Manchester United Banter Archive January 24 2012

24 Jan 2012 22:30:51
well done to tom heaton in the shootout two saves and almost made it three.

24 Jan 2012 20:58:37
Anyone watching Cardiff v Palace??
Zaha is not good enough in my opinion for UTD.
Clyne has'nt really done much but you can see he has potential and speedy to.

HERBIE

24 Jan 2012 19:48:58
Having covered our defence and midfield in previous posts i will now focus on our forward line.

With the impending departures of Berbatov Owen Macheda and Diouf our forward line looks alittle sparse. Rooney Welbeck and Hernandez are all great players but as Sir Alex has said you need four strikers in order to challenge on all fronts. So who will the forth striker be. Well i think it's important that whoever comes in can be flexible and play in more than one role in attack. They should also be able to play as a lone striker as it's something we do quite often. With that in mind here are my four favourites:

Giuseppe Rossi- a fantastic player who offers everything we need, would he come back and could we afford him seem to be the main stumbling blocks to his return.

Andre Schurrle- a great young player who can play either as a lone striker or out wide, not as prolific a goal scorer though.

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel- This young man has alot of talent, clinical infront of goal but still plays with his head up enabling him to see and set up team mates. Would be a really good signing.

Andriy Yarmolenko- For me this is the lad we should sign. He can play upfront or wide left, he has great feet and is lightening quick. He is a unpolished diamond who could be bought relatively cheaply and become a great at our club. A front three of Welbeck Rooney and Yarmolenko with Hernandez on the bench ready to pounce if needed would scare any team.

Shappy

24 Jan 2012 19:34:01
Now i've posted on our defence so now i'll focus on our midfield.
Midfield is an area that completely divides opinion on this site, do we need an AM or a DM or both. I think it's not as simple as that. First off i only expect us to sign one midfielder, we have some great young players coming through so we don't wanna block them. All so if you look at the youth players it might give you an idea of the type of midfielder we are likely to sign, Pogba's very good defensively and Morrison is great going forward so i wouldn't expect a player who plays like either of them to be signed. We have suffered since Cleverley was injured as we don't have anyone else like him or who can play like him, he has great vision and keeps our side ticking over with his passing and movement he controls the game. We have players like Carrick Fletcher Pogba and Tunnicliffe who do the more defensive work in the middle so we won't be looking to sign someone like that then we have Cleverley Anderson and Morrison who play with attacking in mind, But with Morrison yet to make it and Anderson yet to prove his long fitness that leaves us abit short in this area.

It is important to remember that we don't play with an out and out attacking Midfielder so whoever we will bring in will be more attack minded but is able to do the work defensively. The attributes we're looking for are vision, movement, work rate, and abiltity to defend as well. My short list is:

Ross Barkley- a young man who looks to have it all and seems destined for Old Trafford, on the downside i think he's too young to make a significant impact right now but could be good in a season or two.

Javi Martinez- has all the attributes but could be too defensive and too expensive but you just can't keep him off the list.

Kwadwo Asamoah- a fantastic player who would be great in the prem, his tackling and passing are great. My only concern is that very few African players stay at the top for a long time, they seem to shine bright for 3/4 years then they dip off same as Brazilians. You don't get many who are still at the top over the age of 30.

Kevin Strootman- this lad is my personal favourite, his vision passing are fantastic and he has a great left foot shot, he likes to dictate the play from alittle deeper thus giving defensive cover. He has so much composuer and poise, he is never flustered. Him and Cleverley in the middle with Pogba as the more defensive player if we went for a midfield three would be awesome and a match for anyone.

Shappy

24 Jan 2012 19:09:15
I've been looking at our defence and trying to work out what it is we need.
When on form Evra is a great player but he seems to have too many off days in the last 18 months, i think it could be a lack of motivation. He's only just turned 30 and hasn't shown any signs of a loss of pace he just doesn't seem to bother defending at times.
Then at centre back we have some great depth at first glance but scratch benieth the surface and it looks less than sercure.
Right back would seem the only place there should be no problems but with the twins injury problems then although we have cover we don't have any specialist right backs.

I think when you look at the defence on a whole than i think we can get away without signing a right back, we have the twins who could be brilliant if they can stay fit, and Jones and Smalling who can cover. Then we move to Centre back and this is where the trouble lies, Ferdinand is starting to decline at an alarming pace, Vidic is injured and we don't know how well he'll recover(although i'm confident he'll be fine), then we have Evans who although he's been better of late just looks like he probably won't make the grade, Jones looks like the long term solution but he needs to work on his positioning and probably needs a more experianced player along side him to help him through matches, than that leaves us with Smalling the best we have atm. I think we need one more player here but someone who is more here for cover rather than first choice.
Then we look at left back, Evra is unlikely to leave for a year or two IMO(why would Sir Alex make him captain if he plans to move him on), then we have Fryers who i think will have the place long term. Here i think we need someone who could challenge Evra for his place thus upping his game and then in a couple of years could provide cover and challenge Fryers for the place.

So looking at this i think we need someone as cover at CB and cover for left back, but seeing as we don't have cash to splash then the best solution would be to sign a player who can do both. Players who i think could do it are:

Erik Pieters- a solid left back who has the ability to play in the centre. Is the player on this list who is most comfortable at left back and probably the cheapest at around 5m which would leave most of our budget left to buy players for the positions we really need.

Inigo Martinez- a centre back who can play left back, hugely talented but imo is abit too young and inexperianced and we have players like Jones and Fryers who are better in their respective positions then him.

Jan Vertonghen- a great player who has some fantastic experiance and is more than comfortable at left back when needed. On the downside at his age he'd be looking to be first choice which would block some of the younger players progress.

Yaroslav Rakitskiy- for me the best choice, solid anywhere in the back line, can play cenre back and left back equally as well. He has some great experiance and would be great at offering a challenge to all our defenders for a starting spot but wouldn't expect a garrenteed starting place. The only downside is his possible price, Shaktar don't sell cheaply often but a deal could be reached at about 12m maybe.

Shappy

24 Jan 2012 16:11:06
The Gibson sale equalling to cover the paul scholes wages over next few months so once again balancing the books¬hin spent now seems the more likely truth of utds situation now under the glazers! Fergie can keep tryin the spin or cover up with the no value nonsense or who do you buy in jan?(Forgettin Vidic&Evra when he some money to spend)the debt&45m each year interest has now killed he's transfer kitty,its either a takeover or him bein some cash from clubs floatation! If utd had cash the name lumpard a chelsea sub would be never mentioned anywhere

24 Jan 2012 13:18:57
big period in the next 6 matches for you lot , looking at citys fixtures , you will need to try and match their points , but you and spurs have by far the more tougher matches , but to be fair you have done well to stay in touch with city, now on to the biggest match of your season , well according to fergie , i see a tight match on sat with a sending off or two , and a 2-1 victory for us , like the name on the cup says , its going to be fa for utd this season , but for us at least one cup , maybe two...............lfc

24 jan 2012 12:57:33
green and gold till the club is sold! get the yonks out!

24 Jan 2012 09:14:27
What a big 7 days we have and Fergie faces some very tough decisions, the injuries make it even harder. Which game becomes more important, the FA Cup or Stoke at home on Tuesday, I guess Fergie's selections will tell us. Personally not winning in the FA Cup does not mean as much as us winning a difficult game against Stoke and keeping up with Citeh.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Fergie playing the likes of Berba, Park, Ando, The Twins etc in the FA Cup, ensuring that we can field a strong team against Stoke. The likes of Scholes and Giggs cannot play two hard games within approx 72 hours and at the moment our first choice CM pairing is Carrick plus one of the legends. With Carrick carrying a hamstring strain they may both be required against Stoke so I don't think either will start in the FA Cup.
For me the harder and more important game is Stoke, will Fergie see it the same ?

Keanooh

24 Jan 2012 08:08:13
im no math expert but to my limited knowledge 18 + 5 > 19 + 3..............