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

glued · 15-01-2015 09:07AM

Will I Amnt wrote: »

Oh my word, some guy I've never heard of said something on Facebook. Instruct me on how outraged I should act.

Will the players and manager show up in t-shirts in support of this racist?

Mitch Connor · 15-01-2015 09:09AM

glued wrote: »

Will the players and manager show up in t-shirts in support of this racist?

Hopefully. In Denmark, I believe those terms are ones of endearment.

Mantis Toboggan · 15-01-2015 09:10AM

Will I Amnt wrote: »

This is bull**** or you've got some really stupid mates.

I know, I was baffled the other day when a good friend of mine told me that United need to spend more money to compete. Called him on it straight away.

Mitch Connor · 15-01-2015 09:12AM

Tyson Fury wrote: »

I know, I was baffled the other day when a good friend of mine told me that United need to spend more money to compete. Called him on it straight away.

We do, though.

We aren't going to compete with a first choice CB pairing including Jones, Smalling or Evans. Also, with Rafael constantly getting injured we need bring in another quality right back to stop us from having to play Valencia in that position.

We could still also do with a commanding CM.

At the very least we need to spend money on a centre back.

newballsplease · 15-01-2015 09:14AM

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Much as it was with Moyes - the problem with United right now is a lack of quality in the squad (mainly defence), and poor management.

We need to sort out the defence, and I have more faith in LVG to turn it around than I did Moyes. That faith could be misplaced.

I am desperately hoping we don't play a back 3 at the weekend. We have, basically, a fully fit squad - we need, imo, to start seeing what LVGs first choice is. If it is 3 at the back, he's going to leave a failure imo.

Im worried he looks at the dutch teams 'succesful' world cup as a justification in playing the 3-5-2. And maybe he sees DiMaria as the Robben of the team. To be honest the dutch didnt have a great defence either but they managed to get that far in the world cup.
This 3-5-2 is not working for Utd as it stands, i hope he sees sense soon tho. But i have my doubts. QPR away surely should be 4-3-3 diamond

RobertKK · 15-01-2015 09:20AM

https://twitter.com/united_transfer/status/555390034904219648
https://twitter.com/united_transfer/status/555390123903168513

Looks like he wants to stay at Dortmund.

Mitch Connor · 15-01-2015 09:21AM

newballsplease wrote: »

Im worried he looks at the dutch teams 'succesful' world cup as a justification in playing the 3-5-2. And maybe he sees DiMaria as the Robben of the team. To be honest the dutch didnt have a great defence either but they managed to get that far in the world cup.
This 3-5-2 is not working for Utd as it stands, i hope he sees sense soon tho. But i have my doubts. QPR away surely should be 4-3-3 diamond

What I don't understand about his fixation on 532 is that it is relatively new for him. He only brought it in with the dutch side after the injury to strootman.

Throughout his career he has mainly played a variant of 433 - with a 442 in there at times too.

Its why I have never seen the 532 formation as anything other than a formation dictated by the players available to him. Playing it last weekend vs Southampton with basically a fully fit squad and Yeovil the previous weekend has me questioning my belief on that front.

At this point i see the signings he has made are at odds with the formation he seems fixated on so I can't work out what he wants of United or the players. I have no idea what to think he wants, needs or plans.

Maximus Alexander · 15-01-2015 09:51AM

Mitch Connor wrote: »

At this point i see the signings he has made are at odds with the formation he seems fixated on so I can't work out what he wants of United or the players. I have no idea what to think he wants, needs or plans.

My worry is that the players might feel exactly the same, hence the complete lack of invention in the side.

They look a confused at times, particularly going forward, like they're just not sure what the plan is.

bangkok · 15-01-2015 10:07AM

doesn't matter how bad you are playing or whatever, but there can be no excuse for kicking a dead ball, ie corner or free kick straight at the first man.

di maria and mata were standing over a free kick v Southampton and eventually mata walked away, everyone got forward all defenders etc and di maria hits the worst free kick ever right onto the foot of the first defender, you could see mata throw his hands up into the air straight away, its stuff like this is the most frustrating thing for me. Absolutely no excuse for it.

I see sanchez at arsenal aswell, every single corner he kicks always hits the first man, shocking think he did it 7 times v Liverpool!!

paulbok · 15-01-2015 10:40AM

Unearthly wrote: »

Good to see the club are taking decisive action and not defending it

Missed opportunity for some t-shirts though

Gone Drinking · 15-01-2015 10:54AM

MythicalMadMan · 15-01-2015 11:02AM

bangkok wrote: »

doesn't matter how bad you are playing or whatever, but there can be no excuse for kicking a dead ball, ie corner or free kick straight at the first man.

di maria and mata were standing over a free kick v Southampton and eventually mata walked away, everyone got forward all defenders etc and di maria hits the worst free kick ever right onto the foot of the first defender, you could see mata throw his hands up into the air straight away, its stuff like this is the most frustrating thing for me. Absolutely no excuse for it.

I see sanchez at arsenal aswell, every single corner he kicks always hits the first man, shocking think he did it 7 times v Liverpool!!

Lads over on the arsenal thread were saying it was Wegners tatic to hit the front post every time and that teams copped onto it before he changed..

TheDoc · 15-01-2015 11:10AM

Serious lack of scandalous gossip to freak out over.

Bar Roma's president indicating it would take a stupid bid to land Strootman, in excess of 50m.....

**** Fergie not signing him for 12m when he had the chance.

RobertKK · 15-01-2015 11:53AM

Andy Mitten on Off the Ball two nights ago:
"United have got the money. I spoke to Ed Woodward last year in an interview and he said 'we will not be beaten for price by any other club'. [Messi] would fit in with United's policy of buying this sort of top level, world class players. Money, I don't think is an issue. So, if Messi decided to leave Barcelona, which I don't think he wants to do, he's limited to a couple of clubs."

bangkok · 15-01-2015 11:57AM

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

Lads over on the arsenal thread were saying it was Wegners tatic to hit the front post every time and that teams copped onto it before he changed..

clueless from wenger if true, sure every single team employs a man at the edge of the 6 yard box towards the front post. Basic defending 101

Rubber_Soul · 15-01-2015 12:20PM

Mitch Connor wrote: »

What I don't understand about his fixation on 532 is that it is relatively new for him. He only brought it in with the dutch side after the injury to strootman.

Throughout his career he has mainly played a variant of 433 - with a 442 in there at times too.

Its why I have never seen the 532 formation as anything other than a formation dictated by the players available to him. Playing it last weekend vs Southampton with basically a fully fit squad and Yeovil the previous weekend has me questioning my belief on that front.

At this point i see the signings he has made are at odds with the formation he seems fixated on so I can't work out what he wants of United or the players. I have no idea what to think he wants, needs or plans.

This post isn't really in response to you, more just the general theme of the thread lately. I really don't buy the idea that Van Gaal is obsesssed with playing 3 at the back. Up until the Southampton game he'd played 4 at the back just as many times as he'd played 3. http://www.transfermarkt.com/manchester-united/spielplan/verein/985/saison_id/2014

The times he's played with 3 at the back have all coincided with periods when we've had either or both natural full backs Shaw and Rafael injured, or returning from injury. Not to mention players that could fill in at LB like Rojo and Blind out injured too. He even tried to shoehorn Young in at LB with Valencia at RB in order to play 4 at the back for a few games. He's also on record stating that he's been forced to play 352 due to this very reason.

keane2097 · 15-01-2015 12:31PM

StarshipPooper wrote: »

This post isn't really in response to you, more just the general theme of the thread lately. I really don't buy the idea that Van Gaal is obsesssed with playing 3 at the back. Up until the Southampton game he'd played 4 at the back just as many times as he'd played 3. http://www.transfermarkt.com/manchester-united/spielplan/verein/985/saison_id/2014

The times he's played with 3 at the back have all coincided with periods when we've had either or both natural full backs Shaw and Rafael injured, or returning from injury, not to mention players that could fill in at LB like Rojo and Blind out injured too. He even tried to shoehorn Young in at LB with Valencia at RB in order to play 4 at the back for a few games. He's also on record stating that he's been forced to play 352 due to this very reason.

Agree. He's commented on being restricted by only having one player available for FB positions a couple of times, so he's obviously concerned that if he plays Rafael RB in a back four and Rafael inevitably gets injured he can't (or would prefer not to) play a back four anymore.

Same on the left if Shaw is the only available player. He's playing safe by keeping the wing backs in case someone gets hurt and he has no proper FB cover.

Obviously needs to buy at least one more RB to alleviate this.

Pro. F · 15-01-2015 12:42PM

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

Lads over on the arsenal thread were saying it was Wegners tatic to hit the front post every time and that teams copped onto it before he changed..

I remember there was a video ott in the preseason of Van Gaal coaching Rooney on taking corners. It was in a stadium, looked like either before a game or a public training session. Anyway, it seemed like LVG was encouraging Rooney to try to hit it near post for a flick on. Seemed odd to me. Our corners have been near post far too often for years. It's a complete head wreck.

Mitch Connor · 15-01-2015 12:51PM

Hope to see this side at the weekend:

De Gea
Rafael---Smalling--Rojo---Shaw

Carrick

Herrera--Di Maria

Mata

Rooney---Falcao

Fingers crossed. I would say the closest we would get to that, thought, is Carrick in midfield instead of Herrera and Blind at the base.

Blatter · 15-01-2015 01:06PM

keane2097 wrote: »

Agree. He's commented on being restricted by only having one player available for FB positions a couple of times, so he's obviously concerned that if he plays Rafael RB in a back four and Rafael inevitably gets injured he can't (or would prefer not to) play a back four anymore.

Same on the left if Shaw is the only available player. He's playing safe by keeping the wing backs in case someone gets hurt and he has no proper FB cover.

Obviously needs to buy at least one more RB to alleviate this.

He used Valencia and Young as fulbacks in a diamond formation against Stoke at home and Hull.

Not sure why he'd then go 3 at the back against Yeovil when Shaw, Rafael and Young were all fit to start that game. It seemed to me that because he'd gotten good results v Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle with 3 at the back, he decided to stick with it. Don't forget that this was the formation that he had intended on using for the majority of the season at the start. I know he said at one point that the back 4 was his preference and he was using wing backs because of the injury situation, but his actions since don't quite correlate with that IMO.

Against Southampton, he could have easily started with one of Shaw or Blind at left back and Valencia or Jones at right back, with two of Evans/Smalling/Jones at CB. He had plenty of options there to play with 4 at the back, all of which would have been better than going with what he did.

IMO, he's unnecessarily over complicating things to the detriment of the team. And the same goes for up front and in midfield. To select Wilson ahead of a fit Falcao for the bench for purposes of 'speed' is ridiculous. Yes, Wilson is faster, but he's shown little to no influence in any of our games so far and no logical reasoning should see him make a selection ahead of Falcao.

15-01-2015 01:13PM

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Hope to see this side at the weekend:
De Gea
Rafael---Smalling--Rojo---Shaw
Carrick
Herrera--Di Maria
Mata
Rooney---Falcao

Fingers crossed. I would say the closest we would get to that, thought, is Carrick in midfield instead of Herrera and Blind at the base.

Jones or Evans over Smalling and MAYBE Blind over Carrick and that would be my first choice 11.

15-01-2015 01:14PM

Is the match on tv at the weekend?

Blatter · 15-01-2015 01:17PM

BTW, I do like the fact that he's able to make selections without big names/media/fan outrage influencing things (something Moyes didn't quite have the confidence to do IMO) but LVG is taking it to a new level with some crazy decisions. He sees things in black and white too much and I can certainly see why he drove the higher ups at Bayern mental at times!

Mitch Connor · 15-01-2015 01:19PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Is the match on tv at the weekend?

Not on Sky, BT or Setanta.

IamtheWalrus · 15-01-2015 01:20PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Is the match on tv at the weekend?

Check here

Winston Payne · 15-01-2015 01:44PM

Our next two league games are three o'clock kickoffs on Saturday. Leicester at home after this weekend, that'll be on the 31st.

Non-BS merchants on the United thread on Football 365 have said that De Gea has signed a new contract and it will be announced soon. The place is good for news, often earlier than most places though not to the degree of the Sanc on either. We'll see.

nicklauski · 15-01-2015 01:50PM

Winston Payne wrote: »

Our next two league games are three o'clock kickoffs on Saturday. Leicester at home after this weekend, that'll be on the 31st.

Non-BS merchants on the United thread on Football 365 have said that De Gea has signed a new contract and it will be announced soon. The place is good for news, often earlier than most places though not to the degree of the Sanc on either. We'll see.

Seen a tweet myself saying De Gea has agreed a new contract. That was it.
"More as we get........."

Really hope it's true.

Also really hope LVG stops the 3-5-2 nonsense as every one else has said.

I think even against Southampton, if he switched Rooney and Di Maria, Utd may have gotten something from the game.
Neither were brilliant, but playing in their preferred positions would have been a huge help.

Mantis Toboggan · 15-01-2015 01:52PM

Liam O wrote: »

Jones or Evans over Smalling and MAYBE Blind over Carrick and that would be my first choice 11.

Evans shouldn't even be on the bench never mind starting games.

brinty · 15-01-2015 01:53PM

Winston Payne wrote: »

Our next two league games are three o'clock kickoffs on Saturday. Leicester at home after this weekend, that'll be on the 31st.

Non-BS merchants on the United thread on Football 365 have said that De Gea has signed a new contract and it will be announced soon. The place is good for news, often earlier than most places though not to the degree of the Sanc on either. We'll see.

If the De Gea thing is correct and we've no reason not to believe it, great. However it still won't stop the doom and gloom merchants from saying he's leaving anyways... Some people on this forum just love a good moan...

15-01-2015 02:00PM

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Evans shouldn't even be on the bench never mind starting games.

Evans is far better than Smalling who didn't even look like a League 1 team were his level recently.

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

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