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afrodoc: 1) home to Chelsea in September of the 2007/2008 season Manchester United used a 2 man midfield of Scholes and Carrick and we won 2-0


2) away to Arsenal in November it was a 2 man midfield of Hargreaves and Anderson(replaced by a returning Carrick in the 2nd half) and it ended 2-2
N.B Paul Scholes was injured for 3 months from October ending to January ending so he missed matches due to injury not coaches decision.
also Michael Carrick was making his first appearance after missing 6 weeks with an elbow injury.

Despite the 3 months lay off Paul Scholes started 22 EPL matches compared to Hargreaves starting just 16.


3) away to liverpool in december 2007 a 2 man midfield of hargreaves and anderson with carrick again coming on in the 2nd half(Scholes still injured) we won 1-0


4) 3 man midfield of carrick,anderson,scholes against liverpool in march 2008. we won 3-0.hargreaves was an unused substitute.



5) home to Arsenal in April 2008 (squeaky bum time) 3 man midfield of Scholes,Hargreaves and Carrick.Anderson came on in the 2nd half



6) away to Chelsea 3 man midfield of Carrick,Fletcher and Anderson.I believe Hargreaves came on early to play RB.we lost 2-1
scholes was rested while tevez and ronaldo on the bench (bigger fish to fry in the champs league).to buttress this fact Silvestre played!


ferguson started the season playing 2 man midfield even in our tough matches BUT by the 2nd half he had switched to a 3 man midfield against the same opponents.


hargreaves and anderson started 2 tough EPL matches by default mainly because Carrick and Schole were either injured or unfit
carrick was the ever present in the tough matches in the EPL in the 2nd half of the season

Fabville: You are only looking for an excuse after you have been found out.



Which one did you posted? Don't tell me you were just posting without reading what you were posting. Go back and check what you posted where Hargreaves came on in the 90th min.



So also if Scholes wasn't injured, Hargreaves wouldn't have played up to the total numbers of games he played when Scholes was injured. This would have reduced the number of games he started and increased the number of games started by Scholes. If Hargreaves was more important and better than Scholes in that team, it would have been difficult for Scholes to regain his place in the team. Instead, Scholes still started 18 games to Hargreaves' 10 in the 24 last games of the season.



How did you arrive at this assertion? Stop saying what you don't know.

Go and check all the fixtures you will find out that Man Utd started two-man midfield in at least 39 games in all competitions.



That is not correct as well. Hargreaves wasn't better than Scholes. The same Injury-case you are putting up for Hargreaves also applied to Scholes just like i have posted. Owen wasn't better than the strikers we had when he came.



That was not the argument. We were never dominated during that season. 2006/07 and 2007/08 were two seasons we played one of the best football in history of the club and during those seasons Carrick/Scholes were played majorly as our two-man midfielder.

coogar: the chelsea game that did not have ronaldo in the starting line up and tevez didn't kick a ball? they were not priority! the chelsea game was sandwiched by the semifinal tie against barcelona. united's priority was elsewhere. how can it be a big game without ronaldo starting?



stop twisting like an eel caught by a german hook. you implied they sat out because was hargreaves was preferred - but i put it to you scholes would have started that particular game if he wasn't injured. english comprehension is your biggest challenge.



this boy can lie - jeeez!
you have told us hargo was given the role in difficult games but scholes/carrick were given the small games because hargo was our toughest midfielder - now you are saying they sat out. did they sit out because hargo was preferred or because scholes was injured?

if hargo was our toughest midfielder - why was he missing against liverpool at old trafford?

dademola: hhhmn...elampiro d master tactician!! If u're asked d question; WHO WERE MANUTD'S CENTRAL MIDFIELDAS that nite in moscow, wot wld be ur response?

coogar: hargreaves benched scholes by coming on in the 90th minute of a game? hargreaves benched scholes in a dead rubber game that also excluded ronaldo & tevez in the starting lineup?

you need to facepalm. this show of shame is making my belly turn for you.



as if that's new....
which of united's wingers have not shielded their right backs? even ronaldo protects his fullbacks in games. what's the biggie in protecting fullbacks - it's the least requirement for any winger in the premier league.




half-fit hargreaves? the same player that started & played 67 mins against middlesbrough a week earlier was unfit at the emirates? he played 90 mins in the games against fulham & bolton before the anfield trip as well. come on, tell us another lie.

coogar: take you serious?
i have to be high on angel dust to take you serious. your comments are littered with beer parlour analysis.



you skipped a lot of them because they were facts. how do you argue with facts? did scholes sit on the bench at anfield or at the emirates or he missed those games because he was injured?

dademola: baba, it's obvious elampiro's understanding of d game of soccer, IS QUESTIONABLE!! Argueing wit such a person is unnecesarry jare.

coogar: you didn't read 70% & yet you were replying me, lying through your teeth that scholes sat on the bench for hargreaves when it's well documented that scholes missed more than 33% of 2007/8 season via injury.



all we are saying is - you should stop lying!!!!

Fabville: What kind of statement is this? How can Hargreaves be detailed to stop two players playing from different positions? What were other Man Utd midfielders doing or are we playing one man down? And you said that you were once a footballer! This is unbelievable. Hargreaves must have been on drugs to have been told to do that. You should have also included Malouda. Who was supposed to stop Malouda? Or have you forgotten that he also played in that game?

It is only a mad manager that will give such duties to one man. If he is running after Lampard, what would Malouda and Cole be doing? This is a Joke!

So many forum members have said it here that he was detailed to the RHS to reduce the threat of Ashley Cole and nothing more than that.

coogar: except that i exposed your lies that scholes didn't sit on the bench for hargreaves at anfield/the emirates like you claimed & i uncovered your fact distortion that hargreaves went injured for 3 months stretch.



you disgrace yourself when you make such brainless comments. was it not you who said hargreaves was supposed to track cole & lampard? how did lampard ghost past hargreaves to score the equaliser? why was ronaldo closer to lampard and owen hargreaves was on the halfway line?



perhaps he was the strongest in your village. he had the biggest cassava plantation.

Fabville: What did you mention for Hargreaves? Against Lyon that he came in on 90th min when Scholes actually started the midfield or your supposed big game that was no longer big game when some regular players were missing. If you must state any big games, you should as well mention the importance/relevance of such games.

Accepted that Hargreaves was a good player but you comparing his importance to Scholes' is really absurd.

This will tell us who was more important to the team between the two in all competitions(56 games):

Scholes was a constant feature at the beginning of that season. He started twelve games out of thirteen before he got injured, whereas Hargreaves started only three games in the corresponding games. Out of these thirteen, we won 10 games, drew two and loss one.

Scholes did not feature in the next nineteen games due to injury whereas Hargreaves started in only nine games during this period.

After coming back from injury, Scholes started eighteen games out of twenty four games as compared to Hargreaves starting ten games.

Who was more important?

Also, Scholes started about twenty two games in a two-man midfield in all competition in that season.

coogar: there was no argument in the first place - i only logged in to correct some of your misinformation about scholes in 07/08.

coogar: another twist in elampiro's argument?
why would nani start when he's only a ronaldo understudy? why would nani & ronaldo start against chelsea when the tactical advantage rested on the single fact that chelsea was playing essien as a makeshift rightback and fergie pitched united's best player against chelsea's weakest link in the defence? why would nani start a game of that magnitude when he's still wet behind the ears in protecting his rightback(wes brown)??

seriously, give up and stop misinforming the public.

Fabville: You must be a big JOKER for stating the bold. Where will you rate Scholes then? In how many games was Hargreaves paired with any other midfielder in a two-man midfield?

You just make blind statement without fact to support such statements.

coogar: if he didn't play as a defensive midfielder in united's biggest game that season then it simply shows scholes & carrick were more trusted in the centre of the pitch than owen hargreaves. hargreaves put the same work effort as tevez, rooney, ronaldo on the night. the real heroes were the watercarriers(scholes & carrick). it couldn't have been easy for the duo to combat lampard + ballack + makelele.

coogar: how can you respond when i have just proven you are a fraud when it comes to analysing man utd. you don't need to respond - i am not here to have a chat with you, i came here to school you on united's recent history.



another lie from the pits of hell....
united won in moscow by playing carrick & scholes in the midfield to combat chelsea's powerful midfield and the duo coped well with chelsea. hargreaves was kept away from the centre of the field. he was not a defensive midfielder against chelsea. - it's funny how our "strongest" midfielder was only useful on the right side of the midfield & not as a hatchet man.

dademola: d league title was virtually done n dusted as @ dt time!! even frm d line up, u cld see fergie had his sights somewhere else!!nawa for u oo!! r u really a man utd fan??

coogar: the tortuous knots this dude keep tying himself. united vs roma that season was a dead rubber game. we had won 2-0 in italy. as you can see for yourself, cristiano & rooney did not even start the game. there goes your window of lies.



do you even read what you type? you are putting a game hargreaves only came on in the 90th minute? so in your mind, hargreaves substitution in the added time is a good explanation that he's preferred in big games?



he didn't make the bench cos he's 34 and fergie had plans for him at old trafford - which was why he got the winner against barca. all the players that didn't take part at the stamford bridge were our best players against barcelona. we could afford to lose against chelsea, barcelona was the focus.



ronaldo & tevez did not start at stamford bridge, that says it all. when you want to grapple at straws in an argument, do it on facebook. the match against chelsea was never a priority in 2007/8, otherwise tevez would have taken part & ronaldo wouldn't come on in the 63rd minute in a game you told us was a big game




this is irrelevant - you had told us hargreaves was the main man in our midfield and i have punctured your lies that he is not.

Fabville: How many big games did Man Utd played in 2007/2008? How many did SAF featured three midfielders that included Hargreaves? You were only able to list three games for that season and the fact is that Man Utd played 52 games in all competition in that season. How come it is only three big games you were able to show the line ups?

That is not convincing enough to tell me that it was only in the big games that Hargreaves was feature as if he was the most important of the midfielders.

As a matter of fact SAF played 4-4-2 more than any other formation and Carrick/Scholes combo was the most played combo in that season. Fergie only adopted three midfielders in difficult games and not necessarily featuring Hargreaves in all.

coogar: if you are not interested, stop misinforming the public. you lied to us hargreaves was started to clip messi's left foot then quickly changed it to "when messi tried to switch flanks to hargreaves' side". the world is watching you, stop lying.



that's immaterial - he started 6 in 7 league games. the only league game he missed was as a result of his midweek involvement against galatasaray in elite europe, thus missing against wigan



hargreaves was out for 3 months at a stretch? another lie from the pits of hell, the longest hargreaves had at a stretch was 5 league games.(sep 15 to oct 20) - which was just one month.



he wasn't used more than the others in big games. scholes was the most trusted in big games. scholes was the only midfielder that featured in all the big games that season minus the chelsea away game. hargreaves did not start against liverpool at OT & he was also on the bench against spurs @ white hart lane.

dademola: serzly, must u say things like this, all in the nme of winning an arguement??and u're d same person dt preaches objectivity on these pages!! smh

coogar: elampiro does not watch united games. i am not convinced he does - he's lied a lot on these pages, i am starting to think he just trolls everyone here for the fun of it.



this is another lie from the pits of hell - scholes did not sit out in big games. scholes did not take part at anfield & the emirates because a knee injury kept him out from october 2007 and january 2008.

when he came back from injury, he played in every big game bar the chelsea away game that was sandwiched between the 2 legs against barcelona in the semis of the champions league.

coogar: that era has long gone - who reckons with the era when only arsenal & united were the title contenders? we are talking about the last 10 years(the roman era). the only reason united won the league titles then was because arsenal pressed the self-destruct button & vice versa. that was how awful the rest of the league were.



kagawa got injured - up until his injury, he started 6 of the 7 league games. ferguson rewards the players who do well and he doesn't change his policy until someone gets injured & his replacement also performs very well & makes it difficult for the manager to return back to the injured player. even after cleverley came back from his injury in 2011/12, fergie never used him & anderson again cos by then, cleverley's replacement performed reasonably well. whereas, before cleverley's injury, they kept the almighty carrick on the bench.



he wasn't rested to manage any injury...stop lying on these pages. united had a big squad and their involvement in europe tends to influence who starts the weekend games after getting involved in tough midweek european nights.



that's his modus operandi....
look at the nonsense he wrote up there when we all know as at 07/08, messi was rijkaard's man on the right wing and his duel on the night was against patrice evra!!!

dademola: d same way scholes was rested cos his legs needed some freshness!! u keep evading questions on d chelsea game in moscow

dademola: in a bid to win an arguement, just look at wot u posted?did u actually proof-read this before posting??

dademola: doesnt this statement reek of sheer ignorance??

dademola: where is d contradiction?? i sed in regular matches, fergie usually played 442 with scholes and carrick. in difficult away games, he usually opted to add an extra man in midfield! did i type it in chinese earlier? u claim hargo was da bomb!! if he was dt superb, y did fergie deploy him in a 3 man midfield in a good number of d big away matches?? against barca both home and away, y did fergie decide not to play hargo in mf, but at RB, despite having oshea on d bench in both matches?most importantly; in d final, y did fergie deploy him on d rhs of mf??

coded guy: @ Elampiro

Your arguements can tire persin sef! What exactly do you mean by 'Hargreaves was our strongest midfielder' you say it as if Fergie deployed only him in the middle in a 5-1-4 formation because he was the 'strongest midfielder'

Hargreave was versatile and so he could be deployed in many positions which gave fergie different option without losing the strength so required in the team.

StarBoard: The truth about United's midfield.