Manchester United Banter Archive May 01 2012

01 May 2012 23:07:14
I don't think the way we played last night was wrong. We just didn't have the midfield to compete with city. I think we could do a lot worse than have a look at who might be up for a fresh challenge at Barcelona now that Guardiola is leaving. We should at least be making discreet enquiries to see if we can tempt the likes of Xavi or Iniesta. Ryan.

01 May 2012 22:32:04
Were are all these rumours about Fletcher's retirement coming from? The player himself says he hopes to be fit to return for pre season training.
20 Rising

01 May 2012 21:46:42
You can always rely on Liverpool to cheer you up. I stuck £10 on a Fulham away win, a draw at Stoke, a win for Motherwell and a win for Bastia and it just raked me in £850.

TK-Red

01 May 2012 21:03:13
Have I missed something? Many on here look to be assuming that Kagawa is a good as signed from Dortmund. Can the EDs/Syd/anyone confirm that we are actually interested in him. I know that he has refused a contract extension from Dortmund, and he is keen to move to the PL next season, but can we be that certain he is coming?

I for one think that we would be a great addition to our squad. Can play out left and in an advanced midfield position. He's got everything we need with vision, energy, pace, finishing

Sparty On

01 May 2012 20:06:01
Sell Berbatov, Nani, Owen, Anderson, Carrick and a few more and we may get £30 million. Add £50 million to that and we may get 3/4 players to restore some pride.
Nani was dreadful last night and the one upside of losing the title is that SAF has nowhere to hide and must buy.

01 May 2012 19:46:54
Just looking to gauge the opinion of our support. After watching the game last night where do you feel we need strengthening the most and who would you like brought in to fill that position. For me I am torn between a central midfielder which we have been missing for a good while or a top grade partner for Wayne. I have gone for a Centre Mid and for me I would love to see Luka Modric in a United shirt.

01 May 2012 18:40:00
What do people think of these suggestions

Rb - Van Der Weil or Kyle Walker (if spurs dont get CL)(would be good to get a partnership of him jones and smalling going as they will be in england team for many years)

Lb - Marcelo (0% possibilty just fort id throw it out there) Alba if he doesn't choose barca or loan Baines and see how he does compared to how fabio does in benfica

wing - Hazard

CDM - Strootman (said to be next roy keane) or Martinez

CAM - Lucas Moura, Eriksen or Gotze (all unlikely to move to united or move this window but AT LEAST ONE of these in our squad would be good.(Kagawa looks like a done deal hence why i never mentioned him)

01 May 2012 18:20:27
The Moon

What do you have against Guardiola? I don't think he's the best coach in the world, or even in the top 5, but did we see the kind of football Barca have been playing before he took over? As soon as he took over, Barca won 3 la ligas, 2 Champions Leagues, 2 Club World Cups, a Copa del Ray and a few other cups. Tactically, we don't know how good he is, mainly because Barca are a team who operate almost without tactics, as they only have one way to play. Maybe he's not as good as suggested, we don't know yet, but you can't doubt how good he has done at Barca, and the fact that he is still only young.

G.A.G.U.S

01 may 2012 18:11:22
breaking news:

the blue moon has been spotted over manchester
kb

01 May 2012 18:03:58
I think an apology from SAF is in order to the fans after last nights joke selection .Manchester United dont play for draws ! are you sure about that ,and can we please start to make substitutions that could possibly change the game with little more than 10 mins left its cringey.

NAMELESS CHILD

01 May 2012 17:12:43
Why did SAF treat City like Barca, they aren't that good that we should be so negative. That was the worst team selection we could have fielded. I think all of us were hoping for 0-0 when we saw that starting team. He should way too much respect for City.

All this talk about Hazzard but we really need steel in mid field we have no answer at all for Toure in the middle.

01 May 2012 16:14:59
Listen, not one single Man Utd fan has the right or leg to stand on to say that City are buying the League. That is all you lot have ever done too, you are no different to Chelsea nor City. You think you do it better because you have worse players and still win, and because you've stuck with the same manager, but you behave exactly the same way as those two.

You play players like Owen an utter fortune to sit on the bench. You have sod all youth players coming through despite your academy. I've been on your website and scouted all your youth players and most of them I had never heard of and still have almost never featured for the first team in any capacity despite all your injuries this season. To me that doesn't show much faith in your squad of tomorrow.

I just read someone say 'we don't buy stars we make them' - well with one or two exceptions that isn't true. You buy stars. You pay an exceptionally large amount of money for players when you simply don't have to. It's kind of gross. As some more of you have said, your youth players are getting itchy feet. Yet all the talk of incoming players for you lot is the same: you want Hazard, you want Sneijder, you want Giroud or something....get with it. You blew 60m last summer and have an awful lot of selling to do before you can bring more players in. You could ship out probably 10 players and bring in 5 and be better off than you have been this season. This summer is a real test for your manager. But whatever happens, shut up about other clubs buying the league when you seem incapable of spending £15m or less on one player.

01 May 2012 15:27:56
i blame gan for the loss yesterday... he is a omen of bad luck!

JK92

01 May 2012 14:39:46
One good omen for the weekend is that Newcastle are playing in black & white. My grandad says even Liverpool used to win their home games when they played in black & white. Oh hold on sorry, he was talking about the television.
20 Rising

01 May 2012 13:52:33
fergie is to blame last night not buying quality to replace ronnie and scholes and giggs, and picking that awful line up last night. why does he always go defensive against good teams..

01 May 2012 13:13:57
A few more comments on todays doom and gloom.

Firstly whatever else we say our first and foremost problem is the Glazers. Season after season they have allowed the quality in our team to be run down whilst they are only in it for the money. The first thing we desperately need therefore is a change of ownership, not necessarily some sugar daddy like City or Chelski but ANY owners who will not take money out of the club. United comfortably make a profit of 50/80 million most seasons, sometimes more. We are very competently run in terms of admin and stewardship and have an excellent salary to income ratio. All that needs to happen is that the annual profit needs to be invested each year in the team and we would stay at the top.

The problem now is that we have so much catching up to do. Arguably we have only three world class players-Vidic, Rooney and Scholes(38 years old), with maybe De Gea, Smalling and Valencia to be added to that list in time.Obviously we need at least three, arguably five, REAL quality players in the summer. Sadly I am not holding my breath the Glazers will cough up.

I agree with the comments that Ferguson needs a more astute tactician alongside him though presumably any change here depends on when SAF intends to retire. My choices to succeed him would be either Mourinho or better still Laurent Blanc. They would obviously want their own coaches and backroom staff. SAF is an absolute winner and therefore is unlikely to want to go out on a losing season so he will definitely be back next year. I feel so sorry that such a great manager has not had better support/luck in Europe. To begin with he was hamstrung by the stupid "numbers of foreigners" rules, then inexplicably lost to Dortmund and Leverkusen, had key players missing and won it against the odds in the Nou Camp and then later, after that apology of a human being Terry had fallen over to give us one more victory, ran into one of the worlds greatest ever teams in Barcelona. We are now so far away from winning the European Cup its frightening.

Back to the PL and the need to remind ourselves City havnt actually won it yet. If they do it will be a hollow victory for greed, individualism and self interest over a deeply flawed but at least committed group of players who under SAF play above their individual abilities as a real team. Its actually been quite a poor league this year but unless the Glazers do astound me w'ere in for more of the same next year. City wont last. Their mercenaries will soon be arguing with one another again or seeking the next pay day elsewhere. Despite them having a hard core of around 30,000 supporters they can hardly fill their ground for many games and will never become the "global brand" they seek. The fair play rules will eventually do for them.Arsenal are a real future threat with the way they are run and now signing Podolski and presumably getting Wilshere fit. Keep VP and they will be in with a major shout next year. Chelski's olduns may be having a swan song now but they need a major overhaul. Liverpool under Kenny remain a total joke.

Lets hope for a geordie or mark hughes miracle though I wouldnt put money on it.

John the Red

01 May 2012 12:34:07
oh wait just a minute. Maybe just maybe all I have been saying about the Glazers not investing in the squad and us becoming weaker and weaker may just be coming to fruition. All those people who slaughtered me for what I said should take a good long look at what they have seen tonight and look at what the Glazers have taken out of the club and what they have put in. We now have a policy of clearing out the high earners and bringing in young players on greatly reduced wages. Notice youth team players stalling on contracts. Those of you who don't think they will be seeing Giggs and Scholes in United shirts next year are just kidding themselves. One last thing ask yourself this question. Biggest TV audience and we play Park. Good bit of marketing there then. I AM KLOOT.
I don't understand why I AM KLOOT is vilified by everyone for stating was is obvious to us all.
Park is played in CL finals and the PL decider last night, ahead of much better and more in-form players. WTF!!
SAF is holding onto to players who should have retired years ago (players who are on small wages compared to what they would be on if they were in their prime now) thereby reducing overheads.
We are not buying the 'big' players anymore. We seem to be capped at £20m.
We are losing our youth players (can anyone honestly say that Pogba would have been worse than Giggs or Park last night?)
SAF team selection was predictable last night. So many poster on here predicted Giggs and Park would play - there is something wrong with this scenario!
Unless something changes drastically there will be tough times ahead, because all the teams will be strengthening this summer and we will have to listen to the same old 'no value etc, etc.
Every organisation, board, panel, soceity needs a dissenting voice to counteract the excesses of the masses. Good Post I AM KLOOT.

J Bones.

01 May 2012 11:49:13
So who would everyone like to see replace Mike Phelan?

lets say ideally and realistically?


ie; Ideally; pep.


realistically; Solksjear

01 May 2012 11:30:43
It seems every 5 years we'll break the bank on a player
Rio, Rooney, Berbatov
We even spent 28m on Veron a luxury player we didn't even need but became available.
We spent 60m last summer. If we have that kind of money again it should go on the midfield surely.

Beckham, Butt, Keane, Veron, (Giggs & Scholes 10yrs ago)
Even Ince & Robson look at the quality of these past greats.

Central Midfield 2011/12 squad
Fletcher - might have to retire.
Cleverley - at Leicester,Watford,Wigan he got injured.
Pogba - already getting itchy feet, if doesn't leave now he'll be gone when United make him a Star.
Scholes & Giggs - 10yrs too old.
Carrick - not a natural DM or tackler, needs support.
Jones & Rafeal - have covered CM with not much effect.
Park - not strong enough and his energy levels are deteriorating.
Petrucci - coming back strong from a 2 season layoff (needs a loan)

DM/CB Javi Matinez €32m & RW/LW/AM/CF Hazard €32m
60m on potential World Class players.
If City win the league this season let's make sure it's the one & only time.

01 May 2012 11:07:17
Everyone in the Premier league know city do NOT deserve the league they BOUGHT it, they didn't win it they BOUGHT it we have never BOUGHT the league we won the league and I genuinely think city can not say that, yes there squads a mile ahead of ours bar scholes rooney vidic and tony.V, but they lack passion and heart, I don't see how city fans can say their team play for CITY when the play for mansoor f.c. Yes I'm bitter I don't care, but I cannot see why everyone wants city to win the league by buying it? There's maybe hart and kompany who play for the shirt not the £ what does that say about city on a whole no heart no passion no desire its all about the £ real undeserved champions if they are yet to be champions still go to play Newcastle here's to the magpies doing us a favour!

Macca!

01 May 2012 10:51:04
I tried posting this last night but it didnt get through so I'll try again:

Last night showed why SAF needs a better number 2. Some will say we are using Phelan as a scapegoat but thats hogwash. We had started the game last night playing Plan B and it didnt work. I knew it wouldnt work at 10am yesterday morning when stories started surfacing that Park would start. In said then that he would be taken off before the hour mark when SAF realised he had made a mistake in not starting an in form Danny Welbeck. We didnt create chances because Rooney had little support up front and the midfield with Park in it wasnt strong enough to deal with City so Rooney also kept having to drop deep leaving nobody up top. When Welbeck came on we started to look like we might create something but it was too little too late. Had Sir Alex been sat along side a top assistant then he might have had someone to point these things out to him earlier. Don't forget Gary Nevilles book which said how meticulous Quieroz was in his preparation; he would have had us set up perfectly for such a massive game. Park shouldnt have played, Welbeck should've played and Phil Jones, as talented as he is, has lost his early season form in recent weeks and we should've kept faith in Rafael IMO. That said, its not over yet. We are still level on points. Should Newcastle take points from City or we have a freak 9-10 goal turnaround against Swansea and Sunderland (however unlikely) it would all change.

Lets just wait and see.

TK-Red

01 May 2012 10:28:33
The tactics were right the players were wrong we don't have the players to play the way we tried, replace park with kagawa, giggs with hazard and Scholes with Martinez is what we need to do but I don't think we have 75 million to spend.

Anon

01 May 2012 10:06:37
Nani “The manager has immense faith in me and that’s all that matters. My agent is negotiating with the club on a new deal and things are going very well. I hope at the end of the season an agreement will be reached. Manchester United is my home.”
should end the nani to leave rumours
jred

01 May 2012 10:00:04
I think a lot of people are unhappy with the tactics but i think the tactics were right.
the hard truth is that city have found a bit of form, there a good team at home and player for player they are possible a better team.
I think the hard truth is we never had the players to take them on so fergy tried to contain them and if it wasn't for one mistake from smalling we might of.

people seem to be pointing the finger at the usually suspect evra etc but i think the truth is that its the same old story that the midfield is not good enough to control and dominate a game against the better teams a problem we have had for a couple of seasons now.
A massive game for us last night and we couldnt manage a single shot on target, for the first time in 3 years.

the team selection was a bit odd but i'm not sure we are a good enough team to beat them in the same way we were not good enough to beat bilboa.

one last thing a lot of people seem to think this will be an important summer transfer wise, i would argue its no more important than last summer was.
jred

01 May 2012 09:39:04
Hope you Eds will put this on. To the morons that tried to trash the city stores get a life its a game of football you are idiots.
BLUE MOON.

01 May 2012 09:27:43
As much as we all love fergie and what he's done for this club can never be forgotten, but we all need to wake up, fergies tactics are shocking, 4-5-1 yet again away from home no thought of attacking then brings Valencia welbeck and young on with 10 minutes to go! No doubt heel play our sromgest side weekend.. Fergie should retire we need somthing fresh and new and someone who isn't afraid to attack and play attacking football. Any united fan who can sit there and feel that fergie is still the man is I dream land. Times
Change and city are only go to leave us in the past

LUHG

01 May 2012 09:22:24
Fletcher- Poor lad will retire soon I'm sure
Anderson- Brazilian Jan Molby
Cleverley- Hargreaves II
Giggs & Scholes - wish they were 15yrs younger
*15yrs says it all really*
Pogba - already getting itchy feet for Italy
Petrucci - Injury record 2 seasons out
Park - No, just no
Jones - CB just filling in now & again.
Rafael - RB filled in against Blackburn.
These are our central midfield players of 2011/12 season.

There's a bundle of games I could mention that we lost, deserved to lose but won, drawn or luckily won this season.
Here's a few Palace, European games as a whole, Norwich, Wigan, Blackburn, thrashed by City at home.
These are games we should not lose in the way we did.

WE NEED MIDFIELDERS GLAZER'S, OF THE HIGHEST DRAW.
THEY COST 30 TO 40m.
If we don't spend the cash get used to 2nd place behind City.

01 May 2012 09:15:40
After the dust has settled on disappointing night and this is not a knee jerk reaction but is it time for saf to go?bad decisions from him all seasons I love the man but feel he should go at the end of this season thoughts anybody?finbar

01 May 2012 08:56:03
Benzema, Ozil, Khedira, Sahin, Sanchez all chose Spain over us.

Sneijder, Robben, Essien, Nasri all chose money over us.

Goetz, Erikssen all dreaming of Spain
Even Hazard wants to use England as a stepping stone.

Why can't we attract the big potential stars anymore?
If the player is all about making a quick buck then obviously we can't compete with City, Chelsea, PSG or Malaga.

01 May 2012 08:20:40
i just canrt believe Toni was left on bench im dissappointed in SAF for his selection last night, its not over but were man utd we shouldnt rely on other teams

ms85

01 May 2012 08:16:02
It's simple, we were more concerned about city winning the title than thinking about winning it ourselves. It showed in the team selection and the tactics. Sitting back waiting to see what they did instead of pushing on and putting this season to bed. I think the same can be said about our last few games. We just haven't had the killer touch we have had in the past.
Its as if no one expected to win it this year so were to worried about loosing it when we got in the position to win.
A really shame! But this happend the year befor the treble so here's hoping :-)

REDP

01 May 2012 08:00:49
What was Fergie thinkin starting with park and giggs knowin that city would be up for the game he should have started with welbeck valencia and young instead of nani. Thought we were going for the win, not with that team if we dont win league its fergies bad team choices in some games his season that have lost us the title. I'm a die hard red but hold my hands up and say city desrved it last night.

01 May 2012 07:51:39
IF we lose the title which is looking likely then hopefully this will make The Glazers put their hands in their pockets as a trophyless season (excluding charity shield) must be bad for business.

The reason we haven't been prolific this season is that we are a team in transition. Next year I predict the same as SAF is bringing the youth through which will take time. Once he has achieved this he will retire, probably same time as Giggs

Transfer Predictions.
INS:
Kagawa
Clyne
Gaitan
(we will only sign three players, we always do)

OUTS:
Berbatov
Owen
Pogba

However we may receive receive an offer for one of our top players early in window (maybe Valencia or Nani) so then Gaitan may become Hazard and then we sign some unknown young foreign winger as well.

SAF 23

01 May 2012 07:48:02
A lot has been said about tactics, desire etc after last night, as I see it the facts are obvious;

Hart or De Gea - Over the season Hart, but DG has been outstanding since he has had an uniterrupted run in the team.
Zabaletta or Jones - Zabaletta has been more consistent than Jones when called upon.
Lescott / Kompany or Rio / Smalling - Kompany is a definite, in all honesty difficult to call between the others but I am going for Rio.
Clichy or Evra - Easy decision here, Clichy
Nasri or Park - Again easy decision, Nasri
Silva or Scholes - Difficult one, Silva started the season well and is now rediscovering his form. Since his return Scholes has been outstanding, so either of them for me.
Barry or Carrick - For me it is Carrick, he is always a scapegoat on here, but is effective at what he does and outshines Barry
Yaya or Giggs - Easy decision, Yaya dominates, sadly for Giggsy it looks a season too far.
Nani / Rooney or Aguerro / Tevez - Again easy decision, Rooney and Aguerro
So from last night's teams we have a starting X1 of:
Hart, Zabaletta, Kompany, Rio, Clichy, Nasri, Carrick, Scholes or Silva, Yaya, Rooney and Aguerro. That gives City at least 7 of the best 11 players on view last night. Sorry, but how ever you match the midfielders last night we would only get a maximum of two into the starting X1.
Unfortunately even if we bring in the likes of Toni, Young, Chico, Evans, Welbeck, Rafael or Cleverley, City can bring in the likes of De Jong, Balotelli, Dzeko, Milner, Johnson, Kolarov, Kolo, Richards.
Last night highlighted our lack of midfielders, with only Carrick and Scholes as regulars, the likes of Nani, Giggs, Toni, and Young are predominantly wingers who, with the exception of Toni you can't rely upon defensively. Why Cleverley wasn't involved at all I can't understand and the inclusion of Park was baffling.
It seems to me that currently City have a stronger team / squad than us, simple as that. I think Fergie's team selection recognised this as we set up to try and snatch a draw.

Keanooh

01 May 2012 07:29:26
I don't blame any of the players for last nights performance, Fergue should of trusted the players we have been playing for weeks, instead he shown quite the opposite by changing the whole team! Park not played for ages, giggs and scholars starting! Combined age of 105, no well beck! And jones and smallish were rusty to say the least! And finally no Valencia, the one player who has Been brilliant this year!

01 May 2012 06:18:07
Fergie has decided to step down as he has accepted that he had made too many tectical mistakes so as choosing wrong line ups.. for imp games( like park & giggs for today. gaffer wanted a draw,even he said he doesnt).this season. and it has costed united very badly this term(out of CL & EL,nd now on verge of loosing title). past is past. " common in fergie we trust" guys, attack. i think its correct. learnt two things in my life.. a man cant be god so dont make him.. and wrong is wrong , one must dare to say it whoever he/she is. pls post this ed.. and see what other fans think of it.. cheers ed.. nd thanks in advance. i m not a emotional negative fan..i hav told my cousine well in advance if fergie will play park and giggs today and breaks our attak,we will loose as we are never never good at defending.. and it happened.
rodio17

01 May 2012 02:12:41
LOL, you pathetic lot are in decline, worst performance by any team this season

LFC

01 May 2012 00:37:52
A lot of rumours about Darren Fletchers impending retirement, really hope this isn't true!

01 May 2012 00:31:12
The only thing worse than a ungracious winner is a sore loser, so congratulations Manchester City, you've been the better team over the course of the season and your deserving champions. And as a die hard United fan i don't need to tell you how much that hurts to say that.
I know some of you will point out that they haven't won it yet, but if we were to win it from here then it'd be an undeserved gift.

I won't go on about how are tactic's, formation, or team selection was wrong as it was too apparent from the way we played.

Now there are some positives to be taken from this season and i think we need to try and focus on those rather than on the pain of losing the title.
First we have a lot of young players like De Gea, Jones, Rafael, Smalling, Cleverley, Welbeck and Hernandez who have shown their quality this season and give us hope for the future. Also every great team needs to first suffer heart break in order to drive them on. And for all the players i've mentioned this is the first time they've lost the title and you learn more from your failures than your successes.
Then(and i know some of you might be sick of this) we have a great group of youngsters looking to break through( Pogba, Tunnicliffe, Fryers, Petrucci, Brady, the Keane twins, Blackett, Lingard, Cole ect). Now not all of them will make it but a good 3, 4 or 5 will and that is something to be proud of and look forward too.
Then we have our ace in the hole.......Sir Alex. He will be hurt and he will be brutal in his accessment of this season and he will ring the changes both tactically and with regards to personel. He will be determined to come back stronger and better next year.

So although we are hurting and suffering now, we can at least see the bright shoots of a good young team coming through and we have something to rally around and do as we do best and be UNITED.

Shappy

01 May 2012 00:16:33
people are saying Fletcher has decided to retire from football is this true?

01 May 2012 00:14:34
Okay, I'm annoyed but we've been in worse positions.

1995/96 - Blackburn beat us to the league by 1 point.
1997/98 - Arsenal beat us to the league by 1 point.
2009/10 - Chelsea beat us to the league by 1 point.

What I'm saying is that this isn't the first time we haven't narrowly missed out on the league. Yes we've missed out to City which may make it worse for some of you, but for me no matter who we've lost out too it doesn't change the fact that WE lost out and that's the important thing. We're to busy focusing on CITY winning the league instead of focusing on us not winning the league.

Here's the thing that I really don't agree with, people are saying the blame rests with SAF, and yes, in a way it does, but before SAF we wasn't a massive club, we wasn't challenging for titles apart from the odd cup run. In fact I would say that before SAF we was an Everton style club, sometimes we struggled, other times we got a top 8 finish. So before we all decide to go mental at SAF just remember that if he never took the United job we wouldn't be in the position to even be challenging for the league.

Onto the subject of Giggs and Park...firstly Park, he seems to have gone down hill massively but I'm not blaming him. I'm blaming SAF, I understand why he was chosen but he clearly wasn't match fit. his touch was off, he fell over all the time and looked lost the majority of the time he was on the pitch. He's declined massively over the past year or so and in all honestly needs to leave, which is a shame because I do like the lad.

Now, we have Mr.Giggs....he's had a wonderful career, and we shouldn't forget the things he's done for us over the years but the simple fact is that he's not the Giggs of the 90's or even the 00's. Take away his name, his status, age, etc. and you'll see that we've got a player who's probably on par with players like Fortune, Djemba-Djemba, Gibson, etc. Unfortunately he's signed another deal and I think he's going for the 1000 games, a terrific accolade but at the expense of our team.

As a summary, both Giggs and Park do need to be moved on in some capacity or simply be left to a bit part player like Berbatov has been this year.

This moves me onto the set up of the team. The idea was right, the selection wasn't. personally I would have started like;

_____________DDG
Raf______Smal____Rio______Evra
____________Jones
_______Carrick____Scholes
Toni________Rooney______Young

As the game progressed I would have taken Scholes off for Berbatov, Toni for Nani and dropped Rooney into CM. That would have meant we could use Berbatov to hold the ball up and provide a deeper threat from Rooney and an inside forward threat from both Nani and Young giving us a greater attacking threat.

Although it's easy to say this is what we could have done, should have done, etc.

I thought Kompany was terrific tonight, as was Clichy and Zab...I also think Lescott was brilliant. in fact he's been brilliant all season but because of the form of Kompany he hasn't got the credit he's deserved.
I thought everybody including Barry played well for City which says a lot about our attack and the way Park and Rooney played.

I don't think Smalling is to blame, neither is any individual player. the entire team is to blame. the fact we only managed 3 shots in the whole game with none on target, less possession, awful crossing and giving City tons of room around our box shows that it was a poor TEAM performance.

It's funny how 90% of the posters on here say that SAF is overachieving with a poor squad yet when the squad get's put in their place all of a sudden we're United and we should be winning all the time. make up your mind, are we an overachieving team (which we have been for around 3 years) or are we a great team which had a poor performance?

I think our squad has tons of ability, but hardly any constancy as individuals. if we look at the other top clubs in England and Europe you know which players will turn up and how they will play, Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, RVP, Ronaldo, Ozil, Tevez, Yaya, Silva, Mata, Cole, etc. they're not just world class talents but they're also very consistent. I believe Nani, Rooney and Vidic are world class talents but the first two are inconsistent in the sense that you don't know which version of them will turn up. the same applies to players with ability that hardly show it, players like Anderson.

Our squad is talented, but for the first time since around 2005 we've got an inconsistent squad. an inconsistent first team. in the recent past with the most reason squad we had Neville, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Ruud, Rio, Heinze, etc. you knew how these players were going to perform and to the level they would perform too. yes we had inconsistencies in players like Fortune, Bellion, Forlan, Butt, P.Neville, etc. but we could afford that. at the moment we have a first 11 with a vast amount of inconsistencies which in all honestly have cost us both the league and any decent cup runs.

Part of this is due to age and part of is simply due to them being inconsistent players. over the past 2 years which players have we been 100% sure would turn up and be brilliant in every game? I can name 3! Fletcher, Vidic and Scholes. the rest, all be it talented still have question marks over their consistency levels.

so, I've said how I would have lined up, how well City played, where I felt we went wrong, etc. so I guess all I need to talk about now is the future, the transfers, etc.

Firstly, I think Pogba is the sort of player we need in the middle. I think we'll know what we get from him and he'll perform with the same ability every week.

As talented as I think Gaitan and Hazard are they're both inconsistent and I've seen different versions of the two players turn up several times this season even when their side are playing well. Kagawa for me has been massively consistent and I've only seen him player poorly once or twice this season. Don't get me wrong I've seen Dortmund play poorly and as a result Kagawa has been poor but I'm yet to see Kagawa play poorly even when his side are playing well.

So Kagawa would be my midfield man.

I think in terms of attacking options Raul would be great, you know when he'd be scoring goals. I also think he'd add consistency to both Hernandez and Welbeck's game.

He'd be the cheaper option that would improve what we have as an individual and improve the game of other players. He'd also give us a different style of forward, he can hold the ball up, pass and score. which is exactly what we need right now...We've got Hernandez and Welbeck, hell even Rooney who have been inconsistent this year, so to know we've got someone who will grab goals regardless would be fairly reassuring. We've currently got Owen who will score if he could stay fit.

So for a cheaper option that would free up funds elsewhere and add a consistent foundation I would for Raul.

At the back I would look at bringing in a LB, there are plenty out there and it all depends on what you want from a LB, so it's personal preference. I would love to have a defensive LB instead of an attacking LWB. I also think Fabio is the man to get this role providing he can stay fit. when he's played he's been fairly good and we're starting to know what we get when he plays, even though we rarely see him play. for that reason we need to be looking at somebody who wouldn't mind being 2nd best in 2 or 3 years who can do a job right now, I like the look of Baines who I think is defensively sound although he does slip up against quicker wingers/forwards. the LB role would be a hard one to buy for and I think the only 'perfect' LB is Cole in terms of performance stability and consistency. I would also have a stab at Balzaretti wou has been defensively very good for a couple of years now.

So I would suggest Balzaretti or another LB in the same style as Cole.

As for the RB, I don't think there is currently a brilliant consistent LB besides Abate and Arbeloa, even Richards isn't massive consistent. I do think that we've simply got to wait for Rafael and Clyne to add consistency to their game. and who knows? Clyne may have that already in his locker.

So, I would bring in Kagawa, Raul, Balzaretti and try and keep Pogba. All of this would cost no more than £20 Million. which means we have extra funds to add a winger or two to the fold.

The signings are debatable as always. but the point I'm making is that for the first time in years I don't know how our side is going to play when it walks onto the field so it needs to be fixed.

SAF isn't the issue, individual players aren't the issue as such, The tactics aren't really the issue either. the issue is consistency and it needs to change.

tonight has been disappointing to say the least but we've had plenty of low points this season and in previous seasons. we always bounce back.

So, try and enjoy your week and I'll talk to some of you guys tomorrow.

The Moon.

30 Apr 2012 23:59:21
Ipad is a shocker for posting, to continue we have no on field captain we spunked it away against Everton exactly the same as the City game

Pardoe