What happened? Did Scotty go into the away dressing room and deliver a fight them on the beaches speech? Did the Man Utd captain of the day do that job? Or did Ferguson, a proper manager, get amongst his team and tell them how to rip us apart second half?
Why is it that time and time again, we only play for 45 minutes? At West Brom it was second half. Against Birmingham in the Cup, it was first half. Today, just as at Stoke with the Etherington penalty, we handed the initiative to the opposition in the first minute of the half. Same flank, the right, defence fast asleep, and this time Hernandez put the chance wide. The writing was on the wall from that point onwards.
Second half we were shagged out. Why? Had Grant taken them all on a bonding exercise to a massage parlour he knows during the international break? Or had Keane taken them on a bender in Dublin? Your guess is as good as mine but we looked slow and unfit, and the Mancs over ran us in disgraceful fashion.
When will Grant play Ba down the middle? When will he recognise O'Neil is shit? When will he learn how to deliver a half time team talk? And when will somebody sort out Green's positioning at free kicks? Never mind Rooney, I could have bent the ball into the space he left.
We were piss poor today and Grant has to take the blame for that. He invited the Mancs on and they said thanks very much and murdered us. This team is too good to go down but Grant could engineer it, just like Roeder. Blackburn drew at Arsenal. We are deep in the shit again!
Come On You Irons!
Ironside
Love the 2nd paragraph!
ReplyDelete4 goals in 20 minutes.
Did you work hard on that one then?
ReplyDeleteWow, HF's report actually makes more sense, for once!
ReplyDeletelol he won't like that.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly. Unfortunately, HF is quick to point the blame for our loss to unmanageable factors, such as the referee and our luck. The point is, our manager failed once again in a big way. Ferguson's plan was based on the assumption that West Ham will sit back in order to defend a lead (thus posing no threat to his weakening defence and affording him he luxury of bringing in the game all his star attackers). And Grant obliged! You are right about not playing Ba in the middle as well, as of course not having any service at all because our midfielders were cut off from our attack. It is pathetic really that we try to find excuses for what in my book is a total failure of management.
ReplyDeleteLOL I've heard it all now. Ferguson's plan was to be 2-0 down at half time was it? Ludicrous!
ReplyDeleteSo why doesn't Grant get credit for outwitting the great Sie Alex with his superior team in the first 45 minutes? Berbatov cost more than our entire team and he was on the bench! How blinkered some are! United started the game with almost twice as many points as us. Doesn't that tell you something?
ReplyDeleteSometimes people can't admit that our players gave their all but lost to a better side!
ReplyDeleteDid I say that Ferguson's plan was to be 2-0 down at half time?!!! Where did you get this from HF? Of course not. Stating the obvious, I am speaking about his plans at half time, given the fact they were losing 0-2.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are having trouble understanding that this is what I meant because like Grant you also don't believe in planning at or after half time. Which is really my point about Grant being a bad manager in the first place. Like you, AG thinks he did nothing wrong today!
Spot on 2108!
ReplyDeleteSo Sav, what did Grant do differently in the second half exactly? He won the first 45 2-0 against the best manager in England who had superior players at his disposal. So, where's the credit for that exactly?
Ferguson brought on additional offensive players and you seem to think we should have left ourselves more open at the back! Brilliant idea! United needed an absurd penalty to draw level! Think about it!
Who worked hard on what HF?
ReplyDeleteA good strategy means you anticipate what the enemy will do and adapt your formation so as to exploit their weaknesses. Now, I don't think it would take a genius to have guessed correctly at half time that MU will throw everything in attack. What are the chances of keeping the very good attacking players of MU from scoring if for 45 minutes all you do is sit back and defend wave after wave of attack? That is what I call a stupid plan.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if Grant was to change the formation and ask his players to push more up the field where it would hurt MU especially since their defence line would be very weakened after their changes, that would be a plan more likely to succeed than to try and keep them out for a whole half without ever having them risk anything at the back.
And it is something we have experienced before with MU (albeit against a weakened eleven) when we won 4-0 at the Cup game. This is how an inspired coach would play the game.
As it was, Alex guessed right that AG will try and keep the lead by defending deep and adapted his team accordingly to maximise his chances of overturning the score.
It is really all about not leaving things to chance and responding to the changing circumstances on the field. Something AG has proven time and again he can't do. (e.g. remember our games with Birmingham this year for example).
No idea Stani, I don't know who this Ironside Geezer is. But you appreciate his style and views!!!!
ReplyDeleteSav, we tried to attack but couldn't. Simple.
Also we forced him to bring on his rested players, he had to bring on £40m worth of attacking talent beat us!
ReplyDeleteIf you think we played attacking football in the second half we probably weren't watching the same game.
ReplyDeleteYou saying it's me!? He's just started 'the game' and he's made you mad already. You got him laughing at you somewhere right now.
ReplyDeleteNo I don't Sav but I don't think the game plan was to sit back. Had it been, a midfirlder would have come on for one of Cole or Ba. Tell me, what did you want Grant to do, bring on an extra forward? Look what happened when he did, we couldn't get the bloody ball. Why can't you accept they are a better team than us by a mile?
ReplyDeleteIt could be Stani, that's all I'm saying! Or maybe it's Sav? |Who knows?
ReplyDeletegrant must have known what was coming at 2.0 up he should have shut down the midfield man marked them off the park even gone five across the middle of the park having gone to 3.2 his usual answer chuck 4 strikers on you got two wide players who play central midfield so no natural wingers on which means you rely on your left and right back to give you width we paid up to 19 millon for 3 right sided players at not one of them features ones who cost the most is now playing at ipswich to me grant is acup manager he plays his teams like that he hardly had a great record as a manager remember portsmouth the only reason i believe his is still here is because the owners went public in stating they dont sack there managers false pride will cost us dear
ReplyDeletewhat i never understood on what grounds did the two daves emply him in the first place??
ReplyDeleteYou've always had trouble trusting my honesty haven't you HF?That's why you haven't got the balls to tell me your name. But it is because of you and who you are that you distrust, not because of me and who I am. You are shining your light on things, which is why you see them in the colour you prefer. I'm the God fearing one mate, not you. But not believing in God then makes it difficult for you to grasp that someone can be honest solely due to Him.
ReplyDeleteIt could be you HF. You've certainly done it before...ask 'Shahid', lol!
2241,
ReplyDeleteThank you Charlie!
Shahid? Now you've lost me. Don't protest too much though mate or we will believe it's you!
ReplyDeleteCan I claim it is?
ReplyDeleteI laugh it's Dale HF! That would be something!
The trouble is Grant thinks we dominated the first half as no other team has dominated Man U.There for he didn't think he had to change anything in the second half. I don't think sitting there morosely he saw the same game I did, and didn't 11 - 0 on corners ring a few bells. Lets face it two attacks and two penalties gave us goal domination but certainly that was all.
ReplyDelete