₦airaland Forum

One of our soups in Etsakor, Edo North. Very delicious. Best with bush meat.

In most cases, it's not bleaching but picture quality/effect and better life style is the difference here. Little time under the sun and moving aircondition to aircondition will return ones complexion to its original.

tess1:
Is he trying to tell us that there were no injury crises during his time?

That's how we humans are.

afrodoc:
LVG is unlikely to start McNair in d nxt match against Liverpool esp since he pulled him out in the last one for lack of confidence

Inexperience of the young defenders is beginning to show. Blackett and McNair.

Former Manchester United assistant claims injuries are the club’s fault
Kyle Bonn Dec 9, 2014, 3:10 PM EST

Formerly serving as Sir Alex Ferguson’s second-in-command, Mike Phelan (pictured, left) is hitting back at his old club.

Manchester United is suffocating under a severe wave of injuries, with seven players currently on the shelf and most places reporting 43 individual injuries suffered this season.

And not everyone is willing to buy that it’s a fluke.

“What’s happened is a continuation of the same players getting injured all the time, so you have to look to the reasons why,” said Phelan, now a top assistant at Norwich City in the Championship. “I think Manchester United changed their thoughts on the fitness regime, they looked at it a little bit differently.

Phelan believes the personnel who were in place during his time at Old Trafford were the right men for the job, but things are different now.

“Tony Strudwick, who was operating as head of sports science, was involved day to day with the first-team. He understood the ins and outs of how to keep players fit, how to keep them ready for competition. Then suddenly they moved him sideways and did something completely different. That may have had an effect. That one area has changed.”

Strudwick was the head of fitness at Manchester United since 2007, all the way until after the World Cup this summer when Louis van Gaal appointed him “head of athletic development” and now oversees mostly youth training and fitness. Van Gaal brought in fellow Dutchman Jos van Dijk to succeed Strudwick at his former position.

“They’ve brought in new people with a different way of doing things. The intensity of training may be one thing – it may be too intense, or not intense enough – but obviously slight changes have been made with the present way of doing things.”

Chris Smalling was the most recent player to suffer a concern, going off in the 18th minute of their close 2-1 win over Southampton this past weekend, replaced by Jonny Evans who himself was just returning from an injury problem that has kept him out most of the season.

And Phelan isn’t convinced that the club did enough to strengthen the team during the summer to prevent this kind of thing from happening, instead focusing on big-money buys.

“I would have thought [the squad] is big enough at Manchester United, because they can go out and get players in, but obviously they keep breaking down and they don’t seem to be getting any better. They seem to get one back and lose another two.”

The injuries have forced a number of young products into duty a little earlier than the Red Devils would probably have liked, including defenders Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett. While Blackett has impressed a couple of times, McNair was withdrawn minutes before halftime on a puzzling tactical change that Louis van Gaal said was caused by a lack of confidence by McNair.

It’s gotten so bad that Evans, following the win over Southampton said bench players are “expecting someone to get injured.” That’s no bueno.
http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/09/former-manchester-united-assistant-claims-injuries-are-van-gaals-fault/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs

Things were so bad that United had to go pay Howard Webb to return from retirement.





















And now he got us to 3rd position with several penalties to us and red cards to opponents. Ashley diving to win penalties.
Ukwu!!!

I saw this.

Southampton were comfortable at number 2 on the log some three weeks back. They were 9 points from Manchester United.

Next, they take some beatings from Chelsea and Everton, and they realize who they really are.

One advantage of Gaal's different formations is that the opposition aren't sure what to expect. But it has not enable us to specialize on any formation.

What happens to Ashley Young when everyone is fit?

lekkie073:
so mcnair will play rightback? Then how possible is it for Valencia to play mata's position in a diamond formation? This ur arrangement na Pawaful one o

McNair/Smalling- Smaling/McNair-Rojo-Young

-------------------------Carrick

------Val----------------------------------- Herrera/Fellaini

------------------------- Fellaini/Herrera

Souhampton were too physical and fast as expected

We know Di Maria owns the left side of the Dimond, or even one of the three fronts as he did against Arsenal.

The problem will be when Falcao and Blind are fully fit and playing at great form. And Mata has been scoring. So we end up with Rooney, RVP and Falcao, in the front three while Di Maria takes the left of the diamond. That leaves just one space for Fellaini, Herrera and Mata in a diamond.

Louis van Gaal:
"We lost the ball too easily in the first half. The only chances Southampton created were when we lost the ball. That was not good in spite of our good result because we got a present also from Southampton.
"In the second half we were better. But I think Southampton played better than Manchester United yet we were the lucky guys."

Karleb:
How I wish everyone could read this, c'mon free the guy and watchout for his performance against Liverpool.

Rooney is in good form. What happened today was purely lack of fitness and a personal decision to play safe to prevent going back to injury. My only wish is that he doesn't continue with his fear of sustaining injury. Today's own was just too much and too glaring.

SailorXY:
still a lot. that's about 2.96 games huh? but you never know, if we can get closer to 4 points by January then we can start to believe

I am not even aiming at the title. I am okay with us finishing 2nd or 3rd this season.

igbsam:
Now that's real business............

We can grab a 3pt from Liverpool and then the chase continues till we are on top

May be Di Maria will be back then. Jones is also close to a return, although Evans later lifted his game. Should Evans give a good performance against Liverpool, he might just keep Jones on the bench.

Our defenders dey use 'otumokpo' for one another. When one returns from injury, he go tell e baba to quarantine the one wey dey play since so that e go get space.

We are just 8 points from Chelsea.

SailorXY:
this 3-5-2 formation is useless & van Gaal is just being adamant! I'm happy with the points of course, but we have never been comfortable playing this formation.

he has no excuse playing the system, available full backs or no. valencia-smalling-rojo-young could have continued from where they stopped in the previous games, why all these change of system all the time?? even the 4-4-2 diamond had been very progressive for us but it has been ditched totally for this 3-5-2 the players have never really embraced.

LvG should not jeopardize our chances with all these magic! we constantly move from a week of playing good football & completely dominating possession to the next week of being run ragged & offering nothing in attack & midfield!

somebody advice this man to settle on a method & that shouldn't be 3-5-2, until at least he buys defenders that are comfortable with the system

A four man defence of McNair-Smalling-Rojo-Young would have been okay for us today with Valencia replacing Mata in midfield in a diamond formation. With that, we would have contained their threat from the middle with Val's tackling ability and pace. Southampton went through Fellaini, Mata and Carrick with so much ease enroute to their equalizer. We need a combative midfielder.

This was RVP best performance in about 18 months. Since scoring a hatrick against Villa. Nice ball retention today.

Rooney, obviously was not fit and appeared to be wary of injuries, hence he did not contest any 50-50 balls and played safely. He however was involved in our two goals. A well taken free kick from Rooney find RVP for the second goal.

Any thing that makes Vidal and/or Strootman to come to Old Trafford might just render Fellaini, Herrera and Mata useless to the team.

Why was Wayama no sent off for the that dangerous tackle on RVP?

Ashley Young was good. He did very well.

Nice to be on 3rd position.

We are left with players who aren't good at contesting aerial balls. If only we had Jones.

Rooney doesn't look match fit but he seems to have managed to come into the game in the closing stages of first half. Mata wasn't seen almost the whole first half. This is where we need RVP and Herrera to work more.

Fellaini is cosating us. Our midfield is weak.

We have one sub left to make. Too bad.

chrisley024:
Maybe he asked Falcao to play with the Reserve team and he disagreed.

I don't think so.

Van Gaal: Falcao must settle for substitute role

Dec 8, 2014 08:00:00
The Manchester United boss has backed his philosophy that all players must prove their fitness in reserve fixtures before they will be considered for a starting position

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has reiterated that Radamel Falcao will not be offered a place within the Red Devils' starting line-up before he can prove his fitness.

The striker picked up an injury in October which ruled him out for one month, and has since made just two appearances from the bench against Hull City and Stoke City.

And the Dutchman has refused to steer from his philosophy of his players regaining match fitness in the reserve squad before being considered for a Premier League starting spot.

When asked whether Falcao's omissions have been fitness-related, he told reporters: "Yes, match fitness. He has trained now maybe two days after the match [with Hull]. So we had the match against Stoke on Tuesday when he played for 15 minutes.

"Then we had the training sessions after Tuesday. And before Tuesday I didn't train – I trained the box exercise. You know the box exercise? Yeah? It is not a training session.
"We had to play again within two days after the Hull City game, then I have to recover the players. Then I cannot train him. After Tuesday I can train him. And we have trained very well on Wednesday.

"Then Thursday they are off. I can say to him to train but, no, we have trained before that. Then on Friday we had a training session. So he has trained in two training sessions. But a bigger contribution is to play in the second team for 45 or 60 minutes or even 90 minutes – what Jonny Evans has done already.

"But I cannot do that because I need him because [Wayne] Rooney was injured [for Stoke]. James Wilson was injured also [for Hull]. I have to adapt to the needs of the selection. Then I selected him in spite of the fact he can only play 20 minutes at that level because the rhythm of the game in the Premier League is the highest."

Since joining on loan from Monaco, the striker has bagged just one goal for the Old Trafford outfit and when asked whether he could start against Southampton on Monday, Van Gaal dismissed his chances.

"I'm not interested. He has to follow my philosophy. Do you understand that? Yeah, I'm here because of that", he said.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2014/12/08/6869912/van-gaal-falcao-must-settle-for-substitute-role?ICID=HP_HN_1

Odunharry:
ya but i dnt see us dropping point..

I said it a long time ago that our main threat is city even before we played chelsea at OT and City at Etihad..
If we win 4 out of 5 upcming fixtures before new year..
Then we can battle city and chelsea for the Trophy

Let's hope so. Our defence is getting better. That's was the problem.

Odunharry:
soton,livapool,villa,newcastl,spurs,
our fixtures b4 new year....No shaking.

These are unpredictable teams. Villa is the easy one there.

The misery of being forced to watch other clubs in the Champions League this season is driving Manchester United to ensure that is not their fate next year, defender Chris Smalling has admitted.

Smalling says even just hearing the Champions League music brings it home to him that United are missing out Europe’s elite club competition.

Smalling said the bitter experience of being a bystander in European football is all the incentive his United team-mates need.

“You hear the Champions League music when they all line up and it’s just a case where we’ve been in it year after year, so it’s a sad time, we’ll be making sure we don’t miss out again next time.

“I was watching it the other week. Even when we were in it, I would watch it on the other night anyway. Even more so this year. It’s a bit gutting that we’re not involved but you can see the standard of football we need to make sure we rise to.”

[Source: manutd.com]

.....
Louis Van Gaa has spoken of being impressed at the team spirit that has developed, highlighted by the Christmas party organised last week by Rooney.

“It was fantastic. Usually, I don’t use words like this, but I think it showed the cohesion in our group from both the players and staff. My wife and I enjoyed it very much.

“The squad is very important, and that’s why the timing of our Christmas party was fantastic – it showed the togetherness in the squad. I think we are in a good position.”

[Source: MUTV]

..........

Ronald Koeman is backing fellow Dutchman Robin van Persie to rediscover his scoring touch – but only after Manchester United’s trip to Southampton tomorrow.

Van Persie’s starting spot was thrown into doubt after he was publically criticised by Louis Van Gaal following a poor performance in United’s 2-1 win at Arsenal last month.

But the striker responded with only his fourth goal of the season in last weekend’s 3-0 romp over Hull but was again out of sorts during the mid-week win over Stoke.

Koeman said: “Robin is one of the best strikers. He showed that and scored a great goal against Hull.

“If you are a player at the highest level and you are not scoring or the team is not winning you know you will get criticised.

“He is a great player and is one of the best Dutch strikers we have but hopefully he will have another quiet game against Southampton.”

[Source: Mirror]

........

Angel di Maria and his wife Jorgelina having fun at the Trafford Centre in Manchester

chrisley024:
Ya but getting the 3 points 2moro will show how serious the team is for top 4.

That should be a clear statement for finishing top 4. Beating Liverpool next weekend would mean making statement for the title.

chrisley024:
West ham now in the 3rd position.

3 points and nothing less.

That's a big achievement. West Ham 3rd in December? But we know they are no threat by even a penny.

Falcao doesnt have match fitness yet. He is likely to start from the bench as usual. That's my observation.

We will know when Falcao makes a claim for the top striking role. Falcao in his usual form wont be kept on the bench for even one second by any coach.

This league table looks like that of Nigeria league.

West Ham will likely be 3rd at the end of today. Man United might drop to 5th. The more reason we need to win ahead of our host of Liverpool.

Victor Valdes took a few days off from Manchester United training last weekend to sort out a settlement with Ligue 1 side AS Monaco. Marca are one of several Spanish newspapers reporting that the goalkeeper is keen to get a contract signed with Manchester United after settling legally with AS Monaco.
The latter is now all but done. Monaco had offered to pay Valdes a huge wage of €10m per season, which convinced him to turn Barcelona down when they repeatedly asked him to renew his contract. On top of those wages was a payment of €20m as a signing on fee, given that Valdes was a free agent.
It sounded like a moment of madness from Monaco and it's little wonder they tried to get out of it when Valdes suffered his knee injury. The tentative agreement reached is that Monaco will subsidise his wages at a new club, meaning that if he earns €5m, they'll cover the other €5m. It sounds a big offer from Monaco and it either means they know they have little legal strength in a battle or perhaps Marca are pushing it.
Nevertheless, they say that Valdes is urging Manchester United to sign him up soon, he wants to have a contract with the Premier League club as soon as possible.
[Source: Sport Witness, Marca]

Odunharry:
more

Luke Shaw resembles a film actor. Or even a wrestler like that guy called Edge. He doesn't look like an English man.

Finally. Chelsea.

joeace2020:
One would think this thread got this far from sensible discussions held here but when you really follow the thread.. ull discover the aim of this thread has been lost and a bulk of the pages, most especially of recently are a bunch of useless arguments by supposed ppls fathers.. bunch of glory hunters claiming man u fans since the 18th century arguing about things that add no knowledge to them or anyone else around them.. off to bleacher report or dailymail. ill be back when one of the sensible ones comment again.

We are on page 1256. Show us any sensible post you have made from page 0 to now. After you have learnt so many things you never knew from soccer over several augments and pages, you come back to criticize.

It was arguments that brought out how transfer fees are arrived at. It was arguments that brought out how opta arrived at their players and team ratings using hundreds index. I know for sure that over 80% of the arguments have brought out something new for sure. It was from argument we knew how injury cheated us in the title chase of 2009/10 and 2011/12

Your post above is just an ITK.

If I may ask, what is the main of the thread?