coogar:
rooney assisted all the goals RVP scored in the competition this season. having rooney and rvp on at the same time presents a different problem for mourinho. they would have been more cautious than having ryan giggs - a 40 yr old man.

In other words, RVP went missing 'cos Rooney did not start. Paired with Welbeck, he is useless.
Ferguson knew this yet went ahead with it anyway, 'cos he desired a non-existent attack. Brilliant. Why didn't I see it?
RVP does not need Rooney to perform in any game...he would tell you so himself.

coogar:
question - do you think madrid would have laid down throughout the 2nd half and just accept the ramming from the back? if you don't start rooney as a manager and you eventually crash out, do you not think the manager's tactics has not worked as planned?
di matteo lost his job over a similar gaffe last autumn!

Nah, I don't think RMD woulda stayed flaccid throughout the 2nd half. I think 2nd half woulda been pacier, and then we woulda seen Rooney and Valencia come on to match the tempo.
What if Rooney had started and we still crashed out? What would you say then?
A manager knows the players he needs to achieve his goals, and as far as the 1st half was concerned, goals were achieved.
Di Matteo was a clueless wanna-be...can't compare him to Fergie.

coogar:
giggs is not a starter - twitter exploded when it was announced rooney was dropped. no pundit expected it. giggs is too old for this kind of games and to be honest, he doesn't scare anyone. to be fair, he did nothing wrong last night but he wasn't spectacular either. rooney would have given us some bite in the attack.

Good thing you didn't type "twitter exploded when it was announced that Giggs was starting".
Rooney got dropped...how does that directly concern Giggs?
I don't believe Rooney got sacrificed for Giggs so quit blaming Giggs 'cos you want him to quit.
If Rooney and RVP were so hot together, why didn't Fergie drop Welbeck? Giggs was useful both in MF and attack, hence his selection. Plus the 1000th sentiment, of course. Nothing to do with Rooney.

coogar:
giggs? i hope he retires after this.
enough is enough. if fergie cannot trust the budding talents on his bench then he should let them to forge their career elsewhere. anderson, kagawa, must be pondering "wait a minute here, am i really that bad i get dropped for a geriatric"?

LOL. You got jokes.
Giggs is like Fergie....neither is gonna retire till they go into cardiac arrest on the pitch.
BTW, Giggs is still better than Ando. Even Ando knows this.

coogar:
van persie?
we did not create a decent chance for him all night. rooney that was supposed to be his feed-pillar was sat on the bench!

Since when does RVP need Rooney to create chances and score goals??
How did he manage when Rooney was out injured? Come on. RVP seems to have dipped in form.
Then again, didn't you notice the guys kept feeding Welbeck? Where was RVP?

coogar:
it wasn't working - we were leading on aggregate from the first leg so we felt comfortable but there's no rhythm to our play at all. yes, we got a goal in the 2nd half but united were not playing like the united we have been used to. you don't sit a player like rooney on the bench for giggs. giggs cannot put in rooney's work-rate. no one in our attack can actually!

Whether a game plan is working/not working depends on what you wanna achieve in the first place.
Fergie's style spoke of 'slow, tight 'n steady' and in that light, it sure as hell was working.
In addition, what makes you think Rooney got dropped so Giggs could play? RVP/Welbeck are more likely culprits.

coogar:
if rooney had played ahead of giggs, would it have weakened us or strengthened us? i mean rooney playing behind van persie and nani on the right plus welbeck on the left......do you not think that would have given us a sharper attacking edge?

I think that Rooney and Giggs together woulda made us sharper, not dropping one in favor of the other. They have a near-perfect rhythm together.

Mr_TA:
Is this still on going? Please. Im looking forward to the next match already. Another big game, Chelsea at home in the cup..

50-50.
Neither side's gonna treat this with levity.

I suppose in light of your argument, the issue would be that Fergie left his changes too late.
But you can't say Modric is like cancer without a cure. When therez no obvious solution, you combine what 'little' you have and create something, anything.
Fergie didn't even try.

coogar:
united fans make me laugh!
we were doing okay in spite of having giggs in the starting line up not because giggs was in the line-up. our football was disjointed - no rhythm at all. i don't know how anyone can watch that first half and say that was a typical united performance - it was below par but because we were winning at 0-0 and people expected much more from madrid, the general perception was that we were ok!

there's no logic behind having rooney on the bench - once you take such risks, you better pray to win the game or else that decision would be questioned and criticised. zonal marking highlighted rooney's shoddy performance in the first leg. is rooney a winger, why not play welbeck or young on that area of the pitch and stick rooney behind van persie?

fergie messed up with the line-up and he reacted slowly to alter the tactics when nani went off.

Don't get too emotional and throw objectivity out the window.
"'In spite of' having Giggs". . .seriously? That statement should be for Van Persie. He was the weakest link last night, not Giggs.
Already said Giggs did nothing wrong on the night and you agreed, so which one you no dey?
He put in a good performance, end of story. He didn't let the team down in any way.

As for the selection, it was unexpected, but we all saw that Fergie had a cautious game plan that was working.
He went for a tight defensive game that left RMD without options, and whoz to say the game wouldn't have ended well if things had gone on that way?
That game plan not only quieted RMD but caused 'em to gift us a goal; that's why we are saying it was okay, not 'cos of the weird reason you gave up there.

If you're faulting Fergie for failing to respond to life-after-seeing-red, that's one thing which makes sense.
But the Giggs witch-hunting and the critique of Fergie's choice of tactics is another. Both are way off base.

Hey, Tubabie.
Sorry, got caught up in the whole post-match thing last night

RuuDie:

God bless you sweetheart. . .

How could anyone say the game-plan wasn't working when in 60mins, Real hadn't gotten a clear sight of DDG's goal. . . How could anyone blame Giggsy for Modric's goal when he played most of the game on the right, in front of Rafael and the gap Modric shot from was left / left-central axis. . . How could anyone say we didn't show fighting spirit or character when Diego Lopez had to pull off 3 or 4 top-draw saves late in the game to keep Madrid ahead!

I have never been prouder of this team (including Danny Welbeck) in all my life of supporting 'em - we may have lost but the way we played throughout was fantastic - and this will go into my catalog of " UTD Special European Nights"!

Coogar is just housing personal beef for Giggs so the only thing he isn't gonna blame the man for is the ref's twisted red.

For me, there was no shame in last night's loss. The team did well.
RVP needs prayers sha.

In additon, Coogar, we lost an attacking force in Nani. Why take off another attacking force in Giggs, who can also defend if needed?
He is a better attacking force than Ando. Fergie needed someone who could do both.
Let Giggs rest, abeg.

coogar:
are we saying we are too light to protect a goal lead at home even though we are playing one man down?

Nope. Just saying it's a huge ask so soon after your spirits sink to your feet under the weight of an unfair red.
The opponent always gets an advantage in such a scenario, you know that.

coogar:
someone has to be sacrificed! the referee has done that damage!
a level of damage control should have been applied. then again, you are forgetting nani was one of our most dangerous players on the night so we effectively lost an attacking threat and we did nothing to plug that vacuum! that's tactical harakiri. giggs is 40 - there's no way his productivity would be as high as rooney on fresh legs or anderson on fresh legs!

First, thank you for finally admitting that the ref did some damage. A lot, for that matter.
Second, since when has Giggs' age ever been an issue? The man would deceive any rookie football spectator the way he plays his game.
Don't discard honesty in a bid to spite Giggs. Everyone knows you never wanted him to play from the start.
I don't see what Ando does that Giggs cannot do, and arguably better too. Giggs didn't need to go anywhere.

coogar:
after a 2nd half red card, there's no team in the world that would not make an instant change to balance the team. fergie left it too late - too too late. he ought to have known that madrid scoring 2 goals effectively put the tie beyond us. i would have removed van persie, giggs and cleverley to play anderson, valencia and rooney(players who can defend)

a 40 year-old man that has ran his bollocks off for 1hr. you really mean he would do better than the fresher, younger legs of players who can defend?

So what's your point now, the team lost 'cos Giggs failed to defend? Come on, get realistic.
Fergie expected the guys on the pitch to be able to handle Modric. Therez no guarantee that Giggs going off and Ando coming on woulda prevented RMD from scoring 'cos they already had an advantage and used it while the team was still reeling from the after-effects of the red.

You shouldn't make probabilistic statements with certainty like you're on T.B. Joshua's payroll

Mr_TA: @coogar - It cant be dangerous play when he wasnt even making a tackle. That was an attempt to control the ball dropping over his shoulder which he had eyes on the whole time. He didnt even see Arbeloa there who just came out of no where.

I hope the ref gets shot in the knee caps.
Dunno who he was trying to impress with his officiating skillz that he couldn't think first before acting.

@Emp
Pistorius shot his girl. . .Hugo Chavez is dead. . .we lost to RMD. . .not the time to fight.

A-40:

Crizzz!!!! Who would show up next Tubabie? Hehehehe United should lose more often!

Hehehe. . .you're high.

Hey Gunner. Or is it ex-Gunner?

coogar:
the decision changed nothing, we were leading! we went down a man down!

Seriously?? The decision changed nothing? Your last statement answered the wrongness of your first one.

coogar:
jose was about bringing on benzema when nani saw red, he sent him back and brought in
an extra midfielder to run us ragged! fergie should be making a change in that instant to neutralise modric! jose reacted to the situation, we did not!
he didnt do anything wrong - but that's not enough! he didn't do anything right either. we were down to 10 men against the 2nd best team in the world! what's the shame in hauling off giggs n bring on fresh legs who can hassle madrid players?

I see your point here.
But Giggs didn't need to be sacrificed. I mean, is there another word between 'right' and 'wrong'? If Giggs did nothing wrong, how then did he also do nothing right?
Giggs did a lot of hassling on that pitch tonight, trust me. RVP was a much weaker link.
RVP for Rooney, perhaps Cleverly for Valencia. But not Giggs' cos he was making an impact.

coogar:
people keep saying the strategy worked? how did it work?
is it unheard of to have copped 2-3 goals in the first half and broke madrid's spirit? mourinho even admitted his team stank up the whole joint but we didn't take advantage as the home team. any sending off in the 2nd half is a warning sign that changes should be made! jose made changes to score, we did nothing to counter his change. that was fergie's fault!

The strategy was working because we did not give RMD any opportunities to score. We frustrated them quiet. Ronaldo became invisible.
Plus, we were a goal up and patiently working on getting more. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Now, reacting to Jose's change is another matter. You have a point. I just don't agree that Giggs shoulda been the sacrifice.

montelik: Was the red that undeserved? most, even the biased pundits and fans are claiming it was a bad decision. But the text commentary I read said Nani jumped and caught Arbeloa in the chest with his foot . If so he certainly made it easy for the ref, making him partly responsible considering he should experienced enough to not make unnecessarily risky challenges.

@ Coogar help me out with a gif image.

The word is 'intent', my friend.
Yeah, his studs were up but his eyes were wholly on the ball. He didn't realize Arbeloa was that close behind.
Worst he shoulda gotten was a yellow(which some might still argue is unnecessary), not a straight red.

montelik:

So true. I haven't seen the referee's decision (or game), but we can't afford to be caught licking our wounds with FA cup tie with Chelsea coming on Sunday. But as regards SAF's silly selection, fact that silly selection had the game thoroughly sewn up until being reduced to 10 men. Its a little unfair to fault it when it was working seamlessly.

Word!

coogar: as predicted, giggsy's 1000th game ended in tears.......

after nani went off at 1-0, a good manager would take out giggs and van persie, bring on rooney and anderson to form a shield protecting the back four. he ignored the warning signs and he ruined another european night for us.

jose mourinho: "the best team lost" - he wants fergie's job!

Because Rooney and Anderson are what, Batman and friggin' Robin??
The red broke spirits, which is what happens when you get an unfair decision like that. Not much Rooney and Ando can do about that.

Giggs did nothing wrong on the night. Twaz Van Persie that shoulda gone off for Rooney 'cos he seems to have lost his mojo.

IMO, the team played cautiously which wasn't so bad because the strategy was working till the idiotic ref messed it all up.
Whoz to say we wouldn't have scored more with the players that started? We had RMD quiet. Ronaldo was lost at a point. It was a slow build, but it sure pointed to it.

Not bad from team United.

To be fair, Giggs is in good form. He is still way better than some of RMD's midfielders.
And if he doesn't cut it tonight, which I doubt, our bench is tight.

Countdown to kick-off. . .

Hehehe...."intimate"? You missed letter 'E'.


Cristalz Only Retains Authentic Lawyers


DRAWN

Pastor Okoro Robbed Caro's House

COVER

ogbeche77: Think it will be fair to rename this thread 'The official Nani thread'

I jus' tire. Seems 4 days ain't enough for both sides to see that neither is gonna give in.

Weary Old Retirees Live Downtown


BLAND

Reputation is a valuable thing in any business...

For me, their reputation already has a major blip and you can't be too careful when it comes to your life.
Can't fly Dana nomore.

Sule Loves Entertaining Petty Traders

BLACK

toria1980: Dear Nairalanders,

My ex proposes to me, i refuse his marriage proposal because he is a Muslim.
in his words he said "i wont stop you from practicing your religion". but i refuse him, for two years now he is still beginning me to marry him

Don't second-guess yourself, dearie. You made the right choice.
Besides, if he claims to love you that much, why doesn't he change his religion to yours? I mean, if you're willing to chase a woman for 2 years and still won't take "no" then you should be willing to do what it takes to make her yours.

Plus, thanks to everyone that has contributed in here.
Great stories! Keep 'em coming...

Jarus: Where on earth is Cristalz the starter of this thread?

Covering the crisis in Syria. Kidding.
Wow, 66 pages?! Big ups to you all for keeping my favorite thread alive. Never imagined it'd get this far.
I'm sorry guys, I left NL for a pretty long while. Decided to join the race to become a professor while getting some relevant experience on the side.
Sadly, it doesn't leave me with a lot of social time.

Will keep coming in to read from you guys 'n contribute when I can.

Ajanlekoko, Tkb 'n Crackles (where are they??), Debo, Diggler, Tollu, Oyb, Lawyer, even you Jarus...thanks. Kinda missed our office gist.
Congrats on your promotion, Jarus.

coogar:
the players still have this slight delusion that vidic/rio/carrick are what they used to be 3-4 years ago....the rest of the team tend to leave so much for the defence to do. evra/rafael are fantastic going forward but not so great at defending! they play like wingers and when we don't have the ball, they take forever to fall back into position! our biggest problem is our organisation when we don't have the ball - its horribly substandard!

That's why the presence of a traditional DM who knows his major responsibility is to break up opposition play 'n assist the back 4 would be a big help.
He would at least keep his head when others are losing theirs in attack clouds.

A-40:
@Cristalz
Nani was the X-Factor for me not even Scholes!

BTW why aren't you playing FPL this season?

'Cos I'm gonna disappear again soon for a while.
Won't have the time for regular football, which means my team would suffer. Don't wanna grace the bottom of the table.

Scholes was good today, but that doesn't make him an all-time hero.
The last horrible game he had, I remember nearly everyone calling for his small head and A-40 was talking about retirement.

Kagawa was good last weekend. I can forgive him one bad performance.

Dunno what's going on with Welbeck. Dude should go on loan somewhere till he gets his football groove back.

It's ironic that the day we get our regular defenders back we ship in goals.....again. Perhaps Fergie should seriously reconsider his stand on a DM.
Play was poor today, but you gotta give it to Southampton. They gave the game their all and I dare say they deserved to win based on overall performance.

StarBoard:
Better to be a one-man team than a team destroyed by one man in the super cup...

Ouch!

He missed a penalty but gets a hattrick.

Let's hear it for Robin Van PERFECT!!!

Ibime: I'm happy for this result as rdm should not just close his eyes and hope everything will be alright with 4 players who don't work back and two pivots too slow to cover them. That's recipe for disaster!

Wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't change anything. His team has been getting by on luck and penalties; good football hasn't had so much to do with it.
Seems he can't exactly tell the difference.

I bet Roman went through his "Possible Replacements for Roberto" list before bed.

BlueDiva: I'll take 1 champions league trophy over 1000 super cup trophies.
That been said, my son's school football team could have beaten this Chelsea side.

Players like Lamps, Mata and David Luiz had no business even on the bench today.
Expect more misfortune in future.The team depends on Torres at it's own peril.

You can't be lucky all the time.
Our CL victory was a Pyrrhic victory anyway, it's obvious now.

You saying RDM is as clueless as he looked tonight on that bench?
Looked like he was at a funeral service.

Murder!!!
3-0

dayokanu:

See the difference between 2 strikers.

Falcao almost on a hat trick. Shekpe keeper cant even decide what to do on the field

Haba, be fair naw.
Chelsea's MF can't even string 4 passes together before A.Madrid throw a spanner in their works. What's Torres to do solo??
Besides, he is well-marked by a better organized defense.

Falcao is good, but Chelsea's defense simply parted for him without putting up a decent challenge.