Manchester United fans have been accused of sour grapes when mentioning the injuries we’ve had this season. Whilst injuries hit every club every season, it is how your injuries compare with your rivals that make the difference. Have a read and a decide the difference for yourself….
Chelsea’s defence
Petr Cech – 34/38 (89%)
Jose Bosingwa – 8/38 (21%)
John Terry – 37/38 (97%)
Ricardo Carvalho – 22/38 (58%)
Ashley Cole – 27/38 (71%)
United’s defence
Edwin Van der Sar – 21/38 (55%)
Gary Neville – 17/38 (45%)
Rio Ferdinand – 13/38 (34%)
Nemanja Vidic – 24/38 (63%)
Patrice Evra – 38/38 (100%)
Other notable comparative injuries
Didier Drogba – 32/38
Wayne Rooney – 32/38
Michael Essien – 14/38
Owen Hargreaves – 1/38
Michael Owen’s season ended – Feb 2010
Anderson’s season ended – Feb 2010
Wes Brown’s season ended – March 3rd 2010
John O’Shea – missing from November 2009-April 2010
Games
1st: Foster, Fabio, O’Shea, Evans, Evra (1/5)
2nd: Foster, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Evra (1/5)
3rd: Foster, Neville, Evans, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
4th: Foster, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Evra (1/5)
5th: Foster, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
6th: Foster, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
7th: Foster, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
8th: Foster, O’Shea, Evans, Vidic, Evra (2/5)
9th: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra (4/5)
10th: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (4/5)
11th: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Evra (2/5)
12th: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Evra (2/5)
13th: Van der Sar, Rafael, Brown, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
14th: Kuszczak, Neville, Brown, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
15th: Kuszczak, Fletcher, Neville (replaced by Carrick after 1/2hr), Brown, Evra (1.5/5)
16th: Kuszczak, Fletcher, Brown, Vidic, Evra (2/5)
17th: Kuszczak, De Laet, Carrick, Vidic (replaced by Fletch after 1hr), Evra (2/5)
18th: Kuszczak, De Laet, Fletcher, Carrick, Evra (1/5)
19th: Kuszczak, Rafael, Brown, Vidic, Evra (2/5)
20th: Kuszczak, Rafael, Brown, Vidic (replaced by Fletch after 1hr), Evra (2/5)
21st: Kuszczak, Rafael, Brown, Evans, Evra (1/5)
22nd: Van der Sar, Neville, Brown, Evans, Evra (3/5)
23rd: Van der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra (3/5)
24th: Van der Sar, Rafael, Brown, Evans, Evra (2/5)
25th: Van der Sar, Neville, Brown, Evans Evra (3/5)
26th: Van der Sar, Rafael, Brown, Evans, Evra (2/5)
27th: Van der Sar, Neville, Brown, Evans, Evra (3/5)
28th: Foster, Neville, Brown, Evans, Evra (3/5)
29th: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (4/5)
30th: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (5/5)
31st: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (5/5)
32nd: Van der Sar, Neville, Evans, Vidic, Evra (4/5)
33rd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (5/5)
34th: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, O’Shea (4/5)
35th: Van der Sar, Neville, Evans, Vidic, O’Shea (4/5)
36th: Van der Sar, Rafael, Evans, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
37th: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Evans, Vidic, Evra (3/5)
38th: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (5/5)
Conclusions
- United played their first choice defence in 4 out of 38 games this season (11%)
- United played just 1 of their first choice defence in 6 out of 38 games this season (16%)
- United didn’t have their first choice defence all fully fit until 30 games in to the season, March 14th.
- Cech played in over 1/3 more games than Van der Sar
- Chelsea’s first choice central defenders played an average of 77% of all games this season. United’s first choice central defenders played an average of 49% of all games.
If Chelsea can only finish one point above us this season (not taking in to consideration the match defining decisions that went in their way against Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge this season) when we’ve suffered so many injuries, we certainly should be hopeful for what a fitter United will achieve next season.
Roll on 2010-2011!
Man Utd News 24/7
great read and fantastic stats, its just a shame that United had the best defencive record this season and its not like goals were the problem I just think on a handfull of matches the vital goal was missing, blackburn villa burnley etc.
its futile. the trophy is at stamford bridge. there’s nothing we can do but just wait until next may when it comes back home.
Been the worse set of injuries in living memory at United. Yet we still took it to the last game; 19 will be at Old Trafford before Analfield thats for sure.
What can’t be changed is the FA’s love for the Rentboys, some of the decisions going the Rentboys way have certainly raised a few eyebrows. Guess the FA were determined that a London club should hold the trophy.
of course it did, i honestly believe if we had our first choice defenders and goalie for most of the season we would of won the league
Fantastic stats Scott.
On a side note, really should congratulate Paddy Evra for having a 100% appearance record when the defence otherwise are falling like nine pins.
Roll on 2010-11
@GHTT I agree with you entirely.
On another post I listed 6 matches that we failed to score. Had we scored just once in each of those 6 games, we would have potentially had 5 extra points. I believe that you play to score goals, and it should not really matter how many we concede as long as we score at least one more than the opposition.
So we cannot complain too much about our defence as unsettled as it was. We really lacked that cutting edge on the final third of the pitch. We do need a creative attacking midfielder and we still don’t have a Roy Keane type of player who will push others an extra yard when the going gets tough.
Fergie’s war with the referees did not help as well. One also wonders could a better selection and playing system at times resulted in better results?
Being Manchester United, you expect us to cope with whatever the season throws at you, including injuries and dodgy refereeing.
As Evra said yesterday, you cannot help yourself thinking that we gifted this title to the rent boys.
Hopefully lessons have been learned this season, and we will come back even stronger for the next one.
States deosn’t win you championships.
Man United lost this year because they won it the last three. It was decided that this year it is chelsea’s or whoever back when United left it for the 3rd time.
You Only have to watch the United Chelsea games and you’ll know it, (Fucking Terry Goal which is clearly an outside and a foul on Drogba and it shouldn’t have standed in the first place, and Drogba’s goal in Old Trafford which was the most ridicules decsions I’ve seen in life in or out of football)
So to be honest…… Football nowadys is money and EPL is the most money generating league in the world and having one team winning it year after year is making it less attractive.
So don’t tell me we had injuries they didn’t, or they played to exctie this year. They fucking barrowed it with the permission of the FA till next year.
WE SHALL NOT DIE
Can’t blame them as they’re a fact of life! Everyone gets injured but we just had it a little bit more this year. If we won the league we wouldn’t even be talking about them, the main problem was we didn’t have enough people to put the ball in the net in desperate times! I know you really like Berba scott and I think he does well for the team (sometimes) however I would love to see United sign a David Villa character who can create a goal from nothing. I just think when we won the champions league we have Solskjaer, Sheringham, Yorke and Cole as our main striker and then Tevez, Berba, Rooney and Ronaldo (by that time was banging them up!) This year we had Owen, Kiko, Berba and Rooney. When you take into consideration that Owen is injury prone and Kiko is still young it doesn’t have the same appeal as before. However I would rather come 2nd every year of my life that support them rent boy loving glory hunting chavs who wouldn’t be able to tell you any history of their team without wikipedia! We’ll never die!!!!
i already knew this anyway as we have had 26 different players injured with 51 injuries suffered in total though out the season and yet it took 2 cowardly officials to allow goals for chelsea that should never of stood giving them 6 points in what should have been 2 draws which would of meant we would be champions by 5 points.
** terry header for a freekick that never was, brown was pulled down by drogba who was offside and interacting with play so it should off been a foul or offside and neither was given even do the linesman saw both……lost 0-1 (should of been 0-0) and that is not counting the stonecold penality appeals we never got… fact is we should of won.
** drogba was a clear 2 yards offside right in front of the linesman but he didn’t have the guts to rise the flag for what was muiles offside…..lost 1-2 (should be 1-1) and that is not counting the stonecold penalty appeals we never got….fact is we should of won.
whetehr the ABU’s, Bitters or chelsea loving media likes it or not, we should be premier league champions right now and that is a stonecold fact!
but next year we will be as even with our crippling season long injury lsit, chelsea could not pull away and would not be champions if not for the referees.
2010/11, premier league champions………it’s damn real….it will happen, #19 this coming year, suck it scouser trash, london crap and all you bitters and abu’s.
we are the greatest football club in the world.
we are manchester united.
With these stats it is more clear that we are already better team than Chesea….. Still, it will not do us any harm if we finally get someone to step in the creative midfield role…… also, keep in mind that even though they have planty of money, Chelsea but also Barce, Inter, Milan, Real and the other club from manchester are going to keep the prices high….. so, we gotta spend wisely ….. no more Berbatovs and Carricks please…. also, a real left winger would be better then putting Nani on that position which is not his best….. Obrtain maybe… after couple of years of that hairdryer treatment….. Berbatov with all his talent could use couple of hairdryer sessions with SAF too, just to keep in mind what he menaged to miss this year….
No excuses. We fell just short
Chelsea were better, they deserved to win the league.
mhihrh dont kid yourself mate, chelsea was no where better than us.
are you a chelsea fan is disguise…i bet you are.
we should be champions, fact.
Great season considering the injuries we have had, rather than sour grapes I just flip the debate when confronted about Chelsea mainly from dippers! I dont say we lost the title but rather than it is amazing we finished 2nd considering our injuries? The media have made love to Arsenal for again finishing 3rd plating football in its finest purity yet United have come second after winning it for three years on th bounce by 1 point. Here is why I am not bitter or have any sour grapes!!!!!!
We sold the best player in the world who was ” Irreplacable” yet scored more goals? I think every team in the world would love to see Rooney playing for them.
Evra is the best left back in the world by a country and his United stock is rising every day as the kid gets it.
Tony V has been brillaint with the development of Nani coming good looking like our old counter attacking selves.
Fletch the football genious has been nothing other than genious.
Raf has shown how good he will be at RB once the immaturities have been ironed out.
VDS is getting younger and his kicking has improved no end.
I have enjoyed this season more than I have for a while, this is what supporting a team is all about. Fans cant tear our team apart just because we lost the title by one point after three years of raping the prem.
So all the fans on here who come banging on about all these championship manager players that you know who good they are, i have two words for you! FUCK OFF
SAF will always no more than I ever will about what is needed and in that respect when he says we need just tweaks then that is exactley what we need!
Sorry for the rant but I am falling out with classless United fans who bang on about signing all these new super stars, we are not Madrid and that just is not our style.
if chelski was better than they would of ran away with it, but nope, they couldnt even escape an injury hit manchester united and only won thanks to referres and that livertrash down the road.
we should be the champions…fact, next year it will come home.
#19 will happen next year, we will take back OUR league title.
What the stats prove is that it is irrelevant to Chelsea stats, What it does confirm is that the defence was never as solid as it should have been and that Utd attack through midfiled was not as fluid as it normally is on a consistent basis, it also put an enormous strain on a new forward line to produce the goals but that was less likely with defence problems. The other big problem was SAF having a senior moment in allowing the media frenzy over Rooney to undermind the other Utd forwards!
As I’ve said before Chelsea had the rub of the green this year, but Utd have had their fair share over the years, I just hope the manager is more than switched in bringing in three key players that will be needed. Chelsea now have the hard job of stick or buy!
@Aj
the table dosent lie mate. we were unlucky to get the wrong decisions at the bridge and the injuries cost us at Fulham but the draw at blackburn, defeats at Burnley, piss poor liverpool side, villa at home we can have no excuses. those are games we should have won and oh, chelsea didnt control what we did in those games. We had quite a few chances where chelsea dropped points and we failed to capitalize. It will be better if we analyze why we fell short rather than talking about how lucky chelsea got. We should not hide our shortcomings
Sorry for the typo’s about all, just had a rant and lost all reasoning for a few minutes!
whether the injuries lost us the title or the refs won chelsea the title (which they very well did), the fact of the matter is that we still lost and they still won. the sooner we move on and look toward next year, the better. the ref lost chelsea the CL semifinal tie with barcelona last year, but they overdid it with their constant whining.
please, please, please, let’s not be like those cunts.
Fascinating article and it makes our defensive record this season all the more incredible when you see that.
As for the goalscoring problem, well we notched up 86 goals this year compared to just 68 last season so it doesn’t look like there’s a problem on the face of it. For the games in which we drew a blank then only 1 of those was after Xmas when the defensive injuries cleared up – and that was at Blackburn without Rooney and Owen. No direct link between defensive injuries and attack ? Well, first we were deploying our midfielders in defence at times which then has an impact on the supply line to the forwards. Secondly, the team selection was a tad more defensive-minded when we were without Rio and Vidic which again has an impact on attack.
At the end of the day we finished 2nd and we have to get on with it. But I think Scott is trying to illustrate here that there really isn’t a lot wrong with the squad that some luck with injuries and maybe a creative midfielder/striker wouldn’t solve. Nani as a striker anyone?
i think i’ve had enugh of this stats justification as to why we didn’t win the league and all what not
Lets focus on next season, besides we can’t win them every year. how many teams have won the league 3 times in a row – TWICE. i have no problems with the rent boys sniffing a bit of success, it only drives SAF and the boys to make sure they win it back, losing i fouhnd out always makes United Stronger. remember when we won the league after chelsea had won it twice, We were irresistable and i know SAF can’t wait to go again. i’ve never seen him look the way he did on Sunday when giving the speech at the end of the game, hes revved up big time
@slim
how many teams have won 3 in a row?? 2
twice???? 1
Yeah, injuries were part of the reason, no doubt, People have been speaking about Ronaldo and Tevez, but last season our player of the year was Vidic. 14 league games without your best defender is a lot. That was evident in places like Birmingham, Villa, Everton and Chelsea.
I had us into C/L semi’s and the league done and dusted then crash,Unbelievable.But it was us that blew it.Coming season if Smalling is here to take rio’s place good we cant have another season of non attendance regardless of past service,Hargreaves is no more bin him,Edwin ‘s absences are getting lengthier every year another great one for us but we have to anticipate his time is coming to a close and replace if we dont adapt we die.Think Liverpool.
@exiledred
Yeah the goalscoring all around was better this season. 120 in 56 games in total is our best average in 20 years. And 86 in the league is also quite good. Unfortunately, plenty of these goals(same goes for Chelski’s 103), was in thrashings. There were quite a few occasions where we couldn’t score when we had to score. There was a lack of crucial goals…
@Gotta hate tiny tears: There you go, you know the score. I’m no Nostradamus or anything but i feel next season will be massive for the club with or without further signings. I would like more faces but everyone knows how the crazy the transfer market is now. Was reading a story in a site and it was talking about Benzema wanting 200k to play for United. What utter garbage, even Rooney doesn’t get that much. Modern day football is a disgrace and i hope SAF stays long enough for this trend to be reversed
MIRROR WEBSITE REPORTING SCHOLES IS IN THE ENGLAND SQUAD.
Had to write it in CAPS to do it justice.
@Alex
Really? Wow. Shouldn’t he get asked about this?
even though we have so many injuries on defenders but we still managed best defence on the league table… the problem lies on our attacking .. cause’ we have only one valid striker to get goals.. think about that if we have another striker as half of rooney’s , we would be lifting trophy by now!
Lucas – We scored 12 more goals than we did last season when winning the league, and conceded 4 more than last season.
4 goals – 1 vs Burnley, 2 vs Sunderland, 1 vs Villa. Had we not conceded those goals we would have picked up 7 more points this season.
Link to the mirror article which says Scholes is considering joining the England squad.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Manchester-United-midfielder-Paul-Scholes-on-verge-of-incredible-England-comeback-and-place-in-Fabio-Capello-s-World-Cup-squad-article422209.html
Why Paul, why?
mhihrh
I AM NOT HIDING NOTHING, I AM JUST STATING THAT WE SHOULD AND WOULD OF BEEN CHAMPIONS IF NOT FOR REFEREES AND THOSE DAMN INJURIES WHICH PLAYED A MASSIVE PART IN OUR SHORTCOMINGS.
NEXT YEAR, WE WILL BE CHAMPIONS FOR THE 19TH TIME.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11675_6146890,00.html
What a shame. West Ham have sacked zola. The managerial comedy circus season is underway
http://www.skysports.com/football/world-cup-2010/story/0,27032,12098_6146653,00.html
barry unlikely to be included in the WC sqyad, so the scholes stories may be true
Sorry
here is a working link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8674605.stm
speaking of injuried united players
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTLEfVA_x_0
NO WAY, NOT A SHOCK AS SOME CLUBS HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO RUN ITS BUSINESS.
TO BE HONEST I DONT REALLY CARE AS MANCHESTER UNITED ARE MY CLUB, BUT IT IS STUPID HOW MANAGERS NO LONGER GET THE TIME THEY NEED….ZOLA GOT JSUT 2 YEARS, THAT IS NOTHING.
THANK GOD WE HAVE SIR ALEX FERGUSON TO LEAD US TO MORE GLORY.
THANK YOU FERGIE FOR TAKING US ON THIS JOURNEY AND MAY IT NEVER END.
No scott, the stats aren’t a valid excuse. We lost to Burnley 1-0, drew to blackburn and birmingham, these are games which we failed to break down the opponent whilst letting in 1.
Then the games vs Chelsea we still had a decent defence but the team struggled to score as well as the referee not minding the odd decision. GOT to make your own luck.
its our attacking hat needs to improve. more goals = games won
JD – Chelsea lost to Wigan, Villa, Spurs, City TWICE and Everton.
Drew with Everton at home, Hull, West Ham, Birmingham and Blackburn. They dropped points against shit teams too… and that was with a proper defence!
The bad luck we’re talking about here is injuries. I don’t know how you figure teams make their own luck in terms of injuries.
Is there not other areas apart from defence?
Tony Starks – Course, but these are stats, and the midfield can’t be measured. Firstly, because what do we expect from our midfield in terms of goals and assists? And secondly, because we don’t have a set 4/5 players who play every single week when fit, like we do with the defence.
We can measure the attack, and see that we scored 18 more goals than last season (Rooney scored 14 more goals than last season).
When we measure the defence, we can see we conceded 4 more goals than last season. If we hadn’t, we would have won the league. I’d argue that the absence of so many defenders over the course of the season was equal to at least 4 goals.
Unfortunately this season – our play in general this season was below par – in particular, the passing was terrible.
We did not dominate teams like we have done over recent teams and gave away posession too many times. Blaming the inconsistiency of our defence does not tell the truth, seeing that we have had the best defence in the league. The fact that Chelsea continuously kept giving us opportunities only makes the fact more annoying that we lost the title to a team that itself hasnt performed consistiently.
Untill we improve the same will happen again.
Fergie has missed a decent No 2 who can work soley with the team, comunicate with the players and work on tactics. He might be a scapegoat however I dont think that Mikey Phelan is the right person for the job.
@AJ
Yes but injuries are a part and parcel of the game. If you look at the teams that played against burnley, villa and blackburn away they were good enough to win those games.
Just that i fancy looking at our shortcomings rather than how many decisions chelsea got, thats not in our hands, so we should not be bothered about that.
Of course we will be back next season, no denying that
@James 7t7
No direspect mate but what are you basing that on? Do you know the differences between Quieroz and Phelan? What is different in the tatics? How do you know SAF has missed a no.2?
mhihrh – Are you sure you are aig’s cousin and not actually him? The Chav cunts “deserved” fuck all.
Giggs11Gerrard0 – Spot on mate. Sick to the fucking stomach of this Phelan shite. Just read Keano’s book and he will tell you how much he rated Micky. Renee is the man that helps with the tactics anyway.
@King Eric
no team wins the title just like that. It would have been a different story if we had not had any slip ups but we blew it many times. I prefer to concentrate on that rather than analyzing other teams and not making excuses when they are not valid for the whole season. Chelsea won, lets not be like those silly dippers and bitters looking for excuses.
BTW mihir(aig) is gone for good from ROM and i am his cousin, not him.
I must admit I’m still a bit confused about this goalscoring concern. Rooney excelled in his new role, Owen chipped in until his injury and Berba (whatever you think about him) scored 12. In midfield, unlike in recent years, we had Giggs (7), Valencia (7), Scholes (7), Nani (6), Fletch (5), Carrick (5), Gibson (5) and Park (4). That’s 46 goals from midfield. You take fat frank out of the chelsea team and you’ll see next to zero contribution from midfield.
Ok, we failed against Burnley (missed pen) and Fulham (not even half a team). Chelsea and Liverpool away were early on and Fergie was experimenting with his 4-3-3, a system that improved as the season progressed. Villa and Blackburn – well the team just looked flat for me in both games – shit happens.
With 1 or 2 minor tweaks we’re on the verge of another great Utd team. The difficulty now is Fergie will be under pressure to buy star players which may then drive away some very talented kids. I think we may be were in the 90s when Fergie trimmed the squad of senior players to allow the kids to come through. It should be a fascinating summer.
@exilered
Good points. People are talking about Lampard or Gerrard scoring plenty from midfield, but they don’t look at how much the rest their midfielder partners score.
The truth is that United could have done with more attacking options. But we are in a transitional period attacking wise and that can be fixed from the inside. Macheda and Obertan could do a Nani and start coming into their own over the next 2 years. And hopefully Valencia will score more next season too.
If you have injury prone players, Ferdinand, Brown, Hargreaves and Neville (the last few years) then you’re going to have injuries. However it was ridicolous sometimes. It was the Chelsea games that lost us the title.
True, we were very unlucky with injuries
but the reason we arent champions is because we couldnt capitalize when a highly over rated rentboys team slipped up. End Of!
I think the Valencia 1 on 1 at Blackburn blew it for us. And you know if he’d scored it would have been as heralded as THAT Machedagoal.
Rollins: agreed. Sad thing is that this was a perfect opportunity to make history. Next season will be harder again with both Chelsea and Citeh buying big and don’t rule out Spurs and Arsenal Wenger in particular has finally realised I think that he needs to buy some decent defenders if he wants to win anything.
Despite the disappointment though, the partying accompanying each of these 3 last-minute winners against our noisy neighbours will be something I never forget. Happy days….
Goals from midfield for chelsea in the league
Lampard 22, malouda 12,. These were the key. essien 3 goals, joe cole 2 goals, ballack 4 goals, deco 2 goals.
King Eric – Aboslutely mate, Keano loved Phelan and that is enough for me! If SAF thought he wasnt up to the job he wouldnt be his no2 simple as. Also Carragher in the WC squad, words fail me.
Scott
And after all that we lost the title to an offside goal : )
I do not worry at all if Chelsea believe they are going to create a dynasty off that – good luck – of course the London press would let us believe otherwise – but I stopped believing in them a long time ago
We had one trump card this year – and that was Rooney
Even if Bayern had scored that scored goal at home yet Rooney had stayed fit – this season would have been very different – even if Chelsea had scored an illegitimate goal – because Rooney would have been there on the pitch
Watching him at about 20% against Bayern and the influence he had comparing him to a fully fit Messi against Inter
It is pretty clear who the best player in the world is and what he does to a team
Not only does Wayne galvanise a team – he creates conditions like no other – he is what binds this United now on the pitch
Now when he is not there or wasn’t in our case – it all fell apart – if a fit Owen was available we would have made it – because he is a natural goal scorer and we’ve seen him do it this season – so sad that his season was over so quickly for us
Berbatov is but an enigma – a wonderfully gifted player who is at the wrong United team in the wrong time – that is not his fault no matter what we all say
So we’ll see if SAF adds to this team – I hope he finds that one player that can either unlock Berba – or finds one that can add that something extra when Wayne is there and especially when he is not
The team is fine – it just needs to be injury free – then we’ll see who has the last laugh
Ultimately injuries killed our season off at various times – Rooney’s injury was the last one that finished us off – in hindsight it should not have been – but we all knew since the turn of the year that it would be if something ever happened to him
The fact that we got so close was due to our spirit which coupled with bad referee decisions meant that it wasn’t to be
Chelsea won this title on an offside goal – so I have no fear for next season
This shirt is a symbol of defiance
I totally agree with scott on all the injuries and ref fuck ups that ave gone against us this season…..it truly was unprecedented and i have made my point on it a milllion times……we lost ron and tevez…..no defenders for months, players out for season, rooney injury at worst possible time, ref fuck ups right left and centre v us etc etc etc.
But i agree also…..lets not whinge and complain like those rentboys do, we re above that. I want us to concentrate on our failings if any this season. And not even the most blinkered bias utd fan can deny, that there were some.
We lack firepower…SAF has intimated that and so has wazza….we were too over reliant on him, infact to such an extent we got him out when clearly when he wasnt fit and as the end of season proved he was shot in terms of injury and fitness…too much overload on the lad.
Midifield the ineptness of mr average carrick……centre mid needs freshening….how many times are our midfield legends, the genuis of scholsey giggsy going to bail us out. Hargo needs to sort his fitness, Ando has to buck his ideas up and as for carrick if he got sold, i wouldnt cry into my cornflakes.
As for berba sherba….i think he’s a genuis of a player, i love technical players ala him, scholsey, zizou etc. but for some reason he aint cut the fuckin mustard, whether it be due to pressure, the utd level, the tactics, the formation, the price tag, the hairband…i dont know. But one way or another something has do be done. If SAf gets rid, then id be dissapointed, but no one could argue or not understand
Lets concentrate on us shall we… i personally feel the rentboys had a stronger balanced attack…dog, anelka, fat frank, malouda etc. We had wazza then own goals in 2nd….surely you see the picture.
We’ll come back stronger from this…winning doesnt make you strong, defeat does
I went to all that trouble of typing that message about United players in the England squad only for Scott to delete it.
It’s the final straw for me and I’m finished with this blog for good now.
Just wanna say goodbye to a few of the nice people I’ve met on here: King Eric, Costas, Corea, Gotta hate tiny tears, rooney the new king, james21, redscot, suhayl, giggs11gerrard0, Fze123, Alpa_RS, MG, mhihrh, Xyth, Paul Parker, denton davey, brisbanered, Notorious Red Devil, Tony Starks, theboogeyman, all the Berba-lovers, all the Berba-haters and everyone else whose posts I have enjoyed reading so much.
See you in another life, brothers.
@Suhayl
Great post
God bless our own goals : )
I hope that fucker wants to stay and not get transferred to the mob in Spain : )
@Fred get back mate
Don’t go away…
People have pointed out that the 99 era had sherry, coley, yorke, ole.
we invented abd created the 4 striker rule in prem….this year we had 2 strikers, a part timer and a kid. You can show me all the stats you like, but on face value when you lose the argie cunt and ronster then you’re oing to be weaker.
Hence considering all of that and the injuries and ref fuck ups…to finish behind the ‘ the greatest chelski side ever’ by a bloody point was FUCKIN UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chelski didn’t win it. We lost it.
MG thanks mate
fred??? where you going..you aint going nowhere mate..lol
@Fred
I understand your frustration mate, but no need to leave. Some of my posts(probably shorter than yours) got deleted too. I think Scott wants to maintain an on topic policy in every thread. We need your humor in these trying times.
As for the england squad…ofcourse on a personal level i feel dissapointed for our players, wesley, owen and owen, red nev, scholsey if rumours were true.
But fuck england. Scholsey is the best midfielder along with zizou of a generation. Hargo the best player for england consecutively for 4 years, including head and shoulders above everyone at the 06 world cup. Red nev has been the best england right back for 20 years.
If capello doesnt want em and wants to pick donkeys such as barry, carragher, johnson, then fuck em
Im happy, cos all our utd players will have a great relaxing summer, get their fitness and stay sharp esp hargo and wont be fucked come august.
In my eyes, i feel carrick will be sold, so we’ll only have 2 at england duty..rio and wazza.
By the way i thought capello said he’dpick players on fitness, games and form. IF SO WHAT THE FUCK IS JOE COLE, WALLMART, CARRAGHER, UPSON DOING THERE.
BOLLOCKS IF YOU TELL ME
I
@ redorded
Well summed up.
Fred – You better not be leaving man, your posts are piss funny and some of the best on here.
For god’s sake, the season is over Scotty. We lost the title, Chelski didnt win it. Let’s just get over it and like you said, roll on 2010/2011. I know it’s your blog, and it was off topic (England WC selection) but we were talking about United players though. This is the only place for me and others to express what’s inside our mind about United players, cause this is a great blog about United.
Come back Fred, dont go !
I hate to keep looking back but the ref decision to allow chelsea’s goal last year proves to be very costly. Its time to get a video technology
And by the way, i dont get all this milner modric talk.
We have better players than milner in the same position….hargo, fletch and even ando
Modric? decent little player, but please no more overrated players from the spuds, clearly it doesnt work and we have to bend over and take it up the arse when they hold us to a kings ransom for it an all.
I want fred to stay in
Macheda IS GOD
thats a good thing
Don’t forget the permanent injury to Berbatov’s foot, the one where he forgets how to score.
http://www.lastfm.ru/music/Simply+Red/_/Stars
Fred – dont leave mate you share my thoughts on the glazers and why they are scum etc, if you leave great speaking to you hope to see you on here in the future
Scott the Red – you said everything that needs to be said about this season that I have been thinking I juust could not dig that deep on the injury crisis, yes I have bbeen annoyed on the depth of the squad but there is no question that a unbelievable injury crisis at the back, the loss of form of carrick and anderson, owen getting injured along with rooney and berbatov still feels unsettled and chelsea’s not only bizzare but quiet frankly the most unbelievable unlimited amount of luck it made me wonder, the officals have been on a vendeta to stop united winning the league, PPL call me crazy thats how I feel a very very bitter red devil
and has for gerrard go home where you belong you slimy cunt just like higgans, you took your 12 pieces of silver and threw the game to stop united, chelsea did not wn the league it was uniteds most unfortunet turn of events that lost us the title, chelsea are the date rape team and that is a total fact, they won the league by default
The FA & the referees decided that United should not be champions 4yrs & gave some dodgy decisions against us. But we are United, so we will leave it at that & come back next season & win our 19th. Glory, Glory Great ManUtd!
These Stats make for great reading. But Chelskis record Vs the other 3 top 4 teams is the reason they won the league . They collected 18 points from those games where we collected 9.
I would love it just love it;
If we could turn back time : )
So since we can’t we’ll look forward to doing what we do best
Pissing all the non believers off with style : )
Scholes rejected Capello’s offer… again! Good on ya’ u LEGEND!
give a rest scott, its gone…
cliffcahill – no chelsea’s record and uniteds record of the top 4 of
chelsea united arsenal and spurs thereis a 3 pt gap in it and do not count liverpool or we could count shity also because united beat shitty home and away which chelsea lost twice to shitty
and chelsea collected 15 pts from the top 4 not 18 liverpool do not count
Scott – Good stats as usual, but it’s time to move on and forget about last season. Sir Alex always talks about our response, when we hit a low point, i’m confident we’ll bounce back next season, with hopefully 1 or 2 signings in the summer.
i think we have to take Sam’s point into consideration. Did anyone else notice that after SAF’s outburst which resulted in the suspended fine, the majority of referees’ decisions went against us. It’s conspiracy here, to stop us from winning, simply because we have the last three times.
Fred – What the fook are you doing mate, i know we always haven’t agreed on things, like Milner, but don’t leave man. I’ve always found your posts witty and you certainly always held your ground in the Glazer debates with Wakey.
There are two posts on England. Can we post about things to do with England in either one of those threads, can we post about our defence and injuries here.
Fred, don’t have a tantrum. All posts are backed up and if you want it, I’ll send it to you. But posts need to stay on topic and if you choose to post about an unrelated topic when there are related posts available, you run the risk of having your post deleted. Read the comments policy if you have any problems or feel free to e-mail me.
wow, accusing someone of having a tantrum when they actually handled it with class isnt quite the best way of winning someone back. scott, i know you have passion like we all do, but as the mod, you’ve got to keep it in check.
SP – Saying you are never going to post on a blog again because you posted a comment in the wrong topic and had it deleted is having a tantrum in my book. That’s my opinion. I don’t think it’s “classy” to do that. Just my opinion.
If you want to go off topic and have discussions about whatever, join the forum. End of story. Further off topic comments will also be deleted.
I really find it funny some people think Chelsea are better than us coz they won the title. And we somehow did not play well in matches like Blackburn, Burnley, Villa etc. and that was the reason we lost the title. Sure, we have to congratulate them on their title win. Winning the EPL is a great feat and they had done that. But retaining it is the feat that really needs you to have the balls and we have proved that for 3 years in a row, be happy about that.
It’s a simple fact of English football that you will always have matches like those where you play like shit, some of those you win and some of those result in dropped points. It’s not like Chelsea were greater in those kinds of matches and really ground out results. Hell they lost at home to Man City, drew at Blackburn (same result as us), lost at Wigan away, drew at Birmingham, Everton, West Ham and Villa, you could look at any of those games and say they should not have dropped points but they did. Hindsight is really a wonderful thing and if it weren’t for those kinds of matches we really wouldn’t be watching the EPL would we.
So, stop kidding me and saying that poor results cost us the title, you will ALWAYS have results like that and even Chelsea had them (with a better overall unit than United, mind you!), still they won the title.
Scott’s stats are spot on as are the thoughts about the rub of the green being with Chelsea this year. (It could have been with us in previous seasons for sure). If we had lost only Vida and Ferdinand and complained about our defense then that would look classless. But, I mean 9 out of 10 defenders out, are you kidding me. Imagine Chelsea lose Terry and Carvalho, do you think they have someone like O’Shea and Evans backing them up. And imagine you lose them too, do they have the likes of Rafael, Neville, Fabio, Brown backing them up. Not a chance, the rent boys will find it difficult to cope without their first choice itself, and yet people are somehow pushed into thinking their squad is better than ours. I find it laughable really.
Chelsea are Champions, plain and simple and they can celebrate. But as I said earlier, there is nothing to look at it deeply in terms of the difference between the sides. To put it plain and simple, to quote the great man’s words, “Lets bring the title back to the best place in the world”. I am sure United will return tougher, stronger and we have people who want to see MANCHESTER UNITED win. That pretty much assures me, that should lady luck smile on us with respect to injuries, Chelsea’s dream of a new era will crumble to dust.
This season United have been quality in the face of adversity, i have been saying it for months, dont see this season as failure but more so a massive acheivement. We just lost the league by one point after three years of winning the title.
Scott i know you said keep of England but fuck the scouse cunts I am supporting Mexico
Viva Hernandez
Viva Hernandez
he comes from mehico
Gerrads wife is a Ho
Viva hernadez
Brilliant stats, broken down in a way that just make you think if only, and relive the various games were we came a cropper.
Burnley….Foster,Brown,O’shea,Evans,Evra
Sunderland….Foster,O’shea,Vidic,Evans,Evra
Liverpool…..Defence acceptable.
Chelsea……Evds,O’shea,Brown,Evans,Evra
Villa…………Kuszczak,Fletcher,Brown,Vidic,Evra
Fulham…….Kuszczak,Carrick,De Laet,Fletcher,Evra
Birmingham….Kuszczak,Rafael,Brown,Evans,Evra
Villa………… Defence acceptable
Everton…….. Evds,Neville,Brown,Evans,Evra
Chelsea………Defence acceptable
Blackburn…… Defence acceptable.
Thats the case for the Defence of the lack of defence ma Lud.
For the prosecution ma Lud.
Strikers Drogba 29,Rooney 26,Berbatov 12
Midfield Lampard 22, Malouda 12
Defenders Cole 4.
The point of the prosecution ma Lud is lack of goals from a midfield to back up Rooney and Berbatov, as we all are aware.
Although as everyone has highlighted on numerous occasions the Officials did us absoloutly like a Kipper on several key moments and critical times.
Of topic sorry, Hay Fred mate, I know we tangled a couple of times, but seriously your posts were always entertaining and funny and informative.Maybe return with another name mate
Injuries and the FA both helped Celscum win the title. I think when Rooney got Injured had we had the option of Michael Owen then that Title would be at OT now.
Fred- Don’t fall on your sword like our PM. Your posts are gr8 reads, don’t always agree but along with redscots they can be hilarious.
Have posted twice now asking you not to go, must be having PC Problems so I have re-worded it.
FA and the officials gifted the most undeserved title in history. Amen.
Yeah defensive injuries did play their part. But the worst one was Rooney’s injury and that terrible week and the idiot linesman against chelsea.
Even after that all of these – BLACKBURN!!!!!
I know Rooney didn’t get injured during England games but against Munich, but I’m still hacked off by Capello playing him on that friendly . Who knows, if he was rested, he may have lasted the entire season [or at least that crucial couple of weeks]. Somehow I can’t forgive this one – fucking England friendly.
Fergie should give Rooney an earful for that – surely he knows we need him more than any other position, especially this season.
something i really don’t like on this article is that injuries are considered as bad luck. i don’t think injuries are just down to bad luck but are to a very big part the result of what is done in training. of course there are stupid tackles or situations where oponents (deliberately) hurt other players, but have we suffered a lot of these injuries? i don’t think so…
i remember the injury crisis we had back in 2007/2008 when we lost to ac milan in the CL, where we were also missing most of our defence, or similar problems when we were missing most of our strikers a few seasons ago (can’t remember when it was). so i cannot agree with you scott on your last sentence in the article as we should be relaxed come next season.
Not a valid excuse. Losing to Burnley. Thats what did us. Fucking Burnley! We should have destroyed them. Why are you making excuses anyway? We won it the last 3 fucking years. Of course all your players are not going to be injury free for four years. Plus every team gets injuries. Everton were hit worse. Fulham got to the europa league final with a stack of injuries throughout the season. If anything I think it would be a great achievement to finish one point behind a team that scored 103 goals in a season with that list of injuries. I will point out that the Blackburn result was only fair to those who disagree with my Burnley thing. We got exactly what we deserved in that match. 1 opportunity if i remember correctly. Valencias. Dont think giggs one was. Also 4 points dropped to villa was disgraceful.
Correction 5 points dropped to villa
yea, i think the stupidest part of the season was vs burnley, sunderland at home and villa at home
We have lacked hunger and desire this season in some games.
Look at bayern’s defense badsruber van buyten demichelis ae no where the bbest defenders in europe but the team has desire and hunger.
We were prancing around for most of the season. Teams like birmingham balckburn should be taught footballing lessons with alll due respect ,
I think the attitude was wrong in so many matches where we just went in and thought things will fall for us.
But it normal because the league had become a bit of a commodity for us AND ITS ONLY NOW WE REALISE WHAT A TROPHY IT IS.
Disappointed we lost but took heart that with all the injuries we had we still only lost by 1 point. Come May the Title will be back where it belongs OT.