Man Utd v Arsenal Champions League

Insect Overlord

ShooterSF wrote: »

Independently:
Performance: Ecstatic
Result: Ecstatic

Together:
A little disappointed.

Agreed. Such a great performance (first 60 minutes really) should have warranted more than 1 goal.

Wreck

Much better second half from Arsenal, pretty happy with a one-nil loss after the first 20 minutes.

GuanYin

nuxxx wrote: »

Maybe if you gave some insite into why a extra striker would improve arsenal it might make more sence. Walcott and Nasri and wingers

I'm not sure what needs explaining.

Arsenal play possession football, they move the ball forward quickly, with support.

They formation they started with tonight wasn't set up for that because the United defense easily isolated the forward, much like Chelsea and Liverpool did.

The three man midfield isn't good for this kind of football because the player getting forward seems to be Diaby too often.

Look at how that changed when the brought Bendtner on? Suddenly you saw them hold the ball at the forward line for a few seconds, allowing the midfield line to get forward and suddenly there were options for possession.

I'm not a fan of tactical switches like this, I prefer the best players playing in a system they are comfortable with and that isn't what happened tonight.

The difference was obvious from the time Wenger reverted to 4-4-2

Headshot

rarnes1 wrote: »

as was bringing off Tevez imo

yap

Raskolnikov

I can't see anything other than an Barcelona - Man Utd final. They're clearly the two best teams.

mada999

Headshot wrote: »

FT

bringing off ando was a mistake imo

carrick was disappointing again today

lol....thought Carrick was running the show for yas tonight..thought he played well

ROCKMAN

Performance = very happy ,
Score line =very disappointed,
Can i see Utd score in the return leg ,Yes .
but its far from over.
Cannot wait,

Holsten

Not the worst, Arsenal really should have been out of the tie within the first 30 minutes.

They can win 2 nil at home.

Headshot

mada999 wrote: »

lol....thought Carrick was running the show for yas tonight..thought he played well

what game were you watching

the game i was watching was carrick giving the ball away most of the time
the guy just cant pass in tight situations

as iv said ando was superb, the guy looked dangerous and he's passing was a joy to watch too bad his corners were ****e

yabadabado

im disappointed with the scoreline .we really should have won that by 2 or 3.bit like the inter match couldnt convert our chances.all set uo for a cracking match next week

Morzadec

Raskolnikov wrote: »

I can't see anything other than an Barcelona - Man Utd final. They're clearly the two best teams.

I dunno Arsenal are a different proposition at home and will have a coupke of players back. They're not out of this but its certainly advantage United.

The RTE panel are ridiculous sometimes. They embarrass themselves a good few times every night with their mispronunciation and mix-up of names and teams.

Did anyone hear Dunphy call Clichy 'Cliché'?

mada999

Headshot wrote: »

what game were you watching

the game i was watching was carrick giving the ball away most of the time
the guy just cant pass in tight situations

the game i was watching especially in the first half, was no arsenal player getting near carrick and him just holding the ball up and passing it...

Jazzy

boring game for a neutral(ish)

Mr. Frost

mada999 wrote: »

lol....thought Carrick was running the show for yas tonight..thought he played well

Carrick was a liability at times. Missed a good few opportunities to close down in midfield and didn't do a whole lot passing/tackling wise. Pretty standard for a centre mid.

Fletch, Rooney, Anderson and Evra stood out by a mile.

eclectichoney

I'd have taken a 1-0 beforehand but really disappointed we didn't bag a second. Still I think the clean sheet was very very important.

Fletch and Ando ran their legs off, disappointed with Carrick though. What has happened him the last couple of months??

Thought Evra looked like he was getting back to his best though. Love the way he hassled (was it Bendtner?) in the corner flag.

Headshot

mada999 wrote: »

the game i was watching especially in the first half, was no arsenal player getting near carrick and him just holding the ball up and passing it...

fletch and ando ran the show

Frisbee

Given how we played 1-0 was very flattering.

Eduardo/Bendtner should have been on much sooner.

Almunia and (once again) Song were excellent

Mr. Frost

Jazzy wrote: »

boring game for a neutral(ish)

Far from boring from Utd perspective. You obviously didn't enjoy seeing Utd play Arsenal off the park.

mike65

I though Arsenal were woefully slow tonight, seemed to take an age for a player to spot a pass and then play that pass at speed.

Morzadec

Jazzy wrote: »

boring game for a neutral(ish)

Really? I thought it was pretty exciting and I'm also a neutral(ish)

mada999

Mr. Frost wrote: »

Carrick was a liability at times. Missed a good few opportunities to close down in midfield and didn't do a whole lot passing/tackling wise. Pretty standard for a centre mid.

Fletch, Rooney, Anderson and Evra stood out by a mile.

if ye want to give out about someone, try Fabregas... he was shocking...

still think carrick had a good game....of course Anderson was always free because of the system arsenal were playing

mada999

mike65 wrote: »

I though Arsenal were woefully slow tonight, seemed to take an age for a player to spot a pass and then play that pass at speed.

Agreed 100% too slow..

Liam O

Haha nice save there RTE

OPENROAD

Only one goal conceded, happy enough, tie very much still alive, we will be a lot more positive at The Emirates.

Liam O

John O'Shea is such a sound guy, he deserves everything he has achieved

Mr. Frost

mada999 wrote: »

if ye want to give out about someone, try Fabregas... he was shocking...

still think carrick had a good game....of course Anderson was always free because of the system arsenal were playing

Yeah he was rubbish.

Arsenal had two defensive mids and Fabregas dropping back so...I don't think they gave Anderson space per se. I think Anderson just did what he does best - worked hard, ran his nads off, tackled in midfield and got forward when he could. That's his game.

Highsider

Poor game for the neutral in all honesty. A lot of huffing and puffing from both teams. Hopefully the second leg will live up to the promise.

quad_red

Ha ha.

Giles is getting visibly pissed off at RTE's technical incompetence.

Headshot

almunia would be my MOTM

from utd side I would say Rooney or Fletch

adox

Happy enough with the result. Could have been more but a clean sheet is very welcome and the fact that United looked very organised as a unit defensively bodes well for the last few weeks of the season.

Disappointed to see Ando taken off, especially with Carrick being such a limited player. He just doesnt have the speed of thought to deal with tight situations and just isnt up to it at this level imo.

Fletcher was fantastic. He was caught dallying on the ball in dangerous positions a couple of times but his closing down and harrying of the Arsenal team was second to none(well along with Tevez).

Thought Berba did quite well when he came on. Hes turning into too easy a scape goat lately.

Thought Ronaldo was poor and had his Madrid head on him again tonight. Hope we get a good price for him in the summer.:D

mike65

The replay of the winkers tantrum was priceless, should be on youtube by midnight.

Hank Scorpio

GuanYin wrote: »

I'm not sure what needs explaining.

Arsenal play possession football, they move the ball forward quickly, with support.

What team doesnt want possesion? The only true team like this are barcelona left in the CL.

They formation they started with tonight wasn't set up for that because the United defense easily isolated the forward, much like Chelsea and Liverpool did.

The defence didnt no anything special lol, the problem was UTD overran arsenals midfield because of the lack of selection position wise from wengers selection

The three man midfield isn't good for this kind of football because the player getting forward seems to be Diaby too often.

diaby never ever got forward, ever. the three man midfield wasnt one. Fabregas was meant was a AM behind ADE but was drawn back to play all the time because hes a CM , and a excellent one at that

Look at how that changed when the brought Bendtner on? Suddenly you saw them hold the ball at the forward line for a few seconds, allowing the midfield line to get forward and suddenly there were options for possession.

Brentner had about 3 runs, 2 of which went back to either fab or nasri and the other loosing possession, everyone nos brentner is championship quality

I'm not a fan of tactical switches like this, I prefer the best players playing in a system they are comfortable with and that isn't what happened tonight.
The difference was obvious from the time Wenger reverted to 4-4-2

Van persie was missed as was in my first post, which you claimed 1 player didnt matter to the system. of course it does. Look at utd without ferdinard or vidic, or liverpool without gerrard, or any team without a key key player. Anyway i wont reply to you anymore because i dont think you know what your talking about and dont wanter a 156th infraction because i meantioned a certion word about a certion player

Nalz

Can I just say

Carrick was good

Its just everyone else was very good. Raging Manchester United didnt get the second

ShooterSF

Anyone else spot the ref allowing advantage a few times and not pulling it back when it never materialised?

Agree Carrick had a poor game, he was our creative outlet in a 3 man midfield with Ando and Fletch but never really pulled the strings. Tevez was great in the first half and set the pace but was subdued by a poor yellow, his game is really handicapped on a booking as he can't harass players and terrorise them. Delighted with Ronnie and berbs tracking and working.

Necronomicon

While United should have put away more than the one goal, I'm delighted with the clean sheet, because before the game I fancied something a little more high scoring. There might be some disappointment that United could and should have scored more, but an Arsenal goal would have been a disaster because they have been solid defensively at the Emirates in the CL.

It shouldn't be this finely balanced considering how poor Arsenal were but **** it, a win and a clean sheet going into the second leg isn't too shabby either.

starbelgrade

Liam O wrote: »

John O'Shea is such a sound guy, he deserves everything he has achieved

I think he's over-rated. I hate seeing his name on the team sheet, but he did have a good game tonight.

Let's hope Ferdinand isn't too badly injured. (unless yr an ABU!)

United vs. Chelsea again I reckon - if it happens, UEFA have decided to cancel the perliminaries and just play the final with the same teams!

Headshot

Trilla wrote: »

Can I just say

Carrick was good

Its just everyone else was very good. Raging Manchester United didnt get the second

mate you cant say that

3 Dollar Bill

Happy enough with 1-0 tonight. At least we didn't concede, we are more than capable of scoring at the Emirates.

Another Chelsea/Man Utd final

adox

Dunphy saying Ronaldo is too tall to be a great winger lol

ShooterSF

Also, poor Arsenal were jinxed by the O'Shea bashing in the United thread earlier

eclectichoney

starbelgrade wrote: »

I think he's over-rated. I hate seeing his name on the team sheet, but he did have a good game tonight.

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone claim JOS is over-rated! If anything, he tends to be ridiculously under-rated imho. If JOS played like Carrick did tonight and for the past couple of months the abuse he would get from 'fans' would be unreal.

starbelgrade

adox wrote: »

Dunphy saying Ronaldo is too tall to be a great winger lol

Can we make him smaller then? He wouldn't be too good if you chopped his legs off!

genericgoon

Lol at Van Der Sar and the Irish.

starbelgrade

eclectichoney wrote: »

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone claim JOS is over-rated! If anything, he tends to be ridiculously under-rated imho. If JOS played like Carrick did tonight and for the past couple of months the abuse he would get from 'fans' would be unreal.

Mate call him John O' Sh*t, so I'm not the only one.

starbelgrade

eclectichoney wrote: »

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone claim JOS is over-rated! If anything, he tends to be ridiculously under-rated imho. If JOS played like Carrick did tonight and for the past couple of months the abuse he would get from 'fans' would be unreal.

My mate calls him John O' Sh*t, so I'm not the only one.

genericgoon

adox wrote: »

Dunphy saying Ronaldo is too tall to be a great winger lol

As a pure winger, its debatable. As a wing forward, Dunphy is so wrong.

starbelgrade

genericgoon wrote: »

As a pure winger, its debatable. As a wing forward, Dunphy is so wrong.

Dunphy is NEVER wrong. EVER.

ShooterSF

starbelgrade wrote: »

My mate calls him John O' Sh*t, so I'm not the only one.

That doesn't prove he's "over-rated" though. Actually it proves the opposite.

Liam O

starbelgrade wrote: »

I think he's over-rated. I hate seeing his name on the team sheet, but he did have a good game tonight.

Let's hope Ferdinand isn't too badly injured. (unless yr an ABU!)

United vs. Chelsea again I reckon - if it happens, UEFA have decided to cancel the perliminaries and just play the final with the same teams!

O'Shea is OVERATED??? First time I've ever heard that. Credit to how well he's been playing I suppose...

Nalz

Headshot wrote: »

mate you cant say that

ok ok some stray passes yes, but he wasnt brutal like RTE made him out to be.

Either way I'm still annoyed we didnt get a second. It almost feels like it ended 0-0, almost