Right Back - Cafu
Centre Back - Carlos Puyol
Centre Back - John Terry
Left Back - Paolo Maldini
Right Midfield - Luis Garcia
Centre Midfield - Stevie G
Attacking Midfielder - Ronaldinho
Left Midfield - Pavel Nedved
Forwards
Andriy Shevchenko
Samuel Eto'o
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
Lampard's good..but he isnt that good..he is lucky he has Makelele to do his dirty work behind so he can do his thing.
Makelele..unsung hero for Chelski no doubts.
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
Lampard's good..but he isnt that good..he is lucky he has Makelele to do his dirty work behind so he can do his thing.
Makelele..unsung hero for Chelski no doubts.
Which is why the Pommy lineup should include either King or Carrick to sit behind a trio of Joe Cole, Lampard and Stevie G. Cole with the trickery, G with the surging runs, and Lampard to do what he does better than anyone else- pop up from out of nowhere.
Which is why the Pommy lineup should include either King or Carrick to sit behind a trio of Joe Cole, Lampard and Stevie G. Cole with the trickery, G with the surging runs, and Lampard to do what he does better than anyone else- pop up from out of nowhere.
Becks can sit his arse on the bench.
ah well i dont mind the England squad having Beckham cos i cant wait for England to make a fool of themselves in the World Cup
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
Manchester United stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy reportedly had to be separated by team-mates in training on Monday.
It was mixed fortunes for the United duo at the weekend with Ronaldo seeing red against Man City while van Nistelrooy got his name on the scoresheet with a fine finish.
Following the weekend defeat to their Eastlands rivals, tempers flared in Carrington ahead of Burton Albion's visit on Wednesday in the FA Cup.
Van Nistelrooy was believed to be unhappy at Ronaldo's dismissal for his challenge on Andy Cole that resulted in the tricky winger being dismissed.
The pair reportedly hurled abuse and nearly came to blows before being pulled apart by colleagues.
Sir Alex Ferguson has already spoken with the duo, although it remains to be seen what impact the scuffle has on the Red Devils' squad.
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
Manchester United stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy reportedly had to be separated by team-mates in training on Monday.
It was mixed fortunes for the United duo at the weekend with Ronaldo seeing red against Man City while van Nistelrooy got his name on the scoresheet with a fine finish.
Following the weekend defeat to their Eastlands rivals, tempers flared in Carrington ahead of Burton Albion's visit on Wednesday in the FA Cup.
Van Nistelrooy was believed to be unhappy at Ronaldo's dismissal for his challenge on Andy Cole that resulted in the tricky winger being dismissed.
The pair reportedly hurled abuse and nearly came to blows before being pulled apart by colleagues.
Sir Alex Ferguson has already spoken with the duo, although it remains to be seen what impact the scuffle has on the Red Devils' squad.
oh no that´s not funny @all ..that´s sh...hope they both stay cool but that all doesn´t sound well oh no...
oh no that´s not funny @all ..that´s sh...hope they both stay cool but that all doesn´t sound well oh no...
they were probably fighting over a guy..oh how complicating are gay relationships
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
they were probably fighting over a guy..oh how complicating are gay relationships
haha off course not and by the way sun=rubbish ...and well it can happen a clash between man only i hope the moral of the team doesn´t die ...
and that if it´s true not so serious ...
haha off course not and by the way sun=rubbish ...and well it can happen a clash between man only i hope the moral of the team doesn´t die ...
and that if it´s true not so serious ...
yeh the Sun is absolute rubbish...i got this from SkySports..its legit.
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
• Sven still in love
• Mac feels the strain
• Austin will be a hair-o
• FA Cup 3rd round extra
RELATED WEBSITES
• Paddy Power's free £10 bet
Rooney will see red
By MARK IRWIN
WAYNE ROONEY has been warned he faces World Cup humiliation unless he controls his temper.
Former top referee Jeff Winter fears England's fiery Manchester United ace is out of control.
He said: “He will not last 90 minutes at the World Cup because the referees will be under instruction to clamp down on dissent for the image of the game.”
Rooney, 20, collected his EIGHTH yellow card of the season for abusing ref Steve Bennett during Saturday’s stormy Manchester derby defeat.
Winter said: “Like everyone in this country I’m desperate to see England win the World Cup and Wayne Rooney is a young man who can do it for us.
“But he’s already been sent off in the Champions League this season and had to be taken off in a World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland.
“Yet he most certainly has not learned his lesson and I’m fearful his chances of World Cup glory will go up in smoke.”
Winter was appalled Rooney mouthed off at Bennett AFTER being booked for dissent on Saturday.
He said: “At half-time he ran 50 yards to gesticulate at the ref. He’s already taken a yellow card but that’s still not enough for him. If that was a foreign ref in the World Cup that would have been a red card.”
Alex Ferguson had a half-time bust-up with Bennett and Winter added: “If a manager can’t show discipline, what chance does he have of controlling his players?”
*
Winter is astonished United have appealed against Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card for a wild lunge at City’s Andy Cole.
He said: “I’d love to hear how they try to justify that one. The player lost control.”
Sir Alex: Shocks Are Good For Cup
Sir Alex Ferguson claims the efforts of Conference sides in this year's FA Cup has revitalised the competition.
United fell foul of a shock in their goalless third-round draw with Burton Albion, while Nuneaton Borough and Tamworth belied their divisional status to hold Middlesbrough and Stoke City respectively.
Sir Alex told his pre-game press conference: "If we're subject to criticism then I'm sorry, the FA Cup can do that to you. It's a sudden death tournament in which there are no laws.
"It's a marvellous tournament, it really is. But I think the FA Cup has been pretty stagnant over the last few years, there's never been anything like this year for years.
"The FA Cup has been pretty stagnant over the last few years. There's not been anything like this year for years."
Sir Alex Ferguson
"If you look at the prelude to football programmes on Sky or the BBC, they show you things like Hereford vs Newcastle, Sutton vs Coventry and Wrexham vs Arsenal - and that's the last shock. There's no recent shocks at all.
"It's a remarkable feat that three teams in the Conference within 15 miles of one another have managed to get results like they did. It's great for the FA Cup. It's needed it to be honest with you."
Burton were worthy of their draw at the Pirelli Stadium, and Sir Alex revealed that he had prepared his players for a tough encounter beforehand.
"We knew all about Burton," he said. "They're a good football team and very athletic too for a Conference side.
"I think we played the right team in the first game and it won't be far away from that team again."
Sir Alex Ferguson
"We watched them five times before we played them and I told our players that it wouldn't be an easy game, that they had a bit of quality, and they proved us right. They deserved a draw, no question."
The Scot revealed that he will be naming a similar line-up to that which was held by Nigel Clough's side in the original encounter.
"I think we played the right team in the first game and it won't be far away from that team again," he said.
For all the talk of the romance of the FA Cup, however, Sir Alex is focused entirely on booking a fourth round berth against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"It's straightforward," he said. "Beyond the fairytale thing, it's about us winning the match. It doesn't matter who we play, we've got to win. And we'll be going out to win on Wednesday."
watched some clips of Theo Walcott..wow..i understand why he's so in demand..can't believe he is 16!
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
maybe an Arsenal signing I've seen him and wow like you say ONLY 16yr old!
for now ARSE-anal's bids have been rejected...hope he comes to us lol
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
watched some clips of Theo Walcott..wow..i understand why he's so in demand..can't believe he is 16!
Papers say the kid ran 100m in 11.50 a coupla years ago. Obviously he can't do that with a ball at his feet, but all the same...
If Arse do end up getting him, and Moyes gets the sack, the Arse could do a lot worse than consulting Moyes on what he did with Rooney. The kid sounds like he's got his head screwed on right. He's learned from SWP and said no to Jose, and knows he won't learn more about being a forward than to train with Henry and Bergkamp, even though he's a Kopite.
The quicker the transfer is, the better. I'd hate to see the 1st division hackers hamper his development.
yeh Theo's family are all Liverpool fans..hope that helps lol..
i seen him play...very similar to Thierry Henry.
if he's smart..he will join Liverpool..not being biased but we are the club who really need a striker to be a long term partner for Crouch.
other big clubs would just buy him to warm the bench.
LIVERPOOL FC -18 time League Champions-15 time Charity Shield Holders-7 time League Cup Winners-7 time FA Cup Winners-5 time European Champions-4 time UEFA Cup Winners-3 time European Super Cup Winners-1 time World Super Cup Winners
yeh Theo's family are all Liverpool fans..hope that helps lol..
i seen him play...very similar to Thierry Henry.
if he's smart..he will join Liverpool..not being biased but we are the club who really need a striker to be a long term partner for Crouch.
other big clubs would just buy him to warm the bench.
everyone has been talking about him over here for a couple of months now and ive seen a few clips of him in action,jesus!! the boy is one of the most natural talents ive seen since "god" graced the kop-end.........
When I was born, the doctor came out to the waiting room and said to my father, I'm very sorry. We did everything we could. But he pulled through......
After watching United's first attempt to see off Burton Albion in the FA Cup third round from home, Ryan Giggs is hoping home advantage and a grass rather than sand surface will mean United progress unscathed to the next round.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and his old mate Paul Ince await United in the fourth round, even more of an incentive for the Welshman against Nigel Clough's tricky non-league outfit...
Where did you watch the match against Burton Albion?
At home. I enjoyed it. I was rooting for the lads, but the conditions levelled things out a lot. We couldn’t seem to get the ball down and play our usual passing game. That’s not to take anything away from Burton. They played well, and not only for the first half, as you might expect, but for the full 90 minutes.
And what about the sandy pitch?
We’re just not used to that kind of thing. We’ve got fantastic training facilities and play most of our games on superb Premiership pitches, so I guess it handicapped us more than it did them. You have to be able to adapt, though.
Were you surprised by the quality of the Albion players?
Not at all. There are plenty of players who come close to making it at the bigger clubs who are now playing for teams in the lower leagues, so they can turn it on for the big occasions. Tamworth and Nuneaton Borough both did it in third-round games.
Does the draw with Burton feel like déjà vu from last season?
Yes. When we went down to Exeter for last year’s replay, we put out a stronger team than we did for the first game, but the conditions were against us there, too, so we did well to get the victory. If we prepare right and do that, we’ll win it. If we take them for granted, they could make life difficult for us.
What do you remember of Nigel Clough as a player, and how do you rate him as a manager?
I played quite a bit against Nigel. He was an intelligent player. He didn’t have much pace, so he relied on his footballing brain. He was at his best when he had good players around him. He scored two goals against us in that United-Liverpool game at Anfield [4 January 1994, United were 3-0 up within 25 minutes, including a goal from Giggs, but Clough orchestrated a comeback to 3-3]. I haven’t seen much of Burton, but they clearly like to play the game the right way. From what I’ve seen, he’s done a great job so far. The result against us proves that.
"It's a great competition. We've got to the final for the past two years. This year, we're hoping to get to the final again and go one better."
Ryan Giggs
Is he something of a bogeyman for United?
He was that night in 1994! Those two goals against us kept the game alive. If we’d gone in 3-0 up, it would probably have all been over. Now we have to make sure that he doesn’t hold us to a draw for a third time!
Clough described the result as a miracle, and many people have said your goal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final was miraculous. Why does the FA Cup seem to produce so many magical moments?
People say the gap between the big and small clubs is widening, but the FA Cup gives non-league and lower-league sides something to dream about and aspire to. There's all the excitement of the third-round draw – the hope that you’ll be up against a team from the Premiership. It’s the unpredictability that’s so exciting. Just about anything can happen in a knock-out competition. There are always shocks and goals against the odds.
How important would winning the FA Cup for the 12th time be to United this season?
Our history in the FA Cup has been very good. It’s a great competition. We’ve got to the final for the past two years running, so we want to carry on that form. In those two finals, we’ve experienced all the highs and the lows that the Cup has to offer. It’s that break from the Premiership – the excitement of sudden-death football – that you look forward to as a player in the second half of the season.
Are United even more determined to win the Cup again this year after dominating Arsenal in the 2004/5 final, and yet losing?
No, that was last season. That has gone now. We played well, we deserved to win, but we didn’t. This year, we’re hoping to get to the final again and go one better than we did last year.
Will Sir Alex select a more senior side for the Burton replay, or give younger players a second chance?
It’s totally up to the manager. This time, it should be a different story, anyway. We’ll be playing on a better pitch and we’ll have home advantage. Players coming to Old Trafford can either raise their game and really enjoy it, or they can look around them and find themselves playing the occasion more than the game.
If United win, a fourth-round tie against Wolves at Molineux awaits. Would you enjoy facing your old United mate, Paul Ince?
I’ll be ringing him on the day of the game! It would be good for me to play against Incey. We’re good friends, and we still keep in touch. If United get through to the fourth round, there may be a little side bet between me and Paul on who scores more goals!
In part two of United Review's interview, on 22 January, find out how Ryan really feels about the United-Liverpool rivalry.
oh nooooooooooooo:(:(
this is really f....and unfair:
Ronaldo faces three-match ban
17/1/06 2:24 PM
Ronaldo Appeal Rejected
Cristiano Ronaldo will serve a three-match ban after an appeal against his red card at Manchester City was rejected by a Football Association panel on Tuesday.
The Portuguese winger was dismissed by referee Steve Bennett for a high lunge on former Reds striker Andy Cole during the 3-1 defeat, but the club appealed against the decision on the grounds that no contact was made between the two players.
The ban means Ronaldo will miss United's matches against Burton Albion, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers.
Ronaldo On His Way Out
Cristiano Ronaldo could be on his way out of Manchester United this summer in a £20million deal. Juventus and Valencia have already made contact with Ronaldo's advisers about a potential move, believing that the youngster's unique style and flair is more suited to the leagues of Italy and Spain. Ronaldo has endured a miserable time on and off the pitch this season and his United team-mates have grown frustrated with his self-indulgence on the ball during matches.
David McDonnell, Daily Mirror
Comments
Manager - Jose Mourinho
Goalkeeper - Petr Cech
Right Back - Cafu
Centre Back - Carlos Puyol
Centre Back - John Terry
Left Back - Paolo Maldini
Right Midfield - Luis Garcia
Centre Midfield - Stevie G
Attacking Midfielder - Ronaldinho
Left Midfield - Pavel Nedved
Forwards
Andriy Shevchenko
Samuel Eto'o
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
Makelele..unsung hero for Chelski no doubts.
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
Becks can sit his arse on the bench.
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
Manchester United stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy reportedly had to be separated by team-mates in training on Monday.
It was mixed fortunes for the United duo at the weekend with Ronaldo seeing red against Man City while van Nistelrooy got his name on the scoresheet with a fine finish.
Following the weekend defeat to their Eastlands rivals, tempers flared in Carrington ahead of Burton Albion's visit on Wednesday in the FA Cup.
Van Nistelrooy was believed to be unhappy at Ronaldo's dismissal for his challenge on Andy Cole that resulted in the tricky winger being dismissed.
The pair reportedly hurled abuse and nearly came to blows before being pulled apart by colleagues.
Sir Alex Ferguson has already spoken with the duo, although it remains to be seen what impact the scuffle has on the Red Devils' squad.
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
they won´t make a fool of themselfs:D no way
oh no that´s not funny @all ..that´s sh...hope they both stay cool but that all doesn´t sound well oh no...
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
haha off course not
and that if it´s true not so serious ...
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
but some british told me that the sun started this -outch
maybe they should do both yoga ....and leave their anger on the pitch ....specially on sunday
MOUTH ... Rooney
MOUTH ... Rooney
MORE TOP FOOTIE NEWS
• Sven still in love
• Mac feels the strain
• Austin will be a hair-o
• FA Cup 3rd round extra
RELATED WEBSITES
• Paddy Power's free £10 bet
Rooney will see red
By MARK IRWIN
WAYNE ROONEY has been warned he faces World Cup humiliation unless he controls his temper.
Former top referee Jeff Winter fears England's fiery Manchester United ace is out of control.
He said: “He will not last 90 minutes at the World Cup because the referees will be under instruction to clamp down on dissent for the image of the game.”
Rooney, 20, collected his EIGHTH yellow card of the season for abusing ref Steve Bennett during Saturday’s stormy Manchester derby defeat.
Winter said: “Like everyone in this country I’m desperate to see England win the World Cup and Wayne Rooney is a young man who can do it for us.
“But he’s already been sent off in the Champions League this season and had to be taken off in a World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland.
“Yet he most certainly has not learned his lesson and I’m fearful his chances of World Cup glory will go up in smoke.”
Winter was appalled Rooney mouthed off at Bennett AFTER being booked for dissent on Saturday.
He said: “At half-time he ran 50 yards to gesticulate at the ref. He’s already taken a yellow card but that’s still not enough for him. If that was a foreign ref in the World Cup that would have been a red card.”
Alex Ferguson had a half-time bust-up with Bennett and Winter added: “If a manager can’t show discipline, what chance does he have of controlling his players?”
*
Winter is astonished United have appealed against Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card for a wild lunge at City’s Andy Cole.
He said: “I’d love to hear how they try to justify that one. The player lost control.”
17/1/06 9:52 AM
Sir Alex: Shocks Are Good For Cup
Sir Alex Ferguson claims the efforts of Conference sides in this year's FA Cup has revitalised the competition.
United fell foul of a shock in their goalless third-round draw with Burton Albion, while Nuneaton Borough and Tamworth belied their divisional status to hold Middlesbrough and Stoke City respectively.
Sir Alex told his pre-game press conference: "If we're subject to criticism then I'm sorry, the FA Cup can do that to you. It's a sudden death tournament in which there are no laws.
"It's a marvellous tournament, it really is. But I think the FA Cup has been pretty stagnant over the last few years, there's never been anything like this year for years.
"The FA Cup has been pretty stagnant over the last few years. There's not been anything like this year for years."
Sir Alex Ferguson
"If you look at the prelude to football programmes on Sky or the BBC, they show you things like Hereford vs Newcastle, Sutton vs Coventry and Wrexham vs Arsenal - and that's the last shock. There's no recent shocks at all.
"It's a remarkable feat that three teams in the Conference within 15 miles of one another have managed to get results like they did. It's great for the FA Cup. It's needed it to be honest with you."
Burton were worthy of their draw at the Pirelli Stadium, and Sir Alex revealed that he had prepared his players for a tough encounter beforehand.
"We knew all about Burton," he said. "They're a good football team and very athletic too for a Conference side.
"I think we played the right team in the first game and it won't be far away from that team again."
Sir Alex Ferguson
"We watched them five times before we played them and I told our players that it wouldn't be an easy game, that they had a bit of quality, and they proved us right. They deserved a draw, no question."
The Scot revealed that he will be naming a similar line-up to that which was held by Nigel Clough's side in the original encounter.
"I think we played the right team in the first game and it won't be far away from that team again," he said.
For all the talk of the romance of the FA Cup, however, Sir Alex is focused entirely on booking a fourth round berth against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"It's straightforward," he said. "Beyond the fairytale thing, it's about us winning the match. It doesn't matter who we play, we've got to win. And we'll be going out to win on Wednesday."
Report by Steve Bartram.
haha we didn´t ! and we´ll win on wendsday:p
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
maybe an Arsenal signing
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
If Arse do end up getting him, and Moyes gets the sack, the Arse could do a lot worse than consulting Moyes on what he did with Rooney. The kid sounds like he's got his head screwed on right. He's learned from SWP and said no to Jose, and knows he won't learn more about being a forward than to train with Henry and Bergkamp, even though he's a Kopite.
The quicker the transfer is, the better. I'd hate to see the 1st division hackers hamper his development.
i seen him play...very similar to Thierry Henry.
if he's smart..he will join Liverpool..not being biased but we are the club who really need a striker to be a long term partner for Crouch.
other big clubs would just buy him to warm the bench.
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
everyone has been talking about him over here for a couple of months now and ive seen a few clips of him in action,jesus!! the boy is one of the most natural talents ive seen since "god" graced the kop-end.........
maybe he joins us:p
by the way we win tonight!!!:D
After watching United's first attempt to see off Burton Albion in the FA Cup third round from home, Ryan Giggs is hoping home advantage and a grass rather than sand surface will mean United progress unscathed to the next round.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and his old mate Paul Ince await United in the fourth round, even more of an incentive for the Welshman against Nigel Clough's tricky non-league outfit...
Where did you watch the match against Burton Albion?
At home. I enjoyed it. I was rooting for the lads, but the conditions levelled things out a lot. We couldn’t seem to get the ball down and play our usual passing game. That’s not to take anything away from Burton. They played well, and not only for the first half, as you might expect, but for the full 90 minutes.
And what about the sandy pitch?
We’re just not used to that kind of thing. We’ve got fantastic training facilities and play most of our games on superb Premiership pitches, so I guess it handicapped us more than it did them. You have to be able to adapt, though.
Were you surprised by the quality of the Albion players?
Not at all. There are plenty of players who come close to making it at the bigger clubs who are now playing for teams in the lower leagues, so they can turn it on for the big occasions. Tamworth and Nuneaton Borough both did it in third-round games.
Does the draw with Burton feel like déjà vu from last season?
Yes. When we went down to Exeter for last year’s replay, we put out a stronger team than we did for the first game, but the conditions were against us there, too, so we did well to get the victory. If we prepare right and do that, we’ll win it. If we take them for granted, they could make life difficult for us.
What do you remember of Nigel Clough as a player, and how do you rate him as a manager?
I played quite a bit against Nigel. He was an intelligent player. He didn’t have much pace, so he relied on his footballing brain. He was at his best when he had good players around him. He scored two goals against us in that United-Liverpool game at Anfield [4 January 1994, United were 3-0 up within 25 minutes, including a goal from Giggs, but Clough orchestrated a comeback to 3-3]. I haven’t seen much of Burton, but they clearly like to play the game the right way. From what I’ve seen, he’s done a great job so far. The result against us proves that.
"It's a great competition. We've got to the final for the past two years. This year, we're hoping to get to the final again and go one better."
Ryan Giggs
Is he something of a bogeyman for United?
He was that night in 1994! Those two goals against us kept the game alive. If we’d gone in 3-0 up, it would probably have all been over. Now we have to make sure that he doesn’t hold us to a draw for a third time!
Clough described the result as a miracle, and many people have said your goal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final was miraculous. Why does the FA Cup seem to produce so many magical moments?
People say the gap between the big and small clubs is widening, but the FA Cup gives non-league and lower-league sides something to dream about and aspire to. There's all the excitement of the third-round draw – the hope that you’ll be up against a team from the Premiership. It’s the unpredictability that’s so exciting. Just about anything can happen in a knock-out competition. There are always shocks and goals against the odds.
How important would winning the FA Cup for the 12th time be to United this season?
Our history in the FA Cup has been very good. It’s a great competition. We’ve got to the final for the past two years running, so we want to carry on that form. In those two finals, we’ve experienced all the highs and the lows that the Cup has to offer. It’s that break from the Premiership – the excitement of sudden-death football – that you look forward to as a player in the second half of the season.
Are United even more determined to win the Cup again this year after dominating Arsenal in the 2004/5 final, and yet losing?
No, that was last season. That has gone now. We played well, we deserved to win, but we didn’t. This year, we’re hoping to get to the final again and go one better than we did last year.
Will Sir Alex select a more senior side for the Burton replay, or give younger players a second chance?
It’s totally up to the manager. This time, it should be a different story, anyway. We’ll be playing on a better pitch and we’ll have home advantage. Players coming to Old Trafford can either raise their game and really enjoy it, or they can look around them and find themselves playing the occasion more than the game.
If United win, a fourth-round tie against Wolves at Molineux awaits. Would you enjoy facing your old United mate, Paul Ince?
I’ll be ringing him on the day of the game! It would be good for me to play against Incey. We’re good friends, and we still keep in touch. If United get through to the fourth round, there may be a little side bet between me and Paul on who scores more goals!
In part two of United Review's interview, on 22 January, find out how Ryan really feels about the United-Liverpool rivalry.
Interview by Rob Ganley.
this is really f....and unfair:
Ronaldo faces three-match ban
17/1/06 2:24 PM
Ronaldo Appeal Rejected
Cristiano Ronaldo will serve a three-match ban after an appeal against his red card at Manchester City was rejected by a Football Association panel on Tuesday.
The Portuguese winger was dismissed by referee Steve Bennett for a high lunge on former Reds striker Andy Cole during the 3-1 defeat, but the club appealed against the decision on the grounds that no contact was made between the two players.
The ban means Ronaldo will miss United's matches against Burton Albion, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers.
i won´t belive:
Ronaldo On His Way Out
Cristiano Ronaldo could be on his way out of Manchester United this summer in a £20million deal. Juventus and Valencia have already made contact with Ronaldo's advisers about a potential move, believing that the youngster's unique style and flair is more suited to the leagues of Italy and Spain. Ronaldo has endured a miserable time on and off the pitch this season and his United team-mates have grown frustrated with his self-indulgence on the ball during matches.
David McDonnell, Daily Mirror
manu:2
burton:0
scores:saha and rossi
go red devils
manu:4
burton :0