Mar 15
Derby County v Man Utd: Preview
A bad cold (or is it flu? I can’t tell) has not allowed me to move around freely. Since I need to keep a thread active here, I’ll put up a short preview.
Right, where do we start? Ben Foster looks certain to make his debut, forced into action due to EVDS’s injury and Kuszczak’s suspension. So that’s something worth looking forward to as Derby aren’t exactly the team that would threaten most defences.
While Derby are quite easily one of the worst of the teams that have played in the Premier League, the team must realise that there cannot be any easy games from now on, to use a cliche. So we need to keep focus and do a job and, if it motivates the players enough, we are in a position where wins from now would keep us in front till the end.
Fergie will surely rotate the team. And with the kind of opposition it’s hard to guess the formation. Although, if fit, Saha should start.
Our prediction: 3-0 to United.
Meanwhile, a word on the Champions’ League, we got Roma, again. I don’t feel easy about this considering we face Barca in the semis. I’d have preferred Barca now rather than the semis, because we could have taken advantage of their poor form and the absence of Messi. But that’s what we have now, and we hope we beat them, and we hope our fans are well protected this time.
That would be all. Now to snuggle back into my bed before I wake up for the match.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Derby Man Utd: Live!
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd vs Derby County: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Stephen (454)
Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
WHAT A GAME! that was not derby, that was some other team, i’ll tell you you this, if derby played like that for the whole season, they would not be bottom right now. FOSTER FOR 1ST TEAM! FOSTER FOR ENGLAND!
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That was a close call
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Maybe Fergie should spend less time at Cheltenham and more time preparing the team!
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Come on Dan, I don’t think Derby played all that well. IT’s because they didn’t play well that we didn’t lose that game. One change at half time. Saha for giggs thats all. Almost all of our forward play was broken down by giggs bad play. I don’t know how Fergie couldn’t see that. How many more games till he reaches his record? I think he’ll have to wait till next year to accomplish that. This is not the time for Fergie to be sentimentel.
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That was a fucking disgrace. Miss after miss. We’ve improved after he left the club but van Nistelrooy would have scored five today. We need a finisher up front , Rooney is a great player but he couldn’t hit a fucking hangar these days.
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It was a bit scary. That was really close, and if that last shot by Carroll had gone in, it would’ve made Derby’s pointless existence worthwhile. But at the end of the day that was 3 good points and we go top atleast for sometime.
However, our away performances are getting quite alarming. Derby gave us a good rollicking and apart from the first half hour, they looked more dominant.
1. Our midfield pairing (any) just can’t seem to make an impact. And impact not in the sense of passing, but in case of getting forward. When was the last time a person from our central midfield pairing scored? Apart from Fletcher against Arsenal, and Hargo versus Fulham, we have to way back to i don’t know when.
2. Someone apart from Ronaldo has to start putting the ball at the back of the net. To be honest, Im quite tired of watching Rooney winge and whine which he did alot of in the first half today. More than half our shots were taken by Ronaldo. Isn’t there anyone who gets a sighter at goal?
3. Another downfall was the players were stretched. they were supposed to push and finish off the game and rest Rooney and Ronaldo. Didn’t happen.
4. WHAT THE FUCK was with the REF?? It was thug culture on the pitch. Ronaldo and others got pushed, impaled, kicked, stamped. ITS TICKING OFF
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Good point, utsav. Derby sabotaged the play time and time again today. Were they punished? Of course not. It’s no wonder Ronaldo gets frustrated. It seems players have a license to do whatever they want against him.
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Jesus Christ, Rooney missed one chance, one!! Ronaldo missed a good five, yet guess who gets the blame
The defence was a shambles today. Anyone who thinks Vidic is better that Ferdinand needs to take a good look at that game again. The less said about the distribution (maybe it would be better described as hoofing) from the back the better. Finally Giggs and O’Shea were a disgrace today, their passing wasn’t even up to Derby standards.
The central midfield was MIA and failed to get the game under control for most of the day and didn’t improve until Carrick’s arrival. We have one CM showing his age (Scholes), one showing his lack of experience (Anderson) and another yet to hit top form (Hargreaves). So here is an idea SAF, play your best midfielder and stop benching him!!
The Scottish Player: RVN wasn’t beyond missing a crap load of chances either, just take a look at some of the games I mentioned earlier in the topic.
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JB,You answered yourself, mate. Just one shot by Rooney. Isn’t that a bit less for a striker, even if hes playing off another?? I must tell you, Im not one who wants Rooney out. But in the first half, I noticed him whining alot. To other players, ref… He needs to put his head down and concentrate.
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thats not fair jb you cant say that about vida, look its like this, andy cant play with scholes, he is shite, but when he plays with carrick he is class, you see what im getting at.
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A class act! A legendary player playing at top level for the whole of his career. And ageing well, well into his thirties and having the humility to ask himself as seasons go by if he is still good enough to play on at top level…
I’m talking of course of Paolo Maldini.
Other players have even stopped shorlty after the peak of their careers . . . Seagulls and sardines!
Now if all players could be level headed enough to see that sometimes even if the mind wants to, the body simply does not follow.
But I’m not to blame Mr Giggs, or at a lesser level, Scholes, for the simple reason that they do not make the team selection.
But bloody hell SAF! The picture is plain for everybody to see.
Oh, and on a side note the french commentators called Scholes and Giggs the GROGNARDS of Utd. Obviously, because of the Napoleonic references and stuff.
Cheers.
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Nah,Rooney was pretty good today.The pass to ronaldo was great and he played another good one at the end.Phew,if we drew with derby i wouldnt know what to make of things.And my mind is made up on giggs.HE IS FINISHED.theres nothing no one can say about giggs no more.He is past it.His corners are pathetic,he has no pace,his free kicks were overhit and he cant run past no one.I think the time for resting is over.Carrick should start every game,giggs should not start anymore.
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Dan: I’m not slagging Vidic off and I understand that the cover from the CM to the defence was poor. However we just simply cannot afford to be without Ferdinand, his composure, ability to bring calm to any situation and distribution are invaluable and we don’t have another defender with those qualities in their locker. CM should be Carrick and another at the moment.
NicoQB: I would have thought Maldini has maybe actually hung on too long. It must be very hard on a tea, particularly in defence to only be able to rely on a player for one out of three games.
Utsav: I was watching Rooney closely today and he played well enough. Movement, workrate and creativity were all good. He had one chance which he missed but it was a tricky enough shot to execute. His movement was good and he was getting into good positions for most of the game. In that case if the chances aren’t falling to you then there is nothing much you can do about it, other than be patient.
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Yes, 1-0 middlesborough
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Inevitably we get worked up after a game and exaggerations and strategic amnesia is common place on this forum esp when scapegoats are needed.Rooney played in CR7 a number of times and it was his inch perfect pass/cross led 2 gol.The main problem 2day was with Saf and Quieroz.Tactics were appalling.I think rooney actually played better and his passing was more productive
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arsenal are losing this could be an opportunity to extend gap 2 4 points!! hopefully arsenal and chelsea draw and utd win against scousers and we’ll be 6 clear to arsenal and 5 ahead of chelsea by next weekend!!!
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Did u guys hear the ManU fans chanting the new Anderson song?? “Annnnderrrr…son son son, hes our midfield magician. hes better than Kleberson. With the brass hes class and he shits on FABREGAS!” The away crowd was awesome today!
Foster was simply utterly brilliant with those two saves today…just some initial glitches leading to scuffed shots and catching backpasses. But that might just be first game nerves.
Rooney, extremely creative with through balls and assists. But please please please take some shots on goal man…Dont be so utterly selfless! Sometimes, u gotta be Ronaldo.
On paper, and perhaps in practice as well, Scholes and Anderson dont make a good midfield team. Anderson is a free bird, a marauding midfielder who has a great eye for attacking play. In other words, hes the young Scholes. He needs to be with a more defensive MF ala Carrick/Hargreaves (but i prefer Carrick, atleast in games against lesser teams)
At the time of writing this, its HT at Emirates Stadium with Middlesbrough leading 0-1! Lets hope it stays 0 to the Arse!
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For heavens sake. Whose making who a scapegoat. Let me quote what I said
“2. Someone apart from Ronaldo has to start putting the ball at the back of the net. To be honest, Im quite tired of watching Rooney winge and whine which he did alot of in the first half today. More than half our shots were taken by Ronaldo. Isn’t there anyone who gets a sighter at goal?”
Its hardly a dig at Rooney. all I pointed out was that he wasn’t concentrating in the first half. Does it say anywhere that he played bad? Or that he should be thrown away? or am I being strategically amnesic?
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the dull chant is
ander-son-son-son hes better then kleberson
ander-son-son-son hes our midfield magician
to the left to the right to the samba beat at night
he is fast he is class
and he shits on fabregas
the he is fast he is class is actually unknown, some people say he is brass he is fast, some say he is the brass of the class, football chants are funny you know!
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Foster was amazing today, he’s got quite a foot on him. Hopefully EVDS stays injured for a while and we can see more of him. Maybe he’ll be able to plant a spot in the XI? As for Giggs, he was extremely disappointing today, not sure why Nani wasn’t on the bench. For me, Nani should start over Giggs, but let’s remember he just returned from a minor injury, maybe he needed a game to get back into it. I read earlier someone stating that our central midfield needs to get foward more, I agree, but did you not see Rooney! Not sure why we bought Anderson because Rooney would be an amazing attacking midfielder the way he is playing right now. Disappointed with his striking performance today, but I thought he was one of our best players out there. His vision was terrific today, better then Anderson’s or Scholsey’s. Saha held up the ball well at times, maybe he could start of up front with Tevez and we play Rooney in midfield? Not likely..
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Despite winning this was probably the most disappointing match since the year began.As much as players need 2 be rested, some games u can’t afford such democratic luxuries.Oh it was just Derby u say.I say it was one of our only practical chances 2 go above Arsenal therefore it was an all important game.So why put scholes and anderson in the mid. Thats utter foolishness on saf’s part.Then taking off Park who imo was one of the beta players instead of giggs who was more counterproductive
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hehe…its been a looooong looooong time wish of mine to actually be there at the Theatre of Dreams and watch Man Utd play and chant with all the fans, too bad I live a couple of thousand miles away
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I hope saf gets his head straight becoz sentimentality 2gether with zero tactical acumen could have cost us this and other games.Firstly giggs got enough playing time after 60min and should have given way 4 saha.Park didn’t put a foot wrong so it warranted a substitution.We may win the league coz Arsenal are dropping but 4get the UCL.Such tactical and technical disasters will inevitably show in the Ucl
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My point about Maldini is that for many seasons now he has been publicly question his capacity to keep a decent level of play in his game, and asking if its not the time for retirement.
Certainly those things must be working inside Giggs’ head, but I’d like a little bit of acceptance on the part of players. Like VDS who we all know was considering retirement, but thankfully decided to carry on for one season more.
Anyhow, interesting song! I didn’t really catch it on TV, to what tune was it sung? Just a shame that today Andy produced one of his worst performances under a United shirt.
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Jay Wire: Saying he has zero tactical acumen is plain wrong. Let me quote what you said
“Inevitably we get worked up after a game and exaggerations and strategic amnesia is common place on this forum esp when scapegoats are needed”
SAF lead us to the treble in 1999 and has enough acumen.
you may blame his errors but we still won. Period
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Fergie’s ineptitude at picking a competent midfield in quite a few games this season, has been almost catastrophic at times. I believe HE cost us the FA cup, and we almost came unstuck again in the premiership today. Every time we need to go take advantage of opportunites afforded us, when opposing teams have given us an opening, Fergie team choices become questionable!. Anderson, Carrick AND Scholes are offensive midfielders. Hargreaves is our only true defensive midfielder, and according to his fellow professionals especially Mascherano – Hargo is Englands BEST DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER. There is no justification for Fergie not playing him, especially in the closely fought games. Our defense today was very exposed, and if you can’t admit it, your in denial. Our goalkeeper saved us from being 3 goals down by half time. We need to play our defensive midfielder, otherwise we can forget the European cup – yet again.
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Sad that arsenal equalised in the end but hell top of the table baby
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Craig mc u are a man with perspective.To say that saf’s tactics were not rubbish is a statement based on the same sentimentality that resulted in a stupid selection we saw 2day.Sometimes being conventional is necessary ie playing players 2 their strengths.And as craig pointed out why have OH on the bench and play anderson in his role.Has totti ever played as a gattuso.Why not have rooney as DM 4next game then. Absolutely rubbish tactics
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WoW What a day !
As i told april is month for us and arsenal will slip up and they did.
Next Stop Chelsea away for them !
Last season Chelsea had 5 consecutive draws at the end of the season .. Arsenal have 4 so far .. I guess history might repeat itself
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Arsenal draw with Borough…We are top of the table on goal difference which we could increase to 3 points after the bolton game..
This is the best thing to have happened today because we played like shit today..I know it’s only two games but it worries me to see the number of chances we have spurned in the last two games..It has already cost us the cup and i hope our finishing improves..
Please someone other than Ronaldo to score…..But i can’t complain as long as we keep winning.RONALDO FOR GOLDEN BOOT THIS SEASON…
We have some big games coming up and our forwards are well rested and hopefully they go on a scoring spree…Let’s beat the scousers next weekend…GLORY…GLORY…MAN UNITED..
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Poor old Arsenal can’t buy a win in the league. What would they have given for the kind of scrappy 1-0 we got out today?
I said it before today and I say it again. Chelsea, not Arsenal, will be our closest challengers for the league.
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Champions need luck, we got that today! Arsenal lost points, we won on a really hard day and United can make it three points ahead of Arsenal on wednesday, my birthday!
And I agree with panks; RONALDO FOR GOLDEN BOOT!
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Craig mc: The thing is that we shouldn’t really need Hargreaves against Derby. You get a hold of the midfield against them and you won’t really need a dedicated defensive midfielder on the field. However Carrick looks to be the only one of our midfielders to get control of the midfield in a passing sense regularly this season. Basically what I’m saying is whatever combo you pick Carrick should be the first choice and then select round him.
I agree that SAF’s selections have been questionable. I am personally quite concerned that we are going into the business end of the season without a clear starting 11. Some people say it is a sign of a strong squad but I’m not comfortable with it at all. I would never have thought that after the dark days of Smith/Giggs/Fletcher/Richardson combos that I would be asking myself do we actually have too many midfielders?
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JB – maybe we shouldn’t have needed a defensive midfield HOLDING player against Derby, but after the 1st 25minutes it was obvious that we most definately did need one. Derby were coming on strong, and we didn’t have our strongest defence out!. It was only the heroics of our GK that prevented us being 2 or 3 goals down by half time. Hargo was on the bench, and we were losing possession a little too much. I think Hargo should definately have come on with Carrick, even sooner, at the start of the 2nd half – it was obvious. But hey we got lucky again. I do see your point though JB.
Jay Wire – Glad you see the need for playing the right players in the right positions. I agree with what you said.
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oh how the tables have turned i see.
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What tables Dan?
Craig mc: I think we can agree that at least one of the two of them should have been starting
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Rooney was the player who really pulled us out today he was creating chances for ronny from the start too bad ronaldo didn’t have his shooting boots on. Does anybody else think that ronaldo is getting way too selfish? For a while now he has been taking free kicks from over 30 yards out and wasting 9 out of ten of them. Would the team ( and ronaldo) not have more chance of scoring if lets say the ball was knocked high into the box for Vida or ronaldo to try to head it in. Vida saved us on a few occasions last season with headed goals and I don’t think he’s even gotten 1 this season but right now every attack is going through ronaldo and he won’t be getting 5 good chances to score against the dippers and Chelsea so someone should tell him to pass the ball once in a while
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Well lets just say that the Grognard was pissed off enough with todays performance that he needs to calm down for 24 hours to better give his game review with a little more posititve perspective. Yes we won but I for one am embarrassed by that shite performance. More tomorrow. Have a good one!!!!
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I think ur just upset that Energie Cottbus, Energie Cottbus who?? beat Bayern
We won the game, played shit, But we are top of the league!
Beautiful
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nah we played crap but c’mon, has to be derbys performance of the season.
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my take on Rooney is that first half, he was playing like his regular self this season, mis-hitting passes, moaning to the ref and team-mates, then in the 2nd half for about the last 20 minutes he looked like he was finding his form of old, BUT that was not in the striker position or the second striker position, it was wide left.
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how can anyone blame rooney for tomorrow’s performance….he was united’s best player on the pitch yesterday along with foster and vidic…
ronaldo was the one who should be blamed…..rooney missed only one chance when he received a great long ball from foster and created shooting opportunity out of almost nothing……on the other hand he played so many good passes to ronaldo but ronaldo bottled them all except one……do you guys remember rooney’s through balls to giggs and park yesterday, that was an example how his every aspect of game is great (except finishing at the moment)….
on the other hand ronaldo had quite a few chances to play rooney when he was in good positions…but most of the time he chose not to…and when he did his passes were not of top quality…
Now everyone agrees on one thing atleast that the worst players for us yesterday were O’Shea and giggs…O’Shea was so bad that by that performance he woudnt even make it to the derby team…everytime he got the ball he lost the possession which resulted in good chance for derby…the two attacks that foster saved were both started from O’Shea losing the ball….i was just praying that the ball just didn’t go to him….giggs was also losing the ball just too much….
but anyways…..we are top again, shall stay here after the last games of BPL this season…
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Clearly Carrick is our in form midfielder at this moment and I just cannot understand why he was
left on the bench in the last 2 games. Rooney has his best game for some time.
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viva ronaldooooo
viva ronaldooooooo
running down the wing
hear united sing
viva ronaldooooooooo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFPU2CooBfs
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Well it looks like buying Gomez could become a real possibility this summer, although that could lead to us getting into a bidding war with Chelsea which the last few times has ended in Chelsea winning the war. And he really does seem great just from looking at the stats, 14 goals in 16 Bundesliga games, and even better 3 goals in 4 Champions League games, plus from what everyone is saying about him he seems like he’d be a great buy for us, although I don’t think Tevez would be too happy if we bought a new first class striker because he’d know Rooney would get droppped a lot less than he would. Rooney played well for the whole match Dan, although the highlights don’t really prove that he was our driving force during the entire match and really he was the only one who showed any sort of creativity before Carrick came on, who I though was great in the short space of time he played. Oh and by the way I think it’s only fair to say what a ball from John O’ Shea, I have no idea where he pulled that one out of. Giggs was poor, Park didn’t do much, Scholes drifted in and out of the game, Anderson also, which again proves their partnership is the worst of the 5, our defense was shaky without Rio, not only because of his distribution skills but also it shows how important it is to have a defender who can organize the back four. Foster was great except for his kicking, although normally he is great with his feet so I’m going to blame nerves and the pitch for that, Ronaldo saved us again so I don’t think its fair to blame him for all of our missed chances, at least he can score one of them, really I can’t see anyone else scoring in our team.
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no conor, rooney was playing rubbish in the first half and rubish for the first 25 minutes of the second half. and what ball from o’shea? the goal was from foster kicking it down the field to rooney who then crossed it for ronaldo to score.
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He was the only one who looked like he was going to create anything for us, he put Giggs through on goal, he crossed it in for Ronaldo when he tried to bend it into the top corner with the outside of his foot, he won 2 free kicks which Ronaldo both nearly score from, and then he created more in the second half, another chance which Ronaldo hit into the side netting, never mind his assist and great movement. And O’Shea played the ball over the top with his left foot from around the halfway line to Rooney, not Foster.
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Dan: Have to agree with Conor, his best spell may have been in the last 25 minutes but he decent the rest of the time and our most creative looking player for the full ninty. On the goal it was an O’Shea ball over the top that Rooney latched on to and crossed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSAjmTmnHyA
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Even watch for yourself
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k i was wrong, o well…
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