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LIVE BLOG: Southampton 1-1 Manchester United

May 11, 2014

Scott is the editor of RoM and has a season ticket at Old Trafford. He started The Republik of Mancunia in March 2006. Follow @R_o_M on Twitter or @R_o_M7 on Instagram.

CONFIRMED LINE-UP: Southampton vs United

Rio: Winning trophies I dreamed about came true at this great club

228 Comments

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Chris May 12, 2014

@Tommy: Agreed on the ticka tacka football, the heat out there will take it out of the more energetic European teams.

England will do well to get out of customs let alone the group stages!

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Sparkz May 12, 2014

Lol Smalling and Jones are very good young defenders who've had poor seasons, like 95% of our squad. Is 95% of our squad now shit?

They were always gonna go because a) they have ability and b) they're versatile. Means Hodgson can get away with picking 7 defenders and add an extra midfielder.

@Gary - really? You'd pick 3 left backs on the off chance that one of them who has NEVER played RB in his life may be able to fill in there?

@Chris - Lampard and Gerrard will not start together, so it means Lampard is going as a back up for that deep lying role. Which is stupid because he simply can't play that role.

Carrick has had an equally shit season but he would have given them balance. If Gerrard (who I think may struggle in that role) gets injured or suspended, England are even more fucked.

As for Lampard's "goal threat" - seems to go missing in World Cups. Was by far England's worst player in 2006 and second worst player behind Rooney in 2010.

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Gary Mitrovic May 12, 2014

I just don't think the Brazil squad is very good compared to Germany's or Spain's. Brazil will also be under more pressure than any other side and I think will crumble under the pressure that comes with being the hosts. The country is in a lot of civil unrest right now and they carry the hopes of everyone.

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Gary Mitrovic May 12, 2014

Sparkz, yes I would have. So because Smalling has played at right back before it makes him more qualified to play there? He's been nothing short of dreadful every time he has played as a right back.

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Chris May 12, 2014

@Sparkz: Good point about Gerrard who has had an excellent season in that deeper role (I feel dirty now!), if he gets injured we are fucked. Carrick it is then :)

The one player I am really looking forward to watching is Barkley, what a prospect.

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Sparkz May 12, 2014

@Gary - Smalling has been dreadful in an attacking sense because he lacks ability on the ball. But defensively he's generally been fairly solid at RB.

In any case, I don't think Smalling is gonna be the second choice RB. He's going primarily as back up at centre half.

Second choice RB will be Jones, who is marginally better. And yes I'd have him as RB ahead of a left footed left back who's never played there in his life lol.

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Sparkz May 12, 2014

Chris says:
@Sparkz: Good point about Gerrard who has had an excellent season in that deeper role (I feel dirty now!),

He did actually struggle in that role earlier on, but grew into it as the season went on. Especially as Rodgers started playing a diamond and surrounding him with energetic players.

Nothing wrong with his ability on the ball in that position........but England won't have much of the ball I feel, so they'll have to soak up a lot of pressure. I still think he may struggle defensively against top quality opposition, against those teams that have 2 or 3 players popping up between the lines.

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Gary Mitrovic May 12, 2014

Sparkz, fair enough if you'd rather have Smalling as a right back than Cole, just because he's played badly there consistently. Yea I agree Smalling has gone primarily as a back up for a centre back, but still the fact remains he's been shocking throughout the last 12 months

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DeGeaWeTrust May 12, 2014

It is still a bit strange they have left carrick out, despite his poor season, seems like good old roy is taking carricks poor season on face value

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DeGeaWeTrust May 12, 2014

Sparkz - I think you could make a complete overhaul of the midfield besides carrick mata and kagwa, you could easily move on fletcher anderson fellaini cleverly valencia nani young, but like always who do we buy? and who will take on these players? no offense to fletcher, but we need new players in that engine room

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DeGeaWeTrust May 12, 2014

keep forgetting janazaj LOL

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samuel - united WE stand May 12, 2014

ash - I've become a negative poster based on you not agreeing with my posts? tough, you will just have to deal with it and anything you have posted there is within your assumption, my point on fellaini is firm and it is based on analysis of what he brings to the game.. he is an over glorified unorthodox centreforward who has had 27.5mil squandered on him, he is the dirk kuyt of united, a player bought for a certain position and then moved everywhere in order to paper over his lack of quality.. he will never justify his status.. he is not a player with the attributes for the highest level and it was pretty obvious before he turned up at united and at 26, in his peak, he will never be the player you think he would be.. not good enough for the standards this club aspires to reach.. i blame moyes for his purchase, both player and manager like to make excuses for failure, proclaiming a resurgent charge towards success despite both severely lacking in quality to do so.. fellaini embodies david moyes, two mediocre peas in a pod who were somehow fortunately plucked.. manchester united has had enough of mediocrity and it has to be stamped out

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samuel - united WE stand May 12, 2014

and yes, i think darron gibson is a better CENTRAL MIDFIELDER than fellaini.. one has actually played there long enough, shown attributes and proven himself in that position. darron and osman are better overall footballers than that cumbersome belgian..both are more disciplined and have more awareness.. kenwright must have laughed all the way to the bank just like randy lerner did when united wasted money on ashley young.. it is almost like this club disguises as santa claus every transfer window and some investigation must be done.. it is embarrassing.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Samuel

Again why don't you be frank and accept that you won't like Fellaini no matter what.its funny you call yourself reasonable poster but you never talk about the shit season of carrick. Fellaini didn't even feature against Southampton and yet you are talking about him that shows you can't handle if anyone even says 10%positive about Fellaini. I can bett if fellaini playied against Southampton then you would have been all over him.

I am not here saying Fellaini is a Yaya toure, I myself feel Fellaini is not worth 27 million but you can't blame Felliaini for that. And yes Fellaini has had a better season than carrick. Lol funny that carrick can't even get into English shit squad but Fellaini is rated highly in Belgium where they have better players in midfield. Maybe you know more than Belgium coach.

I don't car about your opinions , it's just shame that all you do is bash Fellaini and contribute nothing else. Maybe he must have done something bad to you. Did you lose some money because of him :D

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Gary Mitrovic May 12, 2014

Just a small matter of fourty four million pounds was layed out on Young and Fellaini. That is criminal. How them moves were sanctioned I will never fully understand.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Tommy

I would have preferred carrick to lampard as he offers something different but looking at carricks season he doesn't deserve to be in the squad and hodson has taken the right decision.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Gary

I agree 45 millions (to be precise) on young and Fellaini was plane stupid. We could have got a silva or yaya toure or a mata from Valencia.

Like I earlier said we were the same team who replaced Ronaldo with Valencia and Tevez with Owen so not surprised with transfer like this.

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Sparkz May 12, 2014

@Ash - Lampard has been just aa bad as carrick this year

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Sparks

Lampard for me is the most overrated midfielder. I do think carrick is a underrated midfielder but this season carrick was dreadful. Gary Neville who always defends carrick also lost out of words for defending carrick after his performance against sunderland. Lampard like I said is an overrated midfielder.

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dannysoya LOVES USAIN BOLT May 12, 2014

Fellaini is like Andy Carroll. Those kind of players only know how to play ONE way and they are the most rigid players in world football. They can only function in certain kinds of teams. They are below par on the ball and only excel in the air. They will only do well on teams who are built for aerial assault and route one football. Fellaini would excel in a team like Stoke, West Ham or Newcastle. Fellaini, unsurprisingly has NOT and probably will NOT excel here at Manchester United because we pride ourselves in keeping the ball on the ground and trying to play a pass and move game that requires a lot of mobility and movement (even though we didn't do much of that last season, it's engrained in the philosophy of this club).

Which makes it all the more baffling at to how David Moyes in his infinite wisdom pulled the trigger on that kind of signing. Fellaini is not our best midfielder that's a joke but he's not a totally useless player either.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

And wasn't it funny that hodson was choosing between carrick or Barkley when in true the choice should have been between lampard and carrick. I am glad that Ashley cole is not selected. Another joke is that shit rb JOhnson being their number 1 rb. With Gerard being their captain I won't be surprised if he picks many Liverpool guys. Players like welbeck, lallana , jones won't be getting many game time.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Danny

You summed up at the end when you said Fellaini may not be great but he is not useless player. It's fun when people here call him useless , if that was the case people in Belgium won't rate Fellaini. It's about how to use Fellaini. A smart coach would use Fellaini very well. Fellaini may not be a scholes or Xavi or fabregas but to say he is poor than Gibson and osman shows people hate Fellaini. 27 millions was too much but you can't blame Fellaini for that . And yes this season, NOTE I SAID THIS SEASON he has been better than carrick.

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OpikBidin May 12, 2014

Why in Belgium Fellaini was played ahead of Radja Nainggolan?

Is Belgium just an "aerial assault and route one football" team?

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Paul davidson May 12, 2014

Hate it or love it, carrick have been terribly awful this season.Hodgson is very right not selecting him.to me Fellaini did better than him this season, at least fellaini intercepted opponents' passes. What did carrick offer us...complete nothing, and people kept trolling fellaini here while non-existent carrick was always having a free pass. Am happy Hodgson noticed what I was seeing, we had a shite midfield this season..they don't deserve call ups.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Paul Davidson

Thank god some one agreed with me on this. I love carrick a lot and defended him a lot when he was the scapegoat but I have to say this season he has been our worst performer and yet people say Fellaini should be the person sold. Belgium national team is not fool for picking Fellaini and they have better options than England. They are not some 100th rank team where Fellaini will be selected no matter what, Belgium are a top team and far better than England and yet carrick can't get into the team.

And the best part is osman isn't even in the recognition and yet some genius here say he is a better footballer than Fellaini. :D

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warrored May 12, 2014

No europe is a great opportunity to trim the squad. We already have a number who may leave as natural wastage. With new quality players joining as well and the emergence of youth players it's possible that we could loan out the likes of Welbeck and Cleverley to another PL team for the season and keep them on the books for hopefully a return to CL status later.

What we don't want is a vast clear out only to be left short especially in defence.

It might be prudent to keep Rio and Evra as back up. We've had horrendous defensive injuries in the last few seasons.

This season may have been a disaster, but it could also be a blessing in disguise giving us time to assemble a really good squad and give valuable time for the development of the likes of Pearson Pereira etc.

This summer gives us the chance to cull the deadwood and recruit 3 or 4 players of real quality. We can then hopefully regain our CL status and then have the opportunity to recruit again next summer.

Mata is a start. Fellaini? Who knows, Van Gaal might see the way to turn him into a player for us or just may jettison him straight away.

I hope we wrap up LVG and Shaw asap. It would send out a great signal of intent on both fronts. Shaw signing would shake this nonsense that we can't attract quality without CL status for starters and piss off the detractors.

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Martin Thomas May 12, 2014

Aside from the Berties winning the title, the Scousers not winning it (Ha! Ha! Ha!), and old Hodgson's clowns and their imminent tour of Brazil... What does anyone think about the proposed "singing section": which will involve many loyal reds will be evicted from their seats in J Stand? I personally think it is a fucking disgrace. And one of the prime movers for this singing section, Tufty (yes, he of the 'Chosen One' banner fame!) is a Scouse bastard (well, Runcorn isn't in bloody Manchester!) and a self basting Glazer stooge... A so-called 'Fans Representaive' who is self appointed and who wasn't voted into the position by any United supporter. In short: he is a narcissistic knobhead, who would jump off a cliff if the Glazers told him to...

When (or if) we ever do get shut of those bloodsucking Floridian freaks, tosssers like Tufty (and anyone else on the Glazer/MUTV gravy train) should be banished from OT forever (or thrown into a bottomless pit, if we can find one!0

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dannysoya LOVES USAIN BOLT May 12, 2014

Yeah Carrick wasn't very good this season but he has the ONE thing that ANY of our other midfielders do not have, some semblance of passing ability and composure. Fellaini is just a brute enforcer, if he's not elbowing someone on his way to an aerial challenge, he's trying to intercept the ball and give it to players with more ability.

It's precisely why he's in the belgium team. Belgium lack true enforcers. People who will do the dirty work. Fellaini is in the team for just that, to do the dirty work. He's not what makes Belgium tick over. The real headline makers for Belgium are in front of Fellaini. The likes of Hazard, De Bruyne, Mirallas, Luakaku, Benteke. Those guys are the reason why Belgium is headed to the World Cup. Fellaini's like Javi Garcia for city or Mikel Obi for Chelsea. You can tell he's not on the same wavelength as the other members of the team talent wise but he's good at doing a certain kind of thing so therefore he's in the team because Belgium don't have many other enforcers (maybe witsel the only other enforcer and that is debatable.)

At United it's not enough to just be able to know how to intercept the ball. You have to be able to do something with it. Try and control the tempo of a game, try and at least impact the game SOMEHOW.

He hardly stands out as anything special. Belgium's real talent is what is in front of him. Playing ahead of a Nainggolan means the square root of fuck all. Not one single thing that Fellaini did in the entirety of last season was worth 5 million pounds talk less of 27.5 million. He's not totally shit but Fellaini does not fit Manchester United's way of doing things. The sooner you all realize this, the better.

I was laughing my head off when Moyes said he felt Fellaini was Belgium's best player at the start of the season. LOL I just thought to myself, what the fuck has this man been watching?

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tallestreD May 12, 2014

The whole team was shambolic this season. Even individually not many can be counted. Its quite baffling how a team of champions just turned out the way they did. Well thank heavens the season is over, its now the time to perform surgery on this squad. For me I think the lack of pace and cover the defense has has got to be a major start point for the new manager. As for the English squad, Hogson can pick whoever he chooses for me. So long as he feels he can get them playing. So also I'll be supporting an African team to go all the way in this WC. #teamNigeria

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

Fletch. Yes I knew Ronnie Whelan was a United fan. Fucking great player too who always seemed to score against us.

As for Ingerlund who gives a fuck?

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warrored May 12, 2014

@Danny....I hear what you're saying about the mop, but people really need to stop quoting his fee. He didn't ask for it. Fair enough he may have only shown the ability of a player bought for pennies, but there is a player in there, it's up to the new manager to find it.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Danny

He is more than the enforcer. He has scored more goals than hazard, de bruyne, mirralas for national side so that shows he is just not there for elbowing people. I was watching fifa WC team preview and many fans in Belgium rated Fellaini, when asked to them which players in Belgium do they rate most, many took the name of Fellaini. I am not going to say Fellaini will become like a gattuso but if used properly he can be a very useful player.

It's a shame people are not ready to give him chance. I won't be sad if he is sold right now but there are worse player in our squad than Fellaini.

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

My pal Kings formerly of here informs me that fat cunt Wedderburn off Sky is at the bitters bus parade complete with scarf.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Neil Moore aka King Eric , great to see you here mate. We all regulars missed your presence.

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Martin Thomas May 12, 2014

Gloryhunting Bertie... What a cunt...

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warrored May 12, 2014

Spent yesterday in Liverpool, the train there was a fucking nightmare full of crowing scousers convinced they'd win the title.

Ended up in a pub by Goodison fuck me they hate the red shite more than us. Anyone with a hint of red never got in.

The celebrations at the end when the final whistle went was brilliant. The whole place erupted. I was upfront and admitted to being a United fan and they were sound with it, no mither at all, in fact someone bought me a jaeger bomb for being honest haha.

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

Ash. Thanks mate. Got an email off Denton this morning.

Martin. Ha I know, cringeworthy isn't it? Hate that fat smug cunt , always grinning when United lose.

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warrored May 12, 2014

Ronnie Whelan....growing up he was the only LFC player I could take to.

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ashtheking May 12, 2014

Ha Denton another great poster here. This place seriously misses people like Denton and you. Good to see you Neil

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

Warrored. Same here pal. Really rated him. Never forget his curler into top corner against us in I think 83.

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

Ash. Yeah Denton says he misses the place but too old to be fucking about with Twatter etc! Hope you're well mate.

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Teezed May 12, 2014

i agree with samuel.

Carrick although whilst not at his best this year, is still twice the player fellaini is. Lets not forget that carrick is 33 and still is a better passer and controller of them tempo than fellaini will ever be. Fellaini has been really poor this year, no goals, no assists, blatant elbows and bullying...i find him disgusting tbh. i still dont know why he plays for us, and i still dont think he could ever make that midfield position his. he just doesnt have the passing ability. he could possibly do a job further up the field and we could make use of his frame by playing balls at him but with his height and overall body, he is terrible in the air.

I also agree about gibson. gibson is twice the player cleverly would ever be. at least he could do long range passes and had a rocket of a right foot. he also scored crucial goals against bayern and arsenal to name a few...oh and schalke. hes a good player and was sold although i do think he would walk in to our current midfield. especially if he was fit. i do also rate him higher than fellaini.

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m09538061 May 12, 2014

Just seen on You-Tube 2 new songs from yesterday.
Does anyone know the full lyrics ?

'What a feeling,what a night..Late in May 99,
Ole scored in extra time,what a feeling what a night'.

Also

'We knocked the Scousers of their perch'.

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

We knocked the scousers off their perch has been doing the rounds for ages mate.

What was the Stevie Me song being sung? Wasn't the usual transfer request one?

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Neil Moore May 12, 2014

Teezed. I didn't mind Gibbo but don't recall him scoring against Arsenal? He DID score two against Spurs in league cup.

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m09538061 May 12, 2014

@Neil Moore.
Funny i never heard that one...And I thought I knew all the songs.
The fans who went down to Southampton were fantastic.
Didn't stop singing all game.Great Stuff!

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Paul davidson May 12, 2014

I don't remember carrick being the best passer.. He started most games this season,but he was always missing in games. Even when lampard was 33yrs, he was a strong goal threat even till now. So hodgson selection can be justified. As for fellaini, he's a very descent player and performed better than your carrick and cleverley who plays shite and goes missing games and still get free passes, but fellaini always slated.I'm not a fellaini fan , but am very sure he did a better job than any of our CM this season. Plus we should remember this was his first season with us,am sure he will improve next season. Don't bring up his pricetag, he didn't ask to bought for 27mill.the fact is our midfield were always missing in games. Fellaini provided some steel to a midfield that had weak players like fletcher and carrick who were playing zombie football, as if there was no life or strenght in them, they were easily shoved and bullied around by opponents. Let's hope a new coach brings out the best from maroune Fellaini.

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Gary Mitrovic May 12, 2014

Paul, yes true enough Fellaini can't be blamed for the price tag. No one is blaming him for that. But how did he provide steel for the team? By elbowing people constantly? A hard man image alone doesn't provide any steel, every game passed him by in I watched. He's been woeful anyway you try looking at it.

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warrored May 12, 2014

@Neil.....yeah that goal I think it was the League Cup Final. I can still see him celebrating with Dalglish.

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warrored May 12, 2014

Looks like Powell is being frozen out at Wigan. Not picked again today.

He's just been banned and fined 5K for drink driving. Maybe that's something to do with it.

Or of course he could be injured. He does seem to be prone to them.