Archive for February, 2008

Fulham preview

Published by
Paul
at February 29, 2008 in Previews. 0 Comments

Fulham v Manchester United

As the title race is so tight, each game for Manchester United is a must win. United are three points behind Arsenal and Chelsea are still on our heals. Fulham, however, have the opposite problem down at the wrong end of the table. The three points on offer are needed just as much by Fulham.

United team news

Ryan Giggs is the only doubt with a calf strain. With such a strong squad, United can cope easily by either drafting in a like for like replacement in Park or Nani, or add another central midfield and play with a three strong forward line of Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo. Against a team like Fulham, I think a 4-4-2 would be best.

Fulham team news

New signing Jari Litmanen will miss out after a heart scare as will suspended Leon Andreasen. However, Fulham are a much better team with the return from long term injury victims Brian McBride and Jimmy Bullard.

Previous Meetings

The reverse fixture this season saw United comfortably win 2-0 on a Monday night at Old Trafford with both goals coming from Ronaldo. Last seasons fixture at Craven Cottage was a season defining 1-0 win with a late late winner from that man Ronaldo again.

Form guide and analysis

Fulham have one win in 15 games whilst United have lost one in 11 and United are going for a seventh straight win over Fulham and everything points to a United win, except that struggling sides have a habit of scraping results from nothing. Unlike Derby Fulham are not dead and buried yet and have returned to some sort of form with the return of the excellent Bullard. However, do not despair if United are not winning with 10 minutes to go. United have a habit of getting late goals and Fulham have got a habit of conceding late, including last weeks game against West Ham.

Prediction

2-0 to United.

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Gonna party like its 1999?

Published by
Paul
at February 28, 2008 in Manchester United. 3 Comments

Quick fire pub quiz :  Who won the Carling/Rumblelows/Milk Cup in Man United’s glorious Treble winning season of 1999 ?

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Poor old Kevin Keegan; Eduardo

Published by
Paul
at February 24, 2008 in Manchester United. 1 Comment

Newcastle fans must be very glad they wont be facing again Manchester United this season.  Aggregate score in the league is 11-1 and Newcastle still havn’t won under Kevin Keegan.  Even the most ardent Keegan fans must surely be wondering if they havn’t made a mistake in getting rid of Sam Allerdice.   Comfortably midtable to relegation candidates in two short months.   I almost hope they don’t go down so we can have another two easy wins next season.

United were a little bit indifferent but Ronaldo and Rooney were clinical and Newcastle’s defending were woeful.  Fletcher was given a deserved start in the midfield with Carrick and perhaps our weakest midfield combination was more than enough for Newcastle.   Ronaldo and Rooney got two apiece and Saha popped up from the injury list to get his first goal for quite a while.

Speaking of injuries, my thoughts go to Eduardo and his horrific injury against Birminham City.  Having seen the replays on Match of the Day, you just hope that he’ll play again.  Arsene Wenger said the Birmingham player, Martin Taylor “should never play again” but later retracted that statement just as I was wondering if there was something seriously wrong with him.  Good of him to change his mind as the challenge was bad and poor, but didn’t look malicious, just badly timed.  Arsenal dropped two points after a late penalty decision that had Arsenal captain William Gallas react most oddly.   Sitting down on the pitch long after the final whilst is no way for a captain to behave.  Wenger had to come back out onto the pitch as if to treat Gallas as a toddler “get inside now, you’re an embarrassment”.

The result was that the lead is back down to three points and Arsenal are clearly wobbling whilst United are back to full force.

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Lyon 1 Manchester United 1

Published by
Paul
at February 21, 2008 in Champions League and Reviews. 2 Comments

Lyon 1 (Benzema 54) Manchester United 1 (Tevez 87)

Carlos Tevez rescued United from an away defeat as they take a vital away goal advantage to the 2nd leg. Both teams started with a 4-5-1 formation that canceled each other out. Lyon broke through with a great individual goal from Benzema whilst United leveled once they changed formation to 4-4-2 showing that they had a greater strength in depth. Tevez Scores

There was a tough first half as both midfields fought and and battled with few chances for either team. Hargreaves and Anderson allowed Scholes to progress further forward and a beautiful through ball from Giggs put him into the box in a throwback to 10 years ago. Giggs created an even better chance for Rooney who was put through one on one with the keeper, only for Coupet to save well. Meanwhile, United’s back four were pressed but coped with the Lyon attack.

United started the second half strongly with much possession only for Benzema to create a goal. With 4 United players around him, he was able to find the gap and place the ball into net off the post. United were visibly shaken by this and Ferguson showed his squad had the numbers and ability to change games for him. The increasingly tired and ineffective Scholes and Giggs were replaced by Nani and Tevez. Hargreaves was later replaced by Carrick.

The effect was notably as United went to 4-4-2 and Rooney had a companion to play with again and nearly scored as they showed their telepathic understanding one touch to create a chance. Increasingly Lyon were pegged back and they attempted to change the game by removing Juninho for a more defence minded player and Benzema for the Brazilian Fred.

In the end it was the latter substitution that had the most effect, but for the worst. As United pressured late in the game, they won a corner. Initially cleared, the ball then fell to Carrick in the area who fired the ball goalward only for it to hit Fred. It was cleared again, only to Nani on the wing. He flighted a perfect cross into the box but there were no United players on the end of it. However, it bounced again off Fred, this time off his heal and straight into the path of Tevez. Tevez couldn’t miss from three yards out and the game was level.

United take a vital away goal into the home game at Old Trafford and any win or a 0-0 will see them through.

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Manchester United 4 Arsenal 0

Published by
Paul
at February 20, 2008 in Reviews. 0 Comments

This one will live long in the memory even if it was watched from a hotel bedroom. I managed to get to the hotel just in time, but spent ages checking in, getting into the room and trying to find the on switch for the TV. Got it turned on and it was still 0-0, United had a corner and bang 1-0 up, the perfect start.

The perfect start led to a brilliant game where United totally dominated Arsenal in a way that only usually happens in your dreams. If United had put away all their chances … 10-0 ? Probably not, but that was such the dominance we had. Oddly, Arsenal were completely inept in defence. Rooney is not the best target man in the world, but United would play a simple long ball up to him and it would case absolute havoc in the Arsenal defence.

United rested Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Scholes and Hargreaves but Arsenal did rest some of their players too, notably Adebayor, their main player. They offered nothing up front, lacked any passion in midfield and were abject in defence. I can’t see that carrying on onto their next league game.

Darren Fletcher had a superb game and should be given more opportunities based on his performance, and if it proved anything, we rely totally on Wayne Rooney at the moment, not Ronaldo. 4 days on from the game and without taking any notes during the game, I don’t want to comment anymore on United. They responded to the defeat against City really well and should push Arsenal all the way until the end of the season.

I will add one thing about Arsenal, however. The horror tackle from Eboue that saw him get a red was just one of a number of incidents in the second half from the Arsenal side that was downright nasty and shows once again that Wenger cannot control his players, or perhaps even encourages it. Gallas and others on Nani was particularly disgusting. Nani showed great skill, that was a little bit in the way of a showboat, but it was a very clever way of using skill to evade his marker. His reward from an Arsenal team that is supposed to be about the “beautiful game” was a lunging tackle and minutes later a blatant kick off the ball, that should have resulted in a red card, or a suspension for Gallas using video evidence. Once again, the Premier League took no action.

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