Aug 26
Portsmouth 0-1 Man Utd: Fletcher Seals First Win
Ah, the sweet smell of victory! It was by the slimmest of margins. It again showed what we lack as a side, while also clearly showing our strengths. But the win — despite what the scoreline suggested — was achieved while playing some good football.
Sir Alex, shorn of his star wingers decided to push Evra onto the wing with O’Shea providing protection at the back. Brown continued to be preferred over Neville, and Ferdinand got to skipper the side again, in the absence of Ryan Giggs. A patched up midfield that consisted of Evra, Scholes, Anderson and Fletcher was always going to spring some doubts. But once the game got underway, things changed.
The movement was good, the passing crisp, and the desire very much in evidence. Patrice Evra was a revelation on the wing, and played a blinder of a match. Thanks to his surges down the left, we never really missed a genuine left winger.
Anderson showed amazing powers of recovery as he played very well considering his late, late arrival from Beijing. He was off the pace for a while before sort of coming into his own. An excellent pass to Rooney in the last few minutes of the first half was a case in point.
Wayne Rooney looked like he was making a genuine effort to stay further up the pitch. He had two outstanding situations to get on the score sheet. One occasion was as mentioned above; receiving a pass from Anderson, he took a touch, turned and shot a belter that beat James and just wide off the post. The other occasion was when he was wrongly judged offside that could have put the game beyond any doubt.
In all the performance was encouraging. Scholes continued to pull strings as his wont. Fletcher made up for his limitations technically with his tireless running, and his forays into the box fetched him his second goal in as many games. The defence was as solid as you can get. Rodrigo Possebon, who came on later, betrayed his lack of experience while continuing to look promising. And Carlos Tevez, while showing us what we missed last week, continued to impress.
Our lack of a target man was again obvious, but hopefully Berbatov’s arrival (if it happens) will seek to solve it. Next up, the UEFA Super Cup on Friday. Nani would be back. Hargreaves could feature on the bench. Park could return. And Anderson should be able to get over his jet lag.
Come Anfield, we should have a full squad to choose from, barring Ronaldo. And, hopefully, a win against Zenit could help give us the boost that’s needed to kick our campaign into the next gear — ahead of testing trips at Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- The need for a right-back and a forward | Title race blown open
- Man Utd v Portsmouth: FA Cup Preview
- Man Utd v Portsmouth: Preview
- Man Utd Blog 2007/2008 Home Kit
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Opti (542)
Stephen (496)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Villa i’m sorry is a no no for United. The perfect striker for United is a fast, decent heighted, dynamic and versatile, technically gifted player. Henry of old, Torres, Anelka, Saha are examples of this type. The future is Benzema and SAF spoke highly of him but Lyon’s £48mil price tag probably killed that one (btw, why are most of them french
).
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@Mike: Its Daily Mail…end of story…if theres one lesson we should all have learnt this transfer season, its that the media love to make up their own quotes and then add bits and pieces to other people’s quotes too. Until I see the interview live or read the interview in its original context, i don’t believe a word of that.
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RE: Berbatov / Huntelaar. Why not have both?
Fergie talks about 4 world class strikers, like the old days. Berbatov this summer, Huntelaar the next.
Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Huntelaar.
Maybe I’ll just keep it for fifa
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@Rd: Possibly, but he does say that he’d like to test himself in a top league like Spain. And there are quotes attributed to him.
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@Rd: its also on the telegraph
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@Red Ranter: He doesn’t have to be able to head. He’s not that bad anyway. A good leap, and although he can’t challenge defenders in the air he has good instincts and takes up good positions. Why do we need a tall, physical striker? Good movement and sharp passing moves are what you need. Quick one-two’s in and around the box. United are a good passing team and are an attacking team, they don’t need a big centre forward who’s particularly strong in the air. Play with width and players who can get to the byline and cut it back. This puts defenders on the back foot and the need for a physical presence is eliminated. It’s the way football is meant to be played.
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isn’t it great now vidic is pulling a ronaldo, maybe grognard was right all along ronaldo’s cold feet wanting to move to Spain seems to have hit home, it seems to be spreading like cancer and it as hit vidic is well he wants to move to a warmer climate, who next tevez evra maybe the Silva twins nani and Anderson when they become world class match winners like ronaldo they want to move to a warmer climate. Strange that vidic grew up in a climate that was just as bad as Britain.
Man Utd seem to be handicapped with the location they are at, people in our country do not seem to want to be footballers and when they do they are crap at it, which is one reason why we look to these foreign players and when they become great you know what I want to move to a warmer climate. You would hope that the ronaldo situation is a kick up the backside for our academy to start producing home-grown talent because it is a fact that how great these foreign players are its just like buying 29 year old footballer it does not last long.
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I just read pavylchenko has agreed to move to spurs. Will this soften spurs stance on berbatov? or will they make him rot in the stands?
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Fred the Red, hahaha – you love the Berba too. I am telling you, this whole Levi thing, we will leave him to rot in the reserves – yeah right. Spurs are all about making money, they are good Jewish businessmen, and I am not meaning any disrespect to the Jewish community at all. But no way will they let Berba rot, because at the end of the season he will have very good grounds to leave for nothing. Whats the betting he has it written in his contract that he has to play if he is fit, because he signed from Germany with guaranteed first team football. Let’s face it, Spurs are not Man Utd are they for feck sake.
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Sir Alex should NEVER pay 30 million for Berba. Even though I love the Berb, I would rather Sir Alex told Levy to go feck himself before giving into the 30 million demand. 25 should be our max. We are truly not that desperate. Very soon Hargo will be back, and for sure he will make a better job of free kicks, than our others players, who let’s be honest are feckin useless. Since Ronaldo went out the team, I never ever expect us to score from dead ball situations. We must be the worst team in the league for that right now. But HARGO………..YES.
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@Craig Mc: Tevez is a great free taker. For some reason he doesnt seem to have the confidence to take them bar one last night that he hit straight at James
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Liam, what make you think that mate?. You seen Tev taking a lot of free kicks then?. I don’t think that’s his forte Liam, not from what I have seen.
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@Craig Mc: look at his games for West Ham. He scored something like 3 frees in the last few games
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@Craig Mc: Tev took most of the free-kicks in his west ham days mate, and believe me, he can bend a mean free kick just like Hargo or Beckham lol. But I guess he got rusty after not getting to take any free-kicks last season.
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don’t want to read into this too much, butvidic
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@tevez: We need one because whilst most of the time we’d be able to unlock defences with quick one touch passing, some defences will be more alert to that. We need someone who can offer an attribute we don’t already have. Villa is not that because we already have Tevez and Rooney. Ronaldo does offer us the aerial threat, but we are seeing that he can’t play every game.
I am thinking out loud here, but if Manucho wasn’t injured, had his work permit and impressed Ferguson in pre-season, he may not have been even half as desperate to sign Berbatov.
I am not clamouring for Berbatov as such but more of looking for a striker who can hold up the ball and head and generally be a target man when we need one in certain match situations.
Yes, the quoted price for Berbatov is steep. But since we aren’t looking for other alternatives, apparently, and since he is all we are going to get, I will gladly take him because, for all his faults, he is a bloody good player. And I think Fergie can kick the sulk out of him better than most.
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I would not be suprised if that Vidic quote was an old interview. He did mention on MUTV that the beginning of his career at United was a dark time for him personally. I’m not dissapointed by his comments because the majority of them are true if not a little hard to swallow. Good on him for speaking his mind, even if he may be a little naive in conducting himself with the press…
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@sig: mate its not an old interview but an interview vidic gave for this month’s russian football magazine.
In any case i am a little pissed off at his comments. Yes, i understand he doesn’t like the place but why the fuck should he be so naive as to say it on record…tell your friends,family, heck tell anyone but not the fucking media. They’re just going to eat that story up.
But one thing i dont get, how can you not like the weather in manchester considering that Serbia’s weather is considerably worse?!? Any bets for Vidic to Bara/Madrid rumours in 12-18 months down the line??
End of my little rant.
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Tevez: I know he doesn’t play in a withdrawn/link up position but his preferred style of partner is exactly the type of striker we lack. That and his physical limitations means he has just as many question marks over him as Berbatov for me.
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Just read Vidic’s comments – have to say I can’t blame him, he’s just being honest, but the media will run and run with this. I expect to see tomorrow that Marca have confirmed his signing along with a guarnatee from his ‘good friend Ronaldo’ that he’ll join him in Jan/summer. Dissapointing to think Rio and Vidic won’t be a partnership forever, but there you go. Evans/Catchcart will have to step up, and I think they can handle the rain!
With Pavyluchenko heading to North London we have to assume Berba move will come through before the end of the window. I’d imagine Levy will try to screw around and leave it right up to the last hour, but that’s fine, we’re not playing for ages after Friday anyway. By the time we play pool we should be able to put out:
———-VDS———–
-Brown-Vidic-Rio-Evra—
——-Carrick———-
—-Hargo—Scholes—-
—–Tevez-Rooney——
——–Berba———-
With a view to switch in Nani if needed to make a 442. Much happier days…
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@Beachryan: It is a meaningless game stick the kids out and see how the perform in my book, long term this season it couls be very beneficial.
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Stephen, it may be a meaningless game mate, but it is good for the teams winning mentaltity if we win it. Fergie is dead serious, wherever silverware is concerned. He has already said, that L’Pool haven’t won this, and he wants it therefore. One upmanship I guess lol.
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@Craig Mc: If we pick up a couple of injuries, especially with games we have comming up could be costly. It would be a good run out for the twins, Possebon, Welbeck and Campbell and we could reep the rewards later in the season.
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@Stephen: The Supercup is not a meaningless game, Fergie said it last week!. He lost last time out to Lazio cuz he put more focus on the prem and he doesn’t wan’t to make the same mistake. The lads want a new trophy, and winning it can only improve the team morale!. Besides, Fergie would be the first manager to win it thrice if we succeed on Friday. That plus the possibility of us winning every compo we play in this season is too enticing to take for granted; we’re aiming for the history books this season guys, everygame is a must-win!.
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@Stephen: And I also agree, we should give the ‘deserved’ kids a run out… but Zenit are a strong team and we should still Field as strong a side as possible (with or without the kids).
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@Gabriel: Don’t agree mate we have bigger fish to fry, if we pick up injuries to the striking area and we do not get Berba, then we are in trouble, not worth it for not a priority trophy.
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@Stephen: mate, we have three weeks before our next premier league game!. Besides every game is a risk!. If what ur sayin was the case, we shouldn’t have played Rooney and Tevez against newcastle so they won’t get injured for liverpool or chelsea!.
A trophy is not easy to come by, ask other top four teams who haven’t smelt one for yrs *cough* arsenal *cough* so we should not be taking anyone for granted. If we won only the CL last year, we would be desperate for this cup; I think we’re a bit spoilt at United. I say, field a strong side and trash Zenit b y 3 goals, that’ll be the biggest morale boost our team will get.
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@Red Ranter: Having a target man in the box and getting crosses in from deep is far easier to deal with for a defender, and quick, crisp, penetrative football is the way we should always be looking to play football.
I can understand having a target man as an option for when the team just isn’t at the races, or when the opposition are just holding out with eleven men in and around their box and we’re running out of ideas, which is probably what you meant. However, i’m only really looking to this player as an impact sub when needed. This player is not berbatov, he will not be an impact sub and he’s not the kind to charge around in the box anyway.
Manucho looks like this player to me. The way i look at it, if fergie got him on trial and was impressed enough to sign him at 24 (something like that) then he must have something about him. He is not a kid, he was not bought to be developed into a good striker. Manucho is at an age where he should be challenging the first team and fergie brought him in like this. Also, he’s african and should adapt well to the premiership, being a physical player. I’ve not seen much of him, but i’m going to assume he’s here to do that job.
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@Gabriel: I think we will agree to disagree mate all I am saying is look at the bigger picture alround, we will give the “kids” a chance in a competetive game which will bring them on, and also protect our more established players.
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@Craig Mc: craig
pool have won the super cup. they won it in 2001 i think as uefa cup holders and in 2005 also they defeated cska moscow. Its the Intercontinental club honor probably you are talking about that pool are yet to win. we won it last time (in 99) and can win it again this year. AC Milan are the current holders.
it wouldn’t be bad to win a few cup competitions and raise our profile internationally and in Europe. not that its not so big but winning tournaments like that help!
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