Saturday was a walk in the park for "botherdness". The Wizard left out 3 top players against the Mickies cos he knew that it meant fuck all........MASSIVE backfire in retrospect. United do not look like a team that can score at will in Europe anymore. We sit back...play deep and then fuck it up. The gung-ho spirit of '99 is gone but the players are the same.....fresh blood required NOW. Fergie seems scared shitless to concede a goal home or away in Europe and it's this attitude along with tactical mistakes will cost us dearly...(no need to pair Andy and Ole together when Teddy and Andy are fit ffs!!!!)

Our squad is weak. Liverpool have 5 or 6 half decent midfielders FIGHTING for a place on the park....our CLASS midfield know they are on the auto-teamsheet. One or two big name signings will kick us back into gear....we need the competition for places like we see at Leeds and Liverpool. The scousers and the Sheep are getting confident again and that's a good thing for them...it can only work in their favour.

The irony of it all however is that we will still piss the league and these teams catching us up (sic) are still miles behind.

This has been a poor poor season for United really. We haven't won any really big games. Ok..we hammered Arsenal and we beat Leeds at home, but Leeds at the time were injured all over the shop. We've lost twice to the bin-dippers and lost to WHU in the cup....big games...big failures.

It's a sad day.

Still....we'll keep the Red flag flying high, cos Man United will never die.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Answers

A refreshingly honest assessment LR.
There does seem to be an element of complacency in the team, and definitely something lacking in midfield. Becks just doesn't seem to get up for your games these days - although I thought he was a revelation for England in their last two games.
Giggs seems 'in & out', Keane has stopped snarling, and I can't see young Chadwick solving the problem.

As you suggest, I suspect you need a couple of big signings to freshen things up, and recreate the intense competition for places in midfield.
Somehow I doubt there's any shortage of brass to do what is necessary either.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Gary Speed might be available - at the right price.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

I did ask myself halfway through the 2nd half - just WHO is playing at home here? That, I'm afraid, may be it for MU in this competition, and those who've seen my postings before will know that it gives me no pleasure to say so. I was there - in the german end unfortunately- when MU beat bayern in Barcelona, with my german colleagues, and from that day MU have a place in my heart, albeit a tiny one, for shutting those arrogant feckers up.

I think those guys don't have the same passion that they had even last season. Shame, really...

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Has the lack of opposition on a week by week basis made Sir Alex lose his fire - he seems much quieter now ?

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Worried by your comments LR. You need to think about what brought us down from being a great side :0)

Buying in players won't necessarily make you better, you'll just have a mercenary set of guys playing for you. What has made the second hal of the 90s yours is the kids, or so I keep hearing.

In interviews George Best will offer that he had the pinnacle of his career at 21 (or whatever it was) . This wasn't the case for the rest of the side for most of whom it was the end of their career (apart from Kidd but he never really turned into a great until he was at City !!). Maybe all the Fergie kids have had the perfect night/couple of weeks in 1999 and now everything is tame in comparison.

On Saturday Keane seemed very average, looking more like Paul Ince than himself. He was always the driving force, if he's lost the will then he has to be the number one player to replace. Fergie was happy to replace Robson with Ince and then Ince with Keane, if Fergie still has the fire in him he needs to replace Keane.

The pretty ball players of Becks, Scholes and Giggs will look good again when the midfield has its driving force back.

Liverpool have leapt forward over the last year, lots of it because they've now got 4 forwards to match yours, and have youthful exuberance in Gerrard that you don't have anymore.

Soebody lese has suggested that maybe you could prise Gary Speed away from Newcastle, well I'm sorry I just wouldn't be happy to see him go for any less than £2.50 so out of your league then.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

That's just how it is Smiler. Some nice passes last night from Becks but came to nowt, some nice runs by Giggs but came to nowt, same with efforts from Cole, Keane and Scholes.

Chadwick may not seem the answer but with Beckham out fer the next one the Wizard should change his tactics played in the entirley boring phase games so far and go BALLS out. It's the same freakin' team.

Josh...yer spot on mate. Noticed by many Reds prior to the bin-dipper defeat. He was on the telly talking about (the sheep have just scored btw) how "good these games are" and smiling. He should have been snarling and snapping and putting the scousers in their place.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Nah Mac...I think ya miss my point. I'm not in favour of buying in big to fill a gap and I don't think we're really short anywhere, it's just that the strength in depth story that was once our squad is now a myth. I still feel we have class players in all positions and if you take the midfield you'd have to say Beckham, Scoles, Keane and Giggs is about the best you could wish for....i'sh. But the fact is they pick themselves really. Ok, we have Nicky Butt (who has been a gem this term) but we haven't got anyone now really pushing for places so those 4 are hardly on their toes. You get five or six quality midfielders all fighing for their place and you more than likely get a snarling tight midfield for the whole season. Keane only started playing a few weeks ago and Beckham has stopped!!!!

Don't wanna even think of doing a Chelsea or a Leeds or in some respect a Liverpool but just who have we bought recently (of any quality)....Barthez and Stam.

But yer spot on about those kids having had their time and still dreaming of hazy May dayz in Barca and that's why we need an injection. Denis bless him has had his day so we're a defender down next term in reality. Teddy may say yes to one more year but that could possibly be his last decent season anyway. Greening won't make it and the jury's out still for Luke (but he has time). Can't see Blomvquist coming back and dunno what's happened to Quinten so that's the competition bottled away for Giggs. Andy Goram....gulp and I don't know if SAF will ever see Solskjaer as anything but just another option when things look bad. Thank God for.....wait for it.....Micky Silvestre.....the worm has turned.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

From Sportal:

"SAF will be given £60million to strengthen the Man United squad as he goes for broke in his final season in charge at Old Trafford.
Ruud van Nistelrooy will be the first target and, according to The Sun, PSV Eindhoven are demanding the same £18m fee that was agreed a year ago before the Dutch striker suffered a serious knee injury.
The impact of Tuesday night's defeat against Bayern Munich has apparently already been felt at Old Trafford where the Board is said to have given the green light to massive spending in order to boost the squad.
Other names suggested as transfer targets include Rivaldo, Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram and Andrei Shevchenko".

Suppose Marcelino's out of the question?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

It needs to happen. I can definately see a collapse or another surge and out of sight for a few more years. It's such a fine line.

Btw...Isn't next years CL cup final in Glasgow?

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Whaddya reckon to Jon Greening, LR? Is he good enough to be a regular in the PL?
He looked good for the U-21's against Finland the other week.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

I honestly don't see him making it. He's already making noises about not getting enough 1st team football....a very dangerous game at Utd. I think Chadwick has it though.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001