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The old Man Utd Thread

ThePixelbarks

By ThePixelbarks
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The Fox

The Fox

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Posted
I really can’t agree with that. Despite a defence ravaged by injury and a midfield that has struggled in that area as well we still have the best defensive record in the league. You simply can’t do that with an ‘average’ squad.

I think "average" is sort of used as a relative term in this context. By Man United's standards, the current squad is average. Obviously taken against the whole of the league, it's not even close.

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Liamness

Liamness

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I'd say the quality of the defence is incredible. We've got an amazing record, especially considering injuries. We're maybe missing one player in midfield, with Giggs and Scholes nearing the end of their careers. On the wings, we still have an embarrassment of riches, when you look at the likes of Obertan and Cleverley coming through. It's just striking where we look really quite weak. It's a terrific squad, no doubt about it! It's just there's very little cover for Rooney, who is pivotal regardless of the system we play it seems.

For the last few years, we had the best squad that we've ever had at this club. A few key players leave from a key area, and suddenly the problem looks more dramatic than it is. It's still one of the richest squads around.

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oli

oli

Posted
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I'd say the quality of the defence is incredible. We've got an amazing record, especially considering injuries. We're maybe missing one player in midfield, with Giggs and Scholes nearing the end of their careers. On the wings, we still have an embarrassment of riches, when you look at the likes of Obertan and Cleverley coming through. It's just striking where we look really quite weak. It's a terrific squad, no doubt about it! It's just there's very little cover for Rooney, who is pivotal regardless of the system we play it seems.

Hopefully we might see Wellbeck and Macheda (particularly Wellbeck given how highly Fergie seemingly rates him) will start to really mature over the next season or so and really be fighting for places in the first team, similarly I am hoping that Hernandez and Diouf are going to have prominent roles to play next season as they both sound promising

I really think we would be boosted massively by someone who can really take control and drive our attack in central midfield

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fatbob

fatbob

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Well, it's slightly worse than last year but infinitely better than it was 5/6 years ago. I think a lot of people have rose-tinted specs when it comes to comparing the current squad to previous ones.

Nani and other players may have come on, Valencia may be a good player, but the fact of the matter it, Giggs and Scholes are proving to be be less and less effective and used less often, Neville is completely gone and Ronaldo and Tevez are not here at all. We don't have reliable replacements to any of these players at the level they need to be at.

We no-longer seem to be able to able to pull off results against the odds, fight till the end, we look tired and out of ideas without Rooney in the team, and that a damming statement about a Manchester United side.

I think we are more than 'slightly worse' that we were last season. We are looking like a 3rd place finish in a league where the previous top four were depleted or not-strengthened (ok 5th, 6th, & 7th are doing better but there are also some truly woeful teams in the league this year too), we go out in the Quarter finals in a couple of games that half of it we looked completely tired and outclassed, but still had the opportunity to kill it off - we didn't so went out prematurely. We even went out in the FA cup to Leeds at home.

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ckny

ckny

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Are we really going with Chicarito as the guys name? It means little pea, I think I read. :) Please can we use Hernandez.

The squad essentially is fine, it's just too cluttered with these foreign boys we bring over for no reason. Tosic, Obertan, Macheda, etc. They're never going to be first teamers, all it does is cloud the regular fans mind. They see a foreign signing and don't equate it with an English youth player.

Is it Liamness who keeps banging on about Tom Cleverley? He'll be sold for ~£1m this summer. Mark my words.

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oli

oli

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I hope Cleverly does get a chance in the first team, we saw him play at the pre-season friendly with Valencia last year and he looked really handy. I thought he was pretty highly regarded around Old Trafford?

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Liamness

Liamness

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Is it Liamness who keeps banging on about Tom Cleverley? He'll be sold for ~£1m this summer. Mark my words.

He'll be given a season to prove himself/prance about in the shop window that is first-team Manchester United football, then probably be sold. Unless he's some kind of revelation. I haven't been banging on about him, if he does return next he'll be our sixth choice winger at best. I was just emphasising how many options we have, even if they aren't all top class.

I'd love it if we could set up a second team, like they do in Spain. We have a lot of decent-looking players going on loan, being successful, and deciding they'd rather stay. We have others rotting in the reserves. What if we could have had the likes of Simpson, Evans, Cathcart, Foster, Welbeck, Eagles and some of the foreign kids playing competitve football together from a young age, without having to leave the club proper? If the rules were the same, we'd even be able to call them up to cover the main squad.

TBH the FA should just copy everything the Spanish do in terms of youth development. Give the clubs as much freedom and support as they can, to develop and blood players from their academies.

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oli

oli

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I never seen Cleverly as a winger. I thought he was more in the Joe Cole role, attacking midfielder with the ability to play on the wings if required.

That was my understanding as well, I thought he was predominantly through the middle of the park

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Liamness

Liamness

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Hmm. I admit I haven't seen much of him. Maybe he's just one of those players that can really play anywhere, like a Milner type. When I've seen him, his close control and pace have just let me to assume he was mainly a winger. If he can play in the centre, and has the brain and range of passing to succeed there, then great.

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fatbob

fatbob

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He can play in a lot of places but mostly as an attacking midfielder, the game a lot of people remember him from playing for United was the game against Valencia last year where he played on the left wing.

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Guest

Guest

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Posted
Who gives a shit? Its his name, he can call himself what he likes.

I can think of a few names that would be better suited for the back of Neville's shirt!

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bowser123

bowser123

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Posted
Yeah, Rooney's brilliance has completly masked a pretty average squad, a mixture of Old players past their peak, young players who could be good, dissapointing players not living up to their potential and Big John O'Shea.

I never know with you and O'Shea as to whether you're taking the piss out of him and think he's garbage or just playing on the stereotype. I think he's a top lad; solid, dependable, doesn't moan and will play anywhere. He's part of a core of players you've missed off in the appraisal of the squad, those that appear little more than workman like but is actually pretty fucking brilliant. In that gang are Valencia who I adore, Fletcher and at times Park.

Re: Berbatov I get the feeling that people made their minds up years ago and irrespective of how he plays the same old tired line is trotted out anytime the result isn't a win. The notion that he's lazy is the biggest one of all that's just an outright lazy complaint. The guy wants the ball and doesn't hide. So he dropped deep yesterday, true. He was also the only one that looked like he had anything about him in terms of any attacking flair and created pretty much every decent chance we had. Why aren't Scholes or Giigs being slated for not pushing on and getting forward to get on the end of Berbatovs passes. They sure as hell weren't creating anything. To me Berbatov plays more like an attacking midfielder, any good work he does in creating chances like that peach he made for Valencia is instantly forgotten, or outright ignored, in favour of slating him. Half the reason he gets it in the neck is the price tag, but that has nothing to do with him and everything to do with the cackhanded way Utd sort out transfers.

The reason it looked so bad was due to the fact we had no strikers out there. It was always a gamble (well, it wasn't a gamble at all, you can't buy players with monopoly money) to start the season with three strikers, of which one is a has been crockpot. So maybe therein lies the Berba criticism, but he was never bought as some kind of Ruud replacement and because he's not anything else done by him is just ignored.

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fatbob

fatbob

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I never know with you and O'Shea as to whether you're taking the piss out of him and think he's garbage or just playing on the stereotype. I think he's a top lad; solid, dependable, doesn't moan and will play anywhere. He's part of a core of players you've missed off in the appraisal of the squad, those that appear little more than workman like but is actually pretty fucking brilliant. In that gang are Valencia who I adore, Fletcher and at times Park.

Na, I think hes great, the 'Big John' thing is an affectionate in joke with me and BigShimmeryWall. I bought him a shirt with him on the back for his birthday last year. Him, Park and Anderson rank up their as our top cult figures at the moment.

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BigShimmeryWall

BigShimmeryWall

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Na, I think hes great, the 'Big John' thing is an affectionate in joke with me and BigShimmeryWall. I bought him a shirt with him on the back for his birthday last year.

And yet I haven't seen John O'Shea wear his BigShimmeryWall shirt for ages.

If everyone's fit, I'd rank our right-backs like this;

Hargreaves > O'Shea > Brown > Rafael >>>>>>>>>>>> Neville

He's actually very good.

You can also put Fabio in there with Rafael since they can both play RB

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bowser123

bowser123

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Fair enough Fatbob. It was more the leaving him to his own special category rather than the Big name, I took it as an inference that he somehow wasn't good enough to even rank as a worthy Utd player or something.

-Liam

Hargreaves? Seriously? He's played, what, three games there or something. Then again when you play 10 games in 3 years I guess that's probably quite a reasonable percentage for assessment.

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tonymg

tonymg

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Posted
Hargreaves? Seriously? He's played, what, three games there or something. Then again when you play 10 games in 3 years I guess that's probably quite a reasonable percentage for assessment.

He's played there for Bayern and England, he's also got a great cross. The points moot though, its not as if he will ever play more than a handful of games for us anyway. Which is a shame as a midfield 3 of Fletch,Hargreaves,Creative/goalscoring midfielder would be perfect.

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