Man Utd V Reading

[Gavmundo]

Manchester United's quest for honours on three fronts continues on Saturday, with a home clash with Reading in the fifth round of the FA Cup.


The Premiership and UEFA Champions League are sure to be bigger priorities for The Red Devils, but Sir Alex Ferguson will be all too aware that a trip to the new Wembley will be on offer for the finalists.

The draw for the competition has been kind to United so far, as they have been pulled out first in each round, and they are again on home soil on Saturday.

Ferguson is likely to use the visit of Reading as an opportunity to shuffle his pack.

Tomasz Kuszczak will continue to deputise for broken nose victim Edwin van der Sar in goal.

Reading striker Kevin Doyle faces a late fitness test on the hamstring injury which has sidelined him for a month.

Royals chief Steve Coppell has made no secret of his intention to play fringe players in the cup and that policy is likely to continue on Saturday, with keeper Adam Federici set to deputise for Marcus Hahnemann.

The Reading manager will not be able to call on new signings Michael Duberry and Greg Halford who are both cup-tied.

Doubt this will be an easy game. Reading will be well up for it and are playing well at the moment. We'll still win of course but don't think it will be an easy victory. The FA cup brings out good performances in the smaller teams.

[judicatormd]

i'm eagerly awaiting this game. it will be potentially park vs seol

[Gavmundo]

What a useless performance! The game was quite good overall but Utd missed soooooooooo many chances we should have won that 8-1 at least! Ronaldo, Park, Saha missed some very easy chances. We know Park isn't the best of shots but was surprised at Ronaldo. He and Park played well but their finishing was terrible. I don't know what is wrong with Saha but he was useless. Complete waste of Oxygen at the moment!

Reading never looked like they would score from open play but if you are only leading by one goal you're always open to an equaliser from a set peice and that's what happened. Utd are starting to play like this more and more. Those missed chances are starting to cause problems. No we have another needless fixture and it won't be an easy game. I can see the strongest side playing though!

[benfica64]

What a useless performance! The game was quite good overall but Utd missed soooooooooo many chances we should have won that 8-1 at least! Ronaldo, Park, Saha missed some very easy chances. We know Park isn't the best of shots but was surprised at Ronaldo. He and Park played well but their finishing was terrible. I don't know what is wrong with Saha but he was useless. Complete waste of Oxygen at the moment!

Reading never looked like they would score from open play but if you are only leading by one goal you're always open to an equaliser from a set peice and that's what happened. Utd are starting to play like this more and more. Those missed chances are starting to cause problems. No we have another needless fixture and it won't be an easy game. I can see the strongest side playing though!

I watched the game and agree with your outlook on it. Park and Ronaldo did play well enough but like you said couldnt finish. On one play Ronaldo seemed to have slipped yet still manged to get the shot off. Saha played crapola he did nothing out there, and what stunk was on one play when he had a 3 on 1 going in with 2 players almost completely open to his left and he decides to shoot it him self from a fair off distance??? Bad playing all around from him in that game.

[Gavmundo]

Saha played crapola he did nothing out there, and what stunk was on one play when he had a 3 on 1 going in with 2 players almost completely open to his left and he decides to shoot it him self from a fair off distance??? Bad playing all around from him in that game.

Yes agreed. I was raging with him most of the game. You can't blame strikers for wanting to get the glory and if it HAD gone in he'd be a hero but the fact was he wasn't in the best position to score and other players were and the opportunity was wasted. He hasn't scored for a while and at the moment he doesn't look like scoring. I'd prefer Larsson to start ahead of Saha and Larsson will be going home in a few weeks so we may as well use him while we can!

[benfica64]

The Big Game today Gav hope you catch it.

[benfica64]

The Big Game today Gav hope you catch it.

[Gavmundo]

Yea am looking forward to it! Lille taught us a lesson last time. This time it will be different. From Ferghie's point of view a draw would be acceptable and then a win at Old Trafford. I think we'll win tonight.

[judicatormd]

I watched the game and agree with your outlook on it. Park and Ronaldo did play well enough but like you said couldnt finish. On one play Ronaldo seemed to have slipped yet still manged to get the shot off. Saha played crapola he did nothing out there, and what stunk was on one play when he had a 3 on 1 going in with 2 players almost completely open to his left and he decides to shoot it him self from a fair off distance??? Bad playing all around from him in that game.
i agree he should have passed... that was a selfish move that didn't pay off.

[wxavier007]

Ronaldo score a superb goal in the 88th minute to help MU win 2-1. I thought it was a draw before that!!!

[Gavmundo]

Yea the Goal from Ronaldo againt Fulham was excellent and loved his celebration lol. We were lucky to win overall.

anyway let's get back to the Reading game. Both sides are likely to play weakened sides. Not much new there as this was the same for the first game. Reading didn't play their Premiership side in that but a weakened side that had done well in the cup. Likewise Fergie's side wasn't the first team but he rarely fields first teams in cup games.

[Gavmundo]

WHAT A MATCH!!! I'm FURIOUS!!! I was happy enough that Reading gave us a 3 goal advantage within six minutes but the way Utd played after that was abysmal. I have never seen a Utd side self destruct like that! It was unbelievable. There were only two first teamers - Saha and Ferdinand but that was no excuse. These backup players should be good enough for a weakened Reading team. Heinze is a full Argentinian international, Wes Brown has played for England and is a great defender only being kept out of the side by Vidic, Park has had some great performances this season and is an International so is Fletcher and O'Shea and Richardson has also been in the England Team. Well besides Saha, Solksjaer, Heinze, Ferdinand and Van der Sar the rest of the team were absolutely pathetic! I lost count of the amount of balls given away, we couldn't tackle we couldn't pass or cross! Fletcher, Richardson and Park were the worst players on the pitch and I'd be surprised if they weren't all put on the transfer list after that performance. I'm still fuming and I thought Fergie was going to blow a blood vessel he was going ballistic and so was I!!

Team Ratings:

Van der Sar 7
Heinze 6
Ferdinand 6
Silvestre 2
Brown 2
Richardson 1
O'Shea 2
Fletcher 1
Park 1
Saha 7
Solkjaer 7

I've never rated anyone less than 5!!!!!

[Andygers]

I thought after going 3 goals up in 6 minuets Man U would have made it even better but I was proved wrong. Good effort by Reading though.

[judicatormd]

ok man u are being too harsh. the game was a 5-6/10 effort for man u in second half. reading really came out and were hungry in second half. saha was a monster today but i think u are being too harsh

[Gavmundo]

I don't. I honestly have never seen a Utd team play so badly (and I've been watching them since the 70's). Reading were good enough but they were also good at Old Trafford but we were still all over them for most of the match. In this game certain players were guilty of giving the ball away 90% of the time. I know Fergie will have ripped into them after the game because that simply wasn't good enough. It wasn't a case that Reading were so good we couldn't contain them but we were committing suicide by giving the ball away all the time, the central midfield was camped out just outside our own penalty area and how you are supposed to get the ball to your forwards from that position I don't know. Our defence was all over the place too.

This wasn't the first team playing but most of these players were backup for the first team and if they expect to get into the full team playing like that they are very wrong. I'd personally put a few of them in the reserves for a few games to teach them a lesson.

I've seen individual players have an off game for Utd before but not 75% of the team. They were an embarrassment! We couldn't have had any complaints if Reading had won that game and losing a three goal advantage (and it nearly went to 3-3 in the dying seconds) for a team like Utd is pathetic.

[Ballsmith]

If Reading's last shot hadn't smashed the crossbar and actually gone in.....I do think they would've beaten us in Extra Time.

I thought we were terrible last night. Don't remember us stringing more than three passes together.

Winning the ball and then gifting it back immediately.

We need two GOOD Midfielders this summer.
We have NEVER replaced Keano, or Robbo for that matter!!!!!

As soon as Djembe and Kleberson turned out to be turds-in-boots we should have replaced them!

Yeah, we bought Carrick....he can pass the ball 40 yards but not 3.

We need some hardcore nutcase to frighten the crap out of these pretenders.

[Gavmundo]

Well to be fair we did replace Robbo with Keano he was as good although never called Captain Marvel :lol:

As you'll have seen from my post I'm in complete agreement with you but at the same time that wasn't our first team. Carrick is far better than O'Shea and/or Fletcher. I do rate Fletcher but he wasn't my favourite player on the pitch yesterday :lol:

We could do with one more midfielder such as Hargreaves. I think the problem was last night that there were so many players that hadn't played together in a long time that when we started to struggle the whole team was effected. There was no confidence at all in the play and once we were pegged back by Reading the players started to panic. I couldn't believe how we couldn't even make simple 3 yard passes without losing the ball it was criminal.

The first team won't ever play like that though and I hope Fergie doesn't consider playing that the team that played last night against Boro! That would be disaster!

[manfan1523]

fletcher was by far the worst player on the pitch. its embarrasing to have him on the team. he gives it away more than anyone else on the team. andd that is dificult when richardson is playing on that team.

[Gavmundo]

Well I'd say O'Shea gives it away more but on the night Fletch was probably the worst. He's better than that though. I mean my criticism wasn't against individual players but the whole team. I did point some idividuals out but it was the team performance that was the problem. Some were worse than others but one or two players can't create mayhem like that it was the majority of the team that didn't compete well.

[love_inter]

guys here is the first goal 4 manchester

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=569857