[GocartMozart]

We've had this happen to us for about three or four years now. This constant inabilty to break down a team for long stretches. It got a lot better last year when we basically man-handled opponents, but I can see it start to creep up on us again. Your thoughts/concerns?

Brown urges Reds to be ruthless | Manchester Utd | English Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

Brown urges Reds to be ruthless

Wes Brown says Manchester United must be more ruthless in front of goal if they want to retain their Premier League title this season.

United spurned several opportunities during Saturday's clash with Derby and would have dropped valuable points had Cristiano Ronaldo not emerged as the match-winner with 15 minutes remaining.

"We're getting really good chances, we've got to start putting them away," Brown told MUTV. "We made it hard for ourselves against Derby. We could have finished the game in the first 10 or 15 minutes. Luckily we got the winner in the end, which was a real relief."

"Luckily, Ben (Foster) is a great keeper," he added. "It was his first game for a long time and he came in and did brilliantly.

"It's always good to be top of the table. If we can get another three points against Bolton, it'd be great for us and we know then that if we win every game, we will win the league again."

Fergie frustrated by missed chances | Manchester Utd | English Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

Fergie frustrated by missed chances

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is adamant "someone is going to suffer" once his side find their stride in front of goal.

After watching the Reds narrowly escape potential embarrassment at Pride Park, Ferguson is now becoming increasingly irritated at the "charitable" nature of his players.

It happened at Old Trafford last weekend and it resulted in United being dumped out of the FA Cup by Portsmouth, and then it happened again against the Rams.

For 75 minutes chance after chance went begging, until man of the season Cristiano Ronaldo - who else? - finally ended brave Derby's resistance by scoring his 31st goal this term.

So whilst Ferguson's frustration is growing at the chances being wasted, he is at least able to console himself with the fact his side are creating the opportunities in the first place.

It means Bolton could be in for a hiding on Wednesday when they visit Old Trafford should United start putting their chances away.

"Last Saturday, missing chances knocked us out of the cup, and against Derby we made it hard for ourselves because we missed so many again," said Ferguson on MUTV.

"We were really charitable - it was a lot of chances. Maybe it's a little sticky spell, but we want to get over it.

"We've big, important games coming up, Bolton at home on Wednesday and then Liverpool on Sunday, and we want to start taking chances.

"We are making them, and I suppose that's the biggest bonus of all.

"If we keep making them, you know at some point someone's going to suffer. We just have to keep going with that."

In conjunction with faltering Arsenal's 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium with Middlesbrough, United are back on top of the Barclays Premier League - and with a game in hand - and edging closer to clinching back-to-back titles.

Ferguson is now urging his players not to slip up against Bolton in order to perfectly tee up the mouthwatering clash with Liverpool.

"We wanted to win this game and be top of the league," insisted Ferguson.

"We've our game in hand and we want to get those three points, then we can look forward to a real battle against Liverpool."

Ferguson has confirmed he will again make changes for the visit of Bolton as Carlos Tevez, Rio Ferdinand and Nani did not figure against the Rams.

Time will tell if there will be another goalkeeping change after Ben Foster finally made his United debut, with Edwin van der Sar injured and Tomasz Kuszczak suspended.

At least Foster, who joined the club from Stoke for £1million in July 2005, conceded to "finally feeling like a United player" in the wake of his first appearance.

After spending two seasons on loan with Watford and then enduring an eight-month injury lay-off from which he only returned a week ago, Foster was understandably relieved.

"I've been here nearly three years and it's good to finally get on the pitch for the first team in a competitive game," said Foster.

"It's a big thing to come back from injury and be thrown straight into the first team, but I thoroughly enjoyed it - though it was a bit harder than I thought."

Foster initially appeared nervous as his clearance kicking was wayward, before settling down with two crucial saves from Kenny Miller in the space of 60 seconds late in the first half.

Despite proving he is more than capable of handling himself in the Premier League, Foster is expecting to be back on the sidelines sooner rather than later.

"I wouldn't have thought the manager would have too much of a dilemma," added Foster.

"Edwin's probably going to be fit for the Bolton or Liverpool game, and I've no qualms about him going straight back in.

"He's been fantastic this season, and if I were him I'd be pretty disappointed if someone came in for one game and took my spot."

[Torque]

Man, it's like we are doomed. Or the players have some problems with concentrating, because that's what we lacked on Saturday. If they came into the game properly prepared morally then there were no problems. Either they thought it would have been a piece of cake to cope with Derby, or there are problems in the dressing room.
I just hope Fergie and Queiroz figure everything out and on Wednesday we'll see a lot of goals(form our strikers, of course)

[RobsonLegend]

We got 3 points. Good teams win when they're supposed to and don't win when they don't play their best. Great teams win when they're supposed to, and win even when it looks like they aren't at their best or even when they've been outplayed.

[jamesbevis2]

We have been missing too many chances lately need to be putting more away !

[dada]

I'm not overly concerned to be honest. If the Premier League is as good as they say it is then its just unreasonable to think thatwe can roll out and expect 3-0 results at the minimum everytime. Everybody misses chances, even today [/spoiler] Bolton just about did everything but score on that cross following Ronaldo's opener[/spoiler]. In the bigger picture we are top of the Prem and have the best goal difference in the league. Yes we would all love if Utd were breathtaking everyday against every team but when all is said and done the top priority is winning trophies.

[simpsom]

ya we do miss a lot of chances,the important thing is we still can bounce
and what is more important is winning

[dylangranville]

it is worrying that ronaldo is the only one scoring. i must admit. what happens if he gets injured? or has a dip in form?

personally id feel a little more comfortable if rooney had a few here and there.

dylan

[cbud003]

Last time I checked we were at the top of the table. I am not worried about it, at least you are getting opportunities and at least we are winning the league. I have a feeling that we'll come though in the clutch down the stretch.

[GocartMozart]

especially Rooney. He's had so many opportunities in the last month and sscuffed almost all of them. His shots on goal have been pretty high, but his scoring efficiency is no worse than any other season.
2007-2008: 119 shots, 13 goals, 10.92%, 69 shots on goal, 18.84%
2006-2007: 198 shots, 23 goals, 11.62%, 76 shots on goal, 30.26%
2005-2006: 167 shots, 17 goals, 10.18%, 79 shots on goal, 21.52%
2004-2005: 121 shots, 18 goals, 14.88%, 74 shots on goal, 24.32%


it's not his best year, but it's on par. The disappointing thing is that he's aging and should be better with age. That isn't showing in the numbers. The lad is clearly absolulety crucial to the side, but whether his numbers are improving is another thing. One thing is for certain, he's not getting any worse as some pundits would like to state.

[lorken]

You haven't really seen the combination of rooney and tevéz as we did a few moths ago, but i'm not really concerned about rooney not scoring when you think about the number of assists he is getting.