[Shark]

That was a performance straight from last season under Moyes.

 

[Ronnie O'Sullivan]

The ref could have given us 2 hours of injury time and we still would not have scored

 

[jem]

Today Southampton were absolutely ridiculous defensively not a single mistake the whole match. A near perfect match which we would have needed to play near perfect to win but we didnt. We played decently and were solid defensively but we needed to be great and honestly I feel like this formation is holding us back heavily.

Southampton do deserve credit. I certainly wouldn't say no to having Schneiderlin in our team.

 

[Revan]

Patience with Van Gaal is running low. His 5-3-2 ultra defensive tactics are fecking awful. He'll be looking for a new job in the summer if he doesn't change this failed experiment. Cause there is no way in hell that we're getting a place in top 4 if we continue like this.

We were in a good position some weeks ago mainly because of De Gea but we burned that advantage mainly because of his decisions, be it in the starting lineup or in the subs.

Can someone explain to me how can it is a good idea to play 5 players out of position (Shaw, Blind, Rooney, Valencia and Di Maria). You don't need to be a genius to understand that the team cannot play well if half of the team is playing out of position (when we could have limited this to only Valencia).

For me, this performance was on pair with last season against Fulham. Not managing to make a single shoot in target in your own home against Soton is absolutely disgraceful. The last time I remeber us not being able to manage a shoot is against City in 2012.

Rant over!

 

[Darwin09]

Mark this day. If we don't finish Top 4, this was the match that cost it. Had the chance to pull clear and bottled it.

 

[charleysurf]

I don't trust LvG with a transfer budget. He should stick with what he's got and think about the money he spent last summer.

So Di Maria, Blind, Shaw and Herrera were bad signings?

Did you rage against them at the time?

 

[.Phil1968]

That was awful but has been coming we're not making chances and not taking any risks predictable passing any decent time can defend against.

 

[Diabo_Sam]

Same as we were last season, 37 from 21

 

[Galactic]

Herera for van Persie was OK.
Fellaini for di Maria was reasonably OK.
But Blackett for.Shaw??
Blackett was all over the place for the goal. We got worse after the tactical change. So much worse.

Mata's finishing was horrible.

 

[NK86]

That's why Fellaini should start over any other fancy midfielders. We looked a couple times more dangerous.

He was not playing in midfield. He replaced di Maria and played up top. How is that a logic to use for him to replace any midfielder. If anything, that perhaps proved we should just start him ahead of a striker and then keep going route 1 from start to finish and hope that we Everton our way into the top 4.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

I don't understand the point of Juan Mata.

Unless the game is going perfectly for us, he's invisible.

When he's not, like today, he doesn't fecking hit the target 3 times.

Said it in the match thread. When a game is neck and neck and things get tough, he's fecking invisible.

Nice nifty player to have when your team is playing well and moving the ball comfortably. Not a player with lethal instinct to win you a game and make something happen at the crucial moments.

 

[Gopher Brown]

I cannot see why we won't play 4-2-3-1. There's no point in playing 2 up front when we can't get the ball to them. Our squad is perfect for playing this way.

 

[An Irish Red]

That Blackett substitution was completely unnecessary and he ended up losing his man for the goal.

If Blind can play 90 mins after barely playing for 2 months then why can't Shaw.

Shaw was getting a lot of possession out wide but didn't have the final ball. I assumed that he wanted Blind out wide for his delivery and that's why the change happened. Who knows though.

 

[Roboc7]

Top four looks like a real fight now, even liverpool aren't too far away from us now. We were slow, predictable, negative and too narrow. Hate that formation, too many players playing out of position and we have big problems.

Di Maria needs to play in a three man midfield, which means only one of Rooney, RVP and falcao should play and mata would have to play wide. No balance in this squad and thought from start of season major rethink is needed up front, two from mata, RVP, Rooney and falcao shouldn't start, we always look like a makeshift side.

 

[littlepeasoup]

Glad Blind was back. He put in a decent performance considering he's been out so long. Other than that, not a whole lot to shout about really.

You can just about get away with playing mediocre football if you're winning, but when you're not picking up the results that's when people questions things like substitutions, which IMO were awful this afternoon.

 

[jem]

I imagine the argument for playing Di Maria upfront is his pace, but I'd argue that his pace is far more devastating when he's driving with the ball from midfield, like we saw against QPR and Leicester. Put Rooney, who is great on the counter-attack up front, and we'd be much more threatening, in my opinion.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

This has been coming. Maybe this will kick us in the nuts. So I hope.

3-5-2 needs to go as well as players playing out of position, mainly Blind, ADM and Rooney today. We had the best games playing in a diamond, surely LVG saw that, I dont know why is he persisting with the same stuff cause we have looked terrible in the last few games.
Players need to be more active and dangerous too.
Southampton hasnt been anything special today but were comfortable cause we didnt have the brightest idea what to do with the ball near their box or with the ball in general. It was a bit better after we conceded but do we need to concede to play more active.

We are still 4th but only just. GOing to QPR next week but Im not convinced we'll win despite the fact they're shit. Our away form is terrible and things need to be better if we want 4th. Arsenal, Soton and even Liverpool are on the rise and we are worse and worse.

 

[DevilRed]

I swear if we just change the formation to something the players are more comfortable with (four at the back!) we will get the results at home and away from home.

Its great that our defense has been much more solid of late, but our attack has gone to shit. We are much too slow in the buildup and why force us to play 3 central defenders when this is the weakest area of our team?

Terrible selection today by LVG and he has been given enough time to improve our play. This is not what we had in mind. We clearly have the players to run riot (especially at home) against other sides but this formation and approach is hampering them. Not helping them. Things must change or I fear that LVG may be given the boot if we don't make the CL. There should be no excuses because we had the better players and the majority of possession but seemed to fail in the last third as a result of an unbalanced team.

 

[Brophs]

I don't really understand how you can spend all that money on attacking players and then end up lumping the ball long at Fellaini. Another game where our midfield was unable to break down a well organised defence. Improvements needed.

 

[Raoul]

Infuriatingly pedestrian. Van Gaal needs to reassess his formation choices.

 

[Man-United]

So Di Maria, Blind, Shaw and Herrera were bad signings?

Did you rage against them at the time?

Di Maria has not proved anything here apart from his first weeks, he does not seem to rate Herrera. Blind and Shaw are good signing.

 

[Mystry]

Well that was shite. If it wasn't for those last 20mins I would say we were really unfortunate to lose, still kinda on the fence about that. Van Gaal has been terrible these last few weeks, and he cost us today.

I actually don't think anyone played particularly bad given where everyone was playing and the system we played against a good Southampton side, but we still created feck all which is why I can't fathom why we continue with this 3-5-2 bollocks or at least the Carrick/Rooney/Mata midfield. We have actual midfielders now, capable ones too so play them and play them in midfield so they can create for our forwards.

 

[jem]

As for positives, I thought Blind looked good, and I also thought Valencia looked good.

 

[Dunk]

We are not training hard enough. The players are clearly not spending enough time working! They're messing about is what it looks like, because I'm not seeing any discernible quality in our play. What the feck is going on?

 

[Keeps It tidy]

So Di Maria, Blind, Shaw and Herrera were bad signings?

Did you rage against them at the time?

Wel he played almost all of them out of position this match.

 

[vanrooney]

what game have you all seen - mata should have scored 2 alone, rvp should have scored as well. we controlled the game for large parts and should have won comfortably. sotton had two chances and took one - as lucky as we were at their place. move on now and stop this shit 3-5-2 debate.

 

[Mark_GrumpyLion]

Well deserved loss today. We played terrible and LvG is trying to be too clever for his own good.

 

[jem]

I don't understand the point of Juan Mata.

Unless the game is going perfectly for us, he's invisible.

When he's not, like today, he doesn't fecking hit the target 3 times.

So he wasn't invisible today is what you are saying?

 

[NotoriousISSY]

All teams have to do against us is keep their defensive shape and they're fine. Southampton did nothing special, they did their job and we didn't have invention to break down a relatively normal defensive display.

Very poor and it compounds all the recent draws to make December and January look like being poor months in the season. No excuses today, our attacking play was horrendous. Defensively we were sound.

 

[FreakyJim]

We'll soon slip to a place in the table that reflects our performances. 6-7th. You can't get away with being shite for long. It catches up with you eventually.

It'll catch up with van Gaal as well.

 

[the hea]

Either we dump this idiotic formation or we will loose out on 4th.
Valencia and Blind was the only positives today.
Di Maria looked more like £6 player than £60 million.
Herrera was completely anonymous after coming on.
Rooney is not a midfielder.
Mata should have scored.

 

[sizzling sausages]

The goal was the only shot on target in the whole match

 

[NK86]

Blackett came and his awful positioning cost us the goal and ultimately the game. Why change your CBs midway is beyond baffling.

 

[Red Dreams]

with all the investments in midfield...we still lack a ball winner.

Blind in midfield would have been better.

but credit to Southampton who were brilliant today.

 

[Varun]

Our setup was very weird and the subs even worse.

Play 4-4-2
Play Di Maria where he became a 60mil player ie CM
Play Rooney where he became one of the best players in the world ie Striker
Play at a higher tempo ffs. Possession for the heck of it means feckall.

 

[Sylar]

Almost perfect performance from Southampton.

Almost because Mata should have scored both his chances. But the rest they nullified United however that loss is on LVG. His formation, playing players out of position and his subs were all poor. The players lack of tempo until the last 10 minutes when we were losing are on the players.

 

[Señor]

One team had a midfield.

The other had an out of form Carrick and two attackers.

 

[Skywarden]

I don't think Rooney is quick enough to play that deep midfield role, nor is his passing crisp enough to open up tough defences.

On the plus side, Valencia and Mata were lively and solid.

 

[Nathan]

Not sure about the substitutions today, very strange, Rooney playing deep is not working. Needed to be clinical today and we lacked intensity in our play. Very disappointed at losing.

 

[FujiVice]

This result has really done me in today. Like I've been hit in the face with a shovel. That performance, the tactics, the bastard 3-5-2, the subs, just seeing Chris Smallings face, the long ball, Van Persie getting frustrated the lot. Just a big shitstack. Up there with how I felt drawing 2-2 to Fulham following 694 crosses.

 

[Jazz]

Didn't think we were so bad. It's our play - or lack of it - in the final third that's killing us. I'd rather go back to that diamond we had at the beginning of the season where we were scoring and stop worrying about the defence. What's the point of worrying about the defence when we can't score? And those players really need to pull their fingers out of their ar*e. They are great players there and being payed well. They need to step up.