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Ander Herrera has stressed that he was happy to bide his time at Manchester United because he joined the club for the long-term.
After spending a few months as a bit-part player at Old Trafford, Herrera has come into his own over the last few weeks and along with Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini has formed a midfield which helped Manchester United to two dominating wins over Tottenham and Liverpool respectively.
Speaking to Spanish website elpais.com Herrera said:
“I am at Manchester United, the second richest club in the world, who are in a constant search for talent,
“And everything takes time because everyone will have their early difficult moments, but now I am playing again.
“However, when I was not playing I kept reminding myself that I am here for the next five years and not just for a few months.”
[Source: El Pais]

MrTA:
I agree that Carrick is the better dm at the moment. I just think in a bigger away game we would look good and secure with both Carrick and blind in the middle.

What will happen to Herrera?

dopeJemi:
Di maria's corner kicks have been the worst so far not mata's

I still prefer the way Di Maria hits his own with sharpness. Mata on his part tries to shoot the stars in the sky, then the ball takes eternity to fall down which automatically because a defender's ball. He has to correct that.

MrTA:
need shaw or rojo to step up for leftback as I don't fancy blind there. I think he's wasted there. I want him in the middle.

Carrick is the better DM. We will have to bring a proper DM in the summer to make the team stronger. The work there goes beyond the ability to make clever passes.

Mata buzzing after happiest day in a United shirt

Juan Mata described his brace at Anfield which secured a vital 2-1 victory over Liverpool as “my happiest day” in a Manchester United shirt.

The Spaniard, who took 90 per cent of votes in @ManUtd's Man of the Match poll, gave the Reds the lead in the first half when he finished off a neat move with a clinical right-footed finish past Simon Mignolet. But he outdid that in the second half with a brilliant acrobatic strike.

“It feels amazing,” he told MUTV. “The game was massive for us because of the position in the table, the rivalry and the history between the two clubs. I think today is the happiest day since I came to the club. I am very happy for the fans, for the team and happy with the performance and the three points.

“The second goal was nicer, it was a good pass from Angel [Di Maria] and I just tried to score with my first touch. But overall I think the performance of the team was the key for the win. I am very happy because of the goals, but I am happy about how we performed, how we defended. We knew that Liverpool were going to push until the end and we fought.”

Mata’s second goal came at a crucial time after Steven Gerrard was sent off almost immediately after coming on at half-time, following his stamp on Ander Herrera. But Mata says making the most of that numerical advantage was difficult.

“I think we played better against 11 players than against 10,” he added. “It was tense, they had nothing to lose and they were more dangerous [in that situation

with 10 men], where you just have to be offensive and create chances. And they have the players to do it. I think we kept our shape well and didn’t allow so many chances. It’s tough to play here at Anfield but it was a great game.”

The result and the performance, however, give Mata plenty of hope for what United can achieve in the final eight games of the season. Juan said: “The first half was very good, like against Tottenham, and I think the team is reaching that level that we should play at. We have the players to do it and it is very important that the team is performing at the best level at the most important stage of the season. We have to carry on and keep winning and winning.

“This win is important, but it’s no more than three points. We have some very important games to go against direct rivals. But you could feel from the beginning of the week how much the supporters wanted us to win here. It’s a massive game, the biggest in England, and that is why we are very happy.”
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2015/Mar/Juan-Mata-enjoys-best-day-in-a-Manchester-United-shirt-after-victory-over-Liverpool.aspx?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ManUtd

Mata seems to be learning all over again how to take corner kicks. His corner kicks are the worsts so far. They drop from the 'sky'.

Leyqute:
I don't think the int'l break'll affect us that much. Thank God we're facing A.Villa after the break and not Manshiity.

Man City players will be going to international break too. But Villa players will be resting.

Claroo:
Ashley Young was not Invited by England

ok.

DDG, Rooney, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Blind, Valencia, Di Maria, Fellaini, Carrick, Young..... Will all be heading to international break.

This break sef no just come well. Small teams will have the luxury of resting their players. Hope our boys go use sense play small small sha.

raumdeuter:
How did your Neymar play today

Do you mean Robben always have an excellent game? Neymar did okay. He was a threat and they won.

Bale's goal wrongly cancelled.

Anyway, what's my business? I am enjoying Man United. When we were getting poor results did we Madrid worry about us?

Moyes won and goes to 9th position. With 5 more points he would be assumed to have escaped relegation

coogar:
he wasn't badly positioned. jones was trying to block the shot & he slightly deflected it away from where de gea was positioned. it was clear as daylight during the replay.

van gaal said he thought de gea was beaten by the near post but de gea told him jones got a touch & he has seen it on TV that jones got a touch. i cannot blame jones for trying to block the shot & you cannot blame de gea for a deflected shot.

Manchester United
De Gea1De Gea
The Spaniard had little to do but should have done better for Sturridge's goal, which beat him at the near post via a slight deflection.
...................


I want to believe DDG didn't know how much space he left between himself and the left post

.

coogar:
it wasn't his error.
phil jones got a touch of the ball. even LVG mentioned it in his post-match conference. go & buy an HDTV.

Let me see the gif. He was badly positioned for the shot. He didnt know where his right upright was.

* Val had the highest pass accuracy again with highest number of passes.

* Herrera came top with highest tackles 7, followed by Blind and Phil Jones.

* Jones had the highest clearances 10.

* Mata, Jones and Herera had the highest interceptions.

* highest area duels won, Fellaini 11, Rooney 4, Smalling 2

Phil Jones with 83% accuracy did well considering he used his left foot.

chrisley024:
Yeah, in the 1st half. They moved to Valencia in the 2nd and he became clueless especially whenever he saw a liverfool player blocking that his lane. Dude was decent though

Val tried. I didnt expect Gaal to give Gaal the licence to try and risk getting past Sakho or any body in the way. It was a too much risk we couldnt afford. I like his positional discipline today.

SailorXY:
@EddyBlingzz
this is the Sterling we should buy huh? I'm not sure the shiit from shitpit was even on the pitch.

90% of English 'talents' na all hype less substance.

Sterling was marked for crowd marking. Liverpool lined up strongly in their right side to try and punish Blind. But we did well too to crowd that area. This was why Young did not have strong game going forward and Jones appeared to be playing left back.

They on their part shifted too much attention to taking out Ashley Young.

We should be careful in the way we approach Villa to ensure safe 3 points. Should Arsenal beat Liverpool, we will go 8 points from Liverpool with 7 matches to go.

coogar:
there was a slight deflection from jones....nothing de gea coulda done. we played better when they had 11 men on the pitch. liverpool had no excuse.
.

That was DDG's error. We can forgive him though.

Danhumprey:
The fact that the international break is coming up next week just scare the pìss out of me.


I can only pray and hope that none of our players get injured on international duty,most especially those in the starting IX today.

It appears we have won all matches going into the international break, but we usually not return well. So we have to watch it, mostly as 5 players are going.

parrotibaba:
d LVG/Moyes comparison is d most ridiculous thing I v ever heard in my life glad u no longer row in dat boat

Show me exactly where they were compared? You guys usually bring up this sort of nonsense when we appear to be doing fine. You praise Gaal but when we are not doing fine and some question his tactics, you guys start blaming Moyes who left the club a year ago.

Are the people who criticize Gaal now supposed to be wishing the club bad luck because of argument? I prayed all week for us to win this match.

Karleb:
I know Rooney can't be benched unless he is injured, I said that outta anger.

Rooney doesn't deserve to be benched at all. He has been very good for us.

Karleb:
You better tell your boy to stop his one day on, one day off performance like the PHCN in my area!

How? He has had about 5 or 6 good straight games before today.

Karleb:
We were all here shouting Ronney's name to high heavens last week and now, he just denied us two excellent goals and an assist to Di Maria's collection.

He missed a penalty. That Di Maria's pass was wrong. It went behind Rooney.

Odunharry:
I should actually... I have been screaming Herrera and Mata for ages..
lol

Not for ages we are talking about, we talking about prediction for today's line up. Herrera and Mata have lost us games previously.

parrotibaba:
If any a$$ compares LVG to Moyes again mk sango n amadioha use thunder scatter dat person








Great win today ,hate dat d international break is next week ,we need d same lineup until season ends

What is this?

People like you bring unnecessary argument here and hate for some members of the team.

Karleb:
Can't we bench Rooney sometimes?


He just lost us two decent goals.

I think the first ball was not totally his fault. Di Maria put it behind him and Rooney assumed it was another's pass. But he ought to have reversed quickly to recover the ball.

But as for the benching. No be so football be. It would have been ideal to substitute him if RVP was on the bench instead of Falcao.

SailorXY:
@coogar you should give credit to those of us who believed the team shouldn't be tampered with

I think I deserve the credit.

What an off day from Wayne Rooney. Mata is the man today. Two GREAT GOALS!

Di Maria is wasteful with passes. I knew Liverpool would have a great problem solving Fellaini. Jones played too many back passes in the first half and I was always scared he could make mistake. Now I know why Gaal prefers a left footer there.

We started very well but we played too much of short passes that made us aimless and looked like the style could backfire. We have no excuse for the Liverpool goal. We sometimes appear too comfortable playing risky game in the middle.

I had the premonition we were going to win. Hope DDG is not out?

All in all, Thank God for the victory.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says that Sunday's opponents, Liverpool, have found success by adopting his 3-5-2 system.

The Red Devils boss has struggled to find the right formation to suit his players during his first season at Old Trafford but a move to a back three prompted a turnaround for Brendan Rodgers' side.

As the two teams prepare to face off at Anfield on Sunday, Van Gaal noted that he is not surprised to see the Reds on an upward curve since taking on his tactical approach.

"At that time [we beat them 3-0 in December], they were under their level in the league," he told reporters. "That was the surprise, with the players they have, but now you can see they have a very good team, even if they were not so good in the first half against Swansea.

"We played very well in our last game, but we need another victory to confirm the improvement we showed against Tottenham. This time Liverpool are playing at home and Manchester United have a bad record at Anfield, so it will be difficult, but I like Liverpool's players and they more or less play my system, which I started here with United."

Indeed, Van Gaal could have been in charge of Liverpool as he was one of those approached about the managerial post there before Rodgers was hired in 2012, though he harbours no regrets over missing out.

The Dutchman declared: "I am the manager of Manchester United, the No.1 club in England.

"It was flattering. It is always pleasing to be contacted by a leading club and Liverpool have a very good record in history but I am the coach of United now; I can only speak about Liverpool as an opponent.

"It is not so interesting any more, it is in the past. It was the same with Tottenham last week. I have spoken to a lot of clubs but it is not good for Liverpool, Tottenham or for me to reopen things that are in the past."

It will be interesting to see where Liverpool deploy Sterling. In our last two league games he was deployed to the middle. Last season, he had to play there to outpace and dribble past our weak midfield of Carrick and Fellaini. He played in the hole behind Sturridge and Suarez. This season, he was in the middle of three man attack because we played three at the back. He was meant to trouble and shake the back three out of shape.

This time, he may be deployed to play against Blind. I don't think he will be allowed to face Valencia. If we manage to take Sterling out of the game, we have won the match. Val shouldn't overlap unnecessarily if he would be playing against Sterling. You don't give Sterling space to come face to face with the centre backs, there must be someone covering the defender marking Sterling. He is a player that shouldnt be allowed space with the ball.