The Busby Babe: FanPosts

Tough start for the Red Devils.

2013-06-19T11:47:50Z

The 2013-14 league fixture list was released today and the first two months will not make for happy reading by David Moyes. After the August 11th community shield, Manchester United will pick up where they left off last season with a visit to South Wales to face Swansea on the opening weekend. This particular fixture has draw written all over it, as the Welsh side are really very good at home, and a new manger with a new system might take a little time for adjustment.

The next two fixtures will really throw Moyes into the deep-end however, firstly the Reds will host Jose Mourinho-led Chelsea in the home opener on August 24th before a trip to Anfield the following weekend, to round out the month. Anfield is a venue where Moyes has not won for 11 years. September is slightly easier, but right in the middle of the month is a trip across town to face Manchester City at the Etihad.

October and November should provide a nice bedding-in period as the bulk of the fixtures are against mid to lower table opposition and newly promoted sides, however November sees the first two fixtures against the North London sides with Arsenal visiting Old Trafford on November 9th and United travelling to White Hart Lane two weeks later. The other big highlight is Moyes' return to Goodison Park on April 19th; a potentially crucial period during the run-in, and a tough game in what is bound to be an electric atmosphere. The season will finish with matches against Norwich, Sunderland ,and finally away against Southampton.

Personally, I like the schedule. I would rather we get those difficult away trips to our fiercest rivals out of the way early and close the season out against some of the weaker teams, though of course these teams may be desperate for points of their own by then!

The full fixture list is here (courtesy of the BBC).

What do you think of the schedule? Which fixtures outside of the blue-ribbon games are you most looking forward to?

via static.guim.co.uk

The full fixture list is here (courtesy of the BBC).

What do you think of the schedule? Which fixtures outside of the blue-ribbon games are you most looking forward to?

Looking back at season '12-13

2013-06-08T12:42:26Z

Remember how excited we were when we signed Kagawa and Robin van Persie? We talked up on all kinds of formations to fit both of them and Rooney in. I was recently looking up some of Cox's ESPN articles and found some about United and our players:

Role of the new No. 10 in the Premier League

Gonna write briefly about the No. 10 article first because next few might be pretty lengthy.

In the article Cox mentioned the top team's new creative recruits in Kagawa, Cazorla, Oscar and Sigurdsson... and Liverpool (not a top team, obviously) bought themselves Coutinho in January. But did they all excel as 10s when we're done with 12-13? I'd say most, if not all of them ended up faring better by the flanks than they did in 'the hole'. Even veteran 10s like Silva and Mata ended up playing as 'interiores'. In our case, Kagawa only gradually made himself more comfortable in the No. 10 role towards the near end of the season.

Shinji Kagawa - Manchester United Samurai - Skills & Goals - 2012/2013 HD (via KaiiZoVideo)

How does RvP fit into United's plans?

Now that the season has ended, I can perhaps start with a conclusion that Robin didn't fit into whatever we planned for our season - instead he was the centre piece and everyone had to amend themselves to fit into his puzzle.

If we were to pinpoint the key factors on our side on how we won our 13th Premier League title, the first key point* is perhaps RvP's blistering form from August to February - 22 goals and 7 assists. During that stretch, judging solely from the scorelines and RvPs stats in goals and assists, I can perhaps safely say that without his brilliance we would've drawn or lost most of our wins during that 7 months. We were so poor on all fronts, especially during the first 5 months, where our attacks were disjointed, our midfield overrun, our shape stretched, our defence chaotic and our keepers rotating. RvP's individual brilliance single handedly kept us in the title race during all the tactical mayhems.

*2nd key point is us shoring up our defence at the turn of the year, conceding more than 2 goals only once in all competitions for 2 full months. 3rd point being that we were unbeaten for all 18 games in between the meaningless 1-0 defeat vs Cluj till the 2-1 defeat vs Real, winning 14 and drawing 4.

Robin van Persie - Top 5 Goals 2012/2013 (via zachariahcomps)

But RvP's brilliance came at a price of some of our attackers. Robin's scoring runs cemented his place as the spear head of our attacks - in the first half of the season his goals and assists got us through all but one (damn Spurs) big games. That left Kagawa, Hernandez, Welbeck and Rooney fighting for the 2nd striker spot. And all have since admitted that they themselves are (to varying degrees) disappointed with their season. Perhaps they should also consider themselves somewhat lucky that our wingers fared worse, because otherwise they may have their appearances further halved. Rooney, the worst victim of them all (half by his own fault), then asked to leave in light of his 'positional carousel'.

Mediocre Manchesters?

Crucially, When RvP stopped scoring at will, we generally struggled to attack and that's when the cracks in our system started to surface. This is precisely what Cox had written in his article, but in Manchester City's context:

Think of City's title success, and it's about individuals: Joe Hart's saves, Vincent Kompany's aerial dominance, Yaya Toure's driving runs, Silva's creativity and Aguero's instant impact. There were no key relationships and no definitive philosophy behind Roberto Mancini's selections. -Michael Cox

Sounds similar doesn't it? de Gea's saves, Ferdinand's consistency, Carrick's calmness, Rafael's coming of age maturity and Robin van Persie's instant impact. No key relationships, no system identity. The cause of our problems is different to City's though: de Gea was rotating with Lindegaard in the first 4 months, and our centre backs, midfielders, wingers and attackers all couldn't stay healthy for a consistent period of time. While those were the serious problems we barely managed to swim through thanks to RvP and undying willpower to win in the first half, same excuses couldn't be used for the final few months of 2012-13.

The pre-season talks of changing in formation to suit all our attackers turned out to be 2 failed experiments: 1 being the season opener where Kagawa was the fulcrum to Welbeck/van Persie, Rooney and Nani in a 4-2-1-3; the other being 4-4-2 diamond. All were tried to fit as many attackers as we can but despite my personal opinion that we at times played beautiful football in the experimented formations (particularly the diamond), we were ultimately outmatched and Sir Alex more often than not made in game formation switches to end his experiments abruptly.

But what has happened to United's shape? Van Persie's arrival, along with that of Shinji Kagawa, has resulted in a clumsy, confused approach. In Ferguson's desperation to include as many attackers as possible, he attempted to use a diamond midfield, contradicting United's traditional focus upon width. Players are constantly fielded out of position and there has rarely been a match where United's forwards wide midfielders and central midfielders have all looked comfortable. -Michael Cox

With the experiments failed, we went back to our tried and tested 4-4-1-1 counter attacking football during big games, with mixed results: at first we would often get ourselves a big lead before conceding them then ending the game with a frenzy winner. By March, our goals have dried up and we struggled to stay in the game before ultimately defeated.

If I am allowed to somewhat criticize our title-winning season, this season's problems can be narrowed down to 3: Firstly, when RvP's form dipped, so did our creativity from all over the pitch. Then there's the mentioned lack of key relationships, especially in Carrick and van Persie's case. The last but most important one though, is the missing ability to get us out of trouble after we defended deeply. This was the main factor that failed our big game strategy. This doesn't apply only on our centre midfield but on all our players, which is very shocking to say the least, because some of them used to be brilliant in bailing us out of pressure.

I searched through ZonalMarking's coverage of our big games this season and the tactics we've deployed are largely 4-4-1-1 as per usual. In trying hard to refresh my memories using Cox's articles, I find that in the wins against Chelsea and City we raced to a 2-0 lead in less than 30 minutes time. However, once we allowed our opponents to settle into a passing rhythm we were forced to chase shadows and allowed them to get back into the game, before breaking their hearts with controversial winners. A win is a win, but it doesn't masked the fact that in both games, from the 30th minute onward, we were outplayed and our defence gradually unable to contain the onslaughts.

vs Man City -via i1231.photobucket.com

The crucial problem is our inability to get us out of trouble. Even the most consistent performer of the whole year, Michael Carrick, struggled to find an outlet pass when under pressure. Needless to say that Rooney, as the main link from defence to attack, didn't do his job well in both games, but the fault wasn't his alone. Valencia couldn't dribble away from his defenders; Cleverley likewise couldn't find a proper pass to his team mates; Young and Evra's dribbles became ineffective and were often ushered to the touchline for throw-ins; van Persie became more isolated and barely touched the ball, so the option of having him holding the ball almost never existed; and most annoyingly, the defenders opted to clear the first dangers by hoofing them up field which resulted in subsequent waves and waves of pressure upon us.

Did this problem persist for the full season? Yes, because when the attacks and creativity dried up it affected our ability to keep the ball away from our own half and that added back the pressure that were relieved after we sorted out our defence; and No, because we showed what we can do in the Champions League tie vs Real Madrid.

The Real Madrid match at Old Trafford -via i1231.photobucket.com

It is the return leg where we played 60 minutes worth of best football in 12-13 (not lasting 90 is in no fault of our own) that saw us maximizing our 4-4-1-1 counter attacking potential. Of course, we defended well, but in Nani and Welbeck we had 2 options to get us quick transition football - one was able to hold on his own on the left flank, the other just brilliantly dribbled end-to-end. And Giggsy's passing was top notch that night. Needless to say that the manner in which we lost the tie was the catalyst of our decline for the next few months, and we had only our psychologically insurmountable Premier League lead to ensure that we actually have a trophy to end Sir Alex's reign in smiles.

All in all, this season ended with Sir Alex's retirement and our 20th English title as parting gift for the legendary manager. The tiniest tinge of regret lingers on the fact that we could've won more this season, that we have the potential to win a treble, and that our problems can be fixed by better tactical coaching. Perhaps I should leave that to another time and end this lengthy piece with a video season review:

Manchester United Season Review 12/13 (via theAntonAlfy)

Role of the new No. 10 in the Premier League

Gonna write briefly about the No. 10 article first because next few might be pretty lengthy.

Shinji Kagawa - Manchester United Samurai - Skills & Goals - 2012/2013 HD (via KaiiZoVideo)

How does RvP fit into United's plans?

Robin van Persie - Top 5 Goals 2012/2013 (via zachariahcomps)

Mediocre Manchesters?

Think of City's title success, and it's about individuals: Joe Hart's saves, Vincent Kompany's aerial dominance, Yaya Toure's driving runs, Silva's creativity and Aguero's instant impact. There were no key relationships and no definitive philosophy behind Roberto Mancini's selections. -Michael Cox

But what has happened to United's shape? Van Persie's arrival, along with that of Shinji Kagawa, has resulted in a clumsy, confused approach. In Ferguson's desperation to include as many attackers as possible, he attempted to use a diamond midfield, contradicting United's traditional focus upon width. Players are constantly fielded out of position and there has rarely been a match where United's forwards wide midfielders and central midfielders have all looked comfortable. -Michael Cox

vs Man City -via i1231.photobucket.com

The Real Madrid match at Old Trafford -via i1231.photobucket.com

Manchester United Season Review 12/13 (via theAntonAlfy)

Love for Wazza

2013-04-30T08:22:35Z

When I first started following United (and football in general) in 2008, everyone was talking about what a great player Ronaldo is, debating about whether he is better than that little dude called Messi who plays for a Spanish team named as Barcelona, arguing whether he was the best player on the planet. However, the one player that I have always looked up to the most, is that angry child who goes by the name of Wayne Rooney.

As a football noob back then, my love for Rooney was not backed up by substantial footballing reasons. Since all the peers around me had been following football for years and were all in love with Ronaldo instead, I was sure they had their reasons. But there was just something about Rooney that made me enjoy watching him. Maybe it was about his burning desire to shine and to win it for the team, as if he is some sort of spoiled angry kid who wouldn't take losing as an answer. Take the ball away from me and I'll punch you in the face. Who gives a F@%# about getting booked or sent off.

The more I learn about United, the more I can identify Rooney as the core of the football club. When Ronaldo finally left for Madrid at the end of the 08/09 season, fans got anxious over his possible replacement. Luckily, Rooney stepped up to the occasion and saw the form of his life as the front man of our team. Never will I forget how the AC Milan fan went on and on like "F#CK YOU MAN C#NTS!" right behind me when Ronaldinho scored against us in the opening minutes of the Champions League tie, and how Rooney made him shut up, blessing me with the opportunity to respond to him "IN YOUR F#CKING FACEEEE." Those were the times when Rooney was compared to the likes of Messi and Ronaldo as the three football aliens on the planet. His shiny balded forehead seemed to have a football magnet buried within, scoring 7-8 headers in a row or something like that. His presence in the penalty box became the most feared in Europe, he just couldn't stop scoring. It seemed like the inner beast within Rooney who was so overshadowed by Ronaldo is finally breaking out of its cage, declaring to the rest of the world that he is the best player and Manchester United is the football club.

Well, as all of you can remember, his terrorizing reign only went so far up till that Bayern game where he got that ankle injury. Especially after his disappointing performance in the world cup and after all those scandals, his career suddenly dropped from a new high to a new low, with even a part of the United fans booing and making fun of him, putting on watermelon-sized bras and all that. Until the day when he announced that he had finally decided to leave Manchester United, I was heartbroken.

Yes, unlike those skeptics I believe Rooney actually meant it; it was not some sort of cheap trick to jack up his salary. Even up to that point, I never blamed Rooney for bailing, and I actually believed he would eventually change his mind. It is not difficult to understand, is it? He was young, the entire country seemed to be blaming and mocking him, and there didn't seem to be any way to overcome those issues besides leaving behind everything and start all over in another country (Yes I don't think he was ever gonna join Man Shitty). When he alas signed a new contract, I was tearing up bad.

Once he has officially resurrected by scoring that goal, he has been deployed in a deeper role because the team needs him to, mainly due to the lack of midfield options. Until today, he has never fully matured as the deadly striker that he had seemed destined to become, mainly because his team has deprived him of the chance.

As much as I love Van Persie, for me he is forever an Arsenal man at heart. Right now he is doing all the scoring, and at times it seems Rooney is gradually turning into a forgotten man; a man who has gotten us out of so many holes over the years. I can see Rooney and Van Persie forming a deadly combo in the near future, but Fergie must soon sort out the winger problems so that Rooney can push forward and consistently play as the #10 that he is supposed to.

Anyways guys, sorry for all the rant above. I just felt like getting out my feelings towards a great player who has done so much for us.

Bless you Wazza

Anyways guys, sorry for all the rant above. I just felt like getting out my feelings towards a great player who has done so much for us.

Bless you Wazza

Champions League Outlook 2013-14

2013-04-22T03:28:16Z

As the end of the season nears, we look at our teams and where they stand in the race for European spots. For many teams it's a huge question. Teams like Tottenham are banking on a European enterance. I cannot imagine Gareth Bale staying out of Europe for another year.

England (4 berths)

In: Manchester United, Manchester City

Alive: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur

Dying: Everton, Liverpool

Spain (4 berths)

In: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid

Alive: Real Sociedad, Valencia, Malaga

Dying: Real Betis, Rayo Vallecano

Germany (4 berths)

In: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen

Alive: Schalke 04, SC Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Monchengladbach, Hamburg SV

Italy (3 berths)

In: Juventus, Napoli

Alive: AC Milan, Fiorentina

Dying: Inter Milan, AS Roma, Lazio, Udinese

Portugal (3 berths)

In: Benfica, FC Porto

Alive: Pacos de Ferreira, Braga

France (3 berths)

In: Paris Saint-Germain

Alive: Marseille, Lyon, Lille, St. Etienne, Nice

Some of the "In" teams are speculative with 5-6 games left some of those teams can possibly drop out, but it's very unlikely.

For the group round of 32 there is a draw, creating 8 groups of 4. As we saw this year one group had the champions from Spain, Germany, Holland, and England all in the same group.

England (4 berths)

In: Manchester United, Manchester City

Alive: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur

Dying: Everton, Liverpool

Spain (4 berths)

In: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid

Alive: Real Sociedad, Valencia, Malaga

Dying: Real Betis, Rayo Vallecano

Germany (4 berths)

In: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen

Alive: Schalke 04, SC Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Monchengladbach, Hamburg SV

Italy (3 berths)

In: Juventus, Napoli

Alive: AC Milan, Fiorentina

Dying: Inter Milan, AS Roma, Lazio, Udinese

Portugal (3 berths)

In: Benfica, FC Porto

Alive: Pacos de Ferreira, Braga

France (3 berths)

In: Paris Saint-Germain

Alive: Marseille, Lyon, Lille, St. Etienne, Nice

Some of the "In" teams are speculative with 5-6 games left some of those teams can possibly drop out, but it's very unlikely.

For the group round of 32 there is a draw, creating 8 groups of 4. As we saw this year one group had the champions from Spain, Germany, Holland, and England all in the same group.

Could we do a meltdown thread for the Premier League Title?

2013-04-21T17:53:04Z

I definitely don't want to count our chickens before they hatch but if we win the Premier League on Monday or later in season we should have a meltdown thread. Roll Bama Roll does meltdown threads every week where they scour the internet for the funniest forum posts from disappointed rival fans. I bet blue moon forum would be a gold mine for this kind of stuff. Here is a link to one of their meltdown threads.

NBC's EPL Coverage Annouced

2013-04-16T19:39:09Z

NBC press release:

NBC Sports Group’s 2013-14 Premier League Programming Plans

SI story:

NBC outlines vast Premier League coverage with new TV deal

Only worry with "all live" is when there's a stack of 3+ games on at the same time that you might want to watch. Fox currently does replays where it's easy to dvr 2 games that are on at the same time, and dvr a 3rd later.

I don't run into that a lot. What I do run into is that my dvr forces me to watch one of the channels if I'm taping 2 events at the same time. Can run into issues when the College Football season lines up with the EPL season, and a football game that I need to watch is on at 12 ET / 9 PT at the same time as two futbol games I want to watch/tape. Fox made it pretty easy just to dvr later.

Overall, though, it's clear that NBC is committed to cover the sport.

NBC press release:

NBC Sports Group’s 2013-14 Premier League Programming Plans

SI story:

NBC outlines vast Premier League coverage with new TV deal

Overall, though, it's clear that NBC is committed to cover the sport.

Transfer News: United to sign Falcao

2013-04-15T18:51:56Z

Some of you will remember the rumors of last Summer, when Manchester United were expected to sign Falcao, the star striker who currently plays for Athletico Madrid.

Those rumors have returned, and apparently United scout Jim Lawlor has been sent to Spain to monitor the Colombian.

Falcao has the same agent as current United players Anderson and Nani, as well as former Man Utd legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Real Madrid in 2009. The fact that they have the same agents should mean that it will be easier to negotiate and secure a good deal, should United decide to sign him at the end of the season.

Some of you will remember the rumors of last Summer, when Manchester United were expected to sign Falcao, the star striker who currently plays for Athletico Madrid.

Those rumors have returned, and apparently United scout Jim Lawlor has been sent to Spain to monitor the Colombian.

Team of the future

2013-04-09T20:51:13Z

Manchester United has been blessed to have Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Back when you couldn't win with kids, they were proving everyone wrong and they never took off the shirt (except for the Ginger Prince, for a small vacation). I think we all love them and put them on the same pedestal as the other legends to play at United.

Lately, we've been cursed with useless wingers.

It's obvious that Nani will be sold this summer and we'll likely get a good penny for him. There's really no point in talking about him anymore. He isn't even considered for the biggest games of the season, omitted for an astonishingly poor Ashley Young.

More surprising is the poor play of Antonio Valencia.

For a time in 2012 Valencia carried the us and kept the title race alive. He was brilliant, and scary for any right-back unfortunate enough to be in front of him. At that point he won the prestigious number 7 shirt. This season he's been awful, although likely better than Young and Nani.

This season our best winger has arguably been Danny Welbeck, who is playing out of position. Also, Rafael has been great on the right wing also. Again, out of position, after moving forward from his RB postion.

It makes me question what direction United will go in the future. Here are some things that I believe will happen before next season:

Wayne Rooney is no longer a forward. His work-ethic forces him back far too much. This is actually to United's advantage. Rooney can still strike a ball with the best of them, but his touch and passing improves every game. Maybe not as influential as Lionel Messi, but he's intelligent and hard working. Perfect for the center of the field.
Chicharito and Danny Welbeck will demand more playing time; but both deserve it. With Rooney moving into the midfield, both will get more playing time next to Robin van Persie.
Nani will be sold and United will look for another left winger who can fill Cristiano Ronaldo's shoes.
Phil Jones will move into the midfield. He already moves forward so much, it's pretty inevitable. He's already creating his own legend. But with Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling up and coming we'll look to get all we can from Jones.
Giggs and Scholes will retire.
There will be more ridiculous rumours that Wayne Rooney will leave Manchester United. And he won't.

Still, the biggest question for me is whether Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young can get it done consistently on the wings, or if United will try and start making more chances through the middle of the field. The latter is unlikely, as Ferguson has never really run anything besides a 4-4-2 with great wing play. The problem is that we don't really have great wing play.
So what do you think? What does our future look like?

Lately, we've been cursed with useless wingers.

More surprising is the poor play of Antonio Valencia.

It makes me question what direction United will go in the future. Here are some things that I believe will happen before next season:

Wayne Rooney is no longer a forward. His work-ethic forces him back far too much. This is actually to United's advantage. Rooney can still strike a ball with the best of them, but his touch and passing improves every game. Maybe not as influential as Lionel Messi, but he's intelligent and hard working. Perfect for the center of the field.
Chicharito and Danny Welbeck will demand more playing time; but both deserve it. With Rooney moving into the midfield, both will get more playing time next to Robin van Persie.
Nani will be sold and United will look for another left winger who can fill Cristiano Ronaldo's shoes.
Phil Jones will move into the midfield. He already moves forward so much, it's pretty inevitable. He's already creating his own legend. But with Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling up and coming we'll look to get all we can from Jones.
Giggs and Scholes will retire.
There will be more ridiculous rumours that Wayne Rooney will leave Manchester United. And he won't.

Gaming out the rest of the league

2013-04-09T11:31:41Z

So we lost to City, is our title even remotely in danger?

Our lead is 12 points - i.e. 4 wins. United and City each have seven games left. If it gets to the point that there are four games left with a four game lead, then United wins*. That means, that out of seven chances, City need to have at least four games work out in which both they win and we lose, and that's just to tie us on points. We also have an 8 point lead in goal differential. So if United can win 3 games then we are pretty much safe no matter what City does.

City's remaining schedule:

West Brom
Wigan
Spurs
West Ham
Reading
Swansea
Norwich

Spurs are currently 4th in the league, West Brom is 8th, Swansea is 9th, and the rest are in the bottom half, so while lightning can and does strike any time, they're unlikely to drop more than a game. If they do that then United only need to win two, whereas in the reasonably likely event that they run the table, then United need to win 3

United's remaining games are against:

Stoke
West Ham
Aston Villa
Arsenal
Chelsea
Swansea
West Brom

That's a more difficult list. Chelsea re currently 3rd, Arsenal 4th, West Brom 8th, Swansea 9th, so only 3 of them are in the bottom half of the league. But even just those 3 would be enough. Beating the higher ranked teams (which is eminently do-able for United) would just add icing onto the cake.

Draws are also possible, of course, but with so few remaining games nobody is likely to get enough draws to add up to the points for a full game so you can basically treat them as losses and the outcomes will be about the same.

So we should feel pretty good there.

So we lost to City, is our title even remotely in danger?

City's remaining schedule:

West Brom
Wigan
Spurs
West Ham
Reading
Swansea
Norwich

United's remaining games are against:

Stoke
West Ham
Aston Villa
Arsenal
Chelsea
Swansea
West Brom

So we should feel pretty good there.

Why can't these people see that I'm in love?

2013-02-28T18:06:48Z

Let me get this out of the way quickly, for the sake of being honest and forthright. I’m still relatively new to this sport. Soccer. Football, I mean. Footy. "I’m gonna go watch a spot of footy." I say things like that now, I’m pretty legit.

I first started following United in the 09/10 season, which you may recall as year one of the post- Cristiano Ronaldo era (or should I say, the first Ronaldo era…), and I’ve learned many important things about the club since then. The history, the glory. Sir Alex is a god, Ryan Giggs is a legend, and so is that short ginger with the soft voice. He scores goals galore, you know? I’ve learned that people who say ‘Man U’ should be ridiculed to no end, and that Scousers are a bunch of wankers- or, wait. Wankers are Scousers. No, Scousers are definitely wankers, as are Geordies and Gooners, I think. Either way, my spell-check is going nuts.

There have been so many outstanding memorable moments since I began following United, but we never forget our first, right? Michael Owen’s injury time winner at Old Trafford against City, right after Craig Bellamy stole Rio’s pass (or whatever that was. I’m still not sure) and took it the length of the pitch to tie the game. That was my first moment. Giggs found Michael Owen with a beautiful long ball that Owen swept into the back of the net, just before the defender got a foot in. I leapt from my chair in rapture. I paced around the room, talked some smack to my dog and then probably played FIFA for two hours straight. Glorious.

It goes both ways, though. I think we all remember the final day of last season. I was actually watching City’s match against QPR because ESPN showed the game on their Xbox app, and when I heard that City was down by a goal late in the contest, I had to turn it on.

Fortunately, that’s right about the time when that Martian mothership crashed onto the Etihad Stadium pitch to collect Emperor Tevez and bring him back home. Miraculously nobody was injured, but the FA still had to end the match two minutes early and hand United its twentieth title. Remember? That’s what happened, I done seen it with my own two eyes.

But in all seriousness, you know what really shocked me about that whole ordeal? As soon as Aguero scored and won City their first league title since Nixon was in the White House (points for anyone who can draw comparisons between City and that loveable 37th president of ours), I simply shut the TV off and it was like the whole thing never happened. It wasn’t on the news, it wasn’t on the radio, it wasn’t in the newspapers the next day. I mean, it might’ve been mentioned on the back page somewhere, but I didn’t exactly search hard for it.

Contrast City’s gut-wrenching victory with my beloved Niners’ recent Super Bowl loss, in which I can’t so much as flip on the radio here in the bay area without being reminded of it. It’s awful. My eyes are still crossed, but my imaginary friend Joey Montana says it’ll all get better soon. He’s such a good friend.

So anyway, what was I talking about? I suppose there are positives to keeping our game- our wonderful, glorious game- an afterthought here in America. I’d love to see the sport take off, and I’d love for MLS to grow and become one of the world’s elite leagues. I mean, we have the athletes here in the States to compete with the rest of the world, but first we have to convince those athletes to choose soccer over basketball, baseball and football. I’d love to become a San Jose Earthquakes fan. I really would. But MLS just can’t compete with the history and the passion of the European game. Maybe the answer is to bring in more ageing superstars from across the pond? I don’t know.

Or, we can just forget about it. We can be selfish. Manchester United and everything we love about the club and the sport could be our little secret. People might laugh at us. They might think it’s weird that we keep waking up at 5AM on Sundays so that we can yell at Nani for being selfish, or scream our brains out when RVP scores a late goal at eastlands while Nasri hid from the ball like the scared little child he is and Mancini looks like he wants to cry and WOAH some drunk fan just ran onto the pitch to confront Rio Ferdinand. I need to breathe.

Point is, as much as it bothers me to hear American sports fans trash the game, even if some of their points are valid (I’ve seen enough of players falling to the ground and clutching their faces to last me a lifetime), I’m kind of over it. The game is great enough that I don’t need validation from the people around me. I can’t wait for the World Cup in 2014, I can’t wait for the summer transfer window. Hell, I can’t wait for this Saturday’s match against Norwich, and I can’t wait to read everyone’s thoughts about it on this site.

So, I think I’m done rambling. Just felt like expressing my ever-growing love of the sport, and in particular the reds of Old Trafford. Also, the treble is ON.

The Career Progress of RvP

2013-02-18T02:18:41Z

Robin van Persie is now 29 years old, and whilst it has taken many injury filled years to get to where he currently is, it's safe to say he is a genuinely world class footballer. Definitely the league's best forward, van Persie is, now, probably the league's most influential player. That clearly hasn't always been the case. Injuries, both minor and major, seemed to hamper his ability to consistently feature in a run of games, this then affected his progress. His tangible success over the last two years may well mean it is fair to label him a late bloomer of sorts. A Drogba type, if you will, but in a very different way.

Arsenal fans always said the ability that Robin possessed was of the highest order, and that all he needed was fitness and playing time in order to show the world what he could actually achive. The irony, and a cruel one at that, is that Robin only found that much sought after health and consistent form in the same season he (probably) decided he was going to leave Arsenal.

We may never know the true reasons Robin left Arsenal: had his patience finally ran out with battling only for a top 4 spot? Even if Robin had decided to exhibit the patience of Jain monk and stick with Arsenal, his explosion of brilliant form in 2011/12 probably would have demanded that he test himself at one of the worlds top performing clubs in the then very near future. Man United came calling, and RvP was sold in a move that must have emotionally affected Arsene Wenger. Man United, once Arsenal's peer and great rival, cherry picked Wenger's captain and only world class player. Wenger was helpless, the world moves on, welcome to the new reality.

van Persie's form over the past 18 months or so has been almost as strange at is it has been sensational. Never before has Robin played as many minutes as he did in 2011/12, nor as many as he is projected to play in 2012/13. His recent health has been a rare thing indeed.

van Persie's League Career (2001-2013) By Starts, Subs And Minutes Played

Orange denotes Feyernoord, Red is Arsenal and Black is Man United. The more starts and fewer subs, the higher and further right the bubble will be. Bigger the bubble, bigger the total minutes played.

2011/12 was the clear outlier of RvP's career, 2012/13's number may well be pretty similar come the end of the season. 2008/09 was a relatively healthy season for van Persie, but it was still a season which saw the Dutchman start only 63% of the available 38 games.

van Persie's career has been one of injury and slow development in which he has started less than 20 league games in 9 of his 12 pro seasons. Looking at the above chart, Man United took one hell of a gamble, in wages and transfer spend, on a player who has never been fit enough to warrant such sums of money. His talent warranted the money, his health should have vetoed it.

van Persie's League Career by Shots, Shots on Target And Goals (per 90 minutes)

As seen in chart 1, van Persie has quite the spread of minutes played in each of his seasons, so comparing basic shot and goal totals was always going to be problematic, so how about we normalize all of his numbers into per 90 minutes categories.

Shots and SoT per 90

We see frequency listed on the vertical axis and age listed on the horizontal axis.

*No shot data was available for RvP's time in Holland

Taking Shots on Target first of all, if we exempt van Persie's age 21 and 22 seasons it looks as if he possessed a brilliant ability to get shots on target but it must be said the numbers for that season are an incredibly small sample, thus liable to weird an unusual variations.

If we exempt those small sample size seasons, it looks like van Persie has been getting better every year up until his 29 year old season but a couple of things may be going on this season, chiefly: Is Van Persie getting fewer shots on target as he is now part of a better squad where the offensive burden is spread more evenly? After all, he was the sole focal point of Arsenal's attack in recent years and so we expected Robin to be a high volume shooter.

As for total shots: van Persie had become a better shooter year on year which culminated in 5.46 shots per 90 in his 26 year old season. That year looks like an outlier, and what of the decline in his numbers since? Has RvP become a more selective, patient shooter as he has aged and become more experienced? Possible, for surely he is not declining as the years go by. I would opt for the selective shooter option, at least for the time being.

Goals per 90

Interesting. We have seen van Persie's total shots per 90 peak in his 26 year old season and then roll back, we have also seen his shots on target per 90 number steadily increase with age and whatever small doubts we have about his trending shots data, doesn't exist for his goals per 90 data. This graph is trending one way and that way is upwards.

van Persie's 23 and 26 year old seasons were succesful in terms of goals per 90 but he wasn't able to hold his fitness together long enough for what may have been a 20 goal season at either of those ages.

Robin's 27 year old season may have been a beauty (0.91 goals per 90 over a full 38 game season would mean 34 goals) but again his fitness broke down and Arsenal fans weren't able to see what bounty a full season of a health may have wrought.

We must focus on the last 3 years of van Persie's data. It is here that we see that better health and more game time which has led to a spike in his goals per 90 number. RvP's 27, 28 and 29 year old seasons have seen a a goals per 90 of 0.80 or above, simply put, this equates to 30 goals if a player were to play every minute of the season. These last two and a half years have been phenomenal. It is long term performance of a very high caliber from a player who's only red flags were injury history.

For the previous 2 seasons before transferring to Man United, RvP's goal scoring record has been strong and his historical injury record weak. In the Summer of 2012, when it was clear the player wanted out, potential suitors had a choice to make: Do we sign a player for a big fee and a bigger wage packet who has proved in the previous 2 seasons that his goals scoring record is strong and improving but had only been fully fit for just 1 of his 10 pro seasons?

Ferguson took a gamble on a massive, historic outlier season where the 28 year old stayed fit and continued to score at a rate within his talent range and north of 0.80 goals per 90, as he had done in his 27 year old season. It sure was a gamble, and it may still be a gamble over the life of his 4 year contract, but the trends in terms of goals, shots on target and, most importantly, health are all trending in a positive direction.

Thanks for reading, I'm shuddertothink and I come in peace from across town. You can find me at bitter and blue and on twitter

van Persie's League Career (2001-2013) By Starts, Subs And Minutes Played

van Persie's League Career by Shots, Shots on Target And Goals (per 90 minutes)

Shots and SoT per 90

We see frequency listed on the vertical axis and age listed on the horizontal axis.

*No shot data was available for RvP's time in Holland

Goals per 90

Thanks for reading, I'm shuddertothink and I come in peace from across town. You can find me at bitter and blue and on twitter

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Player Usage Charts

2013-02-13T12:07:42Z

Hello again, and good luck for tonight's game.

I have written about several Premier league teams already which can be found on my twitter *link* , so I thought I'd look at Man United next

Player Usage Charts is an experimental examination of a clubs player usage using starts, sub appearances and minutes played. We will solely be looking at the Premier League today.

Further right means more starts. Lower means more subs. Size of the bubble indicates minutes played.

Red=defenders, yellow=midfielders, orange=wide forwards, green=strikers

Defenders are naturally the most consistently selected (and least subbed) of the outfield players and we can clearly see that Man United have been able to select a pretty settled back line.

Carrick is the undisputed, and heavily worked, #1 midfielder. Cleverley is next in line and then we see a collection of plug and play midfielders in Giggs, Scholes and the injured Anderson and Jones, if required.

Young and Valencia are the wide players who have featured the most.

van Persie, unsurprisingly, is the #1 striker. Rooney has featured less than he had hoped to, but fitness and injury has played a part in his decreased usage. Henandez, and to a lesser extent Welbeck, are the impact subs who occasionally start when injury had knocked Rooney out of the lineup or soft opposition was available.

There is clear evidence of a core set of players that have been available for selection and whom Ferguson trusts. Evra, Rafael, Fedinand, Evans are the back line, Carrick is the midfielder and van Persie is the #1 striker. Rotation and injuryrules the remaining players.

Any thoughts?

Hello again, and good luck for tonight's game.

I have written about several Premier league teams already which can be found on my twitter *link* , so I thought I'd look at Man United next

Player Usage Charts is an experimental examination of a clubs player usage using starts, sub appearances and minutes played. We will solely be looking at the Premier League today.

Further right means more starts. Lower means more subs. Size of the bubble indicates minutes played.

Red=defenders, yellow=midfielders, orange=wide forwards, green=strikers

Defenders are naturally the most consistently selected (and least subbed) of the outfield players and we can clearly see that Man United have been able to select a pretty settled back line.

Young and Valencia are the wide players who have featured the most.

Any thoughts?

Robin Van Persie most valuable player in EPL

2013-02-11T17:48:50Z

On Football Trader, we have seen Robin Van Persie's value hit a peak of £20M after his match-winning performance against Everton yesterday.

Before the game kicked off, he was overtaken by Gareth Bale for the first time, but quickly pegged back to be the leading player on the market.

https://twitter.com/realtime_sports/status/301024570658394113/photo/1

These values are based on popularity (users buying the player) and their match performances.

It's an interesting angle on players in the league and Van Persie is certainly leading the way!

You check out out the Football Trader Game:

http://mobile.footballtraderapp.com/?utm_source=blogcomments&utm_medium=comment&utm_campaign=rvp_1102

On Football Trader, we have seen Robin Van Persie's value hit a peak of £20M after his match-winning performance against Everton yesterday.

Before the game kicked off, he was overtaken by Gareth Bale for the first time, but quickly pegged back to be the leading player on the market.

https://twitter.com/realtime_sports/status/301024570658394113/photo/1

These values are based on popularity (users buying the player) and their match performances.

It's an interesting angle on players in the league and Van Persie is certainly leading the way!

You check out out the Football Trader Game:

http://mobile.footballtraderapp.com/?utm_source=blogcomments&utm_medium=comment&utm_campaign=rvp_1102

THE RETURN OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

2013-02-10T16:00:57Z

via upload.wikimedia.org

Finally, the Uefa champions league returns a break of 4 months, which is awesome news for all the football fans, because it is the knock out stage of the champions league which offers some mouth watering clashes among the heavy weights of European football, some of the big fixtures include Celtic vs. Juventus ,Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich , Barcelona vs. Ac Milan ,but undoubtedly the biggest tie of the knock out round is Real Madrid vs. Manchester United, which is a dream match between, the biggest two football clubs in the world.

While, the match between Real and United have all the ingredients for the fans to be excited about i.e. the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to play against his former club Manchester united where he had spent 6 very successful seasons and had won all the trophies at club level as well as individually wining the ballon d’or in 2008.secondly, Jose Mourinho (The Special one ),who is one of the best managers in the world, comes up against undoubtedly the best and most successful coach in the English game Sir Alex Ferguson, both of whom have had allot of fierce battles between each other since Jose was at fc Porto.

In past, the clashes between United and Real have produced memorable matches especially the one in 2003, the 2nd leg match was played in Old Trafford ,which resulted in a 4-3 win for the red devils, but eventually losing the tie 5-4 on aggregate, where the legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo scored a memorable hatrick ,which resulted in a standing ovation, even from the United fans .

Recently ,Real Madrid have been struggling in the Spanish league, mere 3rd position and an unsettled dressing room and with Barcelona out of their reach in the league, a Uefa Champions League victory could help and salvage a disastrous season for Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid, which is quite possible with the array of stars at jose’s espousal i.e. Ozil, di Maria, Benzema, Luka Modric,Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo , who has been in inspiring form for few seasons and is very unlucky not to have won a single ballon d’or in last 4 years. While, Sir Alex Ferguson recently quoted him as "the most complete player in the world".

While, taking of Sir Alex, the Scottish Manager would love to beat Real Madrid and go all the way to the champions league final, United have been sitting pretty top of the table

in the English Premier League, thanks to the excellent form of their Dutch striker Robin Van Persie. And in Wayne Rooney and Van Persie, United have arguably one of Europe’s best strike partnership. While, in Defense United problems lie, they have been conceding way too many goals and their young Goal keepers are making way too many mistakes, which could present Real Madrid a big opportunity, especially with their deadly forward line.

Overall looking at both the teams Real Madrid has a slight edge over Manchester United, as history shows Real Madrid have won 3 matches against united 2 wins while 3 resulted in draws, and similarly Real have already knocked out United’s noisy neighbors in the last round .but with, Sir Alex Ferguson in charge of Manchester United you can never ever write them off. Hopefully, fans of both teams and neutrals would get to see two brilliant football matches starting on the 11th of Feb.

via upload.wikimedia.org

While, taking of Sir Alex, the Scottish Manager would love to beat Real Madrid and go all the way to the champions league final, United have been sitting pretty top of the table

Analysis: Who's doing the shooting for Man United?

2013-02-02T10:38:34Z

Welcome all, it's been a while since I fanposted over here.

Today I want to take a look at Man United's shots and goal distribution. Distribution essential means which positions on the field are driving the play, recording the shots on target and, ultimately, scoring the goals.

I performed a not dissimilar analysis for Man City which can be found in this link.

Man United have taken 148 shots on target this season through 24 Premier League games, that works out as 6.16 per game. That is a fine, high number, but it is down on 2011/12's 6.39 per game.

Man United, despite their seemingly excellent goal scoring record are on course to score just one more goal than they did last season. RvP has not added to the goal totals that Man United score, the goals have just been redistributed, and some of that redistribution has been swallowed up by the excellence of the Premier League's best player.

Let's begin

2012/13 (and 2011/12) Shots on Target

	Shots on T	% share	Shots on T	% share

Defenders	6	2.4	16	6.5
Fullbacks	23	15.5	8	3.2
Midfielders	16	10.8	31	12.7
Attacking Forwards	17	11.4	53	21.8
Strikers	86	58.1	135	55.5

We see some interesting things above. Interstingly, United's fullbacks are shooting much more this season; a change in tactics or the corner/Evra effect? Man United's attacking forwards numbers are down this term, are injuries a big factor in this with each of Young, Valencia, Nani and Kagawa missing game time? The share of shots from strikers is fairly stable, nor is their a notable upswing in strikers taking more shots. It seems RvP has, basically, replaced some of Rooney's shots total and most of Welbecks.

2012/13 and 2011/12 Goals and % Share

	2012/13		2011/12
	Goals	% share	Goals	% share

Defenders	4	7.1	3	3.4
Fullbacks	7	12.5	0	0
Midfielders	6	10.7	11	12.6
Attacking Forwards	3	2.1	20	22.9
Strikers	36	64.3	53	60.9

Naturally, Man United's goals from fullbacks has increased markedly, and this fits with the increased shots totals year on year. Attacking forwards have seen their share of goals drop off 90.8% (attacking forwards share of shots on target dropped off by 79.3%) and this would normally be a problem but that slack has been picked up by the aforementioned fullbacks. The defenders have chipped in and the share of goals by strikers is also up (5.28%) and this may be the first sign of the van Persie effect.

Scoring % (goals/shots on target)

	2012/13	2011/12
Defenders	66.60%	18.70%
Fullbacks	30.43%	0.00%
Midfielders	37.50%	35.84%
Attacking Forwards	17.64%	37.73%
Strikers	41.86%	39.25%

We are now seeing similar trends right across the board. Defenders and fullbacks are much improved year on year, attacking forwards are in some funk and the strikers, with the addition of RvP, have improved slightly.

You guys are the fans and can tell better than I if there are glaring tactical reasons for the increase in shots and goals from defenders, and conversely, the drop off from attacking forwards?

van persie is having quite the season, and he may truly be the difference between the two Manchester clubs. What I find fascinating is that RvP in 2012/13 is getting far fewer shots on target per game than Wayne Rooney was last year.

Rooney, in comparison to RvP, was the striker who got his shots on target at a higher rate but, importantly, he had a lower scoring%. Is RvP simply a better shooter, or is he luckier? Maybe conversion %'s have a lot to do with the quality of the chance and the placement of the shot, but luck is certainly a part of it.

Shots on Target per game

Numbers normalized for a 24 game season in 2012/13 and a 38 game season in 2011/12. Injury or suspension is not factored in.

	2011/12	2012/13

Evans	0.13	0.16
Vidic	0.05	0.04
Ferdinand	0.02	0
Smalling	0.02	0.04
Jones	0.18	0

Evra	0.1	0.33
Rafael	0.1	0.16
Buttner	n/a	0.16

Carrick	0.07	0.12
Cleverly	0.07	0.16
Scholes	0.18	0.12
Giggs	0.26	0
Anderson	0.15	0.16
Fletcher	0.02	0.04
Powell	n/a	0.04
Gibson	0.02	n/a

Kagawa	n/a	0.2
Nani	0.5	0.12
Young	0.55	0.33
Valencia	0.21	0.04
Park	0.13	n/a

Rooney	1.84	1.08
Welbeck	0.89	0.25
Hernandez	0.57	0.66
van Persi	n/a	1.58
Berbatov	0.23	n/a

Total	6.39	6.16

Some of these positions may be slightly out. An argument can be made for Phil jones to be placed as a full back or a midfielder. Similarly, is Welbeck a striker, or an attacking forward?

Rooney's 2011/12 shots on target per game number is magical. Welbeck has regressed in terms of shots, have the other parts of his game picked up instead? The attacking forwards have regressed, Evra is on fire!

Thanks for reading

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