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Now that we are 8 points ahead of Man Cty with the prospect of winning the Tittle when we go to thier ground, I was thinking, If that were to happen, how about a tweak of the starting Lineup since the last 2 games will be more or less a formality. The Lineup I have used above is design to give our young players a chance with no pressure to shine on thier own. The Idea is to have them win thier games so that Man U can Have the Rights most points in a season.

The Lineup is also designed to build some game time relationship between these players which should improve during preseason so that players like Pogba and Cleverly can become more involved in the team so that we do not have to relly on the old Dogs to get us out of trouble everytime. My substitute bench will be as bellow:

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This should allow us to introduce some experience should the need arise, otherwise we can just let the young guys get some much needed game time to help them develop.

I am a firm believer in the principle of every little helps. Give them a chance and they will grow. This goal will allow the young guns to challenge the main staters when the new season starts

Note: None of the opinions here reflect the views of The Busy Babe.

I was just looking over a few strikers numbers in this seasons EPL and Thought I'd do a breakdown and quick analysis of Manchester United's strikers in this seasons EPL.

After the jump I'll be looking at not just goals scored, but shooting %, game winners and goals scored in different in-game situations. I'll also tell you why Rooney looks good(ish) and why Welbeck must do better.

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Editor's Note: I was going to post on the speculation of Kagawa not extending his BVD contract but Amen has us covered in this FanPost. His transfer fee would probably to be in the region of £15 million.

One of the things that makes us rabid United fans is that we are always looking for ways to improve our team. And one of the worst kept secrets in European football is that United needs an upgrade in midfield. I say that we pass (and by pass, I mean slink away from the negotiation table in shame we don't have the cash to get him) on Mario Gotze, and go for another player from Borussia Dormund: Shiniji Kagawa. I will give 3 reasons why after the jump.

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I know United have had a number of good goals this season and Valencia's goal yesterday was just touch of class but Did anyone realise tht the Young goal came after 38 completed passes and 1:58 worthy of possession, every Man Utd player touched the Ball with young Finishing it with Class. I know Valencia's Goal was a touch of Class but the second goal was just a brillient team effort. Its leading the race for Goal of the season for me.

Whilst I think that Fergie has earned the right to call time on his reign whenever he deems it right it feels a bit like he wouldn't want to let go unless he feels the club can go forwards without him at the helm and we are not in that position at present, so once again we find ourselves at a crossroads this summer. There have been quite a few crossroads during Fergie's stewardship, but with the flood of money going into some other clubs and the dominance of Spanish sides in particular in Europe it feels like crunch time really is approaching. We risk losing our remaining top stars unless we can move forward, not sideways or backwards as we have been doing for a few years now.
Obviously our star man on the field is Rooney, but we have some other potentially excellent players - Nani, Valencia, Young, De Gea, Vidic, Evra, and also a bunch of promising youngsters. Not all will make the grade but there is some talent there, along with a few that need to be moved on really.

What our main man Rooney needs, and craves, is someone to really connect with, and that man is Ronaldo. It's crystal clear, and proven! These two live on a different wavelength to everyone else. Some of their link up play before Ronaldo headed off to fulfil his boyhood dream was truly outstanding and I can't think of a better pairing I have ever seen, and that was when Ronaldo was a winger. I think they both miss each other. A front two of Rooney and Ronaldo, now both are at their peak, would surely be devastating. You could just tell they loved playing off each other, each finally having someone they could rely on to know what the other was doing and thinking. Previously I thought there would be more chance of Rooney moving to Real than of Ronaldo coming back 'home', particularly when Rooney was talking about lack of ambition and moving on - My thoughts were that he wanted to hook up with Ronnie again at Real. But if, just if, Ronaldo had another reason to come back to Old Trafford where he will always be adored like Rooney, could it actually happen?

That reason being Mourinho. When he first came to Chelsea I thought he was a proper tw@t to be honest (It too quite some time to let go of that offside goal that Porto had that knocked us out of Europe the year he won it) but credit where credit is due - He has delivered fantastic results everywhere he has managed and I quite like his 'one in the eye for you' approach as it does not seem that far from Fergie's own style. He and Fergie go back quite a long way now and have enormous respect for each other, and like Fergie he seems to have very good man management skills. He likes the seige mentality which Fergie has also used a lot over the years and he commands the respect of his players (or they're off - again, like Fergie).

Fergie is old skool and his achievement of being able to stay up at the top of the game for 25 years whilst football has eveolved and developed beyond recognition is quite incredible and will never be matched. Because he has delivered he has always had the board's backing, which is probably something Mourinho would love also. Mourinho is the modern version of Fergie and I can only really fault him on one thing and that is he is happy to use, or even encourages, a win nasty approach. Tweak that to win beautifully and it is the complete package. That said I would take winning nasty over not winning!

To win Ronaldo over at Real Madrid after insulting him by calling him uneducated when managing Chelski must have taken a bit of doing. I appreciate the comment was part of the mind games both he and Fergie like to use, but again it is the management skills and the mutual respect that has probably sorted it.

Fergie has done his job - a great man manager - holding Rooney and Ronaldo together after the World cup winker incident for one, holding on to Rooney when he wanted out, persuading Ronaldo to give one more year when he was waiting to move to RM. Fergie has won 2 UCLs with Utd but let's be honest - both of those could be considered somewhat fortuitous. We're just not quite there in Europe and this is one area where Mourinho could surpass Fergie. Mourinho would love it at Utd. It is already in his heart and head and he hasn't even got the job yet.
I think Fergie being the man he is, and always having the interests of Utd in his soul, would gladly step aside to put this into place, particularly if he stayed on in some capacity at the club. Mentor would be the wrong term but there are still things that Mourinho could learn from Fergie, and he would happily do so I feel as he is always hungry to learn more from those he respects.

So how about next year we see Mourinho in the dugout with Fergie and Charlton nodding approvingly from the directors box (or Fergie even in the dugout with the Special one) whilst their boys Roooney and Ronaldo annihaliate all comers. what a dynasty, what a family, a group of diverse but supremely talented men all with the utmost respect for each other, and all truly united in one cause that runs through their heart - United!
As a bonus should this scenario ever happen I feel Man U would have no problem attracting almost any player in the world they wanted. The only thing remaining would be to find the last piece of the jigsaw - a like for like replacement for Roy Keane! It's a shame but I'm not sure one exists. But if he did come along you could bet your bottom dollar he would want to be part of this magic.

This is in no way a dig at Fergie, but with Mourinho's situation at RM and Man U a team once again in transition with direction undetermined it just feels like there might not be a better time to do it before another clubs picks him up. What do you think?

Jon

I orginally posted this in the post match reaction thread. But because the thread is bumped so low on the site, I decided to make a fanpost about it.

This is probably the most complete game I’ve seen United play all year. I mean the team as a whole did a great job. The goalkeeping, defenders, midfielders and forwards played great and did their jobs.

The only gripe I had was our finishing, we could of had done better. It could at the very least have been 4-0. But we went into OT and played a West Brom side that has had a good run of form. They won their last three before playing us, been starting to playing well at the Hawthorns, which has been their kryptonite believe it or not and beat Chelsea. We had to play a 90-minute match against a team who truly believed they could of taken three points (at least that's what Chris Brunt felt) and we did it with bells on.

Despite not being tested too much, David de Gea had a great match. For the first time in a while he was not peppered with shots (a testament of how strong our defensive corps was that day), but made two key saves. The first being in the 17th minute in which he made a diving fingertip save on a free kick and the other being in the 81st minute he made a class save denying Shane Long a goal. Other than that he wasn't really tested. But he was on his toes for the times he was tested. Man his game has just gotten better as each match goes by. I mean his reflexes, agility to save the ball, his distribution have gotten better in the last few matches.

Man was Anders Lindegaard going down the best thing that happened to him, because I thought it was then that he realized that he needed to go out there and be that goalkeeper that he was when he was playing for Athletico and he has. Plus I was happy he kept the clean sheet because he deserved it (he deserved it in the Spurs but our D got complacent in the end).

I thought our defense played outstanding on Sunday. One of the drawbacks supporters bring up with our recent string of wins (the Norwich City game I like to bring up personally) is how average our defense has been, not bring stingy enough and letting the opposing teams get a good run of form in or outside the box and letting the opposing team get good shots in. Well not on Sunday. On Sunday our defenders did a fine job defending against Albion, standing toe to toe with them and not letting them out of their sight. As a result sans the first couple of minutes of the first half, West Bromwich didn’t have too many changes. When they had the ball, the play would be broken up by United either in the middle of the pitch or outside the box, also you will see that in the stats as shots wise West Brom only had seven shots (with three on target). This is what I want to see for the rest of the season!!

I thought Rio and Patrice (our whipping boy as of late) had a fine match. Both of them never took an eye off of the West Brom players they were defending, never giving them a inch of space to work with. To be specific, I thought Rio did a good job in the 30th and 32nd minute defending Marc Andre Fortune, never giving him a clear shot of the goal. Patrice did a good job in the 32nd minute stealing the ball by muscling it, also he did a good job in the 15th minute defending Josef Mulumbu, he kept on him and never gave him a chance the ball. This is what I want to see from Evra, can he do it consistently I don’t know.

Phil Jones didn’t have a bad day either, but it was his difficulty possessing the ball in the 5th minute that led to that good sliding shot Keith Andrews had, lucky for Phil he missed the net, because if he didn’t he would of scored because the net was empty. He needs to do better on that.

I thought our midfielders did an excellent job controlling and distributing the ball. For example Paul Scholes help made that first goal possible. He made a love deep pass to Chicharito, who then passed it to Wazza for the goal. For that Scholesy should be commended.

Good to see Tom Cleverley back in action. He didn’t do anything that stood out, but he distributed the ball well in the short time he had on the pitch.

Nice to see Paul Pogba seeing the light and finally realizing United is the club of the future for his career. He distributed the ball well, but two things stood out that he did: He used his strength in the 78th minute to get the ball off of Peter Odomwingie, who was on the edge of the right side of the box and if kept going had a decent shot at the net and in the 84th minute had a chance at goal, but didn’t have and zip on the shot.

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Hello all,

I haven't written a FanPost for this site before so I'll do a quick introduction. My name is John and I've been a United fan since I spent a year in the UK back in college in 2003. I grew up playing soccer in the US but never knew much about international footy until the 1994 World Cup. I didn't really start following the EPL until I spent a year abroad in the UK. That was the year Arsenal went undefeated, and given my ignorance of English Football history I considered Manchester United to be a plucky, fun underdog to root for. As I learned the history of the club and especially as I became enamored of Ferguson and the squad (esp. Scholes and Van Nistelrooy) I started to become a real fan. Now that I have discovered the joys of online streaming I watch every game I can!

Anyways, in response to the win yesterday I started to look seriously at United's chances of winning the league. For these projections, I'll assume each team will win the games they should, though we all know everyone will inevitably drop points with shock draws or losses. Obviously the win over Tottenham was huge. The win probably knocked Tottenham out of title contention, though their remaining schedule is not very difficult. Here are the remaining games for Tottenham (currently 53pts):

@ Everton, Stoke, @ Chelsea, Swansea, @ Sunderland, Norwich, @ Bolton, @ QPR, Blackburn, @ Villa, Fulham.

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If we take a critical look at our team, these days you will see that in Sir Alex's effort to keep all players happy, fresh and put some youngsters through to the big stage, the club suffers by missing out on very important competitions and trophies. My candid opinion is that the gaffer should reconsider the idea of having a regular starting eleven. Then, from the lot you have super subs like Chicarito and other squad players who can fill in for any of the first eleven who sustains injury or is indisposed for one reason or the other. For me, too many times this season our team just looks too ordinary for a MANCHESTER UNITED team. For instance, the issue of the forwards is settled, ROONEY and WELBECK will do the job. Hernandez, Berbatov and Owen should be the subs. On the flanks, VALENCIA and NANI should do the job. Giggs (for age reasons,else I would prefer him to NANI) Park and Young should be subs. The midfield should be ANDERSON and CARRICK. Fletcher, Scholes( for age reasons) and Cleverley should be subs. Ther back four should be RAFAEL, RIO, VIDIC and EVRA while the likes of Smalling for RAFAEL, Jones for RIO, Evans for VIDIC and Fabio for EVRA should know their sub status. Things could change when there is an emergency. I disapprove of shuffling things when you think somebody should get a rest. Seeing Young make a mess of the wing against Ajax was not delightful when we had Giggs on the bench ready to go, moreso, at Old Trafford where he could have had a glorious 900th appearance. Then bringing on Scholes later shouldn't have been, Park had no business in that midfield. He just can't handle it. He doesn't he even cut a player who knows what to do and falls too easily for a midfielder(The playmaker). I can go on and on. Thank God the gaffer came out to accept his fault in the whole saga. I am one of those people who believe that a well set out United team can and will defeat the 'almighty' Barcelona team. SAF should also try to keep a player's momentum, when a player is in form give him enough game time unless he is injured or can no longer give a good performance, I think this is why they are paid those huge wages.

It is an interesting question that is being much debated around the UK radios right now. This could go any number of ways. For Evra, it is naive to think that he won't be the subject of boos and potential abuse (hopefully not racial). The real question Fergie has is, can Evra handle it and could the team cope with the rash of injuries that seem to suddenly have hit without him?

In the long run, it might be best for Fergie to sit Evra. It isn't right that a player might be intimidated off the pitch, but in reality, such is life. It doesn't make it right, but it may be the best way to diffuse an otherwise volatile situation. It would be a shame to see this have a huge effect on what should be a good game. The fact that Suarez isn't playing may make things better or worse. It will alleviate some of the tension on the pitch, but may heighten it in the Kop.

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Hi although I rate Paul Scholes as one of the all time greats to wear the red of Man Utd I fear for the future of the highly rated Paul Pogba & Ravel Morrison. Both are reported to having their heads turned by the likes of both Milan clubs, City, Barca etc. What chance have they got if the answer to the midfield problem is to bring a 37 year old that was looking after them in the reserves back into the fray. Give youth a chance it has worked in the past and Utd have a great name for giving youth a chance. I have seen these lads (Morrison has had a few problems off field) but they are serious serious prospects. Lets get them involved. Carling cup appearances against Palace is not enough and to loose them for 300,000 for development costs to rivals would be a disaster. Does anyone have information on their current contract as there is confliciting stories?