Apr 09
Man Utd v Roma: Preview
Welcome back. Yesterday, Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-2. Yes, the ‘dippers actually scored four goals. How they manage to turn it in Europe is beyond me. I didn’t get to see the game but from reports, they were helped by a dodgy looking penalty decision. I really can’t feel too happy nor too sad about the result. I heard that Wenger looked like he was going to kill himself by digging his head into the turf. Meanwhile Chelsea completed a robotic win against a Fenerbahce side that showed little ambition going forward.
So there you have the first semifinal decided: 90 minutes, and perhaps a little more, of shit slinging orgy. But all that’s an aeon and a half away. So let’s get to today’s game against Roma.
Team news first, and there is good news about Rio. Surprisingly he has an outside chance of playing against Roma. It is nice to hear, but to be honest, I’d rather nurse him till he’s 100% ready for the Arsenal game rather than rush him today. A 2-0 cushion going into a home game should be defendable even with the sort of players we have stepping in. In fact, since Roma will have to attack, I think it should suit our counter attacking game just fine.
One of those defenders who’ll step in and be expected to play his part is Wes Brown, who thinks we can’t afford to sit back on the lead. It is really not in our nature to protect leads, at least not at home. Ideally we should score a goal early on and just play kick-about and practice for Le Arse.
Park Ji-Sung, who has actually had a couple of good performances the last couple of games, chimes in too:
“In a couple of matches we’ve changed the team around but still managed to get good results. We can win the league as well. We can do the double.â€
Nice to hear talk, but it would be nicer if we saw it happen.
The manager had his ideas clear though,
“We need to make sure we don’t do anything silly. There are 90 minutes to get through, and the clock is ticking against Roma. They have to do something, which may suit us.”
Keep your heads down, and do your job. He will have drilled this a million times now. I would expect a conservative start from United, even though we’re playing at home. The idea would be to build up slowly and cause some urgency in the Roman camp, hopefully leaving us with some open spaces up front.
I think, based on his performances recently, Hargreaves should get a look in. Where he would play, however, is a good question to ask. If Rio won’t play, then Pique and Brown could take the centre back spots, while the right back could be a toss up between Hargo and O’Shea. If he opts for a 4-3-3, then Hargreaves will play in central midfield giving the added shield for the defence. Carrick and Scholes also appear sure starters, but with the Arsenal game in the weekend, some one will be given a breather.
Park may start this one ahead of Giggs because he gave a good account of himself in the first leg. And, Ronaldo and Rooney will start.
Prediction: 2-1 to United.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Derby County v Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Roma vs Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
Tags: UEFA Champions' League
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (170)
Opti (135)
Moscow is my heaven (96)
Ian (95)
Hargo is my man of the match…
Like?
0 
0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDWhf81iQfk&eurl=http://www.blinkx.com/burl?v=pQrgEARLBQ0ECNYN2jHFtkEDI8—tdi
Like?
0 
0
excellent disciplined performance.
thought park, ando, hargo were outstanding.
silvestre and pique slotted in perfectly and i hardly felt the absence of vida and evra.
will be interesting to see how arsenal perform after their defeat at anfield!
Like?
0 
0
My team for arsenal-EVDS,brown,ferdinand,pique,evra,ronaldo,carrick,anderson,hargreaves,park(if no nani),rooney.
Like?
0 
0
Andrei, chance? It’s a massive chance to get to the final! Barcelona again were fairly lacklustre against Schalke, and I know that Schalke are good defensively, Barca are out of form big time, and from being on a few of their blogs I know they are scared of us. We can beat them, and judging from recent performances, we should beat them. Hargreaves – Fantastic, best performer by a country mile. Great at tracking back, our most penetrative player(shocking) and his crosses were awesome, that should hopefully prove the doubters wrong. However I’m sure they’ll come out with “Oh it was only against Roma, we always beat them, they’re a nothing team”. I’ve always had faith in him, in truth, blind faith, because I hadn’t seen that much of him, but I just knew he was good. Probably thanks to you, Grognard
Like?
0 
0
my lineup for the arsenal game’d prolly be
VDS
Brown
Ferdinand
Pique
Evra
Hargo
Scholes
Anderson
Ronaldo
Rooney
Nani
Like?
0 
0
Your quite welcome Conor. And all though one game does not totally vindicate my faith and passion for Hargo as a starter, it certainly confirms that at the very least, this lad must be playing all Champions League games for us. He was born for this competition. Bayern prepared him well for the continental style of play. As for the EPL, you will get a real appreciation for him next season. I hope Fergie wakes up to what he has with Hargo and stops wasting time with projects like Anderson and to a lesser degree Scholes. I for one want to see a Hargo Carrick central midfield next season with two strikers up front at all times. Enough of this 4-3-3, 4-5-1 BS. With Hargo as a holding midfielder, two strikers will be seen as a reign of terror by most sides. And if he insists on playing Scholes or Anderson, then slot him in at RWB. You know he can defend, but now what do all of you think of the crossing I told you was one of the strong points of his game? I say Hargo for Mayor!
Like?
0 
0
what did it say on Tevez’s top when he lifted up his shirt after the goal?
Like?
0 
0
Mike- Happy birthday to his daughter.
Like?
0 
0
And guys, olde Ryan Giggs had a very fine match today!!!!
Donniebrasco, where art thou?
Who’s Man of the Match? Probably Hargo. Though Park and Anderson are not far behind!
Also praise for Rio, who while clearly not playing at 100%, marshalled the defense well, and Sylvestre for performing so well on his very 1st match after injury.
Like?
0 
0
My MOTM is Anderson! He was class today. Fought for every ball and ran Roma to shreads. Followed by Owen and Park.
Like?
0 
0
Ronaldo to Real for £100million? (Rumours)
I can only see three MAD entities here.
Real – for bidding such an outrageous amount.
United – If they were to let Ronny go.
Ronny – If he was to leave a stable and successful club to join the madmen at Real!!
Like?
0 
0
do you people finally see why hargreaves was worth 18mil, his crossing is right up there with beckham, he has pace, a bit of skill and is versatile, and i hope we buy Anthe CDM in the summer so hargo can take up the RWB position, i mean with crosses like that, he is a better defender then brown, he is a better attacker then brown, and iwould start him ahead of brown next season.
Like?
0 
0
I am here to eat a huge plate of crow. I slagged off park when he first returned from injury, but ever since he regained his fitness hehas been outstanding whenever called upon. Hargreaves was by far MOTM(but one could argue Doni). Hargreaves and anderson absoultely owned the midfield tonight they were everywhere. I hope they start against arsenal, along with carrick. as for Giggs, I have to say he had a rather poor game compared to the rest of the players tonight. we were unlucky not to score 2 or 3.
lets hope vidic gets fit along with Nani and Rio, then I say bring on Barca.
Like?
0 
0
What really is the value of the “Terminator” Ronaldo? 80 MIL, 100 MIL???? The reality is he is invaluable and thus, no price is good enough. Why? Because if you sell him, who replaces what he offers you? You can by a stable of depth and quality for the money but I seriously doubt that would happen. And even if it did, would we be as good? I lived in Edmonton Alberta Canada for most of my life and I had the privilege to be a season ticket holder during the Wayne Gretzky era. Gretzky was the greatest talent to ever play the game as many of you may know (although I still think it was Bobby Orr). He broke all the game’s records and led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships in 5 years. Then the owner decided one day to make a bundle of personal cash by selling the Great One to Los Angeles for money and a bag of hammers. The team still had enough to win one more championship without him but they quickly declined after that and have never ever recovered. That won’t of course happen to United but my point is that Cristiano Ronaldo comes along one in a lifetime. He is priceless and should never be sold. Undoubtedly he will want to move on one day as his roots may lie somewhere closer to Portugal but still, United would never be as good without him and a bag full of cash. Ask yourselves this one question. You have 10 men on the pitch and then you have Ronaldo’s position to fill. Who on the planet can fill that role and help us forget Ronny? Messi maybe, but his injury history and Ronaldo injury free history is not even comparable. There is nobody. Ronaldo is a God.
Like?
0 
0
Good victory! We got the job done, and broke a CL record on the way (11 consecutive home wins now isnt it?). De Rossi’s miss had me LOL’ing big time though!
Was flicking between the United and Barca games and I can honestly say that Ronaldo and co. should be licking their lips at the prospect of getting stuck into their crumbly defence. What a joke! Schalke had two or three excellent clear cut chances, which a much more superior and clinical team i.e. us, would have converted with ease and aplomb. We really have nothing to be afraid of!! Puyol and Ronaldinho are out of the first leg in addition, and I can easily see us winning at Camp Nou, never mind getting an away goal or two.
Conor, would be grateful if you could post some links to the Barca blogs you mention; it sounds interesting what they have to say about us…
Like?
0 
0
Yep Grognard you are right, the man is irreplaceable! No amount of hard cash can legislate for a once-in-a-generation talent like that!
I would go as far as to say that without his goals and moments of genius this season we would be probably be fighting for second/third place in the Prem. We are simply not the same team without him.
But if/when the time comes that we do have to part company with him, I’d rather see him go to Barca (just to piss Real off!!!) In addition, a talent like his deserves a stint in a technical league such as La Liga, where his style would be appreciated and he would be afforded much more protection too. A real football fan would want to see him prosper in a league like that.
Like?
0 
0
match report is up…
Like?
0 
0
Well. well, well Grognard – what do you know!. People are just beginning to wake up to what we have been trumpeting here for ages, HARGO IS ONE HELL OF A GOOD PLAYER!!!!. He was magic tonight – up and down the right of the pitch, the grass there must be bald now. The crowd was fantastic too, I thoroughly enjoyed the spirit of it, especially when Red Nev came on.
Grog, I think Ronnie has said himself that he wants to move to Real at some point in the future. He’s very close to his Mom, and she said she will move to live in Spain when he moves to Real, ‘cos she doesn’t like rainy Manchester. Well, letes face it, the foreign lads are used to Sunny climates, and boy have they had to face and conquer the elements here in England. I felt sorry for them a couple of weeks ago playing in a torrential downpour, and a blinding snowstorm in M’Boro. So guess we will just have to wait and see. Don’t think United will want to sell at all, but if he becomes unhappy and wants to go, we have never kept unhappy players!.
Like?
0 
0
That was the level of performance I was expecting from Hargreaves when we bought him. Full of drive and energy and he suported the attack excellently. If he wants to cement a place in the midfield he now needs to show this level of performance on a conistent basis. From an offensive point of view, it was easily his best performance in the shirt.
Like?
0 
0
Nino one that comes to mind is this one, when they were panicking after losing to Real Betis after going 2-0 up.
They were saying things like
“Sorry but barring some sort of miracle display from Messi, Man Utd will destroy us. I just watched them play Saturday and Ronaldo is unstoppable, plus Rooney and Tevez are not far behind. We couldnt keep BETIS from scoring 3 goals in 45 minutes, what makes you think we can stop Man Utd. Yes football is a funny game, and anything can happen, especially with a player like Messi on our team. However realistically it is a long shot, Messi will be just coming off a 6 week injury and he will need a few games to get back his form. Plus the problems we have right now are much deeper than simply Messi and while his presence will certainly help I dont see how even Messi can save our season now. Like Winterhunt said beating Shalke would be like putting a plaster on a bullet wound.
Would you rather lose to Shalke by 1 goal or Man Utd by 3 or 4 (maybe more)? Its a tough question, but I think I would go for the first option.”
and
“Even if we somehow get past Schalke and face a heavy opposition in Man United, will they trash us completely? Will Barca suffer the same humiliation as Roma did last year?”
Ahhhh fear, isn’t it great?
Like?
0 
0
JB; We were all expecting this kind of performance from Hargo much earlier but lets not forget that he is only getting over the knee tendinitis that has plagued him since last year. My claim was to defend him until he could prove his worth. I think he showed his quality tonight, correct? We are untouchable with Hargo and Carrick in the middle. I actually loved the fact that Hargo played to the right of Carrick and that Michael actually played the role of the holding midfielder. It allowed Hargo to make those great runs forward and above all, those lethal passes and crosses into the box. He was unlucky to not have a goal too. Just outstanding. HARGORIFIC!
Like?
0 
0