.
Again, not saying that I know better than Fergie. However, imo, reverse psychology like that might work on Rooney, but it won’t work on Berbatov.
Anyway, the link to the full interview:
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/premiership/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/04/15/SOCCER_Man_Utd_2nd_Nightlead.html
Take your tinted specs off Scott it’s about time u criticised the fucking useless dead wood. Berbatov got the sulk on when he missed a fuckin sitter when he shoulda stood up to be counted. Carricks had 3 good games in his whole utd career and they’ve been in the last week. As for John o’shit we wont win fuck all with that useless bastard my fuckin mum would give away the ball less than that bag of shit! Berbatov ain’t that good just look at who he scored against this season grow a pair and admit he don’t cut the fuckin mustard!!!!!!
@Notorious
What exactly is wrong with my argument? You’re talking about the system I’m note exactly sure why. Under that system Berbatov got 2 gilt edged changes and he missed them both not for the first time this season. My basic point is if those chances fall to Hernandez he scores them and he would’ve scored them. What has that got to do with the system?
This is life when
you are chasing on all fronts. We were knackered,
the performance fell flat. Our chance was to wrap
the game up before half time but it didn’t
happen. We had a similarly rubbish performance
against Arsenal in the Cup semi in 1999. It was
Schmeicel’s brilliance and “that goal” from Giggs
that got us through. Thats how it is, you need
that bit of luck and it deserted us today.
Hopefully it spurs us on. Our talisman returns on
Tuesday night and from the look on his face when
we lost today, he will be out for blood.
Berba – so frustrating
My feeling is that, and has always been, he cares too much. Some players come to OT embrace the place..take in the smells the essence of the club and grow, blossom. Some players, like berba, come here want it so much it terrifies them. They try to much, they think about the next pass, next shot, next header. Thats Berba and instead of doing it instinctly he thinks about it and messes up big time.
No matter what anyone says he fluffed both his chances – fair enough – they all can do that. But where bertba falls down is that afterhe fluffed both his chances he dissappered up his backside and wasn’t seen again all afternoon.
I want him to do so well but it scares me when i see him on the teamsheet for big games. i like, fergie and I think a lot of United fans don’t trust him to perform on the big stage.
@Costas
Maybe the direct approach wasn’t working and thus Fergie tried the reverse psychology approach. In my opinion, yesterday just showed why Chicha and Rooney are preferred starters. Chicha can worry the opposition defenders with his pace and prevent them from pushing up too high and Rooney can track back in midfield when required. The game changed yesterday after Mancini had a rant at his defenders for staying too deep.
We need for the scum to show up today beat the Arse, win away at newcastle on Tuesday and sit back and watch Spurs beat the Arse again on Wednesday. Good thing about both Arse games is that the scum and spurs HAVE to win to have a chance to qualify for europe
NUMBER 19 is what MATTERS
We have some so called fans on here who don’t deserve to be associated with United.
@arijc
Don’t know how much direct approach there was mate. Once Javier and Rooney began clicking well together, Fergie never looked back. And in retrospect, that was the right thing to do. I won’t deny that. I just think that it’s perhaps too much to expect Berbatov to come back to the side with the same confidence he was showing earlier in the season.
Another thing that yesterday showed imo, was that we should have gone with 4-4-2 from the off. Not because Berbatov might have converted his 2nd glorious chance. But because it would have forced City back. We usually play better against them when we play with 2 strikers.
@RedHarry4Life
Not expecting anything from the scum mate. Hopefully Spurs will take their game against Arsenal mote seriously.
It has everything to do with the system United4eva. Hernandez doesn’t play as a lone striker he plays in a front 2. 1st chance was a bloody good save but lets jump on Berbas back eh. 2nd one no argument there but you just lay into him because of a personal vendetta. My point is Hernandez gets as many chances as he does because he plays up front as a 2. Not as a lone striker. Hernandez has had a brilliant debut season but there have been games when he goes missing for large periods. Some United fans used to argue that all Ruud did is put the ball in the back of the net and offered nothing else. Hernandez is in the same mould although he has improved tremendously. If our Little Pea doesn’t have a succcesful second season you’ll be one of the first calling for his head. Should never have played Park up top with Berba he gave the ball away far too much.
Anyway games over focus on Tuesday. Berba being dropped to help Rooney was wrong IMO opinion but because we didn’t beat cit-eh even though there were 2 players on the pitch who have 18 goals between them in Nani and Park its time to jump on his back and vindicate him being dropped. You people have been waiting in the wings like a sick comittee of vultures. Well feast away I know you’ve all been waIting a long time to do this.
If we can go on another 7 game winning run, we will be champions and in the final of the European Cup. Let’s look at it from this perspective:
Newcastle (a) – W – 72 points
Everton (h) – W – 75 points
Schalke (a) – W
Arsenal (a) – W – 78 points
Schalke (h) – W – Final
Chelsea (h) – W – 81 points – Champions
Blackburn (a) – W
Kings,easier said than done mate.I still feel we have one more defeat in us in the league and I don’t think it’ll come against arsenal or chelsea.
For me Fergie’s substitutions yesterday were very ill thought out. We were one nil down with tem minutes to go. The situation was crying out for a striker to come alongside Hernandez but Fergie brought on Fabio despite the fact that Owen was there. I am sorry but Owen is far more likely to get you a goal than Fabio. Clearly Fergie has never really wanted Owen at all so why sign him. Owen should have been allowed to leave in January as Fergie never had any intention of giving him games. Fergies decision making yesterday was abysmal and yes we do need to question his decisions as this club is bigger than any one individual. Some people insist we can never ever question Fergie’s judgement. Why as Fergie is human prone to same mistakes as everyone else. He is not god.
For anyone who slates Scholes, you really dont watch or play much football! Always the case when we have a load of gloryhunting or quite frankly dim fans. It really gets my blood boiling. Same in 2002 when these same fans were carrying on about Giggs. I were at Juve 2003 and yes HE TORE THEM APART! As much as id like it we dont have a devine right to in everything so just move on.
UTID
horrible day worst feeling for a while and the cloesest to spending a night in the cells for many a year
still as i pointed out to a blue goon he will need to live to 150! to see have the riches we have
keep the red flag flying high
land number 19
T4M – That’s why I said ‘if’ mate. The only time we have suffered back-to-back defeats this seaon was in early March and that was down to a cheating cunt ref at Stamford Bridge. I just feel it is possible now that Rooney is back after his suspension and Fergie looking likely to go with him and Chicha up front. No disrespect to Berba, but Chicha definitely would have buried that pass in from Nani yesterday. Yeah you’re right about another defeat, but it will probably come at Blackburn if the Championship is already in the bag.
I chalk up the disrespect for Berbatov as some people just not being very bright and having very short memories. Yeah, it was a bad miss, but these things happen. His miss was not the biggest mistake of the game, that honour falls to Scholes for his crazy challenge. But the people who pick on Berbatov haven’t got the balls to say anything thing about Scholes. Dimitar remains the leagues top scorer, his contribution has been absolutely vital to the club this season.
@Nmostonred
I don’t think anybody is saying that Scholes isn’t one of the best players in history, cos he is, but to try to defend him today is just madness. He did what he did, it was a shocker, an absolute shocker. And that is an end to it. There is nothing more to be said.
Only just seen the celebrations, didn’t know people from stockport would be so happy at winning a semi final. As Scott said, their biggest game in 30 years. Not to mention, the balotelli show took another farcical twist. They really are sad little cunts aren’t they. Its moments like these that make me think, thank god our club actually has standards. Would rather win the other two given the choice and I honestly can’t see City winning the final, come on they are THE comedy club. They’ll all have their blue “FA Cup Final – May 14, The Future Is Almost Here” tattoos, and hopefully it will be a useless scar to forever mark how pathetic they are.
In the end rival fans tell us we are going to win nothing right up until the last month of the season when the trophies roll in. I always find it a stupid position to put themselves in as they will almost certainly be proved wrong.
United fans similarly had no reason to go all out on the 34/5 years, trophy-less claims at a time when city spending hundreds of millions of pounds- were definitely going to be going much closer to winning trophies.
They haven’t won anything yet, Bolton or Stoke could give us the biggest laugh ever but if you are going to dish it out then you’ve got to take it.
As for united I am just thankful that we did not put in yesterdays performance against chelsea. The problem is I don’t think you can expect to grind out a result in a close match if you miss two insanely presentable chances. Missing chances makes the odd error costly.
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again. Scholes legs have gone he would have met that ball before he took out Zabaleta 3-4 years ago. If he stays next season great but if he doesn’t it wouldnt surprise me. Now we lose him for 3 games and our centre midfield isn’t exactly our teams strongest point. Have to win our next 2 league games. Send our strongest 11 out every match unless a player is tired, no fucking around now.
@Costas
Bang on mate, you’re astute as ever. Expecting Berba to kick on as if a massive transformation in our striking department hadn’t occurred was disappointing. In any other season i would think a developing situation like this even thought it happened late on was to take a page form the 99 squad and pair Rooney with Hernandez and Berba with Owen . On the face its just 2 players but we all know that its a different dynamic and could be just as effective as Rooney/Hernandez, .
I hate United imposters.Fans who claim to know more than the manager.Slag off without understanding.Such fans expect the players to be like robots just because they earn millions.Its rather unfair to slag carrick and berba just like that just because you have a personal vendetta against them.
What is the point in having Owen if he’s not going to play when others are rested. Does anyone see him starting again for us? He still has a burst of speed and his link up play isn’t bad either. If he had started up front yesterday cit-eh wouldn’t have pushed up. Oh well we will never know now.
Doghouse – I agree with you about Berba as I am a big fan, but you cannot overlook the fact that his miss was costly and the most important thing about any football match is scoring when you are in control and we didn’t put away the clear cut chance we had, whilst we was in control. Look at the opening 10 minutes against Barcelona in the European Cup Final as another case in point. As I said in my previous post: ‘ No disrespect to Berba, but Chicha definitely would have buried that pass in from Nani yesterday’. Scholes challenge was shocking to say the least and I have no arguments about the sending off, but that cunt Dean let a lot of bad challenges from City go in the first half yesterday.
To be fair, fuck formations and partnerships, It was a bad miss, end off. As for Scholes, silly challenge from the wee man. Not gonna destroy Berbatov, or Scholes. We lost, move on.
What a poser that prat Rio is. Balotelli would make mincemeat out of hlm. Badge kissing? So what?
@Costas
That was my point. You wouldn’t know what has transpired before that statement to the press.
As for playing 4-4-2, we hardly do it away from home. We don’t exactly play 4-4-2 at home either. Its more 4-4-1-1 thanks to Rooney dropping deep when required. So playing with 2 strikers and with Scholes in a 2 man central midfield against their 3 man central midfield, which is well organized, would have been a bit reckless. As it turned out, even with the identical formation our mid field was under pressure once they started playing higher on the pitch.
Well, let’s not forget the good news.
Rooney will be rested for Newcastle, a team he usually does well against, and he should be absolutely busting to get amongst them.
Giggs has also had a week’s rest and he’s never had the Scholes red-mist problem.
Rafael might be fit, and Fabio certainly will be, with plenty of rest too.
And let’s not forget Michael Owen, he’s fit, raring to go (and maybe should have been picked yesterday), with maybe a thing or two to prove against the Toons.
Then there’s Gibson, who’s also rested and due one of his 25-yard belters.
Rio has survived playing three tough matches and is full of energy and passion, just how we need him.
Yes it’s true that Carrick made a a real mess of it yesterday, but generally he’s been in a good vein of form, and having gone missing for a while against City was still chasing the game right to the end, suggesting that he is determined to make amends, and there’s nowhere better for a Geordie like him to do it than St James’s Park.
Time to give Park and Valencia a rest, use them as subs, especially Antonio, who has done wonders after such a long lay-off, but has now hit that ‘brick wall’ all long-term injury -victims face half-a dozen matches in.
Finally, I would just add to the list of scapegoats, United fans. Poor show, I’m afraid, as far as i could tell from the TV coverage. City fans were amazing, whatever you might think of all the rubbish they spout at times. Credit where it’s due. I fear we may all be so sated with success we take it for granted. City fans were hungrier, and so were their players in the event. On both fronts we need to turn that round on Tuesday night. We certainly can’t rely on Liverpool to do us any favours, that’s for sure.
The lads were tired and just didnt look up for it, thats what cost us but we have far bigger trophies to win than the FA Cup, it would have been nice but I’m glad the treble shit has gone because the league and Champions league are what I want this season. The best bit of it all tho is that Shitty will feel like they’ve won a cup when they havent, they are still a really tough game away and I honestly see them losing the final because of how Stoke or Bolton will play against them. Clubs like that only get to finals once every 10 or 20 years nowadays so you can bet they will be all over Shitty and I would tip either to beat the Bitters if I’m honest. STR put it beautifully when he said it was Shitty’s biggest game for over 3 decades but wasn’t even the biggest game of our week!! how true is that, it’s completely wiped away the hurt that statement and put everything into perspective for me. Cheers Scott mate!!
@doghouse
Your right bad challenge. He werent quick enough. The ball were there to be won and id have expected any player of ours to contest that challenge. If they didnt id be greatly disappointed. Just grates on me how after 1 defeat how everyone nominates players for the exit door. ie. Berbatov, Carrick, O’Shea. Now Scholes. The first three are scapegoats all the time. From my perspective Berba and Carrick have had good seaons. One player i would personally question is Evra he has been woeful and has seemed to have lost his ability to defend. However I dont call for him to be shown the door, he just needs a good talking to from the gaffer. Anyway nice to see Vida is chomping to win 19. Like you said pal well move on. Next stop the Toon
Oh and Bolton will want it to honour Nat Lofthouse!!
On a different topic, looks like me and hammons jinxed the team yesterday. Just last week we were talking about how United have never lost a game that Antonio and Nani started together (19 wins and 2 draws). There you are…Also, first time this season the team has lost with Rio in the starting line up. Congrats on the new daughther by the way.
@slim
Thanks mate. Rooney and Chicha’s form has made it very hard to drop either of them. In 98-99, Yorke and Cole were playing all the time until Fergie started rotating in late April. And the problem, is that some stikers are better coming off the bench, than others. For example, Ole, Javier and Sheringham thrived on being supersubs. Van Nistelrooy and Berbatov don’t.
Also, the way the team is now, Rooney is a certain starter due to his overall contribution to the team. So it’s really 3 strikers after one spot.
Is it true that Gareth Bale will be announced Player of the Year? Good Lord…
@arijc
True that. That’s why I would have went with a 4-4-2 where both Ando and Park started along with Valencia and Carrick. It’s the most energetic midfield we could have had given the circumstances. Sometimes 4-4-2 does leave gaps open, but others times it’s easier to push forward with that system. Anyway, that’s all good in hindsight I guess…
If Arsenal drop points today and we take 3 points at Newcastle, I won’t even remember yesterday. I partly blame this on the fucking FA and their Wembley semi-final. The atmos and everything about the game yesterday felt wrong. Anyways don’t give a fuck, my one and only target this season is the league, then Europe – don’t care about the FA cup.
I don’t think the formation mattered yesterday. We dominated the first 20 minutes and if Berbatov scores, we win the game. If go 442, we might have got over – run in midfield. As I said last night, we’re all experts, after the fact.
@Costas
Yeah, hindsight is wonderful
On Bale, I guess 2 good performances against Maicon are sufficient to win the award.
Damn you Hammons!
If we do win the league title this year, we will be grateful to the Berb and his goals, but yesterday after that extraordinary miss, his head clearly dropped. Have to wonder about his ‘big match’ temperament.
Carrick, oh Carrick. He did it against Bayern. He did it against Barcelona. He gifted Liverpool possesion at Old Trafford once not so long ago, and it led to a goal. Now he has done it again against Shitty. It is a real pity, in the last few weeks Carrick has been pinging the ball around again. Hopefully he doesn’t withdraw back into his shell.
Scholes, no complaint about the card, it was a terrible tackle. I was annoyed with Mike Dean in the first half though, he wasn’t protecting our players.
Balotelli is a bloody immature idiot. What currency was he hoping to make when he went out of his way to taunt Manchester United fans. I wonder if the FA will take action.
@arijc
If Bale isn’t able to make it to the ceremony, they will mail it at the following address:
Da Silva’s back pocket, R21. Old Trafford.
@willie
It’s my fault. Me and my stats corrupted him.
I thought the biggest factor was we looked tired. There was no zip to our play that we’ve had recently and when you consider we had a tough game against Chelsea on Tuesday and City played like they couldn’t be arsed on Monday, it does take its toll.
It’s gutting now, but we’re Man United and we’ll never die. One game doesn’t change history, winning a 19th title and a 4th European cup does!
Also, City haven’t won anything yet and they also haven’t secured top 4 yet. How good would it be to see City finish 5th and lose to Bolton/Stoke in the final!
@ willierednut. We still got overrun in midfield. If we had 2 up front their defence would never have pushed up. When I saw the line up yesterday I was shaking my head, had a feeling Hernandez wouldn’t play thenstart Owen with Berba. Berba should have buried that 2nd chance no question about it.
@ Giles Oakley. Great post sir, agree with you about our fans the second cit-eh got some momentum so did their fans and ours never came back.
Wonder if Balotelli will get charged for goading the fans will he fuck, now if that was Wayne Rooney different matter altogether.
Frustrating game in the sense that we totally let it pass up by. Agreed on the Paul Scholes point. Everyone can blame Berbatov and Carrick all they want but the real culprit was Scholes. No one means to miss a chance or give the ball away but to get sent off for such a stupid tackle just leaves the fans with that what if feeling.
Why oh why we didn’t just start with two up front I’ll never know. I’d have been happy if we even started with Berbatov and Owen. Most opinions lean towards City deserving to win the game but the bottom line is we gifted them the goal then through our own stupidity we left ourselves with only 10 men to fight back. My mind kept wandering back to the 85 final and the 99 semi where we fought for the win after getting a man sent off. Alas the fight just wasn’t in us yesterday and hopefully this defeat doesn’t affect our confidence.
The bottom line is that Tuesday night was always a much more important game and if I had a choice over losing against City or Newcastle I’d have taken a City defeat all day long. It’s a painful defeat but it’s one I’ll get over pretty quickly if we are three points better off on Wednesday morning.
NRD – Second half we did, for a time, but we bossed the first 20 minutes. My point is, If the Berb scores, no one mentions the formation. Once City scored, we lost our marbles. It happened against Barcelona in 2009. We looked shell shocked, for some reason, when there was still time to get back into the game.
it was a overall disappointing performance to single out players is wrong,yeah berba missed a sitter all strikers have, its the same as goalies letting the odd soft one in it happens and carrick made a bad pass the ball should have been long gone before it even got to him.it was very congested and tight ball should have been cleared up field.on tv that pitch looked heavy so think scholes should have come off before the sending off we all know he’s reckless and add tired to the mix something like that is always bound to happen,the coaching staff should have realised that.
overall it was a hangover from the chelsea game and the lads just didn’t seem very pumped to me,came to quick after a massive result.
@Goon
This is a blog for teams actually in the hunt for trophies. Please kindly fuck off jealous cunt.
I felt like shit abt the defeat that I slept for 12 hours straight……:(
I see what you mean willierednut. I always think we should play 2 up front granted last season our midfield wouldn’t allow us to but we’ve been doing alright this season. Too many times in the last 3 years we’ve fucked up when we have 2 big games back to back. Well we’re going to have 4 big game coming up after l’arse game. Wonder how we cope. Off to the bookies to place money on l’arse winning and Jamie Carragher scoring an own goal.
So its Fergies fault that Berbatov missed 2 fucking sitters? Fuck right off. He showed today why Fergie doesn’t pick him for big games. He was fucking awful, even apart from those 2 chances. Carrick will be blamed as usual but if you’re honest, you’ll say that we would have been well on the way to victory if Berbatov had been able to put away one of the easiest chances he’s had all season. This isn’t even the 1st time he’s fucked up big time at Wembley. I just hope if we’re there again to play Barca or Madrid that he’s on the fucking bench
can’t be dealing with this berba has had a great season for utd and while rooney was sucking shit which has been for most of the year berba carried the forward line,without his contribution utd would have no chance of winning 19.the first chance was a good/lucky save 2nd chance should have scored so what he didn’t,one missed chance doesn’t define a players season.
all the berba haters looking for one thing so you can stick it to him again its fucking pathectic, just a bunch of fucking idiots who’s got shit for brains
NRD – Ha ha. I wouldn’t put it past Carragher, to do something like that. I don’t know though, I’ve got a feeling, the dippers might get a draw at least. I’m hoping Suarez and Carroll will give Liverpool’s defense problems. Wishful thinking, I know.
Arsenal’s defense, sorry. Damn typos!
The problem with everyone slating Berba is that you are discounting the most important aspect for a striker to score goals in the first place – Confidence (which is what Costas has been saying since yesterday). Hernandez is on a roll right now so I am sure he would’ve buried those chances. But take the same Hernandez when he is short on confidence and he hits it straight at the keeper like Berba did yesterday. A confident Berba dinks that ball over the keeper which obviously did not happen yesterday.
Why is Rooney converting every other chance nowadays when he was not able to score shit last year? The answer is one word: Confidence. Every striker from Pele to Denis Law to Eric Cantona to Sheringham to Ruud to Ole to Rooney to Berba to The Next Ronaldo strive on confidence. You take that from the game, you might as well shoot them dead because their contribution will be next to nothing. If you cannot understand that and still slate him for what was, in reality, a very bad miss, then I am sorry I have to say you don’t understand the fundamentals of football.
As for formations, United are not playing 4-4-2 again in an away match against anyone unless we get some semblance of stability in our mid-field. Either with Rooney moving to the Scholes role or by buying a few players here and there. 4-4-2 cannot work against tougher opposition who go 4-5-1 without a mid-field like Giggs-Keane-Scholes-Beckham. Sir Alex has pretty much recognized that in the past few seasons which has directly led to our better performances in Europe.
In fact, my dream would be some sort of work out where we have Rooney playing in the 4-4-2 in the Scholes role and Berba and Chicha up front. By next season, we’ll have a better idea on how Sir Alex sees Rooney’s future with the kind of players he buys. So, we can make an informed decision then.
Difference with Rooney though, he has the ability to produce a bit of magic, when playing bad. Maybe we should have known, that City would win the semi final. Rooney missed the 50th anniversary of Munich derby in 2008. That was the last time City had beaten us, before yesterday. Damn you Hammons! And Costas! lol.
Ahm, Berba had one sitter. The first opportunity is more of a Hart great save than Berba fluffing his chance.
So Berbatov is not allowed to miss one sitter is he? The same player that is our top scorer in the League. The team had 70 minutes to make up for that and they didn’t. We win as a team and we lose as one.
As for Berbatov at Wembley, the last two times I saw him play there, he set up Owen’s equalizer in the league cup final and then lob Cech in the Charity Shield. Are we still going to moan about one fucking penalty 2 years ago?
The first miss, was lucky on Harts part. The ball hit him on the arm, then onto his head. I suppose, he earned that luck, cunt.
Bets been place. @ Costas. Of course we’re going to moan about that penalty miss from 2 years ago. When did the game change vs Bobby Mor0e FC when Berba came on. Who scored the important goals vs Blackpool Berba. He misses a sitter and all of a sudden he can’t cut it. Like I’ve said these parasites bashing him have been chomping at the bit for a long time to have a go. Can’t stand these types of supporters. Rooney’s a saint to them considering he couldn’t even hit a barn dorr for about 6 months. We win the league Berbas contribution far outweighs that of Rooneys this season. End of.
Goon – What are you doing on here? Has this post got anything to do with Arsenal? No! So fuck off you cunt.
Costas – Bale to win PFA Player of the year and Wilshere to win Young player of the year. You have to understand that for any of our players to win individual awards to go with the team awards would be considered greedy by the ABU cunts. The new criteria to win the award is to have two stand out games before christmas and do fuck all after that – so if Nani had two good games and does fuck all for the rest of the season, he would have been nailed on to win it. So based on that logic, the right people have been chosen.
Paul Scholes – Finished, He knows it and we know it!
Michael Carrick – Simply not good enough for our midfield such is the high standard needed for the premier league now
Dimitar Berbatov – Should never of been up front on his own or more importantly he should never be made to play on his own up front!
and finally onto Ferguson – What the fuck! Liverpool showed how easy it is to beat these bunch of c***s, I’m sorry but to play 1 lone striker up front against a defence that struggled against two strikers earlier in the week!
The biggest joke of a comment I’ve read today is that I have a personal vendetta against Berbatov. Why would I actually want my team to fail? Baffling. The fact he missed those sitters and then let his head drop massively contributed to Man City ruining our hopes of the Treble. Why would I want that? I’d actually like Berbatov to score a hat trick every game because then we’d be guaranteed silverwear but that would never happen. I’m cricitising him because I see a fault in his game and I’m not the only one.
He has scored a lot of goals for us but his lack of toughness again surfaced yesterday just when you thought he might be getting over his demons. As someone else said football is about confidence but some players are visibly better at keeping their morale up than others and Berbatov, in spite of his talent, doesn’t seem to have that unshakable inner self-belief of a Cantona or a Yorke. Even if he has a tremendous game one week you have no idea if he’ll take the form into the next match or go the next half a dozen without scoring. He just doesn’t have a big game mentality.
Yesterday just showed how much we rely on Wayne rooney in big games. His absence was key. When we got the ball in the final third we never had no spark through the middle.
The thing that gets me is city actually think they are getting somewhere by beating united, even though they used to hammer united with the likes of shaun goater. They got a lucky break and scored.
United need to sort that midfield out once and for all, Michael carrick just isn’t good enough, Paul scholes is the best midfielder to have played in the premier league, I hope he stays for another season but we need to replace him rather than rely on him.
As for berbatov I dont care how low your confidence is you can not be missing from 2 yards out especially just after blowing a golden opportunity. I remember after 20 mins into the game thinking this is man utd vs Portsmouth all over again where we won’t be able to score and they will get a lucky break.
On a more positive note after watching barca play yesterday and hoping fletcher and Anderson are at the top of their game by then I think we have a good chance of beating them as long as the boys are willing to get stuck in.
Lasana diarra and sneijder are 2 players who would fit right in at united
Costas, a one on one with the keeper is a sitter in my book. I’m not saying he’s not allowed to miss chances. Every player misses chances. What I have a problem with us how Scott suggested its Fergies fault because he doesn’t pick him for big games. He showed yesterday exactly why Fergie is right not to pick him in the big games
@Balaji
Right mate. Confidence plays a huge role. And for some players it’s more important than for others. And some might not like it, but the current situation has affected Berbatov more than it would others. I don’t know if that indicates that Berbatov is not United quality. I’ve never passed that judgment on United players. I leave it to the expert, the manager.
@NOtorious
And I’d think that if the Wayne Rooney saga taughts us anything, that would be that we should be grateful towards those players that have always respected the club, whether they miss sitters or not.. Rooney has contributed too this season, particulary in the last 3 months. But we can’t forget who was our best striker until January…
@Kings
Cheers mate. That explains it. Nani hasn’t done enough then. As for Chicharito, yeah, he’s been impressive considering he’s scored 18 goals in his first season in Europe, but we can’t afford to disappoint England’s next big dope. I mean hope…
Through the tumbleweeds, we see the true aspect of a fan.
Niall Harbison @ 00:35: ” Nani and Park were shokcing (in their defense they were tired) ”
Gotta disagree – Nani laid on a perfect chance for Dimmy, which he skied over the cross-bar; ThreeLungPark was played out of position – in the new RooneyRole – and never really got a grip on the game.
As much as SAF received kudos for the team’s play/strategy/formation against the RentBoyz in the CL, he got it wrong yesterday. I just hate to second-guess what SAF does but he really should have replaced both Scholes and Berbatov – with Anderson and LittleMikey – at half-time. Neither of these guys were contributing – and in the case of Dimmy it is pretty clear that his two misses just sucked the air out of him.
Additionally, this was always going to be a very tough game as it came on the heels of a HUGE win at OT against the RentBoyz. In terms of UTD’s priorities, the FACup would always be third, the CL second, and the glorious 19th was – and is and will be – number one.
“too much doom and gloom”. right. i said to friends before the game that in the context of this season, this game is mainly an irritation. the only thing that counts this year is the premiership. everything else is just dessert – nice, but not necessary.
i’m just happy we got through it without conceding an injury to an important player. Scholes, red card? we’ll use Giggs. thanks. Scholes has blown hot and cold all season and in a revealing interview in the guardian, he’s talking about “not being sure he has the legs for any of this anymore”. so, he’s out. fine. all season he’s looked like someone weighing up their future and finding themselves lacking. he’s an extraordinary player. better he stay that way, than become ordinary.
as for the game itself? we blew two open goals and that should be a worry for Berbatov. i love his touch and his play. but he’s not fast enough to be up front, and not strong enough to be in the middle. and now it looks like his composure is gone. so we’ll be looking for a striker. fine, too. he’ll still be worth his weight in gold in the remaining games this season.
city? hardly troubled us. we were pretty poor, a fact i attribute to the intensity of the last two European nights, sublime performances both of them, to the team being tired, a little off-the-top-of-the-adrenalin-rush. all our champion’s league star, carrick, valencia, park et al spent a lot of this game dazed and ball-watching, and that happens, is all. you can’t change physiology and asking them to get fired up for a competition that we haven’t really had our eye on at all this season, and pretend that we give a fuck about it is just fucking dumb. for all i know they might have tried, but you just can;t do that all the time. city, on the other hand has nothing else – they’re rested, lazy, complaining and in fuck all else – and they got one one goal. and that goal from a mistake we made. how the fuck they can figure this was something special from themselves,christ alone knows. if this was OUR only competition, they’d have been torn to pieces. they were fucking average, and got lucky, all the prancing about talking themselves up won’t change that. i genuinely don’t rate them. they’re just another meaningless, rudderless club. they’re not a team, not an institution, not a culture like we are, and Madrid is, and Barcelona is.
if they win something? who fucking cares? i don’t support them, follow them or hate them – i don’t care if they win or lose, and i don’t think it’s out job to give a fuck about them. even if they finally win something, all they will have achieved is spend half a billion pounds to get on par with Portsmouth. it…doesn’t…matter…in other words.
so – we have Schalke to worry about, and the run in. same as we always did.
we’ve got players lacking confidence, and players showing their spine. same as we always did.
@MUFC WL105
I don’t think the issue is that he doesn’t pick him for big games. Berbatov played well against Liverpool and Chelsea early in the season. Imo, Fergie hasn’t shown enough faith that he believes in him. I posted above the interview where he praised Chicharito (deservedly) and then pointed out that it was clearly obvious why he prefers him.
Again, I understand that Fergie is doing the best for the club. No doubt. However, knowing Berbatov’s mindset, asking him to come back in the side in a game like this and prove everyone wrong was too much I feel..
I’ll take a loss to City if it encourages the Glazers to improve the squad in the summer. i felt like something was missing yesterday. I wont say anything bad about our players but I think there’s just something lacking. To be honest i think we need a couple more cunts in the team. Keano was a nasty bastard but I felt we were invincible when he was on the pitch. King Eric had that swagger, that belief that fed through the whole team. Even Ronaldo has his massive ego that gives him the confidence to make those runs and trick shots. all supremely talented players but with an edge that we’re missing. Im not saying we need a balotelli but someone like Sneijder.
YorYor @ 3:40: “Be fair to Carrick, I don’t think it was a bad pass”
Hey, be “fair” to the truth – it WAS a bad pass. It was also a very bad clearance from Edwin that needlessly put the defenders under pressure and thereby initiated the string-of-events that led to the bad pass. It happened; it wasn’t good. We can’t win them all – just the majority: this was UTD’s fifth loss in over fifty matches this season. Such is life. NOW the question is can TheLads kick on from here and win the rest of the games to achieve double glory – remember that in 2008 we got jobbed in the FACup against Portsmouth by Martin Atkinson (surprise !) but went on to win double glory. It’s still a possibility to do that again. That would be “fair”.
Costas, I understand what you mean about Berbatovs mindset and while having that mindset as a young inexperienced player might be acceptable, I don’t think its acceptable for a 30 year old to have this attitude to being left out of the team
It’s a joke reading some posts and how some people view games. i can already count the names who will still be here when we go into the dip that I am fully prepared to see when SAF retires.
Yang @ 7:38: “SAF made mistake sending Berb as a lone striker.
Berb lack of movement and positional sense in front of goal so someone else need to do footwork.”
This is just so much after-the-fact analysis and we all know that hindsight is 20/20.
Let’s re-think what you have said on the assumption that Dimmy buried those two chances – the first one was the result of neat interplay, “movement and positional sense in front of goal” and the second one was created by a brilliant spin move from Nani and a slide-rule cross that SOMEHOW Dimmy skied over the bar.
Had those two chances been slotted home then how could you – or anyone else – say that Dimmy lacked “movement and positional sense”. In point of fact, Dimmy did exactly the right movement and his positional sense was spot-on both time BUT, for whatever reason, he was not clinical in his finishing which is a very different matter.
If you’re going to criticise the guy then at least make a criticism that squares with the facts.
@denton
Like you said, it was a whole list of events that led to that “bad pass”. So who’s fault should it be? For Vidic not being fast enough and didn’t anticipate Toure’s run? The team lost as a whole and I really see it as a good interception than a bad pass. It’s not like it was underhit/overhit/waywardly passes.
Anyway, I hope you’re right. We’ll find out whether:
1. Le Arse will be able to keep up their stuttering chase
2. Or Liverpool will roll over and play dead
3. Whether we beat NU away and go on to the run we are more than capable of.
For the rest, less than 48 hours to go. Get behind the team, and start your calls for the selling of the whole team during the summer boredom please. Better still if you could donate your savings+inheritanc to United with the conditions that they buy the Barcelona/RM team whichever you prefer.
RedHarry4Life @ 10:07: “where bertba falls down is that afterhe fluffed both his chances he dissappered up his backside and wasn’t seen again all afternoon.”
I don’t think that you’re being fair to Dimmy in wiriting that “he disappeared up his backside”. My sense was that his two misses were critically important because they literally sucked the air out of UTD and injected ManShitty with confidence.
Reconsider the timing – UTD are on top, controlling the ball, and the field is tilting in TheLads’ direcdtion. Then, at the culmination of a period of intense pressure there are two appalling flubs in the space of one minute. After that, the field tilted in the opposite direction and this reversal was compounded by both Michael Carrick’s brain fart and then PaulScholes’ red mist moment.
I wrote earlier – @ 13:30, for what it’s worth – that SAF should have taken both Dimmy and Scholes off at half time in an attempt to stop the reversal but he didn’t.
RedHarry4Life @ 10:11: “We need for the scum to show up today beat the Arse, win away at newcastle on Tuesday and sit back and watch Spurs beat the Arse again on Wednesday.”
THAT I can agree with ! Here’s hoping that BigAndyTheJagerBomber gets a hat-trick.
KingofStretfordEnd way back at 5.19 … yeah, I also do not want Berbatov to leave. I think he was genuine when he said he doesn’t want to leave, that he wants to finish his career here. I am sure that if he does leave, it won’t be for money, it will be for opportunity. The guy probably has only a few years left at the top level. The question for him is, does he want to spend that time as a bit-part player? Because it’s sort of obvious that no matter what he does, he will always be seen as a bit-part player at this club. I know he’s only a year younger than MO, but MO has had a lot of injury problems and was basically washed up before he came to us. Also, MO’s game is built on speed, which he doesn’t quite have anymore.
Anyway, we’ll know in the summer.
Notorious @ 10:27: “My point is Hernandez gets as many chances as he does because he plays up front as a 2. Not as a lone striker.”
Your “point” is wrong. When Chicharito teams up with Rooney then UTD are set up in a 4-5-1 formation with WayneBoy playing in an attacking midfield role – you might want to call him a “strker” yet he’s most definitely NOT playing up-top as part of a “2″ but, rather, he’s wandering (with purpose) all over the field. When SAF plays Chicharito then the formation is an attacking “diamond” iwth the Mexicutioner playing off-the-shoulder of the last defender. Only by stretching the definition of a 4-4-2 way beyond recognition can you fit their partnership into that formation.
some coments here are absolutely mindblowing. sell him, tell him to fuck off etc. we HAVE to get behind our team, yes we migth need some fresh blood in the squad, but that is for the next season. it is the current squad that has gotten us to were we are, 1st of the prem, semi in the CL and a bitter loss in the semi of the FA cup.
all in all, i pray that city will fuck it up in the final. city winning a trophy, yuck!
No chance denton davey. Rooney’s a forward always has been always will be, even when Rooneys not playing Hernnadezs goals have come along side another striker see Blackpool, and see Southampton. Last time I checked Owen and Berba weren’t attacking midfielders nor do they play there. We need 2 forwards on the pitch where the other plays is irrelevant but it doesn’t work when the other player is a recognised midfielder up top with a forward like Park yesterday. Nice one in missing the point
I haven’t read all the comments, but enough. I see some people are basically saying Berbatov should have potted both chances, and at 2-0 up, we would have won.
But that’s crap and here’s why. Both chances came in the same passage of play, so if he had scored from the first chance, the second chance would never have arisen — because play would have been restarted in the center circle. The only reason he got the second chance, was that he missed the first. *Either* chance should have been converted, but it’s illogical to say “both” should have been scored and we should have been 2-0 up. You can say that if a player gets two chances that occur in completely unrelated parts of the game (though even there, it doesn’t really make sense). But in this case, you can’t.
Finally, I would just add to the list of scapegoats, United fans. Poor show, I’m afraid, as far as i could tell from the TV coverage. City fans were amazing, whatever you might think of all the rubbish they spout at times. Credit where it’s due. I fear we may all be so sated with success we take it for granted. City fans were hungrier, and so were their players in the event. On both fronts we need to turn that round on Tuesday night. We certainly can’t rely on Liverpool to do us any favours, that’s for sure
Sorry Giles, from where I was sat, the whole of the 1st half was dominated by UTD with city doing the Poznan on lots unconnected reasons, they came to life at the goal and sporadically sang blue moon in the 2nd half, with 10 minutes to go they got louder and louder but to suggest they where stronger is wrong and pleny got sorted before the game. I rarely dismiss your comments giles but you should know better in that the sound relayed on TV is not always the same as in the ground, I was at OT on Tues for the Chelsea game and it was loud, the phone in shows on the way home where saying what a great atmosphere it had been and yet when I got in and watched the reply it sounded quiet with the sound modulated to suit.
mattbw7 – The Poznan is a City trademark according the commentator and that fucking cunt Adrian Chiles. The latter also said the one thing you can say about the United fans is they couldn’t get away quick enough, look at those empty seats. Fat Brummie football head cunt.
im nowhere near as devastated about this loss as i was about the wolves, chelsea and pool games. im much more keen to see that 19th PL and CL. although it is disappointing to lose, i suppose it was going to happen at some point when we were playing for 3 trophies and city was playing for 1.. even with a 250 million pound squad.
Well I stayed till the bitter end but then I always do, fuck chiles and the rest of em.
Heard some blackpool fans where leaving with 30 mins to go, great way to get behind your team.
i said quite a few threads utd play better with 2 strikers just another game to prove the point,blaming berba is ridiculous and carrick was close to being m.o.m in both chelsea games,i’m sure some of the people saying he’s not good enough for utd was praising him in the champions league games as i already mentioned he should have never recieved the ball it should’ve been cleared alot earlier,trying to play pretty football out of defense in tight situations is always high risk.
utd have been playing good football for quite a few games now,there is a let down after a massive result and its all of a sudden doom and gloom,doesn’t matter red or not i have no respect or time for fickle fans.
How about, we where tired and not up for it, they where, so fuck it, onto the next one.
Agree with most of you. Not the end of the world at all. One needs to score to win, easy as that – in games like this chances need to be taken and when they arent, one will pay the price.
Had United scored on the chances early, the game would have looked easy for us. Simple as that.
Newcastle it is !!
Massive Mistakes Cost Reds Against City
http://www.theunitedreligion.com/2011/04/massive-mistakes-cost-reds-against-city.html
Hammon at 16:05Massive Mistakes Cost Reds Against City
http://www.theunitedreligion.com/2011/04/massive-mistakes-cost-reds-against-city.html
I hope to fuck this aint your blog, cos when I need a lesson in stating the bleedin obvious I’ll sort it for my self, btw who does David Villa play for!!!!!
Not even entertaining the Giggs scandal discussed here fellas. First I’ve heard of it but im sure truth will out it always does. Eitherway Giggsy is HUMAN so he without Sin and all that. Fucking Press. Betraying Themselves With Their Timing As Usual.
As for today its not often I completely disagree with a team selection but I think Alex should of started with Anderson if the lad was fit, which he clearly was based on his impact. Its just my humble opinion and I do acknowledge its easy to say so after the fact.
Still, Scholes alongside Carrick against that midfield was our biggest mistake. Ando can defend deep alongside a DM, put the ball through to the wings and bring it forward himself, but most importantly he keeps his opposite number quiet. I was really surprised Scholes was matched up against Yaya Toure. Call him what you want but that oaf is a BIG GAME player as we’ve seen in Barca colours, but at a Europa club like city where they play FUCK ALL such games you’ll hardly see the best of him.
Yesterday he dominated midfield passing, broke up play and made constant runs into our final third. He was easily MOTM. You could see on Andersons face he thought he should have started, and based on his impact I agree, HE would have bullied Yaya and picked his pocket all night to feed our attackers. Instead Yaya bullied our midfield and put Carrick under pressure. He’s always had goals in him, his finish was excellent. Scholes has been important this year, his performace at the Bridge in the League for example, but yesterday we needed pace and strength to stop citys man man and we lacked it. Ando must be gutted, he deserves a run in the team now he’s fit, and this Cup Tie had his name written all over it. In my humble opinion its a big shame he didn’t start. We lacked fight.
Man – Arsenal score 7 mins into overtime. We almost had 19 there………
spoke too soon ^^^
And Kuyt (almost) gives us nr 19……..
On a side note, Arsenal don’t have the bottle this year. Im more concerned with us showing bottle against Newcastle on Tuesday. If we beat Arsenal and Chelsea we won’t need favours from anyone.
After his performance yesterday im not too worried about Berbatov either, I really don’t understand his latest critics after this defeat. If we managed to create a third good chance for him he would have buried it. We have to remember he’d come off the bench for his first start in AGES and he wasn’t as sharp enough. The problem was midfield being taken from us after our brief spell. That cost us the game. Nani and Tony were kept quiet for the same reason, the lack of industry in the middle we often moan about.
Just a shame we didn’t get to see Anderson prove his worth. Im not one to criticise the Manager, only he knows what he intended yesterday. If he wanted a disciplined performance with Hernandez and Ando to win it late on as subs, then Scholesy’s timing prevented it. Substitutions on the hour could have changed that, but shit happens. I don’t see city as a threat after this, although it will be interesting if they get into the Champions League. More than anything im just gutted Ando didn’t start. Yaya certainly wouldn’t have been MOTM, and our wingers wouldn’t have been kept so quiet if he did. Lessons will be learned all round, especially with Newcastle coming up. Still hurts we got knocked out without a fight, but the Manager knows best, maybe he’s pacing our performance? Fuck knows. Im just waiting for Tuesday.
NotoriousRedDevil you said Michael Owen wasn’t an attacking midfielder and has never played there. Actually Owen has played in midfield several times especially for Real Madrid. In fact many people there even argued it was his best position. Kevin Keegan also operated a system with Owen in Midfield behind Viduka which was very effective and successful. Do not fall into the trap of believing the media’s anti Owen garbage. Also Owen has operated as a second striker very effectively. Particularly under Sven Goran Eriksson, when he played behind Andy Cole. Owen is not and never has been just a goalscorer.
WHAT ??? says:
Not even entertaining the Giggs scandal discussed here fellas
It’ll be discussed
That’s good to hear Mattbw7. Actually it can be very hard to judge objectively who is out-shouting whom, either at a match or on TV. When you are in the middle of your own supporters it can feel like you are winning but if you are somewhere else in the stadium you discover the sound isn’t making the impact you think. It’s true that TV can give a distorting effect on sound levels, but certainly by the end I’m afraid City were way out in front. I can remember at Wembley for the Everton semi, when I was there, there was no doubt the Scousers made far more noise throughout, from where I was sitting (standing). I know that was not a priority competition then, in 2009, as it isn’t now, but I felt strongly that our fans do sometimes take success for granted. When you’ve been through a couple of fallow decades you know that things seldom last.
Anyway, I have no doubt that Liverpool penalty will have seen a million homes lifted up with noise. Not often one cheers the dippers, but this one was a bit special.
Dont take my word for it Giles, listen to other reds who where there. My section wasn’t that loud (apart from me and a couple of others) so we could hear what was going on, as I said I concede the point towards the end of the game and when they scored but for the rest I’m not having it.
Agree on the dippers and when kenny told AW to piss off.
Notorious @ 14:18: “Nice one in missing the point.”
Your point is, to be polite, pedantic. Yeah, sure, WayneBoy is called a forward/striker but when he’s playing with Chicharito then he just isn’t part of a “2″ in a 4-4-2. That’s like, sooooo yesterday. Chicharito plays off-the-last-defender’s-shoulder whereas WayneBoy is given liberty to roam in the space he opens up – I believe that professional footballers call this “breaking the lines”. If you need to describe their partnership in terms of a “formation” then it’s either a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-1-1 but my point is that it just isn’t a 4-4-2. You don’t agree – ok. That’s your prerogative and I think you are entitled to an opinion that I think is wrong. But, please, don’t tell me that I missed your (wrong) point.
Mattbw7
Got to agre with you. Where I was sat but actually standing we were chanting and singing all through. Shitty fans were quiet in the first half and most of the second. I left with approx 30 seconds to go, couldn’t handle the lesser fans chearing their over rated team.
James I’ll forgive you your 30 secs though I can say hand on heart I’ve never left a game before fulltime, maybe I’m just a misrable tight bastard who wants his monies worth. On top of the Berties being quiet, there where seen off at various points, nothing really to write home about but it was only the team that didnt turn up.
I’m really pleased to hear all this first hand testimony. Let’s hope people keep it up for the next 9 games. I’m with you mattbw7, I’ve never left a United match before the end. I was shocked to see Bolton fans leaving in the first half of their semi. Pathetic.
Dela: True, thats the point I am making, we should have started 442 and played both Chicha and Berba!
I disagree with the comments here about Scholes. The whole team was disjointed for much of the game and was heading backwards. After City scored, the sense of urgency did not increase. Scholes had been buzzing everywhere, linking up and getting the ball forward all game. I’m sure he was frustrated. City had been getting away with a number of violent tackles and we didn’t seem like we were fighting back.
When I saw Scholes take him out I cheered -at least someone on the team was showing some fight, even if it was futile. It reminded me of Zidane in the world cup final. You can’t tell me that the sending off was what prevented the comeback – there had been no sign of one in the 20 minutes after the goal. My only regret was that he hadn’t been able to do it to DeJong.
And let’s not forget that rooney is a loose canon. We know he is crude and vulgar, and that was what got him the suspension that kept hi out of the match. If hr had played, we surely would have torn them apart. THat’s something for Rooney to reflect on next time he gets disappointed in his teammates – we need him and he is not always there for us
Agree with gazzer re: Scholes
Also I think we got a bit carried away pre-semi final – since we all expected to dump City out with a strong showing. The week leading up to it certainly looked like the momentum was with us (beating Chelsea, City getting a pasting at Anfield), which goes to show you always need to give a strong showing in EVERY match. Reputations count for not very much on matchday. Even Sir Alex gave an unusually confident press conference about how our team can handle the Wembley pressure. I think we need to take this defeat in good grace and wish Stoke City all the best in the final – you’ll never know, I still hold out my hope that City will end another season without a cup.
You just feel that Berbatov & Carrick are confidence based players and lacked a little bit of mettle on the big occasions. I doubt whether the likes of Beckham, Keane of past United teams or Rooney and Ando would have let the game pass Manchester United by so insipidly.
Anyways, hopefully we get past Newcastle and set outselves up for a good finish towards the League title. On paper, we should get past Shalke to the Champions League final, with all fingers crossed for the final. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get past City. The year would have at least been a likely Double. Dang it. Anyways, rant over.
scholes looked like “he didn’t want to be there”….
the way we behaved before the match, the arrogance and the shite talk that came from our own players was not what this club is all about…it came back to bite us for our arse…
the scapegoats “by the order of appearance” for me :
1. the FA for banning rooney
2 dimitar berbatov for missing chances what is easier to score than to miss
3 carrick
4 scholes
So after all these years and all he has done for us it’s one bad game and is down to ” a fucking 36-year old”!? Are you in the same league with that retard in the sun besley or what’s he’s name??
Carrick … i’m still not done apluding him (and the rest of them) for the chelsea double I totaly understand them for not beeing at the same level as they were in CL in fact i’m happy we will not have a final just a few days before THE FINAL because that is what United should care about and that is what i’d love to see United win as for the rivarly with city i’m still not clear for what are they our rivals!? just because they are in the same city? that should be a honour for them to get this chance to be “our rivals” and i was stunned to see that you were pointing out facts to show United is bigger than city i’m from romania and i if i would not support United i would not be able to name 3 players from city’s lineup..who is city??STOP acting like childrens over this one like you did in the Rooney case who by the way is my player of the season and in his new and perfectly fit role will be the engine of the team who will win the PL and CL.(+ Ferdinand to stay fit).
@CROoney, I was really surprised Scholesy said it to be honest. I was shocked to say the least. I would expect someone like Rio or Rooney or even Giggs to say something like that, but the media-shy Scholesy???
As soon as I read that interview from Scholesy, something inside me just went click. I knew something was not right about the whole setup for Saturday at all.
Sigh! And it proved to be so. But there’s no point dwelling in the past. For us, it is always about the future and how we write history.
@gazzer
Spot on
@CROoney
it were a game of football, it happens……….get behind the lads!
UTID
The fan miss important aspect of this game; The city side save themselves for this cup semi through save their big gun. Liverpool did same for derby match; they lose previous game because they think about game against MUFC.
Just each game is way too tough and the very world best squad like MUFC is not enough for fight all 3 fronts I guess. It is no surprise midfield struggle since city player can play higher intensity because they are fleshier than us.
A Fan – The way you’ve twisted what I’ve said, you’re the one who sound like some knob ‘ed from a rag.
I said – “It’s the kind of stupid thing you’d expect Mario Balotelli to do, not a fucking 36-year-old who has played in more Manchester derbies than the whole City team combined.”
The fact he made a red card challenge in this game does not negate the fact he’s been one of our greatest players ever and nothing I said in this doubted that. I didn’t even hint at it in fact.
So, who’s the retard?
In terms of importance this week
1. Newcastle game PL (stil to play must win)
2. Chelsea CL (good win)
3. Bitters FA Cup semi-final (lost)
FA WHAT FUCKING WHAT?
Win at Toon and at OT against Everton and league is ours.
Scott i’ve twisted nothing is just what you sad i did not say that you negated that Scholes is who he is and i could never imagine you could ever say that since you are an United fan.But the way you put those words in that sentence just sounds bad.And also Scott I did not say you are a retard if that is what you understand it’s your problem.That Beasley guy surely is one and i asked you if you are in the same league with him.What i dont understand now is why did you choose to answer that question with yes??
Please change your answer in the next post.
I am disappointed the treble dream is over but its just harder to take cos it was stopped by Man City. I hope Stoke gives them something to remember in the finals
Actually I’m pretty pumped up at the thought of cheering for Stoke of all people!!!!
It’s too much to hope for, but if DeJong gets crocked and Balotelli loses it that will be the icing on the cake
Saturday’s defeat , but more importantly the manner of it, was as much as failure of tactics more than anything else. Sure, individual players could have done better – and I don’t just mean Berbatov, Carrick or Scholes – but the one man up front system we were playing to just doesn’t work, particularly in the absence of Rooney. I’m sure SAF knew what he was doing in setting up the team that way, and had one of Berba’s early chances going in things may have turned out differently. But essentially playing with a lone striker was a risk that played to the strengths of the opposition instead of United’s own strengths. SAF’s tactics essentially showed City too much respect. In this regard, some benefit might come from this in the longer term as SAF rarely makes the same mistake twice.
a) Bertatov should not have played as lone striker. Hernandez doesn’t, Rooney doesn’t (not now at any rate) and the system doesn’t suit the team. Berbatov’s a great player (I’ve been watching United since ’67 so I don’t say that lightly) but he can only deliver if used properly. He’s a confidence player so playing I hope that the disappointment does’t affect him too badly. Yes, Berbatov missed a sitter (its happened to all strikers) but its time to support him.
b) Park works tirelessly in midfield but he was played too far forward to for the strengths of this aspect of his play to shine or to protect the protect United’s defensive line. Scholes and Carrick are not noted for their tackling…
c) Too many players had off days – Valencia, Evra, O’Shea, Scholes – but as others have said you win as a team and lose as a team. For example I don’t rate Carrick, but against Chelsea he was excellent, so SAF knows what he’s doing and has the medals to show.
Last Sat I’m afraid SAF simply got his tactics wrong. Time to learn from it and move on. Just think how grand it’ll be when Stoke beat City in the final…