our season hangs on smith :<(

smith 'n' rooney = stan 'n' ollie.

Originally Posted by Billy Baroo

you didn't watch him fire us to the top of the table then?

you haven't noticed we play better football as a team with him in the side?

you missed the fact that carrick hasn't had the runs in behind to hit or a player to hold up his threaded ball then?

totally passed you by that he turns defences creating space for rooney, giggs and ronaldo to exploit?

Well said Chubs ..

Originally Posted by Cantona's collar

I don't hold out much hope of him repeating that with his recent injuries and obviously his lack of match practice, i do think however that his aggressive playing style will drag us through some of the tougher games in the run in and hopefully rub off on some of the other players, i for one would love to see Rooney back to his snarling best.

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Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

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Thats the stuff.

I can't help but notice we where wearing black socks too, damn those white socks, they will be our downfall.

Originally Posted by Cantona's collar

Those white socks, they will be our downfall.

They will. Seriously.
If we continue to wear them at home in League & FA Cup games we won't win anything.


As for Smith, well I think if he & Rooney were 100% fit & in form they would be a very useful front 2 for us....I'd have no problem with them playing together.
But as it stands at the moment it looks a gamble. But what other option do we have??...Dong?!


Then again, I'm one of the few United fans left that actually likes our English players.
I don't slag off Rooney, Rio, Neville & co ad nauseum...so perhaps I'm being too generous.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

But as it stands at the moment it looks a gamble. But what other option do we have??...Dong?!

I think Dong needs to develop a bit first. Needs to be bigger and harder before he can be considered ready for action.

C’mon smith you £#%&!ing woolly back knock us a few goals in.

Smith, at least the fit version would be a useful player against the cloggers of Bolton and Blackburn.

A front 6 of,

Park
O'Shea
Carrick
Ronaldo
Giggs
Rooney

is not too bad either.

If only Richardson wasn't such a greedy little shit and hadn't £#%&!ed up so many attacks he'd have more match practice and be ready to step in now and do his £#%&!in job

Originally Posted by dodger

I think Dong needs to develop a bit first. Needs to be bigger and harder before he can be considered ready for action.

he'll definitely need some protection.

he does tend to plunge in head-first.

I really think we'll be ok.

We have an international break coming up that will help us and Smith can do a job.

Hopefully, with the talent around him, that's all he'll need to do.

We need someone who can lead the line while Saha is out. He can do that.

Park will inevitably come into the side which should allow either Ronnie or Giggs to push further forward if need be.

Point is, it's not that bad a situation and it shouldn't be for too long.

One FA Cup match (that if I had to sacrifice for the league, I would)
Two Premiership games and MAYBE the first leg of 1/4 finals.

I don't buy into the idea that the squad is thin based purely on this. We have fours strikers, 2 are out. We're left with 2. That would hit most clubs hard.

Chelsea only have 2 strikers. Now, whether or not our four are good enough is debatable, but any club would suffer losing 2 strikers in a week (3 if you include Larsson).

We just need to dig in and grind out the next couple of results and that's what this part of the season is all about. It's what champions do.

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

We have an international break coming up that will help us

Well, I can't agree with that.
I understand what you're saying, but as far as I know all the major International sides are playing 2 qualifiers in 4 days.
It would be a disaster if we lost Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs or Ferdinand due to a £#%&!ing International game....& I think we're on the verge of a late glut of injuries...you can sense it coming.

Originally Posted by Tropical

he does tend to plunge in head-first.

Yes. It would be a shame if we got over excited and put him in too quickly, it's always embarrasing to be premature about these things.

We need to be sure he can stand up for himself.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

Well, I can't agree with that.
I understand what you're saying, but as far as I know all the major International sides are playing 2 qualifiers in 4 days.
It would be a disaster if we lost Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs or Ferdinand due to a £#%&!ing International game....& I think we're on the verge of a late glut of injuries...you can sense it coming.

I just meant simply for the injured players.

I'd rather have that break and take the risk than not have it at all. They could just as easily get injured playing for us.

You can't really account for injuries, you just have to trust your fitness methods as much as possible and see where it gets you.

Yes, they could get injured on that break - we don't know.

But we do know that the break will give the injured players a chance to recover while we don't have a game that week without them.

Bend him over backwards and stick him up your arse.

I...... er... .read somewhere..... this is possible

as a bit of piss-take on all the doom around after last night. didn't really work, though :>o

with rooney, giggs and ronnie available we won't even need to play smith (though we might choose to). we will miss scholes more - we really don't have anyone else like him (i have always seen carrick as a replacement for keane, not scholes) apart from, at a push, giggs in the centre a la last season. i think we need giggs supporting rooney, though, which means pie in the middle and carrick pushing further forward - not his best role, imho.

i hope smith comes good this next month, but i really can't see it.

I'd rather have Giggs supporting Rooney, but it's more important to me that O'Shea doesn't play.

So I'd stick Giggsy in the middle with Carrick and give Park a runout at the Riverside. That should be enough to do the trick.

With a bit of luck Evra may be back and give us more of a threat down the left.

giggs fills in for scholes on saturday, I'd rather have smith in than park. then again, I'd rather have richardson than park (after a good talking to, obviously).