Fulham vs Manchester United

Hank Scorpio

says it all when you see fabio marking zamora for corners

Panthro

might start the thread "zamora for engerland?"...
nahhh

MagicMarker

6 points behind Chelsea isn't really that bad tbh. I'd be happy with that, it's not ideal but we've proved in the past that we're capable of anything really.

JerryHandbag

SlickRic wrote: »

it needs to be said.

this season is absolutely bonkers.

Very true. Winner of league may end up losing 8 or 9 games.:eek:

Peyton Manning

p_larkin99 wrote: »

Im 100% getting pissed straight after this game.

It may get worse for us

gl all

Well said.

Gonna have some beers, order in some chinese, and feck off out for the night.

CHD

JerryHandbag wrote: »

Very true. Winner of league may end up losing 8 or 9 games.:eek:

Wouldn't go that far. Could well be record low points total though.

m@cc@

Utterly atrocious. Some of the football played by the so-called 'Top 4' has been truly shocking.

mike65

Has the ref made any blunders, been too slow, are Utd wearing the wrong colour strip? Anything at all that Fergie can blame?

Paul Tergat

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Defensive injuries or not, there is no excuse for this kind of performance. Shame on them all.

Fergie needs to take the blame for this too as his tactics and selections have been terrible today.

Absolutely ashamed of the United players today, simply not good enough; and if anyone thinks this United side is capable of winning the league or CL they are mistaken imo. Serious money should have been spent in the summer to keep us where we should be, it was not and we are reaping the rewards of either Fergie's stubborness or the Glazers penny pinching. Either way, this United side is simply far too freaking average.

Massive overreaction Mitch.

We have already seen what 2 game swings can do.

Judge us on games where we have players playing in their positions.

Its not just the defenders being out but the knock on effect of losing our midfielders to play in the back line.

m@cc@

mike65 wrote: »

Has the ref made any blunders, been too slow, are Utd wearing the wrong colour strip? Anything at all that Fergie can blame?

8 or so defenders injured.

Nalz

mike65 wrote: »

Has the ref made any blunders, been too slow, are Utd wearing the wrong colour strip? Anything at all that Fergie can blame?

ye think so. all of the above. grasshopper

Insect Overlord

Headshot wrote: »

but fergie tactics have been woeful

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Fergie needs to take the blame for this too as his tactics and selections have been terrible today.

Bang on. Absolutely atrocious choices made both before the game and with the substitutions during it.
We can all see how bad Scholes has been today, and it's up to the manager to make the right changes when things like that are going wrong.

Mitch Connor

p_larkin99 wrote: »

Massive overreaction Mitch.

We have already seen what 2 game swings can do.

Judge us on games where we have players playing in their positions.

Its not just the defenders being out but the knock on effect of losing our midfielders to play in the back line.

In your opinion.

For me, United have been utterly average this season. Very few times have we looked like a great team going forward, we have ground out most of our results.

Offensively we aren't good enough. Rooney has been carrying us without really playing well. Berbatov has been consistently poor. As has Owen. Valencia has done what I expected of him but he is no star player. Our best player, offensively, this season has been Giggs by a country mile, and he has had some stinkers too.

There isn't enough quality in the side imo.

Kev_ps3

Way too many average/poor players out there for Utd.

Paul Tergat

Mitch Connor wrote: »

In your opinion.

For me, United have been utterly average this season. Very few times have we looked like a great team going forward, we have ground out most of our results.

Offensively we aren't good enough. Rooney has been carrying us without really playing well. Berbatov has been consistently poor. As has Owen. Valencia has done what I expected of him but he is no star player. Our best player, offensively, this season has been Giggs by a country mile, and he has had some stinkers too.

There isn't enough quality in the side imo.

Sounds a lot like last season doesnt it? Didnt end too badly for us.

Mikeyt086

People saying "Injuries or not" is total bollox.

If we didnt have 7 defensive injuries im guessing we would have defended well... When you consider Michael Carrick is literally unable to head a football, im shocked Zamora hasnt had more.

We dont need to buy a defender, we need 4 or 5 of our 7 injured back.

mike65

Nearly 4

jesus_thats_gre

p_larkin99 wrote: »

Massive overreaction Mitch.

It might be an overreaction but not massively so. The apparent strength in depth that United have is a myth in my opinion.

They have depth in terms of numbers but not in quality. In comparison to other clubs in the league, the overall squad is inferior to that of Chelsea, Arsenal, City and possibly even Tottenham.

United have a number of top class players in their first 11 and it is these that set them apart from those outside of the top 4 and those same players won them the league in recent years - lost some during the summer.

I feel that United's current league position is artificially high and that come the end of the season, they will be around 3rd or 4th place and not anywhere near Chelsea.

To be frankly honest, Liverpool have the exact same short comings as United do. In some strange twist of faith, they could have just as little money as each other to sort the problem out.

A big deal is made about the money that has been wasted at Liverpool. Some time needs to spent examining some of the money that have been wasted on quite a few players in the current United squad.

m@cc@

Mitch Connor wrote: »

In your opinion.

For me, United have been utterly average this season. Very few times have we looked like a great team going forward, we have ground out most of our results.

Offensively we aren't good enough. Rooney has been carrying us without really playing well. Berbatov has been consistently poor. As has Owen. Valencia has done what I expected of him but he is no star player. Our best player, offensively, this season has been Giggs by a country mile, and he has had some stinkers too.

There isn't enough quality in the side imo.

Owen and Valencia have done what's been asked of them. Valencia especially is improving all the time. Berbatov offers a lot as an attacking force, that's shown even in this game.

Kev_ps3

Whatever about our defence. Our midfield has been worse.

Mitch Connor

p_larkin99 wrote: »

Sounds a lot like last season doesnt it? Didnt end too badly for us.

BEcause we had Ronaldo - a special player who could get goals from nothing. We don't have him, or that quality anymore, which means our average midfield is getting a lot more exposed this season than it was last season.

Paul Tergat

Mikeyt086 wrote: »

People saying "Injuries or not" is total bollox.

If we didnt have 7 defensive injuries im guessing we would have defended well... When you consider Michael Carrick is literally unable to head a football, im shocked Zamora hasnt had more.

We dont need to buy a defender, we need 4 or 5 of our 7 injured back.

Exactly this.

You cannot underestimate how this affects the whole team.

Having no solid back line is massive. Its the first thing you look for, to have a solid defence and then the rest of the team can play from there.


edit: one positive from today (clutching at straws maybe) is Fabio back. He really provided some energy down the flank. I love the direct style that both he and Rafael have, its very Evra like.
Again, a lot of our play comes down the flanks and today, and I said this earlier in the thread, the isolation that Valencia and Evra had wide has killed us too. When we get proper full backs and wingers in front of them back then we will see better play

KevIRL

I made a comment after the West Ham game saying we were showing how its done during an injury crisis. Obviously today makes that comment look rather foolish.

yahoo_moe

Jaysis lads, relax. For United to still be in with a serious chance of winning the league given their injury situation recently is miraculous.

As ye found out last year, Fulham's a tough place to go even without most of your defenders injured and midfielders having to drop back to cover.

PHB

How many times has Valencia failed to get the cross in today? Awful.

People can talk alll they want about how the United squad isn't good enough to win the league, but this injury crisis which absolutely no club in the world has the squad to deal with has pretty much cost us the 6 points that we're about to be behind Chelsea for. I'm not complaining, that's the way it goes sometimes, but lets not jump to massive conclusiosn about the squad. Yes it could be improved, but it's in no way awful.

JerryHandbag

Who would have thought that the 2 title chasing sides from last season would now have a combined 12 defeats by Christmas time. Barmy stuff.

The Muppet

Crap performance from United, disappointing result.

Well done Fulham they were by far the better of the two teams today.

mike65

Well done Fulham, Roy Hodgsen is a wizard, wonder if he'd like to move north?

Nalz

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

It might be an overreaction but not massively so. The apparent strength in depth that United have is a myth in my opinion.

Do you not think that the fact that they've got a massive amount of injuries in the same position(s) would make that comment look a tad unfair? We're talking 7 or 8 defensive injuries. If any of the clubs you mentioned had similar I dont think they'd be fairing much better

ntlbell

mike65 wrote: »

Well done Fulham, Roy Hodgsen is a wizard, wonder if he'd like to move north?

a wizard? lol did he put a spell on 8 defensive players to get injuries?

Kess73

mike65 wrote: »

Well done Fulham, Roy Hodgsen is a wizard, wonder if he's like to move north?

He would not be a bad shout.

Tactically very adept. Good at getting more out of players than their stature would suggest.

Plus he comes across as quite dignified and intelligent.

Nalz

PHB wrote: »

How many times has Valencia failed to get the cross in today? Awful.

same vs Villa

CHD

Delighted. Nice Christmas present for Chelsea.

SlickRic

ntlbell wrote: »

a wizard? lol did he put a spell on 8 defensive players to get injuries?

i'm pretty sure it's a comment on how well he's done in general; culminating in today's win.

yes the defensive injuries for their opposition today helped, but they were still very good again.

Kess73

ntlbell wrote: »

a wizard? lol did he put a spell on 8 defensive players to get injuries?

The man has done plenty in the past to prove that he is an above average league manager, regardless of today's result. Which was still a damn good result as injuries or not, United are still no pushover.

Paul Tergat

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

It might be an overreaction but not massively so. The apparent strength in depth that United have is a myth in my opinion.

This is beginning to really piss me off.

You can talk about strength in depth all you want but the fact is until the last 2 results we were ticking along. We had nobody to bring on in central midfield today because we had those very 2 players covering for our 7 defenders out. That's not a strength in depth problem, you cant expect to have 11 senior defenders in place.

As i said, its an overreaction due to the last 2 games with this one today showing how badly we need Fletch in the middle and covering for injuries. having said that, fair ****s to both villa and fulham

**** this anyway, on the beer now. Enjoy the rest of this thread, should be fun to read tomorrow.

eclectichoney

having to shift Fletcher back into defence has exposed our brutal midfield, that was being sellotaped together by fletch's immense performances.

The Muppet

CHD wrote: »

Delighted. Nice Christmas present for Chelsea.

If only the league ended at Christmas.:p

m@cc@

CHD wrote: »

Delighted. Nice Christmas present for Chelsea.

It's reassuring for Chelsea to be top at Christmas.

The_Kew_Tour

Well done to Fulham best team won by far, could have been more tbh.

Roy Hodgson is one the best managers in the world never mind England.

But as United fan that result is not good enough nowhere near it actually disaster really that.

Midfield nowhere today, no pace either.

Chelsea title I think if they only play in third gear from here till May im afraid.

MagicMarker

Poll added.

rossie1977

ntlbell wrote: »

a wizard? lol did he put a spell on 8 defensive players to get injuries?

fulham have been great all season and the back end of last, hodgson has done a wonderful job

elshambo

Have to say i enjoyed that

Kev_ps3

LOL

jesus_thats_gre

Trilla wrote: »

Do you not think that the fact that they've got a massive amount of injuries in the same position(s) would make that comment look a tad unfair? We're talking 7 or 8 defensive injuries. If any of the clubs you mentioned had similar I dont think they'd be fairing much better

I didn't criticise the defending in this match though. Of course injuries have to be taken into account when analysing how things pan out come the end of a game and the season. I

CCCP^

3-0 to Fulham? Jesus christ.

Chelsea for the title then.

RasTa

Gosh darnit but expected with no CB's available.

jesus_thats_gre

p_larkin99 wrote: »

This is beginning to really piss me off.

You can talk about strength in depth all you want but the fact is until the last 2 results we were ticking along. We had nobody to bring on in central midfield today because we had those very 2 players covering for our 7 defenders out. That's not a strength in depth problem, you cant expect to have 11 senior defenders in place.

As i said, its an overreaction due to the last 2 games with this one today showing how badly we need Fletch in the middle and covering for injuries. having said that, fair ****s to both villa and fulham

**** this anyway, on the beer now. Enjoy the rest of this thread, should be fun to read tomorrow.

It probably appears that I am just taking the oppurtunity to wind ye up after a bad result so I will leave it at what I posted earlier.

Nalz

CCCP^ wrote: »

3-0 to Fulham? Jesus christ.

Chelsea for the title then.

Unless they have a January from hell and United or Arsenal take advantage of it

MagicMarker

Trilla wrote: »

Unless they have a January from hell and United or Arsenal take advantage of it

Or Aston Villa or Spurs...