He should really have learned to tone that down. That's part of the reason he's having these Rio problems. Calling a player "the Best Defender in the World" and then getting upset when negotiations aren't going your way, kinda shoots yourself in the foot. For VDS's sake, he used to the pressure and I'd hope the supporters are smart enough to see through SAF's talk.
I think your post is dead on, but I just don't really see how Timmy becomes Depentacular in reserve matches, 7 or so cup matches, zero Europe matches, and maybe 5 Premiership matches. Which is probably about what he'll get to play ifVDS has a mostly healthy and effective year. If he does improve a lot without a lot of playing time, that would be (yet another) huge feather in the cap for Man U's coaching staff.
Well, maybe, but maybe not. How much experience is he getting with nothing to do for 86 minutes of a match? He might benefit more playing behind a squad where he'll be called into more action. He can work on communicating with his backline, judging/gathering crosses, and things the coaching staff are teaching him so they can see how he adjusts and learns in game situations. United don't have that luxury of letting Tim learn on the job with the first team. I'm re-reading what I wrote here, I don't mean to say that I'm not comfortable with Tim in goal for most matches. I think he's excellent, but the things he needs to work on his game are obvious to me, so they must be for the coaches as well...
The new Schmeichel ??... There can only be one Schmeichel .. or perhaps two : http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=forwardOnly&nextPage=enPlayerProfile&playerId=284907 .
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fblengprmanutd&prov=afp&type=lgns of interest: Ferguson still thinks Tim Howard is the long-term solution. But, after accepting the American does not yet have the presence to dominate his area as Schmeichel once did, he decided to right an old wrong by recruiting van der Sar. no quotes or anything, so pass the salt, but still...
That's right, it was clearly ferguson's fault when Carroll dropped that Tottenham pop fly. As for arrogance, that to me would cut in favor of keeping Howard in for too long, since they went out on a limb to make him the #1 keeper. Just further proof that at this very high level, Howard just failed this time.
Interesting. Alex Ferguson thinks this new guy can be Manchester's #1 for the future. He's 22. I don't think he's talking about after Timmy's had his run in the first team. Granted, a team like Man Utd. are not going to just hand the GK job to anyone, but bringing someone in to "groom them for the #1 of the future" can't be good news for Howard. If this deal goes through, Timmy's chance of being loaned out this year probably just doubled.
Well if that first goal comes early and they're playing against one of the most anemic offenses in the league, winning 1-0 away and then being able to casually control at home, that's different. If that's what Man U did, then I wouldn't call their offense anemic. But if you think what happened was that there was two tough defensive battles and ManU would have forced penalties if they just had a better goalkeeper, you should surrender your moderator status at the door, because you lack the "moderation" for your job .
I didn't reference what happened. I referenced what could happen to a tie if you give up a goal at the wrong time. In any case, Manchester United prides itself on playing attacking football, so trying to back door a way into a final is not the way I would prefer to do it anyways. Having an experienced keeper behind you might help the gung ho attitude... As a fan you could feel it when we pushed numbers up, because we knew we had Schmeichel back there. Unfortunately, no other keeper has achieved that "aura" about them since - and I'm not saying that every keeper had a completely fair chance at it. But every keeper made a mistake at the wrong time, and now there's a new No. 1 at United for the moment...
If you play "attacking soccer", then goalkeeper is CLEARLY not your problem. Unless we're talking about a different Manchester United team then the one I watched last year, because goalscoring....let's just say not your team's forte.
I'd call most of their attacking displays against quality sides last year TURGID FOOTBALL...but then again, I consider attacking football a team that actually can score. No wonder their goalies have the willies....can you say 'no margin for error'?
He was voted that after half a season. Have you ever considered that perhaps the sample size was too small, in retrospect?
And in the matches that matters the most, against quality competition (the clearly stated comment...)?
Few, because goals in such games are at a premium. Which is why you just can't afford to have blunder-prone goalkeepers at that level of competition.
Ever since Bruce Arena made Howard his top choice for the USMNT......hey, wait a minute he is not , is he? I think SAF could live with one or two mistakes perseason but both Carroll and Howard seem to have a couple every other game. Vd Sar is a proven world class keeper, a proven leader, his signing will make United a better team and he hopefully he can help out Howard with his mental block he seems to have quit often when he is the keeper.
Aug 15 Chelsea 1 - 0 Man Utd Final score Aug 30 Man Utd 0 - 0 Everton Final score Oct 16 Birmingham 0 - 0 Man Utd Final score Nov 7 Man Utd 0 - 0 Man City Final score Jan 4 Man Utd 0 - 0 Tottenham Final score Mar 5 Crystal Palace 0 - 0 Man Utd Final score Apr 2 Man Utd 0 - 0 Blackburn Final score Apr 20 Everton 1 - 0 Man Utd Final score May 10 Man Utd 1 - 3 Chelsea Final score FA Community Shield Cup Aug 8 Arsenal 3 - 1 Man Utd Final score FA Cup Jan 8 Man Utd 0 - 0 Exeter Final score May 21 Arsenal 0 - 0 Man Utd Final score Carling Cup Jan 12 Chelsea 0 - 0 Man Utd Final score Jan 26 Man Utd 1 - 2 Chelsea Final score UEFA Champions League Feb 23 Man Utd 0 - 1 AC Milan Final score Mar 8 AC Milan 1 - 0 Man Utd Final score "Are we clear?" "Are we CLEAR?" "Crystal"
Well, they couldn't even premium their way to ONE now could they M? (on WAY too many occasions). You can parse all you want, but scoring 1 or 0 in a 2 legged affair simply sucks. Your offensive shares the blame....0 in any game is sucky offensive production- case closed.
Zero in an away leg is actually pretty good - if you concede none. Case re-opened. And actually a 0-0 in a first leg at home ain't bad either.
Ha ha. The offense has done a great job and scored 0 goals over a 2 legged affair. Mr. Hussein, I have your lawyer right here! One letter, easy to remember..
Right, but it's essentially a 3 team league. They had the worst attack and an average defense. Ergo, they came in 3rd place. Arsenal had the best attack and the worst defense, ergo they came in second. Chelsea had an average attack and the best defense, ergo they won. This came up before, and people had the numbers for the Big Three. Just looking at them, it was obvious that ManU couldn't win by improving its defense (within reason; obviously if they go 38 matches and concede 2 goals they're gonna be champions. But that ain't gonna happen.) If ManU is to have any hope of winning the thing, they have to score more goals than either Chelsea or Arsenal. Just like Arsenal has little chance of winning the title if they concede more goals than both Chelsea and ManU. (In this scenario, I give Arsenal at least a ghost of a chance, because one problem of not scoring goals is lots of one-point draws. 3-1-0 affects this.) EDIT: I looked up the numbers. The first thing ManU has to do is catch Arsenal. They allowed 26 goals to Arsenal's 36, which is a very significant difference in defensive quality. Yet they finished 6 points back of Arsenal because Arsenal outscored them 87-58. It'll be hard as hell for them to catch Arsenal if Arsenal outscores them by 50%, no matter how good the defense is. (And a healthy Sol will likely help Arsenal's GA.)
Tried to rep...can't. This is a repeat of the same argument a few months ago, eh? (and you closed with this as well, I believe...)
Well, given that obviously wasn't what I was saying, perhaps you'd make a better defence lawyer for Mr "I never gassed anyone" Hussein?