Simply Awesome! (Manchester United F.C.)

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Product:	Manchester United F.C.
Date:	07/04/01 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Too Many

Disadvantages: None

Well, what can I say about Manchester United? Huh, that’s a funny question! As everyone knows, Man United are the best football team in the premiership and they are definitely one of the best football teams in the world. They have got so many great footballers in their squad and so even if some of them are injured for matches, there are always replacements. They have also got one of the best managers in the world, if not the best, in Alex Ferguson.

As I have already said, Man United have got some of the best players playing for them, in the premiership. These players include the like of Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs, Barthez, Stam, Cole, Yorke, Sheringham, Gary Neville………..Ok, I could go on, but these are probably he main players.

Since the premier league started in 1992/1993 season, Man United have been the most dominating team in English football. Out of the 8 years that the premiership has been going, Man United have won the title 6 times. The other 2 titles went to Blackburn and Arsenal. This is an amazing record and in my opinion, Man United will continue to win the premiership a lot, especially with Alex Ferguson in charge.

Below is a list of this seasons’ Man United squad and whether I think they are a hit or miss for the team.

Fabien Barthez – Barthez is United’s first choice goalkeeper and I will admit to the fact that he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He has got amazing ability when it comes to shot stopping and he can also run with the ball, which isn’t bad for a goalkeeper. In my opinion, he has been a great buy for United and is the perfect replacement for Scheimical.
Garry Neville – Gary Neville is the older brother of the Neville’s and I would have to say that he is probably the better footballer as well. He has been a first team regular in both the United and England squad for a few years now and I reckon he will continue to do this, a
s he is still quite young.
Jaap Stam – Jaap Stam is definitely one of the best defenders in the premiership at the moment and some people would consider him to be one of the best in the world. He is a great tackler and his heading ability is quality too.
Ronny Johnsen – Injured for most of the season
Dennis Irwin – Old, but still a good defender.
David Beckham – One of the best players in the world.
Paul Scholes – One of the best players in Europe.
Roy Keane – Another quality midfielder.
Ryan Giggs – Once again, another quality midfielder.
Andy Cole – England striker who can score goals.
Teddy Sheringham – Might be 35, but still United’s leading scorer this season.
Dwight Yorke – Another striker who can score goals.
Wes Brown – Young English defender who is very talented.
Luke Chadwick – Young England midfielder who is still improving.
Phil Neville – Younger brother of the Neville’s, but still a decent defender.
Mikael Silvestre – Quality left back.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – Quality striker, but he has never been given a proper run in Manchester United’s first team.
Raimond Van Der Gouw – Old and not getting any younger.

THIS SEASON

So far this season, Man United are top of the premier and they are top of their group, in the second phase of the Champions League! In the premiership, they have played 31 games, having won 21 of them, drawing 7 and losing the other 3. This season in the premiership has also seen Man United lose at home for the first time in more than 2 years, in the premiership. This happened recently in their game against Liverpool, in which Liverpool won 1-0. The goal was scored by Danny Murphy in the first half. Man United are presently 5 points clear at the top of the table. Arsenal are in second place on 35 points, while Man United are on 40 points. Man Unite
d have also scored the most goals so far this season, which isn’t a surprise seeing as they seem to always end up as the seasons top scorers, every year anyway. So far this season, United have scored 44 goals and conceded 14. This puts them on a goal difference of 30, which is about 15 more than any other team in the premiership. Their leading goal scorer this season is surprisingly Teddy Sheringham. The reason why I used the word ‘surprisingly’ is because last season, Teddy Sheringham was United’s 4th choice striker and he only scored 6 goals during the whole season. But this season has seen Sheringham play most of United’s games, and has seen him score around 20 goals. That has put him as the overall leading scorer in the premiership. His form has been so good that he has restricted Dwight Yorke to coming off the bench, whenever he plays. (He has been playing in the first team recently though, due to the injury of Andrew Cole)

Other players but that have been having a good season for Man United so far, include Paul Scholes and David Beckham, who have both being scoring goals from their midfield positions; Ryan Giggs, who has being inspiration on the left side of midfield and Fabien Barthez, who seems to be the right man for the goalkeeping position at Man United. He was signed this year in the summer and in my opinion, he will be United’s first choice keeper for quite a few years to come.

In the Champions League, United are in the quarterfinals, but they lost their first leg against Bayern Munich, 1-0. In the first phase, United came second overall after a few disappointing results. It looked as though it was going to be easy for United as they won their opening game 5-1 against Anderlecht, who ended up the eventual winners of the group. But the players just couldn’t seem to get their act together as United drew a games, where they should have won, and lost games where they should have at least drawn. In
the second phase of the champions league, United top their group having won their opening 2 games. The other teams in their group are Panathinaikos, Sturm Graz and Valencia. United’s opening game was against Panathinaikos, which they won 3-1. Sheringham and Scholes, who got 2, scored goals. Their second game was against Sturm Graz, which they 2-0. Giggs and Scholes scored the goals. Valencia finished top of the group and United finished second and so both team went through to the quarterfinals. United’s opponents in the quarterfinals are Bayern Munich.

Another good thing about this year for United is the fact that they are going to be in the F.A Cup. Last year, this wasn’t the case as they went to Brazil and played in the FIFA Club World Championships. This didn’t go to well for United as they drew their opening game with Rayos Del Necaxa 1-1; lost their second game against Vasco Da Gama 3-1; but they won their final game against South Melbourne 2-0. So, in total, United scored 4 goals, but they also conceded 4 goals. United’s 4 goals were scored by Nicky Butt, Dwight Yorke and the other 2 were scored by Quinton Fortune.

Although I do not support Manchester United, I have seen them play a few times. The best game that I saw them play in was when they went to White Hart Lane to play Tottenham. This was a great day for me, as well as many other Tottenham supporters as Spurs won the game 4-1. Even though United got stuffed, they still went on to win the premiership.

LAST SEASON

Well, how can you follow the unbeatable? How could Manchester United avoid demoralising anti-climax in the wake of the barely credible treble triumph of 1998/99? In fact, the Red Devils made a good fist of their Millennium campaign. Ok, they did let the European Cup slip away, but this didn’t happen until Man United became the only club to reach the quarterfinals in each of the last 4 seasons.

But, to many of the Ma
n United fans, the domestic League crown represented the principle prize and that was retained with a flourish. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men served up some of the most sumptuous football of modern times, in the process setting premiership records for most points and wins in a 38-game season. They also scored more goals than any top flight title winners for nearly 40 years, as well as finishing 18 points ahead of their nearest rivals. Man United finished the season on 91 points, compared to second place Arsenal who finished on 73 points. They also scored an amazing 97 goals. Arsenal were the closest team to United as they score 73, which put them 24 goals behind United. Manchester United also won 28 games, drew 7, and lost the 3. The 28 wins was a record and was 6 more than their closest rivals. Once again, it was Arsenal.

The success of Man United could have been due to many reasons. Some said that it was due to the quality of the midfield. But for all the formidable quality of such world-class performers as David Beckham, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, it is actually none of them who held the outright key to the phenomenal continued success of Manchester United. The 4 midfielders that I have just mentioned are in fact, still the main 4 midfielders for United, at this present time. In my opinion, these players are definitely the best midfielders in the premiership, as a team, by a long way.

On that unforgettable day in May, when the whole of Old Trafford was partying after the presentation of the Premiership trophy, Alex Ferguson was given his new name of Sir Alex Ferguson. This was a great day for the Man United manager and he will always remember it. In my opinion, Alex Ferguson deserved this name as he has been a great manager of Man United and he has brought so much success to the club. He even helped them to become the first ever club to be worth more than £1 billion, which was simply astonishing. The only problem is the fact that as
long as Ferguson is in charge of United, other premiership clubs will just have to try and do their best to stop United from dominating football every season.

THE STADIUM

Man United's stadium one of the largest in Britain. The capacity of Old Trafford is about 65,000, which is a huge amount compared to most of the capacitys of stadiums of other premiership clubs. Most of them are around 30,000, although quite a few have a lot more than that and some of the clubs have less than that. Old Trafford is one of the reasons why Man United are richer than other clubs because they always have near full attendances and so they bring in a lot of money from ticket sales. Old Trafford is not only a large stadium for supporters to watch football games, but it also contains many shops and food stalls for people to buy things and food while watching the game or before/after the game. Old Trafford is a great place to go to and I would recommend it to anyone.

Remember, I am not even a United supporter. I hope you find this opinion very useful!

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