[scottsati]

with the run in coming up and us competing on all fronts we have all commented about the good things and positive points, what as a team though are our weak points or areas we need to improve upon???

one issue for me is when teams manage to contain ronaldo and rooney, whichever way they do it either by man marking them, fouling them or winding them up- once they are taken out of the game or get wound up and it affects their performance then we have the edge taken off our attacking play big time.

what other things do you reckon might be a problem??

 

[Rooneys_Temper]

Left Back ,im a fan of JOS's work rate.I mean an out n out LB not just a fill the gap player.Also,i know we are winning,scoring ect but i think we should stop trying to walk it in all the time and drop the fear of longer range shots.Theres no harm in having a pop every now n then,i think Nani's was the last 'screamer' against the rams

BTW: before someone says we have Evra,yes i am aware but im talking a full LB replacement for times of need,not JOS

 

[abojodeh]

Our Defence is the best thing in our team we need to improve our scoring abilities 1-0 per game ain't enough for MUFC

 

[Adam]

lack of clinical finishing in front of goal could end up haunting us.
1-0s are all well and good and i would take them for the rest of the season. but it only takes a team to park the bus or a defence and keeper to play a blinder against us as they often do and if we aren't careful, we will get caught out.

 

[Richie]

Not having a clinical striker who gets in behind defenses limits our ability to create chances.

Not having a left winger who is up to scratch hugely effects the rhythm of our play.

And we probably like a Xavi or Fabregas type of midfielder who can play the killer balls through defenses.

They are the only weaknesses I see.

 

[Titface]

i seem to get frustrated when we have corners.
nani takes them if he is on the pitch and doesn't get the ball past the first defender.

we seem to "do an arsenal" recently and always try and walk it in which can be frustrating.

 

[RtiD]

Our left side, We don't really have a full time Left midfielder it;s always change and then at left back we don't have a proper replacement of Evra!

 

[peterswellman]

Defensive minded midfielder. We are badly lacking one without Hargreaves imo. Someone we could use to really help us kill games out. Although we haven't been doing too poorly lately.

 

[Jay007]

Trying to walk the ball into the net and taking corners is two weaknesses I see.

We have a few players who have a great shot, and so they should look to use that more often. Also, with the corners we seem to be lacking a player who can put in quality delivery from corners regularly.

Nani can take good ones, but takes one good one every 3 or 4 he takes and he doesn't play often enough. Carrick can take good corners occasionally, but he can also be a threat in the middle either in the box or just outside it and Giggs rarely beats the first man with his corners.

Also, when Evra's out we really miss him so hopefully Fabio can get more games and adapt either this season or next.

 

[christianoharleiro]

And we probably like a Xavi or Fabregas type of midfielder who can play the killer balls through defenses.

err... carrick? scholes? and on a lower/less consistent level - giggs, anderson...?

With Ronaldo not firing, we're lacking that killer finisher.
Lacking consistent wingers (Nani, Ronaldo) - particularly left wing - Park is consistent but isn't a match winner.
Goal scoring midfielder - Paul Scholes doesn't score goals.

 

[Richie]

err... carrick? scholes? and on a lower/less consistent level - giggs, anderson...?

With Ronaldo not firing, we're lacking that killer finisher.
Lacking consistent wingers (Nani, Ronaldo) - particularly left wing - Park is consistent but isn't a match winner.
Goal scoring midfielder - Paul Scholes doesn't score goals.

Carrick doesn't really put chances on plates for people through defenses, but thats because he does most of his work from deep, so his passes are usually brilliant balls into the wings. Scholes these days doesn't really put balls between defenses either he normally picks the perfect pass to keep possession. Giggs can but obviously he can't be in the team week in week out, and Anderson at the moment isn't doing it nearly consistently enough.

I think part of the problem though might be that, as I said, we don't have someone who is constantly looking to get in behind, so the midfielders have less opportunity to make that killer ball

 

[trikam patel]

Left Back ,im a fan of JOS's work rate.I mean an out n out LB not just a fill the gap player.Also,i know we are winning,scoring ect but i think we should stop trying to walk it in all the time and drop the fear of longer range shots.Theres no harm in having a pop every now n then,i think Nani's was the last 'screamer' against the rams

BTW: before someone says we have Evra,yes i am aware but im talking a full LB replacement for times of need,not JOS

Yeah, we seem to want to walk the ball in a lot, the last few games before the last two matches we scored a lot of goals from crosses. But this is when evra is out we never creally create chances down the flank. The stats show this season that majority of our goals have come from the left side. So our weakness is like u said "we need a left back, not a fill gap player". I dont think we would have a weakness if if would get better and getting the balls down the byline and get in crosses and have someone in the box, last game we had a few crosses come through but only tevez was seen to be there and he is the smallest player on the pitch.

we really need left and right side players to ply more attacin interchange football. teams i feel understan that we are winning game easily wen we do this, and that why we resort to walng the ball in the net.

 

[scottsati]

i seem to get frustrated when we have corners.
nani takes them if he is on the pitch and doesn't get the ball past the first defender.

we seem to "do an arsenal" recently and always try and walk it in which can be frustrating.

cracking points...have said these before and can only agree with you here......

nani must be the worst corner taker in united history if you cant clear the first man get the **** off the pitch

doing an arsenal is spot on aswell- we need a ruud or ole......see a chance and take it.....dont go round the houses with it

 

[forzaunited]

yeh im sure if we dont play the passing game many of you will get frustated with long balls and people missing 20 odd times and needs a deflection to get it in aswell.

i enjoy watching the passing game which many others do i dont want that to change. its effcient and many teams do it and score alot more than they would by hitting it long ranged without concentrating where to hit it

 

[christianoharleiro]

Carrick doesn't really put chances on plates for people through defenses, but thats because he does most of his work from deep, so his passes are usually brilliant balls into the wings. Scholes these days doesn't really put balls between defenses either he normally picks the perfect pass to keep possession. Giggs can but obviously he can't be in the team week in week out, and Anderson at the moment isn't doing it nearly consistently enough.

I think part of the problem though might be that, as I said, we don't have someone who is constantly looking to get in behind, so the midfielders have less opportunity to make that killer ball

I disagree about Carrick, yeah he plays more long balls out to the wingers, but he has done numerous outrageous defense splitting passes - my memory is bad so I can only name a couple - a few that stick out are Berba's goal vs spurs, nani's vs arsenal, ronaldo vs newcastle (i think), i'm sure everyone else can name about 50 others.

I suppose Scholes doesn't really do it as much now, but he's still capable of spotting and executing a pass like no other ala Giggs on Sunday. Agreed about Giggs, and agreed about Anderson, though Anderson hasn't exactly had a consistent run in the team, you can't expect anyone to be consistent without playing consistently ala Nani! brrrr too many 'consistants' haha.

I definately agree with your last point, Berbatov hasn't got the pace to do it and generally drops deep anyway. Rooney and Tevez drop far too deep aswell. I've been saying for a long time now that we should try Ronaldo in his natural position as a striker, there we have someone with the pace to run in behind people, a natural finisher, good in the air, and lazy enough to sit on the last defenders shoulder. Last season he basically had a free role and played more centrally in general and bagged 42 goals, this season he seems very restricted to the wing. This would also mean that we have someone on the wing who will help do a bit of defending!

But then, you can't drop Berbatov or Rooney so this won't happen.

 

[Richie]

I disagree about Carrick, yeah he plays more long balls out to the wingers, but he has done numerous outrageous defense splitting passes - my memory is bad so I can only name a couple - a few that stick out are Berba's goal vs spurs, nani's vs arsenal, ronaldo vs newcastle (i think), i'm sure everyone else can name about 50 others.

I suppose Scholes doesn't really do it as much now, but he's still capable of spotting and executing a pass like no other ala Giggs on Sunday. Agreed about Giggs, and agreed about Anderson, though Anderson hasn't exactly had a consistent run in the team, you can't expect anyone to be consistent without playing consistently ala Nani! brrrr too many 'consistants' haha.

I definately agree with your last point, Berbatov hasn't got the pace to do it and generally drops deep anyway. Rooney and Tevez drop far too deep aswell. I've been saying for a long time now that we should try Ronaldo in his natural position as a striker, there we have someone with the pace to run in behind people, a natural finisher, good in the air, and lazy enough to sit on the last defenders shoulder. Last season he basically had a free role and played more centrally in general and bagged 42 goals, this season he seems very restricted to the wing. This would also mean that we have someone on the wing who will help do a bit of defending!

But then, you can't drop Berbatov or Rooney so this won't happen.

Oh don't get me wrong, Carrick definitely has it well within his capabilities, and when in the position to do it he will, but because he is generally employed as the holding player for us he is too deep to be able to do it. I guess maybe if he was along side Hargreaves he could go forward and do it more often.

And with Scholes, yes he can do it, but what he does is control the possession, and he's the best in the world at it, and he knows if we keep using the possession correctly, someone will make the move and a chance will come for us but he rarely makes that all or nothing pass himself.

Yeah you're right about Anderson, I suppose you can't expect him to perform consistently when he's in and out of the team, and is a difficult cycle really, because the more he performs inconsistently the more he will be left out of the team, but the more he is left out of the team the more he will be inconsistent!

And I agree, Ronaldo could definitely be a huge success as an out and out striker, but then we would be really weak on the wings. I guess if we brought in a winger or two we could make that happen.

And as for the strikers dropping too deep, thats their natural game that's what they're good at you can't really blame them for doing that, and quite often it works for us having two deep strikers, but sometimes it doesn't and thats when you need that variation from a striker who gives you the pace off the shoulders off defenders.

 

[United_OG]

I agree that carrick is a player who has very good vision but his best passes come usually when he hits them out wide to wingers, its not often he will get in the perfect through ball through the middle like some players out there but thats my opinion and alot of people would disagree because he is playing very well right now. I still think he needs a top midfielder with him to perform though because its not in his game or personality to offer drive and thats how you link the midfield and attackers.

Speaking of the topic and out weaknesses, i dont think there are many at all if im honest. Yes we do not have the greatest replacement if Evra is not playing at left back but in JOS we have a guy who knows the club and culture well so i have no problem with him playing there when evra is not playing. Also the emergence of fabio possibly may mean we do not really need to purchase another left back.


I think we're more than sound in EVERY position right now. Ofcourse we could improve but every team can if you could buy any player in the world but thats the type of purchases now that can improve us.

Right now in my opinion we're going through a golden little patch we're our once 'wonderkids' like ronaldo and rooney are now fulltime players and other players like carrick/vidic/evra/rio are all at their peaks and then we also have the experience of the ones like giggs and scholes who have done it all before!


Only weakness i would say this year in comparison to last year and possibly even then was we are slightly tacticallt niave at times. Again people could disagree with this considering we have hardly conceeded a goal in recent times but i think we were more efficient going forward last year and created more clear cut chances due to better runs by the likes of ronaldo etc whereas this year he is more of a conventional winger. Last year he would roam around anywhere and make runs through the middle and i think we're a better attacking force for it.

But overall, not MANY weaknesses imo, but like some of the stuff people have mentioned, there is always room for improvement...or atleast you have to tell yourself that or why play?

pz!

 

[PrinceZane]

Personally, I think we need to lose 2-3 games in a row and get this fantasy style playing out of our system. Get back to fundamentals and get the ball in the net. As it's been said, too many passes inside the box instead of taking a crack, or trying to hard to pull off that awesome 360 into backheel instead of just side footing it into the channel. Don't bring out the flair so much until the game is won off

 

[scottsati]

some great points and some seem so obvious...the lack of anyone just to put the ball in the net and the inclination to do an arsenal...... we can see it and highlight it as a weakness....so why can't they??

 

[Payne7]

Personally, I think we need to lose 2-3 games in a row and get this fantasy style playing out of our system. Get back to fundamentals and get the ball in the net. As it's been said, too many passes inside the box instead of taking a crack, or trying to hard to pull off that awesome 360 into backheel instead of just side footing it into the channel. Don't bring out the flair so much until the game is won off

Bit of a crucial time in our season to lose 2/3 games is it not, as long as the wins keep coming ill take 1-0.