I came...I saw...I suffered...

Where to start....

After the community shield and the wondeful start we were having I was highly optimistic about the season, months later were getting embarrassed by oil money once again. The thing is City did not even play exceptionally well, we did nothing, absolutely nothing, and I blame it all on SAF. He said we were going there to win, yet he puts Rooney alone against one of the best defensive teams in the league, and Kompany, who is by far and wide the best CB in the league, and by some distance at that.

He started Park who has played no big part in any games this season and he started Jones as right back, who is a liability in every position, truly the most complete shite football player in Europe to paraphrase a jack of all trades, shite at all of them. He has been awful this season, and no media hype that. Smalling will improve and is a much betetr footballer than him.

Now unto the main problems that we have. One of the main problems we have is that none of our attacking player ever attampt to run in behind the defence. That problem has left a player like Scholes, whose Passing, vision and Creativity is up there with the likes of Pirlo and Xavi, reduced to passing out wide to the wings (99% of the time to Valencia ) and then we pump the ball into the box, and if we are lucky we get a goal. Carrick has been good, but again he is doing the job of a holding mf and he is not good enough defensively. That is not his fault, he is not that tyype of player, but has suffered for the SAF conversion (Anderson and Veron being the best examples).

We need our wide players to start attempting to run behind the defensive line and at least pretend we have some sort of dynamism in the team. At the moment, we do not have an out an out striker and yet no one makes any of thos runs and stretches the defence, our team is always static and no one is intelligent enough to move around bar Scholes and Cleverley. It's embarrassing to watch. Ironically since 2008 I feel we have played our best football at the start of this season and we are going to come away with nothing. Each big team now has a weapon for next season and we will be embarrassed in Europe if we don't find our's quick.

Bayern have a complete team, they are good on the ball and have an excelent outlet in Gomez, by far the most dymanic team. Madrid have the fastest counter attack in Europe, Barcelona have a playing style that imposes their game's on others, Juventus have a great hardworking MF, forward who at least run in behind the defense line and the best defence in Europe, hell at the moment Chelsea are better than us!

Ever since the great start we have played the same functional BS that we played last season, albeit with less security in defence (Vidic), meaning we couldn't get away with half the stuff we did last season. SAF got it right at the start, we were attempting to play like the Arsenal of old (invincibles) with quick ball movemnt in front of the defence that lead to some great goals. Cleverley and Anderson were responsible for that. Cleverley is the only player we have in our MF capable(or willing or brave enough) bringing the ball into the final third and moving it quickly, which led to some great attacking play in the first four games. We pressed and we didn't need an out and out striker because our front four (Welbeck, Rooney, Nani and Young) moved around the ball with the added pace and made better runs. Anderson was the perfect foil to Cleverely's movement, as he moved in the same phase and they both covered each other. While some people may say we allowed to many shots, they were pretty much all from distance as Clev-And ran back and did a pretty good job of shielding the defence, much better than Carrick and Scholes.

Onto the elephant in the room...Evra...that guy needs to go. He is dreadful and has been dreadful since 2009. Most goals in most big games are from his flank, he seems to forget that he is not an attacker and his first job is to defend. Last season in the champions legaue final he was at fault for the 1st goal, the 3rd goal was through his flank. We really need to get a left back, that is a pressing issue we need sorted out and fast.

Rafael is inconsistent but I beleive if he is given a full season he will be great. We need a holding mf, I say Tiote. He can tackle and is good enough on the ball, as he showed, when Newcastle took us to the cleaners earlier this season. Tiote would be much be able to do what Anderson did brilliantly at the start of the season with Cleverley and will leave us more defensively secure imo. We also need anothe driving cm, modric is the only other player I can think of atm that can provide something similar.

We don't need another winger, if we play like we did at the start of the season we won't need another winger at all ffs. What is SAFs obbsession with wingers. oh and Kagawa? Is that a joke? He better stay at Dortmund and not ruin hsi career like Nuri Sahin. There is a reason Gotze chose to stay there and Reus is moving there.

All in all, even if Newcastle beat City and we win the league, it will be the most hollow league title I have ever experienced, because now, City fans and players know they are better than us. If Vidic doesn't return to form next seaoson and we don't play like we did at the start of this season in Europe next year, a lot of teams in the champions league will be getting arrested for rape and assault next season when they play us next year. A year ago SAF said that he feels like we were closer to Barcelona, at the start of the season there was optimism, at the moment? We are a solar system away from them.

i enjoyed reading that, you made a lot of good points. I too am dissapointed in SAF for the way in which he showed too much respect/fear against City. When have we ever showed fear like that? We didn't even do that against Barcelona in the 2 finals we played against them.

I know SAF knew City play a more central and narrow football and he wanted us to stay compact in the middle, but it still didn't work. They still battered us through the middle.

Another thing is, like Capitano mentioned in the match day thread, teams know how to beat us now. If you press us high up the pitch, we won't be able to cope and will resort to hoofing the ball up field. Barcelona undid us this way, Benfica and Basle did it, Bilbao did it..and City did it yesterday. Our players just can't seem to cope when they are pressed. Hell, even Wigan succeeded against us using this tactic.

If we don't buck up our ideas. we will struggle again in Europe next season. We need better reinforcements, sort out the damn MF (evry United fan is screaming for this to be done, so I don't understand why Fergie can't see it).

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Seeing City win the title will be bad of course, but there is a + side to it (as crazy as that sounds). It may just enforce SAF to go on a summer spending spree akin to the one in the summer of 07. Us winning the league this season will paper over the cracks. It will absolutely brilliant if we do, don't get me wrong- but it will give SAF the excuse that the team doesn't need that much quality addition to improve it.

I disagree what you said about Jones though. He does frustrate the hell outta me at times, and he has been rubbish ever since his injury v Fulham away, but he is no means a shit player. All he needs is a position to cement as his own (cb imo) and he will come good. He showed what a quality player he was from Aug all the way to Dec. He was a beast. His only 20, he will become WC, trust me.

I agree about Evra though, the guy is a huge liabilty. Doesn't give a shet about defending anymore. Our weakest link in the team. Hopefully his last season as a starter. Park, thank u for all your efforts and great moments, but it's time to go. Berba will/should unfortunately leave. Owen will go, Macehda is not good enough and will def go, Anderson is not the answer to our MF problem and should leave, unless he accepts a squad player position. Giggs should not be anywhere near our starting line up, we shouldn't have to rely on him anymore. I love the guy, but it's true imo.

We have the nucleus for a great team. Just needs some major tweaks in the middle of the pitch, a change in tactics and approach. Vidic will be like a new signing for us next season....oh how we missed our leader.

PS sorry for the long write up.

Oh and our football has been drab for the majority of the season. Bar the first few games, the rest have been grinding out wins where players just got the job done. For the most part, the players looked unmotivated at times, only deciding to step it up when we fall behind or in the last 15 mins to a game.

The team this season has lacked the fighting spirit and bottle that is accustomed with Manchester United.

Getting your wide players to run behind the defense is really difficult in a 442/4411...and if you switch to 4231/433 then are you getting the best out of Rooney?

Since when did united stopped moving ball throw wings?

Yanited wingers stretches defense and recieves ball from their midfielders and crosses it. It has been the playing style for over two years now.

United midfield doesnt have the capacity to carry the ball forwad,hence the wingers coming deep and collecting ball.

And united midfield doesnt have the ability or control to move defenders out of position and make a throw ball to what ever forward running.Hence why should wingers make runs into box?