True, pace and skills would make you a great athelete and it would be a huge advantage in football. But to be a real genius you have to have a football brain.

Stuart Mathieson

February 18, 2010

Anderson could play his way back into first-team favour via United's reserves tonight.

The Brazilian midfielder has been absent from Sir Alex Ferguson's seniors since the Eastlands Carling Cup derby six games ago.

He was left out of the XI following the semi first-leg defeat and allegedly missed training and had a bust-up with the United manager.

He has been pencilled in for two reserve outings since against Bolton and Burnley that had to be postponed.

Fergie didn't take the player to Italy for United's Champions League tie with AC Milan.

If tonight's Moss Lane re- arranged match against Burnley goes ahead, the 21-year-old could be in Ole Solskjaer's side and put himself in contention for Saturday's Premier League match at Everton.

February 18, 2010

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson reckons Brazilian defender Rafael will be a better player for his tough clash with Ronaldinho in the San Siro on Tuesday.

Ronaldinho gave the 19-year-old right back a torrid time but the Reds boss says the player will be all the better for it.

"Ronaldinho has always had a great talent. His game dropped away for a year or so, but he is back to his best now and he was a handful for a young player like Rafael," said Fergie.

"The reason I played him was quite simple, though. Namely, that we have invested in a great future with him and we were not going to stop the rewards of that because we were playing AC Milan.

"He has to learn and, against Ronaldinho, he will have quickly discovered that this is the real world.

"He made some mistakes, but he won't make them next season. He will eradicate those mistakes because the boy is an outstanding talent."

Sorry, you're right. That is mental.

TBF, none of us know what's on Nani's mind. When he was brought in, everyone has touted him to be the next Ronaldo. I don't really know what factor that hinders his talent. Yes, we all know he has talent. Sure, everyone is pulling their hairs out watching Nani playing with no footballing brain.

He has just started to put in performance after performance. Too bad, he's banned in EPL. That is the stage he could play his traits the best because technical abilities isn't that important in EPL. A team that can play so well together can win matches. Individual brilliance doesn't count much.

Back to the Milan match, he was facing an experienced defender. Yes, he should have use his pace. Yet, he chose to use his technical traits rather than being straight forward. Hence, Valencia came into the picture.

1 bad match after putting in back to back good performance bar red card. Why all the negativity towards him? If SAF still has the capacity to be tolerate with him, why not us? The old man knows Nani better than us, isn't he?

Rooney himself played like crap earlier in the season. There was this one match whereby Rooney kept loosing the ball at the opponents area. Most of us didn't slag him off except for me and Sheep back then.

Differences between Rooney and Nani :

Weekly appearances which builds up consistency. Same goes for Ronaldo. He was basically threw in week in and week out.

"He made some mistakes, but he won't make them next season. He will eradicate those mistakes because the boy is an outstanding talent."