Apr 15
Owen Hargreaves – Made of Glass or Different Class?
I’ll admit it. When it was first announced that we were splashing out around £18 million on the injury prone and rather ordinary but industrious Owen Hargreaves I was a little baffled to say the least.
Let’s face facts. Hargreaves arrived at United having spent his fair share of time in the physio’s room at Bayern Munich, most notably breaking his leg during his final season with the German club in September 2006. At the end of the day he didn’t score goals (five in nearly 150 games for Bayern), he wasn’t a creative player and other than his work rate I didn’t see what he brought to the table.
Even our very own RedRanter had his doubts over Hargreaves and particularly his fitness. And to know that Ferguson was willing to part with £18 million too, well it just didn’t add up.
I sit here now putting together this article a few hours before we take on FC Porto in arguably the biggest game of the season. My prediction? 2-1 United but that is coming firmly from the heart. If I’m realistic and go with my head, a trip to the Estadio Dragao (where coincidentally no English team has ever won) with our current defensive frailties really doesn’t bode well. Let’s be honest. If the Portuguese side play anywhere near as well as they did at Old Trafford and we put on a similarly uninspirational performance, it’s game over in the Champions League for this season.
You’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this (if the title wasn’t already a giveaway!) but the one player I feel we desperately miss at the moment is a certain Owen Hargreaves. I’m trying my utmost not to get caught in the ‘look how Essien handled Gerrard last week’ trap here but it really is my honest opinion that Hargreaves would have helped stem the tide of the current slump we are witnessing. In all fairness it is difficult to explain how we have conceded 11 goals in five games when VDS was breaking clean sheet records left, right and centre earlier in the season. I believe you would almost halve that amount with Hargreaves in front of the back four.
Porto were brilliant last week in their own little way and as much as we were off the pace, the way they counter-attacked was sublime at times. So how do you counter a counter-attack? Well with Hargreaves in the side he would have happily provided cover for the likes of Evra, Neville and O’Shea who all galloped forward at different stages of the match, often to our detriment. Hargreaves would have read the danger, cut out those little pockets of space and I believe his presence in the side would have gone some way to destabilising the threat of our Portuguese opponents.
As hard-working, bullish and, at times, brilliant Darren Fletcher has been this season, he isn’t one to just sit and hold to free up others to bomb on forward. I noticed Michael Carrick has often adopted the holding role in recent times and purely through necessity rather than anything else. As we all know Carrick is at his creative best when he is given the freedom to influence a game and dictate the flow and pace of it with his passing ability. I hate to say it but look at the system the dippers have in place with Alonso and Mascherano. It has had proven results and the Spaniard is having a good season it must be said.
More often than not we are making basic errors at the moment and with Hargreaves’ tenacity and hard-working style that may have helped us get the basics right again. The England man won’t be back until the start of next season at the earliest which could prove to be a blow to our trophy aspirations for the remainder of the current campaign.
We may go to the Dragao and smash Porto tonight but at this present time I can’t wait for Owen Hargreaves to pull on a Red shirt once again. Can you?
Related items from Red Rants:
- Hargreaves Stirs Up Some Debate | Saha Could Start (Wow!) | Some New Signing
- Hargreaves’ Injury History Is Shocking
- Hargreaves Move Confirmed – Breaking News
- Hargreaves — so excited that he might pass out
- De Rossi for Manchester United?
Tags: Manchester United Players · UEFA Champions' League
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Rooney was phenomenal wasn’t he? A complete performance, physical, dynamic, attacking with speed and purpose, holding onto the ball when the pass wasn’t available, putting the ball into the danger areas when it was required, tackling back, he was like a defensive midfielder at times, working in tandem with Anderson to shaw up the defensive third as Porto tried to breakthrough.
As for Evra, his season has been badly disrupted by injured and suspension, i don’t think it’s anything to worry about, he just needs a kick up the jacksie. I don’t see O’Shea as a good enough replacement and although i have no doubt in Fabio’s abilities going forward, his defensive play i am yet to be convinced by, but then again, if he scores just as many goals in the first team as he does in the reserves then it doesn’t matter if he can’t defend for toffee, we’ll just out score them!
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@Orez: Were you referring to me regarding hate for Anderson and Nani? If so, not true. Especially since I said absolutely nothing negative about Nani today. True, I am not a believer in Anderson but I certainly don’t hate the lad. The only thing I hate about him is that ridiculous hair style. Other than that, just refer to me as not a particularly strong follower of the lad. But hate is certainly too strong a word. Hate is reserved for Rafa Benitez, Didier Drogba, John Terry, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry.
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@Mr.Muhozi: Thanks mate, much appreciated.
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@Red Ranter: Tommy reminds me of an Irishman I knew back when I lived in Edmonton Alberta. I worked with him for a summer while I was going through University. He talked and sounded so much like him and he really was a fun guy and a very nice man. So I kind of transfer my feelings for that old guy named Teddy to Tommy. And I do honestly love the old onion bag reference. It’s right up there with another local broadcaster who always refers to a hockey goal scored up high as “putting the puck where Norman keeps his mother”. Let me know if you don’t get the reference.
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Here’s the video of the goal as well as Fergie’s and Ronaldo’s post match interview. Ronnie’s interview is rather interesting. It seems quite spontaneous even though he belts out cliches re: the ref, Arsenal etc. But he seems quite relaxed.
I suggest watch it before youtube take it down.
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@Red Ranter: Well he’s learning not to put his foot in his mouth. There were a few questions there designed to bait him but he never took the bait which was good. Now lets get focused and figure out what it will take to reach the FA Cup Final. Personally, I think Fergie should rest a lot of the starters. Sure I’d like to win the FA Cup but not at the risk of dropping points in the EPL. For me the mid week game vs Pompey is more important.
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Something I’d like to comment on was the surprisingly strong discipline Wayne Rooney showed tonight. He was fouled a lot and asked to sacrifice himself positionally yet again and he did so without losing his cool and getting carded. Important because a yellow would have meant a suspension from the next game. I would imagine that carries over to the next game so I worry that he will get a yellow in either one of the next two games which could cost us. Please correct me if I’m wrong on that. Anyway, congrats to Rooney for growing up a bit. And also to Ronaldo for also showing a lot more maturity and cutting out the bitch sessions to the ref.
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@Red Ranter: Wow! I’m impressed more than anything by Ronaldo’s english! It has certainly improved since I last heard him on interview.
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@Grognard: The “hate” part wasn’t at you, that’s why I started from a new line and by “hate” I meant criticism. I thought both of them did fine, considering the circumstances.
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@NicoQB:
agreed, but seriously a really good interview and @Grognard: good point there. I was very surprised on that too. Well both of them should accept the fact that their antics can cost the team dearly and at this point of the season the cost can be too high for anyone to swallow.
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Jesus Christ, Nani was Terrible when he came on, offered nothing except losing the ball and getting beaten. Everytime he got it he tried to beat his man and ended up in a dead end but don’t worry, I’m the blind fan according to Grognard so I’ll just jog on
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All I can say is “what-a-fucking-goal”. Without consciously putting a name to our success tonight I feel absolutely awe-struck by Ronaldo’s strike.
It was something that didn’t so much surprised me, as much stun my senses! I had no way of knowing that CR, (PLPOTY, WPOTY, Ballon d’or recipient) had that kind of manhood left in him. To take aim, shoot, and put us in the last 4 with that single swipe of his foot did more for this man than the thousand step overs and the million fainting falls he’s done over the last 7 months. His recent form had me looking elsewhere for our success, but, really, I should have known better!
United surprised me, in that they didn’t push hard for a second goal. But team Porto seemed to be as impressed by the Ronaldo gem as much as United were!!? It almost became a symbiotic experience, where if we did something good they would in return. And if we fucked up they would try hard to do the same – and visa versa. But there never, ever was a moment when either team could equal or beat that moment of magic.
I wouldn’t say yet, that without the services of our Portuguese marvel we would loose a dimension or two, but unless things change, I’d be getting close to saying that. He’s not my favorite player, but he really is the one that makes the big difference for us, isn’t he!!??
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WHAT ABOUT ROONEY??? this guy is unreal. he works his ass off every single game. he never loses the ball and he is always doing something that is positive for the team. where is the credit for rooney???
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Sorry about the late post, but had to watch the game on my DVR, due to work obligations.
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@Matthew: Rooney is my main man. He does no wrong in my eyes, and if you want to come up with some original kudos for him, I’ll be your advocate there!!!
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@Liam: Yep, bad substitution. I can only think that SAF was sparing Berbatov’s feelings by not bringing on Tevez or Macheda. Did absolutely nothing to change or solidify things, it just made us slightly more fragile!!
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@Matthew: Rooney never loses the ball, you haven’t been watching the same games as me all season mate! Rooney’s touch is often abysmal, he does let the ball roll away from him when trying to control it. He has shown himself better than the general malaise of most of our players in the last few games though.
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Well I predicted the scoreline correctly immediately AFTER the 1st leg. I said we would win 1-0 and lady luck would score the goal. I was wrong about the lady luck scoring the goal though, because that was no lucky goal by Ronnie, it was a fabulous goal. Our strikers again didn’t cut the mustard for me – SORRY. Berba is getting worse with every showing. I think we had good all round improvement in performance though. Even Alan Green on Radio 5, and his colleagues – all self confessed Man United haters, said this is a very good and controlled performance from the European champions, and far better performance and classier than the scoreline suggests.
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@Liam: Make sure you are careful jogging on. Blindness can cause accidents.
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@Liam: I’d say that about sums up Park as well
.
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@Nick: Evra is a liability and very great weakness on left side now. His defending had been shite, which makes me think he should stay back and concentrate on that, because he goes forward FAR too much, and it is pointless, because he has NO END PRODUCT. You can all jump on me if you like, but I will never understand why Fergie sold Silvestre, who could get forward and had good end product.
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@Grognard: We WILL BEAT Arsenal over wo legs, just like we beat Porto over 2 legs. I wonder our lads have any legs left after last night, because the hacking and rough house tactics allowed by that useless ref on our players was astounding. We WILL beat the Arsenal, I don’t care how good they have been playing
.
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We need to beat Everton also in the cup semi, because WINNING breeds confidence, something our lads have been lacking of late. But all you DOUBTERS , we are coming back!
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I just looked at the player rating for the game over at the Sun. And Mr. Anderson received a 5/10 rating. I guess I wasn’t as blind as many of you thought. I guess all that’s left for you guys to do is whine and make insulting remarks about what a terrible rag the Sun is. Go ahead, I know I am right.
In fact, he and Berba got the worst rankings in the game. Personally I feel the worst player was Evra who had a 6/10 rating. Ronaldo was MoM with an 8/10.
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@Craig Mc: You may not care now, but trust me, you will care how well Arsenal are playing. We are in deep shit and I do not believe we will win.
And also, why aren’t you sticking up for Lil Man Nani? Liam was being unkind towards the Lil Man. Am I all the support he has left?
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I am just highly relieved that we won. Won’t go into more details as people already say I whinge to much on this site.
I think Anderson played very well. There were a couple of way-ward passes, but considering that his surrounding team-mates were too slow for his quick one-touch passes, the blame is not entirely his. Regardless, he had a good game. As soon as he came off, we conceded the midfield to Porto.
For those who claim he did so poorly, please explain to me what the other midfielders did better?
There’s a lot of comments on Evra doing the rounds here. I kinda agree with it, but have to add that his defensive/positioning contribution does not upset me that much. What I am getting really frustrated about is his complete inability to put in a cross. He has not put in one decent cross since … hell, since forever. Yet, much of our gameplay still evolves around him putting in crosses into the box? I truly question the wisdom of that decision.
EVDS, Vidic, Rio imo had a good game. O’Shea, I don’t know why the utility man is now a regular starter. From what I’ve seen, he was not much better than Evra, even though he was more solid.
Ronaldo I think did great under the circumstances. Not only did he score a great goal, but not too bad when played as a lone striker either. Still, by pushing him into that position, we eliminate our biggest threat in eliminating the one player that can take on teams.
Rooney on the wings is a no-go in any situation. Fergie is fucking this boy up good and solid. Fuck Berbatov and even fuck Ronaldo. Rooney should be played in the hole. Period.
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@Karl: Quote “he was not much better than Evra, though HE WAS MORE SOLID.” Mmmmmm m’thinks you contradict yourself there mate! But yes, O’Shea was more solid in every tackle than Evra, and his forages forward were better too, so I’d call that being BETTER than Evra.
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@Grognard: I don’t give a fig how Arsenal are playing, we ARE COMING BACK, and I do believe we will win. So you just stay in the Arsenal camp mate, and I’ll rub it in when we DO win.
.
As for Lil man Nani, I don’t expect him to play well, not when he is BENCHED all fucking season, is therefore game rusty, and Fergie throws him in for the last 15 minutes of an essential CL game. Blame fucking Fergie and his lack of treating all his players fairly, I DO
.
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By the way Grog, if I was Nani, I would have had a fucking nervous breakdown by now, after Fergie has given my moral a right kicking all season. Then again, I would have given Gergie a fucking kickin by now!
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I meant Fergie Grog, not Gergie
. Although I could think of a few derogatory names beginning with G to call Fergie. He has been grossly unfair in his treatment of some players this season. Since he has, we have not reached the levels of football we played last season, with those players in the team. Fergie can be a sad git sometimes. I can’t stomach some of the unpalatable football we have dished up so monotonously this season, but we will still win trophies, sad or not!
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I guess there are standards for some players and others just have to appear on the pitch to have the tag “outstanding”.I said it before and i will say it again.The only difference we have with other teams is RONALDO.When everyone is complaining rooney is played out of position,no one says that for ronaldo.He is simply the best player to have played for United.
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@Grognard: Ronnie was MOTM when Rooney ran his arse off doing all the feckin spadework, GO FIGURE. And yes, that’s the Sun newspaper for you – no feckin idea
.
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@donibrasco: Thats your opinion mate, and not one many would agree with! He has had one exceptional season with us though, I’ll give him that!
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@Craig Mc: Me for one,
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@Karl: I agree with rooney in the hole but I suppose Fergie wanted his cake and to eat it also, he wanted an attacking player as we needed goals, but one that could also give O’Shea cover as their fullback Cissokho was one of their most attacking options.
It is all well and good having a pop at Fergie with team selections and tactics but we are still in all competions and stand a very good chance of winning all five. We are not playing marvellous free flowing attacking football but in the premiership this season who has? so many teams play so deep it really is difficult to break teams down, we can all say Arsenal but before Xmas they were very poor, Liverpool play very direct and fuck knows how Chelsea play as they have had 4 managers in little under 2 seasons.
Evra was poor last night but form is temporary and class is permanent, he will regain form, O’Shea is the most unnatural right in world football, slow can’t cross but he is putting in a shift for the team and to me that is what really counts.
We are getting into the business end of the season and now every game is a cup final, I am personally really excited as we have never been in this position before, WE COULD WIN THE LOT, Ok logic sayes we can’t but a lot of people in the Nou Camp in 99 with two mins on the clock said that we couldn’t win.
“Can United score, they always score”.
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@donibrasco: About Ronaldo being the best player to have played for us… Not yet mate.. not yet!
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My 2 pennies worth on the game:
A great goal from Ronaldo..enough has been said of it already so i wont elaborate.
Rooney was magnificent in defense (haha!).. defensive duties that is!! Last night was a testimony to what a great team player he is.. and not to forget he was not Looney as we know him. He totally blows up misnomers that team players are Steve-Me-I’ll-only-play-well-if-you-play-me-behind-Torres.
Berbatov was ineffectual, as usual (that rhymed!). Maybe I’ll get slack for sayin that but I didn’t see him creating any problems for anyone. His deployment behind Ronaldo in a somewhat CAM role (somewhat I say) was pretty funny for me.. especially since one of my last observations was “I’ll stick him in midfield”!!
O’Shea played really well. Nothing fancy, no cock ups, no frailties, just good play. I for one, am thankful we have squad players like him.
Anderson was pretty decent in the 1st half methinks. He did wear away in the second, but that’s alright considering his recent injury.
Nani, as much as I regret it, was awful. He won’t be expecting to get out of Fergie’s dog house playing like that (unless he wants a transfer).
Ferdinand was all about showing us who’s the boss and why we missed him sooo much recently. He totally controlled and orchestrated our defense and was a towering authority of a man. Vidic played like we know him, and it showed that he was glad to have Rio back.
and finally… a great goal from Ronaldo!
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Thoughts:
1. Rooney is being used, but he’s our heartbeat. There’s some anger towards him being pushed all over the place for the good of the team, but that’s just how he is. No one complained when Roy Keane was playing as a centre back, or a full back, or an attacking midfielder. He did what the coach asked, without questionning it and he did his best. Rooney was brilliant. He also didn’t once get angry, despite there being time when you could tell the Porto player was itching to fall and roll with any contact.
2. Our overall team performance was brilliant. Porto played very, very well and at a high tempo for the whole match. People are complaining we didn’t hold the ball enough, but we had far and away more posession and that is no small feat given the way Porto played. Their strategy was to close and make contact, consistently fouling us and usually getting away with it given the utterly useless referee’s clear bias.
3. Anderson is rusty because he hasn’t played. But he still added what was needed to our midfield: energy! I think he and Carrick made a good partnership, and while his positioning was sometimes poor (Carrick would look up to play it safe and square to him, but he’d be behind a Porto player) that was the best MF performance we’ve had since Inter away. He’s not perfect but he did very well despite being outnumbered by combative Porto players.
4. Dear Rio – I apologise for giving the plaudits to Vida. I now remember the you from last year, when you were the best defender in the world, bar none. Welcome back. Please stay healthy, and get your back sorted over the summer.
5. Ronaldo’s goal is ridiculous. It should not be possible. I’ve only ever seen goals like that scored by players taking massive run ups (like Konchelski for Fulham earlier this year, or Seedorf back in the day). He basically did it without a run up. It’s absurd, I still don’t understand how we could have generated the pace from that body position. Also, he looks to have slimmed down a lot from a few years ago, anyone else think so?
6. Berbatov’s control is amazing, but if we don’t provide him runners he gets triple-teamed and loses it. I think our players just need to start working with him and he’ll be deadly. It almost always takes 2 or more defenders to get the ball off of him, and if we can use the gaps this creates, it would be fantastic. But he needs to learn to shoot, did anyone really think his shot was going in before he took it?
7. Could we send out Mike Phelan to find out where Evra went? I haven’t seen him in a few months, and I’m getting worried.
8. I know this goes against the grain here, but I actually thought Nani was okay in tough circumstances. He was always double teamed and closed down incredibly quickly every time he got the ball because of the situation in the match. He didn’t always keep it, but he tried. And he wasted a good deal of time by holding it out wide, which is his job. Also skinned his man more times in 10 minutes than Park has all season.
9. Overall a very, very professional, champion-like performance. What more can we ask for?
10. We have 10 games (12 if CL/FA Cup final). Liverpool have 7. I fear the league is going out the window.
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@Rahul: How can you judge a player who is a winger to come on for 15mins of a game which he hasn’t got to change and say he awful?
If he started the game created nothing and gave the ball away far too often then I belive you can judge, but his job was to come on and put pressure on the back four by by running at the Porto defence which he did and buy our defence time, Ok he wasn’t great but that type of game wasn’t the most suitable for him.
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[...] Red Rants discusses the return of Owen Hargreaves. [...]
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I think many United fans will share a feeling with me this morning. Relief. It wasn’t the season changing performance we need before the month is out, but we did stop a team that could have scored 10 goals against us a week ago from having more than 1 decent chance. And this is against a team full of confidence, in their back yard, where we, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have all failed to emerge victorious before.
There’s been a lot of Anderson bashing since the game, and I just can’t see it. Yes he was bought as an offensive midfielder, yes he hasn’t had many games this season, and he is yet to score. But none of those things were in his job description last night. His job was to disrupt their play, in a way that Scholes, Fletcher, and Carrick had failed to do a week previous. And the big fat 0 next to Poto would suggest he succeeded. I was very happy with his performance, especially taking into consideration his lack of appearances, experience in the position, and it being the 2nd Leg of the how do you say? ‘Cham Pans Leeeg’……
The next week is a pivotal one in our season.
Sunday, a Wembley FA Cup Semi against an inform Everton. This will be the biggest game of their season, and they already knocked out Liverpool.
Wednesday, we play a troubled Portsmouth at Old Trafford 24 hours after Arsenal travel to Liverpool. If Arsenal win, we have a chance to go 4 clear with a game in hand, but Arsenal take with them the belief they can go away and win against a big team. If Liverpool win, Arsenal’s confidence will be dented, and we will need to win to remain top.
Regardless of their result, it’s a match we can and should win. Hopefully this will be the cuffing we give out this season. That’s followed by Spurs at home. Their season is over. They’re safe., foot off the gas, as last season.
The problem I see us having here is thus. Arsenal have no game scheduled that weekend. They play on the 21st, then us on the 29th. That’s 8 days rest. In that time, we play on the 22nd and 25th.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwcpFXOsrY8
Brings back memories
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@Beachryan: I really could not disagree in any of those points mate.
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I mentioned this a few days ago after my cousins in italy alerted me over stories in italy about us making a move for buffoon, and its now in the paper here. I know its probably rubbish made up speculation but man it would be great if it was true. I do think foster is a pretty good keeper but if buffoon was available for around the £15million mark i would definitely sign him up. Hes easily the best keeper in the world. Anyway heres the link, daily mail i know but it would be brilliant if it was true:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1170398/Foster-shade-United-plot-sensational-summer-swoop-Italian-superstar-Buffon.html
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Match report up btw. Continue your discussions there.
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@Matt: Best keeper in the world? Hes good but far from the best.
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@Dan: Second behind Casillas?
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we are linked with buffon , i hope its true
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@Beachryan: I have to echo your statement about Berbatov’s ball control. Regardless of how I or anyone feel/felt about him being suited to our team-play, I have to admit that his first touch is just a joy to behold. I can’t recall when last I’ve seen someone with that type of instant control.
@Craig Mc: With O’shea its difficult for me to describe. Something like I get the same feeling or expectation about him going forward as I have of Evra crossing. His defensive is also no Vidic. But, it is better than Evra atm.
@Stephen: I know what you’re saying. At least Rooney on the wing is better than no Rooney at all. I just think that this highlights how imbalanced our team really is. Especially our forwards. Funny thing is, I don’t think its necessary for any big transfers to rectify this situation (at least not transfers in).
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@Karl: Very true about Evra and his inability to cross or even make a decent pass. Ask yourself this question, Why is it that whenever Evra wants to cross there is a defender draped all over him but when the opposition wants to cross the ball in Evra’s area, they do so without any pressure whatsoever? Evra is dead weight that’s wrapped around the throat of this club and is strangling us. It would be bad enough if he was struggling at one end of the park but he is making a meal of both the offensive and defensive aspects of the game. It’s time to shop him while he is still worth something.
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