Well, today I was sitting at my grandmothers house, peacefully having words with my uncle who is an avid Liverpool supporter. We were discussing the ongoings at Newcastle for a bit, then my head turned to see Tevez neatly slot the ball into the net past a woeful Liverpool defence. I looked over smugly at my uncle and just smiled, in my head I was saying Game Over! And boy did I have to eat those words. This season I don't understand what has gotten into Van Der Sar. It was the same last season, he over reacts too much with his saves. Last season, instead of neatly holding onto the ball in his grasp, he has to punch the thing and it ends up a goal for the opposition. The same thing happened at Newcastle and the exact same thing happened Today! Edwin had time to clutch the ball.. what the hell was he thinking parrying it away? This is something that Fergie really needs to lay into Edwin for. Don't get me wrong, he's been an asset to the club, but these silly things our costing us goals and today - it cost us points! I've said it once, twice, thrice and until my throat hurts - SORT ROONEY OUT! Fergie should be gettin at Rooney to keep himself in the oppositions half, be ball greedy, run at the opposition and start hitting the long range shots that he used to bang in from time to time. Today I saw Wayne Rooney at right back! As a forward that we purchased for near £30 +, it really depresses me. Do we see Torres, Drogba or Adebayor anywhere near their 6 yard box? I dont think so! I don't care what anyone says, Rooney was bought as a striker to be a striker - now he's an attacking midfielder who lacks in the attacking area. To be honest, if Rooney doesn't start producing the spark we had a glimps off, either we need to sell or give him a salons worth of hairdryer treatment. Corner kicks. When was the last time that we have really done damage with a corner kick? We have Vidic, Brown, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Ronaldo - these guys can stick the head onto any ball and hit the target. If that fails.. have Scholes and Rooney patrol the outside to have a crack at the ball. Yet each corner sails into the near post to the keeper or deep in the box where no sod can get a touch. Nani by the way, can't cross for sh!t! Period! This is a really crappy start to the season. With Darren Fletcher our top goal scorer and having only picked up 4 points in the Premier League with a mockery of a defeat against Zenith.. confidence must be low at Old Trafford. Berbatovs debut was below average, he started well but really couldn't get into the game after the first goal. What can Fergie do? Change something! Lets try and go 4-4-2 - if Fergie is persistant on playing Rooney on the flank, just do it 4-4-2 and let him terrorise the flanks and not our own 6 yard box! Lets give Tevez some freedom to show his argentine class, lets have Berbatov hold up play and score for fun. This team has leaks and they need tightening!
The reason we keep seeing Rooney tracking back all the time is because he's just like a work horse. never Tires so he runs back and forth all game but some times when he is needed Up Front he is back in his own half. The reason Torres, Adebayor, Drogba and co. Stay in their own half is because they can't be assed doing what Rooney does. Simple enough. So His energy is his own worst enemy. Plus the fact you have Wes Brown in defence doesn't help much either.
Great post Dude, and you made some excellent points in it. I agree about VDS, he makes a lot of mistakes, yet he's a top goalkeeper in the world. It changes second from second with him. Question, did Ronaldo play in this game? We definitely need him back to be able to win the league.
I think that Van Der Sar is waning in his abilities and will retire at the end of this season. But I still would not say Foster or Kussack (spelt wrong) can replace him yet. Plus with Berbatov you cannot blame him as he has not had much football games.
I hope that's a joke. lol The problem today wasn't really VDS, the problem was communication and organisation at the back. That's what caused both goals. If Brown had shouted and dealt with that ricochet for the first goal it would have been fine, and if anyone was actually marking Babel, or if Giggs just cleared it out for a corner, they wouldn't have conceded the second. VDS made an error of judgement in coming out for the first goal, but Brown also made an error of not calling for it and dealing with it himself. Sorry Dude, but you're not on point with Rooney's game. He is NOT an out and out striker, by any stretch of the imagination. Never has been, never will be. United did NOT buy him solely to be a striker at the club; they bought him to do what Wayne Rooney does best, and that is work hard to make AND score goals. Rooney is going through a dry spell at the moment in terms of goals, but his performances are generally pretty good. There are too many people like you who talk rubbish saying that because he is not scoring he is not playing well. He should be scoring more; correct, but that does not mean he is playing badly. His ideal position is a free role, and I'd quite like to see Fergie play a kind of 4-3-2-1, with Rooney and Ronaldo being the "2" or a 4-2-3-1 with Tevez joining those 2 to become the "3", essentially able to do what they want when they want to. A 4-4-2 is simply not the way forward for United, as is evident by their performance last season. That was a fluid system that, at times, was hard to define. It was a sort of merge between a 4-5-1, a 4-3-3 and, at times, even a 4-6-0 or a 4-1-5. The way they played last year was glorious, and once Ronaldo is back, if they can fit Berbatov into the system, they should return to their devastating form once again. And I don't know how you can say VDS cost us points today. We should have lost 4 or 5-1, we were that bad. He made a couple of good saves, made a couple of mistakes, yes, but it's basically blind to say that he cost United points today, when his saves also helped to keep them in with a chance of getting something. You're giving mixed advice; you say you want more fluidity, but then ask Fergie to go to a more rigid 4-4-2 system. You can't have it both ways. I almost take offence at what you say about Nani. A season into Ronaldo's United career, he was not as good as Nani is right now. They have similar games - built around skill and power, but Nani needs to develop the same thing as Ronaldo did to become just as devastating: decision-making. When Nani improves that, he could be just as devastating, if not more so, than Ronaldo. He should not be taking corners because there are better corner-takers at United, and he is better at shorter range crosses (i.e. corner of penalty area). But to say he can't cross for sh!t is just ludicrous.
What really gets to me about Nani is that he is not a team player. I've watched him play, he's greedy, tries too much nonsense and can't cross the ball whatsoever. Yes, this is basically mimmicking what Ronaldo was like, but there was something in Ronaldo that was ready to break out. With Nani, unless he really performs this season - we will have been ripped off. 4-4-2 no matter what anyone says is the best formation to play in English Football. It works because it's a balanced system which can be adjusted to meet player demands. The six that can make up the midfield and attack - Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson, Hargreaves, Nani, Scholes, Giggs, Berbatov, Rooney, Tevez - this is realistically the best list to pick the six out from. Pick any of them and they can fit the formation perfectly. But Fergie needs to realise he has splashed too much cash on players and he cant play them all at the same time. With Rooney - if he was purchased to score and create - £27million plus clauses is a joke. He was a striker at Everton and for a short stint at the beginning for us. Alot of us fans will say - he's not an out an out striker but thats what he was purchased for. Fergie, I hate to say it, really made a misjudgement when he started to use him as a deep player. He done it with Alan Smith by pitting him in the midfield and now he's slowly doing it with Rooney. Rooney should justify his 'who ate all the pies' tag and stay in the opposition half - dont move - and then unleash what he showed at the beginning of his career.
At this point in Nani's career, he is better than Ronaldo was at the same point. I don't know how you can possibly imply that there is nothing in Nani ready to break out. He's better at long range shooting than Ronaldo, can dribble it pretty much as well as Ronaldo could and he has more fight in him than Ronaldo ever will. He's not as good in the air as Ronaldo, but to say he has to perform this season is rubbish. It took Ronaldo a very long time (2, or 2 and a half seasons iirc) to adapt fully to the Premier League and make a large impact. Why should we not give Nani the same time? I can accept the point about the 4-4-2 in English football in terms of the history, but looking at the current league, how many of the top teams can you truly say play a 4-4-2? Liverpool, maybe, but Chelsea play a slightly rigid 4-3-3/4-5-1 and Arsenal and United play weird kind of fluid systems which you can't really name. That is the way forward in modern football, it can't be a rigid system, it needs to be fluid. I will not accept your point about Rooney. He has never been an out and out striker and Fergie knew that when he started. Even at Everton (cue footage of goal v Arsenal) he came back deep to get the ball. As he grows older his maturity and decision-making off the ball will improve so he won't wildly chase the ball, but his work rate is and always will be his best attribute. Whilst Rooney shouldn't be playing a defensive midfield role, like Alan Smith started to, he should not be playing the role of a striker either. The acquisition of Berbatov should give him more freedom to play the way he wants to. You're being too theoretical about the whole situation; you can't say the best formation is 4-4-2 without looking at the players involved. You have to choose a system to match the players, not try to fit the players you have into an existing system. That's what United have done the past two seasons, and they've won the Prem both times, as well as the Champion's League once. How can you argue with success like that?
