Manchester United Banter Archive September 23 2014

23 Sep 2014 20:39:58
I've calmed down now after almost smashing the telly on Sunday, the extremes of joy watching Di Maria's goal followed by the despair of our defending was almost too much to bear.

Anyway. I do wish LVG would talk less and show us how good he is. His systems so far have not delivered, Leicester was 3 points for taking yet we managed to lose them. Taking off our best player was not a good move. Failing to react to the obvious energy and shift in the game at 3-2 was also missed. LVG keeps banging on about his philosophy, how much he prepares, how successful he has been but given where we are I'd rather he kept schtum and talked through delivering results.

On Sunday the defence looked continually exposed. I like Blind but he wasn't sitting in front of them, he was all over the park. At the risk of upsetting his groupies I also didn't see much from Captain Wayne. Yes he ranted at the defence but his touch was horrendous and he continually passed short giving the ball away.

RVP is either not fit or disinterested. I'd play 1 up front right now (Falcao) and sit a couple in front of the back 4. That way, the full backs can bomb forward but we have cover at the back.

Shaw needs to play, no point paying that money and keeping him on the bench. Carrick will add calm and Di Maria is the star man who we need to nurture. But hey, I'm not a trophy winning Manager so what do I know?

Di maria can't play 90 mins yet it seems, maybe its the lack of pre season or the fact that the EPL is a lot faster then he is used to, if you remember the last to games he played he pulled up and had to be subbed

23 Sep 2014 11:44:19
I know there is the "if you're good enough, you're old enough" saying, but for me our CB just aren't old enough or good enough for the starting 11.

We need an experienced head in the center who has been around for a while, who can command his back line and who can rally the troops, at the current time we don't have that.

Evans has been around a long time it would seem but is only 26, hasn't improved and with the looks of things hasn't learnt one thing from Rio or Vidic, and still lacks the leadership qualities for that back line considering he's our most experienced CB.

Smalling along side Rio looked calm, looked like he was going to develop into a real player, but now he just looks lost.

Jones, great potential, but rash, injury prone and for me lacks the tactical awareness to be a top CB.

In January we really need to go all out for Hummels, which is the obvious choice.

We missed a trick not partnering Jones with either Rio or Vidic during the past couple of years, if fit Jones should have been the first name on the team sheet, to ensure he meets the standard required by this point in his career, instead there has been little to no progress from when we signed him.

Instead both he and Smalling have played bit parts in wrong positions and stagnated, the class isn't around them as they make mistakes now (so we get punished) and who are they learning from directly in training and asking questions of?

We now have a situation where the blind are leading the blind. Wouldn't it be great for Jones to have a bad game, be told what he needs to do and then have somebody like Rio or Vidic to hold his hand through that process of learning? Instead its all theory based, waffle.

It would have been nice for Blackett to be able to learn from Jones & Smalling now and the chain continuing, instead they are all left seeming bewildered.

I would just scrap the Smalling, Jones & Evans plan. The opportunity was wasted. We need 2 experienced CB's to come in and Blackett or equivalent to be partnered up so we get the cycle moving again.

Same will go for Wilson & Janujaz if we aren't careful. We leave it far too long to give these prospects responsibility - I blame previous management obviously for this because we now have no option but to think short term or we crumble.

SAF just thought signing prospects would be sufficient, he didn't think that you needed to give them regular games in their primary position. Foolish.

23 Sep 2014 12:43:54
Evans hasn't improved? He has been better than Rio and Vidic for the last 2 seasons and has had 2 bad games this year. We were doing ok defensively until he got injured on Sunday.

He is certainly injury prone, but to say he has not improved is ridiculous.

Ngiak agrees that Evans has been the most overrated centreback in the league
He is so bad that there is no way he is a certainty even for a team in the championship league
There will surely be 2 Centrebacks bought in soon
As Smalling is worse than Evans
gan

Evans is a good centre back it showed with Rio or Vidic and with Hughes for Northern Ireland he always was and will be a great centre back beside a more natural leader of a centre back eg Hummels or even Dante or Miranda for short term options

Evans is a squad player, prone to an error and a little injury prone. He is decent but nowhere near the standard needed. I look at Chelsea, Terry and Cahill, then at City Mangala and Kompany, what we had with Rio and Vidic. Evans isn't at that level, never will be.

The penguins is back although has possibly naked his head. Evans has been a real plus in recent years. He has looked shaky but that is the new system that expects him to bring the ball out. Not for this thread but I'm not sure LVG is displaying the tactical acumen we had hoped for so far.

Sheesh! For naked, read banged

24 Sep 2014 03:35:07
Banged and naked, the name of something I watched earlier.

23 Sep 2014 09:25:09
i see all the rooney haters are back out in force !!
how is it that rooney plays just as well as or better than De gae, rafael, Evans, Rojo, blind, rvp, falcoa and smalling yet its his name getting torn apart yet again !! WE GET IT ! YOU DON'T LIKE HIM ! jesus christ

I agree it wasn't Rooney's best game but it was far from his worst

Roberts! Damned if he shouts, damned if he keeps mum. Damned if he plays well, damned if he is anonymous. That is the fickleness of United fans. Agenda posting at its best. Beast was right if the others were showing half as much heart as Wayne, we won't be where we are.

Deeps.

Exactly! the thing is if you take rooney out of the team, you'll take what little passion we have away from it

The problem with Rooney is that he wants to be the hub of the team but he isn't good enough to play as our number 10. LVG said that he thinks Rooney is better as a striker, but Rooney thinks his best position is behind. It isn't: his touch, passing and positioning isn't at the standard we require.

Rooney should be told to stick to what he's good at and stay up front. All this Roy of the Rovers running around demanding the ball and shouting at teammates does nothing when he's being absolutely dominated by a 34 year old (who he also lost for the third goal).

For far too long his ego has been indulged by managers who are happy to let him believe that he is far more important than a 'mere' striker. He supposedly threw a hissy fit two seasons ago because Fergie wouldn't play him up front, yet now when we play two up top to accommodate him, he wants to be a number ten. As far as I'm concerned Rooney isn't happy unless he has a free role, like Moyes gave him. Some captain, who's more concerned about playing for himself than doing what's best for the team.

23 Sep 2014 12:46:13
Danny,

He wants to be the hub? Or the manager wants him to be the hub?

Danny, on the contrary Van Gaal thinks that Rooney's best position is as an attacking midfielder(check his quotes). He has not been wandering around especially after Herrera, Blind etc have come in. I don't know how can we blame our defensive naivety on Wayne. People talk about his missed clearance that resulted in the 3rd goal, but fail to see that if Wayne was not tracking back, there was NO ONE back there to defend. Our defence deserved a bollocking and rightly so! I think currently Rooney is the least of our problems.

Deeps.

Under moyes i could possibly see where you were coming from, but under lvg do you honestly think rooney has any say in where he plays, i just can't see it.

as for the running around like roy of the rovers goes, he's our captain who was trying to get everyone fired up.

please tell me what rvp (apart from the goal), falcoa or mata when he came on done any better then him.

Rvp has looked dire all season and hardly gets mentioned, i agree rooney wasn't at his best but like somebody mentioned he certainly wasn't the worst on the pitch by a long shot.

far too much rooney hating going on on this site of late, but tell me this, how can fergie, moyes, lvg, giggs, hodgson, capello, mcclaren and eriksson all be wrong plus mouriniho wanted to sign him ! he must be doing something right

I don't mind Rooney playing Roy of the Rovers IF he is in the free role. My problem comes when he is our outlet upfront and he is trying to pick the ball up from the back 4. So long as we have 2 strikers and midfield runners Rooney can roam no problem for me.

The key question is if he should be picked ahead of Mata, I say no. But then he is the chosen captain and only player who seems to have real passion. When we play well you don't need that tenacity, it's games like Leicester where we needed that quality and he showed the others up. Hopefully his contributions with the ball will start matching up to his passion without it soon.

Sterbo
What do all them managers know ?
Yes they know a lot about football and yes they are in a great postion to judge rooney, working with him and all the other players on a daily basis .
But people on this site know far more.

As for he can't be dropped as he is captain.
Well i would of though LVG would of been fully aware of that when he made the decision to make him captain.
So i think that tells us a lot about lvg opinion on rooney.

But what does LVG know

Lol jred ! what do they know indeed.

you can't manage all players the same way, some need to know they are doing well and are safe in order to perform, some react better to a giant boot up their a***, it all depends on the character.
maybe lvg is just giving rooney what he believes he needs to perform

23 Sep 2014 18:29:06
Think about it logically, Wayne wouldn't drop deep to get the ball if he was getting good service from the midfield would he? We know he loves scoring goals. If the defence and midfielder were operating to a high standard he wouldn't drop deep, he only does it when we're struggling to get any rhythm going and that's when he gets frustrated and goes searching for the ball. How can he be blamed for that?

Oz he was doing it against QPR?

23 Sep 2014 08:06:13
What are people's thoughts on joesph yobo to fill a gap, he's available and has premier league experience, plus we need a defender!!

Sure, let Rio go and bring in Yobo, true mark of a champion. smh

23 Sep 2014 09:29:38
mbd you're comparing yobo to somebody we have not got anymore (ferdinhand) instead of what we have now. we need an experienced cb to settle things down a bit