1/18/03 Matchday XXIV: Manchester United v. Chelsea [R]

Terry out

and so is Stanic, but Melchiot is fit play RB. Hopefully CR will stick with a setlled squad:

----------------------------Cudicini-------------
Melchiot----------Gallas--------Desailly-------Baba
Gronkjaer--------Lampard--------Petit-----Le Saux
------------------------Jimmy-------Eidur--------

Subs: EDG, Zola, Zenden, Morris, Ferrer? (Cole maybe?)

 

full squad:

19 players traveled:

Cudicini, De Goey, Melchiot, Ferrer, Gallas, Desailly, Huth, Babayaro, Le Saux, Gronkjaer, De Lucas, Petit, Lampard, Morris, Zenden, Zola, Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen, Cole.

3 will miss the bench. Would think that Huth and De lucas are near certainties for this. Then it will come down to whether CR wants a defender (Chapi) or an extra striker (Cole) on the bench as I think Zola, Zenden and Morris all deserve to be there.

 

Perhaps Huth might make the bench on the basis that if either of the full backs get crocked Gallas could move out and Huth could move in.Ferrer is kind of a static choice.But he does have the expierence i suppose.

Glad to see Melchiot back.
Wonder if they'll continue to play Blanc in their defense with the speed of Gronkjaer..if he starts that is.
Good line up MST...hope Ranieri picks it.
At least a point is a must, just to keep that top 4 position solid.
Losing ground on the Arse is acceptable as we all realise that we're not going to win the title this season.Everton and below gaining ground on us is not acceptable.

 

Set the alarm clock

Team for tommorrow?
agree wuth the mst77 line-up
Subs: EDG, Zola, Zenden, Huth, Cole

I hope Blankety-Blanc is in the line-up and I hope he gets roasted.

btw - Gallas is better than Ferdinand.

 

Re: Set the alarm clock

Ain't that the truth Monkee.
Ferdinand is a class player and in time will come good for the scum, however, like our Liverpool friends have founds out, World Cup performances can be a little deceiving.

 

HT -

Chelsea 5 Man United 0 - corners

Man United have had ONE attempt on goal, unfortunately they scored from it.

One-One at the half

The 9 man (and two nevilles) Man yoo team are lucky to be level. Chelsea need to just keep on at them and they can win this game. Man you are a 3 man defence - Rio, Wes Brown and Roy Keane - If we keep the pressure up, we should get the points today.

 

Lucky, Filthy, Man yoo kunts

lucky lucky man yoo kunts

ferguson is such a kunt

lucky bleeding scum

totally gutted

 

Heartbreaking...

 

No sour grapes here

We should have come away with something from that game, end of.

However, yet again and this is becoming an alarming thing at the end of importent games, ie Viking, pool and now scum, we concede a goal in the 90th plus minute.
Great cross in from Veron and that cunt Forlan gets in front of his man, which at that stage of the game should never have happened, and puts it past Cudicini for the winner.
I almost put my foot through the Telly when he scorted however i am asking my self why our defense lets us down yet again at the death.

 

And when Zenden crossed

and Zola ... You would have thought he would have put that one away.

ho-hum. Its only a game right?
only a game.

and to see that Ferguson chuckling away, made me sick. and the "fourth official" was chuckling away as well...

Plus side. we are a decent team.
Petit and Lampard were in control for most of the game.
Our strikers are erratic.
Gronks/De Lucas don't look good enough to me.
Maybe its time for Zenden to shine?

 

Can't second guess the gaffer, what with the way the team is playing and our overall position in the league, however....

I did think that taking off Gudjohnsen was the wrong move to make at that moment in time.

Still we went down at pool in the last minute and then went on a great run, perhaps....

As for Gronks and Zenden i will refer to the comment i made on the Duff topic.
Sell both of 'em and buy one decent, every day out and out winger.
Having both of these guys is fantastic for strength in depth, however what we need right away is strength on the field and sadly i feel that neither of them is capable of a sustained run of form for us.

 

Not a happy camper

So we can't beat the little boys and but play well against the big teams? Seems like we have a role reversal this season. 7 matches against Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Leeds and we have gotten 2 points. Not sure what went wrong today but Jimmy going down in the 10th minute certainly didn't help. Cudicini's mental error was terrible as well, but Forlan's goal was a great piece of skill. After Scholes' goal, the guy next to me said it best - "That was what Man Utd are the best team in the world at doing - punishing you for your mistakes." I agree 100%.

If I see De Lucas play again I may fly to London and give CR a good slap. He is nowhere near Premiership material and should ************ off back to Spain this summer. What was Gronks doing wrong? He nutmegged Silvestre twice and put in 2 great passes. If CR had to bring him off I would rather see Oliveira on the bench, or better yet bring on ZENDEN who has shown great vision for the 45 minutes of football he has played in the past month. I cannot understand why Zenden is not getting more minutes, he has been our best offensive player just about every time he has been on the pitch. Play him up front if you don't like him on the wing CR!

No one was especially good today but I would say Petit had the best day followed by Eidur for that nifty little finish.

Simply put, this loss was tougher for me to swallow than the Liverpool loss and that is saying a lot.

 

Long way to go yet

And we need to start gathering the points again.
We may not have played particularly well today, though i did think it was a good overall performance really and if wee continue to play as well we'll be a good bet for the champs league next season.
Not many teams would have beaten us today.

Still, it's over now and we must look to the remaining games.The teams below are starting to get closer, bit by bit, course taking just 4 from the last 15 will do that i suppose.
We must beat Leeds.

 

Lets not forget we totally out shone then in the first half
Man yoo had one shot on goal
They had no corners and we had five
We should have made more of our first half attacking opportunities
carol made a mistake, so what, he more than redeemed himself in the rest of the game
in the second half
we matched them, but we were beaten by goal in injury time
Unfortunate
Next season we'll get back to getting our customary 3 points at old Trafford

Carlo and the back four are a good unit and do their stuff
the middle field - was a 3 man show - Petit, Lamps and Le Saux
Gronks for all his effort and bursts of pace, never really achieves anything, De Lucas achieves even less.
Zenden in his 10 mins on the pitch, whipped in a great cross, that a younger Zola would have scored with ease
Jimmy has not been "with us" this season; his heart and mind seem elsewhere
Last season Eidur and Jimmy were tearing ALL defences apart, and if they were feeling tired, Forrsell came on and generally scored
This season Eidur and Jimmy are a shadow of their partnership of last season
Zola is showing his age - sadly his season seems over to me
Forrssells return will certainly be welcomed

Jimmy Floyd's last Chelsea game?

 

I thought Eidur took his goal very well on Saturday.

Maybe I have been supporting the blues too long but I just felt we were going to let in a late one. I was really worried when they showed 3 mins of extra time. I don't know where that came from there was only 1 min in the first half.

Do you think Zola thought he was offside when Zenden put him through there at the end? He only seemed to make a half hearted attempt to flick the ball.

Well this is certainly turning out to be our "bad spell" 3 losses and a draw in the last 5 league games.

We have to beat Leeds next week

 

Originally posted by Dr_Intoxicated
I thought Eidur took his goal very well on Saturday.

Indeed.
Shades of the form of last season there.Excellent little lift on the ball after he left it out in front of him to invite the dive.

Originally posted by Dr_Intoxicated
Do you think Zola thought he was offside when Zenden put him through there at the end? He only seemed to make a half hearted attempt to flick the ball.

Actually i was thinking that he may just not be able to react quick enough to split second reflexes anymore.I fear age and an arduous first half to the season for him have caught up with him.

 

Well Clan, I saw the Zola effort again last night on Chelsea TV and it was a bad bounce off the dodgy pitch that caused Zola problems, perhaps you are right in earlier days he may have been able to react to it.

 

Man United?

Are they SCOUSERS in disguise?

 

Re: Man United?

Nah, can't be mate..i mean they did score two goals