Michael Carrick Archives - Page 2 of 5

The Kind of Lads ‘n’ Lasses – Manchester 3rd November 2014

On Friday, Louis van Gaal said that whatever happens, United must not go down to ten men. Chris Smalling scuppered that plan when he got sent off in the 39th minute after two bookings which matched the stupidity of Branislav Ivanovic at Old Traffford last week. Against a mediocre side, you can cope with a man down but against a side as good as City, it’s going to take a miracle to stop them from scoring. From the resulting free kick of Smalling’s red card, Marouane Fellaini blocked his fellow Belgian, Vincent Kompany, from heading into an unguarded net on de Gea’s far post.

A £57.00 view of the match. Photo courtesy of Lee Thomas

Referee Michael Oliver had a stinker of a game. I have no argument with the bookings Continue reading The Kind of Lads ‘n’ Lasses – Manchester 3rd November 2014

The Ball Control Of An Elephant – Manchester, 4th May 2014

At Anfield on Friday night, United beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Under 21 play off semi final. A pretty scrappy game was settled with a goal from Andreas Pereira on 44 minutes, a goal that I missed as I’d stole a march to the bar for a half time pint. I knew it was a great goal though as I was suddenly inundated with text messages by smug twats watching the game on MUTV all saying a variant of “What A Goal!”.

United reserves at Anfield on Friday night, photo taken from the Anfield Road end, looking out to the Kop

There was about 300 reds in the Anfield Road End. I would say most of them were gobby teenagers whom were probably out of Manchester Continue reading The Ball Control Of An Elephant – Manchester, 4th May 2014

Getting Fleeced In Greece – Manchester 25th of February 2014

This was so bad as to be comical in the Karaiskakis Stadium tonight in Piraeus. Throughout the team is a recurring theme of a bad dream. There’s no heart, no fight, no desire and no apparent idea. Excellent has-beens like Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra are beginning to become ruthlessly exposed to being on the wrong side of the proverbial hill. Never-will-be’s like Tom Cleverley, Ashley Young and Chris Smalling are being shown up even worse, through not having the quality around them that they have had in the last couple of years. This is through to the obvious decline brought on by Old Father Time of the aforementioned trio.

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View for United fans in Karaiskakis Stadium tonight (photo courtesy of Lee Thomas)

Continue reading Getting Fleeced In Greece – Manchester 25th of February 2014

With A Clenched Fist Of Celebration – Manchester 12th February 2014

It’s funny how quickly things can change and the mood around a result can shift. In this fixture eleven seasons ago, a 2-2 draw had Sir Alex Ferguson skipping to the United fans at the Clock End of Highbury with a clenched fist of celebration. A draw away at Arsenal can rarely be classed as a bad result. Whilst there was nothing wrong with tonight’s result, it was the turgid performance put in from United which has angered most United fans of my acquaintance.

The Arsenal stadium, just after the second half had kicked off

Continue reading With A Clenched Fist Of Celebration – Manchester 12th February 2014

As Bad As It Gets – Manchester 10th February 2014

The worst thing about the result yesterday is that nobody was really surprised. The front cover of the latest United We Stand fanzine labeled United as the unpredictables. I’m struggling to think of a more accurate cover which that fanzine has had in its near 25 year existence. United had so many crosses during the game as to be comparable as to the amount at Golgotha Calvary. While the deeply religious David Moyes won’t be crucified on any of those crosses just yet by most match-going reds, it’s only a matter of time before the mood changes dramatically, especially after this result. At full time, Moyes understandably had the exasperated demeanour of a man who couldn’t figure out just what had gone wrong. Moyes said on Match of the day that “today was probably as bad as it gets”. I hope for his sake that he’s right as I’ve seen things a lot worse at Old Trafford, albeit many years ago. My memory tells me however, that things could be a lot worse Continue reading As Bad As It Gets – Manchester 10th February 2014