Comments on: Are Scholes and Giggs holding Manchester United back?

By: FC United

FC United — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:04:56 +0000

Giggs Scholes & Neville are my 3 favourite players
they are legends.
i allways love seeing them on the teams starting 11.
three amazing players been at United their entire career we will miss them when they retire.
they should defently be in the main 11 if there fit.
Neville is our captain, Scholes is better than Anderson & Fletcher and Giggs is better than Nani and Park.
I dont know how United will replace them.

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:07:17 +0000

This is back on the agenda with avengence! At the start of the season the expectation would have been that Nani and Anderson would slowly be blooded as cover for Scholes and Giggs but that the latter 2 would be first choice for the forseeable future.

In fairness to Scholes he is not long back following an extensive lay off and needs time to get back to his best. His form was excellent earlier in the season.

In reality what’s happened is that Anderson and Nani, having been given their opportunities, are way ahead of schedule/expectations. Both are playing excellent, exciting football and have been a breath of fresh air.

The challenge for young players is to take their chance and make it impossible for the manager to overlook them. I believe that they have done that.

Scholes and Giggs are United legends and will be part of the squad for another 2 or 3 years but it may be sooner rather than later that Fregie has to relegate them to back-up players, while using their maturity and experience as an influence in the dressing room.

As we see regularly, particularly in the Champions League, it’s a very narrow margin between victory and defeat. The edge that two talented young players like Anderson and Nani can give you versus a potential pedestrian performance by Scholes or Giggs can make all the difference.

Based on recent form it’s difficult not to make the call that the two youngsters bring more to the team right now.

However, there is still room for Giggs and Scholes to participate and make major contributions when called upon.

By: Ahmed Bilal

Ahmed Bilal — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:06:10 +0000

bump…

By: KingOfZamunda

KingOfZamunda — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:19:44 +0000

Hmmmmmmmmmmm- Giggs down the right wing with a sublime ball in with the outside of his left boot and Tevez ghosts in for his first goal, Chelski down to 10 and 1-0 going into half-time, ends up 2-0 on the day with a Saha penalty at the the death with Terry getting booed when he went over to applaud the away fans…..
Gigs has lost a yard of pace but is still very much an essential cog in the United engine… Ahmed Bilal, you sure you didn’t just write this article for the traffic it would generate?? The more I think about it, the more it sucks, doesn’t make sense cos today’s Giggs served you no vindication rather humble pie and it just doesn’t tie in with your usual, informed and mature writing style. Hmmmm indeed!

By: KingOfZamunda

KingOfZamunda — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:10:57 +0000

Matthew Caruana- your wisdom is simple and sublime, top post mate!

By: Matthew Caruana

Matthew Caruana — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:41:07 +0000

after reading a lot of comments, all i have to say is whileu guys are putting scholes off the team, u guys will know what united miss without scholes….just wait

By: solwa

solwa — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:11:58 +0000

what u say is totaly correct
i feel uniteds starting eleven should be
VDS Neville(brown) ferdinand Vidic Evra
Ronaldo Carrick(anderson) Hargo Nani(giggs)
Rooney Saha(tevez)

and i think we got of the hottest talents coming through in gibson and pique. they shud also get some game time. i am also an admirer of fletcher and his work rate. bring of the bench for last 30 mins.

By: spence

spence — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:33:03 +0000

Giggs is shocking playing in the support striker roles and hasn’t performed in perhaps 7 months, if not longer, and sentimentality is keeping him in the side. For me Giggs needs a kick up the rear so should be dropped and the captaincy given to Rio – Giggs isn’t, and never has been, captain material.

And please will people stop talking about Carrick being a replacement for Scholes, he isn’t a creative player, doesn’t make the late runs into the box, hasn’t got the touch of Scholes, I think Carrick will be seeing a lot of the bench this season because he was a panic buy when the real target was Hargreaves.

By: Ahmed Bilal

Ahmed Bilal — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:41:38 +0000

BD Connell – we’ll see. For United’s sake, I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not…

By: Beachryan

Beachryan — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:35:18 +0000

Surely there is one other option – play Scholes in the hole. You’re right, he’s clearly struggling to get back, and can’t provide the driving force on the break. I think you’re spot on with this being one of the key reasons we’re lacking the burst on the counter we had last year. The other is the formation – last season we had at least 2 up front leading the line, and 2 on the wings, all shooting forward. This does two things, one pulls the defense apart covering wide areas leaving gaps in the middle, and gives the centre backs two people to mark, causing confusion.

This season we have both giggs and scholes who, on the break, look to do the same thing, which is hold hte ball in the centre circle, look up, and pick someone to release. Unfortunately when your only options are Ronaldo who is picked up on the right, Nani marked on the left and either Tevez or Rooney being taken by 2 centre backs, you just can’t free them.

Given the situation, if Fergie is insisting on the 4-5-1, then you have to free Scholes of his defensive responsiblities completely. Let him sit in the circle, waiting, saving his energy for getting forward. Giggs adds nothing at the moment, sacrifice him for a more defensive player (ideally Fletcher/Hargreaves when they’re fit) and we should be able to sort out the issue. As I think you’ve mentioned before, the answer for United is either the old 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, with two defensive mids taking care of all the hard work, and allowing 4 players to focus solely on attack.

At the moment we only have 3, and defenses are not finding it hard to take care of that. (even moreso with today’s emphasis on a holding player in front of the back 4, or in some of our matchces 2 of these, making it either 5 on 3 or 6 on 3!)