Unwitting Valentine

Mainly stuff on the FA Cup game against Derby today, I'll start with this from Rory Smith in The Telegraph, which poses as a match preview but turns out to be an act of wish-fulfilment. He trots out "facts" ("you can prove anything with facts") to prove that "United have been blunted", and then there's this remarkable sentence:

The downturn [in goals] could suggest an end to two years in which Ferguson's team cut a swathe through all before them.

We're clear at the top of the league with a game in hand and yet apparently we're meant to believe that the end is nigh? To quote some stats of my own, cribbed from The Guardian article I mentioned yesterday (and which it turns out I forgot to link too, so here's the link again to make up...), there's the way the fixtures worked this season:

United's fixture list this season is odd in that their first nine away games were against the nine other sides who had finished in the top 10 last season. It would be only natural if that programme led to a focus on defence that has carried over into what should, logically, be the easier part of the season.

Scoring a lot of goals away from home against good teams is not so easy, I'm sure our scoring will improve in the second half of our season. The other point being that our lack of goals is not down to a lack of attacking effort. Lack of finishing, maybe; we've spurned many good chances in a few games. A point emphasised by the stat that "while 15% of their shots brought goals last season, only 12% have this." Another proof of our attacking intent is this, "they have had more touches in their opponents' half over the last 13 games (5,626) than any other side". So Rory Smith, I have proven with my "facts", is wrong to say "United have been blunted", and is simply expressing his unconscious desire when he imagines "an end to two years in which Ferguson's team cut a swathe through all before them".
The Guardian has some comments from Darren Fletcher, talking of how our dreadful performance at Pride Park in The Carling Cup will prepare us for the FA Cup tie:

"Maybe, in some respects, what happened is a good thing because we'll know what to expect now," Darren Fletcher, the midfielder, said yesterday. "We've played against them a couple of times and it won't be a shock to us this time. I'm sure it's going to be a similar type of game. They're going to come at us at 100 miles per hour and it will be a good atmosphere but I'm sure we will be ready for them this time."

And Mike Phelan saying that Rooney won't be hurried back:

"We would never jeopardise anything," said Mike Phelan, Ferguson's assistant. "We have numerous players in the squad that we can use and Inter Milan is always in your mind."

The Independent say that he's not definitely ruled out Rooney playing though:

"We are still assessing Wayne," said United assistant-boss Mike Phelan.

"He has done a little bit of work but we are not going to rush that situation because we have important games. We will ease him back in as quickly as we can."

Elsewhere, The Sun has some comments from Danny Welbeck:

“It’s unbelievable training with players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and especially Ryan.

“I used to love Giggsy so much — and still do. Just seeing him in training you can learn so much from him.

“He’s always there to give advice, too, which is great. I could say he’s my idol.

“I could even say that training is harder than a game sometimes.

“But to be learning from them is great, there is no better place to be.

“I think Manchester United is the best club to be at"

Also in The Sun, some words from Johnny Evans in an article on his new contract offer:

United will offer him a deal worth £40,000 a week for the next five years.

Evans, 21, who is 18 months into his current five-year deal, said: “I am a big United fan and have been all my life.

“My dad hasn’t missed a home game for five years. He wouldn’t even miss a United match to watch me play at Sunderland.

Des Kelly, in The Mail, has high praise for Ryan Giggs:

gather all the ingredients needed to create the perfect professional player - speed, skill, flair, application, one-club loyalty, teamwork, modesty, dedication, concentration and desire - and Giggs would be the end product. The man ticks every single box. There is no characteristic that this outstanding footballer truly lacks.

While Gary Lineker's column, in The Times, is about Sir Alex Ferguson, but doesn't really say anything, he seems too afraid to upset anyone to actually say anything of interest. I've never read his column before but if it's always this anodyne I'm not sure I will again. Anyway, here's the choice quote, on how he almost joined us:

It is a sign of how times have changed that, coming back from Barcelona, I wanted to go to Tottenham Hotspur rather than Manchester United. We spoke briefly to United when the Spurs deal appeared to be unravelling, but White Hart Lane was always my first choice. Kids out there will think that sounds very odd.

They need to know that United were not always this great empire, hoovering up trophies. This was 1989 and Sir Alex Ferguson's regime was still gathering momentum.