Feb 28
Red Rants’ Paper round-up
After yesterday saw a positive start to our new feature, let’s see what the papers say today about Manchester United.
The Guardian and the Sun reports that Scholes believe can’t afford any other mistakes from here to the end of the season if they’re to retain the title.
The Independent runs the same story, along with the news that, according to his agent, Paul Pogba might be on his way out of Old Trafford.
Pogba’s case occupies the Daily Mail‘s pages as well, with more quotes from his agent.
The Mirror has more transfer news, reporting that Birmingham City are keen to take Ritchie de Laet on loan to the St. Andrews, while the Telegraph pays tribute to Gary Neville’s excellent start to his career with Sky Sports.
Finally, the Manchester Evening News reveals that Tom Cleverley might be in line for a sooner-than-expected return as he’s set his eyes on Athletic Bilbao’s visit to Old Trafford next week, after it was revealed that his ankle injury isn’t as serious as originally thought.
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Tags: Paper Round-up
The_Philosopher (408)
Redrich (221)
Opti (210)
Stephen (151)
Moscow (147)
WTF is Danny Welbeck talking about saying “nothing will stop Man Utd winning the title this season.” Oh yes it can Danny boy, and a good thing to do is look at yourself – keep missing chance, after chance, after chance. That is what can stop United winning the PL – not taking so many fookin chances to put the ball where it should be in the net. So stop spouting crap Danny and show some balls on the field inside of shouting your mouth of on it. You have won nothing yet boy-o. You should look at scholesy and Giggsy – now they are hungry, and if we get it done it won’t be down to you Danny – so many games, so many more easy chances for you to score, and far too many misses. Yes you do piss me off!
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@Craig Mc: I know you hate him, but seriously mate give the lad a break.
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People bashing Danny Welbeck should really get a grip. Talking about how he’s high mouthed and shouldn’t be confident, what the fuck is that all about? Do you all want him to sound like a weak, soft lad who doesn’t have an inch of belief in himself? Now what kind of fear does that give opponents! He hasn’t won anything yet, only managed to score the winning goal in the 2007/08 FA Youth Cup final, and be part of the 2008/09 Carling Cup winning team. I think he’s scored the match-winning goal at the Emirates this season as well hasn’t he? Won us 3 penalties, scored a crucial goal away to City, the opening goal in the confident wins against Spurs, Fulham and Arsenal… Yes of course, that counts for nothing! I’m not saying we should praise him as if he was the second coming of Eric Cantona, but the amount of critisism he gets on here is incredible! He could have had more goals, but he is a young striker and being prolific is very much an ability that comes with age. Rooney missed tons of chances when he was younger, he was being critisized for not scoring more but now look at him! Nonetheless, people were always willing to give him time, how come Danny doesn’t get the same? I tell you, had it been any other player he would have gotten praise for actually managing to get into all those goalscoring positions. I for one am impressed with that, his overall movement is magnificent and you can see that both Chicho and Rooney relish playing with him.
I for one was baffled as to how he missed those two chances against Norwich, but despite focusing 100% on his missed chances I would also look at his movement to get into those positions. There is a reason why he has overtaken Berbatov and Chicha up front, and why he gets to all these chances. His movement opened up enough space for Rooney to get his second against Liverpool, and it was his quick thinking that set Valencia on his way to cross for Rooney in the move that eventually led to Chicha’s equaliser at Stamford Bridge. It’s not often a striker get’s 3 or 4 goal-mouth chances at the Emirates Stadium, despite it being a weaker Arsenal team than what we have seen in the past they still are a formidable force. Top strikers have come unstuck against them, yet here was Danny tearing them to shreads before eventually getting his goal. I’m a fan of Welbeck, not because he is a youth-team product and a Manc through and through, but because I can relish intelligent footballers. His overall play is beautiful to watch, and the way he manages to create and find space reminds me very much of Paul Scholes. Instead of telling him not to be so cocky, we should be happy that we see a young player from our own ranks be so confident in his own ability. I am dissapointed if he tries to force this club into a bigger pay-check, but frankly I can understand him. He is a top footballer who deserves to be paid what he deserves, and we should actually try to praise loyalty instead of punishing it. The people who say Danny shouldn’t be paid more money are the same who tell Fergie to cash out on Pogba. Some things just don’t make sense to me…
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@RedDevilEddy: Welbeck is a top player WTF??!?!?! What has he done to prove that??!?! TOP PLAYER is bandied about too casually these days…
To be brutally honest here, Welbeck simply does not have the finishing ability that our club’s standards demand. There is no such thing as a link-up striker in modern football, no place in a modern formation for that kind of player. The poacher role is also becoming obsolete, the highest station they can achieve is the role of a super-sub.
Welbeck misses too many chances, and his dribbling and physical presence is simply not good enough for the game and formation that we should aspire to use. He might make it at a lower club, but unless we have suddenly lowered our expectations from the likes of RvN, Saha and Ronaldo, he is not and will not be United quality.
The excuse about him being young is tiresome, remember one of the famous sayings at our club, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough?
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I fear for the future of football. The younger generations, everything about the beautiful game’s future disgust me. Here I was, playing FIFA, when it struck me how dumb those game-creators are. I’ve been bashing them for trying to make the game too Barca-esque for months now, but playing the game today it finally struck me that it’s not even that. Some people just don’t seem to understand what football is about. I’m not talking about goals, or trophies, but what actually makes football a game. The word: Movement.
We live, and grow up in a world where life is dominated by social media. And if we put it strictly on football, it’s youtube. We see skills, people like Neymar, Ronaldo, Quaresma and Taarabt who can humiliate an opponents with a brand-new trick that will make everyone want to learn it. But it’s not what football is about. People talk about Ronaldo and Messi as the best in the world, mainly because of the goals they score and the manner in which they do it. But ask me, and I’ll tell you the best players on the planet right now are Xavi, Iniesta and Scholes. The media will diminish their ability and focus on the amount of goals and assists they get. Fernando Torres has become ridiculed by everyone in the world because he just doesn’t seem able to get the ball in the net, but whenever I’ve watched Chelsea play this season I’ve actually been impressed by him. He drags opponents with him, opens up space for Mata, Sturridge and Lampard, and had it not been for this modern-world attitude of goals make players he would have been raised up in the skies. People are just too close minded, and I actually fear for his future. Yes, Fernando Torres doesn’t score but he plays so incredibly well for the team and I for one can’t understand why on earth Villas-Boas doesn’t take advantage of that. Play with two up front, let Torres create room for his strike partner and take advantage of what is created by the other. It will never happen with Drogba as he’s simply put a beast who doesn’t need to use his brain to score goals.
This is what the Spaniards do so well. They don’t create super-human players, they promote intelligence and create “Einsteins of football”. You’ve not got Xavi who you only see make one full sprint during the entire game, but goes the other 89 minutes just jogging around on the pitch, seeing space, moving into it, passing the ball and then move into space again. If he has a man-marker, he makes sure to make one run to drag the attention of his marker only to go back or move into another direction himself. He wins 10 yards on just that simple movement, and a player of his quality only needs 2 to make a difference. There are too many ego’s out there these days not willing to make a sacrefice for the team, but instead go for glory themselves. Of course, to win a game you have to score goals, but if you’ve got 11 players on the pitch who have movement, vision, and passing ability you can just move the ball for 20 minutes until you eventually get it into the net. As the saying goes “You need two people to make a good pass/cross”, and we don’t see enough encouragement in that area these days. Growing up admiring the likes of Zidane, Becks and Bergkamp, I always looked at their fancy flicks or accurate passing. But getting older I realised getting into areas where you can recieve the ball to make those kind of passes, and then having the vision to get them right, that is what makes football. As I said earlier about Danny Welbeck, he misses a lot of chances but the fact that he gets on the end of so many is something that should be admired. Look at how he got free from his marker to get to his missed header, it’s something that too few people focus on. “Experts”, or whatever you choose to call them, have all said “If Giggsy didn’t score Welbeck would have had many sleepless nights”. Yes, of course it’s true, but I bet he’ll have many sleepless nights just missing it. Winning a game doesn’t mean it’s all forgotten. Had he buried his header, it would be plenty of people analysing his run and how he managed to get himself away from his marker in the last minute. He didn’t score, so what? The run should be apprectiated.
Which brings me to my last point. United have got some of the smallest lads in the Premier League if you look at our stars in the last third. Chicharito, Rooney, Giggs, Scholes, Valencia… They’re all “midgets”. Yet, United are the team who have scored on the most crosses in the Premier League. How come? Again, movement. Looking at Scholesy’s goal on Sunday you notice how he arrives in the box, with a marker, but stops in his run only to get behind the Norwich player and then bury the header. It’s beautiful. Chicharito have scored goals against Chelsea, Bolton and Everton, all of which have come from crosses. Against the likes of Cahill, Jagielka, Luiz, and Knight. No mean feet for a small lad. His movement is exceptional, he manages to confuse every defender in his way and drag them out of their original position, and before they know where on earth they are the ball is in the back of the net. And that’s just in the attacking third. Looking at our midfield, the wings, the movement is exceptional. Scholes is probably the best in the world on doing exactly that, but Carrick is also incredibly tough to mark. When you’ve got his passing range, trying to stop him from moving forward makes no sense so the only way to stop him is getting close to him. Yet, we see him parade the midfield without anybody managing to put a foot in when he’s got the ball. Cleverley, despite not having too many apperances you can see his footballing brain light up the pitch. If he’s closed down, a simple pass can open up a whole midfield just because he’s got the vision and understanding with his team-mates to make that ball. He’s impossible to stop when in full flow, and you can see he has learnt from the Ginger Prince.
The sooner people start to appreciate the likes of Xavi and Scholes, the better. Those guys make football what is Beautiful.
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@RedDevilEddy: Chicharito YES, scholesy – YES, and even Tom Clev – YES, but Welbeck No I don’t see it and all your talking Eddi mi man won’t convince me until I SEE IT – soz mate!
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If Welbeck is a top footballer – I’m a dutchman! That’s all I got to say. He misses chances that no TOP footballer would miss, and it is accolades from people like you Eddi that makes him go shouting to the press that NOBODY WILL STOP UNITED WINNING THE PL THIS SEASON. That is cocky, and if United don’t win he is going to look stupid. Just keep the mouth shut and do the talking on the pitch – that’s all. I don’t hate him, I give stick to any of our players including Wazza who go for months and months missing chance after chance after chance. Rooney has won a lot and has the right to mouth off and say he is confident that United can take the league again, but to say nobody can stop us like Welbeck is saying is ridiculous because City will definately think they can stop us and Spurs too starting on saturday. It is ridiculous to put pressure on yourself like that. A good few on here have said that Welbeck is too cocky and I agree with them. You have your own opinion and I have mine – I wont be changing it about Welbeck anytime soon – soz Eddi.
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@Craig Mc: Then: hallo, Craig van Mc.
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@Opti:
you got me there OPTI 
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By the way Eddi FOOTBALL IS GOALS – you can’t win without them no matter how fancy your movement.
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@Craig Mc: Of course football games are decided by scoring goals, but if the Beautiful games is just about shooting a round ball into a net I don’t want to be part of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnQad_ulgQ
That there is football to me! Pass, move, pass, move, pass, move, score. I’m not surprised we had Yorke, Sheringham, Scholes and Becks on the pitch when we scored that goals, those guys knew how to play.
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Reading all of the above comments I feel I have to put in my two cents worth. I have never been a fan of Welbeck, for me he lacks that wow factor which a World Class player offers. He is far too cocky, remember the Usain Bolt goal celebration? To say Rooney missed loads of chances when he was 21 is also a fallacy, when he was 21 he netted 23 goals and was largely played wide left.
Also when was Saha one of players which we compare all the rest by?!
Welbeck is still young and developing, he has the potential simply due to his age to improve. Like Craig, Moscow I do not see enough in him at 21 which we all saw in Rooney, Ronaldo and many others at the same age. Also Eddy is AVB now not a managerial genius as he isn’t utilising Torres? Only joking mate, Truthfully it is not his fault, Torres looks like a player who needs to leave England, go back to Spain and start again, he is crushed.
Eddy your loyalty to certain players is great and I love love it. But you seem to like players such as Alan Smith, Anderson Louis Saha and Welbeck who are not quite the highest echelon on United’s player hierarchy. This naturally leaves you a little open, I admire you loyalty and support mate, this is not a criticism of you, far from it, but the players you support leave you vulnerable.
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