Posts Tagged ‘manchester united’

« Older Entries

So the final is Barcelona v Manchester United

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Barcelona and United were favourites to go through after both leading 2-0 on aggregate after the 1st leg. The 2nd legs in both matches were closer games but in the end the damage was done in the 1st leg.

Barcelona v Real Madrid

First was the match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. This time Real Madrid at least give it a go and didn’t play negative football. They were also unlucky with a disallowed goal when the ref (for some reason) thinking Ronaldo had fouled Mascherano in the build up to the goal. Ronaldo was fouled himself and then when he fell and rolled, he rolled in Masherano. Masherano then rolled over about 3 times as if he had been shot.  When a cheat!

The game overall was much better than last week which had all the playacting. We did of course have some playacting but a lot less than last week. In between some dives, some actual football broke out. However, Barcelona were too good and Messi was brilliant – the speed, the control and the passing is amazing. And this is all between him being kicked about all over the pitch!

The game ended 1-1 with Barcelona going through, 3-1 on aggregate.

Manchester United v Schalke 04

This was a much closer match than last week. It wasn’t hard as Schalke were awful. However, United were very comfortable and didn’t threaten much. Raul was once again pretty anonymous. Neuer had a mixed game making some excellent saves but he was at fault for the 2nd goal.  It was a bad mistake – an almost Gomes type error.

For tonights match, Fergie decided to rest several players. He had the weekends game against Chelsea in mind and the strong position of being 2 goals up on aggregate. 3 of the back 4 were not the first XI. He rested Rooney, Carrick, Rio and Park completely. The bench was very strong though with Chicharito, Vidic, Giggs and Fletcher.

In the end, United won 4-1 (6-1 on aggregate) with a brace from Anderson. That doubles his goals hes scored in his United career. Anderson played well but really should score more goals. Gibson played well too with an excellent pass for the 1st goal (and a bit of a lucky 2nd). Once again Valencia was excellent. Since coming back from injury hes been in great form.

It will be interesting to see how plays against Chelsea on Sunday and also who plays against Barcelona in the Champions League final. A lot of the players tonight were, in a way, playing and performing to try and get in the team. Anderson now has a chance. Valencia already had a good chance to play but it all depends who Fergie plays. He usually likes to play Park in big games and that would normally leave it between Nani and Valencia on the right wing. However, he may play Park more centrally so Nani and Valencia could both play. That would mean in the middle would be Park and space for 2 more midfielders (I think he will play with just Rooney upfront). Fletcher has just come back from injury so if he plays and plays well in the remaining 3 games he has a chance too.

I think it will 3 out of Fletcher, Park, Carrick, Giggs and Anderson. Will be interesting to see how Fergie will set the team up to stop Messi!!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Football | No Comments »

Chelsea v United

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

So it was the “big match” last night between Chelsea and United. This was the re-scheduled match – originally it was supposed to be played just before Christmas but postponed because of the weather. (Although, the weather wasn’t that bad in the end and seems to worked out for Chelsea who were playing crap then).

Anyway, to the actual match. The match finished 2-1 and had plenty of incidents. Before the match there was talk about whether Rooney should have even been on the pitch for his elbowing incident in the Wigan game.

Full of incident

The incidents in the game included:

  • Terry’s hand ball near the start. To be fair it was hit at him very hard and looked like he was trying to move arm away
  • Torres disallowed goal – didn’t see much before the goal which was wrong. Got away with it there.
  • Vidic 2nd yellow card I thought was harsh. He was holding him off but he went down very easily. Maybe justified to go down with Vidic holding him off like that?? Disappointing to see some photos afterwards with some players surrounding the ref (even if he had a crap game) and also Vidic going head to head with the ref.

However, the main talking point post-match is all about the penalty – which was really soft – and also for Luiz and how he wasn’t sent off. He was given 1 yellow card but had a late challenge on Chicharito which went un-punished but also a cynical tackle on Rooney.

Karma??

I suppose its karma. United are still in a strong position and will be a point clear of Arsenal if they win their game in hand. It will be interesting to see how Arsenal react after their Carling Cup final and also without Van Persie for 6 weeks and Fabragas and Walcott for a week or so.

Karma I guess??

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Football | No Comments »

Next United manager??

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Manchester United are apparently starting to look at the options for the next United manager. There have been many names mentioned. One paper said that Fergie wants David Moyes. Another says that it will be Jose after next season.

Not sure about if he has another year on contract but I think he will stay until at least the end of next season.

I personally would like either Pep Guardiola, David Moyes or Jose. They all have there pros and cons. Pep Guardiola has done really well at Barcelona but still not that much experience. Also, he is very much part of the Barce family and probably would not want to leave.

David Moyes is a top manager and done good things on a low budget but maybe not a “big” manager and able to attract the “big” players.

Jose of course has won loads, is certainly a “big” manager and proved last night when Inter beat Barce that he knows his stuff. However, he never stays at a club for that long and would he change United’s style of play?? From what he has said in the past, he really seems to like United.

(I think Martin O’Neil would be a fairly good option too).

Whoever succeeds Fergie it will be an almost impossible job replacing the best manager ever.

Tags: ,
Posted in Football, General | No Comments »

United v Liverpool

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

It was one of the big games of the season yesterday, with Manchester United playing Liverpool at Old Trafford. It was about 53 weeks since the same fixture last time when Liverpool easily beat United 4-1. That was a bad day!! However, the result yesterday was much better and was a nice belated birthday present. United won 2-1.

United went into the game as the team most in form but Liverpool had a couple good games with a win against Pompy and also in the Europa Cup. Also there top striker Torres had scored 4 games in those 2 games.

The game started of fast for about the first 15 minutes. Torres scored with a good header after some poor defending by United. Still cant take anything away from a good Liverpool goal. However, United equalised after about 11 minutes with a Rooney penalty.

There was all sorts of debate whether it was a penalty or not. There is no denying that Macherano had hold of Valencia out of the box and a bit of pulling. Valencia fell in the penalty box but there is lots of debate saying he let go just before getting into penalty box. With the tugging and pulling, just because he let go doesnt mean he isnt a penalty. Thats what I thought anyway and I later found out that by the letter of the law – it WAS a penalty.

The law states:

If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area and continues holding him inside the penalty area, the referee must award a penalty kick.

Anyway, after the first 15 minutes it was a bit of an odd game. Liverpool played very defensively and Torres had very little service. Gerrard once again was annonymous. Not too bothered as a United fan but its not a good sign as an England fan – hes not played well this whole season.

United pretty much controlled the midfield with 5 midfielders. Fletcher had another excellent game and was MOTM. Personally, I though Park was MOTM. He was playing in the middle of the midfield and was pretty much playing just behind Rooney. He made some great runs, had some chances he maybe should have done better but he scored with a diving header from a great cross by Fletcher (and excellent run outside by Neville). I loved his celebration!!

One thing I have to mention is the behaviour of Torres. It seems to have gone down recently. Hes clearly frustrated. When United were awarded the penalty, he kicked the penalty spot trying to take a chunk out of it. Arguably could have got a yellow card for that. He had a few all moments as were having a go at Park thinking he dived and then waving an imaginary card. I do like Torres and think hes a clearly world class player and admire the loyalty he has shown and what hes said but his recent petulance is not a good side to him. He seems really fired up and on another day and maybe with a different ref he could have been sent off?? Well maybe??

Tags:
Posted in General | No Comments »

Ronaldo may come back to United??

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

In a recent interview, Sir Alex Ferguson, commented on Ronaldo. He has said hes really proud when he see Ronaldo, he believes that when Ronaldo came to United as a young player it was at the right time of his career. He even says “he may come back, you never know“.

It certainly does seem that Ronaldo left on good terms with Fergie and United. I have said it before, ever since Ronaldo has left United he has said some very nice things about United.

Back to the subject of Ronaldo maybe one day returning to United, he said “I don’t see it happening if things go wrong at Real Madrid necessarily, but he loved Manchester United so it may happen. He loved the club. If you look at the six years he had with us, he never missed training and he was never injured. He always played. He was fantastic.” “It wasn’t easy to see him leave. I had a good chat with the boy about it but he had made up his mind. Last year he was begging me to let him go but this year it was a sensible discussion.”

Fergie also said that he believes Ronaldo is the best player in the world by miles. Streets ahead of Kaka and Messi. “There is no doubt it is a huge loss. It is a challenge for us because it won’t be the same without Ronaldo. He is the best player in this world of ours – by absolutely miles. He is streets ahead of Lionel Messi, streets ahead of Kaka. Look at his figures. They are unbelievable. The attempts he has had on goal, the attacks in the penalty box, his positions, his headers, his shots.”

Anyway, good luck to Ronaldo but if United play Real in the Champions League I hope he ends up on the losing side!! So far his Real Madrid career hasnt gone to well playing 45 minutes against Shamrock Rovers (who finished last season in 7th place in the LOI premier division) and didnt play that well – and Real Madrid only won 1-0 with a late goal by Benzema. On the other side, new United no.7 Michael Owen has played in 2 games and scored 2 goals.

Owen > Ronaldo > Tevez

Tags: , ,
Posted in Football | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries