Ha ha Paddy working hard just spotted where they stashed the champange for later....
Play-off final vs Aston Villa
- Thread starter Sean_RedDevil
- Start date
Thats cool, It's just makes it sound like he was spamming them everywhere, as long as he's shooting on target thats all that matters at this stage.
It was a shame Eikrem wasn't fit for it, would have been great to see him on a pitch as good and as big as OT.
no individual medals , just pendants must be a recession
Medals cost feck allYou can shove it up your arse you City, Arsenal and West Ham. The cream of the crop is here in Manchester.
Winning at this level is great for the lads but we need them to come through to make the 1st team. I have hopes for some of them particularly some from the youth
Terrific updates as always lads, I found myself getting more and more excited by Macheda just by reading the updates.
His pass to Diouf for the first was particularly pleasing imo
Match report.
Any idea what time the highlights will be up?
Sucks I missed this but the result is what matters. The reserves are undisputed Champions of England and they deserve a lot of credit for this.
Well done. The future is bright, the future is red.
Well done. The future is bright, the future is red.
Just watched the end of this on MUTV!!
What a penalty by Foster-absolutely no stopping it!!!
What a penalty by Foster-absolutely no stopping it!!!
Cheers Gambit!
Foster 
Diouf first touch looked a lot better in that game and Macheda, well I truly question why we need Berbatov now.
The power. Unbelievable.Foster
Love to know what speed that was hit at
Funny seeing them all with the first team's numbers with thier names!
Cheers for the video's lads
Thanks for the videos, looked like a great game. Macheda and Diouf looks like a nice partnership, Macheda really does look classy though.
Yes Macheda is class and Diouf is raw goals. Can go on to be a great partnership. And then we can sell them to Madrid.
I don't know whether this was discussed earlier in the thread but I was puzzled by United's approach, given the team that Solskjaer had chosen. A three man central midfield, plus two strikers in a front three, is very suggestive of a certain way of playing. Whether the players simply failed to execute the plan, I have no idea, although the second half was much better, in some respects, but there was very little in the first half that even suggested that there was a gameplan.
In fairness, Villa's approach, which largely prevented our fullbacks from joining up in the final third, may have neutralized one of the vital elements of our gameplan, but even so, once that was realized fairly early on in the game, and once it became obvious that Villa were much the better side, I'm surprised that we didn't revert to the obvious approach which had the potential to stem the flow from Villa, as well as take control of the match for ourselves.
A 4-3-3, with three fairly orthodox central midfielders, all of which are comfortable on the ball, usually means that a team is looking to control the game primarily through retention of the ball. So, it was disappointing that, in the first half, particularly, the three players in midfield had almost no control of the ball, and as a consequence of that, the game, itself.
To be fair, as I've already mentioned, perhaps the idea was to utilize the wide areas with the fullbacks getting forward, but it was fairly clear within the first 15 minutes or so that that was Villa's strongest area of their team, and also the area that they were looking to exploit. At that point, even if ball retention hadn't been our original goal, it should quickly have become so. I suppose that with two strikers of the caliber that we had on the field, and the game being played on a pitch the size of Old Trafford, the plan might well have been to use a direct game in the hope of providing the two strikers with as much ball as possible, but whatever the original idea, it clearly didn't work very well in the first half.
There's no doubt that Villa were a good side, although that is a fairly ambiguous term, in all honesty. Bolton were a good side under Sam Allardyce, but most clubs fans would be horrified if they had to put up with some of the football that they produced every week. And you could say a similar thing about a Martin O'Neill side, and the Villa reserves that mimicked their first team counter-parts approach very closely, but for different reasons. They were extremely hard working, aggressive all over the pitch, utilized pace to maximum effect, predominantly attempted to exploit the wide areas and fashion positions so that they could cross a lot of balls in to the box. It's a simple but effective formula, but not really one that I would ever like to see at United, in all honesty.
Getting back to United reserves, while I was disappointed with their performance despite winning on penalties against a good side, I certainly have some sympathy with both the management and the players involved in the reserves. At United, it hardly constitutes a "team", at all, because of the ever-changing nature of the squad, with players moving in and out of the set-up. Good sides take years to develop a serious understanding, so it should hardly be a surprise that it is often not possible to achieve anything particularly spectacular in terms of fluency.
In fairness, Villa's approach, which largely prevented our fullbacks from joining up in the final third, may have neutralized one of the vital elements of our gameplan, but even so, once that was realized fairly early on in the game, and once it became obvious that Villa were much the better side, I'm surprised that we didn't revert to the obvious approach which had the potential to stem the flow from Villa, as well as take control of the match for ourselves.
A 4-3-3, with three fairly orthodox central midfielders, all of which are comfortable on the ball, usually means that a team is looking to control the game primarily through retention of the ball. So, it was disappointing that, in the first half, particularly, the three players in midfield had almost no control of the ball, and as a consequence of that, the game, itself.
To be fair, as I've already mentioned, perhaps the idea was to utilize the wide areas with the fullbacks getting forward, but it was fairly clear within the first 15 minutes or so that that was Villa's strongest area of their team, and also the area that they were looking to exploit. At that point, even if ball retention hadn't been our original goal, it should quickly have become so. I suppose that with two strikers of the caliber that we had on the field, and the game being played on a pitch the size of Old Trafford, the plan might well have been to use a direct game in the hope of providing the two strikers with as much ball as possible, but whatever the original idea, it clearly didn't work very well in the first half.
There's no doubt that Villa were a good side, although that is a fairly ambiguous term, in all honesty. Bolton were a good side under Sam Allardyce, but most clubs fans would be horrified if they had to put up with some of the football that they produced every week. And you could say a similar thing about a Martin O'Neill side, and the Villa reserves that mimicked their first team counter-parts approach very closely, but for different reasons. They were extremely hard working, aggressive all over the pitch, utilized pace to maximum effect, predominantly attempted to exploit the wide areas and fashion positions so that they could cross a lot of balls in to the box. It's a simple but effective formula, but not really one that I would ever like to see at United, in all honesty.
Getting back to United reserves, while I was disappointed with their performance despite winning on penalties against a good side, I certainly have some sympathy with both the management and the players involved in the reserves. At United, it hardly constitutes a "team", at all, because of the ever-changing nature of the squad, with players moving in and out of the set-up. Good sides take years to develop a serious understanding, so it should hardly be a surprise that it is often not possible to achieve anything particularly spectacular in terms of fluency.
Looking at the celebrations after the shoot out I would say there's plenty of team spirit there whether you'd describe it as a "team" or not. The spirit has to cascade right through the club from the 1st team downwards, and looking at the coaches I'd say they've done a good job in that respect
Macheda seems to develop his game and become more versatile. Good to see. As for the reserves and Ole, well done, and I am sure with more experience, Ole will do a better job as he continues. We have some great talents in our team and hopefully, they will become great players for us
Fantastic match, really enjoyed watching it yesterday and it was one of the most exciting finals I've seen in a long time. The quality was certainly questionable at times, Diouf was getting into good positions but his finishing was poor despite getting 2 goals because he had about 7 good chances with 4 or 5 of them being very good ones. Foster's positioning and general play was also below-par (though shot-stopping was brilliant) as was our defending (apart from Rafael) with De Laet making the type of mistake that was a perrenial problem when he arrived. Our midfield also really struggled to impose themselves in the first half.
However, we really showed some great quality going forward in the second half and the character the players showed to keep coming back, even at the end when it seemed all was lost, was very impressive. I have to say, Federico Macheda characterised everything that was good about us going forward yesterday - he instigated the attacks. Playing in a left-wing forward position which is relatively unknown territory for him, he really looked like a complete forward and showed the advancement in his overall game, something that we have seen in glimpses this season. Awesome performance by him, assisted 2 goals and created the chance that led to the penalty as well as scoring the penalty and made several other chances.
Great game and an excellent comeback, well done to Solskjaer and the reserve team for a brilliant season.
However, we really showed some great quality going forward in the second half and the character the players showed to keep coming back, even at the end when it seemed all was lost, was very impressive. I have to say, Federico Macheda characterised everything that was good about us going forward yesterday - he instigated the attacks. Playing in a left-wing forward position which is relatively unknown territory for him, he really looked like a complete forward and showed the advancement in his overall game, something that we have seen in glimpses this season. Awesome performance by him, assisted 2 goals and created the chance that led to the penalty as well as scoring the penalty and made several other chances.
Great game and an excellent comeback, well done to Solskjaer and the reserve team for a brilliant season.
Macheda is a special talent.
Hope he can make it at United.
Hope he can make it at United.
Foster is a bit shit really.
He can make wonderful stops,etc but consistency is what makes a keeper great.
He can make wonderful stops,etc but consistency is what makes a keeper great.
Macheda really was impressive. It was just the kind of performance that shows he is making good progress behind the scenes. Congratulations to Ole and the lads.
Extended highlights
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Just found that.