Same Opponent, Same Score

Manchester United 5 - Wigan 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (28), Carrick (32), Rafael (45), Berbatov (50), Valencia (75)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic (Anderson 68), Rafael, Evra (Fabio 68), Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Valencia, Berbatov (Welbeck 68), Rooney

5-star performance from the lads at long last. This is how we remember our team playing. The question now is can we maintain this level of football for the rest of the season.

Right from the kickoff, we were playing some breathtaking football. And for a good 28 minutes, the Wigan net was leading a charmed life. The post was struck, tackles were made and shots were parried.

It could very have been one of those nights where you'd remember the one that got away. But tonight was not one of those nights. Facing his old team, Valencia played one of his best games in the red jersey.

I'm not going into details of each goal at 6am in the morning, but every goal was worth its weight in gold. Valencia had a hand in 3 and rounded off a fine fine performance by scoring the last one. Special mention should also go to Rafael for a superb individual goal.

I know I've been pretty down on the team lately, but if they can match up to even 50% of what they did today in any sort of consistancy, there maybe a hope of actually going into the record books as the team to win 4 titles on the trot.

This was just one awesome performance.

Rooney Giveth, Rooney Taketh

Hull City 1 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Hull City: Fagan (pen 59)
Manchester United: Rooney (45), Dawson (og 73), Berbatov (82)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia (Park 63), Giggs (Obertan 78), Berbatov, Rooney

Another week, another lucky escape. We were god awful, then again what's new.

We had Brown and Vidic to shore up the defense and more vital was that both Carrick and Fletcher we restored into the centre of the park. Fletcher was outstanding and for once, Carrick didn't do too badly either.

Despite having a decent lineup we were pretty terrible on the pitch. Hull are legit relegation candidate, but for most of the game we looked the part instead. Slick, neat passing has always been our calling card, but in recent weeks, our passing has been sloppy and wasteful, none more so that today. As a fan since the early 80s, I cannot honestly recall us being that piss poor in this department. It's painful to watch.

Yet after a hugely poor display of passing the ball to non-existent players, we grabbed the lead at the death of the first half. Rooney found himself at the end of a Fletcher cross, and tapped the ball home. And that is having survived a legit penalty claim and a superb save from Kuszczak earlier in the game.

Our second half was no better. Hull were the better team by far, while we continued to give the ball away. Rooney gifted the ball to Hull in a dangerous area, and Rafael had to bring his man down to prevent a sure goal. As a result, Hull was awarded the penalty and Fagan brought the scores level.

We were rattled and Rooney was pissed at his mistake. Hull were still the better team and were the likelier team to win the game.

But fate is cruel and cream, in the form of Rooney, rises to the top. In typical break-away fashion, Rooney's cross was put in by Hull's own Dawson.

Rooney put the icing on the cake with a delightful pass to Berbatov to finish any resistence from Hull. Up to that point, Berbatov was practically a passerby.

We were lucky to scrape a win here all thanks to the good work of Rooney and honourable mention to Kuszczak for the number of good saves he's made. In the absence of Van der Sar, Kuszczak is fast winning over fans.

We may have closed the gap to two points at the top of the table, I'm still convinced we don't have what it takes to win the title this season. It's going to take more than scrappy wins against relegation teams to make me change my mind. Chelsea maybe facing a tough January without several key players but they are playing slightly better as a unit compared to us.

In a totally unrelated note, I wouldn't be doing the mid term report this year. The games are coming in too fast to collect my thoughts. Moreover, it's a busy period for me. Too many steamboat buffets to attend.

Fulham 3 - Manchester United 0
Scorers
Fulham: Muphy (22), Zamora (46), Duff (75)

Team: Kuszczak, De Laet (Fabio 58), Carrick, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes, Anderson, Gidson (Berbatov 58), Valencia, Rooney, Owen (Welbeck 72)

Not going to say too much here. We were shockingly poor. With the exception of Kuszczak, who kept us in the game with some brilliant saves, everyone was just utter shite.

Scholes in particular was absolutely rubbish. He gave away the first goal and wasted possession almost every single time he had it. But that doesn't give everyone else a free pass. They were all rubbish.

We were outplayed in every single department against Fulham. There were times during the game Kentona and I were wondering if we were watching a team fighting for relegation play.

Let's once and for all forget about the title this season and set a realistic target of Champions League football next season. With just how poor we've been in the past few games, even that maybe a ceiling too high for this bunch.

Things are just not looking good right now and rapidly looking pretty depressing to read/watch. I doubt there would be much change in our play until Ferguson is willing to splash the dosh when the transfer window opens. It's obvious to the casual observer that we're desperately lacking in a playmaker. Someone to link the midfield to the attack. We may even need another striker who actually knows where the general direction of the net is. Right now there is no chemistry between our frontline and even more apparent that we've no creativity.

Comfortable Win Against Wolves Reserves

Manchester United 3 - Wolves 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 30), Vidic (43), Valencia (66)

Team: Kuszczak, Vidic (Fletcher 60), Carrick, De Laet, Evra, Scholes, Gibson, Valencia, Obertan (Welbeck 71), Berbatov, Rooney (Owen 76)

After the weekend victory at White Hart Lane, Mick McCathy opted to save his players and fielded a shadow team. Sensing an easy victory and a chance to level up on points with Chelsea, we came out of the blocks in fiery fashion.

Rooney nearly gave us an early lead but his shot was well saved by the big American, Hahnemann. Subsequent chances were spurned as it started to look like it wasn't our night.

Despite fielding a reserve team, Wolves gave a good account of themselves, coming close to taking the lead when Friend shot over from close range.

Eventually it was Wolves who blinked first. Just as the game was playing into a stalemate, with a huge emphasis on 'stale' on our part, we were gifted a penalty for an inexplicable handball. Rooney gleefully put us into the lead from the spot.

Vidic added a second before the half with a bullet header that hit Hahnemann and squirmed into the corner in agonising fashion if you're a Wolves fan.

Wolves came out in the second half playing for pride and with determination. While they did not trouble Vidic or Carrick, they did managed to find alot of possession. We had some difficulty taking the ball from them.

Carrick may have found his calling in this United side. He was having a blinder in central defense. Nothing got past him. Even when partnered with De Laet who was moved into the other central defensive role, he proved to be the outstanding man at the back. If our defensive crisis carries on, Carrick may just be our trump card.

We scored the 3rd goal in the game in magnificent fashion. Berbatov's overhead kick was met by Valencia who rifled it into the top of the net. It was a goal that was simply majestic in the way it was set up.

Berbatov must be one of the hardest player in a red jersey to root for. For the entire game, he's been hanging his shoulders, shrugging when he doesn't get the ball. In a way there is a lot of Ronaldo in him and most of it bad. Yet, when I was cursing at his languid style of play, he pops up and produces a gem of a pass for Valencia. It was as if there were eyes at the back of his head when he made the pass. And then he goes on to make it as frustrating as possible to root for him again.

We ran out 3-0 winners at the final whistle. It could have been more, and it could have been better given the quality of the players we were playing against. But after the weekend's loss, I'm just happy we're back on track.

Nothing's Changed

Manchester United 0 - Aston Villa 1
Scorer
Aston Villa: Agbonlahor (21)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson (Gibson 68), Park (Berbatov 63), Valencia, Giggs (Owen 45), Rooney

Nothing's changed very much around here. Chelsea screwed up against an understrengthed Everton earlier in the day and we, as usual, followed suit. Actually we went one up and proceeded to lose the game. In fact this was a result just waiting to happen. We've been shit recently despite our so-called convincing wins in the past couple of Premiership fixtures. It was no surprise to me that we faltered today.

What made things worse was that Ferguson threw up a lineup that just screamed at Villa to come at us. Maybe he was thinking of quick counters, but you start one up front at home, it's just asking for trouble.

Yet despite looking like shit, we actually played a good game. We gave the Villa defense a good run around but were simply unable to find the net. This was when putting one up front hurt us the most. Rooney was left alone up there and for most of the game, he came running back to midfield to pick up the ball, leaving no one upfront to shoulder the responsibility.

Agbonlahor punished us for our failure to find the net in the 21st minute with a superb header. We spent most of the game in the Villa half but the woodwork and poor positioning kept them in front.

Perhaps realising his mistake, Ferguson put Owen into the game for Giggs. Word out there is that Giggs was injured, but personally I would have taken Park out instead. It's obvious to the neutral that Park just wasn't up for it even though he ran his socks off. He just hasn't been the same since coming back from injury.

We continued to be as toothless as an old woman without her dentures. Berbatov and Gibson were both thrown into the fray and failed to make any significant impact. I personally would have liked to see Obertan take on the Villa defense. They had a relatively easy time handling our short passes. Having someone like Obertan run at the defenders could have created more havoc.

Villa ran out 1-0 winners at Old Trafford, breaking their winless streak since god knows when. While it's not exactly at terrible result since Chelsea could only draw, we still lost ground. What was truely despairing is that I can't see how we can get better. There were poor decisions from the coaching staff right down to the players. Again I cannot put a finger on exactly what is wrong with us. Maybe it's just everything.

Owen Reigns Supreme In Germany

Wolfsburg 1 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Wolfsburg: Dzeko (56)
Manchester United: Owen (44, 83, 90)

Team: Kuszczak, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Gibson, Scholes, Anderson, Park, Nani (Valencia 74), Welbeck (Obertan 74), Owen

There's something about Germany, Owen and hattricks. Owen grabbed the opportunity to show the world he hasn't lost it in a rare start. With 3 wonderfully taken goals, he raised United to the summit of the group, pushing us thru as the seeded team in the Champions League.

The team starting tonight was terribly decimated by injuries with Evra the only recognised defender. Fletcher and Carrick carried on their midweek roles as makeshift defenders, both surprisingly holding their own against the Germany champions. Carrick in particular was outstanding in his central defensive role. Considering how woeful he's been at midfield, he might have secured a new position playing in an unfamilar role.

Bar a few headers going wide off the target, Wolfsburg wasn't really quite as advertised. They were rather disappointing for most parts of the game.

On our part, we played a very good team game, especially for a team made up of mostly midfielders playing all over the park. At times we tended to over pass the ball, resulting in terrible mistakes, but overall we did ourselves proud, not only holding back a good opponent in a hostile environment, but going one up by winning in emphatic form.

Good play from Nani on the flanks, resulted in Owen giving us the lead just before the break with a superbly taken header.

Wolfsburg upped the tempo in the second half and were rewarded when United target, Dzeko, replied with an emphatic header of his own.

The rest of the half was just about Wolfsburg trying to floor us with a knockout punch and us hitting on the counter. The introduction of Valencia and Obertan injected both power and pace into our counters.

Obertan performed brilliantly in the 83rd minutes with a memerising run taking the ball down the byline, before taking quick glance, finding an unmarked Owen for a simple tap in. While the goal was simple, the build up was simply sensational. Obertan is quickly and surely moving up the ladder as one of the most exciting players this season.

Wolfsburg could have equalised once again in injury time, but their rightback, Riether, missed from point blank range. Immediately from that counter attack, Obertan released Owen for a one on one chance. And as we all know, Owen rarely misses those. Hattrick and we were home free.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting such an scoreline, but it for those of you who missed it, it was brilliantly played. We controlled and contained the superb frontline of the Germany champions with a whole bunch of untried and untested players in defense. Great stuff and greater result.

Meanwhile CSKA beat Besiktas 2-1, which should place Wolfsburg in third place in the group and out of the Champions League. But word from the grapevine is that two players from CSKA have been found guilty of doping which could disqualify them from the latter stages and a lifeline for Wolfsburg.

Scholes Inspires Romp

West Ham 0 - Manchester United 4
Scorers
Manchester United: Scholes (45), Gibson (61), Valencia (70), Rooney (72)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Neville (Carrick 34), Evra, Fletcher, Anderson, Gibson (Berbatov 67), Scholes, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney (Owen 73)

This is the second week in a row that I've gotta say just how terrible we are. Don't let the scoreline fool you. Similar to last week, we practically slept-walked thru the game and some hope came away with an outstanding result.

The entire first half was a bore. We were terrible in so many areas it was unreal. Vidic was pulled out at the last minute and Neville replaced him in the centre. Fletcher played at rightback and Gibson was rewarded a starting place in the centre of the park for his two goals at midweek. The changes showed as everyone was reacting to their new teammates and positions.

The Hammers were by far the better team in the half but failed to take any of their chances. An opportunistic strike by Scholes at the end of the half give us an undeserved lead going into the break. By that time, I was almost asleep, bored to death by our misplaced passes and general piss poor approach to the game.

There was not much improvement in the second half until Gibson's incredible strike to put us two up. It was a fantastic long ranged missile that almost blew a hole in the West Ham net. The goal broke West Ham's spirit and we fired two quickfire goals via Valencia and Rooney to complete the route.

The rest was the same boring crap as both teams played out the game.

It's hard to criticize the team when the scoreline reads 4-0, but we're simply not clicking. The formation looked dodgy as well, with Rooney up on his own, while Valencia and Giggs giving as much support as humanly possible. We probably fluked out with the Scholes and Gibson long range efforts. Their goals forced West Ham forward, opening the game up for quick counters.

Let's hope we play less conservatively in the Champions League during the week.

Gibson Sinks Spurs

Manchester United 2 - Tottenham 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Gibson (16, 38)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Neville, De Laet, Anderson (Tosic 82), Gibson, Park, Obertan (Carrick 62), Berbatov (Macheda 62), Welbeck

United's kids bounced back in fine fashion after last week's defeat at the hands of Besiktas in the Champions League.

Last year's League Cup finalists met in the quarter-finals in this year's edition. Runners-up, Spurs fielded a superbly strong team while United opted to keep in line with the policy of blooding our youth blended with some old heads.

Based on the teams fielded, it wasn't a surprised that the men from London had the stronger opening. They had the lion's share of the possession and looked the likelier team to go ahead.

Yet against the run of play, Darron Gibson scored a scorcher of a goal. And he scored another equally wonderful goal in the 38th minute.

The second half was more Spurs pressure, but the experienced defense in the United side stood tall and repelled everything that was thrown at them. Eventually Spurs fizzled and we started to gain the upper hand in the game.

We came close to adding a third as the game ended, but it was seem cruel against a Spurs side that showed plenty of desire but just weren't good enough to breech the backline of Brown and Vidic.

Gibson may have stolen the headlines today, but for me the man who really took the game by the scruff of the neck was Anderson. He was everywhere on the pitch, breaking up Spurs' midfield, leading the charge upfront. It would be nice if he could do this week in week out. In any case, this was a good win and a confidence booster for the kids in the team. There are alot of promising youngsters in the squad, and with the right amount of experience, some of them would eventually find a place in Ferguson's plans.

And just to round this off, Kentona and I have this private thing going on and it's time to bring it up to another level. Watch and enjoy.

Just A Poor 4-1 Win

Portsmouth 1 - Manchester United 4
Scorers
Portsmouth: Boateng (pen 32)
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 25, 48, pen 54), Giggs (87)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick (Anderson 76), Scholes, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney

Don't let the scoreline fool you. I thought we were absolutely terrible for most of the game. Good goalkeeping from Kuszczak kept us alive in the early stages of the game, before Rooney was fouled in the penalty area. Rooney stepped up and scored from the spot giving us a shortlived goal advantage.

Ferguson watched the game from the stands, a punishment for his recent outburst against the referees. And true to the mark, the referee of the day, Mike Dean, proved just what Ferguson was on about. He awarded a penalty for the home team that left everyone scratching their collective heads. No one knew exactly at that point in time what the fuck the penalty was for. Not the players, not the commentators (both the English and Chinese ones) and definitely not me. It was an abysmal decision and Mike Dean is a lucky lucky man that the decision did not have a deeper impact on the game other than adding more fuel to fire the disgruntle feelings towards the modern day referee.

Boateng levelled the score from the spot, while we struggled to gain a foothold on the game.

The second half started on a brighter note and Rooney missed a glorious chance. On the subsequent attack, Giggs put him thru again, and this time he finished neatly giving us the lead for good.

Rooney completed his hattrick from the spot after the evergreen Giggs was fouled in the box. We were enjoying a good spell at this point, with Giggs, Valencia and Rooney playing particularly well.

Then we begun to relax and take the foot off the paddle, allowing Portsmouth room to come at us. Make no bones about it, Portsmouth is a limited team, but at the same time they are a desparate team. And they came at us with a ferocity of a caged animal. Good saves kept the scores respectable in our favour. Our midfield and defense was really at sixes and sevens for a good period.

Having weathered the storm, Giggs added salt into Pompey's wounds with a delightful freekick, rounding off the scoring for the day.

This was really a difficult game to watch. We weren't anywhere near our best, but we haven't really been up to our standards bar the odd game here and there. I feel there is something lacking in this squad, but I can't really put a finger on it. All that I know is that we're really not as good as we think we are.

Still Work To Be Done

Manchester United 0 - Besiktas 1
Scorer
Besiktas: Tello (20)

Team: Foster, Brown, Vidic, Neville, Rafael (Evra 75), Anderson, Gibson (Carrick 75), Park (Owen 69), Obertan, Welbeck, Macheda

It's all gone abit south the last couple of games in the Champions League. We've qualified and Ferguson is justified to field a less than stellar lineup today, opting to blood some of the younger players.

For much of the first half, we were pretty damn awesome and had it not been some poor finishing, we could have given a very ordinary looking Besiktas a good hiding. Yet totally against the run of play, Beskitas took the lead with a long distance shot that Foster really could have done better. His footwork prior to the goal left much to be desired.

We spent the remainder of the half literally parked in the opponent's half. Our play was enterprising and really should have yielded some reward.

The standard of play went dramatically down in the second half. We were still the far superior team, but the final ball was lacking. In the end, Besiktas held on to the victory and we're left with another game against Wolfsburg to secure the top spot in the group.

As for the lads, Obertan impressed me massively. He's dribbling and speed reminded me of a Portugese who left us recently. The crucial thing missing from his game is the final pass to a teammate and his goal scoring. I don't know if he'd tease us like how Nani has done, but I can't wait to see more of him. Slowly but surely he has to be making inroads into Ferguson's plans. Definitely a player to watch out for the future, if not the present.

Before I end this post, I'd just like to share a video clip that had me in stitches for the past week.

Midfield Masterclass

Manchester United 3 - Everton 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Fletcher (35), Carrick (67), Valencia (76)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Brown, Rafael (Scholes 63), Evra, Fletcher, Carrick (Gibson 83), Valencia, Giggs, Rooney (Obertan 74), Owen

We never lie down. After the defeat against Chelsea, ranks seem to have closed and we responded with a masterclass in midfield. Fletcher was the general pulling the strings throughout the game. And when Carrick has a superb game like today, you know that we've been at our brilliant best.

Right from the word 'go', Everton were never in the game. The centre pairing of Fletcher and Carrick controlled every bit of the pitch. Owen and Rooney created havoc in the Everton defense with switching positions and confusing their markers.

Despite that, the Everton defense was resolute and the first goal took quite sometime to come. It was worth the wait. Evra's cross to the back post was headed back into the centre of the penalty box by Valencia. Fletcher was on hand to connect sweetly and volley in an unstoppable cannon into the top corner of the goal. It was a stunner in every sense of the word. Possibly one of the finest goals we've seen this season.

Everton was surprisingly poor today. They did have a short spell of good play in the beginning of the second half but it was shortlived. Carrick found the net after Giggs' brilliant pass, giving us a 2 goal advantage.

Valencia got onto the act as well when his shot deflected off Baines to round off the scoring. There probably could have been more goals in our favour, but we the foot off the accelerator, saving ourselves for the Champions League game in midweek.

We may not have gained any ground against the leader Chelsea, but there is plenty to be positive with today's performance. Evra and Fletcher probably had their best games this season. Carrick actually looks like a player. And this Obertan fellow is really quite impressive.

The Chelsea game possibly lit a fire up our asses. If we play with such aggression and determination the rest of the way, there really could be a chance, albeit a small chance, to retain the title.

Who can fill the Ronaldo void?

Written by Mark Ferguson, a sports writer who blogs about cheap football shirts

It doesn't take a genius to work out that we are not the team we were last year with the only loss to the team being the genius that was Cristiano Ronaldo. Wayne Rooney has been given much more of free role and is playing better than he ever has but he can't do it alone. Just like Ronaldo needed Rooney in the team Rooney needs a Ronaldo and Antonio Valencia just isn't it.

Valencia is not a bad player and has shown glimpses of why he was brought to the club. However he is not the world class player that Ronaldo was and the world class player that we need in the team. At times the side seems to lack creativity and imagination, particularly in the midfield, but trying to find a replacement for Ronaldo is much easier said than done, not only financially, but also in finding someone who offers the same quality.

There have been a number of players who have been linked with Man Utd and with pulling on that famous red Man Utd home shirt but so far we have not seen any of the names linked with a come to fruition.

One of the names continually linked with a move to the club is Franck Ribery. He appears to be one of the most sought after players at the moment but Bayern were keen to keep him in the summer and did but if the rumours are true they could now be willing to cash in on their star man.

Another two players linked with the club are David Villa and David Silva, both of whom appear to be top quality players. Silva is not quite the quality of Ronaldo but is certainly a top class player whilst Villa is one of the best forwards in the game. Both players seemed reluctant to leave Valencia but with the increasing financial problems at the club they could be forced to move.

Atletico Madrid's Argentinean forward Sergio Aguero is a player linked with a move to the Premiership, and although there is no doubt the lad has talent I am just not convinced he can do it as regularly as we would want and need him to.

For me the Ribery, Villa and Silva would certainly add to the quality of the team but I feel more is needed. A top quality central creative midfielder is what we need at the club but these are not easy to pick up. A player with the qualities of Diego, though I am not necessarily saying him though you could do worse, is what we need. Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have served the club magnificently over the years but we can't depend on them forever. We need to sign someone sooner rather than later but I don't see any big money move being made until the summer which I fear may be a little too late.

Title Gone? Probably

Chelsea 1 - Manchester United 0
Scorer
Chelsea: Terry (76)

Team: Van der Sar, Brown, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Anderson (Owen 85), Carrick, Valencia, Giggs (Obertan 85), Rooney

Let's not kid ourselves if we think we're going to win the Premiership 4 years in a row. 3 was already a dream come true and in this game we've been cruelly exposed. No creativity in midfield is going to be our achilles heel this season. Without the sorry Portugese who fled to Spain at the first calling, we've absolutely nothing to show for against a top-tier opponent.

To be fair to the lads who tried hard but just weren't good enough, Chelsea was absolutely shit as well, but that extra bit of quality showed today.

The only silverlining for me was that I hardly spent much time watching this game. I spent half the time at Kentona's stag party trying to look for some nice eye-candy whilst all the United fans around me were burying their heads in despair when Terry rose to head the ball into the net. It helps to be pissed drunk as well.

Now that I'm semi-sober, it's safe to say, the stag party was a major downer. Not only was there a huge lack of boobage, we lost the game as well. A good result in either would have been the sugar to help the medicine go down.

As it stands, not only are we 5 points adrift of the champions-elect, we're lying below Arsenal on goal difference. Barring a major fuckup in Chelsea's season, I cannot see how under god's blue sky we can compete for the title. January can't come quick enough....oh wait, Chelsea's allowed to spend, scratch that.

Couple of notable notes in this game:

- Evans deserves a knighthood. Attempting to blatantly maim Drogba while getting off completely scot-free is awesome. Super awesome.

- Drogba better be nominated for an Oscar this year for his utterly convincing tribute to Edgurdo. I seriously thought he broke all his ribs, punctured both lungs, only for him to return to the game seconds later.

- Referee ought to be shot for missing Terry's foul on Valencia. It would have given us a penalty, which I have no doubts we would miss.

- Referee ought to be shot over and over again for Fletcher's phantom foul on Cashley Cole which resulted in Terry's goal.

- Ferguson is right to complain about the referee but that trick is getting old. We have no imagination in midfield. He knows it, we know it, Chelsea exploited it.

- Why the fuck is Carrick still playing? He's the modern version of Neil Webb. I'm sick of using the word 'rubbish' on him. It's an insult to the word itself.

- At least Obertan looks like a player. It's still too early to tell but maybe, just maybe, we could have done something right and uncovered a gem.

- Seriously, what's the use of sending Owen on for a lost cause?

United Survives Russian Scare

Manchester United 3 - CSKA Moscow 3
Scorer
Manchester United: Owen (29), Scholes (84), Shennikov (og 90)
CSKA: Dzagoev (25), Krasic (30), Berezutsky (46)

Red Card
CSKA: Semberas (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Brown, Neville, Fabio (Evra 59), Fletcher, Scholes, Nani (Rooney 58), Valencia, Macheda (Obertan 82), Owen

My word, what a game! This is definitely the most exciting game we've played the entire season. Mine you, we weren't exactly good. For a good period we were quite rubbish at the back, conceeding 3 goals, but we came back strong. We came back really strong at the end.

CSKA took a shock lead in the 25th minute. Dzagoev took the ball down the centre and when the angle looked impossible, smashed the ball into Van der Sar's net. It was a brilliant goal.

United responded strongly via Owen's clinical strike. Despite looking rather blunt on a couple of previous attempts prior, his strike on this one was spot on and a nice turn around strike into the back of the net.

While we were still patting ourselves on the back, CSKA sucker punched us. Krasic took on our sleeping defense, fell, found his footing again, spun and hammered the ball into the goal, with our entire defense in sixes and sevens.

We went into the half trailing. I took the half time break to relieve myself and came out with the shock that we were trailing even further.

Fergie took a couple of quickfire substitutions, replacing Fabio and the ineffective Nani with Rooney and Evra. Our formation changed drastically with only Brown and Evans at the back and everyone else pressed forward.

We looked abit flat for a short period, coming to terms with the new formation. In that time, CSKA could have gone further ahead.

Slowly but surely we found our mojo and started to find kinks in the CSKA defense. After a couple of ridiculous near misses, a barrage of fine saves and a smashing header into the post, Scholes pulled one back with 5 minutes left on the clock.

Old Trafford suddenly sprung to life. The crowd which had been stunned to silence for a large period of the game, found their voice and it carried onto the pitch. There was a new spring in the steps and we looked increasingly dangerous with each passing minute.

It wasn't a surprise that we did indeed find the equalizer when Valencia's powerful shot was deflected into the goal by Shennikov. The lads pressed on for the winner into the 6 minutes of injury time, but that was perhaps too much to ask on what is already a memorable night.

This was a hardfought draw and at times we were our own worst enemy. But take nothing away from the army men from Russia. They played really well at times and barring a shaky looking defense are a really good team in Europe.

The lads should have their tails up for the weekend's mega super important game against Chelsea. They are the front runners for the league title and rightly so. They have an incredible team this season that doesn't look to have any weaknesses. Hopefully we can exploit any chinks in that formidable armour and show the way for everyone else.

But if I'm really honest, I'm not holding my hopes too high. Probably explains why I'm off to Kentona's stag party at the weekend instead of watching the game. If the venue does show the game, it's an added bonus.

My Helloween Nightmare

Manchester United 2 - Blackburn 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (55), Rooney (87)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Brown, O'Shea, Carrick, Anderson, Nani (Obertan 64), Valencia, Berbatov (Owen 79), Rooney

Talk about being screwed by daylights saving. Time was pushed back one hour and together with a late kickoff made watching this game really difficult on many levels. It was shown at 1.30am over here and cumulated with an exceedingly dull first half, conspired to put me to sleep before the half time whistle even blew.

I had initially thought that I could torrent the second half and at least put some perspective and respectability to this review. I resisted the urge to read any reports or even talk football with my friends over the weekend so as not to spoil my enjoyment. But the torrent never came thru. I ended up getting to watch only the highlights and two exquisite goals by Berbatov and Rooney to sew up the 3 points for us.

There's really not much to add, except we started from where we left off last week against Pool. Piss poor and with a huge lack of urgency in our play. It got better towards the end of the first but by that time I was already dozing off.

United Progress

Barnsley 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Welbeck (6), Owen (59)

Red Card
Manchester United: Neville (63)

Team: Foster, Brown, Neville, Evans, Rafael, Fabio, Anderson, Welbeck (Tosic 53), Obertan, Macheda, Owen (De Laet 65)

What a refreshing change from the weekend game. The youngsters who played today did themselves proud compared to the group at Anfield. Debutant, Obertan, seems like a good enough player. He's quick, neat and tidy. He certainly looks good enough for Le Championnat, and I'm surprised he's not been featured much there. Nevertheless, he still has some ways to go before breaking into the first team with us. Especially since his direct rival on the right flank is Valencia.

The other young ones didn't look too bad either. We all know Macheda's exploits last season, but he really looks like one who will progress the most. He's big, strong, quick and exceptionally skillful. Most importantly, he's an intelligent player. He looks like one of those typical Italian strikers who can hold the ball, take on his man and make the smart pass or layoff to a teammate. Based on his game today, I think he's ready to step up to the first team on a regular basis. Our regulars upfront look stale and it's time to let some of our youngsters have a go.

Our porn brothers, Rafael and Fabio, are getting there too. The only problem is that they seem to play at one pace. Similar to Tosic. There are times during the game where I was literally screaming at them to slow it down, look for a teammate instead of charging towards the opponent half at full throttle. A case of more haste less speed with them.

Welbeck's progress is coming along too. He's a tad bit selfish at times, but he's showing good instincts going forward and picking out teammates. He scored an early goal from a corner to put us in the lead.

Owen scored our second with a sweet run after Anderson stole the ball from a Barnsley throw-in. Then Neville got himself sent off with a dangerous challenge. Although he clearly won the ball, his follow thru was high and extremely dangerous. Had the opponent stuck out his foot, it probably would have snapped just below the knee.

We spent a large portion of the remaining 20 or so minutes watching Barnsley waste chance after chance. Foster had a couple of nervous moments at goal, and some of his decisions were questionable at best. If there was one thing he showed in today's game, it was that he's slowly working his way out of our future plans.

All in all, it was a credible result against a team with a giant-killing reputation. Our youngsters did really well and some of them really look good enough to step up to the first team if only the manager gives them a chance. I'm slightly curious about Gibson. I thought today would have been a good opportunity to have him in the game. With our dire situation in midfield we could have given him an ample chance to prove himself. It's not as if Scholes is going to get any younger or Carrick any better. I can only guess that he's injured.

It's All About Keeping Rafa's Job Alive

Liverpool 2 - Manchester United 0
Scorers
Liverpool: Torres (65), N'Gog (90)

Red Card
Manchester United: Vidic (89)
Liverpool: Mascherano (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Evra, O'Shea, Carrick, Scholes (Nani 74), Giggs, Valencia, Berbatov (Owen 74), Rooney

Let's get this straight, I hate losing to Liverpool. I utterly hate it. Today, the priority is different. It's about keeping the most incompetent manager at his job. It's about keeping the man who most single-handedly keeps Liverpool the 2nd banana, or for most years, the 3rd banana. However hard I may hate losing to the dreaded enemy, keeping that man in employment supercedes it.

Now with that clarification out of the way, we were pretty poor today. Liverpool played like their lives depended on it, and we obliged by giving them a lifeline. They were out of the blocks faster and were hungrier everywhere on the pitch. Had it not been for some fine goalkeeping by Van der Sar, we could very well have been buried at the half.

The second half didn't make matters any easier. A lapse in concentration allowed allowed Torres the time and space to outrun Rio and smash a stunner into Van der Sar's near side. One up to the enemy.

We tried to chase the game but Liverpool hurried and chased us all around the park, making the game extremely difficult to control. Even after replacing the ineffective Scholes and Berbatov did little to improve our chances.

As the game came to a close, both teams were reduced to 10 men in quick succession. First with a crude foul by Vidic on a runaway Kuyt, and subsequently Mascherano on another crude foul on Van der Sar.

We pushed so many men forward that we were caught out by a counter, resulting in N'Gog's break away goal in the dying seconds.

Make no bones about it, even though keeping Benitez employed is a good thing, we were utterly crap. We were out-hustled in every department. We didn't lose this game on skill, but were competely and truely outworked by a team who had everything to lose.

Hope the lads take something from this loss. There are no easy games in the EPL and unless they fight hard for the full 90 minutes, getting outworked like today could be a common occurance. Already we have come close to losing points against teams like Bolton last week and have been outworked by the likes of Burnley and Sunderland.

Valencia's Strike Sees United Thru To Second Round

CSKA Moscow 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Valencia (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio (Brown 57), Vidic, Fabio (Carrick 88), Neville, Scholes (Owen 70), Anderson, O'Shea, Nani, Valencia, Bervatov

Let's see if I can do this before the Real Madrid vs Milan game starts. I really would love to catch that game. Should be an exciting one compared to this almost bore draw.

We were missing 3 of our best players in the form of Giggs, Rooney and Fletcher. There were other absentees, but none more important than the 3 who have carried this team on their collective shoulders the entire season so far. With our big 3 missing, I wasn't really expecting much from the game. A draw would have been a great result, putting us into a really strong position in the group tables to advance.

Instead, we went one better. We got an unlikely away victory when Valencia smashed Berbatov's header into the net as the game was going towards a goalless draw.

We weren't doing too bad in the game. The artificial pitch caused havoc in the beginning half of the game, resulting in a comedy of errors from both sides misjudging the bounce. But fortunately for both teams, none of the bounces proved catastrophic.

The game itself was mostly going our way. The Russians seemed to have settled for a draw right from the start. They allowed us to have it our way as long as we didn't score. On our part, we duely obliged by holding on to alot of the possession and making absolutely nothing of it.

Nani and Fabio in particular saw loads of the ball on the left. Their industry and hard running should have produced much better results but the final ball was severely lacking in quality. Valencia had choice moments in the game, but suffered the same end product.

It reached a stage in the game (somewhere in the middle of the first half), Berbatov simply stopping running. Everytime the other 3 had the ball, he just stood in the box with his hand raised in disgust at the cross. He stopped chasing and ball that was passed 2 yards away from him. Personally it was just horrible to watch.

I think we can all admit that Berbatov is a really skilful player, somewhat temperamental at times, but a good player nonetheless. Today, he was just an asshole. He was mouthing off everytime the ball did not get to him. The problem with his attitude today is that it rubs off on players like Nani, Fabio and Valencia. More so Nani, since he comes across as a player that plays on the confidence of his teammates. As the game wore on, all 3 of their passing just got worse. And Berbatov got moodier. And the whole vicious cycle continued.

And what really irks me today is that we won. Now we can sweep all that under the carpet and pretend nothing's happened. Every thing's honky dory.

I honestly hope today's attitude is a one-off thingy although I think it's going to rare it's ugly head somewhere down the season. In the meantime, we can look forward to Sunday's big game against the team we all hate, Liverpool. Let's beat them, kick them while they're down and settle their pathetic season once and for all. The peace and quiet from all my pool loving friends for the next 10 months would be sweet music to my ears.

United Somehow Reclaims Top Spot

Manchester United 2 - Bolton 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Knight (5 og), Valencia (33)
Bolton: Taylor (75)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Rio, Evra (O'Shea 84), Neville, Anderson (Scholes 86), Carrick, Valencia, Giggs, Berbatov, Owen (Welbeck 84)

With other results in the league going our way, I should be a happy camper, but after watching us dominated for 75 minutes, then go thru a total collapse makes you take things into perspective. Mentally, we're just not there yet. For a good last 15 minutes or so, you might even be forgiven if you think that team was afraid of taking the top spot after Chelsea's loss earlier.

It started really well for us. Owen's wayward header was deflected into the net for an early lead. We could even have gone up by more seconds later but Evans header was pushed onto the post. Bolton were in a mess, and it seems like we were going to give them another hiding at Old Trafford.

We were horribly wasteful and coupled with Jaaskelainen's superb saves, kept the scoreline respectable. Valencia did double our lead at the half hour after a superb counter attacking play involving Gary Neville.

We entered the half with a healthy two goal cushion and feeling really good about ourselves. We were on top of our game and Bolton had rarely threatened. Giggs, Valencia and Berbatov were in outstanding form and really punishing the hapless Trotters.

It was much more of the same in the second half. We had most of the possession and had we been more clinical, we could have raked up a rugby score.

It was all going so well that the lads started to have mental lapses. Mistakes started to creep into our play and in the 75th minute, a collection of such mistakes resulted in Matthew Taylor leaping over Evra to head Bolton back into the game.

The rest of the game was terribly nerve-wrecking to watch. We were in shambles, inviting Bolton to come at us. All the good work put into the previous 75 minutes, threatened to come undone in the last 15.

Not trying to sound arrogant, but lucky for us, Bolton are a limited team. Had it been another team with a more potent attack, we could very well have lost points in this fixture. Like the rest of us, Ferguson must have breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew, and not before a last gasp save made by Van der Sar to maintain the lead.

It's disappointing to have dominated huge parts of the game only to barely win it by the skin of our teeth.

The silverlining here is that despite an almost total collapse, we still got the 3 points and are at the top of the league. And we got there without playing our best. There in lies our problem as well. I have no idea what our best looks like, or if we're even able to reach that standard. And to further that thought, even if we do reach our peak, I'm not sure if we can sustain it for any meaningful period to make it count.

To make matters worse, the next couple of games are no walk in the park. We get an early game in the Champions League in Russia in midweek. And at the weekend, we get a cornered animal in the form of Liverpool, and you can be sure that beach balls will be banned at Anfield.

United Survives Another Crap First Half

Manchester United 2 - Sunderland 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (51), Ferdinand (og 90)
Sunderland: Bent (7), Jones (58)

Red Card
Sunderland: Richardson (85)

Team: Foster, Evans, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher (Carrick 72), Scholes (Anderson 45), Nani, Welbeck (Valencia 72), Berbatov, Rooney

At home against a perceivably poorer opponent. These are the types of games you need to win if you want to win the damn league. Unfortunately we didn't turn up today. Actually we were pretty damn awful.

Sunderland took an early lead thru red-hot Darren Bent, a shot which I felt Foster could have done better. But as we all know by now, he's really a pretty poor keeper and as a result we went one down. If that wasn't bad enough, our first half display was possibly one of the worst....ever. Not only were we terribly disjointed, we didn't even have a single shot on goal throughout the entire first half. Credit to the crowd who kept on egging the lads on, but from where I was seated (in front of my tele), someone should be hurling their prawn sandwich at Scholes. It looked obvious he's skipped lunch. He's passes were under hit. In fact the entire team was guilty of misplaced passes and giving it away cheaply.

Fergie must have kicked up a storm at half time because an entirely different team came out in the second half. Well, we were still crap but at least this time we played with a lot more desire. There was much more pressure applied to the Sunderland goalmouth and alot more urgency shown.

It wasn't long before Berbatov equalized with a delightful bicycle kick. It was an outstanding goal that the Sunderland coudn't save.

Attack attack attack chanted the crowd, but 7 minutes later they were shocked to silence. Some putrid defending allowed Kenwyne Jones the time to leap for the ball. Foster pulled a shocker coming for the ball but got outmuscled and the ball was headed into the net. So according to Ferguson, this is the best keeper England has to offer? No wonder England constantly wins fuck all. And if Ferguson persists on using him, so will we.

For the rest of the game, we threw everything but the kitchen sink at Sunderland, but credit to Steve Bruce's team, they are a resolute bunch and dangerous on the counter. We didn't really look like coming back into the game until old boy Richardson was sent off in the 85th minute. It was a silly silly second yellow card he collected. With the 3 points practically in the bag, he stupidly kicked the ball away.

Sunderland's loss was our gain. They ceased to give us trouble on the counter and we poured forward with everyone. And with 2 of the 4 minutes gone in injury time, Evra's shot was deflected into the net by Rio's younger brother. By some fluke, we came away from this disaster with a draw.

What I found utterly amazing was that Ferguson spent all the time complaining about the referee and the lack of added time instead of focusing on just how crap we were, or even his own stupidity of not having Giggs on the bench. After all the heroics of the past weeks, you would assume Giggs would have a place on the bench to provide a telling cross or make a cruscial pass in case it was needed, which we did today in the worst way possible.

Maybe he's just doing what all good managers do, and that is to protect his players from being crucified by the media by deflecting the attention away. Let's just hope for our sanity it's the latter.

Last but fucking not least....please for the love of football, drop Foster!

Giggs Continues Rolling

Manchester United 2 - Wolfsburg 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Giggs (59), Carrick (78)
Wolfsburg: Dzeko (56)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Anderson, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia (Fletcher 82), Owen (Berbatov 20), Rooney

Huge win. For a brief moment it felt that we were going away with nothing in the game but for the third time in 10 days we had Giggs to thank.

Wolfsburg had taken a shock lead, quite against the run of play from a good header by Dzeko. But Giggs restored parity with a hugely deflected freekick only 3 minutes later.

After some brilliant play from Berbatov, Giggs laid on the ball to Carrick to finish the Germany champions off in the 78th minute with a wonderful curler.

It wasn't our best game, but in the end we produced the goods to take pole position in the group. That said, I'm been a pretty big admirer of Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. I'm kinda disappointed that they didn't show much in this game. Hopefully we'd get a better chance to see their true potential in the reverse fixture....with us emerging as the winners of that one of course.

The game wasn't much of a spectacle in the first half. It was pouring, resulting in mistakes and misplaced passes from both teams. Besides two good chances spurned by Carrick, the only other memorable incident was Owen leaving the pitch with an injury. It's a worrying sign since we're rather short on the stiking department.

His replacement, Berbatov, had a brilliant game. He and Giggs had a hand in everything good we did today. His little flicks and arrogant style of play gave us a swagger we haven't seen since Cantona departed. But let's not get overly excited. It's only one game, and plenty more come. There is still a long way to go before he can measure up to the big man.

Giggs, on the other hand, was simply magnificent. He simply never gives up. His indian summer has been going on for quite sometime and ever since the departure of Ronaldo, he's upped his game to another level. The one thing that worries me here is that from the last few games, it seems that we're becoming too reliant on him. Let's hope Ferguson paces the Welsh wizard. It's a long long season and we've barely scratched the surface.

It was a good performance all around. We probably could have had more had the linesman been less flag-happy.

Giggs Still The Man

Stoke 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (62), O'Shea (77)

Team: Foster, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Carrick 81), Nani (Giggs 56), Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney (Owen 80)

For a full hour, we looked really blunt on the field until Giggs came on. He announced his arrival with a superb cross and even Berbatov couldn't screw up the tap-in. It was the cutting edge that had been missing the entire night.

I like Nani and Valencia, but the honest truth is that they are good, really good until the final pass. For some reason, their brains switch off at the crucial moment when it comes to delivering in that final third of the field. And for the second consecutive weekend, we needed the brilliance of Giggs to save our blushes.

The second goal was more of Gigg's handiwork. His floated freekick invited O'Shea to head the ball home, sinking whatever resistance Stoke had left.

With this victory, we climbed to the top of the league in a bizarre weekend. Pool dumped 6 on Hull, Spurs hit Burnley with 5, Birmingham levelled against Bolton in the dying minutes only to lose it all again. Villa couldn't overcome a ten men Blackburn and even lost the game late. And the most important result of them all, Wigan beat Chelsea to send us top. Strange weekend, but let's relish it while it lasts.

Welbeck Sends United Thru

Manchester United 1 - Wolves 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Welbeck (66)

Red Card: Fabio (30)

Team: Kuszczak, Evans, Brown, Neville, Fabio, Carrick, Gibson, Welbeck (King 81), Nani, Macheda (De Laet 30), Owen (Valencia 69)

Ferguson made wholesale changes from the team that beat Shitty at the weekend. Owen was rewarded with a starting lineup and he played a pivotal role in the only goal scored in the game. His smart one-two allowed Welbeck to spin free of the Wolves defense and send the ball wide of the keeper and into the net.

It was not an easy game with 11 new faces and the going got tougher when Fabio was sent off for a professional foul half an hour into the game. It was a smart foul as the Wolves player was running in on goal, but it left us with 10 men for the entire duration of the game. Macheda was sacrificed for De Laet to fill in the gap at left back.

Large portions of the game was played in our half and outstanding performances from our defenders and poor finishing from Wolves kept the game level. Brown, De Laet and Evans had incredible games, working their socks off the keep the opponents at bay.

Nani is beginning to realise his potential. He had oodles of skill but still lacks the crucial-decision making to make it count. Once he gains that, hopefully, thru experience, we could very be looking at the second coming of the departed Ronaldo.

I thought Gibson outshone Carrick today. I've always felt Gibson doesn't have what it takes to make the cut at Old Trafford and I'm officially going to take it all back. He's a fighter and never gives up on anything. It's pleasing to know that we have quality and talent on the bench when we need it.

I'm also pleased with the progress of Welbeck. He's matured since returning from the Euro U19 tournament during the summer. The debutant, Joshua Kings, looks like a good prospect too. He was a little too selfish on a couple of occasions, but generally looked like a pretty good player.

It's a bit of a shame that we didn't see many youngsters unlike previous years. Looks like we're giving this cup a decent run with many familar names. With a bit of luck we may just retain it for another season.

What An Incredible Game!

Manchester United 4 - Manchester City 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (2), Fletcher (48, 80), Owen (90+5)
Manchester City: Barry (16), Bellamy (52, 90)

Team: Foster, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Anderson (Carrick 90), Park (Valencia 62), Giggs, Berbatov (Owen 78), Rooney

Awesome awesome game. It had practically everything a neutral would want in a football game.

We opened the game with an early goal from Rooney. Shitty were caught napping and Rooney made the most of it scoring from an Evra pass.

Unfortunately we stopped playing after that. Despite the demoralising start, Shitty grew in strength and Foster probably took pity on them and gifted one back. Instead of clearing the ball, Foster decided to show his dribbling skills and was promptly stripped by Tevez who instinctively passed the ball to Barry to slot the ball into the empty net.

Shitty grew into the ascendancy and started to control the game. Tevez came close to giving Shitty the lead, but his effort hit the post. Just when it seems inevidable that Shitty would take the lead, the half time whistle came to our rescue.

I would have liked to have whatever they had as the half time refreshment. It was a totally different team that came out of the locker room. We gave Shitty no room and started bombarding their penalty area with crosses. And it took less then 3 minutes into the half before Fletcher rose and headed one of those into the net.

As Old Trafford roared it's approval of the new scoreline, Bellamy had other ideas. He single-handedly brought Shitty level again with a rasping shot beyond the flapping Foster. It was back to the drawing board again for the lads. This time, instead of crumbling, there was a huge sense of urgency and we continued to hammer the Shitty defense with pin-point crosses from the irresistable Giggs.

The addition of Valencia in the place of Park added more crossing prowess. This time we rained in the crosses from both the left and the right. Howver, Shay Given was in outstanding form. Berbatov was extremely unlucky to have two headers saved at point blank range.

In the 80th minute, Fletcher scored his second header of the day to give United the lead for the third time. We took the foot off the peddle and paid the consequences.

This time it was Rio who made the error. Only god knows what he was thinking when he gifted the ball to Bellamy. Bellamy ran the length of the pitch and poked the ball beyond Foster who could've done more to cover his angles instead of sprawling on the ground at the first sign of danger. The the third time, Shitty had found an equalizer.

Time was running out, and running out quick. We looked at a loss and just when it seemed that we would have to settle for a draw, Shitty's rushed clearance found Giggs and he in turn found Owen in acres of space in the Shitty box. And right at the death, Owen did what he's done best all his professional career, and that was to beat his former teammate, Shay Given.

United 4 - Shitty 3. Pandemonium.

It was an utterly satisfactory victory. Giggs is god. In all my years of watching Giggs play, this is possibly his best performance. Everyone in red had an outstanding game, possibly with the exception of Foster and Rio.

I'm beginning to worry for Foster. He's proving to be a liability and if this carries on, the players in front of him would start losing confidence as well. So far his mistakes haven't cost us anything yet. We've been lucky that Rooney and gang have been finding the goals to save his blushes.

Whatever the case is, Ferguson needs to start looking around, either from within or in the market for a suitable and long term replacement for Van der Sar. We could jolly well end up in the same situation when we lose Smikes. The inability to replace him properly probably costs us a number of years in limbo.

Poor Game But United Wins

Besiktas 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer: Scholes (77)

Team: Foster, Evans, Vidic, Evra, Neville, Carrick (Berbatov 64), Scholes, Anderson, Nani, Valencia (Park 84), Rooney (Owen 64)

This is one of those games you'd dig your eyes out if you had to sit thru another 90mins of it. Both sides were piss poor and goal scoring opportunities were almost non-existent.

We clearly came into this game with a plan, and that was to bore the stockings off the Turkish fans. To their credit, they were loud....really loud. Had a lesser team played instead of us, I'd have no doubts the crowd would have intimidated them. But we're made of sterner stuff and having the experience to cope and calm the crowd down (or bore them shitless in this case).

After doing almost absolutely nothing of note for the first 65 minutes, Ferguson finally changed the 4-5-1 formation to a more adventurous 4-4-2 by bringing Owen and Berbatov into the fray. Rooney, to his frustration, was taken off and probaby saved for the big derby at the weekend.

The game opened up abit and before long we had our first goal courtesy of Scholes. Nani's shot was blocked but fell kindly to Scholes who headed it into the net. All that was left was to bore the socks off everyone, which we did magnificiently.

In short, this was a dull, drab game, but in the end, that little bit of class showed and we scampered away with 3 valuable points. A good start to our champions league campaign under difficult conditions.

Arsenal Gifts United 3 Points

Manchester United 2 - Arsenal 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 59), Diaby (og 65)
Arsenal: Arshavin (40)

Team: Foster, Brown, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia (Park 63), Nani, Giggs (Berbatov 86), Rooney

My word, that was one lucky win. Arsenal were all over us from the start and really were the better team on the day. Only god know how they let us back into the game and eventually lost it in 7 crazy minutes in the second half.

The starting lineup spelt a totally defeatist attitude. Ferguson opted to play Rooney upfront along with Giggs and, Nani and Valencia on the wings, as support. For the uninitiated, you would think we were playing at the Emirates instead of Old Trafford. It was conservative and more important, showed the lack of confidence of the manager in his strikeforce.

The game went according to how the managed planned it. We were under constant threat from the very mobile Arsenal forwards, and only desperate defending and lucky deflections keep the scoreline at 0-0. Our passing was utterly horrible, giving the ball away again and again, putting pressure on the defence. How players like Carrick still manage to get into the team is a mystery for the the Hardy Boys to solve. Giggs and Fletcher were no better at passing either. But in their defence, they made plenty of effort to win the ball back. In fact, Fletcher was the ultimate destroyer. He was Keano in that department.

True to the way the game was going, Arsenal took the lead via an outstanding long-ranged thunderbolt from Arshavin. Had Foster been a split-second faster, he might have saved it, instead he only fractionally got a finger on it as it burst into the net.

Foster, however, made amends early in the second half, instinctively sticking out a leg to save a point blank shot from Van Persie. Arsenal were all over United at that point in time and made for terrible viewing for us, United fans.

Yet against the run of play, Giggs supplied a beautiful angled pass that Rooney latched onto. One on one with the keeper, Almunia brought Rooney down resulting in a penalty. This time Rooney stepped up instead of Carrick and sent Almunia the wrong way, and United the right way.

7 minutes later United got the second. Giggs' freekick from the right was header into his own net by Diaby. Diaby was under no pressure but yet his wayward header fooled Almunia and flew straight into the net.

The game threatened to explode into more goals but neither team had their scoring boots on and good chances were missed on both sides. Van Persie did put the ball into the net 5 minutes into injury time but one of his teammates was caught offside in the preceding play. Wenger was sent to the stand for probably saying something or kicking someone and the whole incident took up all the time that was left on the clock, saving us a few more heart-stopping seconds.

On the final analysis, we were frankly rubbish for large portions of the game. We were sloppy in possession and our passing on the day was simply abysmal. Possibly only Fletcher shone as our only outstanding player. His passing still leaves alot to be desired, but his industry and tackling is top-notched.

Next week is the international weekend and we only get to play high-flying Spurs in a fortnight. It's probably a good thing, we need plenty of time to work things out. Despite winning 3 games, there are plenty of aspects about our play that needs to be worked on and a short break, even this early in the season might just do us some good and give us time to reflect on our mistakes.

Champions League Draw

I've nothing better to do on a Thursday night/Friday morning, so I'm going to sit in front of my PC and bore myself silly with the Champions League draw. I should really get a tweeter account and do it there. It feels easier doing it but I'm just going to save everyone the trouble and do this one here.

Group A
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa

Group B
Manchester United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
Porto
Atletico Madrid
APOEL Nicosia

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Florentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dynamo Kiev
Ruban Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard Liege


Live Thoughts: After a long long introduction, we finally have the Pot 1 teams allocated. We're in group B. While waiting for the next Pot to be choosen, Paulo Maldini is getting some award. I'm not getting an English feed so have no freaking idea what award he's getting. Not even going to guess.

Live Thoughts: Terry wins European club defender.

Live Thoughts: We avoid meeting Real Madrid. They get grouped with AC Milan.

Live Thoughts: It's CSKA Moscow. Difficult trip to Russia, but we last won the cup there. Maybe a good omen.

Live Thoughts: Xavi Hernandez win European club midfielder. Waiting to see who else we get to play.

Live Thoughts: Damn....we travel to Turkey. Not a nice hunting ground.

Live Thoughts: CSKA Moscow and Besiktas. Tough away fixtures. Dennis Law makes an appearance to hand out the club striker of the year to Messi. And finally we're going to round off this fucking boring draw.

Live Thoughts: We got the Germany champions, Wolfsburg. The home games should be routine for us, but the away games look particularly difficult. Despite chalking up the frequent flier miles, we should still make it to the next round. Thankfully we not in groups A or C. Both groups look like it could go down the wire.

United Answers Critics With Five In Second Half

Wigan 0 - Manchester United 5
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (56, 65), Berbatov (58), Owen (85), Nani (90)

Team: Foster, Evans (O'Shea 72), Vidic, Neville, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Gibson 72), Nani, Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney (Owen 72)

United answered the critics to their horrid performance at the midweek in devastating fashion, smashing 5 past Wigan at the newly named JW Stadium (formerly JJB Stadium).

The first half was a typical United game, plenty of possession but terribly goal-shy. Our best chances fell to Fletcher and then subsequently Scholes, but both missed horribly. Wigan had their chances but good defending and Foster kept the game scoreless.

United sprung to life in the second half, with Rooney notching up his century for the club in emphatic fashion with a header in the top left hand corner. Berbatov, who has been ridiculously hardworking on the night scored a beautiful individual goal, first deftly lifting the ball beyond the Wigan keeper then volleying the ball into the net.

It wasn't long before Wigan wondered what hit them when Rooney twisted and turned in the box, unleashing a shot that deflected into the net giving the good guys a 3-0 lead.

With a commanding lead, Ferguson decided to give the two-goal hero a rest along with veteran Scholes, bringing on Owen to shoulder the scoring load. And he didn't disappoint. In a trademark turn and spin move, Owen cleared himself of the defense and scored United's fourth in the 85th minute.

Nani got into the celebration with good freekick to exocise the ghost of Ronaldo. In all, this was the best answer to all the naysayers, myself included.

However, at the same time, this is also our biggest problem. As mentioned in previous posts, our strikers are going to get their share of the goals, but we need more than that to mount a sustained campaigned. Everyone needs to contribute to the shortfall left by Ronaldo and Tevez. As evident in the first half, our midfielders are still unable to fill the deficit when the chances present themselves. We need to be more clinical and more efficient in front of goal. Not everyday we're going to face a team that's going to present us a boatload of chances.

But let's keep those worries for another day. Today is a day to celebrate a great victory, and let's enjoy it while we can.

That's Just Pitiful

Burnley 1 - Manchester United 0
Scorer
Burnley: Blake (19)

Team: Foster, Evans, Brown (Neville 71), O'Shea, Evra, Anderson (Valencia 59), Carrick, Park, Giggs, Rooney, Owen (Berbatov 64)

We all knew this was not an easy game. This was Burnley's first home game in the top division for over 30 years and emotions were high. Still it's a game we should have come away with a victory, given the quality of the opponents. Taking nothing away from a fiesty performance by the home side, we were simply rubbish.

The fixtures threw up a few seemingly easy games to start us on the new campaign, and we fizzled on the second game. Burnley were good value for a well taken goal in the 19th minute with a superb volley from Robbie Blake. And we never really looked like levelling the score.

With an entirely changed midfield, it's natural to assume it would take sometime for the engine to switch into gear, but we never did. The Anderson and Carrick pairing should NEVER EVER be put into play again. All these two bozos did were square passes and lose the ball. Park's first touch is terrible. He didn't do anything positive in the game. Only Giggs did well.

At the end of the first half, we were awarded a penalty but Carrick's spot kick was saved emphatically. I'm abit surprised that he's our designated penalty kicker. We have players like Giggs, Rooney and Owen around and Ferguson's decision was to have this waterboy take our spot kicks. I can never understand what's on Ferguson's mind.

The second half was more of the same crap. We showed no urgency, and more importantly, we lack the cutting edge. There is absolutely no way we're going to retain the title this year if we continue playing like this.

I caught Chelsea's game against Sunderland yesterday and barring some miracle, they are going to walk away with the title. Every player knows their role and when they pressure the opponents, they give it their all, something evidently lacking in our players. Maybe I'm abit harsh here on the effort thingy, but they just collectively play on the same page.

With the way we're playing right now, there is a good chance we may even fall off the top 4 this season. City and Spurs both look pretty good this season. Pool and Arse won't win the league, but they are right up there too. This is going to be a long hard season and frankly, one I'm not really looking forward to.

Wigan, this weekend, scares the shit outta me. As long as they pack the box, I can't any of our players score.

Where Are The Goals Going To Come From?

Manchester United 1 - Birmingham 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Rooney (34)

Team: Foster, O'Shea, Evans (Brown 75), Evra, Fabio, Fletcher, Scholes, Nani (Giggs 45), Valencia, Rooney, Berbatov (Owen 75)

Damn. It took a while to get this up. I had to give up trying to get this damn blog up with firefox and am currently taking baby steps with IE.

With the amount of hair-pulling and kicking the PC about, I've almost clean forgotten how the Birmingham game went. As far as I recall, we looked very much like we did at the start of last season...quite terrible. And this time without the services of Ronaldo or Tevez.

So the burning question here is, where are the goals going to come from? We know Rooney and Berbatov would get their share, and Owen might chip in abit if he gets a decent run in the team. The rest of the team's....well....quite pathetic in that department. Scholes has lost his touch in front of goal, evident in this game, taking about half a dozen long-ranged shots and hurting an equal number of pigeons flying about. The rest of the team looked equally dismal in front of goal.

We did of course score with Rooney, but were unable to put the game away beyond reasonable doubt. Moreover injuries to Vidic, Rio and just about every right-back we have, Birmingham looked threatening whenever they had the ball. Evra even had to make a goal-line clearance with his head. Thankfully Foster put last week's game behind him and had a relatively stable game.

All in all, we won, and that's what really mattered, even though we really shouldn't have had to worry in the final minutes.

The season's barely begun and Ferguson must realise that we're probably going to have trouble finding goals this season. Rooney is but one man and most of the time he tracks back too deep to collect the ball. I don't really think Berbatov is going to improve much on his goal tally from last season and based on this one game, it might take sometime before Owen gets his engine started.

No Birmingham Review

I give up. Screw blogger.

All I can say is that blogger just threw a spanner in the works. The posting format totally changed and it's ridiculously different from former platform. I've spent the last 20 odd hours trying to make my posting, but the learning curve is just too steep.

So until something changes, I'm taking a break, and maybe for good.

PS. It took me a freaking minute to find the damn 'post' button! Screw blogger.

Chealsea Beats United On Penalties

I've got to make this as brief as possible. The past few weeks have been rather hectic, hence I've not been covering the preseason friendlies as much as I would have liked. Cow's mum passed away and my girlfriend had a career threatening crisis, both incidents took me away from watching the game I love. So to Bill Shankly, who famously reckoned that football is more important than life, well, he and all the Liverpool fans can go kiss my ass.

Which brings me to my next point. I was offered tickets to the United in KL but was unable to go due to the passing of Cow's mum. It probably would have been a great experience, but being with a good friend in a time of need was way more important. And while our good neighbours had the good fortune of seeingUnited play twice in KL, we, in Singapore got the short end of the stick, having to host a bunch of ungreatful scousers. Word from the grapevine (people who were involved) was that most of the Liverpool players and their officials were giant dicks, but we probably already knew that. The exceptions were Kuyt and the Israeli boy named Benayoun.

Today's Game
I'm going to be brutally honest here and say outright that Chelsea is going to win the league. The only way we're even gonig to top them is if we do what Liverpool did last season, and that's to play out of our skins. And also the Africa Cup of Nations might work in our favour at the turn of the year when Chelsea loses key players. Other than that, there's no way we can beat them in a straight race.

We dominated the first half of the game, but that was only because Chelsea were still in preseason mode. Nani gave us the lead with a rasping shot.

The second half was a total turn around. Chelsea totally controlled the game. With Fletcher as the only midfielder, we were completely outplayed and outpassed. We weren't helped that Foster was a bunch of nerves and probably played the worst game I've seen a keeper play in my entire life.

We managed to equalise at the death with a great pass from Giggs which set Rooney alight goalwards. However that rescue act merely prolonged the inevitable and we lost the game on penalties.

It's only a pre-season game and the league starts proper next week, but it's worrying to see us outplayed by our closest rival to the title. We have to play alot harder and alot smarter to make up the difference in quality, if we're going to retain the title for a record 4th time.

Goodbye Campbell, We Hardly Knew Ye

Somewhere between Ronaldo and Tevez signing for City, we've sold Frazier Campbell to Steve Bruce for a cut price of £3.5 million. That figure could rise to a princely sum of £6 million depending on a myriad of factors.

I'm a little disappointed he didn't leave for Hull. For awhile it seemed that Hull could have offered more. I suppose we should be glad for the lad to find a home. It was painfully obvious that he's not at the level we want him to be.

Despite the fact he's not really been given a fair enough chance at Old Trafford, I've not been impressed with his style of play in the recent Under 19s European Championship. I certainly wasn't impressed with his short stay with Spurs and definitely underwhelmed when he played for us in the beginning of the season. The only time he actually looked like a player was when he played for Hull the season before. It was a different time at a different level altogether.

With the arrival of Owen, and the development of two young bucks in Welback and Macheda, Campbell has become surplus to requirements. It gives me the greatest of pleasures when a young player rises the ranks, but in this case, it's the best scenerio for him to leave.

Manucho
Speaking of strikers, anyone knows what's going on with Manucho? He's wowed me in the Africa's Cup of Nations and has literally disappeared from the face of the earth. I know he's had a short time in Greece and practically wasted half a year with Hull. I'm looking forward to see how he's developed, if at all.

I'm sure Rooney and Berbatov would spearhead our attack next season, with Owen close behind. And two young bucks waiting in the wings for their chance to shine.

Eto'O
I don't like entertaining rumours, but am growing uneasy on this whole Eto'O deal. He's probably leaving Barcelona and City has already pulled out from the chase for his signature. All indicators seem to point this way. I personally hope the rumours remain as that....rumours. I'll just say outright that I'm not an Eto'O fan and it's going to take a whole load of convincing if he does arrive.

Moreover I'd rather we spend the money on a midfielder. As it stands, Fletcher alone isn't enough.

United Seals Obertan Signature

Who?

Exactly. I'm about as clueless as you guys out there. I've never seen him play.

Given his age, 20, I suspect he's one for the future.

Thankfully we didn't fork out a bomb for him. We spent £3million instead of the £10-8 million the media reported would we spend. As far as I'm concerned, it would probably be quite awhile before we even see him in the first team. At 20, he's not exactly old, but if he can't even feature in Bordeaux's first team, how the hell is he going to fit in with us?

I suppose we can only hope he improves well in the near future to justify the risk we took on him. On the bright side, it's not really an expensive risk for a club of our size. Maybe in a couple of years, he might progress enough to take over from Carrick. We can only dream.

I'm Going Gaga Over Owen!

I really don't understand United fans sometimes. Half the world is up in arms over this deal, which to me is a really good one. No, I take that back, it's a fucking GREAT deal! I absolutely love it.

This signing works for me on so many levels, it's almost a wet dream come true. I'll just note them down on point form since this news filtered down to me right in the middle of the freaking night.

1. We didn't spend any crazy money on some freaking over-rated lazy shit piece of ass named Benzema. I'm not saying Benzema is a poor player, but to sign him for anything even close to the amount Real paid for him is ridiculous. From the few Lyon games I've had the chance to catch last season, he comes across as a lazy, disinterested player. We already have one of those named Berbatov.

2. Owen is a free agent. We didn't spend jack squat.

3. Owen is a low risk-high reward signing. He's a proven goal scorer and we paid nothing to have him on our books. If it doesn't pan out, we just let him rot in the reserves. If he starts banging in goals, we look like fucking geniuses. You gotta be a freaking idiot not to like this move.

4. Owen is at his lowest point in his career with practically everyone writing him off. You can bet he's going to come over to Old Trafford and work his fucking butt off.

5. The Michael Owen/Liverpool fanboys can all come suck my majestic cock. It's going to be absolutely hilarious how they are going to react. Even if you can't agree with any of the above (in which case you probably suck anyway), this reason should justify the signing. Too good and too funny to be true.

6. By the unwritten laws of scoring against your previous club rule, you can be sure Liverpool fans are already quaking in their shoes at the prospect of facing Owen. Fucking love the irony.

7. We are probably not finished with adding to the squad. Fans are acting like this is the be all and end all of the signings for this season. We're going to let the chips fall where they are before we make another move if possible. I think this is prudent and wise, considering the silly money that is fly around, especially in Spain. We cannot and will not be pushed into a position to spend silly money on silly players. Past experiences with Nani, Anderson, Carrick, Hargreaves and Berbatov in the last couple of seasons should really have opened Davd Gills eyes on how to do business in the market, although I still think it's not beyond him to make another wild purchase.

Valencia Deal Completed

Looks like we've made our first deal of the summer. We've reportedly signed Valencia from Wigan for a fee of £16million. I'm not overly rolled over with this deal but I can see Valencia a useful part of the squad with the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez.

Speaking of Ronaldo, he's well and truely gone in a deal where everyone comes away a winner. Real Madrid gets their man, Ronaldo gets to fulfill a dream and we finally get to fleece someone in the market. I would like to thank Ronaldo for all the goals he's scored and the contribution to the club while he was here. I wouldn't exactly wish him all the best, but he wouldn't be getting any hate mails from me either. I'm just finally glad that we can have a normal summer from now on.

While I'm doing parting shots, everyone who has been reading knows that I really would love to have Carlitos back, but his recent tirades to the press has been pretty awful. We all know he's bitter to the core and we all know he's somewhat been given a rough time the past year. But he's throwing away all that goodwill out of the window. With each interview, he's burning bridges faster than I can strip to a Hot Chocolate song.

The best thing he can do right now is to sign up (with Shitty or whoever), suit up and, for the love of god, fucking shut up. And I do bloody hope we never sign another Argentinian. Veron was bad, Heinez was awful and Tevez is starting to stink. Let's just stick with second-rated Brazilians.

09/10 Manchester United Premiership Fixtures

Once again we reached the dog days of summer and I'm literally bored to death without any United games to watch. With the greasy one almost gone, there's little concrete news to keep me entertained, bar the countless speculation of who we're going to sign. Or more accurately put, how we're going to get fleeced in the current market climate.

Perhaps the Premier League fixtures will go someway to ease that restlessness.

*Edit*

Would you believe that the premiership fixture list is actually copyrighted?! That means I've got to remove the fixture list from this blog or pay some money to a bunch of rich and already greedy people. It's totally senseless. No wonder more and more people are tuning out with all these ridiculous fees to pay, especially for cable, just to watch our favourite team.

I sometimes wonder if these people actually know how to market their product. Perhaps is just as well that La Liga is gaining in popularity. Some of these people just need a kick up their collective balls to understand the world of internet marketing. I suppose at the end of the day, it's all about milking as much from fans as humanly possible.

Anyway to fill in the gap, I've left a link with the fixtures. I'm personally finding it harder and harder to watch EPL games nowadays. It's getting too expensive and less exciting.

*End of Edit*

I'm pretty sure due to our other commitments like the Champions League and the FA Cup, many of the games listed here will be subjected to change. Not to mention, a number of games will be moved to other slots for TV.

At first glance, it doesn't seem all that bad. We get to kick off against two promoted sides, but we all know our propensity to fuck up early in the season. We also end the season against a couple of clubs who look like relegation candidates. It certainly looks better than the hand we were given last season. That said, it's still 38 games to the finish line and a year away from kicking someone off that little perch.

£80M

I was out with my girlfriend and got a call from Kentona (the ultimate rumour monger) that United accepted a whooping world record £80M bid from the virus capital of the world. I'm still in a bit of a shock and secretly happy that it's finally happened. We've been on this same roller-coaster ride last year and it's good to know it's reached it's final act, and we're spared another boring play by the same boring actors.

United and, especially, Ronaldo have been stringing us along the entire season with statements that he's staying but in the latest turn of events, he's finally reared his ugly head by signalling his intent to leave. Hopefully this is no hoax by some tabloid just to sell more papers. The official conclusion of the deal supposedly is at the end of the month, which means that there is still time for either of the 3 parties to back out. I doubt any of us would like another scene to play itself out.

So what now for United? Well, one thing's for sure, we're not going to as good as we were the previous year. As much as I think Ronaldo's a negative influence to the club on the whole, he's been instrumental to our success the last 3 seasons. I doubt we are able to cope with the same level of success with the current crop. Even if we use the money and make some strong additions, it will take sometime before we can even match the level of play when he's around. So we're practically going to take a step back in the next season.

That said, I'm still glad he's going (and hopefully gone by 30th June). His tantrums on the pitch, while tolerable for a 4 yr old, is extremely embarassing for a 24 yr old, not to mention disrespectful to his teammates and fans. His individual play and his ultra huge ego is just so un-United. At least with him gone (hopefully), Ferguson will be forced to play Rooney in his natural position upfront, although I suspect Ferguson cannot resist screwing with him.

As much as I would like to wish him good luck at his new club, he falls into the category of Heinze and Ince as conniving scums. Ronaldo and Real are a match made in heaven, and I'm glad we pulled the strings for their union. We may not win as many games as before, but at least we can hold our collective heads up high. Good riddence to bad rubbish.

08/09 Report Card

Bah, I'm still smarting from last week's defeat. I can usually take defeats well, but this one leaves a bitter and lingering feel on the taste buds. I suppose at the end of the day, it's not losing that matters so much, but the way we bent over and got our ass kicked in the most comprehensive manner. To compound matters, I suppose we can conclude that Barcelona didn't even play anywhere close to their A game. Anyone who has seen that 6-2 thrashing of Real Madrid would probably agree that if they had played anywhere close to that level, we would've been blown out of the water.

All that said, we did have a very successful season. We completed a hat-trick of league titles. Despite how the media portrays it, Liverpool were never really close and we did win it on a canter. We also tracked half way across the globe and were rewarded with the World Club Cup. Although it must be said that the competition was woefully awful. And to round up our trophy collection, we also won the Mickey Mouse Cup via penalties. On the whole, I would say that we probably had a more than successful season.

On a more personal note, I did manage to catch all the United games except the couple played in Tokyo. I was in Beijing at that time and couldn't find a place that was showing the games. That's a personal best for me and an achievement I'm rather proud of.

I'm going to change the rules for this season's report card abit. Every year the report cards are based solely on Premiership games, but this year I'm probably going to include games from all competitions. There are a couple of reasons for this change. Firstly, I've watched so many games that I honestly cannot differentiate league games and non-league games. Secondly, I think there is a need to highlight that while we won the league with a superb squad rotation, individually, our players are not up to scratch when compared to our rivals. Top 11 against top 11, we're definitely not good enough and it has been proven time and again.

So here are the grades, before I ramble on and on:

Edwin Van der Sar (Grade A)
I initially pegged him as a B, but you gotta give credit when it's due. We haven't seen him flap much this season. Not to mention a record-breaking streak of clean sheets really pushes his balance sheet into the black. The real problem here is that I don't think our backups are good enough at this level yet. I can't remember his contract situation, but I hope he stays for one more season.

Tomasz Kususzczak (Grade B)
Hasn't done too badly when he's been called up. At the same time, hasn't really covered himself with glory either. The frank truth is that I have no idea what to make of him. I like him for his patience, wating in the wings but I reckon he's not going to get his due when Van der Sar retires. The chance probably falls to Ben Foster.

Ben Foster (Grade B)
He has played in fair amount of cup games and has done really well. The question here is, is he good enough to be our number 1? I'm not entirely sure. It doesn't help that he's gotten injured towards the end of the season. I'm sitting on the fence. Goalkeeping in one department that I've genuine worries over.

Nemanja Vidic (Grade A+)
Solid as a rock as usual. To me, he's our player of the year. The only questionable issue with him is that when he's off, he's pretty terrible. But that's something we can live with. So far, he's been on for over 90% of his games. By that percentage, he gets an A.

Rio Ferdinard (Grade A+)
I'm pleasently surprised at how Rio has taken to this whole captaincy thing. 2 year ago, I would have cringed at the prospect of him leading the team out, but now I'm glad he's the captain when all the obvious candidates are not around. I think he's not put a foot wrong this season, both on and off the field. For a character like Rio, that's gotta be a record in itself.

Johnny Evans (Grade A+)
Usually defenders, especially central defenders mature later in life, but Johnny seems to have taken it like fish in water. He hardly ever gets rattled and is a surprisingly good passer of the ball. Since this is his first season in the limelight, let's try not to get overly excited, although based on his performance this season, it's kinda hard not to. Still he's a very young man, asked to fill very big shoes.

Gary Neville (Grade B-)
B? WTF? That's my reaction too. Quite honestly he deserves alot less, but injuries and loyalty to the club counts for something. Having said that, I think I'm too soft to grade him properly.

Patrice Evra (Grade C)
How the hell do you fall from grace so quickly? Just 6 months ago, he was the best left back in the world, and today, he's not only completely lost his form, he single handedly almost lost us the league title. He's been god awful for the last 10 or so games. I would have put the sole blame on him for the Barcelona game if not for the fact there were actually players who were worse! What I think needs to happen is to find a back-up as soon as possible. We need competition at left-back and we need it badly. A fire needs to be lit under his ass.

Wes Brown (Grade B)
I'm using the same grade I did for the mid-term report, since that's the last we saw of him. Injuries have robbed him of another chance to stake his claim. That's the story of his life. The nearly-man.

Rafael Da Silva (B-)
I know alot of United fans are high on him but I'm slightly on the other side of the fence. I've that Evra feeling about him. Good going forward, horrible defender. From what I've seen so far, I'm not at all comfortable when he is defending. But remember he's still very young. Things could change, and I hope they do. I like his enthusiasm, and more importantly, I like what he brings to the game.

John O'Shea (Grade A+)
Yes, I know....plenty of WTFs in the background again. Word out there is that United fans generally do not think much of John. In fact most cringe when they see his name on the teamsheet. He is a limited player, which we can all agree on. But here's what I think. He's always ready when he's called upon for action. Granted he's not as good as most of the players in the squad, he does his best. Sure some may argue that his best is not good enough, but as an athlete, a sportsman and a footballer, you try your best to be your best. And that's what O'Shea does week in week out. The same however cannot be said for ALOT of our players. For that reason, and for that reason alone, he gets my top grade.

Darren Fletcher (Grade A+)
I dread doing the midfielders. I really do. Luckily I get to start off with one of my favourite players. The fact that Fletcher is our best midfielder this season goes to say alot of just how fucking awful we are in this department. Fletcher is a destroyer and he does his job excellently. To say we missed him in the final game of the season is an understatement. He does his job quietly and effectively, without the fanfare.

Michael Carrick (Grade D)
Don't even know why I bother. Most of the time you don't see him in the game anyway. I've tried to be kind in my mid-term report, but it's hard to hold back. As far as I'm concerned he's nothing but a water-carrier. Over-rated, over-paid. And I haven't seen any of those 'wow' passes that he's reputed to make. Big waste of time, bigger waste of money.

Anderson (Grade B-)
Told you the second season would be a difficult one. At least he's shown glimpses of greatness. How that will translate in the next few years is the key here. So far I'm just underwhelmed.

Paul Scholes (Grade C)
It shouldn't have to come to this. Scholesy is one of my favourite players, and it hurts me to see just how slow he's become. In fact all season, I cringe everytime he starts or comes on as a sub. I think without a shadow of a doubt, we can all agree he's best playing days are over. There are still glimpses of greatness once in a while, but those are few and far between.

Darron Gibson (Grade B)
Surprisingly, he's not as terrible as I expected him to be. Has scored a few scorchers and generally a pretty stable, yet not spectucular player. I expect plenty of Ronnie Wallwork and Nicky Butt comparisons here. At the beginning of the season, I thought he would never make the first team, but given just how awful our midfield really is on close inspection, he might just squeeze in afterall. That's not saying how good he is, just how pathetic we are.

Ryan Giggs (Grade A-)
Trying to be kind to another old guard here. Not exactly been superb the entire season, but he had his moments. I suppose the PFA Player of the Year trophy means he's really not that bad afterall, eh.

Park Ji Sung (Grade B)
I suppose you can't really fault Park much this season. He's done all he's been asked to do. Same story of running his socks off and not scoring enough goals. At least he's pretty damn consistant.

Nani (Grade C+)
Hasn't really been called upon much this season. You get the feeling that the Nani-experiment has become a flop. I wish Ferguson will give him a larger role next season and not doghouse him like this one. I suppose with Nani, you have to give him the Ronaldo timeline.

Ronaldo (Grade A)
I really hate to give him such a high grade, but he probably deserved it for his goals and generally taking it upon himself to win us games. As a person, I still think he's a dick, and a huge one at that. I still think we should cash in on him if the price is right. I know it's not a popular choice, but he and Real are a match made in heaven. Moreover, it's just a matter of time before we lose his services to a leg-breaking tackle. All the taunting of opponents is going to rear it's ugly head sometime in the future. Grade A asshole.

Wayne Rooney (Grade A)
Ferguson needs to stop fucking around with Rooney. He's been pretty damn good the whole season until the latter parts when he's been asked to play on the left. WTF! Exactly my thoughts. Rooney, trying to be the model professional, doesn't complain. And what that does is that Ferguson continues to fuck around with Rooney's career, you know, the same way O'Shea and Fletcher have been dicked around. And what makes this even more incredible, is that Rooney still gets an A inspite of Ferguson dicking him around.

Carlos Tevez (Grade C)
Sigh. I'm a huge huge Tevez fan. I've followed his career closely when he was with Boca and then Corinthians. So you can probably imagine the orgasmic reaction I had when he came on loan to us last season. It's like jumping into a threesome with your two favourite porn stars! Having said that, I must say I'm terrible disappointed this season. Firstly, Ferguson has been dicking him around. It's obvious and not up for arguement. Secondly, I'm terribly disappointed that Tevez has been dropping his poo all over the media. As much as I love the little fellow, I think it's going to be hard to stare insult in the face and still retain his services. I'm pretty sure it's the end of his United career, and if it's to another Premiership club, he's not getting any well wishes from me. And thirdly, I surprised just how ordinary Tevez has become. I don't know if it's due to Ferguson dicking him around or simply just playing in England. He used to be alot like Messi, with superb dribbling skills and sublime passes, but all those have disappeared.

Dimitar Berbatov (Grade C)
He's probably single-handedly ruined our season. No one knows exactly what to expect from him. I'm not impressed with him, yet I can understand why he can be useful. When he's asked to perform, he doesn't. And when we don't expect him to, he does. In a way he's an enigma. I think it'd be till the end of next season that we get a truer picture of what he brings to the team. Right now, he doesn't get my vote of confidence.

Danny Welback (Grade B)
Paulo Wanchope anyone? He plays exactly like the Costa Rican. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he gets a larger role next season. There is plenty to admire in his game and the maturity he approaches the game. If there is one criticism, is that he can be too selfish at times.

Federico Mecheda (Grade B)
Can't really say much about him except for those two goals he scored coming on as a sub. When he starts, there's really nothing much to crow about. Then again he's only freaking 17. There is a whole lot of future to go and he's already made an important impact.



There are plenty of youngsters that I've caught and missed out on the report, mostly due to a lack of opinion. One thing that I must add is that we've missed Hargreaves terribly. But when we signed him, we already knew he was going to spend most of his time on the treatment table. I suppose it's yet another blotched signing by a board that has money to throw but totally clueless.

And again to round up the report card....

Alex Ferguson (Grade A)
I had initially penned this one down as a B or even a C, but 3 trophies changed my mind. Not to mention he's handled the squad rotation policy well enough to win the Premiership despite a less than stellar cast, especially in midfield. He's also done well in cuddling the egos in Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez. Not to mention giving some of the kids a glimpse of what it's like to play with the big boys. Despite the fact I do not like the tactics of playing one up front, and screwing with the natural positions of some players, you really cannot argue with the amount of success we've had this season. Even screwing up the last game cannot take away the fact we've finally caught up with Liverpuss and poised to rough-arm them off the perch.