Feb 21
Lyon 1-1 Man Utd: Tevez Scores Crucial Goal
As mentioned yesterday, I am not in a position to write a match report, so here is a collection of reports I found on the mainstream media as well as some from our comments yesterday.
Benzema’s goal was a blow to the pit of the stomach delivered from nowhere but it had been coming. United were too often on the back foot and when Benzema was presented with a beautifully-timed pull-back, the stadium held its breath. The shot went over the bar.
For a horrible couple of seconds there would have been only one man gulping down a sharp intake of air and it was Rio Ferdinand. He was presented with a straightforward clearance, sliced the ball off his shin, and saw it career off behind him with Van der Sar hopelessly stranded. [Tim Rich from the Telegraph]
It is also safe to assume that United will be more penetrative and attack-minded on their own ground. Ferguson had left out Tevez so he could squeeze in Owen Hargreaves and deny Lyon the space to work their slick, triangular passing moves. The tactic was one of conservatism but, perhaps as a consequence, it meant the English champions were not as cohesive as usual when going forward. [Daniel Taylor on the Guardian]
Sir Alex Ferguson will be delighted to come away on level terms after an uncomfortable evening in France, and his team are favourites to progress from the return leg of this last-16 tie in a fortnight.
The United boss will be wary, however, of the cutting edge Lyon possess in Benzema, a man his club have been constantly linked with.
His 24th goal of the season appeared to have eased the pressure on their manager Alain Perrin after a dressing down from outspoken owner Jean-Michel Aulas earlier in the week. [Paresh Soni on the BBC]
Use EXPERIENCE to see out games not to win games in the first place.
I can understand Fergie’s desire to use experience players like Giggs and Scholes in European games, however, when it comes at the expense of playing blossoming young talent like Nani and Tevez then questions need to be asked.
We looked alot more dangerous today when Tevez and Nani were on the pitch, no doubt about that. The pace and trickery puts opposition on the back foot when they have attacking players coming from every angle. Lyon were terrified of us in that last 20 minutes or so. This is the type of football we need to win games. Tevez has a goal every other game or something! And Nani is asist leader by a mile despite barely playing! His crossing is phenomenal and led to yet another goal tonight.
THEN, once ahead in games, it makes sense to bring on people like Giggs and Scholes. Experienced players, who know how to keep possession and see out games. Scholes is the master at slowing a game down and effortlessly keeping possession. Giggs too has the experience to know when to keep it simple and hold the ball.
Think this should be the CL team from now on:
—————–VDS
Brown—Ferdinand—Vidic—Evra
——–Hargreaves—Anderson
Ronaldo———Tevez———Nani
—————-Rooney
Then if a game is won, bring on Scholes for Tevez, and Giggs for Nani. Carrick has a role to play as well. His passing game is well suited for European games, and he can be usd interchangably with Hargreaves.
I just wonder if after seeing what happened tonight, Fergie will start to show more faith in the younger players. Scholes and Giggs definitely still have an important role, but it should be from the bench, not from the start.[Red Addict on our Comments Section]
Laser thing sucks, typically UEFA will just turn a blind eye to all bad things that happen on the continent. United would be kicked out if it happened at OT. Then again I don’t really know how to stop them, I mean the gizmos are tiny and could esaily get into the stadium, and then finding whoever has it would be really tough to, especially in real time.
Thought it was a professional if uninspired match last night. Lyon were tough to break down all night, and our goal had a least a little fortune around it. We didn’t create much before or after the subs. The thing with Giggs is that he can play very clever balls and can be quite effective, but more often then not he doesn’t seem to keep up with play. It’s either behind him when they’re attacking or in front of him when we’re attacking.
Scholes was alright, nothing special. He really needs more options in front of him when he play so centrally. You could see so many times he’d get hte ball in the circle, look up and just be like, oh, there’s rooney all alone with two giants marking him, here’s Giggs right next to me and Ronaldo is double teamed. So he’d just keep interchanging with Anderson. Not sure Carrick woudl have done any better.
Hargo is invaluable, but does give away the odd crucial foul. I also couldn’t believe he got booked after someone complained and asked hte ref to book him. Ref then booked the player for asking AND hargo. I don’t get it. The thing about Owen is that we don’t really need him against teams that play 4-5-1. Then again, with the amount of defending Ronaldo does, Hargo spends 90% of his time providing cover for Brown, cause Ronny is standing hands on hips on the halfway line looking back like, what me worry?
Have set ourselves up well, but if they score early could be a long night at OT![Beachryan on the Comments]
That game was very interesting indeed and United once again showed the patience and composure to fight back from a deficit to grab a very valuable draw and away goal. Didn’t you just get the feeling Tevez was gonna knock in a late goal? He has become more clutch and dependable than our beloved Rooney. Rooney is slowly but surely playing himself out of the hearts of many of his loyal followers. There comes a point when all the effort, running, attitude means little when the substance is not there. Bottom line is he is a striker and strikers are paid to score goals. He was never prolific to begin with but ever since his last foot injury he has not been the same. Plus, I am getting tired of his temper tantrums after every obvious foul or offside call made against him. Shut up and play already. He also seems tentative at times and quite often he shoots so quickly he doesn’t take the time to look and aim. He is really struggling to find his form. A perfect example was late in the game when Boumsong blocked a shot that Rooney just looked down and shot. There was a time he would look at a corner and aim a shot. Now he just rears back and fires. If I’m wrong about this that’s fine, it’s just my observation as a supporter. Not to long ago he used to crack them in like Benzema’s goal. WOW! Face it folks, if you want Benzema in United red, he will cost over 30 million to get. He’s looks like a stud not just because of his shot but his pace and overall ball control and skill.
Congrats to the lads today they did well. Now lets take care of the Looney Toons on Saturday and move on. [Grognard on the comments]
And that’s about it. Head over to yesterday’s thread to read plenty more of the comments and rants on the game. There is this issue on Ronaldo being dazzled by a laser beam (picture here). I wonder how UEFA is going to tackle this. In a day of such security such gizmos are still quite easy to get into the stadium. It’s a shame, really.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Lyon: Preview
- Lyon v Man Utd: Preview
- Manchester United 08/09 Away Kit Pics
- What Tevez’s Signing Means For Man Utd
- Rooney Out For A Month
Tags: Match Reports
Opti (542)
Stephen (490)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Conor. He hasn’t annoyed me at all. Just figured that if we stop replying to him, he may think he won (being the kid he seems).. So just counter all his flippant points (as all are)… And your post really cracked me up.
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looks like we wont need to waste are breath(or energy typing) as it seems wilfred has left the building.
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Lol conor!
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Damn, just when i was begining to have fun.. lol
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seriously though, what a bloody embarrassment.
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Was that dude for real?I mean some of the things he says are just crazy ha ha ha
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He owns Shares wtf!ha ha ha
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Wow! Just when I was away so much happened.
Nevermind, I just banned him. He seemed to lose it, all of a sudden. And yes, I am pretty sure he’s not from anywhere near England or Europe. So much for being anti Asian!
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post 29 RED Ranter… you say it all…. i couldnt agree more…. Rooney is a GREAT striker!! Im glad eveyrone was as outraged as i was at wilf’s gurning!!! haha! =]
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I think that United should be concentrated on the UCL, because that is the real deal. If you want to be recognized as a big club you need to win the Uefa Champions League more than twice. We have to win it because this looks like our year.
And I think that with Anderson-Carrick in the midfield and Nani-Ronaldo as wingers we play much better.
Go Red Devils
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Grognard, fair point i do agree but i like rooney in the second striker mold it suits him really well and he is a beast when paired with tevez, but a goal scoring record to me does not mean anything, you can score a goal once every game, but its your other contributions that matter, and to me rooney contributes a lot,in my opinion, what i think has happened to rooney is he has let all this pressure get to him, and rather then just ignoring it, he tries to do it all which leads to him making many a mistakes, he wants to go for the spectacular all the time, hence his chips, but this will change with age, you all forget the guy is 22, he will improve as he matures, he has all the raw ingredients and in-tangibles needed to be a world class player, all that is missing is maturity and under fergies guidance he will really excel just give him time
We all follow united- i think kerlon will not be joining us, hes like the brasilian saha just gets injured from nothing, hes a fantastic player great skill and a raw talent, but his injury problems are too much
Taher- ronaldo was one of a kind, its a shame PSV gave him growth inducing hormonal drugs which therefore led to his injury problems later on, if he could stay fit for a whole season, he would have probably scored 800 goals by now, it would have been a lot better for brasil too, i guess it was not meant to be, the next player from brasil like ronaldo is alexendre pato, this guy is already lighting up serie a and i wish we had bought him, to my knowledge no other young brasilian striker springs to mind that could develop into a world beater, jo could be but i need to see him in a more competitive league than the russian one
as far as strikers goes for united, who i want is huntelaar followed by benzema, but my dream would be for adriano to come to united, he would be a beast in the epl, his height strength speed forward play would be a lot to handle for most defences, and he would add extra dimensions to the attack and had or rather had, THEE deadliest left foot in football hes regained his form in sao paulo scoring 5 in 8 games which is no easy feat in the brasilian league his brasil record is also crazy to 25 in 37 as well as best player in the 2005 confederations cup, on the other hand looking at our youth with welbeck brandy and campbell i believe we do not need to buy a striker, and i have a very strong feeling manucho will be massive for us in the up coming seasons once he has attained a work permit, therefore i believe we do not need a striker in the future, but right now we do, but we can not do anything about it except for to pray rooney and tevez do not get injured as saha is odds on favourite to be injured again
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Does anyone know why Manucho didn’t play against Rangers?
He couldn’t of been cup-tied… Did Panathanikos not register him or something?
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I can understand the point of view of the people “getting disappointed” with Rooney and where they are coming from. When I saw him at the last Euro Championships, he was wow before he got injured. I thought he’d atleast be a one goal in two matches person. I remember the he used to be deadly around the box. He used to to use his power and run at defenders. But all that seems invisible now. The boy has just been reduced to a “team player” who is an extrememly important for “link up play”. But he’s a striker and he must do what a striker does. Just a food for thought: This may be due to arrival of Tevez. I think ever since Tevez has been playing, SAF has made Rooney play right upfront. And Rooney lacks the assets(lol) of a good CF. He’s not tall, only a decent amount of pace and not really a cool finisher. Not to mention the time and energy he spends dropping a bit deep to defend and then running all the way up again. All this means he looks like a shadow of the super-kid we bounght in 2004. But he’s only 22 and I don’t think anyone of us thinks that this fellow can even be considered to be on the transfer list. Wish SAF tells him to screw coming back, just hang around the box and have a go like he used to. Especially when he’s in a goal drought, he looks like he’s carrying the pressure of the world and tries too hard. But I can understand if SAF get a good CF i.e. Manucho, Benzema, Huntelaar or even Berbatov, that Rooney and Tevez would have to be rotated.
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Shawsy: post 29 is RedDevil and not RR…
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as we debate bout benzema, lets not forget that we have manucho and welbeck to pull off from our magic hat, i think they should be given the chance to at least prove themselves. there is a reason as to why they are manutd players
willy the dicky i really feel sorry for you mate, your comment 1 really sucks.
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I think we have spent far too much effort and time going after Wilfred. It’s bad enough he is a pillock and a total muppet, now he has to deal with the wrath of the Red Devil nation. Poor fucking sod! Perhaps he should crawl back into his hole and have bowl of Scouse. Let him be and perhaps he will do us all a favor and just blow away.
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I think the Rooney as a CF experiment will be a one season phenomenom. SAF has to utilise the players he has, and at the start of this season he only had Saha to play as a traditional CF, so he tried to transition Rooney into that as an option. It made sense, he’s good at playing on the last man (see Euro) he is strong with both feet, has good control – but it just didn’t work out the way SAF planned. Injuries, suspensions and a bunch of isolated roles have left him woefully short on goals by his standards. Maybe he’ll go on a burst (a hat trick against the barcodes wouldn’t hurt) and show Fergie he can play up top. If not, I think Manucho will get a run out next year, as will Wellbeck, and Fergie will revaluate. Personally I don’t want to splash out another massive load of cash on a Benzema, we just bought Tevez and Manucho. Plus if we don’t give Wellbeck a chance, what does it say about our youth setup? I can’t remember the last player to actually jump into the 1st team, presumably O’Shea and to a much smaller extent Eaglegs? It’s sad that we’ve turned our back on that tradition, but maybe that’s the reality of world football.
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Obviously happy to get the away goal. But…… WHY DOES HE PLAY 4-3-3!!?? I couldnt believe when i saw the team! Rooney doesn’t get any support because Anderson has been told not to go too far forward. Also i personally think that Hargreaves is a bit of a disappointment so far. Not only can he not play 2 matches in a week but he doesnt really do anything when we are in possession. I would prefer to see carrick in that team at the top of the page! Lets hope Carlito can keep scoring these late goals!!!
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1 hargreaves has played 2 matches in a week, 2 what do you expect from him?
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Just feel that for £17million a footballer should do a little more on the ball than he is at the moment. Btw he hasnt played 2 in the week? Wat u think of him?
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i stand corrected utsav
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Jacko; Hargreaves is an exceptional defensive midfielder. His job is simple, stop the other team’s attempt to build. His role is not to be an offensive force. Although he is a decent passer and can be if given a chance a tremendous free kick taker, he has a very one-dimensional role. That was what he was bought for. Overall his performances have been good considering the injury he was getting over from as well, the injuries he has sustained since. The best is yet to come from him but it will probably be next season.
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