Manchester United Thread

[NekoFever]

Poo

Oh well. At least we're ahead on points which makes me a happy bunny. We just need to not drop points until the Chelsea game so that we have a nice buffer going into it.

[1P_King]

The main thing about the three points for me anyway is that what ever happens against Chelsea at Old Trafford they will not finish the game ahead of us in the table. Also Chelsea have never actually had a challenge winning the title so as long as we are around them on points come the end of March we'll have a good chance of winning the league.

[NekoFever]

Well they could go top if they beat us 11-0, given the current goal differences...

But yeah, it's definitely a good sign that we're keeping pace with them at this point in the season. Last year we stumbled at the beginning and never managed to make up the difference, but we took a significant chunk out of their lead towards the end. People always say that Manchester United don't really start playing until Easter so if we actually manage to step up a gear early next year we could certainly win it.

Either way I'm loving the way we've been playing this season. No boring-but-utilitarian 1-0 wins: we've been getting 3-0, 4-0, 3-1, 5-1 wins. Very entertaining football.

[Dezm0nd]

Well bloody hell that was a good goal. 1-0 southend!

[samar7]

ye ye good goal, let them enjoy their moment im happy for them, now united will beat them in the second half

[Rossco]

****e, just ****e. How do we do that?

[Dezm0nd]

Failed to beat their awesome defense and goalie. They done really well in terms of defending. Congrats to them, they really deserved it. Man utd were kicking arse but they just couldnt come up with enough to get one past the keeper.

Great game.

[glazza]

Thought our passing was shocking all night tonight and we deservrd to get nothing out of that game cos Southend defended amazingly well and hassled us when we was in posession of the ball all night plus they had superman in goal lol but congrats to Southend they deserved it tonight cos they realy wanted it more and i hope they can progress further in the competition.

[samar7]

lol i will never speak again, fair play to southend played a brillant game, very embarrasing that we, MANCHESTER UNITED with 10 full internationals loose against a side who lie bottom of the championship .. but oh well, were not doing to bad now r we, top of the league, top of our CL table FA cup to look forward to, times look good for united, this is just a mini blunder.

[NekoFever]

Yeah, their keeper was brilliant. I'd have given him man of the match because without him I'm sure we'd have won that on Ronaldo's chances alone.

Doesn't make it any less of an embarrassing result for us, though. Looks like I'll have to play the "at least we're not second to a team that got beaten by Southend" card when I see my Chelsea-supporting (since 2003, obviously) mate tomorrow.

And so, with the Carling Cup now gone, is this a sign of a trophyless season or bigger things to come?

[hudson]

[1P_King]

Well done to Southend, never should have played Ronaldo and Rooney its a crappy competition and the reserves should have been used more. Glad Keiran Lee got on in the second half, and its a shame Rossi is at Newcastle because he would have gotten 90 minutes tonight as well.

Next year should be better tho because all the loan players will be back, Rossi, Pique, Gibson, Evans, Campbell, Martins and Bardsley to name a few.

[NekoFever]

What someone pointed out after the Crewe game is that our reserve team is effectively our third team, since we have a policy of loaning out our more promising young players and they're breaking into the first teams of their loan clubs. Rossi is being played in the Newcastle first team, Ben Foster is Watford's primary keeper at the moment, Bardsley and Martin at Rangers, six players at Antwerp, Pique at Real Zaragoza, etc.

It gets them first team experience which is the thing to do for the future, but consequently our reserves are weaker than they might be. We either have to play our first team which would frankly have been a waste against Southend with a Premiership game at the weekend, or do what we did and play a couple of top players (Rooney and Ronaldo) with some first team players who are coming back from injury (Smith, Heinze, Silvestre, etc) and fill the rest with reserves.

I've lost track of the point I was trying to make with that post but hey: I'm going to post it anyway. Do any Premiership clubs play their first team in the League Cup? It just happened to bite us today. Yesterday now, even. I need to go to bed.

[Kongster]

Bugger! 1-0 down to Sheffield United already!

[Myth]

Roooney