*Official* United v West Brom Match Thread - Teams and Value

Originally Posted by Gorilla Monsoon

Now it's usually Anderson. I thought he played well yesterday. I think for a player still coming back into full match fitness, he's doing very well. But it's almost as if people are just watching the motd highlights and blaming him for the draw.

I agree. Him & Carrick were playing pretty well until Giggsy got injured.
Once Gibson came on the shape & the energy of the midfield completely collapsed.

As I said back in July, our lack of wingers - particularly left sided (what with Giggsy being 37 next month & everything) would be a problem.
Valencia's injury was a huge blow, but it didn't alter the fact that our left sided options are Giggs & Park:shakehead:

there is only one point where everyone is agreeing in this thread. Gibson is £#%&!ing shit. Few of us were telling this for a long time.

The Gibson substitution didn't make much sense at all. Rooney seemed the obvious player to bring on, but I suspect Fergie's stubborness was what prevented that one....only for him to require throwing him in that position later in the game after we'd pissed away a 2 goal lead.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

I agree. Him & Carrick were playing pretty well until Giggsy got injured.
Once Gibson came on the shape & the energy of the midfield completely collapsed.

As I said back in July, our lack of wingers - particularly left sided (what with Giggsy being 37 next month & everything) would be a problem.
Valencia's injury was a huge blow, but it didn't alter the fact that our left sided options are Giggs & Park:shakehead:

and nani. we went into the season with a good group of wide players in valencia, nani, giggs and park, plus a few youngsters. on the right one of valencia, nani or park; on the left giggs, nani or park. losing one player for most of the season, another for a couple of weeks and having park horribly out of form is what has done us.

the solution imo is to play a front three with nani, berbatov and rooney or hernandez on the left, not a midfield four for which we don't have the players atm.

we played much worse than this last season and got results we didn't deserve. with a bit less bad luck and a couple less mistakes we'd be right up there - we should have won every game except sunderland (which we deserved to lose). we barely have to raise our game to be competitive. at least we know we have players who are capable.

sure, we've done our best to chuck away a two-goal lead in almost every game we've played, but still....

there is no one out there of whom we should be scared. as always, the only team that can beat united is united.

I would give anything to sit down with Sir Fergie of Ferguson, open a bottle of claret, chat about his great achievements, gain his trust and when we're both half cut ask him exactly what he sees in Gibson. He really seems to have a blind spot there. I mean the guy is not good enough for the Irish midfield behind such luminaries as Whelan ffs.








BTW It's my fault we drew, everytime I put a shitload of vcash on United at home we draw....Aalborg, Rangers and now West Brom.

Originally Posted by borsuk

the solution imo is to play a front three with nani, berbatov and rooney or hernandez on the left, not a midfield four for which we don't have the players atm.

fergie would have seen that if he had read the team predictions thread. he could do worse.

Originally Posted by borsuk

and nani. we went into the season with a good group of wide players in valencia, nani, giggs and park, plus a few youngsters. on the right one of valencia, nani or park; on the left giggs, nani or park. losing one player for most of the season, another for a couple of weeks and having park horribly out of form is what has done us.

the solution imo is to play a front three with nani, berbatov and rooney or hernandez on the left, not a midfield four for which we don't have the players atm.

Nani's not a left winger though.
We've seen at the back end of last season & the start of this that he's a different player on the right.
Our left side is weak as piss & overly reliant on Patrice getting forward (which he does brilliantly up until his final ball)

It's all square pegs in round holes..."making do" with a formation...chopping & changing every single £#%&!ing game...

nani is fine on either wing. he can play both, just not at the same time. that's the real problem. when hargreaves comes back, things will be better.

:kneelsandprays:

Originally Posted by jem

nani is fine on either wing. he can play both, just not at the same time. that's the real problem. when hargreaves comes back, things will be better.

:kneelsandprays:

Our midfield is far too reliant on him for creativity.

It's obvious that you can only rely on Giggs for around 25 starts.

Originally Posted by Liu Jian

It's obvious that you can only rely on Giggs for around 25 starts.

and maybe two finishes.

Originally Posted by Liu Jian

Our midfield is far too reliant on him for creativity

Not half! ...blimey. Imagine if he picked up a long term injury
Our lack of creative options for a Club of our size & reputation (in terms of being great to watch) is pretty scandalous.

Originally Posted by Gorilla Monsoon

I'll bet 100 quid with anyone here that rooney will still be here this time next year. Anyone?

you bet me £100 that liverpool would get docked 9 points, you want my bank deets?

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

you bet me £100 that liverpool would get docked 9 points, you want my bank deets?

I'll have them.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

Nani's not a left winger though.
We've seen at the back end of last season & the start of this that he's a different player on the right.
Our left side is weak as piss & overly reliant on Patrice getting forward (which he does brilliantly up until his final ball)

It's all square pegs in round holes..."making do" with a formation...chopping & changing every single £#%&!ing game...

nani's improvement coincided with him playing on the right but wasn't necessarily caused by it, in fact he was as effective on either side last season once the penny dropped.

i think he's capable of playing either side. i agree with the pegs comment, though. macheda left wing? anderson pushed wide when we were dominating the centre?

What does it tell you, 07/08 Giggsy and Scholesy were sparingly used, 33 and 34 respectively and looked like possibly retiring in the next couple of years.

Fast forward 2 years later and SAF expects them to be first team regulars.....

Giggsys injury yesterday was no surprise, the guy is a legend and has given his whole life to our club but hes 37 next month, contrary to popular belief he is actually human and will age.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

Not half! ...blimey. Imagine if he picked up a long term injury
Our lack of creative options for a Club of our size & reputation (in terms of being great to watch) is pretty scandalous.

Ozil plus a box-to-box player would have been perfect for us...he can play on the left, in the middle, and I doubt he'd have any trouble cutting in from the right.

As it is we are seriously short of options. People will say Park deserves the chance to himself into form, but he isn't a creative wide player anyway.

Originally Posted by Liu Jian

Ozil plus a box-to-box player would have been perfect for us...he can play on the left, in the middle, and I doubt he'd have any trouble cutting in from the right.

As it is we are seriously short of options. People will say Park deserves the chance to himself into form, but he isn't a creative wide player anyway.

When you look at it now Ozil would have been a fantastic buy.

He plays so calmly and is brilliant on the ball. He'd fill one of the gaps we've got atm.

Doubt ozil would have picked us ahead of madrid anyway.

Originally Posted by Coracao

Doubt ozil would have picked us ahead of madrid anyway.

'The boy was always going to Madrid'