United v. Sunderland; SAF v. Keano

[Buliwyf]

rooneylichious said:

missunited said:

Did you see Hargreaves at one point running around in circles in the middle of the field. Like when some kids nick summat of one of the nerdy kids in school and they throw it about and he runs after it. Or a dog chasing its tail.That's how I felt he played today, bit... aimlessly. I just pulled up the passing because a lot of people said we'd not miss Carrick's passing. Which we did today.

Yeh, what got me more though was when he gave it to Scholesy a few times, then just stood there for a few secs and waited for him to do something, or ran around as you said, anyway, you'd hope that'll come with time.

Although Hargreaves has done that all his career, especially for England, even when he came here he said, 'My job is to give it to the talented lads and let them do the rest...' you have much to learn my young Hargo!

What you two say are exactly ma thoughts! I think I said it once when the transfer saga was one in January that he will ad nothing to our attacking game!
It's not that he does bad passes but he never passes the ball in a players path when we have to move quick! He's just not used to the United-tempo yet. That delays our attacking game big time!
What you say about his movement off the ball was really obvious yesterday and I couldn't agree more! For comparison I remember Carrick playing the ball out wide then getting in the right position and shouting and waving for the ball just outside the box but not getting it!
I would never select Hargo above Carrick in a home game against weaker oppositions!

Hargo's ball winning abilities in the retreat are fantastic though!

[robnob]

Stewart's stat proves me right, then.

"! I also heard the away support singing "shall we sing a song for you" which I was hoping would get a reaction from the quiet United supporters there."

To be honest, the gobshites just stand there like 'huh'? They don't have a clue. All we need is a powerful vocal support either side of the away section (south and east) and just drown them out. It'll never work like that, though, unless United allocate season ticket holders to specific seats to those areas. Even then it'll be hard, as loads of season tick holders are toss as well.

I can keep on moaning but you'll hear the same thing every other match day.

[minifreak]

to be honest: it was a really bad game.
the only good things we got of it were 3points, ronaldo back for the next game, eagles and anderson played from the beginning (they've been good for a first start off), and we got saha back.

hargreaves: as you've allready mentioned: passing really bad, never a pass in the front. running without a ball: he just didn't.

in my opinion tevez is really bad. if you compare him with saha who came in and made an impact. saha was allways near or in the box. tevez was plenty of minutes in the back without getting the ball to the front as rooney does. tevez has now played his third game in a row for almost 90minutes. and saha who has been out for such a long time still fits better in the team than tevez does. i think thats weird.
anderson and eagles were also even better than tevez. maybe it was just me but i've seen more passes to anderson or eagles than to tevez. and they just fitted better into the united game. especially eagles who tried to make the game faster. and i was really happy when i saw the long distance passes of scholes to eagles on the right just as he normally does with ronaldo.
i also think that anderson suits better to united than nani does.

i really think with ronaldo and rooney back, replacing hargreaves and tevez we have a chance to get back to the top of the table.
i see good potential in eagles, anderson and nani (who dissapointed me yesterday), i think they will sooner or later fit in the first team.
but can't see a first team place for hargreaves and tevez.

just my thoughts
cheers
christoph!

[Coogie]

Thats it... The United fan ethos!!!! Not playing good attack the new signings... Typical!!! FS give them all a chance they have been thrown into the deep end and into a team that hasnt been performing... Lets here everybodys opinions if they help us to the League or the CL!

[20lskjaer]

Yeah I can't believe everyone's slagging off the new signings already! I've been really impressed with Hargreaves so far and think he'll be one of the best signings of recent times for us. Tevez just needs time. Anderson started and showed some neat touches. There's no doubt he'll be a class player in the future, again he needs time to adjust to the English game.

[Stew]

Not sure if this criticism of Hargreaves passing is based in fact. Minifreak, saying Hargreaves passing is really bad. Do you mean quality of passing or success rate? The only stats from a reputable source I can find is the Daily Telegraphs.
Basically Hargreaves has the most successful passing rate of any midfielder at the club, bar Fletcher, but he's hardly had any passes so it's not really reflective. If it's the type of passes people are disappointed in, well did anyone expect him to be be spraying 60 yarders about if he has Scholes alongside him? Scholes is one of the best passers in the world, Fact, and I'd much prefer to see him hiting killer balls than Hargreaves.

[David Gill]

As United fans i guess we have the right to be critical sometimes. W can't always say we played good when we didn't, we can't always come up with excuses. However some critics go to far; Hargreaves had two brilliant matches and probably had a stinker yesterday but come on you can't perform evertime. They didn't even score so i guess he did his job by helping us keeping a clean sheet. On the other hand Tevez has had plenty of time, he has played many matches and it's not like he just came back from injury. Tevez in my opinion needs to fight for his place once Rooney and Ronaldo come back. In all honesty and in my personal opinion Tevez hasn't performed to the standards required. But like all fans i'm willing to give him time.

[Coogie]

davidgill said:

As United fans i guess we have the right to be critical sometimes. W can't always say we played good when we didn't, we can't always come up with excuses. However some critics go to far; Hargreaves had two brilliant matches and probably had a stinker yesterday but come on you can't perform evertime. They didn't even score so i guess he did his job by helping us keeping a clean sheet. On the other hand Tevez has had plenty of time, he has played many matches and it's not like he just came back from injury. Tevez in my opinion needs to fight for his place once Rooney and Ronaldo come back. In all honesty and in my personal opinion Tevez hasn't performed to the standards required. But like all fans i'm willing to give him time.

Mate i think you are being really harsh on Tevez, hes being played in his unnatural position and again in a side that seems to be finding its feet... wait and see what he does when the team clicks.... And also if i remember correctly... Rooney made a stunning start for us against fenerbache in september and then disappeared for a gud few months and only picked up form when the team picked up form around January time when he first joined... So the thing is "GIVE THE PLAYERS TIME"!

[minifreak]

Hargreaves
i meant both. quality, i think he allways passes to reduce the speed of the game. i saw him sometimes getting the ball after sunderland tried to attack and their midfield an defence came a little nearer to the midfield. and when he gets the ball then, he gives the opposite team the chance to calm down and get back to their box. instead of playing the ball fast to our fast strikers (well i haven't seen tevez moving really fast at least not rooney speed. ).
and maybe he has had the best passing rate but vds has aswell a good passing rate but passing to the defence is good if you're under pressure and not if you are attacking.
i think in a game like yesterday we shouldn't have played with scholes and hargreaves. hargreaves might be great against the top 5-6 teams who wanna score against us. but when it comes to attacking he should be on the bench and carrick should have a go.

[moxdevil]

stewart1971 said:

Not sure if this criticism of Hargreaves passing is based in fact. Minifreak, saying Hargreaves passing is really bad. Do you mean quality of passing or success rate? The only stats from a reputable source I can find is the Daily Telegraphs.
Basically Hargreaves has the most successful passing rate of any midfielder at the club, bar Fletcher, but he's hardly had any passes so it's not really reflective. If it's the type of passes people are disappointed in, well did anyone expect him to be be spraying 60 yarders about if he has Scholes alongside him? Scholes is one of the best passers in the world, Fact, and I'd much prefer to see him hiting killer balls than Hargreaves.

Some see things differently when watching the game via tv or stream. And coincidently those criticising Hargreaves happen to be Carrick's biggest supporters. I'm sure that hasn't provided any bias to the perspective.

Hargreaves and Evra were united's better performers again. Personally i didn't think we played badly, just need to be a bit more direct in our approach, which we'll get when Ronnie returns.

[robnob]

Hargreaves done his job and he did it in overtime. He passed across the midfield - he passed it backwards only when he had 2 or more Mackems surrounding him, or when no one was in space. His passes went to the wings and tha twas the game plan. That, or pass it to Scholes, the PLAYMAKER and let him hit the balls, to which he did.

To decent, but non-United-like performance was due to Saha's (or a player of his type) absence. He came on a half-time and we played much better. Plus we had 4 new players (Eagles, who isn't new, but it was his second start for us) and the obvious other 4. Scholes was the only player from midfield-onwards who's aged with United. No excuses, just telling everyone how it is.

[20lskjaer]

To be honest, I really don't agree that Hargreaves had a bad game.I was impressed with him once again. He did his defensive duties very well and he's not afraid to have a pop either. He should get us a few goals this season.

[minifreak]

robnob said:

He passed across the midfield - he passed it backwards only when he had 2 or more Mackems surrounding him, or when no one was in space. His passes went to the wings and tha twas the game plan. That, or pass it to Scholes, the PLAYMAKER and let him hit the balls, to which he did.

don't get me wrong, but if scholes is the only one allowed to pass the ball to the front the opposing teams will have an easy go.
you gotta comepare hargreaves with carrick because those are the two players in center midfield who join scholes.
and carrick runs a few meters in front of the box and asks for the ball. hargreaves never does that.
i don't think he is bad. i just think he isn't the right man for some games. yesterday carrick would have created more chances than hargreaves did.
cheers

[ronaldosleftboot]

as i said he would be before the game, louis saha was the key man in the game yesterday. Saha can get behind teams defences and can finish off crosses, i really rate him on his day as one of the best strikers in europe

[RedArmy20]

ronaldosleftboot said:

as i said he would be before the game, louis saha was the key man in the game yesterday. Saha can get behind teams defences and can finish off crosses, i really rate him on his day as one of the best strikers in europe

if he hadnt been stuck with all the injuries he would have surely been known as one of the best.