Manchester United Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12

homerjay2005

signing a central defender is not really a need, seen as we have jones who can play there and smalling and evans.

if we get another injury perhaps yes, but for now, i would rather see rio and jones develop a partnership.


it is becoming very clear that fergie fancies jones as a CM and is going to try mould him into one.

Cantona's Collars

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I'm not a huge fan of Cahill to be honest. Would much rather the beast that is Samba as cover!

When Vidic got injured I thought we'd be ok with Jones going in there. But he's played so well in midfield recently I'd like to see him stay there for a few games. He could be that box to box midfielder we've been missing if he continues to improve.

I too don't see what all the fuss is over Cahill,he stood out last season but has been poor enough this year.It's the usual hype 'cos he's English,just look at Andy Carroll for an example.

I've a feeling Fergie will surprise us all and make one maybe 2 signings in January if he spots the right players.

A quick note on Smalling,I should have worded my previous post better,Fergies hand has been forced in playing him full back with the twins intent on constantly injuring themselves.

Evans may have played well against Wolves but there's always that niggling doubt about him,it's as if we are just waiting for a mistake but maybe a run in the team will sort him out.

3 points against QPR is a must,it'd be a great boost to go back top of the league with City having a tough game against Arsenal later.It's strange though,I feel nervous about the QPR game,we seem to have a knack of ballsing things up when we are handed opportunities,even Fergie jokes about United doing things the hard way.

Son Of A Vidic

homerjay2005 wrote: »

its the loss of vidic that has me worried. if we win the league this year, i think it will rank as our greatest ever achievement.

You know I thought winning our 19 title with our crap midfield was our best ever achievement. But If we do it this season without Vida, then that would surely surpass it.

homerjay2005

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

You know I thought winning our 19 title with our crap midfield was our best ever achievement. But If we do it this season without Vida, then that would surely surpass it.

yes that, plus the 500million city have spent, our injuries and our terrible early season form, all make this a huge task.

also, something that has gone unnoticed, the home form of alot of teams is at its highest peak ever. the days of certain teams losing 15 home games and getting thumped 5-0 are long gone. the likes of stoke, swansea and QPR are really difficult places to go and get a win for example. going to the likes of fulham, west brom, sunderland are not as easy as they used be. we have went there in the past and won 3 or 4-0, that wont happen in many, if any away grounds this year.

in fact, if you look at the hammerings dished out this year, us, arsenal and spurs are 3 of them. not many teams have conceeded 5 in one game apart from them 3!

flahavaj

Well, well, well, despite all the doom and gloom and talk of how great City are, here we are in early December only two points off them. The big question now is, can City improve on how they've been doing, or keep their form up, because I'm absolutely certain there is huge scope for improvment from us in the second half of the season (as there almost always is). Interesting times. They have a really tough January coming up too. Time for Fergie to start turning the screw.

VW 1

Just to highlight how unlucky we have been with injuries compared to City this season, of the 20 man squads, injuries have accounted for 12 missed games for mcfc and 60 games missed for united. via Doron Salomon on twitter

homerjay2005

i dont think city can play any better than they are and i think we have another 3 gears in us, so from the perspective we are ok. the problem is we have lost vidic along with 8 other short term injuries. thats all fine, all the other teams will get them, i hope, albeit not on that scale.

my problem is, if city get one bad injury in the next 6 weeks, they will just buy a player eqaually as good. we dont have that luxury.

one small thing is we have to go to the bridge, WHL and the council house, 3 games they have played so that is tough.

we both have to go to arsenal and we both have liverpool at home. liverpool at home is a bigger game for us. arsenal really need to take at least a point next weekend to balance things out and we need to go to city and beat them also i would expect. we would probably need 4 points from spurs/chelsea, again, not a huge challenge, but we need to improve our form.

im hoping their trips to villa, stoke, everton and swansea which we have already done and got 10 points will see them drop at least 4.

alot of ifs/buts and maybe, it all depends on injurys and form i think. as it stands, of course we can win the league, but city are the favourites and comfortably right now. that can quickly change though.

PHB

I don't think City are the best team ever, fantastic attacking 6, quite an average defence. While they are on top form, that's fine. But when the attacking 6 misfires, which it will at certain points, a solid defence is where you pick up the points. They don't have that and I fully expect them to pick up less points in the second set of 19 games compared to the first.

For me, this season we'll be able to deal with a lack of rotation a lot more. We're out of the league cup, out of the CL, which means that we'll be playing substantially less games than normal (with out first teamers). This is especially important as our central midfield has maybe two performing players, maybe three at best, once the injuries are dealt with. Normally we'd have to rotate more, but with those comps gone, we can play our first choice central midfield week in week out. That's a big plus, and something that in previous seasons has very much harmed our title chances.

homerjay2005

PHB wrote: »

I don't think City are the best team ever, fantastic attacking 6, quite an average defence. While they are on top form, that's fine.

i think there defence is alot better than people give them credit for. of course, its like used and alot of defences - based around one man. hart is a pretty decent keeper.

keane2097

Yeah City's weak defence is at least as strong as ours will be for the rest of the season

jonnyfingers

homerjay2005 wrote: »

i think there defence is alot better than people give them credit for. of course, its like used and alot of defences - based around one man. hart is a pretty decent keeper.

I think their defense is very good. Kompany and Richards are very good. Clichy, Lescott and Zabaleta are all decent. The rest of the defenders in the squad are all good backups too. There's certainly none of them who are very poor or a huge liability.

I still think our defense, when all fit, is better.

flahavaj

homerjay2005 wrote: »

i think there defence is alot better than people give them credit for. of course, its like used and alot of defences - based around one man. hart is a pretty decent keeper.

I think Hart is actually a little dodgy myself, he seems to have a habit of parrying shots back into danger areas rather than away from them in particular.

keane2097

flahavaj wrote: »

I think Hart is actually a little dodgy myself, he seems to have a habit of parrying shots back into danger areas rather than away from them in particular.

You couldn't call Hart dodgy and call De Gea solid like.

flahavaj

keane2097 wrote: »

You couldn't call Hart dodgy and call De Gea solid like.

They're both young and of course will make mistakes. It is a habit Hart will need to grow out of though.

DDG won't be "solid" in the VDS or Reina sense for a good few years yet.

Kylo Ren

Chelsea gave us a big favor last night. A few months back you would be told to go home if you said United would be two points off City.

United always seem to have dire luck with injuries and this season is no different. Two twins, Vidic, Hernandez, Berbatov, Cleverly, Anderson and Fletcher out for ages with the bug. When you look at those players all injured in unison is absolutely ridiculous. How we are two points off City who have the best squad in the league with the most depth is either a miracle, a true testament to the club, the players and the staff or a bit of both.

Onward and Upwards.

Viva United.

keane2097

flahavaj wrote: »

They're both young and of course will make mistakes. It is a habit Hart will need to grow out of though.

DDG won't be "solid" in the VDS or Reina sense for a good few years yet.

Yeah I'm just making the point that calling the City defence weak is a pretty big statement when you compare it to their rivals.

Gringo180

Arsenal fan here lads, what do you think of Lindegaard as being first choice keeper, I think its a no brainer from what ive seen of him he's top class and has a great presence and the defense looks more at ease with him behind them. I think De Gea still needs a few more years to show his true potential.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Team P PTS
1 Man City 15 38
2 Man Utd 15 36
3 Chelsea 15 31
4 Tottenham 14 31

Just to put some viewpoints in context. For Manchester United's massive failings this season, we're 2 points behind Man City.

Point at luck/referee decisions/flukes, we are 2 points behind around the half way point of the season.

VW 1

Gringo180 wrote: »

Arsenal fan here lads, what do you think of Lindegaard as being first choice keeper, I think its a no brainer from what ive seen of him he's top class and has a great presence and the defense looks more at ease with him behind them. I think De Gea still needs a few more years to show his true potential.

No, dont want to see Lindegaard as our number one. You say he is a top class keeper, before he signed for us how much top class football has he played? Outside of probably 6-7 games for us how much have you seen him play?

Granted he has looked adequate and solid, and hasnt made many mistakes but there are other things to take into account. De Gea's ability with the bal at his feet and his quick mind with the correct distribution decisions.

De Gea is the one with the potential to be a world class keeper and stop us from having to worry about that position for 15+ years. Give him the time he needs, he hasnt cost us any points yet and is looking better and more confident with every game he plays.

TL;DR, if it aint broke dont fix it.

Kylo Ren

Gringo180 wrote: »

Arsenal fan here lads, what do you think of Lindegaard as being first choice keeper, I think its a no brainer from what ive seen of him he's top class and has a great presence and the defense looks more at ease with him behind them. I think De Gea still needs a few more years to show his true potential.

Best second choice keeper in the league.

Having watched the whole of United's pre season I honestly would not of batted an eyelid if Anders was given the go ahead to start the season as number one as he played outstanding through the pre season, as did De Gea. As for as De Gea being second choice I am not sure. He had a rocky start, as a 19 year old coming to arguably the biggest club in the world to arguably the biggest league in the world it is not surprising. De Gea and his distribution of the ball is second to none and I think over all he is a slightly better shot stopper. He has since settled brilliantly and I think we have a great luxury in having the both of them at the club to cover for each other.

flahavaj

Gringo180 wrote: »

Arsenal fan here lads, what do you think of Lindegaard as being first choice keeper, I think its a no brainer from what ive seen of him he's top class and has a great presence and the defense looks more at ease with him behind them. I think De Gea still needs a few more years to show his true potential.

You're basing your opinion of him on too small a sample IMO.

v3ttel

Keno 92 wrote: »

United always seem to have dire luck with injuries and this season is no different. Two twins, Vidic, Hernandez, Berbatov, Cleverly, Anderson and Fletcher out for ages with the bug.

Is it really all luck though? It would be interesting to see how we compare to other teams on the injury front for the last 3 or 4 seasons.

Absolutely ravaged with injuries this season to the point where nearly everyone has missed one game due to some injury, 09/10 where we had no central defenders for a few games, 08/09 where looking for a vital win vs Villa with Macheda & Welbeck upfront, a half fit Gary Neville at center back.

I wonder if there is something our medical staff or coaches could do differently? Its a question worth asking. It would be interesting to see how we compare in terms of injuries. Maybe its all bad luck, but maybe it's not.

homerjay2005

arsenal get alot of injuries, everton too off the top of my head.

we seem to get them all at once.

i am convinced, injurys cost us the title in 09/10. november and december, even early january, was the worst injury crisis in the history of the club.

Liam O

Lindegaard inspires me with much more confidence than De Gea. I don't mind De Gea but I've been very impressed with Lindegaard everytime he's played and I don't think there was a need to sign De Gea this season, should have waited a few years because he is clearly full of potential but not ready for football at the very highest level...

homerjay2005

Liam O wrote: »

Lindegaard inspires me with much more confidence than De Gea. I don't mind De Gea but I've been very impressed with Lindegaard everytime he's played and I don't think there was a need to sign De Gea this season, should have waited a few years because he is clearly full of potential but not ready for football at the very highest level...

hmm, it really is a tricky one. had we signed lets say a 2nd keeper for 3 million and went with lindegaard, there would have been war. and i mean war. now, imagine the anarchy if he made those mistakes against west brom and in the charity shield that de gea made.


hindsight is great, lindegaard is possibly good enough to be number 1, BUT,we dont know. yes he has been excellent in every game he has played.

in reality, we did not need to sign the 3 players we did in the summer.

de gea - a gk was needed and possibly we will have him for 10 years + and he will be a big future star i hope.

jones - not really needed, but he has been a super signing and could be a CM for us. another who will be a big future star i hope.

young - not really needed in essence but still a good player and was super in his first month. got injured, missed 8 or 9 games and has lost form.

i dont regret signing de gea or jones, both are long term. for jones, our hand was forced and we may have lost him, but my gripe here is he could have been taken from future budgets/amortisaton of tranfers and have it spread across his contract, rather than this year as such.

de gea needed to be signed, i just think we overpaid and a better low cost, 3 or 4 year solution would have suited us better, until we filled the gap in midfield in front of him.

keane2097

Did someone post a link ITT in the last while that was basically a site that listed all sports on on a particular day?

stesaurus

keane2097 wrote: »

Did someone post a link ITT in the last while that was basically a site that listed all sports on on a particular day?

LJ's???
http://liveonsat.com/LJ_foot_b_epl_only.php

VW 1

homerjay2005 wrote: »

de gea needed to be signed, i just think we overpaid and a better low cost, 3 or 4 year solution would have suited us better, until we filled the gap in midfield in front of him.

Like who though? If we had of tried for one of these type signings and it failed, Fergie would have had egg on his face again. Instead he went for what he saw as the most risk free option, spent big on the biggest young talent out there and is keeping faith in the lad.

Judging by the 20m spent on Young and the 16m spent on DeGea, you would have to think that Fergie went for, and didnt get the midfield target(s) he had in mind. Either that or he didnt think we needed a midfielder.

But judging on his knowledge and success of the past twenty five years, I will guess its the former and he didnt land his man.

stesaurus

Gringo180 wrote: »

Arsenal fan here lads, what do you think of Lindegaard as being first choice keeper, I think its a no brainer from what ive seen of him he's top class and has a great presence and the defense looks more at ease with him behind them. I think De Gea still needs a few more years to show his true potential.

I don't think the defense does look more comfortable with him. Lindegaard is pretty poor with the ball played back to him. He panics and generally either kicks it out of play or blindly forward.
De Gea is far more comfortable with the ball. It's his strong point and we've changed our style this season to use the goalie more in build up play. So when Lindegaard comes in it's an issue.

And yes I'm aware De Gea f*cked up recently against Benfica from a backpass but honestly I thought Jones was to blame there.

keane2097

s.welstead wrote: »

LJ's???
http://liveonsat.com/LJ_foot_b_epl_only.php

Yeah that looks familiar, thanks a lot.

Blatter

Yaya Toure will be a loss for City when he's gone to the African Cup of nations. I know they have plenty of replacements but he's probably their best central midfielder.

Blatter

Blatter wrote: »

Yaya Toure will be a loss for City when he's gone to the African Cup of nations. I know they have plenty of replacements but he's probably their best central midfielder.

They could just buy a replacement if they wanted anyway.

helimachoptor

flahavaj wrote: »

You're basing your opinion of him on too small a sample IMO.

Agreed.. I think given an extended run in goals his status would come down a bit. I think for a lot of clubs outside of the top 6 he'd start.

stesaurus

rarnes1 wrote: »

They could just buy a replacement if they wanted anyway.

Because it's just that easy :rolleyes:

Joekers

Get well soon Fletcher, out for an extended period

royaler83

Joekers wrote: »

Get well soon Fletcher, out for an extended period

Doesn't sound good for him

Lukekul

Fletch taking an extended break from football, another blow to the team. Hope he gets healthy again.

abouttobebanned

Been Diagnosed with this

Joekers

royaler83 wrote: »

Joekers wrote: »

Get well soon Fletcher, out for an extended period

Doesn't sound good for him

They named the illness on SSN but cant for the life of me spell it

Kylo Ren

Fletcher taking an extended break from football.

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2011/Dec/darren-fletcher-takes-a-break.aspx

Fletcher takes a break

On behalf of Darren Fletcher, Manchester United wishes to announce that he is taking an extended break from football for health reasons.

Over the past year he has had several absence periods which we have attributed to a viral illness in order to respect his right to medical confidentiality. Darren has, in fact, been suffering from ulcerative colitis (a chronic inflammatory bowel condition) for some time preceding this.

Whilst he was able to maintain remission of symptoms for a considerable period this has proved more difficult recently and Darren’s continued desire to play and his loyalty to both his club and country has probably compromised the chances of optimising his own health and fitness.

He has therefore accepted medical advice to take an extended break from the demands of training and playing in order to afford the best chance possible of achieving full remission once again.

We request that his privacy is respected and hope that the removal of the additional stress associated with speculation regarding his health will also aid his recovery.

Mitch Connor

watch us go out and sign 2 strikers and a winger, from zanzibar, in January now.

Blatter

rarnes1 wrote: »

They could just buy a replacement if they wanted anyway.

I don't think they're in the business of throwing big money around to replace a player that's just going to miss a few games because of the African Cup of nations, especially with the FFP rules and all.

What would be the point? When Toure gets back you have too many midfielders. They'll either not get anybody in(likely imo) as they have plenty of midfielders currently or get a stopgap on loan (that couldn't possibly be in the same league as Toure), so he'll be a loss either way.

stesaurus

Lukekul wrote: »

Fletch taking an extended break from football, another blow to the team. Hope he gets healthy again.

He's been a huge loss over the last 2 seasons. Hope he gets back to some sort of fitness levels. Poor guy.

Squad really getting tested to the extreme now.

ArmaniJeanss

Quick Europa question?

Anyone know what happens if both Manchester United and City are drawn at home in the first leg (or the second leg).

Seems to be an unwritten rule that Manchester police won't allow both to play at home on the same day, whilst neither game can easily be moved to the previous day as its a Champions League night and would cause problems with TV contracts.

homerjay2005

poor fletch. i wonder how long is this absence? we talking 6 months here?

we are down now to gibson, carrick and jones for the middle at the moment.

surely we have to sign in january now, its not really an option. when rio gets injured, jones will be needed at cb.

disaster.

daveyboy_1ie

I knew something was up with Fletch, his form nosedived over the last year. I wish him all the best and hope he recovers fully.

On a side note, surely this will force Fergie's hand in January. United were desperately short of midfielders already and this news just compounds the issue. It will be an interesting few weeks of speculation until the New Year.

s.welstead

s.welstead wrote: »

Because it's just that easy :rolleyes:

It was a half tongue in cheek comment. Don't take everything so serious.

I know it's not that easy ffs I'm not 12, but if push came to shove they could buy a top class replacement in Jan no problem.

Anyway, don't wanna be dragging this thead ot/

homerjay2005

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Quick Europa question?

Anyone know what happens if both Manchester United and City are drawn at home in the first leg (or the second leg).

Seems to be an unwritten rule that Manchester police won't allow both to play at home on the same day, whilst neither game can easily be moved to the previous day as its a Champions League night and would cause problems with TV contracts.

we discussed this already. one of the teams maybe asked to play at 5.45 on the tuesday or wednesday if this happens.

PHB

Such sad news about Fletcher. He's not been himself since he came back from injury and that's made all the worse by the fact that before that big time off he really was becoming a top class player.

Sad to see, hope he eventually makes it back.

stesaurus

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Quick Europa question?

Anyone know what happens if both Manchester United and City are drawn at home in the first leg (or the second leg).

Seems to be an unwritten rule that Manchester police won't allow both to play at home on the same day, whilst neither game can easily be moved to the previous day as its a Champions League night and would cause problems with TV contracts.

5:30 on a Tuesday has been mentioned.