Manchester United Banter Archive December 26 2013

26 Dec 2013 21:50:13
Good day today, made ground on a few teams above us and we have plenty of first teamers to bring back in.

A Jan signing at leftback is essential for me. Evra, tremendous clubman that he is, is not upto standard just now. Bring in a quality leftback and he'll probably kick into gear a bit for the rest of the season. (Better still bring in a straight first team LB)

Heart would love to see Koke come in, but head says he would be a classic lightweight foreigner who would struggle in the EPL. Far better going all out for a German league player (Gundogan!) who would adapt quicker to the EPL.

And for those seemingly remembering Fergie's teams as teams who kill these games off? Not for 5 seasons! That game today was classic recent Fergy era. Hopefully when Moyes gets a couple of new faces in we may see a regimen change and develop a bit if confidence!

26 Dec 2013 22:51:52
I agree, I think certain fans have their red tinted glasses on. I remember us having to hold on a few times in recent seasons.

Hang your head in shame dodgybanter or have you been at the sherry!
Last 5 seasons I remind you we won the premiership 3 times runners up twice with a squad of much the same standard.

Well done today gents,

I didn't see the game but I think you boys are well and truly back in the race.
You are still a little way off the SAF team we all feared, but Moyes seems to be getting you on track.

Well done again.

27 Dec 2013 00:27:33
Dodgy mate, you need to watch Koke more often if you feel he'd be too lightweight. He's not exactly bulit like a tank but he is the closest a spanish player gets to being like one. If Mata Silva and Carzola can handle the English style then Koke who is a far bigger stronger specimen can handle it physically. He's built in a similar way to Xabi Alonso or Mikel Arteta but more mobile and with better vision.

Out of all the midfielders we have been linked with in 5 years time he will be the best. And that includes Gundogan who I rate very highly.

For me we should sign one of Koke or Gundogan, and we should pay whatever it takes to get the chosen one. Everyone one else is in a class below these two.

Acker- hang my head?! Jog on!

My point is not that we have been rubbish over the last five seasons! Just that people seem to forget the edgy games under Fergy. Yesterday was a classic recent Fergy era type game where we scraped out the win, and truth be told Hull were unlucky.

We should see the positive in that Moyes is starting to get the team winning these types of games.

Agree Shapps, not seen enough of him really to judge. But we don't need a Silva, Cazorla type player. We need a dominating midfielder who plays a bit deeper. If Koke is this player then I've only seen clips where he plays a bit further forward.

Dodgy we will all be jogging after all these mince pies!
Could agree with you had you said the last 2 years but 5 that's a little dramatic.
Have good new year

Haha

Fairdoos acker, must have been a long and painful two years then! In my head we started down this path around 2009ish, post Tevez and Ronny. Often struggled to kill teams off since then. Obviously there have been a few exceptions :)

I intend to have a good new year- my pregnant mrs might have something to say about that though :D

26 Dec 2013 20:03:11
A win but should have been far easier. As I posted this morning we should have been ready to start yet somehow we were well off the pace at the beginning and are lucky it was not more fatal to the result.
I need add that Moyes needs to realise at 3.2 we are United not Everton and there is an opportunity to get the fourth to win comfortably rather than hang on. Champions and SAF teams generally used to have the strength to look dangerous and get a fourth. We so nearly conceded again near the end and it is Moyes demeanour that indicates survival rather than prosper. There is also the central area but we need to not lose it too easily and when Rooney came central and tight we looked better.
Take each game as it comes and Boxing Day throws up strange results and thankful we were not one of them. Three points much needed but much for Moyes to learn

The past 3 years we've never looked like scoring a 4th once we've gone 3-5 up from behind or any other scoreline.

Red Man, we get you don't like Moyes, I don't either, but he's not getting sacked anytime soon and I actually think he's started to do a decent job, December has been a very good month for United in general. especially the last 3 weeks.

Okay we may not be slaughtering teams but when you've got a side with more mediocre than magic then you're not going to play well.

It's not rocket science mate, if the quality isn't on the pitch it's not going to be in the results.

its scary to think that without Rooney this year we'll be in the bottom 3.

26 Dec 2013 22:30:01
Personally I find "it should have been far easier" rather arrogant, the team with the best home record in the league with only 3 conceded in 4 months. Was always going to be a tough game. Admitted we didn't help ourselves but we showed United character to come back, and given the injury crisis, which we seem to have every year, the points was all that mattered.

Moon, Mr E

My thoughts are that we should have been better prepared for the start of the game. It was obvious what was going to happen yet whilst we came back from two goals down we should have been prepared for the start. I comment objectively as I see it. Yes we could improve the quality yet we need to know what to expect and deal with it. We came back well from a difficult position yet need more results like this. No I am not convinced about Moyes but I posted about the preparation and start to the game prior to it happening so if I could see it.
I hope Moyes buys the players he wants but fail to prepare and we prepare to fail. We got away with it today thank goodness.

How did we not prepare, mate look at their goals, they get one from a corner which was never a corner and the other was a deflection! You talk about preparing, but take stoke! Under pulis everyone prepared for the throw ins but they still scored from them! Personally I think you are still struggling to accept moyes, but you can't say he's doing a bad job now! We are starting to come good, for flip sake if we made that comeback under SAF everyone on here would be buzzing! Today was classic united, it's was the never say die attitude that I have grown up watching and I was proud today and for the first time this season I knew at 2-1 we'd go on to win. Moyes is winning me over and he's winning the players over.

Caolan

They caught us cold and even the commentators said that. Boxing Day is often a day of shocks and I didn't feel we were properly ready. Maybe the late arrival at the ground didn't help but we were sloppy at the start. I felt we would win when Smalling scored and it deflated Hull a little.
I would be happy to be won over by Moyes because it would mean we were up at the top. I hope the owners support him properly in the market and then see if he has what it takes

Redman

I watched the highlights and both goals were poor defensive mistakes by individual players, do you really blame the manager for individual mistakes on the pitch?

Your admiration for Mourinho is not a secret, have you watched what he is doing and how they are playing given his abundance of players and no injuries. If dm set up against Arsenal the way he did what would you say and would it be the United way as everyone likes to talk about.

Even the great Klop at Dortmund is having a mare at the moment and dropping like a stone in the league standings. Granted they have injuries to key players but so do we.

My point is some of us see things for what they are and the personnel on the pitch makes a huge difference but you tend to want to see everything as something is wrong with our manager, in terms of preparation or tactics.

You will have plenty of opportunity to criticize him as we will have some poor results but give credit were due, we went away and won at a place where city and liverpool have lost, with a team that is missing quite a few players and rafael being forced out in the first 15 minutes.

Great last reply posted there GCU

The MU coach was stuck in traffic on the way to Hull. Apparently they had to phone through to match officials with the team line-up. It shouldn't have, but perhaps that had something to do with the slow start? Players are superstitious and they have their set routines before kick offs, they may have been rushing around and didn't prepare themselves as planned? That may have had something to do with Rafael's injury too, did they have time to warm up properly?

GCU

"do you really blame the manager for individual mistakes on the pitch?"
Blame is an strong word, responsible or accountable would be more appropriate however my point was this was a Boxing Day game where we needed to be ready at the start, professionals made sloppy individual mistakes because they weren't ready. Prep is the managers responsibility so we weren't ready but got away with it.

"Your admiration for Mourinho is not a secret"
Mourinho is a proven winner and his Madrid team played some amazing football, yet as I said previously I had come around to Klopp before we appointed Moyes.

"you tend to want to see everything as something is wrong with our manager, in terms of preparation or tactics."
I see the problem and objectively look for where things have gone right or wrong and highlight the issues.

"You will have plenty of opportunity to criticize him as we will have some poor results but give credit were due, we went away and won at a place where city and liverpool have lost"
I gave him credit last week and you commented on it, we had a little luck yesterday and to an extent got away with it. I will criticise him if he gets his tactics wrong or buys the wrong players, but I will be big enough to credit him if he does get it right. My point has always been that he is a massive risk.

I seriously do not understand how the manager is "accountable" for two clear individual errors, one of which was the ball bouncing off a defender's thigh and falling right into the path of an attacker. Its got nothing to do with preparation.

There are games every season where someone makes errors, sometimes unlucky, and then find our way out of that hole. Coming back is where the manager earns his money and Moyes did that. If we were badly prepared, we would never have come back. Considering the injuries in this key period, we are doing very well.

The "fantastic football" (which was a product of the players there rather than the tactics) at Real Madrid brought Jose a massive 2 trophies in 3 years, which came at a cost of ripping apart the dressing room, embarrassing incidents regarding Barcelona and getting humbled in the Champions League with access to the world's best players. Jose's time at Real was a failure. He had the chance of managing a club with rich history, where the club would always be bigger than him, and a chance to make a great case to be next manager of Manchester United, and he bottled it. Jose was the risk we didn't need to take, and we didn't.

A Chelsea team which played some great attractive football last year is now looking boring and predictable and has ridden its luck regards some decisions this season.

Meanwhile Klopp's Dortmund are struggling too, where he finds himself in a similar position to Moyes with an injury crisis on the back of a not so successful transfer window in the summer. Every club goes through this sort of period every once in a while. I find it amazing that there is very little credit given to Moyes for the handling of Rooney and the real chance given to Januzaj. He is also making the tough decisions of leaving Rio and Vidic out and trusting young center backs.

REDFAITH

"I seriously do not understand how the manager is "accountable" for two clear individual errors. Its got nothing to do with preparation".
Sorry but we will have to disagree, we were like a rabbit in the headlights and even Moyes said we were still on the Humber Bridge. The manager is accountable for all aspects of how the team perform. Yes we came back but the start was predictable and we got away with the poor start.

"There are games every season where someone makes errors, sometimes unlucky, and then find our way out of that hole"
How many goals conceded this season versus last? Or is it all just bad luck?

Re Jose "which came at a cost of ripping apart the dressing room"
Part of the Madrid problem has been the power clique of Spanish players in the dressing room lessening the managers control. SAF would not have stood for it and perpetrators would have been out the door yet Jose was not given the necessary control to deal with it.
"Jose was the risk we didn't need to take, and we didn't"
As you know I came around to Klopp but Jose would not have been a risk. I am yet to see details of what Moyes has done to show his suitability? Moyes is the risk we didn't need to take.

"Klopp's Dortmund are struggling too, where he finds himself in a similar position to Moyes "
Yes but we know that Klopp can make them successful again, he has a CV to prove it, Moyes doesn't.

" I find it amazing that there is very little credit given to Moyes for the handling of Rooney and the real chance given to Januzaj. He is also making the tough decisions of leaving Rio and Vidic out and trusting young centre backs."
I agree and was one who clearly wanted Rooney to stay and Moyes deserves credit for his position on Rooney, let's see whether Rooney returns the faith. The centre backs were the right call and I remember posting about Vidics loss of pace. However are the new training methods reducing the abilities of Rio and Vidic for selected games?
There are some points in Moyes favour but he is nowhere near to showing he is in the same bracket as top managers and he remains a major risk

26 Dec 2013 19:04:34
Not the prettiest of wins but three points is three points. Hull have had a very good record at home this season, I think I heard some where that until today they had only conceeded three goals at home all season, so to score three there today was a job well done.

We didn't play the best football, but injuries are robbing Moyes of any chance of picking the team and tactics he wants. With Jones out now as well.

Now we can move onwards towards the next game, another away game shows that the fixture list is being unkind to us this season. But if we can get maximum points over the next few games then we will be in a stronger position come the new year. Its points not performances we need now.

26 Dec 2013 15:31:53
I liked the fact that Moyes was very vocal today, only thing I feel bad in today's game was Rafael's injury. Don't know how bad it is, but the lad was playing very good and linking excellently with Tony V in recent games.

IMO it was harsh to send Tony V off today.

Also think that this is the point where everything will turn around for us, we came back like we used to do and we played well, like good old united.

26 Dec 2013 14:47:58
Just enjoy the ride boys :)

Totally agree mate, its these sort of games that have made us!

Stevie

Rooney out ;)

Deeps.

Not good for the heart steviek!! Good win in the end though.

NM, when has supporting Utd ever been good for the heart? :)
Deeps, we'll never agree on Wayne, but as long as he's playing well in a red shirt, then I'll keep stum.

Deeps
Where would we be without him?

Jred

22 games - 11 goals - 18/19 assists (including or excluding a few contentious ones)

United have scored 50 goals till date this season in all competitions. Wayne's has had a hand in 30 of those goals.

He has well and truly been the heart and soul of this team, something I have always said he is. Its scary to think, where we would have been if not for Wayne. Still can't believe people were ok selling him off to Chelsea. They would have been out of sight by now.

Deeps.

26 Dec 2013 14:47:58
"Just enjoy the ride boys :)"

Exactly!

26 Dec 2013 14:43:48
A very hard fought win today, against a team who had only scored 3 goals at home all season and after going 2 behind early on.

Rooney was again excellent although tired after 60 minutes, which isn't surprising.

One thing I did notice is that a few players played today like they knew they were leaving, namely:

Evra
Young
Hernandez

I'd personaly (IMO) add to that list, cleverly, nani, anderson and kagawa.

These are all likely to go over the next 2 windows.

Also, cleverly has been given such an opportunity lately to stake a claim, and yet he hasn't taken it!

I expect three signings this window with more in the summer.

But still a good win today, with carrick back and fletcher starting.

Only 5 points off the top now, what a difference a week makes! Come on United.

Have to disagree with you about Cleverley; I think he's been pretty excellent the past few games and has been noticeably stepping his game up.

Evra has been playing differently recently as well, almost like he's been asked to actually defend? Doesn't seem to be getting forward as much but maybe it's just me.

I would be pretty surprised if United went out and brought in 3 players in January but you never know. Maybe we'll be more active than usual in the window because it's a World Cup year.

Back to 8 points what a difference 2 hours makes

Cleverly is looking stronger every game. He'll definitely be staying, he is a very useful squad player.

We need better midfielders to go in ahead of him.

Looks to me like he is being to impose himself more on the game and have more influence in forward areas.

He just needs to watch dropping too deep to pick the ball up.

I suspect Nani will stay.

Kagawa could still stake a claim depending on whether both Rooney & Van Persie stay.

Young is just awful, he looks like the least intelligent footballer who ever played for Utd!

Ando needs to go. Shame, showed such early promise.

Jred

Never thought we would cut the gap today but a few good results went our way. Everton, Liverpool and spurs dropping points today. We get a chance to put more points up on the 28th with a win at Norwich, which is not guaranteed by any measure given the state of our injuries and get to sit back and watch the pack play on the 29th and we will see points dropped and things getting more interesting :)

Gcu
Not sure how we got away with 3 points today but good to get them, I think we will beat Norwich but then it's spurs ( I think) and that could go either way.
The top 4 who at the half way point are clearly the best 4 in the league have all been taking points of each other so it's been a good chance to catch up .
Liverpool impressed today, city for me are favourites for the title, Jose will keep chelsea there or there about ( watch out if they get a top striker in Jan ) and I can only see injuries stopping arsenal being top 4.
I think United need to buy in Jan.

I missed the game and hoping they will show it again. I also hope we buy in January but only the right players and if we can stay free of injuries to key players, I still believe we will end up top 4.

I think Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest have nothing on us when we line up our best 11(city the exception). Chelsea will struggle unless Mourinho does his usual and spends an exorbitant amount of money. I have watched them quite a few times and out of the top teams they are the least impressive to be honest. I would not be surprised to see them in a dog fight for a top 4 spot if they have a quite January window.

I am not in the sydney camp of Arsenal crumbling but the league will throw up a lot of weird results and many teams will come back to us especially if we keep winning. I think the spurs game is a must win followed by swansea at home game who have problems scoring at the moment and look tootles. In theory, we could be looking at 6 wins in the league on the trot, with RVP, Carrick having been out for almost all of it.

Would love to go into the Chelsea game with 6 wins and just hope we have our best 11 available against their best 11. I will bet on us winning if that was the case.

I guess before we start doing all the computations we need to win at Norwich :)

26 Dec 2013 12:39:10
Team v Hull confirmed 4-4-1-1
De Gea
Rafael
Smalling
Evans
Evra
Valencia
Cleverley
Fletcher
Young
Rooney
Welbeck

26 Dec 2013 09:41:51
Guys Merry Christmas to all of you. I have got a great news and I am going to share it with you all.

I am playing my first professional match today in a local city tournament. Its 7 side football and I am playing as the goal keeper. I am a center defender but team needs some one big today to sheid the small goal.

Wish me luck.

Goodluck mate, was only ever in nets twice.

My first time was amazing, pulled of some cracking saves, off my line when needed and because I played midfield I was able to spread the ball well from the back.

Second time you would have thought i'd never even seen a football before, haha. Was never asked again.haha

26 Dec 2013 15:26:56
Thanks Thomas, we lost today. It was 4-0, I shipped in 3 silly goals. But the team we played against was the best our city has. Need to win the next two games to proceed to next round.

PS - Got handshakes from the opposition players, they said that if not for me they would have scored 10 goals today. :) Feeling determined for the next game against relatively weak opponents.