I don't understand why people get so hung up on the first half and Liverpool's pressing. Its always difficult to look good when opposition play like that and any team like this gamble on taking a lead into the 2nd half as they'll always tire, it's a high risk tactic that we rode. Lest we forget this is a completely new formation for our back line and we had just played Madrid some 2 days before the match, I'm confident they'll get better and better as they get used to the system.
Manchester United vs Liverpool
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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My eyes are burning with tiredness. I read that as "What a load of 89!" It still scans Ok
Probably best to get some sleep, mate.
True. Some of it was ridiculous.From some of the posts on here last night we did a pretty good job of that ourselves.
Like he was for Holland?
Some people going on like RVP is untouchable. Fact is, if he doesn't play well, he'll get dropped like all the other players. That's what should happen anyway.
No surprise this statement come from you anyway.
Wait.. was he not for Holland?
Nope.
Care to elaborate, who was?
He was number 1 striker for Holland starting every single game apart from 1 he was suspended in, scoring 4 goals. Their top scorer in qualifying aswell.
Robben. Obviously Robben isn't a striker by trait, but played next to Van Persie in the WC. Everything went through him, and I'm not sure he got taken off throughout the tournament. That's personally who I'd describe as a 'number 1' striker.
Hmm maybe, I got the feeling he actually played off RVP rather than next to him, but I see your point.
They played two up top in the WC, and I personally feel the team played for Robben, which is why I felt he was the number one striker.
Fair point. Either way, I don't think it's fair for @Rezyuz to say, 'RvP will be the number 1 striker, thats not even up for debate', because if he doesn't play well, he shouldn't start. Same goes for all of our other strikers.
What happens if Welbeck and Rooney continue to keep up their good pre season form into the upcoming season? Is it a cert that RVP will walk back into our team? If so, that shouldn't be the case, in my opinion. Dutch manager or not!
a rawk oxymoron. They have a lot of them
Oh, that was weird. The ball came off the bar behind the line and dropped right to him. At first it looked like he put it in the net as a joke and when they counted it I don't think anybody believed it was a goal.
He's not fast enough. On a back 3 you need to hold a high line. Vidic is great, but he wouldn't be great in this LVG system
Two guys already beat you to it, but yes he was talking about Michael.I think you've confused Michael & William man..
But yeah, Will was exceptional before his injury. I hate to say it, but he's lost his spark & may never get it back for us..
As I responded earlier, I have to disagree then with the original post, I think Michael Keane has a real shot at making it here.
I'm not one of his biggest fans, he has a lot of them who think he's squad material and I think he's shown his quality.
Sure, he made two mistakes against Bale, but he's also never faced a player that good.
Blackett was out in the wilderness, I didn't expect to ever hear of him again.
Michael, on the other hand, has been penciled in for a run in the first team squad for at least two years.
Vidic was one of the best players at 1-on-1 that we had since Stam, IMO. I think Vidic's passing is as good as Smalling's. He is better aerially than all defenders we have. While his mobility is not great, it never was. His positioning on the other hand is exceptional. He'd be perfect for the central role in the back 3.
I disagree with a whole bunch of you on that pen. First angle looked 100% nailed on.
Slow mo angle from behind, and Jones wins it, and puts it out for a corner.
I can see why he looked gutted.
Keane against Bale is what you call ridiculously rash and reckless. Although Jones obviously shouldn't have monstered in like that.
But he hasn't actually made the jump, and we've had some pretty dire defensive emergencies during that time. He's always struck me as an accident waiting to happen - fine most of the time but capable of horrendous mistakes. Maybe he'll transcend that, but I wouldn't want him anywhere near the team until he has.
His brother, in his few minutes on the pitch, looked slow and ponderous. More suited to a lower (and slower) level of football.
Doesn't really matter whether or not he touched it (except to commentators and pundits). If he touches the ball before the player he gets the benefit of the Law 12 escape clause. Unfortunately, when he takes the man, he moves into the dangerous play arena. It becomes a judgement call by the referee, but it is almost always given. (Particularly as, despite the 2005 law change, FIFA are still determined to eliminate the tackle from behind.)
Indeed. It wasn't a sending off by any means but players can clearly win the ball but then go through the player and see red for it. Winning the ball is not necessarily a primary factor for a ref making these calls.
Yep, he was, but I think you will agree he’s not exactly what he was a few seasons ago.
With his average passing skills and limited mobility I don’t consider him “perfect” for the central role in this system, although I think it was a little unwise to get rid of him together with Rio and Evra.
yeah agree with that. very effective
Watching the game now. Half time. First half MUCH less one-sided than I'd thought reading reports on t'internet. United were actually on top at times, for a total of 15-20 minutes or so. Three brilliant crosses by Young. Liverpool's chances have been a little scrappy and certainly not a result of flowing football, mainly down to sloppy passing by United's defence. Certainly disagree with the hype about Sterling. He hasn't done much, although Coutinho's been great. Both teams seem to be struggling to string many passes together. I actually think the pitch is a big factor. Looks really heavy, lots of bobbles too.
Poor Fletch can't pass water. Young's been terrific. Shaw's been different gravy too. His best game for United.
Will continue this self-indulgent prattling after the second half. That is all.
Poor Fletch can't pass water. Young's been terrific. Shaw's been different gravy too. His best game for United.
Will continue this self-indulgent prattling after the second half. That is all.
Not as good a performance against Real but still beating the scousers is always great regardless of it being a friendly or not. Well done lads a nice way to round off the tour.
RvP was pretty shit for Holland since 2008 in any big match, yet completely untouchable. Hes LVG's BFF, he is by far our best striker and scores more then anyone else. Do you think he will be benched just because of a string of bad performances? You know what happens with players that get subbed after bad performances (which are normally top strikers but out of form) you get a Torres. A striker thrives on confidence, and by benching a striker even tough hes making an effort but simply failing due bad luck you basically crush his confidence. No manager would do that, a manager would just work hard to bring him back to his top form and try and get him to score asap again.
Beside, who the hell is going to play striker instead of RvP lol? Rooney won't play as a sole striker in a 433 with his height and ability to receive/hold a ball. And Welbeck taking out RvP? Not in this decade. And Hernandez...well thats pretty obvious.
Didn't stop him from getting what, three babies, before he was 19?
Actually, it can go two ways. Being dropped can actually give a player a kick up the backside, thus giving them the motivation to prove why they shouldn't have been dropped in the first place. If players feel they're untouchable (which none of them should be) they could continue to put half arsed performances in, knowing they'll play the next game. It's not good for the team.
Well at the moment, we have Rooney and Welbeck who are more than capable of leading the line. They've done it before. Rooney scored 34 goals playing up top on his own, for God's sake. I remember a certain Berbatov - our record signing at the time - getting dropped for a 19/20 year old Welbeck, because he (Berbatov) wasn't particularly playing very good, and our overall play seemed a lot better with Welbeck up top. This is not to say Welbeck will displace RVP this seaosn, but if he's on a shit run of form, he should be dropped.
As for RVP being untouchable for Holland since 2008, I don't think he was. Our very own LVG dropped him because he felt Huntelaar suited his system better. Here's a link to jog your memory:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-robin-van-persie-has-been-1262603
This is a funny read because on RAWK they were bitching about Sky being obsessed with LVG.
Yes, but...RAWK. Nuff said.
Rooney is a completely different player now. Its like comparing Scholes of 2000's to Scholes 2012. He doesn't get that amount anymore, ever. And theres a HUGE difference between Berbatov and RvP.
And RvP has been untouchable for Holland. LVG didn't drop him at all, it was when he just got selected as coach he said that he would take huntelaar over RvP as he thought it would fit better in the team and that he found RvP to be not so effective in the national team, and also said he would switch back at anytime if he felt like it wasn't. And quickly after RvP's injury was gone during international break he got his chance, took it and became first again.
Regardless, this is practice. We are talking about big tournaments, RvP did shit in WC2010, EC2012 and WC 2014. Did you ever see him get dropped and huntelaar given consecutive starters?
Apparently LVG rated Huntelaar ahead of RVP and it was RVP's positive attitude towards trying to better himself in training to show he can do better than Huntelaar is the reason LVG now favors him.
Just shows the difference between RVP and Rooney, if Rooney was getting dropped for someone he'd probably throw a tantrum.
He's actually not. Not when playing up top anyway. Put it this way, if he were to play up top, he'd score just as many goals as RVP, in my opinion. He just doesn't get the chance because he's a much more all rounded player, and obviously managers feel his qualities are wasted being the lone striker.
As for there being a 'HUGE' difference between Berbatov and Robin, in what way? Berbatov was arguably the best striker in the league when we bought him, hence why we broke our transfer record at the time to sign him. Where's the difference?
You're clearly missing the point. If Robin was untouchable, why did Van Gaal favour Hunterlaar, despite him (Robin) being the top goalscorer for Arsenal, and signing for us that year? He clearly favoured Huntelaar at the time.
Van Gaal:
Doesn't sound too untouchable to me.
And we were never talking about big tournaments. It was you that started harping on about big tournaments. My initial point was that, no one is, and should never be untouchable in any team, and I don't believe that is the case for Holland, as there's clear evidence if you actually read the article, and I don't believe it will be the case next season.
My point exactly. Being dropped worked as a motivation.
He'll get his chances. He's still a teenager, so doesn't need to play every single week.
If we need to change system midgame to find a goal in some matches, he'll definitely get a look in.
For me the pecking order in the 10 spot is:
1. Mata
2. Januzaj
3. Kagawa
1. Mata
2. Januzaj
3. Kagawa
We've played 5 odd games, conceded about 4 goals, 1 in open play (a 60 yard wonder strike and a terrible mistake by the goalie) and 3 in penalties. Liverpool did give us a torrid 15 minutes with their high energy pressing, but as we got used to the pace of the match, we became much better. Fletcher's off day didn't help, but we never let those shoulders drop and I was always confident of a positive result. It's a big change from the previous regime, so I'll gladly take it.
In the first couple of minutes of that Liverpool pressing we could have easily scored with that Hernandez chance. If they want to try that against us in the league, chances are we'll score next time and they'll get a hiding.
What makes you think that? Actually, Rooney got dropped a couple years ago against Madrid in the CL Quarter Final, and although he was probably upset (who wouldn't be?) he went on to play the next game we had against Chelsea, ironically bagging a goal.
Don't know why you'd think he'd throw a tantrum. To me, this just sounds like another anti-Rooney post, that has no sort of substance to it whatsoever.
Good post, this.
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