TheBlueBalla said:
If Mikel ever gets tae sand out of his vagina and fulfills his contract, he could be the answer this new weakness you seem to have
Mikel is a great player, but I don't know if he is strong enough or mature enough to make our midfield great, but he would certainly improve it. I can't wait until he gets to Old Trafford, assuming that he does.
eassam said:
any ways! does any1 agree that our midfield won't win us the champions league?
smith and fletcher aren't game winners! because of them scholes is suffering he has to do all their work and hasn't got time to get forward as much!!
compare them with the likes of pirlo,gattuso,viera,emerson,ronaldinho,xavi all world-class midfielders!!! we don't stand a chance!
we need to get two gud central midfielders in there!! at the end of the season whoever may be the manager must think about getting the likes of ballack or gattuso!
we may be cash strapped but our signings in the last 2 years have been average bar van der sar!!
we need to have depth in our squad in which we are been exposed!
We can be deadly playing with the 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 which ever way u look at it!
the main thing is our 3 central midfielders aren't up to the standard yet!
we lack width and creativity! only ronaldo is playing like he is trying along wif van der sar and ruud!
smith will take time to develop and he may end up destroying his career trying to be sumthing he is not!
fergie likes 4-5-1 here how it cud be effective:
----------------------------------van der sar------------------------------------
-----neville-----------------ferdinand---------silvestre----------------------heinze
------------------ballack------keane/gattuso---------scholes----------------------
------ronaldo---------------------------------------------------------rooney------
---------------------------------van nistelrooy------------------------------------
this shud win us leagues and cups!
For the bolded part: Out of Smith, Fletcher, and Scholes, the first two have been doing ALL of the work in the midfield. Scholes did absolutely nothing against Benfica, while Fletcher actually did most of the work, with Smith cleaning up. The reason why Scholes isn't getting forward enough is because he never really runs, he just jogs and hopes that noone spots him and marks him. As much as I like Scholes, he isn't deserving of a starting spot, considering that he can't/won't defend, can't/won't run, and can barely attack. His touch is still great, but he's just out of gas physically and mentally. If Scholes is replaced by someone (such as Park), the midfield triangle of Scholes, Smith, and Fletcher could actually work and not get overrun constantly.
About the italicized part: Average? Rooney? Heinze? Park?
About the underlined part: So far this season, Van der Sar, Ronaldo, Ruud, Giggs, Richardson, Park (when he plays), Rooney, Heinze (earlier), Smith, Fletcher, Rooney, Bardsley, Mikael, and Rio have been playing "like they're trying". The effort has been there, for the most part, it is our tactical shortcomings that are hindering our progress, along with our awful chance to goal ratio.
About the formation: Assuming that we stay playing the 4-5-1/"4-3-3" and continue to waste our players such as Rooney, you forget a few things. Heinze is out for the season. Gattuso and Ballack have about 1/10000th chance of coming to Old Trafford each, and the chance of getting them both is even more miniscule. You put Scholes in the left side of midfield rather than Giggs, when Giggs is a more capable defender (and player) than Scholes, plus he still has the energy and pace to move. A Keane + Scholes combination no longer works.
About the entire post: A few exclamation points are okay, but putting them after every non-question sentence is a bit of overkill, and loses the emphasis of the exclamation. You might as well use periods.