Manchester United Banter Archive February 17 2012

17 Feb 2012 22:22:13
There's been a few posts recently which have got me thinking as well as a few things i've seen from watching us play.

Now we've been working on keeping pocession of the ball which is definately the way forward but we play with wingers who by there very nature will give the ball away either when they cross or by trying to take on the full back. Also if we are keeping the ball and not catching teams on the counter then we need clever midfielders who can unlock defense's. At the moment we play 4411 with two wingers and Rooney playing in the hole but when Rooney's injured we have no one else to play there so we need to change our formation and tactics to fit the players we have. I think we will evolve the formation into a 4231 with two more pocession minded midfielders either side of Rooney who could also play in Rooney's role if required.

In defense i don't see any changes being made unless Rio leaves then it'd only be a youngster coming in(no older than 20). Evra has been made captain and although a liability has Sir Alex's backing plus we have Fabio and Fryers who will battle it out for a starting role and Evans who can cover there if needed.

Here's a controversial one i'm not sure we'll sign a central midfielder, but if we do it'll be a young player. Heres why, long term Cleverley and Pogba will be our main midfielders so why sign someone who would just impede their progress. We have Carrick who will be our main midfielder for the next couple of years as well as Fletcher Scholes Anderson Giggs and Jones able to play there as well as prospects in Tunnicliffe and Petrucci coming through. So i can't see Sir Alex spending money on players "no better than what we have at home". If Scholes doesn't extend his contract or Fletcher won't be able to play next season then we could see someone young talented and inexpensive join like Granit Xhaka but otherwise i don't see a signing for Central midfield.

Wingers/Attacking Midfielders
I think Nani could be sold, although on form he is one of our best players he just isn't on form enough. If you can't trust a player to go out and have a good game when you need him then what's the point in having him. Also i think whe way Nani plays is differant from how we want to play, his directness means he loses pocession to easily thus why he wasn't played against Barca. I think we'll keep Valencia and Young as out and out wingers and bring in two more pocession concious attack minded midfielders, one for the right and one for the left. My first choices would be Shinji Kagawa and Mesut Ozil but i think Ozil might be beyond our reach if so then i'd go for Marko Marin although Nicolas Gaitan seems to be Sir Alex's choice. Although stats show Marin to be the better player

Marin- App-187 Goals-27 Assists-53 goals created one every 2.33 games

Gaitan- App-184 Goals-22 Assists-31 goals created one every 2.81 games

you might want to take into consideration the Marin is younger and plays in the harder german league too. Although Ozil comes out top with a goal created every 1.94 games but would be difficult to sign and cost much more.
These signing would allow us to either play more direct with Valencia and Young or with pocession with Kagawa and Marin.

Strikers
I don't think it'd be vital to sign a striker as we'd have Welbeck and Hernandez along with Rooney able to be pushed alittle bit further forward if needed with Will Keane pushing for a few starts in the FA and league cups and we could possibly keep Macheda. But if we were to sign someone then Wolfswinkel is likely although i'd prefer Andriy Yarmolenko who would enable us to play a 433 with a front three of Welbeck Rooney and Yarmolenko which would be good to have for flexibility of tactic's.

Leaving would be the usual names like Owen Berbatov and Kusczcak plus Nani and possibly Park and Anderson but they will likely stay one more season.

let me know what you guys think.

Shappy

17 Feb 2012 21:15:11
If united bought these players in the summer no one would beat us

In
Pique
Sneijder
Ronaldo

17 Feb 2012 20:45:35
It's great to see the scousers trying to make themselves relevant in a footballing world that has moved on. We're delighted that you've got a great chance of winning the league cup, huge achievement. We're delighted that you drop by to tell us that we were knocked out of the champions league. But hang on a minute, wasn't this the year that Liverpool were meant to be back in the big time? Kenny was putting together a team capable of challenging for league honours? Yet Liverpool are 7th, 21pts off the top of the table and only 4pts ahead of Norwich. Let's be avin ya then!!


What have the mighty Pool got? A steady back-line, complimented by a midfield packed with journeymen and "world class" strike force that struggles to score on a regular basis regardless of opposition. When Craig Bellamy is your most potent attacking threat, a club surely has cause for concern. The big dogleash revolution has seen the club go backwards on the field and embarrassed off it.

The regular pool boys who frequent the United site show the real Liverpool attitude of a once relevant footballing force desperately trying to be part of modern elite. They come onto this site saying look at me, look at me, remember liverpool we're a big club. But no matter how much they huff and puff the inescapable fact remains that they are a shadow of the force they were under Benitez let alone the glory years of the 80s. So keep coming with da banter talking up da pool. But next year will not be your year and you can guarantee that next year United will be fighting it out at the top off the league once again like we have been for the past two decades.

Danny Pughnited

17 Feb 2012 20:19:10
Dont know if this has been posted before, but Ravel Morrisons contract DOES have a buy back clause in it. 100% true.

Big Mac

17 Feb 2012 18:33:35
De Gea

I was interested in watching him last night. He was far more confident and in control of his area. I watched him shouting more at his defenders as well.

I will repeat what I posted a few weeks ago he needed a run of games instead of SAF chopping and changing. He knows he has a few games and I felt you could see the confidence in him last night.

No doubt there will be a few trying to undermine him again not least the few who infest this site rather than their own but De Gea will be one of if not the best goalkeeper in the world in time. He will make mistakes, every goalkeeper does and he may make more this season but I can see something in him which will make him a top keeper.

Red Man

17 Feb 2012 16:21:14
Scousers r on this page all the time so here s a joke

A medical professor was lecturing his 1st year students about
involuntary muscle contractions . To liven up the lesson he asked one of the female students . " for example do you know what your a**ehole does while you are having an orgasm ?" She replies: "He's probably at Anfield watching Liverpool"

17 Feb 2012 15:33:28
Do you think we could all be left very dissapointed in the summer in that we will sign someone, but they will be rubbish? I'm thinking our previous interest in Krasic could come to fruition in the summer with him falling out of love with Juve. At £8 million that seems to be our price and i think SAF would be happy to have him here.

Thoughts? I don't want him here, but it could be possible i suppose.

RedDevil19

17 Feb 2012 14:32:01
I honestly think £33m for Mario Goetze would be £33m well spent.

G.A.G.U.S

17 Feb 2012 12:48:30
I think if you compare our two sides, then you have to admit that Man City are marginally superior at the moment, and the only reason for that is David Silva and Yaya Toure.

If you look at the way we are playing, its noticeable that we are playing a similar way to them now in terms of formation, two sitting, Rooney in the hole, striker up top and two wide men (arguably they don't have two wide men).

If we only have money for one top player, then i really hope that Mario Gotze comes in for us as he is that tricky player that we need to sign that is like David Silva. That way we have more options going forward, we can also sometimes play Rooney up top and still not be short of men going forward.

Cleverly looks like he is going to sit deep and play from there, whilst Carrick does the same. I actually prefer Anderson to Carrick when playing with Cleverly as he has a bit more drive and power. Ideally though i'd replace Carrick at the end of the season with Javi Martinez/Javi Garcia - but i think there is only enough money there for Gotze who has to be target number one.

RedDevil19

17 Feb 2012 11:31:08
I truly hope DDG gets some praise from the press, it's due. (He's been fantastic since Lindergaard has been injured) He's looked really solid and confident since the Mata' save.

17 Feb 2012 09:43:39
It's like we are cursed.
Valencia in great form, now out injured.
Its always the same. 2 players come back from an injury, one becomes injured.

17 Feb 2012 08:41:06
Well I was on the liverfool rumours site last night and in the cold light of day saw the best ever reply to a post from someone who really walked right into one
I have just got to share this (Ed if you wouldn't mind indulging me please

"16 Feb 2012 18:52:10
I find it funny how ed02 plays down ANY big named player coming to liverpool.I'm sure he/she is still butt hurt about us putting chelsea out of 3-4 competitions in the last 7 or so years.I'm sure if it was asked who would sign for chelsea 02 would reply a lot more positive even though they have almost zero attraction to there club.any neutral would rather play in a red shirt than blue.play for one of the most historic teams in european football history,or play for a team that's best known for sacking managers and signing lfc cast offs.hmmm {Ed002's Note - More bleating from a retromingent glifnard. I think you will find Liverpool have had more managers than Chelsea in the last two years and many more owners in the past 7 or 8. I personally don't give a damn about who knocks any one club out of a competition. However, your moaning about me saying the likes of Coentrao, Alexis Sanchez, Young, Neymar, Ganso, Falcao, Canales, Dzsudzsak, Gomez, Taiwo, Tevez, Alves, Cavani, Goetze, Hulk, Ilicic, Iturbe, Klose, Lucas Paizon, Lucas Moura, Martinez, Muller, Higuain, Hummels, Neymar, Pato, Sneijder, Wolfwinkel, Adebayor, Reus, Ribery, Aguero, Bastos, Costa, De Federico, Defour, Demba Ba, Eriksen, Falcao, Forlan, Hazard, Jose Angel Valdes, Lamela, Lavezzi, Lucas Ocampos, Malouda, Nasri, Navas, Ninis, Higuain, Nolito, Oezil, Menez, Modric, Pastore, Pjanic, Robben, Subotic, Vargas, Vidal, Banega, Barrios, Benzema, Boudebouz, Cazorla, Clichy, De Bruyne, Etoo, Godin, De Gea, Elia, Hernandez and Jovetic not joining Liverpool - was I correct or not?}"

Thoughts anyone?

Pardoe

17 Feb 2012 00:19:24
You have my sympathy Blair, honestly. If putting up with that on your own page isnt bad enough, you choose to come over to the page of your secret crush (Not sure if thats Manchester United or Sydney!) and you have to put up with the same. Poor little lamb.

TK-Red
------------------------------------
A bit childish TK mate, i've a crush on Disney? The reason Disney is the main focus, of my football knowledge. Is because, he speaks the most bullsh!t and needs to be corrected more often. Don't worry mate, you come a close, very close 2nd.

Blair Mayne YNWA JFT96

16 Feb 2012 23:57:23
One thing I did notice about De Gea tonight that I quite liked was the fact he gave the defenders a bollocking when they did something wrong. Was nice to see

16 Feb 2012 22:06:46
BREAKING NEWS: Harry Redknapp has turned down the England Manager job, he's now Rangers tax advisor.