₦airaland Forum

SailorXY: Bros forget na just sentiment. He showed a lot of commitment but didn't deserve the award as far as that Chelsea game was concerned.

Sentiment? From who? The same fans you said dislike him? Do you realise the meaning of 89% vote for a single player? Did you read BBC, Mail, Mirror, and other media comments?

United have made a bid of €30m for Athletic Bilbao's 24-year-old Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera. (via @desportescope)

.......

17th Sept. Man United Vs Bayern Leverkusen.

chamotex: Elampiro can you get off Rooney's bollocks for a minute?
We agree...he is the best thing since Alomo bitters
Sheeesh!

Not when some keep posting biased comments about him. When we are all fair in our comments, then there won't be issues.

I posted that to make a statement based on our off season prolong argument.

Rooney on his first start won back the heart of all the fans. However we know there are sworn 'urepentant sinners' who will keep saying negative things about him. Without Rooney, the match would have been heavily weighted in favour of Chelsea.

Rooney won the award in two fronts and so resoundingly. Last week it was almost a split between RVP and Welbeck. Whatever the 'haters' want to say is no longer important- the fans have spoken. Some said his selection was political. Which club on earth will keep Rooney on the bench? This is not a computer or an imaginary game, but real soccer.

Wayne Rooney expresses his appreciation to the fans for support received against Chelsea. He says it means a lot.

26/08/2013 22:49,

Report by James

Article updated 28/08/13

Wayne Rooney scooped Manchester United’s man-of-the-match award after an eye-catching display in the goalless draw with Chelsea at Old Trafford.

Playing in the hole behind Robin van Persie, Rooney dictated United’s attacking play in his first start of the season as the home support bellowed his name throughout.

The 27-year-old picked up a resounding 89 per cent of the thousands of votes from fans on ManUtd.com and Twitter, with skipper Nemanja Vidic second after his dominant display at the back.

Patrice Evra shone at left-back as United’s defenders limited Chelsea largely to long-range efforts and the Frenchman was the third candidate on the shortlist selected by Reds legends and MUTV pundits Lou Macari and Gordon McQueen.

Van Persie was the man of the match at Swansea last week and fans can contribute again in the next fixture away at Liverpool on Sunday.

More: Moyes praises Rooney display.
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2013/Aug/wayne-rooney-manchester-united-man-of-the-match-v-chelsea.aspx

Manchester United fans have overwhelmingly voted Rooney as the man of the match against Chelsea. I thought some rastafarians on this forum were saying the fans will boo him, hate him and dismiss him. This is reality!!!

This is part of the functions the RFID chip implant will be capable of whenever the One World People (New World Order) decide to implement it. A global world control will soon be a reality.

deols: I don't see a reason why the pastor needs to say it out that he committed the sin. His repentance should be between him and his God.


I however just want to say it again that the one man one wife thing doesnt seem to work with pastors. God allowed polygyny for a reason.

With that, he would have had his urge satisfied in a legal way without having to go this embarrassing way.

The sisters should also start dressing well. It cant be easy seeing that much without the devil having a way into people's minds, pastor or not.



May the lord bless us all.

When did God allow Polygamy?

@Coogar, this is the first time your will post a link and I will not open it to read. This is inconsequential and will not even contain details of the incidents.

As for yesterday, United were in command against Chelsea. It's a good omen. Our midfield has always been inferior to Chelsea, City, Totteham and Everton. The chances will come.

coogar: there was little time left to correct the damage rooney had done in that match. every pass he played was faulty. it was the worst game any united striker has ever played in the history of MUFC



rooney is shyte - the earlier we get rid, the better. by next season, he would throw another tantrum that he wants to leave and another media circus shall commence.



blame carrick & cleverley? they were the best players on the pitch last night with cleverley shading it. welbeck didn't play as a striker and he's no winger. van persie got no service at all. i cannot think of any good pass he got from rooney last night.

All I see in your post is Rooney, Rooney, Rooney.

Since I know this is the way it is, it is pointless trying to make you see things any differently.

coogar: did swansea not beat the same chelsea team home & away last season. they gave us more problems than chelsea did but our attack had purpose. welbeck was outstanding and everyone else always looked for van persie as the final pass.



you could have just mentioned the match where rooney was in a better position to score with RVP ignoring him. there's no better forward with awareness than RVP. if he knows there's a player in a better position, he would feed him a pass. the only draw i can think of last season was swansea away and rooney was useless on the day, fergie had to haul him off completely.

I think it was the Swansea match of last season that those incidences happened. You said Rooney was abysmal? Everyone was on the day and when Rooney left did United score?

Your appear to unnecessarily dislike Rooney and no panadol or any miracle can cure you of this. Try to be balanced and objective in your post match comments. If we were to make comments based on sentiments, this place won't be interesting to visit during and after matches.

For instance, I could have come here and put all the blame on Cleverley, Carrick, Welbeck and RVP and I will justify it. Then an endless argument will follow.

coogar: 10 of those goals were spot-kicks....
how was rooney the most dangerous player all game? yes, taking pop shots at petr cech from 30 yards is dangerous. i am not sure you saw the game. our attack had a better dimension against swansea(without rooney).

Are you now to compare Swansea to Chelsea?

Rooney also had sometime with Swansea. Different game, different approach.

Swansea did not sit back defending, and they could have hit us twice before RVP's goal.
............

I just didn't want to derail the topic of the day. Otherwise to be fair to Rooney, RVP has been the selfish player ever since last season. There was a game we picked a draw last season, Rooney was waiting for a tap in but RVP decided to dribble on two occasions. Rooney reacted bitterly on the second chance RVP wasted.

Let's leave argument and discuss the match of yesterday for now.

coogar: why should rooney be shooting from 25 yards with RVP in a much better position to be played in. rooney did that twice yesterday which is very very unusual for him.

There should not be unhealthy competition in the team. I hope this is not the case.

Rooney is best in providing, he should keep doing that first before trying to add goals.

Trying to win at all cost would have meant us taking some risk and opening play. Any slip would have shot Chelsea to 9 points from 3 matches and having won a big game at away. What a booster that would have been to Mourinho.

dademola: i cldnt agree less!! Moyes was too conservative. I believe such performances r only needed against d top sides wen we r playing away. D earlier he realises dt man utd aint everton, d betta oo

I am okay with the performance. The fixture came too early. Had it been an October fixture, the tempo would have been different.

@Coogar, how can you be so sure that Rooney deliberating refuse to pass o RVP? It looks to me his lack of fitness and match rusty affected his accuracy in those situations.


On the general comment, I think for the first time in a long while I saw us very confident against Chelsea. Throwing a big game to a new manager in his first home match was always going to have a conservative approach- safety first. The clearest chance fell on Welbeck, he could have done much better.

One thing- our midfield is taking shape. There was so much confidence from Carrick and Cleverley, it looked like they took reversed positions with Cleverley on the right. They did not sit deep as usual. Should Moyes get another midfielder who plays differently, it will be a. Massive bonus. He is a midfield maestro.

The next level would be to create those chances. As time goes on, that will happen, afterall we hit four against Swansea.

I pray Nani hits good form. In a game like yesterday, he could have brought something different to unlock the Chelsea defense wide open. However, I refuse to blame Valencia too much, he was useful in stabilizing the overall play mostly on the right. Jones is not a good team player and yesterday was one of his worst going forward (he was solid at the back). Rafael would have caused a lot of confusion to the Chelsea left back area.

chamotex: The Lampard handball?
I don't think that was a penalty...its highly debatable.

I think we have to go to Anfield and win now, we cant afford to drop any more points before we play Citeh

His hand was stretched out. Cleverley's attempt was goal bound.

Man of the match.

bxg: Would prefer seeing Fabio at rb till Rafael comes back Valencia keeps regressing

Fabio would have done well on the overlap but he would have failed to tame Hazard.

The referee denied us a penalty.

coogar: but we did not pack the bus against chelsea - stop drawing parallels with matches that are inconsequential to the topic of discussion. fact remains hargreaves was not a central midfielder against chelsea in moscow, he did not play as a defensive midfielder on the night and we held firm against a very tough chelsea midfield.

1 last response on this. lol

@Coogar, it depends on the way you want to see it. Some people felt he played in central midfield.
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Hargreaves – the energetic, skillfull ball winner

There can’t be many players who United have paid 17 million pound for, who have played so few games but who made such a big impact. Owen Hargreaves signed on the 1st July 2007 and ended up playing a prominent part in United winning the Premier League and Champions League in the 2007-08 season. He made 16 starts in the league that season with seven as a substitute and only 23 in total with 11 as substitute. However, it was the quality and not the quantity of his appearances that were important. He was a player who had a history of injuries when we secured him from Bayern Munich but Sir Alex Ferguson clearly identified him as a player, who would take a title-winning side onto the next level in Europe. I believe Sir Alex was spot on in his assessment and was perfectly right to pursue and finally land the player, irrespective of the risks involved.

Hargreaves suffered a broken leg in 2006 and only came back for Bayern at the back-end of the 2007 season. As a player who suffered from patellar tendonitis, I think the enforced rest from playing during his rehabilitation with the broken leg, helped the tendonitis ease and enable him to pass his United medical. This is just my presumption because as soon as he started his United career, the problems clearly arose again. Fergie and the medical staff had to handle his game time with kid gloves. Many questioned the United Medical team in the following seasons but I think the problem was so great, they did a brilliant job in getting him on the pitch, as much as they did in the 2007-08 season. Thank God they did because he was instrumental in United winning the double that season.

He missed the first three games of the season and made his debut in the derby at the Eastland’s Stadium, United going down to a 1-0 defeat. He did play the week after in our first win of the season, at home to Tottenham and again the week after in a win against Sunderland at home. That game was on the 1st September and he didn’t feature again until the end of October. United had put their early season stutter behind them by then and apart from that defeat at City and getting knocked out of Carling Cup by Coventry, they had remained unbeaten. Sir Alex seemed to be picking Hargreaves games and he was entrusted with the big one’s against our main rivals. Once again he didn’t feature for a full month after the 2-2 away draw with Arsenal. A home win over Fulham, then another fortnight off until the away win at Anfield in mid December.

After that, he never spent any significant time out of the squad but never started three in a row. Instead, he seemed to play one, next week on the bench, with the occasional rest thrown in. I think, by now his worth to the team was invaluable. He was also adaptable, playing mostly central midfield but could move out to the right and was giving Ronaldo licence to move inside a lot more. It was that licence and protection from Hargreaves that enabled him to score 42 goals that season. He also played a couple of games at right back for the Reds, adapting as if he was a natural. Hargreaves first goal for United came in the away win at Fulham on the 1st March, a beautiful and highly technical free kick from just outside the area, that was in all the way from the moment it left his right foot.

He was then entrusted with two starts in four days, firstly in the Champions League quarter-final against Roma where he was man of the match and set up Tevez for the crucial only goal of the game. Then the all important home clash with Arsenal, which resulted in another crucial 2-1 win in the title race. Hargreaves scored his second goal for United in this game, with a similar class free kick as his previous one. Those two home wins gave United the impetus and belief they could win the title and the Champions League. United were well and truly in the zone now, Hargreaves didn’t feature in the away draw at Blackburn and was saved to play full back in the midweek goal less draw at the Nou Camp, in the semi final first leg. Back on the bench for the controversial defeat away at Chelsea on the following Saturday and then back on full back duty for the home semi final leg against Barca.

In both the Barca games, Sir Alex opted to play Hargreaves full back and bring Park into the midfield. His industry up and down the right enabled United to interchange the strikers and Ronaldo didn’t play as a conventional wide man. We all remember that game was won and our Moscow final date booked with a screamer from the Ginger Prince Paul Scholes. Once again he was risked in the starting line up in the crucial home win 4 days later against West Ham. This left United needing a win at Wigan the following week to clinch the league title, with the Champions league final another 10 days after that. I think Sir Alex had picked his Cup Final team before the Wigan game and Hargreaves was crucial to the way his team would set up against Chelsea in Moscow. I think that’s why he was left on the bench for the Wigan game, which United duly won and clinched another title.

Hargreaves inclusion in the final team, allowed Sir Alex to play the extra man in central midfield to combat Chelsea who always played three in there. I may be biased but a midfield three of Carrick, Scholes and Hargreaves was one of the most balanced and with a telepathic understanding of each others jobs and positioning I have ever seen playing for United. Such was the trust that the rest of the team had in them, it allowed the back four to stay solid as a unit and the front three, the licence and liability to roam anywhere and pick up space in between the Chelsea lines.

Hargreaves was instrumental in this midfield, his energy, ball winning skills, ability to sniff out danger and class to use and keep the ball, went a long way to securing our victory. The front three of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez were equally effective. None of them had defined positions that night, each taking it turns to drop in wide left or right and get up and support the furthest forward at the time. We all know it went to penalties but United should have put the game to bed in the first half but we know the nature of our club is not to do anything easy. Hargreaves played the full 120 minutes that night and despatched his penalty with consummate ease, what else would you expect from a man who used to ply his trade in Germany. So United bagged a historic Premier League and Champions League double and Hargreaves was certainly a one season wonder.

Such a shame that his injuries prevented him from really featuring for us again, apart from the odd comeback attempt. With David Moyes striving to secure the services of class midfielders, I have always maintained we have never replaced Hargreaves. When you have a natural box to box player like that who can play any role in that midfield, its such an asset to the squad. Lets hope we can sign a player of similar qualities to Hargreaves and curly hair doesn’t have to be a pre-requisite of that player.

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Coogar, wouldn't you love someone like him in our team?

It is just a pity we lost him to injury.

coogar: this elampiro is a fantasist....
we asked him to prove hargreaves played in the midfield in moscow and he went to print a report documenting the entire 07/08 season. does elampiro have a problem with english comprehension?



the above says man utd came out victorious in a match after a season in which fergie's 4-3-3 almost worked. it did not say united played 4-3-3 against chelsea in the final. if you have problem with english, then go & learn fervently.

You should know better than you are writing now.

Do I need any formation chart to know how the players moved around on the night in Moscow or who was checkmating/frustrating who?

Formation chart wont tell you that Chelsea parked bus against Barca in Camp Nou on their way to winning UCL final of 2011. Formation chart won't reveal that Lampard, Mata, Kalou, Meireles, Ramires and Mikel all turned defenders on the night. You need to watch a match to understand who was dribbling who or passing to another or chasing backwards, etc etc etc.

You have to look at who does what when the team is defending and also when they are attacking. Who do they mark? Chelsea would tell you their formation in Barcelona was a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, but in reality it was 9-0-1 such that the possession was 73-27. Even the first leg was not different, possession was 70-30. It took two genius efforts from Ramires to get the goal in London and the 1st away goal in Barcelona.

When you look at formation, you need to go deep to see what tactics was applied. That's why sometimes there are no clear agreement as to what formation was deployed. In same match you could see reports stating three different formations.

I am done with this argument. Today is a match day. New focus.

coogar: this is a weak argument - if rooney/ronaldo didn't play, it can only blunt the attack, it should not make us lose. had the match ended 0-0, you might have a point, but we lost with hargreaves on the pitch. so your lies have been exposed.



even your image clearly shows 4-4-2. hargreaves wasn't a central midfielder. he played ahead of wes brown and your image clearly shows he's nearer the touchline than scholes and carrick.



but your lies have been exposed. you first said hargreaves was a central midfielder, now you are saying he occasionally ran there. why would fergie instruct a defensive midfielder to occasionally run into the right wing? have you ever seen carrick run occasionally to the right flank?

elampiro - you lie for a living....

Yes the image showed he was nearer the touchline, but what was his overall function on the night? His right wide function on the night was not tailored to be what you will call a winger- like what you get when Nani or Valencia or Young play in the flank.

1. In the UCL final, Owen Hargreaves was not playing in the right of the midfield the first time that season, when he did or was required of him was to run to the right wide during attack. While United defended, he was to paralyse the left side of Chelsea midfield by preventing Ashley Cole and Lampard from using the ball in that area. That alone had taken away 30% job of Scholes and Carrick. Rooney mostly played on the right whenever Hargreaves joined the midfield to defend.

2. You asked again if I have ever seen Carrick occasionally ran to the left. If you were United coach would you give Carrick such a function? He doesn't have the strength for that multi-function. It requires lots of energy and outpacing Ashley Cole while retracting fast again to halt Lampard and co.

3. If Rooney and Ronaldo didn't play against City, it meant City defence and defensive midfield players were not under pressure. That gave them the boldness to join their forward in attack. It is common sense. Whereas if Ronaldo and Rooney were there, City defence wouldn't venture and their midfield would sit deep. Even forward players would have joined to defend some situations.

You said you are a coach, but the way you see football is funny most of the time. In football, every thing is highly interwoven.
...........................................................................

2007/2008 Manchester United-

2007/2008 was a great season for the Red Devils, as they were able to win the league for a second time in a row, with Chelsea again finishing as runners-up. Finishing second was not the biggest disappointment for Chelsea that season though, as they then went to Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow for the Champion’s League final against Manchester United. After 120 minutes, the game was tied at 1-1 and went to a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. With misses by the captain, John Terry, and Nicolas Anelka, Manchester United came out victorious after a season in which Sir Alex Ferguson’s 4-3-3 worked almost perfectly.

A team that was solid defensively, and inventive and creative on the attack caused problems both domestically and continentally for opposing teams. Edwin Van der Sar played in goal, keeping 24 clean sheets that season. Playing at center-back was Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, who made up possibly the best center-back pairing in the world at the time. Patrice Evra played at left-back, while right-back was filled by Wes Brown, with help from John O’Shea. This was one of the strongest back 5 that United has ever had.

In the midfield, Owen Hargreaves functioned as the holding midfielder, but he also had some passing skills that allowed him to make good contributions on the attack. His defensive strength in the midfield made the Red Devils a very difficult team to break down, as they never gave up more than 2 goals in a game. Michael Carrick played as the hard working box-to-box midfielder, and he had a very strong season. He isn’t a big physical midfielder, but he reads the game extremely well and this made him very effective at breaking up the opponent’s play. Playing as the creative midfielder was the Ginger Prince, Paul Scholes. At the age of 32, he didn’t have the same pace that he had earlier in his career, but he still had a great vision to play incisive passes to carve through a defense. This was one of his last season’s up front, but he was very effective and he was responsible for helping the players up front from a central midfield position.


2007/2008 Red Devil Forwards
2007/2008 Red Devil Attack-

United had an extremely dangerous front line. Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Nani, and Louis Saha were all capable of playing positions up front and all of them were dangerous scoring threats (even Louis Saha, when healthy). The most frequent starting lineup had Carlos Tevez starting centrally, while Cristiano Ronaldo would start on the right wing and Wayne Rooney would start on the left wing. There are few attacking lineups that could be more potent. Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 49 appearances, Tevez scored 19 in 48 appearances, and Rooney picked up 18 in 43 appearances. These three players scored 79 out of United’s 103 goals.

What made Manchester United’s attack so potent wasn’t just the fact that it consisted of three world class players, but also how they were utilized. All three players could function in all three positions, so the players would constantly be moving on the attack, switching positions with each other, dragging defenders out of position, creating openings for each other, creating defensive overloads, and confusing the defense. The outside wingers would frequently cut inside, trying to play between the opponent’s defensive and midfield lines. By cutting inside, they could linkup and play passes to each other in order to get behind the opponent’s defense. The ability of all three players to play all three positions meant that you would see the players popping up all over the field, which caused headaches for the defense, and made them extremely difficult to mark.

enter here for full analysis.

- See more at: http://redrants.com/the-tactics-board-is-fergies-solution-the-4-2-1-3/#sthash.ay1IS2aw.dpuf
http://redrants.com/the-tactics-board-is-fergies-solution-the-4-2-1-3/
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When you have the right mix, and you have players like Hargreaves who do some great stuff for you, then you are good to rule.

Till dawn. Off to bed.

[quote author=coogar]you lie always.....



so ronaldo & rooney was the reason our midfield was breached? do the 2 of them play in the midfield? why should their absence leave a hole in the midfield when they are mainly strikers? you should never go near a lie detector machine - you would blow it.



ill-luck? losing to a relegation-bound team was ill-luck? why do you lie for a living?



it was something to be very proud of - united won the league like it was a stroll in the park. their pole position on the league table was not challenged for 7 months. they led the league from october to may. it was carrick's debut season and he was outstanding throughout with scholes!



good decision, you lost the last time you went near it.



kagawa was our best player on the day. he created 4 good chances for rooney and others, they all failed to utilise the chances created.



it seems you are suffering from the pink eye. carrick & cleverley started the match. they both battered fellaini to a pulp and we were leading 2-0 before halftime. carrick went out in the 53rd minute for jones. the job was done before phil jones came on.



you lie for a living. they would practically have to deliver you spiritually to stop lying. every man & his dog know united played 4-4-2 against chelsea in moscow. where did you see hargreaves in the central midfield?


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Man_Utd_vs_Chelsea_2008-05-21.svg/600px-Man_Utd_vs_Chelsea_2008-05-21.svg.png

only elampiro saw hargreaves as a midfielder in moscow.



xavi, iniesta and busquets are tougher than united's midfield? of course, they are all hatchet men. they are as tough as nails too. you lie for a living, you should stop lying and embrace facts in your arguments.[/quote

1. If Ronaldo and Rooney didn't play our match against City in 2007 both were on fire, how do you expect us to win? Weakness in one department affects the whole team.

2. Hargreaves did not play in the flank in 2008 CL final, he only occasionally ran there. He was on the right sdie of the midfield, not as a winger or an attacker. We have discuss this here before extensively.

3. You keep shouting lies lies for what you don't understand. Do you think by shouting lies you will be able to frustrate me in the argument?

Even Rooney was aksed to track back to help lazy Carrick in Moscow.

coogar: elampiro would still tell you joe hart gives him confidence than de gea. that's 2 different goals he conceded where the ball was delivered into his 6-yard box.

What is this?

Anyway, I reserve my comment and wait for the season to progress.

coogar: and when man city defeated united home & away that same season, where was hargreaves? was he taken off in those games too? you are such a liar & you would cook up nonsense to back up frail points.

What is the lie? Are you saying Hargreaves was not taken off before Portsmouth scored?

Secondly, when United lost at City in August 2007, Ronaldo and Rooney didn't play as they were still nursing injuries. Then in the return leg at Old Trafford, Rooney didn't play and Hargreaves did not come on until 73rd minute because he was recovery from injury.

Thirdly, a team that won UCL and EPL is not expected to go a season unbeaten. What was important was winning those trophies and telling our major title rivals that we could beat them. This we did perfectly well, but for ill luck we could have won a treble that year.

coogar: united playing the best football means outplaying opponents off the park and winning too. the season we went a long time without conceding was the poorest season in recent times as far as quality football is concerned. we just ground results without playing well - liverpool were better than united that season - they played a better quality of football m.



they have fortified their teams and yet we keep winning the league with the weakest midfield in the league. who was the hatchet man when anderson & cleverley destroyed every opponent put against them at the start of 11/12 season?

It is the quality football I am asking for now, not the type we shadow mark opponents from start to finish. I am ashamed the way Chelsea and Man City made us looked ordinary in the last two seasons. Their major advantage over us is the midfield, and it is due to the fact we allow them utilize the ball unchallenged. United may have won the league but it doesn't mean our midfield is something to be proud of.

I don't want to go into that closed chapter of Anderson and Cleverly you are trying to re-open.

coogar: fellaini dealt with who? a defence that contained valencia & carrick? rangers of enugu could have beaten that united side that went to everton that night and rooney was useless upfront too - he wasted all the good chances kagawa laid on the plate for him.

where was fellaini in the corresponding fixture @ old trafford? it was cleverley & carrick in the midfield and they destroyed fellaini's midfield 2-0 by half time & everton never recovered. where was barry & yaya toure when cleverley/carrick destroyed city @ the etihad?

Kagawa was among those who were poor in Goodison Park when Fellani useless our midfield. After Kagawa appeared to have had a good preseason, he failed in his first real test.

In the return leg with Everton, it was Phil Jones who took care of Fellaini, not any Carrick and Cleverly. Did you watch the match at all?

coogar: scholes only got older - the theory behind the combination would still beat the best teams in the league and possibly in europe. it was scholes + carrick that won the champions league in moscow. hargreaves played as a right winger that night. scholes + carrick held ballack + makelele + lampard.



you cannot prove this.....
we have seen barcelona dominate europe without a hatchet man. the united team that won the treble in 1999 had no hatchet man. roy keane was no hatchet man and they won the champions league in 1999 without a single defeat.

Hageaves played midfield in Moscow. It was Carrick, Scholes and Hargreaves. How do you watch your football self?

Secondly, the Barcelona midfield and ours are not the same at all. Barca midfield players are all tougher than our collectively and individually. You should always look for the right mix. 1999, there you go again, I knew it was a matter of time before you quote 1956.

coogar: read english before you post - i said united beat chelsea to the title



portsmouth beat united in 07/08 in the same competition @ OT with the arrival of anderson/hargreaves. so it means united are weaker?



no one said he was mistaken but united played their best football in the autumn of 06/07. it's a widely acknowledged fact on any united blog.

http://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-best-football-we-have-played-under-fergie.269276/

http://www.unitedlounge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13875



2 shadow markers have won us the league before and after hargreaves. i don't see how hargreaves or a dominant figure has any bearing with united. with or without a hatchet man, we still won league titles.

1. Portsmouth beat United in FA cup 2007/8 because SAF removed Hagreaves in 68th minute and brought in Carrick, then Carrick and Scholes carried on the remainder of the match. The goal was scored on 78th minute- 10 minutes after Hargreaves left.

2. You said United played its best football in the autumn of 06/07? How did you arrive at this? By points won or the standard of play? I thought there was a time United went a along time without conceding goals or beaten, and United gathered a lot of points last season and the previous(I think during the winter). These achievements were not in 2006/7.

You should also know EPL teams have by far fortified their teams since 2006. It is becoming more and more physical and fast paced.

3. You said United do win league without the hatchet man. Not so true. You have to look at the mix. taking last season for instance, Fellaini delt with us at Everton when he won every ball he contested for, and he also stole balls in between the legs of Carrick and Scholes. He bullied us all through. But subsequent big games or fast paced playing team, SAF used Jones to arrest such ugly situations. Do we need to use Jones for such? But if we have someone who can get the job done and still use the ball effectively, then that will be the ideal deal.

SAF had always known that Scholes and Carrick will have a problem taking the ball off big opponents, hence the reason he went for Hargreaves and Ando. When these two guys were not available again for this job, he opted for Jones. It is for this reason Cleverly and Anderson were not part of games like we had in Madrid.

4. United should think of dominating Europe and be a feared team. To do this, we need to go beyond just shadow markers in our midfield. What may work in a local league might not yield results in Europe because over there only big teams contest, I mean only fortified teams which dominate it's opponents or at least rival them in all department are the ones that win the trophy.

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