Manchester United Blog | The Stretty Rant

Michael Owen’s injury nightmare continues as Sir Alex Ferguson revealed that he believes United’s number seven will be out for few weeks. Michael Owen started the League Cup final against Aston Villa on Sunday and scored the opening goal to help United to a 2-1 victory. Owen pulled up half way through the first half to be replaced by Wayne Rooney, who scored the winner in the second half. Ferguson stated that both Owen and Rafael will go for scans on the injuries they sustained in the match.

Continue reading Ferguson: Michael Owen will be out for a few weeks

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Back in December I got some stick for defending Sir Alex Ferguson for fielding a makeshift three man defense against Fulham at Craven Cottage. Some readers seemed to think that I was a 3-5-2 advocate, when in fact I do not feel it is effective in top level football anymore. Forwards are withdrawn to the flanks and cut inside to attack, so there is little need for a three center halves, with one effectively spare – but that is for another blog/discussion! My defense for Ferguson was based on the fact that United were suffering from a defensive injury nightmare with Van Der Sar, Vidic, Ferdinand, Brown, Evans, O’shea, Neville, Rafael and Fabio all unavailable for selection. Could it be that Chelsea are now experiencing similar problems?

Continue reading Chelsea to experience United defensive injury crisis?

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Brazilian Anderson will miss the rest of the season after damaging his cruciate ligament injury early in the West Ham game on Tuesday. The midfielder was making his first start after alleged disciplinary issues and got injured after less than ten minutes, hobbling round as a passenger until the 18th, but now it seems that the damage is far worse than first anticipated.

Continue reading Anderson injured: Cruciate ligament damage rules midfielder out

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Manchester United’s defeat to Everton was only the third time in Premier League history Evertonian’s got one over us at Goodsion Park. The first defeat at Goodison in the Premier League was in February 1995, when a Daniel Amokachi gave the Toffees a 1-0 victory. They had to wait another ten years to taste victory against United, another header from an Everton legend – Duncan Ferguson – gave the home side a 1-0 victory, which helped in their push for a fourth place finish. On both occasions we lost the league to Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea respectively. In 1995 we were without our talisman Eric Cantona, whilst in 2005 we arguably had a team in transition – but what was our excuse yesterday?

Continue reading Goodison defeat does not bode well for title aspirations

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Manchester United’s Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic is set for a 10 day spell on the sidelines after tweaking a nerve in his leg before the embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Leeds United on Sunday. There are a number of reports suggesting that Vidic is looking for a transfer out of United, although his agent has stated that the defender is ‘happy’ at Old Trafford.

Continue reading Nemanja Vidic out injured for ten days

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• Fulham 3-0 Manchester United
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In the wake of a 3-0 hammering away to a good, but unfancied, Fulham side – there is always going to be scapegoat, excuses and ridiculous claims by fickle fans. Yesterday was a bad day for United, as was the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea and as was the recent 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa at home. However, in that time Ferguson’s tactics have been blamed, the performances of certain players have been questioned and our quest for a fourth successful title seem to be slipping away. I’m here to tell you know that the position we find ourselves in now isn’t Ferguson’s fault – not in the slightest.

Continue reading The Ferguson bashing is quite frankly embarassing

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• Aston Villa match discussion here

Yolkie and I have been discussing the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa last night in depth and we’ve both got conflicting views on the events at Old Trafford.  I generally feel that we just had a bad day at the office, even though United didn’t play that badly.  Yolkie feels that, Giggs aside, we’re missing a creative spark from midfield, whilst many first team players are simply going through the motions.  We are going to try and have at least one ‘Stretty debate’ every month, which looks at a conflict of opinion.  We encourage you to get involved, pick a side and join in the discussion!

Continue reading Stretty debate: Villa performance poor or blip?

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It’s rarely the case for a blog to be prompted so rapidly in the wake of a comment on another, but “The reds” raised an interesting poser ahead of tonight’s Champions League game in Germany – what kind of scenarios where some of the clubs greatest players thrown into for their debut match and is there any link between the direness of the situation and the ability of the player?

Stretford-End.com launched a mini investigation.

Continue reading How many United stars made debuts in make or breaks?

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