Louis Van Gaal | 2015-16 Performance Thread

[United again!]

I'd love to see you explain that. Such a weird comment.

So having 70% possession, 373 more passes than the opposition and creating two clear cut chances is your definition of adventurous football?

We haven't really played like to 2007 if we're being honest, this was a classic late Ferguson era game today where we used to nick a goal late on.

We're not being honest, that is a ludicrous piece of revisionism.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Even that isn't necessarily a bad thing mata and Memphis to me were very lively and maybe januzaj could have been benched. But then he did have 2 decent games and deserved his chance.

Herrera should have come at the hour mark for Rooney IMO, if he wasn't going to start.

 

[Red Dreams]

I wonder if you would have been saying this if Rooney's goal stood, along with Mata, Smalling and Chico's chances going in? Granted obviously they didn't go in and we end the game a 0-0, but we had plenty of chances to put this game to bed. If we were being too cautious btw, then we wouldn't have been left 3 vs 1 on the counter attack near the end of the game would we?

with the possession and control we had...and control is the key word, we should have slaughtered Newcastle who are a poor team.

So wasteful. Players still trying to figure out what to do. Perhaps it is the new players. But we need to be faster and direct.

 

[The_Midfielder]

Playing two defensive midfielders against relegation candidates is very dodgy

Is Schweinsteiger a defensive midfielder? We were hammering them all game.. just our finishing wasn't there..
Roooney's goal was onside
Memphis should have buried a few..
Smalling's goal
Mata's save
hernandez's save..
We had chances.. we just didnt score..

 

[Summit]

with the possession and control we had...and control is the key word, we should have slaughtered Newvastle who are a poor team.

So wasteful. Players still trying to figure out what to do. Perhaps it is the new players. But we need to be faster and direct.

But we weren't cautious at all and that was the point I was making. Poor finishing and keeper saves stopped us scoring a few today, and that doesn't make us cowards, or too cautious does it?

 

[ArmchairCritic]

It's not just one game though is it? It was the entire last season, but most people thought ok let's see how he redefines the squad in the summer and see what happens. Now he's got a great squad but the football is still oh so cautious. Take the bloody clamps off the players and let them play before it's too late

We're 3 games into the season. Not so much clamps being on players as poor decisions being made in key areas and Rooney being the big elephant in the room. There's nothing how we're playing now that's a million miles from how we played under SAF this decade.

 

[prath92]

Herrera was also part of the west brom game that people keep mentioning and he could do little to nothing that day. I'm a big fan of his but it's time to Stop making it seem as if we are benching Bryan Robson in his prime.

And the 'I have always thought LvG was overrated' brigade is back too I see

 

[Red Dreams]

But we weren't cautious at all and that was the point I was making. Poor finishing and keeper saves stopped us scoring a few today, and that doesn't make us cowards, or too cautious does it?

must disagree. we kept possession but did not do much with it. when we attacked we lacked precission. And we were slow.

 

[Varun]

So having 70% possession, 373 more passes than the opposition and creating two clear cut chances is your definition of adventurous football?

We're not being honest, that is a ludicrous piece of revisionism.

I didn't ask for stats. I asked you to explain how possession football is by definition cowardball.

 

[ArmchairCritic]

So having 70% possession, 373 more passes than the opposition and creating two clear cut chances is your definition of adventurous football?

We're not being honest, that is a ludicrous piece of revisionism.

Is it? There was one season with Rooney up top that focused on wing play with Valencia out wide but we have been playing the 'United way' for quite some time and being ponderous and safe in possession is nothing new to United. We were utterly dreadful to watch under SAF in his last 2-3 years.

In 07-08, 08-09 we had Ronaldo as a focal point and went away from wing play to become more tactically efficient (although there were some mightily good counter attacks in that period). Then Ronaldo left, Valencia came in and had a great season with Rooney up top followed by a great season by Nani but midfield didn't have the legs and was overran for year after year. Only in the last season since we overhauled the midfield do we look solid there but in terms of balanced wing play and tempo United have been consistent in that regard for quite some time.

 

[United again!]

Is Schweinsteiger a defensive midfielder? We were hammering them all game.. just our finishing wasn't there..
Roooney's goal was onside
Memphis should have buried a few..
Smalling's goal
Mata's save
hernandez's save..
We had chances.. we just didnt score..

We had a few chances, but no real periods of dominance and pressure that resulted in good clear chances to score. You don't get that playing possession football, basically the Mitrovic header crystalized us and we stopped and settled the control of the match back down again and gave up any attacking pressure we had built.

 

[golden_blunder]

We're 3 games into the season. Not so much clamps being on players as poor decisions being made in key areas and Rooney being the big elephant in the room. There's nothing how we're playing now that's a million miles from how we played under SAF this decade.

Let me say this; I think lvg has ruined Rooney. Even under moyes, Rooney scored 17 league goals, despite others playing like shite.

If you can't see that in general the players are playing within themselves then you need to tAke the blinkers off

 

[Lewis.no.9]

I feel like van gaal learnt some lessons after last season but so far he is making whole new problems for the team IMO

 

[Aporkalypse]

The overreaction on here is mind boggling. Our end product let us down not our style of play. We did attack, a lot. But the players fecked up in the final third.

Coloccini and Krul were immense as well. We really need a dynamic number 9.

 

[Raoul]

The overreaction on here is mind boggling. Our end product let us down not our style of play. We did attack, a lot. But the players fecked up in the final third.

That and Newcastle played remarkably well today. They were compact and disruptive. Coloccini had one of his better games to date imo.

 

[prath92]

Herrera should have come at the hour mark for Rooney IMO, if he wasn't going to start.

Rooney was decent I thought. Nothing like the villa game and I thought did well as a no.10 later on. We subbed schweini because of his injury, chicharito coming on was obvious and Valencia to give a rest to Darmian who was on a yellow card anyway

 

[Sunny Jim]

IMO he missed the trick with his subs today.

Valencia was a downgrade from Darmian and i think Fellaini would have been a better option.

Edit: forgot Fellaini was suspended.
Sorry lads.

 

[lem8sh]

You can keep ball and keep ball or you can attack with pace and intent. We certainly don't do the latter.

 

[JustAFan]

Not saying he should be fired but if he doesn't get us playing better by the end of the season he might find himself in trouble. Again not saying he should be fired now or in the future , just saying we need to improve or he might face the ax.

 

[PlayerOne]

I'm surprised at just how negative he is. I wonder if it's the lack of trust in our defence

 

[Unlikely lad]

IMO he missed the trick with his subs today.

Valencia was a downgrade from Darmian and i think Fellaini would have been a better option.

Darmian was injured and Fellaini is still suspended.

Shocker from you

 

[littlepeasoup]

IMO he missed the trick with his subs today.

Valencia was a downgrade from Darmian and i think Fellaini would have been a better option.

We couldn't play Fellaini because of suspension.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Rooney was decent I thought. Nothing like the villa game and I thought did well as a no.10 later on. We subbed schweini because of his injury, chicharito coming on was obvious and Valencia to give a rest to Darmian who was on a yellow card anyway

Shows how low his standards have gotten. He was poor. He's a striker, he didn't contribute as a striker.

Schweinsteiger being injured was the perfect excuse for Herrera coming on.

 

[Summit]

must disagree. we kept possession but did not do much with it. when we attacked we lacked precission. And we were slow.

Tim saved a shot from Mata in the first half, then stopped a one on one in the second. If Rooney's goal was allowed and Smalling's ball wasn't cleared off the line then this game could have easily been 4-0 and you would all be wanking over it.

All ifs and buts, but to say we did not do much with the possession is wrong IMO. I do agree though that we should be winning this type of game at OT and it simply isn't good enough if we have any intentions on challenging for the title.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Darmian was injured and Fellaini is still suspended.

Shocker from you

Ah yes, i realized that Fellaini was still suspended.

Didnt know that Darmian was injured.

My bad.

 

[prath92]

IMO he missed the trick with his subs today.

Valencia was a downgrade from Darmian and i think Fellaini would have been a better option.

His fault that fellAini was suspended too I imagine

 

[Sylar]

Let me say this; I think lvg has ruined Rooney. Even under moyes, Rooney scored 17 league goals, despite others playing like shite.

Would love to know how many were set pieces / penalties etc.
Regardless, hes been regressing every year and its been obvious for a while.

A top class striker today (or our players you know not hitting it straight at the keeper) turns it into a 3-0 and a dominant performance instead of overreaction of "cowardly football"

 

[Sunny Jim]

We couldn't play Fellaini because of suspension.

True.

 

[Attila]

Is Schweinsteiger a defensive midfielder? We were hammering them all game.. just our finishing wasn't there..
Roooney's goal was onside
Memphis should have buried a few..
Smalling's goal
Mata's save
hernandez's save..
We had chances.. we just didnt score..

I would say Carrick and Schwein are both defensive midfielders. They don't really break forward

 

[Someone]

Couldn't fault him today really, we played really well but couldn't score, not his fault.

 

[ArmchairCritic]

Let me say this; I think lvg has ruined Rooney. Even under moyes, Rooney scored 17 league goals, despite others playing like shite.

If you can't see that in general the players are playing within themselves then you need to tAke the blinkers off

LVG didn't ruin Rooney, Rooney's perfectly capable of that himself. He's made him captain and tried to fit in him into the side no matter what. Think you need to take the blinkers off.

 

[Varun]

It's not just one game though is it? It was the entire last season, but most people thought ok let's see how he redefines the squad in the summer and see what happens. Now he's got a great squad but the football is still oh so cautious. Take the bloody clamps off the players and let them play before it's too late

We weren't cautious at all. Committed numbers forward and were on the attack the entire game but obviously the pace was dull for about half of it. What we lacked was finishing and some poor final balls. The game today could easily have finished 3-0 and we'd be celebrating another excellent result. Chicha missed the 1 v 1, Rooney has a goal disallowed, Smalling has that goal bound effort hit the post and we are moaning here about the manager being cautious. Not even mentioning the countless opportunities we had in the 1st 25mins which didn't materialise.

Btw, too many here seem to be hung up on sir Alex still. A salty le of football even he couldn't keep up during his last few years at the club.

 

[thegregster]

Since he has become our manager.

LVG averages 1.909 V rest of the top 6.(Chelsea,Arsenal,Pool,City,Spurs)
LVG averages 1.8666 V the non top 6

 

[Varun]

Reminded me of the Fulham game under Moyes in the 2nd half.

Weirdest thing I have read here today.

 

[United again!]

Is it? There was one season with Rooney up top that focused on wing play with Valencia out wide but we have been playing the United way for quite some time and being ponderous and safe in possession is nothing new to United. We were utterly dreadful to watch under SAF in his last 2-3 years.

If that is your opinion then you can enjoy that one. I don't agree at all.

 

[golden_blunder]

Would love to know how many were set pieces / penalties etc.
Regardless, hes been regressing every year and its been obvious for a while.

A top class striker today (or our players you know not hitting it straight at the keeper) turns it into a 3-0 and a dominant performance instead of overreaction of "cowardly football"

A system which doesn't allow the midfielders to,get close enough to support a plodding paced attack is in my books cowardly. Especially at home.

 

[Bojan11]

Van Persie scored like 20 goals under Moyes. Nobody ruined him.

He just wasn't the same player too just like Rooney isn't.

 

[Red Dreams]

Tim saved a shot from Mata in the first half, then stopped a one on one in the second. If Rooney's goal was allowed and Smalling's ball wasn't cleared off the line then this game could have easily been 4-0 and you would all be wanking over it.

All ifs and buts, but to say we did not do much with the possession is wrong IMO. I do agree though that we should be winning this type of game at OT and it simply isn't good enough if we have any intentions on challenging for the title.

well of course we would all be happy if we won by a big score. But we could also have lost 2-0. We need to do more than just control matches. We need to be clinical. Hopefully that will happen with the full compliment of players coming in. van Gaal can have no excuses after that.

 

[Kounan]

Style wise, I think we are improving a lot, he really used well the flanks today (it's not his fault that our players always were to late with the final pass).

But Rooney is his big problem, he needs to drop him.

 

[Sylar]

A system which doesn't allow the midfielders to,get close enough to support a plodding paced attack is in my books cowardly. Especially at home.

Yet we protected our defence brilliantly (what many were complaining about last year) still created so many chances to win the game, and for the last ten minutes threw everything at them which almost saw us lose on a counter attack.

Yep thats cowardly. Our issue is not style, its being clinical or taking chances. This is nothing like the Villa or Spurs game.