Terrace Talk

On Saturday afternoon, Manchester United made the trip to Ewood Park to take on United legend Mark Hughes’ ever-improving Rovers. With Chelsea collecting all three points from their game in hand at Goodison Park, a win for Fergie’s latest crop of players became increasingly important. Blackburn of course were still pushing for a European place, and Sparky wouldn’t stand to have his men lie down quietly in light of this.

Having dispatched Arsenal last week after going a goal behind to Adebayor’s best impression of ‘La mano de Dios’, United exhumed that air of invincibility they so often possess during ’squeaky-bum time’. Surely it would be a difficult but fairly routine win. Step forward Brad Friedel.
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Last time United played Middlesbrough, the put on a masterclass performance from Ronaldo, Nani, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney. The prototype of the constant interchanging football team, full of spirit and audaciously creative in their passing worked to perfection at Old Trafford. In their current form it is difficult to see how United will not repeat history.

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The month of March provided some sparkling football from Manchester United. The team won six of seven matches, including key victories against Lyon in Champions League and Liverpool in the English Premier League. Both results ensured that United can continue in there pursuit for both major titles.

Player of the Month is tabulated through a two step process. The first step is through nomination. This is done in order from the first player to the third player nominated for each match that United plays for the month. For each match, a point system from three points to one point is assigned to the first player nominated, down to the third player nominated (nominee 1 – 3 pts, nominee 2 – 2 pts, nominee 3 – 1 pt).

Depending on the number of matches per week, each match thread is opened for a period of 3-5 days for nominations. Afterwards, a poll is opened for voting of the top 3 nominees for a period of one week. This allows members to catch the match live or on replay to allow them sufficient time to carefully weigh in on there selections for nominations and final poll voting.

It is very important that United Zone Football Forum members not only weigh in and nominate players, but also make sure to vote.

Fourteen goals were scored and fine individual performances made nominations and voting for this months Player of The Month a real challenge.

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On a warm European evening, Manchester United did just enough to grind out a 2-0 victory over hosts AS Roma at Il Stadio Olimpico. It certainly wasn’t the beautiful football United fans have come to expect from their side, but the result did just enough to put a firm foot in the door for qualification into the Champions League semi finals.

It was clear from the onset of the match that Sir Alex Ferguson and his coaching staff were fully intent on trying to beat Roma at their own game. United fielded a side which did not feature a clear striker and essentially would require their players to push into advanced attacking roles and then interchange up front in the forward position. AS Roma’s manager, Luciano Spalletti, has refined a similar 4-6-0 tactic over the years with great success, winning the Italian Cup last season, and his club currently sit in 2nd position in Serie A. Without a traditional striker up front, Roma play with numerous attacking players that interchange, stretching the defense and forcing defensive mistakes through variety in attack. It is a very open and attacking style of football which is quite wonderful to watch when all goes as planned. Sir Alex has used a variation of this tactical formation to achieve great success in the last few seasons, culminating in the absolute decimation of Aston Villa over the weekend.

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Absolutely brilliant is the only way to label this United performance. In fact, absolutely brilliant is the only way to characterize Cristiano Ronaldo. From top to bottom, United dominated Aston Villa and did more than they needed to, to deserve the three points. They had just watched Arsenal take a late victory from Bolton and knew they had to put in the work to hold on to their lead. As a fan, this will not be a game forgotten, with Ronaldo playing out of his skin and slowly solidifying my argument that he has already reached legendary status in a red shirt.

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I’ve always thought of myself as a big fan of Wayne Rooney and right away I should warn you that I have a major bias toward the forward. It simply took a spectacular goal against Arsenal, when the lad was still with Everton to win me over. The shot was beautiful, but as I frantically rewound the video and played it from the beginning, it was his intelligent movement into space that really caught my eye. It wasn’t long before he proved his worth for England in the 2004 European Championship, where he scored a handful of impressive goals that would cement his place at the top of Sir Alex’s transfer list. So it comes as no surprise that I call myself “Roonatic #1” a title I was originally embarrassed of, considering the lad is a scouser afterall. These are my confessions; in the face of his brilliance I just can’t help liking a scouser.

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