Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Fergie is prepared to battle

ALEX FERGUSON is predicting a Wembley battle tomorrow.

The Manchester United boss thinks the Community Shield clash will be even more competitive than the FA Cup final in May — when Didier Drogba’s extra-time goal won it for Chelsea.

Fergie said: “I don’t think you can avoid that because we will be up against a team that will be battling against us for the top honours.

“It will probably be more competitive than the FA Cup final because in that game there was tiredness in both teams.

“I couldn’t get any more out of some of my players.

“They had been playing at an incredibly high standard every week with the title in the balance and were dead on their feet.

“The other thing that didn’t help was the Wembley pitch which was also a bit dead.

“Being a new pitch, they had problems with it and it didn’t help the speed of the game.

“But the pitch has had time to settle and I’m sure this will be a much better game.”

Fergie, who has been at United for nearly 21 years, added: “In terms of sheer talent, this is probably the best squad I’ve had during my time at the club.

“But the name of the game is winning. We want to win games as well as play entertaining football.

“And getting that balance right is the big challenge for us again.”


MANU Forever !!!

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

New-season optimism may be offset by old concerns for champions Manchester United and FA Cup holders Chelsea when they meet in the curtain-raising Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.


United will want to make amends for their 1-0 Cup final defeat by the Londoners in this match-up between the Premier League's top two teams in 2006/07, who are expected to push each other all the way again in the coming campaign.

However, United's hopes of revenge could hang on finding the right response to a disappointing defensive display against Inter Milan in a friendly on Wednesday.

"We were all over the place at times," was Sir Alex Ferguson's verdict on United's 3-2 home defeat by the Italian champions.

In a performance that recalled United's struggles to contain AC Milan in the first half of their Champions League semi-final at Old Trafford in April, Inter scored three first-half goals to send them to their first pre-season defeat.

Ferguson has not been alone in experiencing an unwanted sense of deja vu, with Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho pondering an injury to captain John Terry that puts his participation in Sunday's match in question.

The England skipper suffered a broken toe during Chelsea's U.S. tour and sat out the 2-0 friendly victory away to Danish club Brondby on Monday.

Terry's toe problem and Wayne Bridge's hip surgery are reminders of last season's defensive difficulties for Mourinho, whose planning has also been hindered by the delayed arrival of Brazil centre back Alex.

Chelsea supporters should still see some of their club's new signings and it could be particularly instructive to observe how midfielder Steve Sidwell fares after his impressive pre-season form since arriving from Reading.

United, by contrast, will almost certainly be without Owen Hargreaves and Anderson although their other new face, Nani, could play after recovering from the ankle knock that ruled him out against Inter.

Ferguson's team lost 2-0 when these rivals last contested the trophy in 2000. It did not stop them going on to win the title that season but Sunday's winners will undoubtedly claim an early psychological blow in the battle for supremacy in 2007/08.

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No more boring Saturdays!! Man Utd supporters, stand up and be counted!!
Time for more trophies and hopefully, this is some exciting time with our attacking options.
Just hope that Rio remembers to piss in the cup and wake up from his long slumber.

Errrr.... a certain sense of division.. should we or shouldn't we win this so-called jinxed Charity Shield?? :p

GLORY, GLORY MAN UTD!!!!

Match preview
 

Chelsea v Man Utd

When: Sunday 5 August
Kick-off: 1500 BST, Wembley

Manchester United skipper Gary Neville is still suffering from the ankle injury that saw him miss the end of last season.

Paul Scholes, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are injured, new signings Owen Hargreaves and Anderson will not be involved.

Ankle injuries deprive Chelsea of Wayne Bridge and Michael Ballack, while a knee injury keeps Salomon Kalou out.

Arjen Robben, Frank Lampard and England defender Ashley Cole are available.
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Chelsea: (from) Cech, Cudicini, Hilario, Ferreira, A Cole, Diarra, Sidwell, Essien, Lampard, Robben, Mikel, Malouda, J Cole, Drogba, Shevchenko, Ben Haim, Pizarro, Terry, Carvalho.

Man Utd: (from) Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Brown, Bardsley, Pique, Simpson, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Silvestre, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, O'Shea, Carrick, Eagles, Giggs, Rooney.

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Expect Sheffield United to sue West Ham in part 2 of their legal battle !!

With Rossi and Smith gone, are we getting another player in before 31st Aug deadline ? Especially when Heinze is also expected to be gone !!

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

finally we can have tevez. esp when rossi n smith are gone man utd need a gd striker to partner saha

Re: SHOCKER - Rossi sold to Villarreal
 

i am also upset that rossi is being sold. he is very promising talented striker n i can foresee he can be among the top strikers in EPL.. SAF shd let him play those cup matches to slowly build up his skills haiz....

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Second that! As for Rio's piss, depends if he's had a bbj night before (sorry, in keeping with sex forum la). Of course, let's win and debunk the jinx:D

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Saha is forever on the injured list so much so that there is no club looking to buy him. Ole Gunnar Solkjaer has already passed his use-by date. Fang is inexperience, I think our Noh Alam Shah or Indra Shadan maybe can perform better. Hahahaha. So, in reality we are left with only 2 strikers.

With the proceeds from the sale of Richarson, Smith and Rossi, are we getting another striker ?

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Why would man u need anyone to partner someone in hospital or MC ?

Why would we need more striker ?? we have giggs, ronaldo, nani and anderson can play forward, these 4 are attacking mid-field. what man u need most is defender.

Re: SHOCKER - Rossi sold to Villarreal
 

Fret not, my fellow Red Devil....

SAF has a clause in Rossi's contract that allows MU to buy Rossi back in future, should they choose to. SAF would have loved Rossi to remain at OT, but decided that he can't give enough starts to the youngster to keep him happy - so why not let him gain first-team experience at a good club? We might see him back at OT yet.... ;)

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Yes we need to sell Saha and replace him with some tall striker. We lack height in the striking department.


giggs is already old, ronaldo is a winger while nani and anderson are both for the future, not this season. We won't be seeing much of both Nani and Anderson this season.

The saeson before we sold Nistelrooy without buying a striker, so we short of 1 striker. This season we sold another 2 strikers in Rossi and Smith. So we are short of strikers. The season in 1999 when we won the treble, we have 4 recognized and good strikers in Yorke, Cole, Solkjaer and Sheringham.

But yes, you are right, we need a defender. Last season, we were short on defenders, wonder why no reinforcement for defenders ? Evra is not consistentm and Heinze is leaving.

So I rephrase my question, are we getting another player in ?

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

height wasnt a problem cause we still have vidic for corner :p we are going to get that peter ba....BTW Confirm Terves is coming over le so no worry.

1999 terry is also old laio but hor he is still scoring. rossi was on loan and smiths is injure so not big issue. hopefully [ique and some of the young defender have more chance to play and break into the def big 4 :p after getting terves i dont think SAF is getting any more lor.

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

I think SAF should slowly look out for GK too to replace Van Der Sar.

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

oops paiseh actually i wan to say rooney partner with carlos tevez. these 2 stirkers surely will cause trouble for opponents defence. if no club is buyin saha i afraid he may be released on free... actually man utd shdn't sell smith or rossi first. they shd get the strikers they wan b4 selling those strikers who cannot perform
i tink noh alam shah is better than fang.

i will prefer man utd buy berbatov. he is a great striker..

i agree. man utd shd buy a right back, center back, n a GK. esp when van der sar n gary neville are aging...


i see... SAF is indeed very wise to put this clause in the contract ... hopefully rossi can shine n return to man utd

Re: Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours
 

Yeah I think a goalkeeper is a main priority. VDR is very error prone now and very bad at crosses. When a cross came in, he always punch the ball out because he has no confidence to catch the ball. Unlike Peter Cech who always catch the ball like a glue whenever a cross comes in.

This is the main difference between ManU and Chelsea goalkeeper. It is ManU's weakest link. ManU took so long to find replacemement for Schemical and now hope they quickly find a relaible replacement for VDR. Ben Foster and Kuzzak are both good only for backup



I think Rossi is over rated lah. Very few Italian strikers make it in EPL. Rossi is too short and small built. He doesn't have Rooney's stout body to bulldoze thru his run.

Anyway we need a tall striker to give another dimension in our striking option, Tevez and Rooney do not have the height of Crouch(We should find somebody with Eto's skill and Crouch's height combine). Vidic's height is only used during corner but when counter attacking from the wing, and we cross a high ball we usually lost in height.

Hope Alex by more 3 players, 1 gk, 1 defender and 1 tall striker. :D