Jacques Santini has Spurs playing well defensively, the two goals they have given up second only to Chelsea's one. Of course, they have only scored four so far. Spurs have been getting decent results, currently sitting fifth in the table. According to ManUtd.com, SAF has said that Rooney will make his appearance the following week against Boro, but Alex has pulled a few surprises on us in the past and Wayne might well be on the bench for this one. Also, will SAF go back to the 4-4-2 and pair Ruud and Smith up top? We'll find out Saturday.
I just have to believe that Spurs are going to just not show up one day soon and let in 4 against someone. They've been, IMO, playing above their level and eventually that gets evened out. It might be April before it happens or it might be Saturday...
Considering Spurs form and that United have Rio back and are averaging barely a goal per match, I'm not expecting many goals in this one. Then again, this could be the game Ronaldo decides to put a few just inside the post instead of hitting it dead on yet again.
I know i'm not favoured on this board~~~~ but please, DO THE JOB vs the SCUM.... u lot should pick up all 3 points in this one.. no question... put them in their rightful place~ cheers
what i want to know is where it came from? but anyway onto the game... Smith plays this game one would have to think... perhaps a rest for Scholes who has been poor this season... I am at a loss as to whether we should keep O'Shea where he was because it worked (even if he did not) or play Scholes next to Keane with Smith witdrawn (knowing that he will tackle and work his a$$ off)... Ok, I have figured it out... ---------------Ruud ---------Smith Giggs----VVVV-^^^^----Ronaldo ------Keane---Scholes Heinze-Tweety-Ferdinand-Brown -------------Carroll Scholes will play deep and help Keane with distribution and get lots of touches, when we have established possesion, but when we lose the ball he will float around as will Smith so we will really have ----Smith-----Scholes --------Keane when we dont have the ball, but once we get it, they are both free to make runs... perhaps that might work... who knows... I want Scholes to break out of his funk and I feel we will need a good performance to crack that defence.
hmm? seems as though some folk on the red side of north london aren't terribly concerned with united's accumulation of points. and on the man u board, no less. no respect, i tell ya. no respect.
People are overhyping this game a lot, and I can't really understand why. Tottenham have scored four goals this year. We think we're not scoring enough - they're scoring even less. I don't think that'll last, actually. Tottenham have good strikers. Unfortunately for them, their defense has no chance of playing this well. As the year progresses, they'll score more, concede more, and be an upper-midtable team. They're respectable - but hardly fear-inducing.
They have good strikers, but we saw what Santini did with his team in Portugal, so I'm not expecting a concerted approach to attacking. Scholes really needs to come through with a huge game. Or any decent performance at all--too often he's been anonymous this season. And look at what Smith did in the midfield on Monday night--that tackle he made in front of the box was massive. I like the idea of Smith playing further back, with Ronaldo and Giggs moving up by Ruud.
What'll be most important for this team is to go forward with some kind of confidence after the Liverpool game. We pretty much dominated that game, and if we put in a similar performance against Tottenham I can't see us coming away with less than three points. We need the confidence we had for the first half of last season--anyone else remember 40 goals scored to just 14 conceded? I do, and with basically the same personnel (plus upgrades), we should be able to do it again. Ruud should be all but match-fit, as should Rio, with help from Heinze and Brown in back. Ruud will get help from Smith and soon from Rooney and Saha. Ronaldo looks real good. It's going to be tough putting all these pieces together though. But again, you play it one game at a time. One great performance is a start, now let's string several together.
The players are gonna be coming off a high from the liverpool game, so i expect a shutout and 3 goals for UNITED, so that being said, Ruud gets his first league goal (or goals for that matter) of the year and Smith gets the other one
LOL that was the move that sent me insane in the match thread. When I saw it live I couldn't believe it, wonderful stuff. As for the Tottenham match I'd say play this formation: ---------------RVN-------------- ---------------------Smith ---Giggs-----Keane----Klebs-----C.Ronaldo ---Heinze----Silvestre---Ferdinand---Brown -------------Carroll---------- I say start Smith from the start, as he can do some playmaking and holding up of the ball, not to mention tackle and....SCORE! I also think Scholes needs a little break, give Klebs a chance. He has good first touch and passing skill, give him a chance with Keane in midfield.
I think the next two games are crucial in deciding the backline... what do we do when Gary gets fit? Do we stick with Silvestre? Do we move Brown to the inside? There are arguments in favor of both moves... Silvestre: He needs Rio... once Rio is there he plays well, and they seem to have good chemistry. What is for sure, a good performance by Silvestre defensively will make it hard to drop him. But if Brown plays well out of position how much better would he be next to Rio in his natural position? Brown: He has been our best defender of the year, how can you not reward his consistency, especially after the injury troubles he has had. I like your idea Invincible... if Klebs partners Keane, Keane can continue to do the dirty work and Klebs' workrate will only aid him in his endeavours... Smith just works so hard, that even when told to play Forward he drops back and tackles so I feel we could have the same defensive presence in midfield if not better than what we had against Liverpool... With those three working hard, I see no reason Giggs and Ronaldo cannot be let loose on the fullbacks...
Don't worry, the lowly Spuds will roll over and die with a pathetic whimper like they've done at Shite Fart Lane for some years against your lot. 3-0 HT, 3-5 FT, I'm still laughing about that one. KJ
I think you're all being unfair on Scholes. His flexibility as an attack midfielder causes him to be the one moved out of position when Alex needs to do that. His best position is central midfield where he inspires Utd's passing game. He can play up front, where he's had to play so far this season because of the striker injury situation, but he's not great with his back to gaol, isn't the quickest and doesn't have the height to threaten in the air. When he scores his goals he does so because he ghosts into the box unseen or hits them hard from distance. If it comes to a choice of Scholes alongside Keane, or Kleberson, then it has to be Scholes. If he plays badly in CM or defence becomes too vulnerable because of his weak tackling, then drop him. But for me he's still by far our best creative midfielder and with Ronaldo, Giggs and two up front from RvN, Rooney, Saha and Smith (for me that's still the pecking order) then our attacking impact will negate any defensive problems - just as in 1999/2000 (conceded 45 but scored 97 ) The performance against Liverpool was by far our best of the season and I suspect for most of this year, but I thought the weakest performance came from O'Shea (similarly playing out of position). I guess Alex felt that it would be a midfield battle and wanted John to give him more steel in central mid. You can't really argue that it didn't work because of the result but I'm not convinced that he should do the same against a defensive Spurs. We need to take their defence apart - Scholes is the best man to do that but from midfield not support striker. EDIT: sorry about that "back to gaol", it was a mistype. But when I read it, it caused me to laugh so I thought it might be left there in case it did the same for someone else
The biggest problem for Scholes this year is that the focus has been to get the ball to Ronaldo on the wing. They're both playmakers, and so far, Ronaldo has been given the preference. Scholes is always going to look best when he's the focus for distribution.
But he's the man to get it to Ronaldo, just as he got it to Beckham. Utd's short passing game is at its best when Scholes is orchestrating it. I think Kleberson may well do the same later on to rest Scholes but we need to get back into the groove as our players come back and I think Scholes is the right man for that at the moment. Let's get back to playing a successful passing game and cease the experimentation for the moment. We can look to see who our best support players are once we've got back into the winning groove.