₦airaland Forum

chrisley024:
The difference is that the team was counter attacked unlike Valencia's.

I don't blame him though, he was decent as an attacker playing a RB position. You hardly see any attacker that could perform as he did. But better we find a back-up for Rafael.

You don't think Jones and Smalling can play there too?

Any way Danny Alves rumour......


* Wish I cud watch the match a second time, let me pay particular attention to Val's movement.

chrisley024:
Yeah, as a make shift RB? He did ok. But below average if he was a RB.

His positioning is very poor. He either moves too forward or tucks in like he's a CB. He went too forward and left a huge space behind when that empty skull-Smalling got himself sent off. Not even as if it was a counter attack against us while in the goal, he tucked in and thereby couldn't even be at the edge to try and block the cross.

Since we can't depend on Rafael due to injury, the earlier we find a backup RB the better.

Even our regular full backs do leave a whole lot of space for CBs to cover for them. Is it the first time you have seen Smalling and Jones cover several times for full backs in a match?

When we conceded 5 goals against Leicester, you did not talk like this. Other small teams have been running easily at DDG. City with all the Milner, Toure, Aguero and Navas were always going to trouble us.

chrisley024:
Valencia at the right back was where we lost the game.

I lost hope immediately I saw that from the line up.

I don't think so. Valencia did very well. He had little covering, Fellaini and Januzaj played far from him while Rooney helped Shaw throughout. The goal came from Val's position but it was Di Maria's error.

Those Rooney long chase back/backtract. He really tried. Just saw a video where he caught up with Toure in a long energetic chase. Also that sweeping from Val's wing.


We need some of these speed and physicality. He could have used it instead getting red card the other time.

incredibleone:
The inter team that won d treble was d oldest in ucl history of winners.....d youngest in d first Eleven was a 27 year old sneijder ........Age doesn't matter

I thought Balotelli was in Inter then?

You also have to understand what is meant by aged legs. Giggs at 36, Scholes at 33, Inzaghi at 38 could play UCL final and deal with 25 years old players. But Ferdinand

You also have to know the speed of the EPL sucks aged players.

raumdeuter:
You sure know who the boss is

Ancelotti. lol

StarBoard:
Nani: mostly injured but managed 11 league games for United
Hernandez: 22 league games
Powell Buttner: admittedly didn't play much


so why wasn't Carrick sold/loaned?

Kagawa 20 league games despite injury.
scored a hat-trick vs Norwich.

How long has van Gaal been at United?



So how come he's not won anything for two seasons running?

1. Chicharito had only 945 minutes of football out of a possible 3,420 which is only 10 matches.

2. Nani had total football of just 629 minutes.

3. Carrick was not tested. Moreso he was eetained as a back up defender/midfielder.

4. Kagawa had 1341 minutes. About 15 games.


As I said, these players, together with the likes of Buttner and Powell were not the main players of 2012/2013.

5. You have just expressed your patience with Gaal by asking me 'how long he has been at Man United'. Do you know you were one of the first to attack Moyes on this thread last season? And that came as early as September of October.

6. On Mourinho: I am just telling you that having a winning mentality alone doesn't help a team to win. You need to upgrade team by replacing the tired legs.

StarBoard:
So Nani, Kagawa, Hernandez,Welbeck,Nick Powell, Buttner, Cleverley are old, eh?
but Rooney, Fletcher and Carrick who are older than all the above and were retainted were young?

No further comments, elampiro.
These people were active 2012/13 but suddenly went missing the season after, and you would want us to believe they are old.

How many games did Nani, Hernadez, Powell, Buttner play in 2012/13?

OLD regulars= Ferdinand, Evra, Vidic, Carrick.

Weak regulars (lost form)= Cleverley.

Kagawa did not contribute much in 2012/13.

StarBoard:
Here or there.
Fergie had the winning mentality instilled in them by molding them after his personality. Nothing more than that.
Moyes had no personality whatsoever.

And therein lies the difference. Forget this age thing.

So why did Gaal not instill his winning mentality?

Mourinho had a winning mentality but he needed to buy players to lift his team past 3rd position he met it.

SIRcumalot:
that is mostly likely the case cause RIO and Vidic have impressed QPR and Inter respectively with their never say die physical and mental attributes

Plus Johnny Evans. He is not the player he used to be.

That SAF team was already being patched. The signs of cracks (big cracks) were glaring. Teams were coming to Old Trafford to threaten us, then we would manage a slim win after a hard battle. That started from 2012/13 and it was rare in the past. In those days, teams would only come to Old Trafford to park the bus and see if they could reduce the score line to 1-0 or 2-0.

You guys should understand that this argument is not about who is better between Gaal and Moyes. We know who is better and who can make us play like Bayern.


* Just a general question. Why has Moyes not taken another appointment? The guy no wan coach again? Let's see what he can do in a new club.

StarBoard:
We are talking of age here since the allegation was that we had an aging squad.

The United squad that won the league comfortably and was knocked out by Real in 2012/13 was old according to you.
The same side Moyes inherited and took to the depths of 7th.
I don't see any correlation between the two scenarios.

I don't buy that age thing. Not for one second.

So if it wasn't old, how come almost the whole team was flushed out? How many players from that 2012/13 team are still making our fist 11 today?

If you ask me, SAF was able to win the league with them because he brought them up. He knew how to combine them to get something out of a match. That was the reason Phil Jones and Welbeck had so many matches in midfield at the expense of more creative players. SAF would use Welbeck to help Evra on the wing. He would use Jones to check physical opponents. He utilized Rooney's versatility to help the soft midfield. Then he would play Ferdinand deep in the defence to make his work less. Evra overlaps, Welbeck does the back chasing catch up for him. What am I trying to say? It takes someone who has been at the club for a long time to be able to do a job with the players we had. But the players were actually poor already. Most of them just average.

If Gaal had come earlier, he would have faced the same mess, but we would have been back at the top now.

codedguy1:
We were all kinda impressed how we played when we went a goal down even with the man down.

Why we don't play like that when we are complete still baffles me. We seem contented passing safe balls btw the defenders. We shud be doing more incisive passes.

Watch Real, Barca and Bayern, they don't pass the ball unnecessarily amongst themselves. 2-3 passes most times and someone is attempting to score.

I think our players should go and watch what they did in the last 20 minutes and try to play like that every day. The way McNair took the ball at his feet forward to midfielders was great. Then the midfield to the final third play was also great. Carrick made the ball retention at the back looked so comfortable, then Valencia and McNair took it forward with ease.

I see great hope. We are going to be like Madrid or Bayern soon.

StarBoard:
I'm sure the Chelsea side that finished third last season had an average age that was higher than United's.

The average age might look youthful but legs might be tired already (old at heart). E.g Distin vs Ferdinand. You may have to reason why Gaal overhauled the team.



And Man United age was not balanced at all. Some players were too old while others were too young. Those coming to replace the aged ones were just too young and inexperienced. Cahil, Azpilicueta and Ivanovic were a good replacement for players like Alex, Bosigwa, Cole. While in United Buttner, Smalling, Jones had to replace Ferdi, Vidic and Evra.

StarBoard:
Really?
An aging team won the league by 11 points.

I hope you don't believe what you just wrote.

Yes, we were already complaining about many of the players. As far back as 2010 we had identified our midfield weakness.

PietroRico:
its uncalled for jare.
There are a million and one things moyes did wrong
He was never the man for the job.
He lacked the charisma and pedigree required for a job of this magnitude.

Don't even allow me get started on his bizarre tactics and lack of man management.
He lost his team
He lost even his back room staff



Abi na media make am instruct players to cross ball a million times when we didn't have an attacking trio of zigic, koller and crouch?

Moyes is a mistake that never should have happened in the first place.

We see things differently. I think Moyes only looked to be a mistake from hindsight.

In fairness to Moyes, our team was already aged before he took over. Even though we won the league easily before he arrived, our play had been deteriorating since 2011. We were hardly dominating games and only winning slim in 2012/13.

I don't agree that Gaal is struggling because the confidence of the players had been rocked. He was supposed to turn it around. We saw that when AVB was sacked at Tottenham. But sometimes, you can only pretend to dress a decay with some false initial impression, after some time the decay return. This is what happened at Tottenham, and our preseason. Even Martinez that was being used to benchmark Moyes, is struggling.

PietroRico:
I'm trying really hard in vain to know why this issue is beingg raised now?

Are u guys just trying to be objective, for the sake of it?
Do u miss moyes and want him back?
Do u want the media to give LVG the 'unfair moyes treatment' too?

What's the motive for all the moyes hullabaloo?

* There will always be throwbacks.

* The injuries necessitated the comparison. Mostly as the bulk of the injuries are from trainings.

lekkie073:
pls face ur warrant abeg.....

Take ur vex go Old Trafford. I be fan like you.

lekkie073:
u dey craze ni? why quote me when u don't understand what am saying....werey!

And you think the best is to insult?

PietroRico:
meaning the media was a major reason for his failings?

The media didn't allow him to settle. We are all human beings. Things affect us. The pressure was too much and he didn't even have a great name to fight back.

Unlike now, Gaal is not under pressure and even if that were to be the case, his 'goodwill' or reputation will do half of the fight for him.

lekkie073:
which fans? the ones DAT keep arguing to and fro about Rooney? Or the ones DAT normally give up before a big match and thereafter come online to say 'I knew it'?

Only you knows what you are talking about here.

n his latest blog, Juan Mata looks back on Sunday's Manchester derby clash at the Etihad Stadium...

Today I’m writing to you from home after a defeat that is not easy to take.

A derby is always special and the one in Manchester is really intense, you can feel it in the streets during the week. That’s why it’s hard to accept that we have lost and, despite not being able to help my team-mates on the pitch, I can tell you that the whole team is very upset.

Playing away against City is always challenging because they have big offensive potential, as it was shown, but having one player sent off in the first half just makes things more complicated. This is the fifth time this season that one of us has got a red card, so unfortunately we already know what it means to have one player less. But even though Sergio Aguero scored and we were down to 10 men, our team showed pride and almost tied the game, although this time it was not possible.

To be honest, right now, rather than looking at the table we have to focus on our path in order to improve and to win games.

Obviously this situation is not what we wanted, but in this moment the team must stick together and keep on going. I’m sure we will do it.

[Source: One Hour Behind, manutd.com]

I believe in Gaal.

However, before the arrival of Blind, Di Maria and Rojo, our early season EPL play wasn't different from our games play under Moyes. At this time last season, I doubt if Rafael had given us many games for Moyes to enjoy.

However, as I said, I believe in Gaal. I can forgive him for being a new manager in the EPL. The 3-5-2 we experimented did not help us in the small games. Even now, he plays the defence too high to the centre line.

chrisley024:
Hummels has been on sick bed too.
With enough money, we can lure Godin away from A.Madrid. Exactly the type of defender we need. A leader and a motivator at the back. Every top club has one like Terry, Kompany, etc.

Good.

The only two positions we need players are central defence (one to lead us from there) and a physical midfielder like Vidal. May be Strootman (although I don't know Strootman's game).

We don't need wingers, AM and strikers. We are still thinking what to do with Nani, Herrera and Mata.

SIRcumalot:
This is why am hoping this Dortmund current form continue maybe we can get a deal on Hummels,Subotic and Marco Reus.

How many of these three players you listed are defenders?

SIRcumalot:
We've got no other option those kids must play
Philp jones will never gives ten match straight without picking up an injury.
I read somewhere Rojo is out till new Years.
And smalling probably just torpedo's his careers after doing so well against Chelsea I feel sorry for the guy.
Sadly,i don't see us getting any worldclass CB until this season ends.

Which club will release their world class defender in January?

We should just stick with a certain back four if we can.

dopeJemi:
I don't think McNair had come on the time aguero scored

McNair was the one who did not stay tight to Aguero but I won't blame him too much. Di Maria takes the main blame for letting the first ball from midfield split our defence. When Di Maria missed the ball, City had all the time in the world to pick a man precisely.

RuuDie:
I remember last season some blamed it on David Moyes' "military-like training"... so what could be the cause now that we even have less games!?

When English press wants to make you look bad, they make you look very bad. All those columnists that were lashing Moyes at this time last year should bury their heads in shame already. In fact, Moyes bashing started after only 5 games, especially when Everton were among the top 4 teams.

I can say Moyes was not allowed to concentrate and settle. Moyes never had a steady natural CM until January. Our midfielders and defenders were getting injured. In comparison, Gaal's injury problem is less severe than what Moyes faced. Half of Gaal's team can be injured and would still be able to line up a dreaded first 11.

I am not suggesting Moyes is a greater coach or at par with Gal, but there was high level of immaturity every where in frustrating him. Suggest articles like how he rotated his team (they forgot the many injuries), how he did not play Zaha, how he failed to play Anderson, how did not Chicharito, why he played Jones in midfield (even though our CMs were injured and Jones hardly lost games in their absence)

However, I think Moyes would have done far better if he were to lay hands on someone like Blind; a player who tackles and use the ball too. Same with Herrera. Although we will still need a player like Vidal. Let me see where Yaya Toure will pass again.

chrisley024:
Don't think we're. Why do start playing well only when we become 1 goal down

* The game was balanced before Smalling was sent off. City only relied on counters to threaten us.

* At 10 against 11 we did well in the first half but started horribly in the second when we tried to park the bus.

You have to put in mind that this was a derby game at Etihad. Even in 2007/8, it was always hard playing City.

patrickmuf:
Leicester, Burnley, Westbrom, Swansea are points we've dropped...It's disturbing but let's hope things get better

We lost some of these matches to the referee. Ashley Young was denied two clear penalties very early in the season.

MrTA:
Pointswise. A disaster. Personally I'm done with a whole backline except DDG and Shaw. The rest should be sold and backups should be the kids like Blackett and McNair.LvG is pouring jelly on himself if he doesnt sort out the backline.The fact we havent fielded the same defence consecutively this season is a joke and he needs to sort it out. I really hope he has a plan for January.

McNair is so good with the ball at his feet. He went forward with easy even under tight marking. He made me think Smalling is a joke. Smalling needs plenty space to be able to make a good pass forward.

SIRcumalot:
How well did Di Maria play ?
I couldn't watch the match

I think he did okay. He improved from his last match. Playing with new forwards every time is not easy. Di Maria, Rooney, Herrera and Rafael(overlapping runs) had struck an understanding before they got scattered. Only Di Maria surviving.

However, the first time I saw Di Maria having no successful dribble in a match. You know City na Agbegi. Rooney surprisingly had all the dribbles.