Manchester United Thread

Speaking of pundits, I like Oliver Kahn. A lot of "Naahs" and "Gnaaahs" and he often refuses to answer silly questions but overall I believe he is spot on in his analyses particularly in rating the goalie performences.

Gerd, I guess you're right in pointing out one of many flaws this beautiful game is suffering.
 
Dont see the logic in using McNair as a right back in an away game when you have Valencia available. Got to try sticking to a settled defence now. Still too much chopping and changing
 
Typical United performance under LVG. All foreplay and no finish.

We were utterly, totally in control in the 2nd half but creating nothing, then Shelvey hits a reasonably easy save for Dave, deflects off a ducking Gomis and in. Think that was Swansea's only shot of the half?

Put simply, LVG's luck had to run out sometime.
 
knh4 said:
Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. Can see another season without champions league football
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Thing is we were pretty good against Swansea. Limited their chances outside of two corners, and kept the ball really well.

But we have no firepower. It's shocking to think looking at the players on paper, but Rooney/RVP/Falcao/Di Maria are creating absolutely nothing.

Herrera has more goals than Falcao, and I believe Di Maria too.
 
Having Fellaini is a double edged sword. He wins everything at the back stick so it's just too tempting not to just keep looping the ball back there and looking for the knockdown.
Problem with that is it's basically russian roulette. Just isn't going to be effective forever
 
I wouldnt start with fellaini. Should be used as an impact player when needed unless its against chelsea or city where extra physical presence is required
 
Inefficiency is a problem, but we got to stop having these ridiculous brainfarts in defense. I believe i said this before as well: but we lack that cunty side you unfortunately kind of need in a great team. It often seems other teams are trying to rile up our players and get em to lose their concentration.. And it works.

Despite the disappointment.. This was probably one of our better displays in a long time. We dominated but both our d and offense failed to do what they're supposed to do in some critical points of the game. Hopefully we won't be like the Dortmund of the early part of the season.
 
Speaking of the c*nty side of football - we need a lesson from LFC's midfielders. If you watch Allen/Henderson - their first action when closing down is to grab shoulders/shirts. They're all arms. They get tight and grab hold.

9.5/10 no foul is given, but it perfectly disrupts play and basically renders pace through the midfield useless because the can slow things down.

Given that, we need that side of our game. Our players are afraid to touch the opposition. And therefore we're easy to play against. We need to be more nasty, and cynical, because football is a horrible, cheaty, dishonest sport and that's the environment we need to play in.
 
Eh? Didnt think he did too bad. Probably played as well as rooney and even won em the penalty before he was questionably subbed off
 
Seems I may have been wrong about being wrong about Di Maria.

When you signed him I didn't rate him that highly, despite his purple patch towards the 2nd half of his final season at Real, but then he looked really good at the start of this season and I felt silly. He has probably been worse than Ozil now tho, another player I've never rated particularly highly.

Janujaz deserves a start from what I saw today.
 
G.Neville said "He rather buy Di Maria then Alexis" Im guessing he thought the price tag meant Di Maria is more valuable. In retrospect if, MUTD wins the FACup we could say his presence was just as important now to what Ozil did for the Arsenal last season :P
 
Last man, denying clear goalscoring opportunity = red card. Even though it should have been O'Shea and not Brown.
 
Mehtab does spout some rubbish but let's not bully the man, too much of that goes on here as I know only too well.

On topic, I can't see ManU getting top 4 after Libpool's resurgence - just checked and your remaining fixtures are brutal.

The summer will be huge for Man U. You will really need to hit the ground running next season.

Rome wasn't built in a day of course. Man U fans need patience right now.
 
How are the Utd fans feeling about LvG's comments lately? Creative midfielder, 20-goal striker, etc.

I really like Van Gaal, the arrogance with which he talks to the media (and calling them out on it) and normally the style of his teams (was a big Ajax fan when he was the manager and they won the CL). But the past 4-5 months he just seems to be looking for excuses over and over.
 
The creative midfielder thing is an excellent example of how crap the media are. His actual quotes were that we had a lot of creativity in the midfield, and now we need a player to balance that. So exact opposite of how the media has shaped.

And he's dead right on that. Almost every top team in world football over the past 10 years has had a 'ball winner' or 'destroyer' somewhwere in the midfield. Someone with energy and tenacity.

I like Blind, but he doesn't quite seem mobile enough to do it by himself, and doesn't offer enough going forwards to be part of a pair with an actual destroyer. So I think he's a utility man in the long term.

So I think we'll get a De Jong esque character in the summer. I would have loved McCarthy before he went to Everton, great player. Someone of that ilk.

Point 2: Think how much farther up the table United would be if one of RVP and Falcao performed how most expected at the start of the season. They've both been terrible, missing good chances and costing us points. So on that I think LVG is kind of correct as well. Hopefully Rooney will get his chance up top now.

So on those two things I'm okay with LVG.

But his football is dire. And no one who is a United fan is okay with that. I'd much rather we come 5th or 6th and actually play some football than this uber-cautious bullsh*t LVG is trying. I understand why - top 4 is his job - and he believes controlling matches will get him the points he needs. But the premier league doesn't work like that, and he needs to realise that soon or he'll be gone.

All said, the Glazers/Ferguson left United seriously in trouble, and I don't believe that any one coach would be able to instantly fix it. The media go on and on about United spending $140m this summer - but that's just one window. If you look at the last 5 years, United's gross spend is still £200m less than that of City and Chelsea - and I think the squads reflect that difference.

In just the last 18 months, United have lost: Giggs, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Kagawa, Hernandez and for all but about 3 matches this year Carrick. (and Zaha, Buttner etc) That's a proper clear out, and what we have left isn't quite getting the job done. RVP and Falcao probably need to go too, as does Evans and (sob) Rafael.

Put another way, of the team that was starting when we won the league just under 2 years ago, only Rooney, De Gea, RVP and Valencia remain. And Valencia's now a converted, aging RB, Rooney's in midfield and RVP is useless.
 
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