The lull before the storm...

If it's a stuffy 1-0 win or, god forbid, a loss I fully expect the Glazers to hire out a set of Jet Fighters to fly over OT and spell out "We want the Club's money back".
 
As much as international football is shite, this time around it was a blessing for us with our list of injuries. Rafael, Herrera & Shaw should be back which means dropping Fletcher, Young and Valencia which would instantly improve our side. However if we don't move away from 3 at the back I can see us dropping more points.
 
Im excited and hoping for a bit of a formation change as five at the back hasn't really worked. Obviously hoping Di Maria and Falcao will spark the team into life
 
Crashoutcassius said:
We'll probably be the same vs QPR unless we move away from this very negative formation. We're more likely to win with a moment of magic from di maria or falcao. In x amount of games with holland and man united we haven't seen that 3-5-2 is capable of anything other than effective counter attack, mostly with a ball to robben. we have the players to move to 4-3-3 but we probably have too many star strikers to do it, which is sad. Imagine we paid falcao rvp rooney mata di maria 1.2m this week and only played 2 of them
Click to expand...


You can play a variant of 4-3-3, with 2 central strikers and an attacking mid off them.

That way you could have Di Maria, Blind Herrera as a the midfield 3, full backs providing width (Blind drops), and Mata or Rooney off Falcao and VP.

It'll be fascinating to see how we play!
 
It's probably all to do with last season, but we could have Messi and Ronaldo in our side and I'd still feel sceptical of the win. Moyes has almost broken the squad, and last summer's idiocy has done a lot of damage to the squad, whereby the turnover of players this summer has been unprecedented as a result. It's going to take some time to rectify, but I'm confident we will come good in the end. I just want to see some kind of identity again, progressive football and a return to the attacking football that really is the United way.
 
Sandikan said:
You can play a variant of 4-3-3, with 2 central strikers and an attacking mid off them.

That way you could have Di Maria, Blind Herrera as a the midfield 3, full backs providing width (Blind drops), and Mata or Rooney off Falcao and VP.

It'll be fascinating to see how we play!
Click to expand...
yeah could play any number of ways but very likely we'll play with 2 centre forwards and a number 10 which is a disappointment for me because it means 3-5-2 and it means very little game time for januzaj
 
I honestly cannot wait but those games always mean danger. Normally we lose.
 
Can't say i am all that excited. It will take a while for this team to gel and players to adapt, so i'm expecting dire stuff until the player click, if they do at all.
 
Kag said:
It's probably all to do with last season, but we could have Messi and Ronaldo in our side and I'd still feel sceptical of the win. Moyes has almost broken the squad, and last summer's idiocy has done a lot of damage to the squad, whereby the turnover of players this summer has been unprecedented as a result. It's going to take some time to rectify, but I'm confident we will come good in the end. I just want to see some kind of identity again, progressive football and a return to the attacking football that really is the United way.
Click to expand...
City spent 140M in the summer of 2010 and ended up finishing third, with the same points as 2nd place Chelsea. They had a weaker starting 11 and squad than us, also having a weaker manager. If we look at the quality of X11 alone, we should be challenging for the title and I'm pretty confident we will be up there come may. If we don't ahh well, we go again.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Uhuh. I'm still a long way short of the kind of bullishness in the OP. Let's start seeing the team performing before we can start making predictions of greatness.

To be honest, even if we do turn into a great team under Van Gaal I would be amazed if we look like one this weekend. I mean, we might still smash QPR but that won't mean much after Spurs spanked them only to get destroyed by you lot. They're really crap. Despite this, I can still see us struggling to a scruffy win. You don't go from absolutely atrocious to brilliant over the course of two weeks.
Click to expand...

Bloody hell, why don't you post like this more often? I knew you had it in you.
 
There will be a time this season when everything suddenly clicks in a game, Van Gaals 'philosophy' kicks in and we never look back. The problem with that though is how much of the season will be gone before everything clicks?. There are so many good teams in the league now that we can't drop too many more silly points from now on, even for Top 4 never mind a title challenge.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Uhuh. I'm still a long way short of the kind of bullishness in the OP. Let's start seeing the team performing before we can start making predictions of greatness.

To be honest, even if we do turn into a great team under Van Gaal I would be amazed if we look like one this weekend. I mean, we might still smash QPR but that won't mean much after Spurs spanked them only to get destroyed by you lot. They're really crap. Despite this, I can still see us struggling to a scruffy win. You don't go from absolutely atrocious to brilliant over the course of two weeks.
Click to expand...

To be fair I wasn't expecting greatness.. heck I didn't even say we're definitely top 4, there is alot to be done.. more players to be brought in etc and there are many ugly performances to still endure.

The purpose of my message was to convey my excitement at seeing some new talent in the team and some progress.. I do feel like we're going to see some progression, perhaps not as a team but individuals who will impress and bring back that excitement the fans crave. It is folly to think we're back.. but it is beginning of something new, there is definitely a project at work here and at least we can have confidence the money and the intention to build a great side is there.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Uhuh. I'm still a long way short of the kind of bullishness in the OP. Let's start seeing the team performing before we can start making predictions of greatness.

To be honest, even if we do turn into a great team under Van Gaal I would be amazed if we look like one this weekend. I mean, we might still smash QPR but that won't mean much after Spurs spanked them only to get destroyed by you lot. They're really crap. Despite this, I can still see us struggling to a scruffy win. You don't go from absolutely atrocious to brilliant over the course of two weeks.
Click to expand...

The same team doesn't, of course not. But what about when it changes like this:


vs Burnley:

DDG

Jones - Evans - Blackett
Valencia _________________ Young

Fletcher - Di Maria
Mata
Rooney - Van Persie
​
vs QPR
DDG

Jones __ Rojo
Rafael ____Blind_____ Shaw
Herrera - Di Maria
Mata
Falcao - Rooney
​
6 far superior players coming into the side and a twist in the formation so that while it is still technically a 3-5-2, with Blind choosing either central defence or defensive midfield... it could also be perceived as a 4-4-2 diamond or a 4-3-3 proving once and for all that formations on paper mean the square root of absolute feck all.
 
Pre-season created a huge amount of excitement...but Swansea popped that bubble.

Now the excitement has built up again to even great heights with the new signing, and if United Win comfortably and in style then everyone is going to go mental.

Saying that QPR will not make it easy and after a scrappy 90 minutes it will probably end 1-1
 
Acole9 said:
I honestly cannot wait but those games always mean danger. Normally we lose.
Click to expand...
We don't normally have Di Maria, Falcao :) said it in a thread last week our season starts here and really excited for this match
Would have to get a least 2 or 3 wins in a row for me too say where back but hopefully QPR is a step in the right direction.

The Caf reactions.

We win heavily: Were back
We scrape a win: important win and we'll only get better.

We Draw: "Were shit. Sell fatman sack LVG".
We Lose: "Can't that the strain captain"
 
You couldn't wait till we actually won a game before getting all excited on us? We'll lose now.
 
432JuanMata said:
We don't normally have Di Maria, Falcao :) said it in a thread last week our season starts here and really excited for this match
Would have to get a least 2 or 3 wins in a row for me too say where back but hopefully QPR is a step in the right direction.

The Caf reactions.

We win heavily: Were back
We scrape a win: important win and we'll only get better.

We Draw: "Were shit. Sell fatman sack LVG".
We Lose: "Can't that the strain captain"
Click to expand...
:lol: Nice summary.
 
Funny how things are. After the Burnley game we all were thanking our luck for the International games, that would give Van Gaal time to think about the tactics, and train players more. We were lost, even with the single spark of Di Maria.

We had in the next two days so much to celebrate, and then spent the next 12 wishing for the next game.

I'm more excited now than in any moment of the season (including the pre games), the thought of finally having fit players in defense, especially full backs, a proper midfield, and the pure talent up front makes me wish we could play tomorrow.

Can't wait for the match on sunday.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Uhuh. I'm still a long way short of the kind of bullishness in the OP. Let's start seeing the team performing before we can start making predictions of greatness.

To be honest, even if we do turn into a great team under Van Gaal I would be amazed if we look like one this weekend. I mean, we might still smash QPR but that won't mean much after Spurs spanked them only to get destroyed by you lot. They're really crap. Despite this, I can still see us struggling to a scruffy win. You don't go from absolutely atrocious to brilliant over the course of two weeks.
Click to expand...

Jeez man. What are you doing? Don't you remember what happened the last time someone used these two words in one sentence?
 


We should smash them with a team like that.
 
It's the first time we haven't worked out our formations and had to fill in a Valencia, young or cleverly, or front 5 will likely all want to receive the ball which will take the pressure of defence somewhat. Bumps not over but I can see first light of dawn....
 
The cynic in me (that built up over the last season and our last 4 games) says that we will at best scrape a win by one goal at best. Wouldn't be surprised if we don't click yet and lose a few points. Saying that I'd love to be proven wrong.
 
Have tickets for the game, first time I'm going up since mid last year when I started to slide into a Moyes inspired depression,
Right now we haveso many new players, I'd honestly take a 1-0 from a scrappy goal, just to get some points on the board and build from there.
 
BarneyLFC said:
To a Ferdinand goal.

This thread feels like the 'We. Are. Back.' Thread after youse won the preseason. These threads always end up cursing you.
Click to expand...
I know about the Ferdinand link, but how about a Joey Barton match winner?
 
Zoo said:
You forgot Di Maria.
Click to expand...

And RVP holly feck we are super strong hope LVG can get us to gel and if we add a quality centre mid, centre back and right back we should be competing with anyone.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
We'll probably be the same vs QPR unless we move away from this very negative formation. We're more likely to win with a moment of magic from di maria or falcao. In x amount of games with holland and man united we haven't seen that 3-5-2 is capable of anything other than effective counter attack, mostly with a ball to robben. we have the players to move to 4-3-3 but we probably have too many star strikers to do it, which is sad. Imagine we paid falcao rvp rooney mata di maria 1.2m this week and only played 2 of them
Click to expand...
Was about to say the same thing. Who the hell is going to create for the strikers with that 5-2-1-2, with at least 1 central midfielder dropping back to pick up the ball. We can still utilize 2 strikers and Rooney without having to play that negative shit. We are playing at home against QPR, there's no need for that formation.

I would play the following formation assuming that Rooney is untouchable and Jones is out injured.


----------------De Gea-------------

--Rafael--Smalling--Rojo--Shaw--

-----Herrera--Blind--Di Maria-----

---------------Rooney--------------

-----------RvP-------Falcao--------
 
I remain wary. Too many false dawns. Nine points from our next 3 games has to happen though. Then a result against Everton, who'll be the first decent side we've played, will have me starting to think we might be ok.

We should batter QPR though surely? :nervous:
 
We'll either lose to QPR or will thrash them atleast 4-0.
 
I predict we will beat them badly and the reaction here will be over the top. Please remember its QPR and not Chelsea, however, it would be great to see us playing some good attacking football again.
 
I'm expecting a very 'feisty' encounter too, with the likes of Barton giving our new boys a Premiership welcome. Please no injuries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.