'Sup Footie Nuts, today Septizzle, gives us his dribble on the down fizzle my nizzle YO!
Okay, we move on. So he tells us about Manchester United's chances of a 20th League crown...
Write for your team Manchester United
From the offset, let me state, that I am a Manchester United
fan. I’ll try and write this article as unbiased as possible, and also try and
separate my HOPES for where I want them to end, as opposed to where I THINK
they will end.
What an amazing end to the 2011/2012 Barclays English
Premier League? It was heartache for most Manchester United fans, and the right
to gloat and brag about winning for all the (newly acquired) Manchester City
fans. It practically went down to the last kick of the season! It was an
incredible end that re-wrote the history books and will be spoken about for
years to come.
Moving forward in the new 2012/2013 Barclays EPL season, let
us take a look at what the Manchester United squad looks like at 08/06/2012, to
give you some insight as to how they will line up. The Manchester United squad
remains almost identical to last season with the addition of a few new players
in Shinji Kagawa, who was brought in for a fee of £13.200.000 from current
Bundesliga champions, Borrusia Dortmund, and Nick Powell, who was purchased for
£6.600.000 from Crewe Alexander, who compete in League One in England. A couple
of players leaving and going on Loan, in Ji Sung Park, Fabio, Paul Pogba, Ben
Amos, Richie de Laet, Tomasz Kuzczak and Michael Owen who will also most likely
be leaving before the end of the transfer window.
United have the upper hand leading into the first ten games
of the season with Manchester City being under pressure most of the season,
being the defending champions. It is with the advantage that Manchester United
will be tackling their league campaign. I’m sure most of the players that
played an integral part of the previous campaign, especially the youth that
have been incorporated into the squad, will also want to prove themselves to the
gaffer, as well as the fans. It is with all these factors that United stand
with a huge advantage.
Quoting a few players about the forthcoming season:
Nemanje Vidic: “The young players can learn from last year,
so I’m confident we’ll be better this year. We were punished and we can’t allow
that to happen again. We had a few injuries last season too. I hope everyone
can stay fit this season.”
Wayne Rooney: “I’m happy with how I’m doing. I’ve been
training for almost two weeks and I’ve been working hard. Everything’s going
well so far. I feel good. Everybody needs games to get up to match fitness, not
just me. I’m training well, though, and I’m looking forward to the next few
games. Hopefully, by the start of the season, I’ll be ready to play.”
Michael Keane: "They've all got great experience and
they're great players to play with. I grew up watching all of them and to play
in the same team as them is great. I really enjoyed it."
As you can see the players are feeling good about the build
up to the season and are amped to tackle the new season ahead. Manchester
United has only made one new major signing in Shinji Kagawa. All the players
welcome the addition of Shinji Kagawa, who will add speed to the attack, yet
another positive aspect to take forward into the new season.
Manchester United, have three things going for them going
into the new season. The first thing being the hunger of the players and youth
coming through and wanting to prove their status as the number one club in
England. Secondly, a fresh start, with the bulk of the players that had injury prone
seasons, coming back. Lastly, they have
a manager and coaching staff that know how to setup a league to win trophies,
as they’ve displayed year in and year out. With the management bringing in so
few signings, they must be adamant and confident that they can challenge for
the 2012/13 Barclays English Premier League.
Ultimately, the staff, management and players must have the
know-how to run a successful league campaign.
Manchester United have quality players in every position,
starting at the back, in the poles, David De Gea, who took a while and looked
shaky in the start of the previous season, has all the know how it takes to be
a talisman in between the posts for the reds. His ability as a shot stopper and
being able to pull out spectacular agile saves is a valuable asset to the team.
I would however like to see De Gea improve on the accuracy of his distribution,
which Edwin Van Der Sar had down to a tee and also command his 6 yard box with
more authority in the next campaign. The boy has safe hands, and his uncanny
similarity to the little monkey boy from the movie “Jumanji” will surely scare
some of the other attacking players from the opposing teams, which is always a
plus. Jolean Lescott would be proud!
Across the back 4, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand and Rafael, form a
solid (predicted) back four. With the addition of Vidic coming back being out
for most of the season with an injury.
The captains ability to produce quality performances week and in week
out was sorely missed last season, even though the players that were chosen to
fill in, did very well. Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra provide the experience
and level heads that Rafael sometimes doesn’t have. I would like to see Evra
push forward and produce quality performances as he did in the 2010/2011 EPL
season. Ferdinand has all the experience and calmness that you need from a
centre back, he is valuable, but he will also need to cut down on the unforced
mistakes that he makes at times.
Moving to the midfield, being Nani, Valencia/Young, Scholes,
Carrick, Anderson and Kagawa. With Kagawa in the team, as stated earlier, this
will bring a different dimension in attack, which is another posistive going
forward into the new season. Carrick needs to come to the party and produce
more killer forward passes, even though, by passing backwards, he does help us
to keep possession of the ball. Scholes runs the midfield in most games, week
in and week out, its a pity his age and fitness is going to be a problem. I’d
like to see at least 15-20 strong 60-70 minute performances from him as the
centre midfielders will obviously be alternated as the season goes on.
Anderson, needs to produce a run of good games and also try and score more
goals from midfiled, if not, I’m personally writing him off! Valencia’s pace,
power, consistency and simplicity is a quality that other players in the team
need to adopt. He has a high work rate which is excellent and he just needs to
keep doing what he’s doing, which is taking the ball to the line and getting
that cross in, if you’re a youngster and want to know how to play as a winger
correctly, watch Antonio Valencia. Nani needs to make better decisions more of
the time. Young (who people claim looks just like me) is a player that does the
right thing most of the time, very good and I have no doubt, he will continue
to play well for the reds.
Now, the forwards, Welbeck, Rooney, Chicharito, Macheda,
Berbatov just need to put the ball in the net! Welbeck has potential to do
great things, we know what Wayne Rooney is capable of and he is an inspiration
to the rest of the team with his hunger to keep making the fans, his team and
the manager proud. Javier Hernandez and Macheda need to do well coming off the
bench and Berbatov? I think he’ll be having a bit more time to plant an extra
row of tomatoes in his vegetable garden at home.
All in all, the squad looks pretty good and if anybody knows
how to get the best out of players, it would be Sir Alex Ferguson.
My prediction (as unbiased as I can be) is that Manchester
United, will acquire their 20th league title.
Follow me on twitter - @Septizzle
FootieCall's response:
.........
I kid! Good piece. I agree with you, top of the league this year. With the real Manchester team in blue a far second.
FootieCall's prediction:
League Position: 1st
Controversy: Giggs, Kagawa's girlfriend.
