Aug 20
So What Does United Do Now?
This has been very disappointing. It’s so disappointing, it has me questioning Sir Alex Ferguson for the first time in years. I’ve been watching these games, and I’m seeing the same thing each of you are seeing. Quality games on our part, but no results to show for it. It’s called bad luck and we’re getting it in huge doses right now. Maybe it all started with Carlos Tevez. It seemed like it took years to finally get him from West Ham. Maybe if that had not been such a big issue, we’d have more points than we have right now. But usually, bad luck tends to wear off, and things start falling your way again. But this came cannot allow its poor start to affect its other goals.This is still here for us to win.
I still have hopes of retaining the Premier League title. I think it can still be done. The best that could have happened to us today were the draws of Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal. Even with teams like Man City, Everton, and Wigan(!) at the top of the table right now, we all know that this will not be the case come mid October. A lot of work will have to be done if we’re going to be on top come May 2008. And lets face it. Teams are not going to roll over for us. We are the defending champions. I don’t expect teams to just give us points, points are something we have to earn. Hindsight is 20/20 we all know this. Its easy for us to say we should have held onto Rossi, or that we shouldn’t have sold Smith. Well, complaining about these transfers isn’t going to change the fact that we have 2 points after 3 games. It is the reality of the situation, and it is time to deal with it. But things are not all bad.
This team is good folks. Really good. They are playing dominating football right now, without Rooney, Neville, Ronaldo, Saha, etc. If there is one thing we all know about this game, its that things can change at any minute. We all remember our last min goal at Anfield last season. The luck has reversed. Luckily, there is still plenty of time. I would be a bit more concerned if we had played Arsenal or Liverpool instead of Reading or Portsmouth, but we have not. We still have opportunities to make up points against the other big 3, which will be crucial when it comes to righting this ship. And don’t forget, these same teams that are playing tough against us will do the same against the other big 3 as well. Also, Arsenal and Chelsea will each lose key players in January due to the African Cup of Nations. I expect both teams to drop points during this time. And finally, we have to trust in SAF. He’ll right this ship. He always does.
Just remember, we WILL be better. We will get Rooney back. Ronaldo will be back. Neville will be back. And ya know what? We still have the Champions League, the FA Cup, and the Carling Cup. Things are much brighter than they seem. Be disappointed with the first 3 games. We should be. But this team will not dwell, and neither should we.
“We have to make sure we do not get carried away with a knee-jerk reaction.”
Sir Alex Ferguson
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Tags: Opinions/Columns
August 20th, 2007 at 10:27
Good post, you are spot on with the thing that we are missing-luck.
But i believe that this year we will do better than we do in other years in the carling cup because we will have players like nani and anderson to play. And you guys have to remember that there is a african cup this year and chelsea are going to lose points during it. the title race is nowhere near over.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:32
yeh guess u could say tht it is not a crisis for manutd at this point in time, if u think bout it we r onli 5 points behind chelsea in the table with sme amount of games played, beleive me 5 points is nothing at the strt of the season, and can be made up easily however we do hav a problem in terms of when we reach he final thrid of the pitch and in the 3 games tht we have played so far i have to say i agree that its luk we just havent had that. Some united fans beleive bringin in another striker is the key to the solution but in my eyes its a waste of time and money as rooney, ronaldo saha will all eventually come bk, not to forget we finished top scorers lst season in the pemierleague with over 80 gls, i honestly predict now that our rampant emergence will come against spurs, another thing i have to point out is tht if u lk at the other big 3 they have onli won by the skin of their teeth by 1 goal so the luck is definitly ther for them all united need is to get that bit of luck and evry1 will see y we were champions lst season.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:44
Good post! I would like to add that maybe it takes more time to add all these new players to the team and find the optimal starting squad and tactics.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:10
i feel slightly sorry for spurs because i feel we are going to play some brilliant football on sunday and demolish them 4 or 5 nil. you have to be optimistic!
August 20th, 2007 at 11:13
A few seasons ago, we only won 3 games in the first 9 that we played.
That same season, we won the treble. No reason to panic just yet.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:16
Yep, stay positive. Its much easier to be positive when you can see where the problem is, and its clear how well we are playing right now. Keep making the chances, and United will come fighting back again. Let the Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea fans be the neighsayers. Lets stay behind this team. No panicking yet. Loius Saha, get your boots on mate, we’ve got work to do.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:21
No rooney, ronaldo, saha, solskjaer, tevez isnt match fit, but lets be honest, they battered city and with those attackers fit, we would have won. there isnt a point in spending £12 mil on anelka, as that will help in the short run , but when the others come back, he’ll be overloaded with more forward options than spurs.
Thing is I sense Fergie has plans to rocket them before Sunday and fire them up in front of OT fans to scalp Spurs. If Derby received a Spurs backlash, I expect Spurs to feel the same heat in six days time….
August 20th, 2007 at 11:21
i have to give credit to you lomax. you dont now how i was ready to write explicits due to the frustration.your post is an inspiration my suggestion t ofergie is to revert back to 442 or any system suitable so long as there are two strikers. tevez is brilliant but he surely cant take on 4 defenders every time and beat them. he needs support. and there lies the question. why is Anderson not even on the bench. last time i checked he was a striker. i belive his fit enough to play(campbell proves it). but then again i believe that its inexperience, compared to Nani. my sincere hope and prayer is that fergie and the team can do some ’soul searching’ over the week. the lads musn’t lose hope. if worse comes to worse some hair dryer treament should do the trick.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:26
Now that I feel a bit more calmer, maybe I can now be a bit more optimisti.
I think the biggest positive to be taken thus far is the fact that we can finally play without Rooney and Ronaldo. I think that was a major concern last season: “What if something happened to Rooney/Ronaldo, or both?”
The other positives are that our midfield seems pretty awesome, so do our defense. Our forwards can be the most lethal on the continent (once they start converting).
I think SAF should leave things as is, and see what happens. Although, I must add that a return to ‘classic’ 442 would be great.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:33
classic 4-4-2, no karl. 4-4-2 yes but OH sitting infront of the midfield and Scholes behind the strikers.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:38
We just need to score goals. We are playing far better than any one else. With out Neville, Anderson, Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo, Park and Solskjaer Only goals are missing. I say we get in Anelka and finish the issue off. WE will be champions. I’m sure.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:57
Another striker would be great but cannot see it happening. So we need to sort out the tactics so that 4-5-1 which we are pretty much forced to play works for us.
Right now with five in midfield obviously we are going to dominate midfield. The problem is that we are not converting to 4-3-3 effectively as our wing play is weak. Nani is promising but final product is poor. Giggs is not what he was. So instead most of our play is through the middle with Tevez all on his own getting crowded out by defenders.
August 20th, 2007 at 13:08
ye we need another striker but look dont panicThe big four last season..
Pos Team Pld W D L F A GD Pts
1 ManU 38 28 5 5 83 27 56 89
2 Chelsea 38 24 11 3 64 24 40 83
3 Liverpool38 20 8 10 57 27 30 68
4 Arsenal 38 19 11 8 63 35 28 68
United lost 5 & drew 5 and won the prem…it’s not over yet.
August 20th, 2007 at 15:18
ya, sir alex fergusion may be a good,firey manager. but you can see in the past seasons in the crunch games Man Utd falters, either because of his tactical mistake or because of some other reasons. It is easy to go behind the reasons. Positive thinking is needed but over
confidence is not going to yeild any results.Clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal,even the clubs like Blackburn Rovers, Spurs, Astonvilla, Man. City and Everton are all having good sides in the
premiership this year.In champions cup sides like Brayen Munich,Barcalona and Real Madrid all are having good strong
young team comparing to the last years. Hence it will notbe easy for Man.Untd. in the championsleauge also.Sir Alex Furgusion has to go for More players like Samuel Eto,Hauntelaar or Anelka Or Kanoute as it will take time for Roony to be confidentwith his foot even if he
recovers from the injury to be realy competitive. Sameway there is big void in the right back position due to the injury to Neviele.As Roony he will take more time to be fitand competitive because of his age. Same way left back position, as Heinze and Silvestere Wants
to leave, it is better to go for Alves as right Back and Chellini for left back. By this way he can groom the young lot available as reserves and rotate the players, so player burn out as happened
in the last season can also be avoided.
August 20th, 2007 at 17:53
united 4 eva, what does needing another striker have to do with the title being over or not? or panicking? Mate, we sold Smith and haven’t replaced him in our squad. Tevez was the long promised Ruud replacement. Rossi, Smith’s potential replacemnt
was sold not by choice. While Ole still has the squad place he has had since 99. We are obviously a body short. Look at our bench. Reserves team strikers have never been part of our first team ever. That’s truth not panicking.
August 20th, 2007 at 20:47
From what I have seen of Nani so far, he could be a major player for us this season; far more than us fans or even Fergie anticipated. He certainly doesn’t seem to be afraid of having a shot and stinging the goalies hands, and hopefully will get us a goal sooner or later. His general play has been impressive so far e.g. at Fratton Park, feeding Tevez to set up Scholes’s goal, and I certainly am looking forward to seeing more from this guy.
August 20th, 2007 at 23:22
Guys,
We’re not scoring but at least we’re not leaking goals. Our defense hasn’t been terrible, and we’re missing Gaz. PLUS Hargreaves played a great game. Once we can just settle down a bit up front and our strikers are back in form, we’ll be back to the top of the tables.
August 20th, 2007 at 23:31
They didnt play badly against city but they had
no plan B or C when they couldnt get the goal. Hopefully the return of all
those missing will bring more options tactically and have us killing of games
like we will need to do against the smaller sides
August 21st, 2007 at 8:29
way to go guyz,,as i posted earlier in other articles i still biliv this team can come from the slump and win the major trophies,,arsenal,liverpool,chelsea will def lose points along the way..sunday was jus one of those days.chelsea were very lucky to get the point from anfield..rem. the season is a marathon and not a sprint. so lets keep our heads up! i cna smell something cooking,spurs you are in trouble!
August 21st, 2007 at 12:51
Utd have a major problem scoring goals - Big surprise!
We couldn’t buy a goal towards the end of last season. Then we had this sort of strike power with a very approximate goal scoring ranking.
1 - Rooney INJURED
2 - Saha INJURED
3 - Solksjaer INJURED
4 - Smith SOLD
5 - Ronaldo SUSPENDED
6 - Giggs tick
Rossi SOLD
IN
Tevez PRE SEASON PROBLEMS
Nani tick
Anderson NOT READY
The transfers are good as a long term strategy but we were always going to be vulnerable to early season injury etc.
August 21st, 2007 at 17:04
Let’s stop being too confident now. This loss has actually broken our back. It is true we lost 5 and drew 5 last season and won the league, but now we have already drawn 2 and lost one and won none yet. It looks horrible, so horrible I now start to panic