Manchester United Thread

I think Moyse should play something like this:

------------Van Persie-----
--------------Rooney-----
------------Kagawa---------
Januzaj------------------------Nani
-----------Fellaini-------
Evra--Vidic-Smalling*--Rafael

Obviously it's going to be controversial, dropping Carrick for instance, but I think this would be an attacking team (perhaps too attacking out wide) and the full backs and Fellaini would have to be told to keep defensive discipline. The advantage is it would give game time to players like Rafael, Januzaj, Kagawa and Nani and he really needs to bring these players into the starting 11 now as you need to get the squad age down a bit. Maybe this season he can afford to grow the team a bit (at the expense of results) as bringing in younger players needs to be done sooner rather than later. You could really do with a young defensivly solid left back to phase out Evra.
 
I agree that Fellaini should eventually play at the side of Carrick but he needs to be bedded in and maybe playing behind striker is the only way he can get his fair share of game time. He didnt have a clue against City. The only other possibility would be to play him next to Carrick against the "lesser" teams and then further up or not all against top teams, for now that is anyway
 
I don't personally think he's settled yet, perhaps over thinking things and not yet playing his natural game. Sadly his introduction has coincided with a lack of form in nearly the entire team.

Once (if? :P) we've had a good run of results i'll be happier to judge his impact on the side.
 
Yes on paper he was bad against City, but you have to feel a little bit sorry for him. He was the only nominal ball winner in that Man Utd team (except defenders). The burden of dispossesing Man City's midfielders (and to a degree their attackers who dropped deep) fell mostly to him, Toure, Nasri, Fernandinho, by design he was pretty much the only central midfielder to attempt to contain them certainly in the first half, and it was what his 2nd-3rd game with the team, in such a match he could have been Redondo and he would have been in trouble.
 
cfdh_edmundo said:
I think Moyse should play something like this:

------------Van Persie-----
--------------Rooney-----
------------Kagawa---------
Januzaj------------------------Nani
-----------Fellaini-------
Evra--Vidic-Smalling*--Rafael

Obviously it's going to be controversial, dropping Carrick for instance, but I think this would be an attacking team (perhaps too attacking out wide) and the full backs and Fellaini would have to be told to keep defensive discipline. The advantage is it would give game time to players like Rafael, Januzaj, Kagawa and Nani and he really needs to bring these players into the starting 11 now as you need to get the squad age down a bit. Maybe this season he can afford to grow the team a bit (at the expense of results) as bringing in younger players needs to be done sooner rather than later. You could really do with a young defensivly solid left back to phase out Evra.
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Normally a very sensible poster but even you know that team isn't possible in anything other FIFA :P

no balance whatsoever, and dropping Carrick for Fellaini would be close to full retard in attempt to keep 'defensive solidarity'

one of Kagawa or Januzaj misses out (looking more likely to be Kagawa) and that's the team I see best going forward.
 
I think you can have Carrick and Fellaini sitting deep ish and then let the 4 attacking players move around somewhat.

You can have Van Persie starting on the left with Nani on the right Rooney further forward and Kagawa behind and then as the game progresses you can move those 4 around instinctively.

So if Van Persie moves into the centre then Kagawa will move to the left somwhat and Rooney drop deep. Nani can switch sides etc. If they work it out well, it could be a nightmare for anybody that plays them. Especially if you throw Januzaj into the mix (Valencia and Young as subs also)

Or they could all just get confused and it be a mess :PP

But Rooney, Van Persie and Kagawa can all play that central role just off the striker and Van Persie and Rooney can play further forward. Just mix it up a bit. If they can all get an understanding, it would be great to see.

I think it will all fall into place soon anyway, especially if you get a fit Van Persie back for a good period of time.
 
BobbyBox said:
I think you can have Carrick and Fellaini sitting deep ish and then let the 4 attacking players move around somewhat.

You can have Van Persie starting on the left with Nani on the right Rooney further forward and Kagawa behind and then as the game progresses you can move those 4 around instinctively.

So if Van Persie moves into the centre then Kagawa will move to the left somwhat and Rooney drop deep. Nani can switch sides etc. If they work it out well, it could be a nightmare for anybody that plays them. Especially if you throw Januzaj into the mix (Valencia and Young as subs also)

Or they could all just get confused and it be a mess :PP

But Rooney, Van Persie and Kagawa can all play that central role just off the striker and Van Persie and Rooney can play further forward. Just mix it up a bit. If they can all get an understanding, it would be great to see.

I think it will all fall into place soon anyway, especially if you get a fit Van Persie back for a good period of time.
Click to expand...

Fancy a job?
 
YoungGun_UK said:
Normally a very sensible poster but even you know that team isn't possible in anything other FIFA :P

no balance whatsoever, and dropping Carrick for Fellaini would be close to full retard in attempt to keep 'defensive solidarity'

one of Kagawa or Januzaj misses out (looking more likely to be Kagawa) and that's the team I see best going forward.
Click to expand...

I think it's worth a shot in something like the league cup (or if say you end up having dead-rubber games at the end of a CL group stage have already got 1st). If you played Berbatov and Carrick almost as centerbacks in the League Cup under Ferguson then why not? You would have to tell Fellaini to virtually not cross the halfway line, one of Kagawa and Rooney would have to keep coming deeper to collect the ball of Fellaini (giving him a short pass option so to speak) and ideally have full backs (esp. left back) who were more defensivly disciplined.
 
Bob stop embarrassing me, get out of this thread. Mutd is still Mutd ... It will be a matter of time when they start winning their way to the top. Good Lord!! It's like someone trying to help superman up out of bed .
 
Metallica said:
Fancy a job?
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;))

bebo said:
Bob stop embarrassing me, get out of this thread. Mutd is still Mutd ... It will be a matter of time when they start winning their way to the top. Good Lord!! It's like someone trying to help superman up out of bed .
Click to expand...

I'm trying to counter all of your wind ups/boasting, so when Arsenal start to go crap, more Fans of all of the opposition clubs take it easy on us :PP ;))

I can't stand it when we do rubbish and then the other fans come into our thread to put us down it winds me up....the worst is the pitty posts.

But it does make me laugh when you do it to others though :)) I'm a hypocrite.
 
So the thing with Fellaini so far at United...he's looked awful defensively.

There was a point on Sunday when he'd just come on, and he let a WBA midfielder literally walk by him on the edge of our box, and have a shot (that went wide). Replays showed it - Fellaini looked at midfielder, midfielder strolled past, Fellaini just stood there.

Against City his main goal appeared to be keeping his kit clean.

I've watched him and championed him as a signing for over a year - and now he comes and all of his energy and nastiness appears to have gone. I just don't understand it. Did he go through some anger-management classes or something?

I wanted him to be a big bad elbowing monster that opponents would be terrified of having to play against. Instead he's a large, afro'd doorframe waving them through.
 
beachryan said:
So the thing with Fellaini so far at United...he's looked awful defensively.

There was a point on Sunday when he'd just come on, and he let a WBA midfielder literally walk by him on the edge of our box, and have a shot (that went wide). Replays showed it - Fellaini looked at midfielder, midfielder strolled past, Fellaini just stood there.

Against City his main goal appeared to be keeping his kit clean.

I've watched him and championed him as a signing for over a year - and now he comes and all of his energy and nastiness appears to have gone. I just don't understand it. Did he go through some anger-management classes or something?

I wanted him to be a big bad elbowing monster that opponents would be terrified of having to play against. Instead he's a large, afro'd doorframe waving them through.
Click to expand...

It's just getting used to the players around him, it would be a miracle if a player in that role could effortlessly slot into that role in an instant. He was great for Everton, he's great for the Belgian side, he will be a good player for Man Utd in time but he needs to adjust.

I'd look at it like this, your central midfield has needed an overhaul for years now. For whatever reason it was neglected and players who were either well past best (Giggs and Scholes after the comeback) or not quite good enough to be first team players (Anderson, possibly Cleverly, even Gibson a few years ago - all ok for the bench but not ideal starting players), or good enough but too injury prone (Hargreaves and Fletcher) - they were sort of cobbled together and able to get you over the line. But there didn't really seem to be a long term plan, there were promising younger players like Revel Morrison and Pogba, but for various reasons they didn't end up breaking into the first team. In an ideal world you would have brought very good players and phased them in, but you're at crunch point now and you might be as well forcing new players (and maybe new systems) onto the team even if it means you suffer a bit in the short term. Carrick, who has been to a degree the most stable pic as central midfielder in the last few years, is 32 now so you can't really rely on him for too much longer.
 
cfdh_edmundo said:
It's just getting used to the players around him, it would be a miracle if a player in that role could effortlessly slot into that role in an instant. He was great for Everton, he's great for the Belgian side, he will be a good player for Man Utd in time but he needs to adjust.

I'd look at it like this, your central midfield has needed an overhaul for years now. For whatever reason it was neglected and players who were either well past best (Giggs and Scholes after the comeback) or not quite good enough to be first team players (Anderson, possibly Cleverly, even Gibson a few years ago - all ok for the bench but not ideal starting players), or good enough but too injury prone (Hargreaves and Fletcher) - they were sort of cobbled together and able to get you over the line. But there didn't really seem to be a long term plan, there were promising younger players like Revel Morrison and Pogba, but for various reasons they didn't end up breaking into the first team. In an ideal world you would have brought very good players and phased them in, but you're at crunch point now and you might be as well forcing new players (and maybe new systems) onto the team even if it means you suffer a bit in the short term. Carrick, who has been to a degree the most stable pic as central midfielder in the last few years, is 32 now so you can't really rely on him for too much longer.
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Totally agree - and most sensible United fans don't blame Moyes at all for that. Fergie was literally asleep at the wheel on the midfield front.

I like Fellaini, but just don't get where the intensity went. Typically a new player takes a while to bed in, but their enthusiasm is there to see - particularly in England. The old 'run around a bit' stereotype. He's done the opposite - he looks like he's putting less effort than before.

I hope he comes good, and he's a valuable player to have in your squad as he's very different to most other players.

We still need 3 midfielders in my opinion to be at the top level. Which is depressing. Anderson is not the answer, and should be allowed to leave and hopefully start playing up the pitch again where he should be. Fletcher is back in training but hasn't played for 3 years and is 29 with a debilitating illness. Not coming back.

Carrick has regressed again this year, and still has never done it in a big game. He's a great squad option, but even he isn't truly top-tier quality. And as you point out, he's 32.

For me, I'd like to see our CM options as: Fellaini, Cleverley, Carrick and at least 2 others - preferably starters.

We have no one in reserves/youth that is going to be ready any time soon, that's not an option either.

Lots of chat about Herrera, and while he's an upgrade I'd love to hear what people think of him - I just don't know enough. Maybe he'd be 1.

But we still need another.
 
Good result, pretty dire match. Not helped by an utterly incompetent referee. Not sure how many more times I'm going to have to say that about UEFA matches. Ref seemed delighted to give a foul anytime Fellaini was involved in anything, including a truly baffling one where Fellaini had the ball, and back-heeled it to a United player, and was blown up for, presumably, being too strong to allow the lil Shaktar player to have the ball back.

Basically both sides had one chance which was created by a lucky deflection off of a defender. That was it.

Typical United away in Europe.
 
matherto said:
I didn't watch all the match but in the first half Fellaini seemed to get robbed of the ball everytime he had it.
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Pretty much. Had an awful time. He's better than he was tonight. Understandably nervous, but needs to grow into his 'fro pretty quickly and settle down.
 
I usually enjoy watching football, but that's 90+ minutes I'll never get back. Note to self; Don't watch United away in CL anymore.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
I usually enjoy watching football, but that's 90+ minutes I'll never get back. Note to self; Don't watch United away in CL anymore.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Fergie had us playing like this for the last 6 years in the CL. And those have been our most consistent and best showings ever.

Sux, but it's the way to go, apparently.
 
Yeah, United's records are unquestionable but for a neutral it was near torture. I've seen more entertaining junior women's matches to be honest.
 
Yeah I hate watching us away from home even domestically, we only really ever turn it on at Old Trafford or possibly the Emirates is the only other place we can play well.

But our record in Europe has been brilliant since 2006 barring a few hiccups like in 2012.
 
In fairness, when was the last time we turned it on at OT either?

We've not played consistently well through a match for a long, long time. Long before this season.

Our pattern over the last few has been to go for it from the start, get a 1/2-0 lead then sit back and invite pressure for no apparent reason. Usually end up conceding or almost conceding and having to wake up and win the game in the last 20 minutes or so.

It's not been great to watch for a good while. I miss 06-07.
 
That is exactly what i've been saying for years now: usually (except some individual brilliance and quite a lot of breathtaking counter attacks) Man Utd are a boring team to watch.
Mind you, if you are champion after 38 matches, you deserve it.
 
That's what we've been saying in this thread for years. The exception being the start of the 2011-12 season, where we scored goals like this:

25soeo3.jpg.gif


It's time we started building an identity, a consistent style of play that we nurture over time, like Wenger's been doing for the past few seasons at Arsenal.
 
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