Fulham -v- Manchester United (Scores)

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So, United can move to within two points of Arsenal tonight.

I think they will really go for the win tonight, as Fulham haven't been performing too well of late.

eirebhoy

Utd: Carroll, G. Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Heinze, Scholes, Keane, Giggs, Ronaldo, Smith, Rooney.

SUBS: Howard, O'Shea, Fletcher, Miller, Bellion.

Aquos76

Nice touch, Keano and Cole having a joke with one another. Another great player from our past years.

Makes a change for our Roy. He is usally so focused in the tunnel before the match.

p.pete

When's RVN coming back? This is killing my fantasy football team!

Aquos76

He was supposed to be having a late fitness test ahead of tonights game. He must have failed it as he is not even on the bench.

Aquos76

Is Keano ever going to score his 50th. That was some strike. Very unlucky

A Dub in Glasgo

Rooney hit the woodwork

Edit
Smith scores 1-0

Aquos76

What a goal by Alan Smith, thats what he was bought for. He is a battler, he never gives up on a 50-50 ball

A Dub in Glasgo

What a dive from Ronaldo

Aquos76

What a miss by Ronaldo also

Gangsta

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

What a dive from Ronaldo

man utd supporters here cant complain bout pires anymore, even tho he was sandwiched against chelsea

BKtje

he was clipped tbh
At least he didnt do some great swan dive and yes we can still go on abour Pires cos if Klinsmann wrote the book, Pires edited it!

Gangsta

B-K-DzR wrote:

he was clipped tbh
At least he didnt do some great swan dive and yes we can still go on abour Pires cos if Klinsmann wrote the book, Pires edited it!

ronaldo is adding his bit too, at such a tender age!

A Dub in Glasgo

Andy Cole hits the post

A Dub in Glasgo

Fulham equalise

Edit

FT 1 - 1

Massive disappointment for Man Utd. Too many times they have slipped up this season just when they look as if they are getting back into contention.

BaZmO*

Gutted!!!

Utd. threw it away in the second half. Great performance by Keane though!

B.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Lacks so much that the "Great" Man United teams of the past used to have. Lacked any clinical finisher, good result for Fulham, based on their second half performance they did deserve the draw and were unlucky not to sneak the win in the last couple of minutes.

Chong

I have been studying all night just finished and checked the score. I am gutted its just not going to happen this season, I hope Everton win to spite the other side of the mersey.

mike65

At least we won and it was comming from two goals down!

Mike.

smemon

gutted is right.

subs should have been brought on, i was screaming for subs on. 2nd half utd's midfield went missing, fulham were able to walk through it. we should have been 2,3 up at half time at least, creating bags of chances as usual. thats were van the man comes in handy for the odd tap in.

poor result, game of 2 halves and a very disappointing 2nd half from utd, dreadful in fact. we didnt deserve to win on that 2nd half. ronaldo didnt dive, he was tapped on the legs and tried to stay up but couldnt keep his balance and so fell over a few seconds after he was clipped and hence it looked like a dive. (dont worry it was no pires).

a massive game for utd and needed 3 points. utd's hopes of the league are hovering dangerously just above the red line. we're still not out of it, 9 points with chelsea yet to play makes it 6 from a utd point of view, chelsea WILL drop 6 points but we have to keep the pressure up.

jesus_thats_gre

woop

Fulham held on well in the first half and were deserving of the draw at the end. Lets face it, a team like Fulham shouldnt be able to put United under that kind of pressure towards the end..

Gangsta

united dont have a clinical finisher near as good as v.nistelrooy in saha,smith or rooney.
as i sed before, they're just not wat they used to be.

smemon wrote:

dont worry it was no pires).

lol ok!

yop

total fup up, did not have an inch of luck, should have been out of sight by half time. Sin é, don't take your chances.
Actually thought that it was a United throw which Fulham got and led to the goal, and also papa diop should not have been on the pitch, he stamped on Smith on the ground, but regardless of all this we did not put them away, story of the season

PHB

arhgarharasrghasrhgar ahgrgahrgharagr ararshg is all I have to say

Jivin Turkey

yop wrote:

it was a United throw which Fulham got and led to the goal, and also papa diop should not have been on the pitch, he stamped on Smith on the ground

Yawn :rolleyes:

Fulham definately deserved their point, and for once I thought it was them that was going to sneak a winner as opposed to United going up the other end and snatching a trademark sneaky one.

Alan Smith (the commentator) is such an idiot. He was saying that this could be the night United look back on when it all went wrong. Get a grip will you.

The Muppet

Jivin Turkey wrote:

Yawn :rolleyes:

Alan Smith (the commentator) is such an idiot. He was saying that this could be the night United look back on when it all went wrong. Get a grip will you.

Agreed plus he went on for ages abourt how Fulham should have scored when the player had been given offside.

From a United viewpoint it was a frustrating night but we are still in there and the League is far from over.

cournioni

FFS! When are we going to learn to put teams away and not settle for a one goal lead for the last ten minutes. It always seems to happen, United drop off and invite the pressure onto them and then the other team gets a goal.

Rio Ferdinand was probably the worst player on the pitch for United tonight, his clearances went straight to Fulham players less than 15 yards out side of the penalty area. That is just not good enough. Rooney was the same but he showed glimpses of what he can do, but he's still young and the consistancy isn't there yet.

Ruud was a big miss. If he was playing, United would have won comfortably. Simply because he would have held the ball up and he would have taken whatever chances came his way.

Spalk0

PORNAPSTER wrote:

FFS! When are we going to learn to put teams away and not settle for a one goal lead for the last ten minutes. It always seems to happen, United drop off and invite the pressure onto them and then the other team gets a goal.

Rio Ferdinand was probably the worst player on the pitch for United tonight, his clearances went straight to Fulham players less than 15 yards out side of the penalty area. That is just not good enough. Rooney was the same but he showed glimpses of what he can do, but he's still young and the consistancy isn't there yet.

Ruud was a big miss. If he was playing, United would have won comfortably. Simply because he would have held the ball up and he would have taken whatever chances came his way.

Im gutted meself chief!

nearly coughed up my pint when Fulham equalised!was absolutely sickened!especially with the amount of chances we had we should have put more of them away!
Anyways, all is not lost really!Unless we technically cant win the title then we shouldnt throw in the towel!

Memnoch

i think the most annoying aspect of the current trend for Man U supporters is the fact that despite the manager spending 23+million? on a new striker the biggest problem the team is facing is finishing of weaker opposition. And finishing off the opposition is really about scoring goals.

Personally I feel that Man U wasted their money on Rooney, he is far too overrated. Do Man U supporters now feel that that money could have been better spent elsewhere?

yop

I do think that Rooney will be a "good" buy not a world class buy and without doubt the money would have been better spent of another central defender, Silvetre is not up to it and definately another midfielder who has a bit of creativity aka Cantona.

But it was not for us, but we all know what football is like so I definately would not write us off but we have made it very difficult for ourselves, but then again what is new on that point.

LegacyUser

Rooney will prove he is worth it. He has far too much talent. He is still learning his trade.

PHB

You see thats the thing, I honastly don't think you can find a fault with any specific player in the Man Utd team.
You could make an argument about Goalkeeper, Silvestre(although I don't think thats true, even if you ignored Brown), and Giggs.

Would you replace Scholes? Arguably one of the best players in the world.
Keano? Granted he needs a replacement at some point, but not yet. Hes playing good football, and has a huge effect on the team.

I didn't want to buy Rooney, I thought he was overratted and I thought that there were better players you could get for that sorta money, like Adriano.
But the amount of people who think hes amazing, who think hes the next big big thing, hes won huge huge awards and recently won young european players of the year.
I think i'm still right, but a ****load of football pundits disagree with me, so I'm fairly sure hes is going to come out as a really really really good striker in the end.

tbh Uniteds recent problems imo come from not getting the transfer they wanted, and settling for someone else.

We got Ronaldo instead of Ronandinho, and while Ronaldo is good lets not delude ourselves.
We didn't get Duff because of games played in the transfer market, didn't get Robben because we were ousted by the mean old traitor having fun with Chelseas money.

The last player which we got which we really wanted was Heinze, before that Van Nist, and hes turned out to be a huge success.
Rooney was a player which was hugely sought after by United, so I figure out he'll be a huge success.

I still think Saha and VAn Nist are the best strikers we have, if only Saha would stop getting bloody injured.
Last night was a blip in a recent run of good form, happens sometimes.

I don't think there was any point in the entire night where I felt United were going to get scored upon.
Two main chances came, one from Coles great personal skill with a shot that couldn't have gone in unless he shot through a person.
And a second long range effect, which was imo a fluck. Amazing shot, but the extra spin it got was beacuse he slipped while hitting it, otherwise Caroll had it covered.
Lets not go nuts and forgot that United have the second best defense in the premiership.
You know how many goals we've concedded since Rio got back?
4 in 12 games.

yop

Good post PHB, a lot of sense

eirebhoy

PHB wrote:

Would you replace Scholes? Arguably one of the best players in the world.

Who I think we can all agree can't tackle. Someone like Gerrard or Parker is what United need.

threebeards

Let's not lose sight of one thing, Utd are no worse off than they were at 4.00 on Sunday at which point everyone was saying that they were still in with a shout. I think it's fair to say (as has been proven over the years with the exception of Arsenal last year) that every team hits a bad patch and there are still 20+ games for Chelsea to have theirs. It's not over by a long shot!!

Gangsta

true true, but chelsea like arsenal last year, dont look like they are going to have a bad patch :eek:

PHB

He can't tackle, much liek Van Nist can't really tackle but that doesnt make him a bad striker, much like the fact that Scholes can't tackle doesnt make him a bad offensive midfielder.
Ronaldinho can't tackle, therefore he should be replaced by Gerrard and Parker?
Lets not be silly now.

Scholes incredible vision, passing ability, composure, and perhaps the best striker of the ball in the game. Lets not be silly

Drag00n79

Willem D wrote:

I hope Everton win to spite the other side of the mersey.

Nasty!

eirebhoy

Gangsta wrote:

true true, but chelsea like arsenal last year, dont look like they are going to have a bad patch :eek:

I think I heard/read somewhere that Arsenal went through a patch last season winning just 2 out of 10. That could be including European matches, I'm not sure.

Gangsta

PHB wrote:

He can't tackle, much liek Van Nist can't really tackle but that doesnt make him a bad striker, much like the fact that Scholes can't tackle doesnt make him a bad offensive midfielder.
Ronaldinho can't tackle, therefore he should be replaced by Gerrard and Parker?
Lets not be silly now.

Scholes incredible vision, passing ability, composure, and perhaps the best striker of the ball in the game. Lets not be silly

yes you're right. tackling isnt any part of scholes' game at all. he's a fantastic player.

eirebhoy

PHB wrote:

He can't tackle, much liek Van Nist can't really tackle but that doesnt make him a bad striker, much like the fact that Scholes can't tackle doesnt make him a bad offensive midfielder.
Ronaldinho can't tackle, therefore he should be replaced by Gerrard and Parker?
Lets not be silly now.

Scholes incredible vision, passing ability, composure, and perhaps the best striker of the ball in the game. Lets not be silly

PHB, I've read you on numerous occasions saying that Scholes best position is central midfield. If so, he has to be a good tackler. Ronaldinho doesn't play central midfield, he plays behind the striker(s) with 2 central midfielders behind him.

If you're not considering Scholes a central midfielder than Keane must be the only central midfielder in the team? A team with one central midfielder, jaysus. You definitely need someone like Parker or Gerrard if thats the case. I'm only going on what you said and you said a while back that Scholes' best position is central midfield, it's certainly not as he just can't tackle.

A Dub in Glasgo

threebeards wrote:

Let's not lose sight of one thing, Utd are no worse off than they were at 4.00 on Sunday at which point everyone was saying that they were still in with a shout. I think it's fair to say (as has been proven over the years with the exception of Arsenal last year) that every team hits a bad patch and there are still 20+ games for Chelsea to have theirs. It's not over by a long shot!!

If Man United want to be considered as contenders, they need to take advantage of slip ups from their rivals otherwise they will just meander through the season.

PHB

You seem to think mis understand what I've said in the past.

Scholes best position is in midfield yes.
He plays great in midfield with Keano, because he tracks back and Scholes doesn't as much.

Scholes does what hes meant to do, he controls possesion and makes forward runs.

Its why you tend to have two midfielders, each with different characteristics. Ones who is largely a defender, who is largely an attack, both of whom are midfielders, creating a little balanced relationship.

Tackling isn't a huge part, or an importnat part of his game. He breaks up possesion enough, and Keano is cover for him.

The main job of the midfield is to control the game, keep possesion, get back possesion, and set up the chances.
And there are few people who do that better than Keano and Scholes together.

Ronaldinho plays in a formation similar to uniteds, in this sorta fashion.

ODOOMOOOO
ODOOOMOSO
ODOMOOOSO
ODOOMOOOO

They both need to tackle, but it isn't an intrinisc part of their game.
Scholes gets the ball in the majority of tackles he makes, and the problem you've identified with his tackling tends to only happen when somebody else ****s up and he has to leg it back in other to make a lunging tackle to prevent an attack.

p.s.

Does this mean that Scholes was never a good player?
Or do yo just think he should be playing behind the attack?

jank

Great result for Everton! and of course the two London sides

eirebhoy

PHB wrote:

Does this mean that Scholes was never a good player?
Or do yo just think he should be playing behind the attack?

Scholes is a great player but if you play him you have to play 2 other central midfielders IMO. Since Keane has turned into the holding midfielder what Utd are missing is a box to box tough tackler (a replacement for the old Keane if you will).

Jivin Turkey

eirebhoy wrote:

Scholes is a great player but if you play him you have to play 2 other central midfielders IMO. Since Keane has turned into the holding midfielder what Utd are missing is a box to box tough tackler (a replacement for the old Keane if you will).

To be honest, they did alright in 1999 with Keane and Scholes in the centre.

And Keane has always been Uniteds "holding midfielder". Scholes has been his partner in midfield since circa 95/96, about 80% of Keane United career, and Paul Ince before that, who was a box to box player (even more so than Keane in his prime IMO).

BaZmO*

PHB wrote:

ODOOMOOOO
ODOOOMOSO
ODOMOOOSO
ODOOMOOOO

Am I missing something here? What does that mean??

eirebhoy

Jivin Turkey wrote:

To be honest, they did alright in 1999 with Keane and Scholes in the centre.

And Keane has always been Uniteds "holding midfielder". Scholes has been his partner in midfield since circa 95/96, about 80% of Keane United career, and Paul Ince before that, who was a box to box player (even more so than Keane in his prime IMO).

Nicky Butt played 45 times for Utd in the 98/99 season though. He probably started a small percentage of those so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.:) One more crucial thing is that Beckham would not be classed as a winger in the same way Ronaldo is so they wouldn't be left exposed as much.

I certainly wouldn't say Keane was always the holding midfielder. All you have to do is look at his scoring record since he has, IMO, been transformed into a holding midfielder (he has played almost 45 times since his 49th United goal). He was a Gerrard or Vieira type, they certainly wouldn't class themselves as holding midfielders. Makelele, Butt, Carsley, Lennon, Galasek, Hamann would all be my idea of a holding midfielder.

Anyway, the second paragraph is neither here nor there. I just feels United need a Gerrard type player.

Jivin Turkey

eirebhoy wrote:

Nicky Butt played 45 times for Utd in the 98/99 season though. He probably started a small percentage of those so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.:) One more crucial thing is that Beckham would not be classed as a winger in the same way Ronaldo is so they wouldn't be left exposed as much.

I certainly wouldn't say Keane was always the holding midfielder. All you have to do is look at his scoring record since he has, IMO, been transformed into a holding midfielder (he has played almost 45 times since his 49th United goal). He was a Gerrard or Vieira type, they certainly wouldn't class themselves as holding midfielders. Makelele, Butt, Carsley, Lennon, Galasek, Hamann would all be my idea of a holding midfielder.

Anyway, the second paragraph is neither here nor there. I just feels United need a Gerrard type player.

I agree with you whole heartedly on the Beckham thing. He would have regulaly provided cover for Scholes in the centre, something that Ronaldo does not do at all. I think Keane has been a "holding midfielder" since his knee injury in 1997, he lost his ability to be all out box to box since then. Gerrard would not be a great replacement IMO because I think he could not play with Scholes to well, as neither are disciplined enough to defend all the time.

smemon

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

If Man United want to be considered as contenders, they need to take advantage of slip ups from their rivals otherwise they will just meander through the season.

exatcly and that's what annoys me most. it wasnt the fact we drew away to fulham (away to midtable clubs can be very tricky), it's the fact we didnt take advantage of arsenal and chelsea.

we didnt lose, last season we might have. we're not losing many game this year which is what makes its difficult for utd fans to criticise the side when they're not doing too much wrong. but the killer instinct is definately lacking. the work rate is improving, that was clear last night, even giggs tracking back, rooney sprinting back to cover etc... imo, that stems from smith who is the 1st line of defence and should be made a regular from now on.

that goal last night was one of the best ive ever seen, im sure you know what i mean. rooney must be dropped, he's not performing and shouldnt be put in because of his price tag.

eirebhoy

Jivin Turkey wrote:

Gerrard would not be a great replacement IMO because I think he could not play with Scholes to well, as neither are disciplined enough to defend all the time.

What I meant is that United need a Gerrard type player at this moment in time. Keane can be replaced when needs be, he still has a bit left in him.