Manchester United Banter Archive January 02 2015

02 Jan 2015 16:46:50
Hi all, been on this site 3 years now love the banter on here.
I love all the comments on van gaal and the job he's doing.
The point that stands out the most for me is the experience and personal we've lost, the 3 big ones, vidic(club captain), ferdinand, evra, all in defence.Now I don't know the definition of rebuilding a football 1st team but to me this pretty much looks like a rebuilding process than anything iv seen before at any other top club.3rd place will do me fine and epic fa cup for us with the quality of our football increasing as the season progress and we get oor best player in di maria back and the rest of our boys.

You are right about the loss of those 3 big players being massive in terms of experience, totally underestimated by a lot of people (not Giggs though). They weren't really contributing much football wise, but LVG certainly underestimated their calming influence and how weak he left us with them moving on.

I personally don't think Carrick is all that, but look at how he has helped the team returning to action, just imagine if we had kept Rio, Vidic or Evra more for their organisational/talking quality than anything else.

Rio may be past it, but he would have lifted the current CB's performances twice as much just being in the team in my view with this 3 at the back system and realistically LVG had no chance with Vidic to be fair.

I hope we recapture the form we showed against Newcastle.

Not that it seemed we had much choice in the matter but losing all 3 has been catastrophic
to replace one out of that 3 would be nigh on impossible but replacereplacing all 3 is an absolute nightmare. The one I would have liked to keep was Evra he seemed so influential behind the scenes and a true warrior.

02 Jan 2015 22:59:49
Yep was always going to be tricky.

Unfortunately we had let it go so long before replacing these guys that it was too late. Apparently this was LvG's fault (obviously!) but in my book it should have been sorted a long time ago, by SaF.

03 Jan 2015 01:51:52
I agree but we should of started to rebuild at the back first that's what I always thought you start from the back the. Work are way forward but we had so much died wood at the club and needed to get rid of a few first

Beast

Your comment re Rio, Vidic and Evra.
1) "LVG certainly underestimated their calming influence and how weak he left us with them moving on" note the emphasis you place on HE, being how weak you think LvG left us. Vidic left and agreed the deal when Moyes was still there and apparently when he found out about the change asked Woodward if there was a way out of the deal so he could stay. Rio's legs had gone and he has struggled with QPR let alone us, personally I would have kept him however only as a defensive coach but if he wanted to play on, no doubt he would have wanted decent money so can't disagree with him being allowed to move on. Evra was subject to dogs abuse at times and we bought the best young English left back plus Rojo so I can see the logic there. They have been injured which has exacerbated the situation. A lot is down to what the players want and the only one of the three for me to have kept on as a player was Vidic, however that was out of LvG's hands.
It seems another blame LvG post however I don't think he got that wrong, Rio and Evra were not the issue but why was Vidic so disillusioned with United under Moyes that he left perhaps is. Maybe LvG may have kept Vidic if he could but for me there is no blame on LvG for those situations. The bigger question is why SAFs purchases and reliance on Jones, Smalling and Evans have been shown to be dubious decisions? Why did SAF not ensure top class centre halves of a decent age were in place when he handed over? What influence was Giggs opinion given to LvG in relation to the centre halves already in place when he arrived? If Giggs was telling him Jones, Smalling and Evans had great potential that may have influenced LvG. Let us not forget Giggs, bar a few weeks, played with them so his initial judgement would likely have been clouded. Those are the real points to understand for me.

Red Man - I'm not preaching that everything is LVG's fault, obviously the ball was dropped by SAF toward the end. However we all knew about our defensive deficiencies, Giggs told LVG he should keep Rio "he would start every game for me". Rio is not the same and is out of his depth at QPR agreed, but he has to defend for his life at QPR, at Utd it would be about possession from the back and supporting our inexperienced defenders - our whole team changes with one ball playing defender look at Carrick and he isn't a defender.

You can't realistically compare Rio at QPR with Rio at Utd, completely different roles are played by the CB's. But that is up for debate.

A blind man could tell you that Evans, Smalling and Jones are not to be trusted injury wise or experience wise. Just because SAF and Moyes didn't address the problem properly, doesn't excuse LVG for doing the same, especially with 3 years of proof and a transfer war chest.

First thing I would have done was buy a top class CB, LVG didn't and we are paying for that now in my view, the difference between 3rd/4th and title challenge, easily avoidable.

Beast

All very well saying LvG should have bought a top class centre back. Who did you think was truly available last summer who would have been good enough and additionally would have been willing to accept a year out of the Champions League? There has to be someone suitable otherwise you get second best and the slide starts like it did for Liverpool.

Rio's legs had gone and he was struggling in games for us. If Giggs was recommending Rio so strongly, then his position as Assistant Manager should cause concern.

So years of SAF failing to address it and the two windows of Moyes, yet
the half a window LvG got due to the late arrival after the World Cup when the club was less attractive given the Champions league omission draws such criticism? Seems inequitable.

We need to see how he addresses it, no good buying someone that isn't better than what we have. If a good one becomes available it could be now or next summer, hopefully a Champions League place would also make us more attractive, something LvG didn't have to offer. Seems that gets overlooked, he started without the lustre of a CL berth to entice people. Personally I will judge his transfer activity on 1st September.

I know we have had this debate before, but if we could spend £60m on ADM then we could spend £20-£40m on virtually any CB in world football. This being out of the CL talk is just a tool used to appease the fans, we had Falcao, ADM both sign, other clubs who have missed out on CL football previously have signed world class players, money talks and we had the money.

We still had Vidic & Rio with Moyes & SAF, the plan was for them to help Smalling, Jones & Evans develop, but this plan failed because of how unreliable those 3 are fitness wise. I don't see just throwing the dice like LVG has as a good plan this season frankly, especially when everyone knows you can't rely on what we have and Rojo was a last ditch gamble based on a good World Cup (as left back primarily).

Next year will be harder because we will have more games and teams will be fearing us more, a missed opportunity this season to win the league if you ask me.

Kagawa went to Dortmund, Juventus wanted Nani & Hernandez. Perfect opportunities to sort out one of their awesome CB's - opportunity missed.

02 Jan 2015 14:33:13
As the media links us to yet another young centre midfield starlet one that has gone unnoticed is Nick Powell, he came back today from his loan. Early on in his career (not that he's old but we're talking 3 years ago now) he was likened to Paul Scholes and people screamed for him to be brought into the team and be given his chance, he looked great in his first game but since then he's looked out of his depth. He had moderate success at Wigan but this current loan spell hasn't worked at all, not really his fault he's struggled with injuries and a struggling side who clearly don't trust him to chuck him straight in. So my question is where do we go from here? Is it time to cut our losses and get maybe 1-2 million, and we might see him go on to be another Chris Eagles or do we see him getting another loan? Me personally I was a massive fan of his but he's not done much since to impress me, I think he needs another loan, perhaps at somewhere like Brighton or possibly Wigan again, I don't think he's quite ready for premiership football.

02 Jan 2015 16:04:00
He doesn't like the club, has a bad attitude, and isn't good enough. Can't wait to see the back if him

02 Jan 2015 16:34:22
he'll be sold.

The feedback from Leicester to Van Gaal will be dismal.

I'm expecting a quick sale to somebody like West Ham or perhaps a relegation scrapping team.

(my blog covers it on more detail)

Get shot, he looked out of his depth and has not progressed at all.

02 Jan 2015 16:43:44
There seems to be questions over his attitude that have followed him from Wigan to Leicester. He's had a few good games here and there but never managed an impressive spell. Thought he was a real talent but not so sure he will make it at at the top level any longer. I wouldn't mind seeing him having one last chance on loan bit if his attitude is not right I would just move him on tbh.

No good enough and never will be, i can't understand why so many people hype him up, comparing him to paul scholes is a insult, good luck to him tho wherever he ends up.

SAF was the one who made the comparisons, that's why everyone hyped him up.

02 Jan 2015 21:11:49
LVG has been tasked with winning the PL and the CL during his 3 years with the club. If Nick Powell is one of his backup midfield options then he's doomed. Unfortunately he will have to move on.

03 Jan 2015 11:22:55
One of the Eds had something to say regarding nick Powell, and leicester which might throw a different light on things.
Wrong club / manager to go to, still might have a future, I hope so anyway.

{Ed001's Note - it is very harsh on the lad, Leicester was a terrible decision by the club. Though he has been mishandled from the moment he arrived. But then he should never have joined United when he did, it was the wrong time for the club and the wrong time for him. He wasn't ready and it has shown. However his time at Leicester was never going to be a success working under Pearson, who would rather every player runs themselves into the ground than had any talent. He is one of those that doesn't cope well with personalities. It reminds me of Howard Wilkinson at Leeds, the way he was happy to marginalise Cantona because he wouldn't just do as he was told. Not comparing Powell with Cantona, what I am saying is that some managers don't like players to have a mind of their own, they want them to just shut up and do as they are told. It can make even the best ones get pushed onto the sidelines.}

03 Jan 2015 14:12:56
We'll said Ed 001 thanks for the insight

{Ed001's Note - no worries mate, I just hope the lad makes the most of his talents, because he is an outstanding player, potentially.}

02 Jan 2015 13:23:49
Christ there is some nonsense being spouted on here recenly. You would think we are on an 11 game losing steak. I get that the performances haven't been great, but people are trying to manipulate their own views to suit their anti LvG agenda. Eg Fresh and his ' we are only playing 353 to accommodate RvP'.
I'm sorry guys, but our biggest problem is our defence. Some of them are clearly not good enough, but they are not as bad as they are currently showing. If we can defend this badly with 3 centre backs, imagine how fragile we would be with 2. And as for criticising our tactics, that changes on a game to game basis, depending whether we have won or not. Whatever formation we play, we seem to be struggling for creativity. When you have players like Carrick, Rooney, Mata, RvP , Januzaj, Falcao etc all on the pitch, and we can't create opportunities, then maybe it is down in a large part to the players. You may not all agree with the managers tactics, but do you think he tells the players to go out and not pass to each other, to deliberately lose the ball, to misplace passes, to lose concentration, to defend like a 10 year old, to lack desire and the very basic skills of an amateur footballer, let alone a professional one? Of course he doesn't.
My view on this is the same as last year. We have a manger who may not be the best one for Manchester United, but he is trying to do what he feels is right for the team. Our priority is CL football for next season, and we are well on course for that. Football is all about opinions, fair enough, but please just stop all the hysterical whinging. We have spent a lot of money, but we will not challenge for trophies until we sign 2 good CBs, a decent RB and a top CM.
LvG has had an indifferent start, hampered massively by injuries to key players in key positions. He has no doubt made mistakes, but surely that is to be expected from a manger who has never managed in this league before. For goodness sake, him him a chance, and let's not go down the same route as last season. Otherwise, we will be changing managers every 10 months, and that won't do anyone any good.

My major problem is that the defence is poor, but so are a lot of the opposition attackers. We are over compensating for our weak defence and losing our own breath-taking attack as a result.

LVG is giving too much credit to opponents and as a result is uber negative.

Totally agree Betty. I replied earlier following a post from Red Man expressing the same thing. Our single aim this season was securing Champions League football, and as far we're on course lying in 3rd place.

The question I have is this:

'If we had a fully fit squad for the 1st half of this season, and was playing some seriously attractive football, but was still in 3rd place, would people still be moaning then, in the knowledge that we're giving it our best, but we're no better than 3rd place?'

'What if our football was a delight to watch, but we were say, 5th in the league? Would people be more happy then??'.

The point I'm trying to make is that LvGs single and only requisite for this year was CL football for next season - it's well documented that financially we can't have another season without it. Now imagine the increased pressure that statement alone puts on the players, staff and the manager too. Imagine if you got told that your business will fail if YOU and YOUR sales team don't hit a certain target this year. Imagine after hearing that, you then had to get through the first half of the financial year with half of your staff missing through illness.

As far, LvG is steering us into 3rd place even though he's had 44 listed injuries in the first half of the season alone. Is he a messiah? No. Is he perfect? No. But what he is doing is making big decisions, and doing a good job in what is a massively important season for us. For that alone, he has my praise and support.

WF Red Devil

The defence is the worst part of the team and injuries to Rafael and Shaw have not helped. But we are only playing 3-5-2 to fit RVP in alongside Falcao, the other reason is that our choice of right wingers is poor. It's not spouting nonsense.

Patience is the key word but some people don't have any, for some its running out, me personally its frustration watching my team riding there luck every week but its MY TEAM and always will be regardless of how they play or perform, win or lose, that's the beauty of the game.
Just wish these freaking injuries would ease up and let us get on to some kind of run with LVG's preferred first 11 (must be very frustrating for him to).

Betty I always enjoy your posts and in general usually agree with what you say but it seems that on this forum at times people are not allowed to give an assessment of what they see without being told they are talking nonsense just because there view differs from other "regulars" I nor most of the people showing a concern about how we are playing have asked for the managers head or t argue that the process is complete but it is clearly obvious that some of his choices and tactics leave you scratching your head a bit.
I thought this was somewhere where we could discuss our club and have differences of opinions without resorting to name calling and clique building but it seems to get more like that every day.

Beast, I take your point to an extent, but what else are we supposed to do? Success is built on strong foundations. In footballing terms, that means a strong defence. Ours is that poor at the moment, I think the !amager feels he has to play in such a waymasmto compensate for our frailties at the back. We all like attacking, gung ho football. You score 3 and we'll cross four. But with our current defence it would be more like we score 4, they'll score 9!
Until we address the defence, I don't think we will see the free flowing, attacking football we all want. If, and when, the manager has the defenders capable of defending properly, then I am sure we will see a more attractive brand of football.
If we get those players, and we are still forced to watch boring, unattractive football, than you will be quite entitled to air your
views, however negative they may seem.
Let's just hope we van get our defence sorted sooner rather than later.

Ok Betty, let's say I accept your view that LVG has no option but to do what he is doing otherwise it could be Leicester every week. let's hope he changes this in the Summer, but he hasn't yet, so no progress yet for me, just firefighting and he was the one with the matches.

Who had a £150m war chest, the benefit of dozens of people and his own eyes, to know how injury plagued our defenders are to legislate for this inevitable issue?

If he is only doing what he can now, who is to blame for not addressing the issue when he could have?

Furthermore why is he killing our pansy defenders with gruelling training sessions if they are unable to cope?

If he is doing a good job due to the circumstances he is in, you have to ask who has large part to play in allowing those circumstances to occur.

Dean, sorry mate but i don't see how saying someone is talking nonsense can really be classed as name calling. And this was only my third post since "coming back" after a 3 1/2 month "break", so not sure I can really be a member of any "regulars clique". It is just my view that there is an anti LvG agenda amongst some posters. Like you say, this is a place to air our views and opinions. I was doing just that.
I mean no offence to FRESH, and didn't mean to single his post out, it was just an example. But to say we are only playing 352 to accommodate vanPersie is, in my opinion, nonsense. We have played the same formation when RvP was injured. With Rooney currently playing in midfield, we could play 442, 433, 352, 532, 4312 etc etc and still accommodate RvP +1 other up front. RvP may be a favourite of the manager, but that is because he knows him and knows what he is capable of.
LvG was heavily bemoaned after the Stoke game for taking Falcao off. Fair point, but Falcao is yet to play a full 90 minutes this season. And everyone and his dog could see how knackered the team looked in the second half against Spurs. Would would the view have been if LvG kept him on for 90 minutes and he picked up another injury, especially after saying quite publically, recently, that Falao has still not reached full fitness.
Like I said, football is a game of opinions. I never suggested people weren't entitled to theirs. All I ask is that people are balanced in their views and don't manipulate any given event to suit their own agenda's. We had the same last year under Moyes. The difference is, LvG does have the experience and the credentials to manage a "top" club like United. At the end of the day, some people have already made up their minds that LvG is the wrong man. And it would appear that they WANT the team tomfail just so that then can say "I told you so".
I doesn't really matter what we all think. LvG is the manager, and he will continue to make his own decisions. Whether they are right or wrong, and whether we like them or not.

Falcao did play 90 against Villa.

02 Jan 2015 17:31:51
Betty, stop spouting that common sense! 😊

Fair enough. It is not fair for me to lay what happens on here solely at you and I apologize for that but having been on here for the past 5 years and you being one of the most well liked and well respected posters on here I would most definitely call you a "regular".
The main thing I don't uunderstand is how be being a little surprised by substitutions and questioning why we are not creating more against teams we should beat is the beginning of an anti LVG movement.
Did you never question substitutions or tactical decisions that sir Alex made? I'm sure you did as did most of us would you have considered yourself anti Ferguson at that point? All I am at the moment is anti crap football especially after last season and with the investment and credentials of the manager I expected a little bit better if that is crime I am happy to be guilty.

Falcao played 90 mins at Villa and look how tired he was against Spurs. He missed 2-3 big chances that game which an inform Falcao would have scored

I think we can cope without Falcao for the Yeovil game Rohan if it is to protect him, he looked the most lively player and dangerous player on the pitch when he was subbed against Stoke. He also looked peeved at the decision.

Also if what I read today about us being convinced of his fitness and offering him the chance to sign permanently, the choice to remove him for fitness issues makes zero sense.

It doesn't matter anyway, just being picky .

Dean, first off thanks for the kind words you include. But maybe I haven't got my point across as I wished. People are quite entitled to comment on the boring, unattractive football. The bit that riles me is when people place the blame for everything on the manager, just the same as they did with Moyes. It seems that whatever LvG doesm, he get ridiculed for it by the same people. For what its worth, I hadn't even considered you as one of those posters. Maybe there isn't an anti LvG campaign, but there are certainly a 'posse' of posters who made their minds up about him long ago.
I'm not saying he is perfect, that he hasn't made mistakes, just that some will go out of their way tomsistort the facts.
You known the old saying about not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. I think it definitely applies on here at times. But heyn, that's why this is such a great site. I may vent off at times, but I Luv ya's all the same x

Thanks mate I very rarely rant and rave and don't particularly enjoy it and I suppose it shows how much we all love the club .
here's hoping to Yoevil getting absolutely smashed to bits and and a good display against Southampton (and a centre half or two 😉)

02 Jan 2015 11:02:42
Have I missed something? Everyone moaning about performances need to remember Roma wasn't built in a day.

Yes I am not happy about our disjointed attacking play, and our poor defending is a worry. But I do see a massive improvement from last season. People need to cast an eye back to last season and remember LvG has to totally rebuild a club from top to bottom after it was destroyed last season.

LvG has said himself it would have been an easier job to take over when Sir Alex had stepped down rather than after Moyes had destroyed all confidence within the squad. He now has us back to where we should have been When Sir Alex stepped down, we don't lose easily and have a fighting spirit again.

We also need to remember that we have had an insane number of injuries to contend with, as shown again against Stoke just as we welcome Shaw back Young gets injured. I don't think we have played a single game this season without at least one player named either on the bench or in the team who was last season playing in our youth set up. Now that hasn't been down to LvG wanting to give them a chance but due to the fact that we haven't had 18 first team players fit for any of the games all season.

We also need to remember that although LvG is an experienced coach this is his first season in english football. And with that comes the Christmas games which he isn't used to. We quite often opened up a lead over our rivals during that period under Sir Alex but that was due to him learning to master the winter games with clever rotation and training management. LvG has to learn that from scratch, and yet he has managed to get through that period doing something Jose Mourinho couldn't and remain unbeaten. So maybe a little credit might be fair.

Now the main grumble seems to be the playing style and that LvG is known for playing attacking football and that we haven't seen the best of that yet. We should also remember that LvG is best known for playing 433 which he hasn't played yet.

Why hasn't he played it? Well he has told us as much. He said at the start of the season that he wanted to play with two strikers as he had several top strikers in RvP, Rooney and Falcao but he didn't have the wide players. He even named dropped Di Maria as a world class winger along with Ronaldo and Robben. We then ended up signing Di Maria, but that is only one world class winger. That will expalin why he has played the system he has along with the injuries in defence.

I think we will see 433 next season. But we will need to get the right players in first.

Lets have a little patience.

We will definitely be investing in a right winger this summer. It could be anyone from Bale, Cuadrado, Depay, Reus or even Robben if he is leaving Bayern.

I also don't think that he will play the 4-3-3 till he has Strootman. He dropped the formation for Holland when Strootman wasn't available and I think he is doing the same here. We don't have that box2box midfielder like Strootman in the squad. The midfield three eventually will be Strootman, Carrick/Herrera/Mata and Rooney as the advanced one. Then hopefully a front three of Robben, Falcao and Di Maria (that would be my choice anyway).

We have added 150 mill of players so we should see an improvement on a very poor last season .
Have you seen an improvement in our play since the start if the season ?

02 Jan 2015 12:18:42
Of course Jred, we are generally controlling games better now and with that we are seeing us not lose games we would have certainly have lost in the first month or two of the season.

Is that not an improvement, but all great teams are built from the back, attacking players can't over commit if the defence behind them is shakey.

Injuries have descimated our defence all season, and until we bring in some less injury prone defenders to build a tight unit then we will struggle to get the best out of our attacking players.

The rhythm and flow will come we have seen signs of it, the first half against Spurs was possibly the best football I've seen from us in 18 months.

The improvement is there for us all to see, but we need to let him finish the job before we question how good he's done.

Funny that it sounds since fellaini has been out we have looked poor and very little in the final third.

I have no idea what has happened to Janusaj, Jones and Evans and they seem to gone backwards and in evans case almost championship type defending and laughable.

Anyway as Jred said it we have spent a lot f money so an improvement on last year is not that surprising and also what is helping is teams like Liverpool and Arsenal and Everton are having a very patchy to a disastrous season and their points total is nowhere where they were last year.

I think everyone is tapping themselves on the back because of our league position and not the football and in 20 games played so far there has been far and few games and periods were you think this is all coming together.

Every game every week is like a roll of the dice and no idea what to expect and for me creating very little and we have become the long ball specialist from the back and also from the midfield with the ball over the top. BTW LVG had Holland playing pretty mush the same in the world cup.

Finally before you get your knickers in a twist, I am not asking for a manager change but the football is poor and there for everyone to see.

GCU and Jred Excellent valid point that will no doubt get jumped on straight away .
we are led to believe the manager is a tactical genius and I am yet to see it.
I do think there has been an improvement on last year but that has to mainly be attributed to a massive investment and poor performances from top 4 rivals.
a couple of defensive additions and the midfielder we still crave and I think we will push for the total next year but this year we are a million miles away

Cgu, we've had 47 injuries to contend with!
Shappy got it right, patience is required. We want lvg to come over and within 4 months turn us into an all conquering, attractive, world class team! Are you guys serious?
Most of the players we bought have been injured for long periods. If we had them all playing, the team will be playing much better, but unfortunately, they've not been available.
And by the way, apart from Moyes utter rubbish football that we saw last year, fergies last 4 years wasn't exactly attractive to watch either. Let's just take a step back and think about it.
Some people on here have totally unrealistic views of what we can achieve. Lvg has done a very good job so far. I have every confidence that our team will improve significantly over the next 18 months.

We have had a lot of injuries to key players this season but we are still unbeaten in about 8 games or something, I think It may be more to be honest. But we are third in the league we've only conceded 1 more than city and Chelsea and everyone is slating our defence. I think in this new year we'll start stepping it up and closing the gap on the leaders. It's great to see that falcao is getting the chance and when di Maria and Herrera are offering the assists we will score even more

02 Jan 2015 18:56:51
Nomidfield, I hope they make the point with tounge firmly in cheek about the £150m considering they have all been out injured, lol. Thing us, I don't think they are!

You guys seem to have a short memory. We had massive injuries last year too. with rvp and rooney hardly featuring in the same game or always one just coming back and rusty. Jones, evans, Vidic, Rafael where also all out for long spells and so was smalling, fellaini hardly played and young had a long injury layoff and so did nani.

Stop using injuries as a reason for one teams lousy football and blaming another manager for being an person when he had to deal with the same issue.

Pull up the stats we i think we led the league or were in the top 3 in injuries last year.

Anyway if it makes you bleeding hearts happy we have been great and playing wonderful even though we have been lucky as sit not to have lost 3 or 4 more games and squeezed a few wins that on another day would have been a draw.

03 Jan 2015 01:13:05
I agree that usually injuries are no excuse. The fact that our record this year has been unprecedentedly bad means that it must be a consideration I would imagine, but I do agree we have to get past that. Tbf we have made it to 3rd in the epl so far which is the best we could hope for this year Imo, so it needn't be much of an excuse. But surely it will have hampered our playing style and ability to gel as a team? Which seem to be the subject of most of the moans.

In much the same way the £150m point only has limited relevance, as the vast majority of players purchased have missed a lot, if not most, of the games.

We keep hearing how good we should be after spending £150m but how many games have Rojo, Shaw, Blind, Di Maria and Falcao missed between them? Hardly had a good crack at integrating into the team have they?

Gav

I agree that that the purchases have been hardly on the pitch and mostly injured through out the season.

I don't understand why people feel like they have to defend things, we are playing poorly and although everyone points to our defending, I am more concerned about the lack of chances in the final third. It almost seems pedestrian to me and predictable. Although our defenders have had their individual moments of very poor play and stupidity, what has made them look worse, it is when asked to play out from the back which they are not good at and tend to hoof it upfield the minute they are under pressure.

I think we had 5 or 6 goal atempts against stoke and that is just absurdly poor in 90 minutes of football with what we had on the pitch.

03 Jan 2015 11:04:16
Shazza, we don't really need excuses as we are achieving what is expected of us, that's how I see it anyway. 3rd is great and its where we need to be this season.

I certainly take the point that our play is not yet fluent, that we are a bit disjointed going forward and that we are not attacking regularly or with enough purpose. I guess I am just more patient on that front. I think what we are seeing is foundations being put in place, before building the house, and I expect that to continue until May. Hopefully as Di Maria, Herrera and our fullbacks get fit we will see more fluid football, but I don't expect the full package until next season. Attractive football will be vital going forwards but for now top 4 is vital and the rest is a side issue.

I see this season for us as similar to Chelsea's last season. Manager in his first year, putting steps in place before the finishing touches come in ready for the 2nd season. Mourinho took some pelters last season from his own fans as well as others, but he quietly got on with building his team and look where they are at now.

Tbh I am amazed at what some people are expecting given the mess of last season and the massive transition we are in. People must be expecting higher than 3rd and sexy football even though we all agree that we lack the quality of Chelsea, city or the united of old? (in defence and cm)

Top 4 (ideally 3) for me, then next season no excuses we need to be 1) playing better football and 2) competing for major trophies. Some people just getting ahead of themselves IMO but i guess it is all about opinions.

Gav

I can see why you are ok with it when you look at it as you do and fair enough.

I think we are underachieving even given the turmoil of last year taking into account what we have spent and the form of Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal. It is more their poor form and inconsistency and we have been very lucky in a few games than our play that has us in 3rd place.

I do not believe we will be in 3rd place much longer if we play the way we are playing and things will eventually catch up. Let's hope that Arsenal and now Spurs do not get on a run.

I know at home we seem to be able to win games but our away form and brand of football is very poor and troublesome.

Offensively we are very poor and very little being created and no flow to our play. I am not sure how may goals we have scored from set pieces but would think quite a few.

03 Jan 2015 18:14:14
Fair play sharham, can't argue with much of that, fair points. Southampton is a big game then we have a run of more comfortable games where there will be little excuse but to achieve good results and better performances. I'm looking forward to seeing how we get on.

01 Jan 2015 23:14:12
Hi eds, can you post this as a blog post please.

Player and transfer analysis by Moon with link to downloadable 30 page PDF document

Enjoy the read and have a great weekend!

{Ed033's Note - that is up on the blogs page for you Moon. To read the blog either click on the above link or go to the Manchester United blogs page}

Read it and enjoyed every bit of it. Good job mate. I noticed you really took into consideration what we have been talking about here. Hugely appreciated and much respect!

02 Jan 2015 12:20:59
Great post Moon mate, a thumbing good read. five stars says the daily Shappy. lol

Brilliant read Moon. I have been championing Wanyama, Chiellini and Robben for a while now, very informative and thanks for taking the time.

02 Jan 2015 16:18:39
Cheers for the feedback guys!

I enjoyed writing it and actually learned quite a lot, especially about Falcao and Coleman.

two players, who originally, thought had played far worse (coleman)/ better (falcao) than what the statistics suggest.

Either way I loved writing it and time permitting I'm going to try and write a similar, monthly blog, or perhaps weekly.

I've got loads of potential plans in mind, so we'll see what happens!

It'll be interesting to know whether you guys want more players looked at (haven't got to be linked with United specifically).

Let me know what you guys think anyway!

I'd love to get feedback on options like Adrian and Reid among others.

Enjoy your weekend!

02 Jan 2015 01:53:02
Hey all,

The daily fail are linking us with Pogba, now I don't consider them to be reliable so am not holding out much hope but I was wondering what pogba's situation is. I'm sure I read chelsea were interested, what are his movements likely to be this coming year if any or is he settled at Jubentus?

I think he's developed into a brilliant player and i'd welcome him back, I realise some might be sour still about his departure but I understand his reasons and ultimately he's debeloped well as a result.

Cheers in advance eds/posters

Would love him back if he wanted to play for us again! Can understand him leaving when you know your that good and players like park and rafael are playing cm ahead of you!

Often you dislike a player for leaving, but I can't fault Pogba who left for the good of his career. If you are a promising youngster who can't get in the team ahead of Rafael at central midfield then yes, by all means leave. He has done well for himself and has become a tremendous player. The next Gaalactio for us? Remains to be seen but it is a move that I would love to see.

Pogba was greedy and thought he deserved to be in the starting 11 when he clearly wasn't ready, he spat his dummy out, complained and whined.

he should of shut up and focused on training well and making fergie change his mind

He proved himself as soon as he went to juventus, I'd sooner give a guy with massive potential a game in his natural position, than a RB who has never played cm, or park ji sung who runs round like a headless chicken!