Man Utd Ramblings – Devils On Duty, Germans & More…

By: Wayne Farry | April 1st, 2009

With the huge amount of nothingness going on during the international break I’ve got some free time. Y’know, apart from the six projects for college, but who really cares about that stuff? So let’s take a teeny weeny look at how our players are doing on international duty. Hopefully (and by that I mean almost certainly) they’re doing better for nation than for club. Let’s kick it off, brief as it may be.

Wayne Rooney continued his lethal form for England with two goals in their 4-0 win against Slovakia. He was absolutely brilliant and it’s just a real pity that he’ll miss the Villa game. He also played tonight, not scoring and not quite as effective as the Ukrainians marked him out of the game but still okay. Michael Carrick came on as a sub in the Slovakia match and was efficient, but he really didn’t get enough time on the pitch or the ball to make any impression on Capello. Rio Ferdinand was injured for the Slovak game but was alright for tonight’s game, dunno how he played though. Ben Foster came on for the second half but literally had absolutely nothing to do. But I’m confident that given a real chance, he’ll impress Capello.

John O’Shea started against Bulgaria for ROI on Saturday in the 1-1 draw at Croke Park. He had a solid game and continues his good form under Trap in his new role as a central defender. He had a really, really tidy game tonight against Itay in Bari and showed he can be real quality. Darren Gibson came on in both games, coming on tonight for Keith Andrews early on. He had a real good game. Pulling the strings in the midfield and putting in some lovely crosses.

Both Ronaldo and Nani played in Saturday’s draw for Portugal against Sweden which did neither side any good. They also played in today’s 2-0 friendly win against South Africa. Neither scored, ’nuff said..

Paddy Evra played for France in their win against Lithuania at the weekend and also played in their win against the Liths (?) tonight. Good stuff Patrice.

God I’m bad at this, Carlos Tevez played for Argentina in their win against Venezuela and I’m fairly sure he was playing tonight as they were ramshackled 6-1 by Bolivia! 6-1! Bolivia! Mental, well that’s altitude for you.

Park Ji-Sung played for South Korea as they beat North Korea 1-0. He probably played well.

Nemanja is playing tonight for Serbia against Sweden in a friendly, no word on how that went yet.

Jonny Evans played a major part in Norn Iron’s 3-2 win over Poland at the weekend and he and his defence kept a clean sheet tonight against Slovenia to keep Norn Iron top of their group.

And finally, Anderson is apparently injured as he returned from international duty to Carrington for treatment. Let’s hope the cute wee tyke is alright, eh?

And last but not least but almost certainly forgotten first time around, Daz Fletcher played for Scotland in their 0-3 loss to the Netherlands at the weekend and also appeared for them in their much better result at home to Iceland tonight, where they won 2-1 to put their playoff hopes back on track.

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Few other wee tidbits while I’m here with you guys. I was thinking about this for a while. We’ve had all kinds of international players on our roster at some stage. We’ve had South Africans, Norwegians and everything else. So here’s the question.

Have Man Utd ever had a German international play for them?

Let me know the answer you fact hunters.

Oh, and finally. Over at the official website you can now vote for the Man Utd Player of the Year 08/09. Vote for the players of your choice in numerous sections here.