All doom and gloom already?
All doom and gloom already? - Forum Discussion
Salford Red Says:
I've had time to reflect on todays result, while its not a disaster I honestly think a draw was inevitable today. Alot of us were a bit cocky earlier, myself included.
Three months to get a signing and we couldn't get one, did we even go in for one apart from Silva? Instead they decided to go on holiday and didn't want to be disturbed. This same arrogant attitude surfaced when we won the treble. But this is worse. At least then we have a solid squad with four strikers. This time we have a solid defence and Ronaldo. Ronaldo is out and we are back to being average. This should go out to all Ronaldo bashers. Yes his attitude sucks, but he is the main reason we won the Premiership and Champions League last season. He was injury free the whole time. I thought Rooney did OK but he is no Cristiano Ronaldo. Losing Tevez was another blow but couldn't be helped under the circumstances. As soon as Carrick went off i knew the game would bypass us. We won last season by the skin of our teeth and that's when Ronaldo was out of this world. What makes SAF and the management team think that Giggs, Fletcher and O'Shea can win a game? The management was very poor to say the least on how we handled our summer. Very lazy, poor and arrogant. We dont deserve anything with how SAF and the managment team conduct themselves.
Our bench today just summed it up. We didn't have ONE attacking option on the bench or a player who could turn the game upside down in a second. We're the Champions of England & Europe and couldn't manage ONE. WHY? Roy Keane himself has said unless we buy a striker NOW (my source says we're close to Berbatov but the £32m now being asked may be too much) Chelsea will win the league. If Chelsea win the league they'll do so from midfield. Their midfield on Sunday was a blend of power, craft and pace, with other options on the bench and the possibility of Robinho on the way. Yes, we had players missing but who? Well we all know Ronaldo's a massive miss but Nani, hardly set the world on fire has he? Anderson, struggles to get a game. Hargreaves is a holding midfielder, nothing more. Think we may have to settle for a cup at best this term.
Fergie is a great manager but he's a massive blunder this summer, a MASSIVE one!
Sorry for being critical and if any of you disagree with this please let me know. I just needed to get it off my chest!
Stretford-end Says:
Salford Red - Great to hear your opinion on this and I sense your concern but I disagree that it is all doom and gloom. It's the first game of the season and like last season we got off to a flat start. I do we think we were weak in numbers but thats what happens to a club during the course of the season. We had a number of first team players missing, as did Newcastle - who I felt played well, so I really wouldn't look too much into the result yesterday. We drew with Everton on the opening day of the 1999/2000 season and still won the title that year.
I don't really think we need to sign anyone really - if we bought Berbatov and Silva would they be first team starters? Not in my first xi if we had everyone available. I'm surprised that you don't seem to rate Nani or Anderson who I felt were impressive in their first season's in English football.
It does get frustrating sometime but we need to have realistic expectations and sometimes we will drop points. Retaining both trophies will be extremely difficult, however this side can do it - regardless of the performance yesterday and even if Berbatov comes or not.
Yolkie Says:
I share your concerns over the bench, certainly. I was worried and when Giggs got injured you knew that we were not going to score again.
We had no out and out striker and no width, either on the pitch or on the bench, lost all our spark with Giggs' injury. This isn't a criticsm of Possebon or Rafael, who I believe will go on to be good players, but something needed to be done in the summer for situations like this.
We need another winger and another striker, we needed that at the end of last season, and it was clear again yesterday. Yes, they might not get straight into the first team, but I'd rather have unhappy players than knowing for 30 minutes that we're not even going to create a chance. And at least the bench has 7 spots now. In 1999 we had Blomqvist backing up Giggs, and Blomqvist was a big name, and the bench was limited to 3 domestically!
My personal option would be to try and sign Ashley Young, a player with immense potential who surely would be content to rotate at this stage of his career. Yes, he would probably cost £20-25m, Villa are showing they don't want to be raped of their best players, so it would be a premium, but I honestly believe that Young would be an excellent plan B, and would eventually prove good value for that amount of money. I'm not at all suggesting we can just go and take him, but £20m would represent a decent offer.
Obviously as well we need a forward - most United fans I'm sure would prefer Benzema, this looks impossible, we're all more or less accepting Fergie wants Berbatov.
The answer to the question is that after one game it's not all doom and gloom - Ronaldo is a big loss, of course, he's the best player in the world and if he were absent from any team it would leave a massive hole. But to say we're average without him is a little unfair - yesterday we were missing Nani, Anderson, Tevez, and I'm sure with those 3 available more chances would have been created in the second half. It's a staggering injury/absentee list - a midfield with Fletcher, O'Shea and Evra in it would possibly be Fergie's 3rd or 4th resort, it gives you some kind of idea of the problem. To pin it all on Ronaldo is too simplistic and disrespectful of the other massive talents who are absent.
Have to disagree with your opinions on Anderson and Hargreaves. Hargreaves is technically magnificent - the kind of midfielder who used to rip us apart in Europe, and now does that job for us. Look at his work in the first half of the European Cup final, not only did he do a job on the right wing, he looked like a convincing winger.
Anderson was running games against Fabregas and Gerrard just a matter of months after a bad broken leg. I honestly believe he will be the best player in the world in 2 or 3 years.