Mar 19
Man Utd v Bolton: Preview
A midweek game against Bolton is just a few days before we entertain our very dear friends. Fergie would like to take it one game at a time, and hope that the team doesn’t falter while looking to the weekend tie against ‘Pool. They, of course, don’t need too much reminding; we did lose to Bolton this season, and their uncompromising style (which is being generous) will test the tiring legs of the players.
Like it’s been ever since we’ve had fit midfielders, the starting lineup will be anyone’s guess. However, I hope that Rio starts today alongside Vidic. Also, murmurs abound about Ben Foster getting another start, while EVDS continues to recover from injury — which makes this all the more interesting considering Kuszczak is fit. I have one more thing to talk about goal keepers, but I will talk about it in a moment, after getting this preview out of the way.
Tevez could start, and maybe — just maybe — Louis Saha could be air-lifted and brought into the Old Trafford pitch by the Flying Doctors. Ronaldo will start and Nani might be back in reckoning for a start. Since, I can’t be too arsed to predict Fergie’s central midfield pairing, I’ll give my esteemed opinion instead: Anderson and Carrick in the middle.
Getting back to ‘keepers, the Guardian, like all broadsheets/rags/media houses, has in its midst some black sheep. And said black sheep, in the Guardian’s case, goes by the name of Daniel Taylor — unfortunately, their resident Manchester United journalist. This perennial pot-smoking (presumably), dreamy-eyed, joke of a journalist has just come out with yet another gem from the vestiges of his gifted imagination. The article is for you to read here, I’d suggest you to read it first. Go on, I’m waiting…
… done? Okay, let me still, for the benefit of those who couldn’t be too bothered to be clicking away at the link, quote some of the things that he wrote in the article that I felt was outrageous. The theme of the article was about Paul Robinson, England’s keeping, Fabio Capello etc. On the surface, it wasn’t too bad, to be honest. But it was the latter part of the article that veered into imagination-land, that got me a little worked up. Here, let me quote (I’ve italicised parts of it for my emphasis):
[Ben Foster's] emergence has given Edwin van der Sar serious cause for concern. Van der Sar is contracted to United until 2009 but the Dutchman, who plans to retire from international football after this summer’s European Championship, is understood to be contemplating a return to the Netherlands this summer. The popular belief at United is that Foster will establish himself as Ferguson’s first-choice goalkeeper next season and it is doubtful whether Van der Sar will tolerate being a substitute.[...]
Otherwise Foster will remain in goal ahead of Tomasz Kuszczak, who has struggled at United and is likely to be moved on this summer.
Huh?! van der Sar to move to Holland? EVDS can’t tolerate being a sub, in his last year of his contract before a possible retirement, and the knowledge of having to aid the transition from the old to the young ‘keeper? Kuszczak to be moved on?
Now all these may be true. But where is responsible journalism if there are no quotes from any authority? EVDS will be in his last year, why would he want to leave? And while Ben Foster could eventually replace EVDS, there is no guarantee that he will, indeed, start next season. And where did rumours of Kuszczak moving on crop up from.
Unfortunately, it’s lazy journalism like this, that rubbish websites like Tribal Football feed off, and it was little surprise to me when I saw TF run two stories — one with the headline “Van der Sar ponders quitting Man Utd” and “Man Utd expected to listen to Kuszczak offers”
Absolute bollocks! And on that bollocksy note, I end this rant and advise you all to enjoy today’s match, where we’d look to put some daylight between us and Le Arse. (Although, in case you are interested, you could read another of my rants on Dan Taylor, where he thought Anderson was a waste of money.)
Come on you reds!
Prediction: 2-0 to United
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Man Utd v Spurs match thread
- Porto it is then…
Tags: Manchester United News
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (170)
Opti (135)
Moscow is my heaven (96)
Ian (95)
I dont know where to put this so Ill just put it here this ladies and gentleman is a statement for all Tevez haters out there
He is only 24 years old, He won the Argentine Championship (2003), Copa Libertadores (2003), Intercontinental Cup (2003), Copa Sudamericana (2004), and the 2005 Brazilian league, he won the award of best player of the tournament by the Brazilian football federation, becoming the first non-Brazilian player to win that award since 1976, During the 2004 Olympic Games, where he won the gold medal with his team and scored eight goals in six matches to be the top scorer of the competition, He has 15 goals in 31 games with united, 2003, 2004 and 2005 – South American Player of the Year, He scored the opening goals against Chelsea Wigan Sporting Tottenham (home) which later won the match
Now Im not a fan of his form lately he is clearly doing really badbut give him a break I mean is one of the best players we have he has a lot of contributions to the team and is a true team player and in most games better than rooney (I love rooney but its true)
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About today’s game. I think there was some really excellent attacking football in this game, but I’ll agree with SAF that we’re not the most efficient team in front of goal at the moment. Luckily we produce so many chances that some of them are bound ot go in. That’s what happened today. To me, we could have scored 10 today. Bolton could have had a few as well, had TK not had a really good game (never seen such safe hands on him before). He made at least 2 world class saves, which is very good news.
Nani showed some terrific stuff, but he also showed that his decision making still needs work. It’s no wonder, the boy’s only 21 – he’ll get there. What thrills me is his ability to beat a man and his directness, which is why he fits so well into this team.
I think Saha played well. Unfortunately he got injured. Hopefully it’s not too serious, but he felt it immediately after his right foot strike and couldn’t run afterwards, which isn’t a good sign… looks like another 2-3 weeks out for our powerful frenchman.
Tevez worked his socks off and made some good direct moves, but it didn’t work for him in the second half, and he got frustrated. At least he shows determination and fighting spirit, which is the only way to get back in topform really.
Rooney looked alive when he came on and should have had the ball from Nani, when he ran 80 yards following his own clearence from a corner. He didn’t look impressed with Nani in that situation, and neither did SAF. And rightfully so. Ronaldo even made a fantastic run across clearing up space for Rooney, but Nani wanted to score for himself. As the comentators at Sky said “there’s no “I” in team”. I don’t blame Nani too much, even though he should have passed it, but I guess he would have had he seen how open Rooney was. It was more a lack of patience than selfishness, I think.
But we won the game, and it really looks good now. With any luck, we’ll win on sunday, and Chelsea will draw Arsenal, which practically brings the trophy to OT again.
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[saudi red devil]
Fair enough mate, but then Veron was all conquering before he came to OT. I also like Tevez and will attribute his dip more to fatigue (he’s been playing continuously for a long time now).
And in case you are bothered why some people are so hard on Tevez, then welcome to Red Rants — the place where a player just needs to put one foot wrong to be absolutely massacred.
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The first half performance was good, but we definitely took the foot off the pedal in the 2nd half, and let Bolton have some chances. I think Tevez ONLY plays well when Rooney is playing alongside him. It will be interesting to see if Fergie goes with those those 2 up front against the dippers, or if he has a 3-man midfield with Rooney up top on his own.
Nothing needs to be said about Ronaldo – he’s brilliant. Saha was disappointing and should have really seized his opportunity better. Nani had flashes of brilliance coupled with frustrating wastefulness, a bit like a young Ronaldo (which I suppose is no bad thing). Anderson started brightly, but faded, and was rightly subbed by Fergie. Fletcher didn’t seem to seize control of the midfield as he has done in other recent performances.
The defence were creaky enough. Very make-shift it has to be said. Hargreaves was energetic at right-back and it’s good to know he can fill in there if we have injuries. As JB mentioned, our main issue is Rio’s absence. He seems to bring alot more organisation and calmness to our backline. I pray he’s fit for the dippers, because it improves our chances of victory hugely. One word on Kuszack. He had an alright game tonight, but he seems to be a bit like vampire i.e. scared of crosses. A few times he should have come for the ball tonight, and whilst he pulled off some good saves, he needs to command his area better.
All in all, it was a pretty routine win with a very make-shift side. Hopefully Fergie picks the right side on Sunday, and we can put some more daylight between ourselves and the trailers. I’m looking for a big performance from Rooney after he got rested tonight. How great it would be for him to get back amongst the goals against the rat eaters.
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Nino – when Ronaldo doesn’t show up at big games, it’s usually because he’s marked by several players. This is also why you see the others doing well, because there’s more room for them to move in.
Now, lesser teams would like to close Ronaldo down as well, but their players aren’t as good, and therefore they are less succesful. But on sunday, watch Mascherano closely and see how quickly he arrives when Ronaldo gets the ball. And so will Gerrard and the 3rd midfielder, because Liverpool will play with 3 central midfielders simply to eliminate Ronaldo from the game. Hopefully the others will make the most of the extra space. What is amazing about Ronaldo is that even in games when he’s taken out by tatics, he often shows up when we need him the most, and that is a very very rare quality… and why he’s the best.
To me there’s no debate whether he’s the best or not. It’s not even a contest. There are other great players, but why would you ever chose Messi or Kaka over Ronaldo? I can’t think of a reason. If anyone does chose one of the others, it’s because they’re confused by Ronaldo’s reputation as a diver and a winker with an arrogant personality. But none of it’s true, and even if it was, it shouldn’t affect the judgment of his footballing skills, which are outstanding. When you watch him move, there’s noone like him. And frankly I think that in 10 years we’ll say that he was probably among the 3 best players ever in the game.
Oh did I mention… I really like Ronaldo:-)
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Well I did mention his important goals this season I mean an opening goal against chelsea and saving-the-team-from-defeat-or-draw goals against tottenham lyon and liverpool are good enough goals to justify my defence
In the end to me its about the team and if the time comes when we have to pay the alleged 30 mil and it was a common feeling amongst us that Tevez isnt good enough for us than I wouldnt buy him for free
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Saudi: Voicing concern over Tevez’s form does not make anyone a Tevez hater. My biggest issue with him at the minute is poor decision making and a tendancy to hold on the ball for far too long. To be honest I’m surprised it is an issue, it is something I would expect of a Nani, but Tevez had been round the block a few times and I would have thought he would have grown out of that by now.
As for the list of accolades you have posted, what good are they in pursuit of a CL and League double? What matters is the here and now, not the past. Shevchenko was one of the most decorated footballers to step on these shores yet he was also one of the biggest flops. What matters is what you do in the red shirt.
On the question of who has played better between him and Rooney, I would say Wayne but it is certainly a debatable point. However who is more important to us? There is absolutely no argument on that one for me.
All that said, he is probably just in a dip of form and as we all know form is a funny old thing, there one minute and gone the next. Let us just hope he (and the rest of the team) finds his form soon because tonight’s match marked the last game before the business end of the campaign kicks in.
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Please pursue Berbatov SAF. You’ve seen our poor finsishing, now act!
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I think from the sound of things that there is one continual problem with United’s skill players. They all like to showboat and hang on to the ball too long. Ronaldo gets away with it because he has the class and instinct to finish off the play. Tevez, Nani, Saha and even Rooney have been caught many times this year with their heads down trying to do the impossible. This is a training ground and discipline problem that has to go back to Ferguson and Queiroz. They need to enforce the law and punish players for wastefulness and selfishness. I accept that they let Ronny get away with it because he is the greatest talent on the planet and one does not put shackles on talent like that. But the others are a mismash of talent at different degrees. They must understand that they must think team first.
JB, I agree 100% about Carrick starting over Fletcher or Anderson. I too have had my doubts over Tevez as a long term solution up front. He just doesn’t have the necessary tools to score enough goals from a striker position. Yet I think his energy and enthusiasm has proven to make him a very good substitute (aka OLE) off the bench. And finally I so agree on the value of Ferdinand. He is the glue that keeps the ship afloat. I value Vidic equally and the Dynamic Duo should never have to go it alone. But everyone gets injured or needs a rest. Rio’s presence and calming effect is massive to our team’s defensive cohesion.
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RedAddict, About Pig being scared of crosses — VDS too if I remember well has occasional complete misjudgements of crosses. Yet nobody questions his no1 jersey except for his age factor. But he does lack in natural charisma, i’ll admit that.
My rant would be one of Ronaldo-dependence. As much as I love the boy, I personally never did like to watch a team relying on a single individual to win things. This team is far from matching the treble winning side in the sense that that side had potent goalscoring threats from all over the pitch.
Tevez – its true has his decision making has been poor recently, yet at the start of the season he was a great team player but could not finish, mid season he was excellent all round and now suddenly he’s not made for Utd?
JB I agree that on the whole, I too would rate Rooney as a more important player for us, but still on current form, as far back as, say for the last 2 months, Tevez has been a much better player than Rooney. I personally feel that he should not have been rested so often, as this slight dip in form coincided with the periods of rests.
Remember he’s a great passer, a great dribbler, an able finisher, but it seems that in the end it does seem that what people have feared at the start of the season, i.e. Rooney and Tevez are too similar to play together, might finally be true.
And please SAF, start Carrick!!
And settle once and for all for a definitive midfield four. Mine would be:
LM:Nani
CM:Carrick
CM:Anderson/Hargreaves
RM:Ronaldo
And play Fletcher for big matches and rest him for smaller run of the mill encounters!
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eh, why are people saying that we should be afraid of the dippers? Should it not be them who are afraid of us? We are top of the league for fuck sake. We have a bunch of players who can run the show against them. They will probably play a 5 man midfield with Gerrard meant to be supporting torres but will end up playing like a DM. Ronaldo will be ‘invisible’ because he will stick to the wing and try to play like a more generic RM he will track back more and pass more than he usually does. I think that we should play with Carrick and Andy in CM because Hargo would be too defensive minded. We have had their number for a long time now and I think we’ll win comfortably if we have a positive mindset.
Btw has anyone got highlights of tonights game?
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Grognard,
Further to your point about players hanging onto the ball too often, another problem is first touch. Sometimes it’s just hopeless. Often the reason these players are taking too many touches is because their first touch hasn’t been good enough and they have to compensate by taking more. It really is rather frustrating at times, it has to be said, especially when you consider we’re used to seeing players like Rooney have an exquisite touch. I get frustrated sometimes because it often feels like we completely let teams off the hook, attack after attack. We seem to have no problems winning the ball and starting a move from midfield, but we’ll fuck it up as soon as someone takes a bad touch, or in other instances, play a poor final ball. We can look so menacing but then just hand the initiative back to the other side.
Someone above me mentioned Berbatov, and for me, he is a dream signing for this United team. This guy has the BEST first touch in the premier league. In fact, in terms of first touch, I’d put him in a league of his own. When he gets the ball into his feet, he almost always makes the right decision and you rarely see him gift him the ball back to the opposition. He lacks the raw pace (and workrate) or other players, but so did Cantona, and who cared about that? I think he could be a potent player at United, especially when you factor in the players who would be supporting him. Today, his agent has again hinted that he may leave, and if he does, we should pull out all the stops to make him our new front man.
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yeah, check out
http://www.fcfootballblog.com/2008/03/20/manchester-united-2-0-bolton-highlights/
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RED ADDICT; Excellent points mate. As a matter of fact I have been down on Rooney’s first touch problems for a while now and have posted my concerns before. Others like Tevez and Saha are guilty of it as well but none more than Rooney. Even Ronny has made a few one touch gaffs but then again, nobody’s perfect. Berbatov is not in a class by himself but lets say that the class is indeed small. His one touch skill under great pressure is fantastic as well as his subtle touches and finesse to get away from a defender. His finishing is great too but that is where other strikers like Huntelaar, Benzema and Gomez beat him out. None of them however, even come close to his touch. Much talk has come about Benzema and although he is an outstanding young talent, the nickname the “New Zidane does not fit. He’s not in that league, nor do I ever feel he will ever be.
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I think the ‘New Zidane’ tag is just something that has come with being the young French hope, and because of their shared Algerian heritage, rather than their styles of play. It’s rather like with young Argentinian talent who will get labelled the ‘New Maradonna’ no matter what position or style of play they have. Pablo Aimar, Saviola, Carlos Tevez, Aguero and indeed Messi have all been given the label, despite playing in different positions and having different styles to Maradonna – the nearest being Messi. You can expect every emerginging attacking talent in France to be labelled the ‘New Zidane’ for the next 20 years!
From what I understand and from what I’ve seen of Benzema, his attributes are a bit more like Ronaldo “El Phenomeno”. He seems to mix pace and close control with power and fantastic finishing. A great talent for sure, but a pipe dream for United. His new contract coupled with his stated desire to play in Spain, mean we should look at other options.
My knowledge isn’t too hot on Gomez. I know he’s a big lad, and is doing very well for himself in Germany. I haven’t watched much German football, but I’m looking forward to the Euros to get a better look at guys like him. Berbatov was obviously a major success coming to the Premiership from the Bundesliga, and from what I understand, he was nowhere near as heralded as Gomez. I certainly think a player coming from Bundesliga, like Gomez, would be less of a risk than someone like Huntelaar, coming from the Eredivise.
I also wonder how the situation is at Barcelona with Rijkaard and their supposed plans for overhaul of players and management. There is always the possibility of an Eto’o exit. Could be another option worth looking at should it materialise. More likely is that Eto’o will stay, however, and it will be Ronaldinho leaving. But we shouldn’t be interested in him. Has the trail gone cold on Quagliarella as well? He was flavour of the month for a while, but seems to have completely slipped off the radar. We really should not have let Rossi go either. Now there was a kid who knew how to find the net. How we could do with a 6 yard box finisher like him right now.
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Since a lot has been said already, just a couple of comments:
Both goals came from set pieces, rather than open play, which isn’t that good. Still, we created quite a lot of chances and I think (or at least I hope) it’s only a matter of time before the goals start coming again.
I thought Ronaldo was a lot less selfish compared to recent games, and we looked a lot more dangerous when we passed and moved, rather than when we tried to hold onto the ball and take on opposing defenders.
Hargreaves at right-back – someone at RedCafe asked if Hargreaves could play right back just a day before the game! Either pure coincidence or someone’s been talking to Fergie!
http://www.redcafe.net/f6/could-owen-hargreaves-play-right-back-wing-back-192151/
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Hargreaves played RB as well as sweeper for Bayern Munich over the years. Yes they actually had a game where they used him as a sweeper and I thought the new Beckenbauer had been born. He played great in that game and scored from a free kick. He has the pace and the marking ability to play RB/RWB and he is capable of dribbles and long passes. His crossing is also decent. Theres so much that United fans don’t know about Hargo. He can do so much well.
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Grognard: thanks for the insight. In your opinion, how does Hargreaves compare to G. Neville / Brown / Lahm at RB?
(Someone kick me if this has been asked before…)
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Grognard,
we had a very good game…we got what we wanted and didnt wanted more than 2 goals i think. First 20 minutes were very good, and rest of the game we were very comfortable, never looked in trouble. Plus in the second half for about 10 minutes we played with 10 men when vidic was getting treatment for a bloody nose.
As for the performances, i think kuszczak had a very good game, some real good stops from long range and one crucial stop to deny davies the equalizer, other than that his throwing (which i thought was crap before this game) was much better, he once threw the ball to midfield to ronaldo, and his throws had pace. Except for one or two occasion he looked good on kicking the ball too. I also observed one thing that both our central defender were avoiding to pass the ball back to him for first 20 minutes but they started doing that after sometime…
Pique also looked good, i think he is rio’esque defender and is more comfortable with ball on his feet, and SAF should try him more in future..
Fletcher was also good but he lost possession on one or two occasions, but he was good at beaking bolton’s attack.
And in the end Rooney, he had only 20 minutes on the pitch and he created on superb opportunity for tevez with a great pass almost from midfield, but tevez wasted it…he was good overall, he was getting into good positions but the ball was never passed to him, thanks to nani, who was very selfish and had so many long range shots( which was actually okay as we had a good lead already)….
And Thanks to keane for a superb goal
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Thanks for the game breakdown Vikas. Fortunately I managed to download the game and just finished watching it. I’m generally in agreement with you on the game.
REDD75; Hargo is fine at RB but he is certainly not as good as a healthy or young Gary Neville and not in the same league as the fantastic Philip Lahm who is world class either on the right or the left. He probably could do just as good a job as Brown though and thats not putting Wes down. Hargo is pretty damned good and very flexible.
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