Manchester United Banter Archive December 03 2012

03 Dec 2012 22:31:15
Just watched the full match vs reading and can someone point any positives from lindegards performance?thats the poorest ive seen him play in a utd shirt when did he ever command his box?was there ever any communication with rio or evans from lindegard?dont get me wrong i think half of the problem is fergie changing gk so many times in a season but i have no doubt in my mind give de gea a good run of games and he will prove to be a hell of alot better than lindegard

Calvin

Exactly mate. Since day one, I've been saying "why are we dropping DDG for being poor from crosses, when Lindegaard is no better".

SAF is driving DDG home to Spain, basically. So we'd better get the effing chequebook out again this summer, and this time, no looking to the Mediterrenean for our new number 1.

Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Eastern Europe. Take your pick. Big, strong, commanding, ferocious, aggressive and have no problem with cold, depressing weather.

RED_SKY

Red sky

Would Adler do?

Plus he is a confessed Utd fan.

Jono

Adler would've done last summer, mate. I was honestly happy with either Adler, Neuer or DDG.

I still think DDG can make it.....my main concern is his nationality and age. He's too young and too Spanish to not want to go home and enjoy his homeland while he's still young enough.

RED_SKY

If De Gea was to leave, I cant see beyond Courtois. Its a shame chelsea would never sell him to us..

Mick

03 Dec 2012 20:53:39
quotes that we have a 120m buyback clause for CR7 :)
You wouldn't Malcolm.....

Dan

03 Dec 2012 20:32:02
Say we sign Lewandowski, where do we go from here? Who else do we sign and how do you think that we will shape up next season with his signing - he is far too good for the bench.

If Kagawa wasn't at the club, then fitting a formation would be easy as we could play RVP & Lewandowski with Rooney behind him. However how do we get RVP, Lewandowski, Rooney & Kagawa all into the same team..?

Fresh! {Ed004's Note - It is a squad game. Look at the City and Madrid attacks. So many goal scorers there...}

Can you see us keeping RVP, Rooney & Lewandowski happy if they aren't all playing though? I think it would be a struggle. They are all world class, not squad players.

Fresh! {Ed004's Note - With the amount of games United play I don't think so. Take in consideration both Rooney and RVP are very versatile.}

How about a 4-2-2-2 like City play? I've been mulling this over all day. We could play a back 4, 2 centre mids then have tow advanced playmakers that roam and then RVP and Lewandowski up top. City often play Silva and Nasri as those two advanced playmakers and we could do the same.

FHS

4222 formation two attacking mf in kagawa and rooney , all we need now is to dmfs hah

I think that is a good team FHS, we'd someone a bit more solid in the middle though alongside Clverly or Anderson.

Fresh!

03 Dec 2012 20:09:54
would be interesting to see if mourinho had stayed at chelsea whether or not he could of kept them challenging for the title every year like fergie has done. we always manage to stay at the top if we win it or not. what are peoples thoughts, would he have been a wenger or a fergie?

I AM BOOT

Hard to say as SAF won the reign back fair and square and to be fair it was the Ronaldo and Rooney rise that took the throne back from Chelsea.

Sydney! {Ed004's Note - Maybe we will see them both together soon ;)...}

When was the last time mourinho managed a team that wasn't at the top
jred

Definitely a Fergie, no doubt about that. I believe he would have turned Chelsea into the best club in the world in terms of winning trophies. They would have become unstoppable when he had 4/5 years under his belt, playing his style and with all his players. He would be far better than Guardiola in doing this, in my humble opinion.

J Bones.

03 Dec 2012 18:07:28
Sneaky feeling anderson will be fit for the Big Derby!

Big V

03 Dec 2012 17:56:36
Quick question for Devil Dust look at Carrick's record at the club. How long he has been in the side and what we have won whilst he has been in the side. Fergie plays him all the time ask yourself why? The guy never hides he will accept a pass at any time no matter who is on him. All great sides need a Carrick to make things tick and do all the selfless running and work. I think you will find Carrick has as many medals as anyone who plays for City or Chelsea. I AM KLOOT

I think that could be the most sensible podt from u KLOOT for a while
Chris the REDman

Well put Kloot

Pardoe

Good post. Carrick get's a lot of flack due to our manager's inability to give him a top CM partner IMO. If you chucked Yaya (for instance) in alongside Carrick we would have a great CM platform to build from

Gav

03 Dec 2012 19:56:49
Eric djemba djemba has medals too and he is rubbish so the medal thing to me is pointless. John o shea has loads of medals too but is in fact very limited as a player.

I have to disagree with never hiding to accept a pass I personally dont think he demands or shows enough to receive a ball from the centre halves.
You say he does all the running and work? really? are we still talking about the same player cause for all that Carrick does work rate and running about would be the last thing that I would say he offers.

Still you know best.

Devil Dust.

Well said Kloot.

Mike

Devil Dust, come on, you can't seriously compare Djemba Djemba to Carrick, that's a ridiculous suggestion. You clearly don't rate Crrick which is your perogative...but plenty do, including SAF it appears. He's never quite reached the heights he promised to, but I think he gets a lot of unfair stick which is undeserved. I'd have him in the team every week, just not paired with Giggs or Scholes.

AJH

Im not comparing Djemba to Carrick but what I am saying is that the argument of Carrick having medals does not by virtue make him a great player many poor players have medals its a team game and many players get carried by others.

Devil Dust.

03 Dec 2012 17:19:08
Predictions for the city game?? Something tells me Rooney will have a big day :)

Shahram

2-1 to us. Comeback as usual!

kdevil10

If we're going to win we'll have to score a few. At the risk of jinxing an entertaining game I'll go for a heart jangling 5-3 to the mighty reds.... Injury time tie settler to break Etihad Rovers' hearts.

Come on the reds!

DodgyBanter

3-1 city if utd are lucky Miw

03 Dec 2012 15:42:04
Looking at the Cl group tables, we potentially could face, juve, Milan, R. Madrid, PSG, Valencia/Bayern, Celtic.

juve, real, bayern will be tough, even PSG. Celtic/Milan will be my pick.

What do you guys think ?

DesiRed.

I'd take Valencia.

Fresh!

Celtic, would be a dream match even though they would put up an immense fight! Valencia or Milan would be good as well.

-JakeW

Fresh

Valencia is a tough fixture and Mestaia(spelling) is a very tough place to go. I will take Celtic or AC Milan personally. We don't exactly have a great record against spanish teams.

Shahram

To be honest, even though it would rule us out of the champions league good, I want to face the bigger teams like Madrid and Juve, it'll be a good test for the team and fun to watch for the team.

Shotgun Cletic

Gav

Madrid for me. If we defeat them then the team will be confident enough to go all the way, if we lose then it would be better to concentrate on the league sooner rather than later.

baba octopus

I'd take Milan.

kdevil10

Lets just grow a pair and say Real, will be a test, and maybe will point out what we need to be competitive with the very best, would be something to look upto.
DJ

"Lets just grow a pair and say Real"

All well and good until we crash out at the next hurdle ; ) I do see your logic but I'm not that confident in our abilities right now, so will settle for winning the PL and getting as far as poss in the CL (by getting the best draw possible, lol)

Gav

For those of you who want Madrid,I hope you do realize how much money is involved if we get through a few rounds. It's silly to get such a fixture and get knocked out as it will all hurt our ability at the end of the season in the transfer market.

I believe we would get knocked out in the quarters depending on a easy first round fixture. Madrid would be the end of us.

Shahram

I would say the San Siro is tougher than the Mestalla. Valencia or Celtic for me.

Fresh!

Celtic aren't through though. May be spartak

Perth!

Neither are Juve as it might be chelsea.

Shahram

Would be really nice to play Read Madrid... its been long time since we played them
And I want any of the top teams... no worries about our form :) we will come on top

03 Dec 2012 15:40:49
"Even if if he was leaving, I don't see SAF retiring at the end of this year so the timing will not work. Fergie has gotten to a point where he believes he is untouchable and will only leave when he is ready. Given SBR recent comment it just endorses that view.

Shahram"

Shahram, that reads a bit disrespectful. Fergie still has all his marbles and knows what is best for the club. I'm sure there is an exit strategy in place, and I personally think already in motion.

Whistler.

I am not being disrespectful and just replying to the Morinho stuff.

If you do the search function, I have never been disrespectful to him and only thing I will say is that we have regressed in the last 2 to 3 years as a team in terms of how we play and the personnel we have. He has had money but in my view has bought poorly for some years now and bought the wrong positions.

Our youth and scouting program is very poor in my view and tactically we get outplayed in Europe by average teams.

03 Dec 2012 17:07:05
Fair enough mate. But I can't go along with saying our scouting is very poor. We are lucky to have such a good scouting network. Also, aren't we top of our group?

Whistler.

Sure but got lucky with our group. I have never heard of Cluj until this year and turkish football is going through a rough patch and not what it used to be :)

On the other hand teams like city and Chelsea had very tough groups and I am not sure we would have done any better.

If you go by results PL teams are going through a transition and were very poor in CL.

Shahram

Whistler how is our scouting good. We have not produced a player from the youth ranks in 10 years who is a genuine starter or people would consider world class.

We have also tended to buy players when everybody and their grand mother knows how good they are and paid big transfer fees for them and some have turned out to be awful or very average buys.

Look at teams like Barca, Porto and many of the spanish and even some of the Italian clubs who seem to be able to produce a conveyor of players or buy talent for very little and see their value go up by 5 folds in a few seasons and then teams from the PL come knocking us being one and pay outrageous sums.

Just the thought of having to spend 80 to a 100 million to fix all the parts of the current team should be enough of a telling factor that our scouting is not working.

CB, LB,MF,MF,LW


Shahram {Ed004's Note - Not sure we will have that much to spend but then again we will have to replace some big players such as Rio/Vidic, Evra, Scholes, Giggs, Nani and some reserves like Macheda etc. Personally I wouldn't mind replacing Welbeck and Young with Lewandowski and Tom Ince respectively as they'd be top squad players but obviously I'd still sign a Nani replacement but I think that would be too much for one window. I think we will see 4 at most next summer so hoping for one maybe 2 in January but thats unlikely}

Ed004 if we were to genuinely buy players who make a difference and are starters the math points to 70 to 80 million net. Each one of those position will cost an average of 20 million. some higher and some lower obviously.

With the exception of nani we are not going to get much for who we sell.

Goetze 30 million
Hummels 25 million
LB 12 to 15 million
CM 15 million
LW 15 million

Shahram {Ed004's Note - Personally if the money was there I would do my upmost to sign Hummels, Baines, Bender, Cabaye and Rodriguez. Now I would focus on them but if there was money left and time left in the windows to sign Lewandowski to replace Welbeck and Ince to replace Young I wouldn't complain. Also I don't think we would be able to get Goetze and Hummels. I think Hummels and Lewandowski is possible as it is rumours Lewandowski has agreed to move here and Hummels has said he wants to play abroad something Goetze has never implied in any way}

Ed004 i agree Goetze will be almost impossible to land and if he was available many other big clubs will come in for him. even your own list will cost about the same.

Rodriguez 25 mill
Hummels 25 mill
Baines 12-15 mill
Bender 15-18 mill
Cabaye 18-20 mill

No matter how you look at it it is still a big number. What is frustrating is why we spent 6 on bebe and 5 on buttner as we could have had Baines for that. what a waste of money.

Shahram {Ed004's Note - Would be a quality team though}

Great team and probably the best in Europe for many years to come when you consider our existing young group of DDG, Jones, Smalling, Rafael, Cleverly, Powel,Hernandes Henriquez, Evans, Welback and a few of the touted youth team guys. it will provide a core that will see us through for the next 5 to 10 years.

WE would eventually have to buy a few strikers in a couple of years as Rooney and RVP will be getting up there in age.

Shahram

03 Dec 2012 13:26:57
so we need a left back, left winger, centre back and a tackling box to box midfielder. And instead we get linked to a striker we don't need in lewandowski and a past it over the hill has been looking for a bunch of mugs to give him one last bumper pay day in sneijder. I despair at times i really do.

I am sure Evra, Nani & Scholes will be replaced in the summer. I am sure if Ferdinand or Vidic leave we will buy a CB too. Lewandowski would be a massive signing. It's a £25m player for half price. A £25m player that will be come a £35m player if he joins us.

Sydney!

Noname, try avoiding the 'rumour' sections in the rags if it makes you dispair! 'Rumours' are just that, they rarely end up to be true. Stay calm

Gav

Im with Syd on this one the thing we are learning most this season is that if you have real quality in attack it can get you out of trouble when not playing great.
Also the guy is class and 12m is an absolute steal the other areas will surely be rectified but we cannot turn our back on pure quality just cause we are weak elsewhere.

Devil Dust.

But how would you accomodate him Syd?

FHS

Sneijder is below 30 years old and would be available on a free if the claim of a breach of contract happens... Your telling me you wouldnt want Wesley Sneijder on a free/

You can easily have an attacking 4 of lewandowski with RVP, Kagawa and Rooney behind.

Supasub

I think fr 12m there will ba a fair amount of interest but I think more 15-18m is likely and we will have serious competition for the player.

I would concentrate our time, effort and money for other areas unless one of the 4 is sold.

Jono

03 Dec 2012 11:54:36
Loads on here go on about Carrick getting slated for no reason at all..even when he has an ok game.
But the fact of the matter is he is not very good and would not get in Chelsea City or any big clubs midfield and just cause he is at this stage our best midfielder does not make him a great player.

The truth is if he played for City everyone on here would be rubbishing him as a weak link in their midfield at that at the weekend we can over run them cause they have players like him in their team....well thats what every other team does when they play us.

Devil Dust.

I dont think city has a strong central midfield either , yaya had a very poor season so far and i dont see a better player than him at cm there.

nikz

Carrick is better than Barry and Milner yet they play for City.

Carrick ahead of Mikel any day of the week. Rate him higher than Barry and Milner.

REDFAITH

Lads im not not ridiculing Carrick just pointing out that if he did play for someone else none of us would be too fussed seeing him on an opposition team sheet.

We are Manchester United and should be feared !

Devil Dust.

DD, you're right in so much as we wouldn't fear him in an opponent's lineup. Carrick is a good all round CM but rarely provides a moment that wins us the game. The problem is, he is still our best and most consistent CM, so he needs to play IMO. If we had a top partner alongside him we'd be fine but when he's our best it shows how weak our midfield is. I do agree with the above replies though, I'd prefer Carrick to any of Mikel, Milner and Barry

Gav

Devil Dust - Why single Carrick out, you just highlight what people say about him being a scapegoat.
Using your argument would Ando, Clevs or Welbeck get into any of the other top teams, let alone Scholes, Flectcher or Giggs. If any of the above were playing for someone else now would you be on here saying sign them up, I very much doubt it. Suddenly Ando is our saviour after 3 or 4 decent performances, don't forget he is yet to complete 90 mins and is now injured yet again. How many seasons has he been fully fit since he signed for us or even fit for 75% of the season, yet reading some on here he is Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas all wrapped up in one.
I'm sure Carrick wouldn't have got into some of our best sides over the last 20 years, but don't forget since he has been a regular in the team we have been in 3 CL finals and won the EPL a number of times, surely not just a coincidence.
If we could all pick our 'fantasy' midfield I agree there would be no place for Carrick, but at the moment he is our best holding midfielder, that isn't his fault, it is down to the lack of quality that we have in midfield and when he plays well he deserves to be given credit.

Yougottalaugh

Yougottaugh

I was not singling him out I was merely pointing out that he may well be our best midfielder but he is by no means a great player which by your own admission is acurate seeing as you stated he wouldnt get into any of our best teams in the last 20 years.

In a roundabout way you have just backed up what I said originally.

Devil Dust.

03 Dec 2012 11:29:07
wat do u think of the rumour that sniejder cud b a free transfer in jan

World Class player for free? yes please ;)

Giants14

He is within his rights 2 walk out on inter and sign for another club for free while fifa investigate which cud take up to 2 years

Just read that WS has met with Inter and an annoucement to be made later today -article suggests that he will be leaving the club - interesting!

Giants14

03 Dec 2012 11:10:05
So with Anderson out of the Cluj game what do people think the line-up will be? I am thinking DDG, Smalling, Keane, Vidic, Buttner, Jones, Petrucci, Cleverley, Powell, Welbeck, Hernandez. I think it's more likely that Jones will play in defence ahead of Keane, but I would like to see Jones in midfield and with Keane just getting back from his Leicester loan I think it would be very good experience for the lad playing alongside Vidic. I also think Jones needs to get to grips with the midfield so this game would be great practice. not sure about Petrucci's fitness, but would like to see him in there, this game may have come a little soon mind.

Sydney!

Will he be in contention for city(anderson)?
DJ

I guess that was more of team I'd like to see, however I imagine Jones will play in defence and Fletcher in midfield.

Sydney!

Im sure that team wont be far off however i think maybe macheda might start instead of chica. Im also hoping petrucci starts the game as anderson is out and i cant see fletch playing this one after playing on saturday. This is what i hope to see.
.................DDG..................
Keane...Smalling..Vidic...Buttner
................Jones..................
...Cleverley.Powell..Petrucci.......
..........Welbeck..Macheda........

if henriquez is eligable to play,then id rather him than macheda.

phil

Syd,

Agree with you there. But unfortunately i can see Giggs playing apart. Although he and Scholes maybe saved for the City game.

Mad Hatter

Fergy has said the back 4 is jones smalling vidic and buts
jred

Dj
anderson is supposedly out for 4 week , which sounds about right
jred

Jred, I did think that would be the back four, but would like to see Keane play alongside Vida in defence.

Sydney!

I think it will be this:

___________De Gea
Smalling__Jones__Vidic__Buttner
___________Carrick
_______Cleverly__Powell
__Young___Hernandez___Welbeck

I think this is far likelier. Jones and Smalling will both start I think as both need games, as does Vidic & Buttner. I would say that Fletcher would be a dead cert, but is he going to play twice in a week? Hmm. The forward line picks itself for this one and the midfield of Powell & Cleverly is sensible.

As for youngsters, I think Vermijl, Wooton, Macheda may all get used, but Petrucci will be kept on the bench as normal for some reason.

Fresh!

03 Dec 2012 09:50:06
When asked if Mourinho could replace him, Ferguson told ITV4: "He can manage anywhere, absolutely."

Ferguson added: "I'm not going to put any forecasts on what is going to happen at this club. I won't last forever, but Jose can manage anywhere, there is no question about that."

"I would never think a guy who hasn't played a game could be a top coach, but then you've got to look at his personality, I think his personality does it," Ferguson added. "He's got a marvellous, strong personality and I think that bridges that gap. That's incredible (his trophy haul). How old is he now? Fiftieth year. So he is 20 years behind me. At the same rate he is going to add another 42 trophies. At the current rate, (that is) amazing isn't it?"

"I remember his first press conference (at Chelsea) and I thought 'he's a cocky b****r, him'," Ferguson said. "He was telling the players, 'Look, I'm the Special One, we don't lose games'. Bloody hell, coming to England, he is only a young man and saying he is the Special One! But what it did, it told all the players to have the belief they were going to win the league."
jred

1st pick for me by a country mile.

Jono

Mourinho was jeered by sections of the crowd in last Tuesday's Copa del Rey defeat of Alcoyano, prompting the former Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan boss to offer supporters the chance to vent their frustration by arranging to come to the side of the pitch 40 minutes before the Atletico game.
The reaction was mixed but with less than 5,000 fans inside the Bernabeu at the time, it offered little indication as to how the majority were feeling.
Nevertheless, it is now being speculated that Mourinho and Madrid president Florentino Perez have agreed his tenure at the club will come to an end next summer.

Even if if he was leaving, I don't see SAF retiring at the end of this year so the timing will not work. Fergie has gotten to a point where he believes he is untouchable and will only leave when he is ready. Given SBR recent comment it just endorses that view.

Shahram

03 Dec 2012 05:53:17
Hey ed,
What do you make of the recent speculation about Oscar de Marcos? I have to admit I really haven't seen him play a lot. He looks a versatile player who can play as full back as well as a box to box mid-fielder.
Thanks!

kdevil10

Supposedly he's in the Roy Keane mold, but also scores goals, I think I read he's scored 13 already this season, that could be way off though.

With De Marcos not cup tied for the CL, and Bilbao struggling this year, maybe we could get him in January?

RedDub

Redhub

He has not scored 13 times this season and more of a offensive midfielder. Herrera is their version of keane and he is a brutal and nasty tackler who is a constantly on a yellow or red.

Shahram

03 Dec 2012 03:01:47
i know its a bit cliché but i really think we should sign neymar even if its 40m plus, granted we dont have the deepest pockets compared to sum but i think it would be a very smart investment that we would see pay for it self in no time. besides the fact hes unbelievably talented, hes also by far the most talked about sports star in south america, he is all they talk about on the tv hes like beckham over there think about the colossal amount of shirt sales he would generate his wages would more than pay for itself brazil alone is massive it would mean a whole new market of united fans let alone image rights ect this also leads me to believe that if real were willing to sell ronaldo we would be interested in buying because of all the reasons listed im sure madrid made profit on the money they paid for his transfer within the first season due to shirt sales, an his astronomical wages are nothing compared to what they are making from him in image rights interested to hear your thoughts.

marlow

Shirt sales TV revenues. What has happened to just going and supporting your team because they were Manchester United. Someone commented yesterday about great away support and poor home support. Marlow tells you everything you need to know. He has his jester hat ready I AM KLOOT

This post has nothing 2 do with going and supporting the team or home or away fans im talking about how the transfer of two very expensive players could be attained and how the people who sanction these deals might look at it, u jus went completely left lol ur funny

marlow

KLOOT, not sure I understand your point - the OP was just trying to justify how we could afford to purchase Neymar. Nothing to do with how good our support is. Perhaps you should re-read it

Gav