Sep 04
The International Break Will Help United Significantly
The international break could not have come at a better time for Manchester United. The match against Sunderland was the last match that Cristiano Ronaldo was suspended for, and, with the matches in mid-week, and another on the weekend it should give him that tiny bit of match fitness he is lacking. That will be the same with Super Saha (a month ago it was injury-prone Saha) who, providing he does actually play for France, will get some extra match fitness. And now, Chelsea’s 5 point lead which was near to being a large enough lead for them to win the Premiership has already been cut down to a not-so-large 2 points, thanks to Martin O’Neill’s Villa. They will have to think about that defeat for a whole 2 weeks, whereas we have finally got some momentum going.
The break will also give Wayne Rooney two more weeks to recover from his foot injury and I wont be surprised to see him make a very unexpected appearance against his former employees, Everton. If not, he should be back in time for the match against Chelsea. If Saha is in hot form Sir Alex will have a very tough decision on his hands, who to play upfront? How about all three? So by the time the match against Everton comes around we could have Rooney, Ronaldo, Saha, Anderson, Tevez, Nani, Scholes and Giggs (he could even benefit from the break and be back to top form) - finally all of our attacking options ready to fire, something we have been waiting for all summer! But knowing our bad luck someone is going to go and get injured. With United players coming back to full fitness the opposite is happening in Chelsea (or should I say Fulham!) with Fat Frank and Drogba injured.
After the game against Everton, we have a tough match against Chelsea (Ed’s note: We play Sporting Lisbon after Everton, something Ollie must have noted. Anyhow, we take it that he means our next Premiership game after Everton is Chelsea.) which, if we could win, would leave us in front of them. This is assuming we also beat Everton.
Following that things get much easier, with fixtures against Birmingham, Wigan, Villa and then Boro. This should provide an opportunity for United to gather some much needed points just before the match against Arsenal, a team which did the double over us last season. So providing we take maximum points from all of the fixtures just before the Arsenal match, we should be in a commanding position, hopefully at the top of the table, before our visit to the Emirates.
Manchester United and Chelsea have been tipped as the two teams that will be battling it out for the Premiership all summer, however it is neither of these two who are on the top of the table at the moment. Liverpool have had their best start to a Premiership campaign for a long time and are a force to be reckoned with. Their new signings, Torres especially, have settled in very quickly and now they are in a position many expected to be occupied by either United or Chelsea. I personally think that Liverpool will struggle in the middle part of the season and will struggle for consistency throughout the season. However, they could become a major title threat if they manage to keep up their good form.
So, at this very moment in time, things are looking up for Manchester United, with Chelsea not hitting their best quite yet. Though there is a long way to go I don’t think it will be too long until we are back where we belong, at the top of the Premiership 
What do you guys think? When would we realistically be top of the table?
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Tags: Manchester United News
September 4th, 2007 at 11:22
May G.Neville will be back too, or maybe Sir ALex will find time to watch the Sunderand game and find out that Wes Brown didn`t give in a good cross all evening, and count how many times tevez los possession.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:40
Ahhh thats quite a good observation.Hopefully Banitez will mess while trying to shuffle the team and by then we shall be there to grab those wins.
Hail Saha,atleast he has disapproved many who discarded him.
Chelsea will suffer come the cup of nations in africa same applies to the gtunners my fear is Banitez
September 4th, 2007 at 12:46
The match against Everton will be kind of a decider to United’s this season chance of winning treble.United feel strong this season its just the players to be released at right moment.Once with Rooney and Ronaldo out of bench,its going to pump up the team.Nani has started to show his moves and is more of Ronaldo.Once both of them settle out on wings United will have tons of goals.Only if our fragile strikers(Saha and Rooney who can get injury any time)have same talent like van nistelrooy to turn crosses to goals.I was hoping United to buy at least one striker with Ole retiring.May fergie thinks Eagles would me the man this time around.Nice blog anyways.:)Hope you make a small content to my blog.It will be encouragement to one more United supporter.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:59
good post olliey may u can furnish us with the next four to six fixtures for liverpool,arsenal, and chelsea but i think if we beat evrton in the next game then it wont be hard to get on top of chelsea coz i biliv we’ll beat them at home.
September 4th, 2007 at 13:25
damn i hate the international breaks! the premier league is the best! roll on united!
September 4th, 2007 at 14:18
An interesting article in the Guardian on international breaks:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/09/04/no_time_to_relax_you_have_two.html
September 4th, 2007 at 15:01
Dont be worried of benitez.just like arsenal,they will crumble easily.our only undoing is underlooking teams.hadnt we messed in the first math, we wd be on top.i hope giggs follows the 2OLEGEND path.
September 4th, 2007 at 16:09
These breaks for internationals often come at a bad time for teams on a good run, so I’d expect Liverpool to lose a bit of their form. For a team in Manchester United’s current position, a break like this can be good. 2 victories, although not playing too well, will build up confidence, and the players will look forward to returning from the internationals, whereas the players from Liverpool will have to find the same form again.
My point is, Liverpool’s players will have to find the same quality again, which is never easy, whereas United’s players will feel they can win even when not playing well.
September 4th, 2007 at 16:16
i hope giggs11egend dosent play, i generally think nani is better than him.
September 4th, 2007 at 17:34
why dont we sign Henrik Larsson, great cover and we would have 4 top qualty strikers
September 4th, 2007 at 20:15
be quiet dan- HENRIK IS AN OLD MAN! giggs in my opinion is practicly useless now unfortunately…id play young nani a head of him all day! our team is totally reliant on king saha now unfortunately coz fergie bought the wrong striker. everythibg is cool tho- UTD’S fantastic four of; rooney ronaldo nani + anderson will make us a dominant force.
September 4th, 2007 at 20:39
Guys dont worry bout giggs he will pick up.33 is not young.hes going through a bad patch.giggs is a legend!he has played terrible but i would right now still pick him ahead of nani.giggs can cross the ball.with saha in their now
September 4th, 2007 at 20:48
Does any1 know if rooney,tevez and saha can play together?
September 4th, 2007 at 21:39
Giggs is still valuable and he’ll prove it when the time comes. The next two Premiership matches will be crucial. And don’t be so sure that we’ll win the matches against Birmingham, Wigan, Villa and Boro. After all, we were supposed to win the matches against Reading, Portsmouth and City but look what happened.
September 4th, 2007 at 23:32
in the 4231 could put rooney in the hole saha up front ronny on right and have tevez on the left he stays over there anyway he and ronny can take turns moving forward for 433. nani or match fit gigs on the bench as cover anderson too.
glory to come boys
September 5th, 2007 at 0:06
you could also do a 4-3-2-1 like this
Brown-Rio-Vidic-Evra
Ronaldo-Hargreavs-Nani
—-Rooney-Tevez—–
——–Saha———-
although that leaves scholes and carrick out, i personally start with a 4-4-2 with ronaldo-scholes-hargreavs-nani
rooney-saha
and then only move to the above formation at half time if we’re still 0-0
September 5th, 2007 at 13:33
This break could not have come at a better time.
Giggs will come good, so will Tevez. There’s a saying…
“Form is temporary, class is permanent”.
I’m expecting our team to cause a ‘big bang’ when everybody is fit. Just hope and pray that everybody (especially Saha) can stay fit and that no one picks up injuries during the international matches. (I think that is why SAF wanted to push Rooney’s scan for later this week, as apposed to as early as possible).
September 5th, 2007 at 16:21
who on earth is doubting GIGGS he a LEGEND, not just 4 man utd, but in world football. people claming nani is better thn him, are running b4 thy can wlk. nani will improve with age but 2 say “u’ll play him over giggs ne day” is a laugh. ARE U A CHELSEA FAN IN DISGUISE?.
GIGGS provides consistency, class, great temprement, experience, added on theses his ability on and off the ball. nani is an understudy, he is NOT better.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:10
Giggs will be back in form although my insticts say nani will improve. I hope Anderson will use this time to get accustomed to the united way of play minus the players themselves!
September 8th, 2007 at 15:08
@ taehr regarding rooney, tevez saha playing together
they can:
VDS
Neville Rio Vidic Evra
Scholes Hargreaves
Ronaldo Rooney Tevez
Saha
Tevez used to drift from the left wing inside when he played at west ham last season
September 9th, 2007 at 6:16
I couldn’t agree more. This break will give United some time to get the house in order and seriously, i will prefer the injuries to occur in the early part of the season than after Christmas.