Who played the best attacking football - Moyes, LVG or Mourinho?

Loony BoB

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Which manager's United sides played the best attacking football? Not talking results, but rather the attitude and style of attacks. Mourinho still the best undoubtedly when it comes to results, but just a thought that keeps popping into my mind in recent weeks.

I feel like the defensive side is easily Mourinho (feel free to say otherwise) but am wanting to focus on whether Mourinho's style is so bad we could say it has a poorer, less exciting attack than LVG and Moyes had. For all the flack LVG and Moyes got, I still feel like we had better attacking plays during their time - particularly at the end of LVG's tenure - than we have seen under Mourinho.
 
A thread for this? :lol: Mourinho ofcourse.

I can understand Moyes somewhat part of the question because crosses turn people on - but LVG seriously?
 
Mourinho, the playing the way United should song wasn't made up for no reason
 
Really? Are people’s memories that short?
Mourinho by a mile and we are still recovering from the previous 2 managers shitshows. Hence the meltdown with every poor performance we have.
It’s like Mourinho is being blamed for the whole of the post SAF era instead of just the 2 years he’s had here.
 
A depressing discussion. It has to be Mourinho for obvious reasons, but there’s little guile or strategy to it. LVG seemingly had a plan but the execution was hopeless, with the exception of Spring 2015. I’ve pretty much erased the Moyes season from my mind so can’t really comment.
 
You have short memories if you think we where more attacking under van gaal, and notes was just inept.
 
Loony BoB said:
I still feel like we had better attacking plays during their time - particularly at the end of LVG's tenure - than we have seen under Mourinho.
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In the last 10 league games we scored 11 goals.
 
Mourinho. I think people have forgotten how bad we were under LvG, except those games in febtuary/March 2015. Moyes was just a mess all together, and you can't compare that year with anything else.
 
Only one of them even tries to play attacking football and one of the other 2 doesnt know his arse from his elbow
 
In both our seasons with Mourinho, it feels that we start the season with an ebb and flow to our game. The team is more efficient and creates more chances.

However, during the final stage of last season and in this one as well, it feels almost inevitable that we would not score. Across the last two games, that too against teams involved in relegation scraps for the major part of the season, we haven't scored nor have we had a period of dominance where we created any significant chances.This is especially worrying.

Still nothing compared to the absolute boredom under LVG or the sheer incompetence under Moyes.
 
It was definitely under Moyes. I remember a couple of high scoring matches...

It was just a pity that it was usually the opponent attacking us, and us being on the end of those scorelines. :lol:

But....no denying the man was a visionary....he strived for us to be like, and play like , City and Pool long before a ton on here did! :wenger::p
 
Mourinho has never produced anything like Juanfield or the 4-2 demolition job of City or 3-0 Spurs win. LVG at his peak produced much better football but he never did it to that high level again. Mourinho has stabilized results but the football imo has not improved at all. Maybe very slightly but at the end of the day we still play like Moyes era where if all fails then hoof it into the box and see what happens.
 
Average Premier League Goals Per Game

David Moyes: 1.61*
Louis van Gaal: 1.46
José Mourinho: 1.61

*Only one season (well, 34 games), inherited probably the best forwards who scored an average of 2.38 goals under Sir Alex Ferguson the season prior.
 
LVG has played the most "dominant football", we went to all our rivals and more than matched them in many games, but we struggled to actually win games as we lacked attacking quality.

Jose has the better team and at times when the teams clicked we've played some good football, but it's far too inconsistent to be called "attacking".

Moyes wasn't boring by any means, the 4 of Januzaj Kagawa Mata and RVP played some alright football but we just sucked in midfield and defence.
 
abdo99 said:
Mourinho has never produced anything like Juanfield or the 4-2 demolition job of City or 3-0 Spurs win.
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It’s the best football we’ve produced since Fergie left, but looking across LVG’s two years it seems to have been more of a complete accident, something he just randomly stumbled upon, than a product of his own vision for how the team should play. He never came close to repeating those performances.
 
Mourinho's team have but it's not necessarily the most glowing of endorsements.
 
There were patches under LvG where I enjoyed our football but those were few and far between. The 3-1 win at Arsenal with Rooney and DiMaria destroying on the counter attack, the Juanfield game, Rashford's winner at City, the FA cup run and the brief run in his first season when we sealed 4th spot were all great moments.

The beginning of this season with Mourinho was great.
 
abdo99 said:
Mourinho has never produced anything like Juanfield or the 4-2 demolition job of City or 3-0 Spurs win. LVG at his peak produced much better football but he never did it to that high level again. Mourinho has stabilized results but the football imo has not improved at all. Maybe very slightly but at the end of the day we still play like Moyes era where if all fails then hoof it into the box and see what happens.
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For every Juanfield under Van Gaal we had 10 games where we barely managed a shot on target. We still have way too many of those games under Mourinho but under Van Gaal it was something else. Game in game out we played the worst sterile possession football I've ever seen from any side. Our opponents just gave us the ball in the knowledge that their main task was trying not to fall asleep of boredom. It was terrible.
 
The issue with the quality of football under Mourinho has been heightened in the second half of both his seasons I think. We played much better before Christmas both years I think but when the business end has come a little bit of fear seems to set in. Which is a little understandable and forgivable mostly. I thought last night took it a bit far though. It was clearly a safety first approach from the off which I don’t always think is the case.
 
abdo99 said:
Mourinho has never produced anything like Juanfield or the 4-2 demolition job of City or 3-0 Spurs win. LVG at his peak produced much better football but he never did it to that high level again. Mourinho has stabilized results but the football imo has not improved at all. Maybe very slightly but at the end of the day we still play like Moyes era where if all fails then hoof it into the box and see what happens.
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Well we went to the Etihad and beat the record breaking champions 3-2, having been 2-0 down at HT. Pretty much trumps anything that LvG achieved.
 
Mourinho easily, 3 games that LVG produced can't wash away the rest of the shitshow.

Still, Jose's attacking football is far from something great, performances drop down since the start of the season and we clearly struggle when we need to break teams down relying on the individual quality. So, a little depressing debate when you are talking only about this particular point.

Much better mentality is Jose's biggest improvement, along with better individual players.
 
OldSchoolManc said:
Really? Are people’s memories that short?
Mourinho by a mile and we are still recovering from the previous 2 managers shitshows. Hence the meltdown with every poor performance we have.
It’s like Mourinho is being blamed for the whole of the post SAF era instead of just the 2 years he’s had here.
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This is insane, isn't it?

Sigh. I suspect the next thread of such cringeworthy nature will be if Liverpool win the Champions League. It wouldn't surprise any more if there are more comments on this forum about that than if we also win the FA Cup.
 
The first 5 months of this season seem to be entirely forgotten by some fans.
 
Mourinho, but horrible question to answer; kind of like asking:
Which dictator was the cuddliest: Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini?

Or:

Who was the dreamiest United midfielder? Scholes, Phil Neville or Chadwick?

Or:

Which country boasts the most gastronomic delicacies? Canada, England or the US?
 
Xaviesta said:
Mourinho's team have but it's not necessarily the most glowing of endorsements.
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Pretty much this.

One thing with Van Gaal (it did end pretty shit) at least you could tell what he was trying to do.

With Jose there doesn’t seem to be much of a plan in attack.
 
I know OP would love to bash Mourinho but maybe if people reflect on this honestly with themselves they will realise the progress that has been made.

Part of the issue is that we still don’t have the ideal players and people obviously recognise that when they moan about Valencia, Young, Mata and co. Mourinho recognised that too recently and got blasted for it.
 
Adam-Utd said:
LVG has played the most "dominant football", we went to all our rivals and more than matched them in many games, but we struggled to actually win games as we lacked attacking quality.

Jose has the better team and at times when the teams clicked we've played some good football, but it's far too inconsistent to be called "attacking".

Moyes wasn't boring by any means, the 4 of Januzaj Kagawa Mata and RVP played some alright football but we just sucked in midfield and defence.
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Wouldn't say we were dominant. We just passed the ball in defence and everyone let us do that as they knew we are not gonna score anyway.

We are not very enjoyable to watch that's for sure but it's still better than LVG.
 
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