Episode XIII: We Are The Busby Boys
Daniel Meola finally joins me on the podcast to discuss the Newcastle and Crystal Palace ties, preview United’s trip to Villa Park and give our legends and c*$%s of the week.
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charlieklein
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janmetcalf
Benfica ensure tense finish for United; Manchester United 2 Benfica 2
United welcomed Portuguese side Benfica to Old Trafford for the penultimate game of their Champions League group stage campaign. Having endured a relatively poor start, United had to win to ensure top spot in the group and a berth in the last 16 of the competition, importantly avoiding European giants such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the next round. With Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck both ruled out with injuries, Dimitar Berbatov was handed a rare start for United, only the Bulgarian’s 5th of the season, as Ashley Young also returned after a spell on the sidelines with a tow injury. (More …)
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janmetcalf
United continue winning run; Swansea City 0 Manchester United 1
United returned to action following the international break with a trip to new boys to the Premier League Swansea City. The south Wales side had the unusual opportunity to become the only Premier League club to have a superior head to head record against United with a victory at the Liberty stadium. The reds however have had something of a resurgence since the defeat to Manchester City, keeping 4 clean sheets in a row in all competitions. With the news that Tom Cleverley is out until Christmas, United turned to Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick to try and cure the reds midfield woes, and provide the ammunition for Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez. (More …)
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tony
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Phillip P
Hey Mate,
Agree with your analysis for the most part. In particular, Chicharito needs to improve his all-around play. It’s hard to find fault with a guy who consistently steps up to score crucial goals (especially away from OT). Being from California, I watch a lot of the Mexican national team games and I must say that his link up play is considerably better when playing for them. Granted, there is a certain familiarity that they all share. Nonetheless, this is becoming a serious issue given that Chicharito has been with us for a year. It just feels like nearly every time he is in possession outside of the penalty box he is going to lose it (I’ll admit that I’m biased because I expect it).
Also, the offsides are a whole different issue (I think he had two or three this game). Nonetheless, I love Chicharito to death. May he stay in OT for many more years.
Shocked Ashley Young didn’t come on, given that he warmed up. Should’ve came on for Nani.
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janmetcalf
United deliver on Fergie’s big day; Manchester United 1 Sunderland 0
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson taking over at the club, United welcomed Sunderland to Old Trafford for a game which would ultimately be remembered for off field events rather than those on the field. Prior to kick off, Sir Alex’s big day was marked in grand style with a guard of honour from both sides, and the surprise news that the North stand would be renamed the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand in recognition of arguably the greatest British manager of all time. With the festivities over, United got down to business with the small matter of the match, as the reds looked to pick up from their excellent victory at Everton the previous week. With defensive frailties dogging United in the early season, it was a welcome relief to see Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic partner each other in the heart of defence, hopefully to provide consistency during the busy spell of fixtures on the horizon. (More …)
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janmetcalf
United bounce back with Goodison win; Everton 0 Manchester United 1
United returned to Premier League action after their dismal defeat the previous week to rivals Manchester City, with a trip to Everton, starting a run of games which will most likely be pivotal in the reds chances in retaining their title. Having struggled of late on Merseyside, United were always in for a difficult afternoon, but were greatly boosted by the return of Nemanja Vidic to bolster what had been a leaky defence and Tom Cleverley to inject some much needed energy into the midfield. Rio Ferdinand and Anderson were the only casualties in the wake of the City debacle, with United opting for an attacking looking side, containing Hernandez, Welbeck and Rooney in a make shift formation. (More …)
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janmetcalf
United humbled by rampant City; Manchester United 1 Manchester City 6
United continued their busy week with the visit of local rivals, and potential title challengers Manchester City for one of the most eagerly anticipated Manchester derbies in many years. With the victor claiming top spot, much more than local pride was at stake as two unbeaten records were on the line, and a chance to send out a message to the chasing pack was one both sides were desperate to take. Having rested many players for last weeks trip to Anfield, United returned to more or less full strength, with only the absence of Tom Cleverley and Nemanja Vidic hindering the reds.
United began the game very brightly, with Ashley Young in particular isolating Micah Richards well down the left hand side, winning a few early free kicks and corners applying some early pressure. Whilst Fletcher and Anderson were able to enjoy large spells of possession, they ultimately failed to deliver any telling quality against a rugged and well organised City defence, who were competently absorbing what United had to offer. At the other end, David Silva was enjoying yet another brilliant afternoon, weaving in between a frightened United defence, who appeared to have no answer to the young Spaniard. Inevitably, it was a moment of individual brilliance from the much maligned Mario Balotelli which broke the deadlock on 21 minutes, as the Italian striker’s curling shot found its way into the bottom corner past the helpless De Gea. On the balance of play, it was harsh on United to go into the break a goal down, but Joe Hart had yet to be tested despite the reds enjoying large spells of the ball. (More …)
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richard
Like you said, United enjoyed the better of the play up until City scored—they chased the game and then Evans saw red. The game changed radically with 10 men and the last 3 goals where just plain schoolboy stuff. Remember 1996 my United fans and take note—City beat United 5-1 and United also lost to Southampton 6-2 within the span of two weeks. Oh and by the way, United won the league that year
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bob
What an incredibly insane article. Hating Fergie and by extension United appears to cloud the judgement of most antii United fans.. This is about as objective as the Tea Baggers views on Obama.
Fiirst – United were well in the game when all 11 players were on the field and an objective person might say that they were the team that looked most likely to score. Silva is an outstanding player that was allowed to look all of that with United chasing the game and affording him the space to be even more dangerous.
Judging how well both teams will do based on this skewed game shows your football ignorance.. United are 5 points back after playing the very top teams in the EPL.. City have Pool at Anfield, Chelsea at the Bridge and an Arsenal team that will surprise them.Common in the above teams is their formation, ie, they will play with 3 MF players and one ( Song, Mikel & Lucas Leiva ) will man mark Silva and that will have a huge impact on the way City play..
Further City have not been plagued by injuries at the back – lose Kompany and they will suffer – lose Lescott and they will struggle…All is well with Balotelli at the moment, however the boy hasn’t had a lobotomy so be assured that there will be further periods of insanity in the future..
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zorrin
Fair play to City.
After Robinho, they abandoned the “galactico” route, and built a non-obvious team with a non-obvious manager. The established sky 4 blackmailed UEFA into introducing “fair” play rules which would allow us to keep our massive debt, but still shut City out, but it was too late.
City hammered every team they played before us (except for a draw at Fulham).
We can pretend this isn’t happenning, like Richard, or we can learn a lesson in humility and spend big in the next 3 or 4 transfer windows.
That was possibly the best football I’ve ever seen at old trafford. We should keep Rooney and Young, if we can, and build a new squad around them. Its going to be tough to persuade players to come to us rather than City, but SAF has rebuilt time and again.
He looked very old on Sunday, but i think he can do it one last time.
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janmetcalf
United leave it late to snatch Anfield draw; Liverpool 1 Manchester United 1
Fresh off the back of the dreaded international break, United returned to Premier League action with a trip to Anfield, to take on the old enemy Liverpool. Having not won at Anfield since 2007, and having generally played very poorly there in recent years, United were looking to set the record straight and deliver a performance for the small contingent of travelling reds to sing about. With speculation over the personal life of Wayne Rooney, Fergie took the somewhat shock decision of leaving the England striker on the bench, instead favouring Danny Welbeck and Ryan Giggs to spearhead the United attack. Phil Jones was also used in the somewhat unfamiliar role of central midfield, in an attempt to overcome the combative side of Liverpool’s midfield, an area where United had perviously suffered in past trips to Anfield. (More …)
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Ste
A very flattering scoreline and a very very lucky and undeserved point scraped at Anfiled for the Salford Hoofers.
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Phillip P and 
tony are discussing. 
zorrin, 
richard are discussing. 
Ste are discussing. 
janmetcalf
United battle past Norwich test; Manchester United 2 Norwich City 0
United welcomed vistors Norwich City to Old Trafford intent on securing 3 points and remaining top of the table with the dreaded international break looming large. Having slightly wobbled after a blistering start, United were looking to eradicate the defensive lapses that had marred the mid week performance against Basel, and which had seen the reds only manage to draw their last 2 games. With Old Trafford bathed in sunshine (and green and gold) an exciting afternoon was in store, as Wayne Rooney was welcomed back to the starting line up following his hamstring injury, to give United the extra composure in the opposition’s half which would relieve the pressure on the under fire back 4. Anders Lindegaard deputized in goal, making his first Premier League start for the club in place of David De Gea, who was rested ahead of international duty with Spain U-21′s. (More …)
Rob B
For Whom The United Bell Tolls? Did Last Night Show Sir Alex The Truth?
The words ‘knee jerk’ get used alot when referring to football
If player x gets a slating, then there’s always someone round the corner to say that its knee jerk. And we’ve all been the one whose actually said it ourselves…”Thats a totally knee jerk reaction…its cos Carlos Tevez wants to go home cos he misses his Mum”….or something like.
After witnessing these first few games of the season, with what could very well be the best of Manchester United in the next few years….last night we saw what has been the worst of MUFC over the past few years. Now when I use the word ‘worst’…that is descriptively an unfair word to use..I simply use it to juxtaposition against the glorious football the kids have produced with 8-2 maulings and five goals away from home thrashings. As champions of England, and statistically the best team in Europe reaching the Champions League final 3 out of 4 years, the word ‘worst’ probably shouldnt be used.
But it’s all about context. And being brutally honest. (More …)
Bill McNeal, 
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Dessie
Fantastic article. Lets just hope that it does hit home with the boss as you imply it will.
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bruce thomas
The only question is: Does SAF see it? Does he see that we still desperately need a Sneidjer or Modric and that Carrick has been going backwards for 3 years?
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Olumide
I completely agree. The weired thing is, as I saw the teamsheet on my return from work I felt an discomfort that I usually only feel when we play much tougher opposition and go two goals down. I just had a gut feeling the team wouldn’t do the business. And I was right.
Rooney has played lone striker to perfection several times, but the isolation he experienced last night was reminiscent of a certain Jules Rimet trophy tournament.
Giggs was caught in possession far too many times and shockingly so. Carrick and Fletcher aren’t fleet of foot and played very deep. Valencia seemed unwilling to take his man on, leaving Fabio to do most of the crossing from the right. Park huffed and puffed, but with no one except Evra to work with, he was ineffectual.
Our pressing was non-existent, and too often players were left with no outlet when the ball was recieved, as no one was doing much off the ball work. Even Rooney was caught napping when Nani thought to play a lovely little reverse pass.
One bright spot was the performance of Lindegaard in goal. Calm and almost arrogant at times with some of his saves, his face almost saying “Is that the best you can do” after some of his more memorable saves.
All in all, what we’ve learnt is no matter how experienced our multiple trophy winning veterans are, their time is fast passing, and the mantle of champions is passing naturally to the new generation, a generation of intricate passing, beautiful crossing, passionate back tracking, power, pace and deadly finishing.
And Bruce I don’t think we deperately need a Sneidjer or Modric. Either of Anderson or Cleverley can pair effectively with one of the older heads to good effect as witnessed at Bolton. They still have a role to play, they’re just not the main event anymore. -
perry
we dont need a sneijder or modric at all we have all we need sat in our academy or being intergrated into the first team as we speak i would much rather see paul pogba ravel morrison and ryan tunnicliffe given a chance then to buy a marquee signing it will be a waste of money when we have so much talent emerging in two or 3 years time sneijder or modric would struggle to get a start place with the masses of talent we have coming through the ranks with a little patience e will soon have a man u team that even barca are gunna fear with tunnicliffe in the roy keane mould pogba a wonderfully gifted centre mid who can play attacking defencive or whatever u like and has a knack for the spectacular and morrison who can play centre mid on either wing or behind the striker and has been described as the most talented english footballer of his generation who needs sneijders the kids are almost ready and as for pogba he is very very likely to be playing againt leeds next week so watch that game and then try tell me we need sneijder! pogba is the reason we didnt sign him coz SAF didnt want to stunt his development we have a team this season who look capable of great things in the next 2/3 years its gunna get much much stronger 3 years time and barca will be looking over their shoulders very closely. as for the article i agree with everything you have said it looks like two completely diff teams and the youngsters look a step above the experience
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bobdigi
mostly agree with your sentiments (even though I’m usually a staunch Carrick apologist, you anticipated the ‘shielding’ defence well so I’ll skip it
). as Perry notes above, Fergie’s already seen the light by putting faith in young players from the get-go. I was shocked by how pedestrian our (second choice) midfield were last night, but I consider that a good thing as it suggests my expectations of the team are much, much higher than they were just a few months ago. we’ve taken a big step forward over the summer and I’m looking forward to each United game more than I have for years. -
Bill McNeal
The whole point of Carrick is that he sits deep and allows the wing-backs and the other midfielders to push forward. He’s been doing it for 4 years. That IS his role, and arguing otherwise is foolish.
Let’s have a little perspective here. The 5 midfielders were starting their first games of the season, of course it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Rooney never has and never will be a lone front man. Park will never be a flying winger. Evra has been atrocious by his standards for the best part of 18 months. Giggsy tries far too many fancy-dan flicks, and they rarely succeed. Chicharito has a shoddy first touch, and is poor at the interplay.
Let’s ignore this though and focus on haranguing Carrick for actually doing his job. Good plan.
It’s not knee-jerk, you’re right, Carrick has been the brunt of most people’s criticism’s for years. He’s an easy target. Him, Evans, Dimi, Nani, Gibbo. The United scapegoats.
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davon01
Carrick Carrick Carrick. it seems we just can’t get enough of this dude. honestly, he should be offloaded already. poor performances for 2-3 years – excluding that one flash of brilliance against shalke in the CL. why won’t fergie just let him go?
ChiefWaffler
What next for Man Utd’s midfield? Is change coming??
When United fans look back at the derby from the weekend, one thing automatically springs to mind, Rooney’s wonder goal. Without a doubt the greatest goal ever scored in derby games. If we dissect United’s performance a little deeper and two things spring to mind; we changed our formation to 5 across the middle to counter how City play and for vast amounts of the game we were dominated in midfield. I may be using the derby as an example but really this is the story of many games this season, which leads me to think that there could be a big overhaul in the midfield department this summer. (More …)
.Evra – 6 Defended well until being subbed in 50th minute. Are you sure ,I think Patrick has forgot how to defend.