₦airaland Forum

No Rooney...he is ill.

I would have preferred Evans to Smalling though.

Not sure we would get a win but the boys need to perform regardless

Br3nd4: Ma binu swity.. I was so stupidly busy. But I sent keke na. You didnt see it?

Can you speak yoruba?

By the way how market up in here?

debosky: Did we ever have a player of Rooney's calibre able to take his place and keep RVP fresh?



No one is saying he isn't a good player, but the abysmal performances of United is leading to the legend of Kagawa taking on a life of it's own. Y'all need to take a step back.



Rooney is playing crap yet scoring goals eh? I wish all the other people 'playing crap' were scoring as well - United would be much better.



I didn't know pass completion stats now went on the league tables - abeg what column is it measured in? How many goals did Barkley score with his 300% pass completion? Oh yeah - zero. While Rooney scored with his atrocious pass completion.

And enough of this open play rubbish - goals from set pieces count just as much.

Kagawa does not need to play in the hole before we see his ability - that's my point! He should be able to deliver quality output even from the left if he's half as good as y'all claim. Cazorla does it, Silva does it, even Oscar does it. He shouldn't stink the place up so much that an 18 year old amateur produces more penetration than him!

How many minutes has Kagawa played before making this conclusion?

What is going on with Zaha though?
The kid has yet to play a single minute of football this season (not counting community shield)
I mean he can't be any worse than the cripples we call wingers at this moment in time.

coogar: for plebs like debo, it's so difficult.....
ever since van persie left their ship for ours, he's been making deluded comments that undermines RVP & the united team in general.

rooney in the hole does not seem to assist or score from open play. we argued to give another player a chance to provide goals/assists from open play while rooney continues to score/assist from set plays & debosky can't understand that?

How many minutes has Kagawa played altogether this season sef that some have already given up on him?
He hasn't been at his best that is clear to see but unless he gets a good run of games in his primary role, it will be difficult to have a fair assessment on him.

This is not even rocket science...all we are saying is try Kagawa in his primary role and lets see what's going to happen.
Rooney in the hole at the moment isn't necessarily working - only a fool keeps doing the same thing all over and expecting different results.
Give it a try - if it doesn't work we try something else, how is that even hard to understand.

debosky: Word. . . .even Ozil was shifted wide in Arsenal's game yesterday, and he delivered. In the current EPL squads if you want to feature you have to be highly adaptable - only complete specialists like CFs or GKs can hold on stringently to just one role - even GKs are being turned into sweepers or distributors in addition to their primary roles.

No one is saying otherwise...we are talking about effectiveness here...
Kagawa can do a job on the left, he has done it before - but he will be more effective(team-wise) if he gets a run in his primary role.

Rooney s not the only culprit...it wouldn't be fair to single him out for our creative deficiencies recently.
With the formation we play, the lack of creativity should be heaped on the player that plays in the hole and the wingers first and foremost.
Rooney can't take the blame alone...the 3 behind our main striker should be accountable. Our wing play has been non existence since God knows when...it's embarrassing.

RuuDie: Perhaps it'd help if the manager knew that if he outrightly dropped or played out of position certain "senior" players, the FANS will not get on his case so much. This may be a possible reason holding DM back from making bold, radical changes on the field - it is one thing to do that to a backroom staff, not many of us know and appreciate them as against the players we see regularly in the spotlight. It is very important that pressure isn't heaped on the manager unnecessarily; especially from the folks that ought to be supporting him.

This man has a very difficult job and we have to appreciate first and foremost. That said, the onus is on him to win your trust and respect (he already has mine regardless)... and I believe he will come good eventually - these travails only make the triumph at the end much sweeter!

There is nothing we can do but back him as much as we can...since he won't be going anywhere soon.
As a United manager there will always be pressure...if he an't handle the pressure from the fans and most especially the media, he might as well resign and pack his stuffs.

Hopefully he has learnt from the mistakes he has made already this season and can quickly act to rectify them.

I also feel it is better to have this wobble start in a way as it could serve as a kick-up-the-backside to everyone involved.
Just hoping it's not too late before they start getting it right.
But the manager's confidence is paramount here - he needs to be able to motivate these players and get the best out of them ASAP.
His recent comments to the media can not help in that regard...he should shut up, roll up his sleeves and get on with the job.

coogar: solskjaer & roy keane are better than mancini



did you see the stats neville showed after we scored the equaliser? i never knew we were that bad. west brom annihilated us in every aspect of the game. this is the worst we have played in my lifetime at old trafford.

Those stats have angered me even further...I will try and get it and post it here for others to see when I have time.
Ridiculous!

Gary Neville " Players will leave before Moyes"

With sir Bobby on the board, coupled with Fergie and Gill still on the board - Moyes is not going anywhere soon.

Coogar are you watching MNF?

kashmo: Seriously though, how's duduface still in this? He just dey dash people wins in the Fa Cup, which I blame Chamotex for giving out the code. Padi, padi, arrange ni

Kai! This life
Na Muki give am code...na Muki do padi padi
I will not give Duduspace championship code not to talk of FA cup

coogar: he can turn it around & we are lucky the main challengers are slumbering too. arsenal & spurs don't scare me. i only care about city & chelsea....and we are not too far from mourinho & pellegrini.

that being said, i think united would stick with moyes for at least a season. if he doesn't make the top four then the glazers would have him sacked. our business model relies on the awoof money the champions league gives us.

i am at crossroads here. moyes either wins it outrightly & keep his job or finish lower than 3rd & get sacked. what i wouldn't want is for him to finish 2nd or 3rd and give us a false hope that he's competent.

i think SAF must take some blame here too...

We can turn it around but how quickly? With the way things are going it doesn't seem like it would be any time soon.
Especially with the comments he has made over the past few weeks.
During the summer, he claimed he was happy with his squad...8 weeks later, they are not good enough. That is a sack-able offence for me.

I agree Fergie is partly to blame.
Fergie actually over-achieved with this squad lets be honest. His man management and the ability to motivate his players were key factors.
Moyes doesn't seem to possess any of these...at least not with this gibberish we are witnessing.

coogar: irrelevant? have you seen the line up? city losing the title should have spiked them to at least end the season with a victory on their own soil. they had tevez, toure, nasri, dzeko, etc. the calvary(aguero & david silva) were also brought on as early as the 50th minute when the game was 1-1.

This is not even an argument...whether they played the big guns or not...the game was irrelevant.
A totally meaningless game which was my point initially.

coogar: they lost 2-3 to norwich last season @ etihad.
.

Please don't give me irrelevant games when the title had already been decided.
Saturday's loss was not an irrelevant last game of the season.

BinghiNya: does he offer more than wazza. United has been before RVP and would always be

Yes he does unless you have not been watching our games. RVP is an out an out striker, Rooney can float behind and around him.

coogar: if twins & evra gets injured then we are in trouble just like city are without kompany or real madrid without ronaldo.

our creativity is on the flanks - we have won 5 league titles in 7 seasons with a below average midfield but the wing play gets us through.



?

So tell me when Citeh lost at the Etihad to a mid table team without Kompany

coogar: we won't win against any premier league side, you can mark my words. jones/evra can fly, rafael & buttner can also fly. however, buttner & jones?? it's a recipe for disaster.....



everton's penalty kick was an attempted paneka. he shot straight to the middle while pretending he was going to take a hard shot.

Which still proves my point that they are not good enough.
Or why are they in the squad?
So if the twins and Evra gets injured...Manchester United should forfeit the game?

coogar: they are the only organised team we have underestimated at old trafford. you cannot play jones/buttner as fullbacks and expect a win even in a backyard garden.



did we play jones/buttner as fullbacks in those games in the last few years?



i was just telling you how striking the balance in a team is important. moyes got the team selection wrong. we didn't support the wingers with good fullbacks & when west brom counterattacked, we didn't have quality fullbacks with pace to help out evans & rio.

So basically anytime we play Jones and Buttner as fullbacks we should not expect to win?

debosky: Chamo is generating proverbs all because of Moyes.

Baba leave me, I dey vex right now

coogar: i didn't make any excuse. the failure to field the right players is wholly moyes' responsibility. he failed in that regard.



steve clarke's west brom? they would beat us anywhere if we try such nonsense. they are very organised. didn't we play 5-5 against then last season when fergie drafted giggs/scholes in the midfield? it was 5-2 to us and we were coasting until that idiotic tactical change.

So they are the only organised team that have played at Old Trafford?
We have not failed to beat them with less than a two goal margin at Old Trafford in the last few years.
That 5-5 was not at Old Trafford abeg, I could care less about an irrelevant match after we had won the league already.

Emphasis on Old Trafford!

coogar: i already said i would judge moyes in the games we usually win. there's no excuse at all for losing at home against west brom. we always win games like that.

But you just gave me an excuse about balance and what not.

No disrespect to West Brom but even if we played Carrick at CB, Valencia at RB...we should not be losing to West Brom at Old Trafford even with 10 men.

We are better than that

StarBoard: @chamotex,
Moyes has shown so far he is out of his depth in all areas bar none.
His previous track record doesn't even offer you hope that things are going to get better.
It was a mistake to fire Fergies backroom staff. Naive would actually be the correct term. The people who worked closely with these same players are the ones you choose to jettison. And were surprised at how he cannot get the best of them when he relies on yes-men and lackeys.
Falling back at the "inferior" excuse is just further proof that he is clueless. The samebunch Fergie used to achieve resultsin the past. Im not sure we can achieve anythu with this colourless muppet in charge even if he gets the 5-6 world class players he thinks he desires to transform united to Bayern or Real Madrid.

The fella is a joker

I actually still believe things might turn around for the better if DM quickly realises his mistakes and make amends.
Only thing is it might just be too late.

Sunderland next week and I am not even confident we can leave the stadium of light with a draw at this point. Really sad.

coogar: i really don't think the midfield is the problem. any of these midfield combos can win the premier league.

carrick + fellaini
carrick + cleverley
anderson + cleverley

we could have bought yaya toure & eriksen and still be playing like zombies with overrated prima donnas like rooney in the attack.




carrick & cleverley got us victories in etihad, stamford bridge, st james' last season. i refuse to believe they suddenly turned shyte overnight. the major problem is the awful combination of players moyes keep playing.

Everywhere is the problem.
Attack, midfield(especially wingers), defence and manager

coogar: it's not about having a squad, it's about knowing which partnership that gives you the best productivity in all the departments of the team. fergie would often play scholes/carrick or anderson/hargreaves(difficult away games). there's a reason he does that.



you should not forfeit the match but you must play what would give the team a balance in the absence of rafael/evra. if rafael isn't playing, fabio should get an automatic start.

none of smalling, jones and valencia is a good fullback. this was why i cursed moyes after I saw the line-up. the key is to have 2 good crossers of the ball when attacking.

imagine nani attacking with rafael making a decoy run against a fullback. that scenario already tells you there's fire on the mountain cos whoever ends up crossing the ball between nani & rafael can cause serious damage.

however, if i were a defender and i am being overloaded with nani & jones, my task is simpler. all i need to do is to force nani to always use jones as a decoy. i already know jones cannot cross to save a life.

Exactly, which still proves the players that came in were not good enough.
Saturday was not a 'difficult away game'.

I don't care if we played Rio at right back...that team that played on Saturday should not LOSE to West Brom at forking Old Trafford.
If we played that game two more times I doubt the result will be different.

These players do not look motivated to me and it was so evident by the display.

dademola: dts exactly my point. In a club like ours, shey cripple suppose dey at all? In MF for dt mata. Smh. Ts like we r now kinda used to mediocrity at united. Too bad..

Yes most clubs have one of them.

You talk about problems but no solution.

StarBoard: @chamotex,
You get beta ancestors.
When Fellainwas sgned, people here were getting high on the erect.ions it gave them and rubbished Cleverley, saying all sorts, that Cleveley would sit well on the bench, thatFellaini was the solution to our midfield woes. now that it hasn't panned out that way, we are scrambling back to the same Cleverley we maligned, even though I personally don't have anything against the dude.He was never the flashiest or most robust type but I pointed out to someone that we rarely lost whenever he started any games, but I was shot down because Fellaini, who remains an awkward signing at best given his skill set and price tag compared to what we need, had arrived with all hype and tractor football.
Someome asked me if Cleverley had ever been named MOTM in his bid to further rubbish him.

Nobody is even saying Cleverley is the best thing since sliced bread.
You know what you will get from the lad.
If we can find the right players to complement his style, we would be in a better position right now.
Football is not all about being flashy and dribbling 4 players at a time.

As average as people might think he is, he is still the best bet we have if we want to play possession football.

Cripple with one leg no better pass cripple wey dey on top wheelchair?

dademola: dts what we r saying. Make e no spoil is simply not good enof for a club like ours. Like i sed earlier, cleverley's name has resurfaced, cos fellaini hasnt provided dt spark we soo much crave in midfield. Tsnt dt cleverley is d solution. I repeat; IF HE CANT ADD SOME SPARK, PRECISION AND CONVICTION TO HIS PLAY, HE ISNT WOT WE NEED!!

Every one has a role in the team...there is nothing wrong with 'make e no spoil' passes.
If most of our players have the same mentality we would not be in this position right now.
You are not giving any solution to the problem.

He isn't what we need...so I bet 27.5m Fellaini was what we needed

afrodoc: I am a fan of Cleverley but i felt over the last few months he had become more and more like Carrick in his passing and general game play and as a result our forward play suffered. I am not saying possession football is not good but having 2 extra cautious midfielders was a bit detrimental to the way United has traditionally played.Playing alongside Carrick means Cleverley has to be the one to venture forward and take the occasional risk with his passing
I stated earlier in an earlier post that the acquisition of new quality midfielders to compete for positions might be the challenge Cleverley needs to raise his game and i still hold on to that hope

We don't have any goal scoring CM so forget him becoming that. No need to force him doing what he might not be able to do.
Scoring more goals will be an improvement to his game that's why I said we need other players to complement him in his role.
Let him keep it simple, keep possession and pass the ball to the creative players/wingers (which we clearly dont have at the moment) to do their jobs. Simple.

He might not be the flair or 'messi-esque' player in the team but until we find someone who can do a better job in the transfer market, we have to go with what we have at present.

dademola: ogaa, "make e no spoil for ma hand" is for teams like wigan and blackburn. For top clubs like manutd, barca, chelsea, etc, as a midfielda, u need to offer more than that. Who says footie is about gra gra? U talk about xavi. If xavi dey play "make e no spoil" kinda football, u think say dem go dey wia dem dey? Cleverley needs to add some precision and conviction to his play. If he cant, he isnt good enof for us. Period!

It seems like you don't get it. This is simple.
It's the end result that matters. 'Make e no spoil' right? So if it doesn't spoil isn't that the point?
The quote is self explanatory! I don't need to go into long epistles about it.

Like I said unless Fellaini and co can do better than what Cleverley offers us, he is the best bet we have at the MOMENT until someone better comes along.

So do you understand it now?

dademola: bros, cleverly being mentioned just sums up hw deteriorated our midfield situation is. Wot cleverley has to offer is simply not good enof for a club of united's magnitude. And by d way, i'm sure both of us knw dt mr cryuff was referencing players like scholes and xavi, and not d "make-e-no spoil-for-my-hand/sideways" cleverley

That's why you should enlighten yourself about the dynamics of football.
Those sideways 'make e no spoil for my hand' passes as you have put it are the effective ones. It gives you the possession.
A team without the ball can not hurt you. How was Barcelona punishing teams? Even with a crappy defence, teams with great strikers still could not hurt them because they had the ball most times.

You know what you will get from Cleverley. All you need is the right player to complement him in a different role. A much more creative player that will offer something different.
Unless you get someone better than him at doing what he does in the squad, you should play to your strengths.
Football is not gra gra...keep it simple and see how efficient it is.

When I play football...my first priority is to do the basic/simple things first.
Pass, control, position, move and try to keep possession.

Everyone has to be on the same wavelength. Our team looks a bit jaded and lacks confidence.
Moyes doesn't even look like he can motivate these guys especially with all these comments he has made in the past weeks.

montelik: see people now including cleverley to start games for us. after the torrent of abuse and ridicule he has sustained on these pages. we fans are extremely fickle.

Carrick is back to his usual character of starting the season averagly and improving coming through December..

People don't understand that those simple things Cleverley does are the hardest things to do and the most effective.
Keeping it simple...pass and move, keeping possession.

Like the great Johan Cruyff said "Playing football is very simple but playing simple football is the hardest thing..."