Manchester United Banter Archive October 05 2014

05 Oct 2014 21:30:24
I sat there today and the first half was a pleasure to watch. The football was as good as I have seen since 2009, we moved the ball exquisitely creating space and chances, going forward we were exciting and should have got more than one goal. You can start to see what LvG is trying to do, you can see the Barcelona football yet we need to take our chances when they come.

It is a pleasure, a joy, worth every penny to watch a player like DiMaria ply his trade. He looks like he is enjoying every minute. I wondered in summer about Madrids policy because they spent on Rodrigues after a good World Cup but an ordinary domestic season, but I was delighted we got Angel. Don't watch his pace, but watch his touch up close in tight positions, the ability to move the ball, it isn't about pace, which he has, it is about touch in close, he is a quality player.
DeGea had a fantastic game, from the penalty save onwards. That was the real game changing moment, just before half time, a goal and we would have been deflated but the save saw them walk off heads held high. He did what a great shot stopper does, he makes reaction saves, great reaction saves yet he still needs to dominate his box better to be a "great" keeper. I remember Schmeichel arriving and perhaps De Gea needs to learn to be assertive overall because the shot stopping was brilliant today.
It appeared that our legs had gone for the last 15 minutes, going forward we had energy but when our midfield had to run backwards they looked slow and jaded, a question should be asked of our fitness coach on that.

What a good three points and we are headed in the right direction, LvG has a vision of where we are going and if the football looks like the first half I buy it. Yes there is a bit to go yet, there will be setbacks whilst we are in this process, but hopefully everyone can see the direction, see the project being built. I enjoyed the game, the entertainment was worth the entry fee!

"It appeared that our legs had gone for the last 15 minutes, going forward we had energy but when our midfield had to run backwards they looked slow and jaded, a question should be asked of our fitness coach on that. "

Same exact observation they ran past us with such ease in the last part of the game.

05 Oct 2014 21:05:06
Davey boy blue, I hope u have those emerdale episode's your missing on record mate, you don't want to be out of the loop next year 😊

06 Oct 2014 12:17:31
Chris,

To be fair to Davey there are quite a few Championship games in midweek, so they will still be busy.

06 Oct 2014 17:28:51
Gds I think that's harsh mate, Wigan always do better 2nd half of the season 😜

05 Oct 2014 20:16:45
We should be happy where we are in the league, dissappointed we don't have a few more points from our games so far, realistic as to what can be achieved this early with so many players brought in, nervous about the upcoming games against the better opposition but also optimistic that with the international break we may be back to near full strength come the end of October.
I keep hearing the message Van Gaal was saying pre-season. 'it will take 10 weeks before this team looks and plays the way I want it to'.
It was obvious it was going to be bumpy with some highs and lows. and this is what we are getting.
Keep the faith.and who knows, at the end of the 10 weeks we may be in a position to challenge/cement our top 4 place.

06 Oct 2014 07:40:43
Its good optimism but considering injury record of Jonny Evans. R u sure that feather figure boy won't get injured in a short while.
Well I m not sure. He has luck of picking knocks and muscles. so is smalling and Jones.

05 Oct 2014 17:00:37
A few points from today's game:
Interesting to see Valencia playing in the midfield diamond, had a good game too
De gea was incredible, saved us 3 points and hopefully everyone who has been slating him recently will keep quiet for a while
Well done to McNair again, handled lukaku really well
Raffael again looked bright and not as rash as he has been in the last few years
Di maria again showed why we paid £60m for him
Overall a great 3 points but the upcoming games will really test us, can't wait

05 Oct 2014 16:13:03
Fellaini £27.5m, diego Costa £32m. Doesn't quite add up, does it.
As cgu has told us, welbeck not done anything. Also, his running off the ball is nonexistent!
Our midfield is in serious need of more players. Players who can control the tempo.
Looking forward with trepidation to the next two matches, but we will find out how far we need to go to reach their level.

Nomid

It is in games like today that you realise welbeck is not good enough. Lot's of effort but does not have the class of a top striker that can't be a starter for the likes of city, chelsea or united who are have ambitions to win the league and europe( us maybe not this year but next year we should be there)

On the fellaini purchase I think you are being biased. I would argue Kagawa for 16 million and Zaha for 15 million, then Buttner and henriquez who I am yet to see kick a ball in the first team and most likely gone and we pass on Hazzard. I like costa but will take hazard any day over him. Him and silva are the most disruptive attacking mids in the league and cause everyone so much trouble and open up the pitch for other players.

Fergies transfer business in the last 4 or 5 years of his tenure was nothing short of shocking and he milked the last bit of quality out of guys like scholes and giggs, ferdinand and vidic to win a tittle on his way out and was helped by the mess at clubs like chelsea and city.

I don't think we passed on hazard. He chose chelsea when they won the ucl. I may be wrong

I think it ws the agent fees

Fergie refused to pay supposedly 6 million in agent fees. But then we spend theses middle of the road sums on players who turn out to be a waste of money because they are not good enough to perform at the highest level in the PL.

I would rather spend big on a great player than buy middle of the road players who are not going to make a difference on the pitch.

When we bought the likes of Smalling and Jones and what we paid for them we could have bought some of todays elite defenders in Europe for less.

That is what we need to spend another 100 million because we bought poorly for too many consecutive years i.e liverpool story for the last 20 years.

It was agents fees. DAF's transracial dealings int he later years were dire. High fees for players with potential and an obsession with no value in the market. Bebe!! And even Young. A lot of money wasted on players who would never be good enough for United. He fell lucky with Ronaldo and seemed to want to unearth another hidden gem.

What makes it worse is the fact that Fergie passed on Hazard back in 2010 and signed Bebe instead. I seem to remember that some agent got a huge percentage of the fees in that transfer but Fergie wasn't too bothered. Funny that.

We missed Herrera in CM today. Valencia had a good game, but he doesn't have Herrera's all round ability to play that position.

Fellaini did not touch the ball. It would s hard to see how he will still be at United come the end of season. Problem is we paid £27.5m for him and we will not get half of that sum from anyone for him.
The point I was making is that for similar sums, Chelsea bought Costa while we got fellaini!!
But as posters mentioned, our transfer policy for the past 6 years has been a joke.
Luckily, I think this might change with lvg at the helm.

05 Oct 2014 14:40:01
So glad we managed to hold on to get the win today, that'll mean a lot confidence wise, especially after last week too.

Obviously best players for us were DDG without a doubt, Rafael and Di Maria. Another player who yet again hasn't had much praise but did a fantastic solid job was Daley Blind, really is proving to be a fantastic signing for the money we paid. He knows what he's going to do before the ball even gets to his feet, controlled the midfield.

Glad to see Falcao finally get his first goal you could tell it meant a lot to him haha. Another thing is Juan Mata, did not really seize the opportunity to cement his place in the team permanently, he did okay but went missing for parts of the game. I honestly think if Rooney was playing instead then the score at the end could have been a bit different.

Blind was great again today. I love his calmness. We need more players like him in our midfield.
Re the mata/Silva issue, if anyone gave us a chance of a swap, how many will keep mata?
I think there lies your answer!

We probably are better off without Mata. Januzaj is his perfect replacement.

Valencia was fantastic today.

I think people are over criticising juan mata. he's a fantastic player. Yes not the best game but still got an assist. Reminds me of a certain wayne rooney

Valencia looks better in a centre midfield position

TRUMOURS

He is a fantastic player but for too few minutes each game. He needs to be busier and contribute more.

05 Oct 2014 14:19:09
Excuse me.
Has anyone seen giant wig into last 15 mins after he got on the pitch???
I was totally failed to spot him for helping our defence to see out last minutes.
A truthful waste of nearly 30m.

I don't think he touched the ball once! Maybe if he cuts that stupid hair, he might start seeing what's around him!! Useless.

05 Oct 2014 14:03:45
Had to listen on the radio today but have 2 points to make:

1) Big shout out to DDG who I have pointed out a few negatives on recently but it sounds like he saved us today, well played.

2) Sounded like we were a bit of a shambles at times, it was tough listening to the last 20 mins. We need to find a way of not being so soft centred but to look at the positive hopefully the character shown to hang on to 3 points today and against West Ham will stand us in good stead, confidence wise.

Here's to hoping we get a bit more settled and solid after the intl break with some players returning from injury.

Its 3 games in a row that we've have been vulnerable in the last 20 mins.

Nobody could save us against Leicester, McNair saved us against WHU and it was DDG today.

Bigger sides will create more chances and soon we'll run out of players to save us. We need to make sure we maintain defensive composure throughout the 90 mins.

Couldn't agree more. And on every occasion it is when we took a striker off and left rvp up top. He simply does not look fit enough at the moment.
That's the biggest negative from today. We should be more composed, but we also need the players to give us this composure.

Gav

TC commentaries are notoriously poor although DDG clearly made a few good saves towards the end. As a few of us have said, it will be a roller coaster this year. We will lose some we should win and we will shock a few as well. At least it's entertaining now!

05 Oct 2014 14:02:46
DAVID DE GEA- Game saver today. Superb!

We once again at home nearly gave the game away.
Out defense is not good, fair enough. But at home we need starting scoring more goals since we always concede.

Anyway great to get the W. Hopefully we'll have less injuries for the next games.

Finally, good to see Falcao scoring with the RED shirt.

GGMU

05 Oct 2014 14:33:13
Loved the way falcao celebrated his goal he was so happy.

05 Oct 2014 13:59:41
I assume that nobody will be criticising De Gea this week?

Best shotstopper in the business. Once we get a quality cb paring in front of him, there will be no stopping him.

His shot stopping is on a different level. Absolutely brilliant.

Danny, OK it was a good penalty save but he should actually have caught it and set up an attack so it wasn't that great a save

05 Oct 2014 10:57:17
Of all the matches to do this, i wish welbeck best of luck for tonight. Hope arsenal beat chelsea today

I disagree. We cannot win the league this year, we need the other top 4 teams to drop points. Chelsea will walk it