Mar 01
Fulham v Man Utd: Preview
It’s Fulham today and United would look to put goals past the Cottagers and ensure the all important three points. Arsenal will be playing Villa at the same time.
So let’s get our preview in as soon as we can as we lead you up to the match.
Not much in the way of team news really, apart from Giggs missing out with a calf injury. However, iron-man Vidic is fit and it’s good to know that his limping around in the Newcastle game was nothing to be worried about — iron-man, that he is. While still on injuries, Easter Island Head is looking to return to the side soon. It’s a good thing that Evra has been relatively injury free and Silly has been out for a long time. He’s a decent squad player, but he’s also been a disaster waiting to happen. Anyway, we always respect our players, and we’ll do so to EIH too.
Meanwhile, there has been no mention of Neville picking up another injury. So I will knock on every splinter of wood in my house and keep my fingers crossed on this one. As an aside, would too much wood-knocking and finger-crossing cross out each other and jinx Neville? We’ll have to wait and see. So watch this space as we keep you updated with more on the Neviller’s anatomy.
On the team composition, we’d expect our ‘fab-four’ at the back with Nani and Ronaldo on the wings. I say Ronaldo because SAF may not take any games lightly from now on. He will play Ronaldo in Fulham, and he will play him against Lyon, in midweek. And Anderson and Carrick would play in central midfield. Scholes and Hargreaves (although I am uneasy about that combination) would play in midweek. Right, so that’s enough sticking-my-neck-out material penned for the day.
About our front two, I am not as certain. Rooney and Tevez is as good as any strike partnerships go but there is a possibility that a fit-looking (or fit-sounding?) Saha might be in the mix somewhere. SAF may have the temptation to play Rooney and Saha for this one. It’s just my hunch — betting people, mind, it’s rather unreliable, that hunch of mine.
About the pre-match banter forced on the managers (and on us) by the kind folk at Sky and Setanta, there has been some talk about SAF’s admiration for Roy Hodgson’s accumulated frequent flier miles and how his constant shifting from one club/country to another may have found favour with airline companies.
Oh well, it’s time for me to stick my neck out once more and give my all important prediction.
Prediction: 2-0 to United — Ronaldo and Rooney to score.
The frequent flier miles and finding favour with airline companies bit was made up by me, in case some of you hadn’t noticed.
- Rooney Out For A Month
- United vs Fulham: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Manchester United vs West Ham: Preview
- Man Utd v Lyon: Preview
Tags: Game Preview
March 1st, 2008 at 11:00
RR its really hard not to predict a high score, esp aft how the team has been playing in the last matches,,so my prediction will be 4-1, thats if fulham try really hard, they will get that 1 goal..
saha might get the node ahead of tevez, considering the way saf has been talking bout him the whole week, have you noticed for once in a long time saha has been making headlines..
cant wait to see nani terrorising defences again and of course,,ronnie and rooney to shine,,,anderson should get his 1st goal
March 1st, 2008 at 11:00
I see this weekend being a curcial one. United will win 2-1 today with a brace from Saha… yup you read correctly!
Arsenal v A.Villa will be a close thought draw
while Chelsea will beat West Ham comfortably…
March 1st, 2008 at 11:43
so strongest side today then? if we do then im sorry but i see another 5 goals for us, and wether fulham scores or not doesnt matter.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:13
the side i would play is
vds
fab 4
ronny
scholes
andy
nani
rooney
welbeck
then on wednesday/tuesday
i would play
vds
fab 4
carrick hargreaves andy
ronny rooney nani
March 1st, 2008 at 13:21
ronny wont play fergie will save him for europe, tevez n rooney up front for me.
March 1st, 2008 at 13:51
My team for today:
VDS
Brown Rio Vida Oshea
Ronaldo Carrick Andy Nani
Rooney Saha
subs:
PIG Evra Owen Scholes Tevez
United to win 2-0 thanks to goals from Ronaldo and Saha. I would play Sheasy cause Fulham are a great “air-team”. And Saha cause Tevez deserves a rest; he should play on tuesday.
Dan- I doubt Welbeck will play when we have Saha, Rooney and Tevez fit. I would be shocked if he even was on the bench.
March 1st, 2008 at 13:52
Dan: Why are you so eager to play Welbeck? The lad hasn’t even appeared as a sub yet.
March 1st, 2008 at 14:04
JB, you gonna show the team news as soon as you get em?
March 1st, 2008 at 14:10
exactly, he hasn’t, and the only way i see him playing is if he plays now or at derby.
March 1st, 2008 at 14:12
great player sheringham, sad yet glad to see him hang up his boots.
March 1st, 2008 at 14:13
RedDevil: Will do, should have them in an hour or so!
Dan: Well your teams don’t have Tevez or Saha starting against Lyon, so we might as well play one of them today. I know Derby and Fulham are the easiest games left this season, but I wouldn’t count on today being enough of a walk in a park that we can blood Welbeck.
March 1st, 2008 at 14:21
thats true, and we need rooney in the team so yea ok welbeck out and saha in but im still hoping for a bench role
March 1st, 2008 at 14:39
http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=81106
bloody ‘ell, we should probably take this with heaps of salt.
March 1st, 2008 at 14:47
That Moggi gut is lyin! Ronaldo wouldnt have signed for them. If he means this summer I am REALLY surpirsed, but if it was last summer(2006) it wouldnt be big news.
March 1st, 2008 at 15:11
GK: VDS
RB: O’Shea
CB: Ferdinand
CB: Brown
LB: Evra
RM: Park
CM: Scholes
CM: Hargreaves
LM: Nani
CF: Tevez
CF: Saha
Subs: PIG, Pique, Anderson, Ronaldo, Rooney
March 1st, 2008 at 15:15
Given the reference to Salas and Cassano I would assume Moggi is talking about the period around 2001. This would be when Ronaldo first began to move through the ranks in the Sporting Lisbon youth/reserve teams IIRC. Talk about a quote out of context
March 1st, 2008 at 15:15
I dont know if I am pleased with the team. Its some good changes and some bad. Ronaldo and Rooney should have started, but I think Fergie is saving them for Lyon. Not pleased to see Park and Owen start, but the others are fine.
BTW; you got Fulhams team there JB?
March 1st, 2008 at 15:19
Fulham Team:
Niemi
Stalteri
Hughes
Hangeland
Konchesky
Johnson
Murphy
Bullard
Volz
Davies
McBride
March 1st, 2008 at 15:23
We should be able to beat them with our team! I still predict 2-0 to United; Saha and Scholes to score.
March 1st, 2008 at 15:39
no no no, where is rooney? rooney must come on half time for saha.
March 1st, 2008 at 15:39
I think that scholes will have to prove himself if he wants to recapture his place in the starting lineup against Lyon.
Lets see if he has the capability of mastering the midfield
March 1st, 2008 at 15:42
apparently its a 4-3-3 with park, saha and tevez up front (according to soccernet)
this should be interesting
and, worst comes to worst we’ve got 3 match-killers on the bench
March 1st, 2008 at 15:42
hmmm… dont like this side. hopefully we get the 3 points stll without to much panic…
March 1st, 2008 at 15:46
nah, if its 4-3-3 then park will be left centre, hargo, centre and scholes right centre with saha in the middle and tevez and nani interchangeable.
March 1st, 2008 at 16:02
any possible streams? doesnt seem that the channelsurfing one works
March 1st, 2008 at 16:04
Game TIME!! WHOO!! GLORY GLORY!!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:07
Saha!!! What a ball!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:17
THATS WHY WE BOUGHT HARGO!!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:17
and a new free kick taker was born!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:17
OWEN!!!!! YEAH GET IN THERE!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:17
goal .bloody brilliant owen bloody brilliant
March 1st, 2008 at 16:18
We shall not be moved!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:19
For streaming, http://www.myp2p.eu I’m streaming in class. Its great, get SopCast.
March 1st, 2008 at 16:29
villa up 1-0….woo hooo…
March 1st, 2008 at 16:30
arsenal losing yipeee
March 1st, 2008 at 16:32
villa beating arsenal 1-0 senderos og
March 1st, 2008 at 16:47
THREE LUNG PARK!!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 16:48
Scholes is majestic today. 0-2
March 1st, 2008 at 16:48
Who crossed the ball,no paul scholes is it?Yea who said scholes was finished?
March 1st, 2008 at 16:51
Scholes can still play,giggs no.
March 1st, 2008 at 16:52
Lampard Sent off crazy game in West Ham…
March 1st, 2008 at 16:54
heck with the way things are going i wouldnt be suprised if vds scored, firts hargo, then PJS, wow.
March 1st, 2008 at 17:02
and then there was 1… when is andy going to score, he is the only summer signing not to…
March 1st, 2008 at 17:04
Can the score at Emirates stay as it is, please?
March 1st, 2008 at 17:08
A couple of observations on the first half. After all my negative talk regarding Paul Scholes the good lord has decided to punish me and make me eat my words…..for today at least. Scholes has looked very good in the first half. Still, it is Fulham and I never said that he was a bad player. He has been a great player for 13 years and so there will be moments of brilliance from him.
Secondly, I have to question the wisdom of Fergie to sit down both Rooney and Ronaldo during a must win away fixture. Foolish I feel but he is coming up smelling like roses right now. Sometimes you just have to show your team you have confidence in them.
How about that Hargreaves free kick and also his dogged defending this half? I have been claiming for months ow that he should get more cracks at free kicks, especially the short range ones as he has a beautiful bending finesses free kick in his arsenal. Great to see his first goal. Finally, Fulham is just crap. The BPL should be reduced to 16 teams as there are too many teams like this that are just rubbish.
March 1st, 2008 at 17:10
4 or 5 pls! arse loosing! oh yes! nani,scholes and saha to score. come on the reds!
March 1st, 2008 at 17:18
Grognard, it seems that all United players are especially focusing on your comments. No offence but I think it’s time for you to start ranting about Wayne Rooney, so that he starts scoring for fun…
I repeat: no offence! Just a joke.
March 1st, 2008 at 17:54
comfortable 3-0 win
March 1st, 2008 at 17:56
Fuck arsenal scored in the last min
March 1st, 2008 at 17:56
CRRRRAAAAAPPPPPP arsenal equalised…
March 1st, 2008 at 17:58
a comfortable win! I did wonder at times why VDS was coming out and completley missing crosses when he had his defense to deal with things… maybe he was bored?
Real shame Arsenal got a last minute equaliser but we are so close now…
Oh and poor Newcastle haha, can we have Alan Smith back?
March 1st, 2008 at 17:58
heartbreak….how do they always manage to score in the last minute of the game…arseholes…neways…clearly the confidence is flowing in Manchester than in London..good MU quality football on display today…
March 1st, 2008 at 18:07
1 point away. Gutted Arsenal scored in the last minute but hey im sure all of you would have taken a draw for arsenal at the start of the game. it is still 2 points dropped, AND no win in 4 now for arsenal
March 1st, 2008 at 18:10
im thinking, is it not better us being a point behind then it is being top only on GD? there would be less pressure on the arse, now, being a point behind, they are nervous and the pressure is on them, more pressure=more mistakes which= more goals conceded.
March 1st, 2008 at 18:11
We got the best attack record back. Let’s go. Fuck the Arse, what’s one point? We still have to face them right? Confident performance, wonderful man management. Beautiful stuff. No complaints!!
March 1st, 2008 at 18:27
More tinkering from Fergie but out squad has so much quality we can beat lower table sides with only half our full team. That bodes well for the rest of the season as we’ll avoid a situation like Milan where our players were too tired to compete.
March 1st, 2008 at 19:17
I just looked at our results this season, and this is only Uniteds second game this season that we score only 3 goals! The other one was against Spurs in FA Cup. And Three different scorers too(!), that is amazing. Only one point behind now, wehave a great chance of winning our trophy…THE PREMIER LEAGUE!
March 1st, 2008 at 19:18
James F; You know I was having the same thought. If I wasn’t sure of this I’d say old Scholesy and Park both are avid readers of REDRANTS. All my negative comments about their play seemed to have motivated the heck out of them today. So I’ll take the credit thank you very much. Grognard is the Man of the Match for his interesting and very successful motivational techniques.
Now back to planet Earth. This was a very good performance by the side minus many starters.
They proved they could play most of the game without Rooney and Ronaldo but lets remember, it was only Fulham. With that said, certain players stepped up and performed very well. Therefore, here are my match ratings for the day. 1-10 with 10 meaning Superb.
van der Sar - 6/10 - Never really got tested but had some moments of stupidity where he punched out a ball he could easily have caught and also being caught out a few times.
O’Shea - 8/10 - Not much else you can ask from this player. Put him anywhere and he turns in a workmanlike performance. Unspectacular but very very steady and sure of himself.
Brown - 7/10 - Unspectacular but very sure and did a good job of marking as well as clearing the ball.
Rio - 7/10 - Rio is Rio. Steady as a rock and leading the way. Never had much to do although he made a few poor clearances that never cost us.
Evra - 7/10 - Nice runs down the line but he still cannot cross a ball. Defended well and never let anybody get past him or cross a meaningful ball into the box.
Park - 8/10 - Always has a lot of energy but today his first touch didn’t betray him like in the past. His header was a nice surprise. He looks to be match fit finally which is a bonus.
Scholes - 9/10 - OK OK he was the man of the match and showed everyone what has been missing for a season now. His willingness to attack and go forward. He sent more long balls that met their target today than he has in his last 15 games combined. He was also unlucky with some stupid fouls being called against him as he was aggressive today. Nice ball in to Park for goal number 2. Now can he do it two games in a row? He can’t start every game but every now and then some of the old magic shows. Again, lets not forget that this was Fulham he exploited.
Hargreaves - 8/10 - A very professional and competent display of marking and transition to offense. His free kick goal only strengthens my argument that he should take all the short free kicks for the team because he is that good at it. A sublime goal and a great effort all game long.
Nani - 8/10 - Made a meal of Stalteri all day. He is really coming in to his own and the confidence and beautiful dribbling is now more evident than ever. Imagine what kind of a player he will be in two seasons.
Tevez - 6/10 - Always works hard but he just is invisible at times without Rooney to play off of. Never really inspired today and missed a gimme header setup by Saha.
Saha - 7/10 - Perhaps many will think that I have given Louis a high grade but he worked hard and was good on the ball. Setup Tevez with what should have been a goal and trapped some long balls sent to him beautifully. Only thing that is missing is his finishing which was poor and the fact that he still needs to find himself more in the box. His effort was good and promising though.
Rooney - 6/10 - Not much time to really impose himself on the game but he worked hard as usual and found space. His first touch betrayed every time though.
Ronaldo - 6-10 - Like Rooney not much time to do much. Was nimble but I’m not so big a fan of his more central role these days. I like him wide and cutting in. He seems too goal hungry trying a few speculative long shots where a pass to another was the smarter play.
Anderson - ???? - Just not enough time to judge.
A good performance and a bright show for players who needed to show us more. Robnaldo and Rooney got some rest and Vidic and Giggs should be ready for Tuesday. Now if only Arsenal would know their damned role and lose a game they deserve to lose. They have been unbelievable in the BPL. They just don’t lose games. All those single points from draws may hurt us at the end because we gave away some games completely this season. Now lets finish of Lyon.
March 1st, 2008 at 20:17
Ferguson remarked: ‘I see it was the 95th minute of their usual seven minutes’ injury time.’
hahaha i agree but we have nicked a couple this season as well.
March 1st, 2008 at 21:30
Anybody noticed that for 20min our play was poor at the start of the second half?
I know i’m fickle, but there wasn’t much possession play at that time.
Didn’t watch the 1st half though. Guess I lost most of the entertainment.
March 1st, 2008 at 21:51
Ok lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Hargreaves scoring one freekick doesn’t just write off 18m worth of transfer fees and if he was so solid in defense where was he when Murphy had that great shot that VDS came to the rescue on. Scholes played exactly the same as he has all season with only one difference, he was playing the ball forward as soon as he got it instead of sideways and backwards. It was also nice to see him making forward runs. In no way is he past it but he has to stay in a forward mindset and not just hold up play but create and drive the team forward. Let’s hope he can keep it up.
March 1st, 2008 at 22:23
sorry please stop, you proved my point, hargreaves got forward more and murphy almost scored, and to be honest carrick cost 18mil and he only proved his worth recently, hargreaves has played a big part in are defence not conceding goals, wow, you complain when he gets back, you complain when he gets forward, he scored a blimmin free-kick(which ronny wouldn’t) yet he can do no good, get your head out your ass and face the fact that he is a world class player and your just fickle. Fuck sake.
March 1st, 2008 at 22:36
You know what,we shouldnt even be fighting for our league title.Our squad is far superior to arsenals.They are going to play the same squad till the end of the season.It doesnt work and it will show.Does anyone else notice rooneys touch,cause to me it just isnt right.Scholes looked back to his technical best.I knew he would get it.Scholes is class…
March 1st, 2008 at 22:38
Now im blank about the lyon game.Carricks on form,scholes looks good,hargo too.Andys been brilliant.No idea.
March 1st, 2008 at 22:48
DAN; Regarding Hargreaves, well said mate. The lad is world class and some pillocks out there need to wake up and smell the coffee. Where was he when Murphy had his shot? Jeez Liam he can’t frakken cover everyone at the same time. Perhaps you should point your finger at someone else for missing Murphy.
Big question for Tuesday. Who starts between Scholes, Anderson and Carrick as well as Nani and Giggs? I’m pretty sure Hargo will start. It is a CL game and that was what he was bought for. Nani is just in too good a form to be sat down in favor of Giggsy and the same goes for Carrick. But how do you sit down Mr. Anderson?
Scholes played well but Carrick deserves that start
March 1st, 2008 at 23:32
Grognard,I think fergie will go for experience.scholes will definately start
March 1st, 2008 at 23:34
it will be a 4-3-3 with hargo andy and carrick in the centre, saf wont put down hargo because of his expirence, andy hasn’t played a full match if i remember correctly for last few games and carrick didn’t have any involvement at all today, scholes played a full 90 minutes so i expect him on the bench, nani is just to good to be put on the bench, he truly is the a spawn of a gay couple, the trickery of ronaldo and the crossing of beckham, if rooney would just get his ‘touch’ back, we would be scoring goals against teams like milan at san siro for fun!
March 1st, 2008 at 23:48
Dan: I’m sorry but despite a recent improvement in form Hargreaves has yet to come anywhere near to justifying his £18m fee. He has, IMO, done less than Carrick had done at the corresponding time last season. And you are calling someone else fickle, the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.
March 2nd, 2008 at 0:53
JB; Carrick wasn’t fighting a lingering injury for all of last season so your comparison is very unfair. Give Hargo the time to truly get acclimated to the BPL as well as fully fit and you will eat your words.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:18
[Dan]
You tend to jump the gun a little too soon, don’t you? Give all players a little more time before judging them.
[JB]
And comparing him to Carrick is still premature in my opinion. I was impressed by him in the big games especially when he played alongside Anderson against Liverpool and Arsenal. But then, Fletcher and Smith had blinders in midfield against a marauding Chelsea in the 05/06 season. So I’ll keep my judgment to the tail end of the season.
The midfield combination is still a big talking point, and I think it will be so till the end of this season. In a way, it would be nice if SAF figures out which pairs of midfielders would work. If he gets two pairs (preferably distinct ones — like Carrick/Anderson and Hargo/Scholes, for example) then he could comfortably rotate them. It’s still a happy headache and signs that we have a squad with players getting themselves into title winning form.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:19
What words will I eat, that Hargreaves has not performed the way he can to date? Because he hasn’t, injuries or no injuries. So far he has performed just about adequately, no more. I’m fully aware of his capabilities and was a supporter of the signing of him. If you cast you mind back I was (and am as part of a 3 with Anderson) a big advocate of a Carrick/Hargreaves central midfield. However that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been under whelmed by his performances so far. Thankfully there have been signs of improvement recently, let us hope he continues on that track.
I think we will be better placed to truly judge him next season with (hopefully) a full pre season behind him and time to adapt fully. I hoped he would be able to get used to United and the English game a bit quicker (his biggest problem seems to be holding on to the ball for too long, a big issue in a team built around doing everything at great speed) but any player from a foreign league should get at least a seasons grace in that regard.
As for the injury last yeat, whilst it was a bad one, it wasn’t a broken leg a la Eduardo/Smith. There definitely shouldn’t be lingering after effects more than a year after it, especially considering some of the CL performances he was putting in the second half of last season for Bayern. Regardless however, there are a number of our players who have been suffering from the after effects of injuries this season, who have been cut a lot less slack than Hargreaves has got.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:28
I think we might have a go at Lyon with 4-4-2. Let’s face it, 0-0 is not a common scoreline for us so we really have to win the game and we’re going to do that by attacking not playing cagily and hoping we hit them on the break or make something out of a set piece. Lyon do not have a great defence so we can outscore them and if they score through a lucky break or a piece of magic from ben arfa or benzema then we are more than capable of scoreing two or more.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:28
[JB]
About the cutting less slack bit with regards to other players, I think Saha has got all the patience in the world, Carrick/Scholes had a bit of an unfair treatment but then it was not as if the league was new to them. Hargo hasn’t had the luxury of settling into a rhythm because of his injuries. However, it must be said that he actually put in some dominant performances in the early part of the season when he played. Notably against City in August (although we lost that game) I know it’s not a very good metric but he did win the fans’ player of the year award for August despite making 2 appearances. It’s an indication that he hasn’t done too badly. But yes, it is still premature to judge him.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:29
RR: The comparison I was making was that if Carrick hadn’t justified his £18m fee at this stage of last season with his perfomances, then there is no way Hargreaves has this year. Now there may be reasons for this, such as injuries, but that is all part of the overall package and just can’t be discounted when judging a player’s contribution.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:47
Injuries have to be taken in to consideration when evaluating a player’s contribution against the money that was spent on him. Also, although Hargo’s injury was not as serious as Smith’s or Eduado’s, he does have the lingering problem of tendinitis in the knee which if you’ve ever suffered from tendinitis, is a total bitch to live with let alone play with. I agree that a full off season and a good pre-season will probably brig out his best next season. Still, I think he’s pretty damned good right now.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:47
Goal scorers:
1 Cristiano RONALDO 29
2 Carlos TEVEZ 15
3 Wayne ROONEY 13
4 Louis SAHA 5
5 NANI 3
6 Ryan GIGGS 3
7 Rio FERDINAND 3
8 Darren FLETCHER 2
9 Gerard PIQUÉ 2
10 Paul SCHOLES 1
11 Nemanja VIDIC 1
12 Michael CARRICK 1
13 Owen HARGREAVES 1
14 Ji-sung PARK 1
15 Own goals 2(Gallas and Davies.)
Since the start of February, four United players have scored their first goal of the season. Those players are: Fletcher(2), Carrick, Park and Hargreaves. And if you look back and see that the last time a player scored his first goal of the season was back in October(Pique), I find this amazing! This seems to be the time when most players score their first goal of the season. Now its time for Anderson, Evra, Oshea and Brown! In that order
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:11
Red Devil- I was just thinking about that point myself! However, if you think about it, it isn’t that remarkable, as we have been resting many of our first team players recently, so the onus has been on others to score.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:21
The best moment was that cross from Ronaldo!!
He loves that move… Only does it a couple of times in a season.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:45
sorry i have really bad memory, i can only remember giggs scoring 1 goal…
March 2nd, 2008 at 13:35
Hargreaves may be English but he’s played all his life in Germany. It is a different league and all players are entitled to a season to adjust to the pace of the English game. His true value I believe will be in Europe as he’s got loads of Champions League experience.
March 2nd, 2008 at 14:04
Yea same here dan,the deflected goal against villa…
March 2nd, 2008 at 15:29
Giggs scored in the community shield against Chelsea, and he also scored in the 4-1 win over Derby, as well as that Villa goal.
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:08
MoYa- that cross from Ronaldo is called a Rabona!
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:36
community shield really shouldnt count for anything.
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:38
I think it should Dan! Its a trophy you can win and its against a top side.
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:39
In that case…if we win the treble this year it will actually be a quadruple!
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:44
Yeah, thats right Sam. I had actually forgotten that! When we won the CS, my first thought was that if we could collect every trophy possible this season we would win five trophies! Were out of the Carling Cup, but we can still win the quadruple. I hope we will.
March 2nd, 2008 at 16:59
Oh please, we are not Liverpool, we don’t count fake tin pot trophies like the CS or European Super Cup!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 17:35
The Charity Shield and the League Cup are nothing more than paper weights at OT. Let the sorry buggers at other lesser cubs scurry ike starving rabbits to possess such rubbish. For me they mean absolutely nothing. In fact any trophy that is won without putting out ones best eleven is total crap. My question to all of you is what trophy matter the most to you, is it the League or the European Cup? For me it’s the League because the CL has turned into an unattractive boring battle of wits and negative tactics. Any competition that involves Italians is bound to be political and boring as well. This is not an indictment against Italy itself, but it’s negative and unattractive style and method of football.
March 2nd, 2008 at 17:54
it would have to be the FA cup, its where even little teams can compete and say there one of the best, the CL to say we are the best Europe. what happened to the fifa club world cup?
March 2nd, 2008 at 18:48
The Fifa Club World cup still happens every year, but its still as worthless as the Carling Cup or Community Shield really. I think that I prefer to win the League again, because we know that if we win the League we’ll have won it in style, compared to the Champions League when we are a completely different team and in truth most of the time we are boring, which is why it suits Liverpool and AC milan so much
March 2nd, 2008 at 18:58
Premier League over everything!
March 2nd, 2008 at 19:16
Nah,I didnt experience 1999 so for me its the champs league.The leagues great but to be champions of europe is something else.Btw,negative tactics is part of football.We should play our game.
March 2nd, 2008 at 19:25
But Taehr in the Champions League we don’t play our game, thats the point. Only in the home games are we slightly similar, but in the Champions League every little mistake is punished with a much greater consequence so we’re too wary of being solid the whole way through the team that we don’t play the great attacking football we all love, although this season in the group stages we were more exciting than usual so who knows, but the Premier League is still a more exciting competition for the most part.
March 2nd, 2008 at 19:25
The league is probably a bigger accolade than the Champions League, especially now that so many quality players are coming to England.
However, it all depends on circumstances, and for United at this juncture I would prefer the Champions League (as compared to Liverpool, who would undoubtedly prefer the league, for example)
Our domination of the past 15 years is not reflected in European success, and for those of you who say you prefer the league, can you honestly say that, for you, the feeling when we won the league, say, in 2000 (ie for the second time in a row like it would be this year) was better than that of winning the CL in 99? That was a special feeling, Taehr, you are right, you need to experience it, and the rest of us crave experiencing it again. I think we have the squad to do it this time.
March 2nd, 2008 at 19:35
EPL for me too, but CL is not that bad, so it’s 2nd place for me. The braging rights from CL are huge
March 2nd, 2008 at 19:49
All 3… And why not? However we may play, we have the talent and the team to win all 3.
March 2nd, 2008 at 20:38
If fergie wasnt scared to play 4-4-2 we probably would do much better.What gets on my nerves is when we go a goal down we immediately switch to 4-4-2 to get back into the game.Like last year against benfica and against lyon.If 4-4-2 gets us goals then why not start with it.I think fergie looks to the opposing teams too much instead of focussing on our own talented players.
March 2nd, 2008 at 20:38
Any link for the fulham goals?
March 2nd, 2008 at 20:47
what age are you taehr?
March 2nd, 2008 at 22:18
Taher: To be frank a basic 4-4-2 formation is somewhat antiquated in modern European football. The formation and the attack, attack, attack approach was badly exposed in the 99/00 and 00/01 seasons by Madrid and Munich respectively. Just because we have botched a number of CL campaigns playing a more cautious system does not make it the wrong choice.
SAF first deployed a European system over a long term in 01/02. In that season it would have seen us to a CL final if it hadn’t been for a truck load of missed chances against Leverkusen. It would also have probably seen us to the finals the next year if we hadnâ€