SAF Has A Go At Hansen

noodlehair

We were very good in the run up to Christmas as well.

I don't think we've been nearly as dull as last year. Away from home especially. The performances at Fulham, QPR, Bolton etc. would never have happened last year. We'd have gone a goal up and then spent the rest of the game backing off.

I just think we've been horribly inconsistent. Partly due to the amount of injuries, partly because a lot of our players are quite young, and partly because sometimes the opposition team has midfielders in it.

Ole's_toe_poke

Classic Fergie. Pick a fight with someone to motivate himself and the team. Us vs them and all that.

Hansen hasn't said anything outrageously bad. And I find the suggestion that he said it in an attempt to derail us before the Liverpool game laughable.

Bryan_Munich

Yep, it's getting to that time again.

The fact it's Hansen is a bonus.

Cheesy

I think we have to put into context what way he's meaning this here.

If he literally means that we haven't produced one good performance for a year and a half, then he's wrong, obviously, because we have had plenty of good performances in that time.

If he means it in a more general way though, then he has a point. Sure, we've had some great games here and there, but generally, we've been relying on grinding out results a lot of the time, and we haven't really had a period of 10-15 games in that time where most weeks, the football has been brilliant to watch.

Rood

Well I was more comparing today to times further back when we played some of our best freeflowing attacking football - we often used to win the PL with relative ease but regularly fall short in Europe (99 apart) due to tactical niavety.

Possibly we have gone too far the other way now but you cant argue with the results it has bought. I would compare us to some of the classic German tourament teams who often looked pretty boring yet always seemed to end up in semis and finals due to their relentless efficiency and team ethic.

Perhaps 2008 was the point where we had the best of both worlds?
We are in team in transition and I expect the next team (built around Cleverley, Welbeck, Rooney, Jones, Smalling etc) to evolve toward a more attacking style again - we saw a few signs of it early this season but injuries meant we havent been able to progress that and instead gone back to the formula that worked for the past few years.

Claymore

Agreed, Hansen shot Dixon down it flames about Ballotelli. He is a good pundit, one of the best but he can come out with strong views or crazy things at times, no more than most. I mean look at the crap pundits on Sky's Soccer Saturday and what they come out with about us and Jamie Redknapp takes the biscuit. Southgate and the like all going on about penalties or commentator John Champion saying "deep into Fergie time now". Andy Gray used to wind me up loads at times.

MOTD isn't free really but its still the best footie show out there by a country mile and the one majority of the fans tune in and the players tune in to see. You can get a good program and have crazyness on it.

Don't think we've played bad for 18 months, we've had loads of good games in amongst that but do think we've had spells for a while now where the play has been awful for quite a run of games before getting a good but of entertainment. I'll watch United no matter what they do but ideally you want some of our classic fast play. The mixture of quick counters, wing play, one two's, on the deck passing, long balls not just non stop cross and long ball all the time, which it has been at times this season.

What I don't like about Hansen is how will give us credit for playing well but come end of season (like last year) he'll highlight how we weren't the best or little niggles we had. He did it along with Harry on MOTD2 I think, saying we only won because Fergie dragged us through it, that our players aren't the best etc. But forgot about getting to Wembley twice as well as the title win. Overall, good pundit still but can be a spaz. Lawro though, needs taking to the vets.....

londonredmaniac

eh??

Spoony Youngblood

Hyperbole aside, I don't think we've been particularly good to watch over the last couple of seasons...sure we've had some decent performances but overall, we're more efficient and pragmatic than we used to be.

Simon Adebesi

Eek. It's not that bad is it?

Maybe SAF is trying to lubricate the forthcoming transition to Mourinho by getting the fans used to boredom and efficiency.

Rood

I dont think emulating the traditional German teams is a bad thing!

I'm always right

Me neither, they are a great blueprint.

Hellboy

Our first few months were the best I've seen from us in the league since 06/07. Hansen talking bollox again, hardly surprising.

Rood

only just watched last nights MOTD where Linekar asks Hansen to respond to Fergie's comments - he was squirming a bit and back tracked slightly but mostly reiterated his foolish view with muppet Dixon talking even more shite.

bergen

Wait so we might win the league twice without playing well? That's a pretty fantastic achievement.

Zen86

Dixon claiming we were the second best team last season is quite laughable.

Kelvin

Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen has defended himself against some stinging criticism from Sir Alex Ferguson.

In his programme notes ahead of Manchester United's 2-0 win over Stoke at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, Ferguson condemned Hansen's assessment of his team.

Ferguson claimed Hansen had said United had not played well for 18 months and would end up with egg on his face, just as he did when the former Liverpool skipper famously declared: "You never win anything with kids" on his first viewing of the team containing Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham that went on to dominate the English game.

Hansen denied he had said what Ferguson accused him of.

"I really don't know where that has come from," he said on last night's programme. "I never said that at any stage.

"What I said was that, over a period of 18 months, they haven't been as good as they have been in the past.

"I have also said that if you take the three teams at the top, Manchester United have consistently played worse than Tottenham and Manchester City.

"But it is to their credit that they are where they are and they will be the team to beat.

"In 1995 I said you can't win anything with kids. In 2012, I never said you can't win anything if you are hopeless."

sajeev

So he is saying we are hopeless!

Bryan_Munich

Fergie won't care if his attack has the desired effect.

Edmeiste

Really? based on what?

Fergie got him and Alan knows it but he's still trying to backtrack as if he hasn't said anything wrong.

Simon Adebesi

Fair play to him, I thought that was quite a funny retort there at the end.

kouroux

I love the last sentence.The sarcasm is top class

Amir

To be fair, I never held the whole 'can't win anything with kids' against him. If we hadn't had more experienced heads such as Schmeichel, Cantona (how big those two were that year), Irwin, Pallister, Keane, McClair, Bruce, Sharpe or May, we wouldn't have come near to winning the double.

As for his explanation regarding the last 18 month, he may not be completely wrong, but the problem isn't the level of football we've shown we can reach, but our ability to do that consistently.

Ash_G

I didn't get what he said about last season. We weren't at our best but we were still the best team come the end of the season. Chelsea started brightly and then collapsed and no one else was close.

Moonwalker

That old nonsense.

You can't pretend it was a blanket statement and then defend it from there.

What he said was very specific and contextual. He said it after the Villa defeat with Scholes, Beckham, Neville and Butt in mind. The fact that all these players became integral part of United's success, that very season, meant it was a spectacularly embarrassing prediction, which is something I don't think even Hansen would deny.

Whether experienced players, aided that success or not is for all practical purposes when discussing Hansen, completely irrelevant.


"Haven't played as good as past United teams in the last 18 months" is fair enough.

"Consistently worse than City and Spurs" is just bollocks.


It's that niggling bitterness, despite best efforts to be objective, if only to avoid that egg on his face.

w'or bobby

Hansen is as Hansen does.

I can't wait for the generation of Liverpool pundits to be replaced by our lot.
Neville is a good start.

We haven't been all that for the last 12 months.
Not exactly rubbish either.

We started this season on fire.

8-2, anyone?
Or we spot Citeh 2 goals in the Charity Shield, only for Nani to ram it down their throats ?
Perhaps tonking Spurs don't count either.

F**k off Hansen, ye scouser twat.
We're shite and we'll do what we want.

Neutral

Not played as well as the united teams that featured, Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Liam Miller, O'Shea in midfield?

Our last season with Ronaldo we were a pain to watch - completely one dimensional, other that the 03-04 & 04-05 seasons, we had our lowest goal average that season in over a decade.

00-01 - 2.08 (Champions)
01-02 - 2.29 (Third place)
02-03 - 1.95 (Champions)
03-04 - 1.68 (Third place)
04-05 - 1.53 (Third place)
05-06 - 1.89 (Runners up)
06-07 - 2.18 (Champions)
07-08 - 2.11 (Champions)
08-09 - 1.79 (Champions)
09-10 - 2.26 (Runners up)
10-11 - 2.05 (Champions)
11-12 - 2.43 ????

sammsky1

lack of CQ?

Moonwalker

Let me clarify that.


Fair enough, only if given the benefit of the doubt, that he doesn't mean 'each and every' United team of the past.

MG

We haven't played consistently worse than Spurs, that's ridiculous.

I don't even think we've played that much worse than City in the last 18 months.

Neo_Mufc

Alex Ferguson feels Patrice Evra should shake hands with Luis Suárez | Football | The Guardian

Ferguson was less charitable when it came to Alan Hansen's recent criticisms of United on Match of the Day, once again turning on the former Liverpool player. "He has tried to change it by saying he was talking about our away form but I have read his transcript and he said we were woeful for the last year and a half. He didn't mention away games. So he's dug himself into a grave really.

"He's in a responsible position and it's obvious to me he has said it the week before we played Liverpool. I can understand it because he's a former Liverpool player and Kenny [Dalglish] is his pal, so he's maybe tried to jack it up a little bit but he should be more responsible.

"When you think about it, we've played in a European Cup final, the semi-final of the FA Cup and won the league by nine points, so we couldn't have been that woeful. Jesus Christ! Maybe he's not got very good grammar."

surf

United are champions and level top on points. So if the best team in England has not played well for 18 months, what does that say about the rest? And why is Hansen still watching them? (Well, OK, it's because he's paid to do it.)