Dec 03
United vs Fulham: Preview
We face Fulham in a late kick off on a Monday. I know, it can be frustrating if your team is not playing in the weekend. But that’s the way it is, and with the extra day that the lads got to rest you have to think that it should serve them well.
In case you were wondering why there was no sign of activity in this blog (in the articles part at least) it is because I am going through a very busy period. And as I mentioned a few posts before, this will be true for another week. But don’t fret. Hopefully Ahmed would drop by and give you some thoughts to ponder over and rant about. And I will chip in too. This won’t be for too long; I assure you that.
Getting back to the game. Rooney is expected to return, although I am not sure if he’d start. His absence has indeed affected us and if we are to move back to second — we are fourth at the moment — we would need him. That is not to say that we are that crap to be needing him against Fulham, but it is in the sense that he should get enough minutes under his belt before the crucial Liverpool game.
About the team composition, Tevez and Rooney should play up front with Giggs and Ronaldo in the wings. Hargreaves and Anderson will play in the middle, with our back four comprising Evra, Vidic, Rio and Brown.
Lawrie Sanchez had earlier claimed that he will go all out attack against us. We’ll have to wait and see about that. Although if that happens then we could see some space created in front.
Meanwhile, in team related news, the gaffer has hinted at not making any moves in January. But we know how often he has managed to surprise us. Again, only time will tell.
And, of course, one final word before signing off would be about the European Player of the Year award that went to Kaka. No doubt, he is a top, top player. But how the fuck did Messi make it to number three? Yes, he is an outstanding player and I am sure the kid would surpass one and all. He is the real deal. But what did he achieve with Barcelona or Argentina over the past year? I knew Ronaldo wouldn’t win it because no player from the EPL has ever won it so far. To be honest, Kaka and Milan had nothing else to play for but the Champions’ League and our players were knackered in that game. Oh well, I guess there’s no point complaining. Although I wonder if there would be any player who could ever win that prize from the Premier League.
Back to today’s game, my prediction: 2-0 to United.
And oh, let me remind you that our competition for winning that cool scarf from Savile Rogue is still on. Kindly read this post for details on how you could win one. Hurry!
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Rooney and Evans celebrate winner v Fulham – Wallpaper
- Fulham v Man Utd: Preview
- Fulham Preview
- Porto it is then…
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (542)
Stephen (500)
RedDevilEddy (463)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
man utd jaluo.nuff said.comparing nani and giggs is rubbish,but when one is young,more useful in terms of goals and assists with room to improve,it is wiser to give him mo games as opposed to a poor,declining legend.am not slagging giggs but am tired of him being carried by the team.wenger sold vieira for fabregas.look at him now.this issue of legends is blocking our football and style of play.take out ronaldo and see how the team looks like.poor.its time for players to carry more responsibility,and if they realise they hurt the team ask to be bit players from the bench.saha is doing it,so should ryan.
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Regarding the ‘injuries’, I seem to remember that hearing somewhere that they were due an illness going round the squad.
Maybe someone can confirm that
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I agree with you grognard. This is only one game and from his tract record of mediocrity, he needs many more performances like this to sway me back. I just want to show that he does still provide something for the team when he plays, and is not like a veron who played well somewhere else and was a bust here. No, at 17m or 25m (whatever it was) he was just a bad buy for that money and given his career.
Anyway, sorry if i made you upset. I do remember that you said you wouldnt comment on him, but what doesnt cause a firestorm when talked about here? Thats what this place is for. Id much rather argue with someone who likes the team that with someone who could care less and who’s arguement is a little more than ‘he sucks cause hes a red.’
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Giggs just had a bad game or a couple of them. I still think you people saw him against Blackburn where he danced through the Blackburn defense showing extreme close control and ability..I think there are very few players in the world who can do that in such tight situations…I am not saying that he should be playing/starting all games..But ManU supporters dont bark on players as Chelsea supporters does for a couple of bad performances..We know what he can do and how good he is..
Nani is still good and may be better but as Grog points out he need to adapt to EPL and learn to keep the ball. He is more like a younger Ronaldo who used to lose the ball often. We cannot afford to give him cover as Evra plays a high line on that left hand side.. Young ronaldo was always covered in the back by an agile and non compromising Neville..
2 goals and 3 assists are stats and the game on the field is far far above from the stats.
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RR, so strange; not even i post on the match. Hope what u r doing aint straneous mate.
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Everyone, even if Giggs wasn’t the legend that he is today then he should still deserve our support. 2 years ago everyone was saying that Giggs was done, he has lost all his pace and that completely ruins what his game is about, but then last year he proved everyone wrong and was one of the best players in the league, what’s stopping him from doing that again soon? He’s shown flashes of brilliance this season and he definitely has good vision and close control plus he’s the only player in our team, bar neville, who can cross a ball so he hasn’t just became useless all of a sudden. Nani is too wasteful with the ball right now and that can be easily fixed during training if he works on it so in truth he doesn’t need games yet until he’s ready.
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busingye; No mate, you missed the point. Giggs is a legend and he should be given more respect but my point was that at this time in point, we have nobody better to replace him at LMF or LW. Nani will probably be a great player one day but he is clearly not ready yet. At least Giggs gives us experience and composure on the pitch when we need it. He still has some tricks in his bag too although he shows them less and less often these days. To compare him to Ronaldo is just so unfair. Not just because of the age but because of the defined role Fergie has given each to play. You have this notion that because he plays the same position as Ronny but on the opposite side of the pitch, that he should do what Ronny does. You couldn’t be more wrong. His job is to give us more width and to make telling passes into our forwards. Ronny has a free role to do what he wants in the opposing third of the field.
I also said that this will be Giggs last season as a starter as it will be for Paul Scholes and probably Gary Neville too. I have been much harsher on Scholes because of the style of play he is now using as opposed to how well he is playing. Giggs at least is trying to play a positive offensive style. He clearly has flashes of greatness but lets face it, he is slowing down. Lets stop being greedy and respect what he has done and what he has meant to the fans. We don’t suffer that much with him out there so lets look at other areas of concern that are far more glaring, like a third forward that can score, our lack of depth at RB and LB and our inability to kill off our opponents with better finishing.
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Comma; There was absolutely no offense taken mate. I just wrote a post a week ago where I claimed I was fed up talking and arguing about Carrick and I vowed to stop writing negative criticism about the player. That is why I originally wrote that I was hesitant about offering my review of his play. I will say this though, It’s really not the player that bothers me so, it is the price paid for him when I think what we could have got for that amount of money instead. That’s not his fault, but it’s not mine either if I don’t feel he is playing up to that investment. Football is a business first and loyalty and respect for the supporters comes second. Carrick was a poor business decision in terms of money invested and services rendered. He is a good player, but not what I feel a lot of us were expecting because of the money involved.
I really hate the comparison of him with Hargo. Hargo is a different player whose role was very well defined before he was bought. He was bought as a defensive midfielder. His role is to sweep up and win the ball. To compare his passing with Carrick is incredibly unfair. It’s like comparing Rio’s goal scoring touch with Rooney’s. Hargreaves is fantastic and he is just what we needed most. Let him win the ball and let others like Anderson create.
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Conor; Well said about Giggs and Nani. I totally agree.
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Well, since Celtic are already through I thought we could discuss our possible opponents in the next round, and looking at the possibilities, there doesn’t look to any particularly big teams we could play, with the most dangerous ones being Real Madrid or Sevilla if they don’t finish top, other than that, Marseille, Celtic, Rosenborg,Rangers/Lyon,Olympiakos/Werder Bremen, Fenerbahce/PSV are our options. And with Lyon and PSV becoming worse, and the fact that the rest are relatively inexperienced in regards to the knockout round, except Werder Bremen who may be slightly difficult, the next round doesn’t look too difficult. By the way does anyone else think its weird that JB hasn’t been on here in a while?
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I absolutely loved Rooney’s reaction to being offside/subbed
Absolutely loved it… he wanted to score.. he wasn’t himself but who thought he would be back in time for this match anyway.
He did the right thing by shaking Fergie’s hand when he was subbed and it just shows his passion for the game.. and i know he’d play for free..
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giggs is a legend…. but u guys dont need me to tell u that!!!! its amazing how he never won any personal accolades ( i remember reading zidane say that he wuld probably have never made the france starting line-up had giggs been french!!!)…… ronaldo still has some way to go before he tops giggsy in my book….. but thats not the point of this post….. why I think giggs is playing is because he is still the best player we have in his position(much like gorgnard and comma)…… nani has the potential, but as i have pointed earlier, he still lacks the composure to play regularly…… he gets caught in 2 minds far too often and seems to drift in and out of the game…….. he needs time, he isnt ready to shoulder the burden of being a first-team regular…… giggs on the other hand is calm and composed on the pitch, he can still produce moments of magic (granted, they are less frequent now) and above all, provides excellent balance to the team!
i think, we shuld all lay off carrick debate for a while…. that way when we revisit the topic, we will have more the a handful of minutes he spent on the pitch to judge him by….. i dont really have any comment on his performance from yesterday (didnt catch it….. stupid lecture!!!)
one more thing…. about our problems up front (well percived problem anyway…) i was wondering how good this welbeck kid is…. coz he has been pretty good for the U-18 this term and Sir Alex did say he’s one for the future…… anybody have any comments on that one????
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Conor; Yes I have noticed that JB has been mysteriously absent. Perhaps the bloke has gone on vacation or is just fed up arguing with me. Whatever the case, I do miss his contribution except for when he is on a mission to piss me off that is. He’s a knowledgeable footy fan and I hope he returns soon.
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Samg; Welbeck is just too far off for me to give a damn. I am really only concerned over what we can do to make the team better for now and next season. We have quite a few young players in the system right now that have very bright futures. But the way we are acting as far as being a big club makes me wonder if they will ever really get that great chance to excel at the highest level. We seem far too interested in buying expensive foreigners and slotting them in to positions that makes it difficult for young home grown talent to ever get a real crack at making the starting eleven. Their is no patience to let young players grow in to the position. Look how we all find ways to criticize Nani and Pique whenever they make a mistake. We are obsessed with winning everything and right bloody now. So what do we do, we loan them out or eventually sell them like Giuseppi Rossi. It’s a real shame
I like what Wenger did last year at Arsenal. He sacrificed the season in order to give the young kids a chance to play and learn. That is the only way to go. This money thing has got to stop. It’s killing the game at every level. And we supporters are as much to blame for it as the owners and coaches of the clubs. We are all setting unrealistic and very short term expectations. So, I rather doubt we will ever see Welbeck play for United. I hop I’, wrong.
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have u guyz noticed how ronaldo makes goal scoing look simple, and should tevez be training a long syd him since he is wasting many open goalscoring oppotunities.and ones which would have proved vital and crucial.
grognard, i would luv to agree with u on giggz but its hard, its as simple as the guy is not playing at per with the rest and thats why i say bench role is good for him, legend or no legend, as long as u aint perfoming no first team. lets rem that what made ronaldo get consistency and the level he’s currently playing at is coz he played game after game and thats what nani needs and with nani on the pitch we always know we can get a goal.not with giggz(he is a waste of space) and as long as we play him we’ll always look like a team that can drop points, we need to be water tight and perfoming in all areas and i dont take the argument that LW is not an important position.
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slow news day
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[Man utd Jaluo]
Legends or no legends, Grog & I are just sayin there is no replacement for giggs right now. Nani is not ready.
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[man utd jaluo says:]
“…lets rem that what made ronaldo get consistency and the level he’s currently playing at is coz he played game after game…”
We ended up in 2rd place in the league. Now, we cannot really afford that because competition is much tougher and we are aiming for 1st in the league and 1st in the CL.
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Grognard, not to pick up the Carrick debate again, but I think you mis-understood me about the Carrick and Hargo comparison. The point is not who’s better, but that both still have a role in the team because of their differences.
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I’m sorry man utd jaluo but saying things like Giggs is waste of space is plain stupid and the fact that you say “as long as u aint perfoming no first team” and then go on to say that Nani should start for us shows that you pay more attention to stats rather than overall input into the game. Of the assists that Nani got most of them were corners, so don’t bring up the argument of “Who has more assist than the other” because overall this season I’d say Giggs has played marginally better than Nani and still deserves to play ahead of him. And about Tevez becoming a better finisher, he’s never been that great a finisher anyways and most people new that before he came to us, and so I don’t think he will ever be a 20-goal-a-season striker, you’re born that way, but I’m perfectly happy with him in our team the way he is now.
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Well said Conor on #69
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