SAF promises to make changes

[darko]

Originally posted by Red15:
<strong>On Manchester United Radio after the match last night, he said that possibly some players had become complacent, although not the coaching staff...

I have a feeling it's not going to take us too long to find out which players he thinks have become complacent.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Like who? Let's start naming names. Certainly Keane RVN, OGS, Beckham, Scholes were not complacent this season. The back 4 struggled during the first half of the season. But, I don't think they were complacent.

Again, I think it came down to three factors:

1. Early season f - ups at home against Bolton and Chelsea to name two.

2. Disappointing and often disruptive season from Juan Veron. Sorry Juan, but we expected more from an elite player.

3. We lost a winner in Ted Sheringham and gained (so far) a loser in Forlan. Sorry Diego, but we needed some goal production out of you. I hope you find your scoring boots next season. We also missed Cole. He might of made a difference v BL. Just think if we had RVN, OGS, Sheringham and Cole for the BL matches. I think we would have made the final.

 

[darko]

At GK we are set. Bartez is pure class.

At defence, we need one world class player. I like Nesta or Tudor

In midfield, I quite like Dyer provided he stays healthy. If this means selling Veron to be able to get a Nesta and Dyer, then I say do it.

Up front, I'm not interested in DiCannio. Not that he isn't a talentd player but United should do better. I say why target Diego Tristen who is truely a fine player. This is what we need.

I'm not bashing Veron, but we have planty of players ( Keane, Scholes, Beckham and Butt) capable of playing an effective role in CM. We need someone who can play RM if Beckham takes a more central role. Dyer can do this. Dyer can also play a wing back, can he not?

Having said all this, we still should have won the league if we were more consistent at home, like we have been for the last decade.

 

[Livvie]

Originally posted by darko:
<strong>At GK we are set. Bartez is pure class.

At defence, we need one world class player. I like Nesta or Tudor

In midfield, I quite like Dyer provided he stays healthy. If this means selling Veron to be able to get a Nesta and Dyer, then I say do it.

Up front, I'm not interested in DiCannio. Not that he isn't a talentd player but United should do better. I say why target Diego Tristen who is truely a fine player. This is what we need.

I'm not bashing Veron, but we have planty of players ( Keane, Scholes, Beckham and Butt) capable of playing an effective role in CM. We need someone who can play RM if Beckham takes a more central role. Dyer can do this. Dyer can also play a wing back, can he not?

Having said all this, we still should have won the league if we were more consistent at home, like we have been for the last decade.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Have you seen how many goals we scored??

The problem doesn't lie in attack. Yes, we need another striker, but you're saying we need one striker and one defender, which implies that the defence is as good as the attack!

I don't think so.

We don't need to buy another striker yet - we should bring thru the youngsters from the reserves to see how they/he goes.

Otherwise, what's the point of having the reserves at all - they're never going to get the opportunity if we keep buying big. With our strike force, we can at least afford to try.

 

[darko]

Face the facts. Against BL, aguably a weaker defence then ours, we couldn't manage a second half goal. There ends our CL campaign. Against Arsenal and Liverpool we managed a mere 1 goal in 4 league matches against them. Against BM in 2000 CL QF, we managed only 2 goals over two legs.

Forlan hasn't shown he can score, yet. So, basically we have two productive strikers in RVN and OGS. Do we need another quality striker? You better beleive we do. We score a shit load of goals because we are attack minded and have good scoring midfielders.

 

[Livvie]

Originally posted by darko:
<strong>Face the facts. Against BL, aguably a weaker defence then ours, we couldn't manage a second half goal. </strong><hr></blockquote>

There were a lot of games when we didn't score, and didn't look like scoring, until we went with two up front.

From December onwards - for a while - that's how we played, and we took the game by the throat.

Reverting to 4-4-2 half way thru a game made us look more like scoring, but once you're chasing a game it isn't so easy.

 

[Elfie]

Originally posted by Livvie20:
<strong>

Have you seen how many goals we scored??

The problem doesn't lie in attack. </strong><hr></blockquote>

I don't agree. Of course, we're the best attack in England . But if you look at our defeats, you will see that in some occasions we didn't scored enough goals, except vs Newcasle when we scored 3. Against Bolton (home), Liverpool (home and away), Arsenal (home and away), Chelsea (home), West-Ham (home), Middlesbrough (home), we couldn't score or scored only 1 (3 goals out of 8 !), while in other games we could score 5 or 6 !

I don't blame the strikers of course. For me the problem is the midfield (not the players, the organisation). In some games the strikers weren't given enough balls.

As for the defence I think any defender would struggle in that system. I think now the biggest teams play with 2 defensive midfielders. I did write here last autumn that we should include Nicky Butt in the team. I was answered that he wasn't good enough. And then he was included in the team in December and we won a long serie of games. I was also answered that United has always favoured the attack. May be but now the strikers are better and better, and only one defensive midfielder, it's not enough ! And I've noted too that not only we conceded less goals, but scored at least as many ! Remember, out best game this season was vs La Coruna...

Of course, some will answer me that the system is not responsible for the individual mistakes. I'll answer, partly yes, parly no. Too much pressure on the defense make he defense more nervous. Once again, with Nicky Butt, there were less mistakes...

So I would take another striker, because we'll have to play many games and a rotation will be necessary (Ruud looked tired at the end of the season), another defensive midfielder because we have seen one was missed after Keane's injury and Butt's injury, and probably two defenders.