Since our Asia tour is over it seems a good time to sum up a few things that we've seen so far this pre-season.
Owen is hogging the headlines at the moment (and given the amount that has been written about him since his signing, it was obvious that he would do, whatever he'd done on tour), but I think the star of the show for me has been Berbatov. Here's a video showing (most of) the goals from our last game:
Just look at the skills of Berba. I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that this is pre-season and the opposition, especially in the last game, haven't been up to much, but still, too see Berba playing such great balls (and scoring as well) certainly bodes well for the new season. I guess there is still a question mark for many over Berbatov, and it'll only be when the new season kicks off proper and we see whether he can continue playing like this against proper opposition in proper competition, but his form was for me the main feature of the Asia tour. There seems to be a proper authority to our forward play when Berba is on the pitch, there's always options and when the ball's at his feet he never looks like losing it. A word should also be said about Rooney, who missed out in the 8-2 thrashing but who nevertheless has looked bright and full of running in his (what can almost be considered new) role as centre forward.
Onto Owen. He's scored 4 goals in 4 games, not a lot more could be asked of him. His second against Greentown showed great control and finish. I certainly had my doubts over the signing, but it would be churlish to continue in them. I guess there'll be doubts over his ability to go the season without injury, which won't go away anytime soon, every time he goes down there'll be people wondering whether he'll get up, and the same caveat applies to Owen as to Berbatov - will he still be able to cut it against better opposition. The next few friendlies may give us a clue to that.
The other question is on how we're coping without Ronaldo (Tevez isn't a great loss as far as I'm concerned). And I think the answer to that is - not too bad. Of course you can't replace Ronaldo, but we've still played some great attacking football in the 4 games we've had, Rooney's able to take up his preferred position, which has to be a plus and Valencia hasn't even joined up yet, so we're yet to see what he'll bring to the team. Add to that the fact that Nani has looked good at times (again the proper opposition thing...), so hopefully he'll come on this season, and Tosic has looked full of potential, perhaps he still needs more work on delivering balls into the box, but he's not afraid to take on defenders and has linked up well with Evra at times.
All in all there's a lot more positives to come out of pre-season than negatives. Neville having to go home through injury is worrying, but countering that Rio hasn't looked like being troubled by last season's injuries and Wes Brown has come back looking fit and confident. Giggs scores a hat-trick to signal his intent for one more season like the last, and Scholes who worried me a little with his performance in the first tour game has looked better with each passing game and shows that there's still a bit of life left in him for the new season.
The next round of friendlies may well give us a more realistic view of everything, and we go into them looking good.
Owen is hogging the headlines at the moment (and given the amount that has been written about him since his signing, it was obvious that he would do, whatever he'd done on tour), but I think the star of the show for me has been Berbatov. Here's a video showing (most of) the goals from our last game:
Just look at the skills of Berba. I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that this is pre-season and the opposition, especially in the last game, haven't been up to much, but still, too see Berba playing such great balls (and scoring as well) certainly bodes well for the new season. I guess there is still a question mark for many over Berbatov, and it'll only be when the new season kicks off proper and we see whether he can continue playing like this against proper opposition in proper competition, but his form was for me the main feature of the Asia tour. There seems to be a proper authority to our forward play when Berba is on the pitch, there's always options and when the ball's at his feet he never looks like losing it. A word should also be said about Rooney, who missed out in the 8-2 thrashing but who nevertheless has looked bright and full of running in his (what can almost be considered new) role as centre forward.
Onto Owen. He's scored 4 goals in 4 games, not a lot more could be asked of him. His second against Greentown showed great control and finish. I certainly had my doubts over the signing, but it would be churlish to continue in them. I guess there'll be doubts over his ability to go the season without injury, which won't go away anytime soon, every time he goes down there'll be people wondering whether he'll get up, and the same caveat applies to Owen as to Berbatov - will he still be able to cut it against better opposition. The next few friendlies may give us a clue to that.
The other question is on how we're coping without Ronaldo (Tevez isn't a great loss as far as I'm concerned). And I think the answer to that is - not too bad. Of course you can't replace Ronaldo, but we've still played some great attacking football in the 4 games we've had, Rooney's able to take up his preferred position, which has to be a plus and Valencia hasn't even joined up yet, so we're yet to see what he'll bring to the team. Add to that the fact that Nani has looked good at times (again the proper opposition thing...), so hopefully he'll come on this season, and Tosic has looked full of potential, perhaps he still needs more work on delivering balls into the box, but he's not afraid to take on defenders and has linked up well with Evra at times.
All in all there's a lot more positives to come out of pre-season than negatives. Neville having to go home through injury is worrying, but countering that Rio hasn't looked like being troubled by last season's injuries and Wes Brown has come back looking fit and confident. Giggs scores a hat-trick to signal his intent for one more season like the last, and Scholes who worried me a little with his performance in the first tour game has looked better with each passing game and shows that there's still a bit of life left in him for the new season.
The next round of friendlies may well give us a more realistic view of everything, and we go into them looking good.
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