Top versus bottom in the Premier League and another comfortable victory for Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson’s team marches towards another Premier League title. That is, of course, the most comfortable of scripts – one that United has not always read with ease this season. And with Queens Park Rangers fighting an unlikely battle for Premier League survival, the home side should be no pushover as United travels to London this weekend.
Indeed, Harry Redknapp’s team has secured draws with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, and victory over Chelsea, since the new manager’s January arrival. Yet, heavy defeat to Swansea City two weeks ago and an embarrassing loss against MK Dons in the FA Cup have also come despite the millions lavished on the team during the winter transfer window.
Chairman Tony Fernandes’ investment seems unlikely to save QPR though, with the Hoops some 23 points away from the 40 that is normally required to secure Premier League status. Six victories over the next 12 games could be enough; the problem comes with QPR’s record of just two wins in the league season to date.
Meanwhile, United continue to tick off games, protecting a lead that has now stretched to 12 points over neighbours Manchester City. With Ferguson’s squad in pretty good health, despite a heavy schedule in recent weeks, the 71-year-old says that competition for places will drive United towards success, with the Reds still chasing three trophies this season.
“Against Real Madrid they all wanted to play and that’s fantastic – it’s a measure of their faith and confidence in themselves,” said Ferguson on Friday.
“And I thought they acquitted themselves well against Reading. Their hunger and attitude to the game was great and we deserved to go through.
“At this club, and particularly in the situation we’re in at the moment, anything can happen in the run-in. Players can suddenly find themselves playing in a final or an important league game because that’s the squad I have. I think they sense this could be a big year for them.”
Meanwhile, Nani, who starred in the Cup on Monday, could keep his place in the side despite rarely featuring this season. While most pundits and many supporters believe that the Portuguese winger will leave the club in the summer, with a new contract as yet unsigned, Ferguson says that he is determined to keep the winger.
“We want to keep him, there’s no doubt about that,” said Sir Alex.
“He’s capable of scoring incredible goals. His goal against Everton, when he dinked the keeper after playing a couple of one-twos, was incredible. And the goal against Tottenham the year before, where he dinked the goalkeeper after playing a one-two, was another one.
“The boy has an incredible talent for winning matches. He’s one of the best match-winners in the game, and I include the whole of Europe in that.
“It’s entirely up to the boy – he has a year and a half left. I think he wants guaranteed first-team football. He can guarantee himself that. Performances like the other night can guarantee that. We’re trying our best to keep him because he’s such a match-winner.”
Meanwhile, QPR manager Redknapp is likely to be without new striker Loic Remy who has a groin strain. Junior Hoilett and Samba Diakite fit again, but Bobby Zamora is unlikely to be risked after suffering a serious hip problem this season. Former Red Park Ji-Sung should play, although Fabio da Silva is ineligible to face his parent club.
QPR’s 4-1 defeat to Swansea diverted the Hoops’ campaign off track again after an improvement in form under Redknapp. QPR has lost just once in the past six, although United’s record of nine victories in the past 10 meetings between these sides points to another away victory. After all, Ferguson’s team hasn’t lost at Loftus Road since the 1980s.
Still, QPR’s desperate state should guarantee an honest effort from the hosts, with defensive solidity Redknapp’s policy in the past two months.
“QPR have done well recently,” said United striker Danny Welbeck.
“I think they’ve been setting up with two banks of four, making it difficult to break them down. They’re just getting behind the ball and obviously it’s been hard for teams to score goals against them. But hopefully we’ll have our tactics right on the day and will try to get some goals.”
After all, Ferguson’s side has never failed to score at Loftus Road in the Premier League.
Match details
Queens Park Rangers v Manchester United – Premier League, Loftus Road – 3pm, 23 February 2013
Possible teams
QPR (4-5-1): Julio Cesar; Onuoha, Samba, Hill, Traore; Derry, Park Ji-sung, Taarabt, Jenas, M’bia; Mackie. Subs from: Green, Ben-Haim, Wright-Phillips, Granero, Zamora, Bothroyd, Townsend.
United (4-2-3-1): de Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Nani, Cleverley, Carrick, Kagawa; Welbeck, van Persie. Subs from: Lindegaard, Smalling, Vidić, Büttner, Valencia, Powell, Anderson, Giggs, Young, Hernández.
Match officials
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: P Kirkup, G Beswick
Fourth official: N Swarbrick
Form
QPR: WDLDDL
United: WWWWDW
Head to Head
Last 10: QPR 0, United 9, Draw 1
Overall: QPR 6, United 31, Draw 13
Stats
- Julio Cesar has garnered good reviews since joining QPR – the Brazilian has made 107 saves in 1687 minutes this season according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index;
- Much of the creative responsibility for QPR falls to Adel Taarabt who has made 41 dribbles, 26 crosses and five assists this season;
- The Moroccan has almost made 77 attempts on goal – almost as many as the next three most prolific shooters in the QPR squad combined at 87;
- Rafael da Silva may not face his brother Fabio on Saturday, but the United defender is having a fine season – he has racked up 84 defensive contributions, as well as completing 443 passes in the opponent’s half;
- Fellow defender Jonny Evans continues to excel and, disrupting the established centre-half partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic – the Irishman also boasts the best tackle ratio of any United player with 68 per cent from 28 challenges;
- Meanwhile, Robin van Persie has scored 19 goals this season – one from every 4.63 attempts on goal;
- Partner Wayne Rooney has completed the third highest number of passes in the opponent’s half in the United squad with 471.
Prediction
0-2
It would be so nice to see United batter QPR as if they were a top of the table club playing relegation fodder, but that is probably too much to hope for, so let’s just get the three points and put some real pressure on City.
I think you’re right rob. The squad rotation, though necessary, can hurt the fluidity of the side. Hopefully the lead can be maintained or extended in the run up to the Madrid game as it will mean players can be rested. A huge advantage especially as they play Barcelona 3 days before.
QPR no longer pushovers. I expect this to be a tight game….but all i care about is 3 points
Am hoping im wrong and we’ll batter them though…
De Gea; Rafael Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Giggs, Carrick, Young, Chicharito, van Persie.
Apparently
Evans, Valencia, Anderson, Rooney, Lindergaard, Welbeck, Cleverley
Nani should murder this lot
Giggs in the middle might be painful
What’s going on with Cleverley?
Nani needed to start on the right to have the best chance of continuing his comeback. Young does not deserve to start in front of Nani on the right.
EDIT: on-screen graphic of United’s setup was wrong; Nani playing on the right.
Christ this is poor
Wow, what a hit!
What a screamer! Beauty!
who?
wow
didn’t expect that …
Fucking class hit
Uh-ORVP…looks like he’s picked up a knock
Giggs’ pressure starts that move
The ball from Raf
RVP off, precautionary I think
Nailed on penalty
I hope that wasn’t the one, good half United manage to produce in every match. Magic moment from Rafa van Persie, though.
on who?
Chico, 10 seconds before half time
Ref bottled it
cheers for that sid
bbc make no mention of it although do say that SAF is not exactly pleased with the refereeing
van Persie injured by a TV camera?
Fergie get Giggs off the pitch you fuck. This is awful stuff boys. QPR are pure shyte we should be thrashing them.
Would like the second now! Hate QPR!
We’ve lost our rhythm
QPRs shitness is infectious
We’ve been sloppy today, far from clinical
rooney on
lets hope he is up for it
Why take AY off when Nani has been silent. Bad feeling about how this match is going.
It’s just one of those games you have to get through
The quality is piss poor
QPR are awful
Because with one leg and blurred vision Nani is still better than Young!
Yep Nani is pure class. LOL Giggs shows him how it’s done. This will be Nani’s last game for United. Tbh none of our wingers this season have been on form. Maybe that kid from Palace will walk into the starting 11.
Giggs has contributed nothing, absolutely nothing, waste of tuime
Nice pass from Nani. Didn’t shoot for once
Hard to believe it’s not Scholes, it’s Carrick, you know…
Nani’s had a good game
Typical Welbeck the same thing over and over again with him. I say get rid of
Such a clueless cunt fair play.
Crap game but it was QPR so we got through anyways. Our whole MF bar Cleverley and Carrick can fuck off this summer
Another one ticked off
Could be 14/15 points clear by tomorrow night
5 clean sheets and 3 goals conceded in our last 8 PL games.
Giggs is nailed on for another contract now
Fair play n all
We should have finished the game off in the first half, didn’t play as well in the second but can’t complain overall.
Couple of observations:
For such an otherwise brilliant player, Welbeck really is poor in front of goal. Even last season he was getting worse than a goal every 3 games.
I hold my hands up and admit Rafael’s defending has been fantastic this season. He has been one of the players of the season. Magnificent.
Cal won’t have enjoyed that goal.
Good version of Rafael’s goal. You can see RVP fall in a hole an injure his hip just before too.
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video/premier-league/?vid=bf8ea5a0-65ed-4963-b77b-ac6d2d27e0bb
Looks painful
Hopefully he’ll just have a bruised arse
Cue a load of bunming jokes
I’d be more worried about bad spelling jokes if I were you…
This is a pretty catchy song:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/fan-footage-manchester-united-supporters-sing-lengthy-michael-carrick-tune-at-qpr/?
We have to have the best contingent of fans when it comes to making up songs. None of this “we support our local team/you’re support is fahckin shit” bollocks that you hear from away fans every week at Old Trafford.
No doubt supporters of riff-raff sides will copy our song.
how many have the defenders scored this season
Great goal from Rafael.
I think about a dozen in the league, mostly Evra Evans and Raf. The defenders have scored a good few more goals than the midfield.
Goals, all comps:
52 between 4 strikers
20 between 9 midfielders (Kagawa, Giggs, Cleverley, Carrick, Fletcher, Powell, Anderson, Nani, Scholes)
13 between 5 defenders (Raf, Evra, Evans, Vidic, Buttner)
Clearly a one man team
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/fan-footage-manchester-united-supporters-sing-lengthy-michael-carrick-tune-at-qpr/?
We have to have the best contingent of fans when it comes to making up songs. None of this “we support our local team/you’re support is fahckin shit” bollocks that you hear from away fans every week at Old Trafford.
No doubt supporters of riff-raff sides will copy our song.
I like the Kicking a Blue chant you hear at every game now
absolutely pathetic that young and valencia havent even managed a goal between them
You know it’s funny, when i was watching the Reading game last week my dad remarked about the steep drop off at the edge of the pit and how someone would get hurt if they fell… damn clairvoyant bastard
uncleknobheadffs @ 3:46: “absolutely pathetic that young and valencia havent even managed a goal between them.”
AshleyBloodyYoung looks like a Villa player and AV7 looks like he should return to Wigan. Its amazing that SAF keeps giving them prime-time playing roles while unsuccessfully trying to marginalize the only winger with genuine attacking talent.
The best thing in today’s match was not LittleRedRafa’s goal/clearance/diagonal pass or Nani’s sixty-yard cross-field ball or his wonderfully weighted reverse pass but SirRyanGiggs’ imperious form. AND TheLegend (his new nickname for all those who just get totally pissed with this habit of mine !) got better as the game went on – absolutely amazing player. ( ( Sorry, Calvino ! )
I agree. Valencia’s decline, however, has been so steep and so otherwise inexplicable that I wonder if he doesn’t feel his leg every time he begins to approach top gear and pulls back. Something similar seems to have happened with Aaron Ramsey. I was so pissed when he turned down the opportunity to come to us, but since he’s returned from his broken leg, I don’t rate him at all. He gets caught in possession far too often, and looks as though he is trying to do things that he remembers being able to do, but is no longer as quick or pacey as he needs to be to pull them off..
Yea but what doesn’t make sense about that theory is that both of them made storming returns after injury. Tony V was one of our best players when he finally returned from that ankle break likewise for Aaron Ramsey and Arsenal. I remember our late season loss to Arsenal that year and Ramsey absolutely bossed the midfield not 2 months after returning to fitness. So why should their form drop off so suddenly now?
I’m not a Young fan but he’s done OK in the last couple of games and he could have been credited with an assist yesterday if Hernandez had scored from that difficult header in the first half. We had other chances in the first half and I thought Young looked dangerous.
Those statistics are indicative of the strength of our squad. So much for finishing miles behind the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea (both of whom have vastly inferior squads) if we were RVP-less.
I did consider this, and all I could figure in Tony’s case is that he did come back strong, but he also had a few spells where he was out with a knock to his ankle, if I remember correctly. It’s not a perfect theory, and, unless the players come out and admit to a problem, there will be no way of knowing for sure, but it’s difficult to imagine what else could have had such a negative impact on Valencia’s mental state. He was generally preferred to Nani on the right, so his confidence should have been high. For now, the reason for his decline remains a mystery.
First off, those stats are for all competitions; the numbers for the midfield drop considerably when only the league goals are considered. I believe only Giggs has more than one goal: one from the wing and one from CM. Secondly, remove the 19 goals RvP scored plus his 7 assists, and you’ve got 26 goals you’ve got to make up.
Kagawa and Cleverley both have scored two goals as well.
Well, clearly, we’d be completely fucked because we wouldn’t have any other players who could play in his position.
Oh, and Arsenal and Chelsea’s squads are so much better than ours that that they’d totally overhaul our league standing if we were unable to make up those goals that RVP has scored/assisted.
After 27 games, Arsenal are a massive 2 points better off than they were last season (when RVP was playing for them)having played the same number of games. Chelsea are only 3 points better off.
United are an enormous 4 points ahead of where they were this time last season.
But, yeah, put RVP in either of those teams and they go ahead of United.
Brilliant logic.
As I have already written elsewhere, I’m not interested in stating categorically that United would finish in fourth without RvP, but I am willing to entertain that possibility in light of the fact that he has been responsible for 26 of 64 goals United have scored in the league. My reply to your post was only meant to point out the misuse of statistics that you employed to prop up your conclusions.
Well, let’s see, Welbeck and Rooney have been needed on the wings, while Chicharito is already contributing as much as he can reasonably be expected to, so, who did you have in mind?
Well with Berbatov gone, Fergie would go all adventurous on us and decide to stick with 3 forwards all season and hope for the best. In a hypothetical scenario, without RVP, that’s exactly what would happen. We’d be totally fucked.
Has it occurred to you that part of the reason we’ve had the luxury of being able to play Welbeck and Rooney on the wings is precisely because we have RVP?
Here’s a quote of mine from the ‘stronger squad’ thread: “RvP has had a tremendous impact on United’s fortunes this season, not because he has formed a fantastic strike partnership with Rooney, a la Yorke and Cole, but because it allows Sir Alex to have a world class striker on the pitch while Rooney is asked to cover for an under-performing winger or to inject some energy into the midfield.”
Does that answer your question?
So what are you assuming would happen to our side if he wasn’t at United? There’s no way we’d be as poor this season as some are assuming.
Shouldn’t assume we wouldn’t have signed any one else either. With Berba leaving, Fergie was always going to try and replace him.
At United, someone always steps up. Might’ve been Rooney, Nani, Welbeck, our defence, anyone. It’s very rare our whole team is playing well, but we usually have one or two winning games for us. This season it’s been van Persie. If he wasn’t here, we would’ve found another way to win. That’s what Fergie does.
This is exactly it. It’s all very well pointing out Van Persie’s goals/assists but Fergie always has a Plan B. Wingers aren’t performing? Put Welbeck and Rooney on the wings. It’s why he is so successful – he knows how to get the most out of the squad.
Completely agree that if Van Persie hadn’t joined us, I’m sure Fergie would have opted for a replacement. He wouldn’t have gone into the season with just Rooney, Hernadez and Welbeck.
As fans and, sometimes I am guilty of this, we underestimate the manager/our own players and over-estimate our rivals.
This is why I hate when arguments descend into pedantic nit-picking… I’ll admit, that I “MAY” have gone too far to suggest United “MIGHT” not finish 4th… but fuckin hell… Van Persie has directly been involved in 27 goals for United, and some of you are trying way too hard dismiss that as a casual contribution that wouldn’t make that much difference… ridiculous.
And this notion that, had we not gotten Van Persie, we’d have gotten someone else of quality… what the hell is that based on?… certainly not the Ferguson of the past few years… more like, “we had one or two targets in mind, but we couldn’t conclude anything, it’s difficult to find real value in the market these days, and I’m happy with the players I’ve got”.
Van Persie has carried United for much of this year, the same way Rooney, and Ronaldo have done in the past… I don’t see why you just can’t give him the credit he deserves.
“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”
Here’s where your argument breaks down: if you have to use two-thirds of your strike force as wingers and you don’t have RvP up top, where do the goals come from? What other striker of even half of RvP’s quality was available at prices United could afford? If they were out there, City and Cheatski would have gone for and most likely got them.
Alf, I’m not dismissing his contribution at all. I just don’t like the argument that United are so utterly dependent on him that, if he were not at United, we’d struggle so badly that we’d fall behind even Chelsea and Arsenal (the former who have just shown how shockingly shit they are for a side placed 3rd in the league).
We’d be poorer without him than with him, no question. I don’t think we’d be as far ahead in the league but I don’t believe in this doomsday scenario that was propagated.
Oh, and yes, I do believe United would have signed another forward if we hadn’t obtained van Persie because, given the number of games we play, Fergie wouldn’t have gone into the season with 3 forwards, one of whom is only into his second full season in the senior side. Whether this other signing would have been as good as van Persie is another argument altogether. We’re not privy to all of Fergie’s targets. Clearly he had money to spend, so it’s reasonable to assume he would have spent it on someone else, possibly someone we’ve not heard of.
You seem to be assuming we wouldn’t have signed anyone at all if we hadn’t signed RVP. You talk about targets but as I mentioned in my previous post, no one other than Fergie and his scouts know who he is interested in, who he is definitely interested in signing.
It’s pointless to assume we’d have signed no one or, if we had signed someone, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as van Persie. Pure conjecture.
Just accept that we have a top-class player on our books and enjoy the rest of the season FFS.
No, I only assume that United would not have signed a striker anywhere near as good as RvP. In fact Sir Alex did sign another striker; he’s on loan at Wigan. You say that there was clearly money to spend, while I believe Sir Alex only got the money because it was RvP he was going for.
Before you talk about “pure conjecture” you might want to take a second look at some of the arguments you’ve been making.
This could go on all day. Fuck it.
My thoughts exactly. The whole “where would we be without van Persie” thing started out as an interesting debate, but it is getting a bit tedious and repetitive now.
what is up with the BEST podcast in itunes land?
2 weeks now with nothing? please bring it back to us.
A man with a spade on his head ^^