Rooney’s return, United aim to thrash Sporting, injury list, vote or face hellfire

I’m sure you’ve seen Patrice Evra caught out of position and Nemanja Vidic going across and covering for him, thus bailing Manchester United out of yet another sticky situation?

That’s what’s happening today – except that the Red Ranter is Evra, yours truly is Vida and RedRants.com is Manchester United.

At least the last one makes sense 😉

Anyway, on with today’s Manchester United news – we’re still winning (although the opposition this season has been nothing short of tremendous) but it’s Sporting Lisbon tomorrow and while RR will do the needful preview (or Vida will cover for him again) in the morning, here’s a snapshot of what happening in the Manchester United world.

Wayne Rooney: “I could have played weeks ago”

I suppose we’re lucky to have a pitbull playing for us (metaphorically speaking) – and better yet, Rooney has learned the lessons from last summer and is now more careful about easing back into match fitness (as opposed to diving into midsummer heat with a team whose self-doubt was only exceeded by their ambitions (paradoxical but that’s England for you)), and while he could play a bit-part role tomorrow night it’s also likely that he’ll just sit on the bench and do nothing.

We can’t rely on Rooney for the Chelsea game, so let’s hope Saha has his heart in this, because we’ll need that Old Trafford magic again.

Quieroz wants to show Sporting ‘respect’

Is it going to be the sort of respect we showed Roma, when we thumped them at a rate of a goal every 10 minutes but didn’t bed their wives afterwards? Or the sort of respect we showed Chelsea, when we sent out kids to play a man’s game and said it was to ‘rest’ key players?

Most likely it will be the sort of respect we showed Benfica – so expect a 4-5-1, but with no Rooney to play on the left flank maybe Tevez will get that role?

A scrappy 1-0 win, 1-1 draw or a frantic 2-1 win with Tevez and Rio using their rear-ends to ‘back’ the ball into the back of the net in the 6th minute of injury time – which one do you think is more likely?

Manchester United’s Injury List

Gary Neville, Owen Hargreaves, Mikael Silvestre, Darren Fletcher, John O’Shea, Ji-sung Park and Ben Foster are out. Michael Carrick has a severe confidence problem, while Ronaldo is rusty (but he’ll shine tomorrow night) and Giggsy and Scholes are getting old.

But nothing to worry about – I’m pretty sure we’ll get to see some of Anderson tonight as well, and a Nani corner might find it’s way to Rio’s head this time (I can almost see it).

Vote for the Best Sports Blogs

Anyway, that’s it for today – although, I wonder why people aren’t voting for Red Rants at the Bloggers Choice Awards? Are you guys not Manchester United fans or something? Do you not want your club’s best fan-blog to win bragging rights over all the other pretenders? Heathens!

Vote for RedRants here, and while you’re at it, throw Soccerlens a few crumbs as well 🙂