As Cristiano Ronaldo and Owen Hargreaves stood over the ball in preparation to take a freekick against Sporting Lisbon last night, I imagine I wasn’t the only red pleading for Hargreaves to take it. We’d seen two great freekicks from Hargreaves against Bolton at the weekend, one forcing a great save, and the other rolling off the roof of the net. This is the closest look we’ve had a goal from a freekick all season, with the job being handed to Ronaldo practically every time this season. When considering we have two or three freekicks a match from dangerous areas outside the box, it is pretty pitiful to admit that we never look like scoring from them. Ronaldo will time and again fire the ball in to the wall which sometimes puts us in a compromising position, with the likes of Ferdinand and Vidic having to race back to stop a counter attack.
We have seen the beauty of Ronaldo’s freekicks a few times in the past though, for both club and country, and they are unstoppable. When he hits it just right there isn’t a keeper in the World who could save them. However, the problem is that Ronnie rarely hits them just right these days, and has never regularly got them on target.
Tevez, Rooney, Giggs and Hargreaves have all shown they are capable of taking a good freekick , and why the duties haven’t been shared among these players, along with Ronaldo, has bemused me for some time.
As Ronaldo stood with his feet spread wide apart, poised to take the freekick, in what could result in our last chance of a game we really wanted, and to a certain extent, needed to win, I groaned. “Not bloody Ronaldo again!” So it was par for the course, just as we’d all reached the end of our tether, that Ronaldo would score an absolute screamer.
So what does this mean for us now? That Ronaldo goes back to having the monopoly on our free kicks, regardless of what side of the goal they’re on? Hargreaves first attempts to be long forgotten, like that of Rooney on his debut? I certainly hope not. Whilst I celebrated as hard as any other red yesterday when the ball flew in the net, I can’t help but have my reservations over what this now means for our free kick duties.
Who do you think should take our freekicks?
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its hard to say what will happen next. our captain’s armband seems to be on tour lately, so its anybody’s guess. my thought, though, is that Fergie will not be soon to forget Hargreaves’ contribution. I think we can play off the brilliance of both of them.. and now iwth Ronnie getting back on target and less tor prove, I think he’ll be more game for sharing the torch
Ronnie is lord ferg’s favourite. He always gets the nod. Penalties and free kicks are glory hunting opportunities, he will always be first in queue. If you have not notice after years of supporting united, you will realize lord ferg, like all human, practice favouritism
Basicaaly SAF and Utd need a top striker NOW. hope the man does in Jan what he should have done in the summer. Without this and perhaps a good cover at right back, you can forget UCL this time. Qtr finals at the most. Sorry but I’m a long time Utd fan, a real one and not one of those morons who think SAF is God.
Ronaldo should ALWAYS take free-kicks from 25 yards+. Which is exactly what’s happened this season. Nobody else could have scored from that range.
You’re wrong about us getting 2 or 3 kicks around the box, every game. We’ve had very few from that sort of range and when we have had them, Ronaldo has stepped aside.
its widely known as mick stated here that ronaldo take the long range free kicks, and he should. giggs, hargreaves, tevez, will share those close. thats obvious. ferguson is not God, but he is a genius! And he knows what he is doing, way better than you anyways john messina. and you dont think of tevez as a top striker?
sorry helge, but i’m with john on this one. of course, tevez is a top striker but apart from him manu only have rooney and saha. i won’t even start on saha right now. i know he will need some time to recover his full fitness but how long will it take him to get injured again? rooney is superb, hands down, but what will happen if he catches another injury? manu need another top striker to cover any future losses.
I’d heard Hargreaves had taken a couple before for Bayern but he came close twice at the weekend. So I would be happy to see him take the close range ones.
But I would like to see Ronaldo keep on taking the long range freekicks because even if the goalkeeper saves it, we won against Tottenham last season because of Giggs on the rebound, won at Anfield because of O’Shea on the reboud, and Park also got one against Blackburn. Even if he doesn’t score, goalie’s have real trouble dealing with the ball that swerves all over the place.
hey this the first time i post somthing here anyway god result against a good side hope rooney will be back against fulham and ferguson pls sign a striker
United are gonna b firin on all cylinders soon
hargo should the free kicks
AR – last season United only had Rooney, Saha and Ole, but we still won the league and scored 83 goals, an average of more than 2 goals a game! People were shitting themselves when Ruud left, “where will the goals come from?” and the team answered that question more than adequately for me. I don’t see any reason to panic about our strikers this season.
i agree that we would need another striker. but john complaining about what ferguson did in the summer? and that he didnt buy world class then? thats just stupid! I would think ferguson are considering buying in january he is not blind..
Agree with Scott about strikers last season. You didn’t mention Smith but, on last year’s form, I’m not sure he counts.
Larsson did have his part to play, to be fair but, now we’ve got Tevez we’ve defintely got more (and better quality) options.
Mick, Smith had two great games last season – Roma in the CL and Watford in the FA Cup semi. He didn’t score a single goal in the league though, so I didn’t mention him. As a striker, he didn’t contribute to us winning the league last season with goals, and performance wise, had little offer.