WE NEEDED THIS

mancred

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Looking back, the rot set in at the end of last season, when we coasted our way through the last few games after the title had been sewn up. We played most of this season thinking we had it in the bag again.

We assumed that we were invincible, that adding a world class player (Veron) would confirm this.

Stam's departure got rid of the core of our defence. Blanc has been good, but we'd all have been happy to see Jaap emerging from the tunnel tonight.

Sheringham's departure left a void that has not been filled -- too often the space between the midfield and attack has been empty.

Our strike force has petered out, and failed to perform in the big games, such as tonight's and many others.

Several of our top players have underperformed, at various points of the season: Scholes, Giggs, Beckham, Veron, Barthez, the whole defence.

We were unlucky with injuries, missing Beckham especially. Previously, we've been very fortunate with injuries.

BUT: in spite of this, and in spite of losing nine times (so far), we are third, we got to the semis in Europe, we thrashed deportivo, and we made a genuine challenge, at the end, for the title.

We had nothing to prove this season; next season, we will again have everything to prove. Individuals in the team will also need to prove themselves: Veron, if he stays; Barthez; a new defender or two; a new striker.

We have the greatest manager in the game, and a little tweaking and we will have a world class team again.
 
Originally posted by mancred:
<strong>Looking back, the rot set in at the end of last season, when we coasted our way through the last few games after the title had been sewn up. We played most of this season thinking we had it in the bag again.

We assumed that we were invincible, that adding a world class player (Veron) would confirm this.

Stam's departure got rid of the core of our defence. Blanc has been good, but we'd all have been happy to see Jaap emerging from the tunnel tonight.

Sheringham's departure left a void that has not been filled -- too often the space between the midfield and attack has been empty.

Our strike force has petered out, and failed to perform in the big games, such as tonight's and many others.

Several of our top players have underperformed, at various points of the season: Scholes, Giggs, Beckham, Veron, Barthez, the whole defence.

We were unlucky with injuries, missing Beckham especially. Previously, we've been very fortunate with injuries.

BUT: in spite of this, and in spite of losing nine times (so far), we are third, we got to the semis in Europe, we thrashed deportivo, and we made a genuine challenge, at the end, for the title.

We had nothing to prove this season; next season, we will again have everything to prove. Individuals in the team will also need to prove themselves: Veron, if he stays; Barthez; a new defender or two; a new striker.

We have the greatest manager in the game, and a little tweaking and we will have a world class team again.</strong><hr></blockquote>


We may have the greatest manager in the game, but he has been responsible for a lot of the points you make.

We'll never know the truth about Stam - he wasn't as good when he left us as he had been, but imo should have been given time to come good again. He was a true red.

Sheringham should not have been allowed to leave, especially with 4-5-1 in mind.

The strike force has petered out lately because it hasn't been allowed to continue the momentum that had been built up! Ole has been played wide, Giggs up front, Ruud or Ole on the bench - these were managerial decisions.

I said exactly the same as you last season, about losing the winning habit by playing under-strength teams. Whilst it might not have affected our performances this season, it did send out the message to other teams that Manchester United were not invincible.

SAF was hailed as the greatest manager of all time when we won the treble. So if our success was down to him, then so too is our failure.

You can say what you like about players who might have under-performed, or just not been good enough. But Fergie's stubborn streak has played a big part.

And this isn't an opinion I've developed in the past hour.
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yeah, please God Fergie will rebuild the defence. groan...

:eek:
 
Originally posted by Red Pat:
<strong>But you have to say "Well done Arseholes"
:( </strong><hr></blockquote>


Most definitely.

If we'd play to our strengths all season, we still might not have won the league. (Tho it would have been a lot more likely).
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I agree that the managerial decisions seem odd. But this if Fergie: he has always gone out of his way to make the difficult decisions.

And also, his dilly-dallying will-he-go-or-won't-he? hardly helped.

But I think the least we owe him is to have utmost faith that he'll get it right: as he did when he sold ince, hughes and kanchelskis; as he did the season after Arsenal won their last double.

I think as well as signing some good players, getting rid of dead wood and thrusting some youngsters forward, Sir Alex will also hire an assistant, which will be good for everyone concerned.

Despite the odd decisions, I'd still rather have Alex Ferguson managing Manchester United than anyone else on the planet.
 
Originally posted by mancred:
<strong>

Sir Alex will also hire an assistant, which will be good for everyone concerned.

Despite the odd decisions, I'd still rather have Alex Ferguson managing Manchester United than anyone else on the planet.</strong><hr></blockquote>


I've reached the point where I think George Graham should come in as defence coach.

And I agree with your last statement. But other times he got it right the same season. This season, he has got it wrong, and everyone should be honest enough to say so.
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Success breads complacency…we will come back bigger and stronger from this blow.

Keep the Red Flag flying high, cos Man Utd will never die.......
 
blaming SAF for filling the gaps caused by injuries IE playing ole or scholes wide is ludicrous. He knows more about football then all of us combined on this forum. He sees the lads day in and day out in training and he puts what he thinks is the best team on the pitch to win. It is my opinion that we performed well considering the injuries that we sustained late in the year. We really missed Becks the last two critical games and yes we missed teddy and even Yorke. RVN had no one who really could spell him a game or two and his finishing suffered due to his tiredness late in the season. Fergie will get it sorted and we will be back next year but ARSEnal look hard to beat and it will be tough to get the title back. We can do the league and imagine this We could be playing the Champions league final at OT next season. Certainly would wipe the tears away. :cool:
 
Originally posted by manufanatic:
<strong>And we missed ANDY COLE as well</strong><hr></blockquote>

Disco as well.

:confused: <img src="graemlins/angel.gif" border="0" alt="[Angel]" />
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Originally posted by manufanatic:
<strong>And we missed ANDY COLE as well</strong><hr></blockquote>

:rolleyes: Well the only way I can see round it, is to sign every player in the league.

Roy Keane had it spot on. We have good players. We don't always have a team. It isn't so much personnel that we need as discipline, organisation etc. Teams always need to strengthen, but some of our football this season proved that we have the players.
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Originally posted by manufanatic:
<strong>blaming SAF for filling the gaps caused by injuries IE playing ole or scholes wide is ludicrous. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Who's arguing?

It's the times when there weren't injuries - and the times when players were fit and in the team, and still used out of position.

Who do you think was responsible for our success over the past few years by the way?
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Originally posted by Livvie20:
<strong>

Who's arguing?

It's the times when there weren't injuries - and the times when players were fit and in the team, and still used out of position.

Who do you think was responsible for our success over the past few years by the way?</strong><hr></blockquote>


Well Fergie wasn't the only one responsible for our success: in fact, he's "only" been a general marshalling his forces. I think its the players who let us down, not Fergie. ALthough, of course, its difficult to understand some of his decisions this season.

Face it. For the last nine years, teams have set out every season with the goal of stopping United. No team can win it every year.

What Arsenal got right was building their team on a solid, disciplined defence. This is what was critical to them not losing a game away from home all season.

We are by nature more cavalier, and sought to build on an attack that will always create and score more goals than the other team. But this season, our defence was punished. Every time we made a mistake in midfield, it seemed, we were punished for it. The only players at the back who seemed to play with the spirit of they-shall-not-pass (the spirit of Adams, Keown, Campbell, Dixon, Seaman and the other Arse defenders) were Gary Neville and Laurent Blanc -- and both of them made the odd mistake, too.

Does our defence have the confidence in Barthez it had in the past?

When we came up against defences weaker than ours, we were fine: Tottenham, Newcastle (almost), and, frankly, Deportivo. But when we hit the kind of wall that teams like Liverpool erect, we were unable to break them down when it mattered, and our defence was not able to keep goals out at the other end.

Keane had to play every game with the knowledge that getting forward -- which he is very good at -- might leave bad gaps at the back. That hampered him.

And, when the injuries kicked in, we needed a defence that would ensure that, even without the service for RVN and Ole that would normally come from Beckham, we would at least not concede at the other end. We simply don't have this.

Is John O'Shea good enough to fill a gap? Does he have the same spirit as Neville?

One thing we can be sure of. Fergie will know what is wrong, and try his damndest to fix it. If that means buying a world class defender, he'll do it. If he thinks the rot at the back starts with Barthez, he'll be sold.

We were complacent, and we were taken advantage of. Congratulations to Arsenal, they played the kind of football we have played in the past -- scoring freely and defending well (let's not forget that last season, we had the meanest defence in the league!)

The other teams -- including, i'm sad to say, liverpool, who would rather draw 0-0 than 3-3 -- have caught up. We start next season with three teams capable of winning it (no-one really believed that at the start of this season). Now we'll see again what our players and manager are made of.
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SAF will be bitterly disappointed at ending up with nothing, and he is big enough to know himself that not all of his decisions have worked, but he has had to try some different options this season, because Arsenal and Liverpool were rapidly catching up on us, and unfortunatley, this season they have overtaken us.He knows what needs to be done now, and he will do it, if people need to go they will go, and he will bring in players who will improve the team.

He needs an assistant now, and the sooner this is sorted out, the better.

His decision to retire then stay must have had a bigger effect on the place than anyone could have imagined, none more so than on him, but now that he can give it 100% with no distractions, the future is bright, once again.

United lost too many games early on to give themselves a decent chance in the league, yet they were the only team who could have pipped Arsenal with two games to go, incredible, really.

There have been some great highs, but some unbearable lows this season, but it's gone now, and United, and SAF will come back next year more determined than ever to win.There is no no shift of power, just a temporary transfer!! ;)
 
I look at the current situation and I think that it is far better than people are making it out to be.

Think about it; we lost the league for many reasons all summed up within the fact that we simply weren't good enough. Knowing this can only bring about change, and change from not being good enough is positive so long as we become better than we were this season.

Wake up calls are always good. Look at what happened in 1998 when Arsenal won - we went on to win the following seasons until this one, including a Champions League Cup ! Now has come the time whereby we need to re-evaluate, and the only reasons we are forced to do this is because it NEEDS to be done.

I am far more satisified we are made aware of our failures and short comings than to slip in the back door with a 1-0 win against Arsenal last night and a freak last minute goal by Everton at Highbury. Had that have happened I guarantee you that many United fans would be fooled into thinking things are MUCH better than they really are.

To summarize, this seasons's antics and results have caused us all to take a good honest look at the current situation. Nothing wrong with that ;)

No more COVER UPS <img src="graemlins/keano.gif" border="0" alt="[Keano]" />
 
I have to say that the only thing I found irritating this year was the selling of Stam. It can not have been because of footballing reasons, that's clear. So here we have a situation were SAF put his own pride before the team, but with 15 years in charge and the success he's had I'd say he definately has the right to do this.
 
Originally posted by AhmedDimwitson:
<strong>I have to say that the only thing I found irritating this year was the selling of Stam. It can not have been because of footballing reasons, that's clear. So here we have a situation were SAF put his own pride before the team, but with 15 years in charge and the success he's had I'd say he definately has the right to do this.</strong><hr></blockquote>

The naive one @ murt will have a hiding on you for daring to suggesting that Stam was in anyway good to us.

;)
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Mancred and Livvie has said it almost all ...
I personaly think that it will be a good kick up the ass to the lads ... although losing the title is bitter ( in OT :mad: ) ... and losing the 2nd spot again is lousy feeling ( now we need to worry abt the CL qualifying round :mad: ..) ... but nonetheless, that last time we have all this .. when ?? .. that was before the GREAT thing come along ... the Treble ...

We will be back ... much stronger and organise next season ... SURE !!
 
spot on Penny. Its not as if they've ended up mid table or been knocked out in the first round of the European CL, but all the same we know they can do better and this season will make them realise that there are serious challenges to their domination now, and they need to be better. I'm already looking forward to next season, some new players, and hopefully a return of their hunger.
 
A bit of humbling will do us no harm. Pool result and consequences a right sickener though.
We can only improve next season while the Arse cannot get much better - think about it. Back to basics me thinks (sans Veron)
Roll on August.
 
I'm glad we didn't win the league. If we had, then it's all down to a lot of luck. SAF made some poor decisions this year, like accomodating Scholes and play the 4-4-1-1 strategy. Not playing RVN last night seem a strange decision to me and if he is thinking of justifying his purchase of Forlan, then I think he has chosen the wrong game. We need to build on our defence next season and I'm heartened to see Veron go in rough last night. He needs to adapt to the pace of the English game and it's sad that his tenacity is only witnessed at the end of the season. I hope he stays next season to win over the United fans. Someone mentioned that blaming SAF is ludicrous but honestly speaking, he indeed made some of the strangest decisions this season. My colleague was wearing an Arsenal jersey today and I offered him a clean plastic bag. My message to him was: " Enjoy while you can, keep the jersey clean and the next time you'll be wearing the jersey to celebrate your team being champions will likely be in another 4 years time." None the less, Arsenal are deserved champions this season and hopefully Fergie will sort out his thoughts and make us champions next season again.
 
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