That white kit is our Home GK kit. Should have been our home/away kit. I must be the only few who like the new kits I guess.. but probably Fletcher getting #7 clouds my judgement..

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Added on June 26, 2009, 9:32 pmThat green one is photoshopped..

This post has been edited by Wan: Jun 26 2009, 09:32 PM

The away kit will be black with blue v I think..

It's official! Darren Fletcher would get the #7!

Oi! I'm sure whoever came up with that at Nike are well paid for it. Real jersey, with real name and number. Photoshopped pics don't look as good as that.

Banner?
Darren Fle7cher, Legend in the making.
Best, Robson, Cantona, Beckham, Ronaldo, Fletcher.

He has Arsenal written all over him unfortunately.

You forgot Fabregass.

I don't know if Tevez was being mistranslated or something, but to say he wasn't supported after Berba arrived is bull. Sure nobody is happy not being a regular in the side, but it comes with the territory when you play for a big side, especially when you're not one of the best player in the world, never mind the squad. His reason to move because he need first team games on a regular basis is fine to most people, but don't spout shit like we mistreated him or something. He starts almost the same amount as the other strikers, and featured in a lot of the big games.

Well, Berba will have to sit on the bench supporting Benzema and Rooney. Real will buy Benzema next season for a world record fee, and Berba will get his chance.

Our kit is a tribute for MJ huh?

We should build our team around Fletcher. Why else would SAF give him the #7 jersey for.. he'll be our goal getter. Remember the start of last season.

What sacrifice? You think it would be fine to start with Tevez and Rooney all of the games until they're tired/unavailable/in need of rest, and only after that we start to use Berba? How else would you expect him to gel with the team faster? If it was bad for the team, SAF wouldn't have started Berba so much. Fact is he did contributed to the side. Check out his stats, while not great, but it's not bad.

We needed another striker, and Berbatov was bought. If it's not Berbatov, it would have been someone else for 30m. Chances are Tevez would still have to fight for his place. It's Tevez's job to prove to SAF that he is the one to partner Rooney. And last season he didn't do enough to really cement that place. He's a good striker, but not that good. His scoring record ain't that impressive, and he's not that creative either.

If we want to compare stats, Berba both scored and assisted more than Tevez in 07/08 season. And he did it with Spurs, not a super dooper team like we had in 07/08. Last season they were pretty even. But that CC game against Blackburn really clouds things. Read somewhere that Ronaldo, Rooney and Berba was in the top 3 contributors of goals(goals and assists) in the last few seasons. That's why we bought him.

People just need to forget about that penalty kick. So he didn't score, big deal. He's not the first and the last person who fail to convert a decisive penalty. Remember that Ronaldo missed his penalty kick in the CL final, which luckily we won after Terry slipped and Anelka penalty was saved. I think he also missed that penalty against West Ham and we went on to lose that game. But did you b**** about it?

Lazy? Was Ronaldo lazy? He hardly tracks back. And also Rooney too was told not to do any other thing as much other than to stay upfront when he plays as the furthest forward. Was he lazy? And for your info, Berba is one of our highest successful tacklers/interceptors(well, something along those lines). He does do his fair share of defending, but he just doesn't run around like a maniac to do that. It's getting really annoying about this lazy thing.

As for the wages, who cares how much they earn at the club so long as they do their part in winning things with us? And I doubt anybody know anything about the amount of wages our players earn. They don't publish that sort of stuff freely for everyone to see.

Welbeck, Macheda, Petrucci, Rafael, Fabio, Matty James.. myth busted. Most of those may be outsiders but they are all young with potential to be squad players for us.

Dive? What dive? He hardly do that kind of stuff anymore, although he does go to ground easily, but a foul is still a foul at the end of the day. And can you give us the games which we won through freekicks and penalties? Would love to see how many we won through those.

As for the Tevez and running around thing.. Rooney have been told not to do anything besides being upfront last season, you know, being a normal striker not involve too much in defensive duties, which most attackers are under the same orders for most games. Funny people slate Berba for it, but said nothing about Ronaldo being lazy in tracking back(he was told not to track back to be fair), and Rooney not doing defensive duties.

For most of the last 2-3 seasons, Ronaldo have been playing in a sort of free role, only defending when needed. Rooney plays on the wings because we have better strikers than wingers. Only Ronaldo and Park could be relied on last season, and Park needed time off/was off form and we needed someone who can be dangerous and consistent there in his place.

Ronaldo might have dived a lot in the past, but these days, he only went down when someone touched him. Whether that's a foul/dive is open to interpretation.

MU not free flowing? Where the hell have you been? Sure we might not pass it around as classy as the likes of Barca/Arsenal, but we're just as good in that department.

As for the Tevez and running issue, people are blinded by these 'running around' stuff. Sure they help the team a lot, but as we see with Ronaldo it doesn't always have to be that way, especially for attackers. Ronaldo can conserve his energy and focus it on attacking. He doesn't track back that much, and it's more of an order I bet, if not sure as hell SAF would be screaming at Ronaldo every match. Attackers don't need to defend as much, their job is to attack. It would be a bonus if they do it, which Tevez and Rooney does, but it's not a requirement, especially for strikers.

What's the difference if we've been there or not. Do you realize we live far away from that place? But what's that got to do anything with our support/how we feel for the club?

We also had Scholes, Anderson, Nani, Ronaldo off form throughout whole of last season. That's a lot of attacking players who was off form at the same time. Take away the goals, and Ronaldo contribution would be pretty average for a world class player. I would say Berba have been a bit unlucky coming into a team who struggle to find consistency going forward whole season. It's nothing to do with him. Even with Tevez, we didn't look as fluid.

How many games Rooney played out wide? Around 5 maybe? He still plays the majority of games upfront for us. If you want to blame someone, blame the other wingers for not being good enough last season that we had to play Rooney there some games, although in the big games it's more of a tactical decision..

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Added on June 29, 2009, 8:57 amLooks like there will be news about Valencia today/next few days huh? He's turn out ok in my mind last few weeks. Fast, direct.. plays like a winger should. Welcome to the club Antonio.

This post has been edited by Wan: Jun 29 2009, 08:57 AM

His team have been crap though. They finished 3rd/2nd in the league right?

If the reported 15m is true, I would say it's pretty cheap in todays market for an establish EPL winger. If the market is normal, that would be a fair price for him. See how much Carrick cost us. Almost similar stature.

They're almost similar, but Valencia is more direct and maybe not as skillful. Nani like to wait then turn here and turn there while Valencia would just charge through.

Valencia is more consistent. That's all. Nani have more talent IMO, but because he's not a regular, he can't show it.

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Added on June 29, 2009, 6:44 pm
If he plays like that consistently, he would be a success here. He's no Ronaldo of course, and won't ever be as good, but he would still be a good player for us.

This post has been edited by Wan: Jun 29 2009, 06:44 PM

Rooney, Berba and Benzema will rotate around, which what happens last season with Tevez instead of Benzema. And if the wingers didn't step up this coming season again, we will see Rooney out wide too. But even if we have wingers that perform well throughout the season, depending on our tactical approach(big games, CL), we may see Rooney out wide again. But a couple of games out wide shouldn't hurt so much.

He will get the #24 jersey.. you know what that means.

Our next hero, idol..

A really top fullback cost around 18m before this season. But recently a fullback just below that level went for that much. And that's only the fullback. 16m would really only be around 12m mark in normal market. But even if they do rate him at that amount in normal circumstances, it's no different to what we paid for Carrick. It's a fair price IMO for an establish winger in the EPL.

As for Benzema, it really get me excited.. although I don't really want a player of his calibre(top striker/potentially going to be) being bought. It's not that I don't want him but I feel with Roo and Berba as 1st choice we only need a backup/squad striker(a level below the top strikers). But I guess I won't mind if he does come. Nobody would refuse a top player right?

See last 3 and a half seasons. 433 for CL & big games, 442 for the majority of the others.




Seems like a nice lad.

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Added on July 1, 2009, 10:11 amValencia on the right, Nani on the other. They both gonna rotate with Park.

This post has been edited by Wan: Jul 1 2009, 10:11 AM

The more I look at that clip, the more I see the similarities with Ronaldo. Am I the only one? I'm not saying he's as good, or will be as good, but the playing style is similar the more I look at that. Pace, power, direct..

Last season we had Ronaldo, but still Rooney played out wide. Now Ronaldo is gone and replaced by Valencia. We could still see Rooney out wide again. But that's due to tactical reasons, and the other wingers not in form. I don't really see it as such a bad thing if someone have to be sacrificed for the benefit of the team.