Oct 02
Thoughts on the Aalborg win and reactions
United won a game that I thought wasn’t exhilarating for a 3-0 scoreline, as a spectacle. Perhaps the 10,000 odd strength of the stadium made it look like a kick about at a Sunday league game. No disrespect to the fans of Aalborg, who to their credit sang their lungs out, but when I heard the commentator mention about a section of fans holding a banner with “Welcome to hell!” written on it, I thought they had a really good sense of humour — a heated cauldron with mentalists baying for blood was certainly not a picture that came to mind.
The headline makers of the day were Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney, for their goals, but the man who really caught the eye was Rafael da Silva. More on that in a bit.
Fergie sent out what he thought was a strong United team. Wes Brown would have every reason to be livid about it. Even I was not happy at Fergie’s decision to overlook Brown. My unhappiness was slightly tempered by the fact that we got another chance to see one of our young prospects show their wares on the European stage. The idea — to blood youngsters — was good. But the cost — of doing it at Brown’s expense — wasn’t.
Now I’m sure Brown’s a decent lad who’s been United through and through and wouldn’t throw a fit straight away. But whilst he may have been able to come to terms with seeing Gary Neville play ahead of him — he’s our skipper after all — coming off the bench for a puny 18 year old, and only because said puny 18 year old was feeling his knee, would have sucked out the last vestiges of self-respect left in him. I appreciate Fergie’s bravery for selecting a youngster in a European game, but I feel sorry for Brown.
But back to our puny Brazilian. The kid’s got amazing desire and skill. He’s not afraid to get stuck, and his trickery and pace can rival even our most accomplished wingers. He’s quite a talent: raw, unhinged, and unafraid of the occasion. And boy, did he grasp the opportunity given to him! A couple of shots that he took could have easily been goals. They weren’t blind pot shots that end up being missiles targetted at the friend in row Z who wanted a souvenir ball. They were good shots on target that tested the ‘keeper. And well informed observers of the South American leagues, like the excellent Tim Vickery, think Fabio is the more talented one. Now I hope I temper this excitement down. He is, as I said, raw. And with raw, you get parts of the game that need to be worked on. He does need to learn to track back and not get caught out too forward. A marauding full back like Evra would help the chap better at that.
Moving on, to another character that deserved more than a cursory mention: Dimitar Berbatov. He scored a brace, but was struggling to find his feet in the first half. His passes were off — even the simple ones — although the ideas were good for most part. It’s the pulling those ideas off part that wasn’t up to scratch. From what I’ve seen of Berbatov, I really think he’s got a good footballing brain. And someone with a good footballing brain can adapt to a system more easily. His influence is growing, but it’s been gradual. In the second half I saw more of the Berbatov I wanted to see. Some of his skills are so languid in execution that they don’t get the appreciation they deserve. His ability to shift the ball from one foot to the other with minimal upper body movement and with two defenders on his back was a subtle move that I’m not sure a lot of people may have noticed. But more than the quality of his goals, what caught my eye was his pass with the outside of his boot to Ronaldo that the Portuguese somehow contrived to miss. That was class. I think Berbatov is getting there, as far as gelling with the team goes, and his comments on being angry with himself for not scoring a straightforward chance gives us a glimpse of how much the man wants to prove to the Old Trafford faithful. More than his partnership with Rooney, I see a greater and a more mouthwatering understanding with Ronaldo in the works. Watch this space.
Another player who was left for the last was Wayne Rooney. He was again impressive, and scored again. The presence of Berbatov seems to have taken the responsibility — of having to be a primary scoring threat — off his shoulders and this lessening of burden has freed him more and perhaps, given him more composure in front of goal. Or am I reading too much into this? Oh well, how typical of him then to get into a vein of form and then limp off the field. He seems doubtful for Blackburn.
I was shocked at the selection of O’Shea alongside Scholes in midfield. A more decent side would have ridden roughshod over us. In fact, the Aalborg midfielders did bypass O’Shea rather easily. I don’t know what sort of rotation Fergie has in mind, but it’s a good idea to keep Fletcher fresh for the graft that is in store against Blackburn — who always give us a good fight.
When Scholes limped off, I wasn’t impressed with Fergie bringing on Giggs in his place — “Oh, so we have a a world class squad, yet we are back to our central midfield of O’Shea and Giggs that dragged us to 2nd place in the 05/06 season”, I thought. Irony? I think so.
But Giggs looked like the sort of player we really needed. Has just enough pace for a central midfielder, has enough experience and vision to create time for himself on the ball, and showed that he could thread some neat passes as he setup Rooney. So, world class squad it is then.
As a concluding note, I still think we were never even out of second gear on the day. The 3-0 win was another step as we look to move into a situation where we really start spanking teams that are half decent. Till then I’ll keep the faith in our squad to be in touching distance with the league leaders. After which I hope Liverpool begin their time honoured tradition of imploding under the weight (and noise) of the Kop and Chelsea continue to play as badly as they did against Cluj.
It’s a pity we head into the international break after Blackburn away, just as we seem to be hitting the right notes.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Manchester United’s 08/09 Champions’ League Opponents
- Aalborg v Man Utd: Preview
- United get Milan, Giggs gets new deal
- Some More Thoughts Ahead of the Scouse Trip
- CHAMPIONEEEESSSSSS! YESSSSS!
Tags: Match Reports
Opti (542)
Stephen (500)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sercan_Y%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r%C4%B1m This is the guy who I’ve seen us linked to today, although he doesn;t have a Youtube highlight video that I could find.
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I thought the guy we were linked to was named Sercan Yildrim? No youtube video though….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sercan_Y%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r%C4%B1m
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@Grognard: Well said Grogard! I didn’t mean to compare Nani with Ronaldo, they are different class! I know he play less and that’s why he want to impress everyone when he’s on the field and like what Craig said he was 2nd highest in assists last season, that’s mean he doesn’t need to put the ball in the net to make him the best, right? Actually his skills can usually provide spaces for his teamates to score! I don’t mean to ignore him but hope he can put his head down and think why he is still in the 2nd team, facing Aalborg is a good chance to impress the manager, but he blew it.
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@3Vunited: Agreed. My goodness when you think about the fact that we have two players who are excellent in the air like Ronaldo and Berbatov and the fact that Tevez is also decent in the air, we need a winger who can service them with quality crosses. My God if a young Beckham was playing for us today, we would score over 100 goals easily.
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@dan(u-ol): Judging soley on you tube, he is worth a 5 Million pound gamble. I mean what is % million in the grand scheme of things? He looks good tho, the move he makes at the 6:20 mark is breath taking.
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@Grognard: Okey, I played FIFA 09 from 18:00-1:00 yesterday and its AWSOME!!!
Couple of things that are really hard to do in the beginning, but it is just a realy natural game style that is realistic that makes it a little difficult at times. Now:
Leagues- Russian League and Argentinian League are not in it. Zenit are not in the game at all, but Boca Juniours and River plater are. The Braziliand Legue is in full flow and every Legue has updated players. Robinho is at Citeh, Berba is with United and Riera is with Liverpool. And Saha is at Everton.
Free-kicks: Ive only tried free kicks with Ronaldo, Hargreaves and Juninho. Ronaldo is realistic as hell, the only thing is that his “real” shot comes when you hit a free kick with lb+b. Every free-kick are harder than in the previuos games, you have to press the shot-button longer than before. And a tip: When you take power fks with Ronaldo, make the ball hav a dip and aim between the walls heads. And if you call a player stand next to the ball, the wall wont jump and it gets easier.
Play- Realistic! Ive only played with United, but something that made me and will make you happy is the role that Rooney and Ronaldo plays. Ronaldo moves all over the pitch, and when crosses come from the left side he goes into the box. Ronaldo moves from the right flank to the middle, to up front and then ends up at the left wing at times. He is so unpredictable in the game its amazing. When you lose possesion Rooney will track back and if you win it with, lets say Rio, he wil pass it to Rooney 30 yards fronm the United goal. He wis tracking back a lot, but compared to the real life, Rooney can score witha placed shot from 30 yards!
The full backs at United are attacking more than before, and in this game I can actuallyu get pnalties from a foul of the goalkeeper. That is new and brilliant! The ref screwed some attacks up for me, he really is in the way sometimes. But if you set the passing in the build up to 85, and a “free-roam” players move everywhere. Nani can go in Cm right in the middle of a game and Andy to the left wing. Rooney can take the right wing and Ronaldo become a ST. Carrick is the only player that doesnt move as much, he moves, but he doesnt switch positions. At least not yet. You can hit the ball with the outside of your boot, thats how I scored my first goal. Through ball to Ronaldo on the corner of the 18, yard box, couple of stepovers and a placed shot with the outside of his right foot, top corner. Ive had a couple of those, its brilliant. Oh and Grog, Andersons finishing is 64… 
You can set up your own formations, captain is easier to pick this time and kick takers. Good thing from previous games: If you want VDS to take a penalty or a fk, he can.
Well, the game comes out today in England I believe. I would tell you to buy it, cause its the most brilliant game in the world!
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I edited Rafael and made him 73. He is brilliant, I tell you. So far my best defender.
Go Rafael! If you play Rafael and Fabio together in the game, you wont be able to see the difference. Berbatov really looks like Berba, Roo lookes like Roo and Ronaldo is impossible to spot the difference from game and real life. Fan shop is gone, now you get everything for free! 
shoes, kits and balls. Celebrations you pick when you score.
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Grognard: Here’s a piece that might interest you. I agree with most of it.
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@RedDevilEddy: Sounds amazing. I still have to wait two bloody weeks to get mine here in Canada and the cover here will have some useless Mexican and some turd from the MLS. EA just doesn’t get the fact that in North America we care more about the European game than the inept and tragically uncool MSL or worse yet, the Mexican League. God give me strength. I cannot believe that they have not included the UEFA Cup and European Super Cup Champions Zenit. What were they thinking? In fact they should guarantee every year that they include every team that has qualified for the final 32 in the CL so that one can replay the CL from this year with accuracy.
I am elated that the game seems to flow well and that the players look realistic but I wonder how far that goes. When I go to play the Bundesliga, will players like Marko Marin or or other lesser stars like Pavlyuchenko, Huntelaar or Pogrebnyak or Sanchez look realistic. EA’s NHL 09 is amazing in the fact it has a photo realistic representation for everyone playing the game in many different leagues. In the past FIFA has been lazy enough to only have accurate looking players for 20% of the game. They should at least make sure the players in all 4 major leagues and the players from the top 12 national teams look accurate.
I am glad they finally got rid of the Fan Shop. There is nothing that pisses off a 49 year old guy than when he throws his hard earned money towards a game and then he is forced and treated like a 10 year old to have to play stupid little mini games or accumulate points over a long period of time in order to open up options like getting extra kits, balls, shoes etc. I complained very loud to my friend who is one of the programmers for EA that I hated that and that I felt that when I pay $60.00 for a game, I should not be held hostage by a game by being forced to conform to a childish to do list in order to unlock items. Perhaps he told his superiors and who knows, maybe I had something to do with that. He did tell me many times that my input was valuable. I’ll have to see how many more changes have been made before I egotistically take credit for them.
Just watching highlights of the game on YouTube gives me a rush. Chrit this game really brings the kid out in me. I buy other games but no game captures my fancy and manipulates my free time like this one does. I n the first month I could see myself playing an average of 4 or 5 hours a day. Half the time is tweaking and changing statistical information so that the players will conform to what I think they should be like. I’m glad you were able to move Rafael from 67 to 73. Thats a healthy and realistic increase. It’s also more movement than past games would have given you. The highest you would have gone in the past would have been perhaps 70. Withe great players I have never been able to get them to go up by more than 2 or 3. Mostly one point. Rooney will be brought down due to his overrated finishing. Scholes offensive rating will be brought down a bit also. Anderson’s finishing will be dropped to under 60 and Hargo will be increased. I will spend hours and hours tweaking the whole game and dozens of players. I saw the Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa player ratings and I disagree with many of them. Gerrard, Lampard and Fabregas do not deserve to be 88′s. They are all good but not that good. More like 85 to 86 for that group. I really hate it when they rate a player like Neville so high and then underrate a player like Brown. I also hate when players who were known to have been injured or in poor form like Lampard get such high ratings. I’ll fix that. Gerrard, Lampard and Fabregas never had enough goals combined to compare to Ronaldo and they are 88′s to Ronaldo 92. It’s not like Ronaldo’s only skill is scoring goals. They clearly are not that good. Only Torres should be close to him in the EPL.
If you have a chance I would be greatly appreciative if you could post the ratings of Juan Roman Riquelme, Lio Messi, Marko Marin, Michael Ballack and the starters of Bayern Munich. I’m curious as heck. If you can’t no problem but nevertheless, It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your review of the game.
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@Red Ranter: Thats a good article RR and thanks for sharing it with me. I agree with it and it just magnifies what I was saying about those tier 2 financial teams like United, Liverpool etc who are foreign owed and where there enormous debt. Something has to give. I’ve been crying about the fact that I don’t think United has the kind of transfer kitty many think they have. These recent financial events just reinforce that belief. Only the Man City’s and Chelski’s of the footballing world will feel little from this economic crunch. But I hate them too because I don’t believe that ownership is sincere and devoted to a long term tenure which will be good for those teams and for the league they play in. The diversity will become even greater if United , Liverpool and Arsenal’s finances implode due to a further deterioration of the financial sector. 660 million in debt at this time and especially against American investors and owners speaks of disastrous future ramifications for our club and for Liverpool. Don’t be surprised if by this time next year, United is not owned by some Dubai consortium’s. It’s the only logical step for the team, the Glazer’s and for the league. We shall see but all I can say for now is I’M DEPRESSED. Sorry for the caps.
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