Oul Manucho is banging them in at the ACN. Heâll provide the cover.
Ronaldo as a front man scores twice tonight. I think thats why Fergie is happy with the squad as he knows Ronnie can play up there when needed. Hes not a David Beckham figure who dosent drift off the wing. Ron will go inside and look to score which he is doing. Pomey gave us after going 2 down so early. United were wasteful enough especially Rooney. He needs to score in a few games in a row to get his confidence back. Its looking good for United anyways. http://www.thefreekick.com/board/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif
While Iâd normally respect Captainshanâs opinionâs re United I think heâs a bit reserved tonight. United were sensational this evening in that first half. They started like demons and the passing was the best Iâve seen this season- crisp, assured, attacking. The first goal is superb and the second is amazing, one of the best frees youâll ever see. Our passing and pressing continued to be top notch all the way til half time. I think Pompey even played well but nobody can compete with a team that plays like United in the first half.
Second half we remained way smarter and totally in control while we dropped the exertion and thought about Spurs at the weekend, we were the only team who could score another.
Tevez got a rest, Scholes looked class and got 60 mins, Nani looked hungry and dangerous, like a man with something to prove after a spell on the sidelines. We strolled this.
Watch the showboating on soccer am this weekend folks.
Juhniallio I think my mind was clouded by the last 30 minutes of the game as it pretty much was a training session. The first goal was one of the best team goals you will see this season. Ronaldos freekick was the best freekick I have ever see. James wouldnt have saved it if he had dived.
It was good that United rotated the squad ahead of a busy February. The defence looked solid with Vidic back in. Van der Sar didnt have to make a save in 90 minutes. Portsmouth badly missed their African Nation players.
What a laugh.
With the Celtic game postponed I sat down to watch the Manchester United-Portsmouth match in order to scout a potential Champions League opponent (on the off chance that United upset Lyon).
The Nani comment from Juhniallio is laughable primarily because Nani was laughably poor. Christ, talk about letting a fizzed shot over the bar after 85 minutes cloud your judgement on what was a performance that involved mis-controlling and/or losing every ball that he received. I get excited contemplating the 35m odd Celtic will receive if we ever sell McGeady if Nani is what 12m gets in the current climate.
Park should have gone to the local park and had a kick around by himself because he would have contributed more to United there than he did at Old Trafford tonight.
Rooney was abysmal. No first touch, second one invariably a tackle and I was surprised he lasted as long as the 73 minutes he did.
Again, and as per usual, it was Ronaldo and Scholes that carried a lacklustre United. I still think Celtic would be too strong for United, like they were over 2 legs last season, as I expect Naylor would comfortably nullify Ronaldo as he did with the minimum of fuss at Celtic Park last season.
All that said United are considerably better than Arsenal but Chelsea are a better side than either of these two.
Shanley, reply to this garbage will you. You âdo your stuffâ
I appreciate the Johnny Giles words of wisdom Flannery. http://www.thefreekick.com/board/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif
Regarding tonight Bandage I think as I said in my original post about the game I thought United were wasteful but Portsmouth never gave United any dangerous moments in 90 minutes. If Celtic can somehow beat Barca and United get by the not as mighty as they once were Lyon then I know United will prevail over Celtic. The squad United can call upon now are stronger than last year while Celtic are signing a city player on loan. 
And lets not forget Saha wont be taking any penalties against Celtic ever again. Ronaldo has 27 goals this season already. 40 goals is a realistic target with a potential 20 plus games left.
Donât know why you think United would prevail over Celtic this season Shan. You may not have Saha taking the penalties but you may not have Giggs diving to win them either.
Anyway I too took advantage of the midweek break for Celtic and watched Unitedâs game today. While Iâd agree that United were miles better than Portsmouth I can only laugh at the suggestion that âPompey even played well.â I genuinely donât think Iâve ever seen a less interested, less motivated and less threatening side than Pompey were tonight. They had a cracking moment in the first half that summed them up where they tried to play a little triangle in their left back area and succeeded only in knocking it straight out for a throw. None of the players moved even half a yard in that spell - they just werenât arsed.
United were in complete control for the first half and should probably have scored more. Then they took their foot off the gas completely and did nothing for about an hour, aided by the gross incompetence of Portsmouth who didnât manage to even begin to try and attack. There were a couple of times when James got the ball and rolled it out to fullbacks in space who just knocked it straight back to him because theyâd no interest in doing anything else.
Selected Player Ratings:
Portsmouth
James 5 - poor for first goal, couple of decent but expected saves
Everyone else 0 - nobody else tried. Campbell was awful but maybe heâs just too old and shite. Glen Johnson was probably pick of the bunch in terms of lack of effort.
United
Van Der Saar 5 nowt to do
Brown 5 fine but shite on the ball - evidenced by making a mess of a pass from Ronaldo early on
Vidic 7 utterly at ease
Ferdinand 7 as above
Evra 6 more threatening than Brown but nowt to do defensively
Carrick 5 contributed nil
Scholes 8 looked a class apart with Ronaldo
Nani 4 awful touch, telegraphed his tricks, kept losing it even in acres of space
Ronaldo 9 McGeady-esque. Excellent stuff. They couldnât live with him
Rooney 4 terrible effort. Poor touch, no effort, lazy
Park 4 - out of his depth.
I didnât mean to offend any of the United supporters on here - I just called it as I saw it. Maybe I have higher standards and expect better when watching football and that would tie into supporting Celtic, a team who proved they were better than United last season.
[SIZE=2]Rangers are the team to beat up in Scotland at the moment. I would have feared them in the Champions League.[/SIZE]
Rangers are not a great side by any means but I agree with Shan in that theyâd probably beat United on balance like Celtic did last season.
Nah I doubt it. I remember the two games in the Champions League when United won 1.0 at Ibrox and 3.0 at home. It says a lot that Celtic are behind a poor Rangers team. Its as well that game was called off or Celtic would have suffered a defeat. My sources say that Strachan did some kind of raindance this morning to get the game called off.
I suppose it doesnât reflect all that well on United if a team you consider inferior to Motherwell brushed aside âthe worldâs greatest clubâ (trademark / copyright Manchester United and the Glazer family) in their last meeting. Iâm not saying United havenât improved since then because they have but the 50m they spent in the summer would have been expected to make some bit of difference all things told.
Ronaldo being described as McGeady-esque. I despair
Agreed Flano. McGeadys Ireland form hasnt been impressive. I dont see the Spl. I have my standards.
Wahey, tell it like it is Shan
Ill try and get back this thread to more United matters. Ronaldos freekick needs to be posted.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbxskRd_7eI
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Just re-read the hilarious latenight posts of the drunken Celts. Hilarious stuff. All talk of triumphing over two legs is brilliant. Pick a point of no relevance and repeat ad nauseum until people are bored listening. E.G. âThey hate our freedom. Theyâre freedom haters. Weâll fight them over theyâre so they canât fight us over here. Weâll spread freedomâ
That United side would leave a crumpled heap of hoops on the floor of Celtic Park.
Case dismissed.
[quote=âJuhniallioâ]Just re-read the hilarious latenight posts of the drunken Celts. Hilarious stuff. All talk of triumphing over two legs is brilliant. Pick a point of no relevance and repeat ad nauseum until people are bored listening. E.G. âThey hate our freedom. Theyâre freedom haters. Weâll fight them over theyâre so they canât fight us over here. Weâll spread freedomâ
That United side would leave a crumpled heap of hoops on the floor of Celtic Park.
Case dismissed.[/quote]
I cant wait for the response to this http://www.thefreekick.com/board/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif
The point is they didnât leave a heap of crumpled Celts because they tried but they couldnât. Anyway, as I said, I didnât intend to cause such rancour on the thread. I just happened to see the game and my opinion differed to that of the United supporters who did as tends to be the case when one person is neutral and others partisan.
I recall the point on the CL games last year being made to Juhniallio in McDaidâs about 3 weeks ago and he got so annoyed he stormed out and went home under the false pretence he had a lift waiting outside - that was funny! With Celtic overcoming United on head-to-head we were assured of our progress before match day 6. Meanwhile United were scrapping away and had to overcome a 1-goal deficit at home to Benfica to qualify in the last round while we were resting Nakamura and Hesselink and giving OâDea his CL debut over in Copenhagen with our job already done by virtue of beating United over 2 legs.