May 02
Sunderland vs Manchester United: Preview
By the time Manchester United’s visit to Sunderland comes around, the Red Devils will know the task in hand as Liverpool will already have beaten Chelsea – fingers crossed.
The Stadium of Light will prove to be a tough fixture, the talk of Liverpool ‘rolling over’ and Sunderland boss Steve Bruce giving his former club a ‘free ride’ should be put to be straight away as these are professional players who would not throw a game. Both United and Chelsea will be made to work by their respective opponents.
United have won five and lost none of their last seven trips to Wearside, so we will be hoping that stat gets better but Sunderland have lost only two of their last 10 games.
Focussing on the Manchester United side, the defensive line up will be relatively similar to the Spurs match, Rafael on the right, Patrice Evra on the left, with Nemanja Vidic partnering Rio Ferdinand at centre back. The England Captain returned to training this week following a groin injury and looks set to start.
Gary Neville should only make the bench as he is still carrying a slight calf strain.
The midfield should contain an in-form Paul Scholes partnered with Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs could continue his role as an attacking midfield player, supporting a lone striker.
Nani is in scintillating form and will no doubt start the match, however he may move to the right side to make room for Ji-Sung Park who could start on the left.
Owen Hargreaves was a surprise name last week as he was named on the bench, and the same could be true this week for the injury hit player.
Dimitar Berbatov will probably lead the line on his own once more, but Wayne Rooney returned to training on Friday but may have to settle for a place on the bench at Sunderland.
Sir Alex Ferguson does not expect an easy game:
“Sunderland have hit form,” says the boss. “My old captain has done a great job there, and he’s started to bring one or two young players. It’s refreshing to see a manager putting his trust in young players.
“Darren Bent has had a great season, young Fraizer Campbell is doing very well. He’s getting a quota of goals and it is encouraging for him. Kenwyne Jones is also a real handful and they’ve got some good young players in their team, like [David] Meyler and [Jordan] Henderson. So, we know what we’re facing.
“And it’s one thing saying we hope Liverpool do us a turn, it’s Sunderland’s last home game of the season and they are in good form. Sunderland will do their best and we have to match that. It’s not an easy game,” He concluded.
Steve Bruce’s Black Cats will be without Alan Hutton who is suspended, so for former United full-back Phil Bardsley could get a start. George McCartney and Andy Reid are both out with hamstring injuries, but Lee Cattermole and John Mensah could return from their respective calf and knee problems.
Despite absentees there will be plenty to worry about as Darren Bent is a striker on form and looking to cement a place on the plane to South Africa, so United cannot expect any favours from the former Tottenham man.
Goalkeeper Craig Gordon is another key player for the Wearside club. He struggled when he first arrived but has now proved his doubters wrong with a string of fine performances, compared to United’s own Edwin van der Sar it will be a difficult task to beat the Scottish shot stopper.
Of the match, the Black Cats boss said:
“We seriously believe we can win. All this stuff about just because I played there for 10 years. What am I going to say to the players ‘Oh by the way lads, just forget it today’.
“There will be near 50,000 here, we’re live on telly, every man and his dog wants to be here. ‘Just let them win, will you?’ It is not going to happen.”
So there you have it, no favours from Fergie’s first title winning captain. Though it must play in his mind that he has never beaten his mentor. In 13 meeting between the two, Ferguson has won 10 and drawn three and Sunderland’s last league win over Manchester United was in March 1997. Since then United have won 11 and drawn four of their last 15 league meetings.
But having said that, only Chelsea and Aston Villa have come away from the Stadium of Light with maximum points this season.
Expect no favours from Sunderland, but lets hope for one from Liverpool!
Prediction: 3-1 United
Probable Line Up: van der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Park; Berbatov
***
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Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Evra’s Ban Smacks of Inconsistency | Sunderland Preview
- Manchester United 2006/2007 Season Review
- The Academy: United v Sunderland – Preview
- The Manchester United Pledge
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (542)
Stephen (500)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Johnsom33: sometimes you just have to let them go man. He doesnt love you anymore get over tevez and find a new love
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@Redrich: flopping cunt are we allowed to say that on here
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@CraigMc: they didnt sell the players to “make ends meat” they sold them to purchase Manchester United.
thats what went down.
“After Glazer began to take control of Manchester United in 2003 (see below), the Bucs’ fortunes faded, as they spent far less on player salaries than allowed under the NFL’s salary cap. Media observers and local fans have expressed their suspicion that Glazer has diverted funds from the Bucs to reduce the debt accumulated in the Man United purchase at the expense of the Bucs’ continued success [9][10].”
From Wiki
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@CraigMc: and this year i understand that they just went for a few new badasses and will have a stronger team this year. hopfully the bucks are not the yin to uniteds yang, and we will teeter totter spending sprees for the remainder of their ownership of both clubs.
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Tevez is a Man Utd LEGEND
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@NicoQB: He’s alright but hardly a world class keeper. In the list of top German goalkeepers he would not make it in my top ten. He’s older now and has had a lot of good and bad experiences but I still don’t think he is a world beater like Neuer or Adler or even Tim Wiese. He’s good but not great and United should be looking for a great keeper.
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@Owen: Perhaps he meant an “urban legend”.
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Bad News:
1>With Spurs qualifying for CL ,it is clear that we miss on Bale/Modric.
2>Silva willing to come here but will Barca/Madrid/Shitty let it happen -No.
3>With Wenger also wanting Rodwell and Moyes not willing to sell,will it happen : less chance
4>Milner: Will definitely not leave this season
Good News:
1>CSKA want Cash + Park in exchange for Krasic and are willing to do the business.
2>It is reporeted that a deal has been finalized for Benzema.
Great News:
1> Anderson and Foster will be sold.
Worst News:
Berbatov may still be here net season
Unimaginable news:
Rooney could be on his way To Madrid after world cup as Villa has refused to go there and instead has signed Barca
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@CraigMc: The deal fell thru because tevez didn’t sign the contract that was offered. Tevez is hated because of the fergie sign him up antics, tevez wanted to sign but fergie himself even said tevez isn’t worth 25m. If what traverse is saying had a shred of truth to it, fergie would have said he wasn’t worth 47m.
Good point about the wriggle room, that was an issue that upset me greatly because fergie trying to wiggle is what in my opnion is why it broke down. Both sides agreed a fee before he kicked a ball. IMO fergie tried to sabatoge his season by not playing him regularly in an attempt to drive the fee down. But there was one catch, the fee was already agreed upon. Now if you owned tevez rights, would you take a fee less than what was contractually agreed upon? I know I wouldn’t.
It’s a a fact we(Manchester United) could have bought him for 25.5m, other than Traverse I haven’t even seen anyone dispute that. The part about fergie trying to drive the price down, that’s completly my own interpretation of what I see in the media and is nowhere close to fact just opinion.
I am more than happy to debate my opnion with people, but when people(traverse, not you craigmc) try and dispute the facts and then provide no counter argument or proof to back up their claims, then I just have no time for it.
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@Traverse:
Before I proceed please do me a favor and read this.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article6383259.ece
Since I know you struggle with reading let me share this one particular passage with you
“Tévez’s two-year “lease” deal at Old Trafford expires at the end of next month, but while David Gill, the United chief executive, appeared to hint this week that they would finally meet the “fixed fee” agreed with Joorabchian when the striker moved to Manchester in August 2007, the forward seems to have decided that he has played his last game for the club.”
About a few months back I wrote you a post which I am reposting…
Everything I said regarding the transfer fee I backed up with articles. The first one I showed you was from the official website for fuck sakes. Then you tried to “raise me” with that telegraph article which Fergie himself said tevez wasn’t worth the 25m. How that equates to drivel is beyond me. Judging from your attack on me after I posted the fergie quotes leads me to believe you know I’m right. Now you go back to quoting the price City paid for him.
Let me hold your hand thru this process, since it’s obviously hard for your brain to wrap around. We signed the deal 3 years ago… Ok?
In that deal it was a 2 year paid loan aggreement… Ok
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?newsid=441906&pagegid=%7BC7DF7CEC-3BC3-4859-A3FD-FE4AAD215DD8%7D (do me a favor and actually read the article this time)
in that deal we had an option to buy for… Wait for it… 25m
so no matter what Kia wanted at the end of the loan spell, the price was already locked in. After United failed to offer Tevez a contract, they then started fielding offers from other clubs. City won by paying over the odds for him.
I never once disputed that city didn’t pay 40m+ for him, so I don’t know why you keep bringing it up. My point(one that I backed up with quotes not drivel) is that the price we agreed upon at the beginning of the deal was 25m.
Now if you can prove that deal wasn’t on the table then please do so. As for you saying we didn’t have the 25m, well it’s common knowledge acknowledged by both sides that United eventually offered him a contract(which means we were ready to pay the fee) but he turned it down because he felt disrespected. So once again your wrong.
Let me back up my drivel once again… And this is an official statement from the club.
“ Following contact received from Carlos Tevez’s advisors last night, in advance of the deadline the Club set for concluding negotiations, Manchester United announces that Carlos will not be signing a new contract with the Club.
The Club agreed to pay the option price of £25.5m and offered Carlos a five-year contract which would have made him one of its highest paid players.
Disappointingly however, his advisors informed the Club that, despite the success he has enjoyed during one of the Club’s most successful periods, he does not wish to continue playing for Manchester United.
The Club would like to thank Carlos for his services over the last two seasons and wishes him good luck for the future.”
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?newsid=6634810&pagegid=%7BB4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70%7D
There it is in black and white, so are you happy now?
I believe your response to my rant was something in the region of “47m nuff said”
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@gator: Its not even about tevez trust me that ship sailed long ago, now it’s just the principle. Traverse keeps taking pop shots at me, without ever even producing a valid counter argument. I’ll let it go as soon as proves me wrong.
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@gator: You just did, didn’t you??
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@donibrasco: listen m8 i gave you my opinion, of course SAF makes mistake’s, but to say he’s cost us the title is wrong, Rooney’s injury came at a terrible for united wish seriously hurt us, that’s not the managers fault either. as for getting personal. what the hell was wasting my brains all about, not that anything said over a laptop could annoy me , don’t know what you got so upset about, i thought to have a proper debate, its better to have 2 different opinions. but indulge me, how has sir Alex cost us the season.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVp2bv9A7uQ
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It would not surprise me at all if we sold Rooney and bought Benzema as his replacement. It would mirror the sell Ronaldo buy Valencia deal. This is exactly the sort of thing selling clubs do and lets face it we are a selling club.
The following season we will sell Vidic and buy a cheap defender in his place
The following season we will sell Nani and buy a cheap winger in his place.
And so on.
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@RicoTheRed: We only got close to the title because of one SAF. This was prolly one of his best seasons at manager. He didn’t have the funds to strengthen and we had a laughable defensive injury list. All that and we still are only a point off the title.
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@RicoTheRed: SAF has cost us the title ,there is no doubt about it.
1>He never tried to replace Ronaldo and Tevez.
2>He is a Lier.
3>He never tried to play with 2 fwds.
4>He is too defensive and costed games against Fulham,Everton…
5>His substitutions were always wrong(Remember the Bayern game)
This is time up Fergie.Go and enjoy Horse Racing.All the bes.
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@Johnsom33: How can you jugde mate that he does not have funds when he himself is saying that 80 million is in lockers.He is a lier then.
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@Johnsom33: When the defenders were out,i think we only lost 1-2 games like against Fulham.But this is an excuse for likes of you.We lost to Burnley with starting team as was the case against Chelsea both times and Pool.What about Rovers game.
You have to score goals and this is not the duty of defenders.And here we lost or you can say SAF costed us by replacing Tevez with Owen and keeping the bastard Berbatov.
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Correct me if I am wrong…In a very popular sports weekly in my country India, its written than Chelsea can win the league just with a draw even though ManU win against stoke, i think this is wrong since then Manu will have 1 point more than chelsea..am i right
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@Vignesh: yes of course.and me too from india
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If both teams win – Chelsea wins
If Chelsea fail to win and United do – United win
Those are the only permutations that matter, really.
@ Owen – If you can’t see that Fergie has taken probably the 4/5th best squad in the league and kept us in it til the last day, then there’s not much hope for you. Fergie has performed miracles this season, and as usual there are a select few fans that still want to blame him. I look forward to your posts when we’re suffering ot reach the Europa league under new management in 5 years time.
@ all – If we sell Rooney that’ll be it for us. Glazers may look but are not stupid. Selling Rooney would literally cause riots. It would be the big balding straw that breaks the camels back, and they would see their investment blow before their eyes. Fergie would leave, morale would plummet, the fans would protest and all for what, £60m profit? Even the worst businessman can see it makes no sense.
United will only sell a player if they want to leave or if they’re surplus to requirement.
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@Beachryan: We can suffer with new management but i am sure they will not be lier and will have courage to say that they dont have money to spend unlike SAF.
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@Beachryan: And ya Fergie has done miracle by getting defeated by a 3rd division side at OT,NO DOUBT.
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@Owen: What are you saying the new manager would moan at a lack of funds publicley? We are not Liverpool and don’t wash our dirty linen in public, what are you saying you want Fergie out? The Leeds result was one of those things.
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@Stephen: How many “one of those things” happened this year ,mate
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@Vignesh: If Chelsea draw and we win, we will win the league by 1 point, because Chelski are only 1 point in front of us!
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@Owen: Don’t get your point? Do you want Fergie sacked then?
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@Owen: The Bastard Berbatov WTF you on Owen
.
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@Owen: Mate truth be known, I believe truthfully that most of our games are lost because of poor MF play. We really do not have a MF that takes games by the scruff of the neck, and commands and controls. That’s just my thought anyway! Course that can be due in part to Fergie’s tinker-bell-ism!
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@Johnsom33: Mate United had already paid 10 million a year for Tev’s 2 seasons with us hadn’t they? I heard Fergie say on MUTV that City had finished up paying 46 million for him and that’s ridiculous in his opinion, and he said this out loud addressing a gathered press at media session. I think Fergie had to leave Tevez out (not rightly) in my opinion, in order to support his big money buy for Berbatov. Tevez thought he was a far better player than Berbatov, and that was what caused trouble with Fergie and Berbatov – they didn’t like Tevez saying he was better than Berba. But the truth is that Tevez was better for our team than Berba – the way we play the game. I only hated Tev AFTER he went and was bad mouthing our club regularly. Everyone said he had a right too, because he was treated so badly, but I’m not so sure mate, because he is treated as top dog at City, and yet he is mouthing off his negatives about them in the press now. So maybe that is a nasty Tevez trait eh?
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@gator: I don’t think so mate, because they just took the Ronaldo money to pay of their PIK loans, and wouldn’t have needed to do that if they had fleeced the bucks their USA team! But then they only ever put 250 million into Man Utd, so they effectively bought the richest club in the world for PITTANCE. I will NEVER forgive David Gill for his ‘No Balls’ cave in over selling our club for peanuts, at the same time selling us into MASSIVE debt. Neither Gill nor Glazers give a monkey’s about Man United mate, they only care about building up their personal fortunes!
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@Stephen: I want Fergie to take some bold decissions now or to step down.I dont want such a great role model to continuously speak lie to save the owners.
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@CraigMc: Mate but how was midfield the problem.
1>Nani-Good season,provided a lot of balls.If there was some one else than Berba,he would had 15 assists.
2>Fletcher-Great season .Added some creativity also with the usual play.
3>Valencia- Great season and is in team of the year.
4>Scholes- Good in around 4 months with some extra important goals
5>Carrick – I still think he was good for some parts( he was played in much deeper role).
So how midfield was a problem.The problem was Berbatov.Add aroud 10 goals in him and we will be champion by 5 points.Without these extra goals also, we would have been champion and for this the culprit is SAF when he took Owen as the back up knowing his past injury record.A lot of good players were there for taking for almost free like Guddjohnson,RVN.
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@Owen: What manager doesn’t lie?
Step down for who?? Mourinho for me is a no, no a and has agreed to go to Real, Fergie is a bold manager and is the best we have, no other manager would have got this club to where it is this season.
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@Owen: if carrick was good in any part i am gonna commit suicide now~
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@ROOOOONEY: Then commit bcoz fans still want him to be creative but Fergie does not.If you have watched enough games this season,then Fergie has played Fletcher in more advanced position and has actually used Carrick as Defensive one.Carrick has done the job at that position.He is the only one who brings wingers into play.Take it or leave it but this is true.He is still a good player and the only one in the squad to claim that can keep possesion.But he is made the scapegoat along with Berba who i think has did nothing.
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@Stephen: Why no Mourinho?Bcoz he can beat Barca,win CL ,never lost at home for 5 years,has courage to play 3 fwds against Chelsea,know how to produce best and know how to keep Messi in pockets
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@Traverse: Your silence is deafening
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@Owen: Yes mate he played such attacking football in the second leg, did they get out of their own half?
He plays dire football, he does not promote youth, his record is a falacy Porto and Chelsea both finished up runners up before TNSSO arrived and Inter were hardly in trouble.
He is a big mouth poser who would get us in bother with UEFFA every season, Charlton hates him and he the anti United, oh he is a prick also.
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@Owen: Oh we beat Barc the same way and people here were moaning that the football was dull…..
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@Vignesh: they are wrong you are right.
But please watch this videodont say “Man U”
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@CraigMc: they put a ton of cash into the Bucks when they bought them. they changed the uniform, new stadium, and brought in winners and new coach. they were a loosing team until the glazers came in.
they won the Superbowl in 02.
glazers bought(started buying) United in 03 and the bucks have slipped ever since. They have the lowest wage bill for players in the league.
they should sell one or the other and concentrate on running one club.
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@Owen: I watched all the games this season, carrick played well against the small teams, but against the ones that mattered he flopped big time. the one which is still vivid in memory is the bayern game.
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It’s Official!!!
United win the league as Chelsea could not beat Wigan.
United-Stoke: 3-0
Chelsea-Wigan: 1-1 (Chelsea crowd ref in final minutes and Drogba gets sent off)
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BELIEVE!!!
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: You get my vote for taking god’s job if that happens
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@Owen: I doubt very much that the majority of the United fans agree with you mate. SAF will retire in his own time and if you read some of the comments on here at the start of the season that predicted that we would struggle even to qualify for Europe then you would have to say that SAF has performed wonders in getting this team to go so close. I wonder if you were one of the doom mongers at the start of the season who is now frantically trying to show SAF in a bad light because you can see the extra large slice of humble pie that you are about to be served.
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@Owen:m8 no offence, but your an idiot, if you want me to go into this more let me on on the next page.
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