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

Your Airbag wrote: »

To say its tight now is an understatement.



Our next 8 EPL games before the final month of the season

Man Utd v Sunderland
Newcastle V Man Utd
Man Utd V Tottenham
Liverpool V Man Utd
Man Utd V Aston Villa
Man Utd V Man City
Chelsea V Man Utd
Everton V Man Utd

Bar Villa at home they are all very tough fixtures. We could be in a bad way in two months time. Pool away will be huge.

I predict WDWLWDLD giving us 12 points

Arsenals next eight, not as tough as ours and all their big game clashes are at home

Arsenal V Everton
QPR V Arsenal
Arsenal V West Ham
Newcastle V Arsenal
Arsenal V Liverpool
Burnley V Arsenal
Arsenal V Sunderland
Arsenal V Chelsea

I predict WWWDDWWD giving them 18 points

The Saints next eight, some tough away games

West Brom V Southampton
Southampton V Crystal Palace
Chelsea V Southampton
Southampton V Burnley
Everton V Southampton
Southampton V Hull
Stoke V Southampton
Southampton V Tottenham

DWLWLWDD I'm going with 12 points

Pools next eight, four big team games, two at home and they are playing well now

Liverpool V Man City
Liverpool V Burnley
Swansea V Liverpool
Liverpool V Man Utd
Arsenal V Liverpool
Liverpool V Newcastle
Hull V Liverpool
West Brom V Liverpool

DWWWLWWW 19 points

Spurs next eight, they have the easiest of the fixtures imo, two big games and some poor teams to play

Tottenham V Swansea
QPR V Tottenham
Man Utd V Tottenham
Tottenham V Leicester
Burnley V Tottenham
Tottenham V Aston Villa
Newcastle V Tottenham
Southampton V Tottenham

WWLWWWDL 16 points

That would leave it like this with four games left

3rd Arsenal 66 pts
4th Liverpool 64 pts
5th Spurs 60 pts
6th Utd 59 pts
7th Southampthon 58 pts

Being 5 points behind Pool in fourth with four games remaining would be a nightmare, not out of it by then but a big ask and lots of luck needed to get fourth in that scenario. 3rd is gone I think with the fixtures everyone has coming up. A point ahead of the 7th place team, is it possible to finish 7th two years in a row? LVGs head must roll hard if we do given the cash spent.

I hope I'm wrong but we have two very tough months coming up and I have a bad feeling.

You have Arsenal v Liverpool predicted as a draw (when predicting Arsenals fixture outcomes) and a loss for Liverpool (in Liverpool section). 2 different outcomes for the Southampton v Spurs fixture too

And they say the table doesn't lie :cool:

irishfeen wrote: »

No point in panicking, just being realistic.. Current form means we don't deserve top 4... Of course that could change but we've been saying that for a while now.

Last 6 league games we have won 4 drawn 1 and lost 1

Its not shambolic form in fairness, the football isn't actually that bad you know until it gets to the final third, the lack of movement and cutting edge is absolutely murdering us, its slow, its laboured a hell of a lot and of course it can be much better. To call it terrible is off the mark though I feel, the final ball is terrible, the execution of the attackers is terrible, but the performances have been pretty dominant for the most part.

The final third is where it counts of course so I understand the frustration and he sure as **** needs to get it sorted sooner rather then later , the toothless attack is dragging us into a fight that we really should be above tbh. The team spirit is good which is a big positive and if it was not I would probably be more concerned.

Why I have faith in Van Gaal? His career demands I have faith in him, his self confidence and ability to remain calm and not get carried away gives me plenty of faith in him. I don't understand certain choices he makes, of course I disagree with decisions he takes but I do understand that he has a better insight into the goings on at the club, he obviously has a plan for how he wants to play and it has not come off yet.

I choose to believe it will, the possession play is fine, it is something we have wanted for years at the club, to go out and to dominate the opposition, it is something they have improved upon greatly, but have all to often ended up in the possession without doing anything zone. It seems obvious to me how to help this possession turn in to more clear cut chances and goals but so far he has not really done that, he obviously has other ideas about how he wants them to progress.

Playing with two strikers can work well even in this system as long as the strikers have the pace or movement to drag defenders out of position and to give them something to worry about in behind, they are always very comfortable with the ball in front of them. Midfielders getting forward and making the unselfish runs would be helpful too obviously to isolate defenders, to create space. The build up play needs to be a lot faster and sharper when it gets to the final third, everytime the ball goes to Valencia he slows it down and looks to go laterally or back, when he does go to cross he has taken so much time there is no chance for a ball played in behind the defenders since they are already in good positions to defend and it makes his crossing look even worse then it is as the ball is cut out so easily 9 times out of 10

On the other side Shaw looks capable of delivering the early ball, as does Di Maria but the delivery has been poor too often, Young plays more quickly and gets the ball in to the box with his crosses a lot faster then the others right now so they can pose more problems, defenders don't like to be turned around facing their own goal and running back with strikers making runs in front or behind them and too often our attacks are so slow they have everything in front of them and see out the danger.

The mess we are at the back is a lot down to the instability of a settled back line and if you don't have that it puts a doubt right through the team and I believe hampers the midfielders from commiting themselves forward enough as they don't want to get caught out at the back.

The next month will tell us a lot about where we will finish this season and like I said, I am confident we will make the top 4, the dream of course would be that the attack clicks and we start getting the goals and destroying teams, I will be very happy to scrape through it this year and continue to work on using possession better and not just possession for the sake of possession. You have to allow a certain human factor also, the players will have been reeling from missing out on the CL last season and now that it looks to be so close this season the pressure will be taking some toll on them and again, allows a certain fear to creep in which hampers creative performance. I look forward to getting Carrick back to provide the calming influence again from midfield.

One last thing as I am getting pressed for time, start Hererra, start him in every game please.