Louis van Gaal | Manchester United manager

[JUPITER]

I'm amazed how few people get this. Our last three games have been characterised far more by a failure to create enough chances than the sort of catastrophic defending that has umpteen threads calling for Van Gaal to sack every defender at the club.

Smalling was an idiot today but his disciplinary record is excellent and we've actually been defending quite well since the Leicester debacle.

Hang about, you hypocrite, it was you who was blabbering on after the Chelsea match about how poorly organised our defence was and how it was inexcusable to mix up the marking on one corner and that it cost us the win!

Our last two games before this one - West Brom and Chelsea - weren't "characterised by a failure to create enough chances" at all, we created a slew of chances in both games!

Today we were blunt and created less chances than we gifted our opponents, but this game has been an anomaly in that respect compared to the two games before it.

 

[Igor Drefljak]

Van Persie has been fairly average all season and Di Maria and Januzaj have both become very ineffective for some reason. Which all ends up with us looking depressingly toothless. We can carry one or two attacking players that aren't on their game but not three of them.

I think it's to do with what I said earlier.
When we win the ball back, we happily play a few passes around defence, letting the opposition get back and organised.
When we proceed to move the ball forward, we have 10 people we need to break down and we make it very difficult for ourselves.

Januzaj doesn't have the pace, but he has the skill to beat his man, but so many times he gets double teamed.
Di Maria on the other hand, has no room to play his game. At Real, they are direct, they pass passed opposition players, taking them out of the game, and giving their players plenty of space to work with.

We lack direct play for me

 

[pocco]

If you want to think about what City might do to us after a first half sending off you should think back to the year before last.

Yes, City missed Silva but there was a world of difference in our level of performance (especially 11 vs 11) comparing today with previous seasons. It's so obvious I don't know how or why anyone can't see it.

It was encouraging, but I can't help thinking that City were allowing us to play how we did knowing that if they kept it tight they would create chances on the break. We saw it in the Bayern vs Madrid game last year.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Hang about, you hypocrite, it was you who was blabbering on after the Chelsea match about how poorly organised our defence was and how it was inexcusable to mix up the marking on one corner and that it cost us the win!

Our last two games before this one - West Brom and Chelsea - weren't "characterised by a failure to create enough chances" at all, we created a slew of chances in both games!

Today we were blunt and created less chances than we gifted our opponents, but this game has been an anomaly in that respect compared to the two games before it.

feck off with the hypocrite accusations, you tool. I thought we defended that set-piece badly. I also thought our defending in open play was generally good (a point I made a few times). Those two opinions are not mutually exclusive.

I really don't remember any slew of chances in either of those games you mention. Which can happen against strong defensive teams like Chelsea and City but West Brom kept us at arms length far too easily until Fellaini came of the bench. Like I said, he's become our main attacking threat. Which is not a good thing.

 

[sammsky1]

Disagree with this. Van Gaal is Woodward's man, we, and more importantly, Ed, knew what we were getting when we employed him and the changes he is making will go a long way in restoring the positive way we should play football. Unless we went on some inconceivably horrendous run of games, or the players lose faith altogether, then we'll stick with Van Gaal whether or not we finish inside the top four this season.

We can do without the Champions League for another season. Plus we're in a unique position in that our players will be in no rush to leave if we do. Our best players are on incredible wages and many of the others will only go on to make less money elsewhere, at a smaller club, with less of a pull than United. Many will leave with damaged reputations.

The media won't impact upon our decision making. I absolutely believe that the entire club, from top to bottom, are behind what Van Gaal is trying to do here, and given further spending in the next two transfer windows, which will happen, we'll benefit immensely from that in the coming years.

What we can't do is go from manager to manager year to year.

100% agree. I cant understand why any fan would suggest otherwise.

If we don't make top 4 this year, its a huge disappointment and not what we should deliver given our resources. But we will simply have to suck it up and carry on.

The club has a strategy: Given our current financial position and the impact of FFP, we have the purchasing power to build the kind of team Madrid, Munich, City or Chelsea have built to have a realistic chance of winning domestically and in Europe. Everything about LVGs appointment and the immediate changes he has engineered feel right. But it takes time.

No matter what happens in the short term, we have to believe the strategy will work and yield the results we expect. For once we will have to take a leave out of modern day Chelsea and Manchester City which is spend and wait for it to come good.

Im nowhere close to panicking right now. In fact Im quite enjoying going into games feeling like a fan from most other clubs .. i.e. not knowing or thinking we would win, A feeling I only acquired since late last season!

 

[FlawlessThaw]

Of course we do, but given the circumstances our defence has had to play under we should maybe lay off them a little. We have only conceded four more goals than Chelsea this season, a team that have had more or less a consistent back four for the entire season. We have only had the privilege of playing the same back four for two games this season, two, next week will probably be the same, in fact it will most likely stay that way until we get all our injured players back.
Evans, Smalling and Jones have all come into criticism this season for being injured, yes it’s very frustrating and it needs addressed but I’m sick of reading some of the shite that’s posted in here. I’ll say it again, our attacking players have been a bigger let down this season, one goal LESS than last season, yet some are lavishing praise on them, it’s crazy.

Great point. We have way too many issues going forward. You can go through each attacker and highlight an issue:

Van Persie: for all his equaliser last week, Van Persie has been a huge let down this season and doesn't deserve a place in the starting line up
Falcao: hasn't started off well yet, unfortunately got injured when he had just scored. I would start him up front when he is back though
Rooney: Just spent a month suspended
Di Maria: 3 very poor games in a row, it may not be his best position but he must do better (but I think he will)
Januzaj: Has been largely invisible this season
Mata: Overall quite ineffective whilst Rooney was out, can't see how he will break into the side as things stand

Just hoping the next two months the issues will resolve itself but it is a tad worrying when Fellaini becomes your go to guy going forward.

 

[Rykker_4united]

His comments post-game were spot on.

 

[ThanksBoss26]

Not a good start at all for him but I'm still 100% convinced he will get it right and is the correct man for the job.

They'll be some collateral damage on the playing side still to come between now and the end of the summer transfer window but come the start of next season, I think it really will be 'his' squad and I think will look a fair bit different to now even.

I hope we can grab fourth this year. I wouldn't say I'm confident but I don't see anything to fear in Everton, Liverpool or Spurs either, though they'll be saying the same about us.

I do think we'll be stronger come the second half of the season, however.

 

[JUPITER]

feck off with the hypocrite accusations, you tool. I thought we defended that set-piece badly. I also thought our defending in open play was generally good (a point I made a few times). Those two opinions are not mutually exclusive.

I really don't remember any slew of chances in either of those games you mention. Which can happen against strong defensive teams like Chelsea and City but West Brom kept us at arms length with ease until Fellaini came of the bench. Like I said, he's become our main attacking threat.

Mate, I'm just trying to help you regain some kind of consistency here. I'll just humour you like everyone else does if you'd prefer

Regarding the slew of chances in our recent games your apparent midlife dementia is hiding from you...

West Brom - we had 22 shots, 7 on target
Chelsea - we had 19 shots, 7 on target

Today - 9 shots, 2 on target

Hope this helps.

 

[sammsky1]

I'm amazed how few people get this. Our last three games have been characterised far more by a failure to create enough chances than the sort of catastrophic defending that has umpteen threads calling for Van Gaal to sack every defender at the club.


We really need to improve our attacking football though. Something is badly wrong when we've players like Van Persie, Rooney, Di Maria, Mata and Januzaj on the pitch and our most potent attacking threat is Marouane fecking Fellaini.

Beyond the obvious (Smalling), my frustration today was that we wasted 3 clear cut chances and plenty of dead ball situations to equalise. As you say above, thats damning given our breadth of supposed world class attacking talent.

Its fundamental basics: away from home, against big teams with 10 men ... and 1-0 down, YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR CHANCES!

We did not. And if I were Van Gaal, that would piss me off as much as Smalling did today.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Mate, I'm just trying to help you regain some kind of consistency here. I'll just humour you like everyone else does if you'd prefer

Regarding the slew of chances in our recent games your apparent midlife dementia is hiding from you...

West Brom - we had 22 shots, 7 on target
Chelsea - we had 19 shots, 7 on target

Today - 9 shots, 2 on target

Hope this helps.

I can think of one really good save by an opposition keeper in all those games. Joe Hart today. Either our attackers are even more inept than I fear or your definition of "chance" is as wrong as your use of the word "slew". Arsenal had 32 efforts at goal in one game yesterday. 12 on target. With Heaton pulling off a string of world class saves. That's a frigging slew of chances. Hope that helps.

Anyway, you've apparently missed my point about Fellaini, the massive difference he made off the bench against WBA and the fact he's been arguably our main attacking threat ever since. This discussion is painful enough without repeating points you fail to grasp first time round. But I'm the one with dementia, right?

 

[JUPITER]

I can think of one really good save by an opposition keeper in all those games. Joe Hart today. Either our attackers are even more inept than I fear or your definition of "chance" is as wrong as your use of the word "slew". Arsenal had 32 efforts at goal in one game yesterday. 12 on target. With Heaton pulling off a string of world class saves. That's a frigging slew of chances. Hope that helps.

Anyway, you've apparently missed my point about Fellaini, the massive difference he made off the bench against WBA and the fact he's been arguably our main attacking threat ever since. This discussion is painful enough without repeating points you fail to grasp first time round. But I'm the one with dementia, right?

What the feck are you talking about, you silly sausage!?

Your initial point was that while many people are criticising our defending, our real problem has been creating chances.

My point is that we've been creating absolutely loads of chances - which I took the time to provide you stats for - and that you yourself are one of the people who were (rightly) lambasting the defending against Chelsea.

You famously have the unpleasant habit of trying to change the goalposts when you feel you're 'beaten' in a discussion. You claimed we've not been creating enough chances, so I've provided you with the alarmingly high number of chances we've been creating and so you start garbling on about Arsenal and Fellaini.

I've vowed to try my best with you before pressing ignore but as was pointed out to me on promotion - you really are trying!

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Re: Blaming the defenders and giving the attackers a free ride.

1. They haven't really been given a free ride - Van Persie has been criticized quite heavily, as has Mata, as has the general tendency to field the big names at the expense of chemistry and fluidity and whatnot.

2. The obvious difference between the defenders who have come under fire and the attackers, is that the latter are undoubtedly proven top players. People have - legitimate - doubts about the pure quality (and the injury proneness) of the defenders.

 

[Manucho the boss]

I really don't think we're getting the best out of Di Maria by making Fellaini his main target.

Not a coincidence that his worst games have been the last 3 where his natural game has been restricted and he's clearly been told to look for the big man with long balls and crosses.

 

[tombombadil]

I agree with you. When Moyes was sacked in april the players was on the floor and they had no confidence, now we're slowly recovering. We're rebuilding and it will take time but it's important to get top 4.

Yeah. We need to get there, and judging from the performances so far, the team will get there. We just really need to cut out the silly individual errors and stop getting injuries in defense. lol.

 

[Sam]

If he keeps shunting Di Maria out wide, I'm going to get very annoyed, very quickly.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

If he keeps shunting Di Maria out wide, I'm going to get very annoyed, very quickly.

He's a winger, though.

 

[Sam]

He's a winger, though.

He was a winger. For the past 12 months he's been a midfielder, and far better for it.

If we're going to play him on the wing, then we shouldn't have spent £60 mil on him.

 

[FromTheBench]

The whole notion that we need 11 world class players to finish ahead of a mediocre liverpool this season in 4th is freaking ridoculous. And crazy how many ppl are pedfling that.

Also not every manager needs to overhaul the complete squad 100% to get results.

Our opponents City today were hardly better if at all man for man.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

He was a winger. For the past 12 months he's been a midfielder, and far better for it.

If we're going to play him on the wing, then we shouldn't have spent £60 mil on him.

True, but is the LCM position really that much different to the left mid/wing role? When he was LCM, he often got the ball, drove down the left flank and delivered some great crosses. I just don't see why he can't do that from left midfield.

 

[Sam]

True, but is the LCM position really that much different to the left mid/wing role? When he was LCM, he often got the ball, drove down the left flank and delivered some great crosses. I just don't see why he can't do that from left midfield.

Its completely different imo. When he's central he has the freedom to go anywhere, the space to be creative, and the ability to pick the ball up from deep and drive at the heart of the defense.

On the wing he can only go left, and cross the ball. You lose all his passing creativity, his unpredictability, and he isn't able to drive at the defense as well. He's actually quite easy to mark out of the game on the wing, as he's so one footed. That one footed-ness (for want of a better word) is far less exposed when he's in the centre.

I think one of the Madrid fans said it best when he said that Di Maria is not a £60 million winger, but he is a £60 million midfielder.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Its completely different imo. When he's central he has the freedom to go anywhere, the space to be creative, and the ability to pick the ball up from deep and drive at the heart of the defense.

On the wing he can only go left, and cross the ball. You lose all his passing creativity, his unpredictability, and he isn't able to drive at the defense as well. He's actually quite easy to mark out of the game on the wing, as he's so one footed. That one footed-ness (for want of a better word) is far less exposed when he's in the centre.

I think one of the Madrid fans said it best when he said that Di Maria is not a £60 million winger, but he is a £60 million midfielder.

I take your point, but it's not like Van Gaal told Di Maria to hug the touchline. Time and time again City, and even Chelsea, he cut in from the flank, and often found himself in the middle of the pitch (the position he'd be in when playing LCM), but ended up doing too much and losing it.

 

[tombombadil]

For those complaining about how indirect/lacking of pace the team is right now, it's for a reason.

The team is being set up to play possession football with Di Maria and Januzaj out wide to stretch the field wide. We'll keep the ball, pass it around outside the box and switch sides regularly until an opening comes out. Then the team is supposed to change tempo and move in to make the kill. Right now, we're not doing that quite well enough, but it's getting better. Already, we're very comfortable in possession, even when under pressure. This is in direct contrast to previous seasons.

It's also the reason why Di Maria has had a smaller impact, as he's no longer running from deep and working the channels. He's running the bylines (sometimes from the right wing, where he will predictably cut in to his left foot) and has a much shorter distance to run. This is a less direct team, compared to the midfield diamond with Herrera and Di Maria going box to box.

With the team going wide, Mata is also affected. Mata prefers a narrower midfield where he has many players to link up with close by. He also flourished in a similar diamond formation when with Chelsea. With the field spread out wide with wingers and only one striker ahead of him, Mata is reduced to distributing the ball wide, switching between flanks. This suits Rooney better. We can see Mata's influence waning the last few games.

He's a winger, though.

His best performances have come with him playing as a left midfielder in a midfield diamond, where he is very direct and runs into the channels between the left wing and the middle from deep.

 

[Sky1981]

For those complaining about how indirect/lacking of pace the team is right now, it's for a reason.

The team is being set up to play possession football with Di Maria and Januzaj out wide to stretch the field wide. We'll keep the ball, pass it around outside the box and switch sides regularly until an opening comes out. Then the team is supposed to change tempo and move in to make the kill. Right now, we're not doing that quite well enough, but it's getting better. Already, we're very comfortable in possession, even when under pressure. This is in direct contrast to previous seasons.

It's also the reason why Di Maria has had a smaller impact, as he's no longer running from deep and working the channels. He's running the bylines (sometimes from the right wing, where he will predictably cut in to his left foot) and has a much shorter distance to run. This is a less direct team, compared to the midfield diamond with Herrera and Di Maria going box to box.

With the team going wide, Mata is also affected. Mata prefers a narrower midfield where he has many players to link up with close by. He also flourished in a similar diamond formation when with Chelsea. With the field spread out wide with wingers and only one striker ahead of him, Mata is reduced to distributing the ball wide, switching between flanks. This suits Rooney better. We can see Mata's influence waning the last few games.


His best performances have come with him playing as a left midfielder in a midfield diamond, where he is very direct and runs into the channels between the left wing and the middle from deep.

And add the fact that we're playing Chelsea and City, teams that have top tier defenders and managers.

 

[Insanity]

Organizing the defense and the defenders executing what they are told to do are not the same thing, I think we can all admit we have arguably the least intelligent group of senior CB's in the league, only one of them was bought by him and yet even then nothing can be done about the idiocy he displayed in getting injured, I doubt our coaches ever instructed him to do that mad dashing lunge into midfield.

I am sure they are better than pub level defenders. At the moment they are playing worse. I see this as I did with AVB at Chelsea and Spurs, making defenders play in a way they are not comfortable with.

Did you see the Bayern Vs Dortmund game? Alaba and Benatia were in the opposition box at times. Why, because they are comfortable on the ball and know they'd be adequately covered when they bomb forward. Our defenders are not comfortable on the ball, are not very good passers of the ball, not extremely mobile, and at most times seperated far away from each other. I will not deny that we need new defenders, but at the moment the "philosophy" is making them look worse than they actually are. Well, besides, Rojo, who would look terrible in any Pl defense, under any system.

 

[fishfingers15]

I am sure they are better than pub level defenders. At the moment they are playing worse. I see this as I did with AVB at Chelsea and Spurs, making defenders play in a way they are not comfortable with.

Did you see the Bayern Vs Dortmund game? Alaba and Benatia were in the opposition box at times. Why, because they are comfortable on the ball and know they'd be adequately covered when they bomb forward. Our defenders are not comfortable on the ball, are not very good passers of the ball, not extremely mobile, and at most times seperated far away from each other. I will not deny that we need new defenders, but at the moment the "philosophy" is making them look worse than they actually are. Well, besides, Rojo, who would look terrible in any Pl defense, under any system.

That's the second pessimistic post that you've posted recently. Having an off day after the game? Cheer up

 

[Insanity]

That's the second pessimistic post that you've posted recently. Having an off day after the game? Cheer up

I think I am giving a fair assessment of the game and the season so far. I am too old to lets win and losses affect my personal life (for more than necessary). My views reflect the state of the team/game currently, not how I am feeling in general.

 

[Dylan94]

Everyone has dropped points against dross this season, hence why if we would've won that game we would've been just 1 point behind City. I've not said we are perfect, I was merely responding to your implication that we aren't any better than we were under Moyes, picking stats and ignoring mitigating circumstances.

This is not a rant against you by the way but I just wanted to make my viewpoint clear on this thread. I think that at the moment: we're sh*t. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best, we're at about a 3/4 overall through the first 10 games. We should have at least 19/20 points from the games that we've played so far. Yes we've shown some good signs against City & Chelsea. But at the end of the day it's just not good enough. Defence is still terrible. And despite all our new attacking talent, we're not scoring many more goals than this time last year. Not when we need to anyway. We're not controlling games and we're not finishing off games either. 2 out of our 3 wins so far have been scraped and gained thanks to our goalkeeper. And if we don't start playing a lot better, scoring more goals, and winning more games consistently: then we won't finish in the top ; in May. Just my opinion and my opinion only.

 

[fishfingers15]

I think I am giving a fair assessment of the game and the season so far. I am too old to lets win and losses affect my personal life (for more than necessary). My views reflect the state of the team/game currently, not how I am feeling in general.

Overall, Every game we played this season, we appear like a team that's pulling in one direction and that's up. Granted that this season looks this way because it is in comparison with last season, but football is always unique that way. With 70 Million plus investment on a title winning squad, there was just no way we should have finished 7th, but we did. This season is all about correcting the wrongs of last season, and hopefully, we'll even make the top 4 again.

 

[Insanity]

Overall, Every game we played this season, we appear like a team that's pulling in one direction and that's up. Granted that this season looks this way because it is in comparison with last season, but football is always unique that way. With 70 Million plus investment on a title winning squad, there was just no way we should have finished 7th, but we did. This season is all about correcting the wrongs of last season, and hopefully, we'll even make the top 4 again.

I am actually not in agreement with that. I think that is just cognitive dissonance after what transpired last season, Louis Van Gaal and our net spend. I see a team that is repeating the same mistakes and struggling to adapt. I see a team that doesn't have the personnel to implement what the manager wants. I see a manager who is finding it hard to balance things. I know you and others will disagree, but the presence of Fellaini goes against the very grain of the philosophy, irrespective of how he has done.

I fully hope that we are able to turn it around and make the top 4. Or otherwise we could see us falling further behind. Both in terms of revenues and stature.

 

[tombombadil]

Definitely, the team isn't doing as well as it should, but there are mitigating circumstances. Many people including myself have been repeating ourselves regarding those circumstances ad nauseam. So I'm not going to go there.

For now, we can only hope that the injuries and suspensions will clear up
and that the attack needs to settle down to this new system and score more goals to compensate for a leaking defence.

 

[DevilRed]

Pressure is on for him to deliver in the next few matches. With the exception of the gooners away, the next 3 are at Old Trafford against teams we should be getting 3 points off.

I suppose the silver lining is that our home form has been quite encouraging of late. As long as we don't commit too many suicidal individual errors at the back then we should be able to win them. We have so much firepower upfront and are capable of scoring at least 2-3 a match.

No more excuses and we really need to capitalise on this so called "good form" we have shown against the big boys.

 

[Mindhunter]

Yes, enough talk of injuries and three months to get the team chemistry going. It is now time to deliver. If we are far from the Top 4 places come Christmas then serious questions need to be asked of Van Gaal.

He needs to get the team playing consistent football first and then aim for excellence. Right now, it looks highly unlikely that we can score 1/2 goals and then close the game against lesser opposition. Some of the play we have witnessed have been a massive improvement over the dross that were served last season but results are a big part of football and there shouldn't be any difference in standards in which Van Gaal is judged.

 

[ZDwyr]

Yeah I agree. We've got some decent form but with no points to really show for it, it is time to push on now. We need to start winning.

 

[Getsme]

Re: Blaming the defenders and giving the attackers a free ride.

1. They haven't really been given a free ride - Van Persie has been criticized quite heavily, as has Mata, as has the general tendency to field the big names at the expense of chemistry and fluidity and whatnot.

2. The obvious difference between the defenders who have come under fire and the attackers, is that the latter are undoubtedly proven top players. People have - legitimate - doubts about the pure quality (and the injury proneness) of the defenders.

Then surely they should come into more criticism than the defendes?

 

[Rednotdead]

I'm fed up with reading posts saying we're playing better than last season, as though that were some sort of magnificent achievement on Van Gaal's part that negates our dreadful league position. Almost any manager in the world could have got us playing better than last season, especially having spent £150m on new players.

I'm also fed up with this "philosophy" nonsense. Philosophy bugger all. It seems it's now being used by some of our fellow supporters to justify to themselves and others the lack of real progress - and by "real", I don't include "playing better than last year". That should have been a given. Other managers seem to get on ok without spouting on about their philosophy, so why not ours? Just get on with it and get the bloody job done.

That's a quarter of the league gone and we lie 10th in the table. If there isn't significant improvement in our league position by the halfway stage it will be perfectly in order to be asking some very serious questions.

 

[Sereques]

I'm fed up with reading posts saying we're playing better than last season, as though that were some sort of magnificent achievement on Van Gaal's part that negates our dreadful league position. Almost any manager in the world could have got us playing better than last season, especially having spent £150m on new players.

I'm also fed up with this "philosophy" nonsense. Philosophy bugger all. It seems it's now being used by some of our fellow supporters to justify to themselves and others the lack of real progress - and by "real", I don't include "playing better than last year". That should have been a given. Other managers seem to get on ok without spouting on about their philosophy, so why not ours? Just get on with it and get the bloody job done.

That's a quarter of the league gone and we lie 10th in the table. If there isn't significant improvement in our league position by the halfway stage it will be perfectly in order to be asking some very serious questions.

Other mangers have been able to name the same back four two games in a row. 10 games, 10 different defensive pairings 30 players used. I challenge any manager in the league to do better. Feck, Maureen named same back four 7 games in a row.

 

[Sky1981]

Probably our winning team under SAF masked another monster : that our defense is actually shit, smailing/evans/jones are actually dumb and doesn't have an ounce of tactical nouses to play anything other than "there's the ball and the attacker, block it" type of football.

How dependable are Smailing/Evans/Jones in playing a tactical possession based games? Not to mention that they're always injured most of the times.

Time to cut the loses, sell the whole lot of them, feck the "never materialised" potentials and just go for the type of defender we need.

 

[Sereques]

Probably our winning team under SAF masked another monster : that our defense is actually shit, smailing/evans/jones are actually dumb and doesn't have an ounce of tactical nouses to play anything other than "there's the ball and the attacker, block it" type of football.

How dependable are Smailing/Evans/Jones in playing a tactical possession based games? Not to mention that they're always injured most of the times.

Time to cut the loses, sell the whole lot of them, feck the "never materialised" potentials and just go for the type of defender we need.

Even when SAF was here, One of Rio or Vidic tends to be available, Evans can play back to back games, Jones tend to get games too. When SAF have been faced with this level of injuries at the back, we've dropped points. SAF is not a magician.

 

[Sky1981]

I'm fed up with reading posts saying we're playing better than last season, as though that were some sort of magnificent achievement on Van Gaal's part that negates our dreadful league position. Almost any manager in the world could have got us playing better than last season, especially having spent £150m on new players.

I'm also fed up with this "philosophy" nonsense. Philosophy bugger all. It seems it's now being used by some of our fellow supporters to justify to themselves and others the lack of real progress - and by "real", I don't include "playing better than last year". That should have been a given. Other managers seem to get on ok without spouting on about their philosophy, so why not ours? Just get on with it and get the bloody job done.

That's a quarter of the league gone and we lie 10th in the table. If there isn't significant improvement in our league position by the halfway stage it will be perfectly in order to be asking some very serious questions.

IIRC last year you're defending Moyes till the very later part of the campaign saying that he needs time, the squad is imbalance, the players are shite, etc wasn't it?