Aug 16
Manchester United v Birmingham Preview
Manchester United begin their title defence looking to make it a four in a row. There is a buzz of anticipation in the air, as would be expected of a season opener, but surely much less than the hyperbole that would accompany a Sky Sports promotional video. Nonetheless, today is finally a match that matters, and so will every match till May. So onwards and upwards…
Let us start by quoting Ferguson, who has sidestepped the opportunity of having a go at referees — presumably because the Premier League have decided to take a more strict approach regarding managers’ freedoms speaking about referees — and has gone after footballers in general, feigning injury to break the momentum in play:
‘Players who cheat are killing the game, not the referees. Something has got to be done about it. The game is meant to be stopped or the ball kicked out if there is a head injury, but the whole thing is overcooked now.
I can agree with the manager on this one. I have been sick of the Eboues of this game, although his blanket accusation of ‘players who cheat’ could also be reasonably extended towards Ronaldo, for instance — who in the managers words was the ‘best player in the world and streets ahead of Messi.’ But then this is Ferguson, and he will say what he thinks merits mention — contradiction or no contradiction.
But speaking of injuries that stop play, I’d say advantage must be given to the side in possession, unless it is a serious head injury. But this is always going to be a very slippery argument, and requires referees with a sharp sense of judgement.
He also speaks of his motivation, and what drives him on year after year. “I never regard myself as bullet-proof,” Ferguson says. “I might be bullet-proof at this very moment, before a ball has been kicked, but I have always worked under a fear of failure. I think every manager would say the same. Failure for Manchester United might be a poor performance against Birmingham in the first game. What you have won before counts for nothing, in that respect, because the most important thing is keeping a winning mentality going from day to day. I’ve just got something in me that doesn’t think about anything else but winning. You try to transmit that mentality to the players – that winning is what matters and losing matters even more.”
It’s always interesting to pick the mind of a successful manager — at least it’s fascinated me — and Ferguson’s press conferences, when he’s in the mood, are typically forthright and honest. I’ve always felt his success is down to his ability to instill hunger in the players despite prolonged periods of success. A lot of this can be accomplished by pointing out moments of failure even in successful seasons, amplifying its significance, and using that to drive players on. I think that moment of failure in our last season was fairly obvious: Barcelona.
Despite the euphoria of equalling Liverpool’s record the Champions’ League final defeat stung, so much so that it could have been perceived as a failure.
In team news, we seem depleted in defence, with Evans and Vidic not fit enough to make it. However Rio should be fit despite a few worries, and he should partner Brown. However with Neville fit, it worries me that he could be allowed to start. With Rafael also out with an injured shoulder, the romantic in me wants our fast improving starlet, Richie de Laet, earn a start. My head tells me, in typical school headmaster fashion (with cane in hand), it’s not going to happen. Evra would start at left back.
In midfield, we’ll surely see Fletcher and Carrick in the middle. Nani, who played for Portugal should start on the left with Valencia on the right. Rooney and Berbatov will play up top in a pretty attack-minded side.
As most of you know I always get my predictions and team sheets wrong. So you never have to take my view on the XI seriously. But, since I have to do this everytime, here’s the prediction.
Prediction: 2-1 to United. I am conservative because I think we need our defence to be in their best behaviour with our attack clicking into gear for a better margin of a result.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Manchester United 5-0 Birmingham: Berbatov’s Treble Leads Way In United Romp
- Birmingham City vs Manchester United: Match Preview
- Giggs and Brown to Remain Reds | Ex-Reds Clash | Wenger Threat | Takeovers And Other Such Nonsense
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Brum vs Reds: Preview
Tags: Manchester United News
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (173)
Opti (138)
Ian (97)
Moscow is my heaven (97)
@NicoQB: Wasnt, but I will now!!!
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@Footy4Eddy:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14alLh3LglQ
Its Arseshaving!!!
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Tidy if a bit lacklustre performance from the team. Great atmosphere inside the stadium I must say. Got to shake Kiko’s hang after he won his award which was nice!
The game itself was typical early season United. With a makeshift back four and two slow central midfielders I am not surprised that we struggled to create chances. Both Fletcher and Scholes are class players, but they shouldn’t player together, Scholes is creative but slow and Fletcher is destructive but slow, so together they’re really fucking slow. It should always be Carrick and one of the others, or Anderson and one of the others.
Valencia looked nervous, as did Fabio. They’ll both develop well if they continue to get games though.
Liverpool lost, and Chelsea had a fright. Just because we only scored the one against a promoted side doesn’t give me any reason to panic. I believe our squad is strong enough, especially as we’ll have two more players in January and maybe another First Team signing.
So glad the footie’s started again, I was getting sick of those bloody pre-season friendlies!
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@Anthony Los: Scholes will play against the Brums, Hulls and Wolves of the league…his main purpose at this point is to be a mentoring figure for the young players (and we have very many of those in the first team squad)…he’s not a half bad player but he, giggs and Neville are there more for stability in the squad…otherwise Nev would have have been released long ago…I definitely see the use of this..if we didn’t have those guys we would be more like Arsenal with a bunch of kids who have never won anything..I think its genius on Fergie’s part in many ways…its only when he starts playing the likes of scholes in big matches that I doubt Fergie’s judgement…
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The lack of post game traffic on this blog is proof enough that this year’s Man Utd isn’t worth talking about.
Their lack of caring and respect for the fans has stripped a lot of us of our passion and mojo.
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@Nick: who are we getting in january?
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@Nick: Quote – “SO together they are really fucking slow.” Class mate
.
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@Don: Yeah Don, good mentoring eh? The United kids are learning that you can play til your 36 years of age, and your legs have gone
. Yet what do you do with legends like Giggsy, Scholesy and Red Nev when they just can’t for love of the game, hang up their boots 
.
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I have watched that NANI cross with pinpoint precision into the box that led to the Rooney goal – pure class lil Man, pure class. I don’t know what Rooney has been eating to give him all that RABID energy, but he put all full power CARLA Tevez running to shame – Roo – the fastest rooster in the West
.
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@Natzca: Diouf and Ljajic mate. Plus a lot of the so called “experts” feel that if Fergie is going to spend any of that Ronaldo money it will most likely be in January in case we need any reinforcements
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@Craig Mc: cheers
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@Grognard: Its kinda hard to get excited about eeking out a 1-nil win over a championship side. This years team is solid but not spectacular.
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@Grognard: I don’t think today’s performance has anything to do with it. I’ve seen slower post-match days than this.
I expect us to grind out wins this season anyway.
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i still think its abit early to enter into shit hits the fan mode….
but better prepared than sorry… hopefully we get to thumping burnly
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@johnsom33: I wouldn’t call them a Championship side tbh. They have made a lot of good signings this Summer and added to an already good squad. That Benitez chap looks class. Overall good game, unlucky not to score more but with all our injuries happy enough with the result.
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I like what I see from Owen so far. If he can stay fit, he will move ahead of berba in the pecking order this season. He knows how to lose his marker and he is constantly playing off the last defender. His finishing will come.
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@Red Ranter: My problem with today is this season has been filled with such adversity and major change. It was important more so this season for them to get out of the gate fast and to show the fans the “New United”, while making miserable old bastards like me get off their backs. Instead they confirmed most of my fears. My question then is why weren’t they hungrier, more motivated and playing on an extra gear? Is it perhaps because they just aren’t all that good?
Today’s performance is no way to shut up the doomer gloomers.
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@Grognard: Some FACHTS!, for you here Grog
Makeshift back 5. Only Evra a regular.
Scholes and Fletcher as midfield. Doesnt get slower than that…
First game of the season against a team defending with 10 men.
Im quite happy with the performance. Looking away from the fact that Brum could easily have had two goals, good defending by our part stopped that. One good save by Foster and a clearance of the line by Patty. Ourselves we could have had more goals. Fletcher missed a sitter, Nani could have had one as well. Wazza had more than enough good shots to get himself a hat-trick, Owen had a big chance and Berba should have had a penalty and a could have had a goal not for last-ditch defending. We played some good football, and we could/should have had more than the one goal we got. With sharper finishing as the season progresses, I can only be optimistic from what I saw yesterday.
What I can say already is that Wayne Rooney is gonna be very vital for us this season…
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Agree with you completely. After watching Arsenal, devoid of 2 key players, blow Everton away with some scintillating football, I was at the very least expecting a hungrier outfit to turn up, but we are continuing in the same vein as last season, only this time, we dont have Ronaldo to bail us out of tough situations.
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@Footy4Eddy: Scholes and Fletcher in midfield isn’t an excuse. My question is why was Scholes selected in the first place?
A makeshift back four has nothing to do with our attack. We may have looked like creating a few, and did have a few saves, but our attack appeared more laboured.
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Positives,
,
United are the only top four team not to concede
Rooney looked incredible out there,so did NANI,evra and scholes.
The first 15 minutes looked fucking incredible and the game was truly enjoyable even though we didn’t score during that period.
Finally Liverpool lost.
Negatives,
Berba looked like shite, Owen missed a sitter, fletcher missed a sitter, Valencia didn’t do anything to convince me of his credibility, the game died down after the first fifteen, fosters positioning was a bit awry, and he needs to work on crosses and corners cause he was caught flat footed a couple of times, I don’t care what anybody say’s I’m still not convinced about him. I took more negatives from the game than positives so I’d say the team today wasn’t good enough to challenge for the title.
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@Red Ranter: without Carrick you need someone who can pass the ball, Anderson is not a playmaker neither is Fletch who was poor.
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@Footy4Eddy: Why is it nobody ever REALLY reads what I write? First of a ll I’m not stupid as I was aware of all those factors but as I wrote before, I expected more because of the factors I gave. The summer turmoil, the loss of Ronaldo, the questions and concerns. All the negativity circling OT was quite evident and the club needed to come out on day one and answer all the critics with a much more inspired effort. The FACHT is they didn’t therefore I am not satisfied one bit. Had this been the opening game of last season, I wouldn’t have been so disappointed. Still, it’s not panic time.
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@Stephen: My question was why wasn’t Carrick selected over Scholes. It doesn’t appear like an injury, because there’s no mention of it. I love Scholes, but I can’t trust him to start games at his age. He had a decent game yesterday, but if you play him in 9 out of 10 games he is going to tire out, and possibly lose the initiative.
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@Red Ranter: Scholes will not start 9 out of 10 games, he played yesterday in my view simply because we have three games within a week and yesterdays was probably th easier of the three, Fergie will rotate the midfield for all the games, which seem to be his policy of late.
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@Stephen: I know he wouldn’t start 9 out of 10. I was talking about his inconsistency, that 9 out of 10 times he would have a below average game. Scholes must be brought on later in the game, and should not start a game unless our options are limited to him. That’s all I am saying. And especially in the first game of the season, my contention is Fergie must put out his best fit XI and I’m sure Scholes isn’t a part of that anymore.
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@Red Ranter: I don’t agree, it is early in the season and Birmingham at home is the easiest game we have this week, as Burnley away could be tricky and physical, hence Carrick and Anderson and Wigan away will br a tough game, Scholes will unlikely start in either game and it is a lot to ask for the same midfield to play in all three.
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