Monday, 2 December 2013

Republik Of Mancunia

09:10

By: TBMU Admin On: 09:10   In:   No comments

Republik Of Mancunia

Reactions to the draw with Spurs

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 09:50 AM PST

1. Today’s game against Spurs was described as a “must win” by some. The problem with dropping points against teams you shouldn’t is that when you have more difficult games, like Tottenham away, the pressure is on to win. We drew with Cardiff just a week before Arsenal breezed past them at the same ground. So today became a “must win”. The problem is that Spurs got battered 6-0 last weekend, meaning they were more hungry than they usually would be to get a result against United.

2. Spurs took the lead twice and twice United managed to recover. Depending on whether your glass is half full or empty, it’s either desperately disappointing that we fell behind twice, or encouraging that we had the mental resolve to come back from both goals. We needed that third though and after equalising for the second time I thought we’d be on for it. But the proper fight back never really came and as disappointing as it may be, 2-2 was probably a fair result.

3. Their first goal came when Phil Jones failed to command the edge of the area, following by a desperate challenge from Jonny Evans. The wall jumped over Kyle Walker’s freekick which lead to plenty of criticism. Personally, I think it was fairly harsh. If the wall stayed rooted and Walker cleared the wall and curled the ball in to the top corner, what would people be saying? I suppose the problem really was the lack of preparation. Apparently Walker was always going to rely on the power he can put behind his shot and blast it towards goal, so maybe they should have known better. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.

4. Their second goal was a fantastic strike from Sandro and De Gea just stood and watched it fly in to the top corner. No keeper could get near that. It was frustrating to see Tom Cleverley give Sandro all the space he wanted to get the shot away though. It was a better performance from Cleverley than we’ve seen recently, with the odd clever ball forward, but he’s still miles away than what we should expect from our midfielders.

5. The game, from our perspective at least, was all about Wayne Rooney. Now only Sergio Aguero has more goals and assists in the league than Rooney, after scoring twice to salvage a point for us today. The first goal came from a good Jones cross, who was making amends for his dilly dallying for the first, which Walker kindly cushioned down in to Rooney’s path. He was never going to miss from there. The second came from the penalty spot and I won’t claim I was overly confident as he stepped up to take it. His penalty taking record is poor for a striker, to the point that he took himself off duty and passed it on to Robin van Persie after missing so many, so it was easy to imagine him missing. Not only did he score, but he thumped it down the centre of the goal, indicating just how confident he is at the moment. Nemanja Vidic and Danny Welbeck both deserve some credit for that goal too though, with our captain making a crunching tackle to win back possession ahead of Welbeck getting in to a great position and managing to take the ball away from the keeper to win the pen.

6. With most players putting in totally underwhelming shifts, most notably Shinji Kagawa, both in his preferred position and out on the left, Antonio Valencia did a good job down the right. He completed more passes than any opposition player, only one player on either side completed more passes in the final third, he created the most chances for United and he successfully beat his man on more occasions than any player on the pitch. He’s still not quite at his best but it’s encouraging to see such improvement this season.

7. Chris Smalling isn’t a right back. I like him a lot, I think he’s got a bright future at the club, but in the centre of defence, not as a full-back. It’s utterly baffling as to why Moyes persists in starting him there and leaving Rafael on the bench. The latter may not be match fit after picking up an injury against Fulham a month ago, but if he’s ready to be a sub, then surely he’s ready for some minutes on the pitch too.

8. There’s no getting away from the fact today’s result was a disappointing one, particularly when you consider that our rivals are picking up the points. We’re still just about keeping up with the pace but we’re long past the point where we can really afford to drop points. Our unbeaten run now stretches 12 games, which is positive to a certain extent, but far too many of those games have been draws. There were large chunks of today’s game where we played good football, passing the ball around nicely, but we need to get the points on the board.

VIDEO: Rooney’s goals vs Spurs

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 09:21 AM PST

Former Manchester United coach gets Fulham job

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 08:17 AM PST

Rene Meulensteen has taken over first team duties at Fulham after Martin Jol was sacked today. The London club find themselves in the relegation zone having lost 6 of their last 8 games.

Having been sacked by Anzhi after just a few weeks, Meulensteen returned to England and took up the job of Head Coach, working under fellow Dutchman Jol.

“I have spent many hours talking with Martin Jol and we share a vision of how football should be played,” Meulensteen said when he got the job. “It is our job to make sure we can bring this vision to life on the pitch for the fans.”

It was reported that Jol’s sacking was on the cards and that Meulensteen had been brought in to take over when the inevitable dismissal took place.

“You can always speculate on things,” Jol said last week, when asked whether he expected Meulensteen to replace him. “For me that is not an issue. I know him well, for at least 25 years. He is a very good trainer and coach. He was not a manager before so I think his qualities are on the pitch in the week.”

LIVE BLOG: Tottenham Hotspur vs United

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 03:26 AM PST

CONFIRMED LINE-UP: Tottenham Hotspur vs United

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 02:39 AM PST

De Gea, Smalling, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Jones, Cleverley, Kagawa, Rooney and Welbeck.

Bench: Lindegaard, Rafael, Anderson, Hernandez, Nani, Young and Fellaini.

Spurs: Lloris, Walker, Vertonghen, Paulinho, Dawson, Chiriches, Lennon, Sandro, Soldado, Dembélé and Chadli.

Bench: Kaboul, Holtby, Capoue, Townsend, Defoe, Sigurdsson and Friedel.

Fergie addressed youth team problem after 4 weeks in charge

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST

Eric Harrison, the Manchester United coach credited with bringing through that fantastic team of 1992, has claimed that he owes his ability to establish a great youth team to Sir Alex Ferguson putting faith in the academy.

Harrison says that after a few weeks Ferguson spoke to him about his concerns regarding the youth team. This is an account Ferguson himself spoke about at the recent evening he spent with fans at the Lowry. Having seen our kids get thrashed by City, our former manager knew he had to change things quickly.

“Sir Alex had only been there three or four weeks,” said Harrison. “He got me in his office and said: 'I'm not entirely satisfied with the youth set-up.' I thought he was having a go at me personally. He said: 'I want more players through.' So I said: 'Do you know how many scouts Manchester City have? About 10 times more than we have.' He said: 'Leave that with me, I'll sort that out.' And within about a month scouts were coming in right, left and centre, good scouts as well. Many a time when the first team finished training early they would come over and watch the youth team, especially Steve Bruce. And Steve used to say to me: 'Eric, what a bunch of players you've got there.' That's a top player like Steve Bruce saying that. And little did he know that he'd be kicked out of the team when you got a bit older! But your group, you'll never get a group like that again. It's virtually impossible.”

VIDEO: New Januzaj chant

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 01:45 AM PST

I want to tell you, I might as well do, about a boy who can do anything.

He comes from Belgium, his name is Adnan, Januzaj! Januzaj! Januzaj!

Scholes: Young players don’t have same chance I did

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 01:30 AM PST

In an interview with Gary Neville, Paul Scholes has claimed that young English players have nowhere near the same opportunities he had as a kid wanting to play football.

“When we were coming through, it was nearly all English players with maybe one or two Irish or Welsh,” said Scholes. “But clubs now have seven or eight European players coming over to the academies. Surely that can't be helping the English players when a local lad from Manchester is going to somebody from Belgium or somewhere else. I know the clubs have to try to compete and get these players early, but surely at Under-18 level it should be predominantly British lads. There should probably be a rule on it because, sooner or later, it is going to affect the national team as there are just not enough players. If you think about the area of Manchester, how many kids love football? You see kids playing everywhere. I think about what they do in Bilbao, where they won't have any players other than Basques. To do what they do is brilliant. It is probably not possible here but I think it would be a nice thing to do. Maybe one or two foreigners but not seven, eight, nine at 16 years of age. They are being signed at that age from abroad and who knows if they are going to be in football in three years? You've no idea.”

Neville, who has often admitted he wasn’t the most naturally gifted player of his era, reckons that he would have struggled to break through if he was a young player today.

“I think I would have struggled if I was coming through the system now,” he said. “I was lucky to come through in a period that was predominantly British players and the manager and Kiddo and Nobby (Stiles, youth team coach) believed in local lads. They really pushed local lads.”

When you consider that Neville went on to have a great career, with only 4 players having featured in more games than him for United and only 12 players for England, it makes you realise how many players this country could be missing out on these days.

Chelsea manager makes his opinion on bringing through youth known

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST

Ahead of Chelsea’s game against Southampton, Jose Mourinho has explained his club’s poor record of bringing through youth team players on having less time at a big club.

Ryan Bertrand is the closest thing Chelsea have had to an academy product making the first team recently, who the West London club bought from Gillingham when he was a teenager. He has played just an hour of league football this season though. Before him, it was John Terry, who broke in to the first team squad in 1998.

“It's a question of time and the smaller clubs, they have more time than the bigger teams,” said Mourinho. “It's a different club [here] and a different job. I want to do it but it is just a question of time. Hopefully — and I am not saying a lot of them, especially at the same time as that is impossible to do — but step by step we have some kids with talent to come.”

Almost five years ago, Peter Kenyon expressed his frustration at Chelsea’s inability to bring through their own players but was sure that it would happen soon.

“I think we’re all producing more good players but it’s hard to get them to breakthrough at the level we need them and that will take time,” he said. “The infrastructure is certainly there at our club, it is as good as anyone’s and I’m sure the next John Terry will be coming through.”

The next John Terry hasn’t come through though and Mourinho believes that a lack of time is excuse enough to not put faith in youth. If the biggest club in the country hadn’t consistently invested in the youth team, giving time to numerous players in a bid for them to prove themselves able to play for the first team, Mourinho might have a valid point. As it is, there’s no reason why a club with seemingly unlimited resources can’t develop a player or two of their own.

Is his defeatist attitude when it comes to developing players one of the reasons why Mourinho wasn’t offered the United job?

Harrison: Wife said I was too harsh on Class of ’92

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 12:45 AM PST

Eric Harrison, the coach hailed for bringing through the brilliant Class of ’92, has explained to Gary Neville exactly what it entails to cut it at United. He also claimed that his wife told him that he was too harsh on the youngsters, claiming that he was a ‘disgrace’ for the way he spoke to them.

“The hunger has to be there,” he said. “If you don't have the hunger you've got no chance. There were one or two in the group who weren't hungry enough, they wouldn't go that extra mile. That's basically my job, to get them to do that. I have to give confidence to you guys. I know I used to slate you every now and again [but] you were successful. If I'd been namby-pamby with you, who knows? I had a job and it was to get players into the first team and make the team more successful than it was. I was hard. Occasionally I'd embarrass myself and I would apologise — occasionally. My wife came down to The Cliff [training ground] one Saturday morning with me — she doesn't like football but we were going to the Trafford Centre in the afternoon — and heard me shouting and bawling. Back in the car, she said: 'You're a disgrace! You wouldn't speak to your children like that, would you?’”

Written by TBMU Admin

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