afrodoc:

so mikel who makes less BLOCKS,makes less TACKLES and also makes less INTERCEPTIONS is d better defensive midfielder?
laaaaakuli! u should exchange ur brain for a plate of gbegiri!

Less BLOCKS, less INTERCEPTIONS, Less TACKLES, Less KEY PASSES.

More BENCH ROLES

Glad you are getting to know Coogar better,

coogar:

what is he blocking? he cannot be dispossessed and he doesn't get dribbled.
mikel just takes the ball with perfect timing and knowing where to stand. . . .

sometimes a brilliant defender just stands in the way and the ball come to him, naturally!
there was this season rio ferdinand went almost a season with fouling anyone. that's brilliance!

so i think you should be the one to exchange your smoky brain with a plate of porridge.

Rio was able to do that because someone was doing the fouling on his behalf. Remove Vidic and lets see how he would avoid it.

Which ball does Mikel take?

No wonder a teenage Romeu is even preffered ahead of Mikel nowadays

dayokanu:

Less BLOCKS, less INTERCEPTIONS, Less TACKLES, Less KEY PASSES.
More BENCH ROLES

Glad you are getting to know Coogar better,

mikel's long ball accuracy is even better than song's - and yet afrodoc opined most of mikel's passes are safe passes.
have you lost your ability to read?
alex song is not even good at clearances - how can? when he won't even be in the position to clear the ball - he's busy competing assist stats with walcott!

gareth barry and scott parker are old and are slow as slugs - yet they don't get dribbled like alex song who's supposed to be younger.
key passes per game is not the job of a defensive midfielder - you have shot yourself in the foot. why should song be making key passes when he's supposed to screen his back four - i tell you - song's positional discipline is suspect. where would you see makelele making key passes?

the things song does better than mikel are not required from a defensive midfielder.
that he scores and assists is the reason gooners can't win a plastic spoon and why they are vulnerable to counter attacks. there's no balance in their team.
if song is better than mikel based on attacking stats then vincent enyeama is better than gianluca buffon cos the nigerian goalie scores more.

Welbeck will not make it at O.T or any where else as a striker if he can't improve his finishing, but Chica will never be more than squad player at O.T if he can't improve his all round game. Welbeck does all secondary stuff well, but is too erratic finishing wise. Chica is a great finisher with 1st rate instincts but has an abysmal all round game.

As far as I am concerned they both showed some positives but overwhelming negatives against Norwich. In d 1st half they played okay. Danny setup Chica who had a tame shot saved and then Chica returned d favor from which Ruddy made a brilliant save. But after d initial 25-30 mins Norwich's adjusted game plan nullified both of them. They got more physical not allowing us pass as quickly and breaking up play (we also criminally took our foot of d pedal). Then Welbeck got sucked deeper to carry d extra workload cos of presence of d combined 75 years of Scholes and Giggs in d midfield, this continued for most of d 2nd half. This left Chicha mostly upfront alone, a role he does not excel at cause of his severely limited game anywhere but on d shoulder of d last defender. He was useless up till he was subbed. After d change Welbeck went upfront as d lone man and showed why he was stayed on instead of Chica, showing good hold up and link up play, should have had a won a number of freekicks after giving Norwich defenders trouble with his running and trickery (Chica didn't). He also despite playing upfront alone, managed to make chances for himself, unlike Hernandez. But then we saw his finishing and instinctual problems once again. Missing a free header 6 yards out with plenty of time and no pressure, a miss that would have been devastating to our title defense if not Giggs saving his a**.

Neither played well and they both need to improve. Welbeck has more to do, needing to improve his finishing and quicken his thought process, else he won't be here as a striker for long. Chica needs to improve beyond his present limited approach as striker or he will end up eventually as a super sub or situational striker.

If only we could combine them both and get a Danny Hernandez or Javier Welbeck, we would have a real nightmare striker in our squad.  

montelik:

Neither played well and they both need to improve. Welbeck has more to do, needing to improve his finishing and quicken his thought process, else he won't be here as a striker for long. Chica needs to improve beyond his present limited approach as striker or he will end up eventually as a super sub or situational striker.

If only we could combine them both and get a Danny Hernandez or Javier Welbeck, we would a real nightmare of striker in our squad.  

i dunno why people say hernandez is useless. . . .he relies on the passes of his midfielders to set him through on goal.
if we don't give him the ammo to run at people, he's not going to deliver anything.

^^^ Never said he was useless. But you just identified his limitation. He can only play really effectively on d shoulder of d last man and relies on quick release and accurate through balls. Guess what, we don't have a midfield proficient in providing these passes and his game is so limited that any thing beyond poaching he is pretty much bad at. When teams defensive lines drop deep forcing him to play in front of them or they get tight and physical with him, he has neither space to make his runs and quick sprints, nor d hold up play, link up play, strength and technical qualities to be effective.

when a team has players who r inflexible n can only play one way like hernandes it could become a problem.God has blessed him with deadly poaching ability but if he doesnt improve his game he will b a life time sub and never command a starting shirt in a big club.
coogar even u hv to see dt for his game to get to d nxt level he has to develop other skills apart from poaching

afrodoc:

when a team has players who r inflexible n can only play one way like hernandes it could become a problem.God has blessed him with deadly poaching ability but if he doesnt improve his game he will b a life time sub and never command a starting shirt in a big club.
coogar even u hv to see dt for his game to get to d nxt level he has to develop other skills apart from poaching

hahaha - what a joke.
tell me how filipo inzaghi(who fergie claimed was born in an offside position) became a european legend.
it is our players who have to be intelligent enough to play passes that would isolate hernandez with the last man. . .e.g berbatov's pass against ajax.

i wish we have someone like fabregas or sneijder in the team - a player who can look up and deliver devastating passes that rip teams apart.
the only time hernandez is not really needed is when teams sit and defend deep - then the space he normally loves to run into gets mopped up but against teams who love to press and do high line like arsenal/chelsea - abeg. . . . .hernadez is a super tool.

^^ You have to agree that the way European football is going nowadays most teams are playing with one striker

And from the old pattern, The number 9 is gradually being phased out or forced to develop other play linking abilities. Striker in the mould of Inzaghi, Ruud, Shearer, Yekini (the typical fox in the box) would find it hard in the football of nowadays

Unless these number 9 can score insane amount of goals to offset the deficiency(E.g Mario Gomez), he would gradually be limited

The supprt strikers of old are now leading the lines everywhere Villa, RvP, Alexis Sanchez, Welbeck, Suarez, Zlatan, etc

the old style poachers r a dying breed i said this in a post some tym ago.d same way u say football is changing for DMs its also changing for strikers.these days strikers must b able to play good football to b among the very best in d world.d days of van nistelrooy,inzaghi n jardel r over;2day its messi,ronaldo,benzema,zlatan,forlan,suarez n aguero type players dt reign.even some of these "poachers" had other attributes like good hold up or link up play,good passing e.t.c i am yet to see anything from chicharito in 2years.and on inzaghi due to his limitations he was not really accepted amongst d very best in world football despite his phenomenal strike rate.
if chicharito doesnt develop as a footballer he will b a perennial sub

What has happened to Ando, he made a brief return then subsequently disappeared again.

dont know probably fitness issues.d guy doesn't hav d best build for a dynamic midfielder and he looks like some dt will hv fitness n weight problems esp if he is out for long periods IMO.
i hope i am wrong sha

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1486892_fighter-darren-fletcher-has-eye-on-rejoining-manchester-united-next-term

“It’s a week by week situation so I’ve not got any timescale on recovery, but the target for me is next season now. If I can come back then that would be great for me.”

He added: “It’s something that will never leave me, but you have to find somehow a way to manage it so that I can still play my football.

Considering Ando is turning into Saha, d presence of pensioners in our midfield and d reality that Fletcher will never be totally in d clear. Value available or not, we must sign central midfielders this summer. At least 2 if not 3 or 4.

montelik:

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1486892_fighter-darren-fletcher-has-eye-on-rejoining-manchester-united-next-term

Considering Ando is turning into Saha, d presence of pensioners in our midfield and d reality that Fletcher will never be totally in d clear. Value available or not, we must sign central midfielders this summer. At least 2 if not 3 or 4.

Wondering why we didn't sign at least one last summer. . .
Now we're playing catch-up.
It's a miracle we're still in contention with the paper-thin middle we have right now.
If anything happens to Michael Carrick,we are SUNK.

Honestly I feel we are sinking already. We need our wing play to bail us out and help mask d other inadequacies. Unless Nani and Young can hit top form, Park get back to his best, as well as Valencia returning from injury and continuing his stellar play till May, I am worried. Scholes is still looking fresh but playing 90 mins every week will soon catch up with him, very soon. Carrick already looked knackered against Norwich. Giggs is mostly below average every game but can come up with crucial result influencing contributions that mask d problems. We can't continue like this cause it might catch up eventually.

D europa cup only makes d fixture pile-up worse and with SAF refusing to bring up Pogba e.t.c to provide relief, he will continue taking gambles with his team selection even in PL fixtures and like against Blackburn it might cost us.

montelik:

Honestly I feel we are sinking already. We need our wing play to bail us out and help mask d other inadequacies. Unless Nani and Young can hit top form, Park get back to his best, as well as Valencia returning from injury and continuing his stellar play till May, I am worried. Scholes is still looking fresh but playing 90 mins every week will soon catch up with him, very soon. Carrick already looked knackered against Norwich. Giggs is mostly below average every game but can come up with crucial result influencing contributions that mask d problems. We can't continue like this cause it might catch up eventually.

D europa cup only makes d fixture pile-up worse and with SAF refusing to bring up Pogba e.t.c to provide relief, he will continue taking gambles with his team selection even in PL fixtures and like against Blackburn it might cost us.

nani and ashley young provided the assists that scholes and giggs scored from.
the wing play is very much alive. it's just that our wingers have been struck with too many injuries!

coogar:

nani and ashley young provided the assists that scholes and giggs scored from.
the wing play is very much alive. it's just that our wingers have been struck with too many injuries!

Coogar I wish I could share your optimism, but montelik is right.
The wing play is masking our defects in the middle. Whenever our wingers don't get into stride, we tend to suffer.

StarBoard:

Coogar I wish I could share your optimism, but montelik is right.
The wing play is masking our defects in the middle. Whenever our wingers don't get into stride, we tend to suffer.

my fellow comrade, it has always been like that since we lost hargreaves to injury.
then carlos quieroz came with the 3-man midfield of playing anderson-fletcher-carrick to give us a bit of cover to our back four. . .
quieroz left and fergie started playing 2 strikers - one ahead of the other in a 4-4-1 and 2-man midfield.

since then - carrick became a permanent defensive midfielder. . . .and his attacking quality got lost in that transition.
injuries to anderson, fletcher and cleverley hasn't helped. . . .scholes n giggsy are running on empty tank so we have no definite pattern.
i am still amazed fergie hasn't fixed this flaw cos he relies heavily on our wing play. we have the best pair of wingers in europe.

coogar:

my fellow comrade, it has always been like that since we lost hargreaves to injury.
then carlos quieroz came with the 3-man midfield of playing anderson-fletcher-carrick to give us a bit of cover to our back four. . .
quieroz left and fergie started playing 2 strikers - one ahead of the other in a 4-4-1 and 2-man midfield.

since then - carrick became a permanent defensive midfielder. . . .and his attacking quality got lost in that transition.
injuries to anderson, fletcher and cleverley hasn't helped. . . .scholes n giggsy are running on empty tank so we have no definite pattern.
i am still amazed fergie hasn't fixed this flaw cos he relies heavily on our wing play. we have the best pair of wingers in europe.

True on the bolded.
But Anderson and Fletcher over time have proved unreliable due to injuries.
2008/9 was the year of the trio. They did damage on all the top sides when we played them.
But now we have only Carrick as cover.As effective as he is,he needs someone who is reliable to play with and be even more effective.

StarBoard:

True on the bolded.
But Anderson and Fletcher over time have proved unreliable due to injuries.
2008/9 was the year of the trio. They did damage on all the top sides when we played them.
But now we have only Carrick as cover.As effective as he is,he needs someone who is reliable to play with and be even more effective.

i believe carrick and cleverley can do a job. anderson and cleverley can also do a job.
but we need the wounded ones to be brought to speed. it's sickening that we have more injured players than arsenal this season.
what is wrong with our medical team? jeeeez.

coogar:

i believe carrick and cleverley can do a job. anderson and cleverley can also do a job.
but we need the wounded ones to be brought to speed. it's sickening that we have more injured players than arsenal this season.
what is wrong with our medical team? jeeeez.

I'm sceptical about blaming our medical team,simply because this injury list is bizzare and i don't recall it happening at this scale.
If it happens again,then I'll blame the medical staff.

Ando had previous injury concerns before he signed, his injury record has just gotten so much worse since 09. Fletcher has usually being perpertually fit since his promotion in 04 until 11 when he started getting a few spells on d sidelines, finally culminating in d lastest virus.

I am concerned with d number of injury prone players we seem to be collecting. In d previous seasons days we had d like Irwin, Cole, Beckham, Scholes, CR7, Neville whom could be perpetually fit for an entire season or would get injured max once a season. Now d only guy in our squad showing such is Evra. Every body is always sustaining multiple knocks and its not like we play rugby style soccer like Stoke. Tom C who was very much available for Wigan last season has barely stayed fit this season, same with Jones. Na curse.

We need to look at why we seem to have had a perpetual season long injury crisis for several of d last seasons.

the club should take a closer look at d situation.possible reasons include errors from the medical staff,training methods and the training faclities.
i remember a time Newcastle hd a similar problem when most newcastle signings were perpetually injured,i think it was eventually linked to their faclities(hard taining pitch or something like dt).
things can obviously be better,all our defenders r injury prone except evra(even d keepers r not left out).in midfield carrick is d only non-geriatric midfielder dt stays fit and we never seem to hv more than 2 of our 3 quality wingers fit at a particular time.and pls how many matches has rooney missed cos of a sore throat? a colleague of mine was joking dt maybe he has a retropharyngeal abscess,God forbid sha.

Emperoh:

I hope the injury to Smalling ain't that serious.
Bigs ups to Ashley for that goal

who according to dayokanu, is not good enough. . .

since his come back, he scored at ajax, provided giggsy's assist at norwich and got the equalizer today before robben murdered leighton baines.
sometimes, you have to wonder what kind of brain fluids power dayokanu. . . . .i am sure it must be a bucket of camel's s[i]e[/i]men.

abegi. . . . .we should just forget that Welbeck dude - even if Messi or Maradona was added to his name it would make no difference - the guy is just a bad case of misplaced priority on the path of SAF. The time spent trying to "develop" Welbeck would have been better spent on Manucho, Mame or Macheda. . . . .& the piece of c.rap was asking for a pay-rise. JESUS!
Seriously, I thought non-tested Bebe was bad. . . . . .right now I wouldn't mind swapping him with DW - or better still haul his big, charcoal-black butt off to the DW for free!
We are certainly better off playing without a striker. . . . , if the only thing we have available is Wel beck!!!

Starboard

You still think Robben is overrated?

Ask those who were in Wembley how he outshone the EPL top scorer even in Robbens bad form

And whats good about Ashley Youngs goal?

Whats so spectacular about it?

dayokanu:

Starboard

You still think Robben is overrated?

Ask those who were in Wembley how he outshone the EPL top scorer even in Robbens bad form

Daft question.
He scores against England and you're jerking off.
Everybody who scores against England is a superstar,by your logic. Including the unnamable Croats and Slovakians as well.
Jay-Jay Okocha who mesmerized Wembley should be a soccer god by now.

Really your deductive reasoning skills defy logic.Drain the pap floating in your cranial cavity before you post.

I'm noticing your German side were tonked at home and you're refusing to comment.Who made those gay.gots favourites for Euros sef?

RuuDie:

abegi. . . . .we should just forget that Welbeck dude - even if Messi or Maradona was added to his name it would make no difference - the guy is just a bad case of misplaced priority on the path of SAF. The time spent trying to "develop" Welbeck would have been better spent on Manucho, Mame or Macheda. . . . .& t[b]he piece of c.rap was asking for a pay-rise. JESUS![/b]
Seriously, I thought non-tested Bebe was bad. . . . . .right now I wouldn't mind swapping him with DW - or better still haul his big, charcoal-black butt off to the DW for free!
We are certainly better off playing without a striker. . . . , if the only thing we have available is Wel beck!!!

The bolded parts are what gets me going.
1. If Fergie invested half the time developing the above-mentioned folks, we would have been better off by now. It's still mind-boggling why FErgie sticks with the fella even when he's obviously not up to par.
2. debosky the charlattan was debating with me as to his worth; if he's missing chances up-front like he is,he should be playing for free, i tell you.He had the guts to ask for a pay rise for doing absolutely nothing as a striker.

Emperoh:

^^^^
As for DW, i do wonder why O'shea spent as much as he did in Man U
We might just be seeing another situ like that again. . . . and don't give me that versatility thing
it ain't werking for me

I think O'Shea's case is different.
O'Shea could play many positions in the back effectively.I wouldn't mind him coming back to us.
DW is supposedly a striker and misses simple chances in front of goal.Like coogar says,he has no nous.

dayokanu:

And whats good about Ashley Youngs goal?

Whats so spectacular about it?

ask the dutch defenders and their goalkeeper. . . .

dayokanu:

Starboard

You still think Robben is overrated?

Ask those who were in Wembley how he outshone the EPL top scorer even in Robbens bad form

robben is massively overrated. . . . .so he scored 2 goals against an inexperienced england defence and we should have a party.
how many international caps has smalling copped? gary cahill? leighton baines?

robben my foot - if he was good, he won't be kicked out of chelsea.
i am yet to see his name come up in the list of best players in the planet.