Man United Thread

[Guest PlagueUK]

I think you'll find Campbell was probably our best player. I didn't deny Cole was good during Euro 2004, or that he was a great player for his age. He is a great attacking full-back But he does get caught out of position alot.

Maybe so does Neville, but overall he's not as much of an attacking full-back as Cole.

I have to agree that Ronaldo doesn't cover him as he should but they've tried to keep the same thing Neville had with Beckham going and they haven't got the same chemistry as he had with Beckham.

He tore Ronaldo to shreds during the England/Portugal game, as well as doing the same to Pires during the England/France game.

One player he plays with at club level and the other was part of their two biggest games of the season thus he was well prepared for both. I'm not saying that's the only reason he looked good, all power to him for being so well prepared and dealing with them. He is a very good player and will become probably the best left back in the world at some point in his career.

I was just pointing out before that he was more well known for being out of position than Neville. Both are great defenders but I just think Neville is more established than him and a better player at the moment. I have no doubt that Cole will become better than him in years to come.

[Guest PlagueUK]

edit: double post, the site was being an ass at the time.

Edited August 4, 2004 by PlagueUK

[Sam]

I'm hoping Chris Eagles doesnt become a regular next season because he doesn't look that good would much rather see Fletcher in the team.

[AJ]

I'd just like to say, cause I've read a few posts in here that say otherwise, that a team doesn't need major signings to win the title. A team doesn't even need to consist of solely world class players, the team just needs to play well together. Chelsea can fly in all the top talent they want but it's up for debate whether they're going to be able to gel together for this season.

Being a Utd fan, of course I'd like to see them on top again at the end of the season, but I'm not being optimistic about it. Though with that in mind, don't you all go ruling out ManU for the title though. Nobody's been able to keep them down since the beginning of the Premiership. They're still very strong contenders.

[Sam]

Big blow for United today with the news that Ruud will be out for a month. Looks like Smith and Saha will start this season off heres hoping they're on the same wavelength and can form a good partnership at least until Ruuds back.

[TheArsenal]

Big blow for United today with the news that Ruud will be out for a month. Looks like Smith and Saha will start this season off heres hoping they're on the same wavelength and can form a good partnership at least until Ruuds back.

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Sorry, but Saha is also injured. And Solskjaer is out having an operation that will "make or break" his career. Of course Ruud is out like you said. Ferdinand is out. Ronaldo and Heinze are at the Olympics. Kleberson and Fortune are also both injured.

You only have two fit strikers........Smith......and Forlan.

[fineintent]

Aparently Saha will be back for the European qualifiers, so he and Smith will start the season.

Tomorrow should be quite interesting in that Arsenal will probally miss Vieria and Henry, and United will miss Saha and RVN. I'm going for Man Utd on penalties.

[Jonny D]

As a United fan, I'm still going to say Arsenal will win. If we both played our best teams, I think we could win, but we have SEVEN first team players missing for tomorrows game, so I'm not hopeful.

[TMM]

This is for Sam at the moment; still think Silvestre and Gary Neville are world class players? Neville nearly scored an own goal, had a complete lack of communication with the back line.

Silvestre DID score an own goal, and really isn't very good anymore. The guy can dribble, tackle, pass, run...but unfortunetly cannot do more than one at a time!

[Jook]

This is for Sam at the moment; still think Silvestre and Gary Neville are world class players? Neville nearly scored an own goal, had a complete lack of communication with the back line.

Silvestre DID score an own goal, and really isn't very good anymore. The guy can dribble, tackle, pass, run...but unfortunetly cannot do more than one at a time!

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Get back to the Arsenal thread.

Plenty of players have scored own goals before y'know.

[TMM]

Yeah I know that, but what my point was, is that Sam claimed they were world class, when they aren't in most peoples opinions (bar Man Utd fans).

I just want to know if he still thinks they are world class...

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

I said most of this in the Arsenal thread, minus the United parts and some other parts.

The game today showed one thing, Ferguson didn't care about the Community Shield or whatever they call it now.

At half time he started to show it by making pathetic changes, because he knows he cant afford to have any players tired for next Sunday(or Saturday) in the big Chelsea game.

Great game though like always. Smiths goal was pure stunning, I loved how it curled like that. Arsenal should have still won this easily though as you could see United didn't give two fucks.

Reyes played really good and should have walked away with more than one goal. Clichy(sp?) is the next Ashley Cole, his runs are actually as good as Coles if you ask me. Van Persie didn't do huge amounts, but the header he had was a stunning piece of play from Arsenal. Lehman didn't do anything to bad either, he actually made some good saves. Gilberto played well like always.

So overall a deserving win, but lets just move onto United. They DIDN'T perform bad BUT they didn't perform well. No its not because they are shit, its because they didn't seem to care at all, and if they did you wouldn't have seen half a youth squad make an appearance. Silvestre isn't shit at all, that's an awful comment saying that. He has brilliant speed and makes great runs, just because of one mistake it doesn't make him shit. Also what the fuck is wrong with everyone? Why do I always hear from people how Giggs is shit now? That's so damn pathetic. He ISN'T as good as before, but he is still one of the best left midfielders in the world if you ask me. Put four defenders in front of him and he still does what he used to do. Obviously as he gets older he was going to get a little worst than what he was at. He still makes super runs and terrorises ANY single defence in the world, whatever anyone says. Smith scored a stunner like I said, I actually hope he does well in the new season as he deserves it. Hopefully Nistelrooy starts against Chelsea because they need him desperately, Nistelrooy and Smith could be a super partnership.

Like I said, Arsenal deserved it easily. Both teams are easily still the top two English clubs, fuck Shitelsea. The two meetings between Arsenal and United will decide the winner if you ask me, although Liverpool will still be battling for the top spot too, but then again no one beleives me so we'll just see

[TMM]

Giggs is no way shit. He's not what he once was, but thing is, he's still better than 90% of the wingers in the world (van Persie and Reyes are better )

What I said about seems wrong. What I meant is, he is full of potential, but after improving for a couple of years, stariting last season, he's seemed to have dropped in quality. He is incredibly fast, but doesn't seem to be able to do anything else at the same time. I still rate him very highly, and I hope he doesn't rest with what he's got.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Yeah I get what your saying and you are right, he's just struggled and in my opinion its because of Rio. Him and Rio worked really well together, and once Rio returns I think Silvestre will be able to rest a little knowing he hasn't got to worry about covering all the time, because it seems he always has to do everything at the back for United.

[Jonny D]

Yeah, our defense was plain awful today, but when Brown, Rio and Heinze come back I believe that our defense will then be very strong. Also, haaving seven first team players missing and also having a Champions League qualifier to look forawrd to on Wednesday wasn't the best situation to be in. Alex said that the current group of players will be the only ones available for Wednesday, but Bucharest are no Arsenal, so we should beat them. Out of all absentees the only one who could possibly make it back for Sunday is Saha, which will be very nice as we'll be able to move Scholes back into midfield and get Bellion out of the team altogether. It really shows how little options we had that we had to play Bellion for the full 90 mins.

[TheArsenal]

Manchester United's Norwegian striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could miss the whole of the coming season with a knee injury, the club have announced.

The official club website says he underwent surgery in Gothenburg on Sunday, which revealed persistent damage to his right knee cartilage.

"He will undergo further treatment but it is likely Ole will miss the whole of this season," said a club spokesman.

The 31-year-old missed much of last season with similar problems.

Solskjaer came on as a second-half substitute in the FA Cup final win over Millwall in May - and at the time it seemed as thoughhis rehabilitation from injury was almost complete.

But the man Ferguson had originally earmarked to fill the right-sided midfield slot vacated by David Beckham felt more twinges of pain during pre-season training.

He pulled out of last month's US tour on the eve of departure and headed for Sweden for further tests, the outcome of which have devastated the United camp.

The news that Solskjaer could miss the entire season comes as another blow to a Manchester United camp that has endured a torrid start to the new season, which began with defeat by Arsenal in Sunday's Community Shield.

New signings Gabriel Heinze and Cristiano Ronaldo will miss the start of the season due to the Olympics, Wes Brown is injured and Rio Ferdinand and Darren Fletcher must both complete bans before they can play.

Up front, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha are also temporarily unavailable due to surgery and injury respectively.

New signing Alan Smith is expected to lead the line when they face Dinamo Bucharest in a third-round Champions League qualifier on Wednesday.

BBC.co.uk

[G-O-D]

I think Solskjaer's career is effectively over. A great pity, he was one of the best players Man Utd ever had.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

He was once really good but you could see how much damage the injuries had caused him when he came back last season, because if you ask me he was terrible last season. I feel sorry for the guy.

[Jonny D]

I was quite happy with out performance today. With a much below strength team I think that pulling off a victory was quite satisfactory, and I highly doubt that we will lost the home leg. Giggs scored a cracker, and Smith came very close hitting the post. We played some good Football today, and our defence looked much better than it did on Sunday, though admittedly Bucharest are no Arsenal. I'm now slightly more optimistic going into Sunday's game against Chelsea, and I'm hoping for at least a point out of it, which I hope we can pull off.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Well United deserved to win today if you ask me. Chelsea had there basic full team and still struggled to take the win, even when United were without Saha, Nistelrooy, Ferdinand, Brown and maybe a few more who I've forgot. Chelsea have NO chance what so ever of winning the title this year and I'll argue with any Chelsea supporter over it.

Anyway onto Man United. They desperately need Nistelrooy back. They cant afford to be playing games without him, the same goes for Ferdinand.