Utd's Crisis

[Wayne]

Just been thinking about how many players we've got unavailable at the moment;

Tevez - Family Reasons - £30m
Saha - Injured (surprise surprise) - £12.5m
Ronaldo - Injured - £75m
Carrick - Injured - £19m
Giggs - Injured - Free
Anderson - Olympics - £15m
Nani - Suspended - £15m
Hargreaves - Injured - £17m
Park - Injured - £5m
Manucho - Injured - Free

That's nearly £190m worth of players!

And more bizarrely, the majority are attacking players. You'd think we were midway into the season, not one game in. Never known anything like it and it showed yesterday in a big way as we looked piss poor up front with no creativity in midfield.

We started poorly last year with 2 draws and a defeat and with the next 3 league games against Pompey(a), Liverpool(a) and Chelsea(a), looks like we might have to play catch up again this year.

[Cinny]

main difference will be this year that Chelsea have a good manager, super squad and if they avoid any major crisis this season (manager change last year) it will be very very hard to catch them up.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Looking at their bench yesterday i was thinking to myself that there wasn't one player there who United could call upon to come on and change the game.

Infact i didnt even know the majority of them that were on bench.

To be honest they created plenty of chances and had it not been for Givens heroics it wouldve been about 3-0 at half time alone.

When Europe etc starts they are definately going to be needing a fair few of these players back otherwise they aren't going to be able to compete.

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Cinny

main difference will be this year that Chelsea have a good manager, super squad and if they avoid any major crisis this season (manager change last year) it will be very very hard to catch them up.

I agree Cinny.

Think they've got a great chance this year.

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by GaNgStA kEeKs

Looking at their bench yesterday i was thinking to myself that there wasn't one player there who United could call upon to come on and change the game.

Infact i didnt even know the majority of them that were on bench.

To be honest they created plenty of chances and had it not been for Givens heroics it wouldve been about 3-0 at half time alone.

When Europe etc starts they are definately going to be needing a fair few of these players back otherwise they aren't going to be able to compete.

Yeh it was mostly defenders and defensive midfielders wasn't it but with 7 strikers/attacking midfielders unavailable yesterday, no-one's squad could cope with that. Particularly while we're a striker light.

We 'should' have won yesterday but when we needed to step it up to get the winner, we didn't really have anyone to do it. Rooney's playing too deep to have that sort of impact at the moment.

With two of the big four away and Pompey who we always seem to struggle against, we need to find a lot more than we did yesterday to get any sort of result.

I'm sure Fergie's doing everything to get a striker before the deadline. Whether it's Berbatov or someone else, who knows but we definitely need someone.

[Kop66]

It makes you wonder how many of them are truly injured i think Wayne, it could be SAF saying to the Glazers, get me a striker at all costs or we're fcuked, when really he's just trying his best to bolster his squad.

I think you could end up with Santa Cruz rather than Berba' before the month is out.

[ONEDUNME]

Let's not get too teary eyed for poor old Sir Alex ffs.

Nani is only suspended for one more game isn't he? Anderson and Tevez will be back very soon.

Park was a bit player at best and Manucho was so vital to United last year that they sent him out on loan.

Giggs and Carrick started yesterday's game and, given that SAF is the biggest lying bastard on two legs when it comes down to exagerating his player's injuries (Is poor old Wayne out of intensive care yet with his quadrouple malaria that will keep him out until next month?) it wouldn't be a surprise to see them start next Monday's game.

Ronaldo and Hargreaves are big misses but anyone who keeps that lump of lard Saha on the books and then has the nerve to complain when they can't play due to injurey deserves a degree avoidance of the blindingly obvious.

Give it two or three weeks and United will have a firing strike force again. Trouble is, as Cinny says, Chelsea might already have opened up a six point gap by then.

[Wet_Sail]

I think Ronaldo's huge input will be truly underlined now. In fairness, if you took 42 goals out of any team it would struggle, but United have the look of an ageing side who are past their best without him.

I looked at that midfield the other day and it was so uninspiring for so-called title challengers. And in reality, only Ronaldo was missing from the middle of the park. Scholes, Carrick and Giggs would probably expect to be regular starters when fit. But I think you should be calling time on Scholes and Giggs - great servants and all but they've done it so many times now that their hunger and desire can't possibly be at its peak anymore. Not to mention their fitness. And Carrick I've never rated as anything above decent. Certainly not capable of being a midfield linchpin.

So when you strip it down, it's quite obvious what Ronaldo gives to that team. It's well documented that Rooney is more of a team player than a goalscorer and Tevez just isn't a striker...never will be. If/when they sign Berbatov then things will really start to happen because Rooney and Tevez will come into their own up top. But the midfield still needs Ronaldo so badly and it's no wonder Ferguson fought so hard to keep him.