robbed and cheated. that was my personal feeling after the celtic. i was sick. we dominated for 80 minutes,passed them off the park,have a free kick awarded against us for a dive,concede a goal from a set piece and fail to convert a penalty. it was one of those nights to say the least.
what went wrong on tuesday night? well for starters our formation. we played 451 for 70 minutes with rooney on the left and giggs(who had hai worst game for a long time) through the centre. we showed the aging celtic midfield far too much respect as we had more then enough quality to dominate them. we went with the intention not to loose the game and atleast secure a point and qualification into the next round. we did neither and now have a nervy home game against benfica to ensure qualification. drama is our middle name.
we didnt deserve to loose the game but all is not lost. we defended well and carrick i thought was excellent. im sure the team are hurting after the loss and will have a point to prove on sunday. although i believe we approached the game with the wrong attitude we were just plain unlucky. these things happen. we need to regroup and focus on the big one against chelsea.
i think we have the ability to beat the blues. we have a way better shape then them and play a very fluid game. chelsea are more rigid and can be potentially stretched by our wingers.there is also questions over boulahrouz coudicini shevchenko and the the partnership of ballack and lampard. i may be wrong but i am going to go for a united 2-1 victory with scholes to score first. i hope im right. and also,i can see essien or ballack trying to take out scholes,giggs or saha. watch this space.

the victories keep coming and the performances continue to impress. united are on a proper roll and brimming with confidence.
the goal we conceded to shefield was a soft one and hopefully there will be a lesson learned from it. when we went the goal behind we didnt panick and put our minds down to the task. we stretched them from every angle and after the ninety minutes we could have and should have been further in front. not to be though and the three points are ample compensation.
rumour has it that we will not be playing our strongest side against celtic on tuesday. this sounds extremely dodgy to me as i think we need to qualify asap and put it to bed. maybe Fletcher could replace Giggs and Heinze could come in for Evre but thats it. we have nobody who could replace the front two and the centre of midfield looks fragile too. maybe O Shea could come in for Scholes but i would prefer to se him replace Neville. time will tell but it would appear that Fergie's priority is on the premiership.
as for the chelsea game i only hope we have a full strength squad to choose from. if this is the case i believe we have the players and the team spirit to beat the champions and beat them well. a word of caution though, they are going to be physical and dirty and i can see essien, bollock, makelele or terry doin a job on Giggs or Scholes or one of our key players. they are a side of spoilt team of millionaires who have no comprehension of playing fair. they will do everything in their power to try and stop our run. be prepared. this could get nasty. come on you reds.

sorry i havent posted in a few weeks but i have been flat out recently and finding it dificult to get the time.
for starters our display against portsmouth was brilliant. we won the game in the first half but protected our lead well and continued to pose a threat going forward. portsmouth never really tested us but you can only beat what is in front of you and we did this emphatically.
then we had southend in the league cup. i only saw the last five minutes of the game and i wasnt impressed. we were beaten by a great goal and apparantly we had loads of chances but couldnt convert. the most disappointing about the performance was the fact that fringe players who were given a chance to shine failed to do so. richardson seems to be regressing at a rate of knots. silvestre seems to be a long way away from a first team place and wes brown,a player i believe has bags of potential, seems to be letting his standards slide. having said all that,if i was forced to choose a game for united to loose this would have been it.
finally to the blackburn game. although i didnt watch it i listened to the commentary on radio. this to me was a massive win given our recent record against them and our performance spoke volumes about our intent this season. roooney missed some great chances in the first half and it was beginning to look like it wasnt going to be our night. however we perservered and continued to create chances and eventually we converted one. we didnt sit on our laurels though and continued to probe and look for chances. on top of this we defended brilliantly and didnt give them a real sniff of goal. the goal was enough and we were confident that our defence could contain blackburn. a tough, gritty gutsy performance and the sort of game that wins and looses titles. make no mistake,i honestly believe this was a huge result for us.
i dont want to be overly bullish about our aspirations this year but having seen how greatly improved we are compared to this time last year you have to believe that there something special in the air around old trafford. there is a genuine belief, rightly or wrongly, that this is going to be our season and based on the evidence of what we have seen so far this season,you couldnt disagree. as long as we stay clear of injury ,particularly from our midfield and strike force i genuinely believe we can go all the way. and even if we dont some of the football we have played this season has been scintilating and a pleasure to watch and with a couple of new signings,we will have a serious squad of players for next year. its an exciting time to be a united fan.

very disappointing performance on wednesday. we srarted the game with a negative attitude and it came back to haunt us with with a possible three points dropped.
the team selection against copenhagen was all wrong for starters. oshea is not a midfielder and asking him to play there is like asking a plumber to put a roof on a house,it doesnt work out. it is not fair on o shea(who had played well as right back in the previous two games) and carrick,who will constantly be exposed and looking over his shoulder playing beside a man who is out of his depth.its patch work and dangerous.
secondly,why was ferdinand not on from the start and why was vidic taken off at half time. surely these two should be given every opportunity to forge a solid partnership. on the night,i thought vidic was our best player and i cant understand why he was taken off. i have heard nothing about him being injured so i can only imagine it was a tactical swap. it didnt pay off and eventually cost us a goal.
also when scholes came on o shea should have come off and we should have tried to stretch copenhagen. i am a firm believer in shape and attackin football. five in midfield often causes more problems then it solves. however,the damage was done at that stage. anyway,i dont understand why we didnt try to win the game from the start with our best team and then think about resting players.
there was little to take from wednesdays game other then it will werve as a reminder how easy it is to loose a game amd hopefully the same mistakes wont be made again.