Nov 08
Chelsea v Man Utd: Preview
This has been billed as win or bust by a lot of people — especially United fans. Not since the era of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea (at their peak) have we gone into a match against Chelsea with the billing of underdogs. And for good reason.
Most fans — as is their wont as fans — hope their side will come good somehow against Chelsea. But rational thinking paints a grim picture. Chelsea, have been good for most of this season — even though they’ve faced reverses against some of the smaller sides. Their transfer ban has been lifted for January, yet theirs is a side showered with riches in midfield, and a frighteningly good Drogba, in frighteningly good form. As much as most of their squad consist of eminently detestable players, they have been annoyingly hard to beat. An astonishing statistic that screams out reads: six years; zero wins for United at the Bridge. Six years! Bloody hell! That’s astonishing and annoying in equal measure.
Among the key players for today’s outing includes one Darren Fletcher, who’s spoken at length about his fitness and gym work in the pre-season:
“Fitness has never been a problem for me, but in terms of strength and power my gym work has made a real difference.
“Striking the right balance is important, too. There’d be no point in me bulking up if that was to the detriment of being able to get around the pitch. I wanted to get to a level where I had strength, but also the stamina to keep going over the 90 minutes. I think I could still put on more weight without affecting my fitness.”
Speaking of our six year drought there, Ferguson has a few words to say:
“We would like to improve our record there. It’s not been that great in the last few years. We’ve had a couple of draws but nothing more than that. We hope to improve on that. It’s strange, we used to have a terrific record at Stamford Bridge, but in the last few years we’ve let it slip. We have to get our act together. But the players realise it’s a big game and that their performance is going to be important.”
The topic veers into discussion on Carlo Ancelotti and the manager has only good things to say about him. “Ancelotti has a very experienced team,” continues Sir Alex. “And when you have that it’s maybe easier to adapt to new tactics or a new system because those players have more tactical knowledge than younger players.”
On the injury front, Vidic and Berbatov are expected to return, whilst Park, Ferdinand, and Owen Hargreaves continue to be perennial absentees. Neville, meanwhile, is suspended.
The starting XI, should then be a patched up back four with O’Shea, Vidic, Evans, Evra. Giggs, Anderson, Fletcher could form a midfield three with the attack consisting of Rooney (played out wide left), Valencia and Berbatov in the front three.
Of course, that’s just what I think Ferguson might be fielding. He’ll most likely go with a 4-3-3 to counter Chelsea.
Prediction: 1-1
Related items from Red Rants:
- Porto it is then…
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Chelsea v Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Spurs match thread
Tags: Manchester United News
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@Jay wire: I agree as far as prejudice is concern. But let us understand why??? I mean what is prejudice??? Its for me a judgment passed about some one in your mind even before the case is up for fight isn’t it???
But, one needs to understand on thing that why one will have precudice about some one specially when we don’t even know them outside there playing time. Its down to simple thing bro that we seen them week in week out and then we start to build some opinion about him over a period of time may cautiously or not. But lets agree that its been craeted over a period of time (in most cases). So, when I see 15 matches when a player is garbage and than in 16th match he does half decent job I am definitely not going to change my opinion. Am I? And then because in my I have made up that he is shit no matter how good he will play his one mistake will be highlighted in my mind. Its perfectly fine its human isn’t it??? Like in my case I am going through all the post on here for last 1 and 1/2 years regd my love Berba and never found single fault in his game but for people here he is full of faults and problem but that what makes it interesting isn’t it???
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@Jay wire: Your right. I apologise to anyone I offended (excecpt Terry). I was drunk and it was the first thing that came into my head.
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@Grognard: Am sorry but all that barca story is press bullshit,and much as you say my attack on Rooney isnt fair,i find it very hard to compare him with say Drogba,Torres,and even Van persie and Adebayor.@Dan: We have looked at the chat,but remember he was the early pace setter,and i have seen enough in the last few years to be convinced a miracle will happen and we look up to him for inspiration instead of looking at him because he is rooney englands hope.
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This is epic:
Martin Samuel on his majesty John Terry, courtesy of the Daily Mail.
I laughed reading this!
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@Onkar: Wes Brown is a central defender who has been used as a RB for some time and un-expectedly turned out to be good. He is being used a Central Defender now. The problem is, that if we consider him as a RB then I guess, we will need cover in central defence. The link that Grognard gave links us with Kjaer, who is a central defender. Brown has hardly been used as a RB this season. Neville filled in and it has always been O’Shea and Rafael sparingly. I do not trust Rafael and I certainly do not trust Neville defensively. He still has it in him to deliver some crosses though. This little rant here takes versatility out of the window though. De Laet has not been given games till now at the highest level. Yes, he has been good in the Carling Cup games, but he hasn’t been tried out in the premiership as yet. Discount the Hull City game last season.
Plus, I noticed that you were talking about buying Krasic in January and then giving him time to settle. We already have around three to four players who are settling in or are being given time to become good. We do not need another player who might need time. Of course, one can never say whether Krasic would take time to settle in. I do not believe that we need him right now. Unless Nani spectacularly fails to deliver, I want him to be played regularly.
During the 2003-04 season to 06-07, we had players who were given time to settle in. We had Ronaldo – like Nani – who was still finding his feet. We had players like Kieran Richardson. Smudge, Djemba-Djemba who were all thought to be good enough but weren’t. My question is, are we now in that phase yet again? Where we know that our team has potential and shows it, like at Chelsea but still is not the finished team.
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@Aditya: As far as Krasic argument is concern I was trying to point to an advantage of signing him in January and thats why I also used VIDIC example to put my point. I am not saying that he will need time nor I am saying that he may not all I am saying that bringing him in January will make sure that he is available for cheaper than post WC rate as he is cup tied and most of the big clubs will not in the market and secondly if does need time (just an hypothetical assumption) he will have 6 months to do so. As far as NANI is concerned we have divided house here. What you are doing is you are hoping for thing to happen and what I am doing is I am passing a judgment on the basis of what I have seen no ones right at this moment but no ones wrong as well. So that for me is open ended question. But still I would reiterate that if a decent offers comes across I would sell him and may look at some one else as well. And if I want to cast my mind back to May then I would say I would like to see even Ashley Young coming (who will definitely not need time to settle) forget about Krasic then don’t need him in my mind….
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@Onkar: Fair enough. Ashley Young might be costly, because he is English.
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I must say that after dreading the game for a week, the performance I saw from the team was pleasantly surprising. The United midifeld absolutely bossed the much vaunted Chelski Diamond, and never gave them a sniff. We were done for in this game by absolutely terrible refreeing. The Terry pull on Valencia, the Rooney offside and the free-kick for their goal, all went against us, and I wonder if Fergie’s loud mouth and not the team’s failings will turn out to be our nemesis this year.
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@Aditya: Yeah… And thats one of the reason why I was not advocating him a lot since Summer. Secondly we all know Fergie mentality that he will go after those people with greater driver who he feels have done exceedingly well against his united. I mean Since Cantona till Ronaldo all the buys shoe that trend. If we go with that trend (theory) then we have to say there is heavy chance of him signing Igor and Krasic.
By the way are you from Mumbai (If I am not wrong you are isn’t it???) So, where do you enjoy the games on the weekend??? Is it any Sports Bar or something or just chilling at home…..
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@Vivek: Its no coincidence bro that since Gaffer loud mouthing the Refs have suddenly become so consistence. I mean they so Consistence in giving all the 50-50 decision and in some cases the loud and clear decision against us….
It seems like they are consistently trying to show all the other manager that look if you go on taliking against us like Fergie did (even if you are right) we will make you pay like we are making Man UTD pay for!!!!
I don’t know why but I have a strong gut feeling that it will continue for quite some time. At least till we are at least practically out of this race.
By the way i would like to say one thing on this whole Rooney comment about the 12 man (if its true of course) that, he was totally wrong. I think he doesn’t know counting at all. He said we were playing against 12 WRONG BS… In fact we were playing against 14 including the equally incompetent BS Linesman….
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@Vivek: Could be right about Fergie and his gob being the ruin of our season but to be honest it is our lack of clear cut chances and finishing that probably will cost us silverware.
Also there is a chance that these blatantly poor ref decisions could create a seige mentality of sorts – could wake this team the fuck up and encourage them to kick ass… but I doubt it.
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@Onkar: I am from Bangalore. And yeah, I watch the matches at home. You are from Mumbai, I presume?
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@donibrasco: That’s right, you cannot compare him to any of those strikers because he is so much more than all off them. Rooney is a complete player. He can do everything and play anywhere. Unlike those other players, he doesn’t just score but creates, tracks back and works hard all over the pitch. There is very little he cannot do but I still feel he is overworked and not rested enough which often causes him to struggle a bit. Rooney and Vidic are the only present world class players we have. The Barca story is probably bullshit but there is no denying it that he is the one and only English player that any other European power would love to have on their team.
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@Aditya: Ah mate, I think Nani has done a spectacular job of not delivering. And our wingers to not make us a better team. Krasic is a must and there is no reason why he would take long to fit in. He’s not a teenager and he is highly skilled and very intelligent. Also, the Russian League is not the Serbian League. It’s highly competitive and has many good players. He would make an instant mark in my opinion.
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@Onkar: Krasic in my view is a much better player than Ashley Young. He has a dynamic set skills and pace and can also play as a striker, not just as a winger.
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@Aditya: Yups… I think OWEN is also from MUMBAI… I wonder how he manages to fly week in week out to play for United…
But… Yeah I am from Mumbai and searching out for people who share the same tastes… And love united as much as I do…
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@Grognard: I agree 100%… I think I would like to keep it short and precise for me its crystal clear…..
Sell:
PIG
Carrick
NANI
+ 25mn annual transfer budget
=
Buy
Igor
Kasic
And if possible any other back up player (preferably striker who is a finisher).. In my eyes thats all what we need to take this team to next level (I feel)….
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@Onkar : Basically,I am from Powai,mumbai…
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If the daily express story is true it would be good news. We are short on a central defender with Rio struggling to stay fit. A goalkeeper would be nice so we can get him ready to take over next summer as number one. And with Nani misfiring and Valencia looking pretty mediocre a dangerous winger would be nice (with Obertan on the other wing!!).
There is definitely a financial motive here: most of the Ronaldo money Im sure went into paying our debts. But also because we do have young players coming through there is no point paying big money for established players with prices as inflated as they are now. The United way has always been to buy promising players with room for improvement and Akinfeev, Krasic and Kjaer fit that description.
I also want us to buy Hamsik. With Giggs and Scholes on the way out we need some class in midfield. Ljajic is a few seasons away from being ready and Hamsik would have good resale value and not be that expensive.
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So let me give MY perspective of the game. I always try and look at surrounding circumstances and how they would affect the game and players’ performances. Material and significant things like tactics, fitness, match minutes and consistencies in selection, the opponents and other things like consistency in maintaining tactics etc. Most people were satisfied by our general performance against Chelsea and I think it was with good reason. Some have described it as a good defensive performance, especially by the midfield, but I think that is quite misleading. A significant portion of the game was played in midfield and we clearly won that battle. We had more possession and I think we can then safely say it was Chelsea that had more of the defending to do in the middle. In fact our midfield created much better than that of Lampard, Deco,Ballack, Essien with Joe Cole. Anderson in particular put himself in good goalscoring positions and was let down by one or both of poor decision making and poor application by his teammates. His magnificent through pass to Rooney was undone by the blind linesman. Carrick set up Giggs from behind the centre line whose attempt at a lob was certainly ridiculous. But we can’t blame the midfield for not creating chances. Now let’s get something right also. Some are underplaying the fact that we did play better than Chelsea at the Bridge. We all expect United to run riot against each and every team we face. How many times have we witnessed Chelsea being dominated since 2004 by any team in the world? Moreover how many times has that happened at the Bridge? Even the all conquering, all dominating Barca failed to do so this year. How many chances did they create during that match? Very few chances. Now here we are expecting our team to run rings around their midfield and spray countless through balls and shred their defence to pieces. Are we still talking about the same team that has a 100% record at home and has conceded so very little in London over the past 5 or so years? That is currently playing the incredibly difficult to break down diamond formation. Please. The defence was quite solid and a lot of people are not talking about Brown’s performance. I thought he played the best of our back four. He won many battles in the air bravely and kept a cool head. Evans was fantastic also and special mention to his tai chi double assault on Drogba. I think it was a good all round performance from the team and I’m glad we didn’t play for the draw as others were suggesting we do. The referee was not influential in the result, along with his associates, he was decisive. So we can hold our heads up because there were a lot of positives to take from this match and we went down fighting. And competently at that
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After watching last night’s match, I really think for the good of the team we need to put Rooney back as a wing forward, with Berbatov through the middle. Our midfield 3 worked really well, but Giggs just isn’t good enough consistently to be relied upon as a third of an attacking trio. That’s 33% of our strike force not delivering a thing!
Would love to see this:
————-VDS———–
-Brown–Evans–Vida–Evra–
—–Fletcher–Carrick—–
———-Anderson———
-Valencia———Rooney—
———-Berbatov———
With Berba dropping to take down high balls and playing through to the wing forwards. Really that’s how we’d look the best, with our current personnel.
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Who else are having a hard time by blinded rival fans at school and work today?
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Thinking back to Andersons and Fletchers performance yesterday I am getting a boner. If Andy had scored on one of his runs I would have cummed…
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@Jay wire: If it was in my control i would have declared a bonus salary to EVANS to repeat the same Kung Fu kick on that Dogshit. Won’t be disappointed if he delivers on that Spanish Girl from Dippers…..
And how about VIDA is taking some training from EVANS on kick kick the player and head the ball at the same time. Imagine Monster VIDA is kicking players around… Priceless……
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I feel depressed today… Why, oh WHY, does it have to be international week at this time!?
School from 8:30 to 16:00 doesnt exactly help me either, this sucks.
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@Footy4Eddy: Yeah… These international breaks really sucks big time……….. Whats more it not only affects the week end but it also affects the whole two weeks… I mean even this place goes quite….. I really hate these international breaks…..
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@Footy4Eddy: I will tommorow as it was a holiday here in Pakistan today….
Don’t worry… Head held up high… The lads made me feckin Proud…
We’ll Never Die!
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@Grognard: Rooney is a jack of all trades but master of none. That might be good for a squad player, but not for the clubs talisman.
It’s been discussed here before, but i would rather rooney be converted into a attacking midfielder because he simply isn’t prolific enough in front of goal. When it comes to being a striker I would easily take Drogba,Torres or van persie over Rooney. Because when it come to being a pure striker Rooney is good but not great. He may be the better all around player, but he isn’t as effective as the others.
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It`s me against the world
Story of my day…
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@Beachryan – I dread the day Rooney is made to play on the wing again. That would be beyond criminal. It has severely affected his game and confidence and just when Don Capello had given him hope by playing him where he should (awakening our own manager), only to be played there again. You see the philosophy can still work with no need for a front 3 and a 3 man midfield. If we play a front 3 it means very limited options for all our left wingers. An attacking formation whether as 4-4-2 or something akin to that, will suffice. You need an energetic pair of central midfielders, one to focus on ball winning and breaking up play and the other on linking up with the front four. Berbatov on the tip of the attacking spear, setting up play for the interchanging Rooney, Tony and whoever else on the left wing. Andy coordinating that orchestra from the middle and Fletcher breaking up play. It’s quite similar to the system we played to devastating effect in 2006-2007 season. Saha at the tip, Rooney just behind, and interchanging with Giggs and Ronaldo. Only difference is back then Scholes and Carrick were playing very deep(both players having great long range passing ability). It was unpredictable, it was free flowing, entertaining and you could see the players enjoyed it and best of all it worked flawlessly. One thing that it effectively terminated was pointless crosses. As Eddy has always pointed out, it is futile to base your game on high crosses when none of your strikers are good in the air. This system is based on passing and off the ball movement. Since Adebayor left, Arsenal rarely bother with high crosses, and with Ronaldo gone why do we keep crossing high as if Rooney has springs underneath his boots? So we can’t agree on Rooney there.
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@ Jay Wire – fair enough, I understand your reasoning but I just don’t think our midfield is good enough in a 442. I guess we could play a bit more of a 4411 with Rooney in the hole, in fact I’m sure that is what we’re supposed to be doing when we play 442. However, he and Berbatov don’t have the discipline to actually lead the line, to force defenders back to create the space for the dropping off 1 to get into. When Berba and Roon play together they both keep doing the same things. And to be perfectly honest from the last 18 months I’d seriously take Berbatov over Rooney as a playmaker. Better first touch, better short passing, better flicks, better in the air, better dribbler…
I guess that might be controversial, but hey, it’s just an opinion. If we could somehow get a Rooney that would lead the line consistently, they can play together. But if not, i think we have to shunt him to the side to accomodate two similar players.
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Never thought i’d say this about a man but I miss ronaldo. We needed a finisher yesterday.
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@Johnsom33: What do you think of the following players – Totti, Baggio, Del Piero, Bergkamp and like? They were hardly prolific, were they? Yet these guys are revered as talisman of their clubs. Neither they were utilized as squad players, as you would suggest.
It is the worst-kept secret in football that Rooney is not an out-and-out striker like Drogba or Torres. And he is never going to be one as well. He flourishes best along with a goalscorer. Interestingly, you compared him to Van Persie who comes closest to him in style. Even RVP isnt prolific but he is doing a good job at the top since he has people like Arshavin, Cesc and Walcott for sharing the goal-scoring burden.
Personally, I would be OK with a regular striker up-top instead of Rooney but he just adds to much to our game that I would compensate that with a scoring winger. Even playing Rooney on the left isnt a taboo for me. The problem is that he gets obsessed with tracking back/maintaining the shape whenever as asked to play on the left. All he does is pump crosses into the box.
The tactics of the game are getting unfavorable and too ‘functional’ for the breed of second strikers these days. We would want to classify an attacking player as one out of striker, winger and attacking midfielder. This leads to the ‘jack of all trades’ stuff.
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What yesterday showed is how little our midfielders shoot. So often this season, other than maybe Scholes, when our midfielders get even a bit of an opening, they choose to pass. This I think is one reason Anderson has become so disgustingly bad, that and some rotten luck that has to have played havoc. If anyone plays golf even for fun, you know when you try think too much through your swing, you fuck it up. When your natural ability takes over and it’s just happening, you strike the ball a lot better. I think maybe that is what happens with Ando, thinks too much. He was a decent striker of the ball at Porto from little I saw of him in clips and such.
I am loathe to play Rooney on the wing but, yesterday was the ideal day for him to have done it. Had Berba been available, Rooney on the left would have been lethal. Giggs wasted a lot of balls for us. After Liverpool, hopefully SAF has come to realization that Scholes is not the man for big games and more for when teams are going to sit back and give you time on the ball. Giggs in my mind is a man for the big games but, off of the bench. Him coming on at 60-65 minutes in, after we’ve battled and withered the opposition down, he can run circles around them.
Our biggest issue seems to be (stealing what someone pointed out some place) is our reliance on wing play and to get crosses in. Rooney, Owen are not going to win many battles against central defenders in the air. Berbatov can but, even he is a bit weak in that respect, yet we keep trying to put high balls in. Balls whipped in at pace and low have to be the way but, then that is a low percentage cross as it is more likely to get intercepted at the first defender.
It is one reason I like Nani as a winger for us, he can cut inside and shoot – yet he seems destined (and coached) to take it to the byline and try get a cross in. Which is why right now Obertan is looking good to some people, not sure how good a left he has but, he doesn’t seem to be taking it down the wing like Nani and trying to get crosses in. Is consistently coming in field and linking up with our central players. This makes it seem like he is the better player because he is making the higher percentage passes. Nani can do the exact same thing – he did it quite a bit in the CSKA game but, like I said I think he is being coached to always go down the side and cross it in.
When teams find out Obertan is always going to cut in (if that is indeed what he is doing) then they’ll shut him off. Ryan Babel did this when he first came to the league, soon defenders were on to him and he became ineffective on the left. So be careful on praising him too much.
As for January window – I don’t think any player we buy then can effectively help our campaign this season but, the point that it is WC Year and prices in the summer would go up is reason enough to bring in one or two targets then.
I believe if this squad gives the same effort they did yesterday, we’ll be up there at the end. A draw for Arse/Chelski at end of month and we keep winning, we are only 3 points back. We still have to play Chelski at home – so the season is far from over. Points are going to be dropped by everyone, from here on out we have to make sure we drop as few as possible and for god sakes, find some finishing.
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@Shimo: As regards to too much wing-play, I suppose it is sought to be addressed by playing Giggs on one side and Valencia on the other. Giggs helps us play through the middle (e.g. Spurs away) while Valencia offers a more direct approach.
Even though our strikers arent exactly tall, it is generally very difficult in many games to play through the middle. As long as our midfielders/fullbacks put pressure and capture the second ball/rebounds from the crosses, we should be fine (against smaller teams atleast).
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henry winter match report in the telegraph on the chelsea-united game. a soothing read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6516436/Chelsea-1-Manchester-United-0-match-report.html
“This was such a travesty of justice that Manchester United should follow Chelsea’s recent example and appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Wayne Rooney was utterly brilliant, Darren Fletcher had Deco in one pocket and Michael Ballack in the other, while Patrice Evra mocked Ashley Cole’s billing as the world’s best left-back, yet the table shows Chelsea five points clear. Lady Luck was a blue-rinsed hussy strutting down the King’s Road merrily picking visitors’ pockets…”
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@Onkar: It’s simple for me to but my player choices are different.
Sell;
Nani
Rio
Pig
Release;
Scholes
Neville
EVDS
Buy;
Krasic
Neuer or Adler
Silva or Gourcuff
Kjaer
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@colver: I like Akinfeev but he is not in the class of the two German keepers. People should look at the goals he gave up this past weekend for CSKA in Russia vs Ruben Kazan. Pretty Foster like to be honest. Like Foster he is a very good shot stopper with reflexes and this unfortunately seduces many because that is what the untrained eye looks for. But there is so much more to keeping and fundamentally, he is inferior to the two Germans. He is a cheaper buy than them for a reason. Fergie has to ask the question, of whether he wants to solve his keeping situation for good and have a world class keeper for ten years or does he want to settle for a Plan B and roll the dice?
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@Beachryan: It’s really amazing how fickle fans get. For weeks Giggs was a god and could do no wrong and then he has a quiet game and we should retire him blah blah blah. As if Ronaldo, Best, Charlton, Cantona, Keane and other greats never had poor or average games against good competition. There is nothing wrong with Giggs and until we can buy a left winger with world class written all over him or until Obertan shows us he is the man, I am more than happy with Ryan Giggs playing as many games as possible. He never hurts this team with his presence.
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@Footy4Eddy: Anderson was good mate, he wasn’t brilliant. And I’d save the boners for the gitrls or we all might have some serious reservations about your preferences in life.
Truthfully, the only times I have gotten a “boner” recently while watching players do their stuff it has been watching the old school magic of Riquelme and the goalkeeping clinic the is Manuel Neuer.
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@Footy4Eddy: Football is royally fucked up with all these distracting and tiresome international breaks. It has become a joke and something to laugh at out of anger and frustration.
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@Onkar: They always show up during Champions League too, so that after the international, we have a few days rest only to go play in the CL.
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@Johnsom33: That’s your opinion mate. I can tell you right now that not only do I disagree, but nearly every manager, coach, tv analyst and expert on the game sides with me. So I’m not even going to bother to debate it. Yes there are better natural goal scorers but none of them have the wide variety of skills Rooney has. That curling shot from 22 yards yesterday that he almost scored on is not something you will see from 98% of the strikers out there. That my friend was world class all the way. It took a world class keeper to keep it out.
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@Shimo: Obertan definitely needs to show us his wide game of getting by defenders and crossing the ball in. Cutting in will eventually be taken away, I agree, but his dribbling skills and deceptiveness gives him options in that area and so lets see how his development goes.
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@bildani: Great article. Has that journalist been sacked yet by the London paper he works for? Johnsom33 should read what this man thinks of Rooney. The word “PEERLESS” crept up I believe. A sentiment I agree with. There is nobody in world football as gifted as Rooney playing his position.
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This is gonna sound funny coming from me, but people need to lay off giggs. I wanted him gone this summer but he has since made me eat crow. He has been fantastic this season for us. Yesterday he had a slow game, and it was his first game back and people are all over him.
At his age it is foolish to think he is gonna be great every game, but the cold hard truth is he is the best left sided player we have at the moment.
So lay off the old man
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Match report up. In case anyone’s interested. Also this is touching 300 comments. So you can move over to the new post.
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@Grognard: Henry Winter is one of the few journalists the Telegraph just can’t afford to sack. He’s just far too good for anyone to consider sacking.
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What people didn’t seem to notice is without Berbatov we play with a lot more pace and look a lot more dangerous. Rooney’s movement upfront gave Chelsea’s back four nightmares.
4-5-1 does often work for us against good sides but the real problem is that with our central midfielders playing deep and occupied with defensive work, we need our wingers to get forward and support the strikers and provide a goal threat.
Our best chances fell to Valencia and Giggs and they both screwed them up. In fixtures last season Park blew his fair share of chances as well.
Teams like Arsenal and Barcelona have players like Messi, Arshavin, Henry who are all capable of playing wide and scoring. But we do not have anyone fitting that description with the exception of Nani who is out in the cold.
There was a view that with Ronaldo gone we’d revert back to 4-4-2. But our central midfield just isn’t good enough to play a 4-4-2 against any good team. So 4-5-1/4-3-3 is the formation for us. That means no role for Berbatov as Rooney works best through the middle and it also means no role for Valencia who fits better into a 4-4-2. Obertan may sort out our problems on the left but it is time Fergie makes a decision on Nani. Either play him in the big games, or ditch him and buy someone else. Playing Park or Valencia as the safe option in big games just doesn’t cut it.
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@Johnsom33: Well said mate. I totally agree.
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