Staying awake for 48 hours is really crap. It drains your brain to the extreme. That was the case with me, thanks to some truckloads of work that I spent yesterday asleep for over 12 hours. Hence some slacking off in the blog. I do have a real life too, apparently. So there.

So Sporting Lisbon hosts us today as we bring our hometown boys in Ronaldo and Nani. So let’s get to the preview before I run off to sleep, again!

Continue reading “Sporting Lisbon vs Man Utd - Preview”

United visit Everton after a very long international break - which really seemed to go on for ages - and face a tough game at Goodison Park. The Blues are having a very good season, even on points with Liverpool. A win for us would send us to the top of the table - for exactly 45 minutes (at least!) - before Liverpool play Portsmouth.

For us, Fletcher and O’Shea appear certain injury casualties. Both picked them up on international duty. Otherwise, the return of Ronaldo and Saha to our starting line-up would be the best thing to happen to our side in a long while. Tevez should start alongside Saha but I wonder if the long trip from Australia - where the Argies played them in a friendly - would have any bearing on his fitness. We’ll have to wait and see.

Gary Neville continues his rehabilitation as he hopes to return for the Chelsea game, while Rooney would want to be back, at least on the bench, by then.

Goodison Park promises to be a tricky venue for us and in Yakubu lies a familiar tormentor. The Nigerian has managed to nick goals past us for Boro. Him and Andrew Johnson would keep our defence quite busy. Arteta would be their creative influence, and in Joleon Lescott, they have an in-form player.

We have an early kick off, while Rafa Benitez has shot his mouth off about overhauling the schedule and complaining about early kick-offs, especially after international games. To be fair, he does have a point though. The international games are a major evil during a season and surely FIFA could do something about their scheduling. Although I am not really well-placed to suggest a concrete alternative. At the moment though, clubs have to deal with it and stop complaining.

Back to the game, we expect a pretty well-fought game.

Prediction: United to win 2-1 (Saha and Ronaldo to score.) United to just nick the win.

Anyway, it’s nice to see the lads back in action, and hopefully those of you hibernating during the break would be back to our comment threads in full swing with your rants! Keep them coming. And while you are ranting away, if you thought our site was worth your time you might find it reasonable of us to expect you to vote for Red Rants. We promise you it wouldn’t take you more than 2 minutes to register and vote. (Seriously, just 30 votes so far? Surely there are more readers here!) Hurry up!

Vote for Red Rants

So the Mackems head to Old Trafford for a game which sees the return of a lot of familiar faces. Most prominent among them is manager Roy Keane himself. It’s also a side that has other ex-Reds such as Liam Miller, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Danny Higginbotham, Kieran Richardson and Paul McShane.

Now that is a lot of ex-Reds. Anyhow, given the run we’ve had so far we would be anything but sympathetic about Sunderland’s situation and the players should be expected to be in a murderous mood to get some momentum going in the run in to the Chelsea game.

Continue reading “Preview: Reds vs FC Ireland (a.k.a Roy Keane’s Sunderland)”

United face Spurs in what has now been widely regarded by fans as a crunch game. In fact it the game is considered equally important for Spurs fans, who despite having won the last game, have gone over board in their reactions towards Tottenham and Martin Jol, in particular.

United on the other hand have yet to win a game this season and are already playing catch up. As mentioned countless times here, in this site, and many other sites, the team has been playing well. It’s only the final third where they are not being able to get anything decisive done. Or are they plain unlucky?

SAF has said that Hargreaves, Anderson and Saha are fit. Even EVDS is deemed fit to play. Gary Neville has overdone his training and ended up aggravating his injury, thus keeping him out for another 2 weeks. While Hargreaves will start, there is this feeling that Fergie might persist with his 4-3-3 formation. Despite Saha training for the last two weeks without any hiccups, it is more likely that he will start on the bench. So will Anderson.

Martin Jol’s defence is shaky, with Ledley King a long time absentee. None of the defenders are Micah Richards, so we should be able to beat them comfortably. But stranger things have happened. The ‘crisis’ at Spurs might just spur (no pun intended) the players on to a blinder of a performance, and we just hope that doesn’t happen. Berbatov is fit and is expected to start.

Prediction: 2-0 to United (Tevez, Nani to score.)

I couldn’t be more serious. We head over to Eastlands to face a Man City side, who for the first time in a million years are actually playing half decent football. In previous seasons, we were up against a City side that were generally shite against most teams but somehow managed to nick points off us. Two seasons ago, we saw Ronaldo sent off in a 1-3 loss. Evra had a particularly nightmarish debut then, when Trevor Sinclair, of all people, terrorized him. Earlier, in the same season, they managed to draw at Old Trafford with Joey Barton equalising after Ruud’s goal.

Last season, we did relatively better although, our away game was a drab affair, known especially for Michael Ball’s stamp on Ronaldo and a penalty that van der Sar saved. It was a game that we should have won quite comfortably but instead chose to grind our way through with some nervy moments and uninspired football.

Continue reading “Preview: Extremely, Immensely Massive Citeh vs Puny Reds”

So after a disappointing draw against Reading we head south over to Fratton Park to play a team that in recent times have become our ‘bogey team’. But in a way it’s good we are playing away from home. At least there is this hope that teams wouldn’t park their bus in front of their goal. Harry Redknapp himself said he won’t be defensive. “One can’t just defend against teams like that”, he said - or something to that effect.

So we could hope for a much more open game today. SAF has confirmed that Tevez will start today. It would be a like for like replacement for Rooney, but that said, it shouldn’t open up the old, tiresome debate that Rooney and Tevez are too similar. As Carlitos would himself say, “I am only 50% similar to him” - or something to that effect. He would have said that in Spanish anyway, so there you go.

I would love for Hargreaves to start along side Carrick with Scholes in the hole, as I mentioned yesterday. But I doubt we are going to see that happening. Giggs might be persisted with in the hole with Carrick and the Ninja playing deeper. Fletcher would get to start on the wing with Ronny on the other. However we should see Evra in a more familiar role of left back - displacing Silvestre. So that should hopefully settle many nerves, or so we’d hope.

Nani would be on the bench and so would Anderson/Ole. I am sure Fergie would have realized his folly of not having any genuine strikers on the bench in the last game. Well, sure, he didn’t have any fit striker, but Anderson could play in that role too. Or even Frazier Campbell, no?

Oh well, let’s not talk about that game anymore. Here’s looking forward to a good game today and a result.

Prediction: 2-0 to United. The lads will be pumped up for the game. Tevez to score! I don’t expect our defence to be too troubled by Portsmouth’s attack although they are decent enough to cause us problems.

And before I end this preview, here is an inspirational fan chant created by none other than yours’ truly, (Who else!) which involves three of our summer signings. It could be horrible, or outright brilliant. But that’s your opinion. Anyway here it is:

Anderson, Nani, Charlie Tee,
In your pants, they’ll make you Pee!

Angry? You have the comment section for that!