Manchester United V Sunderland

Mad_Max

manutd wrote: »

get in there 2-2. still fcuk 3 pionts put in the bin. Cannot wait to see MotD tonight, and Alec after-match talk

RTE you mean!

redzerdrog

redzerdrog wrote: »

id worry for yas with that midfield its poor with the exception of fletcher

wasnt so lol, fail, ha ha :rolleyes: :eek:lol after all.....

Headshot

CoachBoone wrote: »

I thought Berbs was great today, him, Evra, Evans and Rooney to an extent are the only players that can be happy with their performances.

Sunderland passed the ball like United at times. Fair balls to them.

:eek:

jesus_thats_gre

Headshot wrote: »

they are certain liverpool fans in this thread that'll try their best

Does a Liverpool fan accusing Richardson of being a fool and Anton being unlucky count as a conspiracy theory?

CoachBoone

What?

Berbs was at the heart of everything good United did today. Everything.
Rooney was his typical industrial self, it just didnt happen for him, fine lines.

MementoMori

OPENROAD wrote: »

still two points dropped by utd.

This would be one of the games that Utd would have won by a goal last season.

I don't think Utd are going to win anywhere near the 17 games they won by a single goal last season and I think this is why they arent going to win the league.

Iago

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Does a Liverpool fan accusing Richardson of being a fool and Anton being unlucky count as a conspiracy theory?

yes, yes it does.

A draw is still a bad result for Utd, let's be honest here....

Ferdinand obviously popped it in the net for his big brother....

Necronomicon

Seriously got out of jail, terrible performance. Sunderland wouldn't have been flattered by 3 points tbh, they were great. Cattermole was a beast in midfield. But still, happy enough with a late equaliser at least. Just have to hope for a draw tomorrow and it's as you were.

Headshot

CoachBoone wrote: »

What?

Berbs was at the heart of everything good United did today. Everything.
Rooney was his typical industrial self, it just didnt happen for him, fine lines.

your joking right

that amount of times berbs gave the ball away today was a joke,trying those ****ing little flicks :rolleyes:
his goal was superb but his overall play was crap

Rooney was far from his best today,his passing was brutal and just couldnt get any change out of the sunderland defence, far from his best, probably his worse performance this season for utd

CoachBoone

Headshot wrote: »

your joking right

that amount of times berbs gave the ball away today was a joke,trying those ****ing little flicks :rolleyes:
his goal was superb but his overall play was crap

Rooney was far from his best today,his passing was brutal and just couldnt get any change out of the sunderland defence, far from his best, probably his worse performance this season for utd

Not joking at all.

I'd say he tried those flicks 3 times, and lost the ball twice. He was the ONLY United player retaining possession. He wasour main threat going forward both from carrying the ball at them and with his passing. He was good today, very good. And he scored a cracker.

Rooney had an off day but he was industrial, thats why I said "to an extent".

Harpy

happy with the draw after that performance sunderland deserved the win...

c'mon the pool tomorrow..oh i feel dirty.

manutd

rarnes1 wrote: »

you won't see him talking to the BBC !!

I know it will be on SSN tomorrow.

Nani is useless plain and simple.

Foster is a liability and I'm hoping to see him between the sticks a lot more this season

Headshot

CoachBoone wrote: »

Not joking at all.

I'd say he tried those flicks 3 times, and lost the ball twice. He was the ONLY United player retaining possession. He wasour main threat going forward both from carrying the ball at them and with his passing. He was good today, very good. And he scored a cracker.

Rooney had an off day but he was industrial, thats why I said "to an extent".

he gave the ball away alot more than 3 times mate,even easy passes for welbeck he couldnt engineer

how can you say he was very good is beyond me

you thought Rooney was good because of his industry,no mate far from good,why do you think he was so frustrated because he was brutal today and he knew it

he he Headshot isn't happy

Headshot

Deleted User wrote: »

he he Headshot isn't happy

actually im very happy with the draw but I dont like seeing players praised when they dont deserved it

mailburner

a point wont look so bad tomorrow as pool definitely will
get something out of that game
hopefully all three points

Bobalicious93

We are still in or around where I'm sure most United fans thought we'd be at this stage before the season started.

I don't think many will have expected us to win every game after the Burnley game to now. We are still in a decent position considering the games we've had imo.

Headshot

Headshot wrote: »

actually im very happy with the draw but I dont like seeing players praised when they dont deserved it

Fair enough, well you can try to dig the knife in tomorrow

Personally I do agree with how you've said they played but I know you're not happy. I wouldn't be anyway. Lets remember, we were the professionals at drawing at home vs teams we should be beating last year. I know. What was Ferguson thinking with the starting line up though. Total disrespect for the opposition IMHO.

Bandit12

Good to see United fans happy to be drawing at home againest the likes of Sunderland.:)

redzerdrog

i agree i taught rooney was poor and it was his worst performance of the season, taught evans was very good tonight

Holsten

Always good to see United drop points, too bad it wasn't all of them.

UnitedIrishman

Harpy wrote: »

c'mon the pool tomorrow..oh i feel dirty.

Treason!!!

Shocking performance. Sunderland did deserve the win. Really hard to pick out anyone that played well - O'Shea and Evans about the best but two players (playing in defence) can't win you a game.

I'm afraid Nani has to hop on a plane back to Portugal. He's had enough chances and there is nobody on gods green earth that can defend him for hitting the first man time and time again or running into three players.

Rooney wasn't at the races either today but in fairness you're allowed one off day in 20. Evra hadn't much hope down the left with Nani and Welbeck in front of him, neither really helped him out or provided a threat.

Anderson did well when he came on and although he gave the ball away a few times (who didn't?), he constantly ran at them and tried to grab the game by the balls.

All in all, lucky to get a draw and lets hope we get back on track next week. There's always going to be blips along the way.

keano_afc

I think other teams can take great confidence from this game. See, if you actually take the field against United believing you can get something, it makes a huge difference. So many teams walk out beaten already at Old Trafford, and Sunderland have proved how ordinary this United team can be if you just go at them.

CoachBoone

Headshot wrote: »

he gave the ball away alot more than 3 times mate,even easy passes for welbeck he couldnt engineer

how can you say he was very good is beyond me

you thought Rooney was good because of his industry,no mate far from good,why do you think he was so frustrated because he was brutal today and he knew it

Did you read my post? I said he made a balls of the flicks twice from 3.

The pass for Wellbeck was as much Wellbecks fault as it was Berbs. I assume you are talking about the first half when he passed it left to Wellbeck. Yes it was slightly underhit, but Wellbeck should have anticipated it a lot better.

I can say he was very good, because he was.

Again, not reading my posts, but this seems to be a mainstay of the way you argue, I said Rooney to an extent could be happy with his performance.

And also, assuming he is getting frustrated because he thought he was bad is ridiculous. No footballer of Rooneys quality has that weak a mentality. Its a thousand tims more likely he was frustrated from the lack of quality service from midfield and the overall performance of the team.

So to make it really simple for you, easy to read and understand and so there is no scope for you to only see and read what you want to:

Berbs was Uniteds chief attacking threat today. this while also having to come deep. Every single thing United did good today he was involved in. He lost the ball a few times, granted but that happens when there are 4 defenders and two attackers. He scored a goal too.

Rooney was good because, not being results orientated, he tried things, he was industrial, he was looking for the killer pass or the goal just today things didnt come off. That doesnt mean he was bad though.

keano_afc

keano_afc wrote: »

I think other teams can take great confidence from this game. See, if you actually take the field against United believing you can get something, it makes a huge difference. So many teams walk out beaten already at Old Trafford, and Sunderland have proved how ordinary this United team can be if you just go at them.

spot on

CoachBoone

I should correct myself also, I initially said Rooney, to an extent, could be happy with his performance.

The reasons Ive given above are why imo.

Bandit12

keano_afc wrote: »

I think other teams can take great confidence from this game. See, if you actually take the field against United believing you can get something, it makes a huge difference. So many teams walk out beaten already at Old Trafford, and Sunderland have proved how ordinary this United team can be if you just go at them.

TBH i don't think United have looked the team they once where since Liverpool hammered them last season at Old Trafford. That said they are still top of the league which tells you a lot about everyone else. It's wide open this season for the title. I would'nt even write Arsenal out of it even with their lack of depth. Gonna be a good one.

UnitedIrishman

keano_afc wrote: »

I think other teams can take great confidence from this game. See, if you actually take the field against United believing you can get something, it makes a huge difference. So many teams walk out beaten already at Old Trafford, and Sunderland have proved how ordinary this United team can be if you just go at them.

This allied to the fact a) neither of our wingers could cross the ball b) neither our strikers are better in the air against Dawson and Ferdinand - pretty much sums up things. Sunderland narrowed everything down the middle and pushed us out wide. They had their homework done.

abouttobebanned

Bandit12 wrote: »

2 points dropped.:) United looking very beatable this season. Seriously missing Ronaldo and Tevez.

looking as beatable as chelsea anyway...and I think every team in the league would fancy themselves against Liverpool.

whatawaster

abouttobebanned wrote: »

I think every team in the league would fancy themselves against Liverpool.

A slight exaggeration?

abouttobebanned

Not really.

Mr.Nice Guy

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

Rooney wasn't at the races either today but in fairness you're allowed one off day in 20.

I thought he was poor midweek as well. He looks to me like he has a lot on his mind. I've heard he's set to become a dad very soon so I wouldn't be surprised if that's occupying his thoughts at the minute.

It's tough because so much pressure is on his shoulders this season compared to last season.

With regards to today, I think some people on the thread are reading too much into this game. Yes United were poor but a draw isn't the worst result in the world. Remember United drew with Newcastle at home last season.

I'm sure when Van Der Sar returns it will lift the team. I think some of the defensive uncertainty might stem from the players not having someone in the goal they can truly trust. Even Foster's kicks were awful.

Aidric

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Not really.

Agreed.

SK1979

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I thought he was poor midweek as well. He looks to me like he has a lot on his mind. I've heard he's set to become a dad very soon so I wouldn't be surprised if that's occupying his thoughts at the minute.

It's tough because so much pressure is on his shoulders this season compared to last season.

QFT, Rooney had a really poor game today and he wasn't much better against Wolfsburg during the week. Maybe impending fatherhood is playing on his mind. Hopefully SAF might have a word with Capello and get him omitted from the England squads for these pointless games (from their point of view).

In the end, am delighted with a point, we didn't deserve anything. How ironic it was that Nani takes two reasonable corners in the 94th minute.

dor83

SK1979 wrote: »

How ironic it was that Nani takes two reasonable corners in the 94th minute.

In fairness to him his crossing was very good for most of the 2nd half and I thought he had a good 2nd half. He had a very bad 1st half but so did most Utd players, he improved a lot in the 2nd half though.

Handsome Bob

Man U looked so dangerously out of ideas for most of the game, it really was a perfect example of what they are without Ronaldo. Look at the games against the likes of Villa and Spurs at the close of last season and you'll see how much they are lacking without him. While in those games Ronaldo saved the day with relative ease in those games, they needed a last minute OG from Anton Ferdinand that otherwise was going wide to gain just a point in the game today. It just goes to show how open this league is this season.

prendy

abouttobebanned wrote: »

looking as beatable as chelsea anyway...and I think every team in the league would fancy themselves against Liverpool.

what a great judge of football you seem to be!

Iago

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Man U looked so dangerously out of ideas for most of the game, it really was a perfect example of what they are without Ronaldo.

Take the best creative attacking player in the World out of any team and ideas and options will be reduced as a result. It doesn't help that Ferguson didn't really replace him with anyone close to the same level, but I think a big part of that is down to last year.

United never really got out of first gear at all last season and had a stunning season from VDS & Vidic to thank for the end result of it all. We were found out against Barcelona in Rome and on vary rare occasions domestically.

This season has started in the same vein, we're not out of first gear, we're struggling to find any fluidity or rhythm in our play, confidence isn't where it should be and yet we're top of the league despite losing to Burnley and struggling to draw with Sunderland. We may still get punished but the ease with which we won the league last season despite never getting going has (imo) influenced the subsequent decisions made by the club.

Handsome Bob

Iago wrote: »

Take the best creative attacking player in the World out of any team and ideas and options will be reduced as a result. It doesn't help that Ferguson didn't really replace him with anyone close to the same level, but I think a big part of that is down to last year.

United never really got out of first gear at all last season and had a stunning season from VDS & Vidic to thank for the end result of it all. We were found out against Barcelona in Rome and on vary rare occasions domestically.

This season has started in the same vein, we're not out of first gear, we're struggling to find any fluidity or rhythm in our play, confidence isn't where it should be and yet we're top of the league despite losing to Burnley and struggling to draw with Sunderland. We may still get punished but the ease with which we won the league last season despite never getting going has (imo) influenced the subsequent decisions made by the club.

Wouldn't give any credit to Ronaldo no? :pac:

Fergie should have played his best team, I can't help but think he took S'land lightly. Where was Giggs and even Valencia? He took the piss by starting Welbeck and Nani ahead of them.

Make no mistake, Man U still have the team to school the league, Fergie just needs to show more respect for the opposition.

Mr.Nice Guy

With regards to Ronaldo let's not forget this time last year he was, if anything, quite the liability to United. He was getting sent off for daft reasons, giving stick to fans etc. He generally looking quite pissed off that he was there and not at Madrid. It took him a little while to get his arse into gear and get going.

United just tend to start seasons in quite a sluggish manner.

mink_man

Iago wrote: »

Take the best creative attacking player in the World out of any team and ideas and options will be reduced as a result. It doesn't help that Ferguson didn't really replace him with anyone close to the same level, but I think a big part of that is down to last year.

United never really got out of first gear at all last season and had a stunning season from VDS & Vidic to thank for the end result of it all. We were found out against Barcelona in Rome and on vary rare occasions domestically.

This season has started in the same vein, we're not out of first gear, we're struggling to find any fluidity or rhythm in our play, confidence isn't where it should be and yet we're top of the league despite losing to Burnley and struggling to draw with Sunderland. We may still get punished but the ease with which we won the league last season despite never getting going has (imo) influenced the subsequent decisions made by the club.

8 wins in a row?

SK1979

Iago wrote: »

This season has started in the same vein, we're not out of first gear, we're struggling to find any fluidity or rhythm in our play, confidence isn't where it should be and yet we're top of the league despite losing to Burnley and struggling to draw with Sunderland. We may still get punished but the ease with which we won the league last season despite never getting going has (imo) influenced the subsequent decisions made by the club.

This is the point isn't it, when you look at the facts, United are top of the league, top of their champions league group (pretty much qualified) and into the next round of the Carling Cup, what else can they possibly do to improve that?

We're not playing fantastically but the results are speaking for themselves.

Iago

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Wouldn't give any credit to Ronaldo no? :pac:

Well of course you would, but he's gone now so we need to discount that for this season!

The point I was making was that even with Ronaldo last season we looked bereft of ideas and depth at times and if it hadn't been for incredible and unlikely to be repeated defensive performances over the vast majority of the season we'd of struggled to acheive what we did.

Iago

mink_man wrote: »

8 wins in a row?

yep and your point is?

We really haven't played well this season at all, and certainly not with any consistency. That we're still winning games and still top of the league is great of course, but doesn't mean we should be blind to some of the deficiencies in the team and performances at the moment.

RasTa

Just in from a 48 hour bender and am never starting a match thread again.

Handsome Bob

Iago wrote: »

Well of course you would, but he's gone now so we need to discount that for this season!

The point I was making was that even with Ronaldo last season we looked bereft of ideas and depth at times and if it hadn't been for incredible and unlikely to be repeated defensive performances over the vast majority of the season we'd of struggled to acheive what we did.

See that was the point I was making in my first post, and that's not me insulting Man U. People like to think that every top team has so many quality players that losing one or two players doesn't matter.

My beloved Pool would be shafted without Gerrard/Torres. Chelsea would be shafted without Drogba/Lampard. Arsenal would be shafted without Fabregas/Arshavin.

Problem here though is Fergie bafflingly didn't use all the money he got from Ronaldo's sale to adequately replace him. Maybe he had too high of an opinion of his team that he felt he didn't have to replace Ronaldo.

Handsome Bob

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

With regards to Ronaldo let's not forget this time last year he was, if anything, quite the liability to United. He was getting sent off for daft reasons, giving stick to fans etc. He generally looking quite pissed off that he was there and not at Madrid. It took him a little while to get his arse into gear and get going.

United just tend to start seasons in quite a sluggish manner.

The man single handedly calmed the storm of Liverpool hammering Man U at OT, coming up with vital goals against Villa and Spurs just to name two games. I don't think it is fair to diminish his influence.

Sherifu

LZ5by5 wrote: »

The man single handedly calmed the storm of Liverpool hammering Man U at OT, coming up with vital goals against Villa and Spurs just to name two games. I don't think it is fair to diminish his influence.

He dragged United kicking and screaming through a fair few games last season. No doubt he's missed.