United thread 2012/13 (inc merged IPO thread)

[yatesy94]

Re: United so poor!

Their spirit plays a major part of their game. Combined with their tenaciousness, hard-work and willingness to win that's a handful of reasons right there. Seems even if certain players like Van Persie don't perform, one other of their players up their game and do the business. It's bloody frustrating, but it's drilled into them by Fergie that they're capable of becoming winners; even if a large proportion of them don't have the quality, say teams like us or Chelsea do. I'm also a firm believer that certain teams occasionally appear to "roll over" when they play against them. Personally, in my opinion it's a psychological thing that teams lower down the table having little to play for apart from Premier League survival every year do not give 100% against United.

 

[Akira]

Re: United so poor!

This is their tactic, which is starkly in contrast to us. United has long employed a counter-attacking tactic, with the flaw being only their flimsy midfield and paper defense. What they make up for it, is a lethal and deadly attacking force.

As much as I hate to say this, I believe Fergie is right. Given his years of experience, surely he must be the manager most familiar with the league. That said, I believe in modern football, counter-attacking still triumphs over possession football.

Take Messi out of the equation, Barcelona probably and just assuming, they may end up like us - have opponents narrow down and clog the box, choking our attack.

On the opposite end, counterattacking draws the opponent out and if the team is good at it, the defence would usually be left with either 3v3 or 3v2 situations.

Then, you might ask - what if teams sit deep against United.

Here's where United's deadly.

United's secondary tactic is what is commonly known as "switching the wings". The way Fergie has trained his team out, the movement and all, is to draw heat onto on flank and find a way to throw the ball to the other, OPEN flank.

This is a common, yet particularly effective tactic employed by teams utilizing width and wings. Another example being Tottenham.

So to speak, United is actually a team devised by Fergie to be deadly on both defense and attack, as well as being able to switch defense to attack in split seconds.

Another curious case as to why Dimitar Berbatov may be sold - he wasn't fast enough.
Another curious case as to why RVP fitted in perfectly - he provided excellent movement and one of the world's deadliest finish.


HOWEVER, United is not unbeatable, obviously. Fergie's insistence on this tactic leaves him with usually a 4-4-2, and right now, their defense is as paper as ever. United has absorb more pressure than the norm to even say they 'deserve victory', having to save the ball off the line several times against Fulham.

To beat United, the opponent has to finish them off before United finishes you off. Against this team, unless you are prepared to throw 10-men into your own box, there's no debate for a draw - either you win or you lose.


I may be giving the Rags too much credit here and I'm not some football expert, but just what I observe over the years of watching United play football (my bro's a Rag).

 

[BlueMo']

Re: United so poor!

I'd like to agree but the current table doesn't bear this out.
If they are poor what does it say about the rest?

 

[City Raider]

Re: United so poor!

title or not, they'll always be wankers

 

[city stew]

Re: United so poor!

But they have been doing that for along time... And even if teams score a couple they always find a way out. Something we need to learn quick. A win is a must today if we are to retain the title. Something I feel would be even better than winning it last year given we have been playing catchup pretty much all season.

 

[M18CTID]

Re: United so poor!

This is their tactic, which is starkly in contrast to us. United has long employed a counter-attacking tactic, with the flaw being only their flimsy midfield and paper defense. What they make up for it, is a lethal and deadly attacking force.

As much as I hate to say this, I believe Fergie is right. Given his years of experience, surely he must be the manager most familiar with the league. That said, I believe in modern football, counter-attacking still triumphs over possession football.

Take Messi out of the equation, Barcelona probably and just assuming, they may end up like us - have opponents narrow down and clog the box, choking our attack.

On the opposite end, counterattacking draws the opponent out and if the team is good at it, the defence would usually be left with either 3v3 or 3v2 situations.

Then, you might ask - what if teams sit deep against United.

Here's where United's deadly.

United's secondary tactic is what is commonly known as "switching the wings". The way Fergie has trained his team out, the movement and all, is to draw heat onto on flank and find a way to throw the ball to the other, OPEN flank.

This is a common, yet particularly effective tactic employed by teams utilizing width and wings. Another example being Tottenham.

So to speak, United is actually a team devised by Fergie to be deadly on both defense and attack, as well as being able to switch defense to attack in split seconds.

Another curious case as to why Dimitar Berbatov may be sold - he wasn't fast enough.
Another curious case as to why RVP fitted in perfectly - he provided excellent movement and one of the world's deadliest finish.


HOWEVER, United is not unbeatable, obviously. Fergie's insistence on this tactic leaves him with usually a 4-4-2, and right now, their defense is as paper as ever. United has absorb more pressure than the norm to even say they 'deserve victory', having to save the ball off the line several times against Fulham.

To beat United, the opponent has to finish them off before United finishes you off. Against this team, unless you are prepared to throw 10-men into your own box, there's no debate for a draw - either you win or you lose.


I may be giving the Rags too much credit here and I'm not some football expert, but just what I observe over the years of watching United play football (my bro's a Rag).

Good post. Ferguson has always preferred to play with wingers and like it or not, it's served United well down the years in this league. It continues to be an effective strategy in the Premier League, but perhaps less so in Europe where teams tend to have a bit more of an idea of how to negate his tactics.

The thing with this style of play is that it isn't conducive to getting too many draws. United have won titles in the past despite losing more games than the runners-up and there's a fair chance it'll pan out that way again this season. A mate of mine got a bit giddy after they lost at home to Spurs this season, saying that they'd already lost 2 games out of the first 6 while we hadn't lost any. I pointed out to him that despite that being the case, they still had the same amount of points as us so it was pretty irrelevant really.

One thing I will say is that whilst they have a phenomenal points total, they don't seem to dominate games as much as they used to. They used to routinely sweep teams aside for fun in the past and while they're still capable of that, it doesn't seem to happen as much these days.

 

[Danamy]

Re: United so poor!

This is their tactic, which is starkly in contrast to us. United has long employed a counter-attacking tactic, with the flaw being only their flimsy midfield and paper defense. What they make up for it, is a lethal and deadly attacking force.

As much as I hate to say this, I believe Fergie is right. Given his years of experience, surely he must be the manager most familiar with the league. That said, I believe in modern football, counter-attacking still triumphs over possession football.

Take Messi out of the equation, Barcelona probably and just assuming, they may end up like us - have opponents narrow down and clog the box, choking our attack.

On the opposite end, counterattacking draws the opponent out and if the team is good at it, the defence would usually be left with either 3v3 or 3v2 situations.

Then, you might ask - what if teams sit deep against United.

Here's where United's deadly.

United's secondary tactic is what is commonly known as "switching the wings". The way Fergie has trained his team out, the movement and all, is to draw heat onto on flank and find a way to throw the ball to the other, OPEN flank.

This is a common, yet particularly effective tactic employed by teams utilizing width and wings. Another example being Tottenham.

So to speak, United is actually a team devised by Fergie to be deadly on both defense and attack, as well as being able to switch defense to attack in split seconds.

Another curious case as to why Dimitar Berbatov may be sold - he wasn't fast enough.
Another curious case as to why RVP fitted in perfectly - he provided excellent movement and one of the world's deadliest finish.


HOWEVER, United is not unbeatable, obviously. Fergie's insistence on this tactic leaves him with usually a 4-4-2, and right now, their defense is as paper as ever. United has absorb more pressure than the norm to even say they 'deserve victory', having to save the ball off the line several times against Fulham.

To beat United, the opponent has to finish them off before United finishes you off. Against this team, unless you are prepared to throw 10-men into your own box, there's no debate for a draw - either you win or you lose.


I may be giving the Rags too much credit here and I'm not some football expert, but just what I observe over the years of watching United play football (my bro's a Rag).

Spot on with your assesment

I had the exact same conversation with Damocles prior to the derby, they rely solely on drawing the play to one flank and switching it quickly to the other whilst the opposition full back has tucked in, this exposes the space and gets behind the defence.

It's also the reason why Scholes was so valuable to them, with his range of passing he could switch play quickly and drop it on a sixpence in the space for the winger to run on to.

 

[JM Mcr]

Re: United so poor!

How do they do it? They constantly get played off the park by average sides yet usually win by the odd goal! I thought after last year they might have lost a bit of luck!

Pinball football. Take the ball out wide and smash it as hard as you can in the box and pray it bounces off into the net or lands in-front of one of your ''strikers''. last night the only reason i saw the ball go into the middle of the park was to be swung from one wing to another. they figured out they have no clue how to actually play football simple as.

Simple as you appear to be perhaps? We all show bias towards our own, and against our rivals, teams but that's the most ridiculous statement I have read for a long long time.....well done.

 

[JM Mcr]

Re: United so poor!

I don't like calling it luck. Defensively, yes they got lucky with the ball hitting the post and two shots off the line. But attacking wise it is very effective. And it would be really helpful for us if we could use some of this against all the buses we come up against. However, if this keeps happening, they will drop points (perhaps Everton and QPR can help us out). If they play like this it will be demolition by Madrid in CL.

-- Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:07 am --

I don't like calling it luck. Defensively, yes they got lucky with the ball hitting the post and two shots off the line. But attacking wise it is very effective. And it would be really helpful for us if we could use some of this against all the buses we come up against. However, if this keeps happening, they will drop points (perhaps Everton and QPR can help us out). If they play like this it will be demolition by Madrid in CL.

Two shots off the line isn't lucky - it's what the players were placed on the line to do - and the ball hitting the post was actually a great fingertip save by De Gea, it is true tho that with a little more composure in front of goal Fulham could've scored. That said Utd also had several very good opportunities and on another day could've scored 3 or 4.

 

[LoveCity]

Carrick and Jones (U21s) pulled out of international duty, amazing how conveniently timed their injuries are!