[Micha]

You can expect all you want but he put these players on the pitch today and they didn't compete. Whether it's just them being crap at football, or it's the system, isn't something I have to evaluate, LvG does.

I am sorry, I think I don't understand what you are trying to say. Are you saying none of us should have an oppinion, the only guy entitled to judge the performance today is LvG?

 

[Man of Steel]

So who would you rather have as a winger than di Maria? He will play centrally to start with but he will be a winger for us. Herrera is going to be an excellent player for us. Shaw is one who will improve. Rojo I am neutral on and Blind will be a great little addition so who should we have brought?

I never mentioned wingers or that di maria is not good enough, I'm telling Woody to get more players where we are very obviously short. All the talk of Vidal and players like Hummels in the positions we are struggling in is what I mean. di maria does not play defence or holding midfield or box to box midfield. He will be great on the wing obviously.

Herrera, Rojo and Blind are not as 'world class' as lots of fans wanted. Although they hopefully will be in time they are not the huge signings many wanted in the positions we have been short.

We may have players in who are good but a lot of fans expected bigger names in these positions. 60 mill on a winger is great but where was the fifty or sixty million on a world class mid and defender?

Stroot may yet arrive in january.

 

[Striker10]

I'm expecting LVG to drag Valencia to the side and ask him can he do the job? We should have sold him and Young. Neither are wing backs. Neither are great defensively and neither create. Even as wingers, the output it pathetic and instantly you have no width because we got 3 at the back.

That's why for me Wilson should have played. Someone with pace and who's direct but I guess that's bullshit. LVG needs to be getting through to these players, it's not good enough. If you're out wide and someone passes you the ball, take on your man and cross the ball and TRY to beat the first man...

Teams will cause us problems now, and to be honest some of these players need to relearn how to pass a ball. They get paid so much in wages and are an embarrassment to themselves. If that means staying behind and putting in some f-ing effort then do it.

 

[DealerRomo]

I wonder if lvg is NOT playing the better players in the squad on purpose ... to get more leverage on mgt to buy more players in his mold?

 

[scholesboot]

I never mentioned wingers or that di maria is not good enough, I'm telling Woody to get more players where we are very obviously short. All the talk of Vidal and players like Hummels in the positions we are struggling in is what I mean. di maria does not play defence or holding midfield or box to box midfield. He will be great on the wing obviously.

Herrera, Rojo and Blind are not as 'world class' as lots of fans wanted. Although they hopefully will be in time they are not the huge signings many wanted in the positions we have been short.

We may have players in who are good but a lot of fans expected bigger names in these positions. 60 mill on a winger is great but where was the fifty or sixty million on a world class mid and defender?

Stroot may yet arrive in january.

Your post contradicts your whole point.

Who's to say we didn't try and get vidal? Maybe he didn't want to come. Hummels was a non starter and a ridiculous rumour. Benatia is not world class but everyone wanted him.

We have had a good window. I can't see what more we can do in this one window. We have January when strootman may come but I think it will be next summer.

Our fans need some.patience this is a rebuilding process

 

[hbgreg]

I am sorry, I think I don't understand what you are trying to say. Are you saying none of us should have an oppinion, the only guy entitled to judge the performance today is LvG?

Opinion? I said it's LvGs job to evaluate whether the players he has are crap in general or just crap in his system and whether or not he should change it. It's not my job and I'm not going to waste my time on it, you can, anyone can have an opinion but it'd be A LOT more uniformed than LvG's evulation. You said you expect Fletcher and co to perform, we just watched a crap game where they played terrible against Burnley. Is it their fault or the systems? I don't know, LvG has to figure it out.

 

[minoo-utd]

2 shots on target in 90 mins. No no this is not us.

 

[Man of Steel]

Your post contradicts your whole point.

Who's to say we didn't try and get vidal? Maybe he didn't want to come. Hummels was a non starter and a ridiculous rumour. Benatia is not world class but everyone wanted him.

We have had a good window. I can't see what more we can do in this one window. We have January when strootman may come but I think it will be next summer.

Our fans need some.patience this is a rebuilding process

It is a rebuilding process, I know that, but many are not as happy with Blind Rojo and Herrera as you are. I used Hummels and Vidal just as an example of very high quality players, we did obviously try for certain players, I know that. I'm just saying that your post made it sound like Rojo and Blind are the end to our troubles. You say what more can we do in this window, but it's been a long old summer window and we didn't get a huge name in the positions we needed.

I do see where you are coming from but most fans would say we were underwhelming in the transfer market apart from di maria who is not the problem position we needed to address first.

 

[Verminator]

If Valencia and young are so shit at key positions of WB, and it cripples our whole team, why not play with Blackett and Varela as (dodgy) full backs in a system that gets the best out of our forwards?
We may let some in, but you don;t win by not scoring.

Fletcher has been poor, but I think he should get some sympathy today, as he was virtually our only midfielder.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Opinion? I said it's LvGs job to evaluate whether the players he has are crap in general or just crap in his system and whether or not he should change it. It's not my job and I'm not going to waste my time on it, you can, anyone can have an opinion but it'd be A LOT more uniformed than LvG's evulation. You said you expect Fletcher and co to perform, we just watched a crap game where they played terrible against Burnley. Is it their fault or the systems? I don't know, LvG has to figure it out.

It is hardly the system, some of those players have been playing like that for years.

Johnny Evans is unrecognisable, Fletcher just can't get back up to the standard he was, Rooney been shocking for a while, RVP is not match fit, Mata couldn't get off quick enough after having a bad day at the office, Nothing new from Young and Valencia, Even Tyler has started miss passing the ball, DDG distribution has become wank, Jones is Jones - all effort no brain. Di Maria showed he is a level above everyone else but probably tried to hard and did some poor passing. The subs as usual ineffective.

It will be interesting when Rojo, Shaw, Herrera and Di Maria are in the team. We will then see what state we really are in. At the moment we just have a bunch of players that don't seem to want to do anything, they can't pass back or side ways quick enough even if it is to a player who is surrounded by the opposition.

 

[kevChiv]

We can't change to a back 4 until our fullbacks are fit actually.

Valencia can play RB and Blackett can play LB. It's just a terrible system being employed by LVG.

 

[bosnian_red]

Valencia can play RB and Blackett can play LB. It's just a terrible system being employed by LVG.

Valencia has always been awful at center back, and would you really trust Blackett at left back? Also who would you put in defensive midfield next to Fletcher, because Di Maria played in midfield today.

 

[laughtersassassin]

Someone just told me di Maria and Mata are injured. Any idea how long there out for. This is getting ridiculous thank God there's an international break next week.

 

[bosnian_red]

Someone just told me di Maria and Mata are injured. Any idea how long there out for. This is getting ridiculous thank God there's an international break next week.

Mata looked like a hamstring strain, usually a few weeks. Di Maria had a cramp and was tiring as he's only trained for 2 days, also Van Gaal said he had a kick in the calf but it was nothing.

 

[laughtersassassin]

Mata looked like a hamstring strain, usually a few weeks. Di Maria had a cramp and was tiring as he's only trained for 2 days, also Van Gaal said he had a kick in the calf but it was nothing.

Looks like we need a bit of luck on the injury front. Can't keep changing the team but we are being forced to. Hoping for 433 next week as the back 3 Havnt looked comfortable on the ball.

 

[Rampant-red]

Very disappointing we can't beat Burnley and even apt that 2 shots on target.

 

[laughtersassassin]

Just caught the highlights. If it wasn't for youngs reputation we would of had a penalty. And the other looked like a handball. On the brightside di Maria looked good. Hope he's back for our next game.

 

[hbgreg]

It is hardly the system, some of those players have been playing like that for years.

Johnny Evans is unrecognisable, Fletcher just can't get back up to the standard he was, Rooney been shocking for a while, RVP is not match fit, Mata couldn't get off quick enough after having a bad day at the office, Nothing new from Young and Valencia, Even Tyler has started miss passing the ball, DDG distribution has become wank, Jones is Jones - all effort no brain. Di Maria showed he is a level above everyone else but probably tried to hard and did some poor passing. The subs as usual ineffective.

It will be interesting when Rojo, Shaw, Herrera and Di Maria are in the team. We will then see what state we really are in. At the moment we just have a bunch of players that don't seem to want to do anything, they can't pass back or side ways quick enough even if it is to a player who is surrounded by the opposition.

Totally agree with you, people really underestimated the rebuilding job before the season started. I think that once LvG gets all the players fit again and playing how he wants them to play, we'll be back to that preseason standard. I don't think he ever expected to be subbing in Anderson at any point this season.

 

[minoo-utd]

I think we need a striker, Aguero or Falcao type.

 

[Dracula]

Positives:

• It was better, particularly 2nd half where we created chances.
• Bizarre positive-if it wasnt for quite ridiculous individual errors in defence, they would never had a sniff at goal, that will get better with time.
• There was a slight tweek in the formation im not sure if people noticed, but mata was a lot deeper and was in a similar position to ADM like this:

.................fletcher...............
........mata.............ADM.......

• Thats a better shape and looks like preparation for a 433, although rooney just needed to drop a little deeper to fill the gap.
• We have at least 4 first team players out
• Another solid game from jones, perhaps been our most consistently solid player this season

Negatives:

• Was better but still shit
• 352 will not work, far too narrow
• We resorted to long ball far too often. As owen pointed out in a rare peice of accurate commentary, you dont practise long balls in training. The players use it as a last resort. This suggests we are not using the techniques we are being trained in, making this transition longer.
• Evans is regressing
• De gea's distribution, what was one of his best attributes has gone to hell. This is because istead of having 2 cb's spread on edge of area with full backs further up and wingers even further up providing three (or even 4) different outlets we have the left and right cb's on the right and left edge of the area, deeper than the edge of the 18 yrd box. Their wingers can mark these guys out in very dangerous areas, if you pass to one of these cb's the opposition wingers close them down so the defender only has one option of a pass left-back to the keeper as the central cb is marked by oppo striker. This happened three times today, ddg had to pass it to blackett, who each time had no option but to pass it back to keeper, at this point ddg had no option but to try clear to the wingback, but was under so much pressure each time it went out for a throw in our defensive third. This is not good enough

 

[bosnian_red]

Just caught the highlights. If it wasn't for youngs reputation we would of had a penalty. And the other looked like a handball. On the brightside di Maria looked good. Hope he's back for our next game.

He caught the ball basically, bit of an understatement

 

[blazinRe'D']

The striker shouldn't have to run back and cover for the team. Their job in this formation is solely to score goals and the fact that Rooney keeps dropping so deep is only detrimental to our build up play. He just runs around like a headless ape doing nothing except for looking like he is putting in effort.

Kinda harsh that last part, agreed that covering deep plays out of position but you can hardly see the midfield being invovled apart from di maria today which can get frustrating and that does make him take matters in his own hands in the case for rooney, hardly saw anything from mata today , anyways i always believe there has to be some kind of aggression which we saw the burnley front line do today where rvp takes for granted even just considering the opponents back line, we saw first hand in all the games how that approach brings the worst in our defense

 

[laughtersassassin]

He caught the ball basically, bit of an understatement

Ye haha

 

[Verminator]

Kinda harsh that last part, agreed that covering deep plays out of position but you can hardly see the midfield being invovled apart from di maria today which can get frustrating and that does make him take matters in his own hands in the case for rooney, hardly saw anything from mata today , anyways i always believe there has to be some kind of aggression which we saw the burnley front line do today where rvp takes for granted even just considering the opponents back line, we saw first hand in all the games how that approach brings the worst in our defense

Aaaaaaaaand Breathe.

 

[Loublaze]

Very disappointing we can't beat Burnley and even apt that 2 shots on target.

Tough league. They beat us under Fergie.

 

[matecro007]

I cant believe it. 4 weeks ago we beated feckin champions league winners and now we have 2 draws and 1 loss. It is unbelievable and shocking to know that.

 

[Owngoalscorer]

Some positives, shape looks better and the passing wasn't quite as bad as usual. Also Di Maria had a decent first appearance - he will be great in red if he can keep from getting kicked off the pitch for a couple of months - will be interesting to see his reaction to cold pelting rain too. I'm glad to see LVG giving Blackett an extended run and though he wasn't so hot today, I'm really sure this will pay off in the long term.
Excuses: lots of injuries and the ref gave Utd big fat zero - & i don't just mean in terms of the pens - not one 50/50 decision went utds way and a few of 75/25 ones didn't either.
I'm still not sure Rooney & RVP are capable of forming a partnership: Ferg tried, Moyes tried and i'm not sure LVG can do any better. They are both alpha-strikers and tend to look more to themselves than others around em.
On the last couple of showings and to be honest for a while now (except usa tour) both Fletch and Evans don't look up to standard - i have a lot of time for both but...
DDG needs to get both his defence and frustration undercontrol - his concentration & distribution have been wandering lately -
And finally Anderson - he look ok today (sorry)

& city lost

 

[TrueRedsFan]

Felt sorry for Burnley in the end. They should really be beating teams around them in the table.

 

[ghagua]

Everyone knows some of the players are not up to it, but playing this 5 at the back shite is ruining the season. The central defenders are playing a zonal area instead of marking a specific player, which is causing confusion, which is leading to some stupid mistakes. The wing backs are for show only as they offer nothing in attack or defense. Both central midfielders are dropping too deep to pick up the ball which ends up being hoofed up field by one of the central defenders anyway. The attackers are being left very isolated, hence why we have managed to hit the target about 6 times in 4 matches this season.

LvG is sitting in the dugout writing notes, too stubborn to get up and instruct the players, or make any kind of change in formation to attack the opposition. If he does not change this crap formation, then bettering last seasons 7th place finish is looking like a pipe dream.

The players are rightfully getting the blame, but LvG should should share some of that as well.

 

[Wade3]

I wasn't able to watch the game, how did di Maria look in his first game? According to the live ticker I was reading, he was pretty decent and clearly our best player in an average team performance?

 

[santeria13]

I wasn't able to watch the game, how did di Maria look in his first game? According to the live ticker I was reading, he was pretty decent and clearly our best player in an average team performance?

He created the only through ball in the past 3 games and a damn good one at that for RVP who executed some brilliant chest control but his finishing was a little off. He also set up mata with what usually would have been a sitter, only for mata to fall over. Easily our best player, and he deserved an assist today.

 

[Venci Stanchev]

It's not good enough to have 3 dangerous attacks vs Burnley, and only one of them 100%.
RVP should have scored really, if he does not get injured (with our luck recent years....) he will come good.
This is the most important season in last 30 years, 1 year withouts CL is acceptable, but 2 or 3 will probably mean we will have Liverpool's fate, cuz if u know really well our (and Pools) history u know it happens in 25-30 years circules of success/failure.
Teriffying.

 

[GRon]

This was a brilliant piece on the game IMO

http://babb.telegraph.co.uk/2014/08/van-gaals-philosophy-begins-to-take-shape-still-not-great/

 

[GRon]

And finally Anderson - he look ok today (sorry)

Which match did you watch? Anderson was pathetic. He kept giving the ball away and took some ridiculously bad corners.

 

[KYcinco]

Which match did you watch? Anderson was pathetic. He kept giving the ball away and took some ridiculously bad corners.

The hate is strong,Anderson looked ok,probably the only midfielder brave enough to carry the ball from the defence .

 

[Rory 7]

This was a brilliant piece on the game IMO

http://babb.telegraph.co.uk/2014/08/van-gaals-philosophy-begins-to-take-shape-still-not-great/

Good piece. I think one of the things us supporters have to get used to is that with Van Gaal in charge everything is going to change. Its going to take time but either we believe in what he is trying to do or we don't. Personally I hate the back three. But I want Van Gaal to work out. Just as we all wanted Moyes to work out. The key difference being I guess Van Gaal's methods have proved to win things at other big clubs. Poor old Moyes never stood a chance by comparison.

 

[GRon]

The hate is strong,Anderson looked ok,probably the only midfielder brave enough to carry the ball from the defence .

Yes, di Maria did not carry the ball from the defence.

 

[GRon]

Good piece. I think one of the things us supporters have to get used to is that with Van Gaal in charge everything is going to change. Its going to take time but either we believe in what he is trying to do or we don't. Personally I hate the back three. But I want Van Gaal to work out. Just as we all wanted Moyes to work out. The key difference being I guess Van Gaal's methods have proved to win things at other big clubs. Poor old Moyes never stood a chance by comparison.

I think LvG is trying to get us to pass the ball. Most of our football has been dire since Ronaldo left.

 

[KYcinco]

Yes, di Maria did not carry the ball from the defence.

Stop hating.

Anderson was fine,if he was pathetic,lord knows what you think of Mata's or Rooney's performance.

have a coke,smile and fecking relax.

 

[GRon]

Stop hating.

Anderson was fine,if he was pathetic,lord knows what you think of Mata's or Rooney's performance.

have a coke,smile and fecking relax.

How is an honest assessment of Anderson's performance hating? Mata and Rooney pathetic. So was Anderson. I guess the only players who played okay today were Jones, di Maria, de Gea and to some extent Welbeck, if we are pushing it probably Valencia.