Match Preview Man. Utd (A) 12th Aug......and Predictions

[wolsey]

The harsh reality for you Mr Mann is that you failed to score against a frankly, quite lacklustre Reading performance. That says more about the "great" Sir Alex and his players than it does about us.

It says much more about how lucky you were. If you think any different you are deluded.

I can understand you being happy with a point, but I'd be much more concerned about that performance.

I'm sure you are

SAF gets totally out thought by Coppell, expects us to turn up to play valiant losers and can't work a way around our approach.

United don't have the balance in their squad to have a replacement striker on their bench. They start the second half with a 4-6-0 formation, and attempt to rectify the situation by bringing on O'Shea to play up front. (Was Tevez so out of condition that he couldn't be relied on to come on for the last half an hour? - no, he wasn't played because Ferguson didn't think he needed him)

None of your wingers turned up today (Nani looked good value doesn't he?) Scholes was anonymous, Carrick poor.

United were complacent, their performance was not good enough (in particular in front of goal) and they got no more or less than they deserved

[Garry Mann]

Scholes' header as well. That was a decent chance.

Can we swap that with Evra's blast wide?

It's OK, I've also added Brown's free header from the corner, I'd say he looked like scoring then, great defending though to allow him a free header so actually thinking about it...

[papereyes]

Scholes' header as well. That was a decent chance.

Can we swap that with Evra's blast wide?

It's OK, I've also added Brown's free header from the corner, I'd say he looked like scoring then, great defending though to allow him a free header so actually thinking about it...

I'm still laughing at Evra's blast wide.

[Behindu]

United seem to have spent a lot of money on not improving their team.

And how many of those new signings started yesterday?

You prove my point....

£75 million and you haven't improved.

Blame Ferguson if he picked the wrong team/

[sheshnu]

United seem to have spent a lot of money on not improving their team.

And how many of those new signings started yesterday?

Precisely, old boy.

[Garry Mann]

their performance was not good enough (in particular in front of goal) and they got no more or less than they deserved

Maybe we are getting there, and that's a valid point. We were shit in-front of goal so maybe we didn't deserve the win. To say though that it was down to good defending is still way off the mark. Our finishing was poor today, that's why you got your point.

Oh well.

[Schards#2]

Imagine if United played Barcelona in the Champions League semi final, they win the first leg at Old Trafford 1-0 and then go to Barca and play like Reading did on Sunday and achieve the 0-0 they need.

I suspect the Man Utd forum contributors would be w@nking themselves silly over a Fergie defensive master class.

The only difference is Man Utd are on a par with Barca for availiable resources, Reading have about 5% of Man Utd's resources.

United fans should give some respect where it's due.

[Gordons Cumming]

Garry

We're a little club fighting against the odds in the big league.

Give us a bit of credit.........................

We're not experienced as teams like Everton who will be more offensive.

We're still learning.........

Give us a few years and we'll go there and win.

[Garry Mann]

Imagine if United played Barcelona in the Champions League semi final, they win the first leg at Old Trafford 1-0 and then go to Barca and play like Reading did on Sunday and achieve the 0-0 they need.

I suspect the Man Utd forum contributors would be w@nking themselves silly over a Fergie defensive master class.

The only difference is Man Utd are on a par with Barca for availiable resources, Reading have about 5% of Man Utd's resources.

United fans should give some respect where it's due.

It depends, we'd probably 'defend' from midfield. If we allowed them 23 shots and we scraped though I'd consider ourselves lucky, I certainly wouldn't heap praise on a Fergie master class.

Sometimes you don't get what you deserve, we didn't deserve a win at Anfield last year, but I certainly took the 3 points.

[Behindu]

their performance was not good enough (in particular in front of goal) and they got no more or less than they deserved

Maybe we are getting there, and that's a valid point. We were shit in-front of goal so maybe we didn't deserve the win. To say though that it was down to good defending is still way off the mark. Our finishing was poor today, that's why you got your point.

Oh well.

Always fun to see desperation on display !!!

Any result will be a combination of factors. We defended extremely well, United attacked very poorly. Of course part of the reason they attacked poorly was becasue we defended well...

But of course the proof of the pudding is we kept a clean sheet and got a deserved point. And there is the usual rubbish spouting from the armchair Mancs.

[southbank1871]

I can't help feeling United's lack of a striker who will lead the line for them and convert chances inside the box could cost them this season.

I would say that our point yesterday was a combination of excellent defending, lack of enterprise from United and a slice of luck.

Sounds like you're looking for excuses for a lacklustre display Aggers. Always makes me laugh when a team who have spent however millions expect a team who have spent about 10p to come and attack them at their own ground and probably lose heavily. They then get annoyed when what they actually do is shut up shop and get a well earned point.

[royal tee]

It's obviously differing views, United forums slating you and can't believe your luck while you all seem to think the plan to defend, and only let us have 23 shots, worked quite well.

http://www.redcafe.net/showthread.php?t=166466

Not quite true eh ???

[Garry Mann]

Right. I'm off. My final thoughts though are still that you were a tad fortunate to get a point, and that ultimately wasted chances and poor finishing cost us all 3.

[papereyes]

He's making Duberry into a good defender. That alone merits a knighthood

[royal tee]

From the above mentioned thread :

People not giving Reading credit for today are sour, bitter and clueless.

Sums it up perfectly.

[papereyes]

Say we get battered, Chelsea game's going to be hard as well, then Everton. Possibility of 3 games in, 0 points due, mostly, to a pretty tough start.

Then the press hit with their Second Season bullshit.

Most of the media have given us a lot of credit for that. We've gone out and scored not only our first point on the pitch, but got in an early blow against the press. They had the "this season, it'll be tougher" line ready for that game.

People not giving Reading credit for today are sour, bitter and clueless.

[soggy biscuit]

Reading's tactics were spot on.

It's not their fault we couldn't break them down and had no backup striker. They've got to do everything in their power to get at least a point, and their effort was superhuman

[papereyes]

They had a back-up striker. O'Shea.

Oh.

[Franchise FC]

Since this is a prediction thread - here goes :

1. RFC will not play that formation against many (if any) teams outside the big four.

2. If MU don't solve their striker crisis, they will have a mountain to climb by the end of September.

3. RFC will not win the Premier League

[Katie Marsden]

Some of you lot need to get over this 'little club' outlook and look at the fact that for the second season in a row we have been completely and utterly outclassed by Manchester United. Sure, we would expect to lose, but wasn't it 2 attempts on goal last season (in the 1-1 draw)?

Shots on goal today was 21 to 3 in United's favour. We posed no threat whatsoever, now have only 1 striker available of suitable quality, and Chelsea and Everton in the next 7 days.

Predictable whinging about the referee, who did nothing wrong.

0-0 is a great result, but a freak result. Play like that for the rest of the season and we will go down.

To be honest what do you expect? We can't compete with teams that spend £60m in the summer. We're bound to be outclassed home and away most of the time by the top 4. It will be the same at Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. Anything we can get in those games, by playing well or through luck will be snapped up.

As for the recent posts it needs to be pointed that after Rooney went off United didn't have a striker on the pitch and that proved decisive. I expect if they had Rooney, Tevez and Saha all on the pitch then things would have been very different in the last 30 minutes. The fact O'Shea had to be deployed as a make shift striker tells it's own story.

In short it was a good defensive performance against 3 wingers in the second half. In that situation I expect the defence to come out on top most of the time, especially when the midfield was also packed.