Come On Fulham! – Games 18/19 February

[Joe King]

The performance from Fulham is one that away teams should have against us. Unfortunately due to many circumstances, thats never the case and teams can get a point.

[zimbo]

2152: That could not have been more comfortable for Manchester United. A fine performance from them, but Fulham just did not turn up. Mark Schwarzer is laughing with Edwin van der Sar as he comes off, Roy Hodgson is sharing a joke with Sir Alex Ferguson. If I were a Fulham fan, I wouldn't be all that impressed.

Teams are just not showing up to give them a game these days. Molby said they were beaten when they got on the coach. It's not surprising they win the league when teams go there and just try to keep the score down. They might as well cancel these games. Fulham were a joke tonight and should be ashamed of themselves. How you come off the field smiling having lost 3-0. Have they no pride? At least Hull went for it and nearly got a point. Hope Fulham go down.

It's a ****ing joke. On numerous occasions certain teams, usually down at the bottom, have actually ****ing rested players for their trip to OT. Written it off, saved their best players for the relegation six pointer the following week. And if they don't do that, most sides are certainly beaten before they kick off. No belief, no ambition, no heart, no **** all. Maybe United have earned that over the years but **** me it's irritating.

Rubbish ex-United midget Paul Parker said a similar thing in yesterday's Guardian, in the first of what is likely to soon become a torrent of "Is this United team the greatest thing ever seen on this or any other planet, like ever?" pieces.

There's a difference between how teams approach games against United now compared with how they did. These days most teams they play aren't really going for the win, so they rest some of their own players and the focus is just on not getting beaten. United are not being tested in the same way. It's not as competitive, and opponents don't have the same application.

In the early 90s, however, teams used to come up and really challenge the back four. Peter Schmeichel would need to make two or three great saves per match. You'd go to places such as Wimbledon or Crystal Palace and they really wanted to beat you. We had Norwich and Aston Villa challenging us for the league as well as the bigger clubs, and we'd be really worried if we were going up against these sort of opponents if our key players – Paul Ince or Eric Cantona or Ryan Giggs – were out.

There was a hunger in our opponents that there just isn't now. They would come to Old Trafford and play 4-4-2 and give you different challenges, whereas games are very similar nowadays.Take tonight's match against Fulham: everyone knows what type of game to expect – Fulham can't score goals and can't win away, and they will just want a 0–0 draw.

I started to develop muscle injuries for the first time in my career when I moved to United because teams had you on your heels, and I saw that when I was at Queens Park Rangers. Once, when we beat them 3–2, Trevor Francis, the manager at the time, bought us all champagne. That's how much it meant.

The same goes for how opposing fans regard games against them. Now they're going to watch Rooney and boo Ronaldo; then they went expecting and demanding their teams beat United.

United aren't coming up against opposition as strong and fit as they did and there's a much greater difference in the resources available to teams. Sure, there may have been technical improvements in the way the team goes forward but we have lost the art of defending. Defenders are scared of getting close to attackers, scared of getting booked. Full-backs don't get close on their wingers and properly try to prevent them getting close to them, thinking that you can just stick a leg out in the hope of blocking the ball.

The '93 team had the pressure that came from having gone 26 years without a league title, though I think this idea that Alex Ferguson was going to be sacked in 1990 is a bit of a myth. People at the top of the club were well aware of the damage that could have been done had they got rid of him. People get carried away. You cannot relate the 93-94 Double-winning team to the '99 one that won the treble, and you can't relate that to now. The fact is the early '90s team won three titles and two Doubles in four years. And given how few teams had done that beforehand, it shows how hard it used to be. And we were expected to win with style too – you'd get a rollicking if you didn't.

While this side could go on and win a quadruple, it's too easy and doesn't take into account how the game has changed to say that they are the best ever.

[PTP]

it's no suprise really is it - teams are beaten by united before they even get there. I heard hodgson say on the radio yesterday, something like "well we haven't won away from home and united are brilliant at the moment, so yo never no we might score, it's highly unlikely but miracles do happen "

i just thought, well thats the end of the that

teams come to anfield thinking, hmm, if we keep it tight we can get a fighting draw and frustrate liverpool, but they go the mancs not even trying to do that. Esp at this stage of the seaosn where middle table teams just go into pilot mode and float through to the end of the season happy to avoid the relegation fight - best chance we have of united slipping up is prob a shock result with someone in relegation areas fighting for their lives and nickin a draw.

[Gerrard]

it's no suprise really is it - teams are beaten by united before they even get there. I heard hodgson say on the radio yesterday, something like "well we haven't won away from home and united are brilliant at the moment, so yo never no we might score, it's highly unlikely but miracles do happen "

i just thought, well thats the end of the that

teams come to anfield thinking, hmm, if we keep it tight we can get a fighting draw and frustrate liverpool, but they go the mancs not even trying to do that. Esp at this stage of the seaosn where middle table teams just go into pilot mode and float through to the end of the season happy to avoid the relegation fight - best chance we have of united slipping up is prob a shock result with someone in relegation areas fighting for their lives and nickin a draw.

come on blackburn & big sam, you mong-headed fat ****

[dom9]

Beating them at OT will obviously help too. The gap could be 2 points after that if neither team drops points in the meantime. Then, it'll go quite close to the wire.

[Kenneth]

[/B]

come on blackburn & big sam, you mong-headed fat ****

It's gone, accept it and move one

[Shaggy]

Move one what?

[magicalbarnes]

Beating them at OT will obviously help too. The gap could be 2 points after that if neither team drops points in the meantime. Then, it'll go quite close to the wire.

Its over im afraid. We will be 8 points behind by the time we kick off against ManC.

[Neil Young]

OK, so Man United are more likely to win it but it's not an insurmountable hurdle. Where there's life, etc.

[MrsB]

Tonight's games:

FC Copenhagen v Man City 1905 GMT
Shakhtar Donetsk v Tottenham 1845 GMT

Am I interested?

[Neil Young]

Tonight's games:

FC Copenhagen v Man City 1905 GMT
Shakhtar Donetsk v Tottenham 1845 GMT

Am I interested?

Half interested perhaps.

[MrsB]

I'd like to mention that I went to the cinema last night and missed the complete first half of the Villa game.

[meffin]

i got money on them both finishing a draw

[Craig_H]

Its over im afraid. We will be 8 points behind by the time we kick off against ManC.

And we could be going to OT just 2 points behind, with the opportunity to go top.

We just have to win our games and see what happens. The mancs will drop the points, it's just about whether we can win virtually all of our games.

[Leyton388]

****ing cant believe we have gone from 8 points clear to 5 behind! Gutted!