Man Utd: Van der Sar, OâShea, Smalling, Brown, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Hernandez, Rooney. Subs: Kuszczak, Berbatov, Fabio Da Silva, Rafael Da Silva, Valencia, Obertan, Gibson.
Fuck sake no Vidic and Carrick playing. United losing this.
RTE coverage starting half an hour later than usual because of horse racing highlights. Utterly bizarre. FFS.
You watch it on Rte. The rest of us will watch it on Tv3 or Sky. :lol:
Good point. Well made.
Sincere apologies to the RTE schedule makers and indeed any members of the horse racing fraternity that took offence.
Whatâs the problem with Vidic, Shan? That centre midfield is just nowhere near good enough for a team with ambitions of winning the whole thing.
Vidic took a knock against Arsenal I believe. I thought he didnt feel pain so I am a bit annoyed at that. The midfield is poor. Carrick and Scholes are okay but they cant control the game for 90 minutes. No Fletcher tonight so the usual energy from midfield is gone. At least Nani is back and his goal threat. The bench at least has some players that can be brought in a crisis. Berbatov has really fallen out of favour in the last month. Bar the start at Anfield hes been on the bench for him for most part.
From Opta:
47% - Since he joined the club, Man Utd have won just 47% of CL games without Nemanja Vidic in the side, compared to 68% with him. Absent.
Looks like Bandage has mastered Twitter. Well done son.
Thanks BT. Will take recommendations on who to follow on the twitter thread.
Steve McClaren and Graeme Souness worry about a potential lack of communciation in the heart of the Manchester United defence tonight. Brown and Smalling are both quiet boys apparently. OâShea is also a quiet boy and Evra is French.
Gignac. :guns:
Lovely ball by Giggs to Rooney in the build up to the goal. Rooneyâs shite control and mishit shot morphed into an assist. I hate that square headed cunt.
1-1 in Munich. Etoâoâs opener cancelled out by Gomez after another bad error by Julio Cesar.
Hereâs an Independent article on Van Gaalâs imminent departure from FC Bayern:
[b]Van Gaal is on brink of knocking out Inter â so why has he been dumped?
Bayern coach is faring well in Europe but his self-satisfied attitude, and clubâs poor league form, mean he has been edged out.[/b]
By Mark Fleming
The potential elimination of the defending European champions, 1-0 down after the first leg, would in normal circumstances appear to be the most pressing issue of tonightâs meeting in Munich between Internazionale and Bayern; however that was before last weekâs remarkable announcement that the German champions would be dispensing with manager Louis van Gaal, but only at the end of the season.
The respected but autocratic Dutch coach has been portrayed as a lame duck by the German media after accepting that his contract will be terminated a year early with the team still outside the top three places in the Bundesliga and a place in next seasonâs Champions League.
The announcement brought instant reward, with die Roten completing their biggest victory of the season, a resounding 6-0 triumph on Saturday over Hamburg thanks to a hat-trick from the former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben. The result moved Bayern up to fourth place, two points behind Hannover in the coveted third slot, but still 16 points adrift of leaders Borussia Dortmund.
The decision to order the slow-motion sacking of van Gaal was taken by the Bayern Munich hierarchy to prevent the unthinkable from happening â that they might miss out on the Champions League next season. Much like Chelsea, Bayernâs squad is full of experienced internationals, but it is proving to be a tall order finding a way to keep them motivated and focused on the less exotic fare of the domestic league.
It is a stunning fall from grace for Van Gaal, who won the domestic double in his first season in charge at Bayern, and took the club to the final of the Champions League, where they lost 2-0 to tonightâs opponents. The 59-year-old, however, is paying the price as much for his arrogant, abrasive style of management as for the paucity of recent results. The evidence had been mounting for some time that the dictatorial approach that had won Van Gaal success in the past, most memorably when he coached to victory in the Champions League in 1995, did not sit well with the superstars of the Bayern side. His management style, reportedly marching round the dressing room calling himself God, did not suit the FC Hollywood reputation of Germanyâs leading club.
The former Bayern striker Luca Toni recently revealed that Van Gaal once pulled down his trousers to show the players his testicles, to prove he had the balls to leave star players out. Toni said: âVan Gaal simply didnât want to work with me, he treats players like interchangeable objects. The coach wanted to make clear to us that he can drop any player, it was all the same to him because, as he said, he had the balls. He demonstrated this literally. I have never experienced anything like it, it was totally crazy. Luckily, I didnât see a lot, because I wasnât in the front row.â
Other players were also critical, including Inter defender Lucio who was sold to tonightâs opponents in July 2009 after he had turned up late for training. âVan Gaal hurt me more than anyone else in football,â the Brazilian later said.
The managerâs confrontational approach was less of an issue last season, when Bayern were winning. Van Gaal followed his instincts and introduced youngsters like Thomas MĂŒller and Holger Badstuber to the team, and brought out the best of Bastian Schweinsteiger by turning him into a central midfielder. The twin threat of wingers Robben and Franck RibĂ©ry made Bayern unstoppable, and they went close to lifting the Champions League trophy.
However, in the summer Van Gaal set himself on a collision course with the Bayern president Uli Hoeness over how to build the team, with the Dutchman refusing to sign new players. The authoritarian approach continued into this season, and the writing was on the wall when Hoeness appeared on German television last October, and said of Van Gaal: âItâs very difficult to have a conversation with him. He canât accept it when someone has a different opinion to him. He deals with some very experienced players at Bayern and he should be a bit more cautious.â
Van Gaalâs hubris no longer had the results to back it up, and the coach became increasingly isolated. Mark van Bommel then left the club in January and moved to Milan, blaming Van Gaal directly for his decision to leave. A 1-0 defeat to Hannover 10 days ago sealed his fate.
The decision to leave Van Gaal in place until the end of the season is a puzzling one, however. Needless to say, it was a compromise decision. Hoeness, by all accounts, wanted the Dutchman out, while chief executive, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge tried to make peace. Captain Phillip Lahm told the board the players were broadly behind the manager, so a highly unusual compromise deal, allowing Van Gaal to continue in the short term, was brokered.
It was smiles all round on Saturday when Bayern won 6-0 in their first game since the decision.
Van Gaal has been phlegmatic about his impending departure, saying: âI hope that I can leave this club through the front door, I want to leave with my pride intact. It is important for my honour as a coach.â
The tantalising scenario for Van Gaal is to leave the club as Champions League winners. They host Inter tonight having won at the San Siro via a single goal from Mario Gomez, and are favourites to progress to the quarter-finals.
A second Champions League winnersâ medal would help soften the blow for Van Gaal, who has spoken in the past of being âfirst on the listâ to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and has also been touted as a potential successor to Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea should the Italian move to Roma in the summer.
âIf a nice challenge comes up for me, I will consider it,â Van Gaal said last week, at a press conference to announce his departure. Repeat the success of last season, and lead Bayern to the final, and he would not be short of offers.
Scholes is having a tremendous game again here. But heâs tended to drift out of high tempo games in the second half lately.
John O 
Might be a goal in this for Marseille, but hard to see them not concede again.
Looks like thereâs the real potential for goals at both ends here. Iâm worried, especially since Rafael came on. As usual, he looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Gignac has been utter shite tonight.*
*One of my regular reverse jinx attempts.
One awful tackle at the start of each half by Evra. No booking though. :blink:
Inter are all over the place at the back and are very lucky not to be further behind. Some turnaround from the second leg against Barcelona last year. Good game so far.
José :wub:
Itâs time for Valbuena to be introduced in my opinion. Heâs capable of manufacturing a yard and curling one into the top corner.
Fabio will be on shortly for his brother. Another hamstring injury.
Right on cue Bandage.