• Major upgrades completed! Please report any issues you spot in here

Manchester United Thread

:LOL::LOL:
vidicbeatbusgj9.gif
 
Last edited:
Just over 25% posession, 0 attempts on goal, 0 shots on target, 1 corner.

Yet in the papers/MOTD they're branded as 'brave' 'plucky' 'solid' and 'unlucky'.

I just really believe it's incredibly hard to score on a team with 10 men behind the ball, no matter how much quality you have (or they don't). But football shouldn't be about coming to a ground to see if you can't lose. And it's not like Sunderland don't have some quality players either. Very dissapointed by the match, similar to Villa. It's one thing for a league 2 side to set up the bus against a big Prem side in the cup competitions, I can kind of understand that. But in a Premiership league match it's just frustrating, more so at Villa given they proport to have 'big 4 ambitions' and it was in their backyard.

But the way managers are approaching the premiership these days its about damage limitation before they've even kicked off. Just kind of sad.
 
Sunderland were only 'lucky' because they weren't thumped 10-0. They were more negative than Stoke, who were one of the worst teams I've seen at OT this season, and we put 5 past them.

Berbatov was very poor. He had one moment when he stunned the ground by tracking back and winning a ball in the first 10 minutes, and maybe one shot, but did f*ck all else. At the moment he is a luxury player, whereas Tevez (who got an awesome welcome when he came on) will chase anything and fight for the team. Having a great touch and vision doesn't come to much if you bottle tackles and watch people run past you.
Maybe Berba will come good in a few months / next season, but for £30m and PL experience you would expect him to hit the ground running for us.
It just shows why we should be keeping Carlos.

On the plus side, Rafael was great for us again. Happy to go forward, defend, & win headers against bigger players at just 18 is superb.
 
Rafael is going to be world class by the time he's 20/21. Berba's been ok for me so far, not great but he's that understadable for a player with no pre season football.
 
StayingPower said:
Yeah, the only major thing wrong with Rafael right now is his size and his touch, but both of those will be fixed in a few years.
Click to expand...

I dont think his size is a problem...I mean,look at Pat Evra,who is I think,smaller than Rafael...Smaller fullbacks usually have speed and a low centre of gravity and these are their strengths.From what I've seen,Rafael have all these plus much more and will get better.Brasilians naturally have great technique and touch,so thats not a problem too.

The best thing is...its been known that Fabio is the better twin.If Rafael is strutting his stuff now...I cannot wait to see Fabio in action.
 
matherto said:
How long can you use that excuse YG? We're into December now, the guy should be fit and he's played plenty of games.
Click to expand...

I am a bit tired of hearing that excuse too...I guess he just needs time to gel with the rest.Some players hit it off straight away with the team,some just needs a little longer.The thing with Berba is that,he is no Torres or RVN,he sees passes and set plays like a playmaker and thats not a usual skill of a striker,so he is different.After a while I am beginning to feel that we bought a wrong player...we should have got an out and out forward like Torres instead,a finisher,a predator in the box.I guess thats why rumours of Karim Benzema are resurfacing again.

And from what I heard...Fabio IS the better one.I hope someone can back me up on this.He is out for the moment as he had a bad shoulder injury which requires sugery.
 
matherto said:
How long can you use that excuse YG? We're into December now, the guy should be fit and he's played plenty of games.
Click to expand...
At the expense of Tevez as well.

And theres no point talking about another striker now cuz it just aint gonna happen. We can't just sell Berba now and theres no point investing in a Benzema when if we had that kinda money, it could have been used to make the Tevez deal permanent.
 
Last edited:
The reason you persist with Berbatov is because you believe he'll settle and make the first XI a better prospect than with Tevez. It's not happening as fast as Fergie wants, but that clearly is the plan. And to be honest I get the logic.

Our problem has never been that we don't have lots of the ball and don't get into dangerous situations - it's that we lack the final little bit of quality and a finish. Fergie opted to try and solve both of those problems with Berba. Say what you like about Tevez, and I love the little fella, he's not a world class finisher, nor does he create all that many chances. And I base that on last year's performances, not on the Carling Cup game midweek.

Look at Fergie's options up front:
One one wing you have to play Ronaldo. Simple as.
In one of the forward positions you have to play Rooney. He is the main creator of chances and occasional finisher of them. His overall play is better than the sum of his contributions too, if that makes sense.
You need someone else on the other side. Simply, Berbatov and Tevez cannot play out wide. Neither can cross, neither are particularly quick and neither have experience there. So Fergie has to put someone like Nani, Giggs or Park there.
That leaves one more place, either the SS or the CF depending on where Rooney is playing. Is Tevez a more effective lead man than Berba? Difficult to say, but probably not. Is Tevez a more effectiev support striker than Berba? Again, probably not.

So where do you play him?

For me Fergie needs to come up with a way to play all of them, because they're all heads and shoulders above Nani and Park. Maybe that means sticking Rooney out on the wing, where he's actually alright on the right, beacuse even a 75% functionning Rooney is better than 100% Nani. I don't know. But at the moment we lack balance and penetration, and I don't see how replacing Berba is going to help that.
 
The team dynamic will probably change again when Scholesy is back. Instead of having Fletcher/Anderson's grit and work ethic, we'll have Carrick (sort of) doing that, with the pair picking out deadly passes. Would we really need a 3rd player to do the same, instead of being one of the ones who gets on the end of them, ala the Holy Trinity?

There's no doubt that Berbatov is a fantastic player, and he probably just needs to get this season under his belt before he flourishes. He's impressed going forwards several times already, but not quite enough yet.
We've seen that he's actually quite mobile, though he doesn't seem to move his arse anywhere near as much as he should!

Having Tevez in the team allows us to change formation at any time. If Rooney / Ronaldo / other winger are out of position after going forward ie Ronaldo becomes the lone striker for a few minutes, you know he (as well as Rooney) can cover the wing. OK, he may be nowhere near as effective as a proper winger, but the job gets done.

And that's why, at the moment at least, I'd use Tevez more often. Next season will be a completely different story. They'll all know each other's strenghs, and will click a lot more on the pitch.

Did anyone see Danny Simpson's (currently on loan at Blackburn) comments in the sunday papers? I know most of it is crap, but apparently he reckons that our boys are asking him about Roque Santa Cruz.
We don't really need any more strikers for now (and he'll most likely to to City anyway), as we have Fraiser Campbell and Danny Welbeck who deserve a look in.
 
Wow, just remembered, to put Evra's 4 match ban in context, that's two games less than Joey Barton got for almost killing Dabo.

So remember grounds crews around the country, you are more than free to walk up to any opposition player after a match, say anything you want to them, and if they react, you're doing your team some good. It should actually become part of their job.

Was an Evra an idiot to react? Yes. Was the punishment proportional and consistent with FA policy? Absolutely not. Would the same punishment have been handed out if John Terry had done it? Absolutely, positively, no f(cking chance.
 
Argh, just knew it...Aaalborg will complain to UEFA that Rooney stamped on one of their players. And he'll be banned, because we're English and he's Wayne Rooney. I've watched it a few times, and he definitely falls onto the player. The Aalborg player falls below him, but as he tried to step back he caught the chest of the player on the ground. Nothing like in Portugal. Oh it's comical to watch the Aalborg player immediately grab their face, despite not being touched there. Another of their players did it later against Anderson, who was holding of his defender with his palm, glanced against the guys chin and weh don't screaming and holding his face. I honestly thought the danes were more honest, particularly in a friendly.

No doubt UEFA will open a special committee, and we'll have images of his clapping and his stamping from '06, and he'll be suspended for who knows how long. Not on his actions yesterday of course, because those were pretty standard for any football match.
 
Aalborg's Kasper Risgard has accused Manchester United's Wayne Rooney of making a dangerous tackle on him during Wednesday's 2-2 Champions League draw.

The incident went unpunished by the referee but Risgard claims it left him physically marked and alleged Rooney, who said "that's football", apologised.

"I don't know what happened but he was jumping on my chest," said Risgard.
Click to expand...

No mate. You both fell over, you were just unlucky to be where Rooney needed to put his foot (otherwise it would have been his knee meeting your nose), and he accidentally caught the bottom of your chin.
To go down holding your eyes after that is just as disgraceful as the player who went down holding his face after Anderson pushed his shoulder.

It wouldn't be a big suprise if they decide to take action against Rooney though. After all, they can use our 'poor disciplinary record' as an excuse, what with Patty Evra being banned for 4 games for trying to smack a racist chav.

Both sides were making hard tackles, but we aren't complaining...

In other news, it looks like we're about to sign those 2 Serbian youngsters:
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4623745,00.html
 
I hope the winger is good cos Nani is at best a top half of the Championship player. God knows how we're going to recuperate the money we spent on him.
 
To be fair I thought Rooney's challenge deserved a red. Nani will come good, people need patience with youngsters. not every youngster has Ronaldo, Rooney and Messi like potential were there vital to the team by the time there 21/22.
 
Well, if we don't win the league this year, I'm blaming Nani.

If we don't win the league cup, I'm blaming Nani.

If we don't win in Japan, yep you guessed it, Nani's fault.

rinse and repeat for each other cup.
 
I'm not too sure about Pig(?) but I belief Ben Foster has got what it takes to be a top class keeper...They usually peak at around 26-30,so he has a lot of time to develop.
 
Bugger, well a combination of injuries and suspensions has left us at spur's mercy tomorrow. I'll be the first to admit Fergie is rarely truthful with injuries, but if he is being honest team could be:
-----------EDVS------------
-Rafael-Evans-Vidic-O'Sh*t-
----Fletcher--Anderson-----
----------Giggs------------
-----Park-------Nani-------
----------Tevez------------

If I were a Spurs fan I wouldn't exactly be quaking in my boots :(!
 
FFS! Whats with the O'Shea hate these days. Think they'll all play. Carrick and Berba with "Injuries" two ex Spurs men ;)) Mind games of the highest quality. Ronny will be ready thats for sure! Il go with...

-----------VDS------------
Rafael-Rio----Vida---OShea
Park-Carrick-Fletch-Ronaldo
------Berbs--Tevez-------
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom