Mar 11
Man Utd v Inter: Preview
Lot of trash talk has happened over the past few days. Mourinho, as always, deflects attention from his players to himself. Despite his side’s patched up injury situation, nothing can be ruled out of today’s fixture. But on this one occasion, I am convinced I have cause to feel optimistic.
Before we move on, some reading material to while away your time, if you can’t wait for the game to start.
1. Paolo Bandini does his part in warning of Inter’s threat away from home. I’d disagree, but only because of our defensive form.
2. Both managers have put on their optimism hats, and why shouldn’t they. Fergie talked about Inter playing for penalties. Jose played up his ‘specialness’.
3. John Collins and James Richardson kick off the is Jose suitable for the United job debate — not too dissimilar from the one we had on our comment threads.
4. And Kevin McCarra thinks patience will be key against Inter.
5. One other interesting nugget is, the players will be wearing a kit bearing a Club World Cup winners badge. So if we do win tonight, I can think of a chant to rub it into Mourinho.
Right, on to the game. My expected back four will have Evra, Rio, Vidic and O’Shea. Of course, EVDS would be donning the gloves. In midfield, Michael Carrick will surely start alongside A. N. Other. I suspect it would be either one of Anderson or Giggs. On the right we’ll have Ronaldo, but on the left, it will be interesting because Park has been spitting his lungs out for the last couple of games. But knowing Sir Alex’s preference for these European games, he will most likely play the Korean. Berbatov and Rooney would start, but I wonder if he may consider playing Tevez instead of the Bulgarian to just run at Inter’s patched up defence and just terrorize them. We shall see soon.
I’ve got to get back to work, and I’ve remembered to watch this on repeat – although it won’t come close to the live one. So let me sign off with my prediction: 2-0 to United.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Man Utd v Spurs match thread
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Porto it is then…
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (542)
Stephen (491)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Craig Mc: As long as United have the best scouser there has ever lived, I will be happy!
“I saw my mate, the other day, he told me he`d seen the white Pele.
So I asked, who is he? He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney, Wayne Rooney, He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney, Wayne Rooney, He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney”
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@RedDevilEddy: yeah, I agree, United is all quality, but I just hate Gerrard, it’s prob not really fair, but for 2 reasons,
1: he plays for ‘pool and is a boyhood fan.
2: he’s a twat of a person, and I base this purely on him being hypocritical in his views, and what he does.
I’m expecting people to disagree with me on how i view him, but it’s my personal view
on a skill level, he is good, but i do reckon since the arrival of torres, has liverpool been more effective, that guy is a gun i have to admit that, unfortunately he plays for them.
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@Craig Mc: Imagine how much more money we could make if Saha and Richardson were still at the club! Not to mention Carroll!
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@Natzca: Did you see what he did during the SkySports interview after the game? When he about to hand the champange over to Torres, the fans started to yell: “You Scouse Bastard! You Scouse Bastard! You Scouse Bastard!” Then the reporter said cut, and Stevie went: “A bit harsh innit?! They`re just bitter we wept the floor with them!”
FUCK YOU YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!
If I ever met you on the street, I would play the ice cream man with your fucking small brain and trick you into a corner and beat you dead you fucking piece of shit! Get me that fuckers number, and I will tell him there is an Adidas commercial in Norway, and he had to play a game against 5 teenagers. My mate would do the taping, while I slide tackled him into last century! Who wants the tape? 
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@Natzca: Oh, and that last part was directed towards Stevie Me. Just so we are clear about that.
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@Craig Mc: I remember he took a shot yesterday in the first half that went weakly wide by a mile and the way it was passed to him makes me wonder how he missed getting everything behind it and getting on goal from 20 yards out. He is completely and totally useless at kicking a football and reminds of a hockey player without a hockey stick.
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@RedDevilEddy: I hear ya bro,
he’s just lappin it up, cause it’s about all they’ll get to cheer about this season.
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@Craig Mc: Gerrard does so much more than Lampard and he sets up others as well as tracks back. Above all he is a leader and really, I don’t see him scoring that much more than Gerrard. Gerrard also does it when it matters. No argument about Essien. The guy is class.
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@Craig Mc: That’s a load of bollocks mate. Gerrard was pretty damned awesome before Torres even showed up and he had shit for strikers after Owen left. Look at his performance in that epic FA Cup final against West Ham. Have you ever seen a player take his team on his shoulders and lead them to victory. He is a monster mate, a monster.
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@Craig Mc: I hate to disagree with you mate but again, not so. How the Hell do you think he scores on those headers if he is restricted to the wings? He has as much freedom as ever but he is just not making the plays this year like last. The games I see he seems all over the place.
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@Dan: I am Rafa, I’m correct and dats a fact.
No debate believo me. I am never wrong.
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@Grognard: I don’t think Torres has made Gerrard better, he’s made their team better and more effective at challenging for an actual title.
in all honesty this has to be their best season as a team for quite a few years, cause it’s one of the few times where they’re actually challenging for more than one cup
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@Grognard: Well Grog ‘one mans meat mate, another mans poison’
. If we were to play Lfool again next week, and CLOSELY marked Gerrard, he would do nothing mate, just nothing. Also we would BEAT them, because we OWE them, and fire would be coming out of our players nostrils. Man United – a Gerrard free zone!
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Grog, for too many of our games this season, Ronnie has been stuck out on the wing two man marked, and mostly ineffective. He has not been given the free role, unless Berba has been out. Anyway, I guess we disagree and we are at opposite poles
.
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Eddi mi man, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA loved your additions to the video, especially loved the Rafael and Fabio shirt swapping.
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@RedDevilEddy: I did read #492 mate but I disagree with you. Sorry but I have had it with Anderson. At 20 he should have a lot more going than what he has shown and like Nani, he has regressed and gone backwards this year. You are asking me to accept complete and total mediocrity which I won’t do. I bloody well demand more from this team and more from that position. We are the best team there is and there is no room for mediocre or ordinary on the squad. Yes he has had his moments but they have been few and far between. My patience is up and I want some significant changes on this side for next season.
I want Anderson…….GONE
I want Nani…….GONE
I want Scholes…….GONE
I want Neville……GONE
I want Tevez……GONE
I want EVDS……GONE
I want Berbatov…….On Double Secret Probation
I want Giggs…….On a short leash
I want Evra……Assessed to see if he is physically injured or has lost a step. If so I want…….PHILIP LAHM
I want Hargreaves…….Back, healthy and starting at CDM next to Carrick
I want either Welbeck or Campbell promoted to #3 striker
No I am not down nor do I want the end for Fletcher or O’Shea or Brown. They all serve a valuable service on this team and I have no problem with them
Now players I’d like to see bought.
I want……SERGIO AGUERO No excuses, no bullshit, just make it so.
I want……RENE ADLER or ARTUR BORUC or MANUEL NEUER as the new GK
I want……BASTION SCHWEINSTEIGER I want radar crossing and long range shooting into the box
I want……FRANCK RIBERY This won’t happen but I can dream
I want……KLASS JAN HUNTELAAR I won’t shutup until my dream comes true
I’ll settle for…….ALEXIS SANCHEZ Just get a winger who can start
I’d love to get……Marko Marin But he may be too similar and small like Modric.
ABOVE ALL, I want FERGIE TO hire me and mentor me to take over when he retires. A Grognard can have his fantasies. Hell, if we go that far I will sign Ballack and Riquelme as my first bit of business and DAN, Huntelaar will get a ten year contract and a rocking chair placed in the opposition box for him to relax in until the ball reaches him.
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@Natzca: They can challenge, but they have won nothing yet, and I can’t see them winning anything either. They go on about beating the top teams, but they only got the better of Chelsea when Chelsea had a player (their best player Lamps) undeservedly sent off. Also Chelsea had a lot of their best players out injured. If they played Chelsea now, which they might in the CL, then they wouldn’t beat them, thats what I feel. They can beat anybody – well they play Arsenal soon who are really coming into form – so lets see.
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I guess it’s not an appropriate time to ask, but didn’t SAF get Nani and Ando to groom as the eventual replacements for Giggs and Scholes.
And if that was the case, how do all feel about the progress here??
I think Giggs and Scholes are being used way too much considering they are in, or entering the phase-out time of their careers. We are relying on these old stalwarts because, frankly, we don’t have solid first-teamers to start every game in these positions.
How many times do these guys have to re-invent themselves because of age related limitations on their natural positions??
The experiment, here, may well come to a close this off season. I’ve seen nothing from either Nani or Ando to suggest they could fill these large shoes!!
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@RedDevilEddy: Because we respect you Eddy and because we know that putting down your hero must hurt. Hell I was just livid when guys would put down Riquelme or Ballack and God help them if they said a bad thing about Rummneigge, Beckenbauer, Klinsmann or Gerd Mueller. One who has such passion and loyalty also cares about those he supports, so I for one respect your feelings on the matter and try to show respect, sympathy and understanding.
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@Craig Mc: Somebody should write a song called Nani Love.
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@Natzca: I have no problem with that mate. He is a Liverpool player and a Scouser bastard because of that. But as a footballer he is a sublime talent and I respect him greatly even though I do not support him.
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@Craig Mc: Quality mate, quality.
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@Grognard: Good post, grog. Especially agree with the players “GONE” category.
Not sure that such a radical overhaul can happen at once though!
But I would certainly prioritize one major signing in the midfield and one enormous signing upfront. If not I fear we’re on the slippery slope toward having a small selectable squad.
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@Craig Mc: they’re so high over this win, i think we should have the more positive reaction from this game, in the next few weeks
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@Redrich: Oh I know my demands are too much too soon and there is no way United would overhaul the team like that but they should. I have no patience for certain players that are young but seem to be going south and older players whose best days were long ago. Experience is nice but not when you are being dominated in the midfield. Hargreaves may be the savior but as much as I love him, I wouldn’t bank on him.
United has spent far too much time and effort on young players and wingers and has not dealt with the issues that plague us. That’s getting a bona fide goal scorer, a winger to compliment Ronaldo that is world class and not just brimming with invisible potential, and a DMFer who can police the middle and assist us in our transition to offense by also contributing offensively. Someone like an Essien, De Rossi, Senna etc. As far as wingers go, the Nani experiment has failed. I’m not sure if Nani is to blame for the failure but it has failed nonetheless. It appears that Tosic sounds like a bust from the reports I’m getting about his crappy play with the reserves. I’m sick of this youth movement already. We are League, European and World champions, we need to contend now and keep our position. Youth is nice but they are for down the road. What about now. Get a Franck Ribery to play opposite Ronaldo and watch our offense hum like beautiful string music. Ribery is so good that the double marking Ronaldo is getting will be a thing of the past. And if not Ribery, then get somebody else with the ability to tear open defenses either with pace, dribbling and finesse, or crossing and shooting ability. I am sick and tired of having to settle for JS Park because nobody else can do the job.
Finally, let me say how disappointed and confused I am by the way things have played out with Berbatov. A classy player but I’m afraid a player who is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Our choice should always have been Huntelaar. Another two goals yesterday for Madrid and five in 4 games. He was the goal poacher and target man this team has needed from day one but too many of us and Fergie have gotten seduced by this myth of fast and stylish soccer. It doesn’t work against defenses that park the bus and it doesn’t work against quality teams either. Tevez and Berbatov have actually become liabilities due to the style they play. These guys call themselves forwards? Fuck that. Forward live, breath and eat in the box and look to do one thing and one thing only, SCORE FUCKING GOALS. What I would give for a striker who lived in the box and played the role of prowler?
And finally, did I say that we better find our keeper for the future and bloody well soon? Is it Foster? I don’t know but based on yesterday, I’d audition him a Hell of a lot more to find out or we need to spend big bucks to find the right one because watching the clown show that EVDS gave yesterday made me sick. The third and fourth goals were goals that a quality keeper should not have allowed. The free kick was well placed but oh so slow. To not even dive for it was pathetic. The fourth was a lob that was embarrassing because EVDS was in no man’s land. He had no business being out there. We’ve all been blinded by our great defensive record thinking that EVDS still had a few years left but lets face it, during the run, did he really get tested? And when he did, Mr Goalpost and Mr. Crossbar showed their allegiance. I am totally disenchanted and I am not going to just sit back and be patient and have faith. I don’t even care if we win the Quintuple. We have serious problems that need fixing.
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@Grognard: I 100% agree about Ribery – absolute class! Cannot get enough of him! Would complement Ronaldo perfectly and punish every team that doubles on Ronaldo (which seems to work) and every team that does not
You are right, this double-teaming seems to work right now, and I must say, I am surprised Fergie has not found a way to counter this besides just making Ronaldo switch sides – maybe giving him his free role from last season could fix this or having Ribery definitely would 
100% on Hargo – great when playing but getting older and injuries have gotten the best of him so far. If he cannot stay fit for 80+% of the games next season, we have to ship him out and bring in new talent – how I wish we had Essien, the only Chelsea player I enjoy watching.
Not sure about the ego of Schweinsteiger nor the quality of DeRossi (Roma has not been that great with him and Totti this year). Bastian is great player but would be a monster to man-manage… I prefer Ribery x 100 – why you say impossible? 25-30 mil pounds should secure his transfer, I think.
Up front, I want Berba to stay – he has only been here for one year, give him a break. it took Vidic and Evra a full summer with the team before showing class. Give Berba a summer as well. If we let Tevez go, I would like to see Aguero join us… even if he is another fickle Argentinian. Huntelaar is nowhere nearly as good as Berba – yes he has scored 5 in 4 games, but the opponents have been A bilbao, A Madrid, Betis, and Gijon – not exactly what I consider proper challenges to claim huntelaar better than most attackers. Please, stick with Berba at least for one more year, before claiming he is a bust.
Regarding bringing in Ballack that hurts more than losing 4-1 to liverpool! That bastard wanted money and went to Chelsea, I am happy he has won nothing with them and no tolerance for him (I know you have a crush on him and Riquelme, but for me Ballack is a burned bridge – oooh, how I dislike him!)
LASTLY, I realize that yesterday was a day we will live in infamy, but to be HONEST, it seemed to me that Vidic’s two mistakes (giving Torres 1-on-1 with VDS and bringing down Gerrard for red) and Evra’s mistaken tackle was all that was between us. We controlled much of the game and those mistakes were anomalies and will not happen again this season.
Keeping a 15 game streak clean-sheet is testament to the extremely poor timing of these mistakes (read: accidents). On any other day, we would and should have won this game – THEREFORE, I do not view our team as being in serious trouble.
Yes, we rode some luck, but luck does not last 15 games. Losing this game may be the best (ooh, that hurts to say that
) thing that has happened to us this season. We may now have the hunger and motivation to finish strong in the EPL and ECL. I hope we go up against tough opponents so that we can prove just who we are and what FIFA is messing with.
Just my two (and optimistic per usual) cents.
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The long, overdue — and arguably overlong — post is up.
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@Grognard: Grog, I am NOT sure you can truthfully say Nani has FAILED. Errrr tell me which PL game or games he has played IN mate. You can only say he has failed if he has been given PL games, so NO MATE I DON’T AGREE WITH YOU AT ALL – obviously. You’ve got to fuckin play to fail, and nobody can blame Nani for our colourless PL performances this season, and there have been too many of them. Nani has been so frozen out, he sits in the terraces like a fuckin snowman. Anyway, everyone knows where I stand on this issue, so enough said. But IF for some reason we do miss out on the PL trophy this season (and I don’t believe we will) then one person you cannot blame is Nani.
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I like Nani too but it does not seem to be working. Fergie does not seem to trust him. I imagine if we sell him we could raise around £10-15 million.
That could top up our transfer budget to around £40-50 million. That could buy a central midfielder in the Lampard/Gerrard/Ballack/Essien mould….a box to box midfielder who can get forward and score goals and give some muscle to our midfield. It could also buy a very good winger so that Park can be saved for the games when we want to mark someone like Maicon or Alves.
Anderson for me is young enough to develop further. This season he has gone backwards. But I do like aspects of his game: his hustling, the directness of his passing, his acceleration. He should really take lessons from Giggs to develop the other areas of his game.
I suspect that not having a Latin coach is partly responsible for the way Anderson and Nani have slipped. At that age they need someone talking to them all the time, telling them what to do, telling them where they need to improve, keeping their confidence high. Yes we have players like Tevez and Ronaldo who speak portuguese and can talk to them.
But from what I gather Ronaldo is too busy chasing girls (but only Spanish, Italian and East European girls)and Tevez is too busy hanging with his mates Park and Evra. And besides they have their own game to concentrate on.
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@Craig Mc: Read it again mate. I said that I wasn’t entirely sure if the failure was his fault. That means Fergie and others might have to take a lot of the blame for the failure. But it is a failure because the Lil Man has regressed this year and you and I both know he is to talented to have gone backwards. Something has to give.
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@Grognard: Grog my point is that he hasn’t played enough for us to make that judgement. I think he played well in the cup games, and he really hasn’t had PL games mate. So there you go. I don’t dispute that he hasn’t progressed, but then how do you progress unless you get a good run of game time. Aren’t you the one who has always said that Grog? I know he works his arse off in training, and stays behind as one of the few to work at his game with Ronnie, but how quickly you can go backwards if all your hard work is not rewarded. Anyway, he needs to get off to better pastures, where he will be given opportunites to play regular football. I have said that all bloody season.
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@colver: The coaching staff get paid to do a job, they should bloody well do it. Colver it is not just Andy andNani mate, so many of our players have not performed to what they did last season, so you could say, they have ALL gone or are slipping backwards. I don’t think the football we have dished up this season has been the usual long standing historic entertaining and thrilling football that United have always been renowned for. A lot of our football this season has been flat as a feckin pancake, but hey, it seems to be ok with most folk on here. I am not a lover of lukewarm football, I like things RED hot. So fucking sue me – OK? That is not directed towards you by the way Colver Bro. Its just that so many of the United faithful seem to have settled for the mundane, and woe betide anybody who longs after the United of old, or of many red hot games last season.
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