Premier League Round Up

Stoke City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen hoping to return against Bolton Wanderers

Terry Assessment to Continue

Knee injury rules Doyle out

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres doubt for derby

Lennon ruled out of England game, Downing in

Jean Beausejour to miss Birmingham's trip to Arsenal

Injured Jagielka ruled out

Arsenal buoyed by imminent return of Cesc Fábregas and Theo Walcott

Frank Lampard optimistic of return for Chelsea's match at Aston Villa

Pavlyuchenko Blow for Russia

Finally, lost in this week's "blogasm" over Liverpool FC, I think we've lost sight of another similar, if not spectacular issue. Manchester United just reported financial statements that were about as bad as Liverpool's. They are also coming off a weekend where they benched their in-form striker and came away from another road trip with another draw. Were Liverpool not such a grease-fire of a club at the moment, I think SAF and Manchester United would be feeling a lot more heat.

5 comments:

  1. fans of united are used to early season teams not in form then charging at the end, so they may not be as upset. i think that sir alex should have way more gruff sent his way, on his transfer dealings than wenger. wenger never had 90 million coming in. wenger's biggest problem is not getting a keeper, when there are 5 or 6 world class, or at least a lot better than his choices right now, available. wenger has talented youth that he believes in, which can be an issue. united have no youth that sir alex is depending on.
    sir alex does not like to sign players that are ready to play and usually doesn't do well with them, forlan and veron, come to mind. he likes to buy good quality and develop, ala rooney, ronaldo or develop from youth, like beckham and giggs class. the problem is, that he has no one coming down the pipes. his signings of valencia and nani were not going to solve the issue of needing players in the middle of the park. i think manure is in for a world of hurt. the defense is not communicating well. the midfield needs to be totally replaced, age and injuries are an obvious issue.
    last year, i thought that sir alex should have got coach of the year, because of the job he did with a really thin team. rooney's form and games going into sir alex time, may have paved over some serious issues. have you noticed that sir alex is not getting quoted anymore, is his passion gone, or is he so distracted by his team that he doesn't get himself into the papers anymore? to me the biggest problem for sir alex, which is on the same level as wenger's failing to get a goalie, is that he has never got a world class central mid. he could have got any number of them over the last 3 years and refuses. teams that are winger dominated are easier to defend and take the balance out of a team. munich got there last year, because the quality of ribery and robben is 10 times better than the quality of valencia and nani. interestingly, the team that won it was set up around sneider, a central mid.

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  2. richard_pitts_20005:31 PM

    Greghino,i am not sure most teams relished defending against Giggs and Beckham in the late 1990s re your comment about wingers.

    Roy Keane was in the opinion of many undoubtedly world class and ditto Paul Scholes so I don't think we should use United's current malaise to denigrate the last 17 years.Two champions league wins in 10 years is decent going.

    I think the Premiership and its stle of 4-4-2/4-3-3 does not lend itself to a certain style of central midfielder e.g. Veron who would do very well elsewhere in Europe, especially in a 3-4-1-2 style formation.

    As for now, the players they miss most imo are Keane and Tevez because both would enable Rooney, Valencia and Nani so much more time on the ball.

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  3. I think he is saying that pretty much all of United's quality is in the wings; there's a lack of balance, which (as you point out) there obviously there wasn't when a young(er) scholes and Roy keane dominated the centre of the pitch. Nor is greg denigrating the last 17 years: He is talking about the team now, and it is difficult to argue with: Anderson does not look like the next scholes! To me though the defence is the main concern, if they improve so will the rest of the team. Midfielders nervous about the defence tend to be ineffective (See spurs during the recent CB crisis).

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  4. as an arsenal fan, i have grudgingly gotten respect for man u under sir alex. they win the games that the arsenal team used to regularly. the invincibles were wonderful to watch, but i am waiting for the current team to grow up. because man u and sir alex are touchy subjects, i certainly tread lightly and am being as critical as i can while being fair. if you want me to run wenger and arsenal through the same microscope i will.

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