Watching this and cannot help being underwhelmed. A couple of things ... Holt - you have to love him when he's crocking next weeks opposition. Wigan - I guess their experiment with pure football is over. The "philosophy" has not survived RM's departure. I havent really followed who has come and gone at Wigan, but the arrival of Coyle was one nail in the coffin, and it looks like the arrival of Holt and the tendancy to route 1 football is another. No Gomez - has he left. Why did the experiment fail, I wonder - it has some bearing on us in the event that we were ever to be relegated. Was it lack of money; lack of true buy in by Dave Whelan; failiure in terms of player acquisition; failure on the part of RM to adequately execute and develop the philosophy with talent on hand. RM gets a new chance at Everton to show that he can deliver at the Prem level. Wigan ... they are doomed I fear - will they be stable in the Championship or drop through? United - I realize that one school of thought is that there is no need to get injured or sweat bullets in this match against this level of opposition; but really, does it have to be this lack luster. Is this just United ambling through the event or a serious lack of panache. Are they really playing 4-4-2 - is Moyes really lacking that much vision of the game. Can they get away with this "retro" approach with the likes of City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs and still be serious contenders for the title. With the exception of Rooney, is this likely to be the team that United bring to the Liberty. If it is, I am not in the least bit concerned, and optimistic of taking 3 points. Thoughts?
I was thinking the same RE holt! Man utd look like they are going backwards to me,remove van persie from that side and they are average. I'm not getting too cocky here but I feel we are good enough to compete and get a win , I'm not saying we will win but we are good enough and should have no fear at all. Utd are nothing special,especially on the evidence of this game, they struggle to deal with holt so bony should be able to hold his own IMO .
United looked a little sharper in the second half but still nothing to be in awe of - not by a long way.
Just saw game and ye apart from Van Persie I cant see us having to worry to much should get our 1st 3pts no problem.
Henandez, rooney and that baby faced assassin ,(name escapes me atm ) out next weekend ?, so the commentators said during the game .It'll still be a task but one which we can achieve . Although Rooney maybe sold by then and he's not played well against over the past two seasons.
Didnt really have any intensity which sucked to watch, had City won the cup i think it'd have been a far more entertaining game. United weren't playing 442, Welbeck was playing behind Van Persie. As was mentioned in commentary, he did the same thing against Real Madrid last season and they'll do it to us next week i would expect, Welbeck will be tasked with sitting on Leon (not literally) and trying to stop him dictating the game (as he did against Alonso).
Dont think wigan had a shot at goal did they..... A professional win that you would expect from the champions. now their test begins in their next game...
Difficult to not get a bit over confident, that does scare me against a team like Utd I have to say. Looking at the fixtures they have early on id have to say they will be targeting this game massively. I think they play all the top teams and in theory that could leave them struggling for points very early on in the season,knowing that id say they will be all guns blazing at the Libety.
Wasn't impressed with Man U, van persie scored a great header, and a deflection. Still feel we can get a 2-1 win.
they only had 3 shots on goal all game and to be fair thats all they needed. It was RVP V Wigan, they need to be a lot better than that to beat us next week thats for sure...
Sunday will be an interesting and highly visible battle. NBC's new Prem coverage means, I think, that our game will be televised lived to everybody in the USA without fee since it is being broadcast on the main NBC channel. This channel is on every cable / satellite utility as part of basic service.
I'd take a 1-1 right now. It's fckn Man Utd we're playing not Cardiff. They're champions for a very good reason
exactly, no team over the past 20 odd years has displayed more ability to play really poorly and still win when they didnt deserve the coach ride home or win from losing positions when normal teams would be dead and buried. Same with Chelsea and City, gotta play your best stuff, run your socks off for 100 minutes and get some luck and at the end of all that you might get a point, if you get 3 its probably the best performance of the season. Lets not underestimate them, they were only how many points ahead of everyone else last season? This lot were written off 100 times before we got to their league and this time won't be the last, can't fall down the same trap... We also can't gift them the pathetic goals we let them have last year as well!
The important point should be ,the manager/team don't underestimate them , we've never been overwhelmed playing them and a couple of individual errors have cost us if not all then at least a point a game .The players should be well past the stage of being in awe of any side and that includes Utd , respect them yes ,fearful no .If we can't be a little confident of getting something from the game after the recent results & performances then when can we?
you should not be cocky but you can be confident that we will give them a game and that nobody is entitled to win, they will have to be at their best and so will we to get anything out of the game.
