This match marks the return of the EPL after one hell of an international break. We saw Russia fail to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, and Ireland being cheated defeated out of a birth. Tomorrow, at 17:30 GMT (12:30 EST) United will take on Everton, who sit mid-table through 12 games, while united are in 3rd, behind Arsenal and Chelsea.

Previous Match Form:

Everton
W L D L L

• Nov 8 (W): West Ham 1 – 2 Everton
• Nov 5 (L): Everton 0 – 2 Benfica (Europa League)
• Oct 31(D): Everton 1 – 1 Aston Villa
• Oct 27(L): Tottenham 2 – 0 Everton (League Cup)
• Oct 25(L): Bolton 3 – 2 Everton

Manchester United
L D W W L

• Nov 8 (L): Chelsea 1 – 0 United
• Nov 3 (D): United 3 – 3 CSKA Moscow (Champions League)
• Oct 31(W): United 2 – 0 Blackburn
• Oct 27(W): Barnsley 0 – 2 United (League Cup)
• Oct 25(L): Liverpool 2 – 0 United

While United have not been as dominant defensively as we were last season (Pod People, we will take our Rio back now, thanks kindly), United played well defensively versus Chelsea. I’m expecting a natural 4-4-2 feel for tomorrow’s match, something along the lines of:

VDS
Rafael-Brown-Vidic-Evra
Valencia-Fletcher-Anderson-Nani
Rooney-Berbatov

However, there has been a lot of off-the-pitch action recently surrounding United, which may affect the performance of players. I highlighted 5 of the “biggest” issues (in my own personal humble opinion) coming into this match:

1. Injuries, Injuries, Injuries


Both teams have had their fair share of injures, but in my totally biased opinion ours will be more important in regards to the result of the match. Our main injuries come in our defense line, with Fabio and Rio both ruled out, but O’Shea and Johnny Evans have both picked up “knocks” and Sir Alex called them doubtful. Besides the obvious implications, this also means no “battle of the afros”. The good news? Vidic is back and healthy, having played 75 minutes for Serbia this past week in a friendly. It will be interesting to see what kind of defensive options we will actually have available tomorrow.

2. How will the Irish Rebound ?

It would be naive to think that that “The Hand of Henry” is not still burning fresh in O’Shea and Gibson’s minds. If O’Shea is able to go tomorrow, we all need to hope that he has not only forgotten the aforementioned event, but also rocketing a golden chance over the bar from six yards out that would have all but sealed Ireland’s ticket to South Africa.

3. The Circus that has Become Manchester United

Between Sir Alex’s criticism of officiating and the recent remarks by Nani and Ben Foster, United look like they could have too many distractions off the field. As with any sport, it can become very hard to be productive on the pitch when mentally, you are thinking of all these off-the-field issues at hand. And in case you had not heard, Sir Alex will be in the dugout for this match due to some crazy rule that will allow him to be present during this match, but missing Portsmouth and Tottenham. It will also be interesting to see how much playing time Nani gets, seeing as history has shown us SAF tends not to put up too much with his players bad talking him to the press. I expect him to start and play most, if not all of the game, but will the trend continue as other players become healthy.

4. When will we see vintage Mikey Owen ?

Let’s be honest, Owen has not been in the form he is capable of. Obviously he’ll need time to get back into that form, considering the past two years he has been either injured, or arguably just as bad, at Newcastle. Owen has shown sparks of what he used to do on a regular basis, the question is how much time does he need to find his form, and if he does, who will Sir Alex pair with Rooney up top ?

5. Pappa Wazza

Speaking of Rooney, he played well against Moscow, just after the birth of his son. Now that he’s had more time at home with the tyke, will we see visible signs of those sleepless nights that come with having a kid. Obviously having a son is not going to affect Rooney on the pitch, but he does have just one goal in the past nine fixtures. Look for Rooney to get back on pace by netting (at least)one against his boyhood club.

Those are some of the burning questions in my mind, obviously there are more issues that we face coming into this game. Regardless, I’m going to start predicting the results of the game (because I’m American and predicting the future is what we do), and for this I see a confident 2-0 Win for United at Old Trafford; goals coming from Rooney and Valencia. What does everyone else think ?

So a quick roundup of the scores and the United personnel playing before I get to more on to what is going to be the single most discussed play in recent times:

France 1 – 1 Ireland (2-1 Aggregate)
France : Patrice Evra
Ireland : John O’Shea, Darren Gibson

Portugal 1 – B&H (2-0 Aggregate)
Portugal : Nani

Okay, so the handball (seen/touch/heard) ’round the world. By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the videos (if you haven’t check here), and its blatant. Henry admitted it, the French national team as a whole admitted it, and even the Refs eventually admitted they screwed up. Now, I’ll get this out in the open, a large portion of my family is Irish. I wanted Ireland to go though, so needless to say I was not “thrilled” about the events that transpired, which got me to thinking. Even when the refs admit they DID make a mistake, it doesn’t change anything. FIFA law clearly states that all referee decisions are final, which means for Ireland, they’re out of luck. But is this policy actually working when you look at the the recent questionable calls ?

Football does not have any replay system (which I believe is good, and should stay as such), but we can’t keep ignoring these problems, mostly instances like the handball (missed/muddled calls) and the future Olympic Sport of Football Diving. Our acronym governing bodies need to come up with some system (COUGH MORE OFFICIALS PLACED ON GOAL LINES COUGH COUGH) to combat the issue, the real question is will they ?

All in all, as much as I enjoy international breaks (this one is going to be stricken from my mind), I’m glad we get some good ‘ole fashioned EPL action this week when we take on Everton (preview will be coming shortly).

Now we all know that officiating is a very hard job. And we also are all aware that Sir Alex expects nothing but the best, from his players and the officials, and in case you were not aware, he is also not afraid to make his displeasure public. Of course this is not the first instance where SAF has been in hot water with the referees union, so let’s look at 11 of his best rants, in no particular order:

** : Indicates SAF received some sort of match ban for his comments.

• Martin Atkinson (November 8th, 2009: Chelsea 1-0 United)

“The referee’s position to make a decision there was absolutely ridiculous. He can’t see it … It was a bad decision, but what can you do? You lose faith in the refereeing sometimes. That’s the way the players are talking in there. It was a bad one. That goal should not have been allowed.”

• Mark Halsey (November 28, 2002: United 1-2 Sunderland)

“A more capable referee would not have sent Dwight [Yorke] off, realising the type of player he is”

• Alan Wiley (October 6, 2009: United 2-2 Sunderland) **

“He didn’t add on any time for the goal. He played four minutes and two seconds. He was also walking up the pitch for the second goal needing a rest. He was not fit enough for a game of that standard. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous”

• Steve Bennett (January 14, 2003: United 1-3 Manchester City)

“The referee’s decided it’s a red card and I think he should look at it again really. He [Cristiano Ronaldo] has not touched the player, he’s not got near him”

• Howard Webb (November 3, 2007: United 2-2 Arsenal)

“I think Howard Webb has a great chance to be the top referee but today was a big game for him and, at times, he favoured Arsenal. Their second goal came from him not giving a free-kick for a foul on Louis Saha on the far side. It should have been a foul for us”

• Peter Walton (April 22, 2009: United 2-0 Portsmouth)

“That’s the disappointment because they [John O’Shea and Gary Neville] were both injured by bad tackles and the referee did nothing aboout it. I’m disappointed in that because you normally expect a really firm display from Peter Walton but not tonight”

• Chris Foy (August 9, 2008:United 2-2 Chelsea)

“[Michael Ballack] elbowed him [Patrice Evra] clearly. The referee’s in line and had a clear view so Ballack’s lucky. But he’s made a rod for his own back. He’d stopped the game twice already. The referee didn’t get it right today. You have to be consistent and he blew twice but not the third time”

• Mark Clattenburg (November 28, 2008: United 0-1 Bolton) **

“Some referees don’t like it. They don’t like the truth but I just told him how bad he was in the first half”

• Andre Marriner (October 25, 2009: United 0-2 Liverpool)

“It is a very difficult atmospher here [at Anfield]. There was a wounded animal aspect to the game and it affected the referee. Whether he had enough experience or not, I don’t know”

• Mike Dean (November 18, 2008: United 4-3 Hull City) **

“It should have been at least a yellow card, in which case the player would have been sent off. It made a difference”

• Phil Dowd (April 20, 2005: United 0-1 Everton)

“Paul Scholes was sent off for a late challenge. How many late challenges were there in that game from Everton players? It was amazing. Everton knew it was a weak referee and they exploited that to the full. I don’t blame them. Right from the first whistle, there was no protection”

Now even though most of these comments stem from a loss (which honestly, it would be really weird if the ratio wasn’t in that manner) SAF is statistically equal on the critiques regardless of the outcome of the game (I did a…Z-Test?…Yea that sounds right. Take my word for it). While I in no way support the lambasting of officials, at least SAF is a non-prejudicial ranter. If a referee makes a call that Sir Alex does not agree with, expect to hear it from him first hand.

Speaking in a Portuguese newspaper, he was quoted as saying:-

“Ferguson is a very complicated man. He’s tough. If things are all right, then they are all right. But when he thinks something is wrong, everything is screwed. He can go from complimenting you to just plain trashing you in a matter of minutes. Has it happened to me? Hell, yes! He’ll say ‘Nani, how could you miss this or this’?”

“People expect more from me and it’s not easy. But they are also not doing what they said they were going to. I can have a spectacular game but nobody guarantees me I will be starting the next match. It shatters your confidence. I did not play the important matches, against Liverpool, Manchester City or Tottenham. Not playing these games, I am a bit sad. But for now I am not considering leaving.”

Just who does he think he is?!

Sir Alex Ferguson is probably the best manager ever to have walked this earth. His record at dealing with players of all mentalities is second to none. Speak to any of the current squad (obviously aside from Mr Nani) and they will wax lyrical to you about how he knows instinctively when a player needs an arm around the shoulder and when they need a kick up their proverbial backside.

I think most fans would agree that, at the moment, the Portuguese winger definitely needs the latter. His performances strike of a man who believes he is ten times better than he actually is, of someone who shouldn’t have to ‘deal with’ playing in lesser games. He almost has the attitude that we should be grateful that he graces Old Trafford, rather than the other way round…and as far as I’m concerned no-one, no matter who they are, should have that mentality, let alone a player who has rarely, if ever produced anything to back up those claims.

His comments of last week, almost intimating that it was a travesty that he was omitted from the bigger games, are laughable. I’m sure most United fans were glad that the selection did not include a player who can be wasteful in possession, lightweight on the ball, and ridiculously inconsistent from one minute to the next.

There is no doubt that he has the potential to improve. He has shown occasional flashes of brilliance – his goals against Liverpool and Middlesbrough have shown that. But they are so few and far between that they stick out like sore thumbs. Something you cannot say about his numerous lacklustre displays.

I will always support anyone chosen to wear the red shirt, but there is nothing more irritating than a player with ideas above their status. The only way Nani is going to realise any potential he has, is to knuckle down to work and improve. And realise that he is NOT anywhere near what we require as a finished product. And in order to be where he thinks he already is, he could do a lot worse than listen to the man he dares to criticise. A man with a proven judgement of players.

“ I am a bit sad. But for now I am not considering leaving” states the 23-year-old. Oh well thanks Nani, that’s very big of you. But, unless you change your attitude, unfortunately for you there are few of us who would shed a tear if you did. And if I were taking bets on who would make that decision, at this moment in time I wouldn’t be making you odds-on favourite for the job!

Please leave your comments here, or go to my twitter page.

Obviously a lot of you are based in the States so I hope I can bring a bit of Manchester to you as often as possible, to keep you in touch with what’s going on right here in ‘God’s own country!’.

I’ll keep you in touch with the latest news, as well as giving my (occasionally) constructive and (always) passionate opinion and of course I’d always welcome your comments on what I write. Obviously you can add your comments under the post, but don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, as amongst my random thoughts, I always post live from all the games – including some pics, so you can feel like you’re there however far away you are. It obviously also gives you another place where you can agree or disagree with my thoughts and keep in touch with what you want to read more (and less of).

Hope you enjoy my posts.

While he looks like funnyman Simon Pegg, Scholes has been anything but a joke to United’s opponents. With ridiculous passing that tears through defenses all the while making it look simple, a niche for shooting long range rockets into the back of the net, and a surly temper (75 bookings in the EPL, 24 in UEFA CL play), Paul Scholes has wrecked havoc on any pitch he steps on.

Since 1994(1991-1994 Youth Squad Member) Scholes has been a key to our middle, helping us to 9 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups, and 2 Champions League titles. Needless to say, he has been a huge part of our squad. Hell, in 2008 he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. So Happy Birthday Paul, and thank you for everything!

CSKA Moscow vs MUFC (CL Group)

The Good : Well we qualified, and that’s what really counts doesn’t it ?

The Bad : As much as I love him, I’m going to have to call out Mikey Owen. Two golden chances early and he misses them (yeah yeah I know, he netted United’s first and was a key aspect in moving the ball up the field…), but while I didn’t read through the entire brochure, I’m pretty sure the word “finisher” was listed often. Owen needs to find his old, pre-persistent-bad-knee-syndrome form, and prove to all of the united faithful that he was, in fact, the steal of the transfer market.

and The Ugly : Our Defense. Apparently Rio wasn’t the only one who the to-be-named aliens messed with. I don’t want to sit here and take anything away from the CSKA Moscow attackers, but god damn were they able to run free. The third goal came off of a header that was un contested following a free kick. I haven’t seen defending that poor since I watched myself (a born and raised striker) attempt to play center-back.

And of course it’s this hasn’t been an isolated incident. Look at the other weekend’s 2-0 loss to L’pool. Did they outplay us? Sure. Did they deserve to win? Well that’s debatable seeing as how I despise everything about them, but at the end of the day they took advantage of our lapses in defense.

…but I am not here to simply draw on the negatives, as what kind of “un-biased” writer would I be. In the second half (ignoring the pre-Rooney time) United kicked it into another gear. Granted we all know CSKA was trying to hold the lead, but if you are going to give United that kind of possession, we are going to score. And score we did, Scholes with a beauty of a header to level, and then Valencia knocking one in off a defender (which I still am convinced he meant to do from the start). My biggest worry as that as much as I hate the idea that United “need” Rooney on the field to be productive offensively…it’s starting to look more and more like that. Taylor alluded to it earlier, that we need someone the team can gather around, not as a Slave-esque “one man show”, but rather a leader. And I truly believe Wazza is that guy. He works harder than any other attacker on the squad *AHEM TAKE NOTES BERBATOV COUGH* and creates opportunities often.

Of course I digress there, moving on…

The Clash of the Titans (MUFC vs Chelsea)

After Moscow, United had another challenge in facing Roman Abrahimovich’s money Chelsea. If any of you ask any of my friends here in the states, they would all say my biggest worry coming into this fixture was our defense, combined with Didier Drogba’s disgustingly good form. But god damn, was I am impressed with our resolve. We featured a classic SAF “away-big-four formation”

VDS

O’Shea Brown Evans Evra

Fletcher Carrick Anderson Valencia

Giggs Rooney

in a sudo-4-5-1 formation, with Rooney playing mostly a possession position up front. Now, I’m going to be very vocal here about United personnel. I have very little faith in Anderson. I have not seen enough product from him to warrant a first-team position. Don’t get me wrong, he has a lot of talent, but once Hargreaves gets his new knees in working condition, I want to see him started over him. In addition, Valencia. Antonio, Antonio, Antonio. I could spend all day how I am not sold on him, but I won’t. I will say I want to see a lot of growth before I am convinced he is our new winger. ANYWAY…

…I’m sure you all know how the match finished, a 1-0 loss due to a heading finish by Chelsea captain John “The Brave One” Terry. Now it looks like Terry somehow managed to lose a defender. Watching the replay, you can see he lost his defender (Wes Brown) because Drogba pulled him to the ground. Convenient. At any rate the goal was awarded and United were not able to recover.

Man of the Match award, easily goes to Wes Brown. Despite the goal, he was charged with the task of marking Drogba. Need I mention again a “form-of-his-life” Drogba. And not only did Brown mark him, he shut him down. The only memorable thing from Drogba the entire game was this:

(btw, Johnny Evans is officially one of my new favorite players of all time for this).

In summary, these past two games were rough. While one was  a shining example of United’s resolve, the other showed that we have a lot of ground to make up if we want to make it four in a row. Chelsea are five points clear, but luckily for us, it is early in the season. And, to try and ease the pain, let’s all remember one thing. United are arguably the best end-of-season team in the world. We have historically come into form right around December. With that in mind, I leave you with images of our winning 2008 EPL Champions:

On a related noted, I would also just like to thank everyone who applied for a position. I’m really sorry if you didn’t hear back and I really do appreciate all the applications. Rebecca and Ryan are both ridiculously overqualified and will add good chemistry to the page, and I am more than a little excited to begin working with them!

One other bit of newsworthy material. You may have noticed that the site has also undergone a name change. For the past few months, we’ve been attempting to get the domain changed from “manu.theoffside.com” to “manutd.theoffside.com”. Well Daryl burned the midnight oil and was able to pull off a pretty big coup. It only seems fitting that with new writers comes a new name. That’s all for now, but check back soon for updates!

Rebecca Stephenson
As a freelance Journalist, I’ve been involved in sports writing for over 10 years. I’ve written for the official Man Utd Magazine and Match Day Programme (United Review) for all of that time and have interviewed many players and the manager during that time.

I used to interview Sir Alex monthly, and ghost-write his monthly column for the magazine – which was always an interesting experience!!

I also work for BBC Radio Manchester’s Sports team, where I am involved in many of the programmes, including the newly launched ‘Red Wednesday’ United programme, where I handle all the interaction with the listeners, reading out the texts, e-mails, tweets etc on air and scouring the forums for the best threads.
I’m a season ticket holder in the Stretford End, and I attend all United’s games home and away and in Europe. I also maintain a good twitter feed (@1rebs), where I micro blog and post photos as I follow the Reds round the world.

Ryan Schaaf
Most of you may know me as “schaafito” on these boards, but since I am now writing for the Manchester United offside I felt like we could be a little more personal, so I’ll be writing under my real name, Ryan. I grew up playing football in Rochester, New York (shameless plug, check out the USL-1 Rochester Rhinos Blog. Currently I am attending college at the Pennsylvania State University, where I play footy just about as much as I can. I have, at one point of my career, played competitively in every position in the sport, although my niche is definitely striker. This is my dull (read as: narcissistic) way of saying I understand the game. My love for United can be attributed back to one of my youth coaches, who for practices would have us weekly watch his favorite football team, the Manchester United Red Devils. This was back in the day of Fergie’s Fledglings: Giggs, Scholes, Becks, Neville, et al. What was once a healthy respect has grown into a love for everything Red Devils, which I plan on passing onto all of you. Basically between Taylor, Rebecca, and myself, we will have everything covered. Pre-match analysis, Post-match analysis, In-match LiveBlog (I have YET to miss a game all season), generic going-ons inside United. So buckle up folks, this Blog is back in action.

Last Five Matches: United
October 17: United 2 – Bolton 1 (English Premier League)
October 21: United 1 – CSKA Moscow 0 (Champions League)
October 25: Liverpool 2 – United 0 (English Premier League)
October 27: United 2 – Barnsley 0 (Carling Cup)
October 31: United 2 – Blackburn 0 (English Premier League)

Last Five Matches: CSKA
October 4: CSKA Moscow 4 – Kuban Krasnodar (Russian Premier League)
October 17: CSKA Moscow 1 – Spartak Nalchik 1 (Russian Premier League)
October 21: Manchester United 1 – CSKA Moscow 0 (Champions League)
October 25: FC Moscow 3 – CSKA Moscow 1 (Russian Premier League)
October 30: CSKA Moscow 1 – Terek Grozny 0 (Russian Premier League)

Current Form: United
The Red Devils are currently second in the English Premier League, having taken 25 points from 11 matches thus far. United have dropped points against Liverpool (5th), Sunderland (8th), and Burnley (10th), but currently remain second behind Chelsea in the EPL. On a happier note, the Red Devils are top of Group B in the Champions League, having taken full points (nine) from their first three games (@Besikatas, Wolfsburg, and @CSKA).

Current Form: CSKA
The Russian Premier League side are currently fifth in the league, having taken 46 points from 27 matches (a record of 14 wins, 9 losses, and 4 draws).CSKA sacked manager Juande Ramos on October 28, and subsequently responded with a win over mid-table side Terek Grozny. The Champions League knock-out round remains a possibility for the Moscow-based side, as they are currently third in Group B (one point behind second place Wolfsburg).

Points to Ponder
1) The world is now one Rooney stronger. The United striker missed training yesterday to be with his wife Coleen as she gave birth to the couple’s first child. Kai Wayne Rooney was born yesterday afternoon, and promptly launched a Twitter account to keep the world up to date with the newborn’s boxing and football training schedule. Perhaps of more concern to United fans is the status of Rooney Sr. With Chelsea waiting at the weekend and Group B not exactly looking like a close race, my guess is that Rooney’s name doesn’t feature in the starting eleven.

2) Rooney isn’t the only face that is expected to be absent. Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad will look a touch inexperienced tonight, as some of the bigger United names are in doubt. Park Ji-Sung (crybaby-knack), Nemanja Vidic (Recovering-From-Torres-Knack), Rio Ferdinand (Alien-Abduction-Knack), and Ryan Giggs (balding-knack) are all expected to be out, and Dimitar Berbatov will likely be held in reserve.

3) A solid performance from Jonny Evans will make an awkward situation even more awkward. It’s no secret that Rio Ferdinand has been struggling this season. Whereas one year ago there were individuals willing to state that Ferdinand was one of the best defenders in Europe, now it seems there are those who are uncertain if he’s even one of the top defenders in the United squad. With Wes Brown looking healthy and Jonny Evans making a very, very good case to be a regular starter, things could get increasingly uncomfortable for Rio.

4) Another player who may be hoping to impress Fergie will be suiting up for the opposition. CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev has been linked with a move to Manchester numerous times this season (generally right after Foster let the ball slip out of his hands/cleared the ball directly into an opponent’s back). “I have heard the speculation but it is just talk, nothing else,” said the big Russian keeper. “ I cannot look at this match from a personal perspective. The career of every footballer grows from such games.” He then paused, reflected on how that wasn’t quite enough of a come-and-get-me plea, and then continued, “We are playing a legendary team in a legendary stadium. It will be an inspirational game, the most important in our careers.”

Taylor’s Predicted Starting Eleven: VDS, Neville, Brown, Evans, Evra, Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Obertan/Welbeck, Macheda, Owen.
Scoreline Predictions: And the man-crush ensues… I see this one as a comfortable win for United, so I’m going with 3-0 with goals from Obertan, Owen, and Fletcher. It will be good to have the Scotsman back, great to have the possibility of yet another deadly winger providing an outlet for the United attack, and amazing if (as some have suggested) Hargreaves could be on the bench. I don’t think he will be, but the slight possibility remains.