Manchester United vs. Birmingham City F.C.

Zonda999

Satisfactory performance for an opening day, i would say.

United are hardly ever on fire at the start of the season anyway. There is life after CR anyways:D

D.S.

Decent first half..United were poor in the second..having to bring on Brown instead of Anderson was unfortunate...

Overall, given how United usually stutter in the first few games of the season, good to get the win. I'd say it might take a good half a dozen games before the new system and players like Valencia/Owen bed down..

Raskolnikov

Deserved win for United. From an Irish perspective, John O'Shea was very solid at the back. Carr, Carsley and Fahey all did ok, Jay O'Shea didn't really get a chance to do much.

bUILDERtHEbOB

O'Shea needs a few months in the gym by the looks of things.

missingtime

The stream on Channel 1 on Iraqgoals.net was the best thing about the match.

Pity the other Benitez didn't score

rossie1977

Zonda999 wrote: »

United are hardly ever on fire at the start of the season anyway. There is life after CR anyways:D

another 1-0 win, continuing on from last year i see anyway, just a tidbit on last year, in the 12 or so 1-0 league wins last season, ronaldo only scored the winning goal once and that was a penalty against everton, i have said it before and i will say it again ronaldo won't be missed in the small games

McGrath5

missingtime wrote: »

The stream on Channel 1 on Iraqgoals.net was the best thing about the match.

Pity the other Benitez didn't score

Indeed, it was very steady for the entire match.

The Muppet

average performance and 3 points in the bag , happy enough for the first game of the season.

PHB

****e performance in the 2nd half, solid in the first. Game won, 3 points and I'm happy.

What I'm not happy about.

A. Scholes should not be playing, he was just a passanger, especially in the second half.

B. Giggs offers extremely little on the wing these days, gotta be in the centre.

C. We keep getting ****ing injuries, its getting annoying

D. The ref was annoying as ****. Every 50/50 went their way. Two high foot calls given for absolutely no ****ing reason. Definate penalty not given. Extremely annoying from him.

Nonetheless, encouraging from Nani and Berbatov imo, two players who need to step it up. For me, Rooney/Foster was probably United's best player.

Theresalwaysone

"Meh" describes it well I think.

I really wasnt impressed with Fabio at all. His positioning was terrible at times. He is young though so hopefully that will improve.

I thought fletcher had a great game, he got tired towards the end but I'l forgive him that.

Headshot

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

"Meh" describes it well I think.

I really wasnt impressed with Fabio at all. His positioning was terrible at times. He is young though so hopefully that will improve.

I thought fletcher had a great game, he got tired towards the end but I'l forgive him that.

to be fair to fabio he is playing out of position but I though fabio put in a great job

herbieflowers

Good game from Foster, looked comfortable an dassured when called upon and a great save from Benitez.

Fletcher showed the form that made his so integral to the side last season. Great work ethic, always looking to get into space to receive a pass.

Second half, the midfield disappeared defensively. There were a couple of times when Brum were running at the defence and there appeared to be no support from the midfield.

Overall, considering it was a makeshift back four and first game of the season, it's three points and a clean sheet. Not too shabby.

The Muppet

PHB wrote: »

B. Giggs offers extremely little on the wing these days, gotta be in the centre.


D. The ref was annoying as ****. Every 50/50 went their way. Two high foot calls given for absolutely no ****ing reason. Definate penalty not given. Extremely annoying from him.

I think you are being a bit hard on Giggs , age has taken its toll but he is still quality in patches wherever he plays.

Agree totally about the ref, he made some very poor decisions today, he couldn't be accused of being a homer.

ghouldaddy07

3pts on the board, Cant beleave Owen did not put away that chance. Great preformance from Evans and Foster.

Roll on midweek.:)

JPA

Did Richard Keys just say the first meeting between spurs and Liverpool was in 1992? Or did I mishear.

All_in_Flynn

PHB wrote: »

****e performance in the 2nd half, solid in the first. Game won, 3 points and I'm happy.

What I'm not happy about.

A. Scholes should not be playing, he was just a passanger, especially in the second half.

LOL this is a level surely? Paul Scholes a passanger in that game? You were watching a different game to me anyway. Scholes along with Rooney and Evra was our best player today.

He pressed everything in midfield very quickly without the ball and controlled the pace at times with his usual accurate passing. He had some lovely little give and goes with Rooney and his switching of the play in the first half was a key reason in Birmingham being camped in their own final 3rd.

By absolutely no means was he a passanger today anyway.

Headshot

Headshot wrote: »

[

going for 1-0 utd

DM_7

Headshot wrote: »

yes we won and that what matters but the performance wasnt good enough at all

idk where to put my finger on it

maybe it was the midfield

First game of the season. Fitness not up yet. Nani went off early. When evans went off we were unable to bring on Anderson to freshen up the midfield.

Back four never played together before.

Happy enough, despite all the injuries SAF had a good bench and that is a positive for me.

Valencia showed some danger when everyone else was getting tired.

Rooney could of had a couple more. He linked up well with Berba, Owen and scholes at differant stages of the match.

Fair play to birmingham, they looked a solid side and had some injuries themselves. They should do well. Nice to see Carr back in the Prem and getting forward at times.

Pro. F

Headshot wrote: »

yes we won and that what matters but the performance wasnt good enough at all

idk where to put my finger on it

maybe it was the midfield

Tbh i wouldn't really criticise the midfield or strikers much for today. Sure, Birmingham did give us loads of space and we failed to punish them for it but it seemed like start of season slugishness rather than any real problems imo. I think that midfield would normally be good enough to brush a team like Brum asside at home.

Nice to see Foster making some good decisions today and following them through confidently. a good save too, from Benitez.

DM_7

Pro. F wrote: »

Tbh i wouldn't really criticise the midfield or strikers much for today. Sure, Birmingham did give us loads of space and we failed to punish them for it but it seemed like start of season slugishness rather than any real problems imo. I think that midfield would normally be good enough to brush a team like Brum asside at home.

Nice to see Foster making some good decisions today and following them through confidently. a good save too, from Benitez.

Well said.

foster looked like a new player this week compared to last. Everything decision he made was the correct decision and that save from Benitez was very good.

Paul Tergat

DM-ICE wrote: »

Well said.

foster looked like a new player this week compared to last. Everything decision he made was the correct decision and that save from Benitez was very good.

I've said it loads of times now but he just needs 4/5 games in a row. Confidence will build and he will feel like he is good enough to be number 1 for us.

The performance in the 2nd half lacked energy but I would expect that on the 1st game. 3 points in the bag is the main thing!

Mitch Connor

thought we missed Nani a lot in the second half to be honest. he was linking up very well with Evra in the first half and was giving us good width. When Giggs came on he came central a lot and we lacked out balls on the left quite a bit, which forced Evra forward which in turn left space in behind on our left. Also got quite congested in the second half as well.

Rooney was annoying me - had some lovely touches but he was playing weirdly defensively when he had the ball imo - his first touch kept bringing him away from goal, noticed it a good bit in pre season too.

Certainly a lot of room for improvement for United, I don't think we looked dangerous enough for most of that game. Was gutted that Owen missed that chance at the end, he needs to be putting them away. Maybe it's playing on his mind a bit, and once he gets that first proper goal he'll calm down a bit and be a bit more composed/confident in front of goal.

Thought our defence did reasonably well, but we got overrun a few times in the second half where we possibly should have done better defensively, though that might have been down to Evans being injured which lead to him coming off.

We really need Rio and Vidic back.

dubmick

Ronaldo watched the game, that was nice of him

http://twitter.com/OfficialRonaldo

Mitch Connor

dubmick wrote: »

Ronaldo watched the game, that was nice of him

http://twitter.com/OfficialRonaldo

That can't be him,surely.

Boggles

PHB wrote: »

****e performance in the 2nd half, solid in the first. Game won, 3 points and I'm happy.

What I'm not happy about.

A. Scholes should not be playing, he was just a passanger, especially in the second half.

B. Giggs offers extremely little on the wing these days, gotta be in the centre.

C. We keep getting ****ing injuries, its getting annoying

D. The ref was annoying as ****. Every 50/50 went their way. Two high foot calls given for absolutely no ****ing reason. Definate penalty not given. Extremely annoying from him.

Nonetheless, encouraging from Nani and Berbatov imo, two players who need to step it up. For me, Rooney/Foster was probably United's best player.

Jesus Christ, what game were you watching?

Scholes was excellent.

ntlbell

Don't want to be too critical of valenica as he was pretty solid for most of the game but his decision making is going to have to quicken up

one of the advantages over ronaldo is the ball should come in a lot quicker/first time but a lot of times today he slowed down and thought about it too much maybe he was a bit nervous and didn't want to make too many mistakes.

gutted owen missed that chance as they don't come much easier really thought he should of went round the keeper.:mad:

Pro. F

Mitch Connor wrote: »

thought we missed Nani a lot in the second half to be honest. he was linking up very well with Evra in the first half and was giving us good width. When Giggs came on he came central a lot and we lacked out balls on the left quite a bit, which forced Evra forward which in turn left space in behind on our left. Also got quite congested in the second half as well.

Yup totally agree with that.

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Rooney was annoying me - had some lovely touches but he was playing weirdly defensively when he had the ball imo - his first touch kept bringing him away from goal, noticed it a good bit in pre season too.

Intersting that you say this. There was a lot of keep ball as we tried to break them down today. Rooney definitely helped keep possession around the box. I wonder if he could take more responsibillity to mix it up as you say. Maybe try a few more flicks and shots and such. He's probably used to leaving all that risky stuff to our departed Portuguese friend.

kenon

ntlbell wrote: »

gutted owen missed that chance as they don't come much easier really thought he should of went round the keeper.:mad:

Agreed. The keeper was set and Owen was straight on which made it easier for Hart, rounding him was the better option.

Pro. F

Boggles wrote: »

Jesus Christ, what game were you watching?

Scholes was excellent.

Yeah. I thanked PHB's post but i won't to un-thank that bit. Scholes did well for us, keeping and using the ball, until he tired after about the hour mark.

herbieflowers

ntlbell wrote: »

Don't want to be too critical of valenica as he was pretty solid for most of the game but his decision making is going to have to quicken up

Yeah, I agree, though I thought he fitted it very well with the rest of the players. Showed some nice touches and was lively, particularly in the first half. His delivery was good, would've liked to have seen him get at his man a bit more. Looks to be a good signing anyway.

dubmick

Mitch Connor wrote: »

That can't be him,surely.

either him or his agent. It's a verified account.