I know you were at the game but how could you have missed that Fletcher was involved in three very good attacks. The only reason he may not have stood out for you is because his defensive duties for the match outshadowed his offensive ones. Because O'Shea for the most part is shite, and both wingers including full backs constantly tried to go froward Fletcher always had to stay behind in case of counter attacks or to intercept the ball or to manmark the likes of Henry and Gilberto and fabregas which he did very well. For the job Fletcher was given for this match he did it very well which is more than I can say for Ronaldo, who cares if he drew two men? isn't that the expectation for every game? he's gonna draw more than one man every game anyway, regardless.
Two points DS: 1) We don't have to match Chelsea to have reasonable depth in central midfield. Losing Scholes and being reduced to a midfield of O'Shea and Fletcher is depressing 2) Prior to this game Utd took 26 points from 30 - that would convert to a 99 point season. We beat Chelsea in that run. Yet we went a further point behind them in the Premiership race. Disappointment at this result is on the same lines. It's soul destroying. No matter how well you do if it falls short of perfection it isn't good enough
Hmm. My point is that the Chelsea squad is never tired, they never have to worry about fatigue or anything like that. It's simply unheard of in world football let alone England and is going to be the bane of us until we too can rotate players of comparable quality like that, imo. It's always a gamble for us to take any top player out and we also cannot cope with injuries. Scholes out? O'Shea on as a replacement things like that. Until that's fixed we're going to find ourselves coming up short in a marathon for a while yet. Cheer up fella, The good times will be back
That's basically what it all comes down to. Yes, we're out of Europe, but domestically our total pace would still translate to an 81 point season--again, enough to win in any normal season. It's frustrating for the rest of the league, exacerbated by Chelsea's means, but what else can we do.
It's a good point, and one fans should consider when complaining about Fergie reportedly showing an interest in players playing in positions that already seemed filled.
Fergie should keep Miller at Leeds till the end of the season when they're in the playoffs and instruct him to give away a penalty and get sent off, effectively making Leeds stay in the Championship. That'd be worth the 40K we've been paying him for over a year...then we'd sell him...to Leeds.
I don't know how I missed those 3 attacks, my guess is either they didn't happen or perhaps he made a sideways pass, or perhaps a very very obvious forward pass to someone in space. In other words, nothing above average, which is Fletcher to a tee... he does alot of things, but none of them above average really. Well, to be fair he's got a fair work rate. Don't feed me this bollocks about both wingers attacking and both fullbacks... 1, Silvestre never went forward except on set pieces. 2 even so, did Keane literally park himself in front of the box? no, never.. he was a bit more conservative towards the end but he'd get forward and get involved. My gripe is even if you aren't going to contribute to the attack then you should be doing your work on offense early. In other words, as soon as we win the ball the CMs job is to know who's making the run, or get them to make the right run, call for the ball, move into space and spark an attack. What we got was, a jog here or there actually following the ball a couple times when we had the ball and when it was given to him, playing it square 90% of the time... a square pass is ok if it releases someone or if its used to keep possesion, but a center mid MUST create and while Ronaldo drawing 2 men and putting in a few crosses and getting into the box is expected, he did that - he also worked on defence when necessary and that's also expected, Fletcher did some things that were expected but he fell short of producing anything of worth going forward (I don't know, I've not seen a replay yet, so maybe he had a part in 1 or 2 attacks but that's beside the point, he's got to do more). Also, if Fletcher was man marking Henry he was wearing a Rio mask. If he was man-marking Gilberto then he needs to buy a fcking clue, which I think he does anyway.
I agree here. Guys, if you don't like what jrod69 (or any other similar poster) has to say, then please either use your ignore list if you have one, or just skip over it. If you really feel the need to respond to him, then take it to PMs. It's frustrating to have to wade through 50+ posts of pointless banter between jrod and other posters, and its that sort of thing that has driven away quality posters in other forums. I don't want that to happen here.
Oh now that's just scary. Besides, that shiny, new ring on your finger means you've already got a boss.
Don't you understand though, this wasn't an average game in which the CM's could have gone forward or contributed to offense to your liking. First of all, we had Smith and Scholes missing, our central midfield was made up of Fletcher and fvckin O'SHEA!!!!!! and oh yea we played against a more than up for it-Arsenal. Every time Arsenal attacked or counterattacked only the United defenders would be back to defend, everyone else was already in the other side of the box, even O'Shea, even Gary Neville. Fletcher did his best to always track back and intercept the ball and his man marking was distributed very well, I don't understand your gripe with that. Ronaldo only tracked back once and was successful, Fletcher tracked back on all occasions and was successful a lot more than just once. And the three attacks he contributed to were amongst our best in the entire match. You say Fletcher is nothing above average, it's odd how you say that since he's been one of our best players the past year and with every season he seems to be getting better. And another thing, if we were to pick out our five hardest working players for the whole season, Fletcher would definitely be in it, Ronaldo wouldn't. Now with all the turbulence surrounding the club as of late, that's gotta be worth something no?!
If some may have noticed, our center midfielders didnt really press forward that much last time at highbury. Scholes was found deeper than usual...
LOL... fletcher must have German citizen ship. Fletcher one of our best players of the season??? the sad thing is that you aren't havin a laugh.
when was the last time I actually implied that? I never mentioned anything Germany in regards to Fletcher, Johno just pulled that out of his ass....