Man Utd v WBA

The Rooster

What do United fans think of the proposed boycott of this game? Or is it going to happen at all, I've seen very little in the media about it?

I think its a very good idea, if the fans are genuinely united about their feelings on Glazer. To have an empty of near-empty stadium would be a massive show of strength and leave nobody in any doubt as to the power of the fans.

However, its a gamble also. If the attendance still reaches say 50,000, then rightly or wrongly it would give great credence to the argument that these groups are just made up of mouthpieces, and that the silent majority are not concerned by Glazer.

While there should be no issue really for season ticket holders not to turn up, if I was a fan who had purchased a ticket for this match, I'd find it very hard not to go. If I was coming from Ireland and had paid for flight and hotel, then I'd find it very very hard. Did I hear something about the shareholders groups saying that there's a second best option of leaving at half-time?

I wonder will there be group members all around OT, encouraging people not to go in - maybe making picket lines?

Saturday evening will be very interesting......

LegacyUser

Cancelled. No boycott anymoe.

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sport/football/manchesterunited/s/157/157617_reds_fans_scrap_boycott.html

BaZmO*

I thought the traditional thing to do at football matches where the fans aren't happy with the board or whatever, is to go to the match and for all the fans at some stage to turn their backs on the playing field to show their displeasure.

B.

SteM

I'm glad this has been called off to be honest. I'd be more in favour of calling on a one match boycott of the superstore and OT food outlets instead. This would allow supporters to make their opposition known during the game and show that without their custom the club could loose money on a regular basis.

The Rooster

Thanks for that cheesedude.
That's a big kick in the teeth for the Supporters Group. They obviously believe it would have been disasterous.

That's one big threat that they have repeated to Glazer (i.e. we wont turn up, so youll lose money) gone. It shows that no matter what goes on behind the scenes, the fans will always support the 11 men wearing the Man Utd jerseys. "We may or may not be worried about Glazer, but we'll never stop being fans". The threat of starting up a new MU club also looks like a sad joke at this stage.

As Ste said, a boycott of the superstore might have been a better idea.

LegacyUser

No problem man. Can anyone remember why exactly Man Utd went PLC again!?

Brock

cheesedude wrote:

No problem man. Can anyone remember why exactly Man Utd went PLC again!?

its ironic the original idea for the plc came after a single buyer tried to purchase the club in the late 80's 1989 i think..His name was Micheal knighton.Part of his deal was he would rebuild the stretford end as united didnt have the cash.When all his backers dropped out he was left alone and united rejected the bid.

good news for shares united doctor who star chris eccleston has bought 10,000 pounds in shares

LegacyUser

Ah cheers buddy. good start too from a z list celeb. Hope they get some other high profile bids in. The Korean bank will match it pound for pound.

wheres me jumpa

is this game on tv?

The Muppet

wheres me jumpa wrote:

is this game on tv?

Sky sports 1 @ 5.00

bbability

Hit me baby one more time is on aswell!!! Thats strange.... a bunch of "has-beens" on at the same time

KdjaCL

Tbh when West Brom watch the video os this game , they see why they not even close to good enough to play in PL.


Utd taking the piss lucky WBAs keeper isnt bad and most of Utds finsihing is.
Possession:
Man Utd 70%
West Brom 30%
Shots:
Man Utd 19
West Brom 0
Corners:
Man Utd 10
West Brom 0
Fouls:
Man Utd 2
West Brom 7
Bookings:
Man Utd 0
West Brom 0
kdjac

Aquos76

O Shea has jus given away a pen and it has be converted by Earnshaw. A harsh pen IMO

Aquos76

Saha, Rooney, and Scholes are about to be brought on for P Neville, A Smith, and Kleberson

Aquos76

Scholes has just hammered the post with a shot from about 30 yards

bizmark

wba goalkeeper played a blinder from the 20-30 mins of the game i saw

Aquos76

Muppet, would you like to defend Fergies team selection today for a must win game, because for the life of me, I cant get my head around as to why, there was no RVN, Rooney, Scholes, and Keane, from the start.

I suppose they were tired from watching the semi finals of the Champions League midweek. This is getting beyond a joke.

I await your reply with anticipation.

btw.. Good luck Robbo, next week at portsmouth

Aquos76

bizmark wrote:

wba goalkeeper played a blinder from the 20-30 mins of the game i saw

He had and excellent game from the minute he was brought on as a sub, just after Giggs goal.

case n basket

Thanks West Brom, that's 2nd in the bag!

bizmark

In defence of Fergie it seemed to me man united would of won if it was pritty much any other keeper or that keeper on any other day footballs a funny old game

PHB

Defend his selection?
Easy
Arsenal have come 2nd Had before the match, little to no chance of that not happening.
Why tire people out fo rthe FA Cup

smemon

Leonard wrote:

Muppet, would you like to defend Fergies team selection today for a must win game, because for the life of me, I cant get my head around as to why, there was no RVN, Rooney, Scholes, and Keane, from the start.

a must win game?! most utd fans and indeed players know 3rd is where we'll finish, sure they would have wanted to win but it was far from must-win from a realistic point of view.

ever since norwich beat us, i wanted to see a complete reshuffle and young fringe players/ reserves given a chance as it was a perfect opportunity.

seriously, what do utd gain form putting out van nistelrooy, keane, scholes etc?? you know what they can do, playing them when theres nothing to play for is pointless.

LegacyUser

smemon wrote:

a must win game?! most utd fans and indeed players know 3rd seriously, what do utd gain form putting out van nistelrooy, keane, scholes etc?? you know what they can do, playing them when theres nothing to play for is pointless.

Easy now. What ya mean nothing to play for? Automatic qualification? Do you know which teams we could be playing against in August? Imagine we get a shock defeat!

smemon

cheesedude wrote:

Easy now. What ya mean nothing to play for? Automatic qualification? Do you know which teams we could be playing against in August? Imagine we get a shock defeat!

its like saying arsenal had something to play for when they were 11 points behind chelsea and mathematically had a chance but you nor i would give the a prayer.

before today we, even if we had won and win all our remaining games would not have caught arsenal. im not worried about qualifiers, their seeded anyway afaik and utd will be top seeds.

anyway it generates more revenue for the club, gets the players extra fit by league time and usually gets those all important couple of wins under the belt which is always a nice start to a season.

LegacyUser

Just like this season yeah? Ah I see your point just hope it actually works out. We desperately need a new gk, winger, midfielder.

smemon

i dunno if fergie will buy a new keeper now, offering howard a new contract would suggest he could still be no.1 next year. on the other hand, perhaps fergie knows carroll is leaving and just wants to keep a decent replacement for his new summer buy.

giggs needs competition, definately need a new left sided whizz kid. midifelder isnt all that important atm, keane and scholes can still do the job, plus fergie usually fills the midfield with the overflow of strikers. sort of like throws everyone into midfield and hopes for loads of protection and also possesion.

it works in europe better than in the league, especially away in europe but next season that will have to change. we need players in regular positions match after match.

Aquos76

The thing about qualifiers are you never know who you are going to get.

What sticks in my mind about this season and the champions league especially is what might have been. Remember our last game in the group stages of the CL. Yes the game SAF decided that it was best to field a weakened side and see what happens. Well we all know what happened. We got played off the park by a very average side and got beat 0-3 and ended up finishing second in the group and drawing AC milan instead of Bremen.

The Muppet

bbability wrote:

Hit me baby one more time is on aswell!!! Thats strange.... a bunch of "has-beens" on at the same time

HA! HA! Get back in your box Phil.

Leonard: As the other guys have said United are playing for nothing so why not put out squad players and rest the others for the FA Cup. I though they played well enough TBH. Happy to see Robbo's WBA still in with a chance of staying up too.

CL qualifiers is seeded, if we can't come out of that we don't deserve to be in it TBH.

smuckers

Its the first time, I heard yesterday that not one team have been relegated, in The PL history, going in last couple of games.
Massive game at St Marys next wk.

PHB

Seriously, all this hoo rah about cl qualifiers hard is just bull****.
Just because ****ty newcastle ****ed up one year, noone else has since right?

Chance to see what kleberson fortune and smith were made of, not much it appears, although i was impressed with kleberson myself

fade2black

Kleberson was useless.

PHB

I actually disagree.
I think his finishing was bad, but I think that can improve with confidence.
He had a total of 3 half chances from shots outside the box, and one of which he got on target.
Thats a confidence thing.

Kleberson had amazing movement yesterday, absolutely unreal.
He got into three positions, where if Neville/Smith/Neville had passed to him, he would have been in a goal scorign position/huge spaces with runs being made/goal scoring position.
His problem was that the players around him were ****e, with Phil Neville thinking he is a playmaker or something, making huge passes and ****ing them right up, when he should do what keano does, passes to scholes and lets him pass.

I think he played well, and I'd like to see him be given a chance with the top team around him.

case n basket

The bigger problem with finishing 3rd is the disruption it causes to a team's pre-season. They have to come back that bit earlier and have two extra competitive games to play. I don't think the qualifier and combination of olympics/USA tour did Man Utd any favours last season, Chelsea & Arsenal came flying out of the blocks while United came out at a crawl.

PHB

United came out at a crawl due to combinations of injuries/suspensions/nationals pre season
Rooney, Ruud, Rio, Heinze, Brown, Ronaldo all out at the start.
Remember Keano in defense?

Also, quals aren't pre-season.
Not United's quals anyway.
This year they were on 11th of August, 25th of August.
Its not like we've to qualify like Shelbourne do

fade2black

Besides his finishing I just noted that he gave the ball away too many times, I think that's been one of united's biggest problems this season to be honest. When I saw that team selection yesterday I must admit I was very annoyed but I thought they were all over them in the first half and created some great chances. Robson gave his players a kick in the arse at half time and probably told them to stop standing around admiring Man U and play some football. United, this season especially, have not played well against teams that defend in debth and frustrate. We had a load of forwards on in the end yesterday, none of them especially knowing what their role was...so in the end we were lacking an out an out striker, a poacher - a clinical finisher.

The first thing that needs to be sorted in the summer is the background staff. If not Ferguson, then definitely Quieroz. After that, we'll have to say goodbye to -

Phil Neville.
Mikael Silvestre.
Roy Carroll.
Louis Saha.
David Bellion.

A few more too, all for various reasons, whether it's because they have been living off Man Utd's coat tails for too long or there are just too many players in a particular position.

United need to have a familiarity to their side, that's what wins trophies. You can pretty much name Chelsea's first 11 every week.....You could do the same with united's in the nineties.

And I know many will come on and blame injuries, but regardless of them Ferguson enjoys shuffling the deck a little too much. How many times can you rest a player? They are professional footballers? They train from 10 - 2 every morning and get the rest of the day to shop, play golf, snooker etc....then they play a couple of matches a week, 90 minutes?? Absurd amounts of money for relatively little work...and they constantly need to be rested? Arse.

Aquos76

The Muppet wrote:

Leonard: As the other guys have said United are playing for nothing so why not put out squad players and rest the others for the FA Cup. I though they played well enough TBH. Happy to see Robbo's WBA still in with a chance of staying up too.

CL qualifiers is seeded, if we can't come out of that we don't deserve to be in it TBH.

I agree that if we cannot get past the qualifiers, we dont deserve to be in it. The fact that fergie is bring his team back 3 weeks earlier for the new season means that next season we are going to have a very long one, and I dont want to be on here next march when we may be stuggling again and Fergie blaming a long hard season.

As was pointed out by F2B, we need a first choice 11 to be starting all our games, Fergie is too fond of changing things for games which he thinks are easier ones. The problems arise then when the 4 or 5 changes are brought in and are not used to the system that he has been playing up to that. If he wants to shuffle his team around, let him use the league cup for that, which he always did throughout the 90's. The days of underestimating the likes of WBA, Norwich, Palace, Blackburn and lets not forget those two games against fulham this season when we were lucky not to lose one and let in an equaliser in the other,should be well gone. Theres no such thing as an easy match in the premiership anymore. Chelsea won the league this season after only losing one match and Arsenal went through all of last season without losing any, so next season it is going to be even harder.

Whether there is money available or not, atleast 3 outfield players have to be brought in along with a Goalkeeper, which has to be top priorty.

LegacyUser

And I know many will come on and blame injuries, but regardless of them Ferguson enjoys shuffling the deck a little too much. How many times can you rest a player? They are professional footballers? They train from 10 - 2 every morning and get the rest of the day to shop, play golf, snooker etc....then they play a couple of matches a week, 90 minutes?? Absurd amounts of money for relatively little work...and they constantly need to be rested? Arse.

What an absolutely amazing life. Can you imagine it? Getting paid all that money to look physically great, be extremely fit and play football constantly!? What a dream! Then after football training go off and play a round of golf or snooker or shop!!!!! WOW! What a life!!!!! I am so jealous right now!!!

fade2black

Not too sure how to take that post....taking a dig at me i presume.

The Muppet

Leonard wrote:

As was pointed out by F2B, we need a first choice 11 to be starting all our games, Fergie is too fond of changing things for games which he thinks are easier ones. The problems arise then when the 4 or 5 changes are brought in and are not used to the system that he has been playing up to that. If he wants to shuffle his team around, let him use the league cup for that, which he always did throughout the 90's. The days of underestimating the likes of WBA, Norwich, Palace, Blackburn and lets not forget those two games against fulham this season when we were lucky not to lose one and let in an equaliser in the other,should be well gone. Theres no such thing as an easy match in the premiership anymore. Chelsea won the league this season after only losing one match and Arsenal went through all of last season without losing any, so next season it is going to be even harder.

I dont disagree with you or F2B. The more settled the first team the better but it's unrealistic to think any team can go through a season starting with the same 11 every game. United didn't do that in the late 90's , They had a stronger squad with quality players on the bench to make changes. Unfortunately that is no longer the case , we do not have the quality in the current squad.

As you say the standard has risien and it's up to United to move up a gear from the very begining of the season, and keep it up for the whole season. As we have seen with Arsenal this year you can not afford a blip in form if you want to win. I'm sure we have the right manager to move us along.

Aquos76

The Muppet wrote:

I'm sure we have the right manager to move us along.

At this moment in time, I suspect that you may be right, but he has to do a lot better this summer in the transfer market that he has in previous years(excluding Rooney and Ronaldo).

He has brought in fringe players into the club and they have failed bigtime. What ever happen to Liam Miller. He had great expectations for him. Kleberson, well he has not got the chance to put any sort of a run together, so we could actually see what sort of player he is. We all know that Alan Smith is a grafter, but again he has not lived up to things at OT.

Hopefully we might see ole back for next season, if he manages to fully recover from his injuries, he will be like a new signing if only for a season or two.

LegacyUser

fade2black wrote:

Not too sure how to take that post....taking a dig at me i presume.

haha sorry I am actually being really serious, reading it again it looks kind of sarcastic but I am dead serious. I can not think of a better career if you are a top professional footballer.

fade2black

Well okay then!

Headshot

Ronaldo for me was the only good player out on that pitch against West Brom