Rafa

[Guest 70400]

We were incredibly lucky to win given Rooney's injury and Scholesy's red card, but Rafa dropped the ball with his substitutions. Bellamy was your best player.

[psl]

Don't think Rooney's injury affected you. He was anonymous before the substitution.

[Bailo]

Why is it so hard for people to understand pace doesn't work so well against deep defences and packed midfields?! Every time Bellamy goes off it's the same criticism!!

[Cunny]

Bellamy was running Vidic and Evra ragged.

His pace and directness was our best chance of a breakthrough in my opinion.

Strange sub, may have been a precaution. I'd have taken Kuyt off personally.

[Jim D]

We were incredibly lucky to win given Rooney's injury and Scholesy's red card, but Rafa dropped the ball with his substitutions. Bellamy was your best player.

 

I don't think he did, Crouch was one of his substitutions and immediately made an impression on your backline, with a little more composure he would of scored. Van De Sar made a good save, but the ball broke kindly for you when he could only parry it in front of his goal in the six yard box and the ball fell straight to one of your players, whereas Reina wasn't so fortunate.

A combination of lady luck and a lack of finishing on our part cost us at least a point, but we never deserved that at the end.

 

Might as well give you the League trophy now, considering the amount of jam you have been getting recently

Edited March 3, 2007 by Jim D

[Guz]

Why is it so hard for people to understand pace doesn't work so well against deep defences and packed midfields?! Every time Bellamy goes off it's the same criticism!!

 

Difference this time was that Bellamy was always an option out wide with his running into the channels. The same thing will be incredibly important on tuesday night because when we have the ball we'll have to be incredibly careful with it and make sure we do our best to keep hold of it, which I presume is the reason Bellamy got a rest.

 

It was different, to say Arsenal in the fa cup, because he would've found it hard to find space but today he was giving Vidic a horrible time and was a good outlet.

[realtarragona]

Why is it so hard for people to understand pace doesn't work so well against deep defences and packed midfields?! Every time Bellamy goes off it's the same criticism!!

 

He's got more to his game than just pace. And if he was our most threatening player going forward, then it must have been working to some extent.

[anny road]

we created more chances when crouch came on

 

i think Bellamy was subbed with tues in mind

[galés rojo]

Why is it so hard for people to understand pace doesn't work so well against deep defences and packed midfields?!

 

because it's not true?

[fred milne]

Why is it so hard for people to understand pace doesn't work so well against deep defences and packed midfields?! Every time Bellamy goes off it's the same criticism!!

First of all, at times Utd pushed-up so there was space in behind. Secondly, Bellamy is able to adapt his game when opponents do sit deep by running the wings and beating players one-on-one.

[Bailo]

because it's not true?

Perfectly true.

 

First of all, at times Utd pushed-up so there was space in behind. Secondly, Bellamy is able to adapt his game when opponents do sit deep by running the wings and beating players one-on-one.

All which he was doing less and less as the game wore on.

[Guest Sabre]

Rafa got it tactically spot on today and made the right substitutions at the right time if you ask me.

[Billy Dane]

Rafa got it tactically spot on today and made the right substitutions at the right time if you ask me.

 

 

which is why we lost?

[Coyler]

Rafa got it tactically spot on today and made the right substitutions at the right time if you ask me.

Absolutely. In the battle of the managers, Ferguson offered shag-all and all his switching of Giggs and Rooney and Ronaldo had no impact on our control of the game. Won't read that in the papers, though; it'll be all about his magic touch ?

[RedNik]

We have a far more important game, in terms of our season in a couple of days time. So it may well have been precaution - in which case its a sound decision.

[Guest Sabre]

which is why we lost?

 

You're being a bit dumb if you think Rafa can do anything else but get the tactics right and motivate the players. He even decided to make us attack the Kop if we won the toss to make it harder for Man U due to the sun. Then we bring on Crouch because we were tossing in high balls and he almost scored a great winner.

[Florist Cinema Pond Goal]

Rafa got it tactically spot on today and made the right substitutions at the right time if you ask me.

 

Crouch could have come on a little earlier IMO, Ferdinand and Vidic weren't troubled in the air until he did.

[Guest Sabre]

Crouch could have come on a little earlier IMO, Ferdinand and Vidic weren't troubled in the air until he did.

 

But they were troubled down the flanks and in between the lines. We had about 5-10 minutes where Gerrard was playing off Kuyt, so we effectively played three different attacking styles. Think we just lacked a cutting edge at times but we did the right thing with our tactics.

[Earl Hafler]

Bellamy was running Vidic and Evra ragged.

His pace and directness was our best chance of a breakthrough in my opinion.

Strange sub, may have been a precaution. I'd have taken Kuyt off personally.

 

Me too.

 

And Carra was our best player.

 

First half too many long balls up to small players against Vidic and Ferdinand. When we got the ball on the ground we troubled them

 

Our biggest problem with Xabi and Momo in the middle - and i've been saying this for donkeys - is the lack of forward running and support for forwards.

 

The sight of Neville throwing his shirt into the crowd in celebration is going to haunt me for some time.

[psl]

That block and tackle from Carra in quick succession was sensational. The man is a legend.

[Maldini]

We dominated just as much with Bellamy off as we did with him on, I was surprised by the sub, but it didn't affect us.

[CarraLegend]

 

And Carra was our best player.

 

 

Was the best player on the pitch along with Rio Ferdinand. Ugh, cant believe I said that.

 

He held them together though, Vidic was f***ing s****.

[RafaShanks]

Rafa got it tactically spot on today and made the right substitutions at the right time if you ask me.

 

Sorry mate, disagree. It was obvious that the Mancs were settling for a draw into the 2nd half. I personally would have brought Crouchy on for Dirk to start off with and would have kept Bellamy where he was.

 

Thought Gonzo had a decent enough game as well and would have kept him on.

 

The Pennant substitution was at the right time.

[Maldini]

Gonzalez was anonymous for the whole game.

[Magic8Ball]

We have a far more important game, in terms of our season in a couple of days time. So it may well have been precaution - in which case its a sound decision.

we have to win the CL - I couldnt be a manc treble