₦airaland Forum

ok

coogar: cleverley, carrick, fletcher, anderson are sufficient. stop using last season as a yardstick to measure these players. moyes is a failure by all ramifications. the players you think aren't good enough have won more league titles in the last 7 years than any other in england.

NONE of these guys is world class. Carrick arguably WAS but with his age,injuries and increasingly snail like speed we can not depend on him for the whole season.
Cleverley is a squad player at best, Fletcher is always susceptible to another relapse of his medical condition AND Anderson is.......well he is Anderson.

You should appreciate the fact that we can not risk another season without champions league football, if there are ways to improve our squad especially the 1st team WHY NOT GO FOR IT?
At present we are weakest in defense and midfield so we should look to improve there.
Lastly 2012/2013 is now 2 seasons ago, other teams have not stood still. Where Chelsea had Ramires and Mikel and an aging Lampard now they have Matic and Fabregas, Arsenal has added good players ditto Liverpool and City. The moment you stop growing you start dying

Practically everybody is overpaying for players nowadays.........and we are out of the champs league so we are not a choice destination at the moment.
Lets just pay the money for the best players for now and haggle price later, we desperately need help in our central midfield. Cleverly,Carrick n Fletcher are not good enough.

Just saw Torres' miss.
Fernando Torres......missing tap ins since 1759!

coogar: smalling is the best out of the lot. the only problem smalling has is passing & distribution. he gets scared when in possession. if he can sort that bit out, he is our best central defender.

jones is another few matches from injuring himself or rooney. he's a bumbling oaf. he is the equivalent of schwarzennegger on a football pitch. evans blows hot & cold. more cold than hot if i can add.

Smalling's mother sef won't agree that he is better than Evans.
passing and distribution that you so easily glossed over is very important with this Van Gaal system,and there Smalling comes up really "small".

He is scared of the ball when in possession (oh u said that already) and his passing is average. Jones is usually overagressive but so far this preseason he seems better and has better control of himself.
Evans is our best centreback at the moment

coogar: we woulda lost tonight without smalling. he was strong for us at the death. the lack of defensive midfielders affected us towards the end and roma brought on quality players to try get something out of the game.

10 goals in 2 games, we are in business!

and you are right that the lack of defensive midfielders exposed us to excess pressure.
however i look at the 3 senior centre backs and he seems to be the odd one out IF we buy another quality central defender

SailorXY: @ afrodoc
how do u assess Hernandez? I don't understand how van Gaal plays non-strikers in striking positions ahead of him

Hernandez was as silent as the night. he did nothing really good and did nothing really bad that i can remember

coogar: we woulda lost tonight without smalling. he was strong for us at the death. the lack of defensive midfielders affected us towards the end and roma brought on quality players to try get something out of the game.

10 goals in 2 games, we are in business!

he was strong as you said...but he has to learn how to position himself better...............like i said the young boys by his side didnt help him.

elampiro: It looks like Herrera later stepped up and he set up Welbeck for the penalty. 'Abi'?

yeah good pass.
the last 15 minutes of the 1st half and 1st 15 minutes of 2nd half were good for us.

smalling is big and strong but his positional play is poor.....i think he is going to lose out in this new system. the young boys beside him didnt help though.
shaw has just been ok in his appearances does not look million pound in any way HOWEVER its still preseason, lots of time for improvement.

Unfortunately van gaal did not play kagawa directly behind the 2 strikers so yet again its difficult to assess him properly though he had some real class moments.

Nani is fighting for his United career playing as a striker in this formation and so far things are not looking good for him.

Young as a wingback was not bad at all......his versatility might yet save him, same with Valencia.

3-2
totti scores a penalty

Ben Amos scored from Roma's half!!!!!!!!!!!

chicharito in for cleverley.
omo our midfield is now lingaard and kagawa

Hmmm Blackett's ability to pass the ball might see him get a place in the senior squad this season.

Cleverley is passing as if he is blindfolded. He just got Young in trouble now

2nd half


...........................Amos
.........M.Keane......Smalling.........Blackett............


Young.......Kagawa.......Cleverley.........Shaw.....

.............................Lingaard..............................

................. .Nani...........W.Keane

wholesale changes.

Amos, Nani, Lingaard etc
will update

elampiro: How is Herrera performing now?

Is Roma still dominating possession?

How is our left back? Did we miss Evans and Shaw on the left?

How is Welbeck overall performance. Do you think his work rate is required, and should be made to pair Rooney or RVP. Instead of Rooney and RVP who are both getting old.

after the 1st goal our game play improved and the full backs started pushing up.
Shaw hasnt done anything for us to miss him yet, the disconnect on the left was more between blackett and evans.
welbeck has been ok so far

elampiro: Who's in the middle of our defence?

Evans in the middle.
Jones to the right and Blackett to the left
Valencia right wing back and james left wingback

chrisley024: Van Gaal is good n has good luck.

Daestro would have scored 1st if na Moyes

LOL very true.
However it is important to note that our experienced right side with Valencia and Jones was more secure but the inexperienced left side with Blackett and James was exposed again and again.
For this 3412/352 to be effective we need dynamic midfielders than control tempo of the game so that our wing backs can push up.

Rooney scores

elampiro: Thanks Afrodoc.
Your 1st few posts were like 'oh we are going to have a long season again'. Now the good news coming. Gaal pls lift Man United.

you are welcome....however Roma has exposed the challenges of this formation.
our wing backs have to be on their A game.
PNEALTYYYY. Welbeck brought down

GOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!

Rooney pinging 40-50 Yard ball from middle of the field into the box and Mata with an exquisite chip over the keeper after a heavenly 1st touch to trap the ball

Rooney from the edge of the 18yard box.

oh boiiiiiii
ROOONEYYYYY

Nihilist: It can't be.

Herera?

The one who was heralded as the second coming of Scholes on this very thread?

I said the jury was out on him........and please name one player who has never had a quiet game

Destro is utilizing gaps between Evans the middle centerback and Blackett the left centreback.

herrera has been quiet, cleverley has been shaky in possession losing it twice in dangerous areas and rooney's 1st touch is still as poor as ever

they are forcing the 3412 into a 5212 by forcing james and valencia our full backs back

roma pushing up against our wing backs and not allowing us settle....and destro and has been looking to stretch our 3 centre backs

SailorXY: the next game should kick off by 11 pm tonight

i believe its 9pm nigerian local time

cleverley and blackett to play 90mins in today's match according to Van Gaal. I think this means they are auditioning for a place in the squad especially Blackett who played quite well as LCB in the 3 man defence in the 2nd half of our last match.

Knowing Van Gaal he might be tempted to promote Blackett and Michael Keane to permanent senior squad duties if they impress on this tour. However i believe we need to buy at least one quality centre back to play in the middle of either a 3 man defence or as a partner for Evans in a 4 man defence.

Watched the match again, what Herrera did was what we have been hoping for Cleverley i.e forward play when the opportunity is there. Unfortunately Clev regressed over the last couple of seasons (hopefully LVG can reverse the regression)

Bebe is gone! Hope fellaini, anderson and ashley young follow suit.
Of all those players only anderson has real talent IMO.....unfortunately he loves cake too much and he has never learnt how to strike the ball consistently well with his instep(he is always bending awkwardly to shoot)