Mar 13
No Fear For No One
It’s been a day of big talk, and not much else. So let’s document the big talk for your future reference.
First up, the great Rafa Benitez, whose arrival at Liverpool was heralded — by many Scouse fans — as The Revolution (Rafalution?) only for said revolution to be shattered by, em… rotation. He’s had this to say: “I do not have any preference now who we play next, but I would be more than happy to face an English side in the final. This victory shows the power and strength of the Premier League. We have fine clubs who are among the best in Europe, a league that is the same and players of quality who are some of the best in Europe.”
Next in line, Sir Alex, who had this to say: “I think the Premier League is the strongest in Europe. For a spell it was the Spanish league – I remember about seven or eight years ago they had three teams in the semi-finals and Spanish football was really strong, but I think the English game has now reached that level.”
Cesc Fabregas had this to say after their win at the San Siro: “When you play against these kind of teams and players like Kaka and [Andrea] Pirlo you have to play with no fear. We play football because of nights like this. Scoring that goal was one of the best moments of my career.”
I haven’t managed to dig up any quotes from the Chelsea camp, and their statuesque manager, but I’d assume similar talk from Terry, Lamps and Co. This Guardian article creams over the greatness of the English league.
Of course, it was a different matter that two Premier League clubs, yesterday, despite dominating the hell out of their respective games, in time honoured English traditions, bowed out in penalty shoot outs. I guess, however good your league may be, some habits die hard.
But then this is a Man Utd blog, so we will not cream ourselves over the beauty of English football, but stick to our niche. So continuing with the theme of being brave (and having no fear) here are two more quotes:
Park Ji-Sung: “We don’t mind who we play next. Maybe it would be good for English football if we drew an English team but, for me, it doesn’t matter. We don’t worry about the opposition because we have good players and we’ve shown our quality this season. As long as we concentrate on our performance, we can beat anyone.”
And Johnny O’Shea: “It obviously proves the Premier League is probably now the best league in the world. It is great to be a part of it and we are not looking to avoid anyone or get anyone.”
So as you see, no one is afraid of anyone, so by that logic we should get to watch exciting, fearless, attacking football from here on, no? If only pigs could fly…
Slightly changing the theme from fearlessness to injury ravaged players, skipper Neville completed an incident free 70′ of reserve team football against Sunderland. United reserves lost, by the way.
And at the time of writing, I haven’t a clue on EVDS’s injury status. Although I’ve read reports saying that he may be out for a couple of weeks at least. If that’s the case, it would surely pave the way for a Ben Foster debut against Derby, which to be honest, after yesterday’s result, isn’t the worst place to make your debut.
And what the fuck is this woman on about? Did she find just Sir Alex to pick on? Has she forgotten Arsene’s “Martin Taylor must never play football again’ rant? I am not condoning Fergie’s over the top reaction, but if you have an article targetting mental managers, then Arsene I-fought-with-Alan-Pardew (not to mention, I don’t see incidents that implicate my players ) Wenger, is also well on that list.
How do these French blokes charm the media? It was a rhetorical question, please don’t bother answering.
Anyway, sorry to end this rather meandering, and extremely incoherent, post like this, but that’s how I get to fill another quiet day.
Related items from Red Rants:
- City Is Concerned About Some ‘Idiots’…
- Some More Thoughts Ahead of the Scouse Trip
- Links of the Day
- Hot News Ahead of Barca | Gattuso and the Usual Nonsense
- The Karim of the Crop?
Tags: Manchester United News
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i quote grognard
“Tevez is a good little player but sorry 15 goals in all competitions is not good enough for a forward on Man U.”
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Grognard: You can’t blame Tevez for Rooney mis-controlling passes. However when a player is out of form you generally sit them down, tell them to do what they normally do, play naturally and eventually the form and confidence will return. Rooney doesn’t have the luxury of that as he is playing a foreign role for the sake of the team. Therefore it is all the more difficult for him to consistently recover his form.
Dan: Tevez has 15 goals in 35 games, 0.428 goals per game. Rooney has 13 goals in 29 games, 0.44 goals per games. If it is more than good enough for Tevez, why is it so poor for Rooney?
johnsom33: Tak a look at the games Rooney has missed this season. Don’t just look at the results; take a look at the performances as well. Then come back and tell me which one of the two of them is more important, not necessarily who is playing better.
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im tired of all this bullshit about rooney being played out of position. have ALL of you forgotten that ROONEY HIMSELF has said that playing up front and leading the line is his preferred role?
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JB; Read my post again. I wasn’t blaming Tevez for Rooney’s control problems. Rooney has to work out those problems himself. Take away the main responsibility of scoring goals and he may come out of it. As of now, he is feeling the pressure to score goals. A true striker will rid us of the problem. As for Tevez, he is a great sub. That’s how I would use him if we were to buy a striker.
And DAN, Sorry pal but I am far from stupid. 15 goals is not enough from a striker. Keep in mind that 15 goals is in all competitions. If it was just the EPL I wouldn’t complain.
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Dan; go back and take a look at the season tally of goals from players like COLE, YORKE, HUGHES, and van NISTELROOY. Then you may understand that I believe that a strike should be scoring over 20 goals an EPL season and the striker combo should have around or more than 40 goals. I believe that Saha, Rooney and Tevez combined don’t even have 35 goals combined in all competitions (give or take a goal or two. I expect 20 to 25 goals for Rooney, 15 to 20 for Tevez and 10 goals for Saha in just the EPL alone. Go take a look at the contributions of Yorke, Cole, Solksjaer and Sheringham. Sure they didn’t have Ronaldo but Becks and Giggs usually combined for between 15 and 20 goals combined. More should be expeceted from our forwards. Why? because like many fans I am spoilt by the past and I have come to expect that out of our forwards. It’s the way things should be. I never ever tolerate mediocrity from the teams I support. Why should I? After all, I support Manchester United. Nuff said!
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Grognard: You are spoilt by the past because you may be seeing it through rose tinted specs. I suspect Dan may not check this so I had I look at the goal targets you were setting. Hughes, Cole and Yorke between them hit the 20 league total ONCE and that in the cakewalk that was the 1999-00 season (by Yorke). By my eye only one strike pairing managed to hit the 40 goal target, Solskjaer and RVN in 2001-02. The only man to hit the 20 goal target consistently was RVN.
You have a concern (an entirely valid one I might add) about the strikers not getting enough goals. However you yourself have argued that Ronaldo is more a striker now, and having looked at positional data for the year that is likely a fair call. So when assessing strikers should we not include Ronaldo as one now? In that case the strikers are contributing more than last season.
How about looking at some of the others in the team as wells. The defence has contributed 6 goals this season in comparison to 14 last year. The midfielders excluding Ronaldo have scored 11 goals this season in comparison to 30 last year.
More should be expected from our forwards, but in light of the above information are the defence and midfield not just as culpable?
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Oh no of course not JB, because in Grognard’s eyes the only people who are meant to score goals are the strikers, and clearly they’re underperforming! Or at least so we are being led to believe…Grognard the fact that Rooney and Saha have both missed around half of the season makes their chances of scoring 20 goals a season slightly more difficult don’t you think? Saha has scored 5 goals in 5 Premier League starts, so if he played a full season that would mean it’s very possible he would hit the 20 goal mark, although we know that would just never happen with Saha unfortunately… Rooney 8 in 18, so he’d be hitting around the 15 goal mark, although I find it wuite likely he’ll go on a goal scoring run soon, and i’m fairly sure he has a good record against Bolton, although that’s only from memory not stats, maybe after he hits a hattrick against Bolton he’ll be hailed as the boy wonder he once was…Tevez has 11 in 25 so he’ll be aiming for around a8 goals as well, also from looking at Tevez’s stats he’s scored 3 Champions League goals in only 2 starts, which really shows he can score goals in big matches.
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Admittedly looking at Huntelaar’s goalscoring record, or to a lesser extent Benzema’s, our strikers don’t seem to score enough goals, but if we look at the 3 other big teams, I wouldn’t swap our partnership for any of the other three’s, with Drogba eiher having an off season or maybe just proving he had an unusually good season last season, and anelka’s record at Chelsea clearly being awful, Torres has been great for Liverpool but they have no other striker who can score or even play football, and with Adebayor running out of steam and Van Persie very injury prone, Arsenal don’t seem to have many goals in their team.
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Conor you silly boy. I wasn’t expecting Rooney and Saha to score 20 goals this season as I am very well aware that they have been injured and in Saha’s case he has not played much. My target for him was 10 goals. But Tevez however should have near 20 goals in EPL only play because he has played the majority of the games as a striker. And I am not wrong to think that most goals should be scored by the strikers. That’s the way it has been for over 100 years mate. Why change the way the game is designed to be played. Unless of course one realizes his strikers suck and so he concocts a strategy that is designed to make a winger more of a striker.
On Huntelaar and Benzema, yes they are scorers but I still don’t think their goal tally in the Prem would be nearly as impressive. The Dutch and French Leagues are not as good and so goals would naturally be easier to score. Still their talent has shown me and others that they have the right stuff. Same goes for Gomez at Stuttgart.
JB; You are absolutely right about the fact that one should think of Ronaldo as a striker because he really has been playing that position. Still I am a purist and I would prefer a Ronaldo who scores around 15 goals and assists his strikers more. But we can’t have everything no can we.
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Grognard the game is changing, realize that and get your head out of the past. You may want everything to be perfect but we all know that’s never going to happen so be happy with we have now. Maybe Huntelaar, Benzema or Gomez may have scored 20 goals by now, who really knows since the difference between the EPL and the German, French and Dutch league is enormous. No need for the name calling Grognard, if I was as over sensitive as you I’d be on a rant about how I get verbally attacked
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If you are being overly sensitive about me calling you a “silly boy” then we really have issues. I never called you “stupid” or an “idiot” or any of the terms I have been called. Silly just seemed harmless to me as a jab meant in the friendliest of manners. Sorry you took it badly. It surely was not intended that way. Come to think it about it, when have you ever heard anyone say to someone “silly boy” and mean it in a harsh manner? On the other hand being called stupid and an idiot like I have been sounds insulting. So again I’m sorry but I do believe you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I don’t know how some of the guys get these happy faces to show up after a statement. If I did, I would have used it.
And finally, telling someone they live in the past is a bit more insulting than silly boy is. That basically is telling me that I am too old to see the game change and evolve unlike your supposed younger eyes and mind. I guess I need to remove the cobwebs from my eyes and ears because I just don’t get it. I’man IDIOT. Not so Conor. I can see the game evolve and change as well as you and I have news for you. Look around, the game is still designed with the main tactic being funneling the game into the box for the striker or strikers. The fact that a team has others who score and plan B’s and C’s is a mute point.
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[Grognard]
(without the [])
For a happy face a colon ‘:’ followed by a closing bracket ‘)’ would give you a happy face. so [:)] =
I’ve mentioned all this before but here you go again:
You also have various other options that you can find here.
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Grognard the fact that I used a smily face ‘
‘ should tell you that it was only a joke, I took no offense at all don’t worry. And saying you live in the past should’nt have came across as an insult before, because many times before you’ve said things about being spoilt by the past and wanting more than anything for us to play just like we used to in our glory years, that to me would mean you’re still living in the past.
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Conor; No problem at all. I never really took the living in the past comment to heart. I was just pointing out that one could easily take that as insulting, thats all. One always needs to respect the past and the experience gained from that. Also, there have always been tried and true ways of getting the job done, that have been proven successful over time. There is always going to be innovations and changes that can offer teams adaptability but the game still functions pretty well the same. Strikers are paid to score goals and the others are paid to defend from goals as well as assist in getting the ball to the sriker or strikers to score. That I’m afraid may never change. But in Fergies case, anything is possible.
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Glad to hear it. Well if or strikers actually were getting paid to score then their living conditions wouldn’t be particularly glamorous
But yes I get your point and I thought about it and well, you’re right, theres no way around it. I tried to think about counter arguments but I really couldn’t think of any, the ball just always does end being funnelled through to the strikers.
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