Mar 14
Manchester United vs Fulham: Preview
After an imperious display in the Champions League against AC Milan, it’s back to the bread and butter of the Premier League as Fulham make the trip up north to face Manchester United, a team they inflicted a 3-0 drubbing to, in December.
Confidence will surely be sky-high following the 4-0 victory over Milan and Wayne Rooney will be looking to add to his 30 goal tally this season. The omens are good for United as Fulham have only won once at Old Trafford in 47 years, that was a 3-1 victory in 2003.
Edwin van der Sar will again start as goalkeeper. The Dutchman will have the reunited centre-back pairing of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in front of him, something the Serb is delighted about and commenting on the partnership,
He stated: “We understand each other – he knows how I will react in certain situations and it’s the same the other way round.”
It is inevitable Patrice Evra will start at left-back and Gary Neville at right-back following impressive midweek showings. Wes Brown is out with a broken bone in his foot and John O’Shea is no nearer a first-team comeback.
After a couple of matches with a five-man midfield, Sir Alex Ferguson should revert back to a more familiar four-man set-up with Michael Carrick returning to the line-up following his European suspension. Darren Fletcher should be beside him giving Paul Scholes a well earned rest. Antonio Valencia was one of the star performers on Wednesday and will retain his place on the right side. Ji-Sung Park was immense during the week and has earning an opportunity to replicate his European form in the League.
Sir Alex will have to do without Anderson who is out for the season with a knee injury, in addition, Owen Hargreaves’ comeback has been delayed yet again, and despite returning to training this week Ryan Giggs is still nursing a broken arm and will not feature.
Wayne Rooney is the man of the moment; so expect another goal or two from the world’s most potent striker. Partnering Wazza will be Bulgarian superstar, Dimitar Berbatov. Still trying to win over some fans, he has shown in recent weeks the kind of player he can be with a number of standout performances.
Ferguson was full of praise for Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, tipping him for the England manager job once Fabio Capello steps down,
“Roy Hodgson has great experience, the kind of experience you need in international management. He would be ideal for that type of thing”.
He continued by calling for calm in the weekends match following the victory over AC Milan:
“Our performance level was good. The minute we scored the second goal it became better and in fairness I think that goal knocked the stuffing out of them and there wasn’t really a way back after that.
So, of course, it was a fantastic result for us, but as I said we need to calm ourselves down a little bit.”
Fulham boast a team beaten in one of their last six league matches and one that trounced United at Craven Cottage earlier this season. February manager of the month Roy Hodgson will no doubt have a well organized unit at Old Trafford and one that have February’s player of the month Mark Schwarzer among its ranks.
One man to watch out for is Danny Murphy; the former Liverpool player has a knack of scoring against United, though has a slight groin problem. Bobby Zamora has eight league goals this season and is the Cottagers’ leading scorer, while Damien Duff is enjoying a new lease of life with the London club.
John Pantsil has a knee injury and Kagisho Dikgacoi is doubtful with an ankle complaint.
Some comfort can be taken from the fact that Fulham have not won away since the opening weekend victory against Portsmouth and United have went over 10 hours since they last conceded at home.
Prediction: 3-1 United
Probable Line Up: van der Sar, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Neville; Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Park; Berbatov, Rooney
***
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Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Rooney and Evans celebrate winner v Fulham – Wallpaper
- Fulham v Man Utd: Preview
- Fulham Preview
- Porto it is then…
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Another top preview, David.
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nice one.
I say: 3-0. Cannot see us concede at home against a team whose top scorer is worse than our Own Goals
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2-0 to United
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: How many own goals do we have again?
Great preview, David. I know we’ll win tomorrow easily if Roo starts. With Rio and Vida in defence, I think we can manage a clean sheet as well.
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http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2559/rumours/2010/03/14/1832111/manchester-united-closing-in-on-20-million-move-for-everton
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@TurkishRED: I would have expected Rooney to be rested, but with Chelsea and Arsenal winning yesterday there is no way he wont start.
@owen: The way that we are structuring that deal… £8mil upfront, 2 £5mil appearance targets and £2mil when he plays for England makes me believe that the £80mil Ronaldo money is absolutely nowhere to be seen.
In other transfer news, both Barca and Real have enquired about Dodo. Remember him? We were close to doing a deal last summer. Well it turns out we have first option on him till he’s 21 (he’s 18 right now) and it looks like we are going to bring him over in the summer now instead of waiting, and Benfica are willing to do business for Di Maria at €25 million.
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Thanks lads, a United win for sure.
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@Traverse: Is it true Di Maria for 25 million???
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1 hour to go! This daylight savings time in the US makes watching EPL games a bit tricky…
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Team news?
VDS
Neville, Rio, Vidic, Evra
Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Nani
Berbatov, Rooney
Bench : PIG, Park, Scholes, Fabio, Obertan, Douf, Gill
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@owen: That’s the price being reported. In Euros. How true that is, seeing as his buyout clause is double that, we will see in the summer.
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@Traverse: For Rodwell, that is an amazing deal.
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@Traverse: Can you pls. provide the Di Maria and Dodo news links?
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Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Berbatov, Rooney. Subs: Kuszczak, Park, Scholes, Fabio Da Silva, Obertan, Diouf, Gill.
Fulham: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hangeland, Hughes, Shorey, Davies, Murphy, Baird, Dempsey, Gera, Zamora. Subs: Zuberbuhler, Okaka, Nevland, Duff, Stoor, Greening, Dikgacoi.
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I dont think LW should be our priority much to the opinions of my fellow friends here. Although i wasnt much of a nani fan, i think by the season end, after giving him continuous games, we will know if he can continue to make that position his own. Obertan could be a backup (OR Park) depending on how obertan progresses. Priority for summer should be given to:
1. Striker to backup rooney (Just had a thought – Instead of a Benzema for 25-30 How about a Pavlyuchenko for 10? He might prefer being non-regular starter at United than at Spurs?
2. MF – ONE to replace Hargreaves. Sissokho might be a really god buy. Not sure yet if Rodwell, if we buy him is already good enough to start games on a regular basis and a SECOND MF as backup for Giggs/scholesey
3. CB – If Vidic leaves, we definitely need a really good CB (options – the lines of Cruz, Kjaer)
4. a Big ticket buy if we INDEED are given money by Glazers – Ribery or Silva might just do the trick and take care of ageing Giggs and Scholes, combined with the above buys.
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Although Fulham have been a bogey team for us, with Rio and Vida back I am confident we won’t have a repeat of our previous game this season against them. Remember when we had Fletcher and Carrick playing in defense.
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frustrating in the final third, come on lads, get one in and the rest will follow
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godzilla i made a similar comment yesterday. Why waste £30 million on Di Maria, when we have Nani capable of growing into the position?
Anyway why is no-one commenting on the game?
Fulham are impressing me. Very difficult to break down and we are not getting much change aerially as Fulham have a tall strong defence. We are getting a lot of possession but we need to show a bit more invention. So far our play has been predictable and easy to defend against. We need Evra and Neville to get forward more as they are double teaming our wingers.
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Nani the shit
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Sell Berbatov at half time………………….
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We are using the right wing waaaay to little…
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Berbatov has no fucking bottle at all. Got away from the last man, straight thru on goal and was SCARED SHITLESS to take a shot in case he missed another sitter, as he did with the header from 6 yards. I despair with him, I truly do. Lets hope he does something worthwhile in the 2nd half!
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How to win:
1. Give the ball to Vally, let him run inside creating a defensive mismatch and opening up for Berba/Rooney.
2. Shoot and miss the blockers while hitting target
3. Beat a man once in a while.
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@CraigMc: I think Berba has been better than Rooney… great passing, vision, and chance creation. He should have shot when through but so should fletcher and rooney shouldn’t have missed his shot.
Our shoting was pants first half and our passing slow.!
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ROOOOONEY!
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: Well Rooney is entitled one poor game mate, because he has had so few lately. What the fuck is Berba’s excuse. He can do all his little diddley passes mate, but we need goals, and unless Berba finds some BOTTLE in the 2nd half, Fergie needs to get him off as soon as possible!
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I missed the Rooney goal, somebody tell me what the feck happened please
. Did he score with his bonce again?
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Fulham were always going to be tough to break down and I’ll take a 1-0 win anyday. Credit to Rooney for yet another goal!
Berbatov has been ok but like Craig said he never looked like scoring the few times he bothered to get into the box. He seems to be happy making passes and flicks, but his composure deserts him anytime he is in the box. His failure to support Rooney in the first half meant Fulham were able to double or triple team Rooney.
Credit to Nani. After a frustrating first half where nothing was coming off for him, he stuck at it and was rewarded with a killer assist. Good to see the lad developing maturity.
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Craig re the goal, a bit of pinball in the box, Nani gets the ball on the left, plays a horizontal ball along the ground into the box. Rooney brushes past his markers and steers the ball into the goal.
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Rooney is being selfish and is way too angry.
We are being wasteful up front wit hpossession.
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@owen: seriously dude, i have seen you slashing berba so many times when in reality he has been working his ass off for all games he plays! he has been really good this game and probably shouldve scored at least a goal. Valencia has been totally crap this game!!
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Well Berbatov has redeemed himself with the dribble and assist. Obviously Berbatov fans will now say he is Man of the Match and claim to be vindicated. But really he had a mixed performance. Disappointing in the box. A few nice flicks and passes. But the dribble and assist was his only meaningful contribution to the match.
As for Rooney. The nature of being a lone striker is you have to be patient. He kept at his job, making the runs, attacking the ball at every chance he gets and yes he HAS to be selfish because no-one else has any balls in the box, and he has duly been rewarded with two goals, and is now on 25 in the league with hardly any of those goals penalties.
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Sensational Berba!! Set one one for Roo and now finally heads in one!! Brilliant Berba!!
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@colver: Agree he was a bit frustrating with the finishing, but all throughout the game he has created many chances and has worked really hard and deserves the MOM. Would like to see the Owen guy and other berba haters speak up now
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Buy Berba.Man of the Match.What a player he is…LEGEND
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Finally Berbatov shows some aggression and desire in the box and is rewarded with a goal! One thing I will say about Berbatov this season is he seems to be improving and pulling his weight a bit more. If he keeps it up he could become a really good player for us, but still some way to go.
Im pleased for the guy and this has been one of his better performances. But Id give man of the match to Vidic who has been a rock at the back.
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Berba did really well this game. Rooney and Nani were amazing in second half. Fletcher is a beast. Rio/Vidic were OK, but allowing Zamora a free run at goal is not something we should allow for the liverpool game – Torres is too good.
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Also give credit to the Park for a superb cross which was on a plate for Berbatov. Park was a lot better than Valencia today, who was disappointing.
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A torres in place of Zamora would have punished us twice this game!
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@owen: Eat your words.
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@godzilla: Well I will speak up Godzilla mi man – Berba could have really eased things for us in the 1st half when he missed a headed chance, and showed no bottle when thru on goal himself. However, his assist and jammy header in the second half I will give him credit for – but I think Park helped, because that little GIT was every fecking- where speeding up the pace, which Rooney thrives on and loves. Park is a sticky little pest who doesn’t know when to quit. If Fergie could get somebody to work on Park’s balance, so he can stay on his feet, then we would have one hell of a player, and if he adds goals to his game, thru said help with his balance, then he would be to me every bit as good as Tevez. A sports scientist needs to be employed to sort out why he cannot stay on his feet. To be honest though, he didn’t go down hardly any today, so who knows
.
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@CraigMc: I think he answered the call with a goal and a spectacular assist. I call for all Berba haters to now please get off his back………………….for a while at least. He showed his class in the end by nailing down the win.
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now…. park deserves credit for the added thrust to the second half i reckon…
good passes from the left and the assist from the right…
looks to be a better left winger than nani…. but that may just be a moment of brilliance… in anycase.. park rocks! if fletch is the most improves player, park is second in line for taht title
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@Grognard:
– Go Grog, you support yon man, but I still think he misses a lot tho Groggy!
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@Wink: I agree about Park mate – but not about Nani though
.
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@owen: ……..
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@Grognard:
– Oaky Grog 
.
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@EduardoDaVinci4: @Eddi –
– 
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@godzilla: There was justice in the end and Berba delivered. Great assist and a good goal and now hopefully Berba haters will stifle themselves for a while at least. I thought his assist was truly Cantonesque. Great control of a difficult long ball, a great move and burst of quickness to get position on the defender and good pass to Rooney. And for those who say he hasn’t got the bottle, his goal had more than enough as he beat his marker and got a good diving header to go his way. Before that he was unlucky and struggling with his confidence, but then again, may I remind people, especially those who are so patient with Nani, that it is a 90 minute game and in such a low scoring sport, all that is required is that one moment of magic. Under those terms, Berba delivered in spades.
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I think Berba is now tied with that Brazilian garbage goal scorer known OwnGoalinho for second on the the team with 10. Way to go Berba. OwnGoalinho is in a bit of a slump.
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