The former Blackburn youngster has settled in well
It’s difficult writing after such humiliation; frustration seeps into the choice of words, anger affects tone and the overwhelming embarrassment leaves my enthusiasm capitulated.
I imagine it was easier to keep level-headed on the titanic; not that we are a sinking ship regardless of what our belligerent blue neighbours will have us think.
To analyse the team as a whole today, to ask where or what went wrong is feckless; we got our arses handed to us in our own house and we may as well hold our hands up to the better team. We can look at the sending off, our first-half possession for glimmers of hope but any right-minded United fan must’ve known that we were the weaker team today before the teams took the pitch, the weaker squad before this seasons Premier League began.
It’s been a strange season, our early results against Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea had us all in la-la land. It was difficult not to get carried away when obliterating such opposition by significant margins. I was as guilty as the next person in looking at the number of goals we scored ahead of the way we played, or perhaps more significantly, the way the opposition played. Our southern counterparts came to Old Trafford laying gifts at our feet like we were the second-coming and their generosity led us to believe we could walk on water. The following results against Stoke, Norwich and Basle left our buoyancy in question and today demonstrated that we will now have to swim against the tide to get back level pegging.
Any success that Man City have had to date and continue to have will have been bought, this is a fact and one which cannot be argued against. They have an immeasurable amount of oil-stained money which will continue to be plugged into all aspects of the club. Mancini has spent ludicrously over the odds for players that don’t even make it to the Council House bench. City, and to an extent Chelsea, have a luxury that we, for the foreseeable future, cannot compete with. We would lose in bidding wars with either club when attempting to sign players with a neutral patronage; Essien, Obi Mikel (thankfully), etc. In these cash strapped times we have to be shrewd in our signings; I fear this was the downfall in today’s game and could be the reason we’re not running round Old Trafford with no. 20 come May.
You will cut a solitary figure in Old Trafford to start Glazer-praising; they have been berated since day dot and will be leaving to a barrage of abuse and a sigh of relief but you can’t fault them for the cash injected in pre-season. I don’t know any Red or football fan who expected United to spend £50m+ this summer or was moaning when we did.
We’ve known for a long while that Van der Sar was on route to retirement and would need to be replaced; United did, not once but twice with Lindegaard and De Gea. Lindegaard had a cracking debut in Europe and has been solid whenever called upon. De Gea has been under more scrutiny than any other player in world football since his debut and has produced a string of match-winning/saving performances. Both goalkeepers are talented and could go on to establish themselves in the No. 1 shirt.
I first saw Phil Jones at the 7-1 drubbing of Blackburn last season. He looked demented; absolutely off his rocker, running around Old Trafford like a kid who’d forgot his medication. Not the initial attribute one looks for in a footballer granted, but Fergie, and it would seem the rest of the footballing world, seen something special. Everyone wanted him and we had got him, we had to or someone else would and he was too good to let slip through the net. Once he calms down Phil Jones has all the makings of a world beater, his early performances garnering accolades from all tabloids and, for what it’s worth, the Ingurland manager. He position is centre-back, or is it right-back, or centre-mid, or goalkeeper; he is a work in progress and time will tell where he will fit the mould.
And then there is Ashley Young; the one we did let slip through the net at Watford, approaching Watford an hour after he’d signed for Villa. I had earmarked him as Giggsy’s heir moons ago and was gutted he didn’t join years ago. Young has made the left-wing his tenure and has stepped up in class since he arrived. Young, like the two other summer signings, has proven that he can make the transition to the lofty expectations bestowed when adorning the red shirt.
Three great players who became three great signings who play three different positions already occupied by present United players. Kuszczak and Amos are still at Old Trafford, which means we have 4 keepers who can play first-team football. If we look at Jones in his natural position of centre-back he joins Evans, Vidic, Smalling, Ferdinand. Young can challenge on either wing against Park, Giggs, Nani and Valencia. Each signing we made this summer plays in a position that has 3 or 4 current players vying for the same place. You can’t criticize any signing; they’ve all come in and done considerably well in their roles but do we need so many players for one position. The position/player that needed replacing and where we are weakest is centre-midfield/Paul Scholes yet we didn’t buy one.
Look across the top teams in our league or the top teams around Europe and their lynchpin is generally their centre midfielder. This is where we lost the game today, where we struggled against Liverpool and what will determine our season. Our midfield options are Park, Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher and Cleverly. All talented players in their own right but not a world beater amongst them; Liverpool have a Gerrard, City a Toure, Spurs a Modric, Chelsea a Lampard, Barcelona a Iniesta or Xavi, Inter a Sneijder, and so on and so on.
There is a multitude of speculation for the reason the Sneijder deal didn’t happen but if he wasn’t going to sign then we should have been in the market for someone else of similar ilk. If finance for the deal was the problem then why didn’t we sell players to generate the money? I have shown the excess of players we have without even mentioning our 7 strikers. The question still begs answering why we have kept Berbatov when PSG offered nearly 20m for him and he’s played just once this season?
We can ill-afford to have a plethora of players in our camp whose contribution are null and void the same way that City can. We can’t keep on blaming the Glazers when we are hoarding players who equate millions of pounds. The gaping hole in our midfield was more important to fill than the man between the sticks, was more important than having the countries next big thing on our books and more important than having a player who does the same job as four other players. Today was the bitter taste of what we can expect to swallow for the many, many years ahead unless we sign the correct players for positions we need filling.
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I never thought in a million years that we would end up losing like this-That too against City!!Its a nightmare.We desperately need to buy a world class central midfield player in Jan!!Please Fergie I know U know best but listen to all of us just this one time!!!
and let jonny evans go for free
i feel you man. i am absolutly distraught. what is more frustrating is we had the chance to sort ourselves out in the summer
For a start, Carrick should be playing. I don’t think 90% of you realize how good he is. Put a top quality player alongside him and United can beat Barca again, like when Scholes was at his prime a few years ago.
We got to a CL final last year with Carrick basically playing CM on his own. Of course this is not enough to beat Barca…he needs some help ffs…but the point is, Carrick is part of the solution, not the problem.
Fletcher and Anderson bring Carrick down because they are not at his level.
Now that we are starting to play so poorly maybe Fergie will come to his senses and put him back in the team, either with Cleverley when he returns from injury, or some fresh blood from outside.
Personally I think a Schweinsteiger-Carrick axis would be interesting.
Maybe you should have started like this; 10% of us idiots actually think Carrick is a world class midfielder, oh sorry have to go its my medication time.
The man is shit and you know it. He provides nothing to the team and is like watching Mike Phelan 20 years ago.
Schwiensteiger/Carrick? Words fail me.
Hmmm…so when United beat Barca a couple of years ago with a Carrick-Scholes midfield and Messi, Xavi et al were unable to score in 180 minutes of play you were on medication presumably!
The shit that was served up yesterday and against Liverpool is exactly what the anti-Carrick brigade deserve. You booed Carrick against Chelsea for the back pass and Fergie listened to the muppets.
I remember Phlean/Wilkins too, and I suppose its a game of opinions but I beg to differ dude!
Carrick will hopefully be back soon and we will start winning again. Mark my word…
I agree with you BW.
Carrick is our only midfielder who play football.
If you look at Fletcher – slow, no dribbling, no crosses, no vision – you must ask yourself what on earth he did to play in United first team again and again.
It’s not coincidence that we plays like shit since he start to play this season.
And don’t forget that we played our the best football few years ago with Carrick bossed the midfield when Fletcher didn’t play at all.
People also think that Anderson is solution and maybe he is – but not along Fletcher.
I’m sick of watching this mediocre playing in United shirt when is obvious he is not good enough even for Tottenham let alone Bayern, Barca, Chelsea etc.
Our Results Against Tottenham, Arsenal, and Chelsea are GREAT!!!… However, if we analyse these matches carefully, we will see that our opponents were missing so many top class players against us.
When we beaten Tottenham, they were no Modric, Adebayor, Parker, and King in their side. Arsenal were missing 8 players on the day they were humiliated by us. Chelsea, withoug Drogba and Essien, played well but failed to score, and that’s why we beaten them 3-1.
Our current form against Liverpool are very poor and we’ve go to accept that we’re lucky to get i point from Anfield. We’re poor again in UCL and thanks to 2 penalties that won us a game.
Today match is a deserve victory for City as they were the better side. Throughout the game, can easily be seen from the situation 1 against 1, City players are much better quality than us, especially in the midfield. Toure and Silva are World Class players, while Anderson and Fletcher are just fine players. Our midfield that could be considered as top class player is Nani, and he’s the only one that have the ability to beat City defender has been replaced by Chicharito who done nothing since he came on. SAF shouldn’t brought Nani out, and Ashley Young should be the one that ben replaced.
J.Evans show again that he’s simply not good enough to play for United. Our starting back-four should be Smalling on the right, Jones and Vidic in the central, and Evra as a Left back. However our main problem is in the midfield really.
In the summer, with the departure of Scholes and possibly the last season of Giggs, we’ve been link with the like of Modric, Sneijder, Nasri, Gotze, etc. However, SAF end up with nothing which, if we consider that we are going to improve our squad for UCL, that’s unacceptable. Look at City’s squad today, players that played well like Silva, Toure, Nasri, Balotelli, Dzeko are all used to be on the wish list of SAF. They, however, end up at City just because the Glazer don’t want to spend their money.
It’s no point to be one of the richest in the world but the quality on the pitch are not good enough. If SAF don’t spend big, City will be the much better side than us.
Interestingly you were so shite you couldn’t even be bothered to make up a story about racism or diving to deflect the press from your own mediocrity. Actually, mediocre is far better than you actually were.
Does Fergie know best? Fuck me if he doesn’t buy a midfielder now let’s get shot of him too.
There is help out there! Ring Trafford Samaritans on 0161 616161. Pick up that phone!
How original.
Plz fergi, january is even too far you need to enter the market for good mid-fielder loan.
I’m greatly down hearted by the out come of this match infarct i think fergie should just retire and let someone else take over. I don’t know why he refuses to sign quality players, if the glazers refuse the release fund to sign players then he should sell some players. I don’t know what berbatov, fletcher, gibson, carrick are still doing in that team and i don’t know he choose welbeck over chicharito this season. I tell you this is just the begining of our downfall except we sign at least two great midfielders and one quality attacker. Take a look at barca for example, the play 4-3-3 but they have nine quality midfielders, real madrid have eight midfielders,chesea have more than six midfielders, city have more than seven quality midfielders and even arsenal and spurs can boost of more midfield option than united.
Berbatov, Gibson and Carrick didn’t play against Liverpool or Man City so I’m kinda surprised you pick out these three alongside Fletcher.
It’s funny that Carrick gets dropped after we beat Bolton 5-0 because we didn’t score 8 goals and you still blame him when we get worse on a week-by-week basis when he’s left out!