Man Utd vs Basel

[Draesk]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/wor ... cle/69814/

I'm going to keep watching that until I forget about Manchester United drawing with Bumfuck Basel.

[_Marcus_]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/article/69814/

I'm going to keep watching that until I forget about Manchester United drawing with Bumfuck Basel.

Hey, we can all take comfort in the City-loss and Tevez-gate... At least for a while.

[Draesk]

ahahaha Tevezgate. Between him, Torres (lol missed a sitter) and Arsenal in general (lol lost all their good players), I'm not feeling too bad about our chances. :v

I don't think I've ever heard of a player refusing to go on the pitch when subbed in. The fallout is going to be hilarious - I mean, he's finished. Apparently Tevez tried to pass it off as a communications collapse today - he said that he'd been warming up for most of the half (which he had) and that the coach then came to him and told him to warm up. He said that he already was warmed-up so wasn't going to, because he was already to play. He claims that the coach then said to Mancini that he wasn't willing to warm-up, and Mancini took that as "he wasn't willing to play". Unfortunately, he sunk his own boat by giving a completely different excuse last night after the match, saying something along the lines of "I wasn't feeling well". Oops.

BAI BAI TEVEZ (ya prick).

[_Marcus_]

ahahaha Tevezgate. Between him, Torres (lol missed a sitter) and Arsenal in general (lol lost all their good players), I'm not feeling too bad about our chances. :v

I don't think I've ever heard of a player refusing to go on the pitch when subbed in. The fallout is going to be hilarious - I mean, he's finished. Apparently Tevez tried to pass it off as a communications collapse today - he said that he'd been warming up for most of the half (which he had) and that the coach then came to him and told him to warm up. He said that he already was warmed-up so wasn't going to, because he was already to play. He claims that the coach then said to Mancini that he wasn't willing to warm-up, and Mancini took that as "he wasn't willing to play". Unfortunately, he sunk his own boat by giving a completely different excuse last night after the match, saying something along the lines of "I wasn't feeling well". Oops.

BAI BAI TEVEZ (ya prick).

Everything I read about this Tevez-saga is comedy gold. Fair play to Mancini though for not tolerating his bullshit anymore.

Ferdinand past it as a top defender for us, btw? Felt like it last night.

[Draesk]

Ferdinand past it as a top defender for us, btw? Felt like it last night.

Oh God, I feel so bad for Rio - Giggs too at times. Rio has the experience to keep a side together, but he just doesn't have it on the pitch anymore. At least Giggs still manages to hammer some crackers home on occasion. Ferdinand is becoming a bit of a Gary Neville though - and massively injury-prone.

I was well disappointed with Phil Jones too - he's been on fucking fire in the league so far, and that just wasn't there last night. Basel's second goal was totally Ferdinand's fault though. He was miles away from where he should have been when the ball was crossed over, and Frei was totally unmarked. He just doesn't have the pace/stamina anymore to get to where he's needed in time.

BTW, did you see what Frei got a yellow for in the first half? The reason I'm so curious is because the BBC match report only mentions that he played offside, but was then immediately booked. Did he square up to the ref or something?

Everything I read about this Tevez-saga is comedy gold. Fair play to Mancini though for not tolerating his bullshit anymore.

Aye, that's true enough. Now all we need is for Villas-Boas to kick John Terry out.

[_Marcus_]

The comparison to Gary Neville is painfully on the mark. Nev's last two seasons were painful to watch and Rio's starting to go down that road too. Like you say, it's all of his injuries thats taking their toll. You can't just expect him to play at his previous level as the years and injuries go by. His marking on that second goal was absolutely awful. A minor league mistake that you can never get away with at the highest level.

As far as Phil Jones is concerned, I would he has the right to one bad game. He's been above and beyond my expectations so far and already looks like Rios replacement this season.

I didn't really see what Frei did either, to be honest. Booked for being so unattractive perhaps?

[Draesk]

Spot on that Jones is Rio's replacement, and yeah, I guess he's allowed a bad game here and there. I would also say that he would've probably done a lot better in his own right last night had it been Vidic on instead of Ferdinand.

I do think that the expectations of Rio are a tad unfair. However, like Neville, he's perhaps staying, voluntarily, for longer than he should - the smart thing to do in both cases would've been to bow out on a high, before they started failing. As sad as it was to see him go, Van Der Sar got that spot on - coming to the end of his career and leaving gracefully, well before the fans start wanting you to leave because your performance has become so poor. I just hope that Giggs follows the example of Van Der Sar, and not Neville.

I'm fucking well impressed with De Gea and Wellbeck though - as I am with how well Smalling & Anderson have progressed (and Cleverly is coming along nicely too). It's so good to see them get into the thick of it and getting regular starting spots. Anderson had started off quite poorly too, so he's really starting to sucker punch the critics. All that said though; Ashley Young. Holy shit, what an awesome signing. Boom!

I remember in the 09-10 season, my flat mate and I had a thing going: "It's Berbatov and... oh disappointing". Every fucking time, haha. He did so fucking well for the first 3 quarters of last season, then he just started to hang back a bit too much. Now, he's hardly ever even getting played on as a sub, nevermind starting. He very nearly managed to have the highest goal tally in the league last year until he dropped off in the last quarter, and now he's just... lost it? At least Rooney is well on form. Him with Chicarito/Young is fucking killer (remember that hosing Chicarito and Rooney gave to Bolton?), especially when fed forward by Nani/Valencia/Park/Giggs/Anderson. Hell, even Owen is getting more games than Berbatov, and he ain't making a mess of them either!

The problem we always used to have was the back-line. Unfortunately, that issue persists at the moment due to injury, but with fitness, we now have a killer defence - something that even Barcelona are lacking. Jones, Vidic, the da Silva twins, Evra, Johnny Evans and Chris Smalling. Damn!

I just hope to fuck that we lose the utter complacency that we've shown so far in the Champions League. Despite us being the best team in our group by far, we've only managed to draw in both our games so far. That's just not fucking on. We need to field stronger squads, and actually play like it matters because otherwise, Basel and Benfica are going through and we wont even get out the group stages!

[_Marcus_]

Rio - Expectations of Rio aren't that unfair in my view, especially not when he's played the way he has this season. He's still first choice for England (when fit) and still first choice for us. In that position you should be questioned when you play a horror show like he did against Basel. I do think this is his last season as a natural first choice, and I'm pretty sure SAF sees that. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone for Phil Jones the way he did. Giggs has a different situation though. He's not our first choice, or sometimes even second choice, and he knows it. He can just go out there and be comfortable with doing what he does best without anyone being to upset about it. Rio on the other hand has to perform week in, week out and from the looks of things, he can't do that anymore.

One player who I think escapes the negatives he should be getting is Evra. Why the fuck is SAF still playing him, every week?! He was just as bad as Rio was the other night and he has been a liability ever since that horrendous world cup. Surely Fabio is a better option at the moment?

I would say De Gea still needs to up his game somewhat. He still looks uncomfortable on the crosses and that high and wide ball he almost let past him in the dying seconds of the Basel game... Damn. But with patience this season, he'll come good and become a top, top keeper.

Young probably is the one that's surprised me the most in a way. I liked him when he played for Villa (he always played well against United for some reason) but never really understood why we would want another winger in our ranks. Now I know why. He delivers something the others don't. He's got better technique than Valencia, better speed than Park, better defence than Nani, better crosses than all of them and is a damn threat on set pieces and ranged shots. Great signing!

As far as Berbasex is concerned, I think maybe his last season wasn't as good as we tend to think. Most of his goals were scored against lower places teams and usually in chunks of two or three. Looking at our style of play, he just doesn't fit as well as Chicharito and/or Welbeck. I love him as a player and he's a downright ultra professional for not complaining, at all. But I don't think we play our best football when he's on the pitch.