United – if it didn’t make you cry, you don’t love Manchester United

Anything related to Manchester United is bound to create an interest in me and if it is something related to the crash of Munich, you bet I am interested. United is a television series on that crash which was aired by BBC.

United is the story of 1957/58 Manchester United team and focuses primarily on Sir Bobby Charlton and assistant coach Jimmy Murphy. Sir Bobby is trying to breakthrough into the United team which is full of players of the highest caliber. He constantly keeps asking Jimmy about his chances to play in the first team. When he is finally given a chance, he is delighted.

Never ever write Manchester United off

That is a big statement to make. Very big. But this statement cannot be made for any other team in the premier league but Manchester United. The game against Bolton proved it once again. Down to 10 men. Not playing the best game of football. Probably deserved to be behind. 1 point would have been good enough from the game based on performance. But we got 3 points. We got the win. The determination and the will to win tells you what Manchester United are made of.

Manchester United 2-1 Marseille

0-0 result from the away leg is always a tough score line to take home considering that a scored draw can throw you out of the competition. And as is the case with Manchester United, there is always that belief that we can get the job done. And the same happened against Marseille, we did the job with a 2-1 victory to take us through to the next round of the Champions League. Let us look at some of the talking points from the game:

7 defenders and we still win

Games against Arsenal are always high profile games no matter what competition it is in. And coming into the game this weekend after losses against Chelsea and Liverpool, there weren’t very high hopes but there was belief that we can still do it. And did that belief come good – it definitely did.

Barcelona did turn it around

When Arsenal beat Barcelona in the 1^st leg, I posted an article ‘5 things Barcelona need to do right to turn it around’ and they did do few things right and turned the tie around as expected.

This hurts big time

A 3-1 loss to Liverpool hurts more than a 3-1 loss to any other team. Especially considering how poor we were. There were no bad refereeing calls in this one unlike the Chelsea game. We were outplayed completely on the pitch. Liverpool seemed to be more up for the game and rightfully won it.

Wigan 4-0 Manchester United

A trip to Wigan is effectively 3 points ensured. But the way this season has gone, we could never be sure. But belief is a big word and if you have belief you can overcome everything.

Opportunity lost?

Observations from the Marseille game:

• Gibson has one of his better games. It was a surprise for me that he started but he at least tried harder in this game compared to some of his recent performances. Some of his passes did reach his team mates and some of his passes showed his vision though not successful.

5 things Barcelona need to do right to turn it around

Arsenal surprised everyone with their performance in the first leg but Barcelona were not playing badly and they can turn around this tie and here is how:

Derby ended by a class goal…

The first Manchester derby of this season turned out to be a very dull affair and honestly, I didn’t expect this one to be any better. But how wrong was I?

ManCity lined up with 3 holding mid-fielders as I expected them to be with Yaya Toure in a more advanced role. Silva was given a free role on the right and Kolarov was on the left. Tevez was up front and Richards, Kompany, Lescott and Zabaleta lining up in the defense. My big question before the game was if Fergie will start with both Berbatov and Rooney but he decided to have Rooney as the lone front man with Nani and Giggs supporting on the flanks. Midfield comprised of Scholes, Anderson and Fletcher. O’Shea, Smalling, Vidic and Evra completed the defensive line up.