English League Football & FA Community Shield ** spoilers ** [6th - 8th August 2010]

The only thing i could realy see from the game today is that chelsea have the same issue they had last season.

When it's not working up top, it's daniel sturridge or nobody else.

Painfully exposed against inter last season, suprised they've not moved hard for another forward. United, arsenal and liverpool were exposed the same last season, they've all bought in new options.

United showed their strenghts today, but their weakness wasn't exposed, the stokes, birminghams, wolves of this world make you play hard through the middle, different game.
 
Had a great day, let's get that bad out of the way first:


Who the **** is Tinchy Strider? Had to sit through 10 minutes of actually painful noise from him.


The tournament may not matter but it's good to see where the team is at, very encouraging.

Van De Saar 8 - Made several great saves in both halves.
O'SHea 7 - Looked pretty assured and made a very good interception in the first half
Vidic 10 - Just perfect, dominated the pitch throughout.
Evans 8 - Don't think he put a foot wrong at centre back and looked far more comfortable with the ball. Not as good at left back though.
Fabio 7 - Really good performance in his biggest game so far probably, made some good tackles but looked a little nervous coming forward.
Carrick 8 - Best I've seen him play in a long time
Scholes 9 - Two terrible tackles, one missed chance, but one of the best passing displays you're likely to see in a big match.
Valencia 9 - Ashley who? Best left back in the world my ****, Valencia dominated him on the attack and defense, scored one, set up another.
Park 7 - Didn't really do a great deal, helped keep Bosingwa back though.
Rooney 8 - I don't think he misplaced a pass today, brilliant cross for the goal
Owen 6 - Didn't really get into the game, had some touches but couldn't find space in the final third.

Subs:

Berbatov 8 - Brilliantly taken goal, first time I've really seen him celebrate like that.
Hernandez 8 - Regardless of how the goal went in, they all count. His movement and strength was great to see, actually beat Terry in the air a few times.
Smalling 6 - Didn't see him do much a lot tbh, so probably played alright.
Fletcher 7 - Slotted in comfortably.
Giggs 5 - I didn't see him touch the ball
Nani 7 - Not too bad, great pass for the third goal.


Do Chelsea fans hate Kalou or something? They booed him as the teams were announced then more bizarrely booed him as he was announced as the scorer :confused:
 
Tom84 said:
For the record we did play 4-4-2 like I said we would and we didn't get over-run and comfortably beat at all like you said.
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To be fair come the end of the season I think majority of time Rooney plays it will be seen as a 4 -5 - 1 formation (or 4 -2 - 3- 1)

It also needs to be seen how well Hernadez parters Rooney (which will be tried some time soon despite playing different halfs today), if he does as well with Rooney as he did with Berba maybe 4 -4 -2 will be seen more often

Tom84 said:
Must say when they went through the subs benches at the start of the game I was quite surprised at just how superior ours was, I know they were missing 3 first team defenders but we still have Rio, Hargreaves & Anderson to return to ours as well as Brown, Rafael, Gibson, Macheda and Neville not being named :eek:
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To be fair only Rafael and Macheda even have a chance imo of being regular starters - Rio and OH because of their injuries (OH is unlikely to EVER start imo unfortunately), gibson will get a few starts but not convinced it will be regular at all

Chelsea were missing a number of definite starters - incl arguably the best goalie in the league over the last few years (whether Cech is better than Reina or VDS really comes down to individual games rather than a season's performances as a whole imo, Cech has lost the edge slightly since his skull fractures....2 seasons ago though)

Maybe squad wise utd are marginally stronger - I really dont know - but 1st XI to 1st XI I think Chelsea edge it currently but Hernandez is the wild card that could easily change that this season (as said in commentary today) :)
 
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Must say, had a good day at Wembley apart from the Top Reds behind us continually complaining about how crap the stadium, atmosphere, squad and so on was. My favourite comment was "The atmosphere here is ****ing ****, if we got to the Champions League final here I probably wouldn't bother going." Laughable.
 
One More Solo said:
Must say, had a good day at Wembley apart from the Top Reds behind us continually complaining about how crap the stadium, atmosphere, squad and so on was. My favourite comment was "The atmosphere here is ****ing ****, if we got to the Champions League final here I probably wouldn't bother going." Laughable.
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Bad atmosphere? They clearly haven't been to the emirates!
 
FrankJH said:
To be fair come the end of the season I think majority of time Rooney plays it will be seen as a 4 -5 - 1 formation (or 4 -2 - 3- 1)
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Not disputing that, fact is though today Fergie was always going to go 4-4-2

It also needs to be seen how well Hernadez parters Rooney (which will be tried some time soon despite playing different halfs today), if he does as well with Rooney as he did with Berba maybe 4 -4 -2 will be seen more often

FrankJH said:
To be fair only Rafael and Macheda even have a chance imo of being regular starters - Rio and OH because of their injuries (OH is unlikely to EVER start imo unfortunately), gibson will get a few starts but not convinced it will be regular at all

Chelsea were missing a number of definite starters
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I dont buy into that, your opinions on Gibson & Hargreaves aside genuine first team players not involved today were Ferdinand (who when fit will be first choice), Rafael, Brown & Anderson with the likes of Neville, Gibson, Macheda, Cleverly & Obertan also in the mix. Chelsea were missing 3 players who would have made their bench stronger and they're all defenders Carvalho (who might not even be at the club), Alex and Bosingwa (who's had just as many injury problems as Ferdinand). Our squad is much better equipped for an injury crisis than theirs (just as well as every season it seems our entire defence gets wiped out at one point or another)
 
Tom84 said:
..... first team players not involved today were Ferdinand (who when fit will be first choice)
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I agree with that - I just dont think Rio will be fit that much (10-15 EPL games at most I reckon)

Tom84 said:
Rafael, Brown & Anderson with the likes of Neville, Gibson, Macheda, Cleverly & Obertan also in the mix. Chelsea were missing 3 players who would have made their bench stronger and they're all defenders Carvalho (who might not even be at the club), Alex and Bosingwa (who's had just as many injury problems as Ferdinand). Our squad is much better equipped for an injury crisis than theirs (just as well as every season it seems our entire defence gets wiped out at one point or another)
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Well we agree on Rafael - :) Brown 's positions are covered by Rafael, OShea and Neville (when the other two cant play) so I dont see WB getting many games at RB, and Evans/Rio/Vidic/ Smalling at Centre half - so Im not sure how often he will play there either :) With all those players infront of him I cant see him getting many games

I did originally say our squad is probably stronger - just their 1st choice team are stronger

edit - Anderson....lets just see what he is like after his injury, Im still surprised SAF has forgiven him so easily for the car crash incident
 
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Very good team performance from the Shirts today. Scholes undoubted MoTM, crap Wembley Pitch or Not, his range of passing was outstanding today. Valencia really does look like he has settled. A few games last year he was very much like a rabbit in the head lights. His pre season game and today has seen him carry on from the back end of last year. He is growing in confidence and it looks like he is another player Ferguson is managing in the right way to get the best out of him.

Whether you put any value on the game or not, I don't think you will get a much better test for fitness a week before the start of the new season. Fergie has talked about us hitting the ground running from day 1 and there was a good tempo about our game.

That said I am still not convinced that we have the midfield we need. I can see the same teams playing this match later in the season and Essien dominating Carrick and the result being reversed. Whether we need someone Like Ozil or one of the youngsters like Cleverly to come in remains to be seen. We still need a Footballer who can take the pressure off the team when a very athletic midfield like Chelsea or Bayern are dominating posession

Make no bones about it, Chelsea will be 100% better within the next few weeks.

Final thought on the game from a Utd perspective, I thought Hernandez and Berbatov look to have got an understanding today and the game in Ireland which can only be a good thing for both of them
 
atpbx said:
Whats your point got to do with what I said? I've told you that chelsea will beat anything other than the strongest united side without much hassle, friendly or not, thats just a fact.

My opinion on whether that is of any importance has not been voiced.
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No one else going to bring this up? Everyone loves the world's most pessimistic Utd "fan".
 
fifiov said:
Everyone loves the world's most pessimistic Utd "fan".
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Nickg is even more pessimistice imo :)


I Really hate the new Utd shirt, the design is ok its just the style/typeface of Aon that annoys me - just looks "wrong". Cant see myself ever buying that shirt :(

Loki said:
We still need a Footballer who can take the pressure off the team when a very athletic midfield like Chelsea or Bayern are dominating posession
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Totally agree with that
 
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lol well itr wasnt a stellar performance yesterday by any means. we were clinging on a bit. but i quite like the shirt. it is growing on me.

thing is our midfield was about as strong as it can be and i just dont think it was good enough. wingers are fine its the central players.
 
i dont know, my idea of being confortable would be to have the ball, rather than chelsea having it and watching our defenders scuff the ball around our own goal area?

we were fortunate to have the goal lead, if we had not have scored early on i think the result could have been much different.
 
Nickg said:
lol well itr wasnt a stellar performance yesterday by any means. we were clinging on a bit. but i quite like the shirt. it is growing on me.
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We were holding on to a lead which is what happens everytime against Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool, the big teams will keep going till the end. I didn't think at any point we would lose that game once we were 2-0 up.

I'm glad the shirt was one of the highlights for you :rolleyes:

Nickg said:
i dont know, my idea of being confortable would be to have the ball, rather than chelsea having it and watching our defenders scuff the ball around our own goal area?

we were fortunate to have the goal lead, if we had not have scored early on i think the result could have been much different.
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They were battering us trying to get an equaliser, do you realise it's quite hard to control the game if the opposition are throwing everything at you and you don't have the ball?

When we did have the ball we passed it round them with 20/21 passes that lead to Nani slipping it through to Berbatov, did you miss that part?

You really should get over this half full attitude you have to MU, it's boring.
 
Ripper said:
Good game. Impressive from us I thought. Always hate playing Chelsea but we looked fairly comfortable throughout. Scholes was immense. Hernandez looked very comfortable and I look forward to seeing more from him.

What today showed is that we have a good squad, a very good squad. Four quality strikers, 4 strong CM's, 4 solid CB's. Backup at LB and RB and on the wing. Ferdinand, Anderson and Hargreaves still to come back. Chelsea I don't feel are as strong as they were last season. If Lampard, Mikel or Essien get injured who do they have to fill those spots? With Belletti, Deco and Ballack gone they seem a bit thin to me in those positions, maybe someone else can explain otherwise.
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Deco and Ballack were a waste of space, especially Deco. Essien was injured pretty much all last year so him being injured this year isn't going to be a factor in determining if Chelsea will be weaker than last year.

If Chelsea can keep Essien, Lampard, Drogba, Cole and Cech fit for the majority of the season, I really can't see anyone else winning the title. Biased for sure but Chelsea won the double last year without Essien in the team. The only midfielder in the world I'd rather have than Essien is Iniesta but they are completely different players so that's saying something about how highly I rate Essien.

It would be a huge boost to get Bosingwa back in the starting line up as well. (who I believe was the best right back in the league until he picked up the injury)

You're right though in saying that Chelsea don't have adequate replacements, I believe this will be the last time Chelsea win the league for quite a while, the squad is simply too old.
 
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I'm yet further impressed by young Chiquiriatodoritosandsalsadip; even his face is deadly at finishing!

...who does he think he is, coming to the premier league and stealing Dirk Kuyt's best moves before the season has even begun... :D

I thought United were really impressive in all honesty, even if the third goal flattered them a bit. Pre-season everyone gets caught up in all the transfers/rumours and gets into the business of projecting the upcoming season's outcomes without having anything to really base it on. People have been ruling out United in favour of Chelsea for the title, but even with an aging squad and no big-name signings they looked really good. Not sure what Scholes is eating for breakfast to keep on playing so well at his age, maybe he drinks the blood of Virgins or something. Valencia is just brilliant too, if they had a left-footed version of him for the other flank, they'd be unstoppable...
 
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