Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Read Mod Warning in OP 7/1/15

bangkok wrote: »

even if he wasn't injured I don't think we would have signed him anyway

I reckon we would have, on deadline day or near it, if we were not able to get other targets.

Yesterday was a game fulfilling a previous stat.

When they played against eachother in the Netherlands as managers, Van Gaal won away to Koeman's team, and Koeman won away to Van Gaal's team.
Hopefully yesterday was just a case of history and a stat fulfilling eachother and we get back to winning ways.

Stats are important, it is like Chelsea away to Newcastle, it can get strange at times.

That said, it was a good game for an insomniac, and that would want to be our worst game for this season.
At least we could score against Leicester...which was a great game before the team fell asleep.

God how I miss Paul Scholes. Everything that is and has been wrong with Utd over the past few seasons could be solved by having a player of the ginger ninjas class in midfield to control the tempo and direction of the game. Available today he'd be an £80m player. Irreplacable.

I can see LVG in his own mind getting very annoyed with some of the players, obviously he likes a passing game but at times the players have been pure muck playing simple balls. The likes of smalling, jones, evans, valencia, young etc will never be as good as players from europe at passing the ball about.

TheDoc wrote: »

What I don't understand about Wingbacks is that, what is the difference with the LB/RB in a back four?

Every modern fullback get's forward, in the hope to create a 2v1 situation on the opposition fullback.

I simply don't see what these wingback system is providing us. We arn't pressing teams higher up the pitch. We arn't overloading the flanks and firing balls into the strikers for them to score.

Blind moving out to LWB though yesterday provided some evidence of what it does. I noticed him press a lot higher up the pitch. his delivery was sharp and he whipped in two lovely crosses. He worked the wing and did manage to overload Clyne.

But outside of that, I'm struggling to see where it happens regularly, and what benefit it brings over a conventional back four.

We play three CB's against one striker in most cases, which is pretty much leaving someone their twiddling their thumbs. But yet we STILL on occasions get caught 3v3 or 4v3. Which is ridiculous.

Getting annoyed at Herrera's ommision also. A slick clever player, who drives forward and can make things happen through the middle from deep. Have a genuine fear, similar to Kagawa

THIS! , I don't think the issue lies with the formation totally, it lies with the players in the formation and particularly the wing backs. The wing backs make this system work or fail. In order to play it and be effective your width and majority of attacks have to come from the wing backs, that isn't happening for us regularly though.

Ashley Young has been the best wing back player for us shockingly this season , he does what he should do, presses high up the pitch pushing the opposition back and not allowing their full backs or wingers to roam too far forward. The back three is meant to shift across and provide cover, but Young should still be expected to track back into position.

The quality of wing backs isn't available, Valencia has had one or two moments but generally it's the same old turn backwards and look for a pass rather than take people on , Shaw doesn't do it enough either and his delivery leaves a lot to be desired. Rafael won't work either.

When Blind went into the position , ok he lacks the pace of the others but he did exactly what is expected straight away, press , get down the by line and deliver a decent cross into the box which he can do and IMO should be our LWB when fit.

But it's still chop and change , still inconsistent and not the best formation for the players at the club and needs to change, I much prefer the 442 diamond we were playing, unless we have world class wing backs it won't work.

Falcao's omission? Just baffled like everyone else. I think LVG ego and talk has carried him so far but yesterday was the turning point , he might soon find out how much patience Utd fans actually have before the finger comes out. Absolutely bizzare decision and it's not the first he's made, he has in fact made himself look like a bit of a fool now...and he lost at home to Koeman he won't like that one bit.

All in all though, fair play to Koeman and Southhamton they deserved the win yesterday. Tactics and game plan was spot on and well executed. Listening to Rooney post match you could tell he was still wound up but he was talking rubbish with his ' better team lost' bollox...better team...0 shots on target....riiiggghhhtt..

Your Airbag wrote: »

I thought it was just a case of one manager seeting his team up all wrong and the other getting his setup spot on.

Yes, but who cares how it works out in how history repeats itself, so a former stat continues to be the form stat.

Trilla wrote: »

Thats woeful

LVG thinks thats "dominating the game" too... f*ck off!

I'd happily let other teams have possesion if it meant we were cuthroat on the counter and could create chances.

Liam O wrote: »

Shaw is like a traditional English full back. He's not going to outskill or outpace anyone but with another wide player to play off he has a good burst and timing to get around his teammate and open up space. Asking him to be the only player on a wing is like asking Valencia to defend, he can't do it.

Totally agree with this , he isn't and won't be that type of player. An over lapping FB yes...a wing back with the guile to take players on and whip dangerous balls into the box from the by line.....no...

The wing-backs are facing two defenders every time. I'd fix that problem before I'd worry about getting better wing-backs.

Discodog wrote: »

Apparently LVG gets Giggs to assess & do a report on the opposition. Then they train 11 v 11 with the second team playing like the opposition.

Is Giggs getting it wrong?

Are the opposition playing differently to his assessment?

Southampton are probably better than the United second team. Also much more used to playing that particular system. Wonder what the score was anyway. If the second team win, does the first team change its tactics ?

After contemplation on yesterdays result I think we are getting a bit carried away with the negative reaction.

The Saints are a very good side, they thrashed Arsenal recently - it was 2 -0 but it honestly could have been 4 or 5. We should have won yesterday, they had two chances in the match and came away with 3 points - on another day we could have won 2-0.. Apart from the goal we were actually very solid but very predictable going forward.

I supported Moyes to the very end but things are different with LVG - the players are still very much on side. I'm still confident of a top 3 place .. Southamption was a very hard match but now we need results or pressure will begin build.. Just look at the media this morning already.

Spazdarn wrote: »

The formation doesn't work, smell of the Arsenal of old, off us now, passing the ball around aimlessly around the box with no incision. I don't give two poops about how long we have the ball, bring back a bit of directness to our play.

No way is it like Arsenal. They played great football to get the ball in a position to ignore a shot.

We just get blocked down the wings and end up passing back to De Gea to lump into Mata and Rooney in the middle.