11 Nov 2014 11:26:08
Hi guys, didn't get to see any football this weekend due to other arrangements. My question is was we really that bad ? and how did blind do at cb ?

1.) 11 Nov 2014
To summarize, they allowed us to keep the ball which we did and created no chances during the game apart from the deflected shots by mata. The passing was slow and sideways and we persisted with going out wide to an ineffective januzaj instead of playing through the middle with quick one two passing.

Blind had little to do in terms of defending.

2.) 11 Nov 2014
Very very bad. Blind did ok, wasn't tested, Palace just came for the draw and didn't pose much of a threat. Valencia did well against Bolasie and McNair/Blind had one bad moment between them but nothing else of note.

Our problem has been going forward all season as people are now starting to realise.

3.) 11 Nov 2014
11 Nov 2014 12:02:25
Strebor,

I see you got the 2 beacons of hope replying first to your post.

We weren't great, shaw has to have a special mention who was the best player on the pitch and will be a major asset against teams like that who come for a draw, his pace caused them problems and on the overlap he is fantastic.

Palace were happy to come for a draw which obviously they didn't get so in the end we did manage to break them down and hold on for a vital 3 points.

Beast, our problems this season have been at the back, lvg has changed the formation to make us stronger there and it has in turn affected the numbers we are getting forward. It is all about finding that balance now as we have so much quality going forward its scary to think what they could do. Down the page you say it is all about the results, and against palace we got the result, so make your mind up.

If we were 'very very bad' and managed to get 3 points imagine what will happen when we are 'very very good'. Exciting times to be a red.

4.) 11 Nov 2014
Thanks for the reply guys, 3 pts was always a must this weekend for me, which was made more important by everyone else results around us. a good win at the emirates on saturday we'll hopefully start to kick on a bit

5.) 11 Nov 2014
GDS2 - No I say the most important thing at this stage is the performance, that is what has concerned me all season. Results are obviously very important and should come once we start playing better and as a team, (Palace didn't come for anything other than a 0-0 and they almost got it).

For the players we have we have looked very poor going forward all season aside from a QPR game who came to not get thrashed and Leicester for 45mins.

I do agree with you that this poor showing going forward has a lot to do with our poor defence. BUT wasn't the general consensus on here that we would outscore anybody so it wasn't as vital as it normally would be? Obviously LVG has compromised our great attacking potential to turn our defence from a 3/10 to a 5/10. Our attack could be 10/10 instead its a 4/10.

He has failed to balance it, not you or I.

6.) 11 Nov 2014
We've had lots of games like this even under Fergie. The most important was not to concede. We have 4 CB's who are injured, so the manager could not go gung ho at them and had to try to balance the team.
We won 1-0 and got 3 points, so he must have done something right!!

7.) 11 Nov 2014
Nomidfield finally someone has said it, if anyone else in the league had 4 cb's out I think they'd be doing as bad if not worse than us, who's Chelsea's 4th choice cb? Liverpools? Arsenals? They're down to bare bones as it is with 2 cb's out and look how they're struggling.

8.) 11 Nov 2014
The point is why are we down to bare bones? He didn't solve the problem during the summer that everyone in football knew we had. Why didn't he buy Vlaar for cheap or keep on Rio, they are better than sacrificing our whole attacking game.

9.) 11 Nov 2014
11 Nov 2014 14:29:05
Beast,

We have sacrificed our attacking game for one match, you seem to get too bogged down in the last match and forget the bigger picture. We will have players back from injury (or even buy someone in January if LVG has had enough) and when we do then we can start going a bit more gung ho. It is not as easy as just 'buy vlaar', he was unlikely to want to come and be 5th choice.

10.) 11 Nov 2014
GDS2 - We have only played attacking football against QPR and briefly against Leicester - both relegation fodder. The rest we have really struggled to breakdown if they allowed us possession or have been cagey affairs. Where was our attacking play against Chelsea, City, WBA, Swansea, Burnley, Sunderland, MK Dons, Everton & West Ham? All of those games we didn't create nearly enough for the players we have in our team - they are not being utilised properly.

I am basing my views on the entire season, not just the inept display against Palace mate.

11.) 11 Nov 2014
It was a stinker of a game but we got 3pts. We had a makeshift defence and struggled through, bit disappointed in certain star players not makig this 'their game' but its a win.

Didn't fill me with confidence but let's look forward. A draw, or win, at Arsenal would be excellent and then 2 winnable home games. we could take 7-9 points from those 3 and we'd be right in the mix.

We will never be perfect until we sign a worldclass leader for CB. But hopefully we can keep plugging away and take advantage of our immediate rivals being similarly inconsistent.

12.) 11 Nov 2014
Blind was terrible not only his defending but his passing aswell Mcnair was great getting forward and good passing Shaw and Valencia had great games albeit against a weak team Carrick was tidy in his passing but Fellani Januzai and Rvp really offer nothing Rooney dropped deep so couldn't get a hold of the game and i think Di Maria was carrying and injury Mata when he came on was prepared to run at the defence and was tidy with his passing aswell

13.) 11 Nov 2014
11 Nov 2014 18:18:10
Beast Rio clearly was past it last season and vlaar is nowhere near good enough, would have been a waste of money.

I think your being unfair on pinning it all on van gaal. He handed over his list of targets to woody and woody got rojo. Hummels didn't want to move and based on latest rumours would prefer the 'glamour' of London. Benatia wanted Bayern, and Wenger refused to discuss vermaelen. Apart from garay, a player linked to us for the last few years and a player both fergie and moyes passed on, who else was available?

Personally I think we could have moved for Indi martins or de vrij but that's more young players without the experience and could have blocked McNair and Blackett.

14.) 11 Nov 2014
MrE - If you have a bad illness without a 100% cure available do you:

A - wait for the perfect cure to come to market without any guarantees of a date and just suffer until that date arrives (if it does).

B - Take some partial measures to minimise the suffering so that you at least don't crumble whilst waiting

Money wasn't a problem, so Vlaar, Hangelaand basically any experienced CB who can lead would have meant we didn't have to sacrifice our team structure for one failing. We have stunted the team cohesion, formation experience etc, because we are weak at the back, this could have been avoided until the ideal players are available. A third of the season wasted.

15.) 11 Nov 2014
We did it with Blanc, Larson for example.

16.) 11 Nov 2014
11 Nov 2014 21:15:06
And? Two old guys who wanted one last pay day in England and neither blanc or Larsen could be termed a huge success.

Nobody last season wanted vlaar, one decent world cup later you want him here? You slate Evans, smalling and jones for always being injured. Yet would want vlaar whos missed how many games through injury?

Hangeland? Really?

As I said I would personally have gotten in either martins Indi or de vrij, young, knew the coach, not pricy to be a stop gap. Not aging players either past it or not good enough. Or even garay.

17.) 11 Nov 2014
Even Miranda mr e

18.) 11 Nov 2014
I'm just using them as examples. What I am saying is you don't have to ignore the problem, you can partially solve it if you are Man Utd with a pot of gold. LVG ignored the problem and as a result we find ourselves no further along in the process than what we were after pre-season. If we had a stable Centre back, we would have developed the cohesion and not sacrificed our attacking talent. We have only been attacked twice properly this season so Vlaar, Hangeland, even Rio would have been perfectly fine for a 4month -12 month window until potential primary targets become available and very cheap.

They would have been useful stop gaps so we could outscore opposition rather than sneaking draws or odd goal wins - plus added experience/leadership which is lacking.

Whats done is done, but this situation should have been easily avoided.

19.) 12 Nov 2014
Im sure that some where in this big bad world there was a cb available that maybe a poster on this site wasnt aware off

20.) 12 Nov 2014
12 Nov 2014 13:27:31
Agreed jred but I'm not sure how beast can say he chose to ignore it. We have little to no knowledge of transfers that go on. Just because we didn't sign one doesn't mean we didn't try. We just have no evidence either way. For all we know him and woody were sat there going through the search engine in football manager banging out phone calls and getting rejections.

21.) 12 Nov 2014
Mre
I agree but we also don't know that non where available like you keep saying

22.) 13 Nov 2014
12 Nov 2014 23:36:43
That's the point though. We don't know. We only know of the public ones: Rojo, hummels, vermarlen, benatia, garay. We don't know if anyone else was looked at, enquired about etc. The fact we only signed rojo suggests there wasn't much available. We can only go on established facts as were wasn't there to see everything. Rather than coming out with definitive claims of it was ignored. I don't think it was and I expect it to be sorted quickly.