United On Fire

I’m sure everyone in football (especially if you are English) will know that England manager Steve McClaren got sacked on Thursday. It was the right decision in my opinion as it seemed that he didn’t have a good idea of how his team should have played. Switching to 4-5-1 without trying it, playing Crouch on his own up front and then not playing Beckham to supply the crosses, sticking in a rookie keeper in a vital game and persisting with both Gerrard and Lampard in the middle of midfield when time and time again it has shown not to work. He got a second chance and blew it again. It’s interesting to have to talk about failures on this blog because its not normally the case with Manchester United.

Of course, it is not just the manager that is the problem in English football. There has been a major problem in English football for many years now. I believe the FA at the grassroots level is on the right track to fixing this, having starting my FA Coaching Level 1 course last week (another long weekend this week!). It is certainly eye opening and I’ll probably discuss this more in a future post.

Onto United who have the opposite problem; how to maintain their good run of form. Definitely out still is Wayne Rooney, but whilst he seems to get injured as easily as Louis Saha, he has the recovery powers of that cheerleader from Heroes — nearly. Anyway, he should be back for the Fulham game. Carloz Tevez seems to be a doubt after getting back from Argentinian duty on Friday. I say duty but he only played 24 minutes after getting sent off in a game which Argentina lost 2-1. Fergie thinks he will be okay. If not, it will be a remarkable reversal of fortunes as Glassman Saha will be our only fit striker. Until he breaks his arm, signing a match program before the game.

At the back, Nemanja Vidic is a doubt after getting a knock for Serbia. But at the back we have good cover despite the long term absence of Gary Neville. Either Pique will come in as a direct replacement (my preferred option) or Simpson will come in a right-back and Wes Brown will switch inside.

As for Bolton, I don’t see them causing much trouble. In total disarray this season and whilst new manager Gary Megson has made them more solid, United are capable of breaking them down. My only concern is Le Incredible Sulk, Nicolas Anelka.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Manchester United, Premiership, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.