Aug 25
Preview: Portsmouth v Man Utd
It’s bank holiday Monday as United travel to Fratton Park in what has proven to be a tricky encounter in recent times. Last season Paul Scholes’ opener was cancelled out by Benjani’s equaliser giving us a 1-1 draw. It was one of the wretched few games that kick started, what turned out to be, a rather famous season.
We must consider our chances of getting a result this time better. We have Rooney partnering Tevez this time which is always better than what we had against Newcastle. But more importantly, we are facing an abject looking Portsmouth team.
Of course, I do realise that I may have tempted fate by calling Pompey abject. David James might suddenly become as good as Casillas or Buffon and so, like the cliche goes, an early goal will surely help settle the nerves.
In team news, Owen Hargreaves, Park Ji-Sung are still in training while Nani is still smarting from the consequences of his bird brained head butt against West Ham last season. I wouldn’t know Louis Saha’s injury situation, so it would be a bonus if he ever featured on the bench. Carrick and Giggs are out after picking up injuries last week.
We seem short of options on the wing. So it would be really interesting to see who Fergie decides to play on the wing. Whilst it might be tempting for the gaffer to persist with Fletcher on the right like last week — although he doesn’t offer much over there — I’d hope he plays him in the middle of the park instead, alongside Scholes. I am sure a lot of people may be clamouring for the inclusion of Rodrigo Possebon in the middle, but plunging him into the deep end against a very physical midfield, away from home — when we are already doing a bit of catching up — would not necessarily be a wise thing to do. We have Anderson returning, so we could see him making the bench if he’s in the frame of mind. I suspect one of the Brazilian twins will be played on the wings. Raphael might start on the right. I honestly don’t know who’ll play on the left so we may as well throw Fabio in to the mix. The defence seems settled, but there is a chance Gary Neville might earn his first start of the season.
In some positives to take, going into today’s game, Chelsea returned to their usual disjointed snore fest style of football against a willing Wigan side. They got the result they wanted nonetheless, but it also shows the kind of team Pompey were last week. It’s just a thought — not something I’d want to read too much into as the season’s just gotten underway. Winning today could propel us into third spot behind Chelsea and (oh-my-God!) Liverpool.
Prediction: 2-1 to United.
* * *
Customary Berbatov Update:
Nothing for certain yet, but it looks more and more likely that Berbatov is not in people’s good books at Spurs. And I can understand Spurs fans feelings with the way Berba’s treated them. For all Ronaldo’s faults I am pretty sure he wouldn’t be throwing the sort of tantrums Berba seems to be throwing at White Hart Lane. We’ve had parallels, in the cases of Gareth Barry and Adebayor, already this summer, but Berbatov still looks the most likely of the three to actually move.
I would be surprised if he stayed in Spurs beyond August 31.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Man Utd v Spurs match thread
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Man Utd v Portsmouth: FA Cup Preview
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (483)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Justin Tv
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i hate how portsmouth play…let’s get a bunch of thugs in the mid and send long balls to crouch and hope one or two deflect to defoe.
i know everyone says “we need to have experience on the pitch…JOS should start over Rodrigo and Feltcher is our best option on the right” Laughable. I realize JOS is playing more CDM right now, but he is NOT a starter, ever in a million years. Put Fletcher in the middle so we have someone to cross to (who is over 5’10″) and put RDS on the right so we have some pace and trickery. Am I losing my mind here?
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not really playing like that, I have to say…
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Fletcher!
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not pretty but i will take it
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@Andrei: Are you kidding me?!?!? Are we watching the same game?!?!? All they are doing is sending in long balls to Crouch.
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Hey RR, try beatfiltering.com to get past the blocking at work… it’s what my cousins use in Turkey to watch youtube videos that the government censors from time to time.
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Fletcher…
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what a miss Roo!
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and he misses again!!! how many more before u start scoring rooney!!!
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Comon Roo!!.
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Too bad I’ll only be able to catch the first half here at the school library…
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i wasnt impressed with rooney’s shooting but his touch and play in general seemed an improvement on last match (not exactly hard though)
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Hmmm… I don’t know but JustinTV’s low res can give me inaccurate appreciation of players, but I thought Andy wasnt much involved except for the end of the half…
Anyone feeling we are not witnessing the Andy we love?
Oh and Fletcher to finish with double figure number of goals this season?
How about twelve goals for Fletch? 
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@t_reason: You do support the team don’t you?
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So far, Rooney is the second best player on the pitch. Evra is having a blinder!.
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Darran Fletcher = Goal Machine
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Rooney is playing a blinder! he is creating more than anyone else and you can’t really fault his shooting because they were all pretty difficult chances. The problem for me is Tevez isn’t getting up to support him as much as he should. Also what the hell is up with our midfield? Ando doesnt seem to know where he is playing. He is all over the place. We are playing a bit narrow and only have width when Evra(our best player in that half) and Brown get forward.
Btw Fletch has the same amount of goals as Gerrard, Torres and Keane combined
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What a finish by rooney pity that blind linesman gave it as offside
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@RichmondRed: yes i do, and thats why i care…just want to see rooney where he really should be
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well Rooney just scored
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@t_reason: He is where he should be, you don’t see him going into our own half as often as he did during the newcastle game.
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I don’t think Anderson knows what day it is (literally!). But even so he’s still put a few good passes in. Even a half asleep Anderson is still a decent player. And I think Rooney and Tevez are playing really well.
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Is Anderson ever going to get one on target?
Tevez does not know what day it is, either (figurativley).
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pretty fantastic performances by tevez and scholesy. come on possebon!
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@Chris: a bit unfair on Ando. He is playing well he just got outmuscled by Distin on Rooneys cross and by Campbell(?) the time he skied it. I would like to see Campbell and a twin for Tevez and Ando, they look tired
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Anderson had a great game…
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great atmosphere and crowd, I’ll give pompey that
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wooo first win of the season
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@Jezta: You noticed that as well?
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Ahaha, at least after a quiet first 30 min, our boy Andy seemed to get gradually into the game! In the end a decent performance by him!
But Shame, shame about the linesman not giving the goal for the inexistant offside and also the referee not giving a clear penalty for a foul on Rooney.
Rooney deserved a goal today with him having had decent positioning.
And finally its plain for all to see, Possebon is ten times the CM that John O’Shea will ever be!
All in all a good second half which should have been capped by a second goal, but hey now we’re off and running!
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who would have thought fletch is gettin all the goals?
fergi should try him up front hahahahah
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Bloody hell, who was that player staying up field a bit more than usual, he must be NEW!. Fergie bought someone then?. Oh wait a minute, its the new SLIM, and toned Rooney lol!. He didn’t do bad tonight to be fair. I mean some of you moaning about long balls from Pompey lobbed up the field. What the feck did our lot keep doing a fair good amount of times. Our hobbits didn’t have a chance did they against the Giants pompey backline. In the last 10 minutes or so, we reverted back to just getting the ball out and lobbing it anywhere, so that it kept coming straight back and putting the defence under pressure. Before that we had been playing good possession football, to get us out of trouble, and that’s what Fergie needs to blast them about not doing at the end. United always seem to lose it in those last minutes of a game, and the good teams find us out. Like Arsenal have drawn games we should have won down at their place. Oh you all know what I mean!.
Don’t know what I was doing, but I missed the Rooney offside goal, when abouts was it?. Anyone?.
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@Craig Mc: Hmm, I think it was around 60min, definitely mid second half, when we were dominating and could just feel the second goal coming…
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Thanks Nico, that’s about the time I was interupted to do something I think. I will catch it on MUTV later. Was it offside then, or was the linesman having a stinker against us again?.
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@Craig Mc: mid second half – no where near offside. It’s unfortunate, because he could really use a goal.
And to all the people critizising him in here the last couple of days: No need to worry. He’s getting there.
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Il wait for rooney to put in a few games like this first…he did play really well today i must say
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Darren Fletcher… The closest thing, United has, to a striker… Sad!
Next stop: Monaco! One more title, come on!!!
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Tomas, why was his goal disallowed then?. Was somebody else in an offside position?.
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@Craig Mc: Nope the linesman was just blind
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not an easy place to get three points, deserved victory, glad to see possebon get a run, that lad will make it, scholes eske, not afraid to get stuck in, so much composure on the ball…….
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who needs ronaldo when you have darren fletcher, good game, we were a bit unlucky ill do a match report later
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@Craig Mc: The linesman got it wrong, he was a few yards onside.
Great game to watch, its totally lifted the doom and gloom we have had over the summer, and did anyone catch the Possebon song from the United crowd, seriously funny.
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@hakieran: what was it?
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@Craig Mc: it was a great finish, 2 or 3 yards onside. I notice that both of our CBs just throw up long balls in pretty much every game. It always annoys me. My God how much better has Fletcher gotten in the last few seasons? He really has become top class. Just adding to our 4 or 5 already great CMs. O’Shea did well today IMO. With a bit more strength Ando would have scored and with a bit of smarter play he would have played in Rooney for a one on one so we could have won by more
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4/6 points. Not too shabby. In my book the win over Portsmouth cancels out the draw with Newcastle seeing as we’ve dropped points against Portsmouth consistently in the past. The real battle now is getting points from the Chelsea and Pool match with a depleted squad coming back from injury.
Our possession play was tight today. Tevez in particular is a great asset as he can dribble with the ball and even if he loses it invariably wins it back. The overlapping full backs were very effective making up for our lack of wingers.
My main criticism was we have a tendency to loft hopeful balls into the box where Rooney was standing surrounded by three huge defenders with no red shirts in sight.
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Right, a fine performance from the lads considering the patched up nature of the team. Hopefully we will be heavily reinforced in time for our next game (league game at least).
VDS: Please palm those long shots over the crossbar!! Solid otherwise – 6
Brown: Better performance that last week. Good attacking support and solid defensively – 6.5
Ferdinand/Vidic: Excellent containing performance on Big Bird and Defoe. Kept the pressure from building on us and they remain the best CB partnership in the business – 8/7.5
Evra: Excellent overlapping attacking support throughout. Where would we be without him? 8
Fletcher: Given his natural lack of suitability in a wide role I have been very impressed with his performances in the last two games. Has picked up Ronaldo’s habit of making good runs into the box. Some surprisingly good skills on display – 7
Scholes: Supreme in possession tonight. Couple of misplaced balls but his movement and one touch work kept O’Shea from getting himself into bother all night. 8
O’Shea: Not a midfielder but I understand why he was starting. Is physical presence was useful in tackling Portsmouth’s legion of midfield enforcers. Hopefully we wont see him in CM too many more times this season – 6
Anderson: Combative style was useful in seeing off the Pompey midfield. Some excellent bits of work, particularly the pass to Rooney near the end of the first half – 7
Tevez: Excellent performance tonight, harried, good dribbling and solid in possession. Probably his best away performance for United. Only criticism is that he left Rooney a tad too isolated at times – 7.5
Rooney: Solid work tonight. Made good runs all night and worked the channels well. Shame he didn’t score a goal after the excellent bit of play in the first half and the incorrect offside in the second. Would have benefited from some better service from Ferdinand and Vidic – 7.5
Subs:
Possebon: Looks promising, composed in possession but you can see the inexperience in his play. Good prospect for the future – 6.5
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Some folk are feckin pathetic. Callers on MUTV saying Berbatov is not the player for United. We don’t need him, and all the other garbage about him pouting and asking for transfers. I think some United fans are being really unfair on Berbatov, Fergie has chased him all summer, same as last season, and built up his hopes again. So this time he didn’t want to miss out on coming to us, and has dug his heals in, if the papers are to be believed, and lets face it, they mostly write defamatory shite. Berba will be brilliant for us. He will certainly create a good few with our top class players around him. So lay off him all you misled MUTV callers.
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which song did they sing for rigo?
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Craig: I would love to see him here, but I have to be honest I am not particulary impressed with Berbatov’s conduct. We lambasted Ronaldo for similiar. Just because it is a player trying to engineer a move to us does not make it right.
As an aside, if Berbatov hadn’t been so impatient two years ago he would have already been at OT.
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