Jan 01
Man Utd vs Birmingham: Preview
The Interwebs have been acting up lately, to my chagrin. And that is the reason I couldn’t post yesterday. I really wanted to post something yesterday, you know, with it being the last day of 2007 and all; I had a Best of 2007 post lined up. Anyhow I will get around to doing that sometime later today or tomorrow.
At the moment, though, we have the small matter of a match today, where we invite Birmingham and hope to kick off 2008 on a bright note. Speaking of which, here’s wishing all readers a very happy new year. How did you spend last night?
Sir Alex would have realised that his best way to guarantee wins would be to field his best XI as much as possible. So that would mean playing Anderson and Hargreaves in the middle of the park, at the least. Giggs and Ronaldo will take up their customary positions on the wings, although I suspect Park might also be there in the mix. Meanwhile, Rooney should return after being absent from the West Ham defeat due to a virus. I wouldn’t expect too much alteration in the defensive line either. It also remains to be seen if EVDS would return to the bench at least.
With the transfer window opening, one would expect the tabloid chatter to be kicked into overdrive, so we have a few strong rumours relating to the club. First we have, for the millionth time, Ramon Calderon talking up Real’s interest in Ronaldo. “He wants to play in Spain”, he reckons. We all know that, don’t we? I think it’s got more to do with the winter break in La Liga that drains the Iberian peninsula of news pertaining to the happenings on the football pitch.
The other rumour is about Berbatov moving to United. Now he’s shown what an excellent player he can be, if he wants to. I have been critical of his attitude in the past, but I admit he is a terrific player. However, I am not entirely convinced if the club will be willing to spend 20 million pounds to prise him away. I also don’t know how he will be slotted into our XI while keeping everyone happy.
Back to the game, Don Howe, the Arsenal supporter that he is, is extremely happy to see that West Ham have now unearthed a ‘chink’ in United’s armour. Apparently we are shite in defending set pieces. So I would suppose that Saturday’s game represents the first time we’ve conceded set-pieces in our half, and hence the meanest defence in the league is now doomed. Pffft! Why are people allowed to write columns when it is clear that they are approaching senility?
Anyway, we should hope to do better with set pieces against Birmingham. And hope to avoid slipping up, as Avram Grant seems to think we will.
Prediction: 2-0 to United and a Happy New Year once again!
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 (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
2-0 RR ??? i expect a riot 5 or maybe 6 with rooney and/or ronaldo bagging a brace
Happy New Year to all readers!
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being on the safe side i also expect a 2-0
and happy new year to all the fellow readers
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If we play Rooney, Tevez, Anderson and Ronaldo I see a hammering. My bet is 5-1 to United. Anderson, Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo(2) to score. Kapo for them. I wonder if Nani will play instead of either Giggs or Ronaldo. Ronaldo has played every game in the christmas programme, and Giggs may be tired. I expect oshea to play instead of Brown, just to rest him. If we take all possible points in January, we have more points than we had last season. We have an easy January, really. The reason i expect United to win by much, is that I think McLeish will attack us and try to get all three points. They dont have the quality to beat us, but I think they might sneak in a goal. If they defend, like most teams coming here, I think 2-0 or 3-0 is the most logical result. I hope United get 2008 going, winning their first game in the year for the first time since 2005, vs Boro. And again….Let us all have a fantastic, red year.
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Happy New Year, fellow ranters
Agree about Berbatov, I doubt the club will spend another 20mil. Plus Sir Alex is satisfied
with the Rooney-Tevez pair. If we buy a striker it would be a player with a lower price tag, and
who doesn’t mind playing as a second option.
Prediction:4-0
Rooney and Anderson have been rested so we will field a strong starting team.
Rooney Tevez
Ronaldo Anderson (?) Park/Nani
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Well maybe by the time summer is here we will know if Manucho is good enough to be our 4th choice striker, if so then I’m happy with our striking options. I say 4-1 with Rooney 2, Tevez and Ronaldo.
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Maybe Manucho actually is good enough to be our 3rd striker? Future will tell!
Happy new year.
(Chelsea is losing at Fulham!)
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My prediction: 4-0 or 5-0. Rooney(2 if 5), Rio, Anderson, Ronaldo(2). (Fuck, Chelsea just scored!)
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Must win match for Man Utd. Wont be 4 or 5 nil MUFCkid. 1 or 2 should do
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Chelsea scored again. 2-1 now for Chelsea…. Michael Ballack!
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Team News:
GK: PIG
RB: O’Shea
CB: Ferdinand
CB: Vidic
LB: Evra
RM: Park
CM: Carrick
CM: Anderson
LM: Nani
CF: Ronaldo
CF: Tevez
Subs: Heaton, Brown, Pique, Hargreaves, Saha
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(Many smiley faces up there).
With that team United should score at least three! My prediction now: 5-1/0(depends on Birmingham team). Ronaldo(2), Anderson, Tevez, Park/Carrick to score.
COME UN U REDS! LETS SHOW EM WHOS THE BEST TEAM IN BRITAIN/WORLD!
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Park return is a very good sign. Rooney and Park seems to gel well playing together. Park and Rooney share the same wavelength.
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Rooney doesnt play. He is still ill.
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Great goal by Tevez. What a pass from Ronaldo!
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the only way i see us letting go of ronny is if its a swap deal with robinho coming in the other direction.
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I wouldnt swap Ronny for any player in the world. I am sure I am not the only one to think that, am I?
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anderson is pure class and i think can possibly be first choice when scholes comes back.
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Dan: Ronaldo for Robinho, seriously? Firstly Ronaldo’s better than Robinho full stop, secondly Ronaldo’s better suited to this league, and thridly Robinho takes too long to settle in at teams, he took a while to start playing well for Santos and he’s only started playing well for Real Madrid, two years later.
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is the tevez injury serious?
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I think Anderson and Scholes will be first choice midfielders when Ginger return. Anderson was man of the match today, pure class. I think he will play as the holding midfielder, while Scholes plays attacking mid. Anderson….the next Keano!
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anderson was awesome. saha is a good for nothing striker. Fergie please sell him ASAP.. the guy can’t do anything for nuts….
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carrick was the 12th man for birmingham at times…. what a horrible performance… i dont think he managed 5 passes all game in the direction of the opposition goal…..
nani, for the first time the entire season didnt irk me… maybe i was too busy being angry at carrick…
well we won anyway. i hope that we improve after this
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Ganesh I hope you were’nt praising Saha when we scored those two goals against Sunderland, because if you were then it’s wrong to talk about how bad Saha is once he plays one bad match.
And RedDevil how come you want to leave out Hargreaves? Anderson can tackle yes but he doesn’t have the positional sense to be a holding midfielder.
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Good! we won, still I’m worried since our players looked so exhausted.
And Tevez got injured dxxm!
Park’s passing and runs looked pretty good. He didn’t look like a player who was out for such
a long time. Good work:) The cross which led to Ronaldo’s header should’ve been a goal argh!!!
Anderson was great. As always.
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Highlights:-
http://www.goalcentre.com/manchester-united-vs-birmingham-highlights/
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Conor: The reason I would use Anderson instead of Owen is that I think Andy is more solid. They are both exellent midfielders, dont get me wrong, I think Hargeaves is great, I just think, like last season, United need two players in the middle that both can stay back and attack when needed. I just dont know if Owen is capable of attacking and giving passes that can open a defense like Andy does. We played Anderson and Scholes together against Wigan and Villa, and they both played great, as if they had played together for years! Even if Owen and Scholes is our central mid pair, I would be delighted, I just dont know if they would have the same attacking force that Andy and Ginger Ninja would.
BTW: Did u also notice that Anderson stayed in other players position when they went up and attacked? When Sheasy sometimes went into the oppositions box, Andy played RB until the attack was over. I think that shows awareness and positional sense.
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Everybody, this was only Ronaldos third assist this season. Arsenal(cross) and Derby(rebound) are the others. I know Ronaldo contributes to the team with his great goalscoring record, but dont u also find it worrying that he, as a winger, dont have more assists? He is our best player, without question, but last season, at this point he had 12 assists. I dont know if this is bad, but I just wonder why that is the case.
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Job well done by the lads. Some concerns though..
1. Carrick was a player who was in the ascendency towards the end of last season, infact so much so that he was also starting to get goals. What has gone wrong with him? He was horrible today, almost 40% of his passes must have gone awry and he the manner in which he lost the ball at numerous occasions made me wonder whether he was Dj-Dj in disguise. Possibly his worst performance of the season. He has to pull his socks up otherwise he would end up being just a very expensive benchwarmer.
2. Although Ronnie created the goal, I always felt that he was trying a bit too hard tonight, much similar to the Ronnie of 2004-05, trying to do everything on his own. His greatest strength in the recent seasons has been his decision making ability, hope he keeps his head, as he could have easily slipped in Nani to get us our second goal but instead… well he is human after all.
3. Finally, should we or should we not buy Berbatov? I think if Spuds agree to take Saha+Brown and maybe some small change, we should bring Berbatov to United, would be a cracker of a player.
P.S.: Happy New Year to all!
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MUFCkid: Maybe it is because the style of our play has changed this season. We no longer rely solely on our width as we do have guys like Tevez who come deep to collect ball and make those incisive runs down the middle, and more importantly Ronaldo hardly plays like a traditional out-and-out right winger, he is most lethal when he cuts in and makes a diagonal run across the pitch. If he stays more along the byline I am sure he would have a lot more assists to his name but a lot less goals. You can’t have it all
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Carrick was awful today. Very awful but Anderson did play well and covered Carrick most of the time. Carrick passing today was very poor as well. Ronaldo had a moderate game where the only highlight was his assist to Tevez goal. I hope Tevez wont be injured that long.
Keep our fingers crossed on that.
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I just read Sir Alex’s comments about the crowd at Old Trafford, and I couldn’t agree more with him. It is almost as if they were expecting Birmingham to lie down, it has been a complaint for a long time now and it is something which needs to be addressed. Especially the fans which are closer to the touchline need to be more enthusiastic. Occasionally I found Nani playing the cheerleader’s role for the team but the crowd was silent as ever.
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good point MUFC- i noticed this yesterday. As long as he keeps
up the scoring no1 will take notice but it shud be an issue.
I reckon the boys gettin too big for his boots……..or he just
canny pass?! The point ur makin bout Ronny is what leads me to
beleive that Nani will eventually be regarded as a better
player (he’s got goals in him but as a winger he can also
pass n cross)
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andersons highlight was using trickery and getting pass 2 players, 1 with a nutmeg, which led to a dangerous cross.
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MUFCkid, he also had only 10 goals in all competitions, this season he has 20, goalscoring is an improtant part of hids game and he can’t provide assists if there aren’t many goalscorers in our team. Last season he had more assists because we had many goalscorers:Saha,Scholes,Giggs,rooney and himself, this season Giggs hasn’t hit form yet, Rooney and scholes have been injured for leagre parts and Saha is still regaining fitness. nothing to worry about, it just means we can expect more goals when the injuries clear up.
“The point ur makin bout Ronny is what leads me to
beleive that Nani will eventually be regarded as a better
player (he’s got goals in him but as a winger he can also
pass n cross)” I completely disagree, Nani has score how many this season? compared to Ronaldo, only a few. Yes he is a better crosser but Nani can’t pass, nowhere near as well as Ronaldo can, if he becomes better than Ronaldo then great! But I very much doubt it.
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Why does everyone love picking on Carrick? He played solidly in the first half and set up the first Tevez/Ronaldo goal with a quick pass from his own half. He’s not amazing, but often does control the tempo. The problem is he doesn’t look as though he can play a full 90 and offer all of his abilities this season.
If you were going to single a player out who was underperforming, surely Nani is the answer. By the beginning of the second half you estimate how long each of United’s moves would take to break down purely by how soon they would give it Nani. He cannot pass a ball 5 yards. Not a single pass in teh entire match was to feet or into space. He consistently does great little tricks to beat his man, then can’t manage the 7 foot pass to his teammate who is then open. He was absolutely useless. I look back on Ronaldo of a few year ago and at least he had some vision and could manage small passes! I hold out hope for his improvement, but it’s been half a season and he’s just as frustrating as the moment he arrived.
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Conor Nani has hardly played this term in comparison to ronaldo.
in that time he has scored two crackers whilst contributing 5/6
assists. When u consider this is him just getting startd u begin
to appreciate his potential. Ronaldo is a very 1 dimensional
player as far as im concernd whereas Nani seems to b able to operate in all ares of the park.
When he realises his potential he’l b lethal from practiacaly
every position. He’s slotted in2 the squad n taken over corner
taking duties. All our goals scored from corners this season have been from
Nani…..One more thing, on Ronny- I fuckin hate watchin him
celebrate these days, hes always runnin away from every c*unt….
making the boys chase him around the park to congratulate him..?!!
Got a bad feeling his ego is gon affect the team eventually
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Beachryan- im too frustrated with the boy…..only coz i know how
good he is tho…….the boys gonna do incredible things
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I would respnd to ur comment but the fact that you called our best player, runner up European Player of the year and 3rd best World Player of the year, one dimensional, just makes me not care to argue about something which is clearly wrong. Fair enough you dislike his character and ego, but to call him one dimensional shows a distinct lack of footballing awareness. So I’m not going to argue about how good Ronaldo really is.
Comparing them – Nani – Minutes on the pitch 997 Goals 2 assists 5(I think all of them were corners)
Ronaldo – Minutes on the pitch 1414 Goals 13 Assists 3 Minutes per goal directly from Ronaldo – 88mins
From Nani – 142mins
So you can’t use the amount of playing time he has had as an excuse. But I’m not a big fan of stats anyway, I was just making a point. This doesn’t take into account the fact that Nani needs time to fully integrate into our playing style, but it also doesn’t show how often he gives away possesion, or makes the wrong decision, look, I like him and I believe he will become good, but to say he ill be better than Ronaldo is a bold statement.
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That was the best i’ve seen of nani so far. Him, anderson and tevez were our best players.
Beachryan i disagree with just about everything you said. Carrick stuck out as by far the worst player, he deserves criticism.
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exactly…. i used to defend carrick whenever people around me put him down. but today i was so disusted with his performance. i used to love how he would spray long range passes while schole would take care of the short range ones… this season, i have yet to see him pass accurately like before… that was his best skill. the accurate long range pass that always found giggs or ronaldo in space….
really, nani would previously irk me with his inability to flow with the counterattacking play of man utd. but today he was good, he worked hard and i would say he was our second best player after anderson.
i am not a tactial genius like SAF is, but am i crazy to say that everything in the middle goes thru anderson, and unless he is injured, we should always play him? i couldnt understand the fletch/hargreves pairing… but thats all moot now…
i just hope andy plays more. on a lighter note… how about tevez’s ridiculous pacifier celebration?
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in “vaue for money “terms..carrick is arguably the worst transfer united have ever completed..here is a midfielder who cant score,cant tackle,cant create chances,cant dominate a game,passes the ball.. but for 1 completed pass there are 5 misplaced..and what else does he do..eh..ya he makes interception..what a joke..someone plz come and take away this piece of crap..he will be useful in a relegation battle..
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Anderson had a brilliant game. For MOTM, my bet pick would have been Tevez however.
Evra also had another outstanding game.
I have never really been a great fan of Nani. I didn’t know anything about him before he came to OT (except for everybody screaming we should sign him). What I did notice though was that he is starting to play well now. He’s actually getting some passes and crosses in, and he has a tremendous shot. I think with a couple more games, his confidence will be ok.
It is also essential that SAF bleed him in asap, because there is a real possibility of Ronaldo leaving at the end of this or next season.
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I think Carrick feels unsecure playing next to someone else than Scholes. Thats what making him play like shit! Those two has only played four games together when Owen, Fletch or Andy wasnt on the field as well. Those were Reading, Chelsea, Pompy and Rome at home. In those games Carrick played really well. After his injury things has gone bad and maybe that is because he feels humilliated playing worse than a 19 year old brazilian. I think that is stupid, but maybe that is the truth. If u look at the way he plays, it looks like hes trying to hard. That is scary! If he continues like this he will be on his way out and that is putting him under pressure. He looks like a lad who is used to be first choice whatsoever, but now he has to fight for it. It looks like he doent really know how to.
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Good point RedDevil. I think I agree with you.
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i thought nani was great in the match and possibly the best player on the pitch.
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Going by some reports, Juande Ramos is interested in taking Carrick back.
If its true, I think we can as well have a swap for Berbatov with Carrick and Brown going the other way. I don’t think they will be interested in Saha.
Carrick’s performance has not been good this season at all, and we can actually have Rooney (as a cover for hargreaves/scholes) and Anderson in the mid-field , with Tevez playing in the hole behind Berbatov. Whenever Rooney has played the withdrawn role, he has been brilliant.
Coming to the Real Madrid rumor, I get really angry every time one of their stupid presidents makes tall and arrogant claims.
Man United is this year reporting revenues to match that of Real Madrid, and till how long Real will claim they are the biggest club in the world becoz of what Puskas and Di Stefano did 40-50 years ago. The truth of the matter is Man United is THE biggest club in the world currenlty based on revenues and fan following.
Now its Calderon with Ronny, he had earlier claimed the same with Cesc and Kaka. And we all remember Perez’s “Galacticos’ What a sham that was.
The problem with Spanish football is these high flying politician-esque Presidents who are the defacto big daddies of their clubs who don’t know shit about football and make tall claims and get big money players not fitting into their teams system just to please their electorate.
One of the reasons Juande Ramos quit Sevilla was its overbearing president who was jealous of Ramos’s popularity. Also, some of you may remember that Perez kicked out Vicente Del Bosque during their successful Galactico days and out went the manager who could handle big star egos and who had won them the league and the UEFA champions league.
Thank god that in the premiership the manager is the boss regarding footballing decisions at most teams. But looking at people like those nutcases at Spurs and Abrahamovich at Chel$ea etc…. the trend is pointing towards a trend where presidents, footballing directors, board of directors and the lot are slowly taking over the roles in the manager’s sphere.
Here’s hoping to more Sir Alexs and Wengers, strong managers who can prevent such a thing from happening.
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according to setanta sports news, we’ve completed the signing of manucho.
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When everyone is fit, I expect this to be our first team:
GK:Van der Sar
RB:Gary Neville
CB:Rio Ferdinand
CB:Nemanja Vidic
LB:Patrice Evra
RW:Cristiano Ronaldo
CM:Anderson/Owen Hargreaves(in big games)
CM:Paul Scholes
LM:Ryan Giggs
ST:Carlos Tevez
ST:Wayne Rooney
I hope Nani plays instead of Giggs, but it looks like Fergie trusts Giggs to much, so even if he is terrible like the last couple of games I think Fergie will play him.
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Shreyas, Rooney in midfield? One of his biggest strengths is running in behind the defence, which he couldn’t do from midfield. And he has only ever played in midfield once so your clearly mixing up playing in midfield with playing just behind the striker. Your trying to have Tevez, Berbatov and Rooney in the same team, which just won’t happen.
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we need huntelaar, he’ll be our super-sub, like 20legend times 2.
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