If I say I'm happy with the team, I would be lying because it's a incomplete team and Di Maria isn't what the team need, eventhough he's a quality player.
Both Di Maria and Herrera are quite similar in their style of play, as midfielders. They are basically box to box midfielders and all they do is to provide energy with added bit of creativity but they can't control the midfield nor dictate the tempo of a match even if their lives depend on it. Infact, both players requires a playmaking midfielder alongside them to open up space for them to exploit.
People that watched Madrid last season would noticed that Di Maria's performance tends to drop whenever Modric isn't available to play alongside him in the midfield, same as Herrera who had his best game alongside Kagawa, who was dictating the tempo against Galaxy. However, it's still a mystery how Van Gaal thought Kagawa didn't have a good game in the midfield because he was actually good when he played there in the games against Galaxy and Roma.
That aside, I was actually hoping a player like Pjanic or Verratti would be brought in to complement Herrera in the midfield and helps in dictating the tempo but unfortunately, Di Maria was brought in. I don't actually have problem with him because he's a quality player but he isn't needed, except if he's to play on the wing. However, Di Maria is at his best in the midfield although I think he's also fantastic on the left wing where he had a great debut season for Madrid compared to the rubbish he produced on the right wing last year. So, if Van Gaal plans to deploy him on the left wing in a 4-3-3 set up, it's okay with me but that still doesn't solve our midfield problem.
People thought the problem is the formation but that's not it because 3-5-2 with the right players is actually a fantastic set-up. However, the formation we're using aint 3-5-2 but 3-4-3.
What's baffling is why are we deploying 3 forwards when we have no midfielders to provide them the space to exploit nor creative wingers to support them? And it's high time our fans realised Mata is a forward and not a playmaker, never has been anyway.
The middle is also likely to get overrun whenever the opponents counters because there's no one to control the midfield. In short, everything is in shambles.
What I know is a 3-5-2 set up deploys a 3-man midfield consisting of a playmaking midfielder, whether in the form of a deep-lying playmaking CM like Pirlo or a mobile playmaking CM like Xavi, Pjanic, Modric e.t.c. However, our imaginary 3-5-2 setup have none of these.
Lastly, Van Gaal haven't impressed me one bit, especially in his failure to correct Rooney of his poor positional discipline in every games or to bench Mata when he's been noticeably poor. Infact, Van Gaal already had my doubt the moment he made Rooney a captain when he could have done better because Irrc, Rooney's all round play were noticebly poor in our pre-season games against the Roma, Madrid, Liverpool, Valencia eventhough he scored some good goals. The other is how Van Gaal keep repeating that our build-up play is poor yet he can't find a solution nor the reason behind it but went ahead to sign a poacher in Falcao when it's quite clear that what the team needs is a fecking playmaking midfielder!
Anyway, I will be looking forward to the match because It's high time Van Gaal do his talking on the pitch!
replaced by Antonio Valencia
replaced by Adnan Januzaj
replaced by Radamel Falcao
