Manchester United 3:0 Stoke City

SteveW · Feb 2, 2016

Dobbs said:
Moving the ball forward quickly requires players who can do that. LvG tells us over and over again he wants the ball moved quicker. The deep lying playmaker and No.10 are crucial to that.

Suit yourself. It's all because Mata played through the middle and Carrick started. Nothing else to it. Happy?

Dobbs · Feb 2, 2016

SteveW said:
Suit yourself. It's all because Mata played through the middle and Carrick started. Nothing else to it. Happy?

I know you're desperate to use the victory to further criticise LVG but it's simply not true. Its not a case of him changing his mind.

Having players who can pass helps if you want to play quick football. Very simple.

Perrick Dubois · Feb 2, 2016

Perrick Dubois said:
Fellaini has been in good form, we need his height, aggression and willingness to fight for the ball in midfield today. Bold prediction, a goal in the first half!

WPMUFC · Feb 2, 2016

so where was that MUFC performance all season? Rooney suggested last week that LVG had relaxed his strict playing style and now they play well. Stubborn fool will still probably cost us top 4 because he dare not concede he was wrong.

On the positive, looks like rooney has some form back, Martial is fantastic, CBJ at LB was solid, mata had one of his better games, fellaini was good. All round just better.

ariel · Feb 2, 2016

47% possession and yet our best game this season - entertaining wise and so much more shots at goal and on target.
Who needs these boring 70% possession games?

bugmat · Feb 2, 2016

Best game in a long time - 2 counterattacking goals, good defending, quick forward passing etc! Carrick looks in form and Rooney too. We could move up the table if we keep it up! Special mention to the 2 youngsters martial and CBJ - great displays.

SteveW · Feb 2, 2016

Dobbs said:
I know you're desperate to use the victory to further criticise LVG but it's simply not true. Its not a case of him changing his mind.

Having players who can pass helps if you want to play quick football. Very simple.

Go bother someone else would ya.

Walters_19_MuFc · Feb 2, 2016

pauldyson1uk said:
played last night.

Raw said:
Played for the U21s yesterday.

DomesticTadpole said:
Played for U-21's last night.

Damien said:
Played last night.

Thanks.

Empire · Feb 3, 2016

Stacks said:
This is bull. What we are seeing is a clear aversion to the previous ideology. When we get the ball we are rushing to goal like the old United. Almost on the counter. After 20 months of sideways and backwards zombie passing, this is clearly a different approach, not "its suddenly clicked."

That's what they said at Barcelona in his second season, you know after he lost four in a row and then won 14 of his next 16 league matches.

How do you think the man won all that he has won playing like we have so far this season? He didn't, that would be impossible, his teams played more like how we played against Stoke.

Louis van Gaal was asked when is the best time to score and he replied during the transition from defence to attack, he puts a lot of emphasis on that counter, however then if the opponents organise their defence he recycles ball possession and attacks them that way (the fourth phase), the problem is we have lacked the penetration so it's been zombie passing but as the players understanding with each other improves so will disorganising the opposition defence.

Expect more goals on the counter as the team gets better, it's what he refers to as the third phase, we have been poor this season at that but that's why he trains the players.

Empire · Feb 3, 2016

Inigo Montoya said:
Because most of us have been asleep

Fair enough, it's also because we have gone ahead early so few times and when we have by dropping off we have been poor.

I read some comments about how we lose control of the game when we go ahead but giving up possession is the point because now he wants to hit on the counter however the defence need to be solid and when we win the ball back we need to launch an effective counter.

If the team go on a run I'd expect us to go ahead more often earlier in the match and then we will score some beautiful counter attacking goals.

Empire · Feb 3, 2016

Stacks said:
No. Read up on it. Figo gets the ball in promising position on the right, then after 3 passes the ball ends up back to goalkeeper admidst groans from the crowd. The Catalan people never took to it for a reason. It wasn't this

That's what happened when they were poor to begin with in that second season but when they started performing they attacked far more effectively.

Raees · Feb 3, 2016

The positive is that this game felt like watching Manchester United again.. the reality is that our rivals put in these type of performances consistently and the likes of Leicester and Tottenham who we are relying on to slip, are the ones who seem to be picking up momentum.

It might all be in vain and too little too late. Can't help but feel also that we seem to be playing teams at the right time where they are bringing feck all to the pitch and it is allowing us to keep picking up points. If we meet a team bang in form who takes their chances, we might still get blown away - and this could be any team, not just a top side in which case that is to be expected. An in form Bournemouth who play well for example could easily defeat us, its just we have been fortunate that we are playing teams off form. Now it could be that we are stopping good teams from playing their natural game, which is heartening but I would rather hold judgement then think LVG has finally helped us turn the corner in terms of performance levels.

dcullivanio · Feb 3, 2016

ariel said:
47% possession and yet our best game this season - entertaining wise and so much more shots at goal and on target.
Who needs these boring 70% possession games?

This is the point I was about to make. I think it clearly shows that United are designed to play fast positive football where we can really thrive on the counter attack. The counter attack for the second goal last night was as good as anything in our recent(ish) pomp! We don't need to fanny around passing the ball sideways all match as we're much more productive and exciting when playing like last night.

Please let it continue. All season whenever we have a bright spark of a result we have followed it up with something horrible in the next game. Hopefully we'll see United attack Chelsea on Sunday instead of a dour sterile game. Last 7 games: W5, D1, L1......fingers crossed that things are looking up.

Lennon7 · Feb 3, 2016

First game I've gone to this season and we play well, score goals and actually attack. I'm willing to let people pay for me to attend more games. Any offers?

Stacks · Feb 3, 2016

Empire said:
That's what they said at Barcelona in his second season, you know after he lost four in a row and then won 14 of his next 16 league matches.

How do you think the man won all that he has won playing like we have so far this season? He didn't, that would be impossible, his teams played more like how we played against Stoke.

Louis van Gaal was asked when is the best time to score and he replied during the transition from defence to attack, he puts a lot of emphasis on that counter, however then if the opponents organise their defence he recycles ball possession and attacks them that way (the fourth phase), the problem is we have lacked the penetration so it's been zombie passing but as the players understanding with each other improves so will disorganising the opposition defence.

Expect more goals on the counter as the team gets better, it's what he refers to as the third phase, we have been poor this season at that but that's why he trains the players.

He won those trophies a) because he inherited the current league champions from Robson and thus had the best etam b) had Figo, Rivaldo Kluivert, Luis Enrique who can win games.

We have heard enough evidence of LVG been happy, more impressed with and endorsing many a first half where we had 70% possession and not a sniff at goal. It is a recurring theme where we do nothing in the first half and have opened up in the second, scored a goal or 2 anf after the match LVG "I preferred the 1st half where we passed sideways and backwards with little or no attacking intent because we controlled the game and dominated possession. The opponents also didn't threaten our goal" just be honest with yourself, this was a far cry from what he has been championing all season. We were far more open, did not dominate possession, and went forward every time at the expense of dominating possession.

Edit: Plus if the football was sooo great, exciting and counter attacking brilliance, why could he not win people over?

Empire · Feb 3, 2016

Stacks said:
He won those trophies a) because he inherited the current league champions from Robson and thus had the best etam b) had Figo, Rivaldo Kluivert, Luis Enrique who can win games.

Barcelona hadn't won the league for three seasons when he took over.

We have heard enough evidence of LVG been happy, more impressed with and endorsing many a first half where we had 70% possession and not a sniff at goal. It is a recurring theme where we do nothing in the first half and have opened up in the second, scored a goal or 2 anf after the match LVG "I preferred the 1st half where we passed sideways and backwards with little or no attacking intent because we controlled the game and dominated possession. The opponents also didn't threaten our goal" just be honest with yourself, this was a far cry from what he has been championing all season. We were far more open, did not dominate possession, and went forward every time at the expense of dominating possession.

Edit: Plus if the football was sooo great, exciting and counter attacking brilliance, why could he not win people over?

We did dominate the ball until the 14th minute, 56.3% of possession. Then we scored and Louis van Gaal drops deeper letting the opposition come on and looks to play more direct exploiting the space inevitably left behind by a team chasing the match.

This has happened all season when we've gone ahead, we actually countered effectively this match where usually we don't and concede.

Stacks · Feb 4, 2016

Empire said:
Barcelona hadn't won the league for three seasons when he took over.

We did dominate the ball until the 14th minute, 56.3% of possession. Then we scored and Louis van Gaal drops deeper letting the opposition come on and looks to play more direct exploiting the space inevitably left behind by a team chasing the match.

This has happened all season when we've gone ahead, we actually countered effectively this match where usually we don't and concede.

You're right Barcelona came 2nd Under Sir Bobby.

And due to the way football matches change, 14 mins of superior possession counts for little tbh especially if you are home team. There is nothing to suggest the match would play out like that as its only 14 minutes!

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