Manchester United Thread

LFC Albania said:
I think Januzaj its by far better than Raheem , I'm not sure how far will Raheem go , but I can tell you Januzaj will be a very important player in near future , this guy its special .
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well, i disagree on the term by far. Januzaj is more a side midfielder while Raheem is more an attacking midfielder/winger..

Raheem is more experienced in the team + NT.. while Januzaj is quality and composed player...i think both will have great future, but it depends on many aspects, not just the talent.
 
I agree with your point on the money, PIPA. Utd have a policy on not overpaying young players and I wonder if that's been broken to keep Januzaj.

While that's good in the short-term, if you take a stand like that and then go back on your word, how long before all the other youngsters you want to keep will be demanding ridiculous amounts of money to keep them at the club?
 
Aboutreika18 said:
Rooney has too much influence on this side, it's no good when he goes through a poor streak of games but isn't replaced by another attacking player who could provide something different.

His failure to drop into midfield doesn't help Carrick and Fellaini who look like one of the worst fits for a partnership in central midfield we've ever had. They don't compliment each other at all.

The likes of Zaha, Hernandez and Kagawa should be used more wisely by Moyes rather than being discarded as a choice to change the game.

The Giggs sub was the turning point in the match for me and doesn't seem to make any sense which ever way I look at it.
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We needed to hold the ball, Kagawa for Rooney would have made sense, along with a fresh Valencia to kill teams of with his pace like he did Southampton.
 
harsh but I still think top 3 is what he should be expected to achieve, this team won the title with 5 games to spare last year, the drop off can't be that severe irregardless who was the manager previously.

top 4 is an obvious minimum, if he doesn't make it then he should walk.
 
Yep, transition season or not, he has enough talent at his disposal to finish in a Champions League place.

Finishing outside of that would further hamper our attempts to acquire very good players and certain players would definitely leave.

Unless he wins a cup or two, finishing outside of the CL would be a disaster.
 
You have 3 home games in a row now with teams you will beat I'm sure, this will build up the confidence levels and you will be back on track, probably just by the time you play us......:ROLL:
 
It's the lack of a clear plan or direction that worries fans. We'll give Moyes time without a doubt, but it would be nice to see some change or pattern to our play.

At present we don't really press, we don't defend well, we don't keep a hold of the ball and we don't even really go direct. It's all just a mish mash without shape or structure.
 
The patience is already wearing thin.
Last year United were a one man team (RVP) and imo Ferguson leeft a shambles for Moyes.
Last season the opponente were uncharacteristically weak, now they all are stronger: Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool.
Do you guys seriously think this United would underachieve if they finishend sixth ? I don't think so to be honest.
 
gerd said:
The patience is already wearing thin.
Last year United were a one man team (RVP) and imo Ferguson leeft a shambles for Moyes.
Last season the opponente were uncharacteristically weak, now they all are stronger: Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool.
Do you guys seriously think this United would underachieve if they finishend sixth ? I don't think so to be honest.
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I believe our wage bill puts us third, just above Arsenal. Given the upheaval with Ferige leaving, I'd consider being around 4th to be par for the course for Moyes. This squad, despite massive issues, is still better than Liverpool's, and that just leaves Spurs who have tons of new faces to fit in. So maybe 5th at worst.

Agree that RVP papered over a lot of cracks last year, but this year he's looking like a hinderance imo. Too static and uninvolved for a 'key' player.

We have had a tough start to the season, no doubt, but if we can rally we have players that have gone through the cold, nasty slog of the winter season many times before, and I think that should serve us well.

Just wish we'd see more of the 'potentials' and less of the 'knowns'. If we lose Hernandez and Kagawa because Moyes just can't be ballsy enough to play them, it'll be a crying shame, and we don't have the finances required to have that strategy.
 
I'll be happier if Moyes shows signs of changing the way we play, with and without the ball.

Look at how quickly Martinez has got Everton passing the ball around crisply, or how quickly Pochettino got Southampton pressing high up the pitch when he was appointed.

I want to us play much better football than we have been doing for the past few seasons. We have a lot of players playing within themselves at the moment and the shackles need to be broken.
 
Aboutreika18 said:
I'll be happier if Moyes shows signs of changing the way we play, with and without the ball.

Look at how quickly Martinez has got Everton passing the ball around crisply, or how quickly Pochettino got Southampton pressing high up the pitch when he was appointed.

I want to us play much better football than we have been doing for the past few seasons. We have a lot of players playing within themselves at the moment and the shackles need to be broken.
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Problem is that we lack some creative and visionary balance..there s RvP, Rooney, Nani, Kagawa and Januzaj who are potentially our only players with true vision and the technical ability to play.. '' Arsenal like'', the rest are too static or old for the most part. I'd kinda like to see RvP play as a false 9 or number 10 so Rooney can move to CF (or Chicha.. Oh where art thou lil Pea?)
 
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From the Guardian:


Roy Keane has accused Sir Alex Ferguson of not knowing the meaning of loyalty after the former Manchester United manager criticised him and other former players at Old Trafford in his new book.
Keane responded witheringly after Ferguson reopened the pair's long-running feud by saying the former United captain "absolutely overstepped the mark" in a notorious but never-aired MUTV interview that fast-tracked the Irishman's departure from Old Trafford in 2005. He also effectively rubbished Keane's chances of making a career in football management.
Other former United players are criticised in the book, among them Owen Hargreaves and David Beckham. Keane told ITV on Tuesday night: "I think I do remember having a conversation with the manager when I was at the club about loyalty. In my opinion I don't think he knows the meaning of the word.
"It doesn't bother me too much what he has to say about me but to constantly criticise other players at the club who brought him a lot of success, I find very, very strange … I just don't think the manager needs to do that.
"I'm not sure how many books he has written now but he has to draw the line eventually to say: 'Listen, these players have all been top servants to Man United.' And a lot of these players helped the manager win lots of trophies, so imagine if we never won a trophy what he would have said. We brought success to the club, we gave it everything we had when we were there. It's just part of modern life now that people like to do books and criticise their ex-players."
Ferguson expresses characteristically strident opinions in his new book, My Autobiography, many of which jostled for prominence at the launch press conference in London on Tuesday afternoon. The headlines included:
• How he told Wayne Rooney to mind his own business after the United striker urged him to sign Mesut Özil
• How Beckham's love for Victoria and the celebrity lifestyle prevented him from becoming a United legend
• How he was offered the England job twice but it took him 10 seconds to say no.
Ferguson's revelations about what happened with Keane were the most volatile material. He writes that the midfielder had been furious about what he felt were substandard pre-season training facilities at Vale de Lobo in Portugal but it was when Keane later gave his thoughts to United's in-house TV channel that Ferguson experienced what he described as a "horrendous" confrontation.
According to Ferguson, Keane laid into many of his then team-mates in the interview, including Edwin van der Sar, Darren Fletcher, Alan Smith, Kieran Richardson and Rio Ferdinand. Of Ferdinand, Keane is said to have been scornful of the defender's belief that he was a superstar … "just because you are paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham."
Keane suggested that the squad watch the interview and what followed was a scene that still makes Ferguson shudder. When outrage ensued among the players, Keane tore into them, but he reserved the most stinging attack for Ferguson, whom he accused of bringing his personal affairs into the club, in the form of his dispute with the Coolmore stud over the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar. "His eyes started to narrow, almost to wee black beads," Ferguson wrote of Keane. "It was frightening to watch. And I'm from Glasgow."
The interview was not broadcast but Ferguson knew that he had to act. He immediately sanctioned the paying up of Keane's contract and his departure to Celtic in December 2005. The former United manager also slates Keane's managerial track record at Sunderland and Ipswich Town, saying it was plain he needed money to build squads and that he lacked the temperament or patience for the job.
"With the nature of the man, you can expect a response," Ferguson said at the press conference."We had to do something. The meeting was horrendous. I just couldn't lose my control. If I had let it pass, the players would have viewed me much differently to the way I want to be judged. He overstepped his mark, absolutely."
Ferguson repeated his claim that Rooney had "asked away" from United last season, after growing frustrated at being played out of position, and he also wrote that the striker's qualities were in danger of being "swallowed up by a lack of fitness". Describing Rooney as England's "one hope" for the World Cup, he made it clear that the country had to handle him with special care in the countdown to Brazil.
"Wayne asked away," Ferguson said at the press conference. "He felt he was unfairly played out of position and I can understand that. I was dropped at 2.10pm on the day of the Scottish Cup final. I was top goalscorer. I had a heated discussion with the manager. I can understand Wayne but at the time he wasn't playing well enough. That was my judgment. Do you think I would drop Wayne the way he is playing now? Absolutely no way."
On Özil, whom Arsenal signed for £42.5m from Real Madrid in August, Ferguson added: "He was not on our radar and I said that to Wayne at the time [in 2010, when Rooney had handed in a transfer request]. I explained to Wayne to leave the signing of the players to me. We got most things right over the years."
Beckham emerges from the book as one of Ferguson's greatest regrets. He considered him to be like a son but he writes that he had his head turned by the trappings of showbiz. He said that he had to sell him to Real Madrid because Beckham thought he had become bigger than the manager and the club.
Ferguson does not mention Beckham's wife in the chapter of the book that he devotes to him, but he did give her a reference at the press conference. "I think the big problem for me and I'm a football man really ... he fell in love with Victoria and that changed everything," Ferguson said. "I had to think about my own control at the club. Maybe he will look back and say he should have stayed at Real Madrid [and not joined LA Galaxy]. But I don't think I've been too critical on David. He was always a marvellous guy."
Ferguson said that he could never have managed England. "It was a great opportunity in life to relegate them," the Scot joked. "The first time [he was asked] was the Scots lad, from the Post Office, Adam Crozier [the then FA chief executive] and the second time, they approached Martin Edwards [the former United chairman] and I said forget it. I met Crozier at Old Trafford. It didn't take me long – 10 seconds. Think of me going back to Scotland. Deary me."
Ferguson offered his support to his successor, David Moyes, and he insisted that the club could retain the title despite their sluggish start. "When I saw the fixture list [at the beginning of the season], I would have been raging at that," Ferguson said. "I would have gone down to the League. But Manchester United are the only team in that league that can win it coming from behind."
 
not feeling the line up, would have maybe prefered Rooney with Kagawa in behind and Nani on the left.

Giggs/Carrick AH GAWD...
 
Still worried about not scoring the goal ourselves. It was own goal.

However, this game shows why KAGAWA should be fucking starting every game! He is so creative!

Also Hernandez runs are impressive. Always. For me Chicharito > Welshit. He adds so much more to our side than Welbeck...
 
Ref's a bellend.

Quality from Rooney for the goal but it shows the drawback of the offside rule. Hernandez in an offside position causing the defender to panic and put it in his own net.

Sociedad growing in confidence. Another Southampton? We can hope :)
 
Why do we keep falling victim to UEFA's ridiculous refs? This guy is a joke, like laugh out loud funny. No consistency, mental bookings and just really annoying.

Anyway, we're going to conceed soon, so would be nice to score another.

We were excellent for most of the first half though.
 
A mediocre game overall, I'm worried we weren't able to score at least 1 more...

Giggs had a pretty good match for a change and I was reminded today how much I love Kagawa - his every touch, every dribble just shouts class in your face. I sincerely hope we see more of him and keep him. And he's even better as a central attacking midfielder, I wonder if we can't play him more often there - well, of course that wouldn't happen because of Rooney and RvP...
 
Hernandez if given more play time, would kick ass. That guy dazzling runs are phenomenal to watch.

Btw what a game from Rooney. He is on fire. Best player tonight imo ;).

And yeah, Kagawa showed everything he could to show manager: "PLAY ME MORE OFTEN or I QUIT."

Don't know what more he could have done. Maybe score goal? (he was willing to).
 
This might sound blasphemous, but tonight's front players is the reason so many of us didn't want RVP. Not saying he's not a fantastic player and certainly got us to our 20th title, but there's a lack of fluency with him on the pitch.

I'd of been so, so much happier if we'd spent that money and wages on a midfielder, and utilised the attacking talent we have.
 
Hernandez was poor, for all the ridiculous criticism Welbeck gets, he would've offered more in this situation if he was available.

Valencia was better, Giggs had moments of class but was terrible defensively and Carrick needed to control the game more, a bit worried with how he's started the season.

Good stuff from Kagawa, hope to see much, much more of him in the coming weeks. A shame we'll probably end up shoehorning him on the left and leave Rooney-RvP upfront.
 
beachryan said:
This might sound blasphemous, but tonight's front players is the reason so many of us didn't want RVP. Not saying he's not a fantastic player and certainly got us to our 20th title, but there's a lack of fluency with him on the pitch.

I'd of been so, so much happier if we'd spent that money and wages on a midfielder, and utilised the attacking talent we have.
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I wouldn't say the Netherlands suffers from a lack of fluency w him on the pitch.


Anyhoo.. One down.. 14 more to go to get to a 15 game streak.
 
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