Happy Birthday to Ryan Giggs

Ryan Giggs has turned 40 today and despite his age, it has been rumoured that he is to be offered another contract for the 2014-15 season in the media.

Giggs' career has been continuous since the 1990-91 season and has amassed 953 appearences for United. 1,000 appearances is still a possibility with rumours of a contract extension

Giggs' age had no effect on him the other night after being one of the best players on the pitch during United' 5-0 rout of Leverkusen during the midweek.

So happy birthday to the legend that is Ryan Giggs

Whatever happened to Rodrigo Possebon?

When United signed this young Brazillian-Italian star Rodrigo Possebon, he was believed to be a player of great promise, mainly because of his nationalities. He joined the reserves and was considered one of the best young passers of the ball at the club.

He looked like he had it all, and debuted the next season against Newcastle. After getting a horrible tackle from the Middlesbrough captain Emanuel Pogatetz. After this, Possebon struggled to find his fitness again and played only 8 games in the entire season of 2008-09.

After failing to do anything even in United's reserves the next season, he returned to Brazil where he had a briefly successful season with Santos. However, he has since descended into playing few games at a variety at lower Brazillian teams, for example he is currently at Juventude in the Brazillian 4th division. He now looks unlikely to fulfill his potential and is another player in the long list of players to have been ruined at such an early stage.

Manchester United announce quarterly reports

United have released their quarterly reports for the first quarter of this financial year. The club has posted that there has been a 29% rise in the club's revenue for this quarter.

Revenue of almost £100m for the three months up to 30 September 2013, which is up from £76.3m from the same quarter in 2012.

Commerical revenue has also risen to almost £60m, a 39% increase. While broadcast revenue rose by 41% to £19.3m.

Ed Woodward, the new chief executive of the club has said the following. ""We are pleased to have achieved another record first quarter, driven by the strength of our commercial business and increased broadcasting revenues. Our unique approach to the commercial business will continue to drive future growth.

"We are also excited by the continuing rise in the value of sports content, evidenced, amongst other things, by the recently announced BT deal for the UK rights to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League matches for three seasons from 2015/16. This deal represents a meaningful increase over the current arrangement, which should translate into higher broadcasting revenues for the participating clubs."

10 interesting facts about United's season thus far.

1) Crosses

Manchester United have made more crosses than any other team in the Premier League, so far averaging 27 crosses played per game.

2) Goals scored from Open Play

Manchester United have scored more away goals from open play than any other team in the league with 9 of United’s away goals scored from open play.

3) Goals from Counter Attacks

Manchester United have scored the fewest goals from a counter attack out of all 20 teams in the Premier League – so far the Red Devils have yet to score a single goal from a counter attack.

4) Goals scored by Area

Manchester United have scored the fewest goals from the middle of the goal, 25% of the Red Devils’ goals scored have been scored from central areas in front of goal, a lower percentage than any other team.

5) Interceptions

Manchester United have made more interceptions than any other team in the league – 190 interceptions in total, averaging 17.3 per game.

6) Clearances

Nemanja Vidic has made more clearances than any other player in the league with 92 clearances in total, averaging 11.5 per game.

7) Offsides

Manchester United have been flagged offside more than any other team in the league – 37 times in total, averaging 3.4 times per game.

8) Fouls given For

Manchester United have been fouled at home more than any other team in the league with 81 fouls given at Old Trafford in United’s favour, averaging 13.5 fouls given per game.

Adnan Januzaj has been fouled more per game than any other player in the league – the United youngster is fouled on average three times per appearance.

9) Fouls given Against

Manchester United have been carded for fouls more than any other team in the league – United players have received 18 cards so far for fouls.

10) Discipline

Manchester United have been carded most for dives, more than any other team with two yellow cards received for diving.

Robin Van Persie: United's fans were "incredible" and "absolutely unbelievable"

The atmosphere throughout the 1-0 home win against Arsenal was brilliant, especially when the team were hanging on in the second half. There's definitely been an improvement in the sound at the ground recently this season, particuarly in the big games against Liverpool and Arsenal recently even with the team not performing as well as in recent season. With Moyes at the helm, the fans are definitely making more of an effort to support the team. 

Robin Van Persie, the only scorer in the match has also praised the fans in an interview after the game.

"“The fans were incredible, they really lifted us and were the twelfth man. Since I’ve been here, they have been absolutely unbelievable, so thanks again to them.”

United's Centre-Back issues.

Within the opening half of the 2012/13 Premier League season United opened with a flurry of goals hitting David De Gea or Anders Lindegaard's net. Every game it seemed, United had several defensive errors which resulted in United conceding a total of 28 goals by Christmas. Although things began to pick up during the second half, It exposed many problems within the United defence.

An unhappy David de Gea concedes a goal against City

Since 2006-2007, United's first choice centre-back partnership has been Vidic-Ferdinand. From 2006 until 2009, they won the team 3 league titles, and a Champion's League. These were this partnership's glory years and beyond this time, gaps began to form within United's central defence. Through 2009-2010, United experienced their worst defensive crisis in recent history. Vidic and Ferdinand would retain several injuries from there on out, thus limiting the appearances of the two's famed partnership. To this day it is seldom that the two are both able to play together for a prolonged amount of time.

Rio and Vidic following a goal from Vidic.

In stepped Jonny Evans, a young Northern Irish centre-half who would fill the gaps when one of the two was out. An incredible opening season in 2008-2009 showed him to be one of the best young centre backs in the entire league at the time. Limited appearances in through to 2011 were detrimental to his development and when played, he looked poor. Recently, due to many more injuries to Vidic and/or Ferdinand, he has established himself as a solid centre back.

Jonny Evans in 2012/13

In 2010 and 2011, in came Chris Smalling and Phil Jones respectively. While Smalling has shown promise, it is clear he is not a top level Centre back and will likely provide back-up due to his versatility with the right side of defence. Jones, who still has years ahead of him, certainly looks to have the potential to further himself at the club, but the question truly is whether or not his future lies in the centre of defence, where opportunies are limited, at right-back where Rafael has shown himself to be one of the best in the entire division, or, more likely at Central Defensive Midfield where he has performed well against some of the best players in the world, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

Phil Jones and Chris Smalling celebrate.

As Vidic and Ferdinand's injury issues prevail and their age continues to become more of an issue, it is the question whether Smalling, Evans or Jones have the ability to replace them. Interest in Benfica's Garay has possibly answered this question.

Will Garay be signed by Moyes in the next January transfer window?

Does Shinji Kagawa fit in at Man United?

Shinji Kagawa upon signing for Man United

A little over a year ago, it was the German Cup Final, Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund. Borussia Dortmund won the game 5-2. With a Japanese player Shinji Kagawa winning Man of the match with a goal and 2 assists. He was on fire. And this was not just one game, Shinji had managed to score 17 goals for "Der BVB" in 2011/12. Naturally, when it was announced that Shinji Kagawa would be signing for Manchester United on a sub-£20 million deal, I was excited like many other United fans. However, it is possible that things have not worked out for Kagawa at United...

Kagawa after scoring for Dortmund

When Kagawa was signed, Alex Ferguson announced that United would change their style to suit him. Possibly to a more European 4-2-3-1, which had been so successful at the World Cup 2 years ago. However, Ferguson went back on his words with the signing of Robin Van Persie on a £24 million deal. Van Persie is and was a world-class striker. United now had two strikers of this standard, Rooney and Van Persie. This would be dire to Kagawa, as his abilities were clearly better used in a Central position, rather than out wide on the left.

Once the season of 2012/13 began, Kagawa found it hard to even get many games of the left side of midfield. His signature position of CAM was not to be his, as Rooney took his role, accommodating for Van Persie. His performances were mediocre, and he only managed to score 6 goals all season, albeit a hat-trick against Norwich.

Kagawa after scoring a hat-trick against Norwich

This summer, Rooney's possible departure could have been good for Shinji Kagawa, who may have finally been able to slot in behind Van Persie for the coming campaign. Rooney stayed and Kagawa remained unable to get into the team. David Moyes has chosen not to play Kagawa even in moments where the fans have demanded to see him play.

Recently, a problem with United has been a lack of creativity and a main question asked is, Is Kagawa the answer? But sadly, Kagawa cannot get into the team for a prolonged period of time. Does he deserve to play more games? Maybe he does not fit in with United's system, where 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and often 4-4-1-1 are the more common formations, rather than Dortmund's usual 4-2-3-1, which Kagawa flourished under.