Son of a biatch! Graham Poll is the ref. Here are the squads: Sunderland: Macho, Wright, McCartney, Babb, Craddock, Proctor, Thirlwell, McCann, Kilbane, Gray, Oster, Flo, Phillips, Kyle, Stewart, Ingham, Bjorklund, Bellion. Manchester United: Everybody except Ruud and Butty.
BBC Match Preview If Sunderland lose, they could fall to the bottom of the Premiership. With that possibility, United should expect a scrappy game.
I'm not watching the game, but I'm sure the score has got something to do with Graham Poll's one man quest to get Albion relegated. Just spotted 1-1, woo-hoo!
3 minutes added on. Scramble in the box. Gooooooaaaaaaaaalll Paul Scholes, 90th minute!!! 2-1 United!!!!
Hurrah! It's depressing having your game called off, but at least the results are going our way! Sorry, forgot this is the United board. Bye.
A great way to start the new year. After 79 minutes of looking like piercing Macho was not going to happen. Even if it is Sunderland, 3 more points, and now ahead of Chelsea. Now its off to the FA Cup for a game.
It wasn't a great way to start the New Year at all - the finishing was absolutely atrocious. The stats at the end showed Utd with 30 attempts on goal and Sunderland 3 and yet they were 10 minutes from losing. The Sunderland goal was the same laughable effort we saw so many times last season - Ferdinand would easily have cleared it but Veron flailed around and put it over his head. Without RvN the strike force is toothless. Solskjaer is no substitute. He doesn't get into position, he doesn't make space, he doesn't make himself available. He stands and waits for the loose ball and then finishes clinically. But in a crowded box - Sunderland often defended with 10 men - he just doesn't get the chance. A particular problem is there's no aerial ability. So many balls come across high and the defenders deal with them unchallenged. So obvious was this in the first half I counted the occasions in the second. There were 40 aerial "duels". Sunderland won 28 of them and Utd 12. Most of those were Ferdinand and Brown. The comment I read on the Birmingham match before the game was that Utd should have won by eight. In which case Utd should have improved their goal differnce by about 15 in these two games. The window's open, Alex. Get someone quick! You almost gave the Premiership to Arsenal this afternoon.
you're spot on about the aerial matchup. every time we had a corner or a high cross in I was shouting at them to have a go only to see a terrific clearance out towards our halfway (that's the way it seemed anyway). couldn't understand why one of our big lads wasn't getting their noggin to it. my wife had to tell me watch my language a few times, what with the kids and all
I though the match was very entertaining. United had plenty of scoring opportunities, but I didn't think the finishing was that atrocious. That Macho guy was just spectacular. Hey can we get him to replace Barthez? I do agree with the aerial battle. Rio was the one I saw up front battling it out. And Veron won his aerial battle. But we almost lost because of it. LOL!!!
I haven't seen any highlights or the game itself yet, so I am not going to say much. I know the first goal was an own goal by Veron and I was wondering how come no one has criticized him for it? Was it just bad luck? Just wondering.
all happened so fast. poor old veron. the communciation between him and Rio was bad. dunno if Rio called it as his but Veron saw the ball and tried to head it over, but he was standing a little off the line (back to the goal) and only succeeded in lobbing rio who was on the line and who had it covered. it was a poor shot that was deflected off Keano, I think, that initially got to Veron. just bad luck. I thought we were fcuked when Scholes hit both Sunderland posts with his shot a while later.
It was from corners that I first noticed the aerial weakness, USsupport, a few matches ago - RvN is no help either. At corners there's just no challenge for the ball. Ferdinand or Brown will occasionally get in there but the strikers and midfielders don't even try anymore. After watching Utd and Sunderland I watched Newcastle and Liverpool. Shearer's ability to trouble defenders in the air made the failing so much more obvious. It does restrict Utd's striking options particularly when the superb crossing by Beckham can generate so many chances which currently go to waste. The coaching staff really need to do something about it - in the Primera Liga roundup I saw on Saturday 40% of the goals scored came from headers. It's not a feature of the game to miss out on.
All this talk about getting on the end of crosses in the air make me think of Germany's Klose in the World Cup.
Klose can certainly put the ball in the net - when he's poorly marked. When the marking was decent in the WC, he was not very effective.
We definitely need somebody who has a decent chance of getting his head on the ball, especially in set pieces. (Yorke was quite good at this, but his form rapidly fell off after 1999.) My pick would be Mario Jardel. He may be the best header in the world right now.
"it was a poor shot that was deflected off Keano, I think, that initially got to Veron" wasnt that bad. If you saw the own goal by dabizas in the newcastle-tottenham game you know that is a HORRIBLE own goal. He even gave it direction
I wouldn't make it the defining characteristic of a striker but it certainly is a good to skill to have up front. It gives the opposition defence something else to think about instead of just covering the ground level attacks. So many crosses go to waste in Utd's attacks these days and it would be good to see someone challenging for those balls the way Shearer does. RvN, Solskjaer and Scholes will put the ball into the net when unchallenged but if there's a defender nearby then it's the defender's ball every time.