Sep 10
Benitez Smokescreen Over Duo | United’s Champions’ League Squad Announced
Rafa Benitez is still hopeful over his star duo — Gerrard and Torres — returning for our trip to Anfield. This comes in the face of Gerrard ruling himself out and Torres being out with a hamstring injury. I would think a hamstring injury takes about two to four weeks to heal and even if he does make it, I’d suspect he will be partly fit. But I do trust Rio and Vida to tackle the El Nino threat. Rio would be clearing up space in his back pocket in preparation for Anfield.
The centre back has been laid low with a stiff neck, although it looks like he might play in today’s snoozefest friendly world cup qualifier against a good looking Croatia.
Some of our other lads are also expected to represent their respective countries. Here’s hoping for an injury free outing for them.
Also, the club has announced the Champions’ League squad:
Goalkeepers
No. Name
1 Edwin van der Sar
12 Ben Foster
29 Tomasz Kuszczak
38 Ron-Robert Zieler *
40 Ben Amos *
Defenders
No. Name
2 Gary Neville
3 Patrice Evra
5 Rio Ferdinand
6 Wes Brown
15 Nemanja Vidi?
20 Fabio Da Silva
21 Rafael Da Silva
22 John O’Shea
23 Jonny Evans *
36 David Gray *
39 James Chester *
42 Richard Eckersley *
Midfielders
No. Name
4 Owen Hargreaves
8 Anderson
11 Ryan Giggs
13 Ji-Sung Park
16 Michael Carrick
17 Nani
18 Paul Scholes
19 Daniel Welbeck *
24 Darren Fletcher
28 Darron Gibson *
33 Sam Hewson *
34 Rodrigo Possebon
35 Thomas Cleverley *
Forwards
No. Name
7 Cristiano Ronaldo
9 Dimitar Berbatov
10 Wayne Rooney
26 Manucho
32 Carlos Tévez
[source: UEFA.com]
Some of the names make interesting reading. Observe the number of goal keepers, and Danny Welbeck as midfielder (of course, I believe that must be a mistake).
There is some Berbatov story, if you’re interested — on him never swearing and always carrying a copy of the Bible. I don’t know whether to get excited at this or yawn. But he says that he’s learned to behave himself and change from being the petulant man he was during his younger days. We shall have to wait to see it on the pitch, but I already see a desire in his eyes when I saw his first interview to MUTV. I hope I’m proven right and he turns out to be a smashing player for us.
Other than that, it’s another dry day of international friendlies. If you find them interesting though, then the day won’t be quite as dry as it promises to be for me.
*Yawn*
Related items from Red Rants:
- Manchester United’s Munich tribute on 6 Feb 2008
- MUFC US Tour – Squad Announced
- Manchester United 07/08 Squad Numbers released
- United’s Tongue Twisting Duo and What they Mean
- Red Rants’ Paper round-up
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
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Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Testing Google Chrome… Seems to work…
Looks slick in any case…
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Possebon vs Birmingham reserves
Wheee!
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@Nico QB: any major differences to Internet explorer?
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@dan(u-ol):
Can I have my arm back after you just bit it off?! Maybe you should join anger management along with Joey Barton?
Just so you are aware I was refering to the Rooney comment where he ‘needs to make up for the last 3 years’, just ridiculous…… but I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion so I will in future ignore those who clearly have the football brain of a pea…..
Red Ranter: yes it was uncalled for so apologies to both yourself and Daniel(u-ol). I’ll bite my tongue next time……
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Craig: MAte Last night i looked up the link you gave me for the England game and somehow mate I never got to watch the match coz the links were
all fake ones….OOOOOHHHHHH i hate frickin Setanta…………………….
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@Liam: Personally its crap.
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@Liam: people still use IE?
With me it’s either Firefox 3 or (currently) Chrome.
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@Ryan: If a comment is “ridiculous” you either ignore it or try to reason with the person. Not to insult someone’s intelligence. There’s no point apologising when you just again alluded to Dan having the brain of a pea.
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@Red Ranter: Exactly my thoughts, RR. Opera too is not too bad…
As for Chrome, the single address/ search bar takes some getting used to, but its been looking good for the past 2 hours or so i’ve been using it…
Oh and I posted this on the previous post, just like to repeat it if you haven’t caught it:
Be sure to check Traverse’s rock band – ‘lilith rising’ or ‘ambrosia dreaming’ something like that
They rock (precisely) 
or rather they rock you in their own way – if you like post rock that is… 
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@Red Ranter:
I read this site and there is no reasoning with the ‘Rooney haters’. So i’ll stick with the ignoring…
Keep up the good work RR.
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@Ryan: what the hell? your going to apologize then say i have the brain of a pea. lets get this right, because i think rooney has under performed for the last 3 years, i have the brain of a pea. i guess im not allowed to have an opinion these days, first nikos and now you, i guess some of you are naturally born prats, who cant even have a simple debate with another human being.
F@*£!n 7r@t
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Maroon, no they weren’t mate, because I got on to watch the earlier Wales match. Did you try http://www.channelsurfing.com?. Thats the one I watched some of the Wales match on. Before the GF told me she had added setanta sports to our tv selection
. Try that one in future mate, and let me know – ok?.
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@Craig Mc: Hehe craig, thats not nice…
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Ryan, I feel the same way about the Ronaldo haters mate
. but we are all going to have opinions on players, and we have to leave others with theirs. Argue the toss by all means, I do, but if a player to some people is magic etc etc etc, to others he may not be. That’s why debating can be so much FUN mate. That’s why it is fantastic banter on the terraces at OT, verbal scraps galore and pumped up opinions on players form 
.
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Dan(u)ol, ????? what’s not nice Bro?. Something I said?,
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Maroon, I don’t know what bloody happened mate. Yesterday I went on http://www.channelsurfing.com that was posted on RepublicofMancunia, and It gave a list of the matches. I watch the Wales one for a bit. I’m not going feckin mad
. Sorry mate, I just clicked on and it is something else. I don’t get it 
.
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@Craig Mc:
But no one doubts Ronaldo’s ability, he is a freak of football nature and that is the only reason we will forgive him. He is too important for us to drive him out over his so called dream. People dont have to like him but must get behind him because we need him.
I thought it was the Nani knockers that you had the problem with
With Rooney its simple, he has struggled with serious injuries and been asked to play out of position constantly. But he still manages to improve each season! People knock the fact he chases all round the pitch yet he has always done that(remember his challenge on ronaldo when an everton player!!) yet only now its a problem?! No wonder he lacks confidence when even united fans slate him, get behind him for god sake. Maybe his biggest mistake was scoring a hat trick on his debut.
It showed last night just how well he plays behind a bigger striker and with Berbatov now at the club I can only see him improving further more and we should see more consistency as long as he is put where he is most effective and not shuffled around.
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Ryan, I hope your right mate
. Berbatov could work out very well for Rooney’s game, and vice versa m’thinks. I love little man Nani, but ‘knockers’ abound all through football, and Rooney has just had a ‘National Knocking.’ Because the nation seemingly felt he had not been doing it for England. He showed them last night though, and if that is what the critics do to stir him up to that kind of 2nd half performance, I am all for it. A good kick up the arse doesn’t do anyone any harm, and that goes for all players, no matter who they are.
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@Craig Mc: I like Rooney and Ronaldo so can I make a claim for immunity from petty arguements
on second thoughts I love getting into arguements so ignore that last comment.
@Red Ranter:I never bothered changing to any other browser, what are the advantages? Also I’ve got an iPod touch which goes on the Internet so I use that all the time now because my computer is rubbish and takes ages to startup
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Maroon, I made a mistake mate, the website addy is www/channelsurfing.net. I just went over to RepublikofMancunia and checked. I got onto where the live streams are. That is where one of the connections for the stream brought up the Wales match. The England match was also streamed for later, but I now have setanta.
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@dan(u-ol):
But didnt you agree with Orez who posted the following -
“I would rather have a lazy bastard like Drogba, who scores goals, then a “true red” like Rooney, who is a piece of shit player”.
very hypocritical calling me a prat me thinks.
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@Craig Mc:
Tell me, who has being doing it for England over the last few years then? Because quite frankly I cant name anyone so to single out Rooney is a tad unfair.
Nani will be brilliant at times and frustrating at others but he’s young and people only get frustrated because they know he has the ability and I think with the consistency Anderson showed last season people expected the same for Nani.
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Liam, that’s what I mean. Some people can take it, that if some people question a players present or past form, that they are just wanting to stir up a hornets nest. A hornets nest may be stirred up, because people who support the person whose form is being questioned, get supportive and uppity. If we are honest, we all do some of that
. Yet though I personally debate heavily, I still don’t expect everyone else to agree with me. In fact, disagreement is at the essence of debate. I enjoy it all. I try to stay away from vilifying another blogger where differences in opinion are concerned. I have had my knuckles rapped by the blog headmaster once or twice. Problem is, people sometimes come on to the blog, after the games, straight from the pub etc, and having enjoyed some hearty ale. At these times, debate might not be conducive to the sanitised blog RR would like to have. So I warn when I come on if I am lager braindead 
. If however I speak inappropriately at other times, well knuckle rap away 
.
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Ryan, I couldn’t agree more. Most of the players have fallen short of their best for England. Yet to overexaggerate and say that Rooney alone has been singled out, is not entirely true mate. Lampard and Gerrard, Beckham and others have been very heavily criticised too. See this is what I mean about being oversensitive to criticism of the players we happen to love. You think Andie was consistent last season, and Nani wasn’t. Yet Fergie himself said, that he left Anderson out of quite a few games during the season BECAUSE he was young and there was INCONSISTENCY in his game. I watched the end of season review dvd. Nani had so many assists, and contributed to the VITAL goals from players when we desperately needed to score, or lose the game. His balls into the box were superb. Yet there will still be those who feel Andie contributed more. Its swings and roundabouts mate. We just have to AGREE to DISAGREE with each other in the end
.
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@Craig Mc:
I think with Anderson in his position its harder for us to judge his consistency, yes there were games where he wasnt as effective but I never felt it stood out that he needed to be rested – its easy for the master sir alex to spot these things rather than us fans either watching on the terraces or on tv. Nani however plays in a position and plays a certain way that he can lose the ball 5 times in a row then put in a peach of a ball which we score from and suddenly he has had an effective game even though his ball retention was crap! Effectiveness and consistency can show up in different ways.
I said Rooney as you had stated Rooney had a national bashing! Lampard is a player who has disapointed the most especially when we see him control games for Chelsea week in week out. I blame it all on the overated John Terry
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@Craig Mc: This is in response to the question you asked Dan (as in “what’s not nice”). His comment had a link “@craig mc” in red. So if you click on that red @craig mc in that particular comment, it will automatically take you to your comment he was referring to. Even you can create that specific red thingy by clicking the curved arrow image against each commenter’s name.
I said this so that it’ll be useful to you in responding to any specific comment in future. This feature was added when you were on a hiatus, so I thought you’d like to know about this new feature.
[For example, if you click @craig mc at the beginning of this particular comment, it will take you to the comment where you were talking to dan.]
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@Red Ranter: Why thankyou Red Ranter, very interesting
. Are we meant to use that thingy then, whenever responding to someone elses post?. It does make thing easier I believe 
.
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@Ryan: Its not that I’m particularly saying Nani had an effective game, but rather that he has effected many games by one magic and precise pass into the box
. Its all a question of who each of us loves to watch surely?. Each player has his supporters, and I’m okay with that.
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Will Carrick be back from his ankle injury?
Also didn’t Anderson get injured for Brazil?
Is it just me or does Ando get injured every time hes off on international guty?
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@Kal: Reports say Carrick and Giggs are fit, but i haven’t heard much on Anderson.
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@Craig Mc: It was created for making life easy for everyone.
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guty* – duty
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Hey guys I just heard on Sky Sports News that BOTH Gerrard and Torres are fit for the game on Saturday. I guess on the plus side they want have any excuses when they get beat!
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@Hakieran: How can they be fit all of a sudden? Fat Rafa being a snake as usual… well, at least we will beat a full strength liverpool squad tmz
make it all the sweeter…
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I heard the same as Hakieran and so went to verify this by going on the liverpool website where i found that they had actually just been included in the squad with benitez having this to say
So basically they did some light training and benitez said that they could play not that they would play so i think this is just mind games.
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@OllieY: well, the mind games are not gonna work on United.. we do not fear torres or gerrard; Rio and Ando have had those two in their back pockets before
maybe Fat Rafa should work on building Keane’s confidence, after Fergie took a swipe at it… 
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@OllieY: true…and even if they are included, I can’t see them miraculously reaching full fitness overnight.
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Does anybody know if the line up has been confirmed for tomorrow’s game? Anybody?
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You guys are forgetting, this is the dippers we are talking about. Even with a full squad and they lose, they’ll always have something to moan about. The referee, our players diving, deliberate handball and so on if you get my drift.
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@ManU Fan Foreva: Do you think Fergie would release the team 24 hours before a vital game?
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Craig:No problem mate anyways thanks for trying,BTW is Anderson fit to face the scousers..????
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@Ryan: Ive just read all your comments here on this article and I agree with you on everything. I also think the way you handled dan(u-ol) and Craig Mc was spot on too.
@Craig Mc: are you kidding me?! you changed yer tune anyway! a line from your last comment…
and this from a previous post to me… Link
Anyway, I’m hoping we win 2-1 with Berba starting on the bench and maybe 15 mins at the end. Tevez to get both.
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Berbatov to start and score…
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Dimi Berbatov:
“Sometimes people would say that I am lazy but it’s not true. My body language can be confusing. I may not need to run non-stop, because there is no need to chase unreachable balls.
“I like to play with my head. It’s not about laziness, it’s about the cleverness of the player. Real quality doesn’t need to show effort.”
I wonder if he’s making comparisons with any of our existing strikers *cough* Roovez *cough*
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@Nico QB: easy NICO, don’t give the English press any ammunition in their quest to ridicule and derail Man Utd.. Berba is just defending himself from those naive or ignorant of his style of play. Roovez are young players, and with time and experience, they will begin to conserve that energy for the third part of the pitch, as of now, they give us that grit we need to strike some fear into our opponents, and i’m happy with that.
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@Gabriel: im naive and ignorant of his style of play im afraid. i cant help but see it as laziness.
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@jstar7: I think you summed yourself well there mate is you can only see him as lazy.
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@jstar7: well, each to his own then.. maybe sheringham, bergkamp, ibrahimovic and co are lazy too, after all, they have similar playing styles….
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@jstar7: Is scholes having an injection on …his balls in your avatar?
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@Gabriel: ibrahimovic is lazy yes.
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