[stretty]

Am i just paranoid , i am worried about the start of the season.
No ronaldo
Nani suspended for two matches , lacking width.
park still unfit , hargreaves unfit , anderson at the olympics.
no sign of new players , we have to hit the ground running and cannot be trailing to the dippers and chelski.
my worries are we will be quite a few points behind before all our squad are back to full strength and with some big big matches early doors

 

[Keano!]

Am i just paranoid , i am worried about the start of the season.
No ronaldo Couldn't really care TBH
Nani suspended for two matches , lacking width. Loss but Fletch, Park.....
park still unfitWill gain fitness over the next few weeks , hargreaves unfitSame as park, will be fit in time IMO , anderson at the olympics.Biggest loss, but he's playing football so fitness won't be a problem
no sign of new players , we have to hit the ground running and cannot be trailing to the dippers and chelski.
my worries are we will be quite a few points behind before all our squad are back to full strength and with some big big matches early doors

If we can perform like we did in the first half against Espanyol, we have nothing to fear.

Key men for me are, Rooney, Tevez, Scholes, Ferdinand, VDS......

If they're on form then we will more then likely win......


...to answer your question, I'm not too worried about th start, I'm actually dying
for it to begin!

 

[abojodeh]

The Last Season We Had A Very Bad Start
Rooney Injured-Ronaldo Banned-Tevez Not Fit In The Squad-Park Injured-Neville Injured-Foster Injured-Saha Injured-Anderson Not In The Squad Yet
And Later We Won The Double
Am Not Worried

 

[sparkic]

Yeah I am quite worried too as these first 2 months are the hardest fixture wise...we got heaps of difficult away games early on (Anfield & Stamford Bridge) and plus we got to travel to Monaco to play in the UEFA Super Cup and we also have extra games in the Community Shield. At least for the 2 super cups we got Nani but in the EPL yeah we don't have Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson plus Hargo, Neville, Park and Saha are all first teamers who are all injured plus we haven't signed our "one" signing yet. I hope all of the players come back form injury asap (the same goes for Ronaldo).

I think we got a good enough squad to cope and plus we did have a bad start last season but I think we would all rather have us top of the table after 3 gameweeks instead of 3rd last lol

 

[spellbound]

As far as I found out this is the fixture of the August and September games for us:
Aug 17, 16:00 Old Trafford Manchester United v Newcastle United
Aug 25, 20:00 Fratton Park Portsmouth v Manchester United
Sep 13, 12:45 Anfield Liverpool v Manchester United
Sep 21, 14:00 Stamford Bridge Chelsea v Manchester United
Sep 27, 15:00 Old Trafford Manchester United v Bolton

And with this fixture Nani will miss the Newcastle game and the Pompey game.
The Olympic final is at August 23rd so Anderson will miss both the same game as Nani is missing.

The 3rd game we are playing in PL is at Anfield and hopefully we got a full squad but Ronaldo ready for that game September 13th.

Im not updated on the latest with Saha and Park. Maybe we're having 3 men missing for that Anfield game.

In September its gonna get really tough with back to back away games to awful teams.

 

[Drew9]

Probably the toughest start to a campaign, but hey it surely makes it easier as the season goes on. The only thing that worries me is that theres a lack of width in the early stage of the season and when we dont have width we struggle.

 

[antdevil78]

the league is now decided not on points won but points lost. Few seasons ago 80-85 points would have got you the league title. Now 90+ is needed.

We are gonna need bit of luck for first couple of months. Liverpool 3rd game dont fill me with confidence as Liverpool are usually good starters but mess up in the winter months when a bit of grit is required.

We dont usually fly out of the trap at the start and having some of our best players missing and no signings to add to extra games in super cup make it rather worrying.

 

[Zense_United]

we will do our best, our boss will bring us the rest!

 

[Jazz 16]

I can see why you are worried Stretty, for the reasons you pointed out, but im
not overly worried. We had a bad start last year and in '92 for example, so it
doesnt always start well. Chelsea I feel, will be strong next season and we cant
let them get too much of a lead, cos they will be tough to claw back as we saw
when they won the Prem twice. The away games against the top teams we have
in the first half of the season, so I cant see us being top till after Xmas. We
usually finish well so it will be an exciting season. I just want to see them
playing again, win, lose or draw. Bring it on!

 

[TheManc]

We have a really tough start, all of our bogey teams like Pompey, Blackburn, M'Boro ect. Plus we have Liverpool away, followed by a CL match, followed by Chelsea away.

A bloke on MUTV said that our first 9 away games are the 'top 9' of last season aswell.

The positive thing is that if we're within touching distance by XMAS then we have a great chance and it will help us in the CL as we have a decent run in.

 

[christianoharleiro]

Am i just paranoid , i am worried about the start of the season.
No ronaldo Couldn't really care TBH
Nani suspended for two matches , lacking width. Loss but Fletch, Park.....
park still unfitWill gain fitness over the next few weeks , hargreaves unfitSame as park, will be fit in time IMO , anderson at the olympics.Biggest loss, but he's playing football so fitness won't be a problem
no sign of new players , we have to hit the ground running and cannot be trailing to the dippers and chelski.
my worries are we will be quite a few points behind before all our squad are back to full strength and with some big big matches early doors

If we can perform like we did in the first half against Espanyol, we have nothing to fear.

Key men for me are, Rooney, Tevez, Scholes, Ferdinand, VDS......

If they're on form then we will more then likely win......


...to answer your question, I'm not too worried about th start, I'm actually dying
for it to begin!

grow up keano, whether you hate him or not Ronaldo is vital to our chances if we don't sign a prolific striker. dont say you couldnt really care because you do really, unless you want man utd to struggle.

for the first few games+ we potentially have no
Rooney virus
Carrick virus
Ronaldo injured
Anderson olympics
Nani suspended
Park no games, unfit
Hargreaves knee problem again, might be back in time, no games, unfit..
Saha injured
Neville injured

I hate to be pessimistic(sp?) but it's not looking good for the start of the season with potentially our best starting lineup being

vds
brown rio vidic evra
fletcher scholes o'shea giggs
campbell tevez

looks pretty weak considering giggs form last season, scholes lack of goals, campbell unproven, o'shea and fletcher benchwarmers.

our only real goal threat being tevez and maybe scholes. atleast we have our rock solid back 5.

worrying times

 

[Boomhauer50]

yea when you put the team down like that its looking bad, hopefully we will sign some fire power soon

 

[stretty]

if carrick makes it how about this line up
-----------------VDS-------------
-Brown-Ferdinand-Vidic-Evra-
-Rafael-Scholes-Carrick-Giggs-
--------Tevez------Campbell----

 

[Lucky7]

if carrick makes it how about this line up
-----------------VDS-------------
-Brown-Ferdinand-Vidic-Evra-
-Rafael-Scholes-Carrick-Giggs-
--------Tevez------Campbell----

I think Fergie will not include Rafael in the Formation for the First game..
It will be Fletcher who will replace Ronaldo on the Wing..
Also Campbell maybe will not start too..
Fergie Will Play Nani in the Wing.

 

[jd_united]

The thing that worries me is the lack of width in our team at the moment. Obviously we have no Ronaldo through injury for a while, as well as Park and with Nani suspended for the first two games of the season.

That leaves us with only one recognised winger out of our four originally, Ryan Giggs, who has been used sparingly on the wings recently but more as a second striker.

Fletcher could come in and do a job on the right, but he's not a winger that is going to fly past men and whip in dangerous balls.

A tactic SAF may decide to use is to play Mikael Silvestre at LB, and move Evra up to LM as he did in last years Community Shield and a few early league games until Silvestre's injury. We all know how good Evra is going forward and he could definatly in my opinion do a job for us on the left wing.

 

[stretty]

there you go fletcher coming in , now i know why i am worried i am not sure fletcher would get into the portsmouth team let alone ours

 

[TheManc]

The thing that worries me is the lack of width in our team at the moment. Obviously we have no Ronaldo through injury for a while, as well as Park and with Nani suspended for the first two games of the season.

That leaves us with only one recognised winger out of our four originally, Ryan Giggs, who has been used sparingly on the wings recently but more as a second striker.

Fletcher could come in and do a job on the right, but he's not a winger that is going to fly past men and whip in dangerous balls.

A tactic SAF may decide to use is to play Mikael Silvestre at LB, and move Evra up to LM as he did in last years Community Shield and a few early league games until Silvestre's injury. We all know how good Evra is going forward and he could definatly in my opinion do a job for us on the left wing.

Yeh I agree with that, although last season Nani was the player who offered us the mostwidth IMO, Ronaldo floated about everywhere.

I really don't want Fletcher to play on the wing though.

 

[Jay007]

Well, I wasn't worried a week or so ago when it was only Nani, Ronaldo and Anderson that would be missing.

I am a tad worried now though, its fair to say.

Definitely no Ronaldo, Anderson, Nani.

Looks like no Rooney (Sir Alex doesn't think he'll make it) Park (thought he might make it but theres no news on whether hes fit enough and if he is, he'll not be match fit) Hargreaves (Tendonitis and same as Park)

Neville and Saha shouldn't be a problem, as we didn't have them for the most of last season.

But lets look on the bright side. At least we have our strongest back 5 available

It may turn out to be good news though. Hopefully, a young player, for example, might get the opportunity to play and grab it with both hands.

A tactic SAF may decide to use is to play Mikael Silvestre at LB, and move Evra up to LM as he did in last years Community Shield and a few early league games until Silvestre's injury. We all know how good Evra is going forward and he could definatly in my opinion do a job for us on the left wing.

Thats exactly what I was thinking last night.

Thats probably going to be the best option for us, with the injuries.

I'm a bit worried about the Juve game tonight in all honesty . Good job its only a friendly.

 

[Keano!]

I wouldn't be surprised if Fergie put Rafael on the riht wing for the Newcastle
game or the Community Shield game either...

....he may be a right back but he gets forward brilliantly....possibly allow Fletch to
play in the middle with scholsey...


Once we get through September with a 99% record then we will strive
on....getting past Chelski and 'pile are the two toughies in a row...

I think Fergie will not include Rafael in the Formation for the First game..
It will be Fletcher who will replace Ronaldo on the Wing..
Also Campbell maybe will not start too..
Fergie Will Play Nani in the Wing.

Nani's suspended for his stupid lack of discipline last season against West Ham....