Oct 27
Barnsley vs Manchester United: Preview
You’re only as good as your last game and following eleven without defeat, Sunday proved something of a wake-up call. United certainly need to up the ante and fortunately they won’t have to wait very long to attempt to put things right. A little over 50 hours to be precise as a trip to Barnsley in the Carling Cup will hopefully lift spirits, if ever so slightly, following the depressing result at Anfield.
It’s been eleven years since we last visited Oakwell where Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham were on target in a 2-0 win. You may or may not be aware that the current Barnsley manager, Mark Robins, once scored a winning goal against Nottingham Forest for United back in 1990 that is widely believed to have saved Sir Alex Ferguson’s bacon at Old Trafford. He certainly hasn’t looked back since.
You would expect that Ferguson is bound to make a plethora of changes for the tie although he should stop short of picking an entirely different eleven to Sunday. Ben Foster or Tomasz Kuszczak will replace Edwin van der Sar in goal and the back four should definitely see starts for both Wes Brown and Jonny Evans. Gary Neville or Rafael could feature at right-back while Fabio may replace Patrice Evra on the left-hand-side of defence despite his red card in the third round against Wolves.
Following Gabriel Obertan’s return from injury, it has been confirmed that he will make his first appearance for the first team. Darron Gibson should definitely vacate a central midfield slot and Darren Fletcher could come in alongside him having missed out in recent weeks through injury.
Magnus Eikrem will be desperate to show what he is all about following a string of polished performances for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s second string although one would suspect he will only make the bench. With Obertan expected to start on the right, Nani or Zoran Tosic will most likely be selected on the left.
With Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov all involved against Liverpool, Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck could be given the chance to impress up top. After a lively debut in the previous round, expect Josh King to appear later on in the game as an impact sub too.
Speaking prior to the match on Tuesday evening, Ferguson has challenged the Reds to prove their credentials by recovering from the defeat to Liverpool.
“Part of the challenge is to get over disappointments,” he said.
“Last season we lost at home 4-1 to Liverpool which was a travesty but we went on to win the league.”
While Sir Alex may be directing his comments more specifically at those who are to be involved against Blackburn this coming weekend, a result against Barnsley will be the first step in the right direction before the vitally important visit of Sam Allardyce’s side. The critics have already surfaced once again despite 10 wins from our previous 12 although anything but a victory against Barnsley and the knives will be sharpened even further.
So what exactly stands in the way of United and a safe passage to the quarter-finals of a competition that has served us so well in recent times? Well Barnsley are struggling in the Championship where they currently sit in 20th place, four points above the relegation spots. Having put together a decent run at the beginning of October, the south Yorkshire club have lost their last two on the spin.
Despite their relatively poor league standing, the Tykes put on an impressive show to knock Burnley out in the last round of the Carling Cup and watch out for Daniel Bogdanovic, the Maltese striker who has scored four goals in eight for Barnsley so far this season.
Prediction: 3-0 United
RoM is running a liveblog
Related items from Red Rants:
- Obertan to make United debut
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Dynamo Kyiv vs Manchester United: Preview
- Manchester United 2006/2007 Season Review
- The Manchester United Pledge
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Stephen (454)
Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Dan: Mate, he told to piss off because someone made a snide rude comment at him in the first place. He wasn’t being rude in the first place.
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@Dan: Care to name names??
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@Dan: …and you give a flyer about that kind of stuff!!
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@Grognard: @Dan: There is no need for apology from either side here. I hadn’t seen the match but I’d heard of the incident because it was pointed to by a mate. But if I hadn’t seen anything I wouldn’t have read too much into Dan’s comment because I would know he was describing some event in the match as it went on. Most people leave vague comments during a match because it’s understood others who are following the game would get it. So let’s stop talking about this now before it gets too silly.
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@ Grognard – Two thoughts on Foster last night:
1. Why does he get so many more backpasses than other keepers (seriously it was almost 1 every minute in the first half for a spell. I think the fact that his clearances was so prominent in the match speaks more of our defenses’ utter inability to bypass the midfield, and the midfields utter inability to pass it to the forwards.
2. He also claimed every cross that came near him, made a decent tip round the post and kept a clean sheet against 17 attempts. Fine, I’ll reduce it to a 6.5, but that’s what I want from a keeper
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@Beachryan: But he should be able clear it still no matter how many he gets. Its a basic required skill for a keeper to clear the ball. He cant. In preseason the backpass went under his foot against that Malaysian team. We like to keep possesion and backpassing to a keeper how ever irritating happens. What we dont need is clearances that land at the feet of players inviting pressure. Fergie will get tired of foster soon. His only ability is reaction and thats not good enough for this club.
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@Taehr: Yes, lets use a pre-season game, that happened to be his first game in months, to back up your argument. Great idea!
Fact is, a clearance is clearing the ball out the box, foster did that.
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As others have said United thrives on retaining possession, when the ball is layed back to the keeper, they need to have confidence either we’ll keep the ball or punt it into an area to give one of our players a chance, not punt it low and risk it going straight back to the opposition inviting pressure back. There is such a thing as a poor clearance. Foster last night looked like he wasn’t happy getting all those back passes, he wanted none of it. That isn’t a good sign.
As for Rafael in the middle when I first saw the line up before the game I thought he was going to play right wing and Obertan in the middle ahead of Anderson, that seemed to make more sense. From what I hear, Gibson was injured (why he didn’t play). As for the other reserves, my guess is that those aren’t players SAF thinks are going to play first team games this season. Rafael needed a competitive match and has more of a chance than any of the other reserves to play regular first team games, Game wise tactically it wasn’t right but, maybe right for what he wants for Rafael.
We got lucky that Barnsley were poor at finishing or we would have been under a lot of pressure. The win though helps us going into this weekend. A good win against Rover to build up our confidence for a pivotal game the week after.
Lets not forget Barnsley has done well last couple of years against our top rivals. So give the kids some credit for winning.
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@Dan: Jesus H Christ man, I wasn’t asking for an apology. I just made the comment that I didn’t understand you post, that’s all. Stop being so defensive and if I disagree with your comments, take it like a man. If I misunderstand your comments then kindly enlighten me and move on. Instead of this childish head bashing you seem to want to get into with me whenever I give a negative critique to one of you wonder boys.
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@Dan: WTF are you talking about?
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@Red Ranter: I wasn’t asking for any kind of apology RR, and I made that clear. But I also was not going to apologize due to the vagueness of his statement and how easily it could be misunderstood or misconstrued. It was him coming back at me that made a mountain out of a mole hill. It’s yet again and problem of touchy nerves on his part due to his illness called Fosteritis.
A joke by the way. Similar to illness I suffer form which is Huntelaarosis and Riquelme Syndrome.
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@Beachryan: It’s not just this game mate, but it’s just so much more noticeable with Foster because he is dallying about with ball and rearranging his position and footwork so that he can kick the ball. The lad is just so unsure of himself in this area of the game as he is when it comes to charging out for dangerous crosses or corners. EVDS is not perfect by no means but he handles back passes like it’s nobody’s business and distributes the ball quickly and fluidly without monstrous delays and moments of stress. And his long balls are 50/50 where Fosters are never……and I mean never at one of our players or even close to one of our players. It’s just an unforced giveaway in my books. There are teams that don’t even use the long kick very often because they feel it is a low percentage play and just a free giveaway. I tend to agree. When I am playing FIFA, I rarely if ever use it because I have no faith in it no matter who the keeper is or if the target man is Peter Crouch like in height.
And he allowed so many free headers in side the 8 yard box last night I was screaming at the tv. Were you watching the same game mate?
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@Dan: WAH WAH WAH! Enough already. Stop being such a baby or I’ll get RR to send you an officially approved and licensed Grognard soother.
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On the more positive side of things, check this out. And I thought we were bad. Jeez, we are super human compared to this lot right now.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/28/real-madrid-alcoron-copa-del-rey
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@Grognard: Funny enough they call them “Dummies” in the UK!
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@Dan: Clearing the ball at grass height? Is that what you say is a good clearance?
And Yea only foster needs loads of games to enable him to control and clear the ball. He needs loads of match practice for that difficult task.
Anyway hel never be number one so I dunno why I bother.
The Arsenal liverpool game showed yet again how many good young players arsenal have. On Ramsey someone fucked up seriously because he is special. Anderson and him are quite far apart. His passing and dribbling is good. Arsenal have loads of good youngsters. I think ours are more likely to break through. Obertan, fabio esp
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@Taehr: I stopped reading after your first line. You obviously never saw the game if you think all his clearances were “grass” height.
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@Taehr: De laet has a far better chance of making it at left back then fabio. Fabio is more of a winger then left back.
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@Grognard: Mate, he’s had enough grief over Foster already. Ben Foster is a touchy subject for him as much as Huntelaar/Ballack is for you and Nani is for Craig. We are all for free expression here, but sometimes it wouldn’t kill us to stay off this subject (or baiting, for that matter) — in the interest of general debate on this board.
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@Anders: Yeah, I’ve rated Brown poorly in most of his appearances this season. It’s gonna be a tough road for him to win his spot back now, with competition coming all over the place. When he gets his opportunity, he needs to make better use of it!!
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@Shimo: When I look at how we play when building an attack, it amazes me at how erratic and uncontrolled our play is!! And when pressure is put on us, it all becomes so much more exacerbated.
There seems to be little methodology in our build up, save to say, a need to move forward!!
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@Redrich: Seriously?
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@Taehr: Don’t get me started on Ramsey. When I think of how we could have had him but gave him the worst sales pitch in history (sicked Gary Neville on him to give him a tour of OT) while Wenger flew him and his parents to Switzerland to wine and dine them and them have them watch a EURO game in a box seat with him. Now I may be easily seduced but which one would you pick, wine and food in Zurich or a chat and walk with Franck Ribery’s long lost older brother?
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@Red Ranter: Mate I didn’t start it. Somebody else brings up Fooster’s bad habits and then Dan gets all bent out of shape and it starts. Then I get all fed up with the BS he is spouting because Foster is a true ass clown of epic proportions but this guy refuses to get it. As for Huntelaar and Ballack, I am defending world class players with a proven pedigree, not some Watford reject who has a hard time kicking a round ball without line it up like a pool shot. If he can’t take the heat, he should bloody well shut the fuck up when it comes to defending already. He has nothing to defend, that;s the absurd thing about it. I agree, it’s a tired bloody farce and I am sick and tired of people bringing Foster up because it just brings out the worst in Dan and then my nerves get all shot because i cannot tolerate complete utter stupidity masquerading for loyalty and knowledge. Some people need to grow up.
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@Grognard: Yeah I was alittle confused about them using Neville. At the very least send giggs. it actually didnt matter , because fergie basicaly went out of his way to show ramsey he didnt care wether he joined the club or not.
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@Red Ranter: “Piss off”, “Snide rude comment”… Is it that time of the month?? If you paid attention to the time stamp on the comment, you would know that it was VERY late in my time zone – hence me going to bed coincided with me scrolling the blog —
From what I understand about smilies they are graphical and
looks like someone who just woke up from dozing off. Hence I used them to convey the feeling of me dozing off and finally going to bed with a “Goodnight all 
” (which I hardly find of negative connotation). My efforts of producing a late-night joke were misinterpreted by Grognard and yourself. For this, I apologize.
RR, I think you are feeding Grognard’s ego with all this protection when he has his hizzy fits. His response to me and redtan were out of proportion (per usual).
@Grognard: Grognard, until RR gives you the reins of redrants.com you are merely a pawn like the rest of us. Your opinions are EQUAL to all other opinions – even Dan’s stubborn pro-foster view. I think it is time you come back from your high clouds and find your place on this blog – amongst the rest of us.
I have been super busy with work and will likely not come back here until 24+ hours from now, so bear with my lack of responses.
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@Grognard: Yes you didn’t start it, but sometimes someone can perpetuate it. Let me spell it out for you:
This comment (ie, @Dan: ) was addressed to Taehr. But you butted in with this: WAH WAH WAH! Enough already. Stop being such a baby or I’ll get RR to send you an officially approved and licensed Grognard soother.
You can call it a joke, but it makes him out to be a child throwing his toys out of the pram. We all know what you think of Foster, and the several times you’ve told Dan to get his head examined etc. So why another cutting remark? Sometimes jokes won’t be taken in the right spirit.
Also regarding this comment of yours:
As for Huntelaar and Ballack, I am defending world class players with a proven pedigree, not some Watford reject who has a hard time kicking a round ball without line it up like a pool shot
It’s not about someone defending a world class player or a pub player. Both people must be given enough space to be able to defend them without being talked down. And both you and Dan have had your history of talking down to one another. If Dan defends Foster let him. If you don’t like it, and everyone knows that you don’t, just bite your tongue and let him defend it to whoever he is defending him with. Is that so much to ask?
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: That smiley intends to convey shock. Not waking up from slumber. And I think almost everyone would interpret that smiley as a “shock” smiley. Which was completely out of place and made no sense really. I’ve read that comment again, and it still does not fit in with your interpretation. It still looks like you couldn’t be arsed to read his comment. Which I think is snide enough for anyone to be pissed off with it.
Secondly regarding feeding Grognard’s ego, I’ve been accused of targeting Grognard by Grognard himself, as much as I’ve been accused of favouring him. So go figure. I won’t read much into that. I’ll go with what I think is right according to the situation.
FYI, just now I was asking people to give Dan a break, and I am expending my precious energy and time to explain the situation to people who would care to hear. So give me a break before you go off on your conspiracy theories.
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: You apologize for your comments and I accept you apology knowing that it was meant in jest, but your response to me now is actually even more hurtful. I do not consider myself some kind of uberlord on this site and I don not live like Zeus above the clouds and shoot lightning bolts on those who annoy me although the thought of such power does stimulate my senses to say the least.
It bothers me what you are saying because it upsets me that you would think of me ion that way. I am not the person you think I am and so your opinion of me is wrong and your insinuations that I like to be in charge or in control are very very wrong. And Red Ranter does not protect me like you think. He has come down on me many times and has not supported me on numerous squabbles that i have had with members, so kindly get off his back. As far as apologies go mate, you owe him a big one for those comments. Very untrue to say the least. As for me, well I’ll just go on but I will know that in the back of your mind, you really do not have a very favorable opinion about me and thats too bad, because I have nothing against you.
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@Red Ranter: Fine RR, I get your point. Still, I can only tolerate so much childishness. Perhaps I was wrong in perpetuating it but he has been told a long time ago to let this fucking Foster thing go and he won’t stop. Perhaps the problem needs to be stopped at the source. I’m not the only one who is sick and tired of the Foster suck ass crap. The reason it continues to boil is that Foster continues to annoy many of our members whenever he plays. Unless the one supporter of Foster sucks it up and learns to ignore the abuse, it will never stop. I get involved only after my patience is challenged and i can no longer take the kids stuff.
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@Red Ranter: Regardless of what you say, this is my definition of
.
Shock in my book involves movement of the mouth at least… but it is a moot point to discuss.
Regarding conspiracy theories, there are too many to count.
Goodnight
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Watched Liverpool v Arsenal in the cup, and it really got me thinking. What is our identity? As I tried to make clear the other day, I don’t believe we have anywhere near the best first XI in the prem (probably the 3rd/4th if I’m honest) and Fergie has never been the best tactically (flukes like Chelsea last season aside). So how are we so successful? What is the ‘United Way?’
Arsenal play like Barca: small passing triangles very close together combined with superb technique and close control, basically wriggle their way through teams
Chelsea outmuscle and wear down their opponents with pure atheleticism
Liverpool bore their opponents to death and have the best striker in the world
I have no idea what we do. We play a 442 with deep lying central midfielders. We don’t get loads of crosses in, and our strikers aren’t very good at getting on the end of them anyway. We have one winger who hugs the touch line and never comes infield, and we almost never actually play the other winger, opting for a striker (Welbeck) or a midfielder (Park/Giggs) who don’t have pace and can’t whip crosses in. We don’t play one touch very often. We don’t hoof it very often.
Basically, I think we’re in a whole pile of crap, and it’s the 442 that some people have been begging for. It just doesn’t work at the moment. Maybe with a full season of it we’ll improve, but at the moment we’re conceding more than last year and scoring less. When we played a 442 in the late 90′s, our CMFs would take turns getting forward to offer penetrating runs into the box. Now they don’t. Plus with Yorke and Cole we had two strikers that could lead the line and get to crosses.
I fear Fergie has equipped us with personnel that aren’t suited to playing 442, but for some reason is desperate to stick to it. And I can’t see how it’s going to suddenly start working.
It hurts me to say it, but for the benefit of the team, I think we need to shift to a 4-2-3-1, and sacrifice good ole Rooney outwide:
—–Carrick–Fletcher——
–Giggs-Berbatov-Rooney—–
———-Owen————–
The middle three could obviously move around, with Owen leading the line and getting in behind. I trust Rooney and Giggs to offer support defensively when needed but hopefully with our midfield never getting into the opponents final third they wouldn’t have to do much.
Anyway, does anyone see us being able to actually manage a 442?
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I’m going to agree with Dan. I’ve never seen such one dimensional viewpoints in my life. Foster was crap as usual even though noone can actually come up with a reason why. Some of the reactions are zombie like. I’m pretty sure had it been Foster in goal at Liverpool he’d have been blamed and bashed for the goals we conceded. How is his kicking atrocious? What is he supposed to kick the football up to Juninho or Xabi Alonso’s standards? Poor midfield showing by Anderson. Can ppl not even consider a few things before such conclusions. How about the fact that he had a partner who was pretty much confused as to why he was playing in that position. To work in midfield you need to have a partner at 100% who is well aware of what his job is and can actually execute it. How do you “boss” a midfield when you playing in tandem with an inexperienced right back? Do you need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out? What of the simple fact that we played the rest of the game with 10 men. You still expect this team which has never played together to just blitz Barnsley like they are not even a team worth talking about. Can they not be seen to be on the same level of the recently promoted Burnley who beat us? What of Ferguson’s always baffling and counterproductive tactics and positioning? Under the circumstances we should actually be applauding these youngsters because quite frankly they might as well have been playing with blindfolds with those stupid tactics. To be honest I think Ole should be allowed to coach the Carling Cup matches so he can simply play his own youngsters with his own sane system. Was it necessary to have Neville play? No. Was it logical to play Rafael in midfield? A big NO. I’m actually impressed by these youngsters because they are being defeated by the manager but still come up with the results. This is the 2nd game that they have won with wierd and stupid tactics and playing with ten men. And all the intelligent posters here can say is these young players are useless. Did you watch Real Madrid play a 3rd division team and being massacred 4 nil? With mainly 1st team players. Give these kids a break if you are so one dimensional in your views on football.
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@Grognard: You know what, you are the most hypocritical person on this blog. My god, if anyone made that sort of post about you, we wouldnt hear the end of it. You’d be bitching for days. Do you ever just stop and think about what your posting?
And huntelaar is not world class, he warmed the bench at madrid, and is warming it again at milan, with no goals what so ever.
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@Beachryan: Very valid points indeed, just to elaborate a little. I am actually a lover of 4-4-2, I think it leads to good football with a nice balance between defence and attack. The problem is , our personnel do not suit the system. You see with the previous crop of players you had exactly what was required to play the system. Two wingers in that og Giggs and Beckham, not wingers but with very different qualities, and then most importantly you had good target men up front.Guys who could actually head the football. And Keane used to hold and scholes was our play maker and got the odd goal too which was required. Now with our current set of players, most of them do fit the profile for this system, since the manager is so keen on it, he needs to adapt it slightly9Just a thought. Our forwards clearly cant head the ball even if it struck them on the head. So our wingers need to play the ball to feet, just not hit and hope crosses. What our team lacks is a ball carrying midfielder, someone who can actually make the midfield runs. You dead on when you say we play with deep lying midfielders and thats fine but only when you have an outlet(Ronaldo), so you see we still lack that player in midfield. Maybe Adam or Possebon in the future but now we will be stuck with holding midfielders.(Hargo, Fletcher, Anderson, the whole lot of them). With regard to formation(still love 4-4-2) we might be able to play 4-3-1-2. Use all three of our defensive midfielders, and in front of them play Rooney/Berbatov with two strikers(Owen/Rooney/Berbatov depending on who wants to sit in the hole), now this might seem too attacking and against Uniteds way of play which is width, but this might work. Of course Owen will flourish with this system which plays through the middle and occassional width from the full backs. Sounds crazy, but then again it wil be beautiful.
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Apologies for the poor grammer, hope it made sense!
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: The problem here mate is that your interpretation of the smiley is not the same as 99.9% of the rest of the world. Smiley’s are a universal language unto themselves with strict definitions. The one you chose is universally known as “Shock”, not Mr. Bean. So please understand that i completely misunderstood your e-mail to me because of what you wrote but also because the smiley’s you added didn’t make any sense to me. It’s not a big deal and am fine with everything and if you were just joking no apology is even needed, but I just wanted to make it clear to you, I read the post differently than how you intended it. Anyway, lets move on to other things shall we.
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: I too should let you know that I use this smiley a lot
and it gets me in trouble with Red Ranter as he has a different understanding of it’s meaning than me. So I do see your point, believe me.
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@Beachryan: Arsenal play like Barca but are not Barca. We learned that the hard way late last season. As for what we platy, I can tell you exactly what we play. It’s a hybrid of the Italian and English games. Fergie has borrowed heavily from AC MIlan’s old playbook and it especially shows when we are in Europe (barring the Rome debacle last May). But in England we use it but are prone to try to incorporate a little more speed and more direct balls as a mix. The Milan system basically consists of two central midfielders who play way back and defend and two wingers who player higher up and cut in a lot as play makers while the strikers weave and spend very little time acting like central strikers. It works when you have the talent and the legs to pull it off, but when the talent isn’t there or cannot conform to the system, and the legs start feeling the age, it shows up badly. Four years ago when Pirlo, Kaka, Inzaghi and a lot of those Milan players were young and quick enough, it worked well. But look at Milan now. Older, slower and sucking wind. Why? Because like us, they are losing the midfield battle. The only midfield battle they have won all year was against the one team that has no midfield because they are all trying to be strikers and that’s Real Madrid.
This is all bad enough when Fergie borrows from somebody, but then his own tactical ineptitude has forced him to treat the game like a recipe for Milanese meat sauce and to throw some of his own spices into this Milanese concoction. His own British beliefs and tactical staples have been included which is his propensity for the long ball at times. Watch Serie A, you rarely see a direct ball. The ball is played on the ground and possession is 9/10 of the law. Well Fergie believes that but he still likes to avoid his midfield as much as possible and quite often gets his keepers or defenders to bypass the midfield and just punt long direct balls to the strikers or wingers. This was very evident against Liverpool and Barnsley this week. And above all, he has fallen in love with the worst tactic of all footballing tactics, the perpetual backpass. When in jeopardy, back pass is his motto. Our club has no bite because our club takes no chances on attack. When unsure, back pass. Man we play rubbish football these days. It wouldn’t be so bad if the Boss still had it when it comes to his superior motivational skills and man management, but even there, i seriously am having doubts about him. We are 1-0 down to liverpool in the 80th minute and he is seen chewing his gum and sitting on his hands while Rafa is on the touchline screaming and gesturing orders to his troops. Fergie could stand to read a little about Julius Caesar and George Patton, and less from the bible of armchair generals around the world. He needs to show more commitment and passion towards his players if he want s them to show it on the pitch. To me United look more and more like a cold corporate entity these as opposed to a football club. Thats all that concerns Man Utd these day’s their corporate brand.
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@Dan: Stop your crying already. Is that all you are capable of mate. Enough. Your insults mean nothing to me because they sound like the rants of a 4 year old. It’s hard to take a 4 year old seriously when he calls you a hypocrite because all he does is cry all day long and bitch about his food and his toys. I couldn’t give a rats ass what you think of Huntelaar because I regard your opinion as seriously biased and based on vengeance and bitterness. Fact is your replies sound childish. Truly, I’m tired of you and your Foster butt fuckathon. The guy sucks supremely and you will never ever see this because you have this strange and bent loyalty to the young payers of this team that for me seems a little creepy. So rotate on that Danny boy and kindly keep your insults and jibes to yourself. Insults don’t hurt me much anymore Dan, stupidity of others does. Give this topic a bloody rest already and we can go back to being friendly and cordial to one another, or at least civil. But you just can’t let it go now can you? RR tells me to leave you alone and yet you come back with the hypocrisy bit. You just don’t get it do you?
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@Beachryan: 4-2-3-1 would work mate but it still needs a player with the class to produce goals. When we used it last year against Arsenal away, we scored 3 goals but we also had Ronaldo as the one up front. Owen is no longer prolific enough, Berbatov is a hopeless case with us and Rooney is fine on the left side, I agree. We still need that goal scorer and we still need one of those five midfielders to become a play maker, a person who will continually look for Owen and anyone else. Instead, we look to back pass all day long. This club plays without vision or imagination. Rarely do we see players around the box work subtle 1,2′s or back passes other than Berbatov. And when he performs them, others are usually asleep to his thinking. Tactics are one thing mate, but this team needs greater motivation and a above all, it needs a serious injection of world class talent to help it get over the post Ronaldo blues.
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How long have I been away?! Seems this place cant live without me, fights all over the place!
Oh well…
Im gonna have my say on things in a short time.
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@Grognard: Now mate, this is not a comment directed to only this post. Its about your theory all together. Now this is not a critism of your philosophy(If you can call it that), but rather a wake up call. Most people would rather hope for the best and live the bad. Its the cycle of life. If you dont believe or hope to get the best, then what the fuck is the point of living. If none of us expect United to win anything this year, then what the fuck is the reason to follow the team? Makes no sense to me, especially as the ONE THING, if you are ever going to learn one thing as a United fan, its to always believe and enver give up. The line says itself, We`ll never die! So most people would rather not hope or expect the worst, as it doesnt help them a lot. You say it yourself, I expect the worst so I can get a pleasent surprise when we win. Well, suit yourself, but most people dont look at it that way. And besides, even though thats your theory you always get mad when we lose. You are all doom and gloom, and when stuff are bad you have every right to be pessimistic. But when things are actually great, or in situations when people should hope for the best and take Obamas catchphrase into account, you should hope for the best and believe that it will happen. Makes you happier, and even though your experience is vital and you may not think of it the way we do as you have been through many things and lived through waaaaaay more than me, you should still hope for the best. Sometimes it looks like you hope the bad is gonna happen, which may piss off a lot of people. Now I dont care too much myself about that, but other people may take offence of that and that itself creates discussions and make you controversial. Just saying mate.
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@Grognard: You know what, there is so, so much i could say about you, you’re posts, your personality. You are massively flawed, you think you are always right, you think your opinion means more then anybody elses, you cry like a bitch when someone says the slightest thing to you, then you will say things a lot lot worst, like insulting their intelligence, as if to say your mind is a gift from the gods. Then when we complain, you call us children. You are one fucked person, do you know that?
You are not above anyone on this site, despite what you believe. And im not the only one that thinks this. You are a good person, but you are massively flawed, and these are some home truths that you may or may not have known.
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@Footy4Eddy: Eddy forgive me for saying this but you are what 16 or 17 now. I have followed United for more than twice your lifetime and I followed them when they had become complete shite in the 80′s before Fergie. You only know United during Fergie’s regime so it makes total sense for you to be all positive and to expect everything to be super, but I remember the bad times and I was alive and aware of the truly dreadful times when the team was actually relegated back in the 73/74. I became a hard core fan just two seasons after that. I have been with the team through the good and the bad and i have seen the club endure slumps as well.
My problem with the club now is the realization that Fergie has reached the end of the line with this present group of players and that he has also reached the end of his success as a manager. It’s time for a regime change, and not just the manager, but the ownership of the club must change for this club to ever feel the power to maintain it’s domination of the English game. A massive debt and a yearly transfer kitty of 20 million is not going to do a damn thing for United and it’s important for you and other like minded individuals to realize this. The club is in massive trouble and it’s important to come to grips with that reality. We make a lot of money but it’s as if the money made then goes through a paper shredder thanks to the Glazer’s. Theat family of ass clowns has forced Fergie to put up with things as they are and have literally tied his hands behind his back when it comes to making the moves necessary to improve this club.
And lets not leave Ferguson blameless in all this. He has plenty to answer for but my loyalty to him and trust still remains even though I have massive doubts. I feel that if only he was given the money to buy the players he needs to restructure the club, then we would be alright. But that has not yet happened and I seriously doubt it will under the Glazers. I’ve been around a long time mate so please grant me the right to brood and whine as I feel like doing. Frankly, after 35 years I have earned that right. I have seen the ups and the downs and i am desperate to not see the downs again, Ron Atkinson be damned. I want united to get their house in order and stop being nothing more than a corporate whore. Start caring about the fans again and about producing the kind of product we all want to see. It’s not just about winning at united, it’s about winning with style. The day we left that motto behind was the day things started to go pear shaped for the club on the pitch. I’d rather lose 3-4 than lose 0-1 with no great scoring chances. We lost to liverpool in a massive game and created one great scoring chance all afternoon. That is not the United I have grown up to know over the past 35 years. It’s time to put the fans first again and entertainment back into the product.
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@Dan: Sticks and stones little man, sticks and stones. And trust me, you do not want me to define who you are. Now go back to your crib and play with your toys.
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I just saw the juventus-sampdoria game. And Diego is one special player. Deco is a poor man’s diego! We do not have anyone with that range of passing, intent to attack and vision. Some of his through balls and lobs to the wide players coming into the box just make you think about what we’re missing as a team.
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@Grognard: And there you go again. Despite what you may think, you are not above me or anyone on this blog. The only child i see is you. Funny considering your age.
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cunts!
http://picasaweb.google.com/bildani/UntitledAlbum#5398083537687487842
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Are we really discussing the interpretation of smileys??
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