0-0, an okay, but dangerous score and result. but the performance of the midfield when in possession was a complete joke. the passing was terrible and the midfield rarely, if ever strung together more than half a dozen passes. this all changed when scholes came on, but the trio that started the game was appalling. the main thing that really pisses me off is the lack of movement shown by the players once the ball is moved. in defense of gibson, carrick and fletcher were the worst culprits of this tonight. i lost count how many times carrick/fletcher would pass the ball 10 yards to carrick/fletcher and then run off in the other direction on the wrong side of the opposition player making it impossible for a pass to find him. surely this is basic stuff? the reason scholes is so good, is not only his accuracy of passing, but as soon as he sprays the ball out to the wing, before the ball has even reached his team mate, he's on the move to where the ball is to always make himself available for the pass should his team mate choose to use him. scholes, after he makes a pass, is rarely 10 yards away from the ball. hes always available. watch barca. as soon as they get the ball in midfield, they go wherever they go on the pitch in bunches or 2, 3 and even 4 players, all within a few yards of each other, all available and calling for the ball. it's impossible to dictate a game and midfield when you play the way fletcher, carrick and gibson did tonight, so far apart from each other. after 15 years at the club, scholes is still our only world class midfielder. god i hope fergie brings someone in come summer time.
Fletcher tried to move the ball forward. But he cannot do that on his own, can he? Carrick's more comfortable to sit in front of our defence and Gibson was more of an centre attacking midfielder.
Do you think White Pele will end up playing as a midfielder ? He seems to play deeper every time I see him play
each players needs to make themselves available quicker if they want to keep hold of possession. it's pointless going running off 30 yards from your team mate in possession when you're not going to be found due to you being on the wrong side. it happened time and time again every time we had possession up until scholes came on. then suddenly, he kept making himself available, kept coming short and collecting it and we started to dictate the game. this season, fletcher and carrick have been absolute ****. unless scholes plays against chelsea and liverpool we'll be in the **** because them two as a pair aren't good enough.
None of them are amazing. We cant expect them to turn into xavi or iniesta. Carrick has is just carrick he is a mundane player. And gibson is an awful player. That midfeild isnt going to scare anyone, let alone do anything against anyone.
i agree. fletcher hasnt got a creative bone in his body, asking him to go forward and make something out of nothing is ridiculous.
Bang on. The perfromance was very poor, but thinking about it, a 0-0 draw with a midfield as poor as we had today is a good thing, to a degree
Rooney couldn't play Centre mid in my opinion, he's a quick-thinker but is not mobile enough, he would get rings run round him, he's similar to milner in that sense....Good with space to run into, but in a congested midfield would most likely get frustrted. The centre of midfield was dire, Fletcher was the only one who was even average..... Nani, seems to never pass anymore...... Smalling was a plus though, Good to see Fergie placing trust in him.
Our central midfield has been dire for a long time now. Valencia and Park will solidify the midfield and the return of Anderson to. But it won't be creative unless we change a player or 2.
Or buy a player or 2. I think we seem to have an "If you throw enough **** at the wall" attitude right now. Sorry, but that **** aint sticking. You will not make a great central midfielder out of what we have, either because they are past their best or they simply don't possess the ability.
Merry the central midfield with Gibson Carrick and Fletcher can be betterd with a Fletcher, Scholes, Park 3 player combo like against Milan last season. Its much better than that of today. Also having Rooney as a lone striker instead of Berbatov is our only option cause Berbatov works better in a 2.
Yeah but Fletcher has been poor this season and Scholes will miss more games than he plays. So an addition is a clear necessity. Even with that, Scholes (at his age) Fletcher and Park will not offer us consistent creativity and ball retention from the centre of the park. It just will not happen and this problem in central midfield is being ignored and ignored by those in charge of signing players, but it won't go away. Agreed on Berba as a loan striker (and I'm STILL not a fan of his full stop) but no loan striker would have looked good today with that behind him.
Nah merry he is a quality player who does well for a player who is loyal to us and does his job when needed. Rooney has been the issue as he has been very poor this season and him as a lone striker is again very bad. Hernandez if we had a better midfield would be more ideal as he is a finisher of chances. We still have a good chance to get through but Rooney needs to improve and the return of Anderson is also important.
Seriously mate, no one can say fletcher hasn't been poor this season. He was poor tonight and has consistently been poor all year round. He was great the previous 2 seasons so it's not like he can't step it up again. Rooney clearly needs to improve but is unlikely to do so whilst being constantly rotated to the left wing (another direct result of us being unable to compete with 2 central midfielders in my view). He is crap on the left wing and his confidence will continue to take a battering whilst deployed out there. He can be (and has been) special when trusted on a consistant basis in his preferred central role. Anderson is important and I really rate him. He needs to lose a couple of stone in weight though, as he is clearly carrying extra poundage and I think that is bound to contribute to injuries.
Park in another water carrier with very little technical ability. He would have improved us tonight. The only player to make a difference to that utter shambles tonight would have been ando. And we have just lost our only proper decent cm for what is porbably the 3 most important weeks of the domestic campaign.
Oh right no worries. I still don't dig the Berb though. People ask me what he needs to do? Simple. Don't get caught offside constantly and score on a consistant basis (which admittedly no one in our team or any other Prem team is doing this season). Bar Judas Tevez.
