Aug 13
United Would Do Well to Learn from Arsenal
Morning lads. I know. Even I am reeling from yesterday’s defeat. This won’t be a match report per se. If it’s match reports you want, then you have the papers. I would post match reports as and when I feel like it, but at the moment I’d like to dwell a little more on the lessons we can take from the game.
First of all, let’s be honest here and give credit where it is due. Hats off to Reading. It may seem cowardly to many, but under the circumstances – first game of the season at OT – their performance was a display of supreme discipline. Steve Coppell deserves praise for his tactical nous. To over simplify, all he might have asked of his players, prior to the game, would have been to park themselves in front of their box. But what he might not have expected was the form of his defence, particularly, his ‘keeper Hahnemann – who had a blinder of a game.
So what went wrong for us? Well, to start off, a couple of our players didn’t show up on the day. Evra, who was started on the left wing, and Scholes, who played in his customary position, were completely ineffectual. A similar word may also be said of Giggs who faded. While Rooney’s absence in the second half may have been the popular excuse, I thought we could have wrapped up the game in the first half itself.
For all the possession we had, we showed very little imagination going forward. It is one thing to send wave after wave of attacks with close to 70% of possession. But the inability of making full use of this possession counts for nothing at the end of the day. And while our rivals go two points clear, we are left doing the job of catching up. When Coppell decided to park his players in front of their goal he was taking several leaves out of Big Sam’s ‘Bolton book’ – which worked to a great deal against Arsenal. Arsenal, especially last season, ended up being too one dimensional because they lacked a genuine finisher; someone who could convert all the pretty passing to a concrete result. It might reek of hindsight on my part, but with the absence of Rooney, now surely out for over a month, we seem a little short of genuine strikers.
Saha is our best bet, but he’s just returned to training, which means he should be back for the second game – of next season, that is. Solksjaer is still injured. Tevez’s return is not until derby day but with the situation he might be hastened back into the team. But that wouldn’t necessarily translate to a solution to our problem as he needs to bed into our system.
Now don’t get me wrong. I genuinely support the current system employed by the boss. The 4-2-3-1 is certainly something I’d love to watch our team play in. But it is our planning that worries me. Our signings (and sales) of attacking players have been with the assumption that our first team, more importantly Ronaldo and Rooney, lead a relatively injury free season. That is why we were so confident of off-loading Rossi. But one would imagine that someone of the predatory instincts of Saha/Rossi might have done the job yesterday. Regular readers might remember my sadness at seeing Rossi leave. Thankfully we have Tevez. Otherwise all hell would have broken loose in the dressing room.
So what do we have ahead of us? A tricky trip to Fratton Park, of all places – where we don’t have a particularly good record in recent years. Then we have something of an unknown quantity – a trip to the ‘Massive’ City of Manchester stadium. While our derby games have been well contested with plenty of recent bitter memories (Ronaldo’s red card in a 3-1 loss and Michael Ball’s stamp on Ronaldo last season), this one is sure to be a much more serious affair with an apparently rejuvenated City under Sven Goran Eriksson – who by the way, was taking notes at the game. Following this, we have Spurs. So honestly, we have to put this behind us and get our act together, otherwise our season would be blown to bits even before we face Chelsea in September.
Anyway, after yesterday’s game here are certain things that I felt were worth noting:
- Silvestre is looking more and more unconvincing
in left backas a footballer. This may come as late breaking news, but he is completely shite. Evra should be put back to his LB position with a genuine winger in left wing. Suddenly we seem out of depth in that department, with Evans as our only other option. (Assuming Heinze is frozen out.) - The absence of a target man/striker was glaringly felt. We had no one to call upon after Rooney’s departure. So much for our wide array of attackers. Saha’s return (hopefully), and that of Tevez should alleviate the problem somewhat.
- Tevez’s return must help address one more department of our game that’s been missing ever since Beckham’s departure – consistent free kick takers. Ronaldo’s free kicks have been appalling for most part, Giggs would do better with indirect ones and he’s not getting any younger.
- Carrick has been impressive going forward, but mere willingness won’t do. He needs to make those passes and shots at goal count. And he needs to be a bit more forceful going forward. To be fair to him, I thought he was among the better players yesterday, who presented our ‘forwards’ with genuine chances.
- While I really do not want to write off Scholes – yesterday may have been an off day, plus he was coming back from injury anyway – but we need the bite of Hargreaves in midfield sooner or later.
- I know what you are thinking. I agree – these post match notes might have sounded entirely different had we snatched a win.
Despite all this, to be honest, it’s not everyday your team goes out with 25 plus shots on goals with close to 70% of possession, and yet contrives to draw the game. Well, not with Manchester United at least. But such things have happened. Ask any Arsenal fan. We know that had Reading been a little more adventurous, we might have actually got a result. But now that they have succeeded, we need to be prepared – more mentally than tactically – for the likes of Blackburn, Bolton, Everton, who might do something similar to Reading. If there was a chink in our armoury, it was witnessed today. And if these teams succeed, we would be looking at a season where we end our title defence without putting up a semblance of a fight.
They say great teams get results even when they are not playing well. Last year we did it. Arsenal conjured up a win in the dying seconds earlier yesterday after a mostly underwhelming second half. (In their defence, they did have quite a few good chances.)
So if we need to prove something to the rest of the league, we need to rise up to the challenge in midweek and the weekend after with some rousing performances. Or else… oh well! You know what!
Related items from Red Rants:
- How Did You Become A Manchester United Fan?
- Privacy Policy
- What Did We Learn from Deadline Day Transfers
- Manchester United players need to do better
- There’s More to United’s Season
Tags: Manchester United Fixtures
Opti (541)
Stephen (487)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (348)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
all is not too bad i just hope reading now do us a favuor in midweek against chelsea and then there is the big chelsea liverpool match where i would prefer a liverpool win then alson arsenal play blackburn a team which they have a bad record against so providing we do the buissness against portsmouth and city then we should be there or there abouts on the same points if not more. i expect points to be lost more frequently this season by united and chelsea.
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to be fair,scholes was shite.presented with chances to shoot at the edge of eht box,he is trying to split 11 men in the box.rooney for all he is worth wasted all the chances he got.giggs was the worst all day.playing weak pre season games has fooled fergie that giggs can play in the hole against serious opposition.he is one footed,lazy and looks tired all the time.lets face it,we need nore energy in our games and if a man cant perform in his number,dont give him anotherone.he wont click.giggs should sit and come on when the game is won.evra in the wings?hainze,u have a right to move on.
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To be honest, the loss of Rooney for up to two months concerns me more than the loss. With our current striking options severely limited by injury and lack of pre-season we were relying on him to carry the attack (with support from our array of MIDFIELD attacking talent). Solskjaer and Saha hopefully aren’t too far away (both have recently rejoined full training) and it is looking increasingly like we’ll shift the massive expectations from Rooney to Tevez (a tough ask for a player who is yet to play for the club and hasn’t played a game in pre-season). Hopefully we can get 45-60 minutes out of him on Wednesday and with the midfield support we can hopefully give ourselves a lead before we rest him and allow him to recover before the derby. Nani may be included from the start this week as to add something more to our attack.
Is it worth including Dong on the bench so that we atleast have a forward to bring on late? Or are Solskjaer or Saha sufficiently advanced to be given a half hour or less of action midweek?
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i agree. we lacked a polished finisher, though that should not be an excuse since we spent over 60m.on getting forwards..only encouragement is only that its the first game and teams drop points a long the way..so the team should come back with a bang,,what we need to make up for lost points yesterday is wins
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i certainly hope to do better at fratton park. forget the carling cup curse and the ‘juju’ of fratton. but what i must add is that Carrick, though played a good game, he should learn to weigh his passes more accurately. Rooney’s injury is sad news no doubt but We need to find a solution quickly. Hope tevez fits into the system fast enough. speedy recovery to saha and co. otherwise it was a thrilling game. Nani was brilliant and dont be suprised if he features in more games than anticipated.37 games to go. hope we wont be ‘Arsenal II’
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WE SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD ROSSI!!!
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United is the only team where draw = loss
The gameplay was brilliant to watch, but one can never justify 0/25. Pathetic!
Good thing it is early season.
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hello………it wasn’t a “loss” or a “defeat”. Jeez there are some prats on here.
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fucking hell what i dont understand is why was o’shea played in strikers role when we have so many attacking options ronaldo giggs scholes nani and even evra who was already playing on the wing
Gaby come back and take ur place man though i know there some hearing on 20th which is gonna be some rough shit.
But that analysis of your bro is worrying me man now we have to play the catching game which is not something i really fancy .
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indianpunk, o’shea is unique, he’s a defender but if given the chance will score goals, someone described him as a goalscoring defensive machine, cant remember who though.
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Calm down guys,
We should have won yesterday, we missed a lot of chances and luck was definitely not on our side. I mean we totally dominated and we looked dangerous every time we went forward.
The wanyne rooney situation isn’t good and its good job we got tevez. I feel tevez will do the business, and lets not under estimate saha’s contribution, if he stays fit, he is exactly what we need. Also I though nani looked too, only if his 30 yard drive went in, but anyway this is football and days like this happen.
Shit result, but lets not worry these are still exciting times for man u.
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Yes you should learn from Arsenal how to play football.
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To be fair, you don’t need to be like Arsenal. Arsenal had the exact start as Man Utd last season. It was against Aston Villa 25 plus shots on goal, 70%(if not more) possession and a 1-1 result. And look what happened that season. You guys better score a goal, and I mean quick. Because it will spiral into this ridiculous, unbelievable inability to score the chances. Building on its own momentum. I’m talking one on ones, open goals, hitting posts. Do it and do it now for Gods sake. I wouldn’t wish that type of season on any team.
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Why are you doing this redranter, writing a blog like this. I can’t sleep after seeing the match, i finally convinced myself everything will be fine soon and slept barely for 2 hours.
Now iam worried.
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What we should be asking ourselves is what shall we do when other teams come to OT and pack their defences. How can we break through and score in such a game? I think we should borrow a leaf from Arsenal’s game against Fulham. Fulham went ahead early and frustrated Arsenal till towards end. Then Kolo to take the defenders head on inside the box and the result was a penalty. That is what we should do in future, get the ball to the centre and driblle against the 10 opposing men inside the box. This way at least one will trip you down and there we get a penalty from which Ronaldo should score and then break the team up…
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Team to start against pompey:
VDS
Brown Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Nani Scoles Carrick Giggs
Ronaldo Tevez
Subs:
Kusack
Pique
O’Shea
Hargreaves
Anderson
Fletcher/Dong
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harry, i think hargreaves will play fr scholes(he’s not match fit) and anderson will play upfront with tevez so giigs and nani on the wings.
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i wasnt really worried about the draw but more worried for Roo’s injury. Hopefully Tevez is really the genius that we all hope he is and blend into our game with ease. A bit too much to ask from the new lad but well…what else can we do?
nani looked ok yesterday. he needs more games. nani shld play left while evra fall back to LB. ronaldo tried to push the team forward but kudos to shorey for marking him so well.
carrick did ok, better than most. giggs and scholes had a very quiet game to b honest.
1 positive thing though………now we know o’shea can reli play anything from gk to def to midfield and now striker. maybe he shld be referee and linesman?
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soz giggs and ronaldo on the wings, my head is somewere else.
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o’shea is our utility man, hacan play anywhere on the field apart from right/left mid, if theres a hole in the team, he’ll fill it.
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dan
im feelin nani more than anderson at the moment, would prefer him and push ronaldo upfront
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We desperately need to win at Fratton Park on Wed otherwise we’ll be this year’s Chelsea, chasing all the way until May. Go, United!
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Giggs probably won’t play just 3 days later, possibly ditto Scholes. I’m expecting it to be:
———VDS———
-Brown-Rio-Vidic-Evra-
–Carrick-Hargreaves/OShea-
-Fletcher——Nani—
—Ronaldo—Tevez—
With apperances from Anderson, Giggs and one of OShea/Hargrevaes (whoever doesn’t start)
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either chelsea or liverpool or both will lose points this wknd.so we are not very far away. man utd versus portsmouth tevez will def start but i think he’ll be partnered with giggz, nani,ronaldo,scholes and carrick will be in midfield,defence will be the same.only evra will come in for silvester(what a waste),prediction man utd 3- portsmouth 1.
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i think we need to buy a left-back for a replacment of heinze(he’ll be gone by feb) and sell that waste of united’s(and evras)space named silvestre. i really think we should put anderson upfront, or giigs upfront and anderson left-mid.
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take it easy..ill reserve my comments until after the portsmouth game..then we’ll know whether we have a problem or not..i expect the team to bounce back witha bang..
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Nani should come in for the Portsmouth game, as I thought he was impressive yesterday, with Ronaldo up front as a target man and Giggs/Scholes playing off him. I still think its a bit early for Tevez to play, although he could come on as a sub at Fratton Park. Hopefully the dipstick Saha will be ready soon and fingers crossed that Rooney heals quicker than expected. PS Chelsea sometimes employ Terry, and before him Huth, as a striker late on in games and there is no better defender in our team than the Kop-beater ‘Big John’ to stick up front when chasing a game!
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i rekon that 2 months canturn into 3-4 weeks
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agree with most of the points there, and giggs should hang up his boots sooner rather than later. he’s getting useless and ineffective, trying his weaving runs wont work with today’s defender’s in the game today.
nani should be a starter on the left in midweek, with tevez filling up front. more flair is needed, esp pace and killer balls. scholes needs to be more confident in this shooting ability and start taking on shots like he did in the past.
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it was afirst game cant be judged by nobady Manunited is the best club in the world .
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SIGN ANELKA! OR HUNTELAAR! BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!
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ROSSI ROCKS!
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SAHA SUCKS!
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I though the match was interesting. The fact is a lot of teams do those sort
of tactics against us and sometimes we get a goal and they have to change or
like Sunday we were unlucky. One thing that frustrated me was the dribble
dribble shoot mentallity, it’s ain’t football. We didn’t try more intrigate
passing around the box to unsettle they’re man markers, we didn’t force other
players who had freedom (like Rio) to push further forward for longer
periods. We didn’t run there man markers out of position to create gaps, we
played into there hands. Then when we brought long John on to play upfront,
we decided to cross the ball even less !!! Not having a striker on the bench
even Campbell or Fangzhou was pretty ridiculous.
It’s only the 1st game so it’s not the end of the world but it’s always that
little bit more disappointing when you’ve been waiting all this time for the
league to start again and we don’t get off to a good start.
Another thing I’d like to mention is that selling Smith was an awful
decision. We needed another striker so we sold 2 and bought one! Now we have
the injury prone Saha, the injury prone and ageing Solskjaer, the young
unproven Fangzhou, the unfit Tevez and the now injured (his 3rd broken foot
while at Utd) Rooney. It’s 100% clear we need another striker, a different
type of striker we had one, Smith and we sold him just before the season
started?! We need a target man, people have there doubt but I think
Huntelaar has what it takes. Alternatively bring back KING COLE on a free!!!
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What a load of bollocks. Throw 10 men back into the 18 yard box and hope Man Yoo don’t have their mid season sharpness in front of goal. If it wasn’t for the Reading keeper the game would have 4-0 or 5-0. Teams like Reading who play this cowardly form of football are a total disgrace. If you can’t hack it in the Prem due to lack of finances, perhaps you shouldn’t be in the top flight. Top football leagues in Europe have to rethink the way they are running things. Do we have to have 18 teams in a the top flight? No!!! Why not whittle it down to 12 teams, where at least eight of the teams can compete with the big four. Sorry but the object of the game is to SCORE GOALS. Watching a tosser bunch like Reading imitate 330 Spartans or the Alamo is not brave, but cowardly and above all negative. They send a negative message to all the other minnows that this is the only way to have a chance of stealing a point. Who cares about 3 points when you are playing a giant club on the road? It is time for the Prem to either shrink the number of teams in the league or add an incentive to score. How about adding a point for every goal scored. That would also wake up the dull playing Chelski and force Jose to actually use a striker once in a while. Anyway, Reading are joke and a total disgrace and Man Yoo should hang their heads in shame today over the fact they never destroyed such a sad but hard working bunch of stiffs. Not that anybody in the UK would care but I’d like footy purists to try and sell that tactical style as entertaining to North America. Total rubbish, unless of course you live in Reading.
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I’d like to add that Man Yoo really made a major mistake letting Rossi go. To actually think that they were secure with just Rooney and Tevez up front and two terminal cripples in Saha and Ole was just stupid to put it mildly. They knew for a while that not only was Saha injured and slow to recover, but that his attitude was poor. Perhaps they are waiting for him to be fully fit before they attempt to sell him but still, Rossi was insurance we needed, especially since the Tevez signing was not insured until a few days ago. Rooney always finds the most amazing ways to break his foot and we only have Tevez to back him up as an out and out striker. This is just stupid planning. Perhaps it’s not to late to go get gudjohnsen from Barcelona. Two months without Rooney and Tevez still trying to fit in and get acclimated with the side. United’s lack of depth at striker will eventually cost them enough points that it may ruin the club’s season. YES! I’m officially in panic mode.
Considering the team has loads of talent but can’t hit the side of a barn from 10 feet. Their finishing yesterday was terrible. Look at Essien’s goal yesterday. That is how you take a chance. Carrick, Evra, Rooney, Scholes, Nani and even Ronaldo looked like they were kicking a rugby ball out there. More poise and composure in the 18 yard box is needed.
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i agree 100% with grognard
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Grognard – are you a united fan like really, cause i don’t no many
calling us man yoo….. heard scousers doing it mind you
anyways say united won yesterday, giggs etc would not be a “waste of space”
i hate it when people jump on the team once we don’t win, jesus christ,
first game of the season, and yes okay i would have loved the win and i am
dissapointed also…. but writing off players in the first game is a joke.
i agree with the points though, we should never have sold smith and rossi,
should have kept either one. cause no harm to saha, he’ll play 3 games and
his glass knee will fall apart again. pompy away and city away in our next 2
games, its dodgy enough, not a good record in recent times atall at pompy and
city, new manager, first derby game for him, they are always up for it, we
need to be sure we don’t end up further behind the others this early on, that
is the only thing that worried me yesterday with the draw. performance was
great, common we couldn’t really do much more, just one of those days.
although we need 6 points from these 2 games, 4 will not do!!!!
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another thing, just cause we’re united we can’t click our fingers late in a game
and say, we’re united we’re going to score now, it don’t work like that, there
are games when we have to face facts, its just not our day, we ain’t gonna win 38 games
just a bad day, which every team will have!!!!
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ricky, how old are you, im not trying to be rude, but that is 1 of things that made united so sucessfull, you didnt watch a certain cl game did you, we always score, remember that.
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dispite what fergie thinks, we need another striker.
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I still dont think ManU is really lacking depth in striking department as we have lots of midfield players who are used to scoring goals…i wud say against Pompey …bring on Tevez and allow Anderson to play in the hole..Lets bring some raw talent and i think he might be the surprise package this season..
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yeah against bayern 2-1, remember that very well.. i know what you mean
don’t worry i aint being a prick or nothing, but what gets me is some people
jumping on the team cause of yesterday, i know people are intitled to their
views and im just pointing out mine, it won’t happen every game, say next
game we’re at 1-1 in the final 5 mins, just cause we’re united we aren’t
going to score that goal to win. we can’t do more than we did late on
yesterday than kick the ball on target and make their keeper save it. on
another day against another keeper we’d have scored late on.
im 21 and i remember bruce against sheff weds, giggs against juventus,
solskjaer against liverpool and the champs league final… also last season
sorry if i offended or said something wrong, i’ll not voice my opinion no
more, 37 wins now then til may!!!!!
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theres a certain anderson luis de abreu oliviera in our team for a reason, he is a modern day ruud guillit can play anywhere, centre mid, attacking, winger in the hold, cf, hell even left back, the only downside is he is not 100% fit, but i reckon they should give him a chance with tevez upfront, his passing can be deadly and so is his left foot, dont worry its the first game of the season, if we got for 5 games like this then i would be worried, but we still have a chance to change
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we’r not in trouble yet even if we muck up against portsmouth.
what we need to do is get back to winning ways no matter what.
on the positive side the team played quite well, and hopefully roon gets better soon,
if saha is fit fergie should throw him into the fray with tevez right from the start so theyb oth get a feel for the game.
classic 4-4-2 in my opinion. saha and tevez supported by the usual mid and defence.
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I agree with you Ricky, people are writing Giggs and Scholes off because they had an average game is ridiculous – they will be major players for us this season thats for sure. We’re only 2 points behind, there are still 111 points left on the table so no need to worry yet guys. I dont think scoring goals will be a problem for us, on another day we would have won 5-0 yesterday with that performance.
The game against portsmouth will be an interesting one, Depending on Hargreaves fitness I think the team picks itself –
————Van der Sar————
Brown—–Rio——- Vidic—–Evra
——-Carrick—-Hargreaves——-
Ronaldo——-Scholes———Giggs
—————Tevez—————
Fergie wont throw Nani or Anderson into a tough game against Portsmouth. Carlos said last week Anderson is still a couple of weeks off being ready so I dont think he will even be on the bench.
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What the F&#% is wrong with you people? Manchester United is absolutely FINE!!! Reading was lucky as hell!!! 73% posession + over 20 strikes? When you need to defend with all eleven men THAT SAYS SOMETHING … Let’s all see that and quit bringing the boys down with all this negetive shite. BTW Saha can flat out play when he wants to (he was injured or SAF would have dumped him) .. lets just hope he wants to, because if he does, him and Tevez will be UNBELIEVABLE. You heard it here first boys. Now go have a pint, calm down and lets have a look on Wednesday. Everybody will slip up three, four, five times this season … EVERYBODY!!!
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I think you’re all over reacting. So we dropped a couple of points and Rooney got injured. Correct me if im wrong but we (United fans) have spent the last two months telling everyone that if we complete the signing of Tevez we will have a squad the likes of which the world has never seen. Now as soon as Rooney is injured its all “We need this” “We need that”. Whats wrong with you all? With the exception of Giggs adn Scholes we played very well yesterday against a side that made zero attempt to play. We wont be the only team to have games like that this year, teams know that when you play the big boys away the best you can do is try to kill the game, ten men in your own area. Rooney looked great before he got his knock and had we not lost him we would surely have won. Our biggest problem yesterday was Fergie not selecting any attacking subs on the bench. If Tevez is 75% fit, you play him or at least have him on the bench. Carrick was on form. Most of the boys played well, but we were completely thrown by losing Rooney and having no one to replace him. Bad decision by Fergie.
I dont see the sense in panic buying another striker who in all likelyhood will not get much of a look in when Rooney is back.
Have a bit of confidence for gods sake. No Hargreaves, Anderson, Tevez or much of Nani. As well as Saha and Ole who will be ready to go in a matter of weeks.
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.. you tell ‘em bootifulgame!!!!
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Grognard … Tevez is a better player than Rossi … even at 75% Let Rossi go Grognard or are you saying you know better than SAF? … as if!!!
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