mg91

It's a shame all that history and reputation is getting pissed on by that fucking disgrace of a human being and the manager that allows it to happen. Credit to you for standing up to some of the morons on here who have said some disgraceful things about Evra. Manchester United 2-1 Liverpool. He who laughs last, laughs longest. Have it!

Players like Shroj allow guys like Fred, Thompson, Marrone and Behich to bomb forward. He covers everything. Not particularly good at anything, but like Cadete says, he just does a job for the team, a job which allows Heart's best to give us more offensively.

A foul is a foul. It doesn't say in the rule books that it has to be a bad foul to be a penalty, it just has to be a foul. Welbeck did not dive. The contact was there, and he stumbled. Ivanovic made no contact with the ball. That by very definition is a foul, and you can lament it for it's softness but it doesn't change the fact for one second that Ivanovic made a tackle, touched the player and didn't touch the ball. You didn't complain last year when Zhirkov won a similair penalty after the slightest contact from Smalling did you? http://dai.ly/eo2QuK Then, like on these two occassions, a tackle was made, the attacker was caught, and the ball was not touched. That's a foul, inside the box. Whether Cahill was in or outside the box was borderline, but you are absolutely joking yourself if you think he touched the ball. http://www.footytube.com/video/chelsea-manchester-united-feb05-104054?ref=tchan_ov_vidgrid Your assertion that Luiz was "covering" is absolute nonsense. He stops chasing as soon as Welbeck is beyond him. Free kick/penalty, whatever. It was a foul and Welbeck was beyond Luiz when he was brought down where he would have been one-on-one with Cech.

Exactly. I'm not saying either was stone wall, but to pretend that there was absolutely no case for either is daft.

The first one was soft. Evra looked for it, but at the end of the day, Sturridge made a tackle and didn't win the ball. That's a foul by anyone's definition, and the same applies to Ivanovic. No one complained last season when United were on the end of a similair decision in which Ivanovic went down under the slightest contact from Smalling. Similairly, no one wants to talk about the fact that Cahill should have been sent off and United awarded at the very least a free kick on the edge of the area in the opening exchanges. Here's an interesting site you might like to have a read of: http://www.debatabledecisions.com/

Shroj at least serves a purpose, even if it is an archaic one. David Williams is being exposed for his lack of technique in a team that demands it in the final third. His Heart career to date has been riddled with poor crosses, poor passes and poor touches that have resulted in turnovers all over the pitch. In the dying stages last week, his attempt to switch the play evaded everyone in Red and White and found the touchline, killing what was our final chance on goal. I don't want to be overtly negative, but his technical deficiencies are going to make life very hard for him at the Heart, particularly when he can't seem to use the gifts he does have, which are mostly in the athletic category, to their full potential. Fingers crossed he'll find his feet.

I know, yeah? Cahill should have been sent off for that last man tackle that took out Welbeck. God forbid he gives a penalty for a tackle that makes no connection with the ball but does with the player. The nerve of that bald bastard!

Happy to chip in and help on this.

Always remembered. Rest In Peace, Busby's Finest.

O'Neil is a great manager. I'm a big fan of his, I'll never understand how he was out of a job for so long. Did he not want to come back into football for a while after Villa? Was good to see Frazier Campbell get on the scoresheet as well. Talented player whose injury woes continue to undo him.

Hammerhead, what do you think of Allardyce gambling on Ravel Morrison? I can tell you right now the kid is outrageously talented, but he's a very loose cannon. From a very rough part of Manchester, his agent's a money hungry cunt and he's got a shocking crew around him. If you can get him right he'll be an absolute star though.

Well I'll just leave this link here for those who are serious fans: http://www.ozmufc.com/ My own initiative for United fans living in Australia.

I have made one, but it's a bit old: I'd make more but it's hard to get pics that are big enough to make a good job of it.

I'll give you credit where it's due scouse, you have trolled the living fuck out of this thread!

In all seriousness, there must be another United fan on these forums....

26 goals conceded in 19 games suggests otherwise. We needed a defender, badly. Hammill and Good are solid players and will be good, but right now they're too young to man the defence.

Bryan Robson? Just kidding of course. But seriously, rumour has it Mourinho's quitting Madrid at the end of the season. Coincidence? I think not.

Hahaha, now I feel like a twat!

Not sure where I said, "everything is going to be alright because we play 'attractive football'", but I digress. I said that the style in which we play is part of what made this club attractive to me. Winning is an obvious ambition for the club, and it's one I want the club to fulfill, but winning football and good football aren't mutually exclusive, and I'm sure I don't have to point to the any number of teams that have proved that over the last 12 months. If anything, we need to get better at playing attractive football. I would say that if any of those three pillars I discussed earlier were to be sacraficed it would be curbing the emphasis on youth. This is a team that needs experience and a bit of strength. To be fair, the balance is just about right when we have a full complement of players, it's when we lose the experienced ones that we crumble. All the teams that have achieved success have done so with a spine of experience. Hammill, Good et al are error prone because they are very inexperienced. My major qualm with JVS' recruitment is that he came into this season with one recognized experienced central defender in Simon Colosimo, who is so injury prone he never plays anyway. That's not a result of trying to play attractive football though, it's a result of a lack of foresight in that department. The loss of Madaschi has been massive, and perhaps we should have looked to cut lose a Taseski or Ibrahim in favour of that experience. I see your point, I just think you chose to attack the wrong pillar so to speak.

What happened to Meadow Park? They beat our seniors 3-2 in the 3rd round last year, but I think we smashed them in the second half. Essendon's a different club to what it was back in it's VPL days. No room for politics, they just want results haha.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/news-display/Matts-Musings--Time-To-Show-Heart/44906 Something of a preview ahead of the game.

Wow.

Who do you play for mate? Might have played you last year. I'm in my third year of senior football with Essendon Royals. Smashed my cheekbone in the first year which kept me out for most of the season, and I've never really recovered my fitness since. Missed most of pre-season last year as I was travelling, but played the season out in the reserves, but feeling much better heading into this season. Not sure if I'm good enough for seniors (we've got a young team but a few of them are quite talented), but as long as I'm getting 90 I'm not that fussed. Played my junior football for 2 years a Keilor Park (U10s, U11s), 2 years at Brimbank (U12s, U13s) 1 at Royals (U14s) before heading back to Brimbank for my final year (U15s), picking up three flags. Stopped for school after that but took up cross country and was still playing for school on the weekends.

I think that it is important that we respect the ideal of attractive football, community engagement and youth development. These three pillars are a large part of why Melbourne Heart were such an attractive side to me, personally when they entered the competition. JVS has given us a very solid foundation. The improvement between last season and this season has been obvious, and it has been significant for such a short period of time. It would be silly to throw that away in hope of instant success. Chances are, if we did that, we wouldn't achieve much straight away anyway. This is a good opportunity for the club to push on though. It is naive to expect that the Heart will find someone who will dedicate themselves to carring on the good work of JVS. It doesn't work like that. Every coach, whether it be Milicic, another local or a foreigner, will want to stamp his own style on the team. They will want to make Melbourne Heart theirs. It's about a balance. Any manager that comes in would be foolish to completely disregard what has been established, but I would never expect them to just try and emulate JVS. The results suggest that whilst JVS has done a good job of getting us off the ground, there is still room for improvement. The next coach will have to be one who can identify the strengths of JVS' approach and set up, but also be able to find the weaknesses that will allow us to continue to improve in the future. Candidates? That's never going to be easy. Much like transfers, it is hard to look at the global market and make predictions, because Melbourne Heart as a project, and as a result of it's limited resources, remains attractive to only a small niche of staff and players from outside of Australia.

Never mind them! I talk about United enough on Twitter, so I won't post about them here haha. Steph, I'll message you my email.