Comments on: Man Utd vs Roma: Preview

By: thehexred

thehexred — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:38:25 +0000

In my opinion Carrick played as well as he has this season until the last 15 mins when he seemed to run out of steam which in turn coincided with us being under more pressure and making defensive mistakes.
O’Shea, fair enough he’s a utility player who does a job but he was absolutely awful in this match and most of their penetration came from his mistakes. His worst position is RB (and that includes nets).
Rio was outstanding and was made look even better playing both centre back and right back at the same time because of O’Shea’s ineptness.
I agree that the biggest problem with Man U this year has been the speed in which we break and pass. This is a lot to do with Scholes and to some degree Giggs form.

By: busingye

busingye — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:05:45 +0000

besides the goal,what was rooneys other highlight? u see muuch as we like him,on current form,tevez should start ahead of him.and being scholes replacement?no he does not have a good first touch,thats why he over lashes at opponets when he has lost the ball.he needs to know he is a striker and thats that.

By: busingye

busingye — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:57:49 +0000

grognard,carrick is a smart player you wont find hard tackling but whose positional sense is top.can u recall that he was actually our best tackler on the night? his interceptions are also uncountable. he may not be noticed coz he doesnt overcarry the ball,but thats what made us team last season.a fluid attacking team.the real problem is scholes and his movement.he is nolonger interested in going foward and if thats the case,we need a solutin.look at fabregas and his foward movement.that was scholes back then.ROONEY.i know the brits will attack me

By: Grognard

Grognard — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:20:06 +0000

I think an unfit Brown on the right side and no Hargreaves made the game more of an adventure than it needed to be. Hargreaves presence would have nullified anything from Totti. In my opinion Pique should have started at RB instead of O’Shea. O’Shea played alright but was found wanting a bit in the second half. Roma were dangerous in the second half but that is only because United fell into a stagnant defensive shell. They are different than United teams of the past because they lack that killer instinct to put a game away. They are also very sloppy and lack that cutting edge in their passes, especially on counter attacks.

Based on their performance against Roma, I am convinced that many things have to change if they are to defeat the likes of Milan, Inter, Barcelona and Madrid. Those four stand in our way if we are to realize the dream of winning the CL. All those teams would have punished us good last night if they had played us instead of Roma. I think getting Neville and Hargreaves back is more vital than we can imagine.

I am also very concerned over the poor play of our central midfielders. Both Scholes and Carrick showed no imagination or edge to their game. To say we need a creative midfielder who not only can pass but literally tear open defenses with his ambition is an understatement. We can blame our strikers for not scoring all we want, but the bottom line is they aren’t getting the service. How many times did Saha, Rooney and Tevez actually receive the ball at their feet with a legit scoring chance? Meanwhile Roma had at least six great chances which their players squandered. I can only get down on strikers if they make a meal out of their chances or if they don’t work hard. This is not the case here. They need better service and they aren’t getting it. Scholes is a shadow of the player he used to be, as is Giggs, but for me the real culprit here is Carrick. Other than the Chelsea game, when has he really shown up and made a presence of himself on the offensive side of the ball this season? I think I’m being fair when I say that he hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. It’s our midfield’s pedestrian approach that has this team struggling to score a goal.

I was happy to see Rooney get a nice goal but he still needs to make more of those kinds of runs and get more shots off in a game. As for strong performers out there, I think Rio played a good game as did Ronaldo. Nani needs to find his cutting edge but you can see the lad is trying. I also think Anderson showed some of his many skills and had he received better service may have actually scored a goal. Kuszczak played well but he did leave himself open at times. In fairness the team did leave him exposed quite often but his reactions were good. I don’t know about all of you out there but I am getting really fed up with these nail biting 1-0 wins. When is this team going to wake up and explode offensively? The good news is that it is still early and there is plenty of time to improve. Bottom line is that we are WINNING these 1-0 games and that is keeping us at the top despite our lack of offensive finish. We are still in extremely favorable positions in both leagues and at least we aren’t in Hell like Chelsea. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for even better results in the future.

By: redsnake

redsnake — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:14:01 +0000

thot it was a fairly solid performance l/nite- finnally fergie put out the correct team with nani +
saha playin. shockin news that hargo is out AGAIN….hope carrick n scholes can step it up a bit.
I know he hada few loose passes but the boy nani is gonna be a star- hes got so much class in them
feet of his! i know our passin aint quite as sharp as usual but i reckn our strikers have to
shoot a bit more! Wazza frustrates me as he cn shoot n score like that ery time hes on the pitch
but he aint tryin it enough! Know hes still getin fit etc but tevez is in the same boat me thinks!

By: Hiram Gakembu

Hiram Gakembu — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:23:41 +0000

As for Ronaldo, he will be back on Sato when we play Wigan. As for Hargreaves we have to bepatient because if he has an injury there is nothing we can do about it. It is good that Carrick is also a very consistent player and he is covering up for him so well. The month of October is not very tight for us since we have Wigan – Aston – Bor o. My wish is that he should return early in Nove – but then our first game in Nov is against our top enemies (Arsenal)and I don’t think he shall return to the field immediately on return….

By: Hiram Gakembu

Hiram Gakembu — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:14:17 +0000

As for Ronaldo, I think he shall be ready on Sato when we play W

By: indianpunk

indianpunk — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:02:33 +0000

Hargo out for a month noooooooooooooooooooo

And ronny’s got 4 stitches to the head what the hell
I hope he’s fine at the weekend

But the boss’s statement sums it all up

Sir Alex: We rode our luck

Off to the dream’s of Wigan thrashing i want goals that day

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:24:01 +0000

not commenting on the game because i couldnt watch it… but for me carrick plays way to many balls sideways and backwards. i remember watching the fa cup last year and his first 6 passes went either backwards or sideways. it something that really difuses any momentum that we build up. i like him and think he can really succeed at united but he needs to play as a more creative influence. he needs to play little balls with scholes and use his wingers. most central midfielders would kill to have the ability to play a ball through for the quality of wingers we possess at united. they have the pace, play it 10 yards out infront of them behind a player and they will beat him to it. he has a presence around the box and i would like to see him shooting more constantly (like he did v roma last season).

im feeling a little disillusined with scholes and giggs atm. they are just in a rough patch but scholes plays such an important role that his rough patch is inducing uniteds rough patch. you know what i mean… this un-united like playing style. he needs to get forward more and leave carrick (now that hargos out for a month) to do the dirty work. which carrick needs to do, and needs to take the pressure off united by not playing those gattusso like crap passes in our own half.

good to hear about rooney, and gald saha started and that ferguson allowed nani and ronaldo to play together. i cant wait to see them geling and switching sides, leaving defenders in awe both in the epl and the cl.

By: dan un-official liaison

dan un-official liaison — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:16:10 +0000

if giggs had played earlier balls anderson could of scorewd a few, nani floped big time twice and it could of been 2 roma goals but our defence was perfect, nani and anderson played well, i think us and fergie telling anderson to do what he does best help, he got past about 3 players and got tackled bt a 4th, i was suprised at no pique, saha had only 1 shot, tevez had about 3 or 4, and 2 them were only in inch away plus he had another 2 or chances to shoot and score, i think saha on the bench tevez and rooney FTW