Tomo

Mata's started quite a lot recently, apart from the big games, which admittedly must be a concern for a player of his calibre. Azpilicueta also, wasn't getting games (outside the Carling Cup) until mid October, he made the odd appearance off the bench, but that was it.

Fergie once said Roy Keane could have succeeded him, that alone should have been a serious warning sign against letting him pick his own successor, although the cynical side of me thinks he might be trying to cement his own legacy. I never got this notion he worked miracles at Everton, yes he did a good job, but put wages and transfers into account i think they were the 7th highest spenders during his time, and his average finish was 8th (this was with early cup exit's more often than not too) not really the work of miracles when you scratch the surface. A good job yes, but miracle work? not even close. Pellegrini at Villareal had similar Moyes like funds, got them regular Champions League football while braking the Real-Barca duopoly and getting them to the latter stages of the CL on a couple of occasion's, if Moyes was a miracle worker, Pellegrini must have defied Science.

That's weird, i remember the reverse game at WHL and he might aswell have been shouting 'come on United' all game.

The Cup's are a lottery and shouldn't really be used as a barometer of club progress, like for example in 2012 when we won the FA Cup and CL, was great yes and i reveled in Munich all summer, but on the other hand that 6th place finish eat away at me. Most teams, even the crap one's, win atleast 10-12 games a season in all comps, like with Wigan last season, 6 of them could fall on FA Cup week and they get the cup. I will make my own assessment on the league, if we say finish 2nd but take the Champions to the last day, with more and more games like today and Liverpool as the season goes on, i would go into the close season feeling a lot better about where we are heading than i did in 2012 (even if we win nothing this season compared to 2 knockout cup's in 2012). But you are right in the fact that the phrase 'transition' is wearing a bit thin, we still are technically, but we are in the late stages of it, so we should still have enough to challenge, at the very least.

With United on after us i fucking hope that means we don't get Micheal Owen co-commentating, it was so refreshing today not having to listen to him. On the game, this is a banana skin if ever i seen one, McLaren isn't the donkey people think he is, and he has inflicted Jose's heaviest ever PL defeat.

It was, but that's what makes it funny. Ashley Young and Danny Welbeck denied stonewall penalties at Old Trafford by Howard Webb, wow.

Young and Welbeck denied stonewall penalties, while Januzaj booked for diving when fouled. Talk about what comes around goes around.

Apart from that ludicrious decision at the end of the first half, when he basically passed the ball to Davis when we had a counter attack on he had a good game today, deserves credit for this. But in the long run, it changes nothing, we still need a new striker and i would bite any club's hand off if they made an offer to sign him.

Moyes at United is exactly the same as Roy at Liverpool. Doing well at a club that doesn't have the same style of expectation's doesn't mean that will instantly translate into doing great at a top team. United are 10 times better than the Liverpool team Roy had, which is why Moyes is getting blessed with a few more results, but other than that the comparison's between the two are alarming.

Don't know what i want more, United to draw this level, or Spurs to hold on. Being 8 points clear of both looks a good prospect.

I actually thought Mata played well, and his frustration when he got subbed off was understandable, but the thing, is, he played well individually, Oscar-Hazard-Willian works as a trio, big time. I said before the game, that we needed to take advantage of the superior depth we have to Southampton in the Christmas period, this was the best time to visit St Mary's, but we still needed to get the job done, and we did and to be honest i was 99% sure we were going to win. Mourinho again shown why he is in the top bracket in world football manager's, proactive thinking to get the subs on, was Southampton's Shaw for Clyne a tactical sub or did Shaw get injured? Because having right footed left back up against Mata would have neutralized his threat a bit. Maybe that's what made Mou make those subs so soon? Rafa would have kept it the way it is and brought Kalas on for Azpi on 72 minutes. Speaking of Kalas, good to see him in the 18 atleast, hopefully he will get a start at Derby. All in all, perfect result and almost perfect performance, the team have responded great since Sunderland, and this is a big month with Everton and United to play then Ethiad early February, if we can still be in touch then, we have a great chance of the title.

Fuck sake, that's my Cardiff dream over.

So Eto'o scoring the winner against Liverpool is nothing but Torres scoring the winner (his only great game for the club) is? And you mention Eto'o and the penalty in the same game he scored a winner but Torres nearly undone all the hard work at Barca by losing the ball 25 yards out and not even bothering to try and win it back, Bosingwa (off all players) prevented a two on one against Cech straight after Torres mistake. He either went upfield in a sulk or took an insane gamble, i will give him the benefit of the doubt it's the latter. Then there was the "he didn't care" comment's, aswell as walking down the tunnel at QPR, stinking the pitch out with his shit performances and shit effort while, even worse, a young hungry striker who average's nearly a goal a game this season for another club now, was kicking his heals on the bench. Atleast with Samuel if he has the ball in a tight space, often he will come out of it with the ball firmly on his feet, Torres or Ba? not a chance. The whole episode has been one big nightmare, and what's worse we are probably only half way through. Eto'o's not an issue in the grande scheme of things, he will be gone at the end of the season and for a free transfer we have got about as much as we can hope for, Torres has cost us over £100m and still has two and a half years left on his 180k p/w contract.

Says the one with a Torres avatar

It really is underestimated the part Jose will play in the title race if we are still in touch late on. People seem to look at City's squad and assume they will run away with it, they didn't run away with it in the last two season's and given they still have all the top sides bar us to play away, i can't see them walking it this time either. People made the same mistake with us in 08/09, looked at our squad and said yeah on paper it's the best squad so Chelsea will walk the league, but United had Ferguson and we had a manager with no experience in a European league, that factor plays a big part. We have got a serial winner, while look at who our opposition have got. City have Pellegrini, now don't get me wrong, i think he is a good coach and i rate him very highly, the work he did at Villareal deified logic, but can he hold his nerve in the business end? can he got to Anfield and get the draw City need? time will tell. Arsenal have Wenger, was a winner, but his teams have bottled any chance of the title for years now, that will be a factor. Liverpool have Rodgers, who in my opinion is similar to Ranieri, good at building a side and getting them playing good football, but can he drag his teams through the finish line? Same with Martinez in Everton. United have Moyes, well, yeah, no explanation needed. But they do have players that won't lose the winning mentality from Fergie overnight, so if United can quietly creep up, they might have a say in the race yet inspite of Moyes. Inter under Jose and Roma under Ranieri had a tight title battle in 09/10, but did any one have any doubt that it would be Jose's Inter coming out on top? even when Roma leapfrogged them for a week, all the sensible money was still on Inter. Im not saying we will defiantly win it but If we can keep right up in this race, we will feel a lot more confident with our manager than our rivals will with their's, that is for sure.

Assuming we don't sign a forward this January, it's time to choose one that will play every game unless they are suspended or injured. Torres is a no-no for me, he has had this chance already, he started 27 of our first 29 games last season and if im not mistaken only got subbed off in two of those (QPR and West Brom), so that's 25 full 90 minutes he had in 29 games, and was poor in most of them. Now do i believe Eto'o or Ba will do better if they got that amount of game time? i am almost certain. Eto'o has only started more than 1 in a row 3 times when he first came in against Everton, Basle and Fulham then against Schalke, West Brom and West Ham and he scored 3 in 3, now against against Swansea and Liverpool and he got the winner in one of them. As for Ba, i don't think he has started 2 in a row that often, let alone more than that. So if we don't sign a forward next month, we should choose Eto'o or Ba to lead the line and stick with them until May, Torres we know will blow the chance because he has had it before, Eto'o or Ba might not take the chance either, but we won't know until we try.

If Maka was around today, he would have to adapt a bit and work on his attacking side a bit more, such is the demand for players to be good at both aspects of the game these days. Even the CB's are expected to chip in with their fair share of goals, Nesta for example only ever got 13, how many CB's playing today (over 25) have that low a tally? Varane is already half way there and he's 20. Also with every passing year it's getting more important that keepers are good with their feet, that aspect is only going to continue evolving, give it 10 years and 'sweeper keepers' will be an important tactical aspect off the game.

I thought his game overall was one of his worse here, usually what Eto'o brings that Torres and Ba don't is vastly superior technical ability, even if he is not playing well he will atleast get the ball and keep the ball firmly planted to his feet before giving it to a teammate, today i felt he lost it cheaply, which wasn't like him atall. But like you said he got the winner (Cardiff was a winner because he got the 2nd in a 4-1, Schalke was a winner because he got the first in a 3-0), so happy days.

I think he has been brilliant for most of the season if im honest, yes he has had his stinkers but he is 35 and playing most games due to lack of CM options, all things considered he is having a very, very good season. I just hope we can get these CM's in by next August at the latest, then Frank can probably give us a good 2/3 years more in a lesser role giving us displays like today. With Lampard from here on in, the motto must be, less is more.

All Mourinho has left to prove at club level is that he can build a stable club for a long period of time. He has proved he can go anywhere and get instant success, this is his next step. If he stays here for 12 years, wins 7-9 title's and 2/3 CL's the goes to the International scene and wins the world cup, he would be the ultimate manager and comfortably surpass Fergie. Fergie's great for his longevity, Mourinho could quite easily retire being great for longevity, instant success in numerous league's and be a World Cup winning manager. That probably won't be surpassed or even matched for generation's if he can do it. All i do ask is if he does stay for 12 years, we don't let him pick his own successor.

If he can even take responsibility like today and against Swansea once every 2 games, we will win the league for sure.

What's the odds that when we go to The Hawthorns and Anfield, the ref's will want to "right the wrongs"?

Flat track bullying is actually a very good trait to have, especially in league football. Ronaldo was the king of that in the PL (he never scored a PL goal against Chelsea and one vs Liverpool from open play) but his flat track bullying was what won United 3 in a row. I think Jose was a genius defending and praising him to the hilt pre match, he must have been aware of what happened with Luis and Moyes last season, and knew that the more you slate him, the better he plays.

After the momentul fuck up off the 2010 transfer window and the subsequent season which imo set us back years. We were always going to be for a painful couple of years no matter how much we spent. But now their seems to be genuine light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully it won't be long before we reach the consistency level's of 04-10 once more. Hopefully with Jose here for all off it this time.

True, but last season Suarez equalized in this fixture after fouling Ramires, and im not even going to bother commenting on the Anfield game. They got lucky against us last season, now it's the other way around, they should just accept what comes around, goes around and move on.