Manchester United Thread

beachryan said:
Blessing or curse? The legendary bullsh*tter Balague has said Di Maria will join us next week. I'm not sure on the price (should be similar to Ozil imo, not 10m more) but beggars and choosers and so forth. Surely we'd then go with a 4-3-3, assuming at least one more signing - I'd go for De Jong:

---------------De Gea--------------
--Jones----Smalling--Evans--Shaw---
---------------De Jong-------------
----------Carrick---Herrera--------
---Di Maria--------------Rooney----
----------------RVP----------------

That's a rather different proposition from what we'll put out in our frustrating loss to Sunderland tomorrow.
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Rooney is wasted on a wing.
 
I've never really been impressed with Di Maria over the years. With that said, I hardly watched Real last season, particularly post-Christmas, and so, from what I hear, I missed his best form.
Either way, he's clearly an upgrade on what Utd currently have out wide in Young and Valencia and it's a headline grabbing purchase (and potentially a job saving one for Mr. Ed).
The main questions are where does he play, where does Mata feature and what does this mean for LVG's formation? Seems odd to spend all his time drilling a 3-4-1-2 into the squad only to abandon it after a matter of minutes.
I would have thought Utd would spend this kind of money on defensive players (CB + CM). The attack looks plenty good enough to challenge.
 
4-3-3

We have options in attack for various roles, we still need one more CM (defensive) and potentially a world class CB but otherwise much better.

Regarding Di Maria, yeah he had a phenomenal 13/14 and rightly considered to be a huge reason for why they won the Champions League. Madrid fans being overwhelmingly sad that he's leaving with there array of talents should tell you enough of how highly rated he is by them.

YouTube - ANGEL DI MARIA | Goals, Skills, Assists | Real Madrid | 2013/2014 (HD)
 
I'd much, much rather Vidal than Di Maria at that price. I like the winger and know that the he had a great season last year, but he's also a diver and a left-footed wide player. The only good wide player we have is a 19 year old potential star, who is also left footed.

One problem he does help with is pace. United at their best have always been reasonably terrifying on the counter because of sheer pace, but that is utterly gone with Mata/Rooney/RVP. Di Maria and Valencia on either side would be reasonably scary to defend against, in terms of catching them in a foot race.

Will be interesting. Also, the knives will be out tomorrow after we get humped by Poyet's team. But, need to keep the faith, let us get our actual team together and then start judging performances. You can't evaluate a team missing almost half the first team squad and with none of their summer signings available.

You can evalute the fitness staff. Fire every last one. We've actually been close to Arsenal in the injury league over the past 4 seasons. That is pathetic.

The year we lost on gd to City we had more than 9x as many missed matches from injury as City. Sigh.
 
Anything official on Di Maria?

Everyone's getting excited but I just can't help but feel pessimistic given our genius CEO and our recent history of bottling transfers...
 
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Nothing like a bit of last minute (invented) drama :ROLL:
 
Because a wide player who spends more time on the floor than he does on his feet is really going to solve all the answer. Glad to see we are getting another bargain price for a player who is a bench player for current club. Complete mess.
 
It would have some comedic value but we could sign Isco twice over for that sort of money.

Besides, we only have half of the 49m limit left. I'd save it for Jan or next summer personally. We need to start thinking about a long term Yaya replacement also
 
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beachryan said:
One problem he does help with is pace. United at their best have always been reasonably terrifying on the counter because of sheer pace, but that is utterly gone with Mata/Rooney/RVP. Di Maria and Valencia on either side would be reasonably scary to defend against, in terms of catching them in a foot race.
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While I obviously don't disagree with United traditionally being an effective counter-attacking team, I disagree that pace is a problem. Pace on the counter isn't just dribbling, it's all excellent positioning and ball control, something Mata & RvP..and Rooney to a slightly lesser extend have loads of. Granted..guys like Sturridge and Lukaku are much better on the break imho. A De Jong or Vidal to strong-arm our midfield and capable of fast transitions will be critical to the way Van Gaal seems to like to set up his teams. Add the likes of Di Maria (United's Robben?) and Januzaj..and hell even Young *coughs* when he's having one of his days and we should be able to transition for fast breaks pretty effectively.
Add a fit Shaw (who does remind me a bit of a young Evra) and hopefully an injury free Rafael pushing play up down the flanks and we can be in for a treat this season..especially if Adnan, Herrera and Mata find their form and place.

We really need another CB though..Jones and Evans can't seem to stay fit to fill the role, Smalling is flaky as hell as Rojo I have seen to little of.

p.s. I really wish RvP would've been around to connect with the balls from Scholes and Beckham in their prime..that would ve been beautiful.

p.p.s. in case anyone hadn't read it yet..the rumor is Di Maria will be given no.7 :CONFUSE: ...like Spektarm said though..still don't feel confident about this one quite yet.
 
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aitken said:
Because a wide player who spends more time on the floor than he does on his feet is really going to solve all the answer. Glad to see we are getting another bargain price for a player who is a bench player for current club. Complete mess.
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he's only a 'bench player' for non footballing reasons, in reality he's in Real's top 5 most important players.

I think people are forgetting how important a world class winger is, the ability to drag your side forward is invaluable, just lifting the crowd with a mazey 50 yard run will do us a world of good, were far too 'plodding' and one paced in attack these days, with Adnan being the only player who ever really gets the crowd going right now, he'll inject real life into it.

a Carrick/Herrera/Di Maria midfield trio would be brilliant too if we need him in midfield, his pressing and defensive work is brilliant.

However we probably also could do with a CB and CM but that doesn't change the fact this is a great signing.
 
I think the point is really being missed.

He is a good player but i wouldn't value him that highly as 'great' signing. Problem is regardless who we sign attacking, we have no great defensive anchor in midfield leading the line or no experienced defence which have fitness problems.

I'd rather spend that money to a position we have very few players in and need improved, we have quite a few wide players, we have very few natural defensive midfielders, very few gifted defenders. Great teams always start from the back and this team currently is struggling.

We lost Rio, Vidic and Evra and we spent £30 mil on Shaw and £16 mil on Rojo.

Strangest part is with/if di maria signing going ahead, this would be the most the club has ever spent and yet i can't remember ever feeling this unhappy with club dealings.
 
I see Aitken's point, but nevertheless, Di Maria is one hell of a player.
Most important Real player last season, it seems.
 
Rooney and RvP are playing more like midfielders than freakin Cleverley and Fletcher..it's almost as if they have to pass to themselves.
 
Our central midfield is atrocious today.

I wonder if we wouldn't be better off with something unusual like Mata and Kagawa in central midfield with Rooney or Januzaj as a number 10...

It's not like Fletcher and Cleverley protect the defence very well and we would at least have some creativity going forward...
 
Can someone explain how Conor Wickham is an EPL player?! Surely Sportrelief must be involved somehow. More often then not his 2nd touch is a tackle.
 
If you didn't know who was playing you would comfortably predict that one or both of these teams to be relegated. Utd's attack has been shocking, Sunderlands is Wickham...

Cant get any worse lads.
 
Fucking hell that was hard to watch, thought I had sat on the slow motion button.
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
If you didn't know who was playing you would comfortably predict that one or both of these teams to be relegated. Utd's attack has been shocking, Sunderlands is Wickham...

Cant get any worse lads.
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Hush..progress..loss first,draw second..next up ..a win.
On a more serious note; yes we looked pretty damn shit. Imho Kagawa and Welbeck should ve started.
Blackett reminds me a bit of Martins Indi and in this case that's a good thing. Only player who seemed to be reasonably solid for most of the game.
 
Honestly no surprise. I didn't watch the match, but with a midfield like United had today I think they wouldn't even be able to beat the likes of Fleetwood Town to put it hyperbolically. Seriously though, it will only get a bit better if van Gaal signs Di Maria. The central midfield and defense are still major concerns. I'm not sure if a Herrera-Carrick duo would work once Carrick returns, they're too similar and are not great defensively. Defence has potential, but there are just too little defenders in quantity. A player (Blackett) had to make his Premier League debut last week because of one injury, and you might say his in-experience cost United at least a draw.
 
Herrera is not similiar to Carrick in anyway. Carrick is a DMF.

Utd should go for William Carvalho, even if it needs to overpay a bit. He's great, will be one of the best DMF in a couple of years. Plus he will not command too much wages, which will make the deal more reasonable.
 
andy18cruz said:
Herrera is not similiar to Carrick in anyway. Carrick is a DMF.

Utd should go for William Carvalho, even if it needs to overpay a bit. He's great, will be one of the best DMF in a couple of years. Plus he will not command too much wages, which will make the deal more reasonable.
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Carrick isn't a DMF, he's a deep-lying playmaker. If Carrick is a DMF, then so are Pirlo, Xavi and Fabregas.
 
Things we knew before the match:

1. Fletcher had one truly great 12 months, which was almost 5 years and one debilitating illness ago. Before that he was mediocre, and now he's worse. Not good enough for a United team. Sad, but true.

2. Cleverley has no balls, and will never make it at United.

3. Everyone hates Ashley Young, mostly United fans.

4. A backline of Michael Keane, Tyler Blackett and Phil Jones might well concede.

5. RVP will take a bit of time to get firing again.

6. Our midfield is f*cked.

I was going to throw in how poor our record is in matches with Martin Atkinson, but can't even blame him much (though there was a pen no one will talk about on RVP seconds before Young dove, guess that's karma). Listen, this isn't Manchester United's first team. Barring injuries, I'd make a case that all 3 of the defenders and both midfielders wouldn't play for us.

Bottom line for me is that things aren't working yet, and that our squad is broken. I'm not convinced the 352 is going to work, I don't like that Rooney is captain and I'm disappointed seeing Ashley Young out there, but I think we need to at least let LVG have a few matches with something resembling a first team.

Obviously it's very worrying that RVP/Mata/Rooney looks as bad as ever, but when both strikers are basically having to plya in midfield due to the utter sh*tstorm we fielded there, I still reserve judgement.
 
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