Manchester United Banter Archive April 07 2013

07 Apr 2013 23:09:32
i have seen a couple of posts about these acoustic engineers who are going to have a butchers at OT and see what they can do, could someone explain a little bit about what this will involve and how they can make the atmosphere louder? I think the roof should be raised for a better atmosphere in the ground as the sloped roof limits view and sound travel, does anybody think this could ever happen?

How about some of the prawn sandwich brigade just start making more noise! I know as I sit in saf stand and they never shout or sing there, so unless you can get these lazy, spoilt people to actually support the team during the match, then no amount of acoustics is going to make the atmosphere better.
Nomidfield

I have been to Celtic Park a few times and the atmosphere is amazing - that should be the yardstick. Granted the fact it has 60000+ Scottish nutters who are fanatical helps but at OT there are times when you almost expect to be shhh'd cinema style if you shout something.

08 Apr 2013 13:36:37
im the op, I completely agree no midfield, I am a stretfordender myself and often get hammered before a game so that I am in the mood to try get people going, it annoys me when I look acoss saf stand and everyone is sat looking at you like a madman if you stand up. was just wondering what these acoustic engineers would actually do? microphones or something or look at enhancing parts of the ground?

07 Apr 2013 19:11:29
Transfer
IN
Gotze, strootman, Rodriquez, hummles
Out
Nani, fletcher, young, scholes (retd)
Ed your view {Ed004's Note - Would be a good summer though don't think Hummels would be needed maybe a left back instead}

Maybe in Fifa!

Here we go again, "maybe in FIFA" you're told. Well why? We are man united we SHOULD be buying all the top talent. Or shall we just buy second rate like young, Bebe, Valencia, nani, anderson, obertan, need I go on, and continue playing useless players like cleverley.
We must buy or try to buy the top players or else kiss goodbye to the league and definitely the CL as we are light years behind barca and Bayern.

I would not be surprised to see a Goetze, Lewandowski, Strootman activity. The last 2 have been reported over and over in the media and Again I think we will be spending on a big name in the summer, who is a attacking midfielder and Goetze and Ozil fit the bill given the fact that we tried for Hazzard and Moura last year.

Needless to say I would be very happy with that list if it happens.

Shahram

07 Apr 2013 17:27:06
Wondering what people make of the Jordie Clasie rumours? Something just rings true about it to me, a cheap young project for central midfield - someone to work on and mould. He already has the attributes to be the deep lying playmaker of the side in a few years time. Just seems far more likely than a move for Thiago or Eriksen. He & Strootman would go someway to solving the midfield problems. Getting both for around £20 million would mean that we could commit money elsewhere. perhaps a really big signing like Gotze/Rodriguez/RONALDO.

I think ou would be looking at 26/28m for them both 16m strootman and 10m clasie

07 Apr 2013 15:54:41
Imagine a midfield pairing of Strootman and Verratti with experience of Carrick with back up of Jones and Cleverly!


Nameless Red

Verratii is fantastic. What would be better than that would have been Verratii and Pogba.

Please get over pogba and realise he was never staying

Please don't tell me to get over it, I'm well over it, he's left, boohoo. The fact of the matter is, that would of been a fantastic pairing. No different to saying Modric & Vidal are a dream pairing.

Sure he was if we had paid up to keep him and played him. Now we will pay and pay some more to solve the void with no guarantees.

I understand it went against the clubs system, but sometimes you have to break the rules.

Shahram

07 Apr 2013 20:20:53
But it wouldn't have ment breaking the system once, what do you think he would have done next time his contract needed renewing? He has a mentality where he wants as much money as possible and he has an agent who'll get it for him. He is a 19yo french lad at his third club in his third country since 15. Has has no appreciation except for money. Juventus will have the same problem when his current deal is up. Best rid of him and rid of the problems he would bring.

People only get hung up on Pogba because he plays in a position we need new players for. If we had a really strong midfield then no one would care. If Pogba was a CB and not a CM no one would give him a second breath.

Shappy

That is a risk you run with every player. He was 17 when we got him and no one complained then. What do you think Rooney did and what do you think he will be doing come next time around.

Shahram

07 Apr 2013 21:56:16
I know and its precisely what happen with Rooney is the reason we shouldn't let it happen again. Personally unless Rooney will sign a contract for the same or less wages then he is currently on then i'd sell him so fast his feet wouldn't touch the ground. I disagreed with us giving into him at the time, but accepted it was for the greater good, now though I am questioning whether it was. {Ed004's Note - I'm happy for Kagawa and RVP to replace him but if Rooney is sold along with Nani I would expect money to be spent on atleast two wide players and possibly another striker although I think RVP and Hernandez covered by Welbeck is enough}

07 Apr 2013 22:57:24
I think Welbeck will replace Nani along with Zaha in the squad. If Rooney was sold then maybe Lewandowski could come in and we could see RvP Lewandowski and Welbeck as our front three, with Young Hernandez and Zaha as cover. Then Kagawa could play in the hole with Strootman and Carrick behind him. We would still have Giggs Valencia and Powell as squad options.

Personally i'd like to see another wide player but I think we may have to wait another year for that.

Shappy

I think you would have had a lot of people moaning if we would not have given in to Wayne's demands. And there are people who have problems when we actually did. Its like anyway it would have panned out, dissatisfaction was guaranteed. It is FACT that for a top player you pay top wages. With Keane, Ferdy etc we have seen it is more or less bound to happen. There are people who question the Glazers ambition, yet call out Rooney for being a tw*t. Lol this discussion can span years after Rooney has retired.

Can't wait for the derby. Come on you reds!

07 Apr 2013 13:36:44
Lol Sydney and Shappy, you do make me chuckle. I'm wondering how old you both are as you talk about 1999 like it was a lifetime ago. I know the game has changed but all year everyone on this site has been calling for a Roy Keane type player, and now you tell me if Keane was playing today he'd get sent off all the time. Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, and Keane in their prime would walk into any Premier League team today and be successful. In '99 we were the best team in Europe even if we did make hard work of the final.

I'm happy to concede the squad debate - not sure I agree but I do accept the view. However, in terms of the 1st 11, our current team is well short of previous ones. My personal favourite team was '94 with Cantona and Hughes up front and Ince and Keane in Midfield. They could play they could scrap and the team had so much. Pace and power. We never saw the best of them in Europe because of the quota rule that was in place then. I know we can never truly measure them against each other but I guess my main point is that despite being 15 points clear, I think we are still a fair way from being the finished article. SAF is talking of the development of the younger players, but we need serious investment in proven midfielders.

I've been saying this for two years, we need proven midfielders. But not sure if Ferguson is interested in midfielders, as I think he still favors his wingers.
Problem is our wingers are absolute rubbish. Young nani and Valencia are not up to it. And we have to be honest and realize that. If we want too be the equal of barca, real and Bayern, then some serious investment is needed. This is not fantasy football, it is a fact!
Nomidfield

On paper the players of 99 are much better, no doubt about that, but I think this team would be able to grind out a result against them three times out of five. That is my opinion AJH.

Sydney!

Which of the current team would get in to the starting 11 of the 99 team

Only rvp and vidic and even then might be stubs.

07 Apr 2013 16:31:07
For all the talk of how todays defence would cope with Cole and Yorke or van Persie versus Stam or which is the better keeper in that game it would all come down to one thing. The one thing that decides most games and that's the midfield battle. So Carrick and Cleverley against Keane and Scholes in their prime. There's only one winner. MrE

07 Apr 2013 18:10:35
14 years is the average players career, so it is a significant period of time in football. Just think if in 99 someone said that City and Chelsea would win the league and Leeds would have spent time in league one they'd have been laughed at. So a lot changes in football in not a great deal of time. So 14 years in football terms is a lot of time.

When I say we need a Keane type player I mean someone who can play that type of role not play in the manner that Keane did. That just wouldn't be acceptable in modern football, it was barely acceptable then.

I wouldn't like to call who would win between the 99 team and todays. But two points I think people are missing is who would be the manager of the two teams as Sir Alex could only manage one team. And also the 99 team were at the peak of their prime years. that's why no ones says the 98 or the 00 team which essencially were the same team just not at thier peak. Where as our current team are still in transisition and are probably 2/4 years away from their peak.

The thing that made the 99 team so great was not that none of them could be physically intimidated but they were at the forfront of the evolution of football, they were all strong physical players but they were the best technically at the time. Players like Ince and Hughes had been replaced with players like Scholes and Yorke, much better players technically. That is why they were able to dominate at the time, they had a technical level that no one else could deal with.

But like i've said football has moved on. Teams like Villa Wigan Swansea and Southampton are all playing an expansive technical style of football and they are teams near the bottom of the league. Any team playing that style of football in 99 would have been up challenging for the title. That is how football has moved on and why I say that the advantage the team of 99 had over everyone else at the time that being their technical superiority would be negated in modern football as even teams at the wrong end of the table have that same if not higher level of technicality.

Do you get what i'm trying to say. The team of 99 was the greatest team of that era, but as football moves on the way they played becomes less relivant and more out dated. This is what people call progress. Maybe the best thing to do is to stop comparing teams from the past on a technical and tactical level and look at what they achieved in their era instead.

Which ever way you look at it the treble winning team of 99 was better, won more had better players,
Players like Becks scholes giggs Stam schmics, kean etc would all still be world-class players in the modern game.
They played a formation and tactics that was suitable at the time and when you look at the players and manager I'm sure they could of adapted to the modern game.

Shappy is right it's prob best to compare teams from different era's by what they achieved and the 99 achieved more than the 2013 that said I would honestly take the 99 team to beat the 13 team every time

07 Apr 2013 12:13:24
I used to find Mancini's ramblings funny, but now i'm starting to wonder if he needs a break. Some of his comments are just crazy. Things like we only have to sign one big player a year now as opposed to the 100m we used to spend on players every year. We've never spent 100m on players in one year. He moans that City wanna spend less cash but team charge them more, well if you spend five years throwing money around like its going out of fashion then you can't complain when teams try and charge you more. He seems to be trying to relieve the pressure of expectancy on his team after they spent hundreds of millions of pounds by saying we have in the past and its unfair to expect a team that has spent over 300m on players over the last 3/4 years to be putting up a realistic title challenge. What planet is he one? The reason his team stuggles is because his team isn't so much a team but a collection of talented players precisely because he doesn't let them settle as a group but keeps selling 8/9 players and bring in another 6/7 players every year. The reason they get ripped off by clubs and players is because they have spent money in such a carefree way. They need to have a budget for a player and walk away from them if the cost exceeds that budget not just pay what ever a club wants for the player. They are the makers of their own downfall and as such Mancini needs to except the responsability for their failings. He was given a job where he had what most manager dream of, the money to build the team as you see fit. And he's blown it.

Great post Shappy, completely agree. I used to like Mancini but it looks like the pressure is starting to scramble his brain.

I never liked the person, because like the club he manages, he is a bitter person.
He's got a collection of players that should easily win the league, but have completely under performed. So now he's saying that the table lies and they should be closer to us. Whose fault is that mancini?
Nomidfield

Can you imagine what Wenger or SAF could do with a third of what Mancini has spent?

Sydney!

I think he will get his break come summer when he's out on his arse exactly what he deserves