It looked like Rio was playing tiddly winks on that goal. Ruud's third goal is definate goal of the week material. We were hoping for penalty so he could make that 4 on the day and the icing on the cake. Scholes..... MOTM.
"Scholes..... MOTM" Easily. It's no coincidence that we score 4 goals...and Ruud looks like a completely different player...with Paul Scholes back in the lineup. It also allows Giggs to play his natural role on the left. Just huge that we have him back. With everyone healthy, I like our chances this season.
Is anybody else starting to wonder if Ruud is really the most important player on the team? I'm starting to think it's Scholes. It's just a different team with him in the line-up. Set piece play has looked soft all year long. 3 goals... all on set pieces.
The thing is we have replacements for Keano but for Scholes there is no one else like him and that can step in for him, since from early last season ive considered Scholes to be the most important United player
Last year, they played quite well without Keane. Sorry. Veron played the best of his career without Keane along-side him. I like Keane very much, too. But Nicky Butt comes far closer to replacing what Keane does than... err... somebody... does at replacing Scholes. This isn't really an evaluation of which is better (though now, I'd choose Scholes), but rather which is more indispensible to the team. Given the squad depth across the board, that has to be Scholes.
I don't know about that. While no one is as good at creating from the midfield as Scholes, you have to look at how many veteran players fill each position. With Scholes out you still have Giggs and Keane and Butt, but with RvN injured (especially with Ole injured as well), who have ya got?? Forlan, and two talented but still raw players in Ronaldo and Bellion. Manchester played without Scholes last season (some people would bring up Veron but even in Europe he was much more of a possession player than a creative attacking midfielder like Scholes) and managed to do okay Unless there are truly massive injuries the club will be good even without RvN and Scholes, but they can be the difference in playing for the League title or in the Champions leauge. My 2 cents.
I haven't seen that much of Kleberson and just don't know enough about him to know. I do know that Djemba-Djemba was specifically brought in to help out with defensive midfield duties that would allow Keane to play defense or rest. From what I've read about Kleberson, he is a defensive midfielder too though. I just don't know enough about him...
I'm going primarily upon how the team has played with and without Scholes this season. Without him, they've been largely impotent, forced to rely far too much on an 18 year old without much of an end product to his play. When he's on the field, they've ripped defenses apart. Perhaps Keane, once, could have made up for Scholes' absence. He showed glimpses of that in the Newcastle game. But other than that, Man Utd have had very limited penetration without Scholes on the pitch. RVN's not really playing all that well by his standards (though, hopefully, he's turned it around against Leicester). He's had a couple of goals that few would make - but most of his this year could have been done by Forlan or Solksjaer just as well. Once again, I'm not arguing about who's a better player, but who's more necessary right now. This season, Man Utd has looked impotent with Scholes off the pitch.
Wha??? We put a 5-spot on the board with no goals conceeded without him in the Champions League. We beat Charlton 2-0 without him. Now, granted, we culd've played better and scored more but a 2-0 victory is great. Now we lost 1-0 at Southampton with him the previous game - we should've won. But, with Scholes the week before, we only beat Wolves 1-0 - at home! I don't know - I am not arguing that Scholes is an important member of our squad. I'm just pointing out that, without him, we've scored 11 goals in the last three games.
err do you know that Scholes played against Leicester? ignoring the champions league game United have missed him alot, there has been no creativity and we havent looked dangerous, and against Charlton we didnt play that well. In the last 3 premiership games without Scholes we have only scored 2 goals and gained only 4 points.
Observations I think what while Scholes is by no means unimportant to the United cause, his contributions today were just a piece of what it took to dominate. He made an exellent pass to set up Keane's goal, but let's face it, the "assist" he had to RVN was really a shot that found the flying Dutchman by chance. Meanwhile other goals set up by Ferdinand and Dj2 showed that they could also hold their own as part of the United offense. My MOTM is still Ruud, though important parts were played all around in this match. Early on, they didn't look like the dominating side we have become used to. But after the two rapid succession goals, Leicester looked completely shell-shocked, and the game was in hand by HT. Overall an excellent match, though I wished we had seen Ronaldo out there dancing around City's defenders. Ah well, a great result, and time to focus on Stuttgart.
I see what you mean, Achtung, but Scholes presence really draws a lot of defensive pressure away from the likes of Ruud and Giggs as well. Another player that can create in the middle was just crucial to much of our success on Saturday.
You know, the more I think about it and read the points brought up, I think that my earlier comments about Keane being so important were a little off. The off-season pick-ups of Kleberson and DJ with Nicky Butt in there do minimize the loss of Keane. And without Becks, the more I think about it, Scholes would/schould be missed more than Keane. Until Kleberson gets healthy and breaks into the starting lineup consistently, we just don't know what he's all about. I hope he can be a solid starter and/or a backup for Scholes.
isnt kleberson a defensive midfielder? i do no that he can make good runs from deep, so maybe in that respect he may be similar to scholes.but is he a natural finisher like scholes? is any1 in the united team a better finisher than scholes?
One last observation from the match Fletcher. This kid keeps looking better and better. This year's John O'Shea anyone?
Re: One last observation from the match Maybe, but we won't know unless he can consistently play or start. Looked good the little i've seen him play.
Re: Re: One last observation from the match I agree. Fletcher has Ronaldo and Ole ahead of him on the right and many people ahead of him in the center. If he were to play consistantly, it would have to be on the right. -----RVN----------- --------Ronaldo----- Giggs----Scholes----Fletcher- --------Keane------------- O'Shea--Rio--Silv--Neville--
Re: Fletcher I like the way Fletcher looked in pre-season also, I think he should definately be getting more time. United have a style, and Fletcher seems to "get it". Although Ronaldo surely will be all-world some day, I don't think he quite fits in yet, nor does Kleberson or Djemba-Djemba. They will all play, but Fletcher deserves some Carling Cup starts at least.
PAO sucked. They committed defensive suicide. Charlton was defeated on two set piece goals by RVN - one of which, only happened because of Jason Euell got brain-freeze. The 1-0 victory over Wolves was fought with Scholes on the bench for more than 2/3 of the game. Once he came on, Man Utd got far more pressure on Wolves goal. In the 3 game stretch before Scholes returned, Man Utd was 1-1-1. He returns, and they annihilate Leicester. Now, Leicester isn't all that good - but neither was Southampton. And tbh, Utd really should have scored against a terrible Arsenal defense.
"Now, Leicester isn't all that good - but neither was Southampton." Saints have a solid defense though. They have only conceded 4 goals in 7 games...2 of those against Leicester... "And tbh, Utd really should have scored against a terrible Arsenal defense." Can't quiblle with that. They did have chances though.
Re: Re: Re: One last observation from the match I like this arrangement...still once Ole is back I think Ferguson would be hard pressed to start Fletcher or Ronaldo over him.