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The old Man Utd Thread

ThePixelbarks

By ThePixelbarks
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Liamness

Liamness

Posted
Posted

I thought Van Gaal had read my previous post, but apparently Jones is injured. Still, three of the four players in defence (Rojo, Shaw and Rafael) have now got a decent run together, and I think you can see this, looking a bit more solid at the back finally.

Valdes training with us :lol:

Rumblings that he could sign with us. Would be ideal imo. Lindegaard is good but came to the club expecting to play, and I can't see him extending his contract. Valdes, on the other hand, moved on from Barcelona because he's won everything there and wanted a lower-pressure environment. So he'd be happy with a role as backup / mentor to our main keeper, presumably.

The balance in the team has looked good so far. Januzaj on the left, Van Persie in the middle and Di Maria on the right is a very natural looking front three. Shaw and Rafael have looked good going forward, and Fellaini helps out defensively more than Herrera so we haven't been as exposed. The main question is Mata's role, he has been quite deep again. I don't think he'd be starting against Chelsea if Carrick or Herrera were fully fit.

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Liamness

Liamness

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Ivanovic seemed to forget that rotational fouling is meant to be, you know, rotational.

Even if we hadn't pulled back a draw the last, it was a pretty good performance. Chelsea's only clear chances were when Hazard was through and Drogba's header. I would've wanted us to threaten more than we did, but that probably had a lot to do with the way Chelsea dropped back after scoring, and Mourinho's aforementioned ploy of committing niggling little fouls to break up the play.

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Liamness

Liamness

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Yep, Shaw looked great. His confidence has grown tremendously over the last few games, and he was involved in some very cute moves in the final third. Fellaini looks like a player again too, he's clearly left last season behind him and had a crucial impact at both ends.

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feltmonkey

feltmonkey

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yeah, Fellaini did well. he looked so much more confident than he did at any point last season. at some points he was actually using his strength rather than his elbows, and sometimes he got out of situations where he looked like losing the ball just by remaining calm and using his feet well. so many players looked a lot better than they have before for us. Shaw looked great, RVP and Januzaj looked like their old selves, Mata played well, Rojo looked very good too.

i'm not sure it's correct to say the only chances Chelsea had were the goal and Hazard's effort just before the goal. Drogba had a good chance in the first half, and of course Chelsea should have had a penalty. in the second half they turned the screw as well, and looked like they might score again. the great thing though was that we looked like a team that can live with Chelsea, we looked every bit as good as them, better on the day even, and that's with an injury list that's still alarmingly long, and a suspended captain.

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AlwaysBeClosing

AlwaysBeClosing

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Another nail-biting game, great stuff. Januzaj I thought would want to run more, he seems to want to take a player on and cross it in or pass it, rather than run on himself.

The Rafael booking set a bad precedent, with Hazard looking disapproving at the referee every time someone touched him. Could have done without half of those bookings at least.

Nice picture showing how much we're enjoying scoring, how the belief is there that we can.

HpFSQOS.jpg

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Liamness

Liamness

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We are going into the game with better form, but I don't think City could possibly look as lethargic and uninterested as they have done lately again, they will surely raise their game. It's a derby and they have a point to prove, questions are being asked about their hunger to retain the title. I could see them reverting to three in midfield with Silva out, but I hope they don't. If they do a straight swap with Nasri coming in,

It'll be interesting to see what Van Gaal does with Rooney coming back, the 4-3-3 is working well. I hope we start with something like this:

Van Persie

Rooney Di Maria

Herrera

Blind Fellaini

Shaw Rafael

Rojo Smalling

He could equally start with Rooney in the hole though, and Januzaj out wide.

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aidey6

aidey6

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Posted (edited)

So the line is De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Rojo, Shaw, Blind, Fellaini, Janujaz, Rooney, Di Maria, Van Persie.

I would presume, that he feels Valencia is less prone to the rash challenges and therefore picking up an early yellow card that Rafael is known for... :doh:

Rafael is injured.. :blush:

Edited by aidey6
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Liamness

Liamness

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It was soft (he was trying to prevent the break, unsportmanlike conduct presumably, but you see players do that all the time), but Smalling only has himself to blame, going in like that already on a yellow.

Rojo does get the ball there, but he's gone through Toure to get it. City could've had two pens towards the end of that half. The last time we had Carrick and Valencia in our defence it didn't go so well... but at least Fellaini is playing for us this time. I guess the pattern of the second half is set, sit deep and soak up pressure, then break when we can. Hopefully that's enough.

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Liamness

Liamness

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We just need more / better defenders really. None of our established centrebacks (Evans, Smalling, Jones) have shown better decision making this season than the kids that have had to cover for them. For the goal, Valencia had seemingly left Clichy to Di Maria and didn't seem very aware of the danger when he ran in behind. Smalling apparently wanted an early bath. Thanks to De Gea, and also admittedly the ref who could've given at least two penalties to City without much complaint (though he should've booked a few more City players early doors), for avoiding an embarrassing scoreline.

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AlwaysBeClosing

AlwaysBeClosing

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The whole game was a bit strange - felt like it was in slow motion and no one cared. The Smalling first yellow is nonsense if you look at Eto'o who managed to score for Chelsea doing something similar.

That we had to wait until the 80th minute to see anything close to a team is frustrating. 13 points after ten games. :lol: Jon, Jon!? Why aren't you calling for his head?

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Guest

Guest

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Posted

I don't really know how I feel about things at the moment.

I could point to the crazy injury list we've had. I could also say the team is still in transition. I could even say that is a product of Moyes and his ability to strip all the players of their confidence last season. But then, I could also say that's a hangover he was left by Fergie. Or I could go down the line of thinking that LvG is a master tactician in the art of self PR. Or I could argue that he's the perfect man for the job and he's pushing us back towards the right direction.

But in reality, I can't pin it down to anything in particular and it's probably a combination of lots of things - some of which I've just mentioned.

As for how I feel about it though. Well, pretty much like you described the match yesterday. It all feels like it's going in slow motion and I don't really care.

Like you say, we can be unbelievably frustrating sometimes. Then other times we can be the most exciting I've seen for a long time. Ultimately though, it's obvious that rebuilding the team is going to take a lot of work, time and money.

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ckny

ckny

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Posted

I don't really know how I feel about things at the moment.

I could point to the crazy injury list we've had. I could also say the team is still in transition. I could even say that is a product of Moyes and his ability to strip all the players of their confidence last season. But then, I could also say that's a hangover he was left by Fergie. Or I could go down the line of thinking that LvG is a master tactician in the art of self PR. Or I could argue that he's the perfect man for the job and he's pushing us back towards the right direction.

But in reality, I can't pin it down to anything in particular and it's probably a combination of lots of things - some of which I've just mentioned.

As for how I feel about it though. Well, pretty much like you described the match yesterday. It all feels like it's going in slow motion and I don't really care.

Like you say, we can be unbelievably frustrating sometimes. Then other times we can be the most exciting I've seen for a long time. Ultimately though, it's obvious that rebuilding the team is going to take a lot of work, time and money.

This. He mentions Ajax, Barca and Bayern in every fucking press conference.

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Liamness

Liamness

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Mata is a great option to have on the bench, when we're lacking ideas and need a goal, he provides a real injection of spark and creativity. But... why shouldn't he be on from the start then? I suppose if he was on instead of, say, Van Persie, then our entire attack would be left footed (I don't know if that would be bad for some reason). Rooney is shit playing in the hole, he either has to help dictate play with his passing or create overloads with intelligent movement, and he really just does neither. He's just a striker who works very hard when we don't have the ball, he should just rotate along with Van Persie and Wilson (we do not need Falcao, really, especially if his fitness troubles continue) but he's the captain so you have to put him somewhere. Our attack as a whole is a little disjointed, lots of players doing good things in isolation but it not quite fitting together.

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Liamness

Liamness

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I think if you switched him and Januzaj around, they'd both be a bit happier. Adnan tried to come inside a few times onto his favoured left foot and, though I think he would've done better had Mata or Herrera been in that space for him to play off, it didn't quite come off. I think it would be better if the lad was on the left, trying to beat players and stretch the play, and Di Maria had the responsibility of drifting inside and having a more creative role. I wouldn't move Di Maria centrally, because we have so many players who can play there, and relatively few quality options on the wing by comparison.

Just to throw a little bit of positivity in there, Luke Shaw was great, once again. He is coming on in every single game. The run he made for his shot was terrific, he saw the space so quickly and showed a great burst of pace to take advantage. He was defensively very solid too. Having Carrick back to screen the defence and start moves from deep made a difference too, we never looked likely to concede and kept possession very well. It guess it's strange considering the team selection that it was the attack that left something to be desired, but I guess if Crystal Palace had chosen to really try and take advantage of our makeshift defence, it could've been the other way around.

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