In the week Premier League chairman voted through proposals to curb excessive spending, there is some prescience in Manchester United’s trip to face Swansea City this week. The Welsh club is, after all, a model in sustainable and organic growth. No little surprise that Manchester City was one of only two clubs to vote against the proposals – Mohammed Al Fayed’s Fulham being the other. But also much to laud in Swansea’s model – part-owned by the fans and largely debt-free.
Yet, at the beginning of another busy Christmas programme there will be little charity from United on Sunday, with the opportunity to create a decisive advantage in the Premier League over the next four matches. United faces the Swans, followed by fixtures against Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic. A quartet of tough fixtures, for sure, but each that Sir Alex Ferguson believes winnable all the same.
Still, with Swansea better off in points terms than at the same stage last season, Michael Laudrup’s outfit has consolidated superbly in the top division. Indeed, while the side’s tiki-taka sensibility has become a modicum more pragmatic, Laudrup’s outfit still plays some of the best football in England’s top division.
Little wonder Sir Alex Ferguson holds much admiration for the 100-year-old club, although the septuagenarian may bristle at talk of fan ownership and financial stability.
“You’ve seen the results they have had and the progress they have made as a football club over the last years,” said the United manager, who turns 71 on New Year’s Eve. “The important thing for me is they try to play and have the courage to play their football, which is good.”
United begin the Christmas period in fine health, with only Brazilian Rafael da Silva, Nani and Shinji Kagawa likely to miss Sunday’s fixture. However, captain Nemanja Vidić is fit enough to make the bench after suffering no adverse reaction to a substitute appearance last weekend. Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand will again pair up in central defence, and Phil Jones will continue at right-back.
“At this time of year, all the games are challenges and they come thick and fast now,” adds Ferguson.
“Utilising the squad is important, as is picking the right team, but hopefully we can get through it and be in the same position as we are now.”
“Jonny has had one or two injuries but hopefully they’re behind him now. He’s fit for Sunday. Vida is doing great in training, it’s just a matter of picking the time to bring him back. It gives me options with Smalling, Jones, Ferdinand, Evans. Rafa won’t make Sunday’s game as he’s still out with a hamstring. Nani is still injured. Apart from those players, we’re all right.”
Meanwhile, the hosts welcome back goalkeeper Michel Vorm, who returns after a two-month layoff with a groin injury. Pablo Hernandez is available, but right-back Angel Rangel is again missing.
Whatever the result on Sunday, Swansea’s campaign has suffered nothing for a change of manager last summer. After all, Laudrup is now an experienced campaigner across three countries, although one that rarely seems to stay at an employer for any length of time.
Still, Laudrup can be proud both of the campaign and Swansea’s ability to buck any potential ‘second season syndrome’.
“We are coming up to the halfway point of the season and whatever happens between now and then, we will have 23 points on the board,” said the former Denmark international.
“That is three more than at the same stage last season, and we can then look back at what we have achieved and see what targets we can set for the remainder of the season. But the next six or seven weeks are crucial for us.“Of course we would like to win on Sunday, but if we do then there will be a lot of focus on the club again.
Meanwhile, title rivals City play matches against Sunderland, Norwich City and Stoke City in the same period, after fortunately beating Reading 1-0 on Saturday. In common with Ferguson’s outfit, City will be seeking maximum points from middle-ranked opposition, although games on the road in Norfolk and the north east will test Roberto Mancini’s men.
No team has managed to win all it’s matches in December since Chelsea in 2004/5. Should Ferguson’s team achieve it the Premier League title will be one step closer. Yet, few in the Scot’s camp will doubt that United faces the sternest of tests away at Swansea on Sunday.
Match Details
Swansea City v Manchester United – Premier League, Liberty Stadium – Sunday 23 December 2012, 1.30pm
Possible teams
Swansea (4-3-3): Vorm; Chico, Williams, Tiendalli, Davies; Dyer, Britton, Ki Sung-Yeung; Routledge, Michu, De Guzman; Subs from: Tremmel, Cornell, Monk, Agustien, Richards, Graham, Shechter, Moore
United (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Rafael, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Carrick, Scholes; Valencia, Rooney, Young; van Persie. Subs from: Lindegaard, Wootton, Vidić, Smalling, Buttner, Fletcher, Cleverley, Powell, Giggs, Hernandez, Welbeck
Officials
Referee: M Oliver
Assistants: S Ledger; S Bennett
Fourth official: L Probert
Form
Swansea: DWWLWL
United: WWWLWW
Head to Head
Last 10: Swansea 2, United 6, Draw 2
Overall: Swansea 6, United 8, Draw 4
Stats
- Michu remains joint top scorer in the league this season despite not finding the net against Tottenham last weekend – the Spaniard has garnered a goal once every 129 minutes or once every 4 shots;
- Teenager defender Ben Davies has quietly emerged as a dominant force in the Swansea defence this season, achieving an 80 per cent tackle success rate from 35 challenges, conceding only 7 fouls;
- Wayne Routledge is the second highest ranked English midfielder in the league for combined goals and assists with eight according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index;
- Jonathan de Guzman has contributed the highest total completed passes in the Swansea squad with 366, also providing 24 crosses and four assists;
- Ashley Williams has intercepted the ball 102 times this season, as well as providing 22 blocks;
- Meanwhile for United Robin van Persie continues to settle into the side, registering six assists this season and a goal every 123 minutes this season;
- No striker in the Premier League has completed more passes in the opponent’s half than Wayne Rooney this season, who has recorded 371;
- Tom Cleverley has emerged as a midfielder of real quality this season, with the youngster succeeding in 68 per cent of his 22 challenges, as well as completing 240 passes in the opponent’s half;
- Javier Hernández boasts an excellent shots to goal ratio of three to one despite few chances in the first team this season;
- Few wingers deliver as consistently as Antonio Valencia, despite some shaky performances recently – the Ecuadorian has made more crosses, with 37, than anybody else in the United side.
Prediction
1-2
“United faces the Swans, followed by fixtures against Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic. A quartet of tough fixtures, for sure”
Yeah, right.
UTD couldn’t get a much easier run of matches for the Xmas/New Year’s fixtures.
The 11 could be a horrorshow, depends how much Fergie tinkers
May god have mercy
United (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Rafael, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Carrick, Scholes; Valencia, Rooney, Young; van Persie. Subs from: Lindegaard, Wootton, Vidić, Smalling, Buttner, Fletcher, Cleverley, Powell, Giggs, Hernandez, Welbeck
Come on “Ed” Rafael in the first 11?
Rafa won’t make Sunday’s game as he’s still out with a hamstring.
Surely that is Jones. Tomorrows game should be a good game for us. Looking forward to see Kagawa back in the next few games, him and Cleverley should be operating behind Wazza & Van Persie.
Come on United!
Rafael is mentioned as being injured however you’ve included him in the predicted starting 11.. do you know something we don’t?
Carrick and Scholes in midfield? Then we lose.
Always love some good stats – wasn’t aware of Rooney completing the most passes in the opposing half or Valencia banging in the most crosses for us. Thanks Ed! Should be an exciting match today. I’m hoping it’ll give the papers something else to write about other than the countless articles about Ronaldo that just make me miss him more and more. It’s like if your ex girlfriend suddenly became a pin-up model and you can’t escape the sight of her to let your heart heal.
If he picks Carrick and Scholes in midfield, then his brains have turned to jam. If Giggs and Scholes then the jam has gone mouldy
This is definitely a banana skin of a game….
Anderson’s not mentioned as one of the injured players, nor is he listed in the possible squad. What’s the latest on him?
can’t get out the revolving doors at burger king in urmston
i see the game is not on radio 5 today either
bollox it’s on talk shite with collytwat & co
ffs unc, did your invitation to watch it on sky with u and aunty get held up in the xmas post?
Vidic starts alongside Evans, Cleverley and Carrick in midfield.
is that confirmed or wishful thinking?
Sky Sports News
That’ll do me.
thx
We’re overdue handing the other side a beating really….Wishful thinking I know but I am speculating for a 4-1 win
He’s put a first team out, well in
This is by far the hardest game out of the 3
Sopcast 6816… good stream
come on United, need a good result today, welcome back Vidic.
Evra goal.
Is that Evra’s third headed goal this season
The move before that was class, Rooney created the space and Young ran into it
Good goal. We were looking bit nervy before. Hope we’ll settle better now…
Our midfield is actually dominating at times. Carrick has room in the centre circle because they’re sitting deep.
Our high line is gonna leak a goal soon though. Michu is too quick for our centrebacks. Vidic looks sluggish.
Like the way we’re pressing here… Swansea can’t get their passing game going.
It will take Vidic a few games to get up to the pace of these games.
Poor defending by us for the goal there. Is Smalling injured — he’s not even on the bench? Would much rather see him in right back than Jones.
Fergie will be pissed that Van Persie was fouled by Chico, got fuck all, they went down the pitch and scored.
Poor defending and average goalkeeping….
Valencia’s seen plenty of the ball, and done fuck all with it.
Need a bollocking, too casual after going one nil up.
A lot of our players don’t look their usual selves, Rooney and Tony V for example.
Why are we hoofing it
hairdryer should sort that out
Complete reverse since they scored.
That’s a foul on Van Persie before their goal
Ref is being shit
What happened to Valencia and who is this replacement whose special skill is pretending to be a statue?
I think Ferg will put Scholes and Welbeck on for Cleverley and Jones, and he might even try to get Hernandez on too.
There are more goals here
We’re playing a lot of football in their penalty area
Please can someone explain what the fuck Valencia is doing playing for us?
This game is calling for Scholes. Rooney needs to up his game the cunt!
Was I right in hearing the commentator say that Evans had signed a new contract?? FFS
signed 2 days ago
keep up u cunt
scholes will get murdered if he comes on
Rooney is off…valencia has yet to recapture last season form, vidix sluggish, young is also averag
Need to step it up….
Too much fannying about with the ball. We need to move the ball more quickly. Another Cleverley performance I’ve not been overly impressed with. He needs to get into the game.
The way Swansea are pressing us now, putting Scholes on would be a gift.
Young and Rooney ought to be taken off.
Did RVP drive over the ref’s dog on the way to the match today?
We are playing like shit — SAF needs to ring the changes.
Our defending is really casual…
I’m going to give £5 to charity every time Valencia touches the ball with his left foot.
We are REALLY REALLY SHIT
The forwards are being shit, none more so than Rooney
They’re getting in some great positions, one on ones, and they’re shanking em
time for the pea
Get Rooney fucking off
Rooney is an abomination, he will give the ball away and they will score
Come on United.
The premier league must be shite for us to be top! Madrid are going to arse rape us!
Rooney’s heads gone. Get him off!
Aye, this is the worst I’ve seen from him for quite a while… still, I bet he scores the winner.
At least we’re knocking……
Swansea are a bit knackered now, and they’re scared of a United late winner
Oh great… here comes Giggs… now I feel confident.
time for scholes to come on not giggs
That shit pass the worst thing Rooney has ever done in a United shirt
Thank fuck he is off, he was going to cost us
The refereeing has been a shambles. So far Carrick, Evans, and RVP have been our only good players.
rvp must have slept with the ref’s mrs…how did he get booked for that?
Gigs needed to come on instead of Scholes to play on the left instead of Rooney, there was no one else bar Welbeck on the bench who is shite wide, Evras defending has been that bad we could have fucked him up on the Wong and brought Buttner on, refs been a tool f sake. What has happened to Tony V?
I don’t mind Giggs wide for 20 mins, just not in the middle, at least he can cross the fucking thing from the left.
What is the point of Scholes for 5 minutes?
Carrack and Cleverly haven’t even been nearly the worst players on the pitch,
Throw the old boys on and hope, I thought we were past that.
Giggs has actually been good…
Overall a point at the Liberty Stadium isn’t the worse result ever, we were much better in defence after half time. Although in context it’s two points dropped and made even worse by City scabbing a win against Reading.
Rooney and Valencia were diabolical. Bad weekend for us.
Well that was shit. Fergie took far too long to make his substitutions.
Rooney had the chance to win it, he just had to make a short 3 yard pass. But he didn’t put enough on it – something he’s often guilty of
The cunt must have wanted Boxing Day/New Year off because there’s no way he can play now – not after that show. He has to be dropped.
Rooney was horrible horrible
Clev Carrick was good
Dfence looked solid in 2nd half, but was culpable for the goal
Val and young were missing, as is the norm this season…
can’t be too pissed off with that result but should have been better performance wise
rvp can’t do it all himself and needed support
vidic coming back is great but looked pretty rusty tbf on him
rooney needs to lie down and reflect
tony v will come good no worries
Oh and the ref was horrid..simply horrid. If he was my employee he’d be sacked immediately…
but don’t start with the pea
welbeck might get the nod
1-1 away at Swansea is not the worst result,many sides will drop points at there ground.
But agree that draw away at swansea is not a bad result. Its just an awful shame because we should have won it. They looked threatening maybe twice the whole match…..and they scored 1. We looked threatening like 6-7 times and only got one and hit the woodwork twice…
Aye, a point away at Swansea isn’t a terrible result. But it’s gutting because on the day Swansea were there for taking.
At least the midfield was good. Michu didn’t get a sniff second half despite having the beating of our centrebacks because Swansea couldn’t get the ball to him with any regularity. Possession killed off that threat. Carrick was ace.
Giggs was good. Although he only had to play better than the passenger that was Wayne Rooney. Actually scrap that, passenger implies that he wasn’t contributing, he was worse than a passenger.
aye
but we have played like pussies all season according to most and still 4 points ahead
i just don’t think we like leading the pack
prefer it when we are chasing for some absurd reasoning
oh and brian
sorry for calling you a cunt earlier
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: “We absolutely battered them and we are very unlucky. It really should have been a foul for us in the build-up to their goal. It was just one of those games, he is a young referee, but really, what a performance.
“It should have been six point gap today and that is the disappointment. Vidic did not have much to do but what he did do he did well.
“Robin van Persie is lucky to be alive. It was a disgraceful act from their player today and he should be banned by the FA. Robin could have had a broken neck.”
Ferguson is a happy man then.
I agree. Ref was horrid. Not only for being Horribily inconsistent on the 50/50 fouls, but how the heck did RVP get a yellow for that….! It was either a straight red for Ashley Williams or a nothing for both….thats the definition of dangerous play…
I think the word you were searching for is “saboteur”.
looks like saf will be hauled over the coals by the fa instead of williams
To be fair though, there wasn’t a lot wrong with our play today – formation wise, tactic wise, possession wise etc. The only thing we did wrong was not score more than one goal. Individuals were shit, but even so, we should have won.
Thats the 2nd thing we did wrong. The 1st thing was letting in a goal!!
We put out a strong side but it really took the arrival of giggs to give us a sniff of doing anything offensively. We were poor up front. Rooney will rarely play as poorly as that again. A draw at Swansea’s place isn’t what I would normally consider to be a bad result but we should have got more from the game. City need to start dropping points, as do Chelsea. Still annoyed that City beat reading yesterday.
i’m still recovering from last season to be annoyed about yesterday
Sidney @ 3:42: “The forwards are being shit, none more so than Rooney”
Yep, TheWayneBoy is a strange player – incredibly inconsistent. Today he must have given the ball away a dozen times and his passing was awful too. Still, I wouldn’t have taken him off – he has more capacity for being “inconsistently good” than AshleyBloodyYoung who had two point-blank chances and……
Prove it…..
We were really unlucky in the end. Dominated possession and created better chances. Can’t remember the last time we attacked more down the left than the right. I seem to remember when we were comparing Nani to Valencia, one of Nani’s biggest faults was how bad he was when he was off form – Valencia didn’t get a cross on target and I don’t think he made one forward pass in their half all game. Don’t know why we didn’t bring Welbeck on – so many of our moves were breaking down with short passes in the final 3rd – his speciality.
We were pretty much playing a 4141 today – clearly a good formation for Carrick. Individual mistakes and a bit of bad luck cost us a win in what was actually a good performance by the team (as a unit).
We were excellent today. Absolutely battered them in the second half and I have no idea how they held on. It was even more remarkable when you bear in mind that we played with 9 men – Rooney and Valencia (again) were diabolical. Why was it Giggs that came on instead of Welbeck? That puzzled me. What exactly are the football reasons for sending Paul Scholes on to a football pitch for a first team game these days?!!
We won there last season and still lost the league while City lost there. Am not even sad at all. We were really good so that makes me happy. Rooney will not play this badly again for the rest of the season. Saw signs very early in the first half when he could not send a simple pass to Young that caused me concern.
just be gracious and accept the apology
Sorry, but we’ll take the draw, we are happy with the draw isn’t the talk of champions. Where did you hear General Patton say “we’ll take the draw”?
aye
shame berbatov has gone as that’s one less to slag off
Rooney looked hungover, or else he thought he was playing for England because he was in a foreign country. Carrick was our best player by a mile. Evans and RVP were also very good, but RVP was stymied by poor officiating and even worse service from Rooney and the wings. Hernandez helped change the game big-time when he came on; we bossed them from that point on because their defenders sat deep out of fear of the Pea’s pace, which pulled their whole side back. Giggs was excellent when he came on — he’s still very effective in an attacking-creative role, Fergie just needs to not play him in the middle of the pitch. When Rooney, Valencia, and Young are all playing so poorly, what’s poor old Welbeck got to do to get a game? Also, Jones did not look like he had the skills expected of a United player.
rent boys arse raped villa big time this afternoon
how many renters want fat fuck out now?
Calvino @ 6:09: “Why was it Giggs that came on instead of Welbeck? That puzzled me”
Be fair – he wasn’t diabolical today
“What exactly are the football reasons for sending Paul Scholes on to a football pitch for a first team game these days?!!”
To “control” the match – and get a needless yellow card.
bman @ 6:46: “Rooney looked hungover, or else he thought he was playing for England because he was in a foreign country.”
Either or both of those “reasons” sound compelling. TheWayneBoy was just awful.
But, like I wrote earlier – “I wouldn’t have taken him off – he has more capacity for being “inconsistently good” than AshleyBloodyYoung who had two point-blank chances and……” Seeing the match-highlights again on the telly, it seems that AshleyBloodyYoung missed THREE point-blank chances, not two.
Hopefully that Chelsea score (vs Villa) will have given our attacking players a kick up the arse in terms of reminding them to be more clinical in front of goal.
I think SAF was roght in bringing Rooney off..i agree that he is always capable of greatness any second, but he needed to be taken off for two reasons:
1) to give him a kick up his arse…if you dont perform you’ll get taken off
2) as someone in this thread mentioned, he was unintentionally a saboteur tonight…all promising things he then gave away or destroyed..
Jones put in a couple of good crosses, but there was nobody there to greet them….is it Young’s responsibility?
Tbf Giggs was excellent in his cameo. He was at the heart of some of our most incisive moves and created several chances..
What I hate is that we are shifting from a club and team where everything said “Champions” to one where everything says “false hopes”. Once upon a time a 6pt lead to us in December meant it was all over bar the shouting and the 6 would be stretched to 9 in Jan, 12 in Feb and we would be unassailable
He brought him off after 75 minutes – 30 minutes too late.
once upon a time in a land far far away….lol
when does valencia get said kick up the arse, this is a long running embarrassment,
What the feck has happened to Valencia? He literally stood still every time he got the ball. His confidence must be shot… needs to get his shit together or fack off
hes just not a very good player, young too
giggs was fucking great when he came on tbf
Fergie’s post-match comments regarding “he nearly killed him” seem to have worked a treat – absolutely nobody aside from us are talking about how shite Rooney was and that we dropped points. At least it was an entertaining match!