Match Report

Armadillo - Good point on Evra - hard to judge against the opposition but hopefully the rest this summer will help him regain the form he was showing pre 2010 world cup

comment by Fergie's Armadillo (U1330)

Ando played the full 90 minutes again!!!

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I'm pleased with that. Did he look like he had shed any weight?

It was an odd game. Seattle are better opposition than NE Revs and they had us under the cosh for a good 15mins, and continued to threaten even when they were receiving a hammering at the other end.

Infact I have no idea how they failed to score! The number of defensive errors, near misses and super saves from our keepers would in normal circumstances have been worrying for a club of our stature, but as the scoreline ended up being zero to the opposition it'll probably be swept up under the carpet .

To be fair their floodgates only opened second half after a change in keeper and personnel, and similarly most of our glaring errors came late in the second half following fatigue and a multitude of substitutions.

It was a good game. Really enjoyed watching us score loads and felt a little sorry for Seattle. They deserved atleast 2/3 goals themselves for the amount of pressure and clear cut chances they created.

Sounds really positive, so glad we have Young in our squad now, last seaon our corners were beyond terrible, I dont understand why we couldnt put a decent cross in from a set piece but now we have the solution. great news

Elvis (U7425)

posted 51 seconds ago

comment by Fergie's Armadillo (U1330)

Ando played the full 90 minutes again!!!

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I'm pleased with that. Did he look like he had shed any weight?

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There are some pictures on the manutd.com training website where he looks trim. There are times in the match however where he still looks big. Wonder if its just the way he carries himself.

What I can say for sure of is that he looked good again. Spread the play well. Seemed to have mastered the waterlogged pitch quicker than the other United players. He took a very good freekick and had two or three decent shots at goal None on target but they were difficult attempts. Wasn't a perfect game but plenty of positives. Recovered well defensively and made a few strong forward dribbles (a rare sight in the United midfield these days). I can see why Fergie isn't as fussed about signing a CM as we fans think he should be. Anderson has added some real urgency into the middle and has linked up well with Young over the past two games, and got Nani involved a lot more than against the NE Revs. That said these are pre-season games vs questionable opposition.

A word on Ashley Young. Dribbling has improved greatly since the NE Revs game, and his crossing remains stellar. There is scope there for aerially adept strikers (Hernandez, Welbeck, Macheda and even the Rooney of two years ago).

We still have to stop Giggs from taking corners from the right hand side though.

comment by Missinaldo (U1312)

made a few strong forward dribbles (a rare sight in the United midfield these days).
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This is the salient point here for me. We need Ando in the middle as he is the only CM that is willing to actually carry the ball forwards in central positions.

to be fair - Giggs also carries the ball quite well in midfield. It makes a huge difference have someone in the middle who can beat a man - makes whoevers marking them worry about getting to tight or giving them too much space etc

Aside from his weight/fitness issues my main concern with anderson is how one footed he is - almost verging on Valencia

This is the salient point here for me. We need Ando in the middle as he is the only CM that is willing to actually carry the ball forwards in central positions.

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I have not watched the second half yet, but in the first SAF had Anderson playing Carricks role.

That is not where anderson need to be playing.

One of the things defenders do not like is having central midfielders running at them, because it draws them out of position.

That is why Pavel Nedved was so effective for Juventus in Serie A.

I think that is where Anderson should play for us.

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