₦airaland Forum

PietroRico: abeg no call fellaini.
That clumsy snail.

RuuDie: Yes, I am serious... in defensive midfield we need to have players who are not afraid to foul the opponent high up the pitch. Maybe it is still early days, but Blind, Carrick, Herrera these guys are way to 'gentle', focusing more on how to 'intercept' and win the ball cleanly forgetting that a certain degree of dirty is allowed too. UTD need a 'destroyer' and I mean that literally! Someone to just sit there and STOP the invaders getting in legally or otherwise.
Its like we forget that sometimes committing a foul contributes to breaking up whatever momentum that the opposition is building. Earlier folks mentioned Nigel De Jong as a candidate to buy - what exactly would De Jong have brought besides this!?

If Jones can do it, fine... but for me, Rojo is it!

It's worth saying that Di Maria and Herrera won as many tackles as our whole backline against Leicester (5).

PietroRico: A lot has been said recently about our struggling fùllbacks.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that we operate a diamond midfield system, a formation whose trademark is lack of meaningful width.

Our fullbacks therefore lack appropriate protection.
Dimaria in that LCM position did all he could! But he is no machine. There's no way he can combine playing as a cm and winger. He did offer some degree of protection because of his winger instinct but ultimately got exhausted early.

Herrera on the RCM offered no such protection to rafael.
His own instinct is to always drift into the middle (while we are attacking or defending)

We will get destroyed like this repeatedly if we come across any quality team that plays with width.
That's the long and short of the whole thing.

Its not compulsory for Rvp, falcao and rooney to start 2geda.
I've had enough of shifting from pillar to post to accommodate players.

433 is the answer.

For teams that aren't bullies, a midfield 3 of mata, herrera and blind will do (with matà béing the most advanced)
But for very physical teams, herrera, carrick and blind wit herrera being the most advanced.

Rvp should slug it out with falcao for the striking position while rooney and di maria man our wings.

That way we can bring rvp/falcao (whoever didn't start)
alongside adnan [playing in his most comfortable position(s) ] in place of rooney/dimaria to either give any of the aforementioned rest or as impact subs when the starting players are having off days.

The 4 1 2 1 2 alongside 3 5 2 should remain options.
433 is the way!

Dimaria nai dey even make this diamond midfield system tick to this extent.
the boy is exceptional.
Withouth his drive and energy, mk dons like teams go dey hammer us for fun, even with falcao et all on the field.

RuuDie: @ pietroRico

The short-term answer for me is using Rojo's aggression and ability to commit fouls to full effect in the middle of the park and use Blind more at LB/LWB or CB. He (Rojo) may pick up a few cards along the way, but I think some of the opposing players will also be mindful that they may be one 'Rojo-tackle' away from an injury!

SailorXY: that's not the united way smh


the attack is doing fine, but maybe we can use it to counter tactics of some agbero teams

afrodoc2: LOL
I think Seun has to start paying Coogar and Elampiro This their never ending argument must be time consuming and labor intensive

elampiro: For what? When Rooney should have parked the bus from 1st minute? A reasonable captain should have parked the bus to earn a point with a 0-0 score.



Since Olympiokos game, DDG has not made a great save. I have never seen him stopped a penalty. May be Rooney is affecting him.


Blame Rooney for all United failings for he earns £300k. Sentiments everywhere.

Fussbot: Seriously?nobody is complaining about de gea?

Any ball that goes towards him is a goal!smh

elampiro: This writer's spitting rubbish about a game we all saw. Blackett had made two tackles in the first half that I old my friend if he had missed the ball it should have been red card. Rooney is a new leader and the coach will correct anything he feels is wrong. If the defenders that done their part well, Rooney wouldn't be clearing in the box twice from open play. And a miscue clearance doesn't mean the load of denders in the box should relax.

The writer is one of those guys who are jealous of Rooney's wages and popularity. You can see he was biased in his overall assessment, apart from the goal incidence.

PietroRico: I swear. How long is his injury again sef.

ElFenomeno1: I cant get my head round how a team worth about £150m with a plethora of big names, will go 3 - 1 up in a football match against an average side and still end up losing the game 5 - 3!

Van Gaal should be docked this week's wages, same as all of the players.... MUFC is joke.

elampiro: * Rooney did well to have rated 6.4 with an 'E' tagged on him. Players with error leading to a goal tagged on them most often end up with 5. ratings. And Rooney got a yellow too which got about 0.5 off his rating again. Rooney is a football guru. Our undisputable best forward in the last two matches.
* lol. I thought you said no man United player has ever rated below 6.5 from the hole. No wyou shift goal post. So you think RVP is a world class striker ATM? If he had scored those chances to help us with an away victory, everyone would have recorded above 8. rating on whoscored.
* RVP is a waste of space.
Rooney touches of the ball = 90 times. 3rd behind Herrera and Rojo.
RVP played 90 mins and touched the ball only 39 times, he was only above DDG who touched 32 times. Falcao who played 72 mins touched more than RVP.
* RVP had only 28 passes and still recorded 82% pass accuracy. Rooney had 71 passes and recorded 83% pass accuracy. Rooney had only 7 long balls and 4 were accurate. Now he is the master of short passes.
Rooney 2 interceptions, 2 tackles. RVP 0 tackles, 0 interceptions. Falcao, 1 interception. Rooney one effective clearance, RVP hil.

In a very inetrractive game, RVP was hiding.
Ukwu!!!

One of the abiding images from the match will be the sight of Rooney furiously screaming at his team-mates after the Foxes had equalised to make it 3-3, showing a complete lack of self-awareness given he had conceded possession in the first place in the build-up.

It was not the mark of true leadership but an angry vent from a player who has never been considered a natural leader and has already let his selfishness and greed shine through at United on at least two occasions with contract stand-offs.
Funnily enough, the man he appeared to single out for the most criticism for that third goal - 20-year-old rookie Tyler Blackett - was later sent-off after conceding a penalty. It's hard to imagine Rooney's rant did much good for his mental state.

Rooney would have been better off worrying about his own game. Save for a simple pass to set up Angel Di Maria's stunning goal, the United and England captain was clumsy, clunky and predictable.
While Juan Mata started on the bench and Di Maria and Radamel Falcao ended on it, Rooney enjoyed the 'privilege' of staying on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.

PietroRico: Falcao was subbed for fitness reasons and marouane back in training(dunno if I should be happy about this or not tbh)

elampiro: If you ask me, I would say Man United should forget hoping on young players. Only extremely talented youths that should be given opportunities. Not more than one at a time.

How many young players can break into Barca, Madrid, City and Chelsea? These young guys will always make costly mistakes. See how long we have been waiting for Phil Jones, Smalling, Cleverley to come up. But they always get injured and start all afresh. We should be going for established players. Players like Januzaj and Blackett should come up slowly into an already solidified team. If you play Iheanacho in Man City vs Leicester, he won't drag them down because of the ten other men surrounding him.

But I trust Gaal to learn from this season. He might be forced to go to woodward for a player in January. I think only Jones and Rafael and I trust for now. Shaw will most likely be strong. And injury must come in.

I will still want to give Rojo a chance. He needs to seat back more and the back four should play closely, not loosely.

elampiro: We could have won two matches out of our first three if not for poor decisions from the referee. Young ought to have won two penalties already. Then a certain hand ball prevented one of our goals from going in then.

Man United should document these things and do a private letter to the Premier League governing body.

elampiro: In fact it looks like Gaal has shattered one of our finest records. As far back as I know, United has never lost an EPL match we went two goals up. Once we are two up, we are done.

A new coach in a new terrain emphasizing too much on attacking play.

RuuDie: I tire oh... LVG says we didn't control possession; but he forgets that in a game that you cannot control, defence has to be at its best and solid! Does he just teach these lads how to pass, pass, pass and not how to defend!? Is this how we will struggle whenever we cannot control possession!
There needs to be a frigging plan-B for feck' sakes

coogar: that's the only option otherwise they would injure his £30m investment. that mangala is a gorilla. good luck to any striker going against that freak of nature!



it's a learning process for van gaal.
he must toughen his players up - the united team of the past easily adapt. if the opponents want to play ball, keane & scholes are ready. if the opponents want a civil war, keane & scholes are even readier.

daley blind & herrera have to be told to go harder in whatever they do. throw the elbows, kick as hard as they can. they must build a reputation as henchmen. only then would opponents fear them.

Bimfo: I also thought U guys have qualified for Champions league football b4 May. Abeg still dey Sideline joor..

Bimfo: When you play with ManCity, you will know why they called them Champions of England.. I will not say more than that..

coogar: what they did to costa is the reason top strikers don't want to come here. that's not football, that's an assault. mangala & kompany bullied costa throughout - they even tried to wind him up just to disturb his focus.

i dunno why this league loves such nonsense. emphasis should be more on creativity, not on destruction. the referees simply turn the other way when foreigners are being assaulted - that's a black spot in the game. if it was shaw or glen johnson that was floored today by vardy instead of rafael, clatterburg would have blown for a foul.

Odunharry: i expect us to take maximum point..

Falcao should start..

A win will catapult us above liverpool and everton..
If we get maximum point 4m dz 2 games,then we shud be in top 7

Odunharry: Nxt match Westham then Everton

coogar: i must have seen a different match....

rooney was in the hole for 90 mins.....he made 2 passes to falcao & none(zero) to RVP in 90 mins. biko, what's rooney's job. let me dig the stats out & see for yourself why our player in the hole should be making most passes to the defenders.....

Spy360: Arsene Wenger na crook, Welbeck for RVP...

Future for the past,...

Dj abeg wey you, hala me something for Falcao biko, LvG we dey salute...

Oya na...