United 2 – Wigan 1 : Match Highlights
By: Taylor Rockwell | May 13th, 2009First, I would just like to thank Wayne for doing a pretty amazing job around here in the past week or so. As I wrote before, I’ve been pretty out of it after having had surgery on Friday, but you wouldn’t know it by the sheer amount of posts on the site. Great job there Wayne… I think you can even take credit for Carlitos’ resurgence… not sure why… just saying you can…
I didn’t get to watch a whole lot of this one, as I was in physical therapy being told that I was weak and frail… nothing motivates me more than a snickering girlfriend laughing at my whining. However, the bits I did catch make me oddly confused about Tevez’ seemingly imminent departure.
Lately, the Argentinian seems to have become determined to prove his worth. However, as he appears to have written off the idea of playing for United next season, it would therefore be fair to argue that he is playing out of his skull so as to attract another buyer. Which I understand, but am infuriated by
nonetheless. For a large part of the season (as Wayne noted in his article yesterday), Tevez looked unsettled and out of place. He wasn’t exactly the electric goal scorer we all knew him to be, and instead fell into the Durk Kuyt role of run until you can’t run anymore… and then keep running.
Now that he suddenly has to up his money value, Tevez seems intent on scoring at every opportunity. Or, at the very least, creating chances out of nothing. Where was that same ability all season? I love Tevez for his effort and endeavor, but I’ve begun to question his “love of the team” when only the words “contract” and “year” seem to be motivating him. On to the highlights…
Wigan 1 – United 0 (28′ – Hugo Rodallega)
United 1 – Wigan 1 (61′ – Carlos Tevez)
United 2 – Wigan 1 (86′ – Michael Carrick)
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Category: Manchester United
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Comments
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Nice to have you back man. And thanks, it’s been a hard week without you, haha!
Posted from
United States
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What a finish from Carrick… he has at least one of those a season, I swear…
Posted from
United States -
Why on earth United dont sign Tevez up is beyond me. I’d rather have him any day than Berbatov, and to a certain extent Ronaldo. United need someone for the left, well dont need as such but thats where there is room for improvement. Anders Guardado I think would fit in nicely, as would Antonio Valencia
Posted from
Ireland -
to go over this again, we can’t pay 30 million for a third striker who is inconsistent as a third striker. yeah, i dont think berbatov was worth that much either, but it’s too late for that bc the money has been paid.
but andres guardado is a good point. i never thought about him as our left winger, but that would be a nice replacement. just his size could be an issue, but his technical skills and pace are astonishing.
Posted from
Poland -
What kind of decent striker can you get for 30 mill nowadays? Its a sellers market. He definately deserves to be in the team instead of Berbatov, who should join Real Madrid, and look amazing playing in a slow league
Posted from
Ireland -
I think we have to leave the left wing for a while. Why else did Sir Alex spend loads on Nani and Tosic? As much as I dislike Nani, you have to remember that it took Ronaldo a few season to settle in properly too. I think we should let Nani and Tosic battle it out for the left wing position for a while and if neither end up good enough, then we should seriously think of reinforcement.
Posted from
United States -
You’d rather have Tevez than Ronaldo Paddy? Come on mate, I know he’s been good in the last two games with some very good, key goals but over the whole season Ronaldo has delivered. Not saying Tevez ain’t good, he just ain’t worth £32 million or whatever that mercenary wants for him.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Guardardo always joins United in Football Manager, must be a sign!
Posted from
United States -
you’re right about left wing, Wayne. we have more than enough talent for that spot (not just nani and tosic, but i would love to see fabio try out that position and anderson is good there too).
man, i was starting to think like a chelsea fan
Posted from
Poland -
we even have the reinforcement for them wayne…the other young serb that came w/ tosic is supposed to be even better than he is.
as far as the berba haters go. i won’t give up the mancrush…look here:
berba’s got 14 goals for us this year. behind only rooney (20) and c-ron (26). did you expect him to score more than either of them? cristiano scored 42 goals last year…if you’re thinking berba should’ve scored more than him you’re crazy.
he’s tied with lampard and van persie for the league lead in assists with 10. that’s more than gerrard, ashley young, fabregas, etc etc…the next closest guy on our team is giggs with 8.
his actim rating is the highest on our team 4th highest in the league…yea it’s heavily biased towards forwards…there’s a full explanation of what exactly it is on the prems website…it might be some bullshit stat but nonetheless “What kind of stats are produced?
Actim Stats are a collection of team, player and match statistics. They are derived from all the actions that take place during a match, including goals, shots on target, corners, assists, clean sheets, fouls, off-sides, passes, tackles, blocks and clearances. The raw data can be used to generate a wide range of tables and statistics such as player profiles, team and player head to heads and form guides.”
not bad for a dude a year into the squad which he didnt even get an offseason training camp with. he’s the pivot for everything we do out there…he’s the key to us confusing the crap out of defenses this year…they all swarm around him and play the ball off of him and play some real quality stuff. he’ll only get better and we’ll only get better with him in the squad every week.
Posted from
United States -
since we’re on the subject of stats, i would love to see a stat that would be like: team goal margin per 90 minutes when player X is playing minus team goal margin per 90 minutes when player X is not playing. i think that would be a pretty simple but decisive statistic as to who is valuable on a team no matter what the position.
when berba has played for us in the premier league we have averaged a goal margin of +1.395 per 90. when he hasn’t played, we have averaged +0.719 per 90. so berba adds an extra 0.676 goals for every 90 minutes he plays. to put it into perspective, if we fielded a full XI with the same impact that berbatov has, we would be averaging 7.4 more goals PER GAME.
sure there a lot of variables that go into it such as ronaldo was injured at the beginning of the season while berba wasn’t on our squad and things like that but numbers like that cannot be denied.
Posted from
Poland -
to compare to tevez, when tevez plays our margin is +1.077 per 90 and when he doesn’t play it is +1.340 per 90. so we carlos costs us about 0.263 goals per game. if all of our 11 players had the same impact as him we would lose 2.893 goals per game.
this proves 2 things: berba has DEFINITELY played much better for us this year and has been more valuable per minute played and i have WAY too much time on my hands (mixed with OCD).
Posted from
Poland -
note: the above figures only took the premier league matches into account
Posted from
Poland -
Not to take anything against Berba, but i think this whole comparison is unfair.
What is the difference in Offense power between Last season Man Utd (Tevez-Ronaldo-Rooney), and this year offense Dynamics with (Berba-Ronaldo-Rooney).
We cant compare the output of a player who play game in game out to a player with Tevez contract situation and who only play when Sir Alex feel “Oh god i have no choice!” The output increase when the player reach his peak form. Tevez has never been there.
Evan Esar said once: “Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.”
Posted from
Germany -
Good to have you back Taylor, do you feel somewhat like Hargreaves now? Okay that was lame.Whatever.
Good job done here by you and Wayne though,cheers.
As always, Arsenal match preview please. I for one am not pleased with the wipeout vs Chelsea they had. Spite /proving a point etc may be a tricky game, what with the cheeky Russian elf playing and all.
Posted from
United States -
Forgot to say, Berbatov should just be given more time to gel with the team, they will come good. People are so impatient nowadays.
That would also apply to Nani, but who knows what he did to anger Lord Ferg so….
Posted from
United States -
miele: what he did to anger lord ferg? how bout played like pure crap.
Posted from
United States -
Man, Tevez has just made himself about a hundred times more valuable in the CL final now: If he believes he’s going to be sold, he’s going to be on it chasing that CL like a madman. He may well be playing himself into a start against Barca; but then again, I can second guess who SAF’ll play.
Posted from
Canada -
I didn’t get a chance to read all the posts, but it should be mentioned that Carlos’ recent good form has come when he was on the pitch with Berba.
He doesn’t score that goal against City without Berba’s Absolutely deft first touch.
To each his own, but I want both. They are special is completely different ways. It’s like trying to compare Beckham and Ronaldo. They played the same position and were both great, but in very different ways.
Taylor – Welcome back hope you are doing well.
Posted from
United States -
That is to say, I CAN’T second guess SAF, not that I “can”.
Posted from
United States -
Matt,
Agreed but only in certain matches, an even then, perhaps it’s to do with lack of playing time?. In some of the handful appearances Nani’s had he’d also been one of our best suppliers of crosses/ cornerkicks / speed and movement with the ball.Ilyich, ITA with everything. So your guess is he will play?
Posted from
Australia -
Colin, ITA, good post. See also: Berba’s run and excellent pass to Rooney (the missed header). Deceptively good, that Dimitar.
Posted from
Australia -
Forza Manioooo
Posted from
United States -
miele: I’m thinking SAF’ll play Park ahead of Tevez to bolster the midfield (I doubt Scholes or Giggs will start), and then play Ronaldo and Rooney on the right and left to attack the weaker Barca flanks and put Berbatov in the middle. But, he could just play Tevez instead of Berbatov and play Ronaldo up front. The first is stronger on paper, but with the way Tevez is playing…
Posted from
United States -
i remember reading that SAF guaranteed that park would start the final
Posted from
United States
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