Newcastle United vs. Manchester United

Literally everthing Rooney touched went to piss, I'd still keep him on mind. He, if anybody, will bring the urgence to get back.
 
Solius said:
They're hassling the shit out of Carrick, he has no room to work and as a result the result of our play is suffering.
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Sol, your right, but its not Carricks fault tonight, their midfield has so much more legs and aggression than ours. I always said we need an aggresive centre mid to compete and hassle, but we don't and people call me a Neanderthal because of it.

That lad Tiote looks a real talent.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Yeah Nani is too much of a winger to step up and do that (i.e. some days his crosses won't come off etc.) but we need someone who can play at a consistently high level in our attack.
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I think he's looking good in his new free to roam role but I think for us to be able to use him effectively in that role we need a proper defensive midfielder. Carrick is good at what he does but he isn't nearly mobile enough.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
The match is scrappy. Neither side is playing anything resembling football. It's just individuality running things.
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I'm watching a stream with like a 2 sec delay and its running faster than normal and then stopping... You can't imagine how scrappy it is on the screen LoL...

Anyway, I think we were a bit off and Newcastle have done well pressuring us, especially the wingers, they are really stuck tight and have only let our wings dribble backwards.
 
Meh we're up against a decent team and they scored a great goal, still another half to show why we're champions.
 
Jacob said:
feck off, Valencia has been our best player.
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If by best you mean not our worst then you have a case but he has not been our best player by far. If anyone has it's probably been Evra.
 
We can't blame injuries this time around, we have a strong side out, arguably our best (bar Vidic and Clev).
 
Don't understand all this Nani criticism, yeah he's infuriating but he's one of the very few players we have who can create something even when out of form.
 
In all seriousness, is anyone else a bit fed up of 4-4-2? Especially when one of the 2 in midfield is 37. I'd love to see a different system used for away games and even at home against the better sides.
 
I think we'll draw this. We can't really be much worse than we have in terms of creating chances.
 
Snow said:
No he hasn't. No one has been our best player. Valencia's next foul will be a yellow. He's had problems with his pressing.
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I think all our players have had a problem with the pressing, we just need a bit more movement from both Berba and Rooney, both haven't tried to drop deep yet or Rooney's first touch has just let Newcastle regain possession
 
I'd get Rafael on for Park put Nani left and get Valencia on the right for the second half.

We're playing way too deep.
 
Poor team performance from us. Rooney looks horribly off form, as he's looked for quite a while now. I said it in a match day thread over a month ago, but he doesn't seem to have the desire to win every ball as he used to have. Poor touches from him, sloppy passes and general carelessness sums up his performance in the first half and in many of his games this season for me. Doesn't even seem mad at himself or his teammates when he plays a poor pass these days.

He's not the only one at fault though. Berbatov hasn't really been involved apart from his header and we seem unable to gain control in midfield. Newcastle do a very good job at putting pressure on us and the players out there seem unable to play precise passes and get ball properly under control when they're hurried. I'm a big fan of Park in European away games because of his workrate, but I really wonder what he brings in games like this. He probably hasn't been worse than any other players, so my criticism might seem a harsh, but I just don't see the point of having him on the pitch in these games. As frustrating as Nani is he gets in decent positions at least and we all know that he can provide that moment of magic now and then. Looking at the bench I'm not sure what's a better alternative than Park though, but that probably means we should strengthen the midfield, or get another winger if we're going to play Valencia at right back so often.

We can still win this, but we need to step up and deal with Newcastle's pressing. If we can play around a few of their players in the middle of the pitch there's a lot of open space to exploit, which was brilliantly highlighted when Giggs put Rooney through.
 
Plan M said:
In all seriousness, is anyone else a bit fed up of 4-4-2? Especially when one of the 2 in midfield is 37. I'd love to see a different system used for away games and even at home against the better sides.
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I think it's obvious we'd have gone for our usual 5 in midfield away from home, if it wasn't for our shortage in the centre of midfield.
 
Plan M said:
In all seriousness, is anyone else a bit fed up of 4-4-2? Especially when one of the 2 in midfield is 37. I'd love to see a different system used for away games and even at home against the better sides.
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Agreed. Giggs is getting over run in midfield today and it's hardly surprising. It's still better than Park and Rafael in there today.
 
Grow some balls you lot.

An iffy first half doesn't mean we can't win. A good team talk better get improved performances from our key players. I can see us scoring if we sharpen up our decision making from midfield to attack. Their desire is clearly outmatching ours so far, but that can all change.
 
Plan M said:
In all seriousness, is anyone else a bit fed up of 4-4-2? Especially when one of the 2 in midfield is 37. I'd love to see a different system used for away games and even at home against the better sides.
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Worked fine away to Fulham and QPR.
 
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