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United’s midfield is stronger than the 99 team

Published by
Paul
at March 2, 2008 in Articles. 2 Comments

Scott the Red points out that Fergie is a bit sentimental after all

Sir Alex Ferguson has today said that despite not naturally being a sentimental man, he will certainly be starting Paul Scholes if United make it to the Champions League final again this season.

It’s interesting to note that United’s midfield in 99 picked itself. Scholes, Keane, Giggs and Beckham and there was very little in reserve. Now, you can’t name United’s best midfield with the exception of Ronaldo. One week Anderson is being brilliant, the next Scholes is back and is just as good. Should you pick the experience of Giggs or the youth of Nani?

Perhaps Fergie is right and this squad is better than the 99 team and will prove it in the Champions League this season. Both Scholes and Keane picked up bookings in the 2nd leg of the Semi Final against Juventus and whilst there is no one player in the side as important as Roy Keane was, you can imagine that a key midfielder in danger of missing the final would be rested in the 2nd leg.

If Scholes was a booking away from suspension, he wouldn’t start that second leg game and you’d know that Anderson would do a good job in his place. The exception to this, in midfield at least is Ronaldo who can usually be relied on not to pick up a stupid booking.

The midfield in the exception. Everyone knows the first choice keeper and defence. With Neville still injured Brown, Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra pick themselves for all but the easiest of games. Up front Rooney’s name would always be on the team sheet and when United play 4-4-2, Tevez will be alongside him.

The midfield is where you need to be fittest and it is going to be a key department in the league run in this season. Whilst Fabregas and Flamini will have played virtually every game for Arsenal; Scholes, Hargreaves, Anderson, Carrick and even Fletcher will have played a rotating role and be fit and fresh til the end of the season.

Last season United limped over the line in first place in the title run in and ran out of steam in the Champions League semi and FA Cup final. This season, I’m sure it won’t be a problem

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Fulham 0 Manchester United 3

Published by
Paul
at March 2, 2008 in Reviews. 2 Comments

Fulham 0 Manchester United 3 (Hargreaves 15, Park 44, Davies 72 og)

A routine victory with a non-routine side against relegation bound Fulham meant the gap at the top was reduced to a solitary point. Rooney and Ronaldo were rested and United had such depth of squad that United were still far too good for the London team. Park scores for Manchester United

From the start United played with pace, power and purpose. When United go at teams from the start, they usually win. The big question is why they don’t do it more often, particularly in Europe. On five minutes, Saha was put clear through on goal, but sliced his shot horribly wide. They didn’t let Fulham go when United won a freekick on the edge of the area. In the absence of Ronaldo, Owen Hargreaves struck an excellent curler into the net for his first goal.

From then on it was a cruise and the game ended as a contest when Park put away an excellent header on the stroke of half time. Scholes used his experience and class to make a great run to the byline, pulled back an excellent cross that Park slammed home.

United’s final goal was an unfortunate own goal by Simon Davies. As he was running back to cover, he managed to run onto the ball and kick it into his own net.

Man of the Match

Paul Scholes. Ran the game with excellent passing, and the combination of Scholes and Hargreaves looked good.

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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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Arsenal 5th Round Cup preview

Published by
Paul
at February 15, 2008 in Previews. 0 Comments

Due to a calendar malfunction, I’ll be away for this game.  I forgot to add the FA Cup tie dates into my diary.  I’m concentrating on the league and europe this season, ok?  Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to find a TV screen in a pub or something up in Edinburgh to watch the game.  However, the omens are not good, on my previous visit to Edinburgh on a stag do, I watched Arsenal clinch the 98 title.  Amongst others, Tony Adams scored a cracker against Everton and I knew it was all over for that season.  Might have been earlier that 98, come to think of it, but I don’t tend to remember the seasons when Arsenal won the league.  I don’t remember too much of that stag do either, but that’s another matter.

Speaking of boozing, on a completely unrelated note, honestly, it’s sad to see Bryan Robson got relieved of his duties at Sheffield United.  Captain Fantastic was once down as a future United manager, but surely his career as a manager must be over now.

FA Cup 5th round and United are at home to Arsenal.  After the last two poor performances, United get back to form otherwise the Gunners will knock us out.  Having thought about the derby defeat, aside from missing Rooney the main problem was that United had nothing at all in midfield.  Ronaldo, Nani and Giggs cannot play in the same team at the same time.  Scholes and Anderson didn’t work as a central midfield pairing.  Scholes and Carrick we know works.  Hargreaves and Anderson works.  I think Scholes and Hargreaves would work as well and that would be my first choice for the remainder of this season and long time for Anderson to replace Scholes.

Tevez needs to play alongside someone.  Dunne and Richards totally bossed him, which I don’t think would be the case if Rooney had played.  So we lost out in midfield and up front.  Oh, and our defence had a shocker too.  We were lucky it was only 2-1 in retrospect.

Let’s hope for better against Arsenal and we’ll scrape through to the 6th round and dent Arsenal’s confidence in the process.

Any other United fans have a heart attack when they read about Ronaldo being out for 9 months and possibly having a career ending injury?  I breathed a lot easier when the news sites altered the headlines to “Milan’s Ronaldo ….”

And finally, what are the copycats at Liverpool up to?  Only starting an AFC Liverpool.   Now, forgive me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Anfield mob initially welcome their American owners with open arms?  It doesn’t look good when you then say “oh, but it turns out they are shite so we’ll bugger off”.  At least FC United were opposed to Glazer from the start.  I used to own a piece of Manchester United, but the Glazers took it against my will.

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Portsmouth 1 United 1

Published by
Paul
at August 16, 2007 in Reviews. 3 Comments

From the action I saw on Match of the Day, this was a game United should have won. However, highlights often lie and the key facts I can take from the game are the following.

  • Tevez linked up wonderfully with Nani to make the goal.
  • Scholes scored a thunderbolt strike. That should in part answer the doubters as to whether he should play.
  • The Portsmouth goal was a great header which should have been stopped before the cross. The cross was too good to defend and the header was too good to save (I haven’t see more than one replay of this)
  • Rooney has passed on his stupid gene to Ronaldo whilst he out injured. It was so out of character for Ronaldo to react that I’m sure something else must have happened. That said, the “headbutt” was no Zidane, was it? Joe Jordan thought the sending off was harsh, but then he was a Scottish centre forward from the 70s.

In all this leaves us on 2 points from 2 games and a slightly worrying 4 points behind Chelsea.

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