Tuesday, 27th October 2009 – KO: 19:45

A quick chance here to get back to winning ways after Sunday’s disappointing result.

As this is a Carling Cup tie, Fergie was never going to choose the same kind of team that lined up against Liverpool, that this game come just two days after that game will no doubt mean that few, if any, of the players who played 90 minutes on Sunday will appear here.

Which is all good news for a few of the Reserves who will no doubt be given a chance to shine here.

I was hoping Obertan would make an appearance in this one and it looks like that could be the case as Fergie has apparently said that he will be playing.

A few others who have been very impressive for the reserves and must surely be knocking on the door include Ritchie De Laet, Magnus Eikrem and Joshua King.

What all this means is that, as usual, the performance of the United team is made all the more difficult to predict, simply because there can be little way of knowing who exactly will play.

The midfield is likely to be the problem area. I doubt Fletcher will be used in this game even if he has recovered from the injury that kept him out on Sunday. Anderson should start however. If Obertan and Nani play on the right and left respectively then that can only really leave Eikrem to take the other midfield slot. Unless Welbeck is used on the right again with Obertan given a more central role.

Up front, this looks like a game for Owen and possibly Macheda.

In defence, Gary Neville might be used to bring some experience with perhaps Evans, Brown and Fabio taking the other three positions.

In goal, Foster or Kuszczak.

That’s my guess anyway and I think I should get an extra brownie point for every one I get right.

As for Barnsley, well, they are not having a great season in the Championship so far, having picked up just 14 points from 14 games and have been beaten at home four times already.

I have absolutely no idea what will happen here tonight, if the team Fergie puts out clicks then we could score a couple, if they don’t then we could struggle.

Barnsley are hardly prolific scorers themselves though and so might struggle to score even one goal.

What this means is that I think there might be some value to be had in going for the UNDER market here but I won’t be going overboard with the stakes.

The bet is 3 points UNDER 2.5 Goals @ 2.1 with Boylesports.

Well, I was very close with my team selection but I am sure Fergie does it on purpose – Rafael in centre midfield from made very little sense to me and there has been nothing to suggest he would ever be used in centre midfield as he is being groomed as a long term successor to Neville and he is ideally suited to that role.

I would have thought if Fergie wanted to give a Reserve player a chance on a bigger stage then Eikrem was the obvious choice but he didn’t even make the bench.

Instead Fergie opted for Obertan on the left, Rafael and Anderson in the centre with Welbeck on the right.

Of course, Fergie will just point to the scoreboard so all is well and justified in the end.

2-0 is actually the score I had in mind before the game but I must admit to feeling a bit wobbly about it when we scored from a very good header from Welbeck after just six minutes (the Barnsley defence will be kicking themselves over that one though).

Having been given a pretty painful kick up the backside, Barnsley got their act together a bit and had a very good spell towards the end of the second half as time and time again they delivered some great balls into the area which their front players couldn’t finish.

They seemed to have an awful lot of attempts on goal without really troubling Foster too much.

The game became a lot more of an even contest for a while until Michael Owen was played in by Anderson and worked a little bit of Owen magic to slot home as though it was the easiest thing in the world.

There were some more moments and at any point, the bet could have been scuppered but it ended up winning and United are through to the next round.

A couple of points worth picking up on with this one are:-

Obertan – he didn’t really get the chance to show what he can do in this one although we did see examples of the pace he possesses. He is rapid. One of the things that was mentioned when we signed him was that he lacks a bit of self-belief and perhaps this showed through at times. It is one thing to play in the reserve team where results aren’t necessarily the be all and end all of the competition but it is another thing to do your thing when a mistake really could mean something.

I think he’s still a bit of a raw diamond though and one for the future.

The other thing was the sending off of Gary Neville. I think the ref got it spot on. His studs were high but dropping and he seemed to raise them at the last second quite maliciously. It was a straight red and a player such as Gary Neville who needs all the favours he can get in order to have a run in the first team will know that the ban incurred from this red card is the last thing he needs.

Brought in for his experience and a cool head when the youngsters might be losing theirs, it was hardly a great example.

Not much else to say about this one. Barnsley were as toothless as their record this season suggested and United just had that extra bit of class all around the pitch.

A deserved win and we march on into the next round.

Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 – KO: 20:00

Of all the Competitions we have participated in over the years, the League Cup has always been a strange one for us.

Widely viewed from the outside and probably considered from the inside as the lowest of our priorities every season, it hasn’t stopped us from having a fair degree of success in the competition in recent years (three final appearances, two of them as winners in the last six seasons).

This is perhaps partly because Fergie always used to use this competition to give his reserves (then mostly “kids”) a bit of experience and match-time. These days, as the squad has become stronger and stronger, the team he puts out, even when not a recognised “first team” is still strong enough to give most teams in the competition a good run for their money.

What this has meant however is that trying to guess the team Fergie is likely to play is a job in itself (and perhaps provides some of the reason for our success, actually).

Some clues are usually provided by who didn’t play a big part in the most recent game before the Carling Cup fixture.

So, some names that spring immediately to mind are the likes of Kuszczak, Evans, Brown, Neville, Fabio, Gibson, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Owen and Macheda.

Hardly what you would call a “weak” team but I’m still probably a mile off anyway!

As for Wolves. Well, luxuries such as tinkering wildly with the team are not within their scope at the moment and I think we’ll be seeing a more or less full-strength team put out for this one.

As far as I am aware, they have no real injury concerns going into this one.

They have started their Premier League campaign quite well with seven points from their opening six games and have won a game away from home and managed to keep City down to 1-0 at Eastlands.

All Fergie ever asks for in these cup competitions is a Home tie as he always believes that no matter the team he puts out, they should be winning at home.

The bookies are certainly giving nothing away on the United win here with United being priced at around 1.33.

Personally, I think that is a bit skinny. Wolves will give this one hell of a go and with a United defence that is bound to consist of four players who have hardly played with each other before (if ever) and a goalkeeper who has almost disappeared off the radar as far as first team (or even Reserve) appearances are concerned, there is certainly a chink in the armour there and the slightest wobble from any of them will only encourage Wolves even more.

United should win this but I don’t think it will be as comfortable as those odds suggest.

Wolves are not the most prolific team in the world in terms of goals but they haven’t been conceding many either. As for us, we don’t normally concede too many but what we do up front is still a bit hit and miss. We might score four or we might make hard work of even scoring one.

I am basing this bet on us keeping a clean sheet and winning 2-0 at most.

The bet is going to be 2 points UNDER 2.5 Goals @ 2.25 with VC Bet.

There’s not an awful lot to say about this game… the scoreline pretty much says it all.

I was close with the team though with only Scholes being the name I mentioned not playing. Welbeck started on the left side of midfield.

Danny Welbeck Does Usain Bolt

United came out strongly and looked quite dominant for much of the opening stages without really creating anything in front of goal. If anything, despite our territorial and possession superiority, it was probably Wolves who carved out the better chances.

All was going fairly well really but with such an attacking line-up (especially with Fabio on the left side of defence) there is always the chance of over-committing and this is what happened around the thirtieth minute as Wolves found themselves on a clear break. Fabio tried to get back at the attacking Wolves player but slipped at a crucial stage. Realising that the Wolves player was through on goal Fabio cynically brought the player down with a flailing arm as he hit the deck. As the last defender, the ref had no choice but to send him off.

So, we basically had an hour still to play with just ten men.

Fergie had no choice but to shuffle the pack a bit and Macheda was brought off with De Laet coming on to fill the left side of defence.

I think a note on De Laet is worthwhile here. He looks a very tidy player and most of what he did was clean and efficient and only an attempted shot he made right at the end of the game took the gloss off his performance. It really must go down as one of the worst shots in history and I think he sliced it so badly that it actually finished behind him!

Anyway…

An hour to play, down to ten men and if ever Fergie wanted an excuse to take a dive in this tournament, tonight was the night but there was none of it.

The ten men of United were still more than a match for the eleven of Wolves.

Wes Brown was immense in defence and we can only hope that for the rest of his United career he can stay clear of any major injury problems because he remains a top-notch defender.

The player who seemed to get more of the ball than any other was Nani and this was one his more frustrating performances in that he did everything brilliantly except the most important bits (i.e. the final ball, the shot, the corner etc).

However, I’m not going to dwell on this kind of stuff here. I’m going to skip forward to the goal.

It was, quite frankly, a work of art.

Carrick was in possession just outside the Wolves box and he pinged a ball at Welbeck who controlled it and slipped it to Owen. Owen knew exactly what kind of ball Welbeck would like to receive in return and played it to perfection. The angle was superb, the weight of pass was superb and Welbeck only really had to decide where to place the shot. He did that brilliantly and a slog of a match was practically settled in the blink of an eye and a one-two that dreams are made of.

Wolves huffed and puffed, made some decent chances but could never quite find a way through and we held on for a well-deserved win.

Other things to be noted here are that everything Kuszczak had to do he did very well.

The other thing to mention is the debut of Josh King. This is a player who has impressed me in the reserves and he had a couple of chances here tonight despite coming on so late. One of them just underlined his youth and inexperience as a ball into the box was the option rather than the shot but he is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Anyway, all in all, it’s job done here tonight. Wolves will probably be kicking themselves that they didn’t give that extra 10% and take a few risks when we went down to ten men but nothing can be taken away from Manchester United and we have our name in the hat for the fourth round – hopefully the draw will be kind to us.