Mar 17
Is Fabio too good for the reserves?
Rafael da Silva, one of the Brazilian twins United signed has given an excellent account of himself this season. His tenacity, ability to dribble and pace belies his tender years and has caught many eyes world over. But the much touted of the two, however, was Fabio. He captained the Brazilian U-17 team and was the more impressive of the two during the U-17 World Cup.
Fabio has had a frustrating season blighted by injury. He had a shoulder operation which kept him away from action for months, and thus kept him from developing his game. However, since his return to the reserves, he has been nothing short of outstanding. I’ve been witness to only a handful clips and highlights, but there are indications, like his ability to hold his own against Tottenham in the FA Cup, and his general form for the reserves, that it won’t be long before he’ll be getting a real run in the first team.
But yesterday, if not earlier, should have surely put the backroom staff and Fergie on high alert. In a game between United reserves and Rochdale, Fabio scored a hat trick. It’s hard enough for a full-back to score goals, but a hat trick makes one rub his eyes. I was curious to see his stats this season for the reserves, but couldn’t find any in the official site. Thanks to the excellent Man United Youth blog, I found that he has made 9 appearances this season (8 starts, 1 sub) and scored 6 goals. It’s too early to say anything so early about a player, but if these stats are those of a full back, then one can’t help but sit up and take notice.
Reports all over have been glowing about his performance yesterday. And there is talk of a wonderful volley for one of the goals. If anyone can post links to the video, I’ll be well pleased and grateful.
So, the question is, is he ready for the first team?
I’d say, if his brother did alright, I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be given a look-in. (Of course, not just because he’s Rafael’s brother.) However, from what I’ve seen of him, I think his attacking instincts could be better served on the left wing, giving us raw pace and fearlessness that seems to be in short supply in the first team. Fergie seems to have lost faith in Nani this season, and there aren’t any other creative players with searing pace, bar Ronaldo, on the wing. I’d say, why not? But I’d love to hear from you.
I’ll leave two links to the match reports of the game:
1. A poster, on Red Cafe
2. Man United Youth’s match report.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Reserves
- ‘Fabio will be one of the greatest left backs for Manchester United’
- Bebe Scores A Wonder Strike For The Reserves Against Wigan
- Two Reasons Why United Aren’t Looking for Fullbacks
- Video: Diouf Scores Again for the Reserves
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
I don’t know if I like Valencia… he is so young and risky – unlike RIBERY!
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@Craig Mc: I like your venom here, but I have to ask, or else what??
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@JB: It’s clear you do not get where I am coming from so I will just surrender to you and end it right now. To say that I am little shocked and disappointed by how some of us can remove themselves from the suffering of others to corporate criminals and hide in the corner has my jaw hanging in disbelief. My whole point was that I felt a great and honorable team like Manchester United should not mess it’s good name by associating with such a sleazy and unscrupulous corporate entity. We might as well have Bin Laden Construction or Mengele Farm Equipment on our kit next season. After all, why should we give a fuck, all that matters is football and Man Utd winning. You win JB, I give up consider your self one of Mourinho’s champions.
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@Red Ranter: Perhaps you should read a little more about them and watch CSPAN to see just what kind of crap they have been up to. Simply put, it hurts me and bugs me that the team I love and support is in bed with such a corporate whore and criminal. To some like JB I am an over reactive old woman who needs to shutup but I just can’t. My cousin lost a quarter of a million dollars due to their completely unethical practices in areas that had nothing to do with insurance. Having worked in corporate environments like this and having seen first hand a lot of the corruption that was going on in the IT sector ten years ago, I am far from naive or untrained in spotting this kind of crap and so it just pains me that United have not done their utmost to remove themselves form this unwanted publicity. I mean AIG is everywhere in the news. It’s about doing the right thing and showing some moral fiber and respect to those who have gotten burned. but JB would have you believe that they themselves have to take a lot of the blame for their losses.
Sorry to you and everyone for even bringing up the subject but for me it is a very relevant subject because it has something to do with our football team. I’m just glad I have never bought a United jersey with AIG on it. So from that perspective I never contributed to their criminal empire. I’m just very upset about all this.
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@Craig Mc: Yes it is and that’s who I am mad at because they are shaming the club with their corporate American made greed and old boys club loyalty.
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@Craig Mc: Fergie didn’t do shit when Rafa blew up a few months ago and that worked out well for us. Let Rafa put his foot in his own mouth. Fergie has more important fish to fry and doesn’t need to lower himself to the level of an eccentric fat gay waiter with a lisp and a penchant for young Spanish boys named Fernando. JES, DATS A FACT.
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@Craig Mc: Beyond all that bullshit, his signing will stick a rocket up their arse and give them a boost. The timing here is not accidental!!
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@RedDevilEddy: I for one am unhappy about him staying. I do not fear him or his team but I feel he is bad for the game the way he has turned the game into a tactical board game and his personality just makes me want to get on a plane fly to Scouserville and beat the tar out of that fuckers goatee. I just hate him so much that I want him out of my life. Hell, I hate him more than my ex. Dats a fact.
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@JB: On the positive side JB, that ends our streak of agreeing with each other. I know that was causing you concern and sleepless nights and you were beginning to question whether the world was truly round. Now you can sleep easy. Take care mate,
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@Grognard: I am aware of the kind of shit AIG and other firms have been upto, and I have been cynical of them well before the financial markets even blew up. But I don’t want to mix my personal cynicism with business dealings between two parties — the Glazers and AIG — who’s record in business ethics, is shady at best; that deal transcends cynicism. So, for me it’s not some breaking news. My argument was United should have never been with AIG in the first place, so to bring up AIG now once the shit has already hit the fans seems, oh so yesterday’s news to me. Which explains why I may have come across as desensitised, although I’m not. It’s just that even though I have a fair bit to say on the financial crisis, I don’t think it’s becoming of me to be airing that over here. It would be an endless rant.
Secondly, in future, when you bring up a subject that’s touchy and you feel emotionally attached to, and if it gets you worked up very easily, then I suggest in future you don’t bring it up. For your own sake.
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I hate when we are linked to any unproven player.Valencia/IS he better than what we already have?We are not Man City,but neither are we Spurs.We should only buy players that significantly improve on what we have.
Remember,the Roy Keane replacement issue?We spent on every djemba,liam miller,alan smith,kleberson,fortune and his chicken.wt need to buy quality and the rest from our youth system
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Congratulations all. FSW has signed a 5 year contract extension at liverpool
Eariler in the season there was an article at RoM describing how FSW had spent more than United since arriving at Liverpool. The dippers argued that that could be true, but since their squad was of lower quality than United’s, they needed to spend more. Agreed.
So, the best way to measure the spending of both the clubs to verify if United have indeed bought their way to 10 premiership titles in the Fergie era as is clamed, is to compare the spending stats between United and liverpool since liverpool last won the league title, i.e the start of the premiership era.
Here’s a wonderful site that provides the statistics:
http://transferleague.co.uk/
Net spending since Premier league inception:
Liverpool £202,445,000
Manchester United £200,585,000
Net spending since FSW’s arrival to Liverpool:
Liverpool £110,460,000
Manchester United £93,400,000
The answer to why we have won 10 premierships is just this : Fergie!
Long live Fergie, in Rafa we trust
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@donibrasco: For £5m might be a decent squad player, also he has prem experience.
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@Grognard: Most big business is built on corporate criminality mate, whatever mask it uses to front itself with, so nothing new there. Joe public will always be screwed mate. Look at how United and Everton fans are being criminally robbed of their hard earned dosh, by having not only to pay extortionate prices to the damnable FA for Wembley tickets, but the travel expense born by us fans is Dick Turpin burglary hold-up. Should all clubs pull out of the FA criminally led world?
.
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@Redrich: Or else they will get the biggest verbal duffing up they have ever had from Red Ranters and from the terraces from at LEAST the SALFORD REDS.
.
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I doubt we’d get Valencia for 5 million. He’ll be sold for 15 million or whatever Palacios was sold for. And he would just be a squad rotation player, alternating with Park.
What we really need is a top drawer central midfielder to partner Carrick. Ideally someone in the Ballack/Gerrard mould who can impose himself in central midfield and score goals.
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@colver: Hargreaves?
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Rd. Im not placing my faith on Hargreaves. I think we should use him as a role player for Europe and the big games when we need him to shield the defence or give a bit of attacking impetus on the wings. That way he will be less likely to suffer a recurrence of his injury and our team will not be thrown into disarray if he does get injured again.
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@Craig Mc: Hey mate (and other guys in the UK), I might be traveling in the UK around the FA Cup Final time…but I’ve no idea about ticket prices and how to get them! Need some info – Help!
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@antsBoy: Stay far away, wembley is an over-priced shit hole with very poor traveling conditions. Your better off going to a pub and watching it there.
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Im seeing there is not very much going on here at the moment…
So, Ive finished my birthday party! Lets move on to some more footy stuff. I just gotta ask you what you make of the new FIFA 09 Ultimate team? I think it looks great, and I cant wait for to download it tomorrow. Speaking of which, if you could make and ultimate team, of your choice(we are not talking reality, we are talking video game players skill) what would YOUR ultimate team be?
Mine would be:
Cesar(sick goalie in the game!)
) Evra
Maicon Rio Eddy(create myself
Ronaldo Gerrard Kaka Messi
Torres Benzema
subs: Casillias, Abidal, Alves, Essien, De Rossi, Rooney, Ibrahimovic
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I got hold of Ultimate team today. The servers are so slow I cant even change people in and out of my team. I’ve got a load of crap players in my first packs, and 1 good defender (a 75, and he’s on the bloody bench).
Once it works it’ll be bloody fantastic.
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@colver: I think we need to see how he returns from the injury. Next season could just be a come back year for him, being used occasionally while he returns to fitness and form. Or he could come back gangbusters, start every game, and show why SAF thought so highly of him in the first place.
Owen is definitely in the “owe us” column as far as I’m concerned. He needs to show that he’s not damaged goods and that he was worthy of his place on the England Team. He has a very good attitude, and as long as his body can heal, I think he’ll be excellent for us.
And if not, then what???
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Pretty slow around here, huh???, Liverpool game got the better of you?? , are Grognard and Red Ranter fighting again??.
Come on guys, lets climb back on that non-sensible horse and start to rave and rant about;-
1/. The CL draw. It’s tomorrow, and what’s the team that’s really gonna make you shit your pants??
2/. The Fulham game. Can we bounce back and thrash these minions??, or is our poor form to continue and then what??
3/. Is Park really better than Nani??
4/. Will Neville ever captain the fist team again??
Anycase, I want to send a huge and colective FUCK OFF to the scousers, their wives, their management, their ground crew and especially to their fans, Who I’d like add the further sentiment of AND DIE.
Oh shit, I think I’m ranting!!
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@Redrich: yup really slow…
but i’m really hoping we meet ‘fool, it’d be great to get another shot at dismantling them, they still talk about the win, like it’s a friggin world championship, it’d be nice to shut em up.
mind you, i remember when we trounced em 3-0 last season, and mascherano got sent off, wasn’t a bit deal cause it was expected.
goes to show the difference in class, reckon a team like Hull would warrant a more prolonged celebration if they beat us…
haha! that’s funny – Neville captain the “fist” team?
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im not one for this ultimate team thing, ive never liked online trading card type of things since i tried out a pokemon game, terrible, just terrible that was.
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Question for Grognard before the draw is made. You know more about Bayern Munich than just about everyone here so I just wanted to get your thoughts on how big a loss Klose is for them. It’s been reported he’ll be out for 6 weeks and maybe even the rest of the season.
How crucial is he for them? Will they have to change their system much without him? I’ve been thinking it could be a good time for us to get Bayern with their most consistent goal scorer out. I would certainly have feared the Toni/Klose partnership but Toni on his own doesn’t seem as much of a threat. I know Podolski would most likely replace him but he’s obviously not happy there and will leave at season’s end.
I, like you, believe Bayern are a genuine threat for the title as they’re one of the best attacking teams going around at the moment. However, one thing that has crossed my mind is that they may have peaked a little too early. If you remember when we beat Roma 7-1, we founded it difficult to back up that performance and went out in the semis to Milan. Plus, the other teams will have noticed what damage Bayern can cause after their destruction of Sporting. Before the previous round, Bayern were flying under the radar somewhat.
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CL Quarter Final Draw Predictions:
Chelsea V Bayern Munich
Man Utd V Porto
Villareal V Arsenal
Barca V Liverpool
To Progress: Chelsea, Man Utd, Villareal, Liverpool
Semis: Chelsea V Liverpool and Man Utd V Villareal
Finals: Man Utd V Liverpool, Man Utd to win 4-1
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Fabio was substituted at the half for the reserves, just on the thread topic. Wonder if we’ll see him on the bench on Saturday…
CL Draw:
Arsenal v United
Chelsea v Porto
Liverpool v Villareal
Barcelona v Bayern
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Offical CL DRAW :
villareal vs arsenal
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manchester united VS PORTO
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Woohoo
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Liverpool vs chelsea
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barca vs munich
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Porto…
LooserFool vs Chelski…
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winner of manu vs porto will face the winner of villareal vs arsnal
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Wow, we have to beat Porto and Arsenal to reach the finals. Commmeeee oooonnnnnN!
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It’s PORTO! With Arsenal or Villareal in the semis. WHAT A DREAM DRAW!
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barca vs munich will face the winner of liverpool vs chelsea duh >.>
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on paper we should go through to the final with ease , but its the CL you never know…
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What a draw! Porto in the quarters and Villareal/Arsenal in the semis. Quite possibly a final against Liverpool if they dispose of Chelsea and Barcelona/Bayern.
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Wow !! Have to admit , the draw looks easy on paper.
First Jose, now Porto !!
The media will be back with its quintuple talk.
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Yeah I have to say if we don’t make it to the finals with this draw we are going to have to ask ourselves some serious questions. We have a REAL chance of being the first team to retain the Champions League trophy. Now that would really cement our reputation.
I have to say out of all the English teams Id prefer to face Arsenal. They can pull off a win on their day but over two legs I think we are far too strong. After all they struggled to get past Roma.
The other side of the draw is more interesting. I think Bayern could beat Barcelona and then beat Liverpool.
A Bayern-United final ten years after 1999 really would be poetic.
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@Shreyas: sooooooo close there! are you psychic?
Bring on the portugeese, then Arsenal/villareal, we can only defeat ourselves now. Chelski to beat the Scouse gits and loose to Bayern who’ll scrape past Barca, United v Bayern final! 
thats the best draw for us, cant believe it! happy days
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what a draw!!! how sweet. if we dnt gt 2 the final, we wont deserve 2 win it. weve been givn a GREAT draw
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Bayern have never lost to Barca in the champions league….
If money could have bought a draw, ours bought this one. Its perfect for us. We’re in the half of the draw with the 3 weakest teams left in. Playing the first legs at home is interesting. We have to get the jobs done at Old Trafford, so we can take a buffer to Porto, and even more important with Arsenal/Villareal.
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Delighted with the draw!!!
This may be early to say, but watching Porto this season is terrible. They have lost Quaresma and Bosingwa, and since they baet us in 2004 they have lost Costinha, Deco, McCarthy, Carvalho, Ferreira and such. I dont consider them a good team anymore, and I dont fear them at all. I really like this draw, although we are a little unfortunate that the first game is at home…
And on a side note, Barca vs Bayern is gonna be the game of the season. The two best attacking sides in the world(who also suck in defense…) wil play against eachother, and we will see some rare duels. Messi vs Lahm, Ribery vs Alves, Klose vs Puyol and Etoo vs Lucio. Its shaping up nicely!
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Am I right in thinking that we’ll be playing on opposite days to Bayern Barca? If so, awesome, ready for some fun viewing!
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awesome draw! Rome is just a little bit closer it seems!
The renties and pool will fuckin murder each other, barca and munich will offer goal gluts, we have a safe trip to rome, we should not fuck it up.
Liverpool – United @ Rome
yummy!
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@RedDevilEddy: Klose is injured i think..
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