Louis van Gaal | Manchester United manager

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sam said:
Yeah, but thats what I'm saying. Apart from set pieces, we didnt look like we were getting anywhere near the Chelsea goal in the second half. Thats got to be a worry?
Click to expand...
How about the first half when we really stretched Chelsea and should have put one of those chances away?

Why not look at the positives. This is a team that is top of the league and many thought would batter us today but we held our own and i cant really think too many times where i thought they really had us on the ropes
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Defending corners. We mark man to man, right? Not zonal?

What the FUCK is Rafael doing marking Drogba?
Click to expand...

Said above there it was Fellaini. I think LvG pretty much confirmed it in the interview: (paraphrasing)
"Miscommunication between Rafael and Fellaini. Chelsea had an extra body, Blind was out of position."
 
OneUnited24 said:
How about the first half when we really stretched Chelsea and should have put one of those chances away?

Why not look at the positives. This is a team that is top of the league and many thought would batter us today but we held our own and i cant really think too many times where i thought they really had us on the ropes
Click to expand...

My original post was talking about the second half.

I;ve already menioned that the first half was very good.
 
rover said:
a football manager is just like a good chief. when he steps in a kitchen, he just checks out what food inside the fridge and the seasoning ingredients available. he would also check out the utensil under his disposal so he can decide how to pan out the dish.

a good chief can always make a reasonable good dish with materials given.

after going around and getting himself familiar with the kitchen then a good chief can start to replenish and upgrade the kitchen. he can decide to dispose some food stored for a while inside the fridge which has started to deteriorate and has given out poison substance. he can replace them by fresh meat shopped from the market. he can also bring in the seasonings to pan out his favorite dish and even decide to install a bigger pan for partying.

and a lousy cook is always a lousy cook. a lousy cook would pan out a crap dish no matter how are the conditions. even having the kitchen upgraded and buying in the most expensive food won't make him a better cook.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the juice! A great chef cooks his dishes nice and juicy! :)
 
Sam said:
Yeah, but thats what I'm saying. Apart from set pieces, we didnt look like we were getting anywhere near the Chelsea goal in the second half. Thats got to be a worry?
Click to expand...
A worry? Against the best side in the league and one that's notorious for shutting out games at that. I think sometimes we have to appreciate the difficult conditions we are operating under in terms of picking up a head of steam, our first eleven is ravaged by injuries and we are having to produce results whilst building a team from the ashes of last season. That we were able to compete is commendable.
 
berbatrick said:
Said above there it was Fellaini. I think LvG pretty much confirmed it in the interview: (paraphrasing)
"Miscommunication between Rafael and Fellaini. Chelsea had an extra body, Blind was out of position."
Click to expand...

For the goal, I take it?

But I swear I saw Rafael on Drogba earlier too - in the first half.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
For the goal, I take it?

But I swear I saw Rafael on Drogba earlier too - in the first half.
Click to expand...
I think when Matic would come into the box Fellaini would pick him up and Rafael + Blind would go on Drogba.

For the goal i think Blind noticed Matic wasn't in the box so he thought he would be the free man to attack the ball, when Fellaini wasnt picking up Matic he should have moved onto Drogba (Fellaini in the first half picked up Drogba for a few corners when Matic wasnt up...) but i think it all happened so fast that it gave Drogba the run on Rafael. In hindsight i guess we can all say that Blind should have gone with Drogba as he should have noticed that we were already set for the corner
 
OneUnited24 said:
I think when Matic would come into the box Fellaini would pick him up and Rafael + Blind would go on Drogba.

For the goal i think Blind noticed Matic wasn't in the box so he thought he would be the free man to attack the ball, when Fellaini wasnt picking up Matic he should have moved onto Drogba (Fellaini in the first half picked up Drogba for a few corners when Matic wasnt up...) but i think it all happened so fast that it gave Drogba the run on Rafael. In hindsight i guess we can all say that Blind should have gone with Drogba as he should have noticed that we were already set for the corner
Click to expand...

An even worse mismatch.

Drogba should always be marked by six footers, at every set-piece. No exceptions.
 
Aye - that makes sense. I'm down with the flu here, so I barely managed to follow the action, nevermind paying attention to details.

All in all I'm rather pleased with the match. Didn't expect anything - and got a point. Fair enough, I say.

Thought RVP vindicated himself a bit - did well in general, holding up the play, looked sharp on the ball for the most part. And grabbed a very sweet equalizer.

Both Shaw and Rafael looked a bit shabby at times, I thought. Not to mention Rojo - who looked positively shaky to me in the first half. Smalling much better - which is good for him, obviously.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
An even worse mismatch.

Drogba should always be marked by six footers, at every set-piece. No exceptions.
Click to expand...
What i mean is up till the goal if Rafael was going with Drogba, Blind would double up on him making it harder. For the goal Blind shouldnt have assumed Fellaini would mark Drogba because Matic was walking away from goal.

I do technically agree Drogba should be marked but my personal opinion is given the lack of height in the team and the opposition we had to pick who would mark who - And who we needed to double up on.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
An even worse mismatch.

Drogba should always be marked by six footers, at every set-piece. No exceptions.
Click to expand...

seems like there was a miscommunication between Fellaini and Rafael, according to LVG because Chelsea pushed an extra player into the box. Still....agreed that everyone in the team should have been shouting...'oi Rafael...don't be daft....'....
 
togg said:
seems like there was a miscommunication between Fellaini and Rafael, according to LVG because Chelsea pushed an extra player into the box. Still....agreed that everyone in the team should have been shouting...'oi Rafael...don't be daft....'....
Click to expand...

Fellaini was the obvious choice to mark him alright. Reassuring if it's the players failing to execute sensible instructions, rather than crap instructions in the first place.
 
Our back 5 today had an average age of 22.8. They'll get better in time. Just hope they don't get injured!
 
Overall I don't think the tactics were that bad today, but certain things baffle me.

First is why is rafael marking Drogba? That's a nonsense.

Second is a little research on Courtois and you'll see he never leaves that gap in his legs for goals. RVP should have been told that. Of course we don't know if that was RVPs selection in the heat of the moment or not.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Fellaini was the obvious choice to mark him alright. Reassuring if it's the players failing to execute sensible instructions, rather than crap instructions in the first place.
Click to expand...

Even then, common sense tells you the first player or at least in the first couple of players you'd look to mark is Drogba.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
Aye - that makes sense. I'm down with the flu here, so I barely managed to follow the action, nevermind paying attention to details.

All in all I'm rather pleased with the match. Didn't expect anything - and got a point. Fair enough, I say.

Thought RVP vindicated himself a bit - did well in general, holding up the play, looked sharp on the ball for the most part. And grabbed a very sweet equalizer.

Both Shaw and Rafael looked a bit shabby at times, I thought. Not to mention Rojo - who looked positively shaky to me in the first half. Smalling much better - which is good for him, obviously.
Click to expand...

Chelsea's defence have years of experience on these boys, they will get better.
 
rpitroda said:
Overall I don't think the tactics were that bad today, but certain things baffle me.

First is why is rafael marking Drogba? That's a nonsense.

Second is a little research on Courtois and you'll see he never leaves that gap in his legs for goals. RVP should have been told that. Of course we don't know if that was RVPs selection in the heat of the moment or not.
Click to expand...

I don't know, shouldn't that be up to the forward coaches to point out, rather than LvG himself?
 
Points for the set up today, but the marking for the goal is irritating. Under no circumstance should Rafael be marking Drogba, the best header of a ball on the pitch. Rafael should be on the post. I suspect he would have done a better job than Van Persie at clearing the line, too.
 
rpitroda said:
Even then, common sense tells you the first player or at least in the first couple of players you'd look to mark is Drogba.
Click to expand...

No idea how Fellaini and Rafael managed to feck things up but so long as Rafael wasn't marking Drogba under Van Gaal's instructions I'm ok with what happened. Just one of those things. Was livid immediately afterwards.
 
I'm pretty sure most premier league teams study the opponent goalkeepers beforehand. I'd be baffled if they didn't. Which chance are you talking about anyway? Cuz RvP didn't try to go between his legs.
rpitroda said:
Overall I don't think the tactics were that bad today, but certain things baffle me.

First is why is rafael marking Drogba? That's a nonsense.

Second is a little research on Courtois and you'll see he never leaves that gap in his legs for goals. RVP should have been told that. Of course we don't know if that was RVPs selection in the heat of the moment or not.
Click to expand...
 
JUPITER said:
Mental. One of those posts where I sometimes suspect you're looking to be controversial, and I don't mean that as a swipe.

Considering the Chelsea side we faced and the form they're in, and considering our injuries it was a massive performance. Over the whole game we were completely equal to them.

Moyes' United would've been destroyed by this Chelsea side, it was a massive improvement from our performances against the top 4 last season, and this Chelsea are far more dominant and impressive than any team we faced in the PL last season.
Click to expand...
JUPITER said:
Mental. One of those posts where I sometimes suspect you're looking to be controversial, and I don't mean that as a swipe.

Considering the Chelsea side we faced and the form they're in, and considering our injuries it was a massive performance. O

Moyes' United would've been destroyed by this Chelsea side, it was a massive improvement from our performances against the top 4 last season, and this Chelsea are far more dominant and impressive than any team we faced in the PL last season.
Click to expand...
I thought after the drogba goal chelsea controlled the game until the last 5 min if I being completely honest.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
Oh yes - no doubt there. They've got time on their side, certainly. Rafael has to learn to be a bit smarter, though - I'm getting a bit impatient with him.
Click to expand...
On general or just today? I think that he was good today. Not his fault that we decided that he should mark a player twice as big as him and on the first half he was completely unprotected against Hazard. He did well today considering the circumstances.
 
Sheldon69 said:
I thought after the drogba goal chelsea controlled the game until the last 5 min if I being completely honest.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we were the better team in the first half, and they were the better team in the second half - equal over the whole game.

No one could say we didn't deserve a point out of the game.
 
Sheldon69 said:
I thought after the drogba goal chelsea controlled the game until the last 5 min if I being completely honest.
Click to expand...
After their goal i thought they looked much better than us for the next 20 min, but after that i thought we got a foothold back into the game and their best would come from counters.
 
Sheldon69 said:
I thought after the drogba goal chelsea controlled the game until the last 5 min if I being completely honest.
Click to expand...

That's true but before I thought we did pretty well, and it's dam hard to get back into a game once Chelsea take the lead, especially after he brings Mikel on,

Thought we did well, 3-4 weeks ago we wouldn't have come back, just hope we keep progressing.
 
Revan said:
On general or just today? I think that he was good today. Not his fault that we decided that he should mark a player twice as big as him and on the first half he was completely unprotected against Hazard. He did well today considering the circumstances.
Click to expand...

I was thinking mainly of the early booking, I guess. A bit typical of him, I feel. Perhaps my standards are too high, but I thought he should've handled that more cleverly. And immediately afterwards I couldn't help but think that he had set himself up for another Bayern style fiasco in a big match. Impressions, you know - sometimes they colour your perception of a match and a player unfairly.

He wasn't bad at all, certainly not. Of the back four only Rojo struck me as positively underwhelming tonight.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
That's true but before I thought we did pretty well, and it's dam hard to get back into a game once Chelsea take the lead, especially after he brings Mikel on,

Thought we did well, 3-4 weeks ago we wouldn't have come back, just hope we keep progressing.
Click to expand...

This for me. People aren't giving us enough credit for the way we were knocked off our feet and put under pressure and yet still regained composure and finished very strongly. It's not often Chelsea are put under pressure after looking so comfortable and it's credit to the players that they did that.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
I was thinking mainly of the early booking, I guess. A bit typical of him, I feel. Perhaps my standards are too high, but I thought he should've handled that more cleverly. And immediately afterwards I couldn't help but think that he had set himself up for another Bayern style fiasco in a big match. Impressions, you know - sometimes they colour your perception of a match and a player unfairly.

He wasn't bad at all, certainly not. Of the back four only Rojo struck me as positively underwhelming tonight.
Click to expand...
Agree. Actually, I think that he has been very underwhelming so far and looks to have no positional awareness at all.

Rafael got booked, which IMO was the correct decision to go for it. Hazard would have been on a very good position if Rafael wouldn't pull him. The problem IMO was that he didn't had any help on defenging against Hazard on the beginning on the match. And Hazard is one of the best dribblers on football, so it is hard to defend against him with a single player.

Last week he made a brainfart though (though Jones was even more to be blamed IMO), which he shouldn't make anymore considering that this is his 7th season here. He's our second most experienced defender now :eek:
 
JUPITER said:
Yeah, we were the better team in the first half, and they were the better team in the second half - equal over the whole game.

No one could say we didn't deserve a point out of the game.
Click to expand...
Yeh we were defo worth a point . I was just replying to the poster who said "we were equal to chelsea the whole game".
It was one of them games were we could av scored a few but conceded a few as well . (Rvp chances and drogba / hazard chances) . I thought chelsea would have got more joy from set pieces other than the drogba goal . Good point though considering how late we scored .
 
acrebo said:
This for me. People aren't giving us enough credit for the way we were knocked off our feet and put under pressure and yet still regained composure and finished very strongly. It's not often Chelsea are put under pressure after looking so comfortable and it's credit to the players that they did that.
Click to expand...

The paper press had a shocker reviewing this one, think we'd have got more credit if Chelsea had won 3-0, yet we'd passed the ball round well, and hit the post a couple of times, we did to Chelsea what only City have managed this season, not too shabby for where we are at the moment.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
That's what I like about him. He is always challenging this side to get better. Moyes would have been satisfied with the point. LvG always wants more.
Click to expand...

After last season and with the way we are playing and how Chelsea are playing I think Moyes would have loved to get a point against that side.

Every United fan I spoke to was worried, this is what Moyes has done to us, Louis van Gaal and judging by RVP's interview also the players went into the game believing they would win and will be disappointed they did not, they will look to start putting away these chances that are created starting at City.

This is the mentality we want and also two games and two late goals, the fighting till the end attitude might actually become part of Louis van Gaal's United.

I know every team fights till the end especially the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and City but under Ferguson it seems to me United were better at late wins and draws than most, I'm not sure this is something Louis van Gaal's teams have been known for in the past but with United things might be different.
 
We've been great at home under LVG and pretty poor away. I am confident LVG will sign either Garay, Vlaar or Shawcross in January to give us some more experience at the back. I think with Fellainis sudden emergence now that we'll be more solid in away games from now on too. We're still a work in progress but watching Utd under LVG is very pleasing on the eye and a huge improvment on the horseshit of last season
 
MDFC Manager said:
I'm pretty sure most premier league teams study the opponent goalkeepers beforehand. I'd be baffled if they didn't. Which chance are you talking about anyway? Cuz RvP didn't try to go between his legs.
Click to expand...

I can't remember exactly so I might be wrong but I rememver RVP having two clear shots, both saved by Courtois being low and by his legs. Maybe not through his legs. Either way RVP should have gone high.

I agree teams should study the keeper but I'm wondering if we have a gap there.

Many a time RVP would perfectly place his shots more often than not and I remember him crediting rene for giving him deep info about the keeper.

However, I completely appreciate u may be being overly analytical as there are many other factors: RVP generally being low on confidence, heat of the moment decisions etc. I'm purely speculating.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.