Manchester United Rumours Archive September 26 2012

26 Sep 2012 19:17:31
does anyone know if ba or cisse are playing tonight? if they are with ben arfa our young defense will get torn apart.
nov00

Cisse on bench, no Ben Arfa or Ba.

Sydney!

Thought the team did well and was great to see fletcher back looking like he gonna be better than ever glad we didnt get a cm that can break things up nice to see a bit of loyalty in the game nothing less from the manager as he always stays loyal to his loyal players and in truth there aint much better than fletcher at what he does we will see our perfomances improve and we will see the real united now all you people yapping about we need this player that player not happy we only got kagawa and rvp as world class signings and need this cm so badly you will be eating humbble pie by end of season i been on this site and most of ya say we didnt get enough players of real quilty in well we have loads of quilty and the fletch is the key and yes people nani will start flying with fletcher back watch this space

Let's hope the only flying nani does is to a different country

Humble pie eh?, still, nice to see Mike Phelan taking the time to post on here!lol, as for Nani flying, my money's on the pig!

Charla

26 Sep 2012 19:07:35
De Gea; Vermijl, M Keane, Wootton, Buttner; Fletcher, Cleverley, Anderson; Rooney, Welbeck, Hernandez

subs: Johnstone, Evans, Powell, Tunnicliffe, King, Lingard, Brady

would of loved to see powell lingard and tunnicliffe and dont forget henriquez! :(

sulei

Where is Petrucci?

My sentiments exactly. Cracking player. Out of Powell & Lingard he played best in Pre-Season & hit the cross bar & also had a fierce shot saved left bottom corner. He signed for 3yrs but might regret doing so.

Please Fergie loan him the Cleverley way Div1 then Championship.

26 Sep 2012 15:23:38
The agent of Kevin Strootman has said that Kevin has decided to move on from PSV as he wants a bigger challenge and that a deal is more than likely to be completed in January. I feel that we have to make this move, he is something that we are missing and would be availabe for a reasonable price!

Fresh!

Very similar to Cleverley. Just because he is big doesn't mean he can tackle and we need either a playmaker or a holding midfielder that is good at tackling.

Dan

Anderson & Kiko out, Strootman & Fischer in would be a nice January.

Sydney!

Completly agree Syd! And Dan, Strootman has it all, he used to play as an AM however has learnt how to play deeper and be more combatative as well as being able to break forward.

Fresh!

Dan, Strootman is a very fiery tackler mate.

Sydney!

Not seen strootman play so cant say if he would be something we have not already got doing it in holland aint the same as doing it here but now fletcher is back why is everyone going on about a strong tackerling cm fletch is very good at breaking it up and helps set the tempo why is every body so desperate for us to spend spend spend youngsters like tunniclife are coming through and the only way they will develope is if there is enough squad places to go round i could be wrong and strootman could be the next roy kean but i doubt it

Fletcher being back is great, but we could use someone who's combative but with a bit more creativity. Gives us options, Fletch + strootman for more bite, fletch + Cleve for balance, Strootman + Clevs for more creativity and possession.

Thorne

I reckon Liverpool could be looking for someone like Stootman. Strong in midfield, likes a tackle and doesn't cost a fortune.

25 Sep 2012 23:59:54
After looking at videos of past squads on youtube for a few hours this evening I realised that the current squad is absolutely threadbare in quality with only Rooney, Van Persie, Vidic and Scholes the only players to be proven on the world scene. The general level of performance in the past 12 months have been nothing but bang average to hopelessly poor and even worse in 1 or 2 as well and unbelievably they seem to be getting worse by the week now which is worrying.

People have been arguing and some are only short of claiming that 3 points at Anfield is like winning a cup final when in fact it couldn't be further from the truth as the current Liverpool team are, like us, nowhere near as good as they were 5/6 years ago and we should be going to Anfield and embarassing them rather than allowing players like Jonjo Shelvey to boss us around and nullify our attacks and we would have been walloped if he wasn't sent off unfairly!

Why the hell didn't we sign the players we so obviously needed to upgrade the squad? What's the excuse for playing Evra when he has been habitually awful for the past 2 years? Why is it that in past times SAF would move on the deadwood as soon as they showed signs of a decline in performances yet now we play a 40 year old winger in CM against Liverpool at Anfield?? It can only mean one thing - The management team have gone stale and they are happy with mediocre performances as long as we are in a top 3 position in the league and that might be ok for a season but its becoming evident that fans are unhappy with the ongoing problems with tactics and performances and I hope SAF does something to turn things round as we all know he's going soon and I'm sure the last thing he would like is to be asked to leave rather than retire.

Flimbo

Agree with most of that Flimbo, probably add Rafael and Valencia to your list of quality and remove Rooney, (although he is known worldwide for past performances, so i can see why he is in your list).

I always used to chuckle to myself when pundits and commentators would say "It wasn't a good performance, but 3 points when you play badly is the sign of great teams", now they seem to say it most weeks for us irrespective of the opposition, which is a sign of a mediocre team. We are clinging on desperately to our reputation and where that used to beat teams before they started I bet managers would rarely use it as the main stick to drive their players to beat us now. There are so many weaknesses for even poor teams to exploit that it is almost unbelievable.

We have turned out to be a pretty dull team to watch and yet every week us fans expect something crazy to happen and for us to start playing like we did 3 years ago. We are exactly like England now.

Hopefully Kagawa will turn out to be quality, but he had a great pre-season and I haven't been too impressed in the competitive games thus far, gets bossed a bit, although shows signs he could be world class given time to adapt. I'm praying Jones, Smalling, Clevs, Rafael, Powell, Welbeck, Kagawa, etc, raise it over the next few years otherwise we will be just like the scousers if we arent careful.

Sween

Agree with Fimbo and I would aslo add we dont have the type of players of a few years ago like Irwin, O'Shea Phil Neville etc, these were the players who won us matches even when we were playing badly. We dont seem to have many utility players anymore either, I would not class O'Shea or Neville world class like Irwin but why we sold either I will never know and we have kept the likes of Bebe Macheda etc. Aslo we have no leaders on the pitch anymore except Vidic and I dont know what going on with our management team any more Fergie just sits down during games and says nothing while Phelan just stands in the technical area looking at the game and says nothing either. Really hoping we get in gear soon starting with tonight.

Damian M

I have to say having a player who can play in various positions is a massive bonus! This is why I question the reasons behind selling Park. He was able to play either wing, behind the striker, with no complaints at all whether he started or not. Not to mention he always worked his socks off!
I don't see the logic behind playing a 40 year old winger in the center of the field, who really was exposed against Barca and even Wigan last year. Giggs has been a fantastic servant, but I honestly think he should only be used to rest players while we have a secure lead.

melwing28

These comments are the stupidest i have ever seen!

Rio, Giggs, Evra, Kagawa, Nani, Carrick all not proven on a world class stage? they better hand all those medals back then!

United have won 4 of 5 of their league games, they won their opening Champions League game, all this despite being habitual slow starters and having a load of injuries . . get a grip kids

I said something similar yesterday and I was accused of being a LIverpool fan. I have supported United since 1966 so it upsets me to be called a Liverpool fan. I have been a season ticket holder since 1970.
I have every respect for SAF, but I think the team and management are stale and are not tuned to the new tactics that all the teams are playing at the moment.
We have seen average teams, Everton, Fulham, Galatasaray, Southampton and Liverpool all give our midfield a hard time and along, we keep playing with the same old tactics, sticking to all the tried and tested methods that were ok 15 years ago.
If we dont change, then we will be left behind. And i love United far too much to much to see this happen.
I actually think we have a very good squad that just needs one or two more good players, but it is the tactics that are letting us down.
NoMidfield

NoMidfield. I agree but everyone is too scared to question SAF.
If we had bid for Martinez that would have been perfect for us! He can play an CB and as a CM. Either way its the midfield we need to sort out and I think SAF must be blind because no one is that stubborn!

Dan

I agree mate

tactically we are probably on the same level as most pub teams, its a joke....some kind of internal change is needed greatly to move us to the next stage......carlossssss where have you gone my love?

Robbo

Carlos decided not to continue with the most famous club in the world to work with a Portugal side with 1 world class player and failed miserably, why would we just accept him back with open arms. We need a better assistant manager cause phelan is not good enough IMO but doesn't mean we just go for Carlos cause he was good when he was here. Guys a year and a half ago we where in a champions league final. Get a grip we will win the treble this season( just my opinion)

Aaronaldo7

I think mentioning carlos going off to manage portugal is a bit harsh. I could understand if he was english but who wouldn't want to manage the team of your own country. I agree a new assistant manager would not be a bad thing as I am not sure what phelan brings to the role. Bookedredmole

I think it is hard to criticise Phelan when we don't really know his remit, we just see the games and don't know what is said behind closed doors.

For all we know Fergie could have said he doesn't need an assistant and just wants Phelan to help a bit with media etc and a little on the coaching - jobs for the boys and of course in return he is the scape goat when things go bad.

To the guy above calling us kids:

Giggs was world class about 10 years ago, since then good squad player.

Rio is still good but hardly world class anymore and always seems to be injured or carrying a knock.

Same with Evra although as he plays against pacey wingers his failings are clearer to see than Rio's.

Kagawa has done nothing yet I would consider world class for us or Dortmund, he has only been around a couple of years so too early to judge - Hernandez style, he was the next big thing this time lasy year and now he will be lucky to play for us next season.

Nani - You must be having a laugh, rather play my Nani than him

Carrick - Never been world class always a good pro who puts in 7/10 performances most weeks. Most people (not me), see him as our major problem with the midfield and over the past few years he has been very up and down with his performances.

We may have won our games, but the football has been awful and we have been playing teams we should be smashing.

It's no excuse to say we are slow starters, we have the same pre-season as everyone else, this just further emphasises our need to change things - if a negative is a habit then why arent we doing anything to chage it? Bad preparation and management is the reason, I don;t see it in the rules that Utd must start off poor - besides we didnt last season, the opposite in fact!

Sween