Glory Glory Manchester United!

United is playing some of the best football that I have seen from them in years. Sparks of 1999?

Come on you, Reds!

Not so glory today, eh?!
/Lost semifinals 5-3 against AC Milan ;-) /

Hyuk yuk :)))

What can you do? United decided not to show up to the biggest night of the season. All credit to the Italians - they played a great game.

There's always next year!

What can you do? I'll answer my own question - you take the Title back to Old Trafford! Whoo hoo!

Ah, but the Champions League is the one that counts. Not that I'm in any way unhappy to see Chelsea edged out of the title, ManU have been much better to watch this season.

Everyone knows that the one that REALLY counts is the Carling Cup! ;-)

Anyway, it's a shame that United were edged out of the Champion's League so close to the end. There are a lot of young players in the squad and hopefully they will get plenty more chances to play in Europe as they mature.

Still a chance for a Double this season!

#6 - not sure I agree about the CL sentiment. I'm sure most Liverpool fans would swap another CL win for the league, after all it's been 17 years since they have won a title they used to dominate.
The CL is the worst thing that has ever happened to football, it has more-or-less destroyed all competition in domestic leagues, beyond the big 2/3/4 who always qualify for it. By the way, how can it the CL when the majority of the teams taking part, and winning it, are not champions.

Hopefully Chelsea will beat MU in the FA Cup - players like Essien, Cavalho & Drogba deserve a major medal for their performances this season.

#7 - MU were not edged out of the CL, they were demolished. Milan should have won both legs. It's not about maturity, it's about big players standing up and being counted - so far, Ronaldo has yet to prove that he can do that. Carrick is not a top player, £18m for him was a joke. Hargreaves for £17m will be an equally big joke. They are £5m players. Scholes & Giggs have 18 months left maximum. Utd will have to spend heavily just to stay still, but who is going to do the spending? It they do the double, Fergie may just call it quits.

I agree with jargoneer about their spending. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch as many United games as I would have liked this year, but from what I have seen, there does seem be a lack of players standing up.

I was sad to see van Nistelrooy leave (I don’t know that the team suffered tremendously without him on the roster, I just like him), and I cannot imagine what the team will be like once Giggs and Scholes hang up their boots.

Ronaldo is good, but I swear, he spends so much time doing fancy things with the ball that he forgets that he’s in the middle of a match. Of course Rooney has potential, but if his gambling issues are anywhere near what is being reported, I cannot think his head is really in the game--any game. And does anyone else think that Solskjaer is underused? Or am I alone one that one?

Edited to add:
I mean, I know his time is limited, but why not utilize him while you have him?

As I think about my Solskjaer question a bit more, perhaps underused is the wrong word, maybe underutilized. I suspect that his past injuries have a lot to do with it, and by his own admission, he doesn’t think he’ll be playing much longer, but it just seems to me that keep him around as a token player.

Solskjaer doesn't look the player he was, not surprising considering the injuries, but he has been hampered this season by Ronaldo. It's easy to forget that he spent a lot of his time as a sub (as a goalscoring sub he was probably the best) and/or wide-right (when Beckham first went to Spain Solskjaer was his replacement). Oddly, I would argue that Man U's success this season has been down to having players like S, Fletcher, O'Shea, Brown, etc, happy to sit on the bench and do a job when needed. It's fine having a great first team but you need solid players to deputise - it is very difficult to get top players to sit on the bench because they want to play.

The whole Van Nistelroy saga is strange. He was easily MU's best striker over recent years, and yet the team looks better balanced without him. Perhaps because other players have taken the responsibility to score on. At the same time VN has now scored 28 goals at Real Madrid, and still has 5 or so games left - they are only 2 pts behind Barcelona and may yet win the league.

Lack of big players standing up?

United won the league! Three of the six player nominated for Player of the Year are Reds. Ronaldo won Player of the Year for that matter. There is still a good chance that we will win the Double.

Plain and simple, United are the best team in England due to the efforts of the entire team.

83 goals and counting. No one comes close.

Are you Alex Ferguson?

ROFL!!!
(sorry, couldn't resist...)

No, just a proud member of Fergie's Red Army.

;-)

Feeling Confident Artdecade - will the Red Army invade the peninsula tomorrow?

Ah well. Hard luck. It will be no consolation, but I was rooting for your team today. Can't take that Chelsea lot - especially that dreadful dead-eyed robber-baron of an owner. I do like Mourinho, but he's funnier when he loses.

That game was pretty boring all the same. I'll just as soon forget it.

;-)

The FA Cup final was dreadful but the better team, on the day, won. It's hard not to thinkg that if Chelsea had let the manager spend £50m last season instead of the owner/director of football buying unwanted players they probably would have won everything.

It was noticeable that the final was yet another big game that Ronaldo failed to turn up to. Ronaldo has talent but if he wants to be considered great it's time he starts producing performances against the major teams.

I'd have to say that both teams played very poorly. I am partial, but I didn't see enough quality to call Chelsea the "better" team. They simply earned a goal and United did not. It would have been just as easy for United to have won if Giggs was able to net the ball, instead of the goalkeeper, from a perfectly struck cross.

"It was noticeable that the final was yet another big game that Lampard failed to turn up to. Lampard has talent but if he wants to be considered great it's time he starts producing performances against the major teams.

Ronaldo has scored the most goals from midfield in the history of the Premiership.

This Ronaldo not 'turning up' for big games thing is gaining great currency. Is it not simply the case that really good defenders - Ferreira for instance - are better able to contain him. Thats part of how top clubs stay top, Robbie Keane can score against Reading, Portsmouth, Villa, but never against Chelsea, Arsenal or Manu..

When I said Chelsea were the better team, it was just by a small margin - both were poor though.

Fat Frank is not a top quality player, he just scores lots of goals, usually via a deflection.

Ronaldo did break the record for scoring from midfield by a single goal but is he really a midfielder? Much of time he operates as a support striker in a 4-3-3 formation.

If good defenders can contain Ronaldo then how effective is he - to be considered good then you have to cause problems for good defenders. Rooney caused Chelsea problems at the weekend, even Giggs had his moments, but Ronaldo did nothing.
Robbie Keane is different, no-one thinks he brilliant, although he does occasionally score brilliant goals. He's no Berbatov though.

I bet his mum thinks he's brilliant

Well, I guess it’s Coach Solskjaer now, eh?

He seems a very quiet kind of man, so more a coach than a manager I guess

Remember that Mark Hughes seemed as if he would be too quiet to be a manager. What Solskjaer did was watch the game, which was why he was a great sub. A lot of players really hate watching football and don't do it unless they really have to. It would be interesting to know if they're the ones who never turn into managers. That's my suspicion.