Wes Brown [R] I remember when our title hopes rested on the health of Wes Brown. The irony is, they still do.
He aint good enuff fiznact. He ball watches too much and scores own goals and slips around more than a pissed bambi on ice. On top of that he never shouts hes too quiet.
Our title hopes do no such thing... O'Shea to play CB Phil to play LB... we will pull through it all.... we will I say...
wes brown/need for a CB i dunno how much u lot have talked about this but i believed the most pressing need for united at the start of this season was a top class CB to join rio at the back not another striker. i though we could get van buyten or even mexes but nothing happened, i held out hope that even danny gabbidon from cardiff could be brought in to do the job, no disrespect to saha but i don't think we have as big a problems as other teams when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net, i felt tim howard was doing a tremendous job coz our defenders are shite. rio is ok, he does the job when his head is on rite, o'shea is ok. wes-nope, silvestre not really in the centre. but with rio gone the need for a quality CB became bigger and it was not addressed by the transfer window, we got saha, i mean van buyten does not want to be at city, u know he want sto be at a bigger club aka manunited, mexes wants to move to a bigger club aka manunited, thuram is tired of being played at rb for juve if i recall and wants to play more cb, y not manunited, stopping goals is pretty crucial at this point. i seriously doubt any of our defenders could walk into aresenals back 4 with the exception of rio and Gaz. thats my rant. about now u can start writing in opposition to my words
We have now let in 8 goals in just 3 games and not one of the games was against a side known for scoring. On a pro-rata basis that would translate to 101 goals in a season (the bottom team will probably let in about 70) !!! We have just 4 regular defenders (Neville, Brown, O'Shea and Silvestre), 3 of whom are currently of dubious Premiership quality, and 3 "flexible" defensive midfielders (Fortune, Neville and Keane). That is, and always has been, totally inadequate for a club with Utd's ambitions. Either Alex has become old and complacent or the money men are sitting on the profits from the sale of Beckham, Veron etc and are denying Alex the means to produce an adequate squad. Whichever, I'm currently feeling a certain contempt for the admin at Old Trafford for the dilemma we find ourselves in. There was no shortage of advice from fans and media commentators about the blatant weakness in defence and the performance of management during the transfer window was grossly derelict of both commitment to the club and intelligence. In some respects M&M have a point
I would think by now Brown's confidence is absolutely shattered. The defence has gone from the best in the league to leaking goals like a sieve and the only apparent change is himself. That is certainly the way he will see it. Of course it isn't just the loss of Rio that has brought about this change - we've also gone from a system with two defensive mids to one and imho the two were partly responsible for the defensive success. It may well be that we have to revert to two defensive midfielders again - at least temporarily (until the defence regains some confidence) because I don't think Roy alone in front of this defence is enough. That could mean Saha as a support attack midfielder or sacrificing width in midfield - with 2 wide men in a midfield of 4 you don't have a lot to play with in central midfield (Keane and Scholes probably the best). Two other points: 1) The coaching staff have to do something about Utd's aerial abilities throughout the whole team but in particular in defence - this aerial weakness is a long standing one. 2) Howard has to overcome his fear of taking control of his 6 yard box and improving his commitment and confidence on high crosses - too often he's stuck on his line like a rabbit in the headlights when the ball is at head height only 5 or 6 yards out and when he does come he flaps at the ball (as in the first goal this weekend). I haven't yet seen the goals from last nights match but I understand 2 came from headers and the three last weekend all came from high balls into the 6 yard box. Defensive corners have become a nightmare!
poor wesley its not his fault, 8 months out and is expected to be the don. Fergie should of brought someone in. or gave him more time
I feel sorry for Wes, I think he should have been eased back in to EPL football at right-back for a couple of games. I think SAF was right to try to stick to the back four he did, can't defend the indefensible though - it hasn't worked out. I guess we were all hoping that Wes or Silvestre would step into a 'commanding' centre back role, but neither appears capable or experienced enough to fill this role. Silvestre's conversion to centre back is a relatively recent thing, so we are pretty inexperienced without Rio. I agree with Machoward, we look very dodgy on crosses plus our central midfield has not given our centre backs much cover. We have been allowing too much pressure on something that is too fragile.
I wonder if in some way M&M aren't responsible. They are investing to make money, they apparently do not want to take over, they are willing to question paying Rio's wages while he is banned. We apparently promised 10m for Robben, then after we didn't sell Nicky for 5m only offered 5m. So who is to say we weren't looking to buy or loan a defender but the 'plc' (read M&M) wouldn't let us spend the money.
>>If Rio had just pissed in a bottle when he was supposed to we may not be having this chat.<< One would think that with all the monies that United as an organization have that they could not hire a guy to take him and all the other players when needed to give their *sample*. I cant understand this! A human alarm clock was needed and someone in the organization missed it. Its a sign. The sign is, we are not *serious* about our career in football. Well its serious now. I suppose we will be loading up on defenders is the summer window. Oh, and i dont think we should be paying his full salary when he is suspended. Rio should be making *dumb guy* wages.
Nothing else to add. The defence has been horrific since Rio's ban and the system change has made it worse. Arsenal are 5pts ahead and they must surely know that this is the best chance in years to claim the title. They can only mess up now, it is out of our hands. Wes seems far o indecisive to handle the aggressive nature of opposition attacks. Alot of clubs must now see our ariel vulnerbility at the back minus Rio as the obvious route to goal and if it's not sorted out we can expect a high ball bombardment from now until seasons end. If it all goes pear shaped now I wonder who will ge the blame? Rio, Wes or Saha
I agree. There should be/ should've been more then one back up plan. There are still a few others in the squad who can play CB O'Shea, GNeville< Keane spring to mind. Wes needs alot more time then I think can be afforded. By the time he's 'in the loop' all our seasons aspirations could well be gone.
Wes Brown not one bit good enough!! AT ALL i said it when rio got banned that i wasnt looking forward to wes playing for us and when he was taken off at half time last nite against boro my worst nightmare came true we have no replacement for rio. we have a dodgy defence for 8 months. the transfer window might cost us the titles and basically i think we are FCUKED.................WE should have brought van buyten on loan. hes a very good defender and city snapped him up. he wanted to come to united why didnt fergie even look at a defender...................................HE TAUGHT WES WAS GOOD ENOUGH DIDNT HE
Gotta admit I thought Wes was good enough too, though I did think at the time we should have got a defender on loan as a Plan B, in hindsight we should have bought a central defender as a Plan A. When you think about it, it does seem a bit bizarre that we have only two dedicated central defenders - Rio and Wes. Silvestre has done a great job there over the last few months (bar the last few games) but cannot be called a dedicated CD having spent more time at left-back. Especially when you consider how many defensive mids we have. Bit like the strikers, you need four good ones. For much of the time we used to have four dedicated central defenders eg Stam/Brown/Johnson/May in 99. I do wonder if there is a story behind the Jan xfer window. Such as we could have bought a defender if we sold Nicky or some such financial reason. Can't believe that SAF didn't want one given the Rio situation and Wes' history of injury breakdowns.
You're right - I missed the word "may" from my comment. The question is "do M&M realise that making money comes from a successful team and that comes from a well balanced squad?" They argue that the money Utd have spent has not been efficient in building the squad. While not believing that any of the players bought over the last 12 months have been wasted money I would wonder if so much should have been given to agents when many of these players were keen to come and didn't need persuading by agents. But I do think that some of the money received for Beckham and Veron should have been spent on a quality defender - I thought that in the pre-season when we had Rio and I think it was criminal not to spend it during the transfer window when we knew he was out for the rest of the season. To that extent Utd have not used the transfer market "efficiently" to increase the depth of the squad. I don't know if the blame lies with Alex or the money men but it needs to be laid.
Jonathan Edwards Maybe it's time. How much worse can he be than current? Bigger, stronger, faster, and with an attitude, to boot. Let him get his trial by fire, because another couple of weeks of this, and there won't be any hope for any trophies this season.
Maybe SAF is betting on Rios ban being short. Personally I think he didn't see anybody on the market he wanted so he went the route of you'll score four but we'll score five.
Even if Rio's ban is shortened, its almost certainly not going to be shorter than 3 months, which takes us to the end of the season. Rio is gone for the rest of this season, and could possibly be back in time for the start of next season. But for now, its going to be difficult.
I think that SAF and ManU thought that if they threatened with Lawyers and such that the FA would fold like a cheap suit and that the ban would be dropped to a few weeks or a month and that all would be good. Afterall is was just an oversight. he just forgot. That we have no CB in reserve is criminal to a HUGE club like this. Who plays CB in the reserves? Why isnt he playing on the first team now along side Brown? Expecting Brown to do it all is rediculous.