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.
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- Man Utd v Portsmouth: FA Cup Preview
- Man Utd v Portsmouth: Preview
- Man Utd Blog 2007/2008 Home Kit
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Opti (541)
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Moscow is my heaven (272)
Liam – haha, you didn’t notice Vida, playing like he was on an assault course. Flying through the air with more perfection than a gymnast, as he somersaulted over an attackers head but still came out with the ball. Going off the pitch bleeding from a gashed head wound, after colliding fiercely to make sure he got the ball in that particular header. Making a right nuiscance of himself, lamping everybody in sight, to protect our goalmouth. You really didn’t notice?. Shame on you then.
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Michael, re Berbatov, I couldn’t agree with you less mate. I love him, I want him, he’s class with a Capital C.
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Penguin, I noticed Roy Keane when he was playing. He was all mouth and a dirty Bastard.
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Has anybody else seen this.
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@micheal:
Atlast somebody talking some sense!
1. He won’t fit in to the United system.
2. We have numerous players who drop deep. (Eg Rooney, Tevez, etc). We don’t need another link up man.
3. His attitude stinks. I wouldn’t want a player coming to OT after acting like a big cry baby.
4. He is too old at 28 years old to command a £30 million price tag.
5. His first touch maybe good but he is slow and lazy.
I’m gonna come under stick for saying that but any constructive comments are welcome.
We need a player like Karim Benzema. 5 years younger and may actually be worth £30 million alone for potential alone!
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@TinManUnited:
If Cloughy was so great why did he join Manchester United instead of staying at Nottingham Forest?
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@Penguin: Haha, I completely agree with your appreciation of the “didnt notice him that much so he must be good”
A club of United’s standing should not settle for an averagely good player, even as back-up. The backup I want should be in the mould of Wes Brown, so good that he can legitimately challenge for the first team place, which in the end he did quite successfully.
I sincerley think that O’Shea is a good player and important to have as back up but only in defence, never in midfield.
Oh, and I also completely agree with your appreciation of our centre backs performance..
However, I have to question your assesment of Possebon, quote: “his pass often has to go sideways” That’s very unfair, in the sense that Scholes himself often passes sideways to spread the game, as did Keane in his time. The concept of passing sideways is a very imortant one as it allows the spreading of the game, lulling the opponents into a slower pace of play so that one acceleration of our play (be it individual or through passes) overwhelms them. I’ve personally never liked us playing the early forward pass as there is the risk of losing the ball early and not building any kind of momentum and allowing the said momentum to the opposition.
While i’m also very confident in Possebon’s passing qualities, you must admit that very few players in the league, no make that in the world , have Carrick’s knack for precise through balls, whcih is let’s be fair, his main asset.
All in all I’d rather Rodrigo develop more into a Keane or Scholes anchor-like CM than the Carrick like creator, but that’s just me.
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@AlphaRS: i totally disagree with you mate. While i do have a few complaints with the way he’s conducted himself he was promised his desired by Daniel “the cunt” Levy himself if he played for an additional year with the team. Now he’s gone back on his word and that would piss the fuck out of anyone.
His style of play isn’t similar to tevez and rooney- the guy is tall,good in the air and can hold the ball up and bring others into play with his unbelievable vission. He’s also a damn good finisher he scored 46 goals in 2 seasons at spurs which says a lot mate. Add the fact he’s got one of the best first touches in the premier league and you have a heck of a player on yuor hand. I would have preferred huntelaar but berbatov would be a great signing none the less.
As for your rant regarding his price tag. He isnt commanding the fee and its not his valuation in any case.Its the fucking cunt Levy trying to hold us to ransom. So i don’t we should holding Berbatov’s 30 million price tag against him.
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@Sidharth:
he was promised his desired by Daniel “the cunt” Levy himself if he played for an additional year with the team.
When was he promised? Any quotes from either Berbatov or Levy to prove this? Or are you going by news paper speculation?
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@TinManUnited: i absolutely hate that guy now, absolutely hate him, and i wish he had never joined our club. He is one player i dont like, he’s a fucking twat he is.
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AlphaRS
The problem with benzema is the price Lyon have put on him, he does not want to come to united and he signed a new contact, and actually he is 7 years younger at the age of 20 there is bags of potential. I still think he needs to prove that he is worth all the money Lyon have put on him, I am still annoyed we did not sign torres in the first place then all this talk of buying benzama or berbertov would not have come up and ribery would have been nice is well instead of tevez and nani even though those two are cracking young players.
but what as annoyed me is the media and certain sections of united fans still obsessed with van nistlerooy we have not replaced him, then what as ronaldo being doing playing tiddlywinks for the past two seasons he is the replacement just because he is not a striker by trade does not mean he has not replaced him, it annoys me when people still say we need another van nistlerooy even though for the past two seasons we have won back to back titles and a European cup. in dec 2005 no one thought we would win the league let alone back to back titles and a European cup, say what you like ronaldo had a freak season he still done it and as not relied on his team mates to supplying him the ball unlike van nistlerooy, united have moved on from that type of striker and the way the media and certain fans moan about united it’s like if they still think united should play in straight lines. they play a fluid system where players change positions, until people realise united are less effective with a target man then they will never appreciate United’s football. Remember the media saying how good would arsenal be with owen even though they had bergkamp and henry they are just never keeping up with the times and rooney and tevez is the way forward, here is an example of the clown who wrote the worst article since smyth prediction of united finishing 5th who are both from guess who the guardian
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/08/26/united_need_forward_thinking_t.html
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@Red Ranter: Correct me if i’m wrong, but didn’t martin jol quote something along the same lines after he was sacked, cant remember the details.
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AlphaRS: I would love to see Benzema in the red shirt but players of his ilk are in short supply. Lyon don’t want to sell, Benzema doesn’t want to leave. That one is dead in the water.
I have reservations about Berbatov but, IMO, to take down Chelsea over the course of this season we will need the extra strength in depth up front and firepower he brings.
He may not be a target man in the traditional sense of the word but some of his hold up play over the last two years has been exceptional. One of the biggest reservations I have about the current team is its inability to make the ball stick up top when games aren’t going well. Berbatov is certainly vastly superior in terms of hold up play than anybody else in the squad (bar possibly an in-form Saha).
Second point, back to my favorite, stats
He is the second most productive player in the league over the last two years just behind Rooney and of course Ronaldo.
Third, when he turns it on he can be devastating even in big games. I have seen him turn games against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea almost single handedly.
Temperament – yes a concern. His behavior over this transfer hardly suggests he is a man you would want to be in the trenches with. That said, if he gets his dream move I would expect a couple of trouble free years at least.
Finally the age issue, yes he is 28 (?) but given that he is a player who relies on touch and vision rather than pace I would expect him to go on well into his 30s.
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@Sidharth: He said something on the lines of “berba’s mind was set on joining United” or something like that. Not sure if he said there was a deal of some sort by which he could move on to United after a season.
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@JB: He’s 27. So it’s not too bad. Critics have started bumping up his age to 28 and a couple of days I saw some saying he’s 30! He turned 27 in January from what I read. So it really isn’t too bad.
If I get three good productive years from him, I wouldn’t worry. It’s the best you can expect from a modern day footballer anyway.
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Our reserves just came back from 0-2 down to draw 2-2 against Chelsea reserves. And it seems Fabio da Silva got us the first goal through a 25-yd thunderbolt! Yippee!! Can’t wait for the video link
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Red Ranter
berbertov comes with so much baggage and will be a bad signing he is a bad apple that needs to rot at spurs, and thats a myth we have got 5 years out of ronaldo this will be his sixth year with united 4 out of rooney his 5th year coming up and rooney and as another 12 more years to give or more, I always said this buy them younger and then you will not need to spend another load of money to replace that player in a phew years time. when united spend 30 million on a player I expect to get 7 to 8 or 10 years out of a player not 3 that is wasted money. look at ferdinand been here 6 years and is still in the prime of his career.
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RedRanter, Martin Jol did say Berba’s heart was with Mancherster United, but they had persuaded him to stay for another year, and if United came in again they would let him go. Jol said this only after he left Spurs though, from his German camp, when he was on a rant and being interviewed ? by German or English radio. I remember hearing Jol going on about things that had happened at spurs.
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Michael: I read that article this morning and I agree with you, it is lazy journalism. This notion that you need a traditional goal poaching centre forward to thrive at the highest level belongs in the past. There was one nugget of wisdom though amongst the comments regarding traditional strikers like RVN, Inzaghi, Shearer
“Nevertheless, they become a focal point and perhaps a bottleneck when a team is extremely creative and fluent.”
Nevertheless, I would not classify Berbatov amongst that style of player (yet more lazy journalism incidentally
).
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Anybody know what has happened at MUTV re the reserve games. We used to get to see all the reserve teams LIVE last season. I enjoyed that.
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Okay, here’s the video link
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@JB: That article is crap. One point was hilarious though, “The hosts dominated possession in the first half” , from what I saw it was 62-38 to United.
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Good news on Berba front!
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@antsBoy: HAHAHA, Thanks Antsboy, love the commentary from Chelsea TV where they have to concede that United just never give up!
And Fabio, my god!
Fergie just has to give him a few minutes in the league. My guess is we would have played better against Pompey with Fabio as LM and Evra as LB.
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apparently pavlyuchenko has signed for spurs! hopefully berba will be released soon.
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@RedDevil: ah you beat me to it
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I missed the game too, but I am happy to hear that everyone was playing good. For the time being we all should get used to wins like this. Hopefully by the next game we will have Hargo and Nani back, which should help us a lot, also we need to finish the deal for Berba, if we cab stay in touch with Cheskie until Ronaldo returns, then we can make it. Can’t believe that Fletcher is our only scorer
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JB
that is my point bebertov likes to play in the hole where rooney and tevez do so that won’t solve the problem only make it worse because all three all like to play narrow who is going to go wide we have seen the media have tantrums and fits seeing rooney play wide, and is it only the British media that are still obsessed with the out an out striker that united need a target man, in Portugal they don’t ever produce any out an out striker un the way the British media seem to be obsessed over with and when Portugal do produce them they are shockingly bad at it, but the closest thing to a central striker Portugal have is ronaldo and he is a winger.
Argentina don’t produce strikers in the way the media seem to think united need what do Argentina produce players like messi tevez and aguero not exactly strikers but are some of the very top talents in the world and the scary thing is they are all under 24 years old. what makes me laugh the media and pundits all think that Dafoe and crouch is a sensational partnership raving about the old fashioned little and large combination that was put in the dust bin years ago, yet they all thought and still think rooney and tevez cant play together strange isn’t it. Criticise a pairing that are some of the most exciting players in the world and hype two average players who can’t get into any of the top sides.
Let’s look at crouch and Dafoe they can’t hold the ball none of them drop deep which is the reason for pompeys lack of creativity and none of them can carry the ball and run at defenders in the way rooney and tevez do because they need service, they cannot create for them selves which is one of the reasons why van nistlerooy was sold. I have always said this rooney and tevez are more then goalscorers they make things happen they can run at defenders and they change positions which is something alot of the media cannot understand which is the reason why england fail because they play in straight lines, and in the big games they are massive players. look at ronaldo not a striker by trade but he has replaced van nistlerooy, you dont have to be a striker by trade to be the main goalscorer and I dont recall since the 05/06 season ronaldo as scored in total 78 goals.
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@RedDevil:
thank god if its true. bring on Berbatov!
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Ok I’ll give up on the O’Shea argument. It just annoys me people saying he shouldn’t play DM when we kept a clean sheet and he played pretty well IMO.
@micheal: I gave up trying to convince everyone that Berba would be a bad signing a few weeks ago because tbh people aren’t going to change their minds based on what me and you say although Grognard seemed to have turned anti-Berba before he left. When you look at some of the other players you could get for that price e.g. Villa and Eto’o who are out and out strikers and are goal first assist second type of players instead of the assist first goal second players like Berba then I think we’d be better off. Berbatov scored 15 league goals last season. That is what I’d expect from Rooney or Tevez not my main striker. And before anyone says its only Spurs, they had the second best attack in the league last season so to say that he didnt get service is wrong
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Liam
you are propably right but I cant help it, I get so cheesed off with people going on this berbertov bandwagon when they forget what we done the previous two season. why do people want to break this ferrari that is not broke. I agree eto’o villa are available and it shows we should have signed fernando torres it realy does eat at me on what we missed out on alng with franck ribery, imagine ronaldo ribery rooney torres mouth watering.
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Berbas gonna light up the Theatre, a class act, made for United, watch and see
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@TinManUnited: Whats his problem anyway? Is he sour that he got ousted by United or that we’re not selling him Evans? It seems like he’s always trying to top himself with the rubbish he sprouts.
@Liam: Well Fergie seems to think Berbatov is the right player for the team, so….. Anyway in your opinion, who would be better for United, Berbatov or Huntelaar?
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Villa: Too short to lead the line and possibly not a big enough physical build.
Eto’o: Suspect injury record with his knee and giant ego to boot.
Torres: Turned us down at the last minute the year before joining Liverpool after he was followed by United for about 3 years.
They all have their upsides and downsides and there is no point in crying over spilt milk. The manager has decided that the man he wants is Berbatov and given his almost flawless transfer record over the last three/four seasons I’m inclined to trust his judgment on this one.
Liam: Just because O’Shea played well and kept a clean sheet doesn’t mean he merits his place in there. He is there because of an injury crisis. He is too clumsy in possession to be a long term option there. He has fulfilled his role as a utility player and filled a gap but hopefully it is the last time we see him in midfield this season.
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@Rd: With regards to the Berba, Huntelaar debate, i’ll post a comment I read somewhere with my additions of course:
For Berbatov i’d say he is quite similar to Teddy Sheringham – great brain, great touch (Berbatov’s best attribute), good finish, good height, not the best pace.
For Huntelaar i’d say he is quite similar to Shearer, Fowler, Pippo Inzaghi (without the off-sides), RVN. Huntelaar is more or less the perfect “old fashioned” striker. They do what other players can’t – convert most of their chances – but they create almost nothing for themselves. It’s perhaps unfair to point out that they convert what others create because their talent for positioning and finishing means that they’re much less fussy about their creativity than most players. Nevertheless, they become a focal point and perhaps a bottleneck when a team is extremely creative and fluent. There is now little call for this style of player at the highest level and there are very few players of this kind who are so exceptional that they can play for the best teams (look, for example at Huntelaar’s extended stay in Holland).
When we sold RVN, we began to play a more fluid type of football – on the deck, shorter passes, more movement, quicker tempo. It won us some trophies.
We do need a striker but maybe not Berba or Huntelaar. Berbatov is an excellent player but he would add little to a team that contains Rooney and Tevez (and that would be height) – his conversion rate is a better than theirs but not much. To complete this side we need a striker with real pace: an Henry (a few years ago, when he was good) or a Torres.
I’m sure many will disagree but the player we should have signed is Anelka… maybe Fergie is waiting for a re-incarnation of the Henry/Anelka player in Benzema?
What I do know is Berba can hit the ground running, he wouldn’t take weeks to settle in, he is a proven goal scorer in the epl – 46 in two seasons – can definately create enough problems for opposing teams and more importantly create chances for our other players too. If only Saha wasn’t in love with our head nurse, then i reckon SAF would have held-off for a Benzema….
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Gabriel: That is the same comment I noticed when I was reading through the guardian blog
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@JB: yeah, and it echoed my thoughts exactly, if not more eloquently
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@JB: also added a bit of spice to it, eh?
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JB
I dont think torres turned us down especially with uniteds success in the 06/07 season and the thought of playing with the likes of ferdinand vidic evra scholes ronaldo giggs rooney I just think united lost interest and atletico madrid screwing united for money up to 35 million pounds, and with liverpool not looking like getting anywhere near united that is what I suspected realy happened.
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Yes I noticed a couple of minor additions to it
For the record, it is the same stance as I have on the matter. But, no Benzema + need a striker now = Berbatov!
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@micheal: Portugal had pauleta and were a more dangerous side with him in the national team. The portugal camp at the euro’s were worried about the lack of a natural striker, they really could have used one.
Messi, tevez and aguero, because they are exceptional talents and because the rest of the team is brilliant, almost get away with playing without an out-and-out striker but they were on another level when crespo played. He provided a genuine goal threat and brought more out of messi, aguero and tevez than they ever will when playing together.
The little and large partnership will never be out the window. One target man with his back to goal – a real typical centre forward – and a quick, sharp little striker – two complimentary styles mate so it will always work. I don’t rate crouch but defoe is a good striker. I think it will be interesting to see their partnership this year. I bet they have a fair bit of success (a better target man and they would be full of goals).
I agree that having a forward who drops off and is creative is a very good option to have, and one that the top teams use. They have that little bit extra. You can’t get away with having both forwards like this though, it doesn’t work. A long option with a goal threat is a requirement, a creative free-roaming player is a luxury.
Ronaldo hasn’t replaced van nistelrooy. There is no reason at all why a team can’t have ronaldo in his position and a goalscoring striker. The need for a van nistelrooy-type player was emphasised last year when rooney was injured. Tevez just doesn’t play on the centre-halves, and while rooney was out there was no-one to lead the line (with saha being saha). I imagine when rooney was out fergie wished he still had van nistelrooy.
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@JB: why should we base our search for a quality striker on whether he is tall? Aguero isnt the tallest player in the world and I would take him over any striker in the world right now and he did a good job of leading the line in the olympics. Maybe irrelevant but IMO we are willing to accept a worse player just because he is tall. If we buy a tall striker it would justify Vidic and Rio to throw up those long balls which I really want to stop. Villa has good pace, strength and finishing and I think that the only reason we haven’t been linked with him is because he isnt 6 foot 4
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Liam: I also think eto’o and villa would be better options and i think torres would have been brilliant, but just because berbatov is similar to tevez and rooney doesn’t mean he will be a bad signing. He will be brilliant for united. Simple. He is too good a player not to be. I can make peace with the fact rooney will play on the shoulder and berbatov can drop into space, because i don’t share the opinion of the majority of fans who believe rooney is weak right up top.
Also, it’s because you said you ‘didn’t notice o’shea so he must have been good’. How can someone who was invisible have had a good game? A good defensive display – breaking up play, either intecepting passes or tackling, covering teammates, tracking runners, etc. – is as noticeable as a good attacking display, so really you are saying yourself that o’shea never done his job particularly well and was largely ineffective.
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Guys i literally cannot believe this
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Out of ALL people….
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Liam: True, but buying Villa adds another midget to a team of midgets. Height isn’t a necessity, but I wouldn’t object to a bit more aerial clout in our attack. Maybe Aguero did a fine job in the Olympics, in the same way that Rooney sometimes does a fine job at leading the line. Doesn’t mean that is the proper way to use either of them though.
Aguero will generally play off Forlan at club level, while Villa will frequently play off either Morientes/Torres. Berbatov’s suitability is being criticized for his preference to drop deep and link play, well neither of the other two are that dissimilar in terms of preferred positioning. In addition Madrid have reportedly had a 47m euro (£37m) bid rejected for Villa, making him even more expensive that Berbatov (Aguero’s buyout clause is approx 55m euro).
Just on another point there is nothing wrong with playing long balls from the back, we did so frequently last year. What was the bigger problem was the poor execution on Monday night. It gives the opposition a lot more to think about if you can quickly pass your way up the field or play a long pass over the top into an oncoming forwards path. You just need to avoid the trap Pompey fell into, namely aiming everything at Crouch’s head.
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@Mike: forget berbatov… our next signing should be some fucking sunshine… it’s not just vidic who is sick of the bloody weather… im fed up with it as well… but you don’t see me angling for a move to spain..
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@JB: Villa plays on the shoulder of the last defender, not in a withdrawn position.
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@tevez: Yes but he can’t head. And even Eto’o is a poor header of the ball.
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@Red Ranter: I always thought Villa was good at heading but I suppose I don’t watch Spanish football anymore so he may have worsened
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