Sep 16
Berba, Heskey, Ronaldo and a Wet Hen
Berba, Heskey, Ronaldo and a wet hen – quite a motley collection, but wrapped up in this riddle are two important lessons. First, a trap that United need to avoid to make best use of Berbatov; and second, the only thing our beloved Cristiano needs to do to improve on last season’s performance.
The Heskey Trap
Back in the mists of time, before Rooney had established himself, Emile Heskey was one of England’s first choice strikers. Bear with me, all those of you who are about to switch off because I’m talking about the England team – there’s a moral here. Michael Owen played off him, and behind him was a midfield containing Scholes, Gerrard and Beckham, all in their pomp. Ashley Cole and Gary Neville provided energetic attacking support from the wings.
This was an embarrassment of riches, a pool of talent that should have been able to shred all but the most Italian defences. When they got in right, the speed and intricacy of their passing and movement was impossible to live with.
But they got it right only once in a blue moon, because of Heskey. Not even because of what Heskey did – he wasn’t in the same league, but he didn’t actively hinder the passing football played behind him, he just milled around the area hoping for a cross – but because of what his presence made others do.
Knowing they had a big, powerful physical presence up front, the English defenders started to lob long balls up to him. Not just occasionally, but all the fucking time. The keepers followed suit, launching o-zone puncturing kicks, hoping that Heskey would either win a free kick or some scraps for Owen to feed off. They simply bypassed the superstar, fantasy football midfield in the hope that some over-enthusiastic big bloke would scare and hustle international defenders into mistakes. No crosses from the by-line from Beckham, no intelligent through balls from Scholes, no fearless bursts from Gerrard, no using Owen’s pace to stretch the play – just long ball after long ball to Heskey.
Now, I am an England fan (second, obviously). This had me banging me head against the wall, game after game, to the point that I could no longer watch and that even the merest inkling of this tactic is enough to get me going. And there was the merest inkling of it on Saturday against Liverpool.
Yes, we needed some height up front, and a physical presence – those attributes were oft repeated on this blog and elsewhere during the tortuous summer search for a striker. And yes, occasionally good things will come from high balls to Berbatov, like the free kick he won in the first half. Despite this, the long ball should be a last resort or a surprise tactic – not, I repeat not a staple to fall back on whenever we’re under pressure.
We have the players to play some of the best football going, from back to front. A feature of our play is how cleverly we recycle the ball from our defensive third into quality possession in midfield. Nobody’s interests will be served (least of all Berbatov’s) if we add a higher percentage of hopeful punts into our repertoire.
Let’s hope I never have to mention this again.
Cristiano’s Wet Hen Routine
Moving on, I don’t need to recap Ronaldo’s record from last season, no to regurgitate the entirely deserved praise that his many match-winning performances received. Let’s take that as a given, and understand that I am making the only recommendation I can think of to improve his (on-field) game.
No, not to stop diving. I don’t think he dives all that much, and certainly nothing like how much he used to. He will always be accused of diving, because he is always seeking to beat people and always being kicked at – sometimes he is caught, sometimes he goes down expecting the tackle, and on the odd occasion he goes down anyway. I contend that the reason for the dives you do see is his level of frustration with the number of blatant free kicks that he does not get given – whether consciously or subsconsciously, he is trying to even up the balance.
What he must stop doing is showing that frustration in the way he does. You can all picture it – he has just been blatantly brought down, and for some unfathomable reason has not been given the free kick. He sits down on the floor, arms waving up and down at the referee, then he looks up at the heavens, ostentatiously pulls his socks up and drags himself to his feet. The next couple of minutes are characterised by a bemused, “what do I have to do to get a decision from this ref” smirk.
All of which makes referees absolutely hate him. They get visibly bored of having to give him free kicks all the time, so occasionally they turn a blind eye to a foul just to even up the averages. I mean, one player can’t get fouled that often, can they? So some of them must be dives (after all, I know Ronaldo dives, don’t I?), so I must have given him a free kick for a dive somewhere along the line. Then they see him go down easily to do some averaging-out of his own, and that makes them hate the whole process even more.
Ronaldo needs to view the ref as a goodwill project in each game he plays. He needs to ref to be his mate, to sympathise with him when he is on the receiving end of all the fouls he draws. When he goes down, he needs to get back up again straight away and wait to see if he’s got the free kick later. He needs to shift his image in the eyes of refs as a diver and a whinger who makes them look as bad as defenders half the time.
Last season, it was quite clear that a few refs turned up at the game with the specific intention of “cracking down on Ronaldo’s antics” – not all the time, just some of the time. Others started neutral, and got more and more bored with him as the game went on.
From what we’ve seen over the summer, I doubt Cristiano has the necessary mindset to pander to a sub-species such as referees, but I hope I’m wrong. It would be the last major breakthrough for his game.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Fergie’s Wind Up Act, Levy and Not Much Else
- The January Transfer Window – Possible Targets
- Man Utd v Villarreal: Preview
- Liverpool 2-1 Man Utd: Questions Galore for Fergie
- Man Utd v West Ham: Preview
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Stephen (454)
Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Liam: He has done it again, the scouse bastard!!
1-2 liverpool…
Like?
0 
0
Feck it, who cares? So Liverpool lead 2-1. BIG DEAL!! They still have to play Atletico home and away, they lead 1-0 btw, so its difficult to say. Its still only the first game. They lost against Shaktar last season! They will lose again, we will win again!
Like?
0 
0
@RedDevilEddy: calm down mate!! no one is panickin, we’re just commentin on the game… of course they will loose at some point, they are scouse, aren’t they?
Like?
0 
0
What has happened to Roma? They are losin 2-1!
Like?
0 
0
Mmmmm – just shows what wonders a win against United can do for a team. They think they are feckin world beaters now, having broken their hoodoo, and are about to take both our trophies off us. Confidence from winning games gives a team a different psyche.
Like?
0 
0
On the otherhand, losing to a team that you have beaten for the last 5 years, can have the opposite effect on a teams psyche. The next two games will tell us, just how much it has effected our psyche.
.
I am looking forward to seeing what Manucho can add to us. With Berba not being available for tomorrow, I wonder if Manucho will be on the bench, and brought on at some point. I suppose it depends whether Fergie feels Ronaldo will be enough firepower to bring on.
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: It’s not just Liverpool and their fans that are suspectible to that, just look at this place after we lose or have a big win
Like?
0 
0
well that aguero kid looks like the real deal, no where near pato level but he has a monster talent and coming from a die hard brasil fan, its hard for me to say
p.s that john terry suspension revoke is just bullshit in it highest form, i wonder how much roman had to pay the FA or the FA didn’t need money just had their trousers round their ankles waiting for the frigging chavs
Like?
0 
0
@JB: Thing is though JB, United fans are usually right in their euphoria
. Our team usually do go on to WIN things, like the PL. L’Pool fans euphoria for the past 10 years, where winning the prem is concerned has been misplaced to say the least. Time will tell Bro 
.
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: And they are usually wrong in their doom mongering
I still have a hard time believing that any team with Dirk Kuyt as a regular starter will ever win the league!
Like?
0 
0
Chelsea look the business!! They are hungry as ever to win and it’ll be so sweet when we put a spanner in their works this weekend…
Like?
0 
0
JB –
.
Gabriel, Woah, you are very positive about the Chelsea game eh mate?. Think we need to GET a competent midfield first Bro
, 
.
Like?
0 
0
Awww come on Fergie, I really want to see what Manucho is like. I watched him play in the African nations cup, he was brilliant in an average team. He scored great goals for his greek team whenevr they played him too. I’m very inquisitive how he will perform with us
.
Like?
0 
0
liam the problem is nani does not go at defenders enough or is it that he cant, RichmondRed giggs is done he is finished way past his best last season showed he is past it finally, from his debut in the 91/92 season to the 06/07 season he was great and this better be his last year, along with g neville o shea park maybe fletcher and vds is well. because if any of those players outlasts ronaldo I am not going to be a happy person. it is time for the likes of foster anderson nani and rooney is well to realy step up to the plate and take united to the next level.
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: Of course i’m positive, things are only gonna get better… I see us really turning on the style tomorrow against villareal and carry that performance to Stamford Bridge, where Chelski won’t kno wat hit ‘em.
Our midfield is okay… Hargo and Fletch are both excellent holding players/anchors, so all we need is an AMF, of which we have three, Anderson, Scholes and Possebon. For the chelski game, I reckon we should only play scholes for the first half, as he tends to tire out early in the second, or maybe bring him on in the second to add composure and possession to our midfield late in the game.
Our wingers are all fit, Nani, Park, Giggs and Ronnie. We have four fit strikers, Rooney, Tevez, Berba and Manucho. Our defence is a bit shaky, but we have Rio at the helm, so not much could go wrong.. besides, by the time the chelski game comes around, Rio, Evra, Brown will be available, so maybe Evans might get a look in.
We are on the up mate, the squad is getting back to full strength and I can only see better performances from now on…
Like?
0 
0
Yes I totally agree with the Ronaldo comments…I absolutely HATE it when he whines after he doesn’t get the goal and even sometimes when he DOES get the call…if that whole attitude was taken away from his game, he would be even greater…but like I said, its an ATTITUDE of who he is, so he needs some sort of epiphany to fix that so im not counting on it happening anytime soon in this young lad’s life
Like?
0 
0
@Mr.Muhozi: Aguero is better than Pato, much better.
I’m confident of getting a result at Stamford Bridge, provided we play our best players in their best positions. I think we should try our formation against Chelsea in the Villareal game. That way we won’t go into the game with an untried formation and it will give the players more confidence if we win tomorrow and play the same system on Sunday
Like?
0 
0
@Liam: Mate, i’ve been singin that same song for ages… we have the set of players, just put ‘em in the right position/formation and let ‘em gel… we are playing at home tmz, hence are at an advantage already, so we can try the formation we intend to use against chelski!!
We’ve only played one game at home this season and we were unlucky not to get a victory then… now with our players gettin back and us adopting a competent formation, I can see us turning on the style tmz night…
Like?
0 
0
How to beat Chelski:
Do not make stupid mistakes like we did against Zenit and Liverpool.
Defend like your life, the whole universe depend on it.
Make John Terry look like a fool and make him sad with chants about Moscow.
PICK RIO FERDINAND AS CAPTAIN!!!
Play Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra as a defense to contain Joe Coles, Drogba/Anelka and Malouda.
Play a midfield of Scholes, Anderson and Hargreaves vs Mikel, Lampard and Deco.
Play Ronaldo, Tevez and Berbatov when you are up against a defense of Terry, Bosingwa, Cole and Carvalo.
Take your chances!
Cross for Berba.
Make Ronaldo play on the left wing against Bosingwa while Berbatov is the striker and Tevez runs everywhere behind him.
Do not wait for Chelski to attack, we must attack them!
Like?
0 
0
btw, UNITED RULE!!!
Like?
0 
0
I can’t wait for tomorrow, i just need to watch Man Utd play like normal again, and squad selection should be interesting too. I think in the absence of Carrick, Possbeon should be given field time tomorrow, maybe not start him, but bring him on like 30mins to go against Newcastle
@RedDevilEddy: That Back 4 scares me, I haven’t watched Villareal much, so i can’t comment on them, but i don’t think that’ll hold against Chelsea.
Liverpool have been LUCKY this season so far, they’ve been very average, but yet they’ve come out with wins, i really hope they meet a team that really exposes their mediocrity so far this season.
Also any news on FOSTER???? In his last interview, Fergie said all players were fit(before Carrick got crocked), does anyone know if that included him too?? I think he should get a run-out tomorrow too.
Like?
0 
0
Whoever said, whats the betting that fecker Ballack will suddenly be fit for the United game, you are right, HE IS. Amazing how all long term injuries sudeenly miraculously recover for the United game. Only goos thing is, Ballacks will not be totally up to match fitness.
Gabriel, if United defeat Chelski at their place, I will be feckin amazed bro, because we have not got any kind of record there. Except the draw just after we won the PL, and then we only played their reserves mostly
.
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: We could’ve beaten them last year had Rooney not been injures and had we gone with a full strength team. Fergie had to plan for the Barca match so we were not strong enough.
Tomorrow we gotta play a strong midfield to contain Marcos Senna. He is strong so we need both Hargo and Andy to play. Park and Nani wide and Roovez up front. Fletcher to come on and probably Giggs if we are leading 2-0. Ronaldo also to give him some match fitness ahead of Stamford Bridge. If we play with 3 in midfield, we should have Raphael on the right and Brown and Rio in center.
Like?
0 
0
Im sorry 2 all those who wish 2 have Slave’s name changed to Cristiano. I will continue to refer to him as that. I was lectured on this very blog with ridiculous justifications,when i requested ppl 2 refrain from using PIG to refer to Kusczack. Or the dog eating chant on Park. So dont expect any less treatment from the Slave who christened himself that name anyway. On the same player. I will cheer his goals,enjoy his skills and boast about his pitch abilities no doubt. However, i hate to be proven right in bad things twice in less than a week. Firstly i said if fergie started with Berba and Roovez it would spectacularly backfire and prior to that i had been saying the Slave is a total ass who doesnt give a crap about fans or anyone else other than the Slave. ‘They will love me when i put that red jersey again.’ Arrogant nutbag
Like?
0 
0
Moving on. I cant wait to c Manucho on the field to showcase his stuff. The guy is an amazing talent. I mean i watched him closely at ACN,and it seems his goal ratio is very high. Drogba high. Great eye 4 goal,stronger than Saha and Rooney put together,shockingly agile,an expert in the air(which could be a bad thing in the sense Penguin pointed out),unstoppable nuclear shot,quick and good playmaking skills. Drawback. Can be a bit selfish. But im telling u the guy is that good. Just dont place Berbatov expectations on his debut. He had it worse than Berba ito preparations. And tomorrow. Four four freakin two please. And Hargreaves should play. He was born 4 Europe. And dont make him RB. Or else sell Evans and burn the youth academy
Like?
0 
0
uniteds record against chelsea is realy a myth especially at stamford bridge and here are the reasons why, united have not put out a real manchester utd side since the 2002/2003 season and I will show everyone the teams since that season that leaves alot to be desired going to chelsea’s ground.
02/03 season {a} to chelsea
Carroll, Phil Neville, Blanc, O’Shea, Silvestre, Butt, Keane, Beckham, giggs, Scholes, van nistlerooy
subs Williams, Tierney, Veron, Solskjaer, forlan
03/04 season {a} to chelsea
Howard, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, silvestre, o shea, Keane, Phil Neville, fortune, giggs, van nistlerooy, forlan
subs Butt, Bellion, Carroll, ronaldo, Kleberson
04/05 season {a} to chelsea
Howard, Silvestre, Gary Neville, Keane, Fortune, Miller, O’Shea, Djemba Djemba, Giggs, Scholes, Smith
subs Ricardo, Phil Neville, Bellion, Forlan, Richardson
same season {a} to chelsea
Howard, Phil Neville, Silvestre, O’Shea, Heinze, Fletcher, Djemba-Djemba, ronaldo, Fortune, Rooney, Saha
subs Carroll, Miller, Spector, Scholes, Smith
05/06 season {a} to chelsea
Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre, o shea, giggs, Ronaldo, park, rooney, saha
subs Howard, Brown, Evra, Richardson, van Nistelrooy
06/07 season {a} to chelsea
Kuszczak, Lee, Brown, O’Shea, Heinze, Eagles, Smith, Fletcher, Richardson, Solskjaer, Dong,
subs Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Scholes, Carrick, Rooney
07/08 {a} to chelsea
Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, silvestre, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Nani, giggs, Rooney
subs Kuszczak, Tevez, Hargreaves, Ronaldo, O’Shea
you look at those lineups and how many times would you say united have a great chance of winning, only once when beckham was still wearing the no 7 shirt and ronaldo was in his first full season as a pro. when united faced chelsea in the 06/07 season at old trafford united almost beat them, and that was a real united side. last year in 3 of the 4 meetens between the two united won the 3 matches because united were at full strength.
Like?
0 
0
Viva Roovez
Like?
0 
0
Jay talk about calling the kettle black, so tell me this Jay are you happy with berbertov’s attitude and how he treated the spurs fans. Because his conduct was just as bad or even worse then ronaldo, I have no problem with christiano it’s about time to stop bitching and moaning and forget about the summer and cheer on ronaldo again. Don’t forget ronaldo as done more for united in two years then cantona had done in his entire time at united.
and for the messi fans on this site and everywhere how did he do again did he get on the score sheet no, it gets embarrassing every week goes by saying messi is the best in the world because I seem to be seeing this guy messi that as very little substance to his game, he scores about 12 goals a season and just keeps breaking down for half the season, what as messi won nothing. while ronaldo just wipes every award going winning two titles and a european cup, its fine for messi doing all these little tricks and flicks but where does it get him nowhere, look what he can do with the ball this and that but his goal scoring record is not even as good as rooney and tevez and they have been criticised for not scoring enough goals so what makes messi the best when he does not score enough goals, he is not fit week in week out and his threat on goal is not great, I have never seen messi truly change the fortunes of barcelona in the way ronaldinho and c ronaldo have done for barcelona and manchester utd. people seem to rate messi over ronaldo because half the people hate ronaldo and cant swallow their pride and see one of the true greats.
Like?
0 
0
@Jay wire:
“Four four freakin two please. And Hargreaves should play. He was born 4 Europe. And dont make him RB. Or else sell Evans and burn the youth academy”
haha…Love the fire….
Like?
0 
0
@Krishnan: A bit of a poor excuse mate, because Chelsea had to plan for L’Pool CL semi final, but still put their full team out
.
@Jay wire: I think you will find that people are being asked to refrain from using the word slave, not because they care about it offending Ronnie. It’s because it offends the black football players across every league, and the black community in general, because of their state of ancestral slavery. That is something we should all not want to offend. They feel calling football players slaves, belittles the plight of those who suffered TRUE slavery and bondage. You should at least consider their feelings Jaywire.
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: Eeehhh?
I’m black, african, my ancestors were apparently slaves but I have no problem with calling Ronaldo a slave! In fact I think it justifies even more the abberation of Ronaldo’s declaration. Ronnie, You SLAVE!!!
Like?
0 
0
in some economic news
AIG is in trouble….hope they dont do a vodafone
Like?
0 
0
i cant get a link to work but yq AIG s going under..its not viable to live in the states anymore
Like?
0 
0
slave is not an offensive word. it can and has applied to virtually every ethnicity on the planet. Just cause you equate slaves with africans, doesnt make it offensive. and like it has already been stated, Cristiano is the one who agrred with the slave comments, so if you have a beef take it up with him.
Someone needs to remind Ronaldo that slaves generally dont get paid, or drive 100k pound bently’s…
Like?
0 
0
@RMJ: The US Federal Reserve has provided a rescue package to keep AIG afloat. To be honest if AIG goes under there is more to worry about in the world than United’s shirt sponsorship deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7620127.stm
@t_reason: Evans has only ever played LB and CB so I doubt we would see him at RB over Hargreaves.
Like?
0 
0
@RichmondRed: as a once proud member of ANL, i understand how some people would find the moniker “slave” offensive. According to Fergie “the lad has shown a level of maturity in the last couple of weeks,. . . he hasn’t thrown all his toys out of the pram!” Well lets be thankful for small mercies! How about “Ronave” then? Personally i dont like the “Berbacrap” bullshit, but i wouldn’t dare infringe on anyones right to express themselves.
Like?
0 
0
@johnsom33: What sort of a reply is that mate
. Following Blatter and Ronnie’s slave comments, all across radio and tv sports and news programmes, BLACK players were profusely complaining about the offense of using the word SLAVE for footballers. I know other races may have suffered from slavery too, but it was BLACK sportsmen, and other races supporting them, that were offending by the usuage of this term in association with highly paid footballers. If you want to use the term and ignore general consensus amongst the football fraternity, thats your business. You shouldn’t complain though if people don’t like it.
Like?
0 
0
@Nico QB: Nico, that’s your choice though – right?. I am WHITE Bro, but I respect all races. You may have your own take on the term slave, but I am only saying what I heard both Black and White sports reporters saying about the use of the word slave in association with highly played football players. They were saying that it was an abberation to those whose history was one of ancestral slavery. For this reason, and for the reason that it’s feckin ludicrous to call modern day footballers slaves, I was just saying that there are those who were stating they were offended, and their feelings should be respected. People are not using the term SLAVE in regards to Ronaldo out of some saintly highlighting of the true slaves plight, as you see it. They are using it, as a badge of hatred and derision against Ronaldo because of his behaviour over the summer.
Like?
0 
0
@jason: Never a truer word spoken mate. I agree with your sentiments on Ronaldo & Messi
.
Like?
0 
0
@jason: Seriously dude, I’ve got the same exact sentiments… Why is Messi much better than Ronaldo, or even the Roovez? I looked at his stats last season and they were similar to Rooney’s, so why was everyone saying Rooney had a bad season and Messi was godsent? Is it because he dribbles a lot? To what purpose does all that dribbling serve if there’s no productivity (goas, assists)?
I even feel like i’m cheating when comparing him to Ronaldo, cuz Ronnie contributes so much more to the team, has acheived much more individual and team titles… the list goes on. The fact that Ronnie’s absence makes us significantly weaker is reason alone, 42 goals and 8 assists, I mean, what more do you want?
If Ronaldo doesn’t win both the FIFA world player of the year award and Ballon D’Or, then there’s something wrong… and I would put it down to people jealous of the talent he has and moreso the arrogance that comes with it…
Like?
0 
0
Back to todays return to european football, i’m looking forward to tonight. It would be great to see some of the swagger that we displayed last season, lets put anfield behind us and go out there and show the world how we play football, the United way. I dont think that Villareal are a pushover, but i also believe that we have enough firepower to see them off. I’m a bit pissed off i’m not at OT tonight, it was a possibility until family commitments took over. Ah well, the Bishops Blaize will have to soldier on without me!
So on to tonight, we have to be solid at the back, from that foundation we can dictate the flow of the game, control in midfield is the key. Looking from a big performance from Hargo, and Ronave, i too would love to see Manucho get a run out tonight. 2-0 for United, you just know Ronave is gonna score, hopefully Rooney can get one too, it’d do his confidence the world of good. Great to hear Teves talk about our fighting spirit from last season, lets hope the other players are all singing from the same hymnsheet! I would prefer us to start with a 4 4 2, and move to 4 3 3, or 4 2 4 when prudent, attack attack attack!
Like?
0 
0
@phoenix red:
, I’m with you mate, attack, attack, attack. As long as we play football and build from the back, THRU our midfield (which I hope are not as feckin inept as they were at L’fool.), and to what I hope will be strikers who hit form and goals 
. I will be there chanting on the terraces, so they better not feckin let us down 
.
Like?
0 
0
super man owen hargreaves will solve all.
Like?
0 
0
Its all very quiet, where are ya? It is matchday isn’t it? Follow, follow,
we’re the Busby Boys!
Like?
0 
0
out of sync with the current comments…
i wish we played with an arrogance fitting of champions…. not to say we should underestimate people
but rather, the team should know how good they are. they are THE BEST, and should show that on the field… maybe it was because i was 10 yrs old… but back then i used to think that man utd played with an arrogance that showed teams they were not regarded in the same league as man utd. that made the teams eager to produce results yet fear the red devils, causing them to make mistakes….
now we have such a great team, and i do mean great, because we have 3 proven strikers with one hyped up striker in manucho(withholding judgement about him.) 4 midfielders who offer very different aspects to the team. one playmaker AM one traditional DM one playmaker CM one playmaker DM, so on so forth… i meantion this before last time about what we have in stock and seriously, we should be winning more things this year easy…
but i do know about the traps of dream teams… judging from ONE GAME ONLY it seems like fergie was too caught up in it. hopefully i am wrong… just wanted to get this off my chest prior to the game and hope we win…
haha i wish i was the manager some times… have to go get me some football manager 09 or fifa manager09
Like?
0 
0
Craig Mc, totally with ya there bro! Lets see the ball passed around with control and confidence, pls! Come on you reds!
Like?
0 
0
In RR’s apparent absence, I have published a preview on my blog.
This is only because I can’t publish things on here without RR’s signoff, so feel free to discuss what I have written back here.
Like?
0 
0
I have always rated ronaldo higher then messi especially in the last two years, but for any people who think messi is all that tell me this, say messi was at united and ronaldo was at barca would united have won the trophys no. ronaldo take all the BS is for me he ticks all the boxes, he is reliable in terms of fitness and knows the premiership like the back of his hands. ronaldo runs at players he scores goals, he is a great penalty taker and good at free kicks he can play on both wings and upfront. what more does he have to do to be shown as the most outstanding player in the world, when you have scored 42 goals in one season you better believe the hype.
people can go on he does not do it in the big games when the stats clearly show he does, I hope he continues to be the play ground bully that every one describes him that means another 40 goals a season. When people describe him that way that means Ronaldo does it week in week out. ronaldo as scored goals for his country messi as not done enough and has been described by maradona that messi plays for himself not the team. I think sergie aguero is the player that can challenge ronaldo not messi who seems to be the better player then messi who plays in a lesser team but is just a monster of a player, but messi as done hardly anything in the game tell me this when as messi had a season where he as grabbed his team by the scruff and drove them to titles he as not, maybe messi will be all that but until that day comes ronaldo is in a different league. Go check messi’s achievements and stats it is allot to be desired and he as a long way to go to be up to the levels of ronaldo.
this sums up ronaldo and messi, messi is all hype talk potiental and maybe. ronaldo lives up to his hype he as broken his potental and goes beyond it, like it or not ronaldo is that damn good and is by a universal mile the best in the world his goals style of play and awards and achievments prove it fact.
Like?
0 
0
Hargo looked like he was running in sand on saturday when he came on… Lets hope he is back to his quicksilver self tonight.
I want to see Park and Nani on the wings, with Ando and Hargo/Fletch in the middle. Lets get Wayne and Carlos up top working together. Same back five for me, with the exception of O’Shea coming in for injured Evra.
And to be honest, I wont give a toss if its 8-0 or 1-0, just as long as some commitment/fire/determination/balls are on display from the lads. I want them to come out pissed the fuck off about saturdays performance and how everyone, including some of their own fans, have already written off the double champtions. COME ON LADS
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: Nope its not a poor excuse. If Chelsea had gone with a second string side or probably a half strong side then it would’ve been like conceding defeat. Remember they were the ones who were chasing us so they had to try hard and nick some points. United were in a better position and even a loss would’ve been manageable. Fergie went for the draw and nearly got one. So I think we are better than Chelsea if both teams play their strongest teams and that we will win at Stamford bridge this weekend.
Like?
0 
0