Apr 10
The Day After Roma
It feels nice to be in the semi-finals for the second year running. We have a mouthwatering semi-final draw against Barcelona. For a change, I don’t feel the least intimidated about the Catalan outfit. Had we played them a couple of years ago, I’d have been quaking in my boots. But today’s Barca are unfortunately a poor imitation of their once all-conquering self. But one must also exercise some caution here. We must remember the Milan game of last year.
Milan were poor in Serie A last season but managed to win the Champions’ League. In recent times it’s been a trend where a team that has been dire in the domestic league has managed to turn it around in the Champions’ League. Barcelona are well behind Real Madrid in La Liga, and come April 23rd, they may be entirely ruled out of their title chances. So they may choose to rest players ahead of playing us.
However, to be honest, if Messi does not make it at Camp Nou, I don’t see how we could be threatened that much.
Oh well, on to some news today. Not too much I’m afraid other than stuff based on yesterday events.
Neville returns and speaks to MUTV
That was perhaps the best sight in a long time.The man steps onto the pitch to a hero’s welcome, dons the band and trots over to the midfield, and to tweak the once famous words of the current Governor of California, “I’m back!”. I just loved how everyone wanted him to come on, Anderson was so eager to get off the pitch and let out a smile, welcoming the skipper. It’s nice to see experienced campaigners returning to the squad at a crucial juncture and that could be the difference from last year.
Silvestre had a fair game and Evra can now breathe easy as he’s got a fellow Frenchman to give him a break. Silly may infuriate at times with his sudden mood shifts, but he certainly is a more natural left back than John O’Shea.
And noises have already sprung up from Catalonia, as Thierry Henry believes Barcelona can beat us. Hmm…
And that’s about it. Weekend brings another tasty encounter as we take on Arsenal. Just five more games to go. Win the next three and then we may not have to worry too much after that.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Roma v Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Roma: Preview
- SAF Sounds Words of Caution | Safety Arrangements for Roma
- Manchester United v Aston Villa Preview – Tougher than it looks
- De Rossi for Manchester United?
Tags: Manchester United News
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (170)
Opti (135)
Moscow is my heaven (96)
Ian (95)
park starts every game over giggs until nani comes back.
he’s a winner.
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Hey red ranter plz put up the link of the HQ version of the CR7 documentary…I would greatly appreciate.Thanx
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What on earth is that? Does Hargo mean that he’ll never be fully fit?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3724106.ece
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he is fit, just that he has to be a bit more cautious. he’s better than haha.
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That is bad news about Hargreaves. I think it pretty much confines him to being a big game player because the wear-and-tear of playing regularly would just cause his knee to flare up. I am amazed there was not some awareness of this when we splashed 17 million on him. I guess like with Van Nistelrooy we assumed he’d get over it.
I would love to see Hargreaves converted into a right wing back. The way we play that would give him loads of chances to get forward and make those crosses of his, and tracking back and making necessary tackles should come easy for him.
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some stats ahead of sunday:
CR EA
29 – 31 Matches played
27 – 19 Goals scored
18 – 9 Home goals
9 – 10 Away goals
17 – 13 Right foot
5 – 1 Left foot
5 – 5 Header
5 – 8 Six-yard box
17 – 10 In the penalty area
5 – 1 Outside the area
13 – 10 First half
14 – 9 Second half
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Hargo means that some time he ‘ll get fully fit. It depends on …his own knee cause no case is the same with another one.It’s the patella tendon and it may take a few months or a few years.That’s all.
I think SAF is doing the best thing with him.Remember what Wenger has said for Henry and Van Persie?He admitted that he made a mistake by putting them in the starting eleven just after their injuries.He did that every time and look at last year’s Henry and this year’s Henry.He is a crap.Do we want to see this hapenning with Hargo . HELL NO! We also have 4 more players for this position so , who cares when he gets back fully fit? Till then we will have a GREAT ANDERSON and a greater team.
Enough said!
WE RE BUYING KAMENI . WOOOOW KEEPER! HE IS A GREAT PlaYER
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me and JB were the two only advocate of carrick while everyone was bashing caarrick.so you can say that two of us are the first in that club.lol.
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I forgot to check, did Silvestre still have his left ear or was he the victim of some Finnish vandalism?
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yea but to be honest, you where judging carrick by the way he played at spurs and not the way he was playing for us. my guess is that he thought he would always be automatic first choice, then along came hargo and andy.
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Nice CR documentary! Thanks JB!
Hey, but I still haven’t understood what CR’s “wink” meant in that WC match when Rooney got sent off! I do believe he only barged in to complain against the foul, and not to get Rooney carded. But the wink? Anybody have any ideas?
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nikos, what you on about? we are not buying that keeper.
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eh… is it michael or it’s donibrasco? i know u lad, if u r changing the name just because guys on you case for aimless mouth opening, accept it mate! dont play hide and seek.
back to the job. as for the back game, news is that Puyol is out for leg 1 in the Nou Caaamp. that would be great news provided we dont lose a player between now and 23rd April. He’s urguably been one of hteir best defenders along with Milito. That will call for calamituous Thuram, i guess a good day for the R’s awaits keeping in mind that Barca’s R is out of the tie.
Further still Iniesta has a knee problem, though it’s not yet known how long he’ll be left on the sidelines, rumour has it, he might just miss the first leg too. Its looks this is the luck of a champion “United†and come 21st May, Tores and Gerrard will be injured and suspended respectively.
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Looks like Messi will be fit for the Semis and will feature on the team against Recreativo Huelva on Saturday. Deco could be available but the absence of Puyol for the first leg is a big plus and means we should pressure their defence and really try to take advantage to what already looks like a weak Barcelona.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7342979.stm
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Hargreaves knee problem I suspect has cleared up or is very near to clearing up. His play the last 3 or 4 times he has suited up has shown more energy and dash than before. He’s regained his speed which even I noticed was missing earlier in the year. I have had elbow tendinitis having been a baseball pitcher and it’s something that is frustratingly slow to calm down. Once you get it, you are prone to get it again but Hargreaves is right that proper exercise and warm up can calm it down to a point. The key is a long rest. Hargo will get a long 2 month rest after the CL Final, if we are fortunate enough to make it that far. He should be 100% next season but there always will be that risk that it could come back. But proper warm up and precautionary treatment of the joint will probably prevent it from returning. Trust me on this, I know of what I speak.
The knee takes longer than an elbow to heal because you are constantly using it to walk whereas an arm is not used as much or has weight compounding the problem. But then again a leg never strains itself as much as an arm like the strain from throwing a baseball at 90 mph. This is why the history of baseball players with the problem is so much higher than other sports. Hargo will be fine. In fact, I think he is over it right now as it shows in his running ability.
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I’d like to know how many of our player are carrying too many yellow cards that could cause them to miss either of the semi games or possibly even the final with the next one issued? Does anybody have that info? For example, how far off is Rooney from having to miss a game, or worse yet Ronaldo or one of our CD’s?
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If nobody has read the quotes from Andrei Voronin about life in Liverpool, then read below. It’s absolutely hilarious. He will no doubt be the first man to leave Liverpool when the transfer opens up next.
“Speaking to a Russian daily newspaper the Liverpool attacker launched into a lengthy tirade: “Compared with Germany, England is far behind in terms of comfort and culture, Five out of the seven houses near us are occupied by footballers. Steve Gerrard was burgled recently so a police patrol car comes into our compound fairly often. We hear police sirens all the time. Leverkusen, by contrast, was so much quieter. The medical services here are poor. When I was in Germany, there were lots of good clinics and doctors. It is nothing like that here – when our child had a skin allergy we waited hours for the doctor to see him. When we finally got to see a doctor, he said he didn’t know how to treat children and to try rubbing in this ointment. That was it. I was stunned. As a result my wife had to go back to Odessa with him and took a full set of tests there. I study English twice a week with a teacher and I have made some progress in it, but English isn’t the main problem. The main thing is to learn to understand the local players like Gerrard and Carragher. They speak with some peculiar local accent and sometimes I have absolutely no clue what the guys are saying. Many foreign players have the same problem.â€
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Grognard; let’s hope that your right, as everyone responds from injuries differently, and Hargreaves may be a long healer. And I think it’s just Evra and Ronaldo one yellow card away from a suspension, let’s hope they don’t do anything stupid.
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someone needs to tell him that thats not england, thats scouserville. police sirens are like music to them, they here atleast twice every hour lol.
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my team vs Assnal :
VDS
Brown-Rio-Pique-Evra
Hargreaves!-Carrick-Andy-Park!
Ronaldo!-Rooney!
wat do u ppl think? especially with owen keeping his right wing and CR7 just behind Rooney and CR7 can actually make better use of Owen’s good crosses compared to rooney and tevez! Go go red glory MU!
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kienu, would it not be better if we played hargo at right wing-back, so we can use his defensive qualities aswell as his crossing qualities, with ronaldo on the right and tevez in the middle with rooney?
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JayJay – what does it matter if Donibrasco signs in as Mike or feckin Minnie mouse?. Surely we can understand why?. Every time he posts whatever name he chooses to use, some people jump on him. Time for a truce don’t you think?????.
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Dan, maybe ur right…but doing so wud mean dropping brown and exposing our midfield defensively as owen wud be struck on the right. also using ronaldo in the’hole’ wud enable him of flying forward with the flying headers from owen’s crosses….park must be retained and giggs be dropped!
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Grognard am sorry, Conor’s statistics have some innacuracies. infact Ronaldo only has one yellow card this season in champions league, meaning he’s two cards away from suspension which i don’t think he can get in the next coming two games. however Evra and Nani are both one card away from suspension as they both have accumulated two cards each.
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[Jay Jay]
Can you stop bothering if it’s Donibrasco or Mike? It’s not really your business to taunt people. I can figure it out if it is the same person or not. Just get a move on, will you?
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Jay Jay- You are right! I thought that Ronaldo and Evra were the ones with two yellow cards in the CL, but its NANI and Evra! Ronaldo only has one, after 80 minutes against Sporting at Old Trafford. I am not too worried about losing Evra with a yellow card now that Silvestre is back. I find him a terrible CB, but a class LB. Great news!
My team for Sunday after thinking about it:
VDS
Brown Pique Rio Evra
Ronaldo Scholes Carrick Anderson Park
Rooney
After what Wenger said about ref decisions going against them, do you think that they will concede a pen against us? I hope so! Since Arsenal have lost both Sgna and Flamini for this trip, I think United will win without too much problems. I go for 3-0 or 4-0 to us. Cant believe SkySports predict a 1-1 game!
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Ah Jay Jay, thanks for correcting me, but don’t blame me, blame my sources (not pointing any fingers…. *cough* Sam)
. I was just passing on the word from him to Grognard, but thanks for clearing it up.
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Jay Jay; Thanks for that info on the yellow card situation. Craig did have me pissing bullets when I read that Ronaldo needed one more yellow to be suspended. Thank God it’s two.
RedDevil; Let me get this right, you would bench Hargreaves after the performance he just gave, not to mention tha last 3 or 4 outings he has had? Some of you just hopelessly don’t get it…JEEZ!
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Grognard- I think Owen is an exellent player, but I dont know if he can play two games in four days. After what he said in that newspaper that he has to be careful, I thought he might not manage to play two games in a week. Anyway, Carrick has played brilliantly these last couple of weeks, Scholes was rested on wednesday and has started to play well, and Anderson simply is a big-game player. He really loves playing against Fabregas! Besides, its his birthday
United player usually score against Arse on their birthday! 2002: Scholes 2-0. 2004: Rooney 2-0. 2005: Ronaldo 4-2. If Owen plays I would use him as right-wing back, or midfield with Carrick and Scholes with Andy on the left.
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Dan(u-o.l) Maybe i belive it cause I like this player. Here it is.
http://www.eatsleepsport.com/articles/717459.html
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RedDevil; You are right about Hargreaves playing back to back games as his leg needs to be monitored carefully but this is Arsenal we are playing. I think we should play 4-5-1 and sit down Tevez because we need the bodies in midfield who will break Arsenal’s short pass and give and go style. Ronaldo will make up for Rooney upfield by himself. Hargo needs to be out there to give us defensive cover and the same amount of offensive surge down the right side. But you are probably right although at this stage of the year, I might be willing to risk Hargo for this game and sit him for Blackburn.
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hargo, andy n pique to score vs Assnal….3-1 MU wins!
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