Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jenga]

Should Man U have been able to play such a weakened side last night?

Personally I think it was wrong, but not alot you can do about it.

Discuss.

[GolfRoader]

Difficult one but if you look at it from an Alty point of view, I lost no sleep over playing a weakened side against Congleton.

[ManagementGuru]

Its a sad reality that the European Cup is to Manchester United what the Cheshire Senior Cup is to Alty.  And on that subject, I hate to see what sort of team we would put out in the Mid Cheshire Senior Cup if we were based in Stafford or surounding area!

[Jimmy]

I think they did right thing they earned the right

[AltyTunnelSteward]

They had already not only qualified but won the group. It was an opportunity to give some of their squad players some experience (and after Turkey not much is going to shock them in the future I would venture to suggest) Also remember that all but two of those players had Champions League experience.

Had they been battered 5 or 6 perhaps you could have queried how fair it was to the other two teams in the group but they only lost by one. Who is to say that the 'first eleven' would have done any better?

Can't see owt wrong meself.

[RocketDan]

slightly different than Alty fielding a crap team in the CSC though - the reason united fielded a weak team was because they had already progressed to the later stages and not because it's an outdated trophy that the club couldn't less about.

It's would be on a par with Alty  - knowing that we had already qualified for the playoffs - fielding a weakened team for the last game of the season to avoid injuries and suspensions.

[Jimmy]

Spot on grumbler the European cup is every big clubs top target

[RedhillAlty]

It makes more sense than what they did the last two seasons in the champions league and that is play a weakend side against poorer European clubs such as Basle and Rangers so dropping points then struggling or failing to progress.

[Paul Cain's Chip Pan]

I doubt Cluj and Braga thought it was particularly fair. A full strength United team would have won last night and that group would have looked very different going into the last game.

[Jimmy]

Cluj and braga have not earned the right  also whoever united play last will play a weak team and braga got themselves to blame they should also qualify with little problem and have lost leads twice because of lack of bottle

[Paul Cain's Chip Pan]

It doesn't justify the fact that Galatasaray effectively got a gimme the other night. Also, the comparison to Alty in the CSC isn't completely relevant as our decision to field a weakened side (which I agreed with) did not affect any other teams as it would have in a "group situation".

It all goes to show the double standards that exist in football. Wolves got punished for resting players at Old Trafford and the media were all over it, but United do it in the Champions League and nobody bats an eyelid because the media is up Ferguson's arse.

[chesteralty]

The premier league squad system has always puzzled me.
Teams have to choose 25 players at the start of the season to choose their teams from, surely they can then pick who they like!

[fuertes]

It all goes to show the double standards that exist in football. Wolves got punished for resting players at Old Trafford and the media were all over it, but United do it in the Champions League and nobody bats an eyelid because the media is up Ferguson's arse.

That's not how I recall it. Most of the media commentary was critical of the fine handed to Wolves, thinking it over the top.

And anyway, the situations are not in any way comparable. Wolves desperately needed points as part of their PL campaign. But they seemed to be resigned to defeat before a ball was kicked. Whereas Manchester United had absolutely nothing to gain from winning their match. They were already through as group winners.

Ferguson has a lot of enemies within the media, by the way...

[AltyTunnelSteward]

And it would appear some on here

[Paul Cain's Chip Pan]

You're missing my main point, which is that Galatasaray effecitively got a walkover in a game they normally would have lost against a full strength United side. It showed a total lack of respect to the other two teams in that group and it shouldn't have been allowed to happen. I reject the idea that they "earned the right" to do what they did as well. Perhaps from a purely selfish point of view they had earned that right, but in the spirit of the game they had a duty to try their best to beat Galatasaray.