Giggs is a legend, but people have to put this 1,000 appearance malarkey to one side and remember we have our biggest game of the season to win. And if that means Giggs doesn't get to this milestone until Chelsea at the weekend, then so be it. Putting him in a game of this intensity for the sake of it, just so that he gets to that magical number in such a prestigious game is complete and utter madness and is asking for trouble. It's almost as if we're being put under pressure by the media to do it. There's a whole load of difference between QPR and Real Madrid. If he starts against a team who are by far the most dangerous counter attacking team in the world, then we can kiss goodbye to the quarter final stages. If you think Spurs at home was bad, then you ain't seen nothing yet..
You should have given him a run out against us boys on Saturday if you wanted to avoid all this media "pressure" and hype. Easily dealt with.
I don't see pressure being an issue with Giggs. I'd be amazed, even by Fergie's occasional bizarre standards, if Giggs was picked from the start tomorrow evening. Be fitting if he did get on though, hopefully with two minutes to go and a three goal cushion!
I think he'll come on as a sub if the situation on the pitch would suit Giggs. We may be tied 1-1 and his experience and class may be what we need to get us a goal. As long as he comes on because Fergie knows 100% that Giggs is the best man to bring on then he should play. If he plays Giggs just because he wants him to get his 1000th appearance against Real Madrid, then we're gonna have a bad time.
Giggs has been in good form lately, I trust SAF to make the right choice... In all likelyhood he'll start on the bench, but if Fergie decides to start him I'm sure it's part of a bigger gameplan. Fergie doesn't do sentimental, he plays to win every game. Giggs may well have an important role to play, many fans will feel differently but I won't be concerned at all if I see him in the starting lineup. Although I'd prefer him to be playing in a three man midfield, not a two man one... And out on the left wing would be fine as well, if Nani is on the right.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Giggs start. He's been in good form lately and SAF might go for him so there's a wise head there in the middle. Not saying its the right choice but id rather see Giggs start on the left than Nani or an out of position Anderson.
If Giggs is going to start then playing him on the left is the right choice, his recent change in form has been mostly down to him playing more as a wide man than in the middle, he can only play a central midfield role in games that United are going to control possession against a very defensive team, this isn't one of those, I would much rather have Cleverley or Anderson in the middle to help out with Real's quick counters.
I think we're really going to miss Jones this game. I'd play Carrick/Cleverly in middle. Possibly Anderson instead of Cleverly, just sub Cleverly on for Anderson as soon Anderson loses his legs a bit. Going to need to keep fresh legs in the middle of the park. Kagawa will most likely start, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. He played his best game in a United shirt against Norwich, but he was nonexistent against Madrid in the first leg. I honestly believe had Cleverly been playing would have come away with a win. I hope Rafael steps it up tonight. He was getting torn apart in the first half of the game in Madrid. Settled down in the 2nd half and the bounced back and played great against QPR.
Was one of the best players on the pitch last night, so i suspect the OP will be feeling a fit foolish after making this thread.
Not really. Unless it's escaped your attention, we went out of the Champions League, so however great a performance it was by Giggs, it was a gamble that didn't come off (and a gamble that didn't really need to be taken), irrelevant and completely independent of whether it was because of the sending off or not. Before the game on Tuesday, if you were to ask any United fan the team that should play, Giggs wouldn't be in 99% of the teams posted. Rooney would, as would probably Kagawa after his performance both in the first leg and at the weekend against Norwich. We'll never know now, but what's to say had we played our perceived "strongest team" we wouldn't have been 2-0 (3-1) up at half-time? We might have also been 2-0 (1-3) down at the same stage, no-one knows how the game would have panned out, but what we do know is that we wouldn't have had Nani sent off (rightly or wrongly) in the incident that he was, because like Giggs, he probably wouldn't be in what most people consider our "strongest team". Fergie made a few big calls. One of those was bringing in Nani who had been appalling all season. He ended up getting sent off. You can take the very short sighted view that we played well for an hour so it was the correct decision, but we aren't in the draw for the quarter-finals, so it certainly wasn't in the long term. I don't think Fergie helped the situation by being so slow to make a change once Nani was sent off, Madrid were all over us and a goal looked inevitable, but maybe if we'd played our strongest team from the start then we might not have ever had to be in the position of having to chase the game in the first place.
Jordan i understand where you are coming from and agree Alan was maybe harsh saying the OP should feel foolish. I will admit that when i saw the line-up and saw Roo was out and Giggs was in it pissed me off. However i think we should both admit that until the sending off SAF`s team were holding their own and were looking pretty comfortable. If`s, when`s, why`s and whatnot are really only in hindsight. A question to you though, with the way Giggs played do you not think he merited the place?
