Manchester United F.C. season 2005–06 Information & Manchester United F.C. season 2005–06 Links at HealthHaven.com

Manchester United
	2005–06 season
Manager	Sir Alex Ferguson
Chairman	Joel & Avram Glazer
Premier League	2nd
FA Cup	Fifth Round
Carling Cup	Winners
UEFA Champions League	Group stage (4th)
Top goalscorer	League:; Ruud van Nistelrooy (21); All:; Ruud van Nistelrooy (24)
Highest home attendance	73,006 vs Charlton Athletic (7 May 2006)
Lowest home attendance	43,673 vs Barnet (26 October 2005)
Average home attendance	65,195
← 2004–05	2006–07 →

The 2005–06 season was Manchester United's 14th season in the Premier League, and their 31st consecutive season in the top division of English football.^[1] After having finished in third place in both of the previous two seasons, the Red Devils improved slightly to finish the 2005–06 season in second place, despite finishing 8 points off the lead. However, despite the improvement in their league form, United's European form took a massive blow, with the club failing to reach the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1993–94. The club fared well in the FA Cup, reaching the Fifth Round, but their real success came in the Carling Cup, in which they beat Wigan Athletic 4–0 in the final.

The 2005–06 season also saw the departure of club captain Roy Keane, who had been at Old Trafford since 1993. Keane played his last game for the club on 18 September 2005 in a goalless draw with Liverpool, but was forced to withdraw from the match only a couple of minutes before full time. It was later revealed that Keane had picked up a foot injury and he eventually left the club for his boyhood team Celtic on 18 November 2005. Keane was subsequently replaced as captain by his deputy, Gary Neville. On 25 November 2005, just seven days after Keane left the club, United fans were plunged into mourning by the death of legendary former player George Best, who died at the age of 59.

[edit] Pre-season and friendlies

Date	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
16 July 2005	Clyde	A	5 – 1	Kléberson 31', Scholes 48', van Nistelrooy (2) 58' (pen.), 85', Miller 78'	8,000
20 July 2005	Peterborough United	A	6 – 0	van Nistelrooy (3) 55', 70', 83', Ronaldo 64', 89', Rossi 74'	15,460
23 July 2005	Hong Kong XI	A	2 – 0	Rossi, Dong
26 July 2005	Beijing Hyundai	A	3 – 0	Scholes (2), Park
28 July 2005	Kashima Antlers	A	1 – 2	Giggs
30 July 2005	Urawa Red Diamonds	A	2 – 0	Rooney (2)
2 August 2005	Wrexham	A	3 – 1	Rossi, Miller, Campbell	5,964
3 August 2005	Royal Antwerp	A	6 – 1	van Nistelrooy (3), Scholes, Ronaldo, Fletcher
9 May 2006	Celtic	H	1 – 0	Ronaldo 55'	69,591

[edit] FA Premier League

Date	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance	League position
13 August 2005	Everton	A	2 – 0	van Nistelrooy 43', Rooney 46'	38,610	4th
20 August 2005	Aston Villa	H	1 – 0	van Nistelrooy 66'	67,934	4th
28 August 2005	Newcastle United	A	2 – 0	Rooney 66', van Nistelrooy 90'	52,327	4th
10 September 2005	Manchester City	H	1 – 1	van Nistelrooy 45'	67,839	4th
18 September 2005	Liverpool	A	0 – 0		44,917	3rd
24 September 2005	Blackburn Rovers	H	1 – 2	van Nistelrooy 67'	67,765	6th
1 October 2005	Fulham	A	3 – 2	van Nistelrooy (2) 16' (pen.), 44', Rooney 17'	21,862	4th
15 October 2005	Sunderland	A	3 – 1	Rooney 40', van Nistelrooy 76', Rossi 87'	39,085	3rd
22 October 2005	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1 – 1	Silvestre 7'	67,856	5th
29 October 2005	Middlesbrough	A	1 – 4	Ronaldo 90'	30,579	7th
6 November 2005	Chelsea	H	1 – 0	Fletcher 31'	67,864	4th
19 November 2005	Charlton Athletic	A	3 – 1	Smith 37', van Nistelrooy (2) 70', 85'	26,730	3rd
27 November 2005	West Ham United	A	2 – 1	Rooney 47', O'Shea 56'	34,755	2nd
3 December 2005	Portsmouth	H	3 – 0	Scholes 20', Rooney 80', van Nistelrooy 84'	67,684	2nd
11 December 2005	Everton	H	1 – 1	Giggs 15'	67,831	3rd
14 December 2005	Wigan Athletic	H	4 – 0	Ferdinand 30', Rooney (2) 35', 55', van Nistelrooy 70' (pen.)	67,793	2nd
17 December 2005	Aston Villa	A	2 – 0	van Nistelrooy 10', Rooney 51'	37,128	2nd
26 December 2005	West Bromwich Albion	H	3 – 0	Scholes 35', Ferdinand 45', van Nistelrooy 63'	67,972	2nd
28 December 2005	Birmingham City	A	2 – 2	van Nistelrooy 4', Rooney 53'	28,459	2nd
31 December 2005	Bolton Wanderers	H	4 – 1	N'Gotty 8' (o.g.), Saha 44', Ronaldo (2) 68', 90'	67,858	2nd
3 January 2006	Arsenal	A	0 – 0		38,313	2nd
14 January 2006	Manchester City	A	1 – 3	van Nistelrooy 76'	47,192	2nd
22 January 2006	Liverpool	H	1 – 0	Ferdinand 90'	67,874	2nd
1 February 2006	Blackburn Rovers	A	3 – 4	Saha 37', van Nistelrooy (2) 63', 65'	25,484	2nd
4 February 2006	Fulham	H	4 – 2	Park 6', Ronaldo (2) 14', 86', Saha 23'	67,844	2nd
11 February 2006	Portsmouth	A	3 – 1	van Nistelrooy 18', Ronaldo (2) 38', 45'	20,206	2nd
6 March 2006	Wigan Athletic	A	2 – 1	Ronaldo 74', Chimbonda 90' (o.g.)	23,524	2nd
12 March 2006	Newcastle United	H	2 – 0	Rooney (2) 8', 12'	67,858	2nd
18 March 2006	West Bromwich Albion	A	2 – 1	Saha (2) 16', 64'	27,623	2nd
26 March 2006	Birmingham City	H	3 – 0	Taylor 3' (o.g.), Giggs 15', Rooney 83'	69,070	2nd
29 March 2006	West Ham United	H	1 – 0	van Nistelrooy 45'	69,522	2nd
1 April 2006	Bolton Wanderers	A	2 – 1	Saha 33', van Nistelrooy 79'	27,718	2nd
9 April 2006	Arsenal	H	2 – 0	Rooney 54', Park 78'	70,908	2nd
14 April 2006	Sunderland	H	0 – 0		72,519	2nd
17 April 2006	Tottenham Hotspur	A	2 – 1	Rooney (2) 8', 36'	36,141	2nd
29 April 2006	Chelsea	A	0 – 3		42,219	2nd
1 May 2006	Middlesbrough	H	0 – 0		69,531	2nd
7 May 2006	Charlton Athletic	H	4 – 0	Saha 19', Ronaldo 23', Euell 34' (o.g.), Richardson 58'	73,006	2nd

Pos	Club	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea	38	29	4	5	72	22	+50	91
2	Manchester United	38	25	8	5	72	34	+38	83
3	Liverpool	38	25	7	6	57	25	+32	82

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

[edit] FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
8 January 2006	Round 3	Burton Albion	A	0 – 0		6,191
18 January 2006	Round 3 Replay	Burton Albion	H	5 – 0	Saha 7', Rossi 23', 90', Richardson 52', Giggs 68'	53,654
29 January 2006	Round 4	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	3 – 0	Richardson (2) 6', 52', Saha 45'	28,333
18 February 2006	Round 5	Liverpool	A	0 – 1		44,039

[edit] Carling Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
26 October 2005	Round 3	Barnet	H	4 – 1	Miller 4', Richardson 19', Rossi 51', Ebanks-Blake 89'	43,673
30 November 2005	Round 4	West Bromwich Albion	H	3 – 1	Ronaldo 12' (pen.), Saha 16', O'Shea 56'	48,294
20 December 2005	Round 5	Birmingham City	A	3 – 1	Saha (2) 46', 63', Park 50'	20,454
11 January 2006	Semi-final First leg	Blackburn Rovers	A	1 – 1	Saha 30'	24,348
25 January 2006	Semi-final Second leg	Blackburn Rovers	H	2 – 1	van Nistelrooy 8', Saha 51'	61,637
26 February 2006	Final	Wigan Athletic	Millennium Stadium	4 – 0	Rooney (2) 33', 61', Saha 55', Ronaldo 59'	66,866

[edit] Champions League

[edit] Qualifying stage

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
9 August 2005	Third qualifying round First leg	Debrecen	H	3 – 0	Rooney 7', van Nistelrooy 49', Ronaldo 63'	51,701
24 August 2005	Third qualifying round Second leg	Debrecen	A	3 – 0	Heinze (2) 20', 61', Richardson 65'	27,000

[edit] Group stage

Date	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance	Group position
14 September 2005	Villarreal	A	0 – 0		22,000	2nd
27 September 2005	Benfica	H	2 – 1	Giggs 39', van Nistelrooy 85'	66,112	1st
18 October 2005	Lille	H	0 – 0		60,626	1st
2 November 2005	Lille	A	0 – 1		65,000	3rd
22 November 2005	Villarreal	H	0 – 0		67,471	3rd
7 December 2005	Benfica	A	1 – 2	Scholes 6'	61,000	4th

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Villarreal	6	2	4	0	3	1	+2	10
Benfica	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
Lille	6	1	3	2	1	2	−1	6
Manchester United	6	1	3	2	3	4	−1	6

[edit] Squad statistics

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
No.	Pos.	Name	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Tim Howard	0(1)	0	2	0	3	0	0	0	5(1)	0
2	DF	Gary Neville (vc)	24(1)	0	2(1)	0	5	0	3(1)	0	34(3)	0
3	DF	Patrice Evra	7(4)	0	0(1)	0	1(1)	0	0	0	8(6)	0
4	DF	Gabriel Heinze	2(2)	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	4(2)	2
5	DF	Rio Ferdinand	37	3	1(1)	0	4(1)	0	8	0	50(2)	3
6	DF	Wes Brown	17(2)	0	4	0	5	0	3	0	29(2)	0
7	MF	Cristiano Ronaldo	24(9)	9	1(1)	0	4	2	8	1	37(10)	11
8	FW	Wayne Rooney	34(2)	16	2(1)	0	3(1)	2	5	1	44(4)	19
9	FW	Louis Saha	12(7)	7	3(1)	2	5	6	0(2)	0	20(10)	15
10	FW	Ruud van Nistelrooy	28(7)	21	2	0	1(1)	1	8	2	39(8)	24
11	MF	Ryan Giggs	22(5)	2	1(1)	1	3	0	4(1)	1	30(7)	4
13	MF	Park Ji-Sung	23(11)	1	1(1)	0	3	1	0(6)	0	27(18)	2
14	FW	Alan Smith	15(6)	1	0(2)	0	1(1)	0	7(1)	0	23(10)	1
15	DF	Nemanja Vidić	9(2)	0	2	0	0(2)	0	0	0	11(4)	0
16	MF	Roy Keane (c)	4(1)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5(1)	0
17	MF	Liam Miller	0(1)	0	0	0	1	1	0(1)	0	1(2)	1
18	MF	Paul Scholes	18(2)	2	0	0	0	0	7	1	25(2)	3
19	GK	Edwin van der Sar	38	0	2	0	3	0	8	0	51	0
20	FW	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	0(3)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2(3)	0
22	DF	John O'Shea	34	1	2	0	3(1)	1	7	0	46(1)	2
23	MF	Kieran Richardson	12(10)	1	4	3	4(1)	1	2(3)	1	22(14)	5
24	MF	Darren Fletcher	23(4)	1	2(1)	0	4	0	7	0	36(5)	1
25	MF	Quinton Fortune	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
27	DF	Mikaël Silvestre	30(3)	1	4	0	4(1)	0	6	0	44(4)	1
28	DF	Gerard Piqué	1(2)	0	2	0	1(1)	0	0	0	4(3)	0
40	FW	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1
42	FW	Giuseppe Rossi	1(4)	1	2	2	3	1	0(2)	0	6(6)	4
44	DF	Adam Eckersley	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
46	MF	Lee Martin	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
49	MF	Ritchie Jones	0	0	1	0	1(2)	0	0	0	2(2)	0
50	MF	Darron Gibson	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0(1)	0

[edit] Transfers

[edit] In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
1 July 2005	GK	Edwin van der Sar	Fulham	Undisclosed
8 July 2005	MF	Park Ji-Sung	PSV Eindhoven	£4m
19 September 2005	GK	Ben Foster	Stoke City	Undisclosed
5 January 2006	DF	Nemanja Vidić	Spartak Moscow	Undisclosed
10 January 2006	DF	Patrice Evra	AS Monaco	Undisclosed

[edit] Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
4 August 2005	DF	Phil Neville	Everton	Undisclosed
11 August 2005	MF	Kléberson	Beşiktaş	£2.5m
18 November 2005	MF	Roy Keane	Unattached	Free
17 January 2006	FW	Jami Puustinen	Unattached	Free
18 January 2006	MF	David Fox	Unattached	Free
19 January 2006	FW	Kenny Cooper	Unattached	Free
31 January 2006	FW	Colin Heath	Unattached	Free
1 June 2006	MF	Quinton Fortune	Unattached	Free

[edit] Loan out

Date from	Date to	Position	Name	To
5 July 2005	14 May 2006	FW	Eddie Johnson	Crewe Alexandra
11 July 2005	11 May 2006	DF	Jonathan Spector	Charlton Athletic
27 July 2005	31 December 2005	MF	Chris Eagles	Sheffield Wednesday
31 July 2005	21 May 2006	GK	Ben Foster	Watford
3 August 2005	1 January 2006	MF	David Jones	Preston North End
4 August 2005	14 May 2006	DF	Paul McShane	Brighton & Hove Albion
17 August 2005	13 January 2006	FW	David Bellion	West Ham United
17 August 2005	28 May 2006	DF	Phil Picken	Chesterfield
18 August 2005	1 January 2006	FW	Colin Heath	Swindon Town
18 August 2005	1 January 2006	GK	Tom Heaton	Swindon Town
31 August 2005	31 December 2005	FW	Mads Timm	Lyn Oslo
4 November 2005	14 May 2006	MF	Liam Miller	Leeds United
1 January 2006	31 May 2006	MF	Lee Martin	Royal Antwerp
6 January 2006	21 May 2006	MF	Chris Eagles	Watford
6 January 2006	31 May 2006	FW	Mads Timm	Walsall
9 January 2006	31 May 2006	DF	Adam Eckersley	Royal Antwerp
9 January 2006	31 May 2006	MF	Ritchie Jones	Royal Antwerp
12 January 2006	31 May 2006	FW	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Royal Antwerp
12 January 2006	31 May 2006	DF	Danny Simpson	Royal Antwerp
12 January 2006	1 June 2006	MF	David Jones	NEC Nijmegen
13 January 2006	30 June 2006	FW	David Bellion	OGC Nice
18 January 2006	20 April 2006	GK	Tommy Lee	Macclesfield Town
31 January 2006	31 May 2006	GK	Tom Heaton	Royal Antwerp
16 April 2006	30 April 2006	DF	Phil Bardsley	Burnley

[edit] See also

Manchester United F.C. seasons

[edit] References

^ "Manchester United Season 2005/06". StretfordEnd.co.uk. http://www.stretfordend.co.uk/seasons/season2006.html. Retrieved 8 October 2007.

[0] "Manchester United Season 2005/06". StretfordEnd.co.uk. http://www.stretfordend.co.uk/seasons/season2006.html. Retrieved 8 October 2007.

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