Yep. And for that to happen you need a squad of similar depth and most importantly quality. Not a single team in the world can match the rotation they put on over the Christmas schedule.
fergie is afraid that little guys like richardson and park will be easily pushed off the ball and as a Cm u have to control the midfield and these guys dont have the vision/passing ability to do so thats why they are wide players who use their dribbling and speed to get by defenders
Richie Jones should be in Antwerp right now, shouldn't he? Fergie really didn't have much of a choice. Playing Park in CM would have been a huge risk simply because he hasn't yet played in that position for us. O'Shea might not be the greatest, but at least he can be counted on to do a passable job as a holding midfielder. I wasn't happy with his performance, but I really wouldn't blame Fergie's selection here.
Has anyone said anything about Brown yet? I personally think he made our defense stronger than it has been all season. He had the best performance out of anyone IMHO.
I'd love to see Brown and Rio partnered at CB for the rest of the season. I'd also like to see both play with the giant fro, a la Ben Wallace in the NBA.
Thoughts on the match: -Gary Neville was United's best player. His overlapping runs were United's best source of attacking, he covered well defensively, and, on an intelligent run, he nearly came up with the game winner at the end. Some of his crosses were disappointing, but other than that, well done. -I thought Fletcher did a decent job defensively. We complain about Smith lack of positioning and understanding of the DM position, while Fltech genrally shows a good sense of where he is supposed to be and urgency in covering attacks. He didn't go forward terribly well, but Arsenal still have the ability to counter well and he couldn't risk venturing forward and leaving O'Shea to cover the middle of the park. -Almost all of United's attacks were down the right. In the first half, it was primarily through Gary, and in the second half it was through Ronaldo and Gary. Given that Ronaldo v Cygan seemed such a mismatch on paper, I don't know why Ronaldo was in the middle of the pitch or on the left for most of the first half. Once he moved to the right, he was much more effective. -None of United's attacks came through the middle. This is one of the things that is hurting the attack. When United's only viable option is to attack wide, it limits things significantly, especially against a team that defends well, as Arsenal did yesterday. -I'm not sure why the announcers were going on and on about what they perceived as a handball by Rooney. Yeah, Rooney put his arm up, but the ball clearly bounced off the head of Lauren.
In a related story, Sir Alex Ferguson also conceded that the world is round and revolves around the sun.
Ronaldo perhaps missed our best chance of the match. Fletcher was excellent at getting in the way, at no time did he initiate anything attacking in a game when the opposition had one shot on target and one ball that dribbled to the keeper. Yes working hard on defence is important, but in a game when what we needed was attacking impetus Fletcher NEVER got into a position to cause a threat to Arsenal. The one thing about Smith and O'Shea is that they generally try to get into good positions and that's why they've both created more goals than Fletcher this season... that's right, both of them have created a minimum of 2 goals. Someone playing center mid could create 2 goals by accident in a team with this offensive quality, unless of course every pass is sideways or backwards. And yes, I thought Ronaldo had a good game, several crosses, one of which picked out Giggs with time to control and then shoot but he elected to shoot first time and miscued his shot. Ronaldo also was the only person other than Ruud and Rooney to draw 2 men. Something Gary was able to exploit but not suprisingly, Fletcher could not.
Ruud missed the target from 6 yards out. He had an overall average game, compared to the way hes been playing of late. He looked lazy in the first half. Not challenging much for 50-50 balls. Improved in the second half.
totally agree with johno I may be wrong that Fletcher had a bad game overall but thats probably because I focus more on the game when United are attacking and Fletcher produced nothing on offense ... maybe he did have a good game running back and helping the defence but as a CM u have to produce some type of attack and make some good passes
buddy i watch the whole game but plays on offense grab my attention more unless its a meaningful stop