Bit of an odd season but not a terrible one. Started poorly, 5 points from 5 games, and 13 from 10. But I remember feeling we were moving in the right direction, even though (I think) we had less points than that stage under Moyes, we were on the way up with LVG whereas Moyes was a decline from a great height. The performance away to City with 10 men was as good as it could be in the circumstances, especially having been destroyed there the year before. And a good tactical performance in that home draw to Chelsea (though why Rafael was marking Drogba on a corner I'm not sure!)
We all remember the great run in the Spring, but there was a good run that November/December where we won 6 in a row, and 7 out of 8. Including that 3-0 against Liverpool with DDG saving everything
There were a few ropey performances (we were very open against Liverpool, and Southampton away were rescued by RVP) but we were winning, and some players were starting to play well-I think Carrick was doing really well, in the middle of our defence, Young impressing at full back, RVP starting to score again, and I actually thought Falcao was starting to look better. Our first 45 minutes away to Tottenham (we ended up drawing 0-0) was one of the best performances I've seen from us at Spurs, I have no idea how we didn't score.
There was another bad run around the new year. I remember bringing my girlfriend to watch the home game against Southampton and marveling at her patience. She's American so not a huge football fan, but she sat through it. I have no idea how
Everyone was pretty down on LVG then. We had half a cup run but the performances weren't giving much comfort iirc, and the loss to Arsenal was right before we played Spurs in the league I think. That Spurs came felt like a real shot in the harm, Rooney had been moved up front around then (I think against Preston?) and we had a bit more movement up top. Di Maria's red card seemed a blessing in disguise because we had to change formation somewhat. We had that rear pointed triangle in midfield, and the triangles of Blind, Fellaini, Young on the left, and Valencia, Herrera, Mata on the right. A month of really great football (with another 6 game winning run in the league) but Carrick's injury at the end of the City game really screwed us I feel, he was so crucial to that formation.
The end of the season was shite, three losses in a row with no goals scored, RVP playing in midfield against WBA and seeming so old and stiff. What's crazy is outside our first 10 and last 6 games (where we picked up 13, and 6 points respectively) we actually had a very impressive points tally of 51 from 22 games. So a poor start (which felt like a hangover from the Moyes era) and a poor end (injuries and the season petering out as it always seems to these days) but I had hope that whether through accident or design we had found a system that really worked, where we knew what we were doing, the players had clear roles that played to their strengths.
The reliance on Carrick worried me at the time, I felt we'd fallen apart once he got injured (though Herrera played that deep role surprisingly well at the Bridge the week after). So I was pretty excited when we bought the Schmidfield that summer, we seemed to have real strength in depth then. Sadly, and I think this is a big issue with our football that next season, LVG tried to flip our midfield with 2 deep and one in front, when it seemed we had the players for 1 behind 2.