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
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