Jonea out. Evans maybe out as well? It's gonna be panic station here..

There must have been a very big cheque given to him to say the exact name.
Unless he's so paranoid in the last year or so about his 'hair'.

Doubt he'll be on the bench so soon unless we have injury problems. He's been out for a long time.

DDG
Rafael-Rio-Vida-Buttner
Valencia-Scholes-Carrick-Nani
Kagawa
RVP

Subs: Lindegaard, Evans, Evra, Cleverley, Ando, Welbeck, Chicha..

Young is out injured right? Maybe Giggs will play instead on Nani/Valencia.

If our defence is tight, should have no problems against Gala. That and the chop and change.
Liverpool will always be hard no matter what situation they're in.
Newcastle cup game.. That won't be easy if we play the fringe players.
Spurs at home we should win comfortably IMO.

SAF said no injury problems although he said we don't know how his body react coming back from a long flight.

The injury problems might be a blessing in that regard.
But we still have tons of options upfront and in midfield. RVP, Rooney, Kagawa, Welbeck, Chicharito figting for two positions. Lovely.

---

Added on September 15, 2012, 2:26 pmDdg/Lindegaard
Rafael, Rio, Vida, Evans, Evra, Buttner
Valencia, Young, Nani, Giggs
Scholes, Carrick, Ando, Cleverley, Powell, Fletcher
Rvp, Kagawa, Rooney, Welbeck, Chicharito

I'm sure we would be able to put a strong team out against Newcastle from that squad unless Powell and Fletcher starts in midfield. Both not ready yet for different reasons.

Hope Buttner plays tonight. See what he's made of. Time to rest Evra as well to get ready for the hard games ahead.



This post has been edited by Wan: Sep 15 2012, 02:26 PM

Welbeck is one of the most unselfish strikers out there. If he is a bit more selfish in his play(ie, go for goal a bit more), he would get more goals.

---

Added on September 16, 2012, 4:05 amAs for his 'dive'.. it went really fast and he just loses his balance probably. And the GK did touched him a bit.

This post has been edited by Wan: Sep 16 2012, 04:05 AM

I must have watched a different game I guess. I thought we did pretty well in the first half. Reading around it seems it was like the first few games.. boring, pedestrian, not much chances.. but it was far from it IMO. Maybe it was because of expectation. Thought it was shit, but then its in fact a lot better hoho.

He is like Gibson(before trigger happy, went to shit) and Lampard. Left or right, they know how to hit them sweetly.

Hardly shaky. Most comfortable game we've been in even including pre season so far even before the goals. I guess it says a lot about the quality(lack of) of Wigan(away) I suppose.


Welbeck played well for the most part, minus the goal scoring bit.
Good to see Nani turning it on now and then. Still frustrating, but he will always create chances. Get a goal pls soon. Might speed up getting your form back!
Buttner was awesome. Remains to be seen whether he can defend well yet or not. So far so good, but the likes of Southampton, West Ham, Crouch, Fellaini etc will look to exploit him in the air.. that will be a true test for him. Going forward tho fuuuh. Can dribble, fast, can cross the ball, shows no fear as well getting stuck in, and we still haven't seen his shooting boot yet. He has a rocket launcher. Should have let him take the penalty.


Debutants impress at OT
http://www.manutd.com/en/RobinVanPersieLanding/VanPersieNews/2012/Sep/sir-alex-ferguson-discusses-powell-and-buttner-debut-goals.aspx

High praise there for Powell. His development will be very interesting. He won't be another Scholes(the passing maestro) obviously, but other parts of his game is pretty impressive. The shooting, composure.. we'll see once he settles down and improve a bit as he gets older whether his passing game is anything more than just decent.

This post has been edited by Wan: Sep 16 2012, 04:41 AM

Nani and Rooneys touch can be real shit too. Welbecks touch is a lot more consistent compared to Rooneys.
Decision making..see Nani. Already 25/26, but still absolutely frustrating. Welbeck is 21/22, so it'll get better in time.
Reading the game: see above.

As for his finishing, he's no Hernandez/Ole etc and probably never will be a prolific one, but he'll get his fair share. RVP wasn't a goal machine at the same age.

With Welbeck, since he doesnt have the end product to show(goals), most people just don't rate him.
Same thing happened when he first broke through. Its on the dislike/hate level. He just need to add a bit more goals to his game, and soon enough he'll win over the doubters. Might take a few more seasons tho for it to happen. See RVP's record.

Right now he plays well enough. Link up is good mostly, he works hard and is involved a lot in our attacking moves..just missing the goals.

He wasn't awful. He played well. You know you can still ply well without converting your chances. It's not like he sit on his arse all game long and do nothing. Yes he messed things up now and then, but I don't see anyone else berating Nani or Hernandez for yet another misplaced pass.

---

Added on September 17, 2012, 5:30 pmRVP did get a knock in his last game for the Dutch. And with his injury record, and having Gala and Liverpool next, the Wigan game was the perfect chance to rest him and a few others. Wigan at home is usually easy and despite playing without Kagawa, Evra, RVP(until final 20mins), Rooney and Cleverley, we still put out a very strong team. Our bench have so much firepower for that game its unreal.

This post has been edited by Wan: Sep 17 2012, 05:30 PM

They do improve us. The commercial side, the players we brought in under them plus plenty others and the period under them have been our most successful on and off the pitch. The debt sucks of course but not much we can do. It's their club, and they chose that way to buy the club, and so far it's been manageable. Hope it stays that way.



As for City and the Munich chant.. minority like with all clubs. Even some of our fans last week didn't cover ourselves in glory.

As for them having sugar daddy, well, everyone knows it, and like Chelsea before, they would be reluctant to admit it, but lucky them. Just like in the past where we rise back to the top seeing off the likes of Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal in the past and recently seen off Mourinho's Chelsea, we will do the same with City with a bit of luck(injuries!).

DDG, Lindegaard
Rafael, Fabio(may not be a starter, but would provide good cover both sides), Smalling, Evans, Jones, Buttner
Valencia, Nani, Cleverley, Ando, Young, Powell
Rooney, Chicharito, Welbeck

Rio, Vida, Evra Scholes, Giggs, RVP got another few years in them yet..

Could easily last us another decade most of those players. Hope Nani signs that new contract.. any news regarding his situation?

I remembered Cassilas had to sit out from games now and then when he first broke through. I would be ok with if we do that to DDG. He's still young afterall. I don't agree with rotating like what happened early last season, even though Lindegaard is very good himself.

Lindegaard is too good just to be a #2. And he needs games as well considering his playing experience is more or less like DDG's.

We see DDG as future #1. Thats the plan(why else give him the #1 jersey), and he's good enough to start for us every game anyways right now. But seeing how young he is(for a GK), we're probably doing this to protect him and prepare him mentally by giving him competition and drop him every now and then to see his reaction. He was awesome after he got back in goal mid last season. Probably gonna be a few seasons like this sadly for us. Hope they both don't let us down too much. Last season the rotation was cut short because Lindegaard got injured for the 2nd hald of last season.. Be interesting if we kwwp doing it throughout the season this time around.

Good to see Ando there. Thought he was injured. Fletcher instead of Buttner.. wonder what that means. Hope its not an injury.

Not confident going into the match. Anfield, and they always shows up against us lately, our team still not gelling together and not much form.. It'll be a nervy night. Can see Giggs starting, but I hope not. He tend to go for the hollywood/through balls too much and conceding possessions in the process.

They must hate us so bad.


I dedicate my sig to you Mark Halsey. MOM today for us.

It was the lunge(jump into it) that got him the red card.
As for them, they probably deserved to get something out of the game. And judging by their performance after they went a man down, they might just have had Shelvey not gone early. Lucky for us, along with the penalty. They played really well it has to be said.

As for us, it's been the story of the season so far. Started well, but after 5 mins, gone to shit. In our last CL winning season it took us like 10 games or so to get going.. it might take longer this time considering we have two new players up top.

This!
The 3 points is a bonus..

Shitty early season form, and played like shit, but still got a win there. I'm not gonna complain much.

There was no acting on Evans part. Shelvey's(not too bright reading his deleted post on twitter) boot came crashing into his leg, it would have hurt even if he padded them all over. Look how hard it could be..that Rooney cut to his thigh. Those studs are dangerous.

After the Suaracist gate last season(PR disaster) on their part, they're quick to set things right this time around. SAF was saying how Shelvey should apologised if he had seen it(they had a few harsh exchange of words when Shelvey came off the pitch), and this is what his replies to it was.. before he deleted it.

@ShelveyJ I have also apologised to sir Alex , just where I come from people don't grass people up to get someone sent off.

He already deleted that. Improved PR at work.

Well, Scholes is in form so its not really a problem with him playing. SAF is probably waiting to pair up Cleverley with Ando. They play better with each other compared when one of them paired with somebody else.

I think Ando got a knock/slight injury last few weeks or so. Thats why he's missing.

Use logic. Powell havent even done a thing yet at the top level and he's only 18. When SAF said that he meant the future. A few years from now. He has to make do with bit part involvement for now unless he shines enough and forced SAF to regularly play him.

Bench last night: Lindegaard, Buttner, Ando, Cleverley, Scholes, Welbeck, Hernandez. 1 GK and defender. 3 midfielders and 2 strikers with one able to cover the wings. No way Powell is a better option in a must win big game against a rival compared to those 3 on the bench and both that starts. Same goes to Fletcher in terms of his form and fitness. They both featured recently because they both need games and on paper both games are easier.

---

Added on September 24, 2012, 9:38 amIt's gonna be that way until the wingers shows up. I just hope last night and the games before that won't mean that Nani will stuck on the bench in the next few games. He needs games and a bit of confidence. He's messing up the simple stuff right now.

Valencia need to turn on his radar..
Young is injured and he doesnt fair any better ever since early last season.
Maybe put Buttner there?

This post has been edited by Wan: Sep 24 2012, 09:38 AM

07/08 Even with Tevez, CR, Ronaldo etc, it took a while to get going. Same thing happening right now. Good to great players all over the field, but aside from a couple of nice plays, shit throughout the game. And Valencia took a while last season as well if I'm not mistaken.

Problem with Shelvey's foot was that it went straight through compared to Evans who tried to side foot it. Evans got the ball first then like a train Shelvey's leg bulldoze his way through.