Disappointing United Held by Magpies

It was a game where United could’ve scored 5 goals on another day. Two goal-line clearances, a couple of crossbar strikes, a number of saves, a few other misses, and United ended up with only a point from a 2-2 draw at St.James’ Park. As disappointing as it was, that day belonged to the 19 years old Edgar who played at the left back, shutting down Ronaldo, before he switched flanks with Giggs, and what to cap a home debut other than scoring an equalizer against a mammoth team like United.

I agree though with Ferguson that it’s all credit to the Toon’s troops who played with high spirits closing down every movement of each of United player. The only thing I thought Ferguson should’ve done is bringing on Carrick at the hour after the tempo was slowing down and United players started letting Newcastle dictated the tempo, albeit the 12th man in the Magpies crowd was magnificent throughout the night. It was also questionable why Solskjaer who is in terrific form lately and is a clinical finisher, was not on the bench, leaving United with Rooney as the only striker with Saha injured midway through the first half.

2 points dropped, United need to be careful of their own defensive unit as once the transfer market opens in January, expect Chelsea to shore up their leaky defense with some big names, such as Sol Campbell. It’s a 7 points advantage now, and it’s all up to the United squad to show their characters fighting for the title that seems closer within reach this year than anytime in the last 3 years.

Manchester United @ Newcastle United

In a little over an hour, Manchester United will be playing Newcastle United at St.James’ Park for their first campaign in 2007, having been 6 points clear of Chelsea at the summit of the Premiership. Throughout the year, United has shown the type of resiliency and persistence that has been lacked of in recent years. The emergence of Vidic at the back along with the maturing Ferdinand added a composed United back-line along with the always reliable Gary Neville and the emergence of Evra competing with Heinze at the left back.

The return of Scholes at the midfield adds the type of vision and the ability to change the course of the game with a tackle or a long pass along with the arrival of Carrick who has been playing pretty well at the anchor position, breaking tackles and sending in long balls.

With Ronaldo playing at his best form of his life, he makes a good case for Player of the Year, and along with Saha, who has been able to fill-in the shoes of the departed van Nistelrooy, United attack hasn’t looked so orchestrated in so many years, with Giggs playing one of the best year of his career.

van der Sar at the back has been the answer to Ferguson to the long tem problem after Schmeichel left, and the 36-years old Dutchman look as composed as ever, albeit he is a totally different personality with that of Peter Schmeichel.

That all above, with the exception of Neville who was out of injured, would probably the first 11 that Ferguson will name for this tricky encounter with the Magpies. Expect tough battle in midfield with possibly 4-5-1 formation, United needs to be at their best controlling the tempo and taking an early lead to settle into the game.

mindubes’ long tail: NEWCASTLE UTD 0 – MANCHESTER UTD 2

roll up the dice

in the past few weeks i’ve made a number of predictions for the english premier league and nfl, which i’ll start calling it ‘roll up the dice‘ … well just for the records, so far the dice has been rolling pretty favorably, it’s 3 out of 4, with good for manutd vs. newcastle (2-0), good for benfica vs. manutd (0-1), good for broncos vs. new england (a win for the broncos) and bad for reading vs. manutd (1-1).  not too bad for a bloke operating at the very long tail of a sports analysis/predictions. 

man utd 2 – newcastle utd 0 !!!

today is by far the best performance so far that i’ve seen from manchester united this season. scholes and carrick produced a stable and dominating midfield performance, while ronaldo is inspirational in the victory for the red devils. ole gunnar solskjaer produced the type of efficiency that any manager would’ve wished for a center forward, while vidic and ferdinand formed a rock solid partnership at the back. both full-backs, evra –who replaced the injured heinze early on and gary neville produced a confident performance, while fletcher made his case for a regular starting role with an industrious display throughout the game –where he could’ve scored himself if not denied for the woodwork off his thundering strike and midway through the second-half where he should’ve been awarded a penalty for one of newcastle defender’s hand ball. at the goal, van der sar produced a couple of great saves to keep the game in a safe bet for manchester united en route to a confident display sending a warning message to chelsea –who was held at home the previous day. brilliant display by the red devils!!

mindcubes’ ratings:

van der sar (7) , neville (7), ferdinand (7), vidic (7.5), heinze (6.5), evra (7), ronaldo (8.5 –man of the match), carrick (7), scholes (7), fletcher (7), rooney (6), solskjaer (8).

newcastle utd @ manchester utd

after a hard-fought match at lisbon (of which i predicted oh ah bingo a 1-0 win for man utd!!), man utd is up against the other united, newcastle united this coming sunday at old trafford. scott parker (newcastle’s captain) might get extra motivation after a recent call-up to the england squads, while rooney, continually supported by his team-mates, needs to pick-up his game knowing a both in-form saha-rooney partership might be the key to unlocking’ united ’s inabilities to capitilize on possessions in the last few games. newcastle has a key player in obefami martins, a promising player –of who internazionale’s president, massimo moratti, once called him ‘my little michael owen’ although his true potential are yet to be realized in a tough-tackling natures of the premiership. united, though with heinze back at left back, at least start showing some consistency at the back while carrick and scholes continues to work on their partnership in the middle of the park.

mindcubes’ long tail

playing at home after coming off a good result in europe might give united a little edge over newcastle who seem are still trying to find their identity this campaign. an early lead though might be enough for united to see-off a resilient newcastle. MAN UTD 2 – NEWCASTLE UTD 0.