Hurry Back Rooney Or It's The Bench For You !!

I think Wayne Rooney's injury is badly timed. Not for Manchester United but more for himself !

I'm one of his biggest fans but it has to be said if he is out for a few games he might struggle to get back in the team and the main reason for that is Carlos Tevez.

Tevez linked up with Dimitar Berbatov is a mouth-watering prospect for me. We all know what Tevez is like, he never stops running and he gives 100% every single game. If he loses the ball he is not one of these guys who will stand there with his arms in the air, he is up and after the culprit who took the ball from him. He is always there, snapping at the ankles of defenders and annoying them. If they try passing it to one another he will run between them ready to pounce on the slightest of errors. To play against him must be every defenders worst nightmare come true.

Once he does get the ball back, that's the hard work done for him. With Berbatov in the middle, marked by one or two players, it doesn't matter to him, all Tevez needs do is get the ball into him, he has such a perfect first touch and a lightning fast footballing brain, he can turn defenders inside out and get his shot off. Theoretically, these two, Tevez and Berbatov, are a match made in heaven. If they do hit it off and form a good partnership while Rooney is away, would Fergie break it up again to accomodate Rooney ? I'm not so sure he would !

Of course, there is another option which I am keen to see Fergie experiment with. Play all three of them, Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez, add to that Ronaldo as well and can you imagine the opposition defenders then ? They would see the team sheet and go home. The only bad part of this formation is the fact Ronaldo is so lazy. If he is tackled the hands go up and he stands still looking at the ref. If he got his act together and tracked back then yes, go for it but it would be a gamble right now.

To play a 4-3-3 I would want Hargreaves and Scholes there too actually. Without those two forget it. With Scholes injured for 10-13 weeks it looks like Rooney better get fit again and quick, or he might be left out in the cold !!

Team Line Ups 'v' AAB Aalborg

Rafael Da Silva gets to start tonight for Manchester United and we have Carlos Tevez on the bench.

A good line up, much better than the one that got us beaten against FC Copenhagen.

Berbatov Responds To The 'Oh So Great' Media

He's been at Manchester United for 29 days now and has played in 5 matches and scored no goals. The press are up in arms, he is a waste of money, he can't handle the pressure, wait until he goes into a mood and blah, blah, blah .....

I've never heard anything like it in my life, it's pathetic. I hope he does what Fergie does and just doesn't bother reading these papers. They never have anything good to say when someone wins so when someone goes 3 or 4 games and doesn't score, it's almost like a national disaster, they run round like headless chickens looking for someone to blame or a reason for it.

"I have had to handle expectation and pressure throughout my life," Berbatov told The Sun. "I'm not scared and that's why I'm here. The most important things are to enjoy myself, help the team to win more trophies and entertain the fans.

If I do that, if I play like I did at Tottenham Hotspur, I don't think it will be a problem. I'm at the biggest club in the world and here I can develop in the way I want and that's the most important thing.

“I really hope I'll be successful here."

You sure will Mr Berba, as long as you steer clear of the idiots !!

Real Madrid Give Up On Manchester United And Ronaldo AGAIN !!

Real Madrid’s sports director Pedja Mijatovic has hinted the Spanish giants have given up on trying to sign Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo for now.

The La Liga outfit chased the Portuguese winger all summer and the 23-year-old was initially tempted to move to the Bernabeu after winning the Champions League and Premier League with United last season.

But Ronaldo decided to stay at Old Trafford and Mijatovic says he doubts Real will renew their interest in him.

Mijatovic told AS: 'He is a professional who was trained in Manchester, who owes much to the club and (manager Sir Alex) Ferguson.
'He never said clearly: 'I want to go to Madrid'.

But at least now, finally, it's all over and we can look forward to CR7 winning the FIFA World Player Of The Year now. He does have a very, very good chance according to the great Eusebio. The Portuguese legend is certain Cristiano Ronaldo will scoop the FIFA world player of the year prize in December.

Ronaldo is expected to start his first Champions League game since last May's final triumph over Chelsea in Moscow when Manchester United tackle Danish minnows Aalborg looking to record their first win of the current campaign.

The 23-year-old has only just returned from ankle surgery but already he has shot to the top of United's goalscoring charts, netting against Middlesbrough before taking advantage of Rob Styles' generosity by converting the Red Devils' controversial penalty in Saturday's win over Bolton at Old Trafford.

Ryan Giggs Set To Be Offered A New Contract By Manchester United

Giggs is approaching his 35th birthday,
but is still seen as an integral part of the
Manchester United set up, having made
43 appearances last season.

The last of those came in the Champions League
final, in which Giggs surpassed Bobby Charlton's
all-time appearance record for the club - 758.
The former Wales international signed a one-
year contract extension 12 months ago, extend-
ing his terms to 2009, and has seemingly suff-
iciently impressed to earn another renewed deal.
His new contract would take him beyond his 36th
birthday, but Sir Alex Ferguson recently declared
his continued confidence in Giggs' abilities.

Ferguson hinted yesterday to the press that Giggs
is no longer considered an out and out wide-man
by the club, he is seen as a central midfield player
or second forward, in a bid to stave off the effects
of a near 20 career running the flank at Old Trafford.

I had even written him off myself two years ago.
Since then he has won two MORE Prem League titles.
I'll just keep ma gob shut in the future.

Bolton To Receive An Apology From Rob Styles

I bet this news has turned their match against Manchester United at the weekend round and really made it a joyous ocassion. Rob Styles is actually going to own up to making the biggest cock up anyone has ever seen. Who needs 3 points in The Premiership when you can have Styles shuffling about like the clown he is whilst mumbling some weak apology.

It means nothing anyway. He should have gone to the Bolton guys right after the game and said: "Hey guys, what can I say, I fucked up". The problem is half of these referees are on an egpo trip. They couldn't make it in the game themselves so they were clutching at straws by becoming refs, just to be a part of the glory.

I've got something now that will make Styles gesture completely worthless. He passed on the apology to the referees association and asked if they would mind dealing with it for him. Pathetic !!

From us the fans, to you the ref Mr Styles, we all say................... YOU TOSSER !!!!

After this, Bolton seemed to roll on their backs with their legs in the air, "a la" dead dog style. Unitedf scored again courtesy of Wayne Rooney. The back heel from The Slave was actually mesmerising but the little 'shimmy' Roon did to send the defender the wrong way was even better........and the finish was even better again, it was a beautiful goal. United didn't impress much in this game, it seems we are still dogged by this 'slow start' problem !!!

Hargreaves And Neville Not With Manchester United In Denmark

Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville were missing from the Manchester United team as it arrived in Denmark for a Champions League match against Aalborg.

Hargreaves was left home because of a knee injury that has bothered him since he joined the team from Bayern Munich last season. It wasn't immediately clear why Neville wasn't in the squad. He didn't appear injured in United's 2-0 win over Bolton this weekend.

Two of Aalborg's key players, midfielders Jeppe Curth and Kasper Risgaard, skipped practice Monday with minor injuries but were included in coach Bruce Rioch's squad for Tuesday's match.

After a frustrating 0-0 draw with Villarreal in their Champions League opener, United needs a win at Aalborg to get their title defence back on track.

Darren Fletcher said on Manutd.com: "It is not going to be quite that easy to beat them. Aalborg might not be a household name but this is the Champions League. It is a top-quality competition and they are a quality side."

The Danes managed a 0-0 draw at Celtic in their first match. Aalborg defender Michael Beauchamp said the underdog tag would be an advantage against United.

"They must win and we are just going to enjoy the game," Beauchamp said. "Football can be a very funny game and if we can get a draw, it will be a great achievement."

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said it was important to "get it right against Aalborg" after dropping two points against Villarreal.

Aalborg is struggling in the 12-team Danish league, where it is in 10th place, but Ferguson expects the Danes to get fired up for what will probably be their biggest match of the season.

"They are playing Manchester United. They will have a sellout crowd and the whole town will be up for it," Ferguson said. ``Danish clubs are always battlers."

2-0 But Not Impressive

Defending champions Manchester United gained their first Premier League home win of the season - and left near neighbours Bolton nursing a huge sense of injustice as they made their way back up the M61 and despite loving United I can't blame them either !!.

United's margin of victory may have been deserved but the manner of Cristiano Ronaldo's opener left a sour taste for the Trotters as referee Rob Styles amazingly gave the hosts a penalty when Jlloyd Samuel clearly played the ball when he slid into Ronaldo just before the hour mark.

I've spent four years defending Ronaldo's reputation from the hordes of "He's a diving cheat" chanting fans and it doesn't get any easier. Which means either I'm getting bored of doing it or he just wont learn !! With todays technology everyone knows the TV cameras can slow everything down to 1 frame per second if need be and you can s-e-e e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g so slowly, it's easy to spot a misdemeanour. He went down a bit too easily for me yesterday. He struggled to leave his right food behind in order to get the penalty and his left foot was never touched. Anyway, he went, we got the penalty and the opposition fans now have further 'proof' of Ronnie's minor indiscretions.

Substitute Wayne Rooney also found the net for the first time this season, curling home superbly after exchanging passes with Ronaldo to give the margin of United's triumph a more comfortable look.

But Bolton boss Gary Megson will know his side were frustrating their hosts until Rob Styles intervened

Just 24 hours after he warned his fabulous array of attacking talent they could expect to be rotated on a regular basis, Ferguson left Rooney on the bench. In fairness to the England striker, whose form has been below par during the opening weeks of the campaign, his manager probably reasoned Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez could start to develop some sort of partnership against Megson's side.

Although Bolton did claim a couple of notable Old Trafford victories during Sam Allardyce's reign, if any side looked ripe for registering a first home win of the season against, Bolton was it.

Yet it did not quite work out as Ferguson planned. For a start, Bolton were not as unadventurous as many believed and when, after about 15 minutes, United did get into their stride, they found it difficult to break through a hard-working defence, aided superbly by the midfield industry of Gavin McCann.

Jussi Jaaskelainen was called upon on half a dozen occasions but most of his saves would be regarded as routine for the Finn, including the low Ronaldo free-kick he kept out at his near post.

On his first Premier League start since last May, Ronaldo took plenty of responsibility for United's goal search on his shoulders but while Tevez and Berbatov tried hard, there was no sense of a partnership between the pair.

The only time they were involved in anything meaningful was when they helped set up Rio Ferdinand. But the centre-half bounced his half-volley straight at Jaaskelainen.

Bolton could not claim to have posed even half the threat United had done. But they had established themselves as an attacking force long before Fabrice Muamba was presented with the best opportunity either side had to break the first-half deadlock.

As a former pupil of Arsene Wenger's at Arsenal, Muamba could at least have been expected to force Edwin van der Sar into a save when Gretar Rafn Steinsson's low cross rolled invitingly into his path after Ferdinand had slid in with Kevin Davies at the near post. Inexplicably, from barely 10 yards, the England Under-21 international was so badly off target his shot nearly rolled out for a throw-in.

Having got trips to Liverpool and Chelsea out of the way during an incredibly tough start to the season, now Ferguson was expecting his team to start winning. But as the hour mark approached the opener still proved elusive, despite the improved efforts of Ronaldo.

Yet even Ferguson must have felt a bit sheepish when Styles, perfectly placed, watched Samuel make what everyone in the stadium seemed to think was a perfectly timed tackle on Ronaldo, then point to the spot as the home player hit the deck. Bolton could not believe it. TV replays justified their incredulity. Ronaldo simply stepped up and sent Jaaskelainen the wrong way.

The introduction of Rooney and Paul Scholes came not long afterwards.

Given his desire to play every minute of every game, Rooney was presumably not happy at being left out, so there must have been an element of 'I'll show you' about his superb curling shot which found the bottom corner after a neat exchange of passes with Ronaldo 13 minutes from time.

Scholes went close to increasing United's lead at the end but by then, the damage had been done for Bolton.

We won 2-0 but I hope that's not the best we'll see all season or I'll be crying.