The Manchester United thread 2006/2007 - featuring BBB leaving early

[Mika]

Reminds me of Charlton away last season in that respect.

[Razor Eddie]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by 14AlanSmithifb:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by batch:

Has BBB gone to the game today ?

I think i gave him a fright when i text him at 3.50 saying i had a sore arse.

Obv didnt know the h/t score </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

as far as I know no he hasn't gone, don't think anyone off here has tbh. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Watched the game in London with distinguished friends.

[BBB]

COME ONE BENFICA

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nick OGS20:

not seen the game today, general consensus seems to be Ronnie was going to ground a bit easily? obviously can't judge myself, but if he was it's a definite rarity this season as he's cut it out big-time so far. and i'm not going to quibble with getting a dodgy penner when you consider how many stonewall pens we have turned down on a frustratingly regular basis.

utterly delighted with that result anyway, massive banana skin dodged, and the team's showed there's a steel there that's been lacking for quite a while.

FLETCH \O/ </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On the penalty issue, i'd take your point if it was a good tackle that got the ball but was called a pen, but this was a pretty blatant dive, and should be called what it is, which is cheating.

As for him generally, i only saw MOTD, and there was one other pretty blatant dive that they showed, but i can't talk about how he was generally.

[Razor Eddie]

It's really annoying knowing that he doesn't feckin' need to do it.

I think he deserved the stick he got from the 'Boro fans after that.

I'm still happy that we won, though. Am I bad ?

[Mika]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BBB:

COME ONE BENFICA </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Your MSN name is basically a checklist for all the hoodoos we are going to end this season :*)

Blackburn

Boro

Benfica

[gonch19]

im sorry but i wouldnt actually call the penalty incident a dive. if it was he deserves an oscar. he was anticipating being brought down, moves the ball round schwarzer and loses his balance, stumbling to the floor. its not like he throws his arms in the air and does a full on dive.

you can fall over in football without it being a dive you know.

[14AlanSmithifb]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by gonch19:

im sorry but i wouldnt actually call the penalty incident a dive. if it was he deserves an oscar. he was anticipating being brought down, moves the ball round schwarzer and loses his balance, stumbling to the floor. its not like he throws his arms in the air and does a full on dive.

you can fall over in football without it being a dive you know. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whs, didn't think it was a dive at the time and still don't after watching it a couple of times, same goes for the freekick afterwards.

[Taz & The Devil]

mark being very critical of Ronaldo for some strange reason. Quite frankly its not needed and to say 3 years of poor end product is ********.

If you said that Ronaldos end product could be a lot better for someone of his ability then fair enough but if his end product has been poor for 3 seasons then its been crap end product all round from Manchester United give or take one or two players.

And where has this three month stuff come from. Give it another month and i think we can safely say its been a 2006 where Ronaldo has been consistently good and had end product in spades.

Then we take todays penalty and yes he was hoping for contact and does leave a leg but he quite clearly trips over the ball. Watch his leading foot hit the ball as it makes contact with the ground and stumble over.

Yes there was one clear dive for a free kick later but that was it, those two incidents so even if you think both were dives then thats two in the whole game and when viewing the season as a whole i think it would be stupid to get on his back because although its never mentioned Rooney has dived more this season including going down very easily today trying to win a free kick he didnt get but nobody mentions that.

The lad has been our player of the season so far this season and i have no idea why fans of other clubs hate him and have a go over the slightest thing but when our own fans do it as well it just baffles me to be honest.

Lay off the kid, he has improved year on year and had another great game today.

[Ryno]

Don't know what is was today, but I was very disappointed with our performance despite the win. After such a good start this season where we don't sit on the scorelines, we have started to go back to doing so. First against Chelsea last week and now again against Boro.

The ref was awful imo, booking too many of our players and letting the Boro players get away with fouling all the time. Downing should have been booked for the foul on Ronny and Schwarzer for the pen foul.

Scholes was just immense today and you can so easily see the difference in how we play when he is on the pitch.

MOTM: Scholes

Runner Up: Giggs

[SLO_Fila]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ryno:

Don't know what is was today, but I was very disappointed with our performance despite the win. After such a good start this season where we don't sit on the scorelines, we have started to go back to doing so. First against Chelsea last week and now again against Boro.

The ref was awful imo, booking too many of our players and letting the Boro players get away with fouling all the time. Downing should have been booked for the foul on Ronny and Schwarzer for the pen foul.

Scholes was just immense today and you can so easily see the difference in how we play when he is on the pitch.

MOTM: Scholes

Runner Up: Giggs </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I hated sitting back against Chelsea but u have to give the players some space though. I mean they had/have Chelsea/Everton/Boro/Benfica/Man City in 14 days.

[SLO_Fila]

Oh yeah and i didn't agree with sitting back against Chelsea but against Boro it's understandable especially before the important game against Benfica.

[Ryno]

But when you sit back you can cause yourself to do more running by chasing and closing down, than if you were attacking.

[Gazz22]

MotM: Scholes

Runner-up: Ronaldo

I can understand non-United fans slagging off Ronaldo but why do some United fans get dragged into it? On footballing terms Ronaldo was involved in both of our goals. Once again he was our only player who showed urgency to try and get the game won.

[Keyser]

That second dive was shocking

[No Longer Bling]

saha and rooney both looked knackered to me, shame as we cant really afford to rest either for the forseeable future.

ronaldo was brilliant. first stumble/dive, call it whatever you want but he knew what he was doing and pulled it off brilliantly, very natural. second one he just leaves his leg there and brings himself down, probably done 50 times a week in the premiership so not sure what the big deal is. as shown on motd, he did also stay on his feet on a couple of occassions when he could have easily hit the deck so its not all comedy lanuching from him.

heinze needs to be dropped. for someones who's supposedly in the side ahead of evra due to being better in the air, against chelsea and now boro hes been next to useless. red nev at fault for the goal as well for the rash dive in but henizes header utterly inexplicable.

genuinely stunned were 6 ahead but its getting a bit exciting this.

[BBB]

I still can't get giddy, I just KNOW at some stage we'll be hit with chronic injuries, ask me again when the January window closes.

However, one might get a wee bit giddy if we beat Citeh next Saturday.

[BBB]

oh and Jonny, the 2 Benfica of stripeylads are available, I've got one for you and one for Eddie.

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Taz & The Devil:

mark being very critical of Ronaldo for some strange reason. Quite frankly its not needed and to say 3 years of poor end product is ********. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I said generally poor, for the simple reason that while he's had spells of maybe a month or six weeks where he's been good before, this has been the first time he's been consistenly good for a significant period of time.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

If you said that Ronaldos end product could be a lot better for someone of his ability then fair enough but if his end product has been poor for 3 seasons then its been crap end product all round from Manchester United give or take one or two players. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Could be a lot better, generally poor, not as good as it should be, you can use semantics all you like, that area of his game needed a lot of improvement, and therefore he was rightly criticised for it. What's the problem?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

And where has this three month stuff come from. Give it another month and i think we can safely say its been a 2006 where Ronaldo has been consistently good and had end product in spades. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm sorry, Ronaldo was consitently good from January to May this year now? Talk about re-writing history.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

Then we take todays penalty and yes he was hoping for contact and does leave a leg but he quite clearly trips over the ball. Watch his leading foot hit the ball as it makes contact with the ground and stumble over.

Yes there was one clear dive for a free kick later but that was it, those two incidents so even if you think both were dives then thats two in the whole game and when viewing the season as a whole i think it would be stupid to get on his back because although its never mentioned Rooney has dived more this season including going down very easily today trying to win a free kick he didnt get but nobody mentions that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

"yes he was hoping for contact and does leave a leg" - sums it up.

the only reason he fell was because instead of trying to take the ball round the player and score, he was trying to engineer contact to get a penalty. That's cheating, and just like i call any player a cheat who does it for any other team, i'll do the same when i think one of our players does it. It's a cancer in the game that needs stamping out, and that'll never happen while people defend those sort of actions because either a) it's supposedly now part of the game, or worse b) because it's one of our players and he happens to be good.

I quite agree that taking the season as a whole he's been much better, but he's also had spells before where everyone has said how much he's cut it out, and then he's gone right back to hurling himself at every opportunity. As for Rooney, i only saw MOTD so i didn't see the supposed incident. The only other iffy on i can recall was where we won a penalty early on in the season, and i think i was undecided as to whether it was a penalty or not.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

The lad has been our player of the season so far this season and i have no idea why fans of other clubs hate him and have a go over the slightest thing but when our own fans do it as well it just baffles me to be honest. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

He certainly has been our player of the year. If you can't see why fans of other clubs hate him, after three years of generally diving at every opportunity apart from one or two short spells, then you're either very blinkered or very naive. As for his own fans doing it, anyone of them who wants to call any player of any other club for diving has to, if they want to avoid being a complete hypocrite.

[theis]

Ronaldo was blatantly expecting contact, didn't get it but having left his leg there looking for it fell over.

A.K.A. a dive.

[theis]

I'd say Scholes has played a huge part in our success this season. Has raked in the OTF MOTM's if anyones been counting.

I'd say he was an early candidate for player of the season.

[Taz & The Devil]

mark on the other fans hating him i should have go on to say to the extent of wanting him dead, badly hurt in a tackle and out of the country. Thats the bit that baffles me.

But i agree i'd rather he not dived at all, that nobody dived but they do and when you have a player like Ronaldo who is brought up to dive to see him making such an effort is great. We can only wait and see if he carries that on or was just doing while there was all that heat on him from the world cup but time will tell.

And the second half of last season i thought he was consistently good, he wasnt close to the standards set this season but i think we can say it was a good end to the season in which he found some consistency but of course he cant be brilliant everygame.

[BBB]

Lads, it's time for the awards that MATTER.

The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month

Worst player of the month

Most improved player of the month

Goal of the month

Moment of the month

Voting closes on Tuesday at 19.00

[pjburrage]

The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month - Nemanja Vidic

Worst player of the month - Kieran 'Homohair' Richardson

Most improved player of the month - Patrice Evra

Goal of the month - Patrice Evra (v Everton (H))

Moment of the month - Saha's penalty miss at Celtic

Voting closes on Tuesday at 19.00

[Ryno]

Player of the Month - Scholes

Worst player of the month - Richardson

Most improved player of the month - Carrick

Goal of the month - Saha vs Chelsea

Moment of the month - Winning the pen in the closing stages against Celtic only for it to be missed.

[No Longer Bling]

Player of the Month - Vidic

Worst player of the month - JOS

Most improved player of the month - Evra

Goal of the month - Saha vs Chelsea

Moment of the month - ASHELY COLE IS A W*NKER

[James M]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Player of the Month - Vidic

Worst player of the month - Richardson

Most improved player of the month - Carrick, finally some big performances

Goal of the month - Ronaldo v Pompeh

Moment of the month - 4 left backs making our squad for just quite so many matches

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[No Longer Bling]

spelt ashley wrong too, what a twat

[Saha]

Player of the Month ronaldo

Worst player of the month richardson

Most improved player of the month wes brown for an inspiring midfield performance

Goal of the month saha against chelsea

Moment of the month having every leftback at the club playing at the same time

[Taz & The Devil]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month - Paul Scholes

Worst player of the month - Kieran Richardson (If he was a horse he would have been shot by now)

Most improved player of the month - Michael Carrick (Its only without him that you realise he does bring something good to the side)

Goal of the month - Cristiano Ronaldo (Free Kick v Pompey)

Moment of the month - Having 7 defenders on the pitch against Everton

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[BBB]

The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month - Vida

Worst player of the month - Richardson, yeah he hasn't played much but the 35 yard banana shot at Southend summed him up for me

Most improved player of the month - Carrick, seems to be settling in and has had some good performances

Goal of the month - Paddy Evra first goal against Everton

Moment of the month - Your wife's a Geordie slag at Ashley Cole

[Nick OGS20]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month - paul scholes, ginger genius

Worst player of the month - kieran richardson, just f**k off

Most improved player of the month - michael carrick, getting better all the time

Goal of the month - king louis vs chelsea

Moment of the month - YOUR WIFE'S A GEORDIE SLAG

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[14AlanSmithifb]

Player of the Month :Rio Ferdinand

Worst player of the month :Kieran Richardson

Most improved player of the month: Michael Carrick

Goal of the month: Rooney's first against Sheffield United - utter class

Moment of the month: Blackburn away

[Saha]

ryan dear boro was a bit too decembery for my liking, but fletch ifb

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Taz & The Devil:

mark on the other fans hating him i should have go on to say to the extent of wanting him dead, badly hurt in a tackle and out of the country. Thats the bit that baffles me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's a comment on the moronic levels that football fans can get to, and on that i agree with you. But that's different to why opposition fans hate him, which i think on his conduct so far is completely understandable, notwithstanding his improvement so far this season.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

But i agree i'd rather he not dived at all, that nobody dived but they do and when you have a player like Ronaldo who is brought up to dive to see him making such an effort is great. We can only wait and see if he carries that on or was just doing while there was all that heat on him from the world cup but time will tell. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My worry is exactly as you say, that he's been making this effort because of the vitriol against him reaching new levels, and that if he thinks he's silenced some of the critics he'll just slip back into his old habits, as he's done before when he's looked like he's cleaned up his act.

To be fair to the lad, he's never had spells this long of either form or lack of diving, so we'll see. But even given that, i don't feel it's a reason to let him off when he does cheat. You can forgive players who have one off bad games, because it's not a conscious thing, as long as they're putting in the effort that's unavoidable. But diving is a conscious decision to cheat, so i don't see why we shouldn't call someone for it when we see it.

I also don't buy the cultural argument, about him being brought up to dive. He's been here 3 1/2 years, lets not kid ourselves that he's not had enough time to stamp it out if he'd wanted to.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

And the second half of last season i thought he was consistently good, he wasnt close to the standards set this season but i think we can say it was a good end to the season in which he found some consistency but of course he cant be brilliant everygame. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We'll have to agree to differ on that. He was certainly better in the second half of the season, but that wouldn't have been hard. And he had a couple of runs where he was brilliant, but i don't think they were long enough to give the term consistent.

[Nick OGS20]

i thought he had a pretty good back end to last season, but he's stepped it up another level both in terms of consistency and overall performance so it's maybe overlooked a bit.

and let's face it, if Ronnie was at Chelsea or any other top club, we'd probably be just as guilty of hating on him

[BBB]

oh without a doubt Nick, I'd despise him if he was a Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool player.

It's like if we had Lehman, we'd love him or at least learn to

[Saha]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rcjuk:

yeh I think phil neville was a bit wrong too </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

been meaning to discuss that, he was terrible. most of the time his passes went to everton players ffs

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Player of the Month : Scholes

Worst player of the month : Richardson

Most improved player of the month : Evra

Goal of the month : Ronaldo fee kick vs Portsmouth

Moment of the month : Left back-a-thon </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Nick OGS20]

seen the goals on SSN now. wtf was Gaby doing? if Paddy had any hair he'd surely be tearing it out at continually being dropped for games like yesterday where Gaby is percieved to be the better defensive option, despite Gaby clearly not being at his best and making mistakes.

not gonna get on ronaldo's back about the pen - admittedly i've seen it from just the one angle, but it looks a penalty AND a dive to me, if that makes any sense. while there was minimal/no contact, the keeper impedes him without getting the ball for me. you can see ronnie initially tries to evade this but in doing so the goalscoring chance is gone and he goes down. i don't like it, but referees are so clownshoes these days you can't rely on them to recognise fouls like that, so i'd argue he's being professional there, however much i dislike diving.

the one later on was rubbish and very pires-esque though, not defending that.

fletch's header so nonchalant

[James07?]

common sense from OGS \0/

There doesn't have to be contact for a penalty to be given.

[BBB]

btw James, don't know if I mentioned it but I've booked a place on one of the coaches \o/

[James07?]

good stuff.

Am i correct in thinking that nobody is using my Benfica ticket?

[BBB]

you're coming aren't you?

[James07?]

dunno yet. Depends on what's happening at work.

[theis]

The OTF MUFC November awards - In association with Vida and his 2 mobile phones

Player of the Month - Scholes

Worst player of the month - Richardson

Most improved player of the month - Evra

Goal of the month - Saha v. Chelsea

Moment of the month - Beating Everton 3-0 despite starting Richardson

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nick OGS20:

seen the goals on SSN now. wtf was Gaby doing? if Paddy had any hair he'd surely be tearing it out at continually being dropped for games like yesterday where Gaby is percieved to be the better defensive option, despite Gaby clearly not being at his best and making mistakes.

not gonna get on ronaldo's back about the pen - admittedly i've seen it from just the one angle, but it looks a penalty AND a dive to me, if that makes any sense. while there was minimal/no contact, the keeper impedes him without getting the ball for me. you can see ronnie initially tries to evade this but in doing so the goalscoring chance is gone and he goes down. i don't like it, but referees are so clownshoes these days you can't rely on them to recognise fouls like that, so i'd argue he's being professional there, however much i dislike diving.

the one later on was rubbish and very pires-esque though, not defending that.

fletch's header so nonchalant </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry Nick, couldn't disagree more. He doesn't try to evade it, quite the opposite. He sees the keeper coming and leaves his leg trailing in the hope of contact. That's the only reason he is off balance, because his first instinct was to go for the penalty instead of the goal.

I see the point you're making about when players try to stay on their feet and don't get decisions (although even then that's a grey area at best), but that simply wasn't the case in this instance.

[Nick OGS20]

i respectfully continue to disagree. i don't think he leaves the leg in there, i think it's a case of momentum.

[mark g]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nick OGS20:

i respectfully continue to disagree. i don't think he leaves the leg in there, i think it's a case of momentum. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You respectfully disagree? **** that, give it me with both barrels, you big nancy.

[vanester]

What does the celebration O'Shea and Fletcher did recently suppose to mean?