Silvestre Out Six Weeks

Looks like the injury sustained during the encounter with Arsenal a couple of weeks back wasn't just a simple knock. Apparently Silvestre injured his metatarsa and is confirmed out for at least 6 weeks.

This should be good news since we wouldn't have to see Silvestre making anymore defensive boo boos for at least a month and a half, however this also means that Evra will be the first line of defense in the absence of Heinze. Between dumb and dumber, I'd take Silvestre anytime over the hapless Evra. I'm sure many of us would rather Evra got injured instead.

Don't get me wrong, I hate to see any United players get injured, but if it happens to players like Silvestre or Evra, it's usually addition by subtraction.

Ronaldo Exorcises Demons At The Stadium Of Light (Benfica 0 - Manchester United 1)

Ronaldo earned his right to begin his journey as a United legend tonight. It was at the Estadio da Luz where he fell from grace in Dec 05, with a disgraceful and immature performance and a sending off. I was ready to write him off then. However tonight he not only redeemed himself with a scintillating display but capped it off with a level of maturity and presence that's only reserved for United legends. Tonight he showed why he will be special. Tonight he stood up to be counted when so many of his teammates went missing.

For a full 60 minutes, we were horribly shit. Apart from Ronaldo, our entire midfield was bullied into submission. Scholes and Carrick were awful, giving the ball away cheaply, leaving O'Shea to clean up their mess. Today the result went our way, but our lack of a ball winner will come back to haunt us in a big way one day. Suddenly having a Phil Neville, Nicky Butt or even a Quinton Fortune in midfield doesn't sound too bad.

Rooney had his 4th off day in a row. His touch was simply absymal. He was either hitting it too hard or too softly. Ferguson should have substituted him much earlier in the game. Everytime the ball went to Rooney, it was given away to the opponents. Rooney needs to get out of his funk soon. He's one of our key players and we can't have him playing badly, especially when so many other players are playing like shit too.

Thankfully for the entire game, Benfica's forwards were as inert as our midfield. Despite all their possession, they hardly threatened our goal.

Our goal came in the 60th minute when Ronaldo (every good move was started by him) released Saha on the right wing. Saha cut passed his man and fired a screamer into the goal from the edge of the penalty area.

The goal practically killed off Benfica's challenge. Or at least the game suddenly became easier on us. We still gave the ball away alot, but the Benfica players seemed to play with their heads held low.

This was not a classic display by our lads, but I'm glad to have the 3 points in the bag. This is an easy group and we should make it into the next round without much trouble. However if we continue playing like the way we have, we're going to be in big trouble in the next round when we face some of the better teams. The consolation is that we would probably have the opportunity to strengthen our squad, especially the midfield.

Normal Service Has Been Resumed (Reading 1 - Manchester United 1)

Before I go into this entry/bitching session proper, I would just like to say I'd be boycotting Ghim Moh Road block 10 kopitiam's drink store. I was watching the game with Kentona, and the bloody motherless son of a goat who calls himself the owner switched off the tele with a fucking 5 minutes left to play. I sincerely pray to the football gods to hear my pleas and bestow upon him genital herpes or anything similar. May he never have a proper fuck, ever again.

Now that I've placed the curse of a thousand unsatisfied fucks, I'm ready to go into today's game proper.

This is so typical of Manchester United. When everyone (talking bout last season's top 4) picks up points and scores easy victories, we would screw up. We've been doing this party trick so often, that it's no longer funny nor novel. Everytime we play a later game when our rivals have already won, we tend to fuck it up for some inexplicable reason.

Kentona and I went to block 10 in Ghim Moh to catch the game. We missed the lineups as the TV was showing the City - West Ham game instead. By the time the channels were switched, the game had already started and we were left guessing who started for us. Of course it didn't help that we had all sorts of trouble identifying our own players coz the screen was pretty far away and the commentary was off. In fact for most parts of the game, we were left wondering why Saha looked so lacklustre and why our 18 million pound man was left on the bench again.

It wasn't until in the middle of the second half that we realised that Carrick had started for us and Saha was sitting on the bench! To say we were both totally stumped would be an understatement! Fucking Carrick was completely invisible for almost 65 minutes into the game! We fucking spent 18 million pounds for this piece of Houdini act!

And speaking of shit, Richardson was shit. I've been rather tolerant of him ever since he rejected WBA and announced that he wanted to fight for his place in the squad. But today's gotta be the last straw. He's simply NOT good enough......by a long long long shot. We are so poor whenever he plays, giving away possession or making stray passes. It doesn't help that he gave the Ronaldo crap of last season.

Speaking of Ronaldo, he looks like he's completely matured after the Word Cup. He's been a model citizen and has been one of the few players who has really played his heart out for the team the entire season. No whining, no diving, no nonsense. Just pure class all around.

As for the game itself, there's really not much to say. We were poor. In fact we were awful until Saha and Ole came on in the 70th minute. Well....actually we were still awful after they came on.

In the end it was probably a lucky result for us. With the tactics we used today, we didn't even deserve a point. We did have more clear cut chances but on the whole Reading gave a really good account of themselves. They are a honest hardworking team, very much like Wigan last season.

Lastly I would just like to add that Ferguson has completely lost it. Tactically we were naive. We have a fully fit Saha and we put him on the bench. We played a semi-fit Rooney up front on his own. Hasn't the England World Cup experiment been disastrous enough? If an armchair critic like myself can see the obvious, why can't an old fool like Ferguson see it? I wish he would stop playing people out of position and start playing them where they play best at.

I personally don't like the Glazers but if they do what's right and remove Ferguson (together with his cancerous appendix Carlos Queiroz) before he ruins the club any further, I might....might just find it in my heart to accept them as owners. I don't care if we never win another trophy in my lifetime again, but I hope to see someone steeped in our tradition and lore take over as manager. Someone like Sparky, or maybe even Keano, but I know I'm asking for too much from the Americans. The only thing they know and care about is the £.