This Weeks Other Games

[Beefymcfc]

MOTD running order (BBC1 10.30):

Reading v WBA
Stoke v Chelsea
Sunderland v West Ham
Aston Villa v Southampton
Fulham v Wigan
Everton v Swansea
QPR v Spurs
Norwich v Newcastle

[DoomMerchant]

Nice point for QPR there, they worked their bollox off. Leaves Spurs 2 wins (5 points) away from us plus what we can get from the Arsenal game.

sad that we can even be talking about being only 5 pts above Spurs. Tells the tale of honestly what is a crap points haul thus far. Rags are jacking their boners over it, as they should be. They are mostly crap, getting the points and we're struggling.

I don't think our points total is crap at all, it is a good haul and we are 2nd in the league so to say we are struggling is frankly ridiculous and completely over-reactionary. The fact is though that United have been exceptional in earning points, I and you may not like it but there it is. As for Spurs, they are a good side and yes they are not as flamboyant as they were under Redknapp but nevertheless they have good players and are a good side who have had a terrific run of form in their last 10 matches. Despite that they are still 5 points away from us.

Keep it in perspective, i think if we can get a point tomorrow i'll be satisfied with that regardless of United's result. They will drop points and we are playing much better in last 4-5 weeks and whatever happens the title race is clearly not over tomorrow.

I would say our points total is at the bottom end of decent IF we are planning/hoping to win the league.We are 3 points above an average of 2 points per game with 17 points to go which puts on on target for 2nd place maybe 3rd.To win the league we would need more like 10 points above the 2 average and even then the scum would have to have a bad time.To get 10 points above the 2 average we would need something like 12 wins and 5 draws in the remaining games.Sounds like a tall order but that's what we are going for.

So for me ,whether we have a crap points total or nor might depend on whether you are looking for us to win the league or not.

this...

we're borderline acceptable as you said. The problem is this....

last season we won the league, yippee! but honestly we should have fucking walked it. We made a meal of it. Now we're making heavy weather of this season's run and have bottled the CL. The top-end of the Prem is more competitive than ever, but also more shite than it's been in a while, meaning that big teams are dropping points and fucking up in major ways. We should have been ready to seize that to create a Darth Vader like grip on all of our top opponents and instill fear like the Rags have. Instead we've invited every fucking team in the world onto us like it's a Cup Final, and that's what bothers me.

Not trying to have a whinge for no reason, but just how i feel about where we are historically. We need to get our shit together, and it's really fantastic at a macro level but the details aren't close to what i expect these days. Far from it. Close to acceptable in terms of league form isn't going to win us the league this season. We need to go grab the fucker, now. Starting tomorrow.

And oddly i don't mean that Mancini needs to play 3 strikers....i'd be happy with an Italian-flavoured 1-0 results tomorrow and the likes of Barry and Garcia playing with Milner and Silva in the middle, with Jayko and Tevez up top. Probably about the best we can hope for given our threadbare we are suddenly anyway, so...it's not like Mancini has loads of options.

[Mark Garrett]

Well the way I look at it, is to win the league usually need about 85 points but i'm enjoying the ride and no I don't expect us to win the league every season.

If we finished the season on about 80ish points or so and it wasn't good enough to win the league well so be it and we'll be stronger for another title challenge.

I'm going the game tomorrow and I think that a point would be a good result regardless of what United do. As Mancini implied the other week, perhaps best not to look at the league table and get too worked up about it on a match-match basis at the moment. Instead just aim for 80-85 points and hope United slip up a few times, which they will do.

[kinkylola]

Lukaku looks like he will be a beast. Hope abramovich doesn't fancy him and we can buy him in the next couple of seasons.

[phips]

Everton sure took a dip in form as of late...

[Redna]

Sitting in front of the laptop and watching Hull C vs Sheffield Wednesday and enjoying the game though it's a poor stream.
I just told my son that we could have been Wednesday. Just to keep perspectives.
With FFP Europe style and Gill style Wednesdays hope of a rise is almost gone.
How I hope I will be watching a 2nd division game in 14 years time featuring Scum away to Brighton & Hove Albion,no offense to BHAFC ;)
One could allways dream.....
Take care fellow blues.
CTID!!

[zuricity]

Walters with 2 own goals and a missed pen.
hahaha

nice 3 goals plus for Chelsea ! questionable too

[Mase]

Just seen Walters own goals. What a joke!! How is that guy a Premiership footballer?!! Literally just headed the ball in to his own net twice.

Stoke rhymes with joke for a reason.

[Cit.revenge]

Sitting in front of the laptop and watching Hull C vs Sheffield Wednesday and enjoying the game though it's a poor stream.
I just told my son that we could have been Wednesday. Just to keep perspectives.
With FFP Europe style and Gill style Wednesdays hope of a rise is almost gone.
How I hope I will be watching a 2nd division game in 14 years time featuring Scum away to Brighton & Hove Albion,no offense to BHAFC ;)
One could allways dream.....
Take care fellow blues.
CTID!!

Crazy game, referee was shite .

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

That Lukaku looks some player.

[AG7]

Didn't want to start a new thread just for this so will just ask this here ... how many of you seriously think that United will lose points at the end in home stretch this season? i.e their last six games after the Derby ... It's a misconstrued misconception that them being in CL will stretch them as we all know by that time they'll be out of CL, out of FA Cup and just have PL to focus on ... on the other hand we'll still be juggling the FA Cup and the League ...

So once again, we better be within 3 points of them come Debry day and win the derby to go over ... nothing beyond that is guaranteed, which makes this weekend crucial ... they should drop some points against Liverpool and again next weekend at White Hart Lane ... and we must must capitalise over these next two games i.e. nothing short of 3 points each will do.

Final thought before I go to bed tonight: Mancini will shock us all with his team selection tomorrow, and no Nasti over Lescott and Balo ahead of Dzeko are no shocks ... I am worried about a 3-5-2 kind of shit coming out.

[kinkylola]

how many thought they'd drop an 8 point lead? Good thing you didn't make another topic for this because it's pointless. All we can do is take care of our games. We gave ourselves a tough task ... If they don't drop any points, they win the league, and they would deserve it too.

[ashton287]

They won't drop many points this season while that rapist is scoring like he is. They will drop some but we will drop more.

But if he gets injured they are fucked and will struggle to score against most teams in the league.

There is always hope.

[Beefymcfc]

Didn't want to start a new thread just for this so will just ask this here ... how many of you seriously think that United will lose points at the end in home stretch this season? i.e their last six games after the Derby ... It's a misconstrued misconception that them being in CL will stretch them as we all know by that time they'll be out of CL, out of FA Cup and just have PL to focus on ... on the other hand we'll still be juggling the FA Cup and the League ...

So once again, we better be within 3 points of them come Debry day and win the derby to go over ... nothing beyond that is guaranteed, which makes this weekend crucial ... they should drop some points against Liverpool and again next weekend at White Hart Lane ... and we must must capitalise over these next two games i.e. nothing short of 3 points each will do.

Final thought before I go to bed tonight: Mancini will shock us all with his team selection tomorrow, and no Nasti over Lescott and Balo ahead of Dzeko are no shocks ... I am worried about a 3-5-2 kind of shit coming out.

A few of the players have already stated that they've been set an aim of overturning the deficit by the end of February. They are all aware of what's got to be done.

As for the selection, I can't see it being a 3-5-2 as we've not got the players to do that. Zab's and Clichy are there so we'll play the usual fullback formation unless Bob changes it up to go for the win. That'll obviously be if we're losing.

[Mase]

That Lukaku looks some player.

We were linked with him before Chelsea got him. Big mistake missing out IMO.

[Beefymcfc]

That Lukaku looks some player.

We were linked with him before Chelsea got him. Big mistake missing out IMO.

I'm not too sure about him myself. He looks a strong lad who can find the goal but I'm sure Chelsea paid around 20 mil (including add ons) for him just to farm him out. The few games I seen him play for Chelsea weren't all that good and now he is the spearhead of Clarks team everything is now going through him so he's definately going to get the chances; sounds like he had shit loads yesterday.

He's definately got potential but I'm going to wait-out on calling him the new Drogba. For me he's basically Chelsea's Mario.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

That Lukaku looks some player.

We were linked with him before Chelsea got him. Big mistake missing out IMO.

I'm not too sure about him myself. He looks a strong lad who can find the goal but I'm sure Chelsea paid around 20 mil (including add ons) for him just to farm him out. The few games I seen him play for Chelsea weren't all that good and now he is the spearhead of Clarks team everything is now going through him so he's definately going to get the chances; sounds like he had shit loads yesterday.

He's definately got potential but I'm going to wait-out on calling him the new Drogba. For me he's basically Chelsea's Mario.

Chelsea's Mario!! That's a bit cruel on him at last on the character side as he couldn't be further removed from Mario's character from what I have seen.Plus the fact that his effort in games is very good and consistent and he is playing well,scoring goals,not a yellow/red card candidate and winning games. Long way from our Mario

[Mase]

I'm not too sure about him myself. He looks a strong lad who can find the goal but I'm sure Chelsea paid around 20 mil (including add ons) for him just to farm him out. The few games I seen him play for Chelsea weren't all that good and now he is the spearhead of Clarks team everything is now going through him so he's definately going to get the chances; sounds like he had shit loads yesterday.

He's definately got potential but I'm going to wait-out on calling him the new Drogba. For me he's basically Chelsea's Mario.

He reminds me of Caicedo but with a decent first touch and doesn't turn like a double decker bus.

[Beefymcfc]

That Lukaku looks some player.

We were linked with him before Chelsea got him. Big mistake missing out IMO.

I'm not too sure about him myself. He looks a strong lad who can find the goal but I'm sure Chelsea paid around 20 mil (including add ons) for him just to farm him out. The few games I seen him play for Chelsea weren't all that good and now he is the spearhead of Clarks team everything is now going through him so he's definately going to get the chances; sounds like he had shit loads yesterday.

He's definately got potential but I'm going to wait-out on calling him the new Drogba. For me he's basically Chelsea's Mario.

Chelsea's Mario!! That's a bit cruel on him at last on the character side as he couldn't be further removed from Mario's character from what I have seen.Plus the fact that his effort in games is very good and consistent and he is playing well,scoring goals,not a yellow/red card candidate and winning games. Long way from our Mario

I did mean to mention about his character but wouldn't have got the same response ;-)

What I mean is that he looks like he has the potential, just needs to prove it.

And Mase. He may have a similar build to Big Phil but I think he may just be in a different league.

[kinkylola]

he is the spearhead at wba and so everything is going through him ... at the same time, he's doing work to create those chances himself. It's not as if he's stood on the penalty spot with people pinging crosses at him. He's doing the dirty work during build up, and then busting his gut to get on the end of a move, or he's creating chances on his own with technique and skill. Mario could do the same thing, but isn't at the moment. Hope mario takes note, because he's got the skill to be twice the player lukaku is, just needs the mentality.