Carling Cup: United advance

Last night’s Carling Cup match at Barsley saw United advance to the next round of the tournament.  Win or loose, competitions like the Carling Cup are a great chance for us United fans to almost ’scout’ the youngsters and reserves of United.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t get to see any of the reserve games, and see how great of a job Ole is doing developing players for the top level.  For me, I look to spot players that have the potential to play at the highest level, and then pray that Fergie does not transfer them to another club.

Based on last night’s performance, the players I believe to have the most potential for United are Zoran Tosic and Gabriel Obertan.  Likewise, the players I have the least faith in and wouldn’t mind seeing transferred are Danny Welbeck (despite his goal last night) and Ritchie De Laet (even know he’s not had much time to perform on the 1st team).

If I had to pick the first player to move away from United, I think it would definitely be Frederico Macheda – Villa fans will be glad to see him leave United after what he did to them at the end of last season.  I suspect Macheda will want to return to Italy to play in Serie A.

All in all, not a performance to write home about last night, but a great chance for us to soak in the upcoming United stars.

Ghastly display at Anfield

Well I’ve put this off the entire day, not wanting to think about the ghastly performance the red’s put on today in Liverpool.  Walking back and forth passed my computer all day not wanting to sit down and have to relive the match.

All I can really say is that I am without words.  I mean the squad as a whole played like absolute rubbish.  Of particular poor play was that of Evra, Berbatov, Ferdinand, and as always Nani (well thats probably just because I’m biased toward Nani).

Berbatov and Evra really pushed my buttons today.  Nothing angers me more than losing the ball and not hustling back to try and win it back.  One instance in particular stands out in my mind when Evra lost the ball deep in his own half, then was literally jogging back to recover as Liverpool headed toward goal.  Evra seriously lucked out on that; if Liverpool would have scored there, he would have never lived it down.

I thought for sure with the return of Giggs and Rooney combined with the absence of Gerrard would surely see United prevail at Anfield.  This game was definitely not one to be remembered – especially seeing that Chelsea pulls ahead by 2 points in the table.  Bollocks…

Berbatov disappointing against Russian Champs

Sitting here after tonight’s champions league performance against Russian Champs, Moscow, leaves me feeling quite disgusted.  Apart from coming alive in the last 10 minutes of the match, Berbatov’s performance and attitude tonight was a dismal.

The lack of effort, hustle, dive, and constant waving of the arms to both his teammates and the referee definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.  Had it not been for his assist on the winning goal by Valencia, this blog post may have contained some otherwise vulgar language.

Stepping aside for Berba, I thought the whole team’s performance was rather lack luster and static.  I don’t know if this was due to the absence of Rooney, Giggs, Fletcher, Park and Evra or if Fergie thought it best to play conservative ahead of this weekend’s clash with Liverpool.  I lost count of how many crosses went into the box and found no one.

A few points that left me wondering:

1. What was with the strange formation?  If I saw correctly, they were playing a 4–2–3–1 with Berbatov the lone striker. 
2. Did Ferdinand come off to be subbed or did he pick up a knock?
3. How many times can Fabio get injured?
4. Is it my imagination or was that pitch natural grass for the 2008 champions league final?

EPL International break weekend

Like all other international break weekends, I am quite bored this afternoon without being able to watch the Reds in action.  On the plus side, there are a few quality international matches on the tele this afternoon, one in particular I’d like to watch is the Portugal match.

I suppose I can also go out and buy the new Fifa 10 game for xbox360.  Has anyone purchased this game yet that has an opinion one way or the other?  I wonder how it will stack up against PES 10.  The day that the Fifa games get incorporate the Champions League into their game will be unbelievable.

Scanning through a few news articles today I was very happy to hear about Michael Carrick’s starting role in the England World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine.  I think Michael has been a bit off as of late and this international cap will hopefully give him the confidence he needs to come back with a bang at Old Trafford.  With Owen Hargreeves’ return nearing, Carrick will really have to fight for his spot in the center of the pitch.

Best of luck to all the lads in this weekend’s fixtures, and please no injuries!  (Have a look at some United player photos on international break).