Post by Scott on Nov 29, 2006 18:12:47 GMT
Welcome to the 7th edition of Republik of Mancunia: The Paper. We seem to get bigger and bigger editions with every passing month, so cheers for everyone who’s contributing.
As you will see, the Christmas version of the forum has now been released. So, Happy Christmas/Holidays to you all ;D I hope you enjoy the snow, and if you feel really in the mood, check out the RoM.org's Christmas Music Player ;D
Tomorrow is the first day for voting for the first ever RoM.org awards! I’ll put instructions how to go about doing that in the General Board, and it’d be great if as many of you as possible got involved in the voting. You gotta be in it to win it, and all that.
Another bit of forum related news (kindof) is that I’ve been asked to write for the USA’s official United site, found here. You’ll see my intro on the first page, and if you click on “Red Views” at the top you’ll be able to catch the latest of what I’ve written.
Also, any of you who read the Republik of Mancunia Blog will see that some Google ads have been placed on it. You will find them if you scroll down to the bottom. I’d like to encourage all members to give them a click whenever they can, to generate a bit of cash for the forum. I reiterate that I’m not here for making a profit for myself, but would like to get a bit of dosh together to be able to award member prizes for competitions. On that note, a reminder that the RoM shop is still alive and kicking, and has just gone under a redesign. You can find the link to it at the top of the forum, and again, I make no profit from the sales of these items. It would be great to show our United pride all over the world, from regular match day goers, to members all over the country, in North America, and from the various other countries we have members from.
If you feel like you have something to offer The Paper, whether it be Match/Player of the month reviews, an article, or anything else you feel could be of interest to our forum, don’t hesitate to give me a shout. We encourage anyone and everyone to take part in The Paper, as it is for you lot, and we appreciate diverse opinions on our club. Remember, when a member has contributed four times to The Paper they will be classed as an Official Contributor, with their own member group and button in the sig to prove it ;D So get in touch.
Now let us begin:
Member of the Month
This month’s winner goes to a member who is relatively new to the site. He has been here less than a couple of months, but has been incredibly active since joining, and has been keen with his advertising for the forum. So, I’m sure you’ll all join me in congratulating Raisnhell as this month’s winner.
[glow=red,2,300]How do elves greet each other?
"Small world, isn't it?"[/glow]
Interview
Time for the member interview. MoxDevil, a regular around these parts, has kindly taken the time to give us a bit of insight on himself. Read on to learn more…
Real name: Kris
Where are you from: Rotherham, presently live in Sheffield so i haven't moved far.
Who is your biggest inspiration: No one individual. I don’t seek inspiration from others.
What would you like to be better at: Everything.
If you could ask anyone, living or dead, a question, who and what would it be? Oh bloody hell! I could spend weeks thinking about it without coming up with something.
What is your all time favourite film? The Indiana Jones films.
If you won the lottery, how would you spend it? On family, on a season ticket so I wouldn’t have to share one anymore and thus miss half the home games, and I’d spend the rest travelling around the world.
One job in the world, what would it be? World dictator would be nice, although i couldn't guarantee that i'd be better than the numpties we vote in. ;D Alternatively and perhaps more likely I like the idea of being a visiting academic, moving around and sleeping with college students.
What’s your biggest ambition in life? To find contentment I guess.
What’s your greatest ever achievement? History degree, so far.
What’s your biggest regret? Not coming up with an answer to the fifth question. Wasting the time I was in school.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Living and working abroad with my own apartment and a pet dog called Maximilion or Cedric.
Who do you hate most: City/Liverpool/Leeds/Arsenal/Other Liverpool- even though they are no longer a genuine challenge to us for the real honours, it is something that is deeply rooted to despise them. Whereas Shitty deserve nothing more than ridicule and the others are only ephemeral rivals.
How do you feel about being dubbed "the most controversial member" on the forum? If I am I’d be greatly surprised.
Ideal, realistic signing you think Fergie should have made this summer, but didn’t? Hargreaves would be the obvious one. Why did we wait so long and consequently make it impossible to get him at the time? Hopefully it’ll be remedied in January.
What’s the best game you've ever been too? For its importance- Spurs 98-99, last day of the season, first part of the treble. From thinking it was West Ham all over again when Ferdinand scored to scenes of jubilation when Goal king Cole pounced to getting completely pissed in the pub afterwards and dancing in the street. #pissed# Otherwise when we beat Ipswich 9-0 in 95- that was fun.
Who's your favourite member on the forum? I couldn’t possibly pick out one other individual so I’ll be political and say…. Me. I’m great. Although modesty only allows me to say that only most of my posts are both insightful and potentially life-changing for other people.
Anything else you want to tell us? I’d like to thank Didier Drogba for being shite and thus giving life to the dream that i and others could still yet be professional footballers and earning 100k a week. Thanks Didier.
Article
This month’s article is written by MissUnited.
Our Bench, the Punch Line of a Bad Joke
United have had their best season opener in a long time, maybe ever. We have played some beautiful football and many fans are starting to dare to hope that the Premiership will be coming home to Old Trafford. We have an amazing first eleven consisting of just the right combination of experience and youthful ambition, the problem however that United are facing is that if something happens to that first eleven, that’s when we will struggle.
The rumours of Owen Hargreaves joining United are all well and good; I’m not going to go into that as it’s not our defensive roles that are concerning me, at least not at the moment. Manchester United’s form this season has been good, superb in some cases, despite that at times we have been lucky to get all three points. People blame the referee, they blame the cheating opposition, a bad pitch or the fact that the sun is shining two degrees too far from the west. When it comes down to it, the blame can only be placed in one area when we struggle, when we cannot score and when we lack that extra je ne sais quoi that you need to be a great winning side.
I’ve heard a lot of people claim that we don’t need attacking options, that we have Rooney, Saha, Solskjaer, Smith and Rossi. I say anyone who could say that have not been paying much attention, as they would be very wrong. Rooney is young, energetic, ambitious and he loves United, but he isn’t going to score in every match, far from it. He is one of our greatest assets, but he is not enough. Saha is 28, he doesn’t have many years left in him on top form and he is injury prone. Solskjaer is too old, he might be loved by the fans, including me, but he will be out injured and unfit for bigger periods of the season than he will be out there scoring. Smith isn’t a striker anymore, and I’m not convinced he can be again, but we should know by January, this next month is going to make or break his career at United. As for Rossi, he is a wonderful prospect, he can have the making of a great striker, but he won’t be for at least another couple of seasons. We need another striker, and we need it badly, it won’t harm us to get two. With Huntelaar and Torres being the front runners amongst the favourites the fans would like to sign, no one knows who Sir Alex has in mind, and he will have someone in mind.
When I am waiting for the matches and they announce our bench I cringe. Fletcher, O’shea, Richardson… Match changing players they are not. Fletcher is never going to fill the expectations that some have of him, he is a squad player and even that he is only good for when we are playing well and winning. Has he improved this season? Of course he has, he is one year older, he makes fewer mistakes, or others make them before and he doesn’t get noticed. Neither he nor the likes of O’shea are the answers to our prayers. Chelsea have another first eleven waiting on their bench, Arsenal have young players so talented that if and when they learn to play together as a team they will be a big threat, even Liverpool have options that although aren’t great, they are still ten times better than ours. Squad players don’t win you matches, squad players are what you use when your first and second choices are unavailable, they’re not players who are unexpectedly made first choice because the manager has an unhealthy amount of faith in them.
The problems with transfers are that when people expect replacements, they don’t expect players to fill the previous player’s shoes, they expect clones. We are not going to find clones of Solskjaer the super sub, there is no second Giggs or Scholes, and Roy Keane was a one of a kind. When Carrick was brought in, he was brought in to be Scholes replacement. Not because he is just like Scholes, because he is not, but because Sir Alex knows he has talent and he wants him to learn from Scholes. He doesn’t expect Scholes and Carrick to be playing together, because Scholes is heading towards the end of his career, he is expecting Carrick to be the possession holder, the creative counterpart to a defensive minded midfielder. When we bring in a new striker, he is not there to replace Ruud or set up a tent in the box, he is there to score goals and win us matches. Football evolves, every season it gets more difficult, more athletic players, stronger defenders, stricter rules; you’re not going to keep winning unless you evolve with it.
Sometimes you have to rely on your bench to win matches, when the likes of Chelsea look at our bench they are not going to feel threatened, they’re going to laugh. A couple of injuries and we are going to struggle and the chance we have of winning he league will soon demolish. I have an incredible amount of faith in our boys, and I am proud when I watch them play, but that pride and faith doesn’t blind me towards the problems that we do have. I don’t care about the Champions League, we’re out of one cup, if we go out of the other I’m not going to cry, but I do WANT OUR TROPHY BACK. For that to happen, come January, there will have to be some changes.
Match of the Month
We’ve had several great games to choose from, and this month’s write up is by Redom.
The game I’ve chosen for match of the month won’t come as much of a surprise, after quite an average month for united getting knocked out of the Carling Cup by Southend and suffering two away losses in the Champions League there was one game that could overshadow and erase the memory of any of those results if we were to win, of course I’m talking about the Man Utd versus Chelsea game.
The match looked like it was going to live up to all the hype as it started at a great tempo, Chelsea were trying to disrupt United at any chance and seemed to have been practising leading with the elbow in training as within the first half an hour there must have been at least 4 incidents where United players went down clutching the back of their head after an aerial challenge. United didn’t allow this to knock them off their stride and in the 29th minute their dominance over Chelsea paid off as Carrick showed great positional play and awareness to start a great counter attack which was finished off in style by an under pressure Saha who got perfect placement on his shot from the edge of the area. United looked comfortable going into half time with Chelsea somewhat lucky to still have 11 men after Drogba’s “accidental” elbow on Vidic and their new boys floundering.
Mourinho’s never been shy in making changes early and he brought on Robben at half time for an ineffectual Geremi and that added to the roasting he probably gave his rent boys during the break Chelsea came out determined to make a game of it. The changes definitely helped them as they found more time and space on the ball as United dropped deeper and looked to protect their lead which they did well as they limited Chelsea to very few clear cut chances and forced them to try numerous long range shots that rarely troubled VDS, meanwhile United looked dangerous on the break and could have doubled their lead had Saha taken a chance on Ronaldo’s poor control that knocked the ball across his path. United had been a bit sloppy on the ball a couple of times in the second half gifting possession back to Chelsea and unfortunately Giggs played a careless free kick across the pitch which gave Chelsea a chance to push forward and force a corner when the ball should have been at the other end of the field. From the corner Carvalho got above Heinze and sent the ball goal wards, Saha tried to get a head to it and send it over the bar but replays showed he took it away from VDS’s hand and diverted it on to the woodwork and in, F**KING C**KHEAD RENTBOY S**TFACES………*slowly counts to 10*…..right I’m ok now.
After the equaliser United tried to regain a foothold in the game and did manage to retain the ball a lot better and for a period looked like they may snatch a winner, unfortunately two late injuries to Saha and Ronaldo forced Fergie to use his less than impressive bench and bringing Fletcher and O’Shea on was hardly going to strike fear into the Chelsea team and the game ended as a draw.
Everyone knew the game was going to be very tight as neither defence had conceded many (United - 6, Chelsea - 7) and they were right as chances were few and far between but I really feel that on balance this was a game that United should have won and despite maintaining that 3 point gap it felt like a big chance missed to extend the lead at the top of the table. An enjoyable game to watch that highlights just how tight this year’s title race should be, IF United strengthen in January and give themselves options on the bench.
Manchester United: VDS, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Ronaldo (Fletcher 86), Carrick, Schoes, Giggs, Rooney, Saha (O'Shea 86)
Chelsea: Cudicini, Geremi (Robben 45), Terry, Carvalho, Cashley, Ballack (Ferreira 93), Essien, Fat boy, Makelelelelele, Shevchenko (Cole 75), Drogba
Man of the Match: Carrick gets it as this was probably the best game I've seen him play for us, we all know he can pass a ball but in this game he really performed his defensive duties well and protected the back 4 plus he made a great intercerption that led to our goal, more performances like this please Michael. I'd also like to give a mention to Vidic who I thought was immense again and kept his cool despite a few less than friendly challenges on him.
[glow=red,2,300]I remember when Father Christmas first passed his sleigh-driving test. He came skidding down in front of the toy factory.'Have you passed?' I asked.
Father Christmas pointly proudly to the front of the sleigh. 'See for yourself!' he called proudly. 'No-el plates!'
[/glow]
Player of the Month
Again, loads of great performances from our lads, and this month’s write up is by Raisnhell
When intense battles, like those over the past month, take place within a short period of time, heroes emerge from all areas of the pitch. It is hard to pin point which player influenced the team more than anyone else. The contenders come from every position; strikers, midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers. It can be anyone, striker for being responsible for making us win the games and getting us the points, mid-fielder for holding the team together and assisting both the attack and the defense, or it can even a defender because they are responsible for keeping us afloat and defending our sacred goal.
But, before I go further to name, discuss and defend the Player of the Month, I’d like to thank some of the members of this forum for helping me make the right choice. Without their help I would have not been able to make a case for him. So I thank Adam (Belfast Boy/AdZ), Dhruv (Dhruv), Si (VDSi), Redom, Richard (Suffix) and Dizzy for all their help, opinions and inputs. The choices were tough as this month really tested us as a team.
Having seen all the games on replay again, and noting down the performance of each player, my list boiled down to 5 players - Scholes, Vidic, Rooney, Saha and Ronaldo. But how do I choose one in a difficult month like this? It would be easy for me to pick Ronnie or Wazza for setting the pace of the games and attempts at the goal, or Saha for trying so damn hard to get the ball in. But, when we look at all the angles, only one out of these 5 great players stands out.
To choose him is difficult to explain. He did not have performances that would blow you away. He scored only 2 goals this season. But his contribution to the team has been nothing less than invaluable. If you guessed Vidic then you are right. Yes, the Player of the Month award goes to Nemanja Vidic, the Serbian Warrior!
Vidic has not only filled in the cavity in our defence perfectly but he has also been able to settle well with Rio Ferdinand. Vidic is able to bring out the best in him. We now also see the growth in Ferdinand’s confidence. The defence is not only one person; it is a collective coordinated effort of four. One players’ error has to be corrected by another. Being quick on his feet and deadly precise with his tackles, Vidic has given our defence a much needed boost. Without him our defence is not a cohesive unit. His confident runs at the ball just save the day over and over again. He places himself perfectly, reads the ball correctly, is quick on his feet – and voilà – we have an interception!! When we are open and venerable, he comes in with lightening speed and gets us back in the safe zone. And how about the fact that he doesn’t care if someone pushes him, he just gets right back on his feet rejoins the fight. He doesn’t cry about it. He fights the fight like a man. Henry and Drogba can learn a thing or two from him. I just cannot stress enough on the importance of his contribution this month in keeping us afloat and defending our lead. I hope that he will continue to protect our goal and bring out the best in all the defenders and not only Ferdinand.
WE SHALL NOT, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!!
Sig of the Month
Congratulations again to Redom, and thanks to those who nominated.
---------
I hope you enjoyed the seventh edition of The Paper. Any comments about it please leave in the comments thread on this board
Editor: Scott