£#%&! knows where you go after that

What is that ugly gurning @#%&! getting at? The vermin are convinced it is a reference to the 1-4 defeat last month.

Originally Posted by Pop

What is that ugly gurning @#%&! getting at? The vermin are convinced it is a reference to the 1-4 defeat last month.

Which one of their players is it ?

Last night was a @#%&!ing shambles. Park was as poor as I've seen any United player play in recent history. Every single touch was given away, every pass mis-placed - the one he sent out of play on the left wing was just incredible. Couple that utter ineptitude with Scholes... well, utter ineptitude & Ronnie running down blind alleys every two minutes & you get an already shakey defence utterly overloaded by quick, powerful & technically very decent players.

The decision making process was obliterated by Park & Scholes £#%&!ing up so royally last night time after time. Ronaldo's inability to beat a man, or make a decision to plow through 4 players in the middle of the park were also shocking. Here's a theory... he's got the hump with his team mates being shit. O'Shea behind him for a lot of the season, Scholes over hitting / under hitting passes all over the place, Park.. well, just shit. & Carrick seems to have lost the ability to complete the simplest of passes. Ronnies frustration was at boiling point last night - not least with himself, but everyone else as well.

I can't believe this is the same side who could pass for fun last season & even in the harder times of this year we could pass, move, make the right angles & get out of trouble. But if players are struggling to trap a simple pass, aren't moving for the return or are giving the ball to a colleague in a precarious position (or only have the option to pass back to VDS)... I'm thinking of Scholes in particular last night... then we're in real danger of derailing in a big way.

Sunderland is £#%&!ing huge... I hope Rio is back so the central defence is back to being rock solid. I hope Berbie gets back soon so Rooney can play up top & we have someone who can pass it properly around him to make use of him. & then Ronnie can switch back to the wing to create some pace in our attacks from midfield. How utterly pedestrian we looked last night - Anderson may well have been shit this season in large parts, but he hasn't put in a performance as poor as few did yesterday & he always tracks his player. We let them flood forward last night - they're either knackered or they've lost interest.

Who in the current squad would you look to that could galvanise this lot ?

Rio ? The defence certainly, can't do much about the sharp end.
Rooney ? I think with Berbatov up with him they could.
Ronnie ? He's been a slapped arse all season, he's not going to kick into life & drag us through like last season.

I wish Hargreaves was available - £#%&!s sake.

Originally Posted by Pop

What is that ugly gurning @#%&! getting at? The vermin are convinced it is a reference to the 1-4 defeat last month.

I think he's saying;

"One point clear, if they win their game in hand four points clear."

Originally Posted by Pop

What is that ugly gurning @#%&! getting at? The vermin are convinced it is a reference to the 1-4 defeat last month.

He's actually removed the thumb from his left hand and is holding it up with his right. Pretty impressive that.

Originally Posted by Pop

What is that ugly gurning @#%&! getting at? The vermin are convinced it is a reference to the 1-4 defeat last month.

Saying in the return leg it'll be Porto 1 - United 4

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Last night was a @#%&!ing shambles.

Finally, someone who shares my sheer anger at the result!

You're spot on about Park. Although he has a place in the squad, his technique has always been poor and usually £#%&!s up any good passing move he gets on the end of. But last night he was gash. wtf has happened to Evra - in fact the whole defence. Just how much did they back off the Porto players. Barely closed them down all night. Carrick would just give possession away then let the Porto players run off with the ball - he'd barely jog back ffs. Scholes hasn’t looked right at all since coming back from injury, his passing was awful. The whole thing was a £#%&!ing farce in fact. Comedy defending – and loosing another late goal to those @#%&!s? £#%&!ing hell


Our dreams of Total Football have never looked futher from fruitition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...ampions-league

Despite their huge squad, Sir Alex Ferguson's men look dangerously like a team who have shot their bolt

Dejected Manchester United players look bewildered after Porto's late equaliser shifted the balance of the tie in their favour.

Winning is a desirable habit but it's less advisable to become too attached to one particular method. A quirk of the Uefa computer means that Manchester United have become accustomed to playing the away leg first in Europe and that fact was painfully apparent in their draw with Porto at Old Trafford tonight.

Like a cricket team who are much more successful when batting second, United seemed to have no awareness of how to set a target, as you are supposed to do if the first leg is at home. Would 2-1 be acceptable? 1-0? United struggled to calculate the appropriate degree of risk, and the consequence was an infectiously ramshackle contest: unusually in the modern game, both teams wanted to score one more than the other rather than concede one fewer. Never mind a victory: in the end, United were fortunate to get 2-2.

There were strong shades of another 2-2 draw in the first leg of the semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002. As then, an injury-affected United were unfocused and, perhaps, subconsciously complacent. Certainly the crowd, a whinging shower who gave one of the worst displays ever, seemed to think they just had to turn up and swing a boot on the seat in front as their side won 24-0.

United went out on away goals in the second leg of that Leverkusen match and, strangely, it is a decade since they won a European knockout tie in which the first leg was at home; even then they had to win in Juventus to go through. Since then they have played 14 knockout ties; in only four of those did they play at home in the first leg, and they went out each time. By contrast, United have won the last six matches in which they have played the first leg away from home. It's a nice fit for a team who are so capable on the counter-attack, but having to dictate play from the start seemed to frazzle their brains.

The confusion was confounded by a palpable nervousness that was supposed to have been blown away by Federico Macheda against Aston Villa on Sunday. If anything United were worse tonight. In the opening 30 minutes certain players, particularly Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes, looked like they had the yips. It was unusual enough to see those two misplace passes; that they were misplacing them by yards was utterly surreal.

Rank defending is becoming a more familiar sight when United play: in the first half an hour they were remarkably incompetent, and should have been at least 3-1 down to an excellent and admirably intrepid Porto side. Up until they hosted Liverpool last month they had conceded seven goals in the previous games; since then they have conceded 10 in four.

Injuries and suspensions do not help but, even with such a powerful squad, United are starting to look dangerously like a side who have shot their bolt in this most congested of seasons. Already they have played 53 games, with at least another 10 to come. Carrick looks completely gone, while Scholes is in the sort of slump that, at his age, tends to prompt career obituaries. Gary Neville's should have been written a year ago.

Such fatigue is often the case at the business end of a long season. United limped over the line in their Treble season; Arsenal's Invincibles won only four of their last 12 games in all competitions; Blackburn's champions lost three of their last five. "When it goes," Ferguson said as that Blackburn side started to wobble, "it goes quickly, and there is nothing you can do about it." Those words look truer than ever now.

Originally Posted by rubbernecker

I actually prefer this roller coaster to a succession of 1-0 grinds.Admittedly it's been a grounding few weeks and the midfield boys seem to have lost a bit of strut and bite .However it's hardly the end of world or season.Sunday's game was more of a relief than a confidence booster and a clean sheet and a couple of of goals at Sunderland would gee them up no end.

After that a four day break until the return with Porto,

Then we find out if they have that something special to be a truly great team

Kinda agree.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Finally, someone who shares my sheer anger at the result!

You're spot on about Park. Although he has a place in the squad, his technique has always been poor and usually £#%&!s up any good passing move he gets on the end of. But last night he was gash. wtf has happened to Evra - in fact the whole defence. Just how much did they back off the Porto players. Barely closed them down all night. Carrick would just give possession away then let the Porto players run off with the ball - he'd barely jog back ffs. Scholes hasn’t looked right at all since coming back from injury, his passing was awful. The whole thing was a £#%&!ing farce in fact. Comedy defending – and loosing another late goal to those @#%&!s? £#%&!ing hell


Our dreams of Total Football have never looked futher from fruitition

I thought from back - VDS punching crosses on the dive out to the edge of the area, throwing to Scholes & Carrick who tackled each other...!? - through to Ronnie when he was up front we were dogshit. Rooney spared some blushes, but the rest.. I don't know. I mean, at what point does your fundamental ability to trap a ball, or pass 10 yards to a colleague evaporate?

The bigger slice of dogshit pie to swallow was it's been coming... it really has been hugely apparent in midfield especially recently, that they think the central defence is more than capable of repelling anything thrown at them. They need to start pressing, properly. Fletcher is a one man band in there at the moment - I'd £#%&! Scholes off out of any game in a starting capacity off the back of last nights performance. He can provide some guile if he's in form & has the legs of Fletcher & Anderson around him - but Carrick's prefferred method of intercepting rather than actually tackling & tracking leaves a big £#%&! off gap when alongside Scholes in the middle. As I said before, the decisions & ability (or lack of shown last night) of Park alongside Ronnie & Rooney was putting a shitload of pressure on the lads up top to do something. Ronnie was literally seething at seeing so many attacks just die on their arse from the midfield passing too long, to people surrounded or just watching Park miscontrol another one. He's tidy, but he's slow to get an attack going, or continue. To compensate Ronnie seemed to think he needed to beat 3 or 4 through the middle rather than encouraging some build up, or interchanging with Rooney... all of the decision making was terrible.

Total football... when you have players who don't want to run - or can't because they're £#%&!ed - you need to revert to some basics. & last night there was no sign of any basics being covered. Porto were excellent, & yet we, on our worst performance for a long time, still almost nicked it. I can only cross my fingers & hope Rio, Berbs & Rafael are fit & redy to go soon because they need to freshen up & get some control alongside some actual impetus.

Originally Posted by Whalefish

From an attacking pov thought it was much better second half.

we don't have any attacking povs. if we did, they might be more hungry.

Originally Posted by armchair

I think we should go at them away like they went at us.

thank christ the second leg is away. if it was first, we'd have played 5 in midfield and looked shit. er....

Originally Posted by redmike

if utd were playing a side like barcelona £#%&! knows how many goals we'd have shipped.

that is such a scary thought, you should be banned for making me feel sick.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Fletcher and Park on the wings did not help us at all

who would expect anything else? not me.

Originally Posted by Sloane

going in at the start of the game with 5 man midfield and just rooney up top invited

champions of europe... at home... shameful.

Originally Posted by Terry Silver

In 1999 we needed a late equaliser at home to Juve, and went 2-0 down early on out there. That is when you find out if your team is up the challenge.

make rooney captain for the night.

Originally Posted by wonky no

they played a totally differing style to a usual champions league game.

they've actually been very positive.

Originally Posted by caleb2003

O'shea as adaptable as he is, is a complete liability

o'shea has saved our arses rather a lot, in spite of his distributionally challenged status.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

The bigger slice of dogshit pie to swallow was it's been coming... it really has been hugely apparent in midfield especially recently, that they think the central defence is more than capable of repelling anything thrown at them. They need to start pressing, properly.

it's true, but you won't make any friends on here saying things like "it's been coming".

we've been hugely overhyped in spite of being very average most of the time - the last game I remember for the right reasons is the world club final, in which we were a totally different team to the one we are now. £#%&! knows how we are going to find that freshness again. I hope we can beat sunderland without ronaldo or carrick.

Jem why are you always 2 days late on threads after a game?

Originally Posted by MUFC One Love

Jem why are you always 2 days late on threads after a game?

He's one of the world's great thinkers.

Originally Posted by Fatboy Shrek

He's one of the world's great thinkers.

Or one of the world's great whinging bastards?