The Mail Bag
Hibbo living in a Dream!
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I like Tony - always gives 100% . But for goodness sake who does he think he is kidding? Came to win? One up front and hardly a shot at goal. God help us then if we had come to defend. 11 behind the ball?
Too close to Moyes and the excuses are rubbing off.
Please players keep your mouths shut and just play exciting and attacking football.
Frank Duffy, Posted 25/04/2011 at 18:50:15
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Only I`m wondering how we had two very good shouts for penalties turned down ? both of which would have been given if it was at the other end ? and how it was the United keeper who made the save of the match.
If we were so defensive, why didn't we see Cahill, Vic, Beckford, Bily, Gueye, Ossie, or Coleman back behind the ball?
Playing shite and playing negative are two completely different things; just because your center backs played well doesn't mean you've parked the bus.
We went out for a draw and, sure, we were 6 minutes from getting one... but we didn't. We were scared of them and played like we were.
If you were happy with that performance then fine. I wasn't.
Please dont attribute comments to me I didnt make.
Their goalie DID make the save of the match; we DID have two penaltiy claims turned down.
I didn't say I was happy either, what I saw was every attempted attack strangled almost at birth ? because O'Shea and Fabio completely dominated Coleman and Bily and Ferdinand treated Beckford with utter contempt.
You say we were negative, I disagree and I named the players who contributed very little to preventing United attacks.
We were shite, simple as.
If only it was that simple. Maybe if Moyes had used those words of wisdom we would have won?
It had nothing to do with playing negative. Utd were better and dominated possesion as they do against most teams at home for the past 20 years.
We played the same line-up that has had us on a great run of form against the lesser sides. We were unlucky if anything, as Dave said we should have had two penalties, but screwed over as expected at Old Trafford. Moyes didn't even mention it, no point in wasting his breath.
It worked in 2004 when we had worse players (obviously not at Old Trafford) so why can't these better players keep hold of the ball for more than 5 seconds.
The "lets get at them" or "they were there for the taking" brigade do make me laugh some times. We don't have a team good enough to get at the, soon to be, champions who will quite probably be unbeaten at home this season.
The game plan was to not conceed and try and score.....seems like a good plan to me. It all falls down when you have players having absolute mares.
I see not many people have mentioned the commentator saying that Moyes was screaming for his back four to move further up the pitch, simply because it doesn't suit their points.
Frank it is easy to be simplistic but that doesn't tell the whole story. I'm sure the boys went out to win but unless your execution is spot on the best laid plans will come unstuck.
And yes, I did see Moyes yelling continuously for Seamus and Co to get forward but don't let facts get in the way while trying to make your paper-thin arguement.
The first half was embarrassing to watch. Painful. Can't control the ball, can't make a forward pass, no pace. We were both shite and negative.
If Rodwell's shot had gone in and we held out to the end it would have been heralded by all of you as a great result.
The ONLY way we had any chance of getting anything from the game was by not committing too many forward as Man Utd are great on the break.
We played as well as we could with the players we had available... our defenders were as good or better than United's. Hernandez header came from a big deflection off Distin which on another day could have gone elsewhere.
Graham Sharp picked Jags as the MotM with Hibbert, Neville and Distin as the best of the other outfield players... ALL defenders!!
Man Utd, even a weaken side, is more superior than ours, technically, strategically and mentally. That is why they are call Manchester United. They don't stay as leader for no reason. If we are as good as them, then we shouldn't see all those fuss about how bad is Moyes, Hibbert, Osman, Bily, Beckford, Heitinga...
Imagine you have the country's under-21 squad and are told to play against the senior team. Yes, you might be aggressive enough to play an attacking formation and get a win, but what's the likely result? Be pinned back and people accuse you for playing defensively... For God's sake, you have no choice but to defend!
Guys, please don't expect our team to played like a Champions League club overnight.
On the other note, i do hope we can strengthen the team next season, cos the think this season's over.
So close and just out of reach.
Bummer.
We're over our bad start... I should fucking well think so it's nearly May.
Just how daft are they to think we are that daft. Or don't they care and the PR gang have a quota of bullshit to get out everyday?
I only saw the Vic pen and it deffo wasn't a pen, he looked like he was gonna fall over the second he got the ball and isn't anyway near savy or clever enough to win a pen at OT or against Ferdinand.
A good finisher and we could have had 10+ more points this season, Becks is good but too much has been asked of him this season.
Who knows, maybe a coach who understands attacking football/forwards would help...
Down to Blue Bill and his 24/7 search for a transfer kitty this summer then....
Trevor Lynes
Nobody is crying about the pens, maybe that's the problem, maybe that's why we get less than every other team. I don't ever criticise referess, but this was an entirely different situation, we got nothing, it wasnt just the pens it was every 50-50 decision, he wouldn't give us as much as a goal kick.
If those incidents would have been at the other end, all hell would have broken lose, but your "musn't grumble" attitude seems to be shared by everyone at our club, we make it far too easy for refereees to give us nothing.
Still, as Hibbo has been told to say, we are still up for it, so roll on Wigan. Should beat them with no strikers, tbh!
If all you do is read biased-towards-Man Utd tabloid match reports to form your opinion then why bother posting on here?
Personally I'm inclined to believe Hibbo when he says that we didn't plan to park the bus. It's not like we ever really resorted to straight-out Route One, we were always trying to play our usual game. It's also hard to see what other line-up Moyes could have put out, given our injuries.
But Utd just had a far better, quicker team than us on the day. We just couldn't retain possession in their half or link up at all in the first half, hard to create much like that. I thought we were much better for much of the second half, Cahill and even Vic made a difference.
Also, arguing over whether Howard or Van der Sar made the better save is ridiculous. They were both cracking saves. The point is that we did at least create a couple of good chances and defended exceptionally well until the last 10 mins, so there are positives even if we got battered for the first half in particular.
I've got no real opinion on either penalty. They were close but not nailed on, end of story. Our chances of getting either in front of an Old Trafford crowd were always going to be pretty slim. And I still say Vic would do better by just using his considerable strength to stay on his feet rather than going down like a sack of spuds at every opportunity, he's probably getting a reputation at this rate.
Unlike you, I don't read tabloids.
There are over 50 people in our party who travel to all the away matches so I certainly don't feel any need to prove to you when I`ve been to a match.
As Mathew says, they were both terrific saves... but then he probably saw them.
Kirkby`s gone lad, I know how badly you wanted to go there, but you can't go on attacking those who fought against it forever... you really need to let it go.
Read his post again and then come back and tell me it wasn't yet another personal attack from this guy.
I`m always happy for people to attack my points; thats what the site is about. But you`re wasting your time if you`re asking me to treat personal attacks seriously.
We can have the best striker in the land but, unless you get the drive and determination of players to support him, then you might as well not cross the half-way line. Rodwell has to go, I'm afraid, so that we can get that player.
He just kept hanging a leg out as the ball whizzed past him, failed to defend the far post, once when they nearly scored and Howard had to make a brilliant save and again when they did score he was caught under the ball and out jumped by a player who is not much taller than him. Other teams in the Premier League always attack us down the right because they know Hibbert is useless.
All-in-all, a total waste of space, and should be emptied out in the summer. If he was, he will never again play in the Premier League but, as Moyes loves him, as he only has to pay him a 1st Division player's wage, he won?t let him go.
As it was, Moyes has had to double up on the right, with Coleman or Gueye, as the little wee man can't cross a ball.
"Playing a blow-up doll at right back and would have had the same results" ? No we wouldn't, just one example is the Wolves game at 0-0, Hibbert threw himself into a block causing the ball to go over. A blow-up doll would have the difficulty of overcoming the fact that it is an inanimate object and after that small miracle, I doubt its lunge would cause the ball to go over.... sorry, went off a little there. Needless to say, you are quite wrong in suggesting that if we had 10 players and a plastic sex toy that the results would be the same.
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1 Posted 25/04/2011 at 20:45:04
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I didn't expect two up front or for them to go "gung ho" but anything approaching the more confident, joined-up stuff of the last few weeks would have been evidence that they didn't come to park the bus.
Maybe Moyes gave them a different gameplan and the players just bottled it in the atmosphere... but somehow I doubt it.
Yes, we have inferior players, yes Beckford and Bily were poor, but I bet you the same team would have put up more of a fight on any other ground in the country. As someone else remarked on another thread, they looked like they'd lost the game before they got onto the pitch.