Whats up with United fans?

So Manchester United have lost again. This time it was the banana skin fixture against Fulham at Craven Cottage and United lost it 3-0.

I have already read the rants at many places about various things: like the lack of chances being created, need for new signings, Berbatov and Scholes being bad players and Sir Alex Ferguson being a poor manager. Personally speaking, I was devastated seeing the performance on Saturday and I haven’t been that devastated since the 4-1 loss against Liverpool last season.

A performance we can take heart from

Manchester United lost over the weekend to Chelsea by a single goal scored by John Terry heading a Frank Lampard free kick.

When Manchester United lost to Liverpool at Anfield most United fans like me were incensed by the fact that how poor United were but yesterday was a different story. United were by far the better side in all aspects of the game.

When I saw the starting line, there were thoughts in my mind that it is again a very defensive line up.

Van Der Sar

O’Shea – Brown – Evans – Evra

Valencia – Anderson – Fletcher – Carrick – Giggs

Rooney

Whenever United change their formation as per the opposition they tend to disappoint but this was another story.

This line up was not able to defend well against a well organized Chelsea team but were also threatening Petr Cech’s goal. United in fact dominated the first half which was devoid of any breathtaking chances.

The 2nd half started with United dominating again and it looked as if they want to nick it by an odd goal. But it was not to be. Free kick was awarded against Fletcher which resulted in John Terry scoring from a header and giving Chelsea the win and opening up the 5 point gap between Chelsea and Manchester United.

There can be lot said about the free kick wrongfully given and Drogba being off side and interfering with play but Chelsea from that sort of a range are always dangerous. And they do tend to wear down the opposition and score late in the game (remember Liverpool game). If they would not have got this scoring chance then, it would have been some other moment.

What bemused me about the referring were two other decisions. One was when Valencia was brought down by Terry in Chelsea penalty box. Second was when Terry was down injured and Chelsea were allowed to have a shot  at United goal but the game was stopped as soon as United started their counter attack.

But we were lacking that cutting edge in front of the goal which cost us the game. The game clearly showed how we needed another striker on the pitch. Every opportunity being created by Rooney had goal written all over it had it fallen onto the foot of Berbatov but it always went to Valencia, Giggs, Fletcher or Anderson (none of whom are really goal scorers).

The defence looked really solid in absence of Vidic and Ferdinand. I really liked when Evans went behind Van Der Sar to cover the line just in case the goalkeeper missed the ball.

Overall it was a performance which will really instill a belief among United fans that we are back!!! (even with a loss)

The big game before international break

It is the top of the table clash this Sunday before the premier league goes into the international break. Its Chelsea v Manchester United for the first place in the premier league.

Chelsea are currently sitting on top with a 2 point lead over Manchester United. A win for Chelsea opens up a 5 point gap and gives a chance to Arsenal and Man City to leapfrog Manchester United to 2nd place.

A win for Manchester United moves them to top with a 1 point lead. In either case a loss suits neither of them considering the chasing pack will have an improved shot at getting at the loser. A draw suits the chasing pack even more.

Both teams have had to rely on comebacks to ensure qualification for the Champions League knock out phases and both of them rested quiet a few players either due to injury or due to luxury of having everyone fit. Chelsea team might be a little tired due to their trip back from Spain whereas Manchester United were at home. But Chelsea also have the luxury of big squad full of game changers.

Chelsea do not have any key players missing apart from Bosingwa. But they have the most potent weapon in their strike force in the form of Drogba.

The goal gun

He is the goal gun for Chelsea who keeps firing as long as he is on the pitch. He was responsible for the comeback that ensured Chelsea’s qualification during midweek. He has already scored 9 goals in 11 games and also has 5 assists to his name. There is no doubt that he would be instrumental in Chelsea scoring against Manchester United this weekend. There is no way United defence would be able to keep a clean sheet.

For United, Rio Ferdinand would be missing but Vidic, Giggs and Berbatov are available for selection. And so is Darren Fletcher.

The key

Fletcher is the key to stopping Chelsea from winning the game. He won’t be able to stop Chelsea scoring at least one but he sure can be instrumental in preventing Chelsea from winning the game. And who can doubt his ability to score important goals in the big games. His game goes to a different level against big teams (though he is never poor in other games). Another important factor would be the United defence. I am not sure if Ferdinand’s absence is a boon in disguise considering his form (which might be due to his injury coz I personally like him). They have a duel threat of Dorgba and Anelka to tackle who both have a lot of pace. Also the Chelsea midfield diamond can be very unpredictable.

Now considering Chelsea defence which is not at its best, I am sure Manchester United would also score with the potential of Rooney and Berbatov.

But who’ll score more? Would need to watch the game to find out. In my opinion it would be an entertaining scored draw, 2-2

And Fergie, please do not start with Nani.

It was all thrills at Old Trafford

It is a very bad feeling to have when you switch on your television set to watch your favorite team to play and the first thing you see is a goal scored against your team. You get that feeling why did I turn the television on, maybe if I didn’t turn it on, the goal might not have been scored.

I had this feeling when I saw Alan Dzagoev score against Manchester United in the champions league match at Old Trafford. Before I could sulk any more into the fact that I was responsible for the goal, Michael Owen equalized.

Owen Equalizes

It was good work by Neville to give the ball to Valencia who put in a good cross which was placed into the path of Owen by the slightest of touches by Nani and Owen put the ball past Akinfeev to make it 1-1.

Score at 1-1 wasn’t exactly giving me any chills. And then Milos Krasic scored. 1-2 to CSKA. Still no need to panic. I have seen better comebacks by this team and considering I was impressed by what the lads were doing around the CSKA goal, I still had hope of the score being turned around (I was really angry at the way we were defending though).

Start of 2nd half and I am wondering why is Nani still on the pitch and I am kinda cursing Fergie for not bringing on Obertan and before I could finish, CSKA were 1-3 up. Damn, now I was having chills. CSKA seem to be dominating the play. Some of their passing was awesome. And I was wondering what now? I only hoped for Obertan to come back and do some magic and then Rooney was warming up.Oh! he is around the pitch if not on it. Lets hope for some magic from the new father.

He comes on and there is some improvement in the United gameplay which began to fade away after the 3rd goal from CSKA. Before that there was a feeling that long unbeaten record was coming to an end.

But Paul Scholes and Antonio Valencia had other ideas along with making the game very interesting for the viewers. First it was Paul Scholes’ header and then it was Valencia’s deflected shot which kept United’s unbeaten record in tact.

Scholes scoring the header

Before these two goals, Darren Fletcher was denied a penalty claim and was in fact booked for a dive. Really bemusing considering that the yellow card can come to haunt him late in the tournament.

The CSKA goalkeepr Akinfeev performed really well and made a load of saves from Owen, Macheda and Rooney. I wish Fergie signs him before anyone else snaps him up.

The good thing about United performance was that they were creating chances and it was only the heroics of Akinfeev which were denying them the goals. The defence needs to be more solid if they want to win against Chelsea over the weekend. I have faith in Brown and Evans but I thought Van Der Sar could have done better than standing and watching the ball fall in his goal. It seems age is catching up with his reflexes. Also, United seem to be coming back into scoring late late goals which was missing last season.

By the way all the sulking feeling about the goal scored just on switching on the television set went away once I remember that I was watching the repeat telecast

Fletcher returns for CSKA clash

Manchester United welcome CSKA Moscow to Old Trafford for a game that could secure qualification to the knock out rounds of the UEFA Champions League for Manchester United.

Manchester United are fresh from beating Blackburn Rovers by 2 goal margin with Berbatov and Rooney getting on the score sheet but are undergoing an injury crisis.

Defenders Ferdinand and Vidic are unavailable for the game and so are Park and Giggs. Rooney would be missing the game as he has just become a father and would be with his family. Berbatov limped out off the Blackburn game and is also a doubt. But Darren Fletcher would be making a return to the starting line up. This is a good news as he would provide the much needed steel in the United midfield. It will also provide him the match sharpness before the big premier league game against Chelsea this weekend.

Tipped to return to the starting line up

“Darren was a substitute on Saturday and will play on Tuesday,” revealed Sir Alex Ferguson at his pre-match press conference. “I think most people recognise Fletcher as a big game player. We’ve been aware of that for quite a while.”

“Now there’s an acceptance among most people that he’s a very important player for us. He has been missed in some key games recently so it will be good to have him back.”

The defence should again see Wes Brown and Jonny Evans.

“The great thing for Wes Brown is that he has remained fit this year,” said Ferguson.

“Last season, he had a terrible run of injuries. But the previous year, he made the most appearances and played in the final in Moscow.

“When he is fit and we bring him in there is no better defender in the country. He is a real true defender.”

For me the starting line up should be something like this:

Van Der Sar

Neville – Brown – Evans – Evra

Valencia – Carrick – Fletcher – Nani

Owen – Wellbeck

I expect Obertan to make a substitute appearance during the 2nd half. It should be an easy win for United against a side who have recently sacked their coach and are now under a new coach.

My prediction is an easy 3-0 win for United.

2 goals to Black-’burn’

Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney scored two goals to burn a hole in Blackburn’s chances to run away from the closeness of relegation places in the premier league table.

It was a game where Manchester United had a very different look to them. Ferdinand and Vidic were missing due to injuries and therefore Wes Brown and Jonny Evans were starting in the center of the defence. John O’Shea was at right back and very reliable Evra was at left back.

The midfield comprised of Valencia and Nani on wings with Carrick and Anderson in the midfield. Attack comprised of Berbatov and Rooney. The highlight was on the bench in form of Obertan who had his debut midweek in the League Cup game against Barnsley.

Berbatov was left frustrated in the first half as he had decent enough chances to score but it was the heroics of Blackburn team which kept the score tied at half time.

First it was Chimbonda who blocked a shot from the Bulgarian and then he almost scored from the downward header only to see the goalkeeper push the ball over the bar.

But the Bulgarian’s persistence paid off when he had a sublime touch to control the ball and hit it on the turn to score the first goal of the game.

After that came the Premier League debut for Obertan. He showed great pace but also showed a lot of nervousness in his game. He had a very decent chance after being set up by Michael Owen to score from 7 yards but shot just wide.

With 3 minutes remaining Rooney got on the end of Anderson cross to double the lead. Blackburn had a goal wrongly denied for offside just after the completion of normal time.

The good points of the game:

• Partnership of Rooney and Berbatov seem to be flourishing
• United were creating a lot of chances
• Valencia is improving with every game and getting into goal scoring positions and his crossing is also improving
• Even in absence of Ferdinand and Vidic, the defence kept a clean sheet (having said that they were not tested by quality opposition)
• Obertan did well for the few minutes he was on the pitch.

The bad points of the game:

• Nani was against weak opposition and was again poor.
• Carrick didn’t do much in the game and was barely there at times.
• We are not as prolific against weaker opposition as Chelsea and Arsenal and the weaker goal difference can come back to haunt us.

Overall I would say it was a good win but there was something lacking in United’s game to give them the fluidity they are known for.

By the way, I happened to watch the Liverpool game against Fulham and Liverpool were pathetic in the game. Carragher finally got a red card for being the last defender making the tackle preventing the attacker from scoring and Torres and Benayoun were taken off by Rafa to protect them which is weird.

Imagine Fergie taking off Rooney to protect him in a losing game. Fergie always tries to win a game no matter how important the next game is while Rafa tries to protect his best players. I still remember when Liverpool won the Champions Leagues against Milan, Pool fans used to say that Rafa is better than Fergie who took so many years to win Champions League.

Now I totally agree that Rafa is way better than Fergie – in screwing up the teams

We were poor

Seriously, there is no other point that should come out of the Manchester United performance against Liverpool over the weekend.

We were poor, very poor. Liverpool dominated the entire period of 90 minutes. We were barely creating chances and our midfield was not dominating the game. If Lucas, a player who has been below average throughout the season till now, can dominate the midfield and be creative as well, then the opposing midfield has to be poor. Scholes and Carrick were not up for it. Carrick is going down my favorites list. His European performances have been better but somehow he is not any longer premiership class. Scholes is getting old and cannot last 90 minutes. Giggs had an off day which for a 36 year old would happen once a while. Valencia was having a good game and worked tirelessly. He was unlucky to hit the bar towards the end.

Fletcher was missed in the midfield and I was surprised why Anderson did not start the game. He has been a better performer in United midfield as compared to Carrick and Scholes and does provide us with some creativity in the area.

Berbatov was poor for me. He is not a person who moves around a lot and need players around him to move a lot which United players were not able to. Rooney worked his socks off but never got going nor was ably supported.

Defensively Vidic made a hat-trick of red cards against Liverpool just like Manchester United made a hat-trick of losses to Liverpool. Ferdinand was partly at fault for the Torres shot but for me Edwin Van Der Sar should have done better. I agree Torres is a world class striker but getting beaten on your near post is not a sign of world class goalkeeper.

Nani coming on when United were a goal down and trying to chase was a pathetic sight to watch. Is this the best of game-changers we are left with?

There were some refereeing decisions which didn’t go our way but we have reaped the benefits of decisions going our ways in other games, so we can’t complain about that.

All in all we were awfully poor but the good thing was that everyone apart from Chelsea (Tottenham, Arsenal, Man City, Aston Villa, Everton) dropped points. Also, last season Liverpool beat United as well but the title was still ours. If the title still goes our way, I’ll take this defeat with a smiling face.

But come January, I would like to see some transfer activity happening at Old Trafford.

We’ll win next season or the season after

Its not our season yet again

Liverpool (un)welcome Manchester United with thoughts in their minds that its not going to be their year yet again. The team that came so close to winning the premier league title last year and whose fans were gasping deep breaths ‘next season would be our season’ would be thinking, our wait for the 19th title has just been extended by another season (reminds me of the movie Fever Pitch).

Currently a 7 point gap between these two teams doesn’t mean that Liverpool can’t win the title nor will a loss in the game against Manchester United mean the same thing. We have seen teams go on runs to cover up such gaps and no one else knows it better than we Manchester United fans. No matter what the media says after the result of this game, title hunt would still be on for both teams no matter what the result is (I vaguely remember media writing off Manchester United after their loss at Burnley).

But after 4 losses in a row, another loss against Manchester United would be catastrophic for confidence of Liverpool. Liverpool owners have said that they back Rafa Benitez but we all know what the result of this game can do. Liverpool win, they are back in the hunt, they lose Rafa’s job is in danger (though I don’t think he would be sacked).

Reminds me of an assassination attempt on Hitler by the British which was called off on the grounds that Hitler is a poor strategist and anyone who replaces would be better than him at war. Same way, Rafa should stay at Liverpool, makes it so much easier for Liverpool to lose the title

What the bigger cause of worry is that with Man City, Aston Villa and Spurs improving their performances by huge margins, Liverpool run the risk of losing out on Champions League place (so much for the title dreams). Couple that with a failure to qualify for Champions League knock out stages, it would be financial trouble for a club from where we hear the news of lack of funds almost daily. Also, Liverpool gate receipts are less in value as compared to Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United as they can’t afford higher prices like their rivals and their stadium capacity is anyways lesser than others. They rely heavily on gate receipts in Euros from Champions League games which clearly highlights the importance of qualification for knock out phases this year and for Champions League next year.

Also, next year Liverpool’s Champions League final win against Milan goes off for calculations of UEFA Co-efficients which decide seedings for teams in Champions League. A poor showing in this year’s Champions League would also mean loss of 1st seeding for next year’s tournament (if they qualify)

Dailymail published an article on Rafa’s spending during his reign which amounts to £229m which by any means is not a small amount. Most of the players in the list are good players who didn’t perform well at Liverpool but were good at other places, a point made by Jermaine Penant in Guardian. Both these articles point to inadequacies of Rafa Benitez.

His obsession with zonal marking, over reliance on a bunch of players, David Ngog as Torres’ backup, not using players like Benayoun and Voronin enough and no eye for creativity – all these factors point as to how poor has Rafa become since his Valencia days. Sometimes I wonder if he should be given credit for the Champions League win over Milan.

Whether or not Liverpool fans are happy about Rafa being Liverpool manager but Manchester United fans would definitely be happy by Rafa’s statement that he would never coach Manchester United. Thank goodness for that Rafa, you can continue to have your beach ball adventures as making peace with the beach ball might help you win the title.

Valencia achieves Ferguson’s goal – almost

Valencia against CSKA Moscow

When depleted Manchester United squad made the trip to Russia to face CSKA Moscow, Ferguson had a target of 10 points in his minds which and Antonio Valencia made sure that United reached 9 points and maintained their perfect start to the Champions League campaign.

United who have not beaten Russian opposition in Champions League in 5 previous attempts were given a 1-0 win courtesy a late goal from Valencia.

United had a very different line up for this match:

Van Der Sar

Neville – Ferdinand – Vidic – Fabio

Scholes – O’Shea

Valencia – Anderson – Nani

Berbatov

Considering the absentees they have were having due to injury it looked a very patched up side. The first half was very weird. It looked as if United were the home side. They were controlling the ball as if it was their own. CSKA barely had any possession and the only major chance of the half came through a long range effort from Paul Scholes which bounced awkwardly in front of CSKA goalkeeper. Other than that there was nothing else which would light up the game. It was turning into one of those sad 0-0 games which could be knicked by any team with a goal.

2nd half was again the same story as 1st half. United again dominating the ball possession but there were barely any chances. It went up till 86th minute before the goal was scored. Nani looped the ball into the penalty area which was headed by Berbatov and Valencia slotted it home from close range.

It was a very boring game overall which was dominated by United in possession. There were barely any clear cut chances and had draw written all over it before Valencia decided to take in his own hands or rather his feet. Nani game was lot better than his previous showings. Fabio looked good going up front as well in defence. Berbatov’s yellow card seemed harsh as it looked to me that contact was made. It might not be a penalty but definitely not a dive.

All in all 3 more points in the bag. Thats 9 points out of 9. Qualification goal is almost achieved.

Now the next test is Liverpool at Anfield. Would it be another day of booing for Rafa?

Back at Luzhniki stadium

Luzhniki Stadium (Image Source: Wikipedia)

Manchester United travel to Luzhniki Stadium once again for their quest of Champions League trophy but this time its not the final game of the tournament.

It is the same stadium where Man Utd won the 2008 Champions League final on penalties beating Chelsea but United have not won against Russian opposition in 5 attempts in the Champions League. 2008 Champions League final victory was their only victory on Russian soil.

Man Utd have a depleted squad for the trip to face CSKA Moscow. Giggs, Rooney, Park, Fletcher and Evra are all missing due to injury. Rooney was injured during the international break while Evra and Giggs picked up injuries during the Bolton game. Vidic and Berbatov also have knocks but are still traveling.

United are currently sitting on top of the group with 6 points while CSKA are currently 3rd on 3 points but behind Wolfsburg on goal difference. CSKA have already beaten Besiktas at home soil and would relish the fact that United have been poor against Russian opposition.

As CSKA coach Juande Ramos has said Berbatov is the biggest threat from Manchester United. He had a gem of a game against Wolfsburg and is in good form. If he is fit to play, he would surely cause problems to the Russian team.

I reckon he would score in this game. I am not sure if United would win but I don’t think it would be a loss for them. A scored draw for me.