The Manchester United 2011/2012 Thread

[aliman5000]

Originally Posted by Fever Dawg

Struggling to think of poorer set of first choice midfielders over the last 30 tbh.

Kleberson, the Djemba twins, Fortune and Veron?

[Fever Dawg]

Originally Posted by aliman5000

Kleberson, the Djemba twins, Fortune and Veron?

Aside from Veron (who I don't think was ever in the same side as Kleberson & Djemba) they were all squad players. The first choice midfield at around that time was Ronaldo, Keane, Scholes & Giggs.

[MICON]

Originally Posted by SteM

Be serious for a second, do you really think this is one of the worst United teams you've ever watched? I know we're all been spoiled over the last few years but there is no way this is the one of the worst sides over the last 30 years.

It's one that seems to be desperately short of confidence and is certainly being made to look mediocre by a rampant and very expensive City side in the league and by Barca in Europe. That is all.

Being serious. I was not meaning the whole squad. I was talking about the players on the pitch at that time. There were a few good players being dragged down by some sub standard players/ play, but as a whole they were dire to watch. I thought Carrick was good in the game. Mind you it can't get any worse, I hope, so the play should only get better from now.

[MaxNutter]

Worst midfield?

Beardsmore, Milne, Phelan, Webb...

[Fever Dawg]

Neil Webb was top quality before he did his cruciate ligaments playing for England. Never recovered from that.

Once again though, they were hardly first choice. At that time we had Ince, Robson & Strachan. Still would argue that we don't have a trio of anywhere near that quality.

I was thinking that was the probably around the weakest era though, the only time where Fergie was under serious threat of losing his job.

[MaxNutter]

Originally Posted by Fever Dawg

Neil Webb was top quality before he did his cruciate ligaments playing for England. Never recovered from that.

Once again though, they were hardly first choice. At that time we had Ince, Robson & Strachan. Still would argue that we don't have a trio of anywhere near that quality.

you can argue for and against players of any era though. when did we last have our first 11 out on the pitch?

how's Hernandez?

[Fever Dawg]

Originally Posted by MaxNutter

you can argue for and against players of any era though. when did we last have our first 11 out on the pitch?

Dunno, who is our first 11?

[Guest 53]

Fortune & Djemba-Djemba used to line up together pretty often IIRC often with Richardson coming on as a sub.

[Dxfatass]

Originally Posted by Fever Dawg

Dunno, who is our first 11?

Interesting question; given we have quite a few players across the squad at around the same level of ability then there's a variety and versatility that makes such a line-up highly debatable.

A problem of course is our constant stream of injuries. Right now we have 8 players out injured; compared to our rivals that's only one more than Arsenal, but three more than Spurs, five more than Chelsea - and of course City have no injuries at all (according to Physioroom.com, which I know isn't perfectly reliable). Elsewhere, Liverpool have three injuries, Newcastle the same, etc. We've also been without Vidic, Rio, Smalling, Carrick, Rooney, Welbeck, Young and Giggs at times this season - which doesn't help with team consistency.

Based on the Champions League final, I'd say the mythical "first eleven" would be:

De Gea
Rafael===Rio===Vidic===Evra
Nani===Carrick===Giggs===Young
===Rooney
Chicharito===

Right-back is debatable, but Rafael is (unbelievably) our most experienced right-back. Then you could make an argument for the Cleverley-Anderson partnership that started so well, or for Welbeck offering more in general play upfront (though less of a goal-threat himself) than Chicharito.

Really the only guaranteed starters are Vidic, Evra, Nani, Rooney and possibly Carrick.

[welshmatt]

I wouldn't have Raphael (or his brother) in the 1st 11, both are liabilities with positioning, tackling and their poor injury record.

[andybhoy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-16012632

Ronnie Wallwork has let himself go...

[Fever Dawg]

Originally Posted by Dxfatass

Based on the Champions League final, I'd say the mythical "first eleven" would be:

Nani===Carrick===Anderson===Young

I'd say Anderson has been preferred more to Giggs in central midfield this season and would go back to my original point. Instead of dragging up the worst midfielders who have played a handful of games over the past 20 years I was actually more concerned about who we would say our first choice midfield was in those seasons and compare them like for like with today's.

[MaxNutter]

Hernandez out for a month... at least he can go home for Xmas!

[SteM]

Originally Posted by MaxNutter

Hernandez out for a month... at least he can go home for Xmas!

Fingers crossed Welbeck can stay fit until he's back though he seems a bit injury prone.

[pivotalgubbins]

If we go on statistics, Carrick could be a big loss tomorrow:

Of the last 18 CL away games in which Carrick has been ever-present, #mufc have only lost once... after Carrick had been
substituted.

18 - Michael Carrick, suspended tomorrow, has featured in each of #mufc's last 19 CL away games, stretching back to Sep 2008.
Fixture.

Both from nickcoppack on Twitter.

Squeaky bum time...

[pivotalgubbins]

Originally Posted by MICON

Rooney is a good player but nowhere near as good as his Ł250,000 a week pay is. Here you go, calling people childish names, there's a whole load of people on Red Cafe with the same thoughts as me, my quote is nothing to what many people over there think.

I didn't call you childish names did I - simply stated that your views are ******* mental. I stand by that and could not care less what a load of people in Red Cafe are saying.

Originally Posted by MICON

Take your Red tinged glasses off & come into the real united world. I will agree with you that we do seem to play like this at this time of the season, lets hope we come out the other side this time.

Red tinged glasses? I'm extremely realistic about our prospects, our level of play and so forth. Football runs in cycles, we might well be entering a very different cycle right now. It could be a lot, lot worse.

Originally Posted by MICON

PS. While we are talking about glasses try to quote me correctly.
"This must be one of the worst United teams I have ever watched. Can't pass, can't score from corners, struggle to even score."
Perhaps you can tell me what is wrong with the whole statement, as recent results & play back it up fully.

Oh! Did you actually watch the game?

I try not to concentrate to much on your bleatings (can't score from corners - what the ****!), so apologies for the mistakes. Whilst this might not be the most free-flowing side of the Fergie-era, it's position in the table suggests (once again) that the critics are exaggerating the extent of United's troubles. We are very weak in centre-midfield, but we've certainly had worst teams over the last thirty or so years - even in the Fergie era. It is so difficult to compare teams from different years too, football is evolving so quickly. Who saw City and Chelsea where they are now...

I did watch the game - we cruised it but didn't create a shedload of chances. Villa, for their part, were disgracefully bad, but then a team that think Heskey can still produce will always struggle. N'Zogbia should be in tears, he was right to turn down Birmingham for one reason and that reason is now at Villa!

[madstu]

Have to say, worried about tomorrow night. No Carrick, Berbatov, Hernandez along with the other injuries. Pretty ropey form at the moment, at least given our lack of strikers, Rooney wont be in midfield. At least the defence is back to its best, fingers crossed on this one.

[Pisces Iscariot]

We can just play for the 0-0...

[leemel]

Is the match tomorrow on UK tv, can't seem to find it anywhere.

[Fever Dawg]

ITV1.