Sir Alex Ferguson will turn to two generations of Pauls, Pogba and Scholes, as Manchester United host Fulham at Old Trafford on Monday night. The United manager, fresh from ratcheting up a war of words with rivals Manchester City this week, will use the pair, young and old, as the Reds look to kick on in the Premier League title race.
Scholes, who has been instrumental in United’s outstanding recent domestic form, is likely to start against Martin Jol’s mid-table visitors. Pogba, meanwhile, is set to take part in yet another fixture as Ferguson continues his recent quest to ensure the young Frenchman stays at Old Trafford beyond the summer.
After City’s draw at Stoke City on Saturday, United, with a game in hand on Roberto Mancini’s outfit, can regain the Premier League lead with a result on Monday night. But Ferguson will want far more from the home tie – the opportunity to stretch United’s lead to three points and erode City’s goal difference advantage is on the horizon.
The Blues’ draw at Stoke, where the hosts’ physical approach rattled Mancini’s side, has increased the pressure at Eastlands – a fact Ferguson is sure to exploit in the coming weeks. Indeed, Ferguson’s decision to ponder aloud, Friday, whether bringing Carlos Tevez back into the light blue fold is a sign of “desperation” says much. Just as his side has eroded City’s confidence on the pitch, so the 70-year-old Scot has spotted more than a little weakness in his managerial rival.
Ferguson will have an almost fully fit squad for a tie that United almost always wins, although it is the Reds’ form at Old Trafford – both domestic and European – that has been patchy this season. Only Nani is still absent of the more recent injury concerns, while Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Tom Cleverley and Fabio da Silva took part in United reserves’ 3-1 victory over Aston Villa on Wednesday night. Pogba played an hour of that tie, and the quintet is likely to play some part in the matchday squad.
“We want him to stay because we think he’s going to be a fantastic Manchester United player. We hope that’s the case. Jones and Smalling have been in and out with injuries and illness. Cleverley, Pogba and Fabio had bits of games. We’re only waiting on Nani and Michael Owen now and expect both to start training with us next week.”
Long-term injury absentees Anderson, Darren Fletcher and Nemanja Vidić are not expected to return to Ferguson’s squad before the season’s end. But it is to Scholes that Ferguson has turned during the second half the season, with Anderson and Cleverley missing most of the campaign. The 37-year-old midfielder’s partnership with Michael Carrick has ensured not only that United kept in touch with City at the head of the Premier League, but surpassed the Blues in the past week.
While Carrick has played more than 19 domestic matches without a break, it is Scholes who has underpinned United’s central midfield creativity at a time when the Reds looks particularly weak in that area.
“He can dictate the tempo of games very well and the rhythm of our game,” added Ferguson of Scholes, with the flame-haired midfielder likely to stay at Old Trafford for at least another season.
“He has the experience which helps him do that. He has a terrific football brain. The reason he wanted to retire was because he wanted to play 50 games, not 25, he didn’t think that was enough. I said to him at the time he would play 25 games for me no problem, but he didn’t want that. Maybe he felt that was maybe me not giving him enough appreciation.
“What I was trying to do was look at it in a sensible way and think what do you get out of a 37-year-old? How many games can you get out of him? The way we control Ryan Giggs [in terms of games he plays] – he’s different from the rest and we’re treating Paul Scholes exactly the same now. There will be games where we maybe leave him out, but we also know the games he can play in.”
Meanwhile, Fulham arrive having been thumped by Swansea City last weekend, but lie a comfortable 13 points clear of the relegation zone under Jol’s stewardship. Orlando Sa, Steve Sidwell and Zdenek Grygera will not be involved at Old Trafford, but Jol has no further injury concerns for a tie that the west Londoners have not won since 2003. Indeed, Fulham has avoided defeat at Old Trafford just once in the past 49 years.
Jol has built a side with plenty of attacking options: Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak has excelled since joining the Cottagers in January, scoring five in as many games, while Clint Dempsey, Bryan Ruiz and Moussa Dembélé offer firepower from midfield. It is an attacking outfit that will concern United’s back-four, but has struggled to keep clean sheets in recent weeks.
And Jol has no regrets about not joining United eight years ago, when Ferguson mulled appointing the Dutchman as his assistant, before turning to Carlos Quiroz for a second time.
“At that time I met him only to have a conversation with him about everything,” added Jol.
“We talked football – they played Real Madrid with the “big” Ronaldo – so it was nice. Later he said about the assistant manager post, but I remember his assistant Carlos Queiroz went to Spain to Real Madrid. He was sacked so there was always a possibility for him to take him back and that is what he did. I think that was good because I don’t think I am the best assistant in the world.”
Ferguson’s side won 5-0 at Craven Cottage in December, a result that mirrors recent games between the two sides. Fulham has conceded 15 goals over the last three fixtures at Old Trafford, and while three points is the first priority, the opportunity to eliminate City’s potential goal-difference advantage will not be lost on United’s players.
“Every game is must-win now,” concluded Ferguson. “That is no issue for me. I have been used to that for years. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”
Match details
Manchester United versus Fulham, Premier League, Old Trafford , 26 March 2012, 8pm.
Potential Line-ups
United (4-4-1-1): de Gea; Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, Young; Rooney; Welbeck. Subs from: Amos, Fabio, Smalling, Jones, Giggs, Park, Cleverley, Pogba, Hernández, Berbatov.
Fulham (4-5-1): Schwarzer; Kelly, Hangeland, Senderos, JA Riise; Ruiz, Diarra, Dembele, Dempsey; Pogrebniak, Johnson. subs from: Stockdale, Baird, Hughes, Murphy, Duff, Etuhu, Frei.
Form
United: LWLWLW
Fulham: LWWWLL
Officials
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
Assistants: P Kirkup, M Mullarkey
Fourth Official: H Webb
Utd form has be great following their recent flop in europe.has the character and ability to snatch away the trophy from their noisy neighbour as we cal them
I’m not convinced this will be a walk in the park for United, and not just because I will be watching it.
Fulham aren’t a bad side, and they attack quite well. Our defence has been culpable this season for some shockingly bad performances, though of late I would concede the level of performance at the back has improved tremendously.
We need to hit them early, start quickly and if possible grab a couple of goals. There should be no complacency and certainly no generosity in front of goal. We need to be clinical – maliciously so.
The side you’ve proposed Ed is the one I’d go with. Aggressive, pacy, a midfield that can dictate the game. Even with Diarra in their midfield, I’m not convinced they are physical enough to shake us out of possession, so if we can dictate early that will set us up for the rest of the game!
Here’s hoping!
I have to say that for these last 9 games HERNANDEZ has to start every single one of them. No disrepesct to Welbeck as he has been immense this season but Chicha means goals and we gonna need every goal we can get with 9 more games to come. Welbeck brings a lot to our team so to be honest I really don’t mind him, wayne and chicha all starting. Only prob is its pretty damn tough to leave a Giggs or a Young on the bench. Oh well fergie knows best. Let’s have it tonight lads! Massive game and massive 3 points to go ahead of Citeh!!! UNITED!
Our defence has done very well considering all the disruptions it’s had.
Evans finding form has been key… he’s given us a some consistency and if Rio stays fit for the rest of the season, we’ll be fine.
Ed, I assumed the Pogba appearances recently were rewards because he HAD decided to stay, rather than an attempt to get him to stay.
If it really is an incentive I don’t see why Fergie hasn’t done this sooner to avoid this messiness.
Oh well… I’m hoping for an impressive victory tonight. It will be great for us to play some attractive football and inject more confidence into the team, especially at home.
People are writing off Fulham a bit
We should win, but we’re capable of being wankers at Old Trafford
I don’t think that “people are writing off Fulham a bit”. For years, the Cottagers have been lousy away from the Fulham Road. Martin Jol has a group of journeymen professionals playing an attractive style but just check the difference between their home-and-away form. And don’t forget that UTD eviscerated them nil-5 earlier in the season. This “should be” a fairly straightforward 3-1 victory – or maybe 5-1 if SAF tells TheLads to erase Shitty’s goal difference !
Talk of goal difference is writing off Fulham IMO because you’re accepting that we’ll win no problem
If we’re up for it tonight, we should get a few goals.
The Blackburn game next week is the one that worries me, as does the game against Everton.
Man Utd: De Gea, Evra, Ferdinand, Evans, Rafael, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia, Rooney, Young, Welbeck.
SUBS: Amos, Smalling, Jones, Cleverley, Scholes, Berbatov, Hernandez.
Fulham: Schwarzer, Kelly, JA Riise, Hangeland, Hughes, Diarra, Dempsey, Pogrebnyak, Duff, Frei, Dembele.
Giggs in the middle. Scholes & Clev on the bench. Hmm
they will come out to attack with their line up
i would have started with berba to hold the ball up for rooney
need to start with a decent tempo otherwise it will be a long 1st half
No reason not to go for a good thrashing — we’re in no other competitions, we can play our best team every time with a week’s rest in between games. So we should go out and thrash this lot. Enter the final straight ahead on points and goal difference.
Look at those DHL banners… Jeeesus…
as per usual OT crowd like a morgue
actually i stand corrected
actually heard some singing before kick off
Bloodzeed takes a bit of loading, but worth it when it comes in.
11 fulham players defending
Scholes would have been a better choice than Giggs for this game… I think we’ll need something really crafty to open them up.
Hehe, the Viera chant
fulham coming out to play
come on united
final ball needs to be better
FFS… we seem to have lost the initiative…
Won’t be long before the forums go into meltdown
This is poor
Rooney has lost the ability to pass the ball again
Yep, if we sort that out we can open these up. Need Scholes on tbf..
stick berba on to hold the ball up and create a decent move
ffs taken the foot off the gas for sure
nobody has had a decent 1st 20 mins thats obvious
Hi everyone just got in, Come on United.
when was the last time we took a decent corner?
Shite in the final third, again
Rooney the worst culprit
Our movement off the ball is rubbish.
Fergie’s British bias will cost us all the cups. How on earth was Welbeck, although a good talent, is picked ahead of Hernandez stumps me.
Because he is a better footballer.
That’s better…
sweet pea does very little when he isn’t scoring but welbeck will chase and harry and get some return
Good attempt from Evra that
Would love for that to have gone in.
I’m not Welbeck’s biggest fan and don’t really think he’s good enough for United. Saying that I don’t see what Little pea would do for this game. Tony V looking good, just need Rooney to step up.
Hernandez will score
Giggs in the book.
Welbeck and young managed to waist every chance and half chance we’ve had so far
Fucking hell Welbeck you cunt. WAKE UP!
SAF needs to take the hairdryer off its charging pole
roooooooooooooooooooooooooneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Get the fuck in!!
ffs… sloppy play from the whole team…
yes 1-0 Rooney.
THE FUCK INNNN
Right…
Great ball in from Young
Fuck’s Rooney doing ducking the cross?!
Good play from Evans to keep it alive
So waistfull in this first half…
Goal as I type! Get fucking in!!! Yes Rooney
This is the sort of match Berba would rack up 3 or 4 goals
Young, Wellbeck, rafael all been poor. Rooney not great, made up for it with the goal thanks to Evans pull back… What the fuck was he doing ducking the cross tho!?
Rafael has rated two chances and committed no serious errors, Young crossed for the goal. Welbeck not been great but give him time. Rooney hasn’t been much better.
Also, there is a clear tendency to go down the right side with Valencia so not s much action for Young.
I thought Evans was a goner in the summer… He thought so too, but Fergie was right to keep him on
I’d think about putting Cleverly or Scholes on to give us a bit of offensive momentum, Cleverly because of his movement, Scholes because of his passing. Berbatov might be worth a shout, but it would have been better to start with him on the pitch.
berba will not get a better opportunity to score but leaving him to sit on the bench is a joke
welbeck has been really average bordering on the poor and rooney looks pretty fucked off although i can’t see why
scholes/cleverley and berba on – giggs and welbeck off
what u talking about willis???????
Welbeck is a better footballer than Hernandez. Self-explanatory. He also nearly assisted a Valencia goal with a deft flick. Hasn’t had a great game but I doubt Hernandez would have done anything.
This game is crying our for a creative player around the box, not a goal poacher who spends the whole game offside.
wonder if we will try and score a few 2nd half or get the jitters and keep them at arm’s length?
cheers for the clarification
I was responding to someones comment, probably didn’t make much sense by itself.
Is anyone else not really worried by Fulham? Even going forward they never really looked like scoring. Just a matter of when we were going to get the ball back.
Credit to Martin Jol though, he’s sent out the perfect side tonight. Parking the bus, but with attack minded players who can break effectively but also keep the ball. Kudos.
Just hope other managers aren’t watching.
Fulham have got a goal in them. Let’s start the second half strong and put it to bed.
RedNev made some good points at half time about them breaking through the centre of the midfield. Our usual weakness basically.
Giggs + Carrick never going to be dynamic. But it’s what you sacrifice for having width in Young / Valencia.
according to the bbc website, we are lucky to be ahead ….
According to the BBC Evra’s overhead kick was shit. So obviously they are fucking idiots
oooo Valencia
Class from Giggs
Psh, we’ve been shit, Fulham have pressed and had a few half chances, but when United turn it on there is a gulf in class
Bah… should have been 2.
ooooh young
This is much better…
Fuck, Young just needs to hit that first time
Class move
Welbeck is woeful!
woefulbeck?
Welbebk having a real pig of a game.
fulham are there for the taking and we are pissing about
fucking opportunity to wipe out the goal difference being wasted ffs
One bad game for Welbeck and Brian the cunt is quick to gloat.
But there is a reason he is playing so much this season… he’s a great young player who is better than Hernandez.
Giggs can be so frustrating at times
Welbeck’s touch is fine outside of the box, but inside the box it can be shite
Reverse that and you’ve got Hernandez
this match is starting to really get on my tits
Giggs is on though so Hernandez will score
reverse both and u have berba
Welbeck had a real nightmare… this is the perfect opportunity for Chico to show, he should be preferred…
Bollocks… Fulham are defending very well… they’re just not doing anything else.
Change makes sense, not been welbeck’s night. This would (could still?) have been a good game for cleverly, we’ve had so much possession
keep up mate
played 22 mins already
lol.
Fucking hell Giggsy!! should have done better young man.
We need another or we could take a sucker punch!
If Valencia had a left foot he’d be incredible.
ok so they are defending in numbers but if our players wanted it as badly as they should, they should be creating more with the possession and carving them up
Aye, it can be painful at times when he cuts in and still uses his right
Murphy coming on… fuck… that cunt always hurts United.
Great tackle from Evans
Had to make that
oh so close
Fuking hell! Great passage of play.
Hernandez makes me look like a cunt with that beautiful skill.
FUCK SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
scholes on for rooney? ffs giggs needs to come off not rooney
Rooney off… strange, his general game has been a bit shit though
Looks like we’re settling for 1-0
Evra!! fuck off!
Last ball fucked up every single time
We’re going to blow it here!
i don’t like the way things are going
Scholes… that should have been a yellow
Come on United.
what kind of pantywaist break was that? let’s get some men forward ffs
why the fuck is berbatov not on this pitch?
fucking cocksucking poor decision
Our final ball has been horrendous tonight!
Evra’s turning this into comedy hour
My fucking god… Hernandez…
Fuckin hell, we’ve been wank…
Fucking hell Giggs how long have you been kicking a football around for a living?
Hernandez is really looking like a one-season wonder these days.
That was a CLEAR penalty.
And that’s the problem with Young… no left foot…
That was a cold penalty… I can hear the City gnashing of teeth from here.
Hernandez…. WTF.Grow up and calm down.
I hope Fergie tears this pile of shit a new arse!
That was a penalty
Very fucking lucky
LOL… love the Sikhs and their red turbans.
Who’s bottling it, us or City
I told you all this talk of goal difference was bullshit
saf needs to take the blame for taking off rooney and ferdinand
stonewall penalty on murphy but it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…
cuntish 1-0 win but 3 points is all that matters
some of that game was just too easy but no excuse to be so fucking complacent
To be fair though… Murphy doesn’t need to go down… stay on your feet and have a shot.
Exactly. When I saw it I thought Carrick had pushed him in the back, not enough contact for him to take a dive like that.
We should have had a pen anyway with that handball. If the one City got against Chelsea was a pen, that should have been.
We were average tonight. But that was because Fulham parked the bus for 80 minutes. 1-0 a good result considering.
Well the best that can be said of that is that we survived a wank performance. There’d better be some non-wank performances for the next 8 matches. City must be wondering how they’re three points behind our shower, with all the players they have. Really the premier league is a big shit sandwich this season, but City have the most bread, so they’ll probably win.
It wasn’t wank, 70% possession tells it’s own story. Just not clinical enough against the London bus.
And United are better… if you actually watched City against Stoke you’d know that your comment is fucking stupid.
Thank fuck for that. Night Ya’ll
robbie savage is 1 huge cocksucker on radio 5
phew, don’t they make it stressful, ffs, but in the end we got the win.
Always has been.
no fucking excuses with that performance but the pressure is on
berbs would have held that ball up and taken it to the corner flag but giggs and young were woeful in holding the ball in the last 15 mins – giggs i can excuse on grounds of age but young really should do better than that
i hope saf tells these twats that was no way good enough for the 90 mins irrespective of fulham’s parking the bus defending
Rooney is scoring, but his general play is shite. He can’t pass the ball at times. We need him to find some form because we’re shite in the final third.
I just hold us to a higher standard than you do in that case.
We won 5-0 last week can’t do it every time. City bottled it, we didn’t. So stop crying.
Some hysterical women on here tonight.
United’s performance was exactly like City on Saturday… both teams with poor final ball, both survived solid pen shouts against them.
What’s the difference? That’s right, we fucking won. So cheer the fuck up.
lets be honest, the whole team played like pussies tonight especially in the last 10 mins
rooney being subbed was a mistake since at least with him on the pitch, there is a possibility some spark will be created
aye a win is a win and 3 points – but this was against a piss poor team who can’t score away from the cottage and we jerked ourselves off instead of giving them an arse raping
Not saying we were impressive by any means. But Fulham didn’t score did they… and they rarely looked like scoring. Great lift for us to survive a horrible game and massive ball ache for City.
If we play like that every game we will lose but we won’t.
Aye. Maybe he is knackered? That would explain his shit general play recently.
can i have some of that stuff you take? its damn good…
i guess most of the venting is relief at getting the win but really disappointed with the missed opportunity to wipe out the goal difference
with all the fulham players defending as they did, a few more shots in their box could have seen our old favourite scorer of a few seasons past, O.G., coming out of the woodwork, but i am just miffed with that lack of killer instinct
I’m sober… dealer fucked me off tonight.
Evans was a positive too.. just got MotM from Sky. Fuck it anyway, just a game to forget and 3 points to cherish.
In a bit ladies
So much for entertainment > being technically competent.
We’re not even entertaining. That was a turgid, shite performance all-round.
Tonight was a classic example of United sloppiness. We played like that and got found against Basel and same in the Europa League.
When will this lot learn to pass the ball to each other consistently and with purpose? Such a basic thing to master and yet we fail to get it right time and time again.
If Fulham had drawn level with the penalty they should have had, nobody could have complained. Bloody pathetic. I was worried about next week’s match vs Blackburn before the Fulham game – I can see us dropping points if we play like that again.
Good result, but still can’t understand why Berbatov continues to sit on the subs bench. Never been impressed with Wellbeck, he is not of United quality. Anderson, Park, Giggs, Scholes, Owen and Wellbeck need to move on somewhere else this summer. Bring me some real quality players to Old Trafford and play Berbatov. SAF has lost it!
Berbatov you are right about, pretty much everything else you wrote was bollocks.
“SAF has lost it!”
Fuck sake Herbie… language is wasted on you mate… why don’t you just grunt?
They crack me up as well, they have had those seats for years. Probably the best in the house.
A particularly poor performance from some in the team – Welbeck, Rooney, Young, Evra, all terrible. I thought Evans was utterly awesome, really top performance from him. Valencia was good again with Raphael providing good support down the right. If only they should shoot I think we’d have slammed Fulham around and got a few goals.
Probably a penalty but that’s what you get when, after the very mildest of contact, you go down like you just got shunted at 90mph by a bus. If Murphy does the take-a-few-steps-and-fall dive then he wins the pen.
Yeah, whenever the camera falls on the opposition Manager, you’ll see them… but it seems to me, and I could be wrong, that they’ve only just started wearing the red turbans.
Brilliant!
That is true usually it’s the red united shirt with black turbans – also in keeping with the united kit theme
Im just happy with the win meaning one less game to go and the screw on Mancini tightening that little bit more.
Neville on Valencia
“No fannyin'”
I think that was partly a thumb pointed at Nani…
lol
Grunt? Well if you think this is such a great team with great players, then you’ve really got a problem. And if you think SAF is some God, then God Bless You too!
What games are you all watching? Are you as blind as SAF?
Did you learn from Bilbao that the team is CRAP?