Ok. Am I only one concerned about the over reliance on Ruud? Arsenal are absolutely fc.uked if Henry gets injured or has a big dip in form... It's not getting to that point for us yet but, Scholes has hernia trouble the type which means he may well miss a number of games when he returns and Giggs is our only other prolific scorer from his position. It doesn't take a genius to work out we need cover. Ronaldo is only 18, isn't really supposed to be playing so many games (Fergie didn't want him 'all up in it' so soon) and Ole who also will be returning from a condition you don't want over exerted like Scholes should not be expected to be on top of his game from the get go. Ruud's importance in this evaluation prctically doubles. What the hell do we do if he goes down (form or injured) ??
We have Giggs (as you mentioned), Keane has been scoring this year, Forlan is currently in form (though he is streaky), Quinton Fortune can score if needed, as can Ronaldo. Most teams have a reliance on one guy up top, but I think United have enough players who can score so that this isn't a huge problem. Henry, Owen, Shearer, Beattie... all players who are virtually irreplaceable. Ruud has guys behind him who not only set him up, but can put it in the net themselves.
I couldn't agree with you more. Ruud is one of the best strikers in the world and is invaluable to the team, but he really needs someone of equal talent to pair up with him up front. OGS and Forlan and good, but you never know when their streak may end or when they will be back to full form after injury. This begs the question, who would you most like to see as Ruud's striking partner?
Oh, and as for Ruud's "slump", might be interesting to note that he is currently on pace to score 27 league goals--2 more than he scored last season.
Look, every club is vulnerable to a bloated injury list. However, you are talking about a club that's right now missing OGS and Scholes. Two of our top 5 attacking players. If Ruud gets injured that's 3 of 5 top offensive players including the No. 1 and No. 2 threats. Every club would struggle to score goals with that many injuries to key positions. We have an advantage that our midfield and defense is solid and stocked and that will keep us in the title race until these current injury worries are over with. Geeze...third in the league, our best start in the Prem ever, etc. It's no time to get frustrated and discouraged. We beat the Scousers just last Sunday, you should be thrilled!
>Every club would struggle to score goals with that many injuries to key positions. We have one striker injured (Solksjaer), one midfielder (Scholes) and one defender (Brown). That doesn't even remotely resemble an injury crisis! For a club with ambitions to win the CL it isn't good enough to have just two recognised strikers and one creative central midfielder. Even the defence is currently four from five and that's allowing Fortune as a "defender". Utd are desperately short of players and if what Gill has said is not bluff then I can only assume that he's got to like the feel of the money Utd received for Beckham and Veron far too much.
He was refering to If, Ruud got injured in addition to the 2 we have injured... your two best strikers injured and your best attacking midfielder injured as well, thats not a crisis... Imagine AC Milan minus... Schevchenko, Inzhaghi and Rui Costa... ok, maybe thats a bad example but still, Tomasson, and Rivaldo who has not played in a damn eternity along with Kaka are a helluva lot less scary. To answer the question, ofcourse we are a bit to reliant on Ruud... should we buy someone top class to join him, of course we should, no one disagrees... but we would have to be pretty unlucky to have a stretch where we are more banged up than we are at present... Missing Ole, Scholes and Brown is big.... With Brown at CB we could put Silvestre or Oshea at LB and play Fortune LW and play Giggs behind Ruud. Ole could replace Scholes or Giggs and Scholes scores like a striker and creates like a midfielder... so we would not miss Ole that much...
>your two best strikers injured and your best attacking midfielder injured as well, thats not a crisis... It is when you only have two experienced strikers and one creative midfielder!!! But most other clubs with ambitions to win the CL would not find that a crisis as you found when you tried to produce an example. Three players injured is not a crisis - at least it shouldn't be. But I agree with you - with Utd's current squad it is!
AC Milan is not "most clubs" dont be rediculous, do you remember where they finished when the CL was all over last year?? Ok, so they aint just any club and they also have more depth than do most teams... Take away Del Pierro, Trez and Nedved... (hint, im using bad examples to illustrate how easy it is if the right people get injured, for a good team to look bad.)
A poll run by the Manchester Evening News has resulted in fans putting forward the names of the players they feel Fergie should chase and they range from Fulham's Luis Saha to Leeds United's Alan Smith as well as the lesser-known Aruna Dindane from Anderlecht. Others tagged to Old Trafford are Southampton striker James Beattie, Didier Drogba of Marseille, Andrei Shevchenko from AC Milan, and West Ham's Jermain Defoe.
Now that is something I would like to see; an experienced veteran who really makes Man U's starting 11 (at least on paper) look like a world class team (I just feel the roster we have now is normally solid, but filled with role players who may not always step up; that is why I would like us to bring a consistent player who will be a lock in the starting 11 to Old Trafford, like Shevchenko).
>AC Milan is not "most clubs" dont be rediculous, Your selection, not mine, and certainly not one I would have chosen had I been trying to make your point - having access to Rivaldo and Tomasson if two strikers are injured somewhat beats Utd's access to Forlan and Phil Neville (or whoever) But AC Milan, Real Madrid etc - these are the clubs that Utd chooses to live with these days and the clubs they must overcome if they're to win the CL. And what's more they have the finances to compete with these clubs. They start as the biggest grossing soccer club in the world and they've barely touched the $60 million they received for Beckham and Veron. Their trading performance over the summer was woeful. The problem is that the two weakest parts of the team overlap - strikers and creative midfielders. They have only three experienced players here - RvN, Solksjaer and Scholes. That's unacceptable for a club with Utd's ambitions. They need a support/backup striker. They need an additional creative midfield. And I wouldn't mind seeing a quality defender, particularly one that can play centre and right back. Even if each of these were to cost $20 million a piece then Utd can afford it - rather it go into players than into share holders' pockets
In effect, the knd of thing I was just going to say. Thanks for saving me the bother People don't seem to realise that Man U is a footballing GIANT and as a GIANT in the WORLD game it's not acceptable to have all your hopes on a select few players. Ruud needs a striker of eual standing partnering him. 'Good' is just not good enough!
I don't think anyone is denying that, all of us would love for Schevchenko or Owen, even Beattie to come to the club, but if the management dont make the decission to do it all we can do is support them because we are still one of the best clubs in the world... I don't want to be like Real or Chelsea, but we would do well to pick up players who will a) Benefit the team now and in the future b) Fill the needs that we have at any cost because we have the money to and not doing so would be like treason to the fans...
It will only get worse when Rio is banned. I know he's asked for a personal trial... but who knows how that will turn out, that will only add to the so-called 'crisis' There are plenty of players who's clubs are not in the CL who we could obtain and would make a difference to our club, however World Class players are not as easy to obtain as good quality league players. If you want world class your going to have to wait until the summer and prepare to shell out alot of cash (see Chelsea). People complain about how we over spend to get players because the clubs we're bidding to understand our financial position.... the way I see it is until we start winning the CL or at least making bigger strides then just being able to offer it every year.... players are going to have to be purchased rather then chooseing to come here out of merit. in the past a player would hear that Man Utd were interested in him and he would immediately go to whom-ever is involved and push for the move, this is not the case anymore (see- Kewell and Ronaldinho). Bottom line, yeah we have the cash to spend, whether it will be spent or not... who knows but if its spend then people shouldn't complain about over spending, be happy you got whatcha got and go win some titles.
I also read this morning that G Neville, P Neville and Giggs all received knocks in their weekend international games. I'd hate to see the current Utd attack without Giggs! Hopefully these are not serious but it does reveal how vulnerable we are to even a single injury.
Especially with Roy Keane's comments to the press. I thought RVN basically carried MUFC to the title last year but you can't expect him to do that every year.
Watching my season highlights DVD, I was stunned at how many of our goals last year were results of passes or crosses from Beckham and Veron.
>I was stunned at how many of our goals last year were results of passes or crosses from Beckham and Veron. There's no question that Utd (and RvN) are missing these two. I've just been watching the Chelsea game again and the service to the strikers was woeful. Add to that that RvN and Forlan prove that there are parallel universes and they inhabit different ones and we currently have a Utd that has very little punch up front - one shot on target in the whole 94 minutes! It's a long time since we've had to say that. What compounds this is that the players who we've taken on or are coming through - Ronaldo, Kleberson, Fletcher, DjDj, Bellion etc will not, as far as we can see at this point, fill the striker/creative midfield spots either - they're wingers and defensive midfield as of now. We really must buy some one - yes, Scholes and Solksjaer are on their way back but there's no guarantee either or both won't have trouble again and if RvN goes down then we really will have serious problems. We cannot hope to win Premierships and CL trophies with just two strikers and a single creative midfield!
The only team that would not be in serious trouble from losing three current first teamers is Chelsea. You take: Henry, Vieira, Pires from Arsenal or Owen, Gerrard, Hyypia from Liverpool or Shearer, Dyer, Jenas from Newcastle etc. and any of those teams would not have a chance to win the league either. Chelsea have more depth, because of their spending power, but our first XI is equal, if not better, to anybody's.
Potomac; Just a newbie and all, but FWIW, I think you hit the nail on the head... I was watching the DVD this weekend as well and everything went through Seba and Becks. Becks and RVN in particular were frequently on the same page. While things will be better with Ole and Scholes, that isn't really their role either... I'm beginning to agree with an op-ed I read on ManchesterOnline earlier this week: perhaps Rivaldo isn't a bad idea. And what do we have to lose? He's certainly well-rested...
>The only team that would not be in serious trouble from losing three current first teamers is Chelsea. Nonsense! Stop trying to make out that three injured players (Scholes, Solksjaer and Brown) is a crisis. Teams that are in serious trouble when losing three current first teamers have a major squad problem. .......................................................... You take: Henry, Vieira, Pires from Arsenal or Owen, Gerrard, Hyypia from Liverpool or Shearer, Dyer, Jenas from Newcastle ........................................................... To begin with Liverpool and Newcastle are not clubs with realistic ambitions to win the CL trophy with their present squads. Arsenal have been without Vieira for several matches now. Pires is not irreplaceable. Henry is merely because, like RvN, he is such a supreme player. Arsenal are currently playing some sublime football without Vieira and Pires (who is sometimes merely on the bench) while Utd are struggling to score goals with Scholes and Solksjaer missing and grinding out wins against considerably inferior teams. Two effective strikers and one creative central midfield is not good enough for a club with CL ambitions!!!!! >and any of those teams would not have a chance to win the league either. Two of them haven't a cat in hell's chance with a full squad!
Plus he's a prick, he's over-rated, he's overpaid & he believes he is more powerful than the manager. The comments about Beckham reinforce my belief that he is actually one of the most under-rated players in the world. I'm not at all surprised that his absence is felt so much. It should be pointed out as well that for the past few seasons United have been less and less aggressive in attack especially against quality opposition. It wasn't until the last 15 minutes or so in the Chelsea match that United started showing any urgency when they got the ball. When of the real trademarks of United in the past has been the speed of their counter-attack. The goals will start flowing again when Scholes & Ole are back, but if United are going to win anything this year they will need some offensive contribution from the young midfielders.