United's away form come under the microscope

Except the blame seems to be getting attached to the attack, when almost everybody that watches United ascribe it to the poorest central midfield we have seen since the mid noughties. That isn't to say the form of both Berbatov and Rooney has been good enough away from home, it clearly hasn't. But until we find a system or personnel that allows us to go to places like Blackpool, West Brom or Wolves and dominate possession we are going to struggle. I mean is any red really confident of United putting on top performances in the big away games coming up.
Mark Bright believes that Rooney still hasn't turned the corner in his quest for a return to form despite Saturday's wonder strike. It will be interesting to see if his form will be affected, in a positive way obviously, by the return to the first team squad of Antonio Valencia who returend to training with the reserve team squad last Saturday. He certainly enjoyed the service from Valencia last season on the right wing, as the man from Ecquador created countless goals for him. How many has he scored with his head this season?
It was a bad time for Park to get injured with the big European nights about to start and Valencia penciled in to hopefully return to first team duties about the same time as Park will come back from injury. Giggs and Nani are going to be getting a run of games over the next three weeks.

Smalling has justifiably been getting a good press since Saturday's top performance, maybe it's time for a little run of consecutive games for him. You would presume he will be playing against Crawley, but will Ferdinand be up to the run of games that are going to be coming thick and fast after that. If he wants to be playing a part in one or two of those big games, his performance on Saturday will have told Fergie he can play a part.

Scholes is excited with the return of European nights as it reminds him that we are now entering the business stage of the season where every game matters. He also thinks Gary Neville would have come close to beating Peter Shilton's England caps record but for all his recent injury problems. He doesn't care if we aren't playing brilliantly as long as we finish top of the league in May, but does admit that our away form isn't what it should be.
Meanwhile the Mail report that Gary Neville will take his first steps along the coaching path when he oversees traing for the youngsters this week.
Is that a step up from commentating on the youth team last night, he is actually a pretty good commentator. I would sooner seem stay at United than move to Sky though. How the youth team only won 1-0 was a mystery, 30 odd shots on goal against about 3 tells it's own story. The loss of Cofie and Keane obviously had something to do with it, but you want to have a better conversion rate than that. It was very one sided so whilst i can pick a couple of stand out players from the night, it's hard to know how much that tells you. Tunnicliffe seems to get better and better, Pogba was excellent and Morrison showed his class at times. The defence was hardly troubled so we didn't get to see much of Thorpe whom i like the look of. Newcastle were very poor.


With all the stories of a Qatari buyout of the Glazer's, a Qatari source, unwilling to be named, has told the press there have been no taks between Manchester United and Qatar holdings. Well that seems to be the one thing that no one believes, whether there is any truth in the takeover tals or not.
Just why the bonds have hit record highs is still a puzzle to be resolved then, it seems. It's strange how Bloomberg seem to be the go paper for anything to do with the Glazer's, Manchester United and any takeover. Everything else seems to be just wild speculation, unless of course a takeover is on the cards. I have to admit, as much as i detest the Glazer's stewardship of United and would view getting rid of them, preferrable to a 19th title, the thought of being bought out by anybody from the Arabian peninsular fills me with almost as much dread as the continuation of the Glzer's ownership.

The consistently ever decreasing away ticket allocation comes under the spotlight on redsaway's site for United fans that like to travel. I have never understood how they can so blatantly just pick on United when week after week you see most away fans all stood up.

Larry Elliott reports that the inflation conundrum just got harder for Mervyn King, it sounds as if he has either lost his nerve, thinks he is going to lose the argument on the MPC for keeping their nerve or has lost confidence in his own judgement. If he doesn't keep his nerve, we are going to be going back to a world where everybody knew what the one in ten that UB40 Were singing about in the early eighties under Osborne's model chancellor Geoffrey Howe. The latest unemployment figures are pointing that way.
David Blanchflower writes that he is fully behind Mervyn King on the inflation/interest situation and points out why he thinks raising interest rates would be a disaster for the economy. Paul Mason discusses his little tete a tete at the press conference where the governor of the bank defended the MPC's interest strategy. The point that the inflation target is past it's sell by date was made pretty convincingly, to me anyway, on Newsnight last night.
Sean O'Grady ends his report of the inflation results with a prediction of what the results for ordinary poeople will be if the city gets its way. No good news there, not least for Osborne and his happy camp of growth deniers. I wonder what the odds are on an election being called before the year is out. He also doesn't think that we will see an interest rate rise before November.

George Monibot writes of more evidence of the tories and their role as the party of the vested interests of the financial elite. He is absolutely right, of course, but lets not forget that Blair, Brown and Balls, let's not forget, haven't exactly got clean hands on this front.
Gary Gibbon of channel4 news went to Salisbury to report on the spectre of a foodbank in Britain in 2011.

Iraqi defector " Curveball "and the western intelligence service's main inside evience of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction admits he made it all up. The only suprise in that report are that there are supposedly some poeple that thought that there was still something in it. Can anybody be that stupid. Fair enough on his part, if my country was run by a tyrant i would want rid, though he doesn't mention how well he benefitted financially from telling the neocons what they wanted to hear.

Robert Fisk reports on a strange case of deja vu in the middle east and north Africa as demonstrators keep on demonstrating and security forces keep on using the same discredited methods to attempt to suppress a population that won't be suppressed any more as they now know they can bring down the regions out of touch and corrupt rulers.
Iran will be the next one to watch, but we know that the theocrats in Tehran won't prove as easy a touch. Imagine if that regime were to fall though, what would that mean for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon etc.

Music
Angus & Julia Stone - Down the way: The latest offering from the Aussie duo is a pretty good album, i don't know what you'd categorise it as, folk rock, Americana or acoustic pop maybe. There are some excellent tracks on the album.

Charanjit Singh - Ten raggas to a disco beat: This was recently rediscovered and branded as maybe the first lost house album. It has some validity, it's the closest thing it sounds like. It starts off with a big Indian flavour that seems to lose itself ithe disco/house beat. It's pretty good, if a bit samey, but ahead of it's time. It's certainly hard to believe he was going around doing weddings as a day job.
Jenny and Jonny - I'm having fun now: Main vocalist with US indie group Rilo Kiley Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend released this lasy year and the biggest praise i can give it is it's as good as a Ril Kiley album, a decent indie pop album.

Manic street preachers - Postcards from a young man: Another year and another album from  the Manics, and following in the footsteps of the last two, they are still bang on form. This time it's nearer the sound of Everything must go than the harder edge of the preceeding two, but it's none the worse for that. Full of the type of tunes that might once have got them on top of the pops.

Rumer - Seasons of my soul: The critics next big thing or she is the next big thing already. The critics are right, it's an excellent album with influences from a host of the great female singer songwriters. Almost every track is excellent, there's no filler on this.

Shugo Tokumaru -Port Entropy: Another Brian Wilson influenced solo album, but with an equal dose of home grown Japanese influences . Another excellent album