Man Utd 4 - 3 Man City

Did any Man Utd or City fans miss this game? If you did, oh well, go watch it again even though you already know the score line! Fantastic game. Arguably one of the most exciting matches I've watched. It certainly ranks up there together with 3-2 Juventus game and the 2-1 Bayern Munich Champions League Final.

Well, the defenses of both sides were horrible! But I guess thats what it takes to have a 7 goal derby thriller eh... Actually watched the highlights over and over again and man, what a great match it was and I have so much to comment about each of the individual players.

Tevez? Whose Tevez? Well, no doubt he was a pest to Ben Foster, but if Van Der Sar was the one between the sticks, wouldn't that mean that Tevez's contribution was rather menial? His a Striker, and a striker needs to score. Given that beautiful chance of hitting the net, he hit the post instead! I guess that is why Fergusan hesitated to sign Tevez. When you are about to sell someone like Ronaldo, you need a goal scorer, someone who finishes. Tevez clearly does not have a very good finishing, all he has is stamina and energy to run around, in which we already have in Park Ji Sung and Rooney. Anyway, it was great to see the Man Utd fans booing at Tevez because he deserved it. His just a hypocrite.

Rooney is certainly in fine goalscoring form and if he keeps playing and scoring like that, he can easily cover up for the missing goals by Ronaldo. Rooney is my favourite Man Utd striker after Cantona and I always say, Rooney gives me the excitement as much as Cantona did whenever he had the ball, I always knew something great was gonna happen.

Berbatov.. arh.... You know, I'm actually an admirer of Dimitar Berbatov's skill. His one touch, hold up play and team work is great. His ability to hold the ball and pass it to another team mate is great as well. He has the skills, he has the legs, but you know what I think he lacks? Luck... He scored against Wigan... yeah.. when will he score against a big side? If he scores rarely this season, I'll say, lets give Macheda the chance. =)

From this match, I can deduce 1 thing about Ben Foster... He may be a good goalkeeper, but he is nowhere near on replacing Van Der Sar. In all the matches he has played this season, he perfomed well again Wigan, Birmingham, Tottenham... but in matches against Chelsea and Man City, he sucked. What can I say? Unlike Fletcher, Ben Foster isn't the player who savour the big games. Fergie should start looking for Van Der Sar's replacement and probably hold on the Kucszak in the mean time!

Fletcher reminds me of the Paul Scholes of young. Low profile, not anytime the fan's favourite but always showing up in the big games and scoring the kind of goals I call "ghosting" goals. Like Paul Scholes, he will stay out of the box and pop into the box to guide in a header into the net whenever a cross comes in. In this occasion, he scored 2, courtesy of 2 Giggs cross. Fletcher may lack the skills of the killer pass of Scholes, but he certainly can tackle better, if not, at least tackle without being caught! HA! =P

It was nice to see Man Utd passing the ball around neatly in the final third, but after letting in 2 goals, the pass from Rio Ferdinand was horrible in the last minute! For a moment, I was trying to deceive myself into believe that it wasn't Rio, it was Anton Ferdinand. But reality is such. We haven seen Rio Ferdinand made many mistakes, but this one was mistake which could have been a nightmare if not for Owen.

And oh boy, I was about to stand up and leave for the gents when extra time when into 95th minute. I thought it was over until there was a free kick and I thought, why not just sit down for awhile more and see what happens. Free Kick taken, wasted, ball thrown back into the box and somehow fell to Giggs in the middle of the pitch and tadah! A defense splitting through ball to Owen who gladfully took this perfect opportunity to finish the game and become Man Utd's new hero! (Try learning that Tevez!). Our new no. 7 may not be in the starting line up, but with his scoring touches like this, he may well be our next baby face assassin! Owen may not have been doing very well at Newcastle, but with players like Giggs around him, he'll certainly be smiling more often than he used to and very soon, he'll be on his way to South Africa with England!

My favourite player of the game? Ryan Giggs... Did anyone mention that he is now 35 years of age? I actually dont' believe that is is 35. I think he is deceiving the whole world, he is actually 25. What does he eat for meals? Energizer batteries? This veteran never seem to die out of energy. People who don't really know Giggs might think he is a goalkeeper. Being a midfielder requires a whole lot of stamina and physique and Giggs even though at 35, has it all. Only Goalkeepers remain at the top of their game at ages like 35 but for Giggs, he doesn't seem to care. With 2 excellent crosses for both Fletcher's goal as well as an excellent pass to Owen, one you'll see from the likes of Scholes, can anyone name me someone else more fitting of the Man of the Match award? My personal MoM is Giggsy!

Oh yeah, my thumbs up for Bellamy, who took advantage of Sloppy defending from the devils and finishing with 2 beautiful goals. If not for Owen scoring to help the team in Red win, I wouldn't have taken the time to erm hm.... admire your goals (not your character though!).

And just for anyone who wondered what was the significance of Sir Alex Ferguson's substitution in the 93'rd minute? Well, if anyone would like to call it other stuffs, personally, I call it a saint's judgement. It was a soothsayer's substition. One which bought Ferguson 30 seconds in addition to 1 min from Bellamy's celebraton, and the 30 seconds in which Owen scored the goal in the last of it. It was as though he visionalized Owen scoring in the last second and used his final card to buy that 30 seconds for Owen to win the game for United.

To win the Premier League, you need luck! And from this Match, Man Utd had plenty of skills plus luck. City? They had some luck, but ran out of it. =P

This will be a very interesting season!

Man Utd Signs Michael Owen

Arh.... Surprise surprise!

Owen goes to Man Utd. =P

My views? I love it.....
Okok, I know his nowadays more popular to be injured than scoring goals, and his less feared compared to his earlier days, but how good does it get to sign a proven goalscoring striker for FREE???

He may not be the regular like he used to during his Liverpool days and maybe he may not score as many goals as well, but his experience and skills will certainly still be good. What more, he is a 3rd striker anyway. If he produces the same impact as how Teddy Sheringham did during his MU days, thats good enough.

See the transfer market is closing soon and Fergie needs more time to scout for younger prospects rather than simply buying some and ending up like what happened with kleberson... Djemba-Djemba and co.... So bringing in Michael Owen for Free to buy himself a couple more years to find a good prospect is a good move. Furthermore, Owen may find himself performing better around a group of better players. Rather then getting disappointed about how he fails to see the ball often thanks to crappy passing from the Newcastle Midfielders, he only need to worry about how he can find the net now!

In addition, it also gives players like Welbeck and Macheda a chance to prove themselfs. I am particularly excited about Macheda's development! I'm sure he will be better then Guiseppe Rossi considering the impact he has made in the first team VS the one Rossi did last time.

Whats best, if Owen really does not perform, how much does Man Utd lose?? Just a few hundred thousand pounds to a few million at max? There's always the December transfer window... =P

So.. after signing Owen for free... we've still got a lot of transfer funds left... I wonder if a Keeper is coming in as well?? hmph....

I am excited to see how Fergie can bring back the life in Owen. I'm sure he hasn't lost his finishing touch!

Man Utd Signs Antonio Valencia

Finally Man Utd spends some of the available transfer funds. It's certainly great news that they splashed it on an established young prospect like Antonio Valencia. I for one believe that he will bring more benefits to the clubs and perhaps like what all the papers say, he may not be able to score as much as Ronaldo has but personally I'll say, with Valencia around to supply the balls, leave the goalscoring duties to Rooney and Berbatov!!!!

He may lose to Ronaldo on technical skills, dribbling and goal scoring prowess, he ain't far behind in terms of pace and speed! I do believe he has the ability to beat Ronaldo in terms of physical strength (Especially to stay standing rather than be on the ground...).

But apart from all the skills, pace, attitude and crossing abilities he brings, there is one more thing I like about him. He is a midfielder. A full 100% midfielder.

Whats so good about that you're asking? Well.. back when we had Ronaldo... sometimes he appears in Centre Forward, sometimes his a striker and Rooney have to play out wide! Now with Valencia, Rooney would certainly appear less often on the wing and more often in the central role where he is more dangerous. Furthermore, Valencia is more of a ball provider, rather then the show stealer. Hopefully with his unselfish playing style, we can see more goals coming from Berbatov and Rooney. I have confidence in this current Man Utd Squad, but I do hope to see at least another striker coming in, and rumours are saying there is a big money (More than 35 million pounds) bid for Benzema coming in.. is it from Man Utd?? Urgh... I've never seen Ferguson spending anything more than 40 mils.... So we'll see what goes but I hope to see a more versatile forward coming in, rather then a Ruud Van Nistelrooy type of striker. =)

Man Utd's June Transfer Dealings

Those who know me knows that I'm an avid Man Utd Fan. I can't help but to comment about Man Utd's recent 2 high profile transfer dealings.

1.) Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (80m to Real Madrid)
2.) Carlos Alberto Tevez (Rejected Man Utd's Contract)

I am DELIGHTED, yes, DELIGHTED, as in happy, glad, relieved that Ronaldo is gone from Man Utd.

Firstly, no offense to his skills. I admire his skills greatly, and I'm grateful for his contributions for Man Utd in the last 6 seasons. He scores lots of goals, great goals, important goals, easy goals, penalty kicks, set pieces, you name it, he does it. Do I hate his arrogance? No I don't.. because I feel great players have the right to be arrogant, remember Eric the King? True united legend.

So why am I happy that he has left Man Utd?

1.) He has recently loss his ability to play as a team. His true colours showed against Barcelona in the Champions League final. His selfish and individual play led to the disaster of the team play. Not to blame him alone but as the only man up front, we had poor posession of the ball in the final third. Instead of holding the ball and let midfielders like Rooney, Ji Sung and Anderson move up, he tried to tackle the entire Barcelona defense alone.

2.) His childish reactions. I cannot stand his childish reactions.... Acting like a kid whining after he drops his ice cream... Compare the maturity growth between Rooney and Ronaldo, you know where I'm getting at. Rooney is more adult and professional now, but Ronaldo's handling of failures and being substituted out is not the stuffs that comes from Legends....

3.) Greed. Same feeling goes when Beckham left for Real Madrid. Anybody following football well enough will know the Real Madrid is just a museum of great talents. Count the medals won by players such as Giggs, Scholes and Neville and we all know which football club to play for to win the most medals. It was obviously not about the medals, more about the $$$.

4.) I feel the 80m transfer funds earn by selling Ronaldo can help improve the overall balance of the whole team. We may have Anderson to replace Scholes, Rafael to replace Neville, but we have yet to find someone to replace Giggs and Hargreaves time will soon be up. No doubt we may have Berbatov and Rooney, but we need a goal scoring machine (Benzema?). Ferguson still needs to bolster the strike force with 1 "goal scoring machine' and 2 more wingers at the least. Personally, I don't like the idea of Rooney on the wing.. I prefer him up front (look at England's recent scorers...), so Ferguson should really look on getting a TRUE winger.... (Valencia?)

So on a final verdict on Ronaldo, I wonder how many more medals he can win with Real Madrid. I hope Real lose out the title to Barcelona... Just like how Messi showed that he has better overall qualities then Ronaldo...

On the Tevez affair. I'm not delighted that we didn't manage to capture him. But its not really like his that big of a loss compared to Ronaldo, so I'm not disappointed as well.

I have nothing against him. He is a hardworker and is somewhat like the Ji Sung type of player. But in my personal opinion, we don't really need hardworkers like Ji Sung in the striking department! 5 goals this season as a striker, with most of it coming in the league cup, how did he contribute to the EPL glory? Most modern day strikers will be considering him as a Goal-Shy striker...

With 18 starts and 11 Subs, compared to Rooney's (25/5) and Berbatov's (29/2), Tevez only managed 5 goals and 3 assists, compared to Rooney's (12/7) and Berbatov's (9/9). With such statistics, how then do you expect to be ahead of Rooney and Berbatov in the starting line up? Furthermore, giving the excuse that he hasn't played enough games is just totally a lame excuse. He wasn't really far off behind Rooney and Berbatov in terms of number of games played.

We have Rooney to work his socks off in the striking department, we don't need another one. Imagine if Rooney and Tevez goes after the same ball and wins them in midfied.. oh dear, where are the strikers!?

Cantona didn't need to be hardworking like Tevez to be a legendary goal scorer. We don't need another work horse like Rooney, Ji Sung, Carrick... what we need is a goal scorer. Unless Tevez wants to switch to midfield... just like Alan Smith did. But are you sure you want to spend 30Mils on a player that may end up the same story as Alan Smith? Not for me.....

And what would the ideal signing be for Man Utd?
To be honest, I dont' really watch Antonia Valencia and David Villa that much, but I'm a big fan of Benzema and Ribery. Ribery is over priced... but he will be a good buy for 30Mils. Benzema for 30 mils as well. I'm sure Ribery will bring out the best of Berbatov and Rooney. (Ronaldo was too selfish...). Benzema can add to the extra sting up front when we need 3 ahead.

As for backup's, I'm confident to stick with the likes of Darren Gibson, Federico Macheda and Welback. Oh yeah, Ritchie De Laet performed amazingly in MU's last match as well! And I've yet to see Tosic do anything grand! ARGH!!!!!

I'll wait patiently. I just hope Ferguson don't end up like his last signing spree after Beckham left.... Remember Djemba-Djemba... David Bellion... and what was the other guys name.... Kleberson? Urgh...... Together with Liam Miller and a few others... Those are the WORST signings I've ever seen from Ferguson. Lets hope there's none of that anymore and I'm very excited about Man Utd's Transfer activity for the next 2 months!