Pride of all Europe?
On the show, Ed & Paul discuss United’s elimination from the Champions League after defeat to FC Basel in Switzerland. We ponder the consequences for the team, the financial implications, and discuss where it all went wrong. We also review United’s Premier League victory at Aston Villa last weekend, and look forward to the Reds’ tie with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford.
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I think you guys are missing a point over De Gea. Whilst its quite clear he is very talented and is likely to turn into a great keeper in years to come, it was surely premature to expect him to walk straight into the United first team and into the shoes of a goalkeeping icon like VDS. He’s made a few errors but again that’s not the issue. A top keeper needs to boss his penalty area, including imposing his personality on his back four. That was always going to be an impossible task for DDG given his youth, inexpereince and language barrier. Why, for heavens sake, didn’t he understudy Lindegaard at the start. The latter has greater experience, personality and confidence. Fergie seems to partially acknowledge Lindegaards caims to being no 1 but having given DDG the nod at the start he is now viirtually alternating them on a game to game basis. That’s not good either if one wants a settled defence ultimately.
True. But to be fair, after a few games where he made a couple of mistakes and was subjected to a media campaign he improved quickly. He’s actually been playing well since then, apart from one error against Basel. I’m more concerned by injuries to our defence and the subsequent rotation of the back 4. When you have a new keeper and a constantly changing back line and midfield it’s always going to cause problems.
Goalkeepers only really improve with experience. I read an interview with VdS once where he was saying that goalkeepers become good with age because they learn to recognise patterns in play and know the correct positioning to deal with them. While football does seem to be a chaotic game, there are only a handful of basic ways in which goals can be scored and I think this is what Edwin was saying.
When goalies are young they rely on quick reactions more that analysing the situation.
I think the most crucial part to being Man Utd’s goalkeeper is distribution. Edwin played as a striker in Ajax’s youth teams until he was 16 I believe and so his kicking technique was brilliant. DDG has excellent kicking technique at the moment and this won’t diminish over time. Keepers with dodgy distribution don’t really improve in this regard over their career, Mark Bosnich springs to mind.
DDG has the right attributes to be our goalie and the rest of the package will come eventually with experience.
Cheers, guys. Enjoyed the rant cast as always. Really like your presenting style. Never posted before, but I have been reading and listening for a long time. I’m a bit worried for the future. Too many injuries, too many players out of form, although Nani looks like he might be picking up. Young players will always make mistakes, so I don’t blame them. However, a lot of our play seems pretty dull and predictable. We have our moments, but we seem to end up in games (at least against beatable opposition) trying to break down defences of nine players and we lack the talent or know-how to get through. Then one outfield ball to a good player who can hold it up seems to cause us immense trouble. We don’t seem to close down the opposition enough and our players don’t seem to have the work-rate of teams gone by.
I went to the Newcastle match. We played OK, but had no finesse to break them down. Has Fergie lost his magic? Is it the coaching staff? Is it lack of investment in good, established players, never mind world-beaters? Is it down to the players due to far too much rotation and lack of consistency? Who knows? Anyway, I grew up in Stretford in the 70s and 80s and was used to watching Utd perform inconsistently and win the odd cup. I think those times are heading back. As you said in the rant cast – you can only celebrate if you have felt the lows. You cannot take the good times for granted. We’ll be there or thereabouts, but I don’t think that we are anywhere near the might of Europe or even City for that matter.
Rooney as “patchy genius”?
No, he’s legit. Problem is service and possession. He’s frustrated for exactly the reasons he threatened to leave. He’s a world class player who is playing with a mediocre midfield behind him. We should have bought someone.
Our hopes this seasons were essentially pinned on some kids who have not yet played a full season of premiership football. It was a desperate strategy that never had a chance in Europe. Thing is, we might still win the league. Honestly.
Was definitely just being speculative about Rooney. But I do think he’s suffered from personal lack of form a few times regardless of the team.
I hear ya, but I can’t blame the wings or forwards when we have an empty hole in the middle of the park.
Liked the Rant Cast: you guys are most entertaining: articulate and witty, and generally very astute.
I also like it when you get philosophical about the game: for example, your comments about football and community were spot on.
But you are being perhaps a little soft on the United owners and management, which some of see as quite horrendous.
Keep up the impressive standard.