I watched the game on foxtel this morning. Why did we play such an unbalanced side. Dyer as L.W. was a joke especially as Bernard was available. Someone said he was unlucky his place in the first place??? Try O'Brien as R.B. and Lua lua has got to be abetter bet than Amoebi. With no width on the left the ball went there and came back to Solano - it took time and that was all Man Utd needed to get reorganised!!!! We lost our main weapon - pace.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Answers

Actually, O'Brien was tried at RB and was pretty much the same as Hughes: basically a CH being played out of position. Besides which, why fanny around with yet another decent bit of potential by changing his position?

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

PS. The OB RB experiment was in the Worthington Cup against Ipswich when , looking back at the match reports, he was described variously as uncomfortable, not as comfortable there as Hughes and tremendous (or words to that effect) so take from that what you will.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I agree wholeheartedly with Spence. Our success has been the result of attacking with speed down the wings with Bellamy coming through the centre. Last night the slow buildup allowed the Man U defence to organize in numbers and Bellamy was always faced with a defence in depth. When Solano got the ball he was invariably a marked man.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Injuries beginning to make us find our rightful position. We all know our squad isn't strong enough. Anyway, I'd have thought that starting with Bernard on the left, reluctantly playing Lee and resting Dyer on the bench for most of the match (clearly knackered against Chelsea) before bringing him on to have a crack as they slow (even more in LB's case) would have been better. Hughes has the makings of a good right back in a solid defence, but he has to be given a chance. Distin and O'Brien could be the partnership we want, but they'll need games to bed down. Just hope we can a get a team together to get three points against Leeds and keep us in the hunt for a top 4 position.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

That's exectly how the rest of the prem are going to try to cope with Dyer and Bellamy. Crowd them out. It looked to me like Bobby put out a bet hedging lineup last night, which, in the end, was neither nowt nor summat.

There weren't enough attacking options, and the defence wasn't good enough. Because of the personnel we have, I reckon the only way Bobby can capitalise on Dyer and Bellamy at the moment, is to sacrifice defensive strength by giving them more attacking support with the likes of Robert, Lua Lua, Ameobi etc.

We don't have the players to put out the ideal lineup, which would have enough suppport for Dyer and Bellamy, with skillful enough defenders to cope under most circumstances.

Probably a long winded way of saying we need at least one, maybe even two more skilled ball playing defenders. Which everybody probably believes anyway, but the point was it stood out like a sore thumb for me last night.

Robbie Elliot is rapidly taking over Barton's crown. You are the weakest link. But 'Welcome' cos we can't afford to say 'Goodbye'.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002