Thursday, February 21, 2008

How Manchester United think that they are the Best Club

First of all let me tell you that I am Manchester United fan. But sometimes it baffles me when either players or manager or CEO of Manchester United comes and boasts they are the best club. As a fan i have always hesitated in boasting this thing.

What is the criterion of being the best club? You should have the best players around. You should have the most number of audiences. You should have the highest turnover and profits. You should have the best football ground. Or above all you should play the best football possible. For me the last one is the criterion. Because many of you will argue that Manchester United has the best Manager, best players, best stadium and best turnover and profits. But the brand of football you play should be the sole criterion. And for me Manchester Uinted have lacked in there, not by far but yes no can say for sure that Manchester United plays the best football. They are there , their brand of football is better than the most but unarguably "The Best Football" , we can not say for sure.

Why I am saying this, because I am not happy the way Manchester United performed in Lyon. Based on this performance I can not say for sure that the club the club I support is the best in the world. They are near to that but they are not "The Best". I am sad to see that players and manager are satisfied with this performance. One such example.
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=595001
I watched the match live and got the feeling that Manchester United does not want to get beaten thats all. There was no desire to win or to score. I could have accepted this attitude if it was Real Madrid , Barcelona , AC Milan or Inter Milan but Lyon. The team which has lost its last league match and when you yourself have trounced your nearest rival in your league 4-0 three days back. I like the way Manchester United play in English Premier League, Its all out attaack. But in Champions league Sir Alex Ferguson has always been defensive. I was able to digest his attitude prior to this year when we always had substandard squad with only one or two world class players. But this season you have one of the best teams possible. All the players are attack minded and then you ask them to restrain. This allows the other team no matter what their stature is to attack you and then one of your players makes mistakes ( Rio Ferdinand is good at that). Everything was going fine and then suddenly you found yourself 1-0 down. Why in the first place you allow the other team to that to you? Why don't you burry them in first 20 minutes and remind them to be in their own half or have the risk of knocked out in the first tie itself. The goal you scored was not your brilliance, it was a lucky break as the ball bounced of Lyon defender and Tevez was there to pounce but will you be lucky every time? Assume the situation when you woul dhave got the 0-0 draw you so desired and then in the home leg at old trafford against all your expectations Lyon takes lead at 60th min and then your luck runs out and Tevez doesn't get that chance. You are out of the competition. Who do you blame for that? You didn't try hard in the first 90 minutes played in Lyon and the 30 min you had here were not enough to revert the damage done. Plus when you start with negative mindset it is difficult to come all out and firing all guns suddenly when you find yourself behind. Then the manager and players will come out and say we were the better team but we were unlucky.

I have gone a bit far now. The tie is at 1-1 with one away goal advantage but please for God sake don't try to preserve this slender lead, because they just need to score one goal.

Sir Ferguson please believe in your boys and allow them to express freely. Please play Hargreeves when your ass is against the wall and your team is not able to defend. Because he contributes in negative to the attacking football. All the promising movement gets killed when some one gets the ball in midfield and instead of looking for runners he looks up to find Scholes and if he doesn't find he passes that back to Edvin Van Der Sar. With all due respect to Hargreeves he is no good when comes to attack. Preserve him to defend the 2 goal cushion whenever you have . 1 goal cushion is no cushion as Manchester United plays always for win draw is equal to defeat.

So the bottom line if you want to say that you are "The Best Club" then you should play such football that teams fear to face you and no one dares to say something like this http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=79863

Sunday, February 10, 2008

People like Yuvraj and Ronaldo are double edged sword

Manchester United have just lost to Manchester City by Two goals to One. The occasion was anniversary of Munich disaster and tributes to those who lost their lives. In the current context Manchester United are trailing Arsenel in the 2008 league title race by two points. So on all accounts this was a must win game. But there was one problem, United were missing the best team player WAYNE ROONEY due to suspension for his ten yellow cards through out the season till now. United never looked like scoring against two beast of the defenders in Micah Richards and Richard Dunne. There is no chemistry between Tevez and Ronaldo the two players who were in most advance roles. Chemistry developes between those who like each other , I doubt Tevez and Ronaldo have same bond as Tevez and Rooney. That was not helped when Ronaldo snatched the ball from Tevez in a game where Tevez had already scored two and would have got the hattrick had ronaldo allowed him to take the penality. In all a below average day for Ronaldo. Sometimes i feel he has been hyped more than he deserves. But I guess Sir Alex is showing the same leniency towards ronaldo that Sir Matt Busby showed towards George Best. I fear Manchester United may not have to pay for this. Manchester United have lost all games this season when Rooney has been missing. Wes Brown and Jhon O Shea as fullbacks can defend but they can not do anything going forward. Their crossing ability is a shame on the team of the calibre of United. Manchester United is badly missing a Torres like striker who can play upfront and is qucik. Giggs is too old and fllashy at times. Rio Ferdinand was in his worst passing form today. Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves can never score from midfield. I doubt they dream themselves scoring forget about realy scoring in a match. Carrick's shooting is horrible.

India won the one dayer against Australia. Ishant Sharma today again showed what a bowler he is. I can say he is worth watching. I am delighted that we can give some of the things back to ausssy batsmen what indian batsmen have been receiving. I have become fan of this guy. Sreeshanth and Pathan also supported well. Yuvraj is a big match winner but like ronaldo he also plays for himself instead of team and more often than not he has started disappointing. He has yet to score something worthwhile in australia in this tour. Thank GOD india was having its ROONEY in Mahendra Singh Dhoni , and thats why India won.