Just figured I'd post a quick note as we got ready for the midweek matches to get started. The weekend gave us pretty much what we expected. Points from Drogs, FloMal, and Lamps but not too much from Torres and Elk. Kalou was the surprise package and Cech was the early disappointment.
Birmingham, as we expected, handled Sunderland and have managers feeling pretty good about things. The question is whether they end up getting much out of those same players in midweek against Chelsea on the road. The big disappointment was SuperKev who barely even showed up on the score sheet.
Arsenal did what Arsenal has done recently. RvP was worth the money but there wasn't as much value as you might have hoped for.
Two odd things about the upcoming week - one, the teams with two matches didn't play last weekend at all. The second is that most of them did very well the weekend before last despite not being exceptional teams so the prices of their best players is a little over-inflated. This will make life pretty difficult come the end of the week when you're making your decisions.
Finally, to the title of this post. There were a lot of comments killing me for the perceived slight toward Michael Carrick. I felt the reaction was overly harsh and apparently Mr. Carrick agreed with me and decided to conspire with Mr. Berbatov to give away the FA Cup semi-final. Berbs should have rendered Carrick's blunder irrelevant by scoring on his two rock solid chances but Carrick showed the depths of his mediocrity by gifting Citeh their only goal and thus their place in the FA Cup Final. Sometimes life just works out when you've given an opinion that not everyone agrees with.
amen brother!
ReplyDeleteHaha Not all of us were Carrick defenders Neal. I feel that a lot of Man Utd fans especially the overseas ones just can't accept any critism of their team even if it's only on a footballing perspective. Bet most of them are now fuming about how the ref cheated them out of 3 points against the Toon. Haha. Well i still think they'll win the title cause their teams mental strength is huge compared to Arsenals...but at least now we have a few more weeks of interesting battles.
ReplyDeleteIF Arsenal beat spurs tonight ill give them a chance. And I truely hope they do, also what's your take on fab4's comments? I honestly don't know if it was a complement or a back stab against Wenger. Off to barca for real this summer?
ReplyDelete...but still Carrick has 3(soon 4) premier league trophies, and one CL trophie, while your precious Fabregas has empty medal cabinet.
ReplyDeleteHe's got a World Cup winners medal!
ReplyDeleteAnd a European Championship medal
ReplyDeleteHow many medals did Geremi Njitap win with Real Madrid, about 3 league titles and 2 or 3 champions league trophys but he was nothing but a squad player.
ReplyDeleteyour blog needs to be more levelled, carrick abuse, modric abuse, constantly incorrect. i have no problem with opinions, but bias i can't stand
ReplyDeleteIndeed fellow commenters... sometimes life just works out for ya when your team is still in the running for the two most prestigious trophies in football while those running their mouths week after week about all of your supposed mediocre and lackluster players are in for yet another trophyless season. Dropped two more points today huh? Nice defense ya got there, le arse!
ReplyDeleteYeah and he won world cup, and european championship with Spain, not Arsenal...
ReplyDeleteAnd while you are talking about squad players, that's what Fabregas is in his national team, because Xavi, Xabi Alonso, and Iniesta are all in front of him.
Ok, you´re right, I give up. All United players are supertopworldclass players.
ReplyDeleteNo, they're not. Berbatov is awful, and others are supertopworldclass in comparison to other premeir league players.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Spurs after holding out Arsenal after they were leading by two goals. At the same time allowing Chelsea leapfrog Gunners for the number two spot. Another heartbreak season for the fallen Gunners???
ReplyDeleteDrogba rocks though unlike Nando El-Nino
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete...but still Carrick has 3(soon 4) premier league trophies, and one CL trophie, while your precious Fabregas has empty medal cabinet.
1:22 PM"
The good old Carrick conundrum!
What does the guy do?
His passing is distinctly average.
He cannot tackle well.
His shooting leaves a lot to be desired.
He is a terrible set piece taker.
He has no pace whatsoever.
He wouldn't look out of place playing for the likes of Sunderland or Wigan.
Manchester United have won the above trophies despite Michael Carrick, not because he has been a vital part of a great team. You cannot measure how good a player is by simply quoting what medals he has won. Try removing the red tinted spectacles and actually watch him carefully.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteyour blog needs to be more levelled, carrick abuse, modric abuse, constantly incorrect. i have no problem with opinions, but bias i can't stand
5:51 PM"
Give me some proper opinions on a blog any day. I disagree strongly at least a couple of times per month with some of the stuff these 2 guys say, but at least they actually are brave enough to put their own opinions in writing for us all to see.
Your use of the word bias would imply they are favouring their own teams or have some kind of problem with other teams. This is not the case, i'm sure they would be the first to express their thoughts on a player from their own team who was as bad as Carrick!
Modric on the other hand was a bad call as he is a class act, but each to their own....
That's the beauty of opinions, we all have a slightly different one.
Overseas Man United fans can take criticism... it all depends on who you're talking to. Carrick is one of those intangible players - his value isn't obvious... and is certainly a mystery to me most of the time. SAF wanted him from Tott. though AND plays him, so there's got to be SOMEthing. Just not sure what it is at the moment. :)
ReplyDelete@ Chuck Rock
ReplyDeleteIn last 3 years I missed between 3 and 5 games of ManUtd a year. I even watch friendly games. And in 7-8 years before that I watched between 80 and 90% of the games. So I watched every United player very closely.
Carrick was in poor form this year, but that doesn't mean he is bad or average player. If you saw as much as I did, you would know that he has good shot(remember Roma, Wigan, ManCity), he is central midfielder so he isn't shooting a lot, but when you need him he is there. Unlike Berbatov who is nowhere to be found when the game is on the line, his 20+ goals mean nothing when you remember how he cowardly went back against Blackburn last year, while two full backs, and central midfielders rushed forward in search of a goal. And because of things like that he will never be more than average. Back to Carrick, his passing is more than good, he can give great diagonal passes and his through balls led to more than few goals. He is not pacy but, few days ago against Newcastle, he showed that he can run like hell. I only give you that his tackling is not good enough. But I can add that he had few games at center back last year, and he did well, in all of them but one. He is far more than average player.
I think at this moment fab wishes he was Geremi Njitap
ReplyDeletei think carrick sucks.. not even close to scholes. i thought carrick is replacement for scholes, but guess what, scholes still playing untill this year and might even play next year..
ReplyDelete