Manchester United travel to the second city for the second time in a week, confident of adding just a second Premier League win on the road this season. Despite Birmingham City’s last-minute equaliser at St Andrews on Boxing Day, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men travel in the knowledge a win will take the Reds three points clear of the pack.
Ferguson, 69 yesterday, could rest key players following a busy festive programme, with West Bromwich Albion’s form having tailed off recently despite a bright start to the season. Indeed, the Baggies have lost three times in a row following early season wins that included victory at Arsenal.
Rio Ferdinand could step aside with Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling vying for a place in Ferguson’s side. Meanwhile, one of Wayne Rooney or Dimitar Berbatov could start on the bench, with Javier Hernández and Federico Macheda short of minutes in recent weeks.
However, Nani returns to bolster United’s options in wide areas which have been limited in recent matches with Park Ji-Sung at the Asia Cup for the next month. Paul Scholes is still injured so two of Darren Fletcher, Darron Gibson, Michael Carrick and Anderson will start in central midfield, with Gabriel Obertan likely to come into the side for Ryan Giggs.
Should Rooney start on the bench the former Evertonian could be denied an opportunity to score from open play for the first time this season – both of the striker’s two goals have come from the spot.
“Wayne does need a goal,” Ferguson admitted yesterday.
“It’s not an unusual situation where a striker goes a length of time without scoring and it becomes a confidence thing. I see it often. When they score they don’t think they’re going to miss and when they’re not scoring they don’t think they’re ever going to score. A goal will come his way. He just needs to keep the belief that it will happen.”
However, the 25-year-old has finally admitted his behaviour erred during contract negotiations in October, although Rooney again stopped short of apologising to United supporters. Rooney questioned the club’s ambition, with supporters angry that a rumoured deal with Manchester City was on the cards – so much so that a group of ‘men in black’ visited the player’s Alderley Edge home, carrying a banner that read “Join City and you’re dead,” while Nike’s Manchester city centre stored was vandalised with similar threats.
“I looked out and saw 30 blokes with their hoods up,” the player told MUTV.
“I wasn’t going to invite them in for tea. I understand some of the fans were disappointed and felt let down. It was just a bit intimidating to look out and see them all there.
“I went to see the manager and David Gill and basically asked them for answers. I now realise it had nothing to do with me. I got the answers in the end but, looking back, it was probably wrong of me to do that. I just wanted to make sure that signing was the right thing to do and I got the answers in the end.”
Meanwhile, Albion will be without three key defenders for United’s visit. Vice-captain Jonas Olsson is injured, while Gonzalo Jara and Gabriel Tamaş will both serve suspensions. The sides drew 2-2 earlier this season, with the Baggies unlucky not to score their first win at Old Trafford since 1978. The visitors’ goals came from just two shots – and a horrendous Edwin van der Sar error – but the quality of Roberto di Matteo’s side could have brought more.
However, it is the Midlands outfit’s defence that is threatening to unravel a promising season – di Matteo’s outfit have kept just one clean sheet all season. It’s a stat that Rooney, if he plays, will want to exploit.
Opposition
West Brom – 451 – Carson; Barnes, Scharner, Pablo, Shorey; Tchoyi, Mulumbu, Morrison, Dorrans, Thomas; Odemwingie. Subs from: Myhill, Cech, Miller, Reid, Cox, Fortuné, Thomas, Cox, Miller, Méïté, Hurst, Zuiverloon, Thorne
United
United – 442 – van der Sar; Rafael da Silva, Vidic, Smalling, Evra; Nani, Gibson, Fletcher, Obertan; Rooney, Hernández. Subs from: Carrick, Kuzszazk, Amos, Fabio da Silva, Evans, O’Shea, Brown, Anderson, Bébé, Macheda, Owen, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Giggs.
Officials
Referee: Chris Foy
Assistant referees: John Flynn & Bob Pollack
Fourth official: Mark Halsey
Form
West Brom – LWWLLL
United – WLDWWD
Sorry this is so late everyone – way too much celebrating yesterday!
Draw..1:1
West Brom: Carson, Reid, Scharner, Pablo, Cech, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Brunt, Morrison, Thomas, Odemwingie. Subs: Myhill, Tchoyi, Miller, Shorey, Zuiverloon, Fortune, Cox.
Man Utd: Kuszczak, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Obertan, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Berbatov, Rooney. Subs: Amos, Owen, Hernandez, Fabio Da Silva, Evans, Gibson, Bebe.
Van der Sar has flu, hence why PIG has been selected.
fuck me
that team selection is giving me palpitations
still, in SAF i trust….
all i want is a goal or 3 from shrek today
Good call on the Obertan, but just goes to show how hard it is to predict a Fergie line-up!
Neville?… oh fuck… there goes the clean sheet.
By the way… sopcast 82153 is working great.
roooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooney
yes 1-0 the man scores.
Rooney Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunes…
hi mad red
happy 2011 to you and yours
great start too
hi Han , you got your wish , rooney scores , this time its not with a slag lol.
shit
Fuck sake… great strike.
passing is pretty poor
how was that not a foul on carrick?
That was a nailed on penalty and Nev should have been sent off.
We are very, very lucky.
penalty shout for them
fffs neville should retire now
after that shrek goal, looking pretty hung over as a unit
We need half time…
How the heck are we so open and why is that overweight idiot Neville playing? Why has our manager started us off like this? I am fuming here. Why is Fletcher playing wideish when Brom have a three man centre midfield.
What more does our manager need to tell him that Neville is finished? Where is Brown or even Fabio? Now we have a situation where the ugly idiot is making us a talking point just like at Stoke. Brom are outplaying us.
berbatov not really in the game
actually none of them are
Every time I watch United LIVE I hate Berbatov. I really do. He just infuriates me to no end.
1 shot on/off target after 32 mins
ffs get a grip united
this is a team that have lost 3 on the trot and they are outplaying the reds
west brom pinning united in their half
SAF looks well pissed off and so he should
that team selected should make a better effort than this
come on reds.
Can someone get rid of those imposters and bring the real United players back?
we are shit.
We are totally wank!!! Without Nani we lack imagination. And a bench that is tactically clueless.
Our collective passing has been the worst I’ve seen in a long time.
did SAF let these cunts hit the town last night?
this is pretty fucking dire fare served up
not one of our players looks good out there
WTF is Neville doing on the field? And what’s with Evra. It’s like he has not played with anyone else!
evra looks like he is playing with himself at times
got to get better.
clueless
sort it out SAF
hope he brought that hairdryer with him from manchester cos this is woeful
berbs and rooney need service and our midfield with carrick and fletcher is so over rated
defensively look suspect every time they pump the ball in
neville needs to be subbed
bring on bebe or hernandez for a bit of a change
If this team wins the league then am a chinaman!!! And there is not one way SAF and his cronies on the bench are blameless. He starts a useless Neville at RB and does three things to us: makes the opposition wideman grin and relish and just rip us apart from there over and over; he makes our right side useless offensively as the wide right guy has to defend for Neville and finally, Neville knowing he has no pace has to pull wide all the time thereby leaving craters of space between him and the other centre-back!!! ALL these by playing one overhill ‘son’.
We then go to away to a side who are very good in midfield and we start with a midfield two of which both can’t even tackle.
I can’t see past our manager for this debacle out there on the pitch. He has had too many to drink last night and we are now suffering the hangover. Against a better side and this game would have been dead and buried. I hope Neville gets sent-off in the 2nd half!!!
FFS…
Brilliant start, and then it turned to shit.
It should be 3-1 and we should be a man down. We’re very lucky.
Plenty of time for Fergie to fix it though… Rooney is up for it, if we can get him in the game more… tank Neville to fix the defence… and give the midfield a bollocking.
The midfield is fuckin dreadful. Carrick, dear dear me.
neville has been shite.
He has been for the last THREE seasons. Absolute liability and waste of a valuable shirt.
carrick midfield general my cock
he is bollocks and has been 90% of the season
what the fuck is fletcher thinking – praise of past season gone to his 1 cell head?
cunts
get a grip u pussies
come on the reds
who we got on the bench today?
bring on the little pea.
need to re-group mentally and physically 2nd half
more service to our front 2 and i’m pretty sure things will happen
brom can’t surely keep up the pace for 90 mins and a few gaps will open
either that or united will be fucked
We are getting raped down the right hand side! GET NEVILLE OFF!
Think I might go down t’ bookies… see what the price is, on Fergie blaming the pitch if we don’t win.
come on united
Changes… good…
Gibson, and Chico… for ???
God will punish SAF and all the idiots he has around him on that bench. Berbatov is just a nothing footballer. Am glad he has gone off!!
gibfucker on ffs
Gibson…? I guess the strategy is to shoot on sight!
Berbs and Egg Head?
Neville is absolute gash… I also now hate Carrick more than Martin Platt…
If other teams around us we on form we’d be lucky to make top 5
why take off berbs? he has had nowt in terms of service
change the midfield around surely?
Pen….dear o dear me
Bollocks….
Fuck!!!! Neville was nowhere where he was supposed to be. What a lucky let off.
shocking pen
Oh my…
How lucky are we?
come on reds
come on united.
We need to win this…c’mon lads!
Thank god…Neville off.
Rafa for Neville… thank fuck for that.
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet pea
Chicharito!!!!
said i wanted sweet pea on, and he does what comes natural to him, goal.
Fair play to WBA. They are taking us on!
What an undeserved win.
fucking cunts got a win
didnt deserve fuck all
but im as pleased as a cunt with that
Jammy win..ffs it aint easy supporting Utd this season
This is the most embarrassing win I have ever seen us get. Absolutely atrocious. And I blame the the manager for the stupid decision to include Neville and put us on the back foot from the off. So if Fabio was good enough to come on why did he not start?
Anderson was too tired by the midway point while Fletcher started getting into the game when he moved infield.
well we won thanks to the little pea, but for most of the match we were poor to say the least, it was a vital 3 points at this stage of the season, but things need to improve. Sir Alex said united wont buy in January, but surly we need a new player or two in.
tbf we won the game the moment they missed that penalty
fucking awful performance. fergie had another brainfart and started with fletcher and gary fucking neville on the right, what the fuck was he expecting?
i’m pissed off with these ridiculous personnel changes and silly formations he keeps playing.
Taggart nearly ruined us again.
What Kramer said.
Still – top and won that game in hand, over to you arse, chumps and citeh
i must say that was shocking. i dont often criticise, but we couldnt even do the simple things right.
neville should never play for us again. hopefully today’s performance convinces fergie of that. but there appears to be a general lethargy to the performances.
great goal by west brom, but i agree with capt. the second they blew the penalty, we were always going to win.
but i guess its a sign of a championship team to win while playing badly
I hope Rooney has not fucked up his ankle. now that he has finally scored from open play, i hope we will see him back to his best. Vidic was my man of the match.
obertan was wank….neville is turning like titanic….fletcher and carrick were bollockless..as was berbatov
obertan was wank yet there were plenty of posts slating saf for not fielding him against b’ham on tuesday
neville should do a larry white and retire gracefully – it’s v sad since he is united thru and thru but he is a huge liability
carrick and fletcher should both grow a pair instead of sucking each others – our midfield was fucking way off on pace, possession and ideas
anderson has been poor last 2 games as well
we really got out of jail today with sweet pea’s effort but if we had lost by 4 goals it wouldn’t have been entirely amazing with that shower of shite performance
Felt for Berbatov a bit. At least he looked like he wanted to win the game. Could have easily left him on and took off Fletcher Carrick or Anderson. Them 3 were fuckin bobbins. Again though, we got a away with it, but surely its only a matter of time before some cunt rips us a new butt hole. Hopefully we’ll be out of the C/League before Barcelona hand us what we rightly deserve. How the fuck has this shower got us to the top ‘o’ the league?
I really am beginning to believe in Father Christmas, the Loch Ness monster, and that City are a massive club.
have to agree with u Ted on berbatov
hardly his fault that our midfield quartet were busy bumming each other this afternoon instead of playing footie
still fucking angry with that pathetic dross served up
sort it out quickly otherwise that is just curtains for any silverware this season
on a positive note though, playing like a bunch of mongs and still winning will really wind up the rest of the chasing pack
are we missing park?
we are definitely missing something…
Fucking awful. Got out of jail, again
Why is Neville still playing. The cunt hasn’t played for ages, then is parachuted in to the 11 in a tricky away game
Being top of the league made us forget we’re actually a bit shit
Our 3 man midfield couldn’t impose itself… 3 man midfield away at West Brom FFS
Chuffed as fuck for the win though
Even Mike Phelan admitted it was a terrible performance and that West Brom did not deserve to lose. But its 3 points in the bag and up next is Stoke!
Fletcher has failed to produce a single decent performance this season, whilst Carrick is Carrick.
I felt sorry for Rooney and Berbatov who played well today. Bit worrying how vulnerable we looked at times defensively. Obviously, playing Neville and playing a left back (Fabio) at right back was bound to make things worse. Evra is another one who has been shit this season. His crossing is abysmal.
our luck will run out at the business end, and then our supposed quality won’t suffice
3rd
Sheesh, Fabio is a right-back. He is right footed like his twin brother but plays on the left just as Phil used to do when he broke through because Gary was so good at RB. He should have started and we would not have been on the back foot from kick-off because that fart Neville kept getting sucked wide and out of position. Am sorry, but I feel nothing for Berbatov. He hangs on to the ball for too long, is not strong nor quick enough to play on his own uptop hence we shunt Rooney around to accommodate him. Seriously people, we need to stop making excuses for that man. I can not accept or understand how we got rid of Tevez for him!!
Sid, we did not start with a three man midfield. Our manager along with that lemon Phelan felt that after so many games in such a short period, Anderson and carrick will be able to match up nicely with Brom’s three central and Brunt dropping off Odemwegie. Also, they needed Fletcher to PROTECT Neville on the right. Madness. We should have been destroyed today and it would have been very deserved.
This performance today was all the technical crew’s fault and Sir Alex should carry the can. The players were wrongly deployed and one that should not have been in the squad let alone the first eleven was on the pitch!!!
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Said it for 3 seasons now mate! We are missing a leader. An attacking midfielder who can pass, tackle, shoot, win freekicks, kick some cunt over the stand when we are struggling. Basically all the criteria that none of our current rabble posess. Because we have no one like that on the pitch, serial under achievers such as Park, Carrick, Fletcher and Anderson have no one to answer to, therefore they can afford to have an (if it happens it happens) attitude, and thats clearly not acceptable.
It needs sorting and fucking quick. Absolutely rudderless.
We win… take the points and scarper…
This was robbery.
Fergie you tool… what are doing? Take Rooney off.
FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!
Rooney looks buggered.
What a tackle…
Just like his brother… show no fuckin mercy… lol
It looks like we’re going to fuck about now… until they equalise… then we’ll start to play again… with no time left.
Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiico… get in.
Fabio…