Jan 12
Man Utd 3-0 Chelsea: Blues Swatted Like Flies
Flashback to 2006. The month was April, if my memory serves me right. United were in with a chance — the minutest there may be, if any — of staging a miracle comeback to win the title. The task was always going to be improbable. Impossible, even. We had a sizeable point deficit with the league leaders Chelsea, who were in their peak, impenetrable days. We lost 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea ran away with the title.
What was I thinking anyway; our midfield had Giggs and O’Shea!
The details escape me, but the margin of defeat hurts to this day. I always craved for the day we would humiliate them similarly. True, we beat them 2-0 in Avram Grant’s first game in charge, but that was 11 against 10 — Mikel’s red card mitigated the level of joy I’d have got.
But not yesterday. And we had Giggs and Fletcher in midfield. Of course, I had reservations about that selection but more on that later.
Fergie’s formation this season has been fairly predictable. He’s reverted to 4-4-2 unlike the more fluid formations of last season. I was befuddled with Giggsy’s selection. In pre-match talk Fergie went on about how Giggs seemed to get ‘better with age’, and indulged in showering praise on his old guard in a way we’ve grown accustomed to. The only difference this time being he meant every word of it. Or at least we saw what he meant, when he said the things he did about Giggsy, when the match played out.
The match, however, started in a way that was expected — cagey, both teams erring, passes going astray etc. And I was afraid that United’s lack of creativity shown in the past few weeks against lesser defences might prove to be their achilles heel. Moreover, Rio’s absence against a top side will always be a cause for worry. Yet, we created chances in the first half, while Chelsea with all the big names in the centre of the park, couldn’t do much of note. Which leads me to the next thing.
How absolutely shocking were Chelsea?! Now this is not to take anything from United’s victory, but I haven’t seen a more toothless Chelsea side. No, sorry, scratch that. I haven’t seen a more meek Chelsea side than this. They are generally boring to watch but when they go behind you can always count on them to show some heart and bounce back. This Chelsea side went down rather easily without much of a fight. And the defending! Oh my! Schoolboy stuff. Little wonder we scored all goals from set pieces.
Regarding the first disallowed goal, I am not sure if the kick taker is supposed to tell anything to the linesman, so I wouldn’t go into it. Suffice to say, if United planned it as a training ground exercise, then they ought to have known the rules regarding letting the linesman know before taking the kick. This would certainly be a talking point had that disallowed goal been precious, but we scored immediately from the ensuing re-kick, so all’s well.
A word on the crowd which was absolutely mental. Since I watched it from my living room I’m not in a position to judge, but I think this might have been the loudest our fans have sung since the semi-final against Barcelona. Season ticket holders, feel free to correct me on this. Kudos to the lads who froze their arses off in the terraces.
Another major talking point of the game, which got swept under the rug thanks to the result was the treatment meted out to Ronaldo. He had an excellent game, first of all. But I was livid when I saw the way Carvalho was tugging at his shirt only to see the ref give Ronaldo a talking to and award Carvalho (and Chelsea) a free kick. Ridiculous, and it’s stuff like this that makes players with footballing ability lose their trust in referees.
A very moving moment in the game was when the ‘Argentina’ chants gathered steam as Carlos Tevez warmed up along the touchline. The player applauded the fans’ continued support and it’s stuff like this that remind us how special our club is. I thought it might have been a nice touch to reward Tevez with some game time when we were already in cruise control.
This game has also been about incidents leading up to it. The Tevez contract rumours, John Terry’s ‘homecoming’ following his Moscow heroics, Evra’s return from his four match ban [which, of course, has a strong Chelsea connection] or something as recent as Benitez’s rant against Fergie — everything was brought up during the match at varying stages.
On individual performances, Park had a stormer defensively, and while he’s not the best when an open goal presents itself, he does other things that is absolutely crucial in games like these. Countless interceptions, persistence chasing lost causes, and work rate as good as anyone in modern football. And he was also good going forward. Evra made a much welcome return to the team and he proved his freshness with his relentless bursts of pace forging ahead. In fact, we seemed to miss that impetus he gives us on the left in December. His cross for our second goal was laser guided in it’s trajectory, with due credit to Ronaldo’s umpteenth back heel.
Rio’s absence has come as a boon for Jonny Evans. The young centre back was facing his greatest test in a United shirt against a certain Didier Drogba who’s known to wreck careers of fledgling defenders — ask Senderos. The clean sheet will give him confidence like no other game. But more importantly, he had a Serbian master by his side, to show him the way.
Which brings us to Nemanja Vidic. He was my man of the match by a mile, regardless of Giggs’ performance. This was perhaps Vidic’s best game of his United career. He’s known to be non-compromising in his defending. But yesterday he was the whole package. His reading of the game, tackling, organising of the defence and distribution was flawless. He’s had a stormer of a season already, but he’s taken up the mantle in Rio’s absence and, alongside an able deputy in Evans, our defence is in safe hands. A masterclass in defending from the Serb. And he’s been as good this season as Rio was last season. It’s reassuring to see our defence holding up despite Rio’s absence.
Overall though, it must be said that we won’t be afforded the kind of space we had yesterday, against opposition like Wigan and Bolton. January is a big month for us, and all these wins count for nothing if we can’t win against the lesser sides. Wigan is up next, and they are a side to be taken seriously. Brucey’s built a very good side that’s the right mix of graft and inventiveness. So Wednesday and Saturday will be good measures of how much our side has turned the corner. Bolton and Wigan will test us. Interesting times ahead, if you are a United fan. Not sure if I can say the same about Fat Spanish Waiters.
We’ll never die.
And just to remind those living under a rock the past few hours, congratulations Ronaldo on your own personal treble! So now that you’ve won everything I suppose it’s time for you to head off to Spain, eh? I kid, I kid.
Another announcement for those not aware, the writing competition is still on, and I still welcome entries. I have received some and will post them in the coming days, when time and space provides. Those of you interested, click here to read details about how to go about posting your pieces to the Red Rants writing competition.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Porto it is then…
- Man Utd Blog 2007/2008 Home Kit
- Man Utd 2-0 Chelsea (FT) : Tevez, Saha Score
- Sporting Lisbon vs Man Utd – Preview
Tags: Match Reports
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Craig Mc: Tell her I’d keep my pants on.
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Red Ranter, wherever you are, can you please please please give us a new lead article because this one has gotten so slow and painful to navigate? It takes thirty seconds for the site to catch up to my typing speed and then submitting comments can take a minute. It’s painful mate.
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@weezy: Ronaldo was crap mate. He was an embarrassment. Constantly missing easy passes and always missing his shots. He hit a few free kicks that didn’t get blocked by the wall for a change but they hardly threatened the keeper as they were straight at him. His mind seems a few steps behind his body right now and he is just not in sync with his own abilities nor with his teammates. I’m a huge Ronaldo supporter and so trust me, if I say he sucked, he must have.
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@Craig Mc: Berba can be lazy, he can look disinterested at times, he should shoot more, he should get into the box more and he could maybe score a few more goals.
All these points have been raised by the Berba bashers, and to be honest, all have elements of truth to them, but the main thing that the bashers dont mention is, Berbatov is a genius of a player, a special talent with a football brain that is quite stunning at times, and I for one just marvel at some of the things he does and sees on a football pitch, but the problem with players like Berba is, whenever they are not doing special things they can look quite ordinary, thats why he will always divide opinion, especially when some of the special things that he does look simple because hes so good.
Yes mate it takes a good eye to see talent sometimes, maybe we in The Berba Club should form our own blog and leave the less enlightened behind,
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@Fred The Red: It’s that kind of pragmatism that just drives me crazy mate. Sorry but winning is not everything. Sure it’s great but I equate it to a long trip in a car. Part of the fun is how you get there. I love the art form of football. I love it when teams try to beat each other by outscoring each other and entertaining us all in the process. I do not believe in nor do I tolerate pragmatic tactics in football. One has to look at their own life closely if satisfaction and joy is received more from a 1-0 snoozfest or from a 4-3 shootout. I for one will never trade or compromise my principles for attractive attacking football in order to get the very temporary high a boring 1-0 win will give me. I am a Germany fan as most here know. And yet I find more joy from their 2-3 World Cup Final loss in 1986 to Argentina rather than their 1-0 1990 World Cup Final win in 1990 which as a football match, was a sad advertisement and a disgrace to the game. And yet millions of people find a win everything, even if it was done in rubbish fashion. That’s so sad and pathetic on so many levels.
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@dan(u-ol): He’s had his chance Dan and he’s a miserable fat assed out of shape failure. Forget about him. He so far behind Welbeck and Campbell his only chance of ever playing is being shipped off to some Coca Cola League outfit so that he can at least bore them to death their with his slothish style of play. Christ he’s horrible. What the Hell was Fergie thinking when he signed that useless piece of timber?
And Danny boy, I am an exceptional judge of talent thank you very much.
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@Fred The Red: here here!
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Patrick & Gabriel, ok maybe i was being overly harsh on fletcher, he hasnt been terribel but i still much prefer a carrick/ando or carrick/scholes pairing to any pairing that has fletcher in it. I just dont see what his role is when he plays and i wonder if his partner in the centre of midfield knows either.
Earlier on in the season we had ando and flethcer playing together and we knew and they knew exactly what their roles were. Fletcher was the holding midfielder and ando could then push forward more to help out with the attacks and at that time i think we were doing pretty well, maybe not scoring much but still playing pretty well.
Now though i see carrick and fletcher seeming to be the preferred partnership and for me watching im at a loss to know what either of their roles are. Carrick seems to play as the defensive enforcer at times and fletcher seems to run around like a headless chicken next to him. What the hell is his role then. If carrick is lying deep and winning the ball, shouldnt fletcher be creating us the chances but he doesnt seem to be doing that, and thats where for me watching i dont know exactly what his role is as he doesnt seem to be doing anything and if im thinking this then how must his midfield partner be feeling. I personally feel this is why we continuously see berbatov drifting back trying to get the ball because the service from the middle with fletcher in it is diabolical and he feels the need to drop back so that he actually receives the ball.
I just feel that with anderson and carrick you know what your getting and we know their roles. Carrick will spray the ball around beautifully like he always does and anderson will drop back to win the ball and use his usual energy to get forward whenever he can. I think these 2 know their roles better when playing together and this is why when ando and carrick play you dont see carrick playing in a defensive position he is not accustomed too.
For me i personally cannot see what any1 sees in fletcher but i guess its their opinion and your entitles to it.
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So people. Something off topic. What do you guys think of the suffering palestine people?
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@Grognard: im sorry, what did he do wrong today?
you are way, way to quick to make judgments, and sometimes your judgements are based of off nothing. he has played 30 minutes of premier league football, and now he’s “a miserable fat assed out of shape failure” a failure after 30 minutes grognard, and you say your a good judge of talent
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quite frankly grognard, i rate, the african FA, CQ and most importantly fergie, a better judge of talent then you.
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@Darth Red Diablo: That topic needs its own blog.
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Berbatov has always divided opinions wherever he’s played. His misses cost CSKA Sofia a few crucial games shortly before his move to Leverkusen and memorably cried when he was booed off the pitch after a game lost to archrivals Levski mostly due to him missing sitters. At Leverkusen, he was called lazy and inconsistent by his coach, before he upped his game in his last two years there. Most Bulgarians will remember him missing ridiculous sitters for the national team as well.
Nevertheless, his contributions in the long run have overshadowed his deficiencies everywhere he’s played and people end up loving him. The same will be true at United. And there is no doubt he has some special skills and footballing brain. BTW, he’s got a teenage cousin, Kiprian Berbatov, who’s a young star in Bulgarian chess and who became European champion at age 12. So, good brains seem to run in that family.
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@zhoro: In my opinion its not his finishing or goalscoring that make him special, its his vision, awareness and first touch that make him special, and at the same time its the things that I have written about that probably explain why he spends so much time outside the box instead of inside it.
I doubt he will ever be consistent enough to win every bodies affection, but the reality is, Berba can do naturally things that can never be coached, and that in my eyes makes him a special player.
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@Grognard: no mate trust me he didnt.
i watched the game with a few non man utd supporters and they agreed. but if thats what you got out of the game thats fine too. to each his own. gotta get up super early or else i would have brought up a few examples where he impressed today.
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@Grognard: Sorry, but I have to disagree with you about Manucho. You are being way to harsh on the man. I am not questioning your judgment of talen, but I am questioning how many times you have seen him play. Because he only played once for United, and that was a short cameo, so writing him off for that is silly. I think you said you had a little greek in your blood, so maybe you were able to watch his games for panathanaikos. Other than that we only saw him in the Cup of Nations, were he made the tournament team. So I dont know what you have seen in him to make you feel so strongly about him one way or the other.
I watched the game today against arsenal, and he was night and day a different player than when I saw him play for us. I for one am extremely glad he went to hull, now we will be able to “fairly” judge wether or not he is capable of handling this league.
on a side note, how he didnt earn a penalty for hull is beyond me. The arsenal defender never got close to the ball and Manucho was wacked so hard his eye was swollen shut.
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@dan(u-ol): Your favoritism is based on your own bias Dan. I don’t share and I don’t appreciate you putting me down for my views. I am not obligated to like or be fair to anyone just because you deem it so. So kindly get the fuck off my back. I’ve seen enough of Manucho to tell that he is a useless slug of a player whether you like my ragging on an African player or not. An what a surprise that you rate Fergie and CQ a better judge of talent than me. And they told you to fucking jump off a bridge you would to because they told you too right? What a frakken sheep you are. Unlike you I have a mind of my own and I am more than capable of making my own mind up on a subject. I resent your insults and your insinuations mate. Nobody on this blog knows as much as Fergie yet they all question him. So now all of a sudden I am the enemy and I am the fall guy for you? Get a fucking clue before you come with a butter knife to gunfight. Next time you want to pick a fight or insult somebody, kindly avoid me because I am certainly not in the mood for your nonsense. If you don’t like how I judge players, learn to live with it. Insulting me and questioning my intelligence is not going to get you nothing but my wrath. I have no fucking patience for this kind of bullshit today Dan so spare your BS. I think Manucho is crap, you think he is not. Leave it at that. There is no reason for you to create an atmosphere of animosity between the two of us over such a trivial and inconsequential matter. Grow the fuck up.
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@Darth Red Diablo: Honestly Darth, am I so supposed to care about this matter on a Manchester United blog? Personally I think both parties are suffering and both sides are right and wrong. Their is no correct answer for that conflict and really, it’s a problem that nobody else can solve but them. It’s tough to pick a side when both are right. And because of that, there may never peace between the two. Both have religious and historical rights to exist and be there. So to choose a side is wrong because it’s an injustice to the other. Don’t hate Israel only because they are large, well organized and powerful. Palestinians won’t get my sympathy that much because they have always allowed terrorists to do their talking for them. At that point, I just tune out. It’s a sad and tragic situation.
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@weezy: I watched the game too mate. He looked out of step with his teammates all game. Sorry to disagree but he played poorly in my opinion. He gave a strong effort and there were flashes of his old self, but the machine is not well oiled and not functioning on all cylinders right now.
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@Grognard: Im sorry to say this Grog, but I think you are being a little harsh on Manucho.
I saw him play in the ANC last year, and Ive seen him play in the reserves. I think he can be good in the future. It depends on Tevez really. If Tevez is bought, then I think we should sell Manucho. If Tevez leaves I think we should give him more time and see what happens. Manucho may not have played well for us so far, and at this moment I dont see him as United quality. But I am willing to give him a chance and see how he does for Hull. And if he cant do it any good there, well then its time to start thinking about him. I dont care about him right now, United have bigger problems.
1. Make Ronaldo play better more consitently.
2. Score on those fucking chances!
3. Try to keep most players fit until Rio, Wes, Rooney and Evra return.
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This may sound really overcofident from my point, but I really cant see us losing more than a maximum of 1 more game this season. We are as good as unbeatable at home, and our away games should be quite easy from now on. We face WBA, West Ham, Newcastle, Boro, Hull, Wigan, Fulham and Sunderland left to play away from home. I can see Boro, and possibly Wigan, creating some trouble. But I think it is a very good chance of us going unbeaten from those games. And our home games should be wins… Even though we face Arsenal, Liverpool, Shitty and Villa we should win most of our games. Its a looong time since Ive seen us not winning at Old Trafford! I want us to go on a Chelski like run of unbeaten home games, as long as possible. I want United to be on top of all records! Most trophies, most goal, least conceded, most clean sheets, most goals by a player, most clean sheet by a goalkeeper, first spot in the League and cups, best player of the season and so on… If we can do that I really cant see us losing the title. Liverpool have to travel to Old Trafford, Shitty, Upton Park, JJB, Riverside and even Hull, and we all know Liverpool do it bad against the small teams. I really think Chelski will be our strongest opponents, again. Despite their bad form and play, I think they are showing that winning grit that needs to win the title. Against Stoke today they were lucky, but like us they won in stoppage time. What wins you the title? Wins, score goals and not concede any. Recipe for our season this year.
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I want to ask RedRanter, Ahmed Bilal, Penguin, maybe even Scott if possible to fix a new article. This one is so slow and starting to get really annoying! It takes nearly 1 minute for me to submit a comment, I cant update and it takes over two minutes waut to see what I am actually writing. Please fix this.
Cheers. RedDevilEddy
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@Grognard: I totally agree…I am hugely disappointed about Manucho he looked good for Angola but has been crap and out of his depth when ever Ive seen him(even in the one reserve game I saw him in) personally i think we should keep tevez..there aren’t a lot of EPL top 3 strikers around and he is readily available and proven in our system..furthermore he is young and could have a much longer future with us than berbatov…anderson today had a bad game and u can clearly see he has been trying to overdo it to impress the gaffer..and like nani it isn’t working…anyone see the barca-depo game…the difference in quality between barca and the rest of the league is so evident..
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I think there may be one particular reason why we are not firing on all sylinders right now. Our lads doesnt show the energy or will to win like possesed demons right now. Maybe because of our tight scedule?
We are playing 2 games each week until the middle of February, and with the injuries our lads needs to keep fresh. We are playing alright, but we could be playing better. Maybe because of the scedule, but this is just a theory. But remember one thing. That we will not keep winning 1-0 forever. There is gonna be one day when we are either gonna draw, lose or win by more than a one goal margin. But there is gonna be a time when we are gonna score many goals again. We are United! This will not keep on forever. We, the fans, just have to wait and be patient…
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Excuse me, but I couldnt live with myself if I didnt post this Berbatov video. Its abolutely brilliant! So perfect that I cant beliebe my own eyes. Enjoy…
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@zhoro: Berbatov like Cantona has found his spiritual home at OT, so he will do ok for us, and he is doing. Only the blind can’t see that
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@Grognard: Grog Bro, to some of us, in this kind of game today, winning is everything. I would agree with you that the cavaliar style of play of United renown is what we need, but in games like todays, I don’t care, I just wanted to win, and go top over those scousers
.
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@Fred The Red: Oh I would love a Berba thread on this blog, so the Berba Elite fans could talk to our hearts content and drool over the Berb together. Any spammers though will get such an earbashing, that they will never want to return.
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They should really just make this website a forum. IMO, the only thing that prevents that happening is the ego involved in “having a blog.” I like Red Ranter and all, but his blog doesn’t warrant the participation level it receives any longer. The people who contribute to this blog are the reason I come here nowadays, not the blogger. I often just skim the blog posts then jump down to the comments. We should be given freer reign to start topics and create posts. This blog is clearly a community effort and to have one or two people on top controlling everything stands in opposition to what this blog is about. I understand that they own the domain and were the founders, so clearly Ranter and Ahmed can do as they want. But the least they could do would be to add a forum to the blog to make commenting easier and a little less sluggish to load.
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why is my comment awaiting moderation?
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@Grognard: Sorry, but I have to disagree with you about Manucho. You are being way to harsh on the man. I am not questioning your judgment of talen, but I am questioning how many times you have seen him play. Because he only played once for United, and that was a short cameo, so writing him off for that is silly. I think you said you had a little greek in your blood, so maybe you were able to watch his games for panathanaikos. Other than that we only saw him in the Cup of Nations, were he made the tournament team. So I dont know what you have seen in him to make you feel so strongly about him one way or the other.
I watched the game today against arsenal, and he was night and day a different player than when I saw him play for us. I for one am extremely glad he went to hull, now we will be able to “fairly” judge wether or not he is capable of handling this league.
on a side note, how he didnt earn a penalty for hull is beyond me. The arsenal defender never got close to the ball and Manucho was wacked so hard his eye was swollen shut.
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Berbatov looks sick or unfit to me! Does he still puff on those cancer-sticks? I just can’t imagine that he could get away with that at OT. His constant cruising in and out of the game worries me and with Tevez loosing his first touch our dynamic up front duo seem anemic!!!
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@Patrick: I do agree that updates and new Threads/Blogs should be more frequent.
This is a vital forum, and should offer more to all the passion shown here!!
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@Redrich: The way I see it, the score right now is 879-1. Clearly there’s more enthusiasm on our side. A forum would just be way more effective. It’s impossible to sift through 879 messages to see which ones apply to Manucho, for example, and which ones don’t. The chances of repeating something that’s already been said become pretty massive when the number of comments goes over, say, 300–and that’s being kind.
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@Patrick: There used to be a link to the soccerlens forum but it didn’t catch on. The blog is part of a network that has Soccerlens and The Republik Of Mancunia which both have their own forums and also United forums like Redcafe will always reign supreme so there’s probably no point. Could work though…
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@RedDevilEddy: Fair enough mate. At least you can disagree with me and say so without trying to make me out to be an idiot in the process. I too have seen Manucho and I have also noticed how rigid he is in his play and how much he lacks in the simple areas like just dribbling and moving. He reminds me of those projects in the NBA where a team would recruit some 7 foot plus monster from Africa who had never ever touched a basketball before in his life. They just wanted him for his height. Well Manucho looks and plays like a guy who is new to the game. No instinct or natural looking ability. I for one have not liked what I have seen and then today he comes on to the pitch for Hull and he looked like some clueless deer caught in a hunter’s headlights. I wasn’t impressed. Sure he may turn out OK, but I wouldn’t bet on it and when I say things like I do, I a rarely wrong. Unlike Dan who only follows the sport like a lamb being led to the slaughter, I have watched and studied the game for 40 years and I pride myself on judge of talent. I have my favorites and players I don’t care for, but in all of that, I know who can play this game and who can’t. Having coached sports in general helps one recognize talent and also recognize the ones who lack coordination. Manucho looks like an athlete who lacks coordination. If you threw him a ball he would probably drop it. So I don’t have much confidence when a ball comes to his feet and his first touch equals that of Titus Bramble.
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@RedDevilEddy: I wished that I could feel that confident. I too believed for a long time that if we could survive the first half schedule, the second half would be a cake walk. But when you struggle to score in every game you play, I cannot help but feel that at some point, that is going to catch up with them. At some point they will not have a Berbatov save their bacon at the end and in one or two of those games are defense will finally succumb and give up a goal or two.
It’s inevitable and there are 18 games left as well as the CL and FA Cup matches to go. Can we go an entire season playing like this and surviving? Well, I suppose you can say it has been done in Italy many times.
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@RMJ: I know there are more out there that think like you and me about Manucho. The guy is a waste of time bottom line. As for keeping Tevez, I honestly feel he costs too much for what he offers. I like the player but in order to keep him two impossible things would have to happen. He would have to bring down his demands to about 17 million and secondly, someone would have to switch of the Maradona BS that is beginning to ring in his head and that will eventually poison his mind against us completely. I am amazed that Argentina would hand over their national team to a common street thug and punk to try to get him to resurrect the magic he once brought to it as a player. He’s a punk and has the mind of a drug addict and a mafioso. Tevez loves and respects him and will listen to the venom this guy spits out. As long as he is around to influence Carlito, I say United need to stay away from him. He’s already poisoned his mind against us.
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@RMJ: Barca looked great but I’m sorry, the Spanish League isn’t what it used to be. The money of the big two has so watered down the rest of the league that they are poorer cousins of the EPL.
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@Craig Mc: Dimitar is a God playing with boys. Once the boys around him become men, then he will be unstoppable. They just need to get used to him and he needs to get accustomed to United’s system and demands of him. The thing that really gets me about Berbatov is that he really is a product of the German Bundesliga. There are many great and highly talented players playing in Germany that never get the proper look from Old Trafford, and that I find very very frustrating. Ibisevic, Demba Ba, Obasi, Olic, Pantelic, Rafinha etc. They don’t have to be Germans, if that’s what has been keeping Fergie away.
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@Craig Mc: What the Hell do I care if we win and win ugly? There is a reason why I as a Canadian hate teams like Liverpool and all the top Italian teams. It’s because historically they were all more than happy to bore us all to death and win their games and their trophies 1-0. Why do you think they have such a negative attitude for? Because they win a lot or is it because of how they got there. I cheer for Manchester United for a reason. I selected them over thousands of clubs because to me they represented everything that was still honorable and attractive about the game. I’d hate to think that after that, they would now sell out to the spoils of trophies and licensing deals and sell out to the negative and brutally boring style of football that has hit the planet like a plague. No sir, I have my honor and I will not and cannot sell out for the sake of victory. Football is an art form and I will be damned if I will allow this game to become ugly before my eyes and allow myself to conform to a team that falls from grace and loses itself to the evil trappings that have ruined so many beautiful things in the world. Greed is a terrible thing mate. We all want victory, but at what cost? I refuse to be programmed by that mantra.
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@Craig Mc: Yes, Lets call it the “Berba Beat”, “The Berbs” or “Berbatovia Rocks”.
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@Patrick: It’s a question of managing such a large entity Patrick. If you create multiple forums and such, someone still has to patrol them to make sure that they aren’t losing control or getting out of hand. It’s a lot to ask of one person who is very busy and who of late, has been unable to properly manage this blog as it is. Red Ranter is a very good guy who loves his blog dearly. He has just been taking a well deserved vacation after having worked hard in accomplishing something in his life that took a lot of time, effort and energy from him. He has gone walkabout for a bit but he will return at some point soon with much more time and more attention to devote to this blog. Until then, I ask you and everyone else to please be patient and stay loyal to this site. It will be back to it’s former glory and become even better. I’m sure of it.
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@johnsom33: I’ve seen him play for the reserves a number of times mate and he has suited up played in a few League Cup matches. Frankly he looks and feels way out of his element. He’s almost overwhelmed by the whole thing and I honestly don’t see him panning out into anything more than the latest version of Djemba Djemba. I don’t need to see a player play forty games to get a good feel for him. Even in the African Nations tournament that everyone was so wild about him, I saw a player with a good shot but no confidence on the ball in tight areas. He is not good under pressure and has the first touch and approach to a ball that reminds me of Frankenstein. Honestly, I just don’t get it. Maybe he will find his Mojo at Hull, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
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@Patrick: Patrick, you weren’t around this blog when it was running normally some three months ago. Back then a thread would rarely go over 300 entries and quite often we would get two or three threads in a 24 hour period. Like I said, it’s Red Ranters work commitment and overload that has caused this problem and this past month he has been traveling a lot and has been in areas where it has been impossible to connect with the Internet. So I urge you and everyone else to just give the bloke some more time and be patient. This site will speed up and become a lot more dynamic and efficient.
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Berba The Barbarian… or Berbarian! Now a Liverpool mistake in the Merseyside derby and we will be in cruise control until the next matchup against the big 4!
Liverpool v. Everton: 1-1, Torres, Lescott.
You heard it here!
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New thread up.
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@Madschester United: Yes. How about Welcome to the “Berbarian Horde”. Or “Berbatopia”
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@Madschester United: Count Barbatov’s Tomb or Castle
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@Grognard: how about you grow the fuck up! i havent insulted you in the slightest, i have said nothing to you, that you wouldnt say to me. i have all right to question your views to be honest, and if your not in the mood then fine but i dont appreciate being accused of insulting you and being told to fuck off.
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@dan(u-ol): Even though I think you are right, you should give it a rest Dan. I know you dont like to be talked down to, but Grogs not gonna apologise and youre just gonna get in trouble. I think its best if you just leave it for now…
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