Bad, bad news - Ole possibly out for the rest of the year http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fbl_eng_pr_manutd&prov=afp&type=lgns Doesn't look good - a knee problem...
Re: Re: Bad, bad news - Ole possibly out for the season lol - oops! I was thinking that was an awfully long time to be out for a knee problme but what do I know? lol
Re: Re: Re: Bad, bad news - Ole possibly out for the season It's OK. 2-3 months still hurts though. Looks like Ronaldo is our new right winger for a good run here.... and that doesn't really suck though.
"Looks like Ronaldo is our new right winger for a good run here.... and that doesn't really suck though." No it doesn't...but he can't be a one-trick pony. If we get Scholes back, do you play him up front with Ruud, allowing Giggs to attack on the left, or do you play him behind lone-striker Ruud?
I'd line up like this: ---------- Howard---------- G. Nev - Rio - Silvestre - O'Shea Ronaldo -- Keano -- Fortune ------Scholes----Giggs---- ------------Ruud--------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Bad, bad news - Ole possibly out for the season I'm excited about that as a possibility. Did you see how much the team looked to the right in the first half last weekend? He was quite the handful. My new Ronaldo jersey will be well used this season I like this option too: ---------- Howard---------- G. Nev - Rio - Silvestre - O'Shea Ronaldo -- Keano -- DJ -- Giggs ------Scholes------ ---------------RVN---------------- And, of course, when we get healthy for league matches at home: ---------- Howard---------- G. Nev - Rio - Silvestre - O'Shea Ronaldo -- Keano -- Scholes -- Giggs --------RVN------Ole-----------
And I just saw this - Ronaldo was voted ManUtd MOTM on the ManUtd.com website... How about our starting 11 vs. LEI this weekend (away): ---------- Howard---------- G. Nev - Rio - Silvestre - O'Shea Ronaldo -- Keano -- DJ -- Fortune ------Giggs------ ---------------RVN----------------
How about: ------------------Howard------------------- G.Neville---Ferdinand---Silvestre------O'Shea -------------Keane-----Fortune------------- -----Ronaldo------Fletcher/Forlan------Giggs----- ----------------V.Nistelrooy-----------------
Hmmm... I wonder if Forlan will start an away match? If be did, who would SAF bring in towards the end if its a tie? Bellion, maybe, but he used Forlan off the bench last week and could likely do it again. He did start both RVN and Forlan togehter when we lost at Southampton though... I hadn't thought about Fletcher though; he is very versatile and scored in the reserves match the other day. With Chelsea playing Aston Villa, we need max points to stay top of the pops and Fletcher is most often an attacking mid, isn't he (much like Richardson)? I wonder if SAF wouldn't want a more defensive structure for the first 60 minutes with DJ/DJ and Keano and then sub in Forlan, etc if we need goals. And I think Phil should start instead of Gary; copied and pasted too much earlier.
One more point, we bought Ronaldo and he is a striker who we are putting out on the wing. Why not give him a shot at only having to run at 1 defender before getting a shot or pass off for a change?
So you think we could try Fletcher on the right with Ronaldo the withdrawn striker? I could see that working well. I'd love to see Ronaldo taking on Frank Sinclair down the middle and making him look baaaaadddddd on Christiano's way to his third goal of the game
We have to think that RVN will also not score as many goals this season without Becks and Giggs crossing balls in from the wing. I saw RVN several times on Sunday deliberately not pass to Ronaldo on the wing in favor of holding the ball. Giggs and the rest of the team seemed to see out Ronaldo to get him the ball... I don't know if it means anything yet; we all know RVN is a greedy man with the ball (thankfully!). But you have to think he realizes that, the more Ronaldo gets the ball on the wing, the more he's going to try to dribble his way into the box instead of trying precision crosses to Ruud's head the way Beck's would have.
I thought about that, especially during the Arsenal game, but I wonder if he's ready for the more physical play he'd encounter in there. His strength appears to be receiving the ball on the move and taking on defenders. I'm not sure he wouldn't end up drifting wide to receive the ball alot anyway, especially after he had taken a couple hits with his back to goal. Still, Giggs didn't exactly thrill me vs. Arsenal in the 2nd striker role, so maybe it's worth a try this week.
This brings up another point: Ronaldo is NOT a winger! He's a striker. Sure, you'd love to have him be able to cross the ball better (even though I can remember 3 of his crosses that we should have score from anyways), but that's not his game. And to ask a young player like that to play against top flight players out of position, that's a pretty tall order. I'd love to see: ------Howard- ---- Nev--Rio--Silv---O'Shea Fletcher--Keano---Giggs ------Ronaldo------ --------RVN-------- F'in Deadly Man!!!
I'll tell you what he'll do - he'll fall down and hold his ankle like he always does! I'm not AT ALL complaining about that; I think he sometimes does the right thing by falling down. Sometimes he should fight through it though and see what could happen. I love to watch Ronaldo get fouls - the more fouls he gets, the better we seem to do!
That's a bit cynical. The idea of him charging into the penalty area would make most defenders crap their jammies in fear though. Once he gets that dart to the outside and cut the ball back inside to the onrushing Scholes or Giggs, we'll be in business.
For me, the jury's still out on Ronaldo. Yeah, he does all those fancy stepovers and runs fast as lightning, but his overall contribution to the attack still leaves me wanting more. I'd much rather have Solskjaer still out there, if it was possible, but Ronaldo is an up-and-coming talent that still has to find his way to delivering for Man U. I know this is probably gonna get bashed left and right from people, but I'm just not convinced he's all that Ferguson's built him up to be - at least not yet.
---------------------------------------- I'd love to see: ------Howard- ---- Nev--Rio--Silv---O'Shea Fletcher--Keano---Giggs ------Ronaldo------ --------RVN-------- F'in Deadly Man!!! ---------------------------------------- Over confident, motterman? I'd prefer they play with 11 men
Well, it's as simple as this: the last few games, Ronaldo has been our most dangerous player. You can chalk it up to Giggs and Ruud not playing well (or getting the service), and the injury to Scholes and Solksjaer, but there it is.
I agree with Motterman. Ronaldo can make space on the wing. But if you put him just behind RVN, you finally have the type of threat that's going to draw attention away from him. Or, alternatively, they can attempt to let one defender handle Ronaldo, and get humiliated. Or, they can abandon the wings, and Giggs/Whoever Plays on the Right (Fletcher? Neville? Kleberson? Don't like Scholes on the wing...) can burn them with a steady diet of crosses. When Scholes comes back, I'd like to see a more attack-oriented formation. How about -----Howard------ Nev-Rio-Silv-O'Shea ------Keane----- Giggs----------Right Winger -------Scholes-------- ------------Ronaldo---- --------RVN--------- Diamond formation might work very well here. Scholes would be devastating ghosting behind RVN and Ronaldo. And we don't really have another good right winger, so we could make the wings a bit more defensive. Giggs, of course, could be allowed to rome. Given that the problem seems to be scoring goals, not conceding them, perhaps a more attacking formation is in order.
haven's lineup looks good for matches against teams with a very weak defense and playing at OT. Put that out against Fulham, or AV, or some of the other weak teams and see what we get... I don't think we could be so aggresive in UEFA matches though - maybe this round but certainly not later.