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The old Man Utd Thread

ThePixelbarks

By ThePixelbarks
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Mr Do 71

Mr Do 71

Posted
Posted

Thanks should also goto our goalkeeping coach, Eric Steele.

The sight of Ben Foster staring at an iPod shortly before yesterday’s penalty shoot-out might have sent Manchester United supporters into all kinds of anxieties. Was this really the time to be listening to Coldplay? Or watching a video of Shakira?

In fact, Foster was watching footage of Tottenham Hotspur’s penalty-takers, which had been prepared by Eric Steele, United’s goalkeeping coach — a level of research and preparation that deserved to be rewarded with the Carling Cup, particularly with Spurs understood not to have practised spot-kicks.

It is Steele who will have spotted that, last November playing for England Under-21s against the Czech Republic at Bramall Lane, O’Hara demonstrated his preferred penalty technique by hitting his shot just to the goalkeeper’s left — close enough that it was saved.

“I had been told that if O’Hara took a kick from the spot then I should stand up and be strong and that he would probably put the ball to my left,” Foster said. The evidence had been presented on video only seconds earlier and, sure enough, O’Hara put the ball exactly where Foster had been shown that he would. Give a medal to that man Steele.

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LaParka

LaParka

Posted
Posted

Isn't it standard to do that? I'd be amazed if other clubs don't do it aswell. I guess i'm kind of swayed by seeing the levels of preperation that go into NFL games and seeing them studying playbooks for the whole of the off-season and then during games.

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milko

milko

Posted
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it is standard at pretty much all pro clubs I'm sure. The only thing that's got the media all excited was him doing some revision on the iPod just before the actual penalties, I think.

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Rev

Rev

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Bit stupid to give away the secret though.

Or clever.

If a team knows you know how you're going to take your penalties it'll force the players to change - something that is unlikely to go well in a high pressure penalty shoot-out.

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milko

milko

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If a team doesn't know that the opposition should have studied all their penalty takers that they could, they're idiots. I noticed Ronaldo went for a much safer option this time rather than his usual pinpoint top-corner job which he'd missed a couple of times lately.

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Trigg

Trigg

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Posted
Rooney Declared Fit

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed Wayne Rooney has shaken off a virus to be available for Manchester United's trip to Newcastle United.

Rooney missed Sunday's Carling Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur due to illness, but has trained on Monday and Tuesday.

He will be in the squad for Wednesday's game at St James' Park and the striker could renew his partnership with Dimitar Berbatov up front.

Ferguson said on Sky Sports News: "He's fine. He trained yesterday, he trained today and he will be available for tomorrow."

John O'Shea is United's only injury worry for the game after the versatile Irishman was substituted in the Carling Cup final due to an ongoing heel problem.

Tough game

"We took him off on Sunday as he's still got a problem with his heel," said Ferguson.

"It settled down after a day or so, and we will put some new insoles in his boot to see if that helps.

"He should be okay and, other than that, everyone is fine for tomorrow and we look forward to a very tough game."

Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Park Ji-sung are all expected to return to the United team, with Ferguson admitting the Wembley pitch had an impact on the players who faced Spurs.

He added: "It was a heavy pitch, surprisingly heavy. You associate Wembley with a fantastic playing surface, but as you all saw, it was heavy and it was greasy with players slipping a lot.

"It took its toll on the players, we had tired players by the end of the match, but we have some freshness tomorrow.

"We've got Dimitar, we've got Michael Carrick and Anderson, who didn't play a full game. We've got Darren Fletcher, Ji-sung Park and Wayne Rooney, so we're not so bad."

Glad to see him back, always love watching Rooney play. Not to mention, we tend to play better when he's in the team. Could see a totally different midfield to the one that started on Sunday further showing our strength amongst the ranks. Hopefully Anderson will play, thought he contributed alot to the game when he came on, did a couple of his bursting runs which we haven't seen him do for a little while.

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fatbob

fatbob

Posted
Posted

I don't think we were shit, their goal was a gimme and we dominated possesion for the most part, I think Newcastle would have been very lucky to draw.

Park was great tonight again, and Rooney's goal was a cracker!

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redbloodcell

redbloodcell

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Posted
I didn't think we were that bad. We pretty much controlled the game in the second half. Berbatov's goal was lucky but then so was Newcastle's. On the whole we deserved to win.

Theirs was hardly lucky, terrible mistake by VDS. If Gomes had done that the press would have had a field day.

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Liamness

Liamness

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Posted

On Tevez;

I don't think we will sign him, for the amount of money they're asking (whoever they were again) because of his poor performances lately. However, I believe his uncertain future and poor form must be linked. So with that in mind, I think the ideal scenario is; we negotiate down the price, and with his future sorted out and nothing to think about except the next game, he starts playing his socks off again. I think that's rather optimistic, though.

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Majora

Majora

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Theirs was hardly lucky, terrible mistake by VDS. If Gomes had done that the press would have had a field day.

Semantics. They took advantage of an error, we took advantage of an error. There's elements of luck in a defence or keeper practically gifting you a goal.

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fatbob

fatbob

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Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were involved in a furious half-time tunnel bust-up with Newcastle defender Steven Taylor during Manchester United's 2-1 win at St James' Park. One United player said Taylor was a "useless defender", to which he replied "at least I am not ugly". (Various)

Touche!

How did he get away with the punch btw? It was right in front of the ref and linesman, apparently the yellow he get was for an earlier un-related foul. Should have been red realy.

Maybe Ronny will take this sort of thing (no penalty/yellow card from weekend too) as a sign to start thinking about changing his reputation and stop diving and sitting on the gorund for 10 seconds after ever foul...so these sorts of things don't happen.

I can see the referees pont of view on this, as he is looking for fouls a lot, but some of time they are ignoring obvious fouls also, shouldn't refs take every incident on a case by case basis?

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DC Lemon

DC Lemon

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When your common or garden footballer goes down unnecessarily clutching his face, it's an unpleasant act of sportsmanship. In the case of Crissy last night, he was most likely genuinely horrified that Taylor might have left a hair out of place.

Imagine, defeats to Fulham and Inter and the season is effectively over this time next week. Still, it will make for a nice end of season party against Liverpool.

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