Against Wigan on Saturday, just before half time, Hugo Rodallega fouled Nemanja Vidic, which lead to Sir Alex Ferguson angrily talking to the fourth official. Howard Webb gave the player a talking to but that was that.
At 3-0, Ben Foster came to collect a ball and Rodallega slid in on our keeper’s legs. The MOTD team reckon he tried to pull out before colliding with our player. Vidic was clearly angered by this incident and continued talking to the referee as Rodallega was shown a yellow card.
From the grainy video replay, it is clear that Nemanja Vidic flicked a hand at Hugo Rodallega moments later, not believing a yellow card was justice enough. The Wigan striker held his face, rolling around just inside the box whilst his team-mates played on around him. When Rodallega clocked that play hadn’t been stopped he shot up, miraculously cured of his agony, and charged at Vidic, throwing an elbow in Webb’s direction on the way. The ref put his hands under both Rodallega’s arms and carried him away.
What Vidic did was stupid really. Whilst Hugo was clearly feigning any sort of pain, you can’t raise your hand in the direction of another player’s face, regardless of how much they’ve pissed you off. Well, Vidic can and will if he chooses, I won’t be the one to tell him otherwise, but it puts us in a dodgy situation. If Terry had flicked someone in the face and got away with it, I’d be pissed off. It wasn’t violent but it was cynical and nasty. Had the linesman seen it and thought it worthy of a straight red, we’d have a defensive nightmare on our hands.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one on edge when the papers reported that Webb would be watching footage of the incident to judge whether Vidic should be awarded a belated red card.
Fortunately, Webb advised FA disciplinary chiefs that he had not seen the incident and reported that with the pictures not totally distinct, he could not say that it would have been an automatic red card offence. Phew. What probably swung it in our favour was the reaction of Rodallega. If Vidic was to be awarded a straight red for flicking his hand at an opponent then Rodallega would have deserved a second yellow for charging at Vidic and throwing an elbow in Webb’s direction.
So, now we get to face Arsenal with Vidic in the team but which of our other defenders will be available is unknown. There’s still five days to go so plenty of time for another defender to book their spot on the treatment table!
Man Utd News 24/7
it was a really stupid thing to do by Vidic, to be fair, even if rodallega did make a meal out of it.
Good news..i fancy a united win next week.
On a side note, the idea that anfield is one of the noisiest grounds is a complete myth..whenever i see them play on tv i swear i can only hear them singing before the game with the odd groan at a poor decision (they love complaining) and cheer at a goal. The villa fans were the only ones singing towards the end of the half..fair enough if ur 2-0 down but at 0-0 and 1-0 you would expect more noise during play with the amount of hype surrounding their fans! Cmon villa i hope they can see it out!
From what I saw, it looked like Vidic’s flick at Rodallega was an immediate retaliation to a flick from the Columbian.
Either way, since he got away with t, I’m happy with Vida’s actions. Sometimes you need to pimp-slap a git whose actions are tipping from irritating to potentially dangerous to your team mates.
SB
thank God weve got vidic
i have more faith in foster if hes got vidic there too
were lucky to have both of them
Fuck the Columbian prick….thats what you get if you play with the big boys….!!
Liverpool vs Villa thread on RoM forum.
I agree, I think Rodallega’s behavior saved Vidic from getting a ban. Bring on Arsenal…!!
im 27 and a united fan since i can remember
and i remember whiteside everton southhall top corner
but the fact of the matter is what ive loved in manchester uniteds centre halfs is back at united since vidic arrived
rio was a world class defender at leeds whos head was up his hole at times
but united bought im and happy days
when rios head is on the game he’s well worth 30 million
and thats what united bought and what had for a couple of seasons
entre vidic and thoses head up his hole games where few and far between
oh and ive not said this since saturday but howard webb handled the situation fantasticly
Ghtt….. alwys thought outr best centre halfs were Bruce and Palliser….. simply awesome hard as fucking nails….
I absolutely love Brucey.. find me a United fan who doesn’t. Vidic is as important to this United side as Wayne Rooney… Rodellaga deserved a bit of a gloving, and who better to dish it out than our own friendly Serbian.
CMONNN YOU REDS>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FUCKIN SCOUSERSS DIEEE IN HELLLLLL
I don’t want to get too cocky as it nearly bit us on the arse last season but highly amusing all the same. They only lost two all last season. Whats even funnier is that when the dippers look like they may have come back, of all people Stevie Me gives a pen away. Don’t fancy their chances at Turf Moor next week.
sacked in the mornin.rafa’s gettin sacked in the mornin,sacked in the mornin,ha ha ha
If anyones seen Liverpool’s game, they’d've noticed that, evn though Torres has been tipped as top scorer now that Ronaldo is gone.. The reality is, he’ll only be top diver! He made a meal out of every little touch he got.
Anyways, highlight of the night for me? That Stevie G-string conceded the penalty and was a spectator all game!
Alonso was clearly a bigger part of their team than any one noticed.
If they lose to burnley and chelsea win they will never make up 9 points on the rent boys and I don;t see them making 6 up on us.
Give fat rafa a 20 year extension
hahaha i love it when loserpoo lose… just love it!
Aaah Football fans, don’t you just love them! United lose to Burnley and it’s the end of the world for us, then we beat Wigan and we’re the world’s best.
Now Liverpool lose to 2 very good teams and they are written off.
It’s always extremes, there is no middle ground…
Not so sure he was play acting, even a little flick from Nemanja is like taking a left hook from joe calzaghe.
To be fair I don’t think there was intent on Rodellaga’s slide on Foster.I honestly think he tried to pull his legs back and let’s be honest if it had been Rooney on Reina or Given we would have felt aggrieved at a yellow card.Bit too cynical by Vidic with the slap and given our central defensive issues with Rio injured and Evans awaiting an op and fear that a ban is looming.Silly bans cost points and Fergie needs to come down hard on petulance.Noticed that Scholes flung his hand into a Wigan player’s face while he was on a yellow and that could easily have been a red.Our players have to look at the bigger picture as far as cards go this season.Whether we choose to admit it or not,Chelsea look strong as ever,Spurs are on fire and who knows which mercenary City could bring in in the next few days.
Point being,we don’t know how the season will pan out since Ronaldo left.If we suffer a dip in form and drop points then so be it, shit happens.If we drop points due to suspensions of key players through gobshiting to the ref or sly off the ball slaps on opposing players then that is a bit harder to swallow.Given that the FA can ban a player on video evidence after the match it amazes me that Vidic was stupid enough to do what he did.Listening to the many TV and radio comments about the late Sir Bobby Robson, many of his ex players spoke about how before a match he would tell them what the referee of the match would tolerate and what he wouldn’t.If they were booked for petulance they were fined a weeks wages.Regardless of the referee nowadays the media and the FA act as judge and jury and I really wish some of our players would wise up to that.
That wigan team that we hammered , beat villa who in turn beat the dippers.
Looking at lpool they are average for a “top 4 ” side.
No width, 2 central midfielders who can’t score or make goals.
A right back who canlt defend and carragher is on his last legs
If gerrard or torres don’;t prodouce some magic they are funked.
real lack of quality and depth in their squad
I see Stevie Me may face civil action over the night club affray, which doesn’t surprise me. Maybe it was preying on his mind when he gave away the penalty.Perhaps when he took out Reo-Coker in the box he hoped he could get away with claiming it was self-defence.
Agree with tony starks..
yeah, happy days indeed when the dippers lost..
But still we do have to sort of few issues of our own as well, ahead of the gunners, particularly at the centre of midfield..i.e who’s going to partner fletch?
regards the rodallega issue,superb refereeing from webb.
Will have a word with Nemmies over romantic dins tomorrow.
It shan’t happen again. He is sorry. <3
Just seen smokebreaksteve’s post. Excellent. The only thing I’d say in Vidic’s defence is that it’s clear from things he’s said since the Wigan game that he wanted to prove to United fans how committed he still is to United. He has spoken at length denying that he or his wife want him to leave for Barca or anyone else. He talks about how fans should be able to see from how he played against Wigan that he wants to stay and that it’s not true he wants to leave. It’s a great interview.
As for who the best United centre half pairings are, the Vidic/ Rio partnership is certainly among the very best. I’ll always have a fondness for Bruce/ Pallister, as players and as people. I also always liked it when Jaap Stam was with Ronny Johnsen, a real Ying/Yang combination of skill and brute strength in the Treble era. I know he wasn’t that skillful, but, going back further, to the mid-70s, I always had time for Big Jim Holton (whose eyes were apparently not actually blue) , especially when with Martin Buchan. In fact Buchan with almost anyone was brilliant. It was his bad luck to be at United at such a low point, surrounded by too many mediocre players . If he’d been at Old Trafford in the modern era the whole world would be drooling over the ‘best central defender in the world’. Looking back to the 60s we have the great Bill Foulkes, hewn out of a coal seam, who was all alone at centre half, with Nobby Stiles as a defensive midfielder giving him cover. Not quite a pairing in the modern style, but still fantastic. It was only when ‘Popular Bill’ moved to centre half , having been right back in the Babes’ two title winning teams, that United really solved the centre half problem post Munich. Ronnie Cope was a good player, but maybe ‘too nice’.
Arsenal are the dangerous one now. They didn’t need strikers to score LOL.
@Hurr- Arsenal are dangerous but they are being over hyped. The Everton team they faced was utter garbage, Portsmouth were ball watching and just didnt feel like tracking back and defending! Shocking performance.
Roll on the Arse.
Arsenal are not as good as everyone is making them out to be. I watched a few of their pre-season and league games. And they certainly have luck on their side. Every time they attack they seem to score. Their defence is a huge problem. Note how they couldnt keep any clean sheets?
Vida playing is definitely a big plus. I am quite confident we can beat them.
Off-topic: Hahah those comments made by the dippers on 606 are VERY amusing.
Giles Oakley-awsome post mate !!! Vidic could have put us in a bit of pinch, but you gotta love the way he enforces his will on the pitch.
@ smokebreaksteve – “Regardless of the referee nowadays the media and the FA act as judge and jury and I really wish some of our players would wise up to that.”
Great point.
Also we know that 9 times out of 10 the press and the FA will f**k us over, in light of the fact that ABU attitudes seem to rule, so it’s about time we wake up.
Giles,while we’re at it,”Big” Jim Holton wasn’t 6 feet 2 either,so our chant is factually flawed.But it’s still a nice chant.
When it happened to United player(s), FA will take a charge…but if it happened to Chelski…oo..it`s ok…the ref noticed the incident but take no action….1 game ban only for disgraceful Drog & no punishment on Ballack over Pat…what a double standard huh??
I like Rodallega. I really do. Good player with character and guts.
He didn’t want to hurt Foster and pulled off his leg.
Corea – Not too many guts mate. Did you see his face whe he got closer to Vidic? I think he thought “fuck this he is a BIG lad”!
King Eric – hehe) for sure i like him. he is not a coward.
It was naughty what Vida did but if he got punished then I would be livid, considering that Rodallega almost caught the ref when he intentionally swung for him.
i’m so happy to see the liverfool lost again to villas..
even more happier coss one the the major local news papers in my country ( Indonesia )’s head line is LIVERFOOL !!!!!
hahahaha…great stuff