[Paul the Wolf]

McNair Fellaini & Rojo - nightmare half, Carrick put back to bring some organisation at the back I hope, seems like half the players have been given sleeping tablets
Hope they wake up in the second half

 

[RuudTom83]

United will play better in the second half..that is certain (mainly because it would be hard to play any worse) but the formation complaint is short sighted, it is something the players are learning and you can only get better at it by playing it in a competitive game.

 

[R'hllor]

We are not looking great in 3-5-2 formation but i dont think its crap formation in general,just it seems some players dont know how to play in it.
Mata is not for anything under No 10,3 at the back makes hole in midfield and then those up front not giving option when we play from the back.

 

[stu_1992]

Well that was poor to say the least. Nothing going forward, and all over the place defensively. It does seem similar to the Arsenal game. McNair getting taken off was harsh but fair IMO, he was looking out of his depth. Fellaini has been very poor with his passing and hasn't done enough defensively too. Losing Smalling is a blow, Evans doesn't give me much confidence especially because of how he played before his injury. Seriously need to regroup and come back a lot better in the second half.

 

[Offside]

We will dick em second half 1-4

 

[kouroux]

Aye mate...only Carrick plays ball forward.

Valencia on the other hand

Not enough movement and a scared mentality.

 

[Iron Stove]

Disappointing to see Fellaini reverting to his old shit self. Hope he manages to put in a better performance in the second half.. unless he's substituted.

Good to see LVG taking action when something obviously doesn't work though.

 

[Antisocial]

Wow that was bad.

I'm not sure starting Mata, RVP and Rooney together is a good idea in games like this - at times it's basically three guys out of the team when the opposition are all running their bollocks off.

 

[RexHamilton]

I know we can't do anything about it right now. But we need to forget about Smalling, Jones and Evans. They all have potential but are too injury prone. How can we get a settled defence? Chelsea have had 2, maybe three centre halves this season. We have had five in 45 minutes of football. How would it not be a shambles?

Obviously I'm not trying to excuse poor play, but we look panicked and nervous every time they attack and that stems from people being confused as to who should be where and and who should be picking up who.

Obviously with this game, there is more going wrong. Fellaini has seamlessly reverted to the Fellaini of last season. Mata hasn't touched the ball. Rooney and van Persie* have been anonymous. (*The goal and one other shot aside). Young has been OK but he and Valencia still look dodgy in defence.

 

[Empire]

If I were him I would go 4-3-3 but putting Carrick holding and Fellaini + Herrera ahead and then Rojo LB so Evans LCB with Young LW and Mata RW, the formation is fine but they are misplacing passes perhaps with a change in formation there might be more short options.

 

[togg]

well, I said that these two next games will tell us how far we have come...or how far we have to go. I do sympathise with LVG a bit...the injuries have been just bloody awful, but tactically today, he made a wrong choice....but hey...there is still a second half and we are not losing ...

 

[Mancunia_Religion]

I miss Di Maria already. That is the worst 1st half we've had all season

 

[Dylan94]

Smalling going off has completely changed this game for us. McNair should never have started as I said earlier. Herrera should of started and the line up should of stayed the same from the Stole game. Now Fellaini needs to come off though. He's been terrible.

 

[RetroStu]

Look on the bright side, we will have a better second half, we can't get any worse!.

 

[Marcosdeto]

i said we are going to win 3-1

it's on!

 

[Count Orduck]

Van Gaal doesn't learn. Every single time he tries to make us play this retarded 5-3-2 it fails. Every time. He tries it, we're shit, get battered, lose the game, then he drops it for the next couple of games and we're good again. We've just won four in a row playing 4-4-2, so what does he do? Goes back to 5-3-2 and makes us shit again, because that's his "philosophy". He's too stubborn. Stop fecking playing it!

 

[Saad K]

Fellaini should not be anywhere near our team after this shambolic display

Oh dear, you don't really mean that? He's been poor but it's only been one half. He's played well in his last 3 games that I can remember

 

[space]

News just in! Valencia stuck in the pitch after forgetting how to move forwards

 

[luckyspurs]

Solitary effort on goal, which came from a Fonte back-pass.

Defence barely hanging on.

Fellaini having a Soldado-level loss of confidence and resorting to passing back to centre backs.

 

[Redlyn]

To be fair we are missing Rafael & Shaw and playing two wide attacking players at full back. We are also missing Jones, Blind and Di Maria so we are nowhere near our strongest team. What other title/top 4 candidate has to deal with those type of injury problems?

Other title challengers dont go into a season relying on the likes of jones rafael smalling eveans to be anything than injury prone. We would be lucky to get the equivalent of 1 fit defender between them combined. Thats why i refuse any defensive injury excuse, we brough it on ourselves. This was entirely predictable that carrick would play in CB that Rafa would be missing in large chucks, that smalling jones and evans would not get a chance to line up as a back 3. The only thing unlucky about this is that we have a bunch of injury prone players but that they are now injured is fecking painfully obvious not unlucky.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

We better win this

 

[ManUSarge]

HT:

Our shit away form continues.

A point will be a great result for us at this rate.

A few observations:

Smalling is glass, and ever since he went off with an injury our defence has been riddled with uncertainty and complacency.
Fellaini has been shit, at fault for our goal.
Mata non-existent - I'd replace him with Januzaj.
Rooney has been absent.

We better buck our ideas up or there's going to be another L on our record very soon.

We only have one more sub to make, and we could do with Januzaj or Falcao on really. Shame we can't have both, as they'd both give us something more than what our current line-up has offered.

Not for me. Januzaj has done nothing for me to feel confident putting him on right now. If I am going to take off Mata, which personally I would rather take off Fellaini because he is just having a mare, I would bring on Falcao and give him a shot. I would put him and RvP up top and drop Rooney back behind the strikers. I would play 4 at the back and put Mata on the left and Herrera on the right in a diamond with Rooney up top and Carrick just in front of CB's. But...i really know nothing.

 

[thelemon]

Wow that was bad.

I'm not sure starting Mata, RVP and Rooney together is a good idea in games like this - at times it's basically three guys out of the team when the opposition are all running their bollocks off.

It's fine when we play the diamond!

 

[walsh]

Their goal was a fecking comedy of errors. Absolutely tragic half.

 

[GledTheRed]

Rancid eye raping half of football.

 

[soapythecat]

Is that our worst half of football this season? Amazed it's only 1-1.
Mata has been mentioned twice by the commentators and Fellaini is having a shocker. Poor McNair was woeful.
This formation isn't working, don't see how we can't change to 4 at the back and give them more protection.

 

[bosnian_red]

We've not created one chance or even gotten into dangerous attacks.

They've had like 5/6 of dangerous attacks atleast and 2/3 chances.

We deserve to be losing been shite.

And We are gonna lose this unless we do something to change and improve.

The feck have they created? They "created" a chance when fellaini gave the ball away. They haven't exactly done anything else other then pass the ball around a bit, but they definitely haven't been creating loads of chances or anything like that. All the problems stem from our defenders/fellainj giving it away needlessly

 

[simonhch]

Can't believe Smalling is injured. LVG must feel like giving up. I know I do. So hard to build a solid platform and therefore confidence in the team, when you are constantly being forced to change personnel.

Well, it's 1-1. And it was ugly. Some people are getting a little hysterical. It's not the first or last time we have played badly. But Van Gaal has already made changes, so you know he's not happy. Let's see how we do in the second half.

Agree with many others that we could definitely lose this. In high pressure situations, the cracks start to appear and you see we are a work in progress.

 

[dichinero]

However bad Fellaini has been this half, and how invisible Mata's been, we can't really take off another player for at least another 30 minutes now can we? We're bound to get another injury before the match is over.

Agreed that Mata has been invisible but is surely better than being playing for the Soton which Fellaini seems to be doing.

 

[Dylan94]

I miss Di Maria already. That is the worst 1st half we've had all season

Di Maria would have made no difference to our performance in this first half whatsoever.

 

[Pyroblazer]

It has to be the formation. I bloody has to be. Whenever we play it, we seem so so uncomfortable defensively and we struggle to get any control of the game when we play it. I said it before. I don't think this system gets the best out of anyone.

When every defender makes stupid brainfarts, we won't look comfortable in any formation. I don't think back 4 would change anything today. We have one player, who is doing something for our attacking game and a set of shit defenders today. Players need to wake up and sort this shit out.

 

[SirFergie]

We created our own problems, being slow in possession, giving the ball away under no pressure and being scared to close and tackle. Southampton are really nothing special, we should be winning this comfortably.

 

[othersna]

The back 3 is doing wonders again I see... We seriously can't play this system, I've been saying it all along and in some sick twisted way it pleases me to see it fail so miserably, maybe we won't see it again any time soon...

 

[daniel9988]

We can't possibly play worse playing 4-5-1 right?

 

[Cpt Negative]

The only difference between that and Moyes performance is that LVG won't be happy about it...

 

[Someone]

The only difference between Van Gaal and Moyes is that this season we've been a bit more lucky. Same dire football, nothing is changing.

That's absolutely not true.

 

[mitchmouse]

I agree with Gary Nev - taking off McNair was brutal and everyone else has been as bad. I am willing to bet we let in another early in second half and lose 2-1 or 3-1

 

[Bojan11]

In the transfer window, we need to add pace in the team. This 3-5-2 only worked because of Robben. It will never work with the slow players we got.

 

[Insanity]

Smalling and Rojo are doing well as a CB partnership – let's change it to a back three.
Fellaini has been doing well at the right of the midfield – have him at the center of it or at the base, and have him suck.
Herrera had good games – to the bench.
Rooney and Mata have been playing well in their positions – play with shit tactics and take them out of the game.

Terrible terrible half of football.

A manager overthinking his “philosophy” and doing away with it. Trying act too smart and coming out looking like a buffoon.

Better change it in the second half or we will get hammered here.

 

[jojojo]

On the bright side, it's still 1-1.

 

[Redlyn]

We are set up to counter but we move the ball so fecking slowly how did we expect to do that exactly. We are so ponderous moving up the pitch. I hope Herrera can help in that respect.

 

[HabeasC]

The 352 works if we have a cb in the middle who can step up and play as a CDM. So with Carrick it can be a sort of 41212.

The problem is, with fellaini, we are so stunted going forwards. He is not a cm. He is pretty much a second striker.

Also for someone so big, he really is shite at winning headers.

Herrera on was a step forward.

We need to get the ball to him and let him be the focal point of our attack. Between him and mata we have enough creativity to provide for RVP and rooney.