"Is this the way to a trophy laden career?"
This season’s been something of a mixed one to say the least, despite the fact the team we all love are sitting pretty in the three main competitions, it seems there’s been more than a few causes for concern.
Throwing away leads, poor away form, Wayne Rooney, central midfield and dropping my phone down the toilet on my birthday have all been reasons to be less than totally cheerful about how the last eight months.
Don’t get me wrong, this season could potentially be one of the most successful we’ve ever had and as someone who remembers the 5-1 at Maine Road -barely- it’s easy to forget just how lucky us United fans are sometimes.
Chicharito, Chris Smalling, the evolution of Nani, Wazza’s derby winner and Dimitar Berbatov adding goals to his game have all been big positives in a season, normal – or should that be less enlightened fans- would be more than happy with.
All the negatives and reasons for regret pale in comparison to the number of times United have made me thank the football gods my dad took me to Old Trafford as a child- mind you living in Manchester what team was I ever going to support? It’s not as though I’m from Stockport.
Any United fan worth his salt- whatever that means, does it mean the salt in your body or kitchen, I’ve never fathomed that expression and will endeavour to cease using it from now on- can’t have failed to notice as always there’s room for improvement in certain areas.
Over the past few months on this site, I’ve tried to heap the praise more often than I have raised the questions, but there are times when one must ask “is this good enough?”
The question that’s been bugging me for several days, is one that was raised via the joyous social network site twitter- where Rio Ferdinand does most of his best work.
I was at a Legends tournament at the Soccerdome, where thanks to the poor pay that goes with freelance journalism, I still cover a few shifts at, watching Paul Simpson score a wonder goal against a Tesco team which contained Jason McAteer when I received the following tweet “@Gagz7: @jaymotty I tweeted the other day and asked can you tell me the last time United scored from a free a kick?……No answers so far!”
Being bored with watching middle aged players I barely respected in their prime I wandered off to ponder this question for some time resisting the urge to google.
My answer after almost half an hour of deep thought, interjected with being amazed at how small Georgie Thompson is in real life and how Quinton Fortune is a lot stockier than I remember, I admitted defeat. I couldn’t remember one successful United free kick all season.
In fact as I mused over this further one more thing occurred to me, even from penalties United haven’t been that great this season, with only Sir Ryan Giggs proving infallible from 12 yards. Then there was corners, this may sound like I’m drifting from the initial point but how many times have United scored from corners this season? Three? Four? Whatever the tally, there’s no denying that The Reds are far less lethal from corner kicks than they used to be and if I’m completely honest, many of the corners I’ve witnessed this season have been frustratingly bad.
When you’re a side that attacks as often as United does, you’re always liable to earn free kicks around the box, corners in abundance and more than your share of penalties. Yet unlike in the days of a certain Portuguese legend who went from completely useless to the best free kick taker the world had seen since Posh’s husband was in his prime, there is now no real dead ball specialist at Old Trafford.
Nani has flattered to deceive a few times, Ryan Giggs has always been decent without ever raising his standard above that while Owen Hargreaves is about as likely to take a free kick for United this season as Norman Whiteside is.
United simply do not have a player who can place the ball on whatever spot the referee indicates and convert that into a goal at least some of the time. Don’t get me wrong I understand it’s grossly unfair to expect any players to reach Ronaldo like standards but some sort of excitement when we get a free kick 20 odd yards from goal wouldn’t go amiss.
Nor would someone who could beat the first man at a corner on a regular basis. It’s actually this way of thinking that’s making me believe Blackpool’s Charlie Adam may not be the bad shout I once thought it was. Adam’s corner taking is superb as he demonstrated not just against us but also against West Ham, where he scored directly from one.
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Adam is Liverpool-bound my friend but i’ve heard that M’Vila is United-bound so no worries..
Neuer
Rafael Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Valencia Fletcher M’Vila Nani
Rooney Cavani
MUFC 4 ever
thats like saying c.ronaldo is chelsea bound
NO!. There are far better players out there then Charlie Adam.
Watched him recently against the reserves and he didn’t really stand out, yes he can deliver good corners and free kicks but to buy him just for that would be stupid. We do lack someone in that mould who can do that but we should look elsewhere in my opinion.
i agree that we need a set piece taker and one who might work the keeper with fk just outside the box, cos at the moment they are usually wasted.
although i dont think that adam should be a summer signing, at the end of this window i thought he would be a good pick up.
but now we can get someone better and younger.
Adam doesn’t strike me as a United prospect personally but I do take your point. Sir Alex said his corners were worth £10m alone after the Blackpool game.
I’m sure we all remember the corner against Chelsea a couple of years ago, where the kick was taken but the players pretended it hadn’t been and took the defence by surprise to score.
I also seem to remember that, in 2002/03, we didn’t score from a corner until about April. It could have been a Paul Scholes header at White Hart Lane.
Interesting point. I do think we lack a dead-ball specialist too but it’s not such a main concern.
When Sir Alex said Adam’s corners were worth £10m alone, he just wanted to help Blackpool and Holloway get a better transfer deal for the player (since Liverpool were interested in buying) and not actually a statement that SAF was interested in getting him himself.
Set pieces are not a big factor in United’s game this season. We get most of our goals from open play so i reckon a creative midfielder over a primarily dead ball specialist should be the priority this summer.
Charlie Adam is not good enough to play for Manchester United, I am sick of people going on that we need some midfielder than naming footballers such as Rodwell or Adam. Adam isnt even as good as our academy players and would struggle to make the sub bench for the academy/reserve squads let alone the first team. We should look for the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Javier Pastore, Douglas Costa, not crap like Charlie Adam.
I couldn’t agree more with a club like United not capitalising on chances we can get from corners and frees kick like we used to..
I think it is a disgrace we do not have a specialist corner taker and it pains me EVERY-TIME to see how we can not keep the ball away from the keeper or first man(which isn’t a United head) on the front post..
So yeah Charlie might be the answer but he’ll have to raise his fitness another level..
thats a good point…he is an excellent passer of the ball and will extremely suit united…
for:
1) free kick specialist
2) corner kick specialist
3) experience in the epl
4) can defend
5) can continously give scholes type passes to our wingers and a couple of hernandez runs too
6)extremely good vision
7) cheaper than others
8)can play wing too..
against:
1) not a fancy name like valencia but brilliant
2) not fast but can adjust it to what he gives in passing