As expected, Manchester United continued on with their great form to thrash struggling Portsmouth 5-0 at Old Trafford.
With Chelsea starting the day with a goal difference which bettered ours by 2, it was really important that we made the most of our chance to score goals.
With Wayne Rooney in the form of his life, you had to believe that was going to be possible.
With just seven minutes played, Rooney was clearly shoved over in the box but the referee waved play on. The ref couldn’t have had a better view of the incident but clearly didn’t want to add insult to injury to poor Pompey.
Before we opened the scoring, our opponents had a go down the other end, with Gary Neville left in no man’s land and Jonny Evans clearing off the line.
Nev would have been disappointed that when making one of his very few positive contributions to the game, Dimitar Berbatov messed it up. Antonio Valencia played Neville in as he sprinted in to the box and pulled back a perfect ball for Berb to slot away. We were all in our feet in celebration before realising the Bulgarian had somehow managed to miss. It was dreadful. He would make amends later.
Neville’s second positive contribution of the game did pay off though, which him taking the corner short to Valencia, who passed to Darren Fletcher, who went on to put a perfect cross in to the box. Not known for his ability to score headers, Wayne Rooney made no mistake with David “England no.1″ James rooted to the spot.
Then just before half time we added a second, which only reflected our domination of the game. Nani, who has transformed in to a pretty handy looking player over the past few weeks, ran in to the penalty area, stepovers a plenty, only for his cross to Berbatov deflected in to the back of the net.
The move that most deserved a goal came in the second half, with Valencia running at pace towards the box. He passed to Berbatov who flicked the ball over the two defenders to land perfectly at Valencia’s feet. It was an absolutely inch perfect ball, which managed to escape the jumping defenders without being played too far ahead of Valencia. James spread himself well though and Valencia couldn’t find the net.
The third goal finally did come with less than an hour played, with the Portsmouth defence giving Michael Carrick all the room he needed. He brought the ball forward before leathering it towards the goal. It caught an opponent on the way though, forcing the shot up against the cross bar before crashing down over the line.
The fourth goal was my personal favourite of the game, as it made so many people around me look foolish. Berbatov ran in to the box and bided his time, waiting for the opportunity to pass or shoot. “What the fuck are you doing??” the shouts were around me. “Fuck sake, pass it!” and “He’s so shit!” from others. When Berbatov then brought the ball back outside the box, turned, and found the back of the net with perfection, I can only imagine they felt like total dicks for being so unwilling to support one of our own players.
With twenty minutes to go, Sir Alex Ferguson could afford to make three straight substitutions, bringing off Rooney, Berbatov and Fletcher, obviously with one eye on Villa, and bringing on Michael Owen, Mame Biram Diouf and Darron Gibson.
United were pushing for a fifth goal which came thanks to a great ball in to the box from Patrice Evra. With Diouf waiting to pounce, Portsmouth turned the ball in to the back of their own net.
Diouf should have made it six though, after Owen played in a good ball to leave the youngster one on one with James. He lashed at it wildly though and the ball flew high and wide.
The anti-Glazer protests are growing in number, with even the South stand showing their new green and gold colours. As we sang of our love for United and hate for the Glazers, twirling our scarves over our heads, you would have to forgive someone who didn’t recognise our ground as Old Trafford. A sea of green and gold, hardly any red in sight, showing just how keenly this protest has been taken on board.
The singing started an hour before kick-off outside the ground though, with hundreds of our fans gathering around the Munich clock to remember the Babes, who lost their lives 52 years ago.
It would be nice to say we put on a performance that would make the Babes proud. It’s always great to score five goals but we can’t get too excited given the poor quality of our opposition. The most important thing from the game was putting ourselves in a much better position in terms of goals, meaning we’re ready to pounce whenever Chelsea finally drop points. I had hoped our thrashing of Arsenal would create a reaction for their match against Chelsea, however the blues handled them easily.
We’ll learn much more about our title challenge in our coming matches away to Villa and Everton. Villa weren’t very impressive against Spurs at the weekend whilst Everton didn’t ever look like scoring against 10 man Liverpool. Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re in for an easy ride, but maybe it’s a good time to play these teams. Chelsea travel to Goodison Park next so we’ll have a further clue to how we should get on.
5 goals and two shots on target, were just that damn good
LUHG
Miss was shocking from Berba, but superb finish and unbelievable pass to Valencia in the second half. Shame he didn’t tuck it away. Amazing skill.
Berbatov’s goal was brilliant. I’m also enjoying the form of our two wingers, it’s exciting to have both Nani and Valencia running at fullbacks and getting good service into the area.
If only arsenal weren’t so shit!!!!
ATTN: SCOTT THE RED
It seems as if your great site has been hijacked. At home when I get here I sometimes get re-directed to a site telling me that my computer is infected and proceedes to a site that starts scanning my computer. Now, it has also happened on my school’s computers. Just wanted to let you know that there might be a problem.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks for a great site!
Cheers
Berbs needs our support, not a barracking from the stands.
A top player who just hasn’t found his niche yet. Great goal at the weekend and a good performance too, despite his easy miss.
I agree with you RedMist! Look at Nani… everyone was asking for his head not so long ago and with a bit of time and the tender care from the The Boss he is turning into something very special! Give Berba space, when he clicks, opposition will fear him like never before! CMON YOU REDS!
This was the same portsmouth team that shity struggled to beat last week and we dismantled them. I thought carrick was class against pompey spraying the ball around with confidence, he’s seems to ave stepped up a level in the last few games. Our next 2 away games will be tricky if we can at least get 4 points and hope that chelsea drop points, then we cud be in a great position for the run in.
I wasn’t too impressed by our play today, but that says a lot since we won 5-0 comfortably.
The main thing for me is seeing Carrick hit top form. By now it’s no surprise seeing Rooney, Fletcher, Valencia and Nani play well, but Carrick really impressed with his pinpoint distribution against Pompey. Well done.
Berba scored a good goal and looking at his goal-ratio for the last four-fime games, it looks solid.
Bring on Villa!
sorry about that, meant saturday of course. Still a bit hung over I guess :p
“When Berbatov then brought the ball back outside the box, turned, and found the back of the net with perfection, I can only imagine they felt like total dicks for being so unwilling to support one of our own players.”
These people really should feel like dicks. Channeling all this media crap about Berbatov underperforming when he has actually been doing a good job. He probably just needs regular playing time to really click. Even with his dodgy knee look at how he has done in the last 5 premier league starts (I just picked random media darlings along with Anelka that I keep seeing mentioned as being more prolific):
Berbatov
4 goals
2 assists
Drogba
4 goals
0 assists
Tevez
4 goals
0 assists
Anelka
3 goals
1 assists
Defoe
1 goal
0 assists
so it goes: Thanks for the statistics, it was as I hoped.
so it goes – Yeah I mentioned yesterday that Anelka never seems to get any stick even though he has been shite again. All you hear from the Chav loving media is how they have the best “strike force” in the prem. It is a myth. United are highest scorers in the league. Hows that for missing Ronnie? Thing is though people are so bitter. Only this morning at work all I got was ” yeah but have lots of own goals”. So fucking what, they all count!!
@King Eric
Possibly because Anelka has scored goals in other competitions and has 12 goals total. Maybe thats the reason he dosent get slated much. Berba hasnt scored apart from his tally in the league.
RE: so it goes
The people that were barracking Berbatov in the ground should feel like dicks because you should support your players when you are there, as I always do and did on Saturday of course. Outside the stadium is another matter as I doubt the players will be reading.
So lets not pretend Berbatov has done well this season. He hasn’t. Along with Anelka, he has been the most disappointing big name striker in Europe this season but at least Anelka had a good season last season. Lets compare his goal stats to other top name strikers in Europe because like it or not that is what strikers are measured on:
Rooney: 23 in 30
Pato: 9 in 16
Drogba: 22 in 24
Higuain: 12 in 16
Torres: 12 in 19
Van Persie: 8 in 14
Ibrahimovic: 15 in 24
Benzema: 8 in 16
Milito: 16 in 24
Saha: 11 in 20
and some of those teams the strikers play for aren’t as good as us
I feel berba needs a big performance, in a big match to win over the doubter’s.
@SteniS
ATTENTION SCOTT THE RED!!!!!!!!!
I completely agree the site has been hacked!!!!it toook forever to get on. My anti virus first had to ask if am sure I want to get onto this site and when i typed it in the web address i kept being directed to a website my anti virus described as very dangerous. I can no longer even access the site from my phone because the redirection alerts the phone to the presence of a virus and it just closes everything immediately!!!!
Spencer, since you are looking at longer terms (while I was simply talking about Berbatov during the last 5 games) maybe add Dennis Bergkamp to your list to gain some perspective. Bergkamp had a goal to game ratio of 0.28 playing for Arsenal and Berbatov has 0.32 playing for Manchester United. Not everything striker does is measured in goals.
But anyway, I honestly think Berbatov is a valuable addition to the team but I wasn’t saying that I am thrilled with him. I actually think he can do better. I simply think he has to get more, and more consistent, game time to really click. My comment was on starting games to show that the numbers suggest the same – that he has performed reasonably well when he gets time and consistency. And that he doesn’t deserve all the harsh criticism and we should support him to do better .
Considering he was taken off early on Saturday it would appear that SAF wants to play 442 against Villa. He’s therefore given Berba the opportunity to show what he can do in a difficult away game.
If he fails, he may well just trot out against the lesser teams and we’ll revert to 433 so he’ll miss out on starts vs Milan, Liverpool and Chelsea to come.
I’m a big fan of Berba but I realise that he’s not always effective and he’s not had that one big performance in a big game yet. There are growing signs of his increasing confidence in a United shirt though so let’s hope he can step up.
I think the reason he scored on Sat was as much to do with surprise as direction and power. He needs to back himself more in shooting positions I think. Come on Berba!
Also credit is due to Carrick’s recent performances, he’s been fantastic.
my favourite moment was evans’ goal line clearance. have never seen a defender rush to the goal line like that for a shot from the edge of the box. such intelligence and he is only 22.
Berba needs support he is a united player but he will never fit into our side…your all deluded if u think goals against pompey when the game is over and other poor teams is such a great contribution…hes a good player,plenty skill and whatever ‘class’ i agree with that but the matter remains he aint a fit…watch him get benched for ALL the semi big games…theres a reason for that.Will all the chamber we create ofcourse hel score..still missed an easy chance that on another day would have killed us…Great goal though I give him that…still an utter waste of money…Keep believing hes great for us though…:)
Taehr: “hes a good player,plenty skill and whatever ‘class’ i agree with that but the matter remains he aint a fit.”
That just about sums up the “Berbatov conundrum” – and those who would criticize sceptics need to keep in mind that Taehr is telling it like he sees it, he’s not mindlessly bashing Dimmy.
The key point is the last one “he aint a fit”.
Being critical of UTD’s play/players isn’t treason, being critical is maintaining an open mind and telling it like it appears. Blind supporters seem to think that anyone who is sceptical and/or critical is somehow less of a fan – that kind of patriotism is the last refuge of a desperate mind.
Lets win the next game and see where we stay. Hope the guys will not be complacent.
RE: so it goes
It is true actually that not everything about strikers is goals but only in exceptional cases where the striker is pure class and adds a ridiculous amount to the team making them undroppable, so a average goals ratio can be overlooked.. a bit like rooney in the past, Eric when he was here (even though he obviously got a fair few) and Bergkamp. Berbatov is not one of those.
Since he joined us, he has hit the net 22 times in all competitions and only about a third of those were to put us in front
His attitude frustrates me. He is too static and demands for the ball to be played to his feet and simply doesn’t appear interested at all when he hasn’t got the ball as opposed to the other players who are always trying to get themselves about and in to good positions to receive the ball. there was one time in the first half on saturday when nani put a cross in for him and the cross dipped a bit. Instead of moving a bit so he could receive the cross, Berbatov just stood there and then obviously did not receive the ball. He just stood there with his hands on his hips yelling at Nani.
love or hate berba but he has the best touch of the ball in whole of epl……
Rooney is not ‘known for his ability to score headers’ because he doesn’t get the service to score them – in part due to his height – but he’s solid in the air when called upon.
Kind of a moot pt. when he’s at the goal’s doorstep – but considering he’s now scored at 3 headers in his last 4 games (including an almost identical one to put us into the Carling Cup final and one against Hull) – this assertion seems a bit off the mark.
Villa and Everton are both good sides. Everton particularaly has played well lately… fortunately we have some sort of charm against both… or atleast villa.
Spencer, I respect your opinion but I don’t quite agree… Even though I agree with some parts of your argument. I try to weight in that Berbatov is partly-injured and that he hasn’t had good service from the midfield most of the season (I think he is a striker that needs this unlike Rooney or Ronaldo). But my main point was that the criticism of him is just so overboard. I doubt that many other exotic strikers that some people want to replace him with could do any better in this team.
why the fuck do you care spencer? fergie is obviously a big fan of berba if you keep your eyes and ears open once in a while.. no point discussing it any further.. he has had 4 goals and 2 assists in the last 4 games he has played.. at least wait until he has a period with lack of goals to spread your shit and negativity.
there are strikers out there who are just standing still all the time up front, waiting for others to create chances for them.. berba is often dropping deep interfering with our build-up play.. the only thing is that he lacks a bit of acceleration(not pace) and of course most people would see him run around like a certain tevez…not me
@Triggs
‘I’m a big fan of Berba but I realise that he’s not always effective and he’s not had that one big performance in a big game yet’
One of the few times he’s played in games against the top 4 I can think of is Chelsea in the 3-0 home win.
He assisted for Vidic’s goal and scored. Oh, and Liverpool last season 1 assist for Tevez in the 2-1 loss.
RE: sprite
‘why the fuck do you care spencer? fergie is obviously a big fan of berba if you keep your eyes and ears open once in a while’
Oh yes he is. Thats why Fergie opted to start Berbatov in the carling cup semi finals, champions league semi finals, champions league final, arsenal last week, arsenal at OT in october, Hull at home, Arsenal at home last season, Liverpool at home last season etc.Oh wait. Now whilst true that in the majority of those games we went 4-5-1 and naturally Rooney is going to be the choice ahead of Berbatov, Fergie did at times last season experiment with Berbatov in a 4-4-2 for example Inter Milan and Chelsea and Fergie obviously quickly realised that either another midfielder or Judas Tevez would offer us more than Berbatov in such games. My ears were working fine thank you when I, seven years ago, heard Fergie tell the press ‘he is a great player and you are all idiots’ about a certain Sebastian Veron, and to then sell him shortly after, despite constant denials that he would sell the player. He rarely criticises players in public, in fact he regularly hypes them up to the max to give them confidence. Only players who can take it get critisied (Berbatov isn’t one) and even then it is a rarity. And I care because I want players at our club fulfiling their potential. If this is as good as it is going to get for Berbatov, you can’t blame the majority of fans for not being impressed.
“he has had 4 goals and 2 assists in the last 4 games he has played.. at least wait until he has a period with lack of goals to spread your shit and negativity.”
Stats can be misleading. Those goals were against Hull, Wigan, Burnley and Portsmouth. The Burnley one was pleasing and fair enough and if you read back on a previous blog, I praised him for that. Against Hull, Rooney laid it on a plate for him. Portsmouth and Wigan, we were cruising. He missed easier earlier chances in both when it was more nervy and 0-0.
“there are strikers out there who are just standing still all the time up front, waiting for others to create chances for them.. berba is often dropping deep interfering with our build-up play”
You don’t get it do you. You have compeltely missed my point. I am not talking about standing up top waiting for the ball ala target man/RVN. I am talking about how he will track back, and then demand for the ball to be played to his feet, without trying to work around his team mates movements. Instead he expects his team mates to move around him. The only other player I have seen like that is Ibrahimovic, who still has much better stats than Berbatov, even last season in a mediocre Inter side. That is because he is a much better player. And he has had a bad few games, which has annoyed the Barcelona supporters who don’t just ignore it and bury their heads in the sand when a player isn’t fulfiling their potential.
“Only thing is that he lacks a bit of acceleration(not pace) and of course most people would see him run around like a certain tevez…not me”
He is one of the most slowest strikers in world football. And his finishing is average at best as well. As well as his mobility. And no I wouldn’t like to see him run around like Tevez. I said about Tevez last season that his running around was masking his poor performances, people didn’t listen
re spencer
“He is one of the most slowest strikers in world football. And his finishing is average at best as well.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C3vjlL69ic gallas is one of the slowest defenders in world football then.. I stand by what I said, his acceleration could sometimes have made him a better player, but he is not slow.. like fergie said:
“I think that’s how we saw him at Tottenham [playing in deep midfield positions where he found himself a lot last year] and maybe we were wrong there,” he admitted. “Once we realised before the end of the season, he started to stay further up the pitch. He’s got a languid style of running but he is quickish [even if] he hasn’t got the pace of Ronaldo or Nani.”
average finishing? I would like to see some stats about how much he shoots/how much he scores contra someone like rooney, ronaldo or tevez.. It is rare that I see the anti-berba people arguing about his finishing..
“Oh yes he is. Thats why Fergie opted to start Berbatov in the carling cup semi finals, champions league semi finals, champions league final, arsenal last week, arsenal at OT in october, Hull at home, Arsenal at home last season, Liverpool at home last season etc.Oh wait”
As you said he prefers roo to berba because he fits more as a lone striker and he wants more power in midfield (4-5-1).. but I am sure that berba is one of the first players on the list when SAF is preparing for a game where we need to brake down a solid defence.. Hull at home?? well he has been injured lately.. therefor he missed 4 of those games you just listed CC semi finals, arsenal (He had been on the bench if he werent injured).. I dont think either I, SAF or Berba think berba had the best of 1. seasons, therefor it is unfair that you list so many mathces from last season and the very first part of this season when we faced arsenal.. He played vs Liverpool and were injured vs Chelsea..
sprite:
“there are strikers out there who are just standing still all the time up front, waiting for others to create chances for them.. berba is often dropping deep interfering with our build-up play”
spencer:
“You don’t get it do you. You have compeltely missed my point”
I was rather hitting out to all those saying how lazy he is.. as much as you like berbatov (irony alarm) you dont think he is NOT lazy do you?
you are one of the more reflected berba critics spencer..most people I have seen criticizing berba are those with manu in their nick, or 1-5 forum posts, typing with caps lock on and so on..
I am not trowing dirt/abusing you, I am defending berbatov.. maybe i am using some sarcasm, but I am just tired of everyone who slates the guy, as i know that they arent helping anyone, but the players confidence..Nani needed many weeks on the sidelines before he got his confidence back.. that is how important the confidence is.. like SAF said after the pompey game:
“It was a magnificent goal, absolutely brilliant,” he said. “The confidence it brought to his game after that was brilliant. It was good to take him off, because he got the applause from the crowd and it was terrific.”
Own goal is our second highest scorer so far.
Even own goal has scored more goals than Berba, oh no!
Just to smile a bit.
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C3vjlL69ic gallas is one of the slowest defenders in world football then.. I stand by what I said, his acceleration could sometimes have made him a better player, but he is not slow.. like fergie said:”
Sprite, he is slow. It isn’t even worth debating. It isn’t the worst bad quality to have in a player but why do you think so many supporters wanted a striker more like Torres?
” average finishing? I would like to see some stats about how much he shoots/how much he scores contra someone like rooney, ronaldo or tevez.. It is rare that I see the anti-berba people arguing about his finishing”
Part of the reason that his goal stats arent’ great is because a) he doesn’t shoot often and b) when he does, he tends to miss a lot of sitters. It was the same at spurs.
“As you said he prefers roo to berba because he fits more as a lone striker and he wants more power in midfield (4-5-1).. but I am sure that berba is one of the first players on the list when SAF is preparing for a game where we need to brake down a solid defence.. Hull at home?? well he has been injured lately.. therefor he missed 4 of those games you just listed CC semi finals, arsenal (He had been on the bench if he werent injured).. I dont think either I, SAF or Berba think berba had the best of 1. seasons, therefor it is unfair that you list so many mathces from last season and the very first part of this season when we faced arsenal.. He played vs Liverpool and were injured vs Chelsea.. ”
Berbatov was on the bench for three of those games actually and there was no mention of him being injured. only city away was he not on the bench. Why would he be on the bench if he was injured?
Funny thing is, I highly doubt SAF bought Berbatov to sit on the bench in the big games. He started of as you say with playing Berbatov in a 4-4-2 against arsenal, chelsea and liverpool. I think the final straw was against Inter Milan in the CL where he was useless in both matches, so from then on when we did play 4-4-2, Tevez took his place or if we went 4-5-1 Ronaldo went up front. I thought when Ronaldo and Tevez left, SAF would play Berbatov up front in 4-5-1 games and push Rooney out wide (who did perform well there last season) but he didn’t. I am sure it disappoints him that Berbatov is not proving worthy enough to play in such big games.
“I was rather hitting out to all those saying how lazy he is.. as much as you like berbatov (irony alarm) you dont think he is NOT lazy do you?”
I don’t think he is as lazy as some make out but all too often he isn’t willing to match team mates runs or bust a gut to get in to the box.
“you are one of the more reflected berba critics spencer..most people I have seen criticizing berba are those with manu in their nick, or 1-5 forum posts, typing with caps lock on and so on..”
and I respect your posts as well sprite. it is good how you are willing to debate as you say and not just throw abuse like some. the bottom line is we will agree to disagree. we both want berbatov to do well for our club at the end of the day
Spencer – Just one thing mate. Berba had a good game against Inter last season. Cannot remember though if it was home or away. He was the lone striker.
@Sprite,Spencer,King Eric
SAF plays Berbatov when he feels we need to break the opposition down and also when we need to hold the ball and keep posession of the ball. Berbatov will possibly never start against Arsenal because we need pace on the break and power to score against them and Berbatov offers neither.Also,this season he has scored the winners against Stoke,Blackburn,Burnley and that cracker against Sunderland when we were playing poorly and was good against Wolfsburg,Bolton and Tottenham without getting a goal.
Similarly looking at last season, the games against Inter away he was pretty good as the lone striker.After being outplayed by porto in the 1st leg at Old Trafford, SAF knew we had to keep the ball better and hence played him in a withdrawn role behind Ronaldo. Thought he did pretty well in that game.Its not all about scoring goals,certainly not in Berbatov’s case.
My problems with him are Lack of Confidence at times,Hesitancy to shoot from distance and dropping too deep.
aig alex is god Said:
“My problems with him are Lack of Confidence at times,Hesitancy to shoot from distance and dropping too deep.”
Spot on, these are mine too-don’t have any explanation,really. On the other side, he scored a couple of times against Arsenal, playing for Tottenham, didn’t he; also hadn’t problem with scoring against the other top4 teams. I couldn’t say Tottenham plays “a slower football” than United…
Other thing-for Bułgaria he’s always been playing as alone striker, scoring 48 times in 72 games (mostly against weaker teams of course) so he can actually play as alone striker…