Point taken.
It's true about Rooney and Tevez, but none of our opposition have Rooney or Tevez either, our two men should be able to boss there two men on there own. And the flip side to it last season was Rooney and Tevez going absent from attack.
I'm not blaming it purely on the lack of a settled team though. I'm blaming it on the fact Giggs, Fletcher and Carrick have played well (but not frequently enough, for various different reasons) while the players coming in instead of them have under-performed.
The lack of a settled midfield could be argued to be the reason why they rarely look to be on the same page as the attack.
Park played well against Inter at the San Siro in a 4-5-1.
Right-ho.
Im talking in general here. Inter possess one of the most hardworking midfield in the world so in that case it makes sense to play Park.
Yeah, I'm just throwing it out there to be honest.
Agreed. But what to do with Scholes or Anderson? Will they be happy sitting on the bench for the rest of our matches? Will Fergie do this anyway after rotating the whole season?
I think both Scholes and Anderson will be brilliant players to come off the bench when the game is stretched. Anderson to run into the wide open spaces, Scholes to stretch the game even more with his long-range passing.
There is still a job that can be done by both, this season Anderson has played his best stuff when hes been in a midfield 5 so when we want to close games off he can come on for that. Scholes i feel has dipped in form quite a bit since he returned, while hes had brilliant games (against Fulham at OT) hes had games where he hasnt got hold of the game and his passing has been off. Honestly if we need to win our next few games i cant see SAF losing much sleep if he picks Carrick and Fletcher as both have been outstanding when they have played and got the best out of the people around them too - also i reckon the reason why SAF chopped and changed a bit was to rest players for this final run of games hopefully it will pay off.
That could be a possibility yes and in Europe, as you've mentioned, where we play with 5 midfielders anyway Giggs as well as Scholes or Anderson could play their part as well.
Agreed apart from the last bit.
Thats why i believe he left Carrick on the bench for the whole 90 on Saturday, because if he doesnt play for England (and i sort of hope he doesnt!) then he would have the benefit of 2 weeks with trainning which should put him in good stead for the Villa game, and hopefully Fletcher doesnt get injuried so we can rely on them for the next couple of games. My concern is with the fixture list, it says we will play Villa on Sunday at 4 then Porto in the UCL on Tuesday... not really ideal
Certainly not ideal no, but we have to cope with that.
Cue the Pre-Match speach by O'neil that gets them all fired up to hold on for a draw... I get the feeling that after trying to play open vs Liverpool they will see the errors of their ways and go back to a 4-5-1 to fustrate us and get us on the counter. But we have to deal with it if we want to be champions
Its true though. Hes had a poor season.What the fook is wrong with you!
Don't say that..
Yeah, injury didn't help. But he was poor long before the injury and he's been poor long after.
!!!You've hideously over-simplified things here. The idea of a club settling on two central midfield players and playing them throughout the season is just no longer viable. We're well stocked in that department and part of being a modern footballer is the ability to deal with coming in and out of the team - no one expects SAF to pick two players and declare them as his first choice CM partnership. His aim is to play the right players in each match and keep them constantly fresh and hungry.
I'd be interested to know how you justify saying this, other than spouting on with your usual bollocks about his asthma.
Disagree... That quartet you mention sorely lacks certain qualities which is why Giggs has remained such a vital player. There is no way on earth that Fergie would be happy to go into the future with just those four in central midfield. He'll certainly need a player to replace what Giggs currently offers - something none of those four can.
My only problem with this is that I can't remember a truly outstanding performance from us over the past 2/3 seasons that didn't have Scholes or Giggs running the show. We've got alot of very good midfielders, but we're kind of in limbo in that we need a settled line up but the two players that can really make the difference in making our attack coherent are too old to play every game. Looking ahead to next season and beyond the success or failure of our midfield depends massively on whether Anderson develops into the player we think he's capable of being.
All well and good but either he's got it completely wrong in the last two games - which I think is unlikely - or the players he selected have let him down. Either way, it's caused us problems. Scholes isn't having a great season, nor is Anderson and what few problems we have had this season usually revolved around one or other of them struggling (or in the really bad performances, both of them) Rotation only works well when you've got the players to do it effectively. SAF has an amazing squad but our cover in central midfield isn't quite what it could be. Hence my suggestion that it might be an idea to do a little less rotation in this area of the pitch.
In your opinion, is Scholes having a good season?
I am just surprised it took a normally sensible poster like you ages to come to terms with that. I have said it all along, we don't play well with a midfield two against decent to good opposition. The thing is, given the calibre of players we have, the only way to play with a midfield two is if we had a monster like Essien patrolling the midfield alongside a tactically disciplined and creative player like Carrick.
That's rubbish, both those players have been successful as part of two man midfields against top opposition
And you've been wrong, every single time.
How long before?
