[Eriku]

Pretty good weekend, this, with City and Arsenal both drawing blanks. I'd rather we not muck about with the shape of the team so quickly, though. Especially when we were doing so well.

 

[ChaddyP]

Where the hell was Wilson today?! I really doesn't understand LVG sometimes.

Keep your shirt on... Wilson was injured the day before in training. Simple as that

 

[Asger]

Keep your shirt on... Wilson was injured the day before in training. Simple as that

Thank you! I thought he was just fine and LVG didn't pick him. I finished to watch the game 50 minutes ago so I hadn't seen any news about the game or Wilson.

 

[Natener]

If. For sure. But the fact we are where we are I think is down to two factors. Our defense and the league being mediocre so far, with no team looking really sharp (bar Leicester).

You and I have very different understanding of the meaning of mediocre then.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Where the hell was Wilson today?! I really doesn't understand LVG sometimes.

Injured.

 

[Paul Scholes]

Does anyone have a link with the photos of the game?

 

[Jerch]

In hindsight it was a very very important win with City and Arsenal both losing.

 

[Momochiru]

Phew, watching our second half performance was nerve racking to say the least. However, its certainly turned out to be an excellent weekend of results for us. A win against PSV on Wednesday please, and we really must put Leicester City to the sword next week.

Yes, a very important week for us - we could seal the CL group and take a big step towards our title challenge.

I'm a little nervous with all the injuries - hopefully this international break doesn't cost us!

 

[FortBoyard]

Does anyone have a link with the photos of the game?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?saf.....1ac.1.64.img..3.25.3809.wUFLRgFzFnI#imgrc=_

 

[Feed Me]

I thought we played really well. The only thing that was lacking was a clinical edge, but we created enough chances to win the game a few times over. No surprise to see us sucker punched with the penalty, that can always happen when you don't kill the game off. The response, though, was classic United.

I said after the City game that the negativity surrounding the club was way over the top, and that I thought we'd be very near the top with the subsequent fixtures we had to look forward to. Pleased to have been correct. For once!

 

[Bastian]

You and I have very different understanding of the meaning of mediocre then.

Maybe a frivolous use of the term. But I'm looking at how we are performing and comparing that to how a great team would perform. Which we have been, though it's been a while. And when the league is so below par it's easy to look good when on a European level, you're not really all that.

Not complaining about where we are in the league, of course. But I started to doubt van Gaal this season and I've yet to be convinced.

 

[Acole9]

Good win yesterday considering we had some injuries to key players. Also a decent batch of results elsewhere in the league too.

 

[RedDevil@84]

LvG thought we were playing too well despite the injury list and thought "Hey!! Thats not a challenge. Let's make one"
Let's try 3-5-2 and not bring on a natural RB.

 

[ants7]

Grinding out a a result! Great to see. Basti totally deserved this and it was a great reaction from the team. Overall, great results tonight this weekend. Couldn't watch the game so I'm not going to comment on performances but what i've seen from highlights - there were yet again some sightings of a God between our goal posts.

 

[darko]

Question on the OG. Why are assists not given on own goals. Bank shot or whatever you call it that pass/shot clearly led to the OG goal.

 

[Escobar]

All in all, it was a very good win. We did very well in the first half and should have finished them off. Lingard had 2 chances were you have to score and if you do, the game is over. We missed so many key players which is never easy. What we need to learn is when the other team is pushing to be more effective on the counter and "scare" them to really commit and push

 

[Question234]

Last season when we played 352 we were pretty shite, then we swtiched to a 442 and 433 and were still pretty much the same until the five game run that started with a 3 nil win against spurs.

Do people still think the formation is the problem ? Haven't we already had this discussion? Why do you all assume 352 means bad football ?

 

[Roosney]

All in all, it was a very good win. We did very well in the first half and should have finished them off. Lingard had 2 chances were you have to score and if you do, the game is over. We missed so many key players which is never easy. What we need to learn is when the other team is pushing to be more effective on the counter and "scare" them to really commit and push

On both occasions I stood up and shouted "put the fecking game into bed Jesse". Too bad he missed those chances, specially the latter was a really bad finish. I think if the goalie had stood still he would have blocked the shot with his face or so.

 

[Siorac]

Last season when we played 352 we were pretty shite, then we swtiched to a 442 and 433 and were still pretty much the same until the five game run that started with a 3 nil win against spurs.

Do people still think the formation is the problem ? Haven't we already had this discussion? Why do you all assume 352 means bad football ?

It's not really an assumption, we have plenty of evidence to support this claim. When we play 3-5-2, we're almost always bad.

 

[nick2004]

Question on the OG. Why are assists not given on own goals. Bank shot or whatever you call it that pass/shot clearly led to the OG goal.

Good point!

Does anybody know the answer?

 

[Question234]

It's not really an assumption, we have plenty of evidence to support this claim. When we play 3-5-2, we're almost always bad.

last year we were bad/average for the majority of the season, period. Regardless of formation.

You forget when the caf was screaming for 451 and 442 ? Then those didn't work so we kept screaming for 433. Last season we were just poor because it was stage 1 of the rebuild the formation had nothing to do with this.

 

[sunama]

It's not really an assumption, we have plenty of evidence to support this claim. When we play 3-5-2, we're almost always bad.

I must disagree with this.
After the Leicster game (I think it was), LVG switched to 352 to allow for a better defensive structure.
We then kept on using 352 and got mixed results.
We did switch formation and went on a good run, including wins against LFC and MCFC.
We then went on a bad run of form where we scored 1 goal in 3 games (or similar).

If 352 was so bad, why is LVG using it?
Has he not looked at the statistics?

IMO, formation has little to do with our poor performances - makes no differences.
Side/back passing can happen in any formation. And its the side/back passing which has held us back.
The most important thing is our attitude to scoring. Do we want to score a goal or do we want to hold possession and win the possession battle?
If we (or any team) attacks, they can score goal. This was evident in our 2nd goal, in our last game. If we (or any team) does the slow/back/side passing, then its easy to defend against and we will draw/lose.