Surprise!

ALRIGHT DUDES. HERE'S THE BIG SURPRISE! (Hope it doesn't disappoint...)

We're moving to

www.stretfordroar.com!

Yeah, I guess it isn't that big a deal for you guys, but it is for us two!

Yes, I'm going to miss Blogger, and how easy the interface was to work with and stuff, and I'm sure Amer would say the same. It's been monumental since we've started, and boy we sure are glad that some people read up on our madness from time to time.



So we hope to see you read us every week just like you normally do!

Take the opportunity now to reflect on your, and our, time here. Take a moment to bookmark our new page, comment on how wonderful it looks, and bask in its eternal glory.

... and also, if you still wanna have a squizz at our blogger page, we'll keep this open...



We're moving on up!

Eternal Facepalm Moments: #3

This Eternal Facepalm moment was the beginning of the end for my trust in Fabien Barthez. The year was 2001, United had struggled to find goalkeeping consistency in the season before and so French World Cup Winner Fabien Barthez was brought in to take the number 1 shirt away from Australian Mark Bosnich. At first, he seemed cool. His acrobatics and flair in the goal quickly made him a fan favorite. That is, until this...

I mean COME. ON. As if he didn't already embarrass himself by kicking a loose ball at Thierry Henry, but he has to rub butter all over his gloves and gift him a second goal as well? Great job Fabien. You must be a true Frenchman, giving two goals away to arguably France's best ever striker. Patriotism right there.

It all went downhill for Barthez from there. He was slowly phased out of the first team, then sold. He returned to Ligue 1, but never hit the same heights as he did in his pre-United days.

Your eccentricities may not have won over the United faithful Mr. Barthez, but it's won you 3rd spot on my list of Eternal Facepalm moments. Hats off to you!

Yes, he actually did this.

5 Moments That Still Give Me Goosebumps: #3

So, I missed last week's — but no one seemed to notice. Heh heh.

But the show must go on! So, what have I talked about already? Scholes' blockbuster and Giggs' run.

Yeah, both of those moments have had a special place in my heart — or at least my brain. This next one, too, has a special place, not just for me, but surely for every credible person who wishes to affiliate themselves with United.

So, at #3, the night we all remember: Bayern Munich 1-2 United...

We were moments away from crashing out at the final hurdle after Mario Basler had given the Gerries a 1-0 lead 6 minutes in. 84 minutes and two substitutions for United had elapsed with no change in the scoreline, and we seemed doomed to falling short of our Treble - something Bayern themselves would have achieved.

Something they would have achieved — had it not been for the respective right feet of Messrs David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham.

"Name. On. The trophy."

And then, in the ensuing euphoria, good ol' Clive Tyldesley seemed to know something we didn't when he made his, almost prophetic, quote as Solskjaer had the ball on the left wing trying to win a corner off Samuel Kuffour — and did so...

"As things stand, we game will go into extra time with a golden goal hanging like a massive shadow over this final—UNLESS, Ole Solskjaer can conjure up another..."

And when the camera pans to that kid with the face paint, the flag and that huge red and white chequered hat, you just can't help but believe that something amazing will happen.

And when it did, it still gets me. Everytime.

"Into Sheringham... —and Solskjaer has won it!"





Poor Sammy.

Out with the old, in with the new

Or so says Mark Ogden of The Telegraph in an article he wrote about United's radical youth revamp.

"...the United squad which starts the 2011-12 campaign could be the most youthful since Ferguson replaced Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis with emerging stars such as Neville, Scholes, David Beckham and Nicky Butt in the summer of 1995."

Ogden says that with guys like Neville and van der Sar not likely to be back next year - alongside Brown, Owen, Kuszczak, and Hargreaves - United are facing their biggest squad change in years. He makes a very valid point here, it is actually very impressive how many young players we are able to field on any given night and expect to perform. It's even scarier when you consider the talent that we have out on loan - Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, and Mame Biram Diouf to name a few.

That's not to say that I want to let these players go. Wes Brown's been at Manchester United his whole career and reliable when needed (for the most part at least). Owen Hargreaves is one of my favorite United players and it makes me sad that the injury bug's kept him out of the team for two years. It's like the Alan Smith situation, you can be a good player, but find yourself fighting for starting spots at the wrong time, then you might find yourself out of the team. Either way, it might be for the best as United's youth is producing/grooming some of the best young talent we've seen in years.


Here's my under-23 United XI, I reckon they're good enough to form their own team and compete in the Premier League. Hell, they'll probably manage to beat Liverpool too.

Amos
Rafael | Evans | Smalling | Fábio
Bébé | Anderson | Gibson | Obertan
Chicharito | Welbeck

And that's not including Cleverley, Macheda, and Diouf. Also, let's not forget the "elder statesmen" - Nani (who's 23 years old), Valencia (24), and Rooney (25).

The future looks bright my friends.

The Aftermath: United 1-0 Liverpool

(It's him scoring a penalty, it's all I could find!)

The Breakdown
United 1-0 Liverpool

With the armband back on Ferdinand's huge bicep, with Vidic rested, United make tough work of 10 men Liverpool, but still come out on top with a 1-0 victory.

As far as tough starts go, there wouldn't have been any tougher a start for Kenny Dalglish as, two minutes in, after Agger was adjudged to have brought Berbatov down in the box, Giggs slots in a penalty to the left of the despairing Pepe Reina. 1-0.

The game was feisty, with plenty of tackles flying in. But this just falls right in Liverpool's favour as they start to grab a foothold in the game. A shot for Gerrard and a cross by Kelly across the face of the box got us a little bit nervous, but each was dealt with effectively enough by United.

But the shape of the game was definitely going against us. Liverpool, galvanised by the return of "King" Kenny Dalglish definitely showed a bit more spirit, at least in the opening 25 minutes.

It all went pear shaped, however, with the clock showing 31:59, as Steven Gerrard is sent off for a two-footed lunch on Michael Carrick. It didn't look that bad, but the replays showed that Howard Webb's decision was justified. Doesn't get easier for Kenny, does it?

And just a bit of a lol, my dad mused "That Nani fellow, he's not in top form, he's playing so badly" just as he cuts through the defence. That's my dad, though.

By the end of the half, Liverpool are limited to long-range efforts on Tomasz Kuszczak's goal.

And on the stroke of half-time, Jevans STEAMS in onto a Giggs corner and absolutely smashes his header against the post. But on the balance of the first half, United just edge it.

The second half starts with Giggs going on a trademark mazy run down the left flank. Brought a tear to my eye. (Figuratively...)

And we didn't let off, the pressure didn't leave the Liverpool box for the next 3 minutes, Chicharito getting a chance on goal with his head just inches wide. With more style and purpose than the first half, things looked dire for Liverpool.

Berbatov got a chance around the 55th minute, which he skied over the bar with pressure from Squirtle. I think they've clued on to the fact that Berbatov's a pretty awesome player if you don't mark him, so they've always got one if not two men on him quickly.

Babel and Shelvey coming on for Rodriguez and Meireles seemed to breathe life into the Liverpool side — more attacking options for them meant they got more threats on our defence. This forced Sir Alex to bring Anderson on for Fletcher to add just a bit more bite into our midfield.

It didn't quite work out the way we'd planned, first thing that Anderson really does is concede a free-kick, from which, arguably, Liverpool's best chance for a goal came from — a Fabio Aurelio curler parried away by Kuszczak.

But the threat was brief, and up at the other end of the field, an almighty scramble occurred on 68 minutes, where there were chances for Berbatov, Giggs, Rafael and Evra - all of which were saved by Reina. Playing with desperation, Liverpool seemed to gain more belief in their play.

74 minutes saw a dejected Chicharito come off for Michael Owen! Chyeah!

And he had his chance, on the left wing, he nutmegs Squirtle and runs forcefully into the box, looks up and tries to play a square ball into the box which would have surely brought a goal, had it not been smashed behind for a corner. (I'm not biased at all, am I?)

Chances were created, especially for Berbatov, but none were taken. Owen also had a good run, creates space and drills his shot not too far wide of Reina's left post. Even Evra had a chance to score, from a late corner with a Berbatov-esque bicycle kick. Alas, he didn't score.

Probably one of the more tense 3-stoppage-minutes I've had watching United, while leading. But in the end, relief came when Howard Webb blew for full-time. On to the next round, chaps!

Reaction
Something I've found with the way we were playing, at times, is that there isn't that urgency you usually get with Cup games. As if the players don't quite get that it's a knockout competition. If you lose, you're out. You don't get another chance. And this is a pretty big match. It was frustrating to say the least:



That being said, if enough is enough to win then I don't blame the players. It tosses up the question of whether you want to win or whether you want to win playing beautiful football.

Best Player was, by a long way, our goalscorer: Ryan Giggs is doing what he's done for the last 20 years. Indeed, if I didn't know any better, I would've thought he was just reaching his peak.



It's astounding, it's admirable, it's fantastic. Can someone PLEASE give this man a knighthood!

But his sparkling performance only masked another mediocre performance by United. We should have put that game to bed — especially since Gerrard got sent off and Liverpool should have had their main vein slashed.

More needs to be done for us to really convince, I fear. A win is a win, sure, and I've maintained this position throughout the entire season, but there's still that part of you, as a football fan, where you want to see it won because the opposition were well and truly outplayed.

The Wait for the Draw
I think the draw is meant to happen later on today, so the wait isn't very long. A look at who's still in, who's out and who the potential surprise packages could be:

- Burnley
- Coventry
- Sheffield Wednesday
- Fulham
- Doncaster/Wolves
- Brighton (who knocked out FC United of Manchester, the bastards)
- Huddersfield
- West Ham
- Reading (who knocked out West Brom)
- Arsenal/Leeds (Because of a Theo Walcott, self professed DIVE which won them the equalising penalty?)
- Aston Villa
- Leicester/Man City
- Bolton
- Blackburn
- Swansea
- Stevenage (who beat Newcastle 3-1, like so convincingly.)
- Burton Albion
- Birmingham
- Southampton (knocking out Blackpool)
- Watford
- Chelsea/Ipswich
- Notts County (who knocked out Sunderland)
- Wigan
- Stoke/Cardiff
- Spurs
- Forest
- Leyton Orient (knocking out Norwich, and yes, this is an upset.)
- Torquay (ousting Carlisle, a bit of an upset there.)
- Crawley Town (non-league)/Derby (just crap)
- Wycombe/Hereford

So yeah, there are still heaps and heaps of teams in it, but already there have been some upsets, but that's just the beauty of the cup. Absolute beauty.

Ain't it beautiful?

Gameday: United vs. Liverpool

The 411:
United play Liverpool tonight in the 3rd (yes, that was not a typo) round of the F.A. Cup. Of all the teams that we could have possibly drawn for this game, not only did we get a Premier League team, but we also managed to get a decent team. Here's hoping for a good match tonight.

Chasing the Cup:
I'm starting to think that this segment is pointless in knockout games - ya win, ya move on.

Enemy Form:
In one word, Liverpool's season has been balls. They've gone L-D-L-W-L in their last five and it hasn't looked good for them at any point in the season, at least in relation to how they usually fare in the League. They've also just sacked Roy Hodgson and replaced him with Liverpool legend, Kenny Dalglish. In my eyes, this could work one of two ways. Either they continue sucking, cause that's all they've done this season. Or they're jumpstarted and put up a good fight tonight. I think it'll be the former.



Players to Look Out For:
Fernando Torres is your man to mark tonight. He's tall, strong, quick, and can finish well. Sounds like the perfect striker right? Well that's cause he's pretty damn close to it. Lucky for us, he hasn't quite hit the form he's capable of this season and his teammates aren't exactly backing him up in the goalscoring department. Nevertheless, stick Vida or Rio on him and we're all good.

Also, look out for a big game from Rooney tonight. He's been full of energy recently and I think he'll bag at least a goal tonight. Although he is technically doubtful for the game, this is the man who came back on the field with an injured ankle against West Brom when there were no subs left. This is a childhood supporter of Everton, Liverpool's Merseyside rivals. You can bet your ass he'll play a part tonight.

On the Home Front:
Physioroom has O'Shea, Valencia, Scholes out injured, but mysteriously no Hargreaves. Hopefully they haven't jsut forgotten about him, cause that's a low blow. Everyone else should be good to go.

Also, let's not forget that Dimitar Berbatov scored a hat-trick against Liverpool earlier this season. More heroics please Berba?


TSR's Thoughts:
1. A mix of youth and experience for tonight, as is the norm for cup games? Or will we go all for it against a Liverpool side potentially invigorated by King Kenny's return?
2. Chicharito, will he play? He's done well when called upon, but Rooney might oust him from the starting XI.

Bold Prediction:
United to win by at least two goals after a dominating performance. Rooney to bag at least a goal and Liverpool fans to go home and listen to the saddest song in the world.


I wanna go crazy.

Our goalie situation

Ben "Weasley" Amos has been sent out on loan to Oldham and should stay there for the rest of the season. After starting out as the backup to a backup, Amos is now the backup to a backup to a backup, and that's not a healthy position for any player to be in. So in order to give him a chance of first team football, the lesser known Weasley brother is headed to League 1 where he'll compete for the number one spot with Dean Brill.

This leaves Kuszczak and Lindegaard to battle it out for for that job of replacing Big Ed when he calls it a day. Interestingly, in our last poll you guys voted for Sir Alex to go shopping for another keeper instead of sticking to Kuszczak, Lindegaard, or Weasley. So I'm guessing the general public opinion (cause we all know that TSR is everyone's go-to for Manchester United related information) is that there is little faith in our goalies bar Big Ed. In all honesty, I'd like to see Kuszczak show us what he can do in that goal. He's been a benchwarmer for 4 and a half years and he's already shoved Ben Foster out of the picture, for all his patience and reliability when called upon, I think it's about time he gets a chance.


Understandably though, a lot of you would like to see a bona fide "superstar" goalkeeper to replace van der Sar. It makes sense doesn't it? Schmeichel leaves and his backup, van der Gouw, remains in a backup capacity while we go out and get Bosnich, Taibi, Howard, Carroll, Goram, and Barthez before we finally settle on Big Ed. We don't want that to happen again, and a big signing like Manuel Neuer or Igor Akinfeev would fit the bill perfectly. This pair are just two examples of what I believe Manchester United are looking for:

• Relatively young
• Experienced in league, European, and international competitions
  
• Not a crazy psycho that thinks he's an outfield player *cough, cough* Fabien Barthez *cough, cough*

The goalie situation this summer will be interesting to follow. Who will replace Big Ed? Will he surprise us all and stay for another year? Why does the goalie kit look like they have tiger stripes down the arms? Only time will tell...