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The Soccer thread

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Yeah, Chelsea were fairly lucky to not get beaten. That was a good game and on the base of play I think West Ham probably deserved the win. But even if the penalty was a joke, Chelsea are showing that they're always difficult to beat and grinding out results when they're not playing all that well. I'm just glad they dropped points as well, the Hull game for United is a must-win now, hopefully we'll have a defence for then.

Taylor, I wouldn't say Neville is terrible. I'd go as far to wager that Neville is the best crosser of the ball we have from open play now. When he does get the chance to overlap he's more dangerous than anyone else in my opinion. However, I do agree that Brown and O'Shea, when fully fit and in form, are better choices at right back than Gary Neville now - and he's less consistent, the injuries have ruined him sadly. But if we get say, Neville, Brown, and Vidic back for Hull, it's clear that we'll play those three with Evra at the back, in that order.

Kuszczak
Neville Brown Vidic Evra
Valencia Fletcher Carrick Giggs
Berbatov Rooney
--
Foster; Fábio, de Laet; Gibson, Anderson, Obertan; Owen​

If possible, please. If we don't have Neville or Brown, Fábio or de Laet to start at right back and Park on the bench. If we don't have both Neville and Brown, de Laet at centreback and Fábio at right back - with Park on the bench, joined by Welbeck or Scholes.

Also, Rafa will not be sacked any time soon. Maybe if by some chance Liverpool slip 11th or lower after 25 games or so, but I highly doubt that'll happen and I'd still doubt the dismissal of Rafa if it did due to how much it'd cost Liverpool. Reportedly, if Rafa were to be fired, he'd have to be paid roughly £25million due to the five-year contract he'd just signed. Liverpool can't afford that and in the past Rafa has been a somewhat stable manager providing Champions League football each year so far. Obviously, they'll never win the Premier League with him, but that's another story. He'll be given more time and do better next season.
 
KNVB-Beker games. Please tell me what you foresee.

Heracles Almelo-Go Ahead Eagles 3-0
Baronie-Sparta Rotterdam 0-2
Feyenoord-AZ 2-2 (penalties, AZ wins)
WHC-Ajax 1-4
FC Groningen-NEC 3-2
FC Twente-Helmond Sport 4-0
Jong Graafschap-NAC Breda 3-3 (penalties, NAC Breda wins)
SC Heerenveen-PSV 0-2
 
Havak said:
Kuszczak
Neville Brown Vidic Evra
Valencia Fletcher Carrick Giggs
Berbatov Rooney
--
Foster; Fábio, de Laet; Gibson, Anderson, Obertan; Owen​
Click to expand...
​
Just clarify me, van der Sar and Ferdinand injured?
Also, I think you're underrating Nani. By A LOT.
 
Yes, van der Sar and Ferdinand are injured.
Good game, West Ham. Happy that you didn't let Chelsea take a six point lead.
Arsenal are getting really close to us, we have a two point lead over them and they have a game in hand.
Barca win the Club World Cup, why do most of the time European teams win it?
 
Broth3r said:
[/CENTER]
Just clarify me, van der Sar and Ferdinand injured?
Also, I think you're underrating Nani. By A LOT.
Click to expand...

Nani, since his first season at Old Trafford, has not progressed into the player we all expected. His first season showed signs of promise, however he has been unable to deliver and reach the potential he was labeled with. He doesn't suit the Premier League, and should consider a move to La Liga, where his physique and style would be more appreciated.

Taylor, I wouldn't say Neville is terrible. I'd go as far to wager that Neville is the best crosser of the ball we have from open play now. When he does get the chance to overlap he's more dangerous than anyone else in my opinion. However, I do agree that Brown and O'Shea, when fully fit and in form, are better choices at right back than Gary Neville now - and he's less consistent, the injuries have ruined him sadly. But if we get say, Neville, Brown, and Vidic back for Hull, it's clear that we'll play those three with Evra at the back, in that order.
Click to expand...

These days, I find that if you can deliver the ball into a dangerous area, then you possess the ability to cross balls into the box with a substanstial threat. I don't feel Neville's crossing abilities (a trait of his that I personally do not merit) warrant him a place in the United squad. His pace, and occasionally his decision-making, make him a liability. We have better options, and for a club of our stature, Neville should be excluded from the team.

Harsh words, I know. He is a United legend, but he isn't fit for us anymore.
 
So Chelsea is lucky not to lose but Man U always pull it off on skill right phalanx, Havak? :P

Chelsea's dip in form is not ecouraging, but luckily Man U is dropping more points than Chelsea. I hope we pick it up with a freshened up team after the holidays.
 
yea because chelsea beat man u on not 1 bad desicion but 3.. (the free kick, fouled by a foul AND and offside for the goal..) and this dodgey penalty yesterday (against a team united battered 4-0 with more or less the current team :p) if desisions were correct chelsea would have 3 points less and united 1 point more.. which means? so yea.
chelseas dip is great though, especially when they lose those players to the african cup of nations :D and united get some defenders back
 
Remember that Chelsea visit Old Trafford in the second half of the season. We can close the gap by 3 points there, should we win -- and we should.
 
Guys, Nani is also injured at the moment as well, I'm not overlooking him.

Actually, if you look at the last six games:

Chelsea: WWLDWD - 11 Points
Man Utd: WWWLWL - 12 Points
Arsenal: LLWWDW - 10 Points
Liverpool: DWDLWL - 8 Points

On 'current' form, Man Utd is the best team from the 'big four' at the moment, despite injuries to key players such as - van der Sar, Neville, Brown, Vidic, Ferdinand, O'Shea, Evans, and Rafael. Add to that list Nani, Macheda, and Hargreaves, you'd have to say Man Utd are doing very well to 'keep up', or 'do better' than the teams you'd have classed as their main titles rivals early on. Not too long ago, Chelsea were 5 Points ahead of us. We've slipped up twice mainly thanks to injuries recently, but we're still 1 Point better off than we were when Chelsea managed to beat us not-too-long ago, being 4 points being and facing a poor Hull City side next, I'll take that.

I'm not boasting about Man Utd's 'amazing form' or anything of the like, but I think with all those injuries we're actually doing all right. Things can only improve.

Birmingham City and Aston Villa are actually the form teams at the moment - both unbeaten in their last six, taking 16 and 14 Points from their last six games respectively. Man Utd is third on the form table.

Also, I'd like to point out that Man Utd have only really dropped points in what were tough enough fixtures to begin with.

Beaten at Anfield - Liverpool raised their game significantly and we were poor.
Beaten at Stamford Bridge - Chelsea got lucky to be honest.
Beaten at Turf Moor - Burnley are surprisingly tough to beat there.
Beaten at Craven Cottage - Fulham are great there and were on good form.
Beaten at Old Trafford - Aston Villa were in great form and deserved it really.
Held at Old Trafford - This one maybe should have been a win, but Sunderland were in good form and really played well, deserved at least a draw too.

So.. I wouldn't say Man Utd is dropping points in fixtures you'd expect them to always win. Everyone else is.
 
yea, i agree, we lost 2 games but chelsea havn't acctually capitalized, and remember this team of ours, stuffed west ham 4-0, chelsea were gifted a 1-1, chelsea will be weaker come african cup of nations, we will get stronger.
 
Bearing in mind that Manchester United is only traling 4 points, I think we'll have a got chance to get the #1 spot during the Africa Cup. More and more players will be able to play again(Van der Sar, Vidic) while Chelsea lose some keyplayers
 
WHC-Ajax 1-14. Nice. 6 goals from Suárez (and an unfair yellow card, he already got another one in another match for the same unfair reason). Ajax has to defeat NEC without him in Amsterdam. But still nice.

Ajax can't win the Eredivisie, but they might win the Europa League and the KNVB-beker.
 
Cup match. Ajax is an European top club (Dutch #3, Twente leads, highest division, Eredivisie, won many CLs and UEFA cups, world cups and more). WHC=amateur club, taking part in the cup tourney.

Ajax has the best selection, goalgetter Suárez (18 goals in 17 Eredivisie games), so that explains it. Thanks to him, Ajax won with 4-0 from VVV-Venlo, he scored all four goals.
 
Of course amateurs can't beat an European topclub. But even then 14-1 is big. WHC also had a practice match against Barcelona. Barcelona won with 12-0.
 
So far, so good, with Birmingham holding Chelsea 0-0 at St. Andrews.

Did anyone see that free kick from Alex? It was an insane hit. Rocketed it against the cross-bar from about 35-yards, he hit it so hard it came all the way back out to him and he headed it back into the box!
 
well birmingham did score but it was ruled offside, even though the player was
1. BEHIND the ball
2. LEVEL with drogbe (who was on his arse as usual)
 
Not a good performance from Man Utd, but a win is a win. 2 Points behind Chelsea at this moment in time is fine by me. If Arsenal sign a quality striker then they're in with a real chance of winning the Premier League this season as well. If they don't, then I think the absence of van Persie will cost them. But they're still in with some chance depending on how long Fabregas is out as well.
 
Happy with the weekend, Man U winning was expected, but we can still get back ahead if we win our game in hand, and the big win against Villa will surely help the confidence while if we win our game in hand, we'll only be 1 point behind Chelsea, so very happy overall.
 
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