my God but we were poor last night. i would go so far as to say that it was one of the worst performances i can remember. we defended well which won us the match but the good news comes to an abrupt end there.
our lack of organisation last nioght was too bad to be true. we had no width and we were so tight in the middle of the park our midfield were tripping over themselves. nobody seemed to know where they should be playing and there was a distinct lack of desire to get on the ball.
scholes was playing too deep,carrick was too advanced,a cardboard cut out would have been more effective then o shea,rooney is definitely not a left winger and was so poor last night i was genuinely concerned for him. ronaldo and saha, to be fair,had abit of game about them to be fair but ronaldo was too central and saha had to continually come too deep.
something is amiss at our great club but i dont know what. at times it seems there is somebody trying to sabotage the club from the inside. whatever it is one thing is for sure,we have lost touch with reality and nearing crisis point.
make no mistake,if we were playing a decent side we would have been embarrased last night. we are freefalling and are going to hit the ground with anasty bang soon. something has to give

after another poor result for united questions need to be answered and fast. we dropped five points in two games and the manager has insisted there is nothing to worry about. i beg to differ Sir Alex but in my humble opinion there is. after winning our first four games,the form of which does not look to be up to much now, he wheels have well and truely fallen off.
first of all,there is a lack of width since Giggs injury.a player who can compensate for this is Lee Martins who is on loan to rangers. secondly,we need a fresh threat up front. G Rossi is the man who can provide this threat,atleast until we sign a new striker in the future. both of these players should be recalled from their respective loan clubs immediately. their team needs them now.
Fletcher and Richardson should also be released from the club. they simply cant cut it at this level and are an impedement for fresh blood joining the side. although fletcher is undoubtedly genuine,he has no pace,ha is an average crosser of the ball and can fall asleep during hgames. he is the kind of player thats more likely to cost you a game then win you one. as for richardson,his heart doesnt seem in it.he isnt hungry and at the level of football he is playing at, that simply isnt good enough. there are hundereds of other equally talented young footballers out there who would give their right arm to have the chance that he has. he simply doesnt seem to care.
on the more positive front we have Heinze and Vidic back which is a big bonus for us but thats as far as it goes on that front.
every match is a crucial match for us now and it is imperative we dont drop any more points either in europe or in the league. we are a few players away from having a quality side but there a serious need for a reality check for some of the more senior staff at Old Trafford. we need to stop the rot now.
i will be back tomorrow with a review of the benfica game,hopefully happier then i am today.

disappointed with the result today but i think it was the reality check that alot of united people needed. we are not invincible and cant afford to go into games with a cockiness reminiscent of shoe in premiership winners. we have a long season ahead and it is imperative we learn from todays defeat and grow.
although we were beaten fair and square,there were one or two aspects of the game today that did please me. it was our best performance defensively in the league to date. we looked in control at the back and if it were not for the goal it would have been hailed as a great defensive performance. the keeper did very well as did evre who continues to impress me. we had too many `squad` players on the pitch from the start but they were not overwhelmed by arsenal. if anything,we showed too much respect to arsenal and i wonder what would have happened if carrick had been on from the start. i always believe that attack is the best form of defence and by fielding an attacking side you are putting your opponents on the back foot straight away.
anyway this was an alarm call for united and if they are to win the league we have to remember the flowing football we were pllaying at the start of the season. he we respond to this defeat is key but the signs are there that we can learn from it.i hope im right.

our first real test of the season and i cant wait. i have to admit i am optimistic going into todays game on account of our recent form amd arsenals dip.
i believe our lineup should be;van des sar, evre, ferdinand,brown,neville,richardson,scholes,o` shea,ronaldo,rooney and saha. although i expect arsenal to come out all guns blazing i thinkthe game should be ours after the ninety minutes. i hope im right.
as for the pool chelsea game i can see a scoreless draw. i cant see either side risking too much and neither of them seeming to have gelled as their respective managers would like i would imagine it will be a cagey contest with litle in the way of chances. if there will be a score i would imagine it will be by chelsea in a one nil win but i will stick with the scoreless draw.
before i go i see stevie gerrard and rafa are at it again. i was convinced he would be gone in the summer and i still think things between the two will come to a head resulting in one of them leaving anfield. there is definitely some bad blood there and i can see it all ending in tears.
fingers crossed for today and i hope mayo win the all ireland too.

not a vintage performance against celtic by any stretch of the imagination but three points none the less. we were very poor defensivly,particularly ferdinand in the first half but we had a better grip of things in the second half and i never felt like we were going to loose,even after going a goal behind.
as for our defence i would like to see vidic and ferdinand in the centre and brown on the right insteadof neville. if we are to progress in all competitions we need to be solid at the back and we looked anything but the other night.
contrary to popular belief,i thought put in a decent performance and linked defence and midfield well.he didnt give the ball away and tracked back midfield runners.his passing could have been more ambitious with his passing but you have to remember he is new to the club,it was his first EVER champions league match and the pressure infront of the76000 screaming fans could only have made him cautious. although fletcher played alright he has an awful habit of drifting into the centre of the park and we lost our shape as a consequence. our best move down the right in the entire game was executed by neville and ferdinand.
we have o long way to go to be the complete team but if we can steady ourselves defensivly we could go a long way this season.
as for the golf i shot 77 in strandhill on thursday,my best ever score. consistency is slowing creeping into my game and if i could stay focused for eighteen, i could easily knock a few shots off that 77.
ill be back with a prediction before the arsenal game. later.

united march on to their fourth premiership win in a row and although the manner of the win didnt blow me away, it was the kind of three points that an authentic tittle push can be built on. there obviously is a great belief in old trafford at the moment and if they continue to grind out wins like this,especially with a string of first team players to return,they could be hard to peg back come the end of the season. a long way to go yet for the wheels to fall off but so far so good and long may it last.
as for the golf i was in scotland at the weekend(hello Garret if you`re reading) and i played on two courses in troon. i beat my brother on friday in bellisle but went downto my uncle on sunday three and two on troon municipal. i also got to walk the championship course and was really impressed with it. the greens were the best ive ever seen and i would have loved to have had a chance to play it but at £210 sterling i dont think any course is worth it.
finally,i won my first official prize in a birdie competition on ballyconneely last tuesday. it is probably the best course ive played in ireland and in the conditions(gale force winds) i am over the moon to have won something there. ill be back wednesday with an update after the champions league game against celtic.

what a farce the transfer window was. no problems solved,only new ones created. our handling of the dealings was comical to say the least and raises serious questions about the way our club is run.
for starters,our midfield problems remain unanswered. for the past number of seasons it was blatantly obvious that we need fresh legs in our midfield to play a defensive midfield role.ideally this should have been sorted out while Keano was still at the club so that any potential suitor could learn as much from him as possible before he retired. this was impossible however with the departure of Roy but it magnified the need for us to find his successor.
from what i can ascertain from the media we placed a bid for senna and had the deal in the bag. in the meantime,Fergie seemed to bow to public opinion and show interest in hargreaves. he made his interest in hargreaves very public and pursued him in an aggressive manner but while this was happening senna was watching and becoming frustrated. apparantly queiroz told him that AIG wanted united to source english talent foremost and he would have to wait.in the heel of the hunt bayarn layed down the law and insisted hargreaves was going nowhere(and proper order) and senna got pissed off waiting(and i dont blame him) and we ended up with the same hole in our midfield that has been there for ages.
now im no wheeler dealer but surely we would have gone for hargreaves first,exhausted every avenue with bayarn aand if all else failed then we could have made a move for senna. that way thereis a solution to the problem. it makes sense.
we also sold our top goalscorer after the world cup.knowing that it meant losing a man that gauranteed us 25+ goals per season what steps did we take to combat this immense loss to our side,WE GIVE ROSSI ON LOAN TO OUR RIVALS NEWCASTLE. so now we have two strikers in Rooney and Saha,a half a striker in Smith and a right winger in Solksjaar. things just go from bad to worse.
the fact of the matter is that we got 14 mil for obi mikel,11 mil for Ruud and we got a couple of million for fringe players. we spent 14 mil on Carrick,we didnt spend anything on kuzychek yet and thats it. not only that but if we are to believe carlos ous sponsors are choosing our players. crazy or what.
what hurts the most is the fact that we the fans were promised two major signings afte Carrick came. we didnt even get one. it smacks of poor management and incompetence on our part that we couldnt deliver on this and it is my firm belief that our inactivity will come back to haunt us. we have been let down big time for the sake of the clubs new owners. my heart is very heavy. its a sad sad day to be a manchester united fan.