1. There we have it. United have beaten Liverpool home and away for the first time since 07/08. There was a huge gulf between the two sides at the start of the day, with United top of the league and Liverpool all the way down in 8th. Whilst Rodgers might claim there isn’t 24 points difference in quality between the two sides, the grim reality for Liverpool fans is that there really is. The league table doesn’t lie. United made light work of Liverpool in the first half and 3-0 or 4-0 would have been a fairer scoreline, based on the chances we had and the penalty that wasn’t given. I wouldn’t even say that United were playing that well but had completely dominated and David de Gea had nothing to do. Liverpool were let off the hook though and to be fair to them, were better in the second half, particularly the last 20 minutes. After Sturridge got the equaliser you had to wonder if they had another goal in them, particularly after Vidic was forced off with injury with over 10 minutes to play, but we held on and got the three points we deserved.
2. The biggest talking point after the game seemed to be the performance of Danny Welbeck. I’m a big fan of Welbeck and was amazed with how much he improved last season. This season hasn’t gone as well for him, which can be excused by fewer appearances and the fact he has regularly been played out of position. Yesterday, there was no doubting his work rate, with him chasing everything down. He had some involvement in the first goal and had a few chances himself, but I found him fairly frustrating. Whilst I’m not keen on the comparison I’m about to make, it has to be said. I don’t want another Carlos Tevez of the 08-09 season, who works his bollocks off but only scores a handful of goals. Welbeck is a striker and seems to be massively lacking in confidence in front of goal at the moment. Towards the end of the game Welbeck burst forward, getting away from two players, before stopping the ball just before the line. He had been in a position to shoot, but having taken it too far, he now needed to set up Van Persie for a simple tap in. Instead, he fell over, and took the ball with him. For me, that summed his day up. He would get himself in good positions, he would create space for himself and others, but right at the end he’d fuck it up. Whilst not an unreasonable levels, there were plenty of people in the crowd giving him a hard time, more than they were anyone else probably. I was amazed to learn on the way home that Gary Neville had given him Man of the Match. Whilst not wanting to criticise Neville, who is without question the best pundit out there with a brilliant football brain, I can’t get my head around how he thinks Welbeck performed better than anyone else yesterday.
3. What was less surprising was Robin van Persie scoring the opening goal. He has goals against Liverpool, City and Chelsea away, as well as Arsenal, and now Liverpool, at home. 17 goals and 6 assists from 19 starts. Incredible. It is interesting to note that we have had 16 different scorers this season in the league though, which is more than any other team in the league, so any accusations of us being a one man team are inaccurate. He’s scored 30% of our league goals, whilst Suarez has scored 43% of Liverpool’s. Van Persie’s goal was top class, with lovely one touch passing between Cleverley, Kagawa and Welbeck in the lead up, before Evra drilled across a perfect ball which Van Persie took first time, leaving Reina with no chance. Van Persie could have put us 2-0 up after Young played in a great ball not long after the opening goal, but he rightly assumed he wouldn’t have time to take a touch, and hit it first time just over the bar. In the second half, Antonio Valencia put in a good ball and Van Persie could only flick it behind him, and Reina had to be on his toes to save it. Robin is a great striker, clearly, but a brilliant footballer too. He is just fantastic on the ball, his feet are so fast, and I love watching him play. He’s a superstar. He said he chose ’20′ as a squad number because he wanted to win our 20th title this season. If we do, he is the driving force behind it, and already a favourite for the Golden Boot and Player of the Year awards.
4. When the team was announced, I was worried that we were going to be overrun in midfield. I assumed that Kagawa could drop back and help with defensive duties if necessary though. Then when they lined up, with Kagawa on the wing, not Welbeck as I had assumed, I was concerned. Whilst I had to applaud the manager for going two up front, it was a worry to think of what Liverpool could do with Gerrard, Lucas and Allen padding out their midfield. I needn’t have worried. Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick absolutely bossed it in the first half. We were rewarded for our braver formation with less than ten minutes played in the second half when our defenders put us 2-0 up.
5. Welbeck was clear through on goal when Skrtel cynically brought him down. Was it a clear goalscoring opportunity? The home crowd thought so, chanting “OFF! OFF! OFF!” but there was no way Howard Webb was giving us anything yesterday. Thankfully, United went on to score from the resulting freekick, after an excellent delivery from Van Persie. As well as being the top scorer in the league, only three players have more assists than him. Evra got up well and his header flew past Reina. I was confused at the time to see Nemanja Vidic reel away with his finger in the air, whilst Evra ran off celebrating in the opposite direction. Evra’s header did take a deflection off our captain though, a crucial one I’d say, and the goal has been given to him.
6. Webb infuriated the home crowd throughout the game, for missing seemingly obvious fouls on our players and blowing his whistle every time a Liverpool player went down. Several nasty or cynical challenges went without punishment, encouraging Liverpool players to keep trying their luck. Whilst it’s dangerous to hand out yellow cards too early on in games like this, it would have sent a message to our opposition. In the last minute of the first half we had a great chance to double our lead after Rafael made a fool of Johnson and got the ball across to Van Persie. He could only flick it on but as Kagawa charged in to put in the rebound he was bundled over by Wisdom. The angriest the crowd got was probably the reaction to this, after Reina had gone to ground. Liverpool attacked and had the ball around the box, whilst Reina was clearly flat out in the Liverpool goal. The referee didn’t stop play and no Liverpool player kicked it out. Once their move broke down and United were on the attack, Webb blew his whistle. He had been happy to let Liverpool play on and try to score though. Gerrard was guilty of several fouls, the late and cynical type which break up an attack, the kind Paul Scholes gets booked for every time, and not one of them brought a yellow card for Gerrard. After all the fuss about Webb giving United favourable decisions, it was clear he had no intent of sending any Liverpool player off, for fear of perpetuating the myth.
7. Cleverley made more passes than anyone else yesterday, followed by Michael Carrick. Cleverley also made more passes in the final third than anyone else too, with a 92% accuracy rate, which is very impressive. Whilst played out of position, Kagawa had a great game too and I was disappointed to see him subbed off. The tide had started turning by that stage so it made sense to bring on the more defensive-minded Phil Jones, but Kagawa had been linking well with our forwards.
8. Whilst United had been rewarded for going 442, Liverpool suffered because of Brendan Rodgers’ more conservative tactics. They offered next to nothing up front and David de Gea had nothing to do until their goal, with an hour on the clock. Suarez had a wild shot in the first half, before Wisdom slipped at the crucial moment and shot miles wide in the second half. The first save De Gea had to make resulted in the goal, with Rio Ferdinand blocking his view, but him still managing to get a hand to Gerrard’s shot. There was nothing he could about the rebound though, that fell straight to Sturridge. The player who couldn’t make it at City and Chelsea then ran to the Liverpool fans, doing the ’5 times’ salute, which is just brilliant. He’s made two sub appearances for them and they haven’t played in the European Cup since 2009, when they failed to get out of the group when finishing 6 points behind 2nd placed Lyon, and 8 points behind group leaders Fiorentina. But yeh, knock yourself out celebrating success you contributed nothing to, in a competition your team are nowhere near good enough to even qualify for anymore. Had Sturridge played from the start though, maybe we would have been looking at a different scoreline. It was Cleverley who lost the ball in an awful position in the lead up to Liverpool’s goal, with him and Carrick losing their grip on the game a bit. Both Sturridge and Borini hit wide of the target shortly after, prompting a rare appearance from Sir Alex Ferguson on the touchline. Then Suarez broke through in to the box and somehow Rafael managed to stop him, but the ball fell to Sturridge a few yards out, and thankfully, he struck over the bar. Not long after, Sturridge hit the side netting, and we were really up against it. After doing nothing for an hour, Liverpool really turned it on for the last half an hour, with three strikers on the pitch. They were aided further by the injury of Vidic, who was replaced by Chris Smalling. Thankfully we held on for the three points though and they were deserved, given our domination for the vast majority of the game.
9. It feels absolutely brilliant beating that lot, even when they are mid-table nobodies, and whilst it would have been nice to have battered them after that first half showing, the defeat was made all the more painful for them after being given hope from Sturridge’s goal. As a result of the game we’ve now amassed 55 points which is our biggest ever tally at this stage in the season. It also indicates a steep improvement over recent years. Last season we were on 51 points after 22 games (behind City on 54), the season before it was 48 points, and the season before that, 47 points. We’ve played a lot of our most difficult games already, with City, Chelsea and Everton still needing to come to Old Trafford as we’ve played them all away, and are looking in a great position. We’ve got a trip to White Hart Lane ahead of us at the weekend, which could be tough when you consider they beat us at home, then a string of relatively easy fixtures. It’s looking good.
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Hope I’m not first. A bit anticlimactic, especially since it seemed like a love-in at the fnal whistle, but ta muchly for the three points. And I do not blame DDG for the goal as much as some of the others – it was a blind shot.
ANY win over Liverpool even if they are in a relegation dogfight is always fantastic. Serves as a reminder to those mugs that we are no longer on the same planet when it comes to quality. Bucktooth will walk when his contract is done. Just watch.
most other keepers wouldn’t have even saved the first shot from gerrard, so de gea is not to blame at all for the goal..
Good for the three points. ANyone have any news on Young and Vidic?
Yeah your right not to blame him when you can blame somebody else,especially when he cost a lot of money.
I think Welbeck’s problem isn’t just confidence, its pace, he is very fast and he tries to do everything a bit too fast, including shooting. He just needs to sometimes slow a little teeny bit so he is not out of control and gathers himself more in relation to shooting or passing in the final third and engaging his mind and coordination more. He can work the pace in to his shooting once he slows it down slightly and starts having more control.
Regarding his work rate, it’s not just that he runs around alot, his running helps both attack and defence. He just needs to stop thinking everything is about pace and running and hitting at breakneck speed…slow down Danny…that will get the goals in. Last season he was less rushed with his shots and to me that is the difference.
The league campaign is looking good seven points clear, Robin van Persie, defenders scoring goals, not lots of injuries, many hard fixtures out of the way and we still haven’t seen the best of Wayne Rooney.
… but …
I think there might be something terrible coming down the road in the CL. I look at Real Madrid’s situation and squad they have they might just be the most dangerous opponents in the CL. Sure Barcelona are a much much much better team but they think they are invincible. Hell. They might well be right but we will see.
” As a result of the game we’ve now amassed 55 points which is our biggest ever tally at this stage in the season. It also indicates a steep improvement over recent years. ”
- I think its a drop in the standard of the PL. Absolutely no way the United team that went to Moscow would wilt so badly against Athletic Bilbao.
there can be no true despair without hope.. im glad united managed to torture the scousers into thinking they could win..
Sky Sources saying United and Arsenal set to make bid for Zaha.
Great piece in Red Issue actually yesterday saying United shouldn’t sing about the scousers anymore unless we are playing them as it just makes them feel good and inflates their ego’s that we even care about this irrelevant club. I am inclined to agree.
Oh that fat cunt Mick Quinn was hilarious tonight. Seething with rage and bitterness his topic was that there is a media bias toward United and a “United love in”. He based that on Sky reporting that United are SEVEN points clear but barely mentioned City. Fuck off you fat scouse cunt. They are just stating facts you clown. The nerve of this bastard. Everyone knows the media love the fucking dippers and hate United.
Danny was superb yesterday. I think he was fucked after that lung bursting run he made. Where I sit no cunt gives him flack, infact most are very supportive of him.
I think we’ve pretty much known it’s been a two horse race most of the season.
As for yesterday to be honest any kind of win against that lot is enough for me……..best chant of the day ” your teeth were offside….Luis Suarez….” had me chortling all the way home
I am still NOT entirely convinced with Young….he offers something but too much of his game is negative, pass backs etc I would like to see him go past players more…the little Jap has a great touch and I can see how he will just sit behind a front two and keep the ball moving, give him a few more starts and he is class….
What I am not getting right now is Valencia? Is it me…his body language is not right…he seems to not want to see the ball and appears preoccupied??? Not sure what’s up…he’s well overdue goals and a really dynamic game
Midfield of Carrick and Cleverly coming on a treat….I thought Carrick first half was a dream….some great passing……
I thought that the reason we got a little overrun in the 2nd half – although not as much as Brendan Rogers would have the nation believe – was that when Danny W dropped to left midfield it meant we weren’t pressing them at the back and as a result agger/skrtel were actually bombing out across the half way line and their moves became more threatening… we saw 1st half that Wellbeck is the best in shutting down and causing panic and he often wins the ball or creates a situation where RVP or Young were winning it back….
It’s ours to lose…we have the firepower and a certain mr Roooooooney must be gagging to get back into the mix and score a few!!! Please God!
As for the scousers I am constantly on my back feet in the air laughing at their demise…..it cheers me up no end….
As for city….how the fuck did they stumble onto this “fans boycott expensive away tickets bollox” – they actually only have hardcore 2000 away fans!!! massive club and massive support eh
Oh I didn’t realise thats why RVP picked the 20 shirt. What a fucking player he is. Never gives the ball away and strong as an ox too. Sublime touch, floats across the pitch, insane movement. THE complete striker. It’s odd we don’t actually have a number 9 at present!
The injury situation with Vidic is getting to be a worry though. He is by some distance our most dominant defender. Had he been healthy City wouldnt have had a shout last year either. Maybe we need to consider someone like hummels, just to plug in the gaps while our youngsters mature. Evans has stepped up but feel he needs an experienced presence next to him to organize the defense. Just hoep that the knee gets sorted. They can be career altering injuries.
Oh Scott that incident with Reina was a fucking joke mate. Webb the cunt allowing the dippers to have their attack then stop play after they fucked it up. That fucker conspired to shaft us yesterday.
Yeah at the game yesterday I have to say I thought De Gea had fucked it up with a shit parry. Watching the game on telly I realised it was a good save .
Remember there used to be a Cedars Devil here who kept harping on about Van Persie. Must admit at the time didn’t realize just how much of a complete footballer Rvp is. Not only complete but he has a physical aggressive side to him, the lad is no pushover. Magnificent footballer. The type we can structure an attack around and set out for another attempt on Europe.
Oh there you go again Daniel. Fucking Barca are on a different planet to the over rated Madrid hence the league table. Why are you bigging them up so fucking much? The Premier league is NOT weaker at all. Teams like Everton, Swansea, Wigan et al are all very good sides capable of beating anyone on their day.
Liverpool are absolutely useless! We should have battered them! A team like barca would have prob smashed 6 past them. Still feel we’re still just an above average football team besides for rvp and rooney. The lads played some decent football in the 1st half but then went to sleep after the 2nd. Wtf?? Bloody hope we don’t bottle the league this year but I can see it happening for some reason. I can’t remember the last time I was genuinly impressed by an MUFC performance in the past year or so?! Honestly.
Ashley young…where to even begin!?!? All I’ll say is the lad doesn’t deserve to wear that shirt! Simples. Absolute wasteman! What fergie saw in him to begin with…fuckin hell. Sell him in the summer + break the bank for Bale at whatever cost! We need a proper left winger whose left footed for starters, some1 who doesn’t dive around the field and continuously give the ball away to the opposition, some1 who’s not lightweight etc. Losing my patience with this guy and he’s really starting to get on me tits.
All I want this season is the league, I have to be honest and I can’t see us winning anything more. It’ll be a struggle too. 7 points is nothing, as we saw last season. Massive game vs spurs on sunday and I hope we fucking batter those bastards and avb the arrogant prick!
I liked what I saw from Welbeck. Don’t know if he would get MOTM from me, but his endless running caused them a lot of problems and that played a part in our win. He will com good. Strikers aren’t always born prolific. They grow to be with experience and practice. And at 22, Danny still has a lot of time ahead to improve.
Ashley young is a disgrace to the red shirt! How he gets to waer that famous kit is honestly beyond me!?!?! What an absolute wasteman!
I disagree with you scott on welbeck. The lad had a quality game yesterday! He was a threat to their defense and kept them on the back foot all the time. Ye his finishing is not the greatest but that’ll come. He held the ball up brilliantly, his pace is different class, so are his tekkers. And when RvP praises your performance, you must be doing something right.
Graham poll thinks Webb had a good game……
The papers not surprisingly neglected to mention his inept performance or the dodgy decisions he gave against us, on the flip side, had those decisions gone for us, no doubt we’d never have heard the end of it
Liverpool are absolutely useless! We should have battered them! A team like barca would have prob smashed 6 past them. Still feel we’re still just an above average football team besides for rvp and rooney. The lads played some decent football in the 1st half but then went to sleep after the 2nd. Wtf?? Bloody hope we don’t bottle the league this year but I can see it happening for some reason. I can’t remember the last time I was genuinly impressed by an MUFC performance in the past year or so?! Honestly.
Ashley young…where to even begin!?!? All I’ll say is the lad doesn’t deserve to wear that shirt! Simples. Absolute wasteman! What fergie saw in him to begin with…fuckin hell. Sell him in the summer + break the bank for Bale at whatever cost! We need a proper left winger whose left footed for starters, some1 who doesn’t dive around the field and continuously give the ball away to the opposition, some1 who’s not lightweight etc. Losing my patience with this guy and he’s really starting to get on me tits.
All I want this season is the league, I have to be honest and I can’t see us winning anything more. It’ll be a struggle too. 7 points is nothing, as we saw last season. Massive game vs spurs on sunday and I hope we fucking batter those bastards and avb the arrogant prick!
I don’t like the way Welbeck’s work rate is demeaned to make it look like it’s just a load of meaningless running around. For a start….his off the ball runs when we have the ball are so intelligent. Look at the way he dragged a defender away for RVP’s goal.
Secondly, forget his work rate for a minute. The best bit of his game is his LINK UP PLAY with his team mates. His touch and his quick passing with the other attacking players makes us really dynamic, he gives us a whole new dimension. Yes his finishing is dreadful atm…but I’ve said it before. I’d rather he had 90% of the tools and just needed the final 10% than the other way around!
Same with Tevez….we might not like the troll, but he’s the best striker we’ve had at the club in the last decade, bar Rooney (I’m not counting RVP in this discussion coz he’s only been here a few months). His ability on the ball was excellent and his link up with his team mates was top drawer. His work rate was just a really good bonus, so let’s not act like he was someone who huffed and puffed with no real quality.
Great, in-depth reactions.
Re: Welbeck — He is young and will mature into a fantastic footballer with a calmer eye for goal.
I said it at the beginning of this season, this could be a mighty big year for United. If we can get past Real and continue racking up points in the league, our confidence will be sky high and there’s no limit to what the team can achieve. Injuries be damned, we are deeper than Lindegaard in Misse Begiri’s arsepie.
Howard Webb is officially on my hate-list
he acted very cowardly by trying to prove he’s not United bias.
Ridiculous calls, and KingEric, don’t mention the reina incident. I am so discussed.
Firstly it was a foul and their fault that let Reina to be injured, but Webb continued the game, Pool attacked, Reina crying, no-one stops the game, as soon as we get the ball. That coward Webb stops the game.
Some said he broke-up with us in public and making a statement.
COWARD: really. not that I was a fan of him or anything, but I thought he’d be different fro mthe others.
Are we that good, that even referees have to conspire against us?… sorry..
of course we are. haha
We Are ManUtd and we’ll do hat we want!!!!!!!
UNITEEEEEEED!
PS. @costas
welbeck will come good, he needs to find his “ronaldo”-mode cause the lad has everything on him. I hope I’ll see a combo of Welbz, Chicha Henriquez and maybe W.Keane in the future?
PS2. At the age of 22, Chicharito was a proven goalscorer for United and Mexico, at the age of 24 Chicharito has managed to develope himself a better player. muchmuch better.
PS3. Let’s hope and I truly BELIEVE that it’s the contrary with Welbeck, so at the age of 22 his all around game is GREAT, and at 24 he’ll be a profilic goalscorer.
could it be? I believe so.
peace.
*disgusted
Cleverley and Carrick were fucking awesome, just brilliant. I can’t help thinking this is one of those magical combinations where each player brings out the best in the other, and the whole is worth way more than the sum of its parts. But Cleverley also plays really well with Ando too, who is a very different player to Carrick. Maybe young Tom is that rarest of rare players — someone who just brings out the best in whoever he’s paired with.
Maybe we ran out of steam towards the end, but I couldn’t help thinking that our coaches just didn’t respond well to the changes the dippers made. We needed to make some adjustments (I am not sure what) to counter the changes they made. Maybe it would have been useful to have had Scholes on the bench.
A great win. And in the first half, our footy was sublime. Cheers lads!
@Stateside – Scholes and Giggs are basically being marginalized from the big games this season. Fergie learnt his lesson in September, when we played Liverpool away and then Spurs at home. In the first match, we won but played poorly, due in no small part to Giggs being picked in centre mid. The following week against Spurs they both started and we got overwhelmed (although Scholes was outstanding in the second half tbf)
Since then, the only “big game” action Giggs has had was coming on against 9 man Chelsea. While Scholes hasn’t played a single second of a big game! Giggs I think still has a role in these big matches….if we’re chasing the game (which we haven’t had to do in any of the big games yet this season!), he can come on and have an impact. But unfortunately, the pace and tempo of those matches means Scholes won’t be able to do much even off the bench.
Yesterday, we should have brought on Jones/Anderson a bit earlier, to give us an extra body in midfield. Fergie left it a bit late IMO, probably coz he was worried about whether Vidic would need subbing. All worked out well in the end though
@ Sparkz. How about Ruud Van Nistelrooy? lol
The Derby was Dave De Gea’s 60th games for United
His overall record is 42W9D10L w/ 19 career clean sheets.
His overall win % is 85% this yr, up from a tepid 61% last year.
If you limit your view to the EPL. David had played in 43 matches with a record of 32W7D5L and 16 clean sheets. His overal EPL win % is also 85% this year, up from 68% last year.
The break down by year shows an improvement is form commensurate with our improved mid season form.
2011/12 played 29 in the league 20W6D4L
2012/13 played 14 in the league 12W1D1L (after playing 14 league games last year, he had 9W4D2L)
The number of EPL clean sheets at this phase of his season (14 league games played) is about the same. 4 last year, 3 this.
While the defense has been shaky I think De Gea is settling down and is rarely criticized, a welcome relief over the widespread criticism he was getting last season.
Hope he continues beefing up and bedding in.
King Eric
Not disputing it was a good stop,am disputing it as usual is always somebody elses fault when he pats it out for tapins that is quite a few now.Do none of you ever think he should be doing better than that,I do.
Chuvannistelrooy says:
@ Sparkz. How about Ruud Van Nistelrooy? lol
Phenomenal goalscorer, and more of a legend than Tevez….but Tevez was a far superior player, could score and create. We didn’t win much during Ruud’s time either lol!
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@Sparkz
I agree about you on Tevez. You can think about his personallity whatever you want. But he was great. What player can go on vacation for 6 month, while season started, and finish 2nd goalscorer in PL?…the toughest league in the world….what i liked about him, is that he was like a beast and could create chances for himself. Like you said maybe one of the best strikers we ever had.
Men of the match to me was Kagawa and Carrick together. Welbz running and fighting a lot, and maybe we sometimes need a Park up front. Kredit to him, but we need one who can both run and score.
Kagawa covering a lot whith quality. Top back-up by Carrick with more and more nice passes. Cleverly could run the midfield like only he can because of that.
Now for a important game come sunday.
Daniel88 – your boring us now, if Madrid had everything to play for, you would still call Madrid a dangerous side, like I said, you have made such a tit of yourself, you are not going to back united now
Over the past three/four weeks I have been a persistent critic of AY – much to the irritation of Marq and Wayne. Ashley Young’s first half was dire. BUT what could we reasonably expect after the preceding three/four crappy performances ? Last week Marq “challenged” me to keep track of AY’s next performance and that’s what I did yesterday.
Here’s my view:
In the first two minutes, there were two/three really lousy touches; miscontrolling the ball and giving up possession.
9:00 – a good interception
14:50 – why no yellow for diving ?
16:00 – dispossessed by Raheem Sterling (ahem !)
16:30 – good long pass
24:50 – weak, loses the ball
26:00 – great run and pass to RVP which he uncharacteristically skied into the stands
29:00 – bad touch, runs into blind-alley
33:00 – hopeless back-heel (then schooled by Glen Johnson)
35:00 – lost ball
37:00 – more crap
39:00 – good defence
40:00 – left-footed cross that was easily defended (great work making space but didn’t find team-mate)
ExtraTime – dive over Lucas which fooled the ref and got Lucas yellow-carded (what I saw was that AY was in flight before he encountered the LiverPoo midfielder’s foot – or, maybe, AY “anticipated contact”).
Half-Time – substituted by AV7 who was just about as dire as AY.
SO, my overall marking for that effort by Ashley Young would be 3/10 (although I might be old-school in my grading but there is no way that AY’s half deserved more than 4/10). He was weak, didn’t control the ball and – with one notable exception @ 26:00 – his passing was piss-poor. I don’t think that my assessment of AY’s half-game is one-eyed – but, then, that’s just my opinion. However, the very idea that he stepped up his performance is simply comical.
Indeed, AY’s performance on Sunday was very much like the preceding matches in which he messed-up four point-blank shots at goal, repeatedly miscontrolled the ball, and made just one goal-scoring opportunity for a team-mate.
Marq asked (rhetorically) why SAF persisted with AY – I answered that AV7 has been just as bad recently while Nani has been injured (so we’re being told). Now, AY seems to have been injured – there are reports that he left OT “on crutches”.
In a results-driven business like top-level footie, AY’s injury and AV7′s rotten form is an opportunity for SAF to give game-time to someone else (Nani ?) OR to switch to a wing-less formation that might better utilize the attacking talents of KagawaBunga, TheWayneBoy, RVP, DannyTheLad, and/or Chicharito.
One thing is for sure – I don’t see that AY’s absence will make TheLads weaker on the pitch. The guy just isn’t good enough.
NOTE: This has been double-posted because the thread on which it first appeared this morning was almost immediately superseded when Scott opened today’s topics. I did notice that neither Marq nor Wayne responded. Why is that ?
Parry – de gea could do better in terms of getting a stronger hand to the ball but you could also look at the defenders not reacting quicker/not closing down the opposition. De gea has huge potential and will continue to improve. The media’s bias and perception is nothing short of pathetic. He’s not the complete package yet, keepers blossom into top drawers with experience, de gea is accumulating all that gradually.
De Gea has not been the problem for a good while now, but this is Manchester United and people will persist in trying to criticize where and when they can. On the other hand Vidic is a huge Loss. Carrick and Cleverley really stepping up now and hopefully once Andos back our midfield will be well equipped for Europe.
@Denton
Ashley’s faults are undeniable, but he certainly does serve as a critical squad player. Much in the same way that an Oshea, or a Park would. He keeps one wing shut defensively and certainly has his creative moments in a match. Unfortunately when compared to the outstanding offensive wingers we have had he does fade. But the way he has been used by Fergie, in lieu of someone like Hazard or Mara coming in, its perfectly acceptable to have him plowing up and down a flank, i.e. getting a baseline output, and occasional brilliance. However when we need to break down a stubborn attack i would much rather have Nani back, but Valencias position is the one Nani would likely prefer. The diving though is a blemish that could cost us.
Welbeck is rubbish. If chicha started, we would have won 5-1.
denton some of us work for a living.Didn’t see that kind of analysis when Young was close to being mom City away and herein lies your problem,picking him apart after a bad game but never give credit for good games.You single certain players out and pick on them constantly while they wear the Red shirt,you’ve had it in for Young from the day he signed this is what you do,see everything through denton glasses.I also check player ratings he ave 5.5 to 6 yesterday,Another thing personally think he’s a much better player on the left than right anyway and who knows after that tackle if he was playing with a injury last part of the first half
Denton and wazza!!!! I fucking hate fan boys like you. We win and you have complaints cause of 1 players performance. How about become a supporter and fucking enjoy the win and the position were in. People like you are destined for fucking suicide you depressed cunts
just read this
Another player that substituted off due to a knee injury was Ashley Young. The winger twisted his knee in the first-half and it was severe enough to where he needed to be substituted off at half-time. The England international was also reportedly seen on crutches after the match.
the tackle i believe happened around the 1/2 hr mark so for the last 15 mins of the first half was playing injured
Wayne @ 01:11: “herein lies your problem,picking him apart after a bad game but never give credit for good games.”
After three/four games that were “bad”, I was challenged by Marq to watch AY carefully – I did exactly that and reported what I saw. Since those detailed examples seem to contradict your unsubstantiated claims that I am somehow biased against AY, you try to deflect the argument by introducing the notion that I am “picking on” AY.
I’d like to see AY do better but he’s just not good enough – same went for my scepticism about Dimmy, who was actually more of a disappointment since he had so much more talent but didn’t seem to have the commitment to play for UTD on the big stage.
The old saying is that a chain is as strong as its weakest link – you can figure out the rest !
Firstly, a bit of perspective. Regardless of who could have played better or not we are still top of the league by a good margin. I’m more concerned about how we fare in Europe tbh.
That be said, a few observations.
We could do with a bit more steel. Someone direct Kagawa to a pie shop please; he’s got the talent and intelligence but could do with a bit more strength.I guess that will come as he adapts more more to the physicality of the English game.
Makes me laugh how every goal against United is turned into a debate by the ABU media as to how De Gea messed up this or that, yet ‘yeoman’ Joe Hart gets a free pass regardless of performance. Right now I’d have De Gea in goal over Hart every day of the week; he’s the better keeper.
Welbeck? Being a United front man is a tough ask. I’m not really impressed with ‘workrate’ for its own sake and have quite often felt that much of Welbeck’s running about last year was wasted effort with not enough goal product for his game time. This year he’s played with more intelligence in the limited opportunities he’s had although his scoring boots aren’t there. Yesterday Danny did his job well as a physical presence was needed to trouble Liverpool’s big boys at the back and free up space for others. Does he score enough? No. Is he good enough as a squad player? Yes.
Danny Welbeck is not rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Denton is absolutely correct about Young although 3/10 seems harsh. He was poor but he didn’t have a complete stinker.
Wellbeck’s lack of finesse in the final third aside his overall performance against Liverpool was excellent. His movement and pace was too much for Agger and Skrtel. If he does add the touch of finesse and removes some of the rougher edges he could be one hell of a striker.
denton i’m not deflecting any argument have you or have you not been saying Young is not Utd quality from day one?.He’d already been prejudged by you before he’d even kicked a ball, I’ve seen 3 different player rating sites 2 gave him 6/10 one 5.5/10 you 3/10.
My argument just like Berba before him has been singled out by you and it doesn’t matter what happens you pick,pick,pick.All anyone has to do is look at 2 years of posts to see how negative you are, he probably had his worst game of the season and this is the game you decide to dissect to prove you’re not biased but correct in your analysis.
What a fucking coincidence
Denton.. Just on the one RVP skied over well I think from what I saw the cause could have been the ball was bobblin badly.. And I would blame that on the pitch not AY
Overall a great result though if I would like to see us improve in an area it would be retaining possesion a bit better specially coming into CL.
Also thought sometime ago Vidic could have kept playing more in the reserves where there wouldn’t be so much pressure on his knees.. how and ever I guess it could have happened regardless
to be honest, i don’t think AY did bad at all :S !! his link up play was very good, he made a couple of decisive passes. his best spell came when united started dominating, from 20 mins onwards.. even after he’d been injured he played decently !
if you want to see the real impact AY had up front & in our link up play, look at how much worse off we seemed when AV7 came on.. true, if AV7 can rediscover his form we wouldn’t miss AY, but it does show his form IS improving ! after a dire start, he has really begun to settle in again.
And on a side note, bring on madrid ! i think our squad would be perfect if it was not for injuries ! if vida/rio cannot stop the injuries, i reckon we should get a top class CB, get a couple of years out of them to partner evans, then allow smalling to take over. another position would be in central midfield, the defensive or box-to-box type player. essentially, we have anderson AND fletcher for this role. but, again, if either of them cannot recover, we should sign someone like strootman. but going forward, we’re fine !
strikers are perfect, and AY and AV7 are picking up form again, albeit with AV7 slowly (did look better against ‘pool). however, if nani DOES leave, and i hope to god he doesn’t because how many players are there out there who are reaching their peak, fast, 2 footed, can assist AND score and suited to the PL ? only Bale comes close, but still not as good as nani imo. BUT, if nani leaves, the bale is who we get..
btw, anyone reckon we should get LB for a couple of years to allow fabio to take over ? i don’t think we should.. evra’s form has picked up, & in a couple of years, while he’s finishing off, we’ll have fabio rearing to take over :p
btw, if welbeck starts scoring again, like he did last year, he’d be the perfect foil for the rest of our strikers.. we have a fast, clinical ST (chico), a creative, clinical ST (RvP), the perfect creative force & tempo dictator (Rooney, who can aslo finish VERY WELL !) & then welbeck, who seems to be a cross of all of them. he can run with the ball better than rooney & hernandez, he can link-up & creat better then hernandez & just has that bit of flair that rooney doesn’t. overall, the most impressive thing is ALL of our strikers are HARD WORKING. not many clubs can lie claim to having 4 dedicated, hard working top class strikers..
finally, i think if we beat West Ham, the treble is ours.. optimistic i know, but our club is great, so why not ?!
Welbeck please go out on loan n don’t come back. Ure hopeless!!!
@wazza how about you FUCK RIGHT OFF. Danny Welbeck is one of the hardest workers on the team. His hold up play is BRILLIANT for a 22 year old. He just needs to work on his finishing and seeing as he is 22 years old, there is a SHITLOAD of time for him to get better at it. He has VP and Rooney, as LETHAL as it gets in the premier league, to aid him in his quest. Van Persie wasn’t always the dangerous finisher you see today. He worked on it and seeing Welbeck’s superb attitude, I have NO DOUBT in my mind that this lad will be the toast of English football by the time he’s 27.
Great summary. I always look forward to Match Reactions.
Spot on with the lead up to Sturridge’s goal. Got really tired of reading in the papers about how De Gea’s time is up etc. Cleverley will learn from that mistake I’m sure – he held his hands up immediately if you noticed, straight after Gerrard stole in and shot, and again after the goal.
Kagawa played some cute passes and his off the ball movement was impressive. His substitution however was correct as he was beginning to tire. He was starting to get knocked off the ball very easily in positions where Liverpool could break forward dangerously.
I don’t see what the fuss / argument is with Ashley Young. There is nothing wrong with expecting more from a United player. If we can give stick to Giggs for losing the ball and passing it to an opposition, let’s not be two-faced about it and pretend Young was effective.
Welbeck has all the attributes a striker could wish for, bar the most important one at the moment – confidence. He has pace, a good touch, and his link-up play is excellent at times. I do see Scott’s point that he frustrates because when he gets into good positions, he fluffs it up. This confidence thing can be sorted out if he plays regularly upfront. However, that would be unfair to lil Pea who has been in very impressive form. In any case, Rooney should be returning to first team action soon.
Wellbecks workrate is fantastic and he can only get better with time. Being a local lad, he clearly knew what this game meant to us and gave it his all and it showed everywhere except in the score sheet. Great performance yes, but is it enough for a game as BIG as this one was?? In my humble opinion, im inclined to say no.
I sometimes think that we take Chico for granted. Why on earth would we not want Chico to play on a game like this, when we know his all around game has clearly improved, he is the second highest scorer in our team and is actually scoring when given minutes, he has saved our arses more than a few times lately, he clearly loves the United shirt and i know i dont need to remind anyone here about his scoring ratio. Lots of people keep mentioning Wellbecks speed, and i instantly remember that Chico was the fastest player this last World Cup, and now that he is training under United, hes notably much stronger and probably even faster than he was then. Speed alone is great, but to have that speed and be able to score is a whole different story.
I wont even get started on Chichos positioning or his ability to create space playing at the shoulder of the last defender, his killer instinct and actual effectiveness inside the box. And if that is not enough, he WILL score with his ass if given the chance, lol.. Seriously, why would we not want a player like this on the field every single game for at least 20 minutes? Just imagine if we had lost this game! Im sure as hell that people would not have felt soo impressed by Welbs “workrate”
These are forwards, and their job is to score goals. One is the second highest scorer in the team and the other is not scoring at all. Other than being a local, and with facts to support my comments, why on earth would anyone want Wellbeck to play ahead of Chicharito in a game as important as this one?? this will puzzle me, for a loong time. Sorry if anyone does not like my opinion, but that is what i believe.
Young played a quarter of the game, hobbled around for another quarter and he is useless? Great analysis from the likes of Denton again. A injured Young staying on to play out the half was a better choice than bringing on Valencia immediately, that was what Sir Alex thinks. And that is what matters
@wayne
Some people are already watching with tinted glasses, they think they understand football, but I wonder why one of the greatest manager of all time persist in selecting players that these ‘fans’ think are useless. Perhaps these ‘fans’ think they are better than the manager. But we know who knows best. So don’t bother to talk to people who think they know better than our great manager. We are supporters, they are critics
Nice review. Agreed
Murt73 @ 02:48: “Just on the one RVP skied over well I think from what I saw the cause could have been the ball was bobblin badly.. And I would blame that on the pitch not AY”
I NEVER said anything negative about AY in regards to that passage of play – it was the one moment in the period he was on the field that he did brilliantly.
The commentator remarked that the ball “bobbled” on the field which accounted for RVP’s skied-shot.
Marq @ 05:26: “Young played a quarter of the game, hobbled around for another quarter and he is useless? Great analysis from the likes of Denton again.”
The last time we had this discussion you “challenged” me to keep track of the positives/negatives in AY’s next appearance. I did just that. NOW you change your tune and don’t deal with the specific examples but rather accuse me of knowing better than SAF. That accusation is actually beside-the-point of our disagreement concerning the quality of AY’s contributions.
By the way, your comment that “A injured Young staying on to play out the half was a better choice than bringing on Valencia immediately, that was what Sir Alex thinks. And that is what matters” is also more than a little misleading.
What I saw was that AY ran into Daniel Agger and got crocked and the commentator remarked that AY was done for the day BUT he was wrong. Young had some medical attention and came back onto the field and played the remainder of the first half. During that time he seemed to get himself back to full speed – i.e., the evidence being the excellent left-footed cross @ 40:00.
From the moment of the crash with Agger, SAF had AV7 getting ready but didn’t call upon him since it appeared that AY was OK to continue. THEN, during the half-time break it was decided to make the switch and after the game there were reports that AY left OT “on crutches”. That sequence of events seems to suggest that once AY cooled down in the dressing room his injury seemed to seize up. There’s nothing magical – or part of a conspiracy theory – about this sequence. In every match we watch, guys get crashed/slammed/crocked but get back up and continue – managers usually let the starter continue unless it’s decided that he’s done-for-the-day.
Your other point about SAF’s selection of AY is equally misleading – AV7 has been in a lousy vein of form (and that was evident when he came on for the second half) while Nani is (so we’re told) not yet ready for prime time. A few days earlier, Giggs had played the full 90 minutes against West Ham – and played very well – but he’s no spring chicken and starting two matches in a week seems to be beyond him nowadays. So, what exactly was SAF’s choice – stick with AY and “hope” that he does better OR go with no wingers ? Any other alternatives spring to mind ??
United were good for 45 minutes but it wasn’t a dominate display for 90 minutes! A couple of tactical changes and it was just as desperate for United’s defence as it was for Liverpool in the first half.
wayne says:
denton some of us work for a living.Didn’t see that kind of analysis when Young was close to being mom City away and herein lies your problem,picking him apart after a bad game but never give credit for good games.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Bingo. Mind you, Denton isn’t the only one guilty of doing this.
Ash young was woeful. Pathetic performance from him.
Nice analysis by Admin, always look forward to ‘match reactions’. Also very good posts from most on here. Ctritiscm is always good for people who have to keep up with the world’s best. De Gea handles it well and I hope it will help Young to step up. Welbeck is 22, has time on his side but unfortunately he cant escape the close scrutiny. Thats the presure that comes with playing for the best football club in the world.Those shooting boots will come and the good thing about Welbz is that he knows that every opportunity he gets played is an opportunity that has to be grabbbed by working very hard, that shows in his play and will be duly rewarded.
We all know Welbeck is good player that works hard, gets into good positions and casues defences problems. The only thing he needs is a wee bit of confidence and composure as he gets all over-excited in dangerous positions. It’s like doing all the hard work of getting a gorgeous bird into bed and blowing his wad before her knickers are off. A bit of composure is required.
AY was poor again after a few games where he was looking more dangerous. In fairness Denton’s appraisal is fairly accurate and whether you give him 3,4 or 5 out 10 it’s not what you want from a 20m signing. I wouldn’t pay any attention to ratings sites. Do they put player cam on for 90 minutes and watch every single contribution of players? I seriously doubt it. It’s a general impression of how a player has done that is often clouded by a teams overall performance. Apart from one decent contribution when he passed to RvP he didn’t contribute anything positive.
Morning Reds! I’ll be havin’ whatever Patty is havin!
“Manchester United must win Premier League and Champions League to match class of 2008″
http://soc.li/qxWqkJI
Go on then Patty!
The way so called fans slag United players knocks me sick.do us all a favour and fuck off
All the talk of Welbeck, Young and how brilliant or shitty this or that player might be is par for the course, but what worries me is that as a TEAM we went to sleep for long periods of the second half and nearly got undone. Admittedly, the United game is Liverpool’s ‘cup final’ these days, given their reduced circumstances and expectation, so they were up for it . However, we can’t afford to give better sides, particularly in Europe that much of the ball or go to sleep like we did against Liverpool second half and expect not to get punished for it. Running about and work-rate without end product means little; over playing Arsenal-mode is similarly wasteful. As a team I would like to see us keeping the ball much better for the duration of the match, and turn up the ‘meaness’ quotient. So if we are not putting lesser teams to the sword, at least we are not giving them the time, space and ball to make a nuisance of themselves like the Scousers did second half.
this made my day,
Bucktooth’s teeth was what was offside not vidic’s goal
The Sun has Zaha will join tomorrow for £12Mill .If we get him for that price it will be a steal
Tommorrow? Arsenal out of the race yet?
Personally feel that Danny will get better and better with consistent games. He has a body that looks like it is still getting used to his legs in the bigger settings. He has great speed and touch. Just needs to be let out more. One of the big problems with United youth is the gap in games at 22is years old. Lads from SA and other european leagues are starters at 18/19 and are the full deal at 22/24. United does hold players back because of the quality of the lads above them.
For me, Danny is 2 years from being the full deal. I am happy to wait. The fact that he signed a new deal and is playing more is evidence that the club agrees. I am sure there is a limit to everyone patience though and at this level, criticism is fair enough. I just prefer constructive criticism over unnecessary vitriol. I like Danny and pip him for success.
Danny Welbeck age 22 (56starts 31subs = 87 total apps; 18 goals)
2008-09 13 apps (5 as sub); 3 goals
2009-10 11 apps (4 as sub); 2 goals
2010-11 Preston (8apps; 2goals) and Sunderland (26apps; 6goals)
2011-12 39 apps (12 as sub); 12 goals
2012-13 24 apps (10 as sub); 1 goals (so far)
Javier Hernandez age 24 (62starts 41subs = 103 total apps; 44 goals)
2010-2011 45apps (18 as sub); 20 goals
2011-2012 36apps (14 as sub); 12 goals
2012-2013 22apps (9 as sub); 12 goals (so far)
Lots of ways to read this, my read is that Danny is off his pace this year. This might be do to his playing more of a winger/support role in many games.
BTW …. Anyone know how to easily access minutes played data?
@Mr C
It’s starting to become an issue I feel. Looking at the Arsenal, Chelsea, City and Liverpool games, we’ve taken a 2-0 lead in all of them and our opponents have pegged us back in all of them. Arsenal and Liverpool only managed 1, while Chelsea and City equalized. Don’t know why it’s become so hard to kill these games off. I know they are tough games, but our team tends to show 2 completely different sides in their duration and that’s not natural.
@dazbomber at 09:54
Likewise. But hey, I’m sure they would do a better job if they were called upon.
Van Persie will be wearing shirt no.21 next season as we go for 21
Costas, I agree with your comment about the worry of giving up late goals. I am not as sure that it is about playing differently, as I think we always play a very open game this year and are always vulnerable. The best evidence for your view was the Liverpool game it must be said. Carrick was first half MOTM for me, but could hardly find his man in the second and was indirectly responsible for their goal due to a pass that put our fullback under serious pressure (not really carricks fault though).
I read somewhere that united have never lost a game they were leading by 2 goals. IF that is true, one wonders if it will survive the season.
Gosh, I love the way Clevz is imposing himself in midfield of late. He’s really growing into the CM role and yes, he really does bring the best out of Carrick. Their partnership is oozing quality of late. Especially love how the two of them pressed a midfield three of Stevie Me, Lucas and Allen (whom I don’t really rate tbh) hard in the first half and dominated them. And did you see the left footed first time volley by wee Tom. What a screamer! Had that gone in, how much it’d mean to him.
The triumvirate of the two of them plus Kagawa also look dangerous going forward, especially in their build up play just on the edge of the box, which is really exciting to see.
I hope Kagawa also gets to play more in his preferred role behind the forward(s). He’s pure class. Give him the license to roam there and he’ll cause a lot of trouble for the opposition, as was the case when he was given some time on the ball there in the first half. His first touch and close control is lovely to watch, the way he worked his way around the Liverpool midfield with ease.
I have to say i disagree on the Welbeck comments i thought he had a great game and certainly provided the energy and drive we needed in a game like this. I understand your point that you dont want a striker full of energy and not goals but think back to games like the Spurs game at OT a few seasons ago, we were 2-0 down fergie sends on Tevez and it was his energy and running that turned the game round not his goals and we ended up winning 5-2 . I dont think this is all Welbeck has to his game, he just needs to find his shooting boots again and i am sure that will happen.
It is always nice to beat these irrelevant cunts ! But to penetrate more misery in their useless lifes by seeing them submerged in the middle of the table is FANTASTIC !
What a time to live to see them in this position as they are heading more close to Leeds Scum in an inferior division. They are becoming irrelevant and a waste of space year after year !!!
y.n.w.a.= you’ll never walk AGAIN !!!!
Paying £12 million for Zaha would be fucking madness. Isco has a release clause of £17 million. We should at least try to get him first.
Be cool !
Pay Attention in Biology Class.
Just after dinner one night, my son came up to tell me there was “something wrong” with one of the two lizards he holds prisoner in his room.
“He’s just lying there looking sick,” he told me. “I’m serious, Dad. Can you help?”
I put my best lizard-healer expression on my face and followed him into his bedroom.
One of the little lizards was indeed lying on his back, looking stressed. I immediately knew what to do.
“Honey,” I called, “come look at the lizard!”
“Oh, my gosh!” my wife exclaimed. “She’s having babies.”
“What?” my son demanded. “But their names are Bert and Ernie, Mom!”
I was equally outraged. “Hey, how can that be? I thought we said we didn’t want them to reproduce,” I said accusingly to my wife.
“Well, what do you want me to do, post a sign in their cage?” she inquired (I think she actually said this sarcastically!)
“No, but you were supposed to get two boys!” I reminded her (in my most loving, calm, sweet voice, while gritting my teeth).
“Yeah, Bert and Ernie!” my son agreed.
“Well, it’s just a little hard to tell on some guys, you know,” she informed me (again with the sarcasm!)
By now the rest of the family had gathered to see what was going on. I shrugged, deciding to make the best of it.
Kids, this is going to be a wondrous experience,” I announced. “We’re about to witness the miracle of birth.”
“Oh, gross!” they shrieked.
“Well, isn’t that just great? What are we going to do with a litter of tiny little lizard babies?” my wife wanted to know.
We peered at the patient. After much struggling, what looked like a tiny foot would appear briefly, vanishing a scant second later.
“We don’t appear to be making much progress,” I noted.
“It’s breech,” my wife whispered, horrified.
“Do something, Dad!” my son urged.
“OK, OK.” Squeamishly, I reached in and grabbed the foot when it next appeared, giving it a gentle tug. It disappeared. I tried several more times with the same results.
“Should I call 911?” my eldest daughter wanted to know. “Maybe they could talk us through the trauma.” (You see a pattern here with the females in my house?)
“Let’s get Ernie to the vet,” I said grimly. We drove to the vet with my son holding the cage in his lap.
“Breathe, Ernie, breathe,” he urged.
“I don’t think lizards do Lamaze,” his mother noted to him. (More sarcasm? Women can be so cruel to their own young. I mean what she does to me is one thing, but this boy is of her womb, for God’s sake.)
The vet took Ernie back to the examining room and eered at the little animal through a magnifying glass.
“What do you think, Doc, a C-section?” I suggested scientifically.
“Oh, very interesting,” he murmured.
“Mr. And Mrs. Cameron, may I speak to you privately for a moment?”
I gulped, nodding for my son to step outside.
“Is Ernie going to be okay?” my wife asked.
“Oh, perfectly,” the vet assured us.
“This lizard is not in labor. In fact, that isn’t ever going to happen: Ernie is a boy. You see, Ernie is a young male. And occasionally, as they come into maturity, like most male species, they …um… masturbate. Just the way he did, lying on his back.” He blushed, glancing at my wife.
We were silent, absorbing this. “So, Ernie’s just… just….”
“Excited,” my wife offered.
“Exactly!” the vet replied, relieved that we understood.
More silence. Then my vicious, cruel wife started to giggle. And giggle. And then even laugh loudly.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded, knowing, but not believing that the woman I married would commit the upcoming affront to my flawless manliness.
Tears were now running down her face. “It’s just that I’m picturing you pulling on its its teeny little….” She gasped for more air to bellow in laughter once more.
“That’s enough,” I warned. We thanked the vet and hurriedly bundled the lizard and our son back into the car. He was glad everything was going to be okay.
“I know Ernie’s really thankful for what you did, Dad,” he told me.
“Oh, you have no idea,” my wife agreed, collapsing with laughter.
Moral of the story: Pay attention in biology class. Lizards lay eggs.
AND DONT BE A DICKHEAD.
Stay loyal !
John’s teacher sent a note home to his mother, saying :
“John seems to be a very bright boy,
but spends too much of his time thinking about girls. ”
The mother wrote back the next day :
” If you find a solution, please advise. I’m facing the same problem with his father
When we play Madrid !
Why do sharks swim around you before attacking?
Two great white sharks, swimming in the ocean, spied survivors of a sunken ship.
“Follow me, son.” the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the mass of people.
“First we swim around them a few times with just the tip of our fins showing.” And they did.
“Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few times with all of our fins showing.” And they did.
“Now we eat everybody.” And they did.
When they were both gorged, the son asked, “Dad, why didn’t we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?”
His wise father replied, “Because they taste better without the shit inside!”
The Bull is Fergie and the arrogant bastard is mankini,rafa,mourinho. The authority is thier billionaire owners and the badge is the money.
The Arrogance of Authority
A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas , and talked with an old rancher.
He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.”
The rancher said, “Okay , but don’t go in that field over there…..”, as he pointed out the location
The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, ” Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me !”
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.
“See this badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…. On any land !!
No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear……do you understand ?!!”
The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull……
With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he’d sure enough get gored before he reached safety The officer was clearly terrified.
The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs…..
(I just love this part….)
“Your badge, show him your BADGE…….. ! !”
I didnt change my tune, but fact is Young didnt not play even 45mins in full health and you based a judgement on that? Who is the one picking bones? So if he is injured he should lay on the floor and cry? Can’t he play through the pain barrier to run and put in a cross? I seriously doubt you have any sports related activities in your real life. He freaking left OT on clutches, so you are saying he recovered fully to put in the cross and then in the dressing room suddenly his leg gave way and he needed to be on clutches?
Robin van Persie has scored in 5 consecutive EPL games at OT (bt Nov20 & Jan13).
van Nistelrooy did it over 2 seasons
Question,
Who holds the record for consecutive games scored, and consecutive games at home? Where do you find crap stats like that.
Here are a couple notes from my records:
Steve Coppell and Ruud vN have both scored in (4) Consecutive league matches at OT in a single season
Ruud vN has scored in (5) Consecutive league matches at OT but he did this over 2 seasons.
Ruud vN appears to have a record (10) Consecutive matches with goal scored in the EPL (home and away)
From this, I believe Robin van Persie may have, or be close to a new record for a United player….
Do any of you stat junkies have access to a data base where one could verify this?
@Marq – On Sunday Young was poor both before and after he picked up the injury.
I don’t think Young was bought to be the big superstar on the wing. But, he can do a valuable Park-esque job as a squad player. He’s nothing special but he’s not terrible either.
Work rate wise he did really well against Liverpool, and he had a couple of bright moments going forward too. He also had some sloppy moments, but I wouldn’t say he was dreadful. “Average” is probably the best description, but like I said, he’s a squad player IMO.
Mail thinks we are the bomb. Actually quote Fergie with sage like powers? Awesome
55 points from 22 games is the best ever since the 3 points per win system in 1981-82 season!
The 55 points gained – with 18 victories, one draw and three defeats – overhauls many of the impressive tallies amassed by previous great United sides.
The class of 1993-94, considered by some to be Ferguson’s most polished side – with Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Roy Keane, a young Ryan Giggs and Eric Cantona providing its core – had two points less than this current batch from their opening 22 games, while Fergie’s Treble winners of 1999 were incredibly 11 points worse off at this stage of the season, with just 41 points.
Well done United! Well Done!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2262654/Manchester-United-squad-best-English-football-history.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2262676/Manchester-United-bid-6m-Wilfried-Zaha-48-hours.html
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Club-News/2013/Jan/manchester-united-announces-new-partnership-with-wahaha-in-china.aspx Wahaha or Zaha!!
btw
@FletchTheMan, you’re right about Welbeck, and I hope when I critisise him, people understand it’s constructive. This is what I said about him, relating to your comment.
“welbeck will come good, he needs to find his “ronaldo”-mode cause the lad has everything on him. I hope I’ll see a combo of Welbz, Chicha Henriquez and maybe W.Keane in the future?
PS2. At the age of 22, Chicharito was a proven goalscorer for United and Mexico, at the age of 24 Chicharito has managed to develope himself a better player. muchmuch better.
PS3. Let’s hope and I truly BELIEVE that it’s the contrary with Welbeck, so at the age of 22 his all around game is GREAT, and at 24 he’ll be a profilic goalscorer.
could it be? I believe so.”
FletchTHEMAN cheers mate
Top result. The over hyping of Suarez and Stevie Me in the commentary was becoming nauseating. Suarez didn’t get a look in on Sunday and thats the way it should be. Seems Danny’s lack of goals is a really big talking point but im not sure why? I guess when you are ridiculously amazing (think Anderson) people expect much more from you, much earlier, and with much more consistency, than they would if you were an average player. With great blessings come greater responsibilities and all of that.
For the record, Danny was heavily involved in RVP’s goal, and he was a constant threat throughout the game. Comparing him to Tevez is daft imo, as Tevez was globally experienced and had over 150 senior apps as a striker when we signed him aged 24. Compare that to 22 year old Danny! The National side is the only place he consistently plays in his best position, and he’s never been a regular main striker anywhere! Give him time, he’s fast, strong, brave when challenging, he’s a brilliant passer (see RVP goal) and he reads the game like a rag. Can you imagine the player he’ll be when he”s 24 with over 150 senior apps as a striker? And even then, he’ll still be a young lad. He definitely deserved MOTM as he was involved in everything, and he’s never been a player who runs around aimlessly. His USE of the ball (finding team mates) once he intercepts it is better than anything I’ve seen from Tevez. Give Danny credit, his link up play is top class and the goals will come.
Which brings us to Cleverley. He was class out there, which is scary when you consider that his games for United’s first team have only now caught up with his number of games for Wigan. The vast majority of his senior football has been played elsewhere, but with each big game he’s involved with he just gets better and better. Keep it up mate!
Special mention to Rio, Vidic, Evra and Rafa. Fair enough Rafa was asleep for the goal, but at his age he hasn’t quite ironed out the immaturities in his game yet. But apart from that, he really didn’t show his age and did his job well. The other defenders deserve praise for keeping LFC quiet for most of the game. Seeing us lose control of the game towards the end was understandable, as tensions and the pressure were high, but we fought till the end and got the result we deserved.
Must say I am looking forward to seeing us not look so vulnerable near the end of games. Memories of dropping that lead last year are obviously playing on our minds. Interesting to read Evra say that last season SOME of OUR players were banging on about who CIty were playing, how they were playing etc, and he reckoned that was the reason we dropped those points. He said in 7 years at United that was the only time he’s ever seen SOME of the lads focus more on another team than United. I’d love to know who exactly was fixated on City, but he’s right, we’ve just got to prepare for every game as it comes and keep it professional. 7 points clear, thank you very much!
any news about vida and young
@Marq
I’d say Young had a below par opening 25 minutes from an attacking standpoint. Offered little and didn’t seem comfortable on that side of the pitch (don’t know why Fergie suddenly thought he can do a job there, to be honest). His defending was very good though. I can’t judge the remainder of his cameo. It would be ludicrous after an injury like that.
WeAreUnited
Fully agree with you on Welbeck. Needs time and games. Has all the right building blocks.
iced earth. Cheers!
If people were more,understanding and persevered, i personally feel welbeck will become a terrifying forward. I remember Sparkz continiously saying he would rather a player have 90% of his game in-tact and the remaining 10 as a work in progress and that sums danny. Technically, he’s as fantastic as any forward in europe. Close control at pace, dribbling, quick passing and intelligent movent, lung bursting runs and a selfless work rate, welbeck has bags of talent but one thing is missing at the moment and it is composure. I’ve mocked england’s national team lack of quality many times but danny has shown he can score at that level, his goal ratio is very good but within the confines of oldtrafford, the pressure to perform instantly doubles. He’s snatching at things, being too eager to impress within the few starts or subs mins he gets (danny will not be as effective as a sub), it certainly plays a part in his erratic finishing and for me, it’s a part of his game he’ll want to make big improvements and that improvement will come if people aren’t willing to hound him out of the club, he has all the tools to be a regulat starter and has the talent to lead the line as well as van persie (although the dutchman is significantly more experienced).
I think far too many observers of the game have a simplistic view of football, they think knocking a goal in increases your claim as man of the match or they perform a victory feast over a back pass or winning a cornerkick. The main elements of football are forsaken, the real technicians of a football aren’t encouraged or given the time to blossom. Some may call it obsessive but i will continue to give staunch strong support to those with courage and technique, for those that are willing to pick up the ball and treat it like a beautiful woman (or in other people’s cases, like a fatty pie). It might be luis nani or welbeck, it might be anyone with courage and belief to the make the difference, i will continue to persevere as this for me, is what makes the game great.
Danny welbeck has all the tools and the attitude of work ethic to aid it, for those that claim is runs are that of a headless chicken, observe the game more. He’s missing a piece of the puzzle and it’s calmness and composure. He may or may never be prolific, he may or may never end up world class but with his talent, he can aim for all that.
Good article here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/the-manchester-united-column-why-danny-welbeck-1535189
My team for wednesday; De gea, Raphael, Jones, Smalling, Buttner, Valencia, cleverly, Kagawa, Welbeck, Rooney, Chicharito
Bit of a long post, but its my last point – what do you lot make of Sturridge holding up 5 digits? The other week I was making a point about Real Madrid and LFC in Europe, and it went over a lot of heads…. Well, this is exactly what I was talking about.
Yeah, we are the biggest Club in the history of the domestic league. Its taken us DECADES to overtake the Scousers by ONE CUP (mind you), but yeah, we are now the biggest in domestic football and we’ve clearly been the best performing Club in England during that long era.
BUT, until we prove our class in Europe we’ll always be the second biggest English Club in European Football. Travel a bit and you’ll see how highly LFC are held across the continent and beyond for their European success, and thats the point I was making.
As long as LFC holding up 5 raises a response/pisses us off, we as a Club have work to do. Becoming fat and lazy with success did more to bring down Anfield than anything we did, otherwise LFC would have consistently been runners up in the league over the years. Instead, they became a mid-table Club and they did it to themselves by becoming complacent – from the owners right down to the supporters.
Ferguson was a genius for dragging our Club to the top of the pile, and holding off the other top sides in the league during his reign, but the downfall of LFC was self-inflicted and WE as a Club would to well to remember that and avoid the same fate. They dominated for 2 decades (approx) and now we’ve done the same thing since Fergie arrived. But if you lot think singing songs and patting ourselves on the back will ensure we dominate the next 2 decades, you’ve got another thing coming!
Back to Europe – we should be acknowledging the 9 Titles of Madrid and aiming to overtake them as the biggest Club in Europe. I know the history of Fascism very bloody well, but it doesn’t matter if likely Spanish corruption early in the competition helped them to their first couple wins. How many teams have benefited from dodgy adjudication over the last 60 years anyway FFS??? Barca robbed Chelsea to reach the CL final the other day and England robbed Portugal to reach the WC final. SHIT HAPPENS.
Either way, unless we’re re-writing history like some other clubs, United have work to do in Europe, end of. Ferguson is RIGHT to be perfectly blunt about his disappointments in that competition. Especially considering the class we’ve had over the years.
LFC are the biggest game of our season by default, but im glad we’ve got them out of the way for this campaign. For me, the biggest game THIS season could prove to be Real Mardid in a few weeks time, just like Juve were years ago. We should be focusing on winning Cups, not over-doing the local rivalries bit with washed up clubs.
LFC can afford to focus on us because they took their eye off the ball decades ago. They’ve got nothing better to do have they haha? Without our rivalry all they have left is memories of the past, and when you think about it we’d be thick as shit to follow them down that same road, only to lose it all and be forced to find identity in petty rivalry.
FLAT CAP ASIDE, whats more important to us as a football Club anyway, beating them or lifting Cups? It could take us another decade to win 3 more European Titles, but that shouldn’t make us shy away from the challenge. It should drive us on. One more CL to match Barca, two more to match LFC, and yeah, 6 more to match Real Madrid. Who said being the best in the world was easy FFS??? And no, we can’t use dodgy refs as an excuse not to break all records. In fact, acting as if these records don’t exist, or that we are somehow above trying to break them because “we’ve won the 19th” will bring our Club to ruin.
As a supporter, United are by far the best Club in the world to me, but as far as Silverware is concerned, we’re not quite there yet lets be honest. Ferguson was speaking about Shankly and Paisley recently, and he made the point about the latter winning 3 European titles by building off the success of the former. If Ferguson doesn’t add another Big Ears to his haul before he steps down, I hope his successor aims to knock Real Madrid off their FUCKING PERCH. Anything less wouldn’t be befitting of the standards and history of our Club. In my opinion of course!
Great Article!!!
Thats my point, he had a poor 30mins, and people like Denton use that to judge him and justify himself. If Young had a poor run as long as Valencia is now having, I wouldn’t defend him. But that is not the case. People who cant see that, are just sad
Speaking to MUTV today, Ferguson said: “Actually, Vida’s knee is okay. It was concussion.
“He had a little bit of concussion but he’s okay and fine. He trained yesterday and was good.
“There are no other serious knocks really. I think they’re all pretty good. Obviously, Young has got a dull knock, a little bit of a strain on the knee, but it’s nothing serious.
“I think he’ll be back next week. Maybe not for Tottenham but, the week after, he should be okay.”
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2013/Jan/sir-alex-ferguson-delivers-team-news-for-west-ham-replay.aspx
United Till I Die @ 13:40: “Which brings us to Cleverley. He was class out there, which is scary when you consider that his games for United’s first team have only now caught up with his number of games for Wigan.”
Good point – the professional manager/coach see these guys training and engaged in very intense game-preparation so they’re able to get a better sense of their upside as well as their “compatibility” with others in different formations.
In the case of YoungTom, it’s compatibility, his ability to complement MC16, that is his best quality: he’s not especially skilful, he’s not especially fast, he’s not this or that – for sure, he’s not got the physicality or talent of Paul Scholes BUT his partnership with Carrick brings out the best in MC16 whereas when MC16 is partnering TheGingerNinja he’s a shadow of the force we see when he’s paired with YoungTom or Anderson or DarrenFletcherinho (in his football genius mode).
It’s interesting in this regard to contrast Cleverley with Nani who is especially skilful, who is especially fast, BUT who is very much a non-complementary player since he tends to look to himself rather than to his team-mates.
Marq @ 15:05: “people like Denton”
OK, I’ll bite – who are these “people like Denton” ?
Both you and Wayne responded to my analysis of AY’s contributions – negative and positive – against LiverPoo by ignoring the “evidence” I presented. Instead, what the two of you resorted to was a low form of insult, claiming that I am a persistent critic and not a true “supporter”. That’s just weak.
wazza – Fuck off you armchair cunt.
Even I didn’t say Young had a good game against Liverpool.
You see, I am not defending him, did I try to argue that he had a good game? No. I am asking for him to be given a fair chance, that is all.
And for God’s sake, let go of the 4 “misses”, nobody has yet agreed on your opinion that it was a clear cut chance. They never even made the highlights. If it was really that bad, would it not be all over youtube and people laughing at it? So far you are the only one banging on about that, and it is making you sound like a broken record, playing something only you understand
Completely agree about Welbeck. He was dreadful from start to finish and I was adamant from half time that Hernandez should replace him. For the majority, I thought he performed with all the style and sophistication of an intoxicated amatuer, unaware as to exactly what sport he should be playing. No doubt he is young, with great potential but does have the tendency to be erratic, and I don’t feel I’ve ever seen him perform as badly as he did yesterday. With Rooney in his place, it might well have been a mauling.
@Denton – alright mate?
I agree about Cleverley complimenting Carricks game, but I have to disagree about him not being “especially skillful” as you put it. Don’t forget that Carrick wasn’t on the pitch for the 8-2 over Arsenal. It was Ando and Tom in the middle, and they were brilliantly skillful even though it was pretty much the first “proper” fixture they started together. Tom does a LOT more than compliment Carrick imo.
Most people think of players taking defenders on and beating them when they think of skill, and they’d be right. But when we see Scholes and Giggs (or even Beckham tbf) knocking the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and landing it on a penny, or clipping the ball with the outside of the boot from the left flank to the right, so it curves past defenders, etc, to me thats just as skillful as 3 step overs and a nutmeg. Its just a different skill set, but its nonetheless impressive and effective.
So with Cleverley, I think his range of passing defo makes him a skillful player. That boy can pass the ball like a Brazilian mate, but how many English players move the ball like he does in a central midfield position? Maybe Wiltshire, but thats it. Im not saying he’s the finished article, imo he has to work hard at his game if he wants to avoid being another English dud when he’s older, but right now he’s an exciting player with a good passing range and good movement. He’s at the right Club to develop much further, and big games like LFC will only make him better.
United Till I Die – I don’t think we’re very far apart regarding YoungTom’s skill level but it seems to me that he’s simply not going to get into the UTD squad unless he was skilled – that’s essentially the price-of-admission. Professional footballers – even players in the lower divisions – are “ridiculously” skilful but to be a success at a big club like UTD, the guy has to have much more in his locker.
What I was trying to get at in my comment is it’s not his on-the-ball skill level (which isn’t at the highest level like Giggs or Scholes or Nani or KagawaBunga or RVP) which makes him a valuable UTD player but, rather, his ability to bring out the best in MC16.
In a sense, YoungTom is a jack-of-all-trades and it seems to me that that makes him more complementary than, say, TheGingerNinja whose skill level is off-the-charts but whose foot-speed and turning-circle have both become inadequate so that MC16 has to play as his “minder” – in my mind, that results in a kind of subtraction by addition when SAF chooses to play the Carrick/Scholes.
Marq @ 17:52: “I am not defending him, did I try to argue that he had a good game? No. I am asking for him to be given a fair chance, that is all.”
So, I take it that you don’t disagree with my analysis of his performance on Sunday.
With regard to a “fair chance”, I think we are bound to differ. The guy first has to prove to scouts that he’s UTD-quality and it would appear that he did that because otherwise when SAF ran-the-rule over him he wouldn’t have splashed-the-cash. BUT it’s a big difference from being a big-fish-in-a-small-pond at Aston Villa to being able to hold-his-own among the world-class players at Manchester United. In that sense, he’s been given lots of game time and been working at Carrington for 18 months however, it’s my opinion – which I’ve been challenged to back with evidence (over and above the three/four point-blank misses in the previous matches).
In responding to your challenge, I watched the first half of the LiverPoo match on Sunday and made notes of all his positive and negative contributions (obviously I didn’t make any notes on inconsequential actions). That’s what I reported on yesterday @ 23:55, for all to see and to make up their own minds if I was being one-eyed, fair-or-unfair.
You might also be interested in what another guy wrote about his 45 minutes on Sunday:
“The only negative from the first half was Ashley Young! Never a Manchester United player and 18 million! This guy has been in the EPL for about 7-8 years (not too sure) and is 27 years of age which should be the time when you come into your peak as a winger/attacking mid. I counted Young give the ball away 14 times in the first half! (watch the game and count for yourself, its not difficult because he basically gives the ball away 90% of the time he gets it). His touch is poor, he cant beat a man to save his life, he doesn’t score goals, he doesn’t assist much, he constantly puts our players under pressure with his ridiculous back and side passes due to his inability to turn his defender or create space for himself to pass forward. Basically in my opinion he sorely lacks the technical ability and footballing intelligence to make it at Manchester United.” {UNITED RANT, Jan 14 @ 11:21 a.m.)
I have no idea who “Merchant” is – but he’s not me !
To be sure, “Merchant” is harsh – maybe he’s old-school like me – but I think that he’s sugar-coating nothing, just telling-it-like-it-is.
In fact, the commentators on UNITED RANT tend to be much more “critical” than those on RoM but “Merchant” was not alone in his displeasure with AY’s performance on Sunday.
Finally, I don’t get the notion that to be a fan (or a supporter) it is a requirement to set aside all critical remarks and support these guys in the red shirt, regardless of how they perform.
I want to see UTD win #20 this year and # 21 next year as well as winning two more CL titles so that those jibes from Merseyside can get shoved down their collective throats since they’ve been knocked off their fucking perch – and you can quote me on that !
Here is a reaction for you after the easy 3 points against the pool
http://www.byfarthegreatestteam.com/posts/picture-liverpool-fans-gets-munich-58-tattoo-after-manchester-united-defeat/#comment-59052
Must be the lowest form og human beeing that guy
Fair enough, but you dont have to get started with trying to find people who supports your notion that Young is not good enough, because I am pretty sure I can find plenty of people who believe he has his role to play. So it will never end.
If the only negative of the first half was Young, the only negative of the second half is the whole team, Rvp included. There are ups & downs in a game, let alone a season, so give the players a break, there will be good days & bad days for players, however good they are. Young has had his good days this season, against big teams for that matter, so don’t just remember the bad days, give him credit for the good days as well. I am just sick of people making it sound like he never had a good game ever in a United shirt, which is not true. Its a glass half empty or half full question. I see it as half full, because he has contributed what he could and in many cases, it was enough. Perhaps for you its half empty, and because it expect it to be full, you become disappointed.
For me, United has never been about players who are all glass full, we have always been about having a team of commited players, who in the eyes of some supporters, are players who are half empty, coupled with 2 or 3 real stars. That is why I find it absurb that there are people who use the term, not United class. Of course there are instances of players not really being good enough, such as Djemba & Chadwick, but Young, and certainly Berbatov does not fall into that group
Young is a squad player who tries hard and defends well. He lets Evra get forward and Evra is a better attacking player than he is in terms of retaining possession, one touch passing, crossing and getting in the box. He has more goals and assists too this season. Young has a role in the squad but is he the best winger out there that United can get. No. He is no Giggs or Becks. But he covers defensively for our LW who is world class in attack.