Use our rumours form to send us manchester united transfer rumours.
28 Dec 2014 22:07:13
im happy with two recent performances, i know spurs second half was bad but that was tiredness. Come through the stoke game without injuries and we are nailed on for 3rd.
Got to say mata is coming good of late and I think the whole team is impoving
2015 will see us in the champs league and with a couple of high standard players signed hopefully a cb rb cm rw
28 Dec 2014 20:24:22
The mirror claim that united are planning on using DDG as a make weight for bale I just wanted to know if there is any truth in that. DDG has been our best player if I'm to be honest so don't really want to see him go
28 Dec 2014 22:29:08
Its the mirror, most of their sports writers are Liverpool fans so they tend to be quite anti united. And the mirror isn't the most reliable paper either.
28 Dec 2014 20:08:54
Do people think the 3 at the back is LVG's intention going forward or purely because of the situation we have this year? Dependent on what you read it could go either way.
If we are going to stick with it then I can see Vlaar with his organisation coming in cheaply in the new year, would allow a back 3 of Smalling (actually think he is improving this year), Vlaar and Rojo which could do well. This would allow for money to spend on a strong Holding midfielder to play with Carrick
If we go back to 2 CB's then i think we need to spend the big money!
I agree Smalling does look good this year i hope we go for a back four because Shaw and Rafael are class full backs the player that would really fix the defensive problems is Benedikt Howedes left sided centre back and really good player and expwerienced
I don't claim to know what the managers plans are going forwards, but I think LvG has said himself that he is playing 3 at the back because of the players he has available or in form. No so much the centre backs, but more I think the full backs. Rafael is either injured or not playing well most of the time, and Shaw has been out injured for weeks. This has left us with Valencia and Young who are both seen as wing backs rather than conventional full back, hence the defensive formation.
I don't think there is any point in trying to second guess LvG, because he will do what he wants, when he wants. When he was appointed, everyone and his dog was tacking about his philosophy, and how he was sure to play 433. Then at the World Cup we saw Holland play 532 / 352, and everyone assumed United would follow suit.
I think we will all just have to wait and see on a game by game basis, at least until he has recruited the players he wants.
For what its worth, I thinknLvG has done OK so far. Not outstanding, but not too badly either. Given the injuries we have had, we are in probably as good a position as we could have realistically unexpected at this point. He said himself at the start it would take 3 or 4 months before we saw the team playing as he wants. Performances have , on the whole, not been brilliant. But we are picking up the points that we need to achieve our "goal" this season, a top 4 finish. Of course we all want to win the league, but with City and Chelsea a step above us at the moment, 3rd would in my opinion be a satisfactory season.
28 Dec 2014 22:14:41
I think its a bit of quite a few things mate, the defence is suspect to say the least, add that 2 a slow midfield we have no pace.
The only genuine pace we have is down the flanks. But we have to many match winners that ain't wingers, so I think in order to not leave us exposed plus get some pace into our game we have to play 352.
I admit i don't like it and don't see it as our set up going forward. But until we can sort out our defence and get another CM in, it seems LVG's favoured formation.
Tbh I don't like the fact Strootman is being linked a lot again, he is a very good CM but the thing he lacks most is pace.
I agree but i think we have are cm in herra we need a cb and a rb and winger em is rues
I think Strootman would be a good option. He has as good a passi g range as carrick but he is also a tank. He's still faster than carrick too. But I think his phsyicality is what lvg thinks will allow him to play playera with pace (herrera rooney and di maria) ahead of him without losing the steel that fellaini provides or the calm head and range of passi g carrick provides
28 Dec 2014 17:47:16
Take the leicester freak show away, give us a 0-0 and we have the best defensive record in the prem.
Of course we need to improve at the back and CM but we need to get a bit more clinical too. 6 draws is a lot of dropped points!!!
Enjoyed today, confidence is really showing in some and we are getting entertained again. The UNITED way.
Oh and here's to the Jan Window rush on the site. Good look ED's!!!
My thoughts exactly.
I for one think the team have done a great job to be only 8 points away from the team at the top, with all the injuries we have had.
I too am enjoying our football. We are beginning to look like a class act again.
No question about it, however we have sacrificed a lot going forward as a result of the extra cover.
Most people thought LVG would blitz teams with our world class attackers, instead he has sacrificed the goals in order not to concede as many. His prerogative, but it is why we haven't been as exciting and up until recently created very little. He probably just thought the finishing would be a bit better so the few chances we typically create would be scored. A lot of faith in RVP and I don't think it has worked as intended, but things are clicking now.
28 Dec 2014 17:37:21
Generally an entertaining game and a fair result. In the 2nd half we defaulted back to passing to the back 3cbs then hoofing it up front, loosing possession and being put back under pressure. Substitutions were key today. Unfortunately with Herrera and ADM being injured we had no impact players to spur us on. Hopefully with two more additions in January and players returning from their injuries we should secure 3rd place and hopefully close the gap on the top two.
A fair result? We should have been home and dry after 45 minutes. The second half, even though we tired, we still created two great chances.
Two points drops IMO. That said, there were many positives. We were excellent in the first half.
We haven't lost in 9 games have one seven of them and 7 actually deserved to win the other two we are genuine title contenders only seven of city and 10 off chelsea that's only 3 loses to pass city and four to pass chelsea
Matas
You really think chelsea will lose 4 games this year and what we win the last 19 I guess right lol
I think if we can win at stoke, we have a run of fixtures where we have a realistic chance of picking up maximum points, bringing us into February, where both Chelsea and City have big CL fixtures - plus Chelsea are still in the league cup.
If we are within six point of Chelsea - and that is a big if - come February, I think we would be in a decent position to fight for the title. A lot depends on the injury front IMO. If we can get everyone back fit, and get a consistent side for the second half of the season - maybe with some new additions - then I don't see why we can't mount a proper challenge. We have the quality too, IMO.
28 Dec 2014 16:52:32
Hi Guys
I thought first half we were very impressive and should have been at least 2 goals ahead.My gripe for the day is why did we go back to passing backwards to our back 3 none of who look comfortable on the ball.I thought Juan Mata was excellent in the first half and Carrick played a couple of excellent passes that created chances.Still we havn't lost and we move on to Stoke.
28 Dec 2014 16:24:17
Eds
Why was my original post and replies on RVP finishing deleted if i may ask. There was nothing in any off it to warrant it ?
{Ed002's Note - I imagine your discussing money was the issue. Money is a subject we would rather avoid because soccer fans tend not to be very bright and they become easily confused when it is discussed.}
28 Dec 2014 21:59:35
Soccer?
It's football cowboy!
Tells us we aren't knowledgeable about finances, then calls it soccer? Pft ed2 ;)
Lol
{Ed001's Note - soccer is an English term, it was originally used to differentiate association football from rugby football, but not the English have this arrogance about the word, even though it was them that coined it! Bizarre.}
29 Dec 2014 10:40:18
In the modern game only 2 associations use the term soccer, Canada and USA.
{Ed002's Note - As you have demonstrated, Association Football fans are not terribly bright and are easily confused by even the simplest of terms, such as "soccer". I will try and stick to very short words on the MU page from now on.}
Guys I was only joking :) didn't mean to start an argument over it haha. I personally don't even care what it's called.
By the way dude, Australia call it soccer as well, not just USA and Canada
29 Dec 2014 16:59:40
.....abuse removed..............
{Ed002's Note - Another piece of vegetable matter scraped from outr collective boot.}
28 Dec 2014 14:26:13
I think it was shappy who posted we don't need hummels, i think today shows how much we do .
we need a cb who is good on the ball and can play a bit, its vital to the way lvg wants to play
Agree the only time we look shakes is when the defenders have it so many times a couple of passes followed by a hoof. Evans is that poor and lacks so much confidence that he just hoofs it out like a defender from the 8o's.
28 Dec 2014 15:44:27
Thats not quite right Jred, I said that I wasn't totally convinced that Hummels was the right man due to his injury record, cost and the weaknesses in his game.
We clearly need better CB's.
28 Dec 2014 15:49:12
jred misquoting people again? I won't have it :)
26 Dec 2014 11:05:11
The big two Mats Hummels and Kevin Strootman, i'm going to go on record and say I don't want them.
Shappy
Chris redman
I can't understand how i made the mistake.
For me hummels is one of the best ball playing cb in the world .
I think we need that type of player
The commentators here in the US suggested that the long clearance was a deliberate tactic to avoid the press. If so, it was very effective because we carved to plenty chances.
28 Dec 2014 20:29:29
Jred, I don't want Hummels if he is going to cost anything more than 25m as I feel his injury record along with the flaws in his game could cause him to be considered a flop if he moves to us.
Veron was one of the best midfielders in the world and one of the biggest names in world football when we signed him. He was never awful for us but he never lived up to the billing or the price tag. He was supposed to take us to the next level, but a combination of the tiny flaws in his game were exposed by the nature of the premier league and the style of football we played at the time.
I feel Hummels could end up being another Veron as although he is a world class CB he has some very specific flaws in his game which could be badly exposed in our league.
Plus let's not forget our current manager felt it fine to let Hummels leave Bayern as he felt Badstuber was a better player. He also isn't the kind of manager who admits he was wrong often.
Shappy
you could say that about any potential signing
29 Dec 2014 01:24:06
Of course you can pick flaws in any player as no player is perfect. I could say Ronaldo doesn't track back, or Messi doesn't defend corners very well.
But my point with Hummels is his specific flaws are potentially damaging in our league. Like how Veron didn't suit the premier league Roy Keane wouldn't have been half the player he was if he plyed his trade in Spain. How many times have we heard pundits say about Messi "yeah he's good, but how would he do on a cold wet monday night away to Stoke".
Hummels has a real tendancy to switch off and has absolutely no recovery pace to win it back, in the helter skelter end to end nature of the EPL switching off at anytime during a game will cost your team a goal especially if you play in defence.
Rio got away with it for many years due to his pace to get back at players. But the moment he lost his pace his performances dropped dramatically. Hummels could very well struggle, and considering we would need to spend in excess of 40m probably as much as 45m, for me that represents too much of a gamble.
My personal feeling is that Hummels gets so much press time due to a lack of big name CB's in world football. He is good maybe even great. But how does he stack up against the greatest defenders who have ever played? If you had a choice of signing Hummels or jump into a time machine and bring back a 25yo Vidic who would you sign? That should show you the lack of real top quality CB's there are atm.
but that doesn't mean we should sign the most recognised rather than the one who best suits our needs.
Oh and one last point, how many of the Dortmund players who have left Dortmund have actually looked as good or better than when they were at the club? Klopp did a great job of bring a group of players together who complimented each other and and played them in a system that made the team greater than the sum of its parts. We found that out with Kagawa who never settled and was unable to replicate his world class form in the EPL or for us in europe. A point worth considering.
Gotze and lew have both done well .
as for kagawa i said from the the start he would struggle in the epl.
Unlike hummels who i think will do well
hummels would fit the lvg perfectly imo.
29 Dec 2014 09:31:56
Goetze has done well, but Lewandowski certainly hasn't been as good for Bayern as he was for Dortmund. He hasn't played poorly. But both those players have stepped into a team that are playjng very well, its always easier to play well when your not expected to be the saviour of the team. Plus both of them are still playing in the same league. So haven't had to adapt to a new culture, style of football, and everything else that comes with entering a new league in a new country.
And you say Hummels is a LvG type player, and on the face of it he seems to be. But don't forget LvG has managed him before, and he thought he wasn't good enough for Bayern so sold him to Dortmund. Hummels likes to play on the left of the centre back pairing, but he is right footed. LvG likes balance and prefers to play a right footer on the right and a left footer on the left. So is he really an LvG type player, or are we convincing ourselves that he is because we want him to be signed?
Shappy
Hummels left munich before lvg was the manager.
29 Dec 2014 13:58:37
Hummels transfer was agreed in principal before LvG joined Bayern, he was consulted and agreed with the people within the club that Hummels should be allowed to leave as they had Badstuber coming through. Bare in mind that Hummels father and agent was employed by Bayern and worked within the youth set up at the time, which probably complicated matters. At Bayern they believed him to be injury prone and that was the overriding feeling within the club and the driving force for the to let him leave.
Now he has blossomed into one of the top CB's in the world, but as yet he has yet to complete a season without being injured for a proportion of it. So maybe Bayern had a point. So do we want to sign another injury prone CB let alone one for a fee inexcess of 40m?
Add to that the fact he might not be quite right for the EPL.
Shappy in one word yes.
Hummels went out on loan 12 month before lvg was at the club and left 6 month before .
Not really sure why any of that is relevant .
As for injury prone he has managed 42, 46, 42, 34 club games a season over the last 4 year .
united and lvg need a ball playing cb and imo hummels could well be that man
29 Dec 2014 20:02:45
Jred his club play nearly 60 games a season, and he's managing to be fit for around 2/3's of those games. How much is a player worth who will miss one game in every three, at best he'll be fit for three out of four games. That means on average he will miss at least one weekend of football a month sometimes two.
The guy is a world class crock, great when he's on the pitch. But just how often will that be? Can we really afford to risk 40m plus on a player with that kind of injury history?
Shappy
Top players don't play in every game pal they get rested so i think your numbers are a bit fudged
He got injured last year but played 130 games over the previous 3 seasons
So not a crock in my book .
28 Dec 2014 14:12:07
I thought we played some of our best football of the season in the first half. We created at least half a dozen great chances. Unfortunately they were squandered by RVP and Falcao, and some excellent goal keeping.
In the second half we clearly ran out of steam, but even then Mata had a fantastic chance. Spurs had a couple too, but on the basis of the first half, given the supposed quality of our strikers, we should have had the game won, rather than having to hang on for a 0-0 draw.
I'm not going to criticize the defence after not conceding a goal.
28 Dec 2014 14:21:54
Despite playing well(at least better than earlier games) LvG saw fit to make 3 defensive changes?
180 mins for RvP in 3 days?
The game was crying out for Wilson. Wilson wouldve created more space for Falcao
28 Dec 2014 15:05:57
Great first half and should have wrapped the game up.The days of a draw especially against teams lower down the league being a decent result are long gone. That's 5 points out of 9 or 2 out of 6 against Villa and a poor Spurs. If I was being cynical LVG couldn't have stressed to the board any better the need to spend again. No quality on the bench and tired, old, and injured players coming back to form through out the squad playing two games a couple of days apart. We looked knacked, and over run in the 2nd half.
I think people are being a little over-critical. We should have had the game well wrapped up by half time, but for some outstanding goalkeeping and a couple of misses you'd have bet your house on being converted.
But at the end of the day, a draw away at Spurs, and being unlucky not to win, and being on a run of 7 wins in 9 with now losses isn't anything to be ashamed with. and if you'd have looked at those 9 fixtures in August you'd have definitely taken 23 points out of the possible 27.
Today was frustrating, undoubtedly, but it ain't so bad, looking at the bigger picture.
No* ashamed of*
Missed a real chance to close the gap today least we haven't lost any ground with the harder fixture today.
Flappington
Don't come on here spouting absolute common sense. You can take your realism and stick it where the sun don't shine . mate!
28 Dec 2014 12:41:09
I know quite a few people on here don't rate him, but I hope that we sign cuadrado from fiorentina in January.
My rational is he is very similar to Valencia in that he is physically strong, quick, can defend, but most importantly he can cross a ball and is more direct.
An added benefit is he plays with falcao in the national team and as such will know the type of balls he likes played into the box. Might help falcao move into overdrive.
Personally I wouldn't rush for Cuadrado, he seems a very inconsistent player and could see him become the new Nani.
Can't believe I am saying this, but our performance got so much worse when Valencia went off. Thought Raffael and Evans were woeful. Nowhere near the quality we need.
Raphael just came back from injury, did he not ?! Give the lad couple of games to get in the rhythm. At the end of the day, we kept clean sheet.
I wouldn't turn down Cuadrado, I see him as an upgrade on Valencia. However, I think we have a few far bigger priorities before we think about him.
28 Dec 2014 12:37:31
Young having a good game again so far. Jones making bonehead tackles and giving fouls away in dangerous areas. Everything coming from the left side, Valencia has no end product.
I guess the manager saw the same thing Rafael on for Valencia.
28 Dec 2014 11:22:00
Biggest surprise yet this season, Just been announced, same team as boxing day, Shaw back but on bench.
28 Dec 2014 11:19:55
Same exact starting 11 as last game. DM, Fellaini, Herrera not even on subs bench. I am starting to believe we are being lied to and there is much more to theses injuries than they are releasing.
One positive, rafael and shaw on the bench. Hope our back 3 can handle spurs front line which is pretty good and quite mobile. 352 it is again gulp gulp gulp lol
28 Dec 2014 11:50:38
ADM came back as a sub against Villa and then got injured again. What the heck is happening?
Fellaini was initially said to have an illness and now has a rib injury?
28 Dec 2014 11:57:03
Apparently Fellaini now has a broken rib. It's not a conspiracy.
28 Dec 2014 11:57:21
The unchanged 11 might be to do with the fact that lvg didn't have the time to prepare us for the spurs game like he usually would, and as we performed well against Newcastle he decided not to mess with it, hope our players aren't too tired though
28 Dec 2014 10:40:43
Hopefully its just paper talk, but would anyone agree to a swap for ddg and bale? I wouldn't! I think as good as bale is, we need to build from the back and ddg is a must stay.
If we are stupid enough to sell him and Real are asking a silly price for Bale, then I wouldn't let Real have ddg for anything less that £70m.
Hopefully, it won't come to that though. Personally, I would rather sign rues for a lot less, if he's willing to come to United.
I'm with you Nomid - we need DDG more than anybody. A solid keeper for the next 10-15 years is literal gold dust.
I agree and we should not sell ddg under any circumstances as it would be one step forward 2 backwards.
I don't think we need to spend crazy money for a winger in Bale. We can fix the right side by a lot less money and there are other great choices out there.
Memphis Depay looks like a great player we must not miss IMO. We should spend big money on a key central midfield player and a CB and right back if you ask me. Would love to see Shamus Coleman come in.