Certainly, I agree. I was commenting tactically in general not directly at LVG though I know I wirded it as such.
Same can be said about set pieces. I suspect defensive coaches rather than LVG directly influence that.
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Certainly, I agree. I was commenting tactically in general not directly at LVG though I know I wirded it as such.
Same can be said about set pieces. I suspect defensive coaches rather than LVG directly influence that.
Especially Fulham...
That cracks me up, each time! Poor Moyes though.
Certainly, fair comment. It's very annoying. I guess we could equally point to having a lack of defensive leader, too. I suspect a Terry or Vidic or Ferdinand etc wouldn't have let that happen.
I'am disappointed with the results but I have already enjoyed United far more than I did last year. Atleast they play decent football, there is passing, they dominate most matches, they always have a ton of chances, there are fianlly exciting players in the team again. No doubt LVG will turn this team around in time and get top 4. Obviously there are still areas to improve but it is quite clear what is needed and it is not like last year were you had to say, everything apart from the goalkeeper is bad and we basically need a new squad. No, the foundations for a good team are there, just needs a bit more balancing which needs a few good results, a good win versus a big team would do miracles for that in fact and perhaps a good centreback to partner Rojo and you got a great team in the making.
Especially Fulham...
Good god what a grim sight. Some tits need to remember crap like that.
Remember Moyes celebrating the fact we'd made it to the byline 8 or 9 times after we'd been beaten by Stoke? The stats above would've had him going until now...
Van Gaal's got us believing again. That's the key thing. Moyes' Man Utd would have collapsed after Chelsea went ahead (remember the derbies in March?) Slowly Van Gaal is erasing the mental scars of the Moyes error, and that can only be good for the future.
Comparison's to Moyes' start don't work, because the second half of last season was even worse than the first half. I don't see Van Gaal following that trend. Whereas Moyes started alright and got bad, Van Gaal started quite badly but three months in (as promised) we're improving.
We have our old fighting spirit back, and had we played as well as we did today against the likes of Burnley and Sunderland we would have definitely won those games. Unlike last year under Moyes, there are signs that with time Van Gaal's Man Utd will improve. That fills me with optimism. Once we get up a head of steam I fancy us to go on a good old fashioned run like we used to.
Didn't RvP aim both his finishes at Curtois' legs?
Edit: My bad, I completely misread your post.
In that case, you're completely right of course.Pretty sure Moyes was celebrating going 2-1 up. Especially considering Fulham scored to make it 2-2 in injury time.Especially Fulham...
Yup. That celebration is from the goal which put us 2-1 up.
I'm not sure if it's the fact that English isn't his first language or just the calm and calculated way he answers questions in a direct manner
But I could listen to him talk all day
But I could listen to him talk all day
Two games in a row we have played well and two games we should have won but we did not take our chances, two games where we had to dig deep to get the points in the end but we did it.
The key is we maintain this level of performance, games like West Brom (2 shots on target 2 goals) will be rare and if we create many chances then we will start taking them, who knows what this does for RVP's confidence, Rooney will be back wanting to make up for his red, I think we should be fine providing we maintain this level.
We will see what happens against City but a humiliating loss could do a lot of damage so hopefully we continue the momentum.
Thought we were very good today against comfortably the best side in the league. The champions elect.
I genuinely feel like progress is being made. Slowly but surely. And I believe that by the time van Gaal gets to where Mourinho is now (18 months building his side) we'll be looking like real title challengers - agree with Gary Neville that LvG will win the title inside 3 years.
The Moyes comparisons are empty for me, the contrast is that vast. We actually have a game plan that doesn't involve 80 crosses into the box, we have midfielders making forward runs, scoring, assisting. We're showing technical ability, a Fellaini that works, team spirit, direction. And we're seeing a return of late goals!
...just everything looks better and there's no chance of a Moyes style collapse after January imo. No dissent, not a single voice of frustration from inside the club. The players believe in him completely. There's plenty more bumps still to come but overall it's looking positive.
I genuinely feel like progress is being made. Slowly but surely. And I believe that by the time van Gaal gets to where Mourinho is now (18 months building his side) we'll be looking like real title challengers - agree with Gary Neville that LvG will win the title inside 3 years.
The Moyes comparisons are empty for me, the contrast is that vast. We actually have a game plan that doesn't involve 80 crosses into the box, we have midfielders making forward runs, scoring, assisting. We're showing technical ability, a Fellaini that works, team spirit, direction. And we're seeing a return of late goals!
...just everything looks better and there's no chance of a Moyes style collapse after January imo. No dissent, not a single voice of frustration from inside the club. The players believe in him completely. There's plenty more bumps still to come but overall it's looking positive.
Don't let that stand in the way of the weekly Moyes bashing.
Hehe. To me that gif actually is sad for him than something to bash him with. He was looking to catch a break at that time and must have thought that he had there.
His interview on sky .
.This and people are overlooking that fact about direction, what we are trying to achieve is clear and going forward we look like we know exactly what we are going to do.
Completely agree, especially with the bolded.
It's taken a while for the depressing fog of the Moyes era to lift, but it's starting to feel like Old Trafford again, starting to feel like Man Utd again.
Coaches? He's a world class striker. He knows it better than any coach or manager. My commentator, a former striker for the NT, said that RvP went for the best option, the far corner, as that is generally the most exposed corner.
If you hit the ball right the keeper shouldn't really save but the near corner should always be covered by him.
I was just generally making a point that the forward coaches should go to RVP and tell him about a keeper's weakness, rather than van Gaal.
LVG explains the reason Rafael ends up marking Drogba for Chelsea's goal
I got your point, I just don't think that's how it's done. He's already as trained as you can be at picking where to shoot without thinking. You don't switch off that kind of instinct at will. There's was nothing wrong with his finish. Goalkeeper was just positioned correctly and saved it well.
A poorer striker might have scored because they generally just think about hitting the ball hard in the right general direction. There's little finesse there. Players like RvP deliberately put the ball where they want it. A left footed shot from a tight left angle towards the far corner is a really difficult shot to make but it's still the best chance of scoring.
Basically Rafael and Fellaini were thick.
Agreed. If he'd got a little bit of lift on it he'd have scored. Direction was perfect. Can't criticise him (or our coaches) for aiming at that corner.
Fair enough.
It would certainly help, but sometimes shit just happens. Terry couldn't get anyone to mark Fellaini for our goal, did he? I hope our defensive organization will get better in time.
Not really comparable as we had a man advantage and Ivanovic will have had a key role in defending set-pieces.
They brought Kurt zouma on for hazard. I dont think your argument is valid.
It was a last minute re-shuffle nonetheless. We had no such excuse for any confusion.
Chelsea had 4/4 tallest players on the pitch. They probably had the best headers of the ball in Drogba,terry,ivanovic,cahill,matic. I think yes we could have done better, but its hardly LVG's fault.
In an interview he says he predicted they would score from a corner. I also think Rojo is a bit weak physically, he will need time to adapt. He bounced off Drogba and terry/matic. Our need for a world class defenders is visible to everyone. Not buying one may be LVG's fault but defending from a corner, you cant blame on him.
This time last year, Hernandez scored in the 77th minute to give us an undeserved win against bloody Stoke.
Moyes after the game was full of it and said "Oh its great to be part of one of those late United comebacks" . . .
A year on and after all we have been through, we go toe to toe with the best team in the country, don't look as bad as we thought we would, produce a really late come back to earn a draw, that we deserved and LVG is not happy.
There is the difference.
We'll get there. Bit by bit.
Moyes after the game was full of it and said "Oh its great to be part of one of those late United comebacks" . . .
A year on and after all we have been through, we go toe to toe with the best team in the country, don't look as bad as we thought we would, produce a really late come back to earn a draw, that we deserved and LVG is not happy.
There is the difference.
We'll get there. Bit by bit.
Couldn’t agree more, personally I thought it was our best performance of the season by far, yet I found it refreshing that LVG wasn’t happy with the performance. It shows the big difference between the two managers and how much of an upgrade LVG is. As you say, it’s still a long way to go but the encouraging thing is we can see the direction he wants to take us, and it looks very promising
Yesterday when that late goal went in I honestly didn't know how to react. I went for sheer unadulterated volume and almost broke the sofa.
When I came to, I realised I'd completely forgotten what it was like to be in a game right up until the death and score late goals.
We're finally starting to look like the United of old and we have a coach who knows what it takes to be the best. Even in his post match comments he wasn't happy as he felt we should have won, not celebrating a draw with a team Arsenal like it's a huge result.
Even if we would have lost yesterday, we played really well, we just weren't clinical enough and I dare say that if Rooney would have played Chelsea may have been a goal of two down before half time.
LvG keeps talking about one game that changes a season. If the match against Chelsea was it we'll find out next week against City!
When I came to, I realised I'd completely forgotten what it was like to be in a game right up until the death and score late goals.
We're finally starting to look like the United of old and we have a coach who knows what it takes to be the best. Even in his post match comments he wasn't happy as he felt we should have won, not celebrating a draw with a team Arsenal like it's a huge result.
Even if we would have lost yesterday, we played really well, we just weren't clinical enough and I dare say that if Rooney would have played Chelsea may have been a goal of two down before half time.
LvG keeps talking about one game that changes a season. If the match against Chelsea was it we'll find out next week against City!
Because of the sending off, it was even more important for the defensive leader (Terry) to sort things out. It was certainly piss poor to leave our tallest player completely unmarked, worse than having Drogba being marked by Rafael. They also took off Willian and Hazard and got Mikel and Zouma in, which added even more height and strength to their side.
I got the impression that he's not that type of manager anyway, he's too old to be karate kicking on the touch line, that's why he has giggs! He leaves it to his players on the pitch to do the right thing rather than him screaming at them. Gone are the days where fergie would scream at his players, he's just not that manager. I seriously love him and he's rebuilding which I think is exciting and what we have needed for a very long time. Cannot wait to see what the team looks like and plays like next season. At the minute we really seem to be improving which is something we didn't do last season, we got worse!
Playing wise, we're slowly improving, though still lacking in many areas, not just defensively. 13 points from nine games and an embarrassing cup exit is a horrible return, though, and we're very lucky that City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal have been so inconsistent. Under normal circumstances, 13 points from nine games would have put us some way off the CL positions. Surely a top-4 position has to be the minimum requirement for LVG after spending that amount of money?
Indeed. With hindsight it's easy now to say 'how could we expect to go anywhere when the players simply didn't believe in Moyes' ...but it's true. There was no direction because there was no belief. This is not a problem under van Gaal. And it's not just the players, the board, Fergie, everyone close to the club believes in him.
Definitely. To go back to the Mourinho comparison, let's not forget how many frustrations & backward steps they seemed to take last season. A year ago it was seen as the return of the special one, the title was up for grabs with so much change. But they finished 3rd. It took Jose over a year to get his team set, and that was with a settled back four already in place.
I have total faith that van Gaal can do they same. In a years time, the picture could look totally different from our point of view. We'll hopefully be back in the CL and hopefully we'll have a solid centre back pairing by then. Something that is a must to win the title - look at Terry and Cahill playing every minute in the league compared to our current situation with 8 different partnerships already.
Yeah that's a good point. I was feeling pretty good after the game but was surprised by his interview and was taken aback a little. He seemed a bit pissed off that we didn't get more from the game. Shows how high the bar is under him. We are in good hands.
Van Gaal's interview (BBC) post-match told you the difference between him and Moyes. That one line, quite openly saying, "I told them at half-time, you keep giving away corners and their superior height will cost us at least a goal."
It's a completely different attitude from Moyes and managers of his ilk who would suggest it's either bad defending in isolation or just bad luck. It's a mature management style of observing the play, noticing patterns, then letting his players know what he wants, why he wants it and then it's up to them to perform.
That's why he doesn't stand on the sidelines and that's why he doesn't rant and rave at the fourth official. He knows what his players are supposed to be doing. If they don't perform to his liking, he will deal with them off the pitch, in the dressing room or on the training ground.
I much prefer that style myself. Even in comparison to Ferguson barking on the sidelines.
It's a completely different attitude from Moyes and managers of his ilk who would suggest it's either bad defending in isolation or just bad luck. It's a mature management style of observing the play, noticing patterns, then letting his players know what he wants, why he wants it and then it's up to them to perform.
That's why he doesn't stand on the sidelines and that's why he doesn't rant and rave at the fourth official. He knows what his players are supposed to be doing. If they don't perform to his liking, he will deal with them off the pitch, in the dressing room or on the training ground.
I much prefer that style myself. Even in comparison to Ferguson barking on the sidelines.
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