The Man Utd Thread

Sport
81

He will go to Real or Juventus more than likely. Want him to stay though. Dont rate Evra.

82

Yeah but Evra is black which means he can run fast

83

Glad to beat Chelsea even if it was on penalties. Deserved it in my view. Created more chances than Chelsea did and looked more dangerous when they had the ball. Chelseas formation baffled me with Joe Cole as centre forward. If the Drogba injury serious they are in trouble. Lampard wasnt in the game either. Van der Sar great penalty saves. Looked more solid then he did at the end of last season. Evra the man of the match. Looked dangerous everytime he got on the ball.

84

Couldn’t score against Reading which is worrying. When Rooney went off it was a blow and now with the hairline fracture of the left footgoing be out for awhile but nobody saying how long. Tevez will have to play against Portsmouth on Wednesday. Carrick really was our star man today controlling the game a la keane and tried to break down the stubborn Reading defence. Playing O’Shea up front was idiotic. Having no forward player on the bench wasnt the best move. Id have put Dong on the bench. Bad to lose ground on all 3 rivals the opening weekend.

85

Didn’t see the game - how did Hargreaves play and did Nani or Anderson get a game?

Looks like Ferguson hasn’t learned his lesson last year about having decent attacking cover on the bench.

86

Hargreaves and Anderson were sitting in the stand. With Saha and Solskjaer out injured he was really hoping nothing would happen to Wayne and it did. The 4 outfield players on the bench was O’Shea Fletcher, Nani and Pique. Nani did ok when he came on at half time. Had a few good touches. I thought he was a showboat player like Ronaldo but didnt try anything too fancy just did the simple things well.

The 15 minute spell after half time was probbably when United should have scored. When they didn’t I had that feeling the goal wasn’t coming. O’Shea had a half chance when he hit it straight at the keeper and Scholes had a header from 6 yards but it was lacking power. The keeper did get man of the match. Reading will cause problems for the big teams this season Im sure. They didnt commit many players forward. The possession stats were like 75 percent United. Portsmouth not a happy hunting ground. I think since they came up its been one win in four for United.

Post edited by: Captainshan, at: 2007/08/12 22:47

87

Is Hargreaves injured or just not fit or something yet? Didn’t know Pique had come back. There’s a decent squad there but it’s still very short on strikers. Solksjaer can’t be relied on to be the sub striker because he’s simply not fit often enough. They didn’t have to break the back but I think they should have brought someone in. Look at what Liverpook did with Voronin for example.

88

Spending 60m in the summer and then having no striker on the bench is ridiculous and there’s no excuse for it. It’s like when Mourinho spent all the cash a few years ago and ended up throwing Huth up front when they were chasing the game at Liverpool a few years back.

89

To have sold Rossi was very shortsighted. He would have stepped in yesterday and done a hell of a lot better than O’Shea. Get Henrik back quick!!!

90

And today Feguson has ruled out buying another striker by saying that they’ve 4 and that’s enough. The problem is 1 of them is always injured and the other 3 pick up plenty of knocks between them. Even a youth player (is the Chinese lad a striker?) who could play up front should be on the bench ahead of someone like O’Shea.

That’s probably one of the better rules about the SPL: the fact that you’re compelled to have youth players in your first team squad. It meant O’Dea was on the bench for Celtic ahead of Pressley at the weekend for example.

91

Is it 7 subs up in the Spl with 2 under 21s? Its a good system and would mean Utd could have young players like Frazier Campbell who is a forward on the bench and gain expereince. Something that the Epl should look at bringing it.

92

It’s 5 subs and I think the rule is that 2 of the squad must be Under 21s.

93

I checked the bbc match report and 7 subs are listed. I remember playing Football Manager as Celtic and it was 7. Its a good rule.

94

Ah right. It does encourage clubs in the right direction anyway.

95

Yes, it’s definitely 7 in Scotland with 2 Under 21 players. It’s a far better system than in the EPL. Not sure what the Spanish, Italian, German, French leagues employ.

96

therock67 wrote:

And today Feguson has ruled out buying another striker by saying that they’ve 4 and that’s enough. The problem is 1 of them is always injured and the other 3 pick up plenty of knocks between them. Even a youth player (is the Chinese lad a striker?) who could play up front should be on the bench ahead of someone like O’Shea.

That’s probably one of the better rules about the SPL: the fact that you’re compelled to have youth players in your first team squad. It meant O’Dea was on the bench for Celtic ahead of Pressley at the weekend for example.

Just picking this up now but yeah Dong Fangzhou is a striker isn’t he. Why’s he not getting the nod? Also I see the figure 60m being thrown about here - is it not a good bit more than that? Hargreaves 18m, Nani 17m, Anderson 17m, Tevez "x"m.

And another thing, people are raving about Nani which might go part of the way to explaining 17m but what about Anderson? Have Utd spent 17m on a squad player?

Final thing, what is United’s full strength line-up at this stage because I really don’t know. I thought one of the good things that Ferguson used to do was have a bunch of mediocre players that he could keep happy by letting them fill in gaps for injuries/suspensions etc and giving them games against “lesser” teams (the likes of O’Shea, Silvestre, Fletcher, Smith, Richardson etc.). Does he now have too many players that will expect to play every week and not cope well when not doing so? He’s never been a tinkerman.

97

The team I think Fergie should pick tomorrow is:

Van Der Sar
Evra
Ferdinand
Vidic
Brown
Ronaldo
Scholes
Carrick
Nani
Giggs
Tevez

Subs:
Kuszcak
O’Shea
Fletcher
Hargreaves
Anderson

Nani and Ronaldo can change wings to cause Portsmouth problems and giggs can play in the hole just behind Tevez. I think once United dont concede an early goal they should go on and win but its going to be one hell of a fight.

98

It’s not a bad team but straight away it points to the lack of an out and out striker.

Why no Hargreaves? Think I asked before but can’t remember if anyone answered - is he injured/unfit/just not in the team yet?

99

I think its mainly due to his fitness but also that Ferguson can’t decide who to replace Hargreaves for. I think Scholes is in serious danger of losing his place if he can’t find the net more often. Carrick has the ability to score as he did against Roma twice and could play more of an attacking role with Hargreaves playing the defensive midfielder who breaks up the play.

100

Scholesy find the net. He’s been blagging his way through games since he came back after that eye thing. Turns out he’s actually totally blind. He wears an ear piece now and turns around in circles when he’s on the ball and then hoofs it. He’s not ginger either