Fit to Start

By Chris,
August 17 2008

Wayne Rooney is set to be fit for Sunday's Premier League opener against the Barcodes. The England frontman picked up a virus on United's pre-season tour of Africa and was unavailable for last weekend’s Community Shield clash with Portsmouth. However, he’s back in training and should be well enough to partner Carlos Tevez in attack as the Red Devils prepare for the visit of Kevin Keegan’s men.

Rooney's availability will provide a massive boost for Sir Alex Ferguson - particularly after United's failure to turn ninety minutes of dominance into goals at Wembley.

The Red Devils, however, will be without the suspended Nani with Cristiano Ronaldo and Ji-Sung Park long-term absentees through injuries as the Reds kick-off their defence of an 11^th Premier League crown.

Owen Hargreaves looks set to miss out as he suffers a recurrence of a tendinitis problem. Meanwhile, Anderson is with Brazil at the Olympic Games. That means Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick should start in central midfield

The main question mark over team selection is over the right-back spot with Gary Neville and Wes Brown both in contention. United's club captain looked rusty against Pompey and may have to settle for a spot on the new, enlarged 7-man substitutes bench.

Newcastle too have plenty of players missing. Their attacking options are depleted with Michael Owen and Mark Viduka both out - with Shola Ameobi on the verge of leaving the club. Joey Barton, fresh from prison, will not play whilst Andy Carroll is injured.

United demolished the Barcodes home and away last season before Keegan led a mini-revival at St.James' Park at the back end of the campaign. A closer game can be expected this time around and the Reds must be warned against complacency as they look to hit the ground running.

United v. Barcodes - here we go!

Discussion started by manutdweb.com , 17/08/2008 00:16

manutdweb.com
17/08/2008 00:16

United v. Barcodes - here we go!

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emptyred
17/08/2008 19:48

Well a disappointing start all told. Plenty of possession again, but no real penetration. We equalised when Newcastle were down to 10 men, with Taylor off the pitch injured. What was worrying was the lack of striking options today. I thought Rooney was poor, although this can be partial blamed on the viral infection he picked up on a pointless pre-season fixture in Nigeria. Campbell was unlucky not to score, but other than that i do not think we created a great deal.
One question was O'Shea brought on to replace Carrick, Posseborn should have come on a lot earlier. Well we are behind our title rivals already early days and all that, but Pompey away and i don't think we have beaten Pompey under Harry at Fratton park. We have got a very tough September which includes games against Chelsea and Liverpool away. We need a massive improvement on today's performance if we are to be in contention, plus a little cash needs to be spent in order to improve our striking options.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:18:19:20:40 by emptyred.

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The Mad Hatter
18/08/2008 09:44

Having the likes of Tevez, Anderson, Ronaldo & Nani out then losing Carrick obviously disrupted our fluency but still disappointed with the changes we made when Carrick came off.

We have 7 man benches now, why are we still throwing on O'Shea in a situation like that? Fergie said we had no width or penetration, why did he perservere with Fletcher out wide for so long then? Especially with someone like Brown behind him, there was little threat from that flank.

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emptyred
18/08/2008 19:21

Fletcher is far more effective driving forward from the middle.

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Icon
19/08/2008 08:35

"why are we still throwing on O'Shea in a situation like that?"

First thing I asked myself when Posseborn came on half way through the second half.
Of course losing Carrick didn't help the situation we were in and Fletcher made up for his AWFUL (Senderos-esq) marking for Martins goal but I feel that the opener of the season underlined our lack of attacking options.

Fratton park could prove intresting. It's definatly a difficult challenge but Pompey won't feel great after the thrashing they recieved at the hands of Chelsea and they hardly looked sharp whatsoever.

We need to get three points at Fratton. Fact.

J
x

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