Mar 08
Man Utd v Portsmouth: FA Cup Preview
Harry Redknapp has called on his men to sort themselves out if they are to prevent Manchester United from giving them a hiding at Old Trafford today. An experienced campaigner, Harry Redknapp would do well to pore over the performance of the team the last time we sent them to the cleaners. That match was known more for Ronaldo’s free-kick, and the trajectory of the ball, for which reams of paper (and webspace) were dedicated debating the merits of his technique.
As much as the Portuguese winger has been terrorizing defences this season, Nwankwo Kanu has said he doesn’t fear him as much as is being made out to be.
However, this is a cup tie and despite Portsmouth’s underwhelming recent form they have their African contingent playing for them, unlike the time when we beat them 2-0 in January.
On to team composition, Fergie should go full strength today, considering we are playing Derby County next week. But while our back four picks itself (and maybe Kuszczack as ‘keeper?) the position of central midfield I’ll leave it up to you to make your own predictions. It’s a betting agency’s delight, that’s for sure. But, nevertheless, Sir Alex looks to have mentioned Scholes and Giggs as likely starters for the game.
I sincerely hope the formation put out today is a 4-4-2. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Tevez and Rooney start together and, when on song, they can destroy anyone.
Meanwhile SAF confirms that he’s not set any retirement dates. It’s unfortunate how words can be twisted so easily, so when one makes a casual remark it gets blown up and over analysed. Fergie wouldn’t make comments about retiring any time soon, given how it’s backfired in the past. He will retire someday, and it will be a hard, hard day, but at present we must sit back and savour the moments. They won’t last very long, I assure you.
Also there are plans to send Foster out on loan, with Championship clubs interested, for the rest of the season. I would personally like him to go to Bristol City, considering their surprise over-achievement this season and my soft corner for the Robins — they were the first club I managed on Football Manager way back in 2000 when I led them to Champions’ League glory, and I’ve taken a reasonable interest in their fortunes ever since, but I digress.
Right. Back to today’s game and my out-of-this-world predictions: 2-1 United — I have a nagging feeling that Muntari might blast in a belter past Kuszczak, but that’s just me.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Man Utd v Portsmouth: Preview
- Man Utd v Spurs match thread
- Rooney Out For A Month
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Mcmahon and McAteer are unbearable
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All credit to Portsmouth… uck wasnt on our side today and in all honesty you felt that the strange VDS switch and using all 3 subs was a little bit much… I must also say though the referee obviousley wanted to make a name for himself and he sure did. I will never understand the apointments of referees for knock out cup games…
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ref was horrible
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Rooney should always play in his position –> second striker… He´s getting frustrated and feeling the pressure of assuring us the goals we require… The way is playing resembles me a lot to “Alan Smith”, which as you know can´t be good.
It´s obvious we need a striker and without one, it isn´t possible to win the Champions League, you can forget it! My hopes rely in the Premier League! But even then, we´ve been shaky and far far way from last year´s form. We´ll have to pray a lot to not to get injuries.
In the penalty play… i don´t think it´s PIG or Rooney´s fault. The mistake is from Anderson who can´t loose the fucking ball there… It was childish! Let´s not defend Anderson just because there is a big buz and hype around him.
By the way, it wasn´t the first time on the game, that Pompey made that play. In a previous one, Baros has won the ball to Hargreaves (which is well know by his “excelent defending”, at least around this blog), but the referee has spoted a fault. Hargreaves has been the flop of the year.
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how are you going to blame hargreaves when the goal was conceded after he was taking off?
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shut the fuck up you muppet if anyone has been a flop its rooney!
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Pratyush- Bolton game is wednesday March 19th.
We were unlucky, ref sucked and United are out of the cup. But congrats to Pompey, they defended well! Even though we missed many, many chances they were great 7/10 of the time. I hope we crush Derby and Pool, that will make me feel lots better. I dont want to blame anyone except for the ref. Ronaldo tried, Anderson did a mistake for their goal, but he will learn. James was amazing, he ruined many things for us! That save from Evra cost us the win, it was after that corner we conceded. Rooney should be out of the team until he has a talk with Ole, but he seems more confused and frustrated than lost confidence. He should have scored when 1-on-1 with James in the first half; I mean, he should realise that a player dont use 90 minutes to get back 20 yards.
………….Anyway…I dont want to blame him, he created some chances for us, we just didnt take them! Ronaldo is the best finisher we have, and that is bad for us! With Saha injured, Tevez out of form, Rooney not scoring when 0,1 yards away from goal and Ronaldo being a winger, we come back to Uniteds greatest problem…We need a world class finisher. Benzema, Huntelaar, Adebayor..Everyone is welcomed!
Guys, we can still win the treble(Charity Shield, Premier League and Champions League). I would be pleased if we only won the Prem though. Not delighted, but I would settle for it.
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Fuck, I just remembered that this is the first match we have lost with Rooney on the pitch! And who will be playing in goal against Derby.
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lets forget about the game coz more we discuss more we’re gonna critise and in the end something like this will happen
Group 1
#1 no proper striker
#2 nani’s crosses sucked
#3 Scholes needs to go
#4 Saha aka Mr. Glass needs to be sold
#5 Rooney needs to go back to the basic lessons
#6 we need a striker and a right back
#7 SAF tactics were wrong – Hopeless subs
Group 2
#1 Rooney and tevez have done it in the past they should have done it today as well
#2 nani’s young will learn slowly
#3 Are u crazy he’s got so much experience
#4 Saha is still a good back up
#5 He’ll be alrite soon he’s a class act
#6 Yeah cant argue there much except that manucho and tevez rooney and saha should be enough for next season and wes brown is use less offensively we all know that
#7 For god sake fergie is GOD dont u know that
Special Note: – this is a sarcastic post to be taken lightly and plz don’t flame me up I’m equally sad and pissed that we lost today but I’m gonna take it as one of those days we were destined to loose
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[Dan]
I’ve warned you million times over, just because someone doesn’t agree with you, doesn’t make him a muppet. Don’t talk bollocks.
[Everyone]
It’s gutting to go out like this but let’s not pick villains out of this game. Honestly I am shocked at some of the comments over here. Let me gather my thoughts together and come up with a match report tomorrow, but people, calm the hell down! It’s not as if we were outplayed.
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Lets not lose our temper. Its was just a bad day at the office. Portsmouth tactic was much physical play. We had clear chances to score during the first and second half. Our overall play was good but just we could not take our chances. We were not clinical in front of the goal. Maybe another striker on the bench who have heading attributes would bring another option to our attacking play
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RR- I think it is wrong to blame anyone(except for the ref), but we are right to point out what was bad with the performance.
Anyway, United will come back strong and ready for the next challenge, that is what they always do. WE WILL NEVER DIE!
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Redranter: It the way of fans these days, someone has to be hung drawn and quartered for every point dropped, every goal conceded and every loss. Fickle doesn’t even come close to suming it up. It was also interesting to note that we played the legendary attacking 4-4-2 way and we still lost. Maybe this football marleky isn’t as simple as some people would paint it out to be.
Dan: The incident Pedro was referring to was when Hargreaves let Baros through one on one and the referee pulled it back for shirt pulling. Looking at the replay I would say Hargreaves was fortunate to get away with it as it looked six of one, half a dozen of another between the two of them.
As for the goal I wouldn’t blame PIG. There were two opportunities for Rooney and Anderson to spilt up and take a man each (first for Rooney and then for Anderson) and they spurned them both.
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Fergie agrees with me:
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=%7BB4CEE8FA%2D9A47%2D47BC%2DB069%2D3F7A2F35DB70%7D&newsid=539309
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this may sound a little out of context, but
has anyone noticed that anderson plays extremely poorly when played as attacking midfielder behind the striker.(lyon, some games is epl)
he plays much better when played as a proper CM (scholes, gerrard postion) wherein he makes those harrying tackles and makes bursting runs through the middle(liverpool game)
what do u guys think?
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JB: wtf man… Majority here are just frustrated and are just ranting.. its the entire point of this site… it hurt bad coz we were the better team… next season, the same fans willl be back even if we dont win anything… stop taking a high moral ground
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Where to start? Too much is being made of the penalty that beat us. To be honest, Portsmouth should have needed 3 or 4 goals to beat us but instead, we beat ourselves today with a little help from the ref and a whole lot of bad luck. There were many reasons for the loss today but nobody should complain about the lineup. And to all of you out there who love to blame Hargreaves for the loss, sorry but he is not the problem here. It’s not like he was responsible for three goals in open play. The blame for this loss lies in another surprisingly strong performance on the road by Harry’s boys and a United team that looked way out of sync due to fatigue. Lets face it, the lads are tired. They are knackered and this does not spell good things for the future. Ronaldo especially was far from sharp and the signs of fatigue were evident in his passing and lack of finishing today.
United took Pompey lightly, and nobody should dispute that fact. Our arrogance at home finally kicked us in the face. Fergie fielded a strong lineup (although I would have started Carrick over Scholes) and it looked like they were set up 4-4-2. So why did we lose? Because we never took our opportunities and because we have become a bunch of drama queens always whining and crying for fouls to be called. Add to that a peculiar change of tactics by Fergie just before the goal. He went out for an all out attack and left only three players back. And because of this we got handed a terrible counter attack that lead to the penalty being given for an infraction I would have given yellow for and not red. Enough all ready! We had a bad game and our lack of sharpness coupled with very bad luck cost us a chance at the FA Cup and a Treble.
So where do we go from here? I’m worried this loss is going to carry over because it was a confidence killer and because we looked very tired. I am also getting sick and tired of watching the kid out there wearing number ten trying to do his best Wayne Rooney imitation but instead, he is looking more like Dirk Kuyt. Rooney has become an enigma to be sure. He certainly isn’t a true striker but what really has me confused about his terrible run of form has been the inability to figure out the main reason for it. One time he hesitates too long and loses out on a chance, the next he jumps the gun and doesn’t show his regular composure. He’s fighting himself and this is a big problem for him and for United. He’s also tired because Fergie rarely sits him down or even takes him off late in a game. I have been saying for a a long time that everyone talks about our depth in the midfield and in the back four but our Achilles heel is and will be our lack of depth at striker or forward. The other problem is that the ones that we have aren’t prolific enough to carry a club when it isn’t playing well. How many times did RVN and before him Hughes, Cole, Yorke get big goals for us when weren’t at our best? Or was it Ole ore Sheringham coming off the bench. No team on the planet has a better or deeper midfield and one that can score like ours, but we are very mediocre up front. Yes Rooney and Tevez have skill but they also need to score more goals. Saha, well we all know about him so the less said about his inability to perform the better. This game and perhaps more will be lost this season because of fatigue and because Fergie never addressed the striker problem in January.
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i am just so ticked because of this loss. at least now we dont HAVE to play rooney as it was coincidence that the other 5 times we lost this season he wasnt on the field. saf is trying to play anderson in the kaka role, he was playing 4-2-1-3 towards the end, anderson is playing more like a cm(gerrard scholes lampard) rather than a cam(kaka ronaldinho kerlon)
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yea i give, we need(ed) a striker, manucho does look like a genuine goalscorer but he means nothing to us if he is in greece, i dont know if welbeck is a goalscorer so it looks like we are going to be screwed out of the league and CL, are squad is near perfect but without the striker. we could win the league but it would take alot of digging, we could win the CL but we would need an easy team like the turks in 1/4 finals and then an english team in 1/2 finals.
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[Utsav]
Mate, there’s nothing wrong in pointing out what went wrong. The problem is making villains out of players. That’s what’s wrong. Have a look at the highlights. I counted 9 chances. If we put even one third of that, everyone would be singing a different tune. And to be honest two were genuine chances that would have gone in 1 out of 10. Could there have been a case where we could have held our hands up and said, “Oh well, we had a bad day”? No. That’s never happened. And that’s what saddens me and I think JB.
There is nothing wrong in having an objective analysis of how players played, but I have see plenty of times people saying players to be dropped because of the performance in the game.
Let’s be fair, we stamped all over Portsmouth. We were more unfortunate than ever, unlike our game against City. It’s fine to be hurt wanting to see your team win. But outrightly slating the players (for no reason) with the excuse that you want the good of the team only is plain wrong. I am not singling you out here, but it’s also a test of fans character to say well played lads when the team does play well and has victory turned into defeat. There’s nothing wrong being a little gracious. This is precisely why United fans are labelled as fair weather fans and glory hunters. I know that’s unfair but it’s at times like this that makes it hard for some one to disagree.
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[Grognard]
I don’t think we took Pompey lightly because, from the number of chances we created and the way we attacked, we should have won this game. Converting even two or three of these would have made things seem entirely different. Our biggest error was over committing leaving Anderson at the back.
I choose to be positive despite the setback. My only disappointment is that Chelsea have their easiest path to the FA Cup title.
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RR: I totally agree. And if you read my comments, all i’ve said is that it was bad luck… and i also agree that people do tend to go overborad, but all that is quite immidiate… can’t expect people to be objective coz they r so passionate…and by using phrases like” fans these days” is a bit annoying… give a bit of a leeway is all im saying..
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i think it was one of those days, i mean, look at that carrick chance, you can tell that if that was the arse match, or the toon match, that would of gone in. even though i believe it was one of those days rooney really needs go back to grass roots, and scholes needs to shape up a bit to but not like rooney.
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[Utsav]
As I said, I am not singling you out. I know it’s hard to be sane being a fan, but when you do see the same fans do that for every set back you tend to wonder if we, as United fans, have been a bit spoiled by so much success. It’s the same frustration that might have caused JB to use phrases like “fans these days” and if you think about it, it’s not too far from the truth. There’s nothing wrong in ranting your spleen — like how Grognard does it at times (passionate, objective but willing to change his mind if a player does show promise) but saying things like this player is shite after having one bad game is more annoying than phrases like “fans these days”.
In fact I know of fans who call for Fergie to retire after a defeat. I mean, come on!
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Ustav: I’m giving the fans as much leeway as they normally reserve for the players and the manager. Ahh well, if you can’t beat them join them. To quote old Redissue/Redcafe mantra, sack Fergie, sell Giggs
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The game wasn’t lost because of fatigue at all. Bad ref decision for ronaldo penalty claim (although lets be honest, ronaldo’s hardly an honest player so he kind of deserves this from time to time) and then after that a good, organised, hard working team managed to do enough to keep us out. No luck and heroic defending.
Their goal was terrible aswell. Rooney and anderson as the last men defending are bad tactics. It showed when they both ran like idiots towards the man with the ball. It’s more rooney’s fault than anderson’s as where they were positionally it made sense that rooney stayed in the middle and anderson pressed the ball. Anderson gave him a shout too. Why are some blaming kuszczak? He was left one-on-one. It was probably a penalty but he was unlucky to be sent off.
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Apologies if anyone is annoyed with the phrase ‘fans these days’, but there seems to be an ever decreasing amount of patience, understanding of dips in form and acceptance of pure bad luck. Players are heralded as the second coming after a handful of appearances, whilst others who have put in fine performances year after year are consigned to the scrap heap after the first sign of a dip in form.
PIG came on today and people were ready to jump on him before he had even touched the ball. Then he takes a hammering for giving away the penalty before people even consider if there is anything else he could have done. Rooney gets hammered for poor finishing, despite only having one clear chance, whilst Tevez’s performance gets overlooked. The list goes on and on. People seem to get preconceived notions in there head rather than attempting to judge players on what has actually happened on the field.
Rant over
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well on an up, we can look forward to a foster debut next week(thats if Vds is still injured of course)
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We played our hearts out, to be honest.
If only Rooney had successfully (for once) beaten the keeper when thru on goal,
If only Tevez hadnt shot the rebound straight at johnson,
If only Carrick had had quicker feet,
If only Evra’s screaming volley had punched a hole through net instead of meeting James’s fingers along the way,
If only we had a taller striker up front who could make something of Nanis POOOR crosses today………
IF ONLY…….
Life is CRUEL
POSITIVES:
I found Ronaldo in the mould of Ronaldo of 06-07 season. Not a matchwinning performance, but after a long time I saw him play like a WINGER. Taking the ball along the sidelines and dribbling his way through.
There were moments of brilliance from United. Back heels and flicks which put us thru with only the keeper to beat. Evra’s support in the attack was admirable, and the volley…awesome!
Defending was super-solid until the 77th minute. Did anyone even notice that Kanu was ever on the pitch??
Now the target isnt as lofty as the treble. I would have easily bet my last buck on us reliving 1999 this season, but how can it be when u have a million chances to fuckin seal the game and still u r thwarted. The finishing was piss pooooor, but then how have we managed to have the best goal difference in the goddamned league eh?
So, all I can say is, BAD BAD BAD DAY. Hope it will be last one for this season.
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RedRanter; JB.. Touche… and apologies…
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Ronaldo:
“The ref protects the defender, not the skilled player! It’s very disappointing and I’m thinking a lot about changing my game. When referees don’t give penalties, yellow cards or reds, it’s difficult to play.”
That was Ronaldo after today’s game, worried about what might happen to him, especially after the Eduardo nightmare.
Scared of playing his game?? Man, this isnt good news is it? Somebody please get him a shrink.
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Well Speechless !
‘The Match had Anti Climax written all over it ‘
The moment Evra hit the post i knew it was one of those games where it does not belong to u !
Well Refree made stupid decisions which literally kept them in the match !
Diarra and Muntari knew they weren’t going to get a card , so took maximum advantage of it !
Distin one was a clear penalty ! However having said that Hargo was left off for that foul !
PIG did not deserve a red card at all .. What did he do !
Well looking to players performances today will be bad however ought to be done !
1) Nani is a very good work in progress ! Credits must be given to him even though he may not be the star ! He tracked back very well ! Put in a lot of OK Crosses …
2)Rooney and Tevez are future stars ! They will be the best attacking combination , however a couple of things …
Rooney`s first touch is messed up badly , Tevez should have sealed the game when he missed a absolute sitter of a pass to Evra . Even though he had a good rest , he seems to be extremely lacking in pace , hope thats something temporary
3)Hargo played very well .. He controlled the Mid-field very well however he should also get support from other Mid-fielder .. Scholes was below par by his standards …
4)I m ok with Changing Mid-field however we all know ‘ANDERSON is WaYYY TOO Good ! to be left out ! ‘
The day did not belong to us , another day we would have won it !
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no use getting all bent out of shape. What a silly bogus anomaly of a game. seriously, when was the last time you saw someone concede a penalty by being kicked in the head? we’re still alright. at least we wont have to worry about arsenal having fewer fixtures than us. besides we’ve already won truckloads of FA cups.
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Mihir- That aint good; that is terrible! Hope he doesnt think about moving because of that. He is our best player, THE worlds best player, and if we lose him, we might not win anything in some years! He is amazing, Ive run out of adjectives this season! I hope he still will play like he does and doesnt change anything!
If VDS isnt fit to play against Derby, Foster will get his debut! Maybe he will play against Bolton too.
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Dan, reading the comments how many times must you put Foster? yeah let’s throw him in for his debut after 8 months out, watch him screw up, yeah, that’ll do his confidence a world of good…how old are you, seriously?
One bad game, if Chelsea weren’t still in the cup (therefore giving them the trophy by default)then it could have even been a blessing in disguise, we need to concentrate on Europe and the league.
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Last time I looked Chelsea was losing 1-0. How’s Avram Grant gonna explain that one? The bottom line today was that bad luck on the pitch and off cost us this game. We blew many chances which I attribute to lack of focus, concentration and the body just not registering with the brain fast enough due to physical fatigue. Just because you are running up and down the park and creating chances does not mean you are not tired. Ronaldo looked very tired because his focus and concentration were way off. The other element of bad luck is having drawn yet another Prem club in the FA Cup. What is that 11 or 12 in a row. What are the mathematical odds of that happening? And Red Ranter I do believe that the lads did take Pompey lightly. It’s human nature when you are very good and you are playing a big game at home to expect to win. Problem is their bodies let them down today. This is abad omen for the future as there are tougher matches ahead and little room for error. Another hiccup or two and we end up with zero silverware.
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Well well well,,,, what do we know… it wasnt as easy as chelsea… they r out… barnsley are the team of the year…
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i still don’t believe it.. avram is in some trouble…
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1st time soooo many year none of the top 4 will win the fa cup
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What the hell is happening today !
Chelsea loose 1-0
For those who did not see it please some how find and see the clip of Ricardo Carvalho foul at the 90th minute ..
Absolute Cunt ! ( Sorry for my barbaric language )
He had no intention of getting the ball and howard (I guess) was on a clear two on one chance ! It was more than a RED !
Even the commentator was screaming ‘How did Ricardo escape that ! Where as our PIG gets hit on the head and instead gets a red !
Fucking ref !!!!!
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Atleast our defeat wasn’t the biggest shock of the day! BARNSLEY
First Liverpool, Then Chelsea next it will be Barcelona!!!
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Rick, there were covering defenders when Carvalho took the Barnsley player down. I’m not a fan of Bennett but he made the right call there.
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Come on Barnsley! You deserve it!!
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Well come on lads, enough of the pessimism, it could be worse, at least we weren’t knocked out by barnsley
the pressure will start to get to Grant, very soon, or worse he’ll get the sack… but sure that helps us rule out a title contender so …. 
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May be Barnsley will win the FA cup:). Hell, they win againt Liverpool and Chelsea, I’m thinking maybe we are lucky not playing them as they have proved they are the toughest team in the tournament.
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Well JB for me that was a clear red . Where was the intent in getting the ball ? Cudiccini had to come out and dive and clear the ball before the other guy intercepted it (or) May be i m pissed off by ours
- Diarra commits 7 or 8 reckless fouls, only receives 1 yellow card.
- Blatant penalty decision turned down.
- The EXACT same foul committed outside the box 5 mins later, he gives a freekick.
- Kuszczak gets straight red despite NOT being the last man.
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I’m glad that people are starting to be honest about Rooney. He is a good player but his form is shocking since coming back from injury. I really wish ferguson would have pulled the trigger on torres.
I think we all need to relax it sucks to lose but we are still fighting for the league and we have as good as chance as anyone else to take the champions league.
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It hurts like hell today.It just wasn’t our day today….But we should not overlook some glaring shortcomings that we have…we don’t have a tall and out and out striker to change the game when the going is tough…Rooney is not a proper striker,he lacks composure in front of goal… SAF is too soft on older players.he still plays scholes and giggs when they are past their prime.Scholes was invisible today on the pitch..why take tevez out when we need a goal..it should have been scholes to be substituted…I thought we had a very good chance of winning the double i.e the league and the fa cup…i still think we lack firepower to win the champions league this year,but we blew it today…OH GOD..WHAT THE FUCK…I’m just so dissapointed..i don’t know what to say…i feel awful..May be it was one of those days….i feel slightly better to see chelski go out as well…that cunt terry must be pulling his hair out.
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Some of the refereeing in england is just atrocious….who picks these guys?this atkinson guy was disgusting today…he didn’t give a penalty to ronaldo…he books rooney when he doesn’t even get contact…how the hell was PIG sent off…he wasn’t the last man,there were two people behind…that bastard Baros….that was a blatant DIVE…NO PENALTY…I think some referees are hell bent to put manchester united down….they just don’t like our club success…on another note rooney cannot score even if his life were at stake at the moment…he cannot defend…he should have marked the man in the centre and not go after the ball,anderson was alone capable..he can’t create then what the fuck is he on the pitch for?…And that bullshit shit piece of glass[SAHA]needs a kick up his backside…he finds the strangest ways to get injured when he’s needed most..
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just thought that I would throw my two pennies worth in, coz today was one of those says that the phrase (its a funny old game)was coined for. Let me start by saying that if todays game was played 100 times, we would win 99 times and Portsmouth just the once,despite some dodgy refereeing decisions and some questionable tactics by SAF.
We definately should have won that game today and it was freaky that we didnt, but having said that, one or two things are starting to seriously worry me concerning the form of some of our players and SAFs ability to pick the best team to get the job done from match to match. Before I make my first point I would just like to say that I love Rooney and his work rate and attitude as well as his undoubted talent, but lets be honest, the kids having a poor season and his lack of form in front of goal is starting to hurt us. Goals change games and his wasted chance today could have killed Pompey, forcing them to come out and attack. Against Lyon in both legs he had chances to kill the tie off and failed to do so and against the better sides we might be in trouble. Its partly not his fault coz hes not an out and out no9 and our lack of a proper goalgetter is starting to take its toll on his confidence. Secondly, why did SAF start with two holding midfielders against a team that came to avoid defeat and concede the midfield and put 10 men behind the ball. I am Scholesys biggest fan, but today Anderson should definately have started in his place and Im afraid old father time has caught up with both him and Giggsy.
I hope we win the 2 competitions left, but Im starting to get a bad feeling about it, sorry for sounding so pessimistic but Ive been feeling like this even before todays game,
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