Manchester United Thread

Strange match. To be fair to Palace, both Arsenal and Chelsea only managed to beat them by a goal too. They're uber defensive, if not for a mixup between our back 2, they wouldn't have had an attempt in the first 50 minutes or so.

I think we ended with 72% possession, but other than hitting the post, shouldn't really have scored any more goals. We're kind of Barca-at-their-worst at the moment. Slowwwwwwwww build up, but decent pass accuracy and lulling the other team (and me) to sleep.

RVP is a real worry. He was awful. No movement, didn't show for the ball, offered nothing. Rooney was weak offensively, however put in an excellent shift covering others' mistakes in transition.

Our season will hinge on Falcao. If he can ever get fit and if he's anything like his former self I think we'll come forth. But if we're reliant on RVP to lead the line, we're in trouble. He's a shadow of the player of 2 years ago.
 
knh4 said:
Rooney in midfield, Di Maria on the touch line and van persie isolated upfront. Can someone explain what sort of 'philosophy' is this?
Click to expand...
Rooney was absolutely appalling, he's been the worst player for us in the last 2 games (apart from a few times when he tracked back to tackle, but he shouldn't have lost the ball in the first place...). Far, far from captain material.

Januzaj is as effective as Tony V, without the defensive contributions. Looks like he's trying to do everything by himself and in the end he's doing nothing right. Yeah, he's young but he needs to sort his mentality otherwise he'll end up like Nani.

Van Persie is too isolated, he also looks unmotivated, can't really put my finger on what's wrong but he needs to get it together...

I also can't figure out why we're playing Di Maria so far out wide, when his best performances for Real and then his first games for us were somewhere near the middle where he can actually take the ball and run at defences...

As for Fellaini, he's been OK, but I still can't wrap my head around all the praise he's been getting as of late. His performances are mediocre - just because he is better than last season when he was absolutely shocking, doesn't mean he's excellent - yes, sometimes he's useful going forward or during set pieces, but other than that, he still runs constantly out of position, doesn't cover, doesn't mark, doesn't actually help defensively. Can't wait for Herrera to get going again...

Mata should start as he's far more useful than both Rooney and Januzaj at the moment, also has a better understanding with Di Maria and Herrera. Does my head in how Mata's 1 or 2 bad games get pointed out all the time while Rooney's horrific displays every other week get ignored.

And last but not least, my praise definitely goes to young Paddy McNair - the lad is only 19 and yet he's more confident and more defensively aware than our 3 "senior" defenders! Bring on the McNair/Blackett duo ASAP!

Luke Shaw also deserves a mention, as he's been excellent in our last games, very sound defensively!

But the most important thing is we got the 3 points this week, hopefully we can go on and improve our game further.
 
Last edited:
Completely agree with everything. Rooney problem is that he thinks he's a flair touch type of player except he's the absolute opposite in a good way.
Can't understand why we're not seeing more herrera at this point. The best football we've played is with a blind, herrera, Mata and Di Maria combination.
 
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed watching us play and I'm not seeing much improvement under LvG, especially given how much money we spent in our scattergun approach to the summer transfer window.
 
Annnnddd Michael Carrick has injured himself on England duty. As a poster on Redcafe pointed out, he was always screwed when he lined up at CB for us.

Players that have played in defense for United this season:
Smalling: Injured for more time than fit
Jones: Injured for more time than fit
Rojo: Injured for the next 2 months
Carrick: Injured except for 1.5 matches
Rafael: Injured for more time than fit
Evans: Injured for more time than fit
MacNair: Injured for 3 weeks (and is injured currently)
Blackett: Suspended, then disappeared.
Shaw: Missed first month of season

Blind had best be praying to some witch doctor somewhere.
 
Well everyone's injured most of the time so might as well injure yourself anyway.

It's the cool thing to do at United now ;)
 
Kanouté said:
Blind is forced off early with an injury(thigh) in the Latvia game tonight.
Click to expand...

And that's the complete set! Every single player that has played in our back 5 this season has been injured. Yay!

We've had one of these before, but this probably the best full injured XI I've seen us with:

------------De Gea------------
-Rafael--Evans--Jones--Rojo---
--------Blind--Carrick--------
---Lingard-----------Young----
-------Keane------Falcao------

Cripes.
 
Last edited:
Are you expecting any players back for Arsenal?

------------Lindegaard
Valencia---Carrick--McNair--Shaw
--------------Fellaini

because that looks like a playground for Sanchez n co
 
Smalling played 2 mins for England, so I'd assume he'll be back.

Blind has knee ligament damage, will likely miss the Christmas period.

I mean, what can we do?

------------Lindegaard--------------
-Valencia-Smalling-Mcnair--Shaw-----
--------Herrera---Fellaini----------
--------------Mata-------------------
--Di Maria---------------Rooney-----
--------------RVP-------------------

I'd imagine. But it's crazy. In terms of minutes missed this season, we're about 10x that of City or Chelsea. (first team players) That's a far bigger problem than transfers or tactics. How can you expect decent defending when you literally have played the entire season without a centre back pairing making it through 2 matches in a row?
 
Blind supposedly out with at least 4-6 weeks with a tear in a ligament.. Also just read lvg had an injury occur once every 3 days (about 40) since taking over. Ludicrous.
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
Who said in here that with Blind playing a match in defense he would get injured? Can you place some bets for me? ;p
Click to expand...

Arsenal to win 3-1. You're welcome.

:)

The media to crucify Van Gaal pointing out that EVEN MOYES managed a 1-1 last year. Media fail to mention the back 5 having completed 17 premier league minutes between them in defence.

Welbeck to score a goal off his shin while trying to pass to Sanchez, media slaughter Van Gaal for letting him go, saying he's scored 3 times as many goals as Falcao but neglect to mention he's played 30x more minutes.

I can keep going if you'd like ;)
 
BobbyBox said:
We will never win are defence/defending is diabolical at the moment
Click to expand...

defense is that are only problem? I thought the fact everyone wants to assist Sanchez. I`d be glad to draw and even if either side wins it can`t be look at any other way 'lucked it' (not even a word haha.

good luck to both sides especially w/ Mike Dean at the helm.
 
Shock: Snide little challenge from behind by Naismith has injured Shaw.

Edit: Still playing...phew?

On a side note Rooney is finally looking up to speed this season. Seems faster than a couple months ago, and is playing more direct.
 
Last edited:
Yeah quotes are all over the shop.

On an unrelated side note, to all United fans I'd recommend stop using The Guardian for your news on us. Which is sad as it's my favourite paper, but Jamie Jackson is an absolute click-bait troll. He is an utter hack and doesn't deserve your attention.

I've been so disappointed with him I actually emailed his boss and former Manchester correspondent Daniel Taylor to complain. Haven't heard back.
 
beachryan said:
Yeah quotes are all over the shop.

On an unrelated side note, to all United fans I'd recommend stop using The Guardian for your news on us. Which is sad as it's my favourite paper, but Jamie Jackson is an absolute click-bait troll. He is an utter hack and doesn't deserve your attention.

I've been so disappointed with him I actually emailed his boss and former Manchester correspondent Daniel Taylor to complain. Haven't heard back.
Click to expand...

That's been obvious for a while to be honest, over the summer he made some terrible calls like Di Maria and Shaw both 'rejecting' us or there being no interest before we sealed the deal and him backtracking.

following that he had that 'Bellend' tweet in regards to LVG.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom