Sir Alex Ferguson has taken a strong squad South for this afternoon’s FA Cup fourth round tie at League One Southampton. Mindful of last season’s early exit, the Manchester United manager is set on an easy passage through to the fifth round in a competition that the Reds have not won in more than six years now.
Edwin van der Sar will not feature, Patrice Evra is missing following a family bereavement, Rio Ferdinand is injured and Rafael da Silva will miss the game following his concussion against Blackpool on Tuesday but most of Ferguson’s big guns travel. Still, it is likely the Scot will make significant changes to the United team that came from two goals down against the seasiders during the week.
Indeed, after another horrendous Wayne Rooney performance and a fine Javier Hernández goal against Blackpool, United’s £30 million striker may well be under threat. Fringe players such as Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Gabriel Obertan and Darron Gibson could also feature.
Michael Carrick is also available following injury, while Anderson could feature after missing out during midweek.
There could also be a debut for £4 million Danish goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard, who officially joined during the winter transfer window. The 26-year-old was on United’s bench for the trip to Blackpool and will compete with Tomasz Kuszazck for a place in Ferguson’s first XI.
“Michael will train today and hopefully he will be okay to travel,” Ferguson said on Friday.
“We picked up one or two bruises at Blackpool the other night – it was quite a physical game, but we’ll still take a strong squad because it won’t be an easy match; away games in cup ties never are.
“I went to see Southampton play Oldham earlier this month and they won 6-0. They’re having a good season. They play good football and I’m sure they’ll have a go.”
The Saints, who dropped out of the Premier League fives years ago, are now own by the estate of late Swiss businessman Markus Liebherr, whose dream was to take the South coast club back into the top flight. Indeed, with Southampton now riding high in League One there is some light at the end of a very dark tunnel. The club is fortunate to still exist after falling into administration two years ago, for which the Football League administered a 10 point penalty.
Manager Nigel Adkins, who took over in September following a highly successful spell in charge of Scunthorpe United in the Championship, now has his side playing attractive attacking football in the Southampton tradition, with the club on course for a place in the League One play-offs come May.
Meanwhile, Adkins Saints could be without captain Dean Hammond, who has a calf problem, and Lallana, who has missed two matches with a knee injury.
Nobody at United is taking Southampton for granted though, especially given the lengthy time since the club last won England’s premier cup competition.
“The manager has already had a little word with us over the last couple of days in training telling us how frustrated he is that he has not been able to get his hands on the trophy,” said defender Smalling, who is likely to start.
“We will be going all out for him and ourselves, and hopefully we can impose our presence on the game nice and early.
“Some people make changes in the FA Cup and view it different ways, but it’s an important competition to us and one we want to win.”
More than three thousand travelling Reds will attest to that, and with United on a five-match winning sequence against the Saints in all competitions confidence is surely high. Little chance then of Southampton repeating the club’s most famous win, at Wembley in 1976 when the Saints beat United 1-0 – via Bobby Stokes much-debated – to win the FA Cup.
Opposition
Southampton – 442 – Davis; Richardson, Dickson, Fonte, Harding; Jaidi, Guly, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Schneiderlin; Chaplow, Lambert. Subs from: Bialkowski, Butterfield, Martin, Seaborne, Gobern, Barnard, Doble
United
United – 442 – Lindegaard; Fabio da Silva, Vidic, Smalling, O’Shea; Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Obertan; Hernández, Berbatov. Subs from: Kuzszazk, Evans, Brown, Gibson, Owen, Bébé, Giggs, Fletcher, Rooney.
Officials
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Assistant referees: Simon Beck and Mike Mullarkey
Fourth official: Kevin Friend
Form
Southampton – WWWWDL
United – DWWWWW
aye
take a strong squad down but play gibson and evans will be akin to inviting them to go for united from the off – i hope i’m wrong about evans but gibson just isn’t worthy of a 1st team place
if united want to progress, then stick the big guns on from the start and if not needed, rest them in the 2nd half
i have to agree with you. Gibson is rubbish. bring on Cleverly to replace him.
Just a small point: Markus leibherr sadly passed away last year. SFC are now owned by his family.
Joe – woops. Corrected, thanks for the spot.
btw
would be great to have a similar attendance on here as on tuesday nite against blackpool
that was definitely a kicking posting and like the old rant we all used to love
come on guys
pull your fingers out and start posting
Should have started Rooney… this would have been a great game for him to find his form.
Lindegaard; O’Shea, Smalling, Evans, Fabio; Obertan, Scholes, Gibson, Ando; Owen, Chicharito
Gibson FFS
started with gibson
bollox to that
he did score against the saints 3 years ago so lets hope he remembers what to do with the ball
lol Ed
my sentiments exactly
i also don’t agree with starting with sweet pea – hope he does his stuff from the start though
well at least SAF has the bench sorted out
Hi Han , here we go again,ready for another rollercoaster of a match, or can we make it easy for once.
hi mad red
i’m baby sitting my 6 year old who says she won’t disturb me…where have i heard that sentence before????
still, getting well used to the roller coaster united put us all on
come on the reds
i see alf was in the paper this morning
which 1?
Alfonso Bedoya, lol
i hope all these changes don’t mean a similar performance to that away to west ham in the carling cup
hope not,
in fact that line up is pretty similar to that west ham guff served up save the goalie
it wont help, lets hope they gel together.
our new goalie looks about 15 years old
He meant which paper, ya tit.
oh lol , the sun
Strachan having a wank about Scholes.
“Best English midfielder he’s ever seen”…
the sun reader don’t need much brains for that.
here we go come on united.
This is a big game for Obertan, I think.
He doesn’t get many starts, and with Park due back soon and Valencia on the mend, chances could get scarce.
they will come out all guns blazing i guess
well offside.
owen off the post.
It’s a good thing Scholes is out there, or we’d have no midfield at all.
Both Anderson and Gibson are useless at the moment.
I must be the only one but WHAT THE FUCK DOES GIBSON bring us?!? He’s mid table backup at best
shit game
Great ball from Fabio.
A goal will change that.
Southampton should hurry then
come on united ffs.
dreadful game
Obertan and Chico are getting no service at all.
Arrrghh… O’Shea is a rubbish footballer.
ffs
fucking jokers
Evans has lost it… he didn’t even try to get back…
don’t look like scoring at all
no clue with that side
rubbish.
need to get the real united out in the 2nd half
the side out there are playing like shit
every away game we are shit this season, pull your fucking fingers out of your arse.
Gibson and Anderson may as well not be on the pitch, ffs.
Defence decided to go AWOL for the goal. The same defence that played at West Ham and got thumped. A Southampton goal was always on the cards, though, let’s be honest.
We’re shorn of any creativity with that midfield and Southampton can get forward at will because no one wants to put in a tackle. Add to the fact that, as usual, we keep giving the ball away even when we’re under no pressure whatsoever.
Scholes can’t do everything on his own. Hernandez and Owen are being starved of decent service and it’s showing. Not really arsed about the FA Cup, in truth, but it would be nice if our so-called back ups could show that they’re good enough to play for United.
well i am arsed about the fa cup
shame this fucking side isnt
Good post! Agreed…. but if our first team are not really firing then what chance the the shit back up have..
tbf Gibson and Evans should be no where near a fucking united shirt! I detest Evans and Gibson wholeheartedly
me to, about time we won it again.
they will tire 2nd half and there will be more room
shame united are playing shite to exploit it
send on giggs and berbs
go 442
shoot gibcunt
evans even had the cheek to start blaming the linesman
silly fuck
Fergie must know that our second side is utter shit and no where good enough!
why does he keep playing them.
brown on for siva
Anderson is taking the piss.
you need to ask yourself if this shower of shite knows what it means to play for United.
Anderson and Gibson are really advertising their shiteness today.
sell , sell.
Nani and Giggs coming on… Gibson and Anderson?
Sit the fuck down you two useless planks, and watch how it’s done.
come on now united.
1-1
come on united
owen
I’ve had it with Anderson… he has one or two decent games, Fergie starts biggin him up… and he turns to shit.
Is he another Richardson? Thinks he’s made it, so he’s lost his hunger.
Chico!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet pea
get a 3rd guys and put us out of our twisted underpants
sweet pea, magic.
Nani is back to his “fuckin about” ways.
I fear for Smalling. He looks awful. Gibson was awful aswell.
Wins a win though.
Nani has been shite for a while now, Alf. He’s only gotten away with it thus far because we’ve been winning matches. Agree about Anderson – he continues to frustrate.
I've worked out why Gibbo keeps getting a game. He's got pictures of Ferguson "hanging out of the back" of this…
mum!!£””£$ ffs
I’m sure i got a nosh off her a few years back. Is she from Porto?
shite performance save for the last 30 mins when a sense of urgency provided the impetus
make no mistake, we all know gibcunts limitations but oberfanny is too light, smalling is still a car crash waiting to happen and although evans played poorly, he was still the least crap out of the 3 mentioned
anderson is a total waste – all mouth and no action and all in all, i think SAF has to hold his hands up and say we were v lucky tonight
still, 5th round beckons and hope we get a decent draw at home – crawley anyone?
I wanna badly smash her up the ..oppps wrong thread.
Missed the game cause of work….another lucky win then?
What’s with this trend of playing 451 away from home against bollocks with no width and no movement, then changing it second half by adding width and intelligence and winning the game
Lindegaard looks sound though. He’s good on the ball. Interesitng to see how his nerves hold up in bigger games
without scholes or giggs – united are clueless more often than not
if the future is relying on the likes of gib-fuckcocksuckmotherfuckpussytwatfingeranus-son, the future is even more shite than the scouse cunts
It is all well and good blaming the players but our manager and Phelan had stinkers today. What the heck was that all about?? Come on somebody please do me a favour! Most of the lads did not know if they were going or coming with the formation he set out for them. We all know Obertan is a proper winger while Hernandez is a striker. So is Michael Owen – who by the way was our best player on the pitch and deserved his goal – so why set them out and not tell them what to do? No width, no centre-forward per se and Soton had the freedom of the ground. The players will get the blame but seriously, Gibson and Anderson did not know if they should stay wide or infield, so Scholes was isolated and yet there was no outball when we had possession.
Now to the players: Anderson is brain dead and am sorry I have given up on him. This is a player who wants to play ALL of his football with the side of his foot. Can’t ever seem to be able to put his laces through a ball and can’t show any gumtion infront of goal.
I still have hopes for Gibson. I might be mad but I do.
O’Shea really needs to quit playing football. he is so useless these days it is unbelievable. watching Brown playing so well when he came on and I wonder how O’Shea gets in ahead of him.
Smalling was just too nervous alongside Evans but he will be ok. Am glad Evans did well too.
Owen, fantastic performance in a strange role and really really good goal. Should still be released in the summer.
Our manager needs to have a good hard look at what he did to most of these players today. You put on players who have hardly had a kick during the season and you gave them a frankly disjointed formation to play.
cal
ffs
how you can blame SAF for that bollox in the 1st half is way too strong – those twats who put on the united shirt should at least be able to pass the fucking ball properly – it was poor at best in the 1st half and SAF is entitled to give that shower of shite some responsibility in a game against 2nd div opposition
anderson passed the ball so badly it made me want to scream
and when the 2 so called midfielders were subbed, i wanted SAF to punch gibson in the face instead of patting him on the back
This is Cal you’re on about
He’s written 4 paragraphs and not mentioned Giggs who changed things, again
aye sid
tis true
and v sad that to boot
Sid,
I concluded long ago that you are very stupid so try not to respond to you.
han, even the manager himself has agreed that he “meddled with the system” which for me contributed a lot in the way the young boys played. The system we set up fromthe start was awful. I felt very sorry for Paul Scholes. If Giggs had started the 1st half in THAT same system he would have struggled too.
Good post, mate. I don’t agree with you about Gibson, though. Everything else is spot on IMO.
tbf i do too……good post cal
tbf Gibson is dogshite as is Evans… tbf
Bah! I’ll admit the formation was weird… I think that was down to Ferguson trying to accomodate Owen, without crowding Chico… so he played Owen in the hole… and it didn’t work… so the team struggled to attack with any fluency… but that is no excuse for Anderson and Gibson, not being able to do the simple things like pass the ball, or make the odd tackle… they were hopeless… especially Gibson, who doesn’t seem to even try to offer anything anymore… what is he thinking? he doesn’t press, he doesn’t look to find space when he doesn’t have the ball, and he doesn’t do fuck all useful when he’s got it… he’s just a passenger and he doesn’t seem to care that he’s pissing away his position in the squad.
OUT!
Thats a calm and well thought through post for you Alf. Have you layed off the corona or the sol.
alf
spot on
and all has been said before and will be said again – it’s piss easy to blame SAF but these cunts are professionals and should be able to pass the ball 5 yards to a team mate 99% of the time – gibson and anderson both were guilty of such poor passing, they wouldn’t have looked out of place in a pub team
Did anyone see Judas interviewed post-match? I cringed at how much of a loser he’s become – publicly begging for more games. He played well to be fair.
Mongo, I like you…bend over.
whos judas
I think darron has potential. its not fair to blame him for the cause of all our losses. Hes a good player but needs some support. how would you feel if you played for a club as big as manchester united and all the fans hated you and didnt believe in you. dont think that it wont affect a player. hes barely even gotten a chance to prove himself. poor gibbo he needs some love <3
ffs….losses??? all one of them??
the fact is we are only having a go at him for one reason and one reason only…he is shit
what is this site coming to
tbf Gibbo is fucking abysmal bottom of the table fodder!
who’s judas
judas = some auntyfuckingcocksuckingarselickingrectumfingering uncle