[Galactic]

To be fair, it wasn't a terrible match. If not for mistakes by Smalling+Blackett for the goal, we were quite comfortable in defense. In a way, they were quite lucky for the goal. De Gea didn't have to make many saves as well. We kept possesion reasonably well and Mata should have scored two.

 

[Offside]

We will. Bet ya.

Well if we do no doubt it will be a 2-1 scrappy win with De Gea pulling off miracle saves at the end.

 

[GloryHunter07]

Zero shots on target, in 90 minutes, at home, zero.

Yeah i think this sums it up to be honest.

Possession is useless if you cant do anything with it.

 

[WR10]

I had no problem with that. Di Maria was ineffective today (due largely to being out of position, mind you.)

You sound like a proper fan.

The decision to have Di maria up front at home, where we're not set up to play a counter attack system was idiotic in itself. To go even one step further and make things worse by conceding tactical defeat and playing hoof ball is just another level of stupidity. You throw on Herrera to play more possession football, then you throw on Fellaini making every midfield player (which we had 5) completely redundant. We went from bad to absolutely hopeless with that tactical move and I wasn't going to sit through that joke. It was a massive mistake, which I'm sure Van gaal will address at some point.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

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

Did you rage against them at the time?

I am starting to worry about the Shaw signing tbh. He never seems to finish a game. Why is that. We could have signed a couple of cheaper options that would actually stay fit.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

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?

Agreed. I thought they took the gamefor granted and then couldn't step up when needed. Just keep ball for sake of it.

 

[littlepeasoup]

I don't know what's happened to Di Maria, I can only imagine he's been infected with the complete and utter incompetence of his team mates.

He'll start playing again when the weather gets warmer.

 

[sammsky1]

Mata and DiMaria were woeful today. Given their quality, there contributions were simply unacceptable

 

[Pscholes18]

Rooney: "I felt we deserved to win the game to be honest..."

That is a terrifying lack of awareness. How do we hope to improve when our captain is satisfied with that? Roy Keane would have been tearing people apart in that interview.

What a numpty....also said he wasn't impressed with Southamptons play...okay Wayne.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

The decision to have Di maria up front at home, where we're not set up to play a counter attack system was idiotic in itself. To go even one step further and make things worse by conceding tactical defeat and playing hoof ball is just another level of stupidity. You throw on Herrera to play more possession football, then you throw on Fellaini making every midfield player (which we had 5) completely redundant. We went from bad to absolutely hopeless with that tactical move and I wasn't going to sit through that joke. It was a massive mistake, which I'm sure Van gaal will address at some point.

Taking ADM baffled me. He links up well with Mata and Herrera. It was ridiculous.

 

[Ainu]

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.

I have this feeling as well. With teams around us improving on their first half of the season and us seemingly going backwards, I can see teams like Arsenal and even Spurs and Liverpool overtaking us. We've pissed a load of points away in the last few matches and it's going to hurt us at the end of the season.

 

[Leg-End]

I'd even understand the 3 at the back if we had players there with the quality to bring the ball forward and pick a pass, Blind can do it but him at CB feels more a temp solution. It's simply not Jones/Smalling/Evans/Blackett/McNairs game to play like that, Rojo might but we haven't seen enough of him yet.

 

[Godfather]

As pointless a performance as we've seen in years

This pretty much. All this possession football that we fail in anyway leads to absolutely nothing if we can't create any chances.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

What a numpty....also said he wasn't impressed with Southamptons play...okay Wayne.

Has he actually said that. Christ Almighty!

 

[NK86]

How many 'just one of those days' are we going to accept before we realise that it's actually 'Just the way we are.'

Our form before Christmas was good, but even then we didn't really play any better. It's not just bad luck, it's the way we've set ourselves up, and probably an indictment of some of the players too.

We were absolutely shit against Yeovil just last week. But since we won that we seemed fine with it. LvG then tells us that Yeovil were brilliant and that is why we struggled. I think he is far too arrogant to accept that 352 is not working with our personnel and that will cost us big time come the end of the season. SAF was as rigid about his 442 formation but at least that made us exciting to watch. This has been tumescent since day 1.

 

[sewey89]

Well if we do no doubt it will be a 2-1 scrappy win with De Gea pulling off miracle saves at the end.

I didn't realise there was any other type of wins any more...

 

[Pscholes18]

LVG sounds lost.

 

[charleysurf]

The decision to have Di maria up front at home, where we're not set up to play a counter attack system was idiotic in itself. To go even one step further and make things worse by conceding tactical defeat and playing hoof ball is just another level of stupidity. You throw on Herrera to play more possession football, then you throw on Fellaini making every midfield player (which we had 5) completely redundant. We went from bad to absolutely hopeless with that tactical move and I wasn't going to sit through that joke. It was a massive mistake, which I'm sure Van gaal will address at some point.

Just continue to not watch United then. You won't be dissapointed that way.

We'll tell you when they are worthy of you jumping back on the bandwagon.

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

Speaking of positives, atleast EssexRob lost more money.

 

[Isotope]

How is his absence the reason for us creating zero chances the whole game? Also some of the games we won with him were far worse than we played today. Like the one against Arsenal and Soton away.

Exactly. We become Arsenal / pseudo-Barca with him not in the team. Pretty play but no substance.

Just watch us start collecting better points with Fellaini is fit again.

 

[Revan]

No shots on target.

Playing a back three at home against a team with one striker.

Playing 4/5 players out of position every game.

Never dropping or subbing the quite clearly hideously inconsistent Rooney.

Passing the ball sideways repeatedly to beef up possession statistics.

Several grossly unfit players.

270 million pound squad, easily the worse most costly team in the history of the game.

I don't know what's happened to Di Maria, I can only imagine he's been infected with the complete and utter incompetence of his team mates.

I think Top 4 is looking too much to ask of this side (as ridiculous as that sounds) They need to get the basics right, like passing the ball forwards properly, running past players, having shots on target etc. Start them with baby steps.

First things first though, this back three nonsense needs to be stopped, LVG can be as stubborn as he wants but he needs to realise that if he continues to play 352 he won't have a job in the summer.

Exactly. I also think that the decision to play 5-3-2 (it isn't 3-5-2) can be labelled now as idiotic instead of just stubborn. It might have been stubborn in the beginning, then he changed it and we immediately improved and then he changed it back to 3-5-2 and since then we have been as unwatchable as last season.

One thing is sure, we won't be playing 5-3-2 next season. Either he changes it and saves the season, or the new manager will change it next season. There is 0% that we'll gonna make top 4 if we continue with formations which makes Capello look like an attacking manager.

 

[WR10]

Just continue to not watch United then. You won't be dissapointed that way.

We'll tell you when they are worthy of you jumping back on the bandwagon. You can probably watch City or Chelsea while you're waiting.

Alright

 

[Ainu]

Just continue to not watch United then. You won't be dissapointed that way.

We'll tell you when they are worthy of you jumping back on the bandwagon.

There's no need for this.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Simple: give me a manger that can change a formation mid-game if all is not going well and especially one that will jump out of his seat if that last minute throw of the dice pays off then I'll buy into the "philosophy"

 

[manufanatic]

I've slated is enough in the match thread.

Southampton were excellent. Never looked like losing.

Or winning until they scored

 

[Kakeru]

It was a poor performance at home against Southampton that lost Moyes for me and several others last season. LVG better sort things out and pray the lord that the same has not happened against him here.

 

[Sandikan]

I am starting to worry about the Shaw signing tbh. He never seems to finish a game. Why is that. We could have signed a couple of cheaper options that would actually stay fit.

he never had this problem at Southampton, so it's either bad luck, or more likely something we're doing, as we've had colossal injury problems all round.

 

[charleysurf]

There's no need for this.

When someone admits they only watch United games when things are going well they're kind of opening themselves up for some stick.

 

[Offside]

We need a firework up our arse. We have just been trundling along for weeks now getting away with it. It was only a matter of time before we lost to a good fecking team. If you look at our recent games:

-Stoke - Should have lost, again created feck all.
-Spurs - Decent first half performance but terrible in the second half which is not good enough.
-Newcastle - Beat a piss poor team convincingly, fair enough.
-Villa - Again created feck all, passing was terrible. Villa are garbage aswell.
-Liverpool - Very ruthless but open as feck, convincing scoreline but not performance.
-Southampton - Disgrace that we won that match. Outplayed and created feck all.

It was all leading up to today. I think the issue is when we play with a flat back 4 we are a bunch of jokers in defence, yet when we play with a back 5 there is no penetration. The simple solution is to get rid of the tools we have in defence and get proper back 4.

 

[J-Stander]

We deserved to win according to Rooney. How can you deserve to win when you don't have a shot on target?

 

[SER19]

But there was, Valencia found himself in some great positions, as did others, di maria had two great opportunities in behind but poor control and misjudging the flight of the ball ruined it. It was smash and grab from Southampton today.

I'll have whatever you're having. Being a winger and finding yourself on the wing isn't a good position to find yourself in. It's your actual position. We had no shots on target and deserved to lose by more

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Speaking of positives, atleast EssexRob lost more money.

Poor Rob, we always let him down.

 

[Ainu]

Or winning until they scored

Which is fair enough from their point of view. A win was a bonus for them, their first priority would have been not to lose this game. For us anything less than a win would've been a poor result.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

LvG has spent a lot of money but he's here for LvG not UNITED!

 

[Kostur]

Or winning until they scored

Yup, we've made it very hard to beat us.

 

[Ainu]

When someone admits they only watch United games when things are going well they're kind of opening themselves up for some stick.

That's what you make of it. He turned an appalling game off in frustrating, that doesn't really warrant such a patronising response.

 

[NK86]

Exactly. We become Arsenal / pseudo-Barca with him not in the team. Pretty play but no substance.

Just watch us start collecting better points with Fellaini is fit again.

We are nowhere close to Arsenal. We ate absolutely dire with or without Fellaini in the team and it has to do with the formation more than anything. Fellaini will not come in and help us with that.

 

[JustAFan]

Our attack play stinks need to sell some of them and bring in some players we can complete a pass in the final third. A real pass not just a fling it out wide

 

[DevilRed]

I just really hope we finally heed this wakeup call and get ourselves back to playing in a more conventional formation.

This is the English Premier League. Maybe 3 at the back might work in spain or italy, but I really doubt it will ever work in England simply because of the pace of the game and the focus on width.

Its not like we aren't capable of playing a back four. We've tried it before and more often than not we were excellent going forwards. I understand that LVG wants to keep things tight at the back but we can still do that playing without wingbacks and just two central defenders.

 

[Raven Blade]

Toothless display. But this has been coming for some time. We make scoring goals look hard at the moment. We need a change in philosophy. How about players in their most comfortable positions, a back 4 and an improvement in the fluency of our attack?