Feb 12
United’s Italian Interest. Neville’s Retirement Plans. Fergie and Carrick Speak. eBay Scarves.
As the extremely well crafted title would tell you, there is quite a bit to talk about today. But before we go ahead, a little word on one bit of news that sneaked away unnoticed–or should we say, did not get the coverage it deserved.
The Premier League, besides chalking up a rather controversial plan (to put it mildly), also agreed to allow seven substitutes on the bench from next season onwards. Now that is certainly something to feel happy about as it gives the manager more options. I’ve never understood the concept of five players on the bench when La Liga and the Champions’ League allow seven. Hopefully this would make man management easier.
Right, now back to United related news.
It was extremely embarrassing seeing Man Utd fans put up the Munich memorabilia scarves for sale on eBay. When we have sections of fans opposing the AIG banner, it would make us seem like hypocrites if we were putting up these scarves on sale. The cost of these scarves also appear particularly galling; some of them being put up for as much as £15,000! Even the Manchester United Opus costs £3000.
Anyway, reports have come in that eBay have agreed to pull the plug on these scarves thus ending the chances of these mugs looking to make a quick buck off these commemorative items. There is justice in this world. Pity, though, it had to come to that.
SAF reckons that the games between the top three will decide the fate of the title race. The race has become three pronged, although Arsenal have inched ahead, and it will get really exciting, and nerve wracking, as the season progresses towards it’s conclusion. We have Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Blackburn (at Ewood Park) towards the end of the season, not to mention our bogey team, West Ham, as the penultimate game. Arsenal also have it tight, so the race is still too close to call.
Michael Carrick also thinks that the title race is still on. We all think so too, Mike. So let’s hope you get back to the training ground and avoid the press for a bit now. Go on, be a good boy and win us the title. Talking to the press, as often as you have done this season, won’t win you the title. I can assure you that. Leave the talking to the Gaffer.
Long time United target, Fabio Quagliarella, thinks that United are still interested in him and that he is flattered. Good for you Fab, but I don’t really think you would fit in. We have too many players of your type. I’d rather take a Huntelaar, and even that I am willing to pass, if Manucho manages a dream run in United colours.
And amid speculation that skipper Gary Neville might actually retire, the right back moved forward to quash any such speculation and said that he will return to first team action. According to him he was fit before another few knocks set him back by — well you might have guessed it already… yes, two weeks. I hope he does return. We need a semblance of leadership that has been missing. A lot!
And, yes, that’s about it for the day.
Phew, back to the daily grind.
Related items from Red Rants:
- What Will Sir Alex Do With Rodrigo Possebon?
- Win A Free Scarf from Savile Rogue
- Poyet Rubbishes Move – Giggsy’s College Degree – No Berbatov Yet – South Africa
- United’s debt situation explained
- Gattuso, Berbatov, Owen – Debunking Some Rumours
Tags: Daily Roundup
February 12th, 2008 at 12:12
Sir Alex and so many others including the media has been praising about the bench strength and quality of players Man. Utd has got. From the begining of the season itself i had been writting about the shortage of quality strikers and defenders in the side if they have to win any championships this year. Man. Utd. at leastwould have gone for Berbatov during the january window, but because of SAF’s overconfidence or you can say it as arrogance also , he did’nt buy any body. and that has cost them all chances in the premiership, and am sure that they will not reach more than semifinal inthe champions trophy and F.A cup. Present Man. Utd team has got lot players who has passed their prime time or some under performed players in their bench. Unless replacements are not made atleast in the comming transfer window we are not going to be even in the top 5 next year in the EPL. For example players like Saha, Silvestere are injuary proned players and has been not playing for very long time, Players like Giggs, Scholes , Neveile have passed their prime time and cannot play full 90 minutes in the match. Players like carrick , fletcher has not perfomed at all for long time.Presently Man. Utd is a two man army, that is if Ronaldo and Tevez dosent score team losses invariably.Ronaldo Roony and Tevez Cannot be considered as strikers, as they very good playmakers. There has to be some body who can receive the ball in the “d”and score goals . there is a player called O’Shea, i have not seen him playing in a similar position for two continous matches. In the present scheduling there should be 22 first team players who have got class . Other wise it is not easy for any team to compete in 5 champioships, inbetween national duties also will be there . You cannot say excuses like the coach Quiorez has said after the derby loss.
As far as i am concerned SAF has to go for Cinhino, Lahm,and Boswingwa atleast for the reinforcement of defence which will cost about 35 to 40million and Benzema, Hauntleer and Berbatov if possible. This will cost another 55to 60 million. We can sell Saha, Silvestre,Carrick,Flether which will realize about 35 million for us.So in the nut shell if we invest aproximately 65 million we can be competitive.The teams will read as follows.
1)Van dee sar 1)Kusazuck
2)Cinchino 2)Evra
3)Vidic 3)Lahm
4)Ferdinand 4)Pique
5)Boswingwa 5)Brown
6)Scholes 6)Hargreeves
7)Ronaldo 7)Nani
8)Rooney 8)Anderson
9)Tevez 9)Giggs
10)Berbatov 10)Hauntleer
11)Benzema 11)Munacho
By this we can take care of our players physichal fitness and wont have a situation of players getting tired and get burned out by the end of the season.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:29
Prakash there is so much wrong with what you just said there, but it just takes too much effort to reply to all of it, so i’ll just reply to the endof it: You’re in a dream world! When is the last time a successful team sold four and brought in 5 players. Thats verging on a team overhaul, plus you seem to be assuming that Cicinho, Lahm, Huntelaar, Benzema and Berbatov will all be happy to sit to the bench…because I don’t think any of those players are better than our current first team players ion their positions. Plus there is always the whole idea that Manchester United don’t just throw money around for the sake of it.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:38
Prakash u are a funny guy. Do you know anything about football, i doubt very much. IF Spurs can
manage to beat Arsenal 5-1 with 3/4 full stength squad and city beat us 2-1. These things happen
in football. why would we sell Carrick? it bogles my mind mate. can you please name any team with
22 best palyers than us, i think you will struggle to get one. if arseal can draw with Newcastle,
Birmingham, and beaten by midsborough it means in the primiership any team can’t be taken for
granted. We only need to stenghten strikeforce may be with The Hunter, Benzema is not an all and
out striker although very good. Man u need someone like Ruud with pace, that is Etoo (Barca), Agbo
(Villa). We may need to sell Saha and Sly. The team will recover on This next game with arsenal and if we can
beat them 3-0 they won’t recover.
Man u FOREVER
February 12th, 2008 at 12:45
Ok guys. im feeling that we needed Manucho. Red ranter i need a report on this situation pls do it now. i mean Manucho looked even better than Mr. Glass. And when rooney isnt playing we need a target man. that was what went wrong at city. we didnt have a focal point for our attack. By the way im from pakistan
February 12th, 2008 at 12:47
prakash..cont dreaming as what you have said is never gonna happen ever unless yo playing PS. what you mean to say prakash is that withouth those players man utd cannot be any serius contenders for any title. then brace yo self sir for you will be in for a big surprise. though i have to agree with most of the guyz that man utd is currently a striker and right back short.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:52
I am still feeling the pain(of derby loss)but i still feel that we will win the title if we beat arsnl at home and we don’t slip up like we did in last two games.
February 12th, 2008 at 13:01
For the first time i feel fergie is doing something that is not in the intrest of our team which is overplaying ryan giggs for his record.He was very good in first half of season and now it looks like he is running out of gas.we should give him break for atleast 1 to 2 weeks so that he can recover and play to his full potential.
Another player is scholes.i don’t know what he was doing in derby . he was neither defending nor attacking and still who was subbed anderson who was attacking as well as defending.Can anyone answer why nani was subbed ?
February 12th, 2008 at 13:22
Prakash has been playing a little too much Football Manager, me thinks.
lol
February 12th, 2008 at 14:33
Fuck you martin u sound like loser alex ferguson himself well we should know that the dominationg days of united are over and man u needs some european glory and to honour sir matt busby u need european trophies dude so f##### urself
February 12th, 2008 at 14:45
Thats precisely what i was thinking with the football manager comment. I agree that getting rid of Fletch and Saha will do us no harm if were getting a good striker and right back in their place, but you cant just sell 4 players and buy 5 more, it’ll just upset the dynamic of the team
February 12th, 2008 at 14:59
Can anyone inform me about Joshua King ?
February 12th, 2008 at 15:25
if any of you saw adebayor’s goal in the game against blackburn, we need a player like him, that was a ruud like finish, get the ball in the box and BAM, second touch goal!!!
Thats wat we need as a striker…
February 12th, 2008 at 15:25
(wilfred)…
Dominating days of united are over?? We won EPL Last time round, reached Champions League Semis, FA Cup finals.. We are in all three still.. You stupid loser, get over yourself and don’t abuse without reason.. If you don’t like what you read then criticize logically…
February 12th, 2008 at 15:33
Wilfred the fuck who, pliz say something. Are you dumb. HA HA HA! mancity fan i know you. You seem
to be always farting on your small room.
February 12th, 2008 at 15:44
lads iv come to the conclusion that Wes Brown has gotta be dropped for remainder of season n sold! Hes a fukin disgrace….10 under acheiving yrs at the club! We shud be able to rely on him but we most definately cant. His passing/crossing is diabolical & bar his occasional thumper of a challenge he’s suspect at the back too!! Proved that AGAIN on sunday. Hes a mug. Gerrard Pique is a far better player, as is Simmo no doubt about it!
February 12th, 2008 at 16:19
I would like to answer to Mr. Martin first.all most all the teams in the class of Man. Utd. has got more bench strength of performing players and players not still living in memories of past glories. You take eg. of giggs, scholes, both have past their prime playing days and cannot play a full season, which is clearly shown in their recent performances.Now Gary Neveile is out of the game for more than 8months . Do you expect him to perfom like past once he comes back. I dont think so.If we are looking forward we have to find the replacements immidiately , which by the time SAF should have moulded.
Now regarding Carrick ,He was bought from Spurs in 2006 for an amount of 18 millionin 2006.he has not performed any where upto the expected level for which the money spent on him.i feel its better to sell him at this movement if you get good price. more over as hargreves has come his chance also has come down. Regarding the left back we dont have any body other than Evra in the team presently,as Silvestere is out for more than 6 month.Both of them has not signed their new contracts till time . So you dont need back up for these players? That is why i said Cinchino , Lahm and Boswingwa .
Regarding the strickers we presently dose’nt have strickers at present in the team other tham the new boy munacho who yet has not played asingle game in the league.If you look other teams each and every one has three to four pure strickers in the team. Roony , Tevez and Ronaldo are concerned they are all attacking Midfielders. Ronaldo and Tevez plays as deep attacking midfielders for their respective countries.Hence Ihave sugested Berbatov, Hauntleer and Benzema. We cannot depend on one or two players to perform any more for the teams glory. Man. Utd. has to play either 4-4-2 formation or can play 4-3-3 if you have suffitiant strickers in the bench.Injuaries are bound to occur to the players in this tight scheduling.Hence we have to sufficiant quality bench strength. As to maintain a good quality bench strength money also plays a vital part , hence we have to take tough decisions like selling the non performing players.
I hope i have answered above for the comments of Mr.Jaluo and Mr. Meddleuk’s.
February 12th, 2008 at 16:52
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=531814
aulas must be stark raving mad if he believes his statement to be true… but in any case, i would like to say a grand flying ‘fuck you’ to that old clown…
i wonder what kinda balls it takes to entice the world to scoff at you at once…
hope we beat his ass silly in the CL
now thats a rant for you….
February 12th, 2008 at 16:56
We have enogh quality inthe squad, we dont need any more £20 mill people. If United should strenghen any area of the pitch itwould be right back and left wing. I am not sure if we need a striker any more, I mean, Manucho is great after what Ive seen of him, and Welbeck is class after what Fergies said. And about the title race, I dont see why we cant win the title! Its 12 games to go(36 points) and all three teams has got hard fixtures coming up. Chelsea will do fine(3rd place) and United will win. Arsenal has got a to small squad. If Fabregas,Gallas or Hleb gets injured or suspended they will slip up. We win against `Pool and Arse, they slip up against United, Chelsea, Boro, Villa and They will also have to play Everton at home, so why not?!
February 12th, 2008 at 17:21
Prakash: Id like to see you come up with the same rant if we do win anything.. You’re just saying this coz we are in a bad patch… Btw, the best arguement against your statement could be United last season… We won the Premiership with even lesser/mediocre players, eh?
February 12th, 2008 at 17:43
Mr. Red Devil I feel you are very wrong. As far as arsenal is concerned they have been playing for more than one month with out Eboue, Toures, and other players from africa who where on national duty for african nations cup along with Rosisky and Vanpersie who are injured.All these players are very important and good players for arsenal. With out these players arsenal are winnig . in the case of Man. Utd when roony and Ronaldo were injured or where not available they where not winning . Is it the class of the bench strength? Am also soorry to note that because of other teams loss and not because of our strength we expect to win the championship,as expected by you, doesnt show the strength or quality of our team.
February 12th, 2008 at 17:50
Here’s a little info I read today on Manucho’s African Cup form
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=506199&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2&cc=5901
February 12th, 2008 at 17:52
to long to even read, and it sounds like it was crap anyway, i wonder if thats grognard?
February 12th, 2008 at 17:58
Pratyush,
scholes was only good player on the pitch that day.did u see the
game?he was passing the ball very well and to the attakers.we were
beaten because of wrong tactics.city is a bit of physical team and
they relied on counter-attacks.we played scholes and anderson
at the centre.that was over confident approach against a main rival.
February 12th, 2008 at 18:22
Mr. Utsav, am sure you have not seen my views almost the same , just one or two difference in plyers to be bought,which i have written in the rants during May -June 2007. Please try to under stand that last year in the 1st half Saha was fit and was contributing well in the striking dept. along with Soljkar and Rossi. We have not replaced a stricker after Ruud has left us. After that Rossi has been sold, Soljkar has retired, Saha is totaly out injuared this season or fared not well. From where do you expect the goals to come with out complete strikers in a team.Regading the defence once HEINZE WAS SOLD NO REPLACEMENT has been taken. More over Silvestere and Neveile is out injured for almost 6 to 7 months. We cannot expect them to be good as earlier because of the injuary they suffered and taking into consideration the time cosumed for recovery. We are not sure what is going to happen as far as Brown and Evra is concerned as they have not singned the new contracts till time Even if they stays , we have to have cover for them.Last year Arsenal was just building up their young squad and Chelsea had their own problems by the end of the season, that is why we could scrape through.Because of the take overs many teams are building ip their teams and next year the competition will be very tough. so if we dont have adequate quality bench strength we will fall back.
February 12th, 2008 at 18:35
prakash varma is right.not in som many ways tho.the team isnt playing badly.i have always said it i wil say it again.we.depend on ronaldo.when he does not score,the whole team is shite.ronaldo has over covered us we think we are all that.
February 12th, 2008 at 18:36
i think we need to bring in two players benzema and ben arfa with giggs probably out next year we need reinforcements on left mindfield i think we’ll get rid of saha and probably fletcher possibly park as well we should able to raise around 15mil for them and another 15-20 more and we’ll get benzema and ben arfa and at that point the squad should complete til scholes nev go..
February 12th, 2008 at 18:40
Prakash – why would a team buy three full backs in the one transfer window, thats just idiotic, and there is no way they would agree to come anyway if for some reason a manager thought he could keep 4 top quality full backs happy. Having two great players for every position would ofcourse be nice but theres no chance it will happen. Also, Ronaldo isn’t playing up front for us anyway so i don’t see why your trying to claim we play him there. He has a free role, sort of drifts about and doesn’t really defend. You say he plays attacking midfield for portugal but thats basically his position for united aswell. Rooney and tevez are both forwards, not midfielders. They both like to drop deep and get involved in the play but they are still forwards. Berbatov is the same so its funny how you think we should buy him to play striker because rooney and tevez play deep. Huntelaar’s probably not good enough for united. Benzema looks good but certainly not all three of them. That’s also idiotic. After your first comment i thought you were just having a laugh but you seem to keep posting replies so maybe you just don’t know anything about football.
February 12th, 2008 at 18:43
Prakash we are no chelsea and have no abromovic we are never going to buy all of those players you mentioned but i have no doubt that if we did (never going to happen) it would improove our team but i think we might get one or two of them. The player i most want to get is
Huntelaar.
Team for the next season could be:
——————-Huntelaar——————
——Rooney——————Tevez———
Giggs/Nani—-Scholes/OH/Andy——Ronny—-
Evra——–Vida——-Ferdinand—-Neville-
——————VDS———————–
The cm would vary on the opponent if it is a top 6/7 team we play OH defensive if lower team Scholes or Andy
February 12th, 2008 at 18:48
say it in so many words but ronaldo is united and united is ronaldo.he scores,we win he doesnt we dont
February 12th, 2008 at 19:29
If I’m not mistaken WE HAVE NOT LOST A SINGLE GAME THIS SEASON when Roooney plays. With that said,
if we’re buying anothor striker this summer, I hope and pray its Benzema and not Huntelaar.
Benzema would actually contribute to our fluid ball movement, and do more for us than score goals.
I don’t even understand why so many of you have such a man crush on Huntelaar, in my opinion he
doesn’t have the class for a big club like United. If he was as good as most of you seem to think,
Rafa would have swooped for him already, since he seems like a perfect match to play that crap
Liverpool call football. The should give us Torres and play Crouch and Huntelaar up front, that would be a good enough duo for the UEFA Cup anyway.
February 12th, 2008 at 19:31
Mr. Tevez THank You For the Comment that i dont know any thing about football.Even SAF has hinted that he needs replacement for nevile and is also interested in Lahm. And now reasons for the same is clearly given inmy earlier comments .The defenders i have mentioned is for defferent positionsie. Cinchino for left back ,Lham for center back and Boswingwa for right back. These are the places for the clubs they represent presently.In 2006 Jan Window How did SAF buy Evra and Vidic When we were having Hejnze, Silvestre, Ferdinandetc in the team, Sir If it is needed things will be accepted.Regarding roony and Tevez They are not complete strickers like Rood or Berbatov. We want goal scorers or finishers like Benzema or Hauntleer who has got good conversion rates . Roony ’s convertion rate for the last two years is very poor but he is agood play maker and combines well with Tevez and Ronaldo. Please note that Roony has played as midfielder for Utd. in the past.With these three as attacking midfeilders and Hargreves as defencive midfielder, along with two strikers up front will make Man.Utd. a formidable line up in 4-4-2. This is what i feel and mentioned in earlier coments.
February 12th, 2008 at 19:33
Donibrasco: I think what you’re trying to say was covered in Penguins Article: Doomsday scenario where it was outlines that no one apart from Ronaldo and to an extent Tevez is scoring.. relax.. If it aint happened till now, with all the quality that we have, they will kick into form anytime about now…
February 12th, 2008 at 20:05
OK i don’t know who cinchino is, but your telling me he’s a left back so i’ll believe you. Lahm is also a left back, or could play right back. He’s a good attacking full back and is definetely not a centre half. That’s three left backs. Both of these players would not move to united, if they knew the other was. Bosingwa i could agree with, as he is a good attacking right back. Not lahm, he is a left back and we already have evra. Both these players are too good to be second choice left back. Unless cinchino can also play centre half, then i can’t see that one happening either.
As for strikers, berbatov is not a complete striker, he is like rooney and tevez, with more class and i would like united to buy him. Don’t know how it would work but he would be like cantona, not a complete striker. I know rooney has played in midfield before – only once or something in centre midfield and then wide in the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. He is a great player so he can still do a job but he is a forward and plays better there.
Your idea for 4-4-2 with ronaldo rooney and tevez in midfield. Rooney and tevez would be out of position, and do they all share equal workload without the ball or do rooney and tevez have to accomodate ronaldo? There’s not a genuine playmaker in there either. What do you do with anderson and nani?
February 12th, 2008 at 20:05
Prakash you can be serious right? This is either someone playing a joke or a really idiotic football fan. Lahm is 1m70cm tall or 5 foot 7. How are you possibly suggesting that we buy him as our centre back, also taking into mind we have rio and vida there with pique and the promising Evans as back up?
February 12th, 2008 at 20:25
Quag is dreaming. Benzema and Berbatov seem much more likely targets. The way Manchester United play pace is at a premium. I do feel we need a bit more of an aerial threat but a target man in the traditional sense would slow us down and would be a lot easier to mark than our overlapping forwards. Really a fit Saha would be fantastic because he has everything we need but miracles do not happen. Manucho will be interesting as he is certaintly athletic, has a good shot, and is very good in the air, but he lacks experience and is raw and will need a year or two on loan.
A right back is required as Neville may well be troubled by injuries for the remained of his career and Brown is a bit lightweight and better as a centre back. I think also another winger would be good to phase out Giggs. Nani is good but a bit of a loose cannon.
February 12th, 2008 at 20:40
We don’t need to be Chelsea where we have two first teams. you don’t need 1 first team replacement for every single position.. I mean, we’ll end up having a having a squad who’re killing each other for place.. Prakash, this aint FIFA.. As of now we have:
Def: O’Shea, Vidic, Evra, Ferdi, Pique, Brown…. 6+2 injured….
MF: Andy, Scholsey, Giggs, Ronaldo, Park, Carrick, Fletcher, OH, Nani= 9..none injured….
Striker dept is a prob i agree….
We are slagging Benitez for his rotation…. For heavens sake where are you going to put all your superstars… They really prefer playing games week in week out… Look, we are lacking in some areas… We need a good wingback, that means Boswinga OR Lahm and another one if Brown leaves bosman… And a striker..
As far as the striker goes, i really think we should go out and buy anyone with semi decent pace and an ability to be there in the box.. It may be jason Roberts, Etoo, Huntelaar or even Darren Bent.. with all the good work that united does in the midfield, even Roberts would score 20+
February 12th, 2008 at 20:48
Prakash again you’re dreaming! If we had Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney all as attacking midfielders then either we would be left too open or Rooney and Tevez would become too preoccupied with tracking back, it would never happen so don’t even put it out as an idea. If we leave the team the way we are then all we need is one more good player, not someone great, but someone who isn’t expensive and can cope with the premiership. Lahm or Bosingwa being our best options at right back, and I don’t think we need to strengthen anywhere else.
February 12th, 2008 at 21:12
Colver – tevez is quite slow
February 12th, 2008 at 21:49
I think we need a striker,a right back and a left winger in the summer.Bosingwa/Lahm for Brown who’ll go on a bosman.Ben Arfa/Capel/Dos Santos for long term replacement of giggs as nani is too right footed and inconsistent.we need a striker,preferably tall and fast just to add variety to our attack,at the same time maintaining our pace.the only answer to that is Karim Benzema.nobody comes even close to him.He also has age on his side.If he doesn’t come then Jeremy Menez or Kircic of barca are useful alternatives.and i’m not playing fantasy football.We sell o’shea,silvestre,saha,fletcher.that’ll probably get some funds back.moreover these four players are no longer regulars so it’ll not disturb team dynamics.we need quality at united if we want to remain competitive in all competitions.I think SAF is also thinking on the same lines..i heard he wants to bring ben arfa and benzema to united in the summer.As for cover for evra i think evans can play there as he does so for the republic of ireland.If all this is realised we’ll be unstoppable.GLORY..GLORY UNITED..
February 12th, 2008 at 23:23
Panks; no way we’ll be buying a new left winger. Nani is definitely capable of replacing Giggs, that’s why he was bought. Also, Evra could play there if we had some kind of emergency.
O’Shea will never be sold. He is one of the most versatile players in the EPL, and we need him as a squad player.
February 12th, 2008 at 23:57
Prakash, I dont think Ive ever heard any football fan think like you do! And Im delighted not to meet any. You think this is football is all about money. “Sell Carrick, Fletcher, Saha and Giggs and buy Benzema, Berbatov and Huntelaar”. Who would want that. Five world class strikers that would only complain to sit on the bench. And United wont change to 4-3-3. We tried that out, but it didnt work. Neither wlll 4-2-4″! So yust get down to earth and figure this out: This is real life, not a computer game! Okey?
P.S. When Hleb and Fabregas was injured Arsenal lost 2, draw 2 and won 1. Eboue is not a rgular starter,and Toure is covered by Sendersos, who scored for them yesterday. They have a small squad compared to us, and that will damage them these lastcouple of months. Just wait and see.
February 13th, 2008 at 0:00
tevez- how is tevez slow when in all games such as fm fifa and pro evolution is one of the pacy players. In fm tevez’ pace is rated 17. I agree that his acceleration is quite slow but when he gathers pace he is pretty fast.
February 13th, 2008 at 0:30
prakash, i’m sorry to say but u are living in a dream world, u myt as well jus say that we should sign adeboyar drogba n eto’o and whilst were at it we should get kaka as well! why would we buy 3 players from the same position! and as for the 3 full bks dey all operate on the right! i agree we should take a good luck at lahm, but my first choice would have to be micah richards, even if it may be unlikly! his performance on sunday was outstanding and mature for a lad of 18! he kept tevez, ronaldo and giggs quite all afternoon, not many 19 yrold lads could do that, straight after cumin bk from injury!
we should get rid of fletcher, saha dong and silvestre in the summer! i feel sorry for fletcher as i feel if he was to play game after game all season i think he would progress, similary like richardson even though he’s been out most of the season when hes played he’s looked really gd! saha n silvestre have to go due to injury problems!
as for the summer targets i think we should sign royston drenthe as cover and an eventual succesor for evra on the left! i think a right bk is a must as nevile will strugle to get bk to top form again, maybe richards or more realisticly lahm/bosingwa! a striker as replacement for saha preferably benzema or eto’o! i wouldnt mind dos santos coming in as well as he looks like an exciting prospect and has a lot of comp at barca!
let me no what you think people!
wilson
February 13th, 2008 at 3:27
@42; that’s a game, this is real life. Compared to other players I would agree that Tevez is not as fast, but he makes up for it in skill.
Interesting, Real Madrid played a 4-2-3-1 this weekend and won 7-0. Maybe that will inspire Fergie again, eh.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:07
This is getting ridiculas..
Ha ha… We lost a game and we are 5 points adrift…
There are many more twists n turns.. so lets just hold on to our knickers shall we
February 13th, 2008 at 5:58
(mike)
… Its the real world and Tevez aint as fast as some other strikers… We saw that when Dunne could keep runnung pace with him…
Tevez is fast in the game coz…. well… its a game….. Even Huntelaar is fast in FIFA games, and so is Giggs
February 13th, 2008 at 6:42
Lahm is Playing as centre back for Bayern Munich Along with Lucio, even Though sometimes he plays as left back for his national team. Boswingwa is a Midfielder actualy converted into a Right back and plays in that position for Porto. Hence all the three are not left backs as mentioned by some of you. Then what is the need for a centre Back is that if Sunderland qualifies for the next years league, i am sure that Evans who is on loan there will prefer to continue with them itself as he will have more opportunity to play than staying at Man.Utd.Its not chelsea alone who has got agood quality bench strength, all the the big good teams like Real Madrid , Barcelona, Milan, Inter , Bayern Munich maintain a good bench strength. Unless we strengthens our Defence and Striking Dept and plan and play in different styles according to the opposition we will not be competitive in the next year. I Hope and am sure that SAF will do look into these aspects and do accodingly
February 13th, 2008 at 7:45
Dude, we all agree that one more is reqd in defence but not 3 more…
btw, you said “i am sure that Evans who is on loan there will prefer to continue with them itself as he will have more opportunity to play than staying at Man.Utd”.. Won’t this hold true for the 3 players you just mentioned.. Won’t they want playing time.. and if they do get it, what do we do with Vida, Ferdi and Evra???
February 13th, 2008 at 8:18
Thanks buddy, Prakash your second article is better than the first one. Hargo although very good
defensively, is injury prone compared to Carrick. Technically Carrick is better than Hargo.
Above all these palyers can play together look at AC Milan Gattuso and Pirlo, Manu Hargo ala
Gattuso, Carrick ala Pirlo. If you can analyse the Man City game 4 of our Back line played full
90 mins in meaningless freindly matches, also Ronaldo played full 90 mins. Our players it was more
of fatigue than anything, the talent is their. We played bad, but it happens sometimes. We have
great youngsters coming up, Simpson, Pique, Jonathan Evans,K Lee, Campbell,Brandy,Catchcart and
Wellback. Look forward to hammering of Arsenal this coming weekend. if we play lousy football then
you can start to doubt the team. Let the spirit of Keano, Cantona and Robson live on Forever.
Manchester United Forever
February 13th, 2008 at 11:02
Martin please dont compare carrick to pirlo. That is just total blasphemy. But I get your point.
February 13th, 2008 at 14:20
I’m glad I resisted the urge to comment during the emotional Armageddon period.
I love this club and its supporters. This is the only club where a:
Draw = Loss
Loss = Crisis!!!Panic!!!End of the world!!!
At least I suppose it shows we are winners. We expect to win every game, nothing less!
February 13th, 2008 at 14:21
Consider this:
We are the current champions. We reaced the final in the FA cup. We fell out in the semi-final of the CL (even though I believe we were the better team and could have gone all the way). We then decided to spend £50m (£80m if you add Tevez) to an already good squad. All this, while other clubs were fairly quiet in the transfer market. Now people want us to spend another £60m on more players????
Where will this end? (and yet we criticise Chelsea for buying the league???)
February 13th, 2008 at 14:23
To all the Rooney critics (donnibrasco in particular):
Noticed how average Tevez and the great Ronaldo? Notice how easily they can be marked out of the game without the underperforming Rooney around? Notice the lack of space for either to operate? I admit he’s not scoring goals, but sell Rooney????
That said, we really missed Rooney AND Evra on Sunday.
February 13th, 2008 at 14:45
Prakash
If only it was so easy to win everything by buying world class players! Chelsea bought the likes of Ballack & Sheva (both truly world beaters) to strengthen a premiership winning squad but still lost it! There is no way you can guarantee a Lahm or Cichinho (who is crap and RM reject!) or Benzema/Huntelaar will surely add to our squad. The best judge in the world to make that kind of call is Sir Alex (who precisely knows how much green notes he has in his purse to run things…) We can only marvel at players who are not part of our team and fantasize about them but you have to have belief in your own players and have to support them. I just cant imagine people like you being fans of clubs like Bolton or Wigan who win nothing! Money is not answer to everything. Last summer SAF bought 4 huge players and still we struggled in the beginning (doesnt that tell you something? It takes time for players to settle in, howsoever good they may be)… prob thats the reason why Liverpool achieve nothing all the time (they add at least 10 new faces every summer!)
Race is still not over. To win we will have to beat Gunners at OT. I’m sure we are going to do that (Benzema or no Benzema in the team!)
February 13th, 2008 at 15:50
Yes i agrre Fifa is a game so is pro evo but how about the ratings on Football manager where proffesionals rate the players. Concluding my point, Tevez’s acceleration is slow indeed, but no one can deny that when he is on a long sprint he can be pretty fast, and im trying to but i dont remember one instance where tevez and dunne where chasing a through ball ora a long ball and dunne kept running pace with him?
February 13th, 2008 at 15:58
Firdtly, Dunne is surprisingly fast so even if he did keep running speed with Tevez that wouldn’t be saying much, secondly, Tevez is slow whether on a long sprint or accelerating, but he rarely runs at speed anyway as he tries to use close control to beat players and finally, we definitely are looking into these two last poor performances too much, if we win 4-0 against Arsenal I’m sure everyone will back to thinking we’re the greatest team in the world and we will win the premiership this season, in other words, the truth
February 13th, 2008 at 16:18
£15k for a scarf? £3k for an Opus?
Time to flog my scarf (made in China) and buy an Opus for me and four of my mates
February 13th, 2008 at 16:20
What the hell?!using football manager to rate players.Thats a first!
February 13th, 2008 at 16:24
Tevez aint fast at all.I dont know how in hell he is gonna cost us 35 million or even 30 or even 25.
February 13th, 2008 at 18:49
Taehr i was just suggesting that games rate him rather fast, and Valuing a player on his speed IS a first to me
February 13th, 2008 at 19:41
Tevez is reasonably fast but his control is so good that he doesn’t need pace to beat players like Ronaldo does. I think that Podolski could be a good signing as he is out of the Munich team at the moment and might be a fair bit cheaper than some of the other options while still being young and quite good in the air. If we sell Saha that leaves us with Rooney, Tevez, Manucho and Podolski which is quite enough cover if one of them gets injured in the meantime. Welbeck wont be good enough to break into the first team for a while(that is presuming he is good enough in the first place of which we can’t be sure) If we sign a good RB (Lahm would have to be first choice but I’m sure the scouting team could find someone else ala Evra and Vida) then I think that we can afford to let Brown or Evans leave. With the Brazilian twins coming that means that we have cover for that position. If we let Fletcher go then that would give extra funds as I just don’t see a place for fletcher anymore. There, that’s two in and 2 or 3 players in which is better than a complete overhaul which would unsettle the team.
February 13th, 2008 at 19:57
anyone else watching the rangers match, hope manu is in action.
February 13th, 2008 at 20:48
he is not even on the bench, isn’t the point of loaning a player out is so they play more matches? angola were knocked out about 3 weeks ago!
February 13th, 2008 at 21:07
but if are spending 35 million on a slow player or average paced player i feel its a waste.35 million!?Pace these days is important.It is of great value.
February 13th, 2008 at 22:45
Yes you are right Taehr but im sure u as long with many other fans would have surely agreed if at the beginning of the season we were told that tevez would be offered to us for 30 million and go on to score the winner against liverpool, key opener against chelsea and the last ditch goal against tottenham,not to forgot the equalizer against sporting.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:51
cicinho is a right wing back,u fool.he can’t defend,he doesn’t know
how to defend.he was in real madrid and without playing time,moved
to roma(maybe).i remember him playing with beckham where beckham used
to cover the right back position while cicinho was upfront.so,do u expect
ronaldo to play right back?
February 14th, 2008 at 6:55
prakash varma,u dont know anything about football.plz dont talk shits
__________________
February 14th, 2008 at 7:22
Karl: its always good to vent out the frustration of losing/drawing which are all the same to man utd fans as you pointed out because it just drives fans nuts when we watch our very expensive players play averagely.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:18
karl,we have had rooney countless games but still needed ronaldos magic moment.dont use rooneys absence as an excuse.we have overrelied on ronaldo that fergie tells giggs and the rest of the team.go uot there,even if you dont play well you are assured of your spots,ronaldo will make the team look nice.
rooney has been one of the culprits and you know it.yes we missed him coz it could have given us another striker,but thats just about it.the continued selection of giggs and scholes is the cancer we need to treat
February 14th, 2008 at 9:39
what will happen when rooney calls it a day sometime?will you remember him as a united striker who never scored?will u convert his energy into stats?give me adebayor any day.he works more for the team and scores loads.he is young too.that is a striker.rooney does not bring the best out of ronaldo.the latter is simply too good.look at ronaldos record for portugal,is it rooney too?rooney for england?even crouch is better.
am not slating rooney but may be we need to look at the facts and put aside the notion that we support united folks.
does anyone have a problem with tevez?he scores,works hard.we are happy.if he ever underperforms,we question it.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:56
For the team to win, it must have a balanced line-up..as i posted eralier, our back for were left vulnerable and hence the two goals, esp the second 1 and the many chances citie wasted, thank God they are not a team with a very strong attacking ability otherwise the scoreline would have been embarrsing. at least we needed to play a DM.
speaking of balance, rooney brings that balance upfront or at least another striker would have done,
February 14th, 2008 at 9:56
Donibrasco: I thought Prakash would take the award for most rubbish spouted in one comment but it seems you have beat him hands down. Rooney is an excellent player, vastly superior to Crouch. Despite mixed form due to injury blips he has 10 goals and 8 assists to his name this season. His goal scoring ratio isn’t too far off one in two this season. He will never be the most prolific player but his all round game compensates, particular when you have a winger chipping in with as many goals as he does.
It is a football fan without understanding of the game however that solely judges a player on stats. Last year Paul Scholes passing was absolutely top notch, however if you looked at his stats for assists you wouldn’t have noticed it. Energy and enthusiasm can lift a team out of the doldrums but it isn’t easily quantifiable, nor is his excellent movement or his presence. Yet I know the influence Roy Keane had on us for so many years, with qualities that didn’t appear on the stat sheet.
And on Adebayor, lets just see if he can continue the form next year. There are far too many football fans who jump to conclusions about players, mistaking purple patches with greatness.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:03
[JB]
I was actually planning to write a defence of Rooney post. But on second thoughts, I will shelve it. I just can’t believe some of the vitriol poured against Rooney. Oh well, two adebayor videos up on my new post. Lighter times ahead
February 14th, 2008 at 10:28
Funny how short-lived fans’ memories are.
Two years ago, people (including the most ardent United fans) called Ronaldo a useless one-trick pony…now you call him a ‘great’ player?
Almost a year ago people (including the most ardent Arse fans) called Adebayor a useless cunt….now you call him a ‘real’ striker?
About a year ago, people (transfer frenzy) thought Nani was better than Ronaldo…now you claim Anderson is a better player?
A few months ago, people (including the most ardent Pool fans) called Rooney a great forward, Rooney/Tevez the best understanding and complimentary partnership in the world…now you call him a mediocre player?
Strange thing is, he start scoring a couple of goals and he becomes the best in the world again…silly don’t you think?
When Henry left Arse, everybody claimed that Barca got the best deal.
When he didn’t score, everybody claimed that Barca made a mistake and overpaid
When he started scoring, everybody claimed that Barca got the best deal ever
Same fuckin player!
I can’t convince you that Rooney is a great player. If you’ve failed to see that by now, you most probably never will. What I can tell you however is that:
Form is temporary…Class is PERMANENT!
February 14th, 2008 at 19:08
excellent post karl
February 15th, 2008 at 8:35
[manutd jaluo says: 68]
Fully agree with you on this point.
I’ve just noticed over time that when I read the comments afterwards, it seems very funny and illogical, all the stuff said during our ‘rage periods’. Analysis usually clouded by fury. That is one of the reasons I love this site because you have a place to sometimes vent your anger (instead of taking it out on the wife and kids). My wife hates it when United lose because I’m then ‘always’ miserable.
[Thanks Red Ranter for your Anger Management contribution! Feel pleased to know that you truly play a part in eliminating domestic violence worldwide! Damn, how does it feel to be part of the sollution and not the problem
]