One United fan is pleased with the team's defensive frailties, but
others are unhappy with Sir Alex Ferguson's tactics on Tuesday. Plus, a
great idea for Christmas...
Last Updated: 24/10/12 at 10:57
Loving United's Leaky Defence
I realise this might not be a popular sentiment but as a United fan I
love their new leaky defense! I know that it probably wont lead to
trophies or sustained success but its far more entertaining (and
football is still meant to be a form of entertainment I believe), than
the United machine of years gone by that you pretty much knew which
games they would win before a ball was kicked!
I remember THAT year in the Champions League group stages we conceded 11
goals in the group stages (or 12, cant exactly recall) and only won 2
of the 6 games we played but those goalfests against Barcelona and even
miserable Bayern where some of the greatest games Ive seen.
Before long the defenders will all be fit again and the normal prosaic
nature of Man United dominance over 90% of the league will be restored. I
encourage my fellow fans to savour the unpredictability of this current
spell because lets be honest, it can be boring when you know your team
is going to win at least 28 of the games they play in the league each
season. (In writing that I realize how spoilt I am but please scousers
and other peasant fans, read the mail, not the quote)
Warren (Homoerectus) Batt, Madrid
Wishing SAF Would Pick Players In Their Positions
Not a criticism by any means, more an observation, but I can't help but
wonder just what it is about SAF that makes him insist on playing people
out of position. This is the one thing that frustrates me deeply about
the great man. Last night's CL match highlighted this once again and
no doubt Carrick will be vilified for his general performance and
especially his part in the second Braga goal.
Why should he take the flack when we have been told repeatedly by the
likes of the ITV studio pundits, SKY and yes, SAF himself that there are
no easy games in the CL. It is after all the pinnacle of club football
and you have to expect a tough time apparently.
So why didn't Sir choose to play a genuine centre half instead of
Carrick, even if it is someone on the fringes eg. Wooton? He played in
Cluj for the last ten minutes or so and did a decent enough job of
repelling the attack. Surely the worst that can happen is that he'll
make similar mistakes to Carrick due to inexperience and learn from it
making him a better prospect for future games. Ultimately I don't see
how that is such a bad thing. It can't possibly be any worse than
playing someone out of position when we know it doesn't work anyway.
He's got form for this kind of thing as well. You could argue that
Rooney was marginalised out to the left of the team for long spells when
Ronaldo was in his pomp. Granted, it worked out well for Ronaldo but
Rooney seemed to suffer as a result of just 'doing a job' for the team.
Why make someone as naturally gifted as Rooney 'do a job' for the team.
Similarly we bought Jones from Blackburn where he'd excelled (albeit
for one season) as a centre half and instantly SAF seems to think he'd
be better utilised as a midfielder? The result seems to be that we have
a player that has neither improved as a centre half nor adapted to the
role of centre mid.
Like I said, just an observation but to me it seems common sense that if
you play people in their preferred position you will generally get
better results as they are instantly more positionally aware of what's
going on around them and they understand how to 'do a job for the team'
because they will actually be.....you know......doing their job!
Nik (positionally frustrated) Salt
Anti-Evra
Just curious what the anti-Evra brigade thinks of Buttner's
lackadaisical defending on both of Braga's goals? I'm giving 10-1 that
they'll blame Carrick (cuz you know, he's not fit to wear the shirt
either).
George (haterz gonna hate) Man Utd, Toronto
Rating & Slating United
Most armchair managers and pundits/failed managers will question Alex
Ferguson's continued experiment with the diamond formation he seems
intent on using at the moment. It certainly is making for some
interesting games. I don't think, though, that it is the best use of
the talent at his disposal. Utilising two from Rooney, van Persie,
Valencia, Nani, Welbeck, or Young on the wings and one from van Persie,
Rooney, Hernandez or Welbeck up top would certainly make sense, assuming
a three from Carrick, Scholes, Cleverley, Fletcher and Anderson would
certainly be a match for any midfield three in the league. That being
said, here's how United fared against Braga.
David de Gea - Despite being a big fan of the young Spaniard, this was
another shaky performance. If Anders Lindegaard was fit I couldn't see
him starting this one with Chelsea coming up. He will need to buck up
his ideas in time for the weekend.
Rafael - The young Brazilian is in danger of becoming one of the best
right backs in the league. A threat going forward and not as shaky at
the back as some would postulate, this was another in a string of strong
performances this season.
Michael Carrick - I've said it before, but Michael Carrick is not a
centre half. I go back to a previous comment I made about Scott
Wootton, and there must be a reason that Sir Alex persists in playing
Carrick out of position. This is the sort of game that if he was ever
going to make it at United he would be starting. Phil Jones and Chris
Smalling can't return from injury quick enough.
Jonny Evans - Got a goal and was generally ok. Still nowhere near
commanding enough when playing as the senior man, and I do think that if
the aforementioned Jones and Smalling can remain fit for more than 20
minutes he is not the long term solution.
Alex Buttner - Lost his man for the first goal and really looked like he
was trying to atone for that mistake all match. Got forward well, I
get the nagging feeling that he's a stop gap while Fabio is on loan.
Shinji Kagawa - Got kicked all over the park and had to come off in the
second half. I get the impression that trying to shoe horn van Persie,
Rooney and Kagawa into the team is what's led to this odd diamond
formation.
Tom Cleverley - Lots of running, commitment, and provided a great cross
for the third goal. He rarely lost his battles in midfield, and this
run of games bodes well for club and country. I'm especially looking
forward to seeing him play an England game with a fit Jack Wilshere as I
think they would compliment each other brilliantly.
Darren Fletcher - That he's even playing at the moment is a constant
source of inspiration. Looked neat and tidy without anything
spectacular. If he can maintain this form he will be vital for the long
season still ahead.
Wayne Rooney - Rooney's performance is best summed up that he was at his
most dangerous on his unfavoured left wing. Much like when United had
Ronaldo being the focal point, Rooney's work has never been questioned
and it does seem teams tend to focus on him, allowing others to grab the
glory while he forages on the left.
Robin van Persie - Worked hard and was dangerous from set pieces, but
nowhere near his best for United this year. His clever turn drew the
foul which created the space for Kagawa to cross for the first and that
was about the best thing he did all evening. Has played a lot this year
so far, and may need rotating a bit more.
Javier Hernandez - Ran, ran, ran, and then ran some more. This was an
imperious performance from the forgotten Mexican. Like Fletcher, he
probably won't get that much match time this year, but he will be vital.
I don't think there's a team in the league at the moment that can call
upon a better striker off the bench.
Nani (sub) - Changed the game by simply being direct. Got a bit lazy
towards the end. This will be his last season at Old Trafford.
United will struggle to dominate games this year, but they won't
struggle to win. There's too much talent in their starting XI. Will it
win them any silverware this year? I suppose we'll have to see how
Hazard and Oscar make it through the winter. Remember how good Elano
and Robinho were for Manchester City not that long ago?
Chris, Hampshire
Gutted For Celtic
Absolutely heart breaking to be beaten in the last minute like that. Yes
they outplayed us. as they have done to pretty much every team they
have played for the last few years but I am still incredibly proud of my
team. Fraser Forster was again particularly good with a few fantastic
saves (in your face Pardew!), he along with Victor Wanyama (he must be
the hottest property in the UK right now) will go on to be great
players.
A specific text into the BBC before the game declared we were no better
than a Championship side. We may have a Championship side budget but we
have used it well along with some fine work from the scouting
department. The starting 11 cost somewhere between £15-20 million. With 3
of them signing as free transfers and the most expensive being Scott
Brown at 4.4 million and that was around 5 years ago. I would say we
have a better squad than a fair amount of Premier League teams. A
massive 35 of our players were away on international duty the other
week.
How well did moneybags Chelsea fare last night in the far reaches of
eastern europe? Somewhere we recentely returned from, Spartak Moscow to
be exact, with a victory. Man Utd even struggled to overcome Braga
proving it's not even easy for you guys to win in Europe now. Hopefully
some people down your way (I'm looking at you Mr Texter) will take
notice of what a good squad Neil Lennon has put together on a small
budget when compared to the big spending leagues like yours and not
write us off so easily in the future
LK7
Xmas Present Idea
This one is probably best left for a Friday mailbox, especially after a
scintillating evening of football Tuesday evening. However, I thought
I'd let the mailbox know that I have actually found the perfect football
related gift.
Having purchased endless scarves and shirts for my brother, I realised I
should probably invest some real time and effort into geting him a
proper Christmas gift. Instead, I found some guy on ebay who sells
handmade football shirts to order. I'm telling him that I made it
myself, painted it red, and painted a number 9 on the back (he's 9 years
old).
You're welcome, slightly distant partners or friends of football fanatics looking for an easy way out.
Jono, Nottingham
Yes, That Juve Midfield Did Well Last Night
As I'm watching all the Champions' League results come in, I am struck
by the arrogance and ignorance of many, whether individuals or
journalists. It seems that every time an English team does badly in the
Champions' League then it's a massive surprise.
I'd like to give a massive thanks to the media, Sky Sports in
particular, for leading us to this belief. When I look at the Premier
League, I see excitement, I see great skill. I also see incredibly poor
tactical awareness from many of the teams, top ones included. Sure the
Prem is an incredible spectacle and is the most entertaining league in
the world. But does it produce the best teams, the ones most equipped to
winning the Champions' League? I'm not so sure. After all, if you look
at MOTD, many of the goals are scored due to some unbelievably sloppy
defending from defenders across the Prem.
Of course this sounds ridiculous. After all Chelsea won the damn
competition last year, and Man U were perennial contenders the years
before. And Fergie's men won it in 2008 and were in the final recently.
but when I see their performances over the last two seasons, I'm not so
surprised at their difficulties. They did go out last year from what was
the easiest group of recent times (only topped by this year's group),
and this season they have struggled to assert their dominance over the
heavyweights that are Braga, Cluj and Galatasaray. They're incredibly
lucky to have won all their games so far.
Chelsea? They won it last year by shamelessly packing the bus, or as it
is know since 2004, winning it 'à la Greek'. No harm in that, but not
exactly the stuff of legends either. And they got taught a tactical and
technical lesson by Juve this year whilst suffering defeat tonight at
Shaktar's feet. These teams are supposedly 'weak' according to the
British press, even though Juve possess the backbone of the Italian team
which reached the final of Euro 2012 and Shakhtar have plenty of solid
Ukrainians (we've seen how good they are) allied to Brazilian flair
(hello Willian!)
Arsenal? They're quite happy to make it past the group stages, thank
you. they're not really interested in winning the competition. And
rightly so considering Wenger's team have no tactical sense whatsoever.
Man City? They're the prime example of the point I'm trying to make.
Sure they look(ed) solid in the Prem, they've got great individual
players and a good manager. But they don't have any shape to their team,
and that's been shown in Europe for two years straight now. It was
damning for the Premier League and Man City to see Dortmund, a very
young team, show more cohesion and tactical nous than Man City. The
Champions of England were utterly dominated in every department.
I guess all I'm trying to say is that we should stop being so Premier
League-centric. Especially when the Premier League clearly doesn't base
its appeal on anything like patience and tactical awareness. I mean, I
love that but it doesn't bode well at international level. Why do you
think England are so bad (too long a topic though!). Look at the
majority of the other teams in Europe and they have nothing to envy the
British teams.
You're telling me Juve's midfield of Pirlo, Marchisio and Vidal is no
better, tactically and technically, than
Anderson-Carrick-Scholes-Cleverley? That's right, I'd take the 3 players
over the last 4.
You're telling me Dortmund's attacking line-up of Gotze, Reus, Kuba (too
hard to type his real name) and Lewandowski isn't more daunting than
Gervinho, Cazorla (huge fan), Podolski and Giroud (I'm not even talking
about Walcott).
And I haven't even mentioned teams like Bayern Munich (Gomez doesn't
start anymore!), PSG, AC Milan (rebuilding but still have Pato, Robinho
and other good players) and the big two (Real and Barcelona). Isn't it
time we stopped thinking that the Premier League teams should be up
there? Isn't it time we recognise the rest of the European teams also
have class players on their hands?
Bappo
More Ceefax Memories
Dear Ben (ITV had teletext but nobody I knew bothered with that), London
Sigh...yes, girls can be as into football as men.
I did switch to page 302 on Ceefax as soon as I got in from school. I
also checked out ITV teletext (page 140, if I remember correctly) and
RTE teletext (page 220). Ceefax was definitely the best, though - I
distinctly remember stalking the live scores to see if Liverpool had
scored...unfortunately goals back then were about as rare as they are
now!! RTE used to highlight the Irish scorers in green...lots of Irish
Liverpool players back then, Staunton, Houghton, Whelan.
I now live in Australia so "football" has become "soccer" and matches
are on in the middle of the night so not really feasible now that I have
kids. I record the Saturday matches and watch them with my husband on a
Sunday morning without checking the score first, whilst juggling the
kids between us, but the Sunday matches (usually the big ones) are a no
go. They seem to have stopped showing Soccer AM over here this season
too. Boo-urns...
Thanks for letting me reminisce anyway!
Susan
Poor Bruce
Is there space for one more mail about Ceefax amongst all the Champions
League and racism stuff? Of course there is. I salute Ben in London for
his tribute as it really is the end of an era; well, the official end.
It's been dead for ages really, been about 5 years since Alex Ferguson
last mentioned it, and I believe that was last recorded reference to it
in the world of football. In fact Ferguson probably was the only one who
still relied on it while everyone else had moved on (a little like
Michael Carrick).
Anyway, we all have our own personal memories of it (page 124 was always
good) and its lego like words. The funniest football Ceefax fact I've
found is that Bruce Rioch discovered he was sacked as QPR's assistant
manager by reading it there. Clean the tea off the TV! So long Ceefax, I
wonder what I could have achieved if I hadn't spent so long staring at
you waiting for the scores to change.
Joe Donohoe
Pre-Match View Of Torres
Ok, so we've now had two emails about Torres holding Chelsea's offense
back in the mailbox, so maybe that's the argument done. But I'd like to
disagree with both writers and a few journos who have suggested that
Torres is an incidental part of the Chelsea team right now.
For one, Torres has scored 4 goals in the league. That's top 10 in the league and only two off the pace.
But more importantly, Torres is an integral part of the offense even
when he's not scoring. His passing, dribbling, and crossing are
incredible right now, but even more so Torres plays on the last defender
and stretches the defense in order to create room for the likes of
Mata, Hazard, and Oscar to operate. So even if he doesn't touch the ball
his movement is creating for our team.
Chelsea have scored 20 goals in their last 5 matches. Their offense is
working fine, thank you, and bringing in a me-first striker who wants to
be the focal point of the offense, rather than supporting it, like
Falcao or Sturridge (or even Drogba to make the point) would completely
change how the team works. To put it another way, I don't want a striker
who needs the ball a lot. I want Mata-Oscar-Hazard to have it.
This isn't Football Manager where adding a higher rated player means you
score more. Torres is working for this team, the goals are being
scored, and there's no reason to mess with that.
Derby (I also love FM but let's be real) NYBlues
Not Looking Forward To The Boos
Time to try and throw my hat into the proverbial racism ring.
I have largely ignored mails and stories about it all recently, due it
all now becoming a little dull. Yes, I know it's bad, no, I do not
condone it, but there are bigger things going on in the world, and i'd
just like to watch some football.
However, the discussion came up at the office today between myself, an
Arsenal fan (Norwich fans, I give you one laugh), a Spurs fan, and a
wily old Chelsea boy. The Chelsea boy, referring to this Sundays game
between them and United, said, "I expect Rio to get a bit of stick from
the stands at the weekend!".
If there is a problem with racism in football, surely this is one of
them? Can Chelsea as a club seriously act rationally about how to
treat/discipline Terry, when some of they're fans are somewhat intending
to boo Rio, for sticking up for his brother, who was racially abused?
There is a bigger picture in all this, and Chelsea would want to avoid
that at all costs no?
I'm in no way saying my colleague is a racist, or every Chelsea fan is;
my Dad supports them, and he's a top bloke. But is this a common thought
about this weekend? Is Rio actually a tool, who fans don't like, or is
there an intention to drag this through the mud once more? Or, maybe my
personal preference, is the old bloke I sit next to just a douche?
Answers on a postcard.
Ben (In hindsight, lots of rhetorical questions), Yateley.
Pony
Is Andy Carroll going to be another of those strikers that suddenly hit a
talent wall for whatever reason, lose their mojo and never get it back;
the speed, the aggression, the switch of pace, the turn, the tricks? Do
a Torres or an Owen and the goals dry up? I hope so. Strikers are in
the end only judged on what they score, for all their "leading the line"
and "good link up play". Heskey will always be a bit of a joke. Carroll
was a donkey for Liverpool until the very, very end, and for him to
claim lack of opportunity for this failure beggars belief. While that
team as a whole shares responsibility, it was undoubtedly true that his
all around play was particularly awful and worthy of derision.
He should own up to his utter crapness and try to do better. He might
have had a couple of good run outs recently, but don't count on him.
He'll play for a lot of teams. I sense a lot of little injuries, too.
Bit of a Bobby Zamora. Back to the Champo, pony boy. You're not all
that.
Mark Trotsky
Buonasera a tutti!
