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 (541)
Stephen (487)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (348)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Really important game, we’re now in fourth for those watching the table. What’s interesting in Pool are now ahead of us, didn’t see them catch up so quickly! I’d love to see Saha get a couple, the man needs a boost of confidence like no other! Should in theory be quite straight forward, but with United you never know!
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theaz no worse time for fulham to come to old trafford like today. i really feel sorry for them. Rooney needs to get back and get back to the scoring ways and for him fulham and derby will give him nuff goal scoring practice before we play the scousers.
Hope fergy and his coaching staff have learned from mistakes of under estimating teams and that he will always field his best squad whateva team we play. I havent still gotten over the fact that ronaldo wasn’t even in the bench during boltons game.
except chelsea, arsenal and liverpool have been on a free goal scoring run in the last couple of matches but with fulham and derby i expect a real harvest of goals our way as long as fergy fields his strong first eleven.
prediction,,man utd 4 fulham 0.. though i’d luv to put it at sevn, lemme give fulham a bit of respect.
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red ranter feel excused but please when u come back update the stats and reports page.
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Fergie is just stirring u talk as usual. I definitely know that he will at least buy a striker. He is experiencd to know that he needs at least 4 good strikers (’99 squad) to fight for the treble. Right now we have only two strikers ( not including one legged saha) So we need to BUY. PLEASE GO FOR BERBATOV!!!
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All united fans please lets gang up to convince fergie to buy BERBATOV (solution to our jigsaw). Did you see the touches again yesterday. They are coming back to him. RR please post this as a topic 4 discussion. ” BERBATOV FOR UNITED”
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[Jameso]
It’s been discussed to death on this site already mate. Head over here
And please mate, turn off too many caps in your comments, in future.
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Sorry mate just knew bout the site 4rm a collegue in the office, so i take time once in a while to post. Again mate, apologies for the caps. Nice work you r doing
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[Jameso]
Cheers. And welcome!
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God i hope anderson starts today.united really flows when he plays.i dont know how fit rooney is but i would like to see saha(yup saha!)and tevez upfront today with rooney for two reasons.saha needs confidence like no striker has ever needed before.and secondly i dont want to see rooney get himself injured again because that would be his 3rd this season alone and i prefer players to be eased back than put straight back into the side regardless of the length they spent on the sidelines.4 place!wtf!how??? liverpool and arsenal are looking good so tonight we cannot drop and we wont.prediction 4 1 with saha 2,ronaldo 1,anderson 1.come on u reds!
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Tonight’s game is crucial. Last season we hammered them 5-1 in the corresponding fixture. I would love to see a repeat of this tonight. Rooney should start straight away. We have no more chances to gamble with. Arsenal are not losing points as we would have hoped to. And Liverpool – Chelsea – Man City are still keeping up with the chase. At this point last year, the race had been reduced to a two horse race. This year’s seems to be a bit difficult one. United cannot afford to drop any further points in December and so we need to treat every game with the ruthlessness they deserve AND THAT HAS TO START TONIGHT!
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Formation for today should be VDS; Brown-Vidic-Ferdinand-Evra; Giggs-Anderson-Hagreaves-Ronaldo; Rooney-Tevez
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Jameso I think Berbatov is brilliant and evrything as well but he was terrible yesterday so I’m not sure what you’re talking about, and even then he’s probably not a big team player. He has only scored 3 goals against any of the top 4 teams in his last two seasons(last year for spurs and the year before for Leverkusen) and he goes missing in games regularly, sometimes for the whole match.
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http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=67835
intresting if true
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honestly, i would not care if we lost wes brown, hundreds of right backs out there, and 99% of them are better, its beeter for us, as it gives danny simpson and the twins a chance instead of wes browns mediocracy game in game out, im honestly, worried each time he is on the ball, hes just plain bland, and boring, like carrick, only carrick has his moments and brown rarely does, sure he has been ok for us this season, but at manchester united, ok is only good for second string, so i hope its true dan
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Brown has been a loyal and good servant for United. He is a CB who was forced to play RB and did it to the best of his abilities. Sure he is no Neville and he does not light the house on fire but he is damned consistent and doesn’t make too many glaring mistakes. I place him in the “Get of his Back” contingent with O’Shea and Fletcher. All three have paid their dues for the club and the supporters. None of them are flashy or outstanding but they leave their heart and soul on the pitch and occasionally come up with a gem moment that resonates. I’d hate to lose Brown as he was great depth in the back four which is always great to have.
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anyone know a decent stream channel for the match later on?
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i dont know grognard, you make vaild points, but to me wes brown is a bit over rated, sure he is a great back up, but as a starter, then your pushing it, hes been consistent this season yes, but all those performances, ive seen many mistakes, i.e crossing which is piss poor at best, bar the lucky ones, i love o’shea and fletch, but brown for me, is another kieran richardson
and chris, heres a site http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=2891&part=sports im using the 1st one on sopcast, great quality, though join quick to avoid a long wait
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Confirmed Tonights team: VDS, wes-rio-vida-pat, ronnie-owen-Anderson-giggsy, carlitos-Roon
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Lineup:
————————EVDS————————
—Brown—–Ferdinand—–Pique——Evra—
Ronaldo—-Anderson—-Hargreaves—Giggs
——————–Rooney—–Tevez———————-
Subs: Kuszczak, O’Shea, Fletcher, Carrick, Saha
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thank god anderson luis de abreu oliveira is playing instead of micheal carrick, god even his name is plain
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goal by ronaldo.great playing by man u in the opening minutes.
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buhumbug, what a crap game.
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great goal from Ronny but the lads have gotta step it up!! they jst seem a bit lethargic at the mo? Annoyed Nani aint even on the bench as giggsy looks relatively useless again 2nite! Would def be a good thing if W.Brown was to move on, hes a fuckin liability 75% of the time.
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dan, what game are you watching, because this game is fantastic, im enjoying it, its fast paced free flowing, attacking football, if you find this boring then what on earth intrests you
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To tell you the truth I think Brown is a more than decent CB and we would need him as a back-up for sure if we’re playing in the champions league as his experience would be vital, Simpson or Pique would be likely to make a mistake in a high profile game as they are inexperienced. Redsnake Nani deserves to be out of the team because of his performance against Sporting, all young players need a good kick up the arse once in a while.
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carrick in for rio? what formation are we playin right now? i know evra is already out and has been replaced with O’Shea as well as Saha for Rooney…
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That’ll just mean that Hargreaves goes to right back and Wes Brown goes to centre back.
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i was just wondering if we might try a 3-4-3 formation with ronny upfront going for a hat-trick (and premiership leadin 9th goal) – would have been fun to watch… also with only 2 goals and none let it liverpool would still have a better goal diff. than us and would be ahead of us if they win the game they have in hand…
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Fuckin hell its so annoying that we miss so many chances.tevez,and saha both guilty and even rooney.ronaldo doesnt need to dive he could have got his hatrick.good performance from everyone giggs was pretty good with his through balls.ronaldo is better than kaka,he has so much more in his tank.we could have scored much more.
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But we’ll beat them in 2 weeks time. It’ll be fine, it’s early in the season and I can see us winning the double, not good that Evra and/or Rio got injured, especially during the christmas period, when players often get rushed back. It’s amazing that Ronnie still hasn’t scored a hat-trick with the amount of games he’s scored a double in. As long as we win and create chances what’s the problem Taehr?
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Conor: Just don’t want to see us get caught out one of these nights. Whilst our team are an immence attacking threat i feel our lack of physical stature will cost us points against teams who will be able to out muscle us. When giggs is in the side it fucks up the balance as half the time (tonight inc.) Rooney has to drop bk to left wing whilst Giggs dissapears! All im sayin is that as far as im concerned Nani should always be on the bench to provide a potential threat. The Arsenal game is a decent example, With 20 mins to go Giggs was runnin on empty-Nanis introduction would definately have benefited us.
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I couldnt help this.carrick played two beautiful passes to giggs and saha today.that showed terrific vision.
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Redsnake: I am tired of this Giggs vs Nani comparison. Nani requires at least a season more to get a nod ahead of Giggs. Look at the kind of passes Giggs played today. His intelligence is unmatchable. Nani comes no where near Giggs’ positioning. Nani should be on the field only when Giggs is burnt out.
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I missed the game, can someone tell me how Rooney did?
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Kurt; Rooney was alright, not outstanding. To be expected after such a layoff. He’ll be himself in two games.
A strong performance in the first twenty minutes by United but then they took the pedal of the the metal a bit. They still created some chances afterwards but they could have had 3 or 4 goals after just fifteen minutes. I love Tevez’s work rate and creativity but he really needs to work on his finishing. I don’t know if it’s lack of composure or just impatience but he needs to calm down and aim his shots better. The setup from Brown that he shot right at Niemi was a perfect example. Instead of one timing it like a hockey player, he should have taken a split second to stop it and aim for a corner. He is also showing his weakness in the air. He’s actually a good header if the ball is only 6 feet high but if he needs to really get up their, he lacks the vertical jump to do so. After all, he is short for a striker. Had you given those half dozen chances he squandered today to a real poacher like Huntelaar, United would have won 5 or 6-0. Forget Saha, he is waste material out there.
Now regarding the penalty that wasn’t involving Ronaldo. Don’t get me wrong because Ronny is my second favorite player on the planet but the lad made his bed years ago and now he has to lie in it. This is a clear message to all serial divers in football. Your cheating will hurt you in the long run. You will acquire a reputation that you can never escape from. Ronny was fouled today but he has a rep that follows him. To give him a yellow card though was adding salt to the wound. In fairness, Brown mauled a Fulham player in the box in the first half and never got called so lets be fair out there.
Honestly, I am a little tired of Fergie bitching about the refs not calling this and not calling that and not protecting his prized pets. When asked about the Brown foul he conveniently claimed to have not seen it. Give me a break Fergie, hipocracy does not suit you.
As for the game, United showed tons of tricks and style today but lacked the quality of finishing. They need to work on that. Also, Anderson and some of the other midfielders need to try taking a few shots from outside the box like Danny Murphy did. Keep teams and opposing goalkeepers honest. Surprise them a bit instead of always try to crack the back four. Sometimes a Nani moment is just there waiting for some of them to take advantage of.
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Hey adil alhinai, did you see that Wes Brown tackle as Ronaldo was trying to keep the ball in… Only two other players will lay a perfect tackle like that Rooney and Vidic
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tevez looked a tad bit selfish out there today to me. Well, to be honest, i couldnt really tell if it was frustration or him just being selfish, but he definitely took away two or three chances just by holding onto the ball and taking a weak shot.
I dont really want to bring up a sore subject for debate, but I have to ask anyway. Grognard, what did you think of carricks performance? I thought it was inspired. I think i have come around to the way you see things, him not being united material and all, but i really do believe he provides so much more on the pitch then fletcher does. Please dont take that as a shot at fletcher either. I love the kid. He’s what every football player for united should strive to be. Like you said grognard, he leaves his heart and soul on that pitch every time he steps on, but I think carrick still provides a little more offensive threat.
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Hey u all don’t u think we are all being hard on carrick, he had a good game. Saha is finished article. RR Do you have the update on evra,s injury. Hope it is not too bad. What of Rio is it bad too. We got Liverfool to come, and we need our best players.
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All the time we play well,someone has to mention giggs vision,intelligence,tthrough pass,name it.ask yourselves a question.what could we have done without ronaldo? like ronaldo giggs is a winger and should have a few goals or assists.he has one goal and one assist.experience should not be an excuse for poor perfomances week in week out.the team is carrying the man.look at nani.2 goals,3 assist.how about that?with 4 games played,yet giggs has played 13.if u look at arsenal and the way they are playing,you will attribute it to commitment and hunger which giggs does not have.flamini for gilberto has worked magic.
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Comma; I have said I would rufuse to talk about Carrick due to the fire storm it seems to create. But as my view of his performance is positive, I will add the following; He looked more focused and made a few very nice passes. It was encouraging but having watched him for almost a year and half, I will hold back my glee and wait to see if he can find offensive consistency and focus on a regular basis.
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busingye; Enough bashing of Giggs. The man is a legend and he MUST get our respect. He clearly is near the end of a great career and if Fergie had a clear cut choice to replace him as a starter he would. Unfortunately Nani is not ready yet. He is too young and he makes many mistakes. Giggs still has a lot of smarts out there and even if he doesn’t score, his passing, crossing and field sense is still great. This will probably be the last season where he starts. I for one want to enjoy it even if he isn’t Ryan Giggs circa 1999.
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[Busingye]
I think you are being a little hard on giggsy, he has served us for what almost 20yrs. He is 30+, Ronaldo is still in his early 20s. Ronaldo is not playing half of what giggs played when he was his age. To play over 700 games for Utd & only the brink of breaking a record set by the Legend ( Sir Bobby Charlton ) is enough to propel him into any hall of fame.
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[Grognard]
Well said. By that statement, you know pple who are life long united fans, even before the ferguson era.
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I thought Carrick played more telling passes in his 15 minutes than Anderson did in the rest of the match, actually anderson and hargreaves combined. I like Hargo’s work ethic, but he doesn’t look all that composed when he gets the ball, much prefers to just do the 5-yarder to the other CMF.
I don’t really know about the penalty/yellow card. Niemi didn’t get ball or player, but I didn’t think it wa sthe strikers job to be able to hurdle onrushing keepers who aren’t playing the ball. Further, if you watch Niemi, his arms are raised, yet the ball is on the ground. So what exactly is he reachign for? My opnion is he m eabnt to foul Ronaldo, missed, realising he missed jumped up and protested his innocence. I guess it’s good goal keeping. As for Brown in our area, 100% penalty, ref missed it. Anyone else thought Rooney was hilarious with his little tantrum at being called offside/being subbed?
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We played very well last night.
I can’t help sounding like a Andeson disciple, but I think he is just awesome. It’s scary to think what he’ll be like in a couple of seasons if he progress like he does. Watching him is like watching Ruud Gullit play…”poetry in motion”.
I hope the club can meet an agreement with Brown. He is an awesome CB that does a very good job at RB. Given he is no Evra, but he provides solidity at the back whenever he plays.
Carrick played well last night. He still have lots to offer United.
I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but, imo, OFFENSIVELY, Carrick and Anderson provides more than Hargo and Anderson. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that he is better than Hargo (because all round I think Hargo edges it), but he has the vision and ability for those sweet piercing passes that Hargo does not have.
On a personal note, I get pissed off every time LFC supporters mention how amazing and LOYAL Steven Gerrard is. We all know he’s not. Let’s wait until Giggs reach his record appearance before we criticise him. That’s the best way to show loyalty. His main role in the team nowadays is to keep the team’s composure. He does it very well.
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Anderson is on his way to being one of the best midfielders in the world. but could they please take him aside and give him a seperate training on SHOOTING. I think if he comes to terms with it, he would be one of, if not the best in the world. Remember he is still only 19.
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grog and jameso should clearly understand me on the giggs point.am not saying he is not a legend,but if you want to win trophies,forget history and concetrate on winning.this needs effort and stats dont lie.saying ronaldo isnt playing what giggs played at 22 is a joke.ronaldo at 22 is considered the best in the world.giggs?thats beside the point.i see you criticising carrick,who does more than double what giggs does.oh,isnt cantona a legend? why did he leave united early? and peter schmeichel,to be remembered well.giggs should do that
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I think last nights match was Cristiano ronaldo 2 fulham 0….rooney was crap and he deserved the sub..any1 with news bout why evra was taken off.
saha ooh saha..go back to fulham u are a liabilty.
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{busingye}
cant agree with u any more. people who are rooting for giggz should trhink twice. He is too old for this and i think he’ll be effective from the bench like the game versus sporting. and if its playing legends for the sake then lets get chalton, solsjaer and all the other legends back and see wea we finish,
sorry to compare the team with arsenal but what makes them be what they are today is players like viera,lujmberg,henry,and that dutchman knew thea time was up and all moved on, i think if giggz wont be comfy coming off the bench then he should go to fc united as he said.
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[Man utd jaluo]
Relating to what Grog and i put on giggsy; we r not saying you should depend on legends, but who will play there; is it nani who is not ready to take the next steps, cos 4 me with nani, it is 1 step foward, and 2 steps backwards.
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