Dec 30
Man Utd 1-0 Boro: One-nil to the United
It was as I said yesterday. The unforgiving nature of the Christmas schedule lends itself to games that call for a good old fashioned scrap fest. Teams will come to Old Trafford, dig themselves a nice trench, build a wall and sit sipping some classic blend of English tea.
Of course, that doesn’t mask the fact that there are problems in the side — the lack of ability to put the ball in the net being just one of them.
Fergie started with Park, Carrick, Fletcher and Ronaldo across midfield, and Berbatov and Rooney upfront. The back four, predictably, consisted of O’Shea, Evans, Vidic and Rafael.
If I were to write a description of the way we played yesterday, I would be repeating myself several times over. It’s been typical of United this season: dominate possession, string a few passes right till outside the box, and then give the ball back to the opposition / shoot the ball into row z / cross it only for player x to inexplicably scuff it from point blank range.
The first half was a good illustration of the above scenarios. Rooney missed, Berbatov missed, Ronaldo missed, Park missed (but then if there was ever a contest on shooting and missing, Park would come out top — he’s the best misser ever).
The second half was a bit of the same. Although, bringing Scholes on clearly changed the game. Just as demonstrated by our title winning 06/07 season, Scholes and Carrick were good partners. In this season, though, Scholes and Carrick would work if 1) the Ginger Prince has the legs and 2) it’s against ‘lowly opposition’ at home.
Carrick showed a tendency to move forward more than he has in the past, and it was a positive sign in the player’s development. One of those forward runs was to eventually lead to making the goal as Berbatov kungfu kicked it in. The relief was palpable on most faces, as it was on Berbatov’s, showing how much of a worry this is fast becoming for even players to deal with. We are struggling to score, Ronaldo isn’t at his best — not by any standard — and we need to be picking up these wins when we are at our worst. [This is assuming this is as bad as it can get].
But the bigger talking point of the match would always be the incident in the first half. Before saying any thing further let me say this: Pogatetz, you fucking cunt. Get the fuck out of football. You’ve tried to end Possebon’s career, and, yesterday, made the footballing imitation of Homer strangling Bart. Just thank your lucky stars that the referee was somehow not looking. So, please, just fuck off.
Right. *clears throat*. Where was I?
In all seriousness though, here’s the thing: Ronaldo was fully justified in speaking his mind to Pogatetz in the tunnel. The “bust up”, everyone is on about was fully justified. Ronaldo’s had enough crap through this season. Pogatetz, on recent evidence, is clearly not a footballer and his tackling has been a professional hazard for his more skilled peers. I’d be shocked if the FA even contemplates taking action on Ronaldo.
On performances, I thought Park had transcended the realm of ridiculousness and moved to the surreal when it came to his finishing. I couldn’t have seen a better scripted tale on contriving to do the wrong thing over and over again. It must take a lot of skill to accomplish what Park did yesterday, no?
Rooney was a bright light yesterday while Ronaldo had another muted outing. Whether it was due to the ceasless hackjob operation performed on him these days, or the Pogatetz strangle, or his lack of full fitness — the hunger seems to be missing from his body language. Neville has moved from being a liability to being just about adequate. While Rafael showed ambition early on, he did tend to get caught up far too forward. Neville helped give that shape back to the side. And it worked for us, against a team that wasn’t showing too much ambition anyway. [To his credit, he has been decent recently and has shown improvement.]
And finally a word on Jonny Evans, for whom, Rio’s absence is proving to be golden. I like the lad, and he continued to give a good account of himself.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Man Utd 4-1 Middlesbrough
- Boro v Man Utd: Preview
- Wigan 0-2 Man Utd: CHAMPIONEEES!
- Man Utd v Chelsea: Community Shield Preview
Tags: Match Reports
Opti (542)
Stephen (490)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
For all of Park’s misfiring, it’s encouraging that he contines to find himself in goal scoring positions: sooner or later, he will begin finding the net with some regularity (even if unintentionally). Yes, his point blank miss is inexcusable, but its merely symptomatic of our teams crisis of confidence in front of goal. For what its worth, his workrate and dedication to defending sees him earn his place in the squad, but I think Nani should be given a chance.
elsehwere in midfield, Fletcher has done well this season, but Anderson adds more cutting edge to our play, and would allow carrick to go forward with more greater conviction, so i rather he start over fletch.
And I completely agree about Ronaldo, and we ought to allow him to leave in the summer. While he respects and enjoys the talents of his teammates, he has no passion for the club anymore. He’s won everything in England so understandably the lure of culture and lifestyle in accordance with his football weighs heavy on his mind. That, and he’s just becoming a big whiner.
Finally, we need a better assistant manager. In one of the earlier post, we spoke about needing someone with a better tactical brain than fergie–severely, we do. Mike Phelan, great coach… not so great assistant, but you have to respect rewarding loyalty.
Like?
0 
0
I think Berbatov is a fabulous player but the way we are utilising him isn’t effective and is responsible for our lack of goals this season. We’ve shifted Ronaldo to the wings where he is getting hacked down before he gets remotely near the box and Berbatov is getting one shot in per game. He may be creating chances but for players like Park and Rooney who do not have a hope in hell of scoring.
Id love to see us playing a REAL 4-3-3 like Barcelona with Ronaldo, Berbatov and Rooney up top and an extra creative midfielder to play alongside Anderson and Carrick with Carrick holding.
I think that system would work really nicely for us and what we sacrifice by playing Rooney a bit out of position is more than made up for by getting Ronaldo into dangerous areas and Berbatov getting better service from a three man midfield with Anderson and the new midfielder pushing forward to link midfield and attack
Like?
0 
0
@Grognard: like you, I am married to the idea that artistry and entertainment take precedence above all else in football. However, in the modern ecomoic climate of the game to expect adherence to such a philosophy across the board is unrealistic. The shamelessly uneven distribution of wealth forces survival and results to the top of most teams priority. Neither liverpool or Chelsea have an excuse, but it is simply too profitable to be premier league for teams perrenial strugglers to concern themselves with being entertaining and artistic. They perhaps weigh the struggles of long term implementation of entertaining football, which brings no certain promise of success, against the probability of failure and demotion. Furthermore, teams outside the big four frequently struggle to attract the quality of player, with the necessary attributes to succeed in the ruff and tumble of the premier league, and who has the technical ability and skill etc, required to execute an entertaining brand of football. Again, it’s all tied to economic disparity (and immigration issues).
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: Nighty night there Craig. Pleasant dreams It’s Nani time. Nani in Greek meets nap time.
Like?
0 
0
@Roge: I couldn’t agree with you more. It is unrealistic and highly unlikely except for one positive. And that positive is a really a negative in other ways. The terrible financial crisis may end up costing football big time. It’s already affecting North American sports as attendance is down in highly popular leagues like the NFL.
With the world expecting even more of a problem with this downward financial spiral, I think it will eventually really end up hurting football worldwide. Supporters will not be able to always afford tickets and season tickets sales will plummet. After that, television revenues will decrease and even the biggest clubs will wonder what they have to do to attract people to their park. Then and only then will the league and each team start to realize that economics has forced them to rethink how they are doing business and what kind of product they are offering.
If the product was irresistible, a tsunami wouldn’t keep people away. But todays Villa vs Hull snoozefest is yet more proof that what the league is serving up, isn’t going to hold up in tough financial times when one’s entertainment dollar only goes so far. They will have to figure out ways to make the game more exciting with more goals to bring the fans back.
Rules will be implemented and regulations changed. Harsher penalties to players who mean to cripple or who clutch and grab all time. Nothing radical like making the goals bigger, just sound sensible solutions and a complete altering of the motivational apparatus of the game. A different rewards system. Punish defensive dull football and reward attacking goal scoring football. When the league and even FIFA realize that they will be out of business unless they can seduce fans with entertainment and excitement, then the game will come back to it’s roots and the greed and grubby self preservationist mentalities of teams will end.
This is not a dream. This will happen, I guarantee it. But the question is, how long will it take? And how long are we all willing to wait until it does? I for one am almost sick to death of this game and the way it’s being played and managed. I can’t take much more and I don’t think I will renew my Setanta package in 2010/11 unless there is improvement in the overall product next year. Today Setanta was offering replays of three games from the weekend. All three games were 0-0 draws. Now that doesn’t bother me, I spent time on line with you blokes, but for those who care, that was 270 minutes without a goal. And for Setanta that means murder to their profits and bottom line as fewer people will subscribe to the garbage product known as the EPL and more of us will end our subscription because frankly, we can’t take no more. I’ll end my tirade with a quote from Barack Obama. “ENOUGH”.
Like?
0 
0
@Grognard: I sincerely hope you’re correct. From the little I understand about the financial crisis, however, it’s speculated that an upturn is expected mid 2009 through early 2010, which would indicate the global market beginning to stabilize and self correct. My concern is that there is too large a flow of capital in football to sufficiently panic officials into restructing rules and regulations (which all should have been done years ago) with any immediacy
I’m certain before any big decision is made, there will be analyses of global georgraphic markets and demographics regarding what appeals to them, how loyal each is and whether altering regulations would be the most effective means of perserving interest in this increasingly lousy, but profitable product.
P.S. Forgive the lack of attention to grammar and spelling in this and my previous post. Not enough time to proofread. =)
Like?
0 
0
@Roge: Yes the economy is expected to turn around but then again, experts never expected the fall the markets had three months ago either. It’s impossible to predict properly. Isn’t it funny that we need a worldwide economic meltdown in order for the game to be improved. Sad really and even sadder that so many people are clueless that the game is broken and needs fixing.
Like?
0 
0
@Grognard: I believe alot of creative accounting went into masking the market collapse. It probably had alot to do, for instance, with how companies report income & earnnings and all that, so I believe it could have been predicted had we not been so deceived. The reason i feel the market will upturn for certain, even if not at predicted levels, is that banks and other institutions are holding on to bail out money, to sure up their capital, protect their institutions from bankruptcy… yada yada. the financial sector is waiting for a concensus as to when the economy has hit absolute rock bottom and lending must resume to spark mass consumer recovery. Problem is there is no reference point and everyone is looking to each other to determine when and where rock bottom is. The Obama administration will most likely pressure banks or create incentives (attractive tax breaks and such) for these banks to beginning lending again.
Soccer heiarchy are dumb and will think all is well. The result of which is more turd-filled football
Like?
0 
0
@Roge: The bailout needs overseers because frankly, the banks cannot be trusted. Yes they will horde the money and do nothing with it which will hurt the economy. No loans to people for their small businesses, or for people to buy cars etc and all these businesses suffer because of this. The mortgage scandal is the big culprit and the unscrupulous Wall Street criminals who stole billions and have gotten away with it while the average Joe who has lost everything gets no kind of bailout. It is still early in this recession and and Obama’s changes will take time to bare fruit. There are a number of deep pockets in football but most of the teams are just getting by. Another year of this and the game will really start to struggle.
Like?
0 
0
@Roge: But that’s the whole point of complaint of quite a few fans of Man United – REWARDING LOYALTY. It’s the rewarding of loyalty, where there is no real contibution to the advancement of the team of those we are being loyal too. Jobs for the boys ought not to exist, where it is hurting the progress of our team. I’m a firm believer that we should always have the best qualified for the position to be filled, whether it be players or coaching staff. Not being ruthless enough, where putting the needs and quality and best interests of the team are concerned, by placing square pegs in round holes, just for the sake of, well we have to reward loyalty, even though those being kept on are not anywhere near what we need to get the job done and excel, is not good enough mate – sorry. No room for sympathy in big business, and that is what PL football has become – end of. You let those square pegs go, with healthy pay off benefits.
Like?
0 
0
transfer window opens tomorrow, seems gerrard could be transferred to prison
Like?
0 
0
I wouldn’t be too surprised if we bought in Senna along with Tosic and possibly Delph from our feeder club
Like?
0 
0
@dan(u-ol): that’s a good one
Like?
0 
0
@Liam: Come to new post man.
Like?
0 
0
@Traverse: Come to new post
Like?
0 
0
@Craig Mc: I see what you’re saying, but a team doesnt have to have all the best players of its position to be successful. Park, Fletcher and Oshea are not players who should be starting for Utd, but they are good enough to play for the club IMHO. a team is about chemistry and balance. If we had a team of all superstars, issues of ego will eventually disrupt any success, re: Real Madrid, LA Lakers w/ Kobe and Shaq. It’s about continuity, which I believe is best achieved with superstars along with good, though less talented, peers.
I’m not advocating that Man Utd settle for mediocrity, but I think it’s inaccurate to describe Park, Flecther or OShea as mediocre. For me, David Beckham was the same class of player as the 3 previously mentioned. Many disagree, but beyond his being a dead ball specialist and perhaps the best passer of his generation, the only reason I accepted him was because he worked his ass off. Many successful organizations are full of diverse personality, experiences, and talent levels. If Park’s shooting were instinctly better, many would say think him worhty of his starting place.
The point is, though, being the best for your position doesn’t mean you will fit any system. A footballer is more than just the sum of their sport-related talent. Personality, philosophy, life experience, temperament, all these things factor in. Park, OShea, Fletcher are all dependable and good players. Not great, but I don’t see how they fail to reward. Oshea goals against liverpool and everton were as important to our success as Ronaldo’s and Rooneys. Each player contributes in his own way and I feel if you are not good enough, Fergie gets rid of you, Djemba, Miller, Richardson, Kleberson Veron-though i thought he did ok- to name a few. We could perhaps have several better players in, but which great players will settle for a place on the bench?
Like?
0 
0
Hey. Groggy. I just tried Adler in FIFA 09!
Boy, He IS THE BOMB! 
Like?
0 
0