I think Chelsea will be too strong this season. It depends. I'm not sure. But I don't think so.
[Poll] Will MUFC win the Premier League under Van Gaal?
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
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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?
He's an petulant attention seeker and the fans on here will turn on him soon enough after his teams end up not winning the title, in spite of spending a ridiculous amount of money. Philosophy bullshit, playing 3 at the back, left footed centerback.So him canning van Persie because he felt he wasn't doing enough and that another striker would do better is being charitable. Or getting rid of the likes of Nani, Welbeck, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher, etc because they weren't good enough is him being charitable.
Claiming that a manager who has won almost every major trophy at club level and took a poor Holland team to 3rd in the World Cup, what is your definition of a great manager then?
van Gaal is in the group of Pellegrini and the likes.
I think this is the most likely possibility, if only because there seems to be 4 legitimate Prem contenders this year and Chelsea are still favorites and if we don't win the title this year, get within a game or two of it (without choking it way) or make a great CL run, Van Gaal will be under serious pressure in 16-17.
Klopp is still out there and Van Gaal has assembled a good young-ish squad for his pressing, counter-attacking 4-2-3-1, on the whole. Memphis as Reus, Schneiderlin as Bender/Kehl, Herrera as Gundogan/Sahin, aggressive fullbacks and the other spots can be filled from within the squad or via transfer.
we'll be significantly closer to the top this season, though I doubt we'll win it this year, it does however provide for a fantastic platform on which to build on in 16/17. By then we shouldn't be in need of too many players, as has been the case the past 3 summers (disregarding the fact that Moyes failed in his attempts to bring anyone bar Fellaini in). We won't be in need of an overhaul, but rather just a piece or 2 of the puzzle away from a title winning team. And whoever's going to be lucky enough to succeed Van Gaal should realise they'll have a sweet deal on their hands.
If Falcao proves to be the difference I'll be very upset!
I voted: No, but he'll leave behind a team that can win it.
But that answer has it's flaws. If the next manager after wins the league the year after he leaves do we automatically assume the team he left behind to win it actually won it? I don't know if that answer really encompasses how I feel.
The reason I don't think he/we will win the league is simply that his philosophy/style is way to rigid for the Premier League and to win the league title playing the way he wants us to play historically I don't think has been done in the Premier League era. You'd probably have to go back to Arsenal at the turn of the new millennium to get anything that even comes close to an obsessive possession based style thriving across an English league season. Even that was over a decade ago and the football landscape was an entirely different panorama back then.
There were several things I noticed during last years league season that leads me to believe that he's not going to change our style at all in sync with what excels domestically and even as early as 1/4 of the way through last season and the whole 3-5-2 fiasco showed me personally that he hadn't even thought to bridge his system and his style to create a bit more synergy with the players and the English game in general. There was the whole playing players out of position caper, taking players that have obvious strengths and weaknesses in certain areas and playing in certain ways and making them adapt to how he wants them to play instead of exploiting their gifts in ways that are outside of the box.
It wasn't until I read @NL Max's thread regarding his tactics that it all started to finally click, I started to see things that I was looking at and saying to myself "hang on, something isn't right here.." and see that they fit with what I was seeing on the field and wondering why there were obvious (to me) elements of our game that were completely out of sync. Setting up the board to level the playing field with a possession based component is going to be effective against the top teams and for the first time in a few years I found myself saying prior to the big games "We're gonna do well, trust me.. LVG does his homework and we'll find something to exploit while being solid" which is what the system is designed to do. It is simply a different way to play than we used to under Sir Alex (and of course Moyes) and I personally am happy to see us raising the technical ability bar and having us focus on constantly playing in that style will definitely hold us in great stead for the CL and the big games this coming season (FA/CoC and League I am not as confident about). But it is against the rest of the league that this kind of chess board simply doesn't work. It was proven last season in my eyes. He simply has to adjust himself this season to allow us to break from the shackled mentality of keeping the ball and acting on rigid passing lanes and cyclical basic movements and allow some of our game as a whole to evolve against the lower teams. Simply setting up the chessboard and doing homework on them will not break them down alone. It will cause them to turtle even more and push us back into the same mould of trying to create linear chances against a stacked defensive opposition.
Without droning on about Sir Alex and their contrasting styles (as that era has had it's day, as marvellous as it was) the way Sir Alex set up board and built the foundations of what the club is based upon was rinsing the bottom 12 teams for a maximum of 72 points a season home and away and then letting the chips fall where they lay against the rest of the 6 teams. Some we won, some we didn't quite win but it was a tried and true formula that has proven by himself to work at this club. We didn't need an XI of prize fighting champions. We had a few and the rest could take a punch and would always jump in and fight for their lives when the occasion called for it.
Seeing just how far LVG was away from stretching his system to even allow SOME form of adherence to the nuances of English football really does worry me and make me negative in his and our chances to win the league. Backed up by NL's post where he pretty much confirms 'Yes LVG will not change', I think we're going to see the same lack of creativity and ability to break down the lower teams, coupled with more points dropped and more of the top teams happy to drop a couple of points which means they gain one. Having looked at the broader picture, I can't really see how this is going to win us a league title.
Stranger things have happened however, this season although in my eyes (and I've waited until this moment to reveal that I absolutely detest possession football so as to not turn you away early) is going to be another really hard slog to watch but a twisted part of me inside is looking forward to throwing off the inner pride of what I think United should be and just sitting down and watching United play out a season in the hope that at the end of it we win some silverware. I am not expecting it, if that makes sense?
But that answer has it's flaws. If the next manager after wins the league the year after he leaves do we automatically assume the team he left behind to win it actually won it? I don't know if that answer really encompasses how I feel.
The reason I don't think he/we will win the league is simply that his philosophy/style is way to rigid for the Premier League and to win the league title playing the way he wants us to play historically I don't think has been done in the Premier League era. You'd probably have to go back to Arsenal at the turn of the new millennium to get anything that even comes close to an obsessive possession based style thriving across an English league season. Even that was over a decade ago and the football landscape was an entirely different panorama back then.
There were several things I noticed during last years league season that leads me to believe that he's not going to change our style at all in sync with what excels domestically and even as early as 1/4 of the way through last season and the whole 3-5-2 fiasco showed me personally that he hadn't even thought to bridge his system and his style to create a bit more synergy with the players and the English game in general. There was the whole playing players out of position caper, taking players that have obvious strengths and weaknesses in certain areas and playing in certain ways and making them adapt to how he wants them to play instead of exploiting their gifts in ways that are outside of the box.
It wasn't until I read @NL Max's thread regarding his tactics that it all started to finally click, I started to see things that I was looking at and saying to myself "hang on, something isn't right here.." and see that they fit with what I was seeing on the field and wondering why there were obvious (to me) elements of our game that were completely out of sync. Setting up the board to level the playing field with a possession based component is going to be effective against the top teams and for the first time in a few years I found myself saying prior to the big games "We're gonna do well, trust me.. LVG does his homework and we'll find something to exploit while being solid" which is what the system is designed to do. It is simply a different way to play than we used to under Sir Alex (and of course Moyes) and I personally am happy to see us raising the technical ability bar and having us focus on constantly playing in that style will definitely hold us in great stead for the CL and the big games this coming season (FA/CoC and League I am not as confident about). But it is against the rest of the league that this kind of chess board simply doesn't work. It was proven last season in my eyes. He simply has to adjust himself this season to allow us to break from the shackled mentality of keeping the ball and acting on rigid passing lanes and cyclical basic movements and allow some of our game as a whole to evolve against the lower teams. Simply setting up the chessboard and doing homework on them will not break them down alone. It will cause them to turtle even more and push us back into the same mould of trying to create linear chances against a stacked defensive opposition.
Without droning on about Sir Alex and their contrasting styles (as that era has had it's day, as marvellous as it was) the way Sir Alex set up board and built the foundations of what the club is based upon was rinsing the bottom 12 teams for a maximum of 72 points a season home and away and then letting the chips fall where they lay against the rest of the 6 teams. Some we won, some we didn't quite win but it was a tried and true formula that has proven by himself to work at this club. We didn't need an XI of prize fighting champions. We had a few and the rest could take a punch and would always jump in and fight for their lives when the occasion called for it.
Seeing just how far LVG was away from stretching his system to even allow SOME form of adherence to the nuances of English football really does worry me and make me negative in his and our chances to win the league. Backed up by NL's post where he pretty much confirms 'Yes LVG will not change', I think we're going to see the same lack of creativity and ability to break down the lower teams, coupled with more points dropped and more of the top teams happy to drop a couple of points which means they gain one. Having looked at the broader picture, I can't really see how this is going to win us a league title.
Stranger things have happened however, this season although in my eyes (and I've waited until this moment to reveal that I absolutely detest possession football so as to not turn you away early) is going to be another really hard slog to watch but a twisted part of me inside is looking forward to throwing off the inner pride of what I think United should be and just sitting down and watching United play out a season in the hope that at the end of it we win some silverware. I am not expecting it, if that makes sense?
Wow, this season is leading, can someone who voted for this season please elaborate a little?
IMO we can only win it this season if Rooney and Jones can really step up AND stay fit, which isn't very likely, so I see Chelsea and potentially Arsenal and City too, still ahead of us.
Edit: Obviously instead of Jones and Rooney, if we would sign better players that would also do it.
IMO we can only win it this season if Rooney and Jones can really step up AND stay fit, which isn't very likely, so I see Chelsea and potentially Arsenal and City too, still ahead of us.
Edit: Obviously instead of Jones and Rooney, if we would sign better players that would also do it.
The prem is already difficult enough to win in this climate, some of LVG's rules and his desire to constantly experiment by playing players outside their best positions doesn't make it easier
Agree with this, some of LVG's unorthadox methods tend to frustrate after a while at every club he's been at, he's above pellegrini though.
He's won a treble and managed one of the famous teams in the game. You can't put him with pellers
I can't see us winning it this season unless we make at least one major signing up front (and if DDG leaves, a solid, experienced CB too). We're not really better off than last season with our current squad if we lose both Di Maria and De Gea, both of which seem likely. Sure, we're stronger in midfield but we'd have lost most of our main striking options, our two world class players in DDG and Di Maria and we'd be considerably weaker in defence and attack as a result of this. Overall, I think we'd be in a similar position to last year, battling for 4th if this is how things end up.
If De Gea stays though I could see us making 3rd and if De Gea stays and we can bring in either an experienced CB or an attacker who can unlock defences, then we'll challenge.
Another thing is when we go a goal down in matches, we usually go on to loose, as theirs no desire or fight back, as the "philosophy" stays the same
This philosophy shit, really is a big scam, guy was also pretty luvky to manage at such big clubs, when they had amazing players in them
Even in the world cup, robben dragged them to the semi finals
This philosophy shit, really is a big scam, guy was also pretty luvky to manage at such big clubs, when they had amazing players in them
Even in the world cup, robben dragged them to the semi finals
He won a UCL with Ajax that included half a squad of teens that he brought through.
He then joined Barca who hadn't won the league in about 4 years and won back to back titles.
Replaced Klinsman at Bayern when Bayern were a shambles and won the double.
I guess I was wrong, but still he did have alot of quality players in those teams
I voted no, but he'll leave behind a team that is capable. I'll like to go into details but not sure it's necessary. My biggest issue with LVG is his penchant for doing the unconventional, and he's a bit like Wenger [stuck in his ways]. Is he good enough to win the league? Yes he is, can he get the team to do the sometimes dirty stuff you need to win this league? This is where I have my doubts. Ferguson or Mourinho will happily set up their team to defend and nick a 1 zero victory if that's what it takes, and that is what you'll need to do in like 30% of games to win the PL, LVG does not strike me as that kind of manager.