What a performance! Young has to be MOTM, Welbeck, Fletcher, Herrera, Shaw, Kagawa and Lingard were all fantastic too. De Gea made a number of terrific saves. Zaha, Cleverley and possibly Valencia (though not to the same extent of the other 2, particularly Zaha) were the only ones you could say underperformed. Everyone else played excellently today and deserve massive credit. Keane recovered from his mistake for the penalty and his losing of Bale at the start of the 2nd half to have a pretty good game. I don't think people should be too hard on him, he was against one of the top 3 players in the world.
Manchester United vs Real Madrid (Pre-season Friendly)
- Thread starter Niall
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Ancelotti should rethink what LvG can do in his first season with United! 
Now lets destroy the scousers.
YES! So we are now best in Europe? Right?!
Great game and we are looking hot. Lvg have done everthing right and i love it.
I thought Fletch and Herrera were fantastic in the middle. Dominated Modric and Alonso.
Everyone's talking about breaking the attendance record for a football game in the United States, not sure 100%, but this could have been a World record attendance for an all seater stadium.
Excellent performance. Everyone did well but Valencia is dire and Cleverley is very average. If we can get another CB in and bring in a CM and RWB, we'll be all set to push for the title, IMO.
I think one player who has absolutely improved in this system or under LVG is Fletcher. What a performance and that too against a Madrid team that was pressing high. What a beast.
This is the best thing to happen to Michael Keane in his career. He will learn from this performance more than any other match before. Kagawa and Mata are on a different level.
This is the best thing to happen to Michael Keane in his career. He will learn from this performance more than any other match before. Kagawa and Mata are on a different level.
Good to see the lads playing football again. They have a lot of confidence on the ball, you can see the emphasis on keeping it and not wasting it.
Really impressed with Keane's reaction to a pretty bad mistake/slip.
Didn't knock his confidence at all, despite him giving away two peno's he's had a very good tour. He played a great ball for the second (?) ball, distributed well and took the ball out really impressively.
Didn't knock his confidence at all, despite him giving away two peno's he's had a very good tour. He played a great ball for the second (?) ball, distributed well and took the ball out really impressively.
I guess it's because we can all write in these threads.
Hope you stay in the newbs for a good while to come. Taking the piss aren't you.
Quite pleased, obviously. Solid performance all around. The passing, movement, pace, tactics, shape...all quite good for pre season. Only a couple of under performers. Felt bad for Keane against Bale who made him look quite pedestrian a few times. But, he will learn from it and be better for it. ALl the positives...we still need a few players to go and a few brought in. Getting excited for the start of this season now!
Yup. I gave Jones MOTM but could have been either of these two.
Estadio Azteca in Mexico City has over 110,000 and I believe that is as an all-seater.
Did you forget Zaha?
Depends on who we get in as CB and CM, I don't think we really need a RWB but I wouldn't mind signing Cuadrado for that role.
Can't say I was too happy when the second half began but we really did well to sort things out. When it was clear we couldn't do anything up the middle, Kagawa and Lingard hooked up superbly on the right. Shaw showed another dimension to his game on the attack and looked like Evra but with much more power. Blackett was also good and Jones I think was crucial when we were floundering early in the second half.
Overall, I see Valencia and Cleverley (if we do sign another MF) as the two players to cut out. Unlike Young, Valencia hasn't made any kind of refinements or adjustments to his game and he really offers us nothing in this system except some defence. Cleverley did have a good match against Inter but he sustained nothing from that today and nearly handed away the match. Jones was pretty much working as a third MF having to babysit Cleverley for the last 45, which makes his life more difficult than it already is.
Great crowd today. Really wish I was there.
Overall, I see Valencia and Cleverley (if we do sign another MF) as the two players to cut out. Unlike Young, Valencia hasn't made any kind of refinements or adjustments to his game and he really offers us nothing in this system except some defence. Cleverley did have a good match against Inter but he sustained nothing from that today and nearly handed away the match. Jones was pretty much working as a third MF having to babysit Cleverley for the last 45, which makes his life more difficult than it already is.
Great crowd today. Really wish I was there.
Last season every time a game was coming up, there was a dreaded feeling and expectation that we might lose. This is now changing and we can't wait for the next game. Very happy. Bring on Monday
A fecking pre-season game has crashed the Caf. 
We missed the Fletcher/Herrera partnership in the second half as Cleverley plays too square of his CM partner IMO, but I thought Lingard did reasonably well as RWB and Jones really took the game on and swept things up well on more than one occasion, plus Kagawa looked the best he's looked on tour so far with some lovely vision and skill in the final third. Shaw got another good half under his belt, intelligent use of the ball in attack and good positioning defensively.
We missed the Fletcher/Herrera partnership in the second half as Cleverley plays too square of his CM partner IMO, but I thought Lingard did reasonably well as RWB and Jones really took the game on and swept things up well on more than one occasion, plus Kagawa looked the best he's looked on tour so far with some lovely vision and skill in the final third. Shaw got another good half under his belt, intelligent use of the ball in attack and good positioning defensively.
Out of interest, can you see how much of the traffic causing the caf to crash is from America?
I must say, I'm very happy with how we're turning out. We look sharp, quick, and fast on the ball, and defensively, we look well organised, and all of our players actually try to close down the spaces. the players also do very well to close down passing avenues, and we always try to make the opposition either go long or go wide. In the end, we're much better off than we were last season.
I must say, many of our players are doing well, and all of them are doing better than they were last season. Even players who aren't suited for the first team at this moment are doing well enough to be squad players for us. Things are looking on the up, and I'm looking forward to next season.
I must say, many of our players are doing well, and all of them are doing better than they were last season. Even players who aren't suited for the first team at this moment are doing well enough to be squad players for us. Things are looking on the up, and I'm looking forward to next season.
We have seen better from Herrera, but not a bad performance at all. And Fletcher? Really? I thought Herrera and Fletcher dominated the first half over Modric and Alonso and that is saying something.
What did Paddy say after the game?
I hope Welbeck is fit for Swansea.
I don't understand why teams some teams go into friendlies and use gamesmanship. If your aim is to please your fans and gain new ones that's not the way to go about it. It's bewildering.
So we play Liverpool in the final and that certainly will be no friendly. The key thing I've noticed in these 4 games is that we've been more inventive and intelligent with the ball at our feet. The players are not afraid to ping a pass, get forward. That's a welcome change from the monotonous and predictable side to side football we played last season. There's always room to bring in quality especially at the back because we're short in numbers and arguably quality too. Great preseason so far! #Onwards.
Nani is out I think. When someone as shite as Zaha was picked ahead of him, it is pretty clear he will be sold.
Since when did Tyler Blackett become so composed on the ball? I was reading the Birmingham and Blackpool forums last season to see how he was doing and the general consensus was that he is a donkey.
You probably forgot about Young. And you also forgot What Fletch was like before he's ill and has been absent for so long. He's getting back and becoming better because he's now healthy.
Young on the other hand has been sh*t under Moyes when healthy
Since van Gaal worked his magic.
If we win on monday we will win $1 million. Enough to pay 1/10 of Vidals salary.
We are looking better game after game and that's the most encouraging thing for a group of players who are working under a new manager and trying to learn how to play in a formation they had not tried before.
This was our best game during the pre-season. The players look like they are enjoying themselves on the pitch once again after last season's woes. There's a lot of discussion about van Gaal's faith in this squad, but the fact that the players seem to have faith in the new manager and follow his instructions to the letter is equally important. Top manager+modern tactics+happy players=recipe for a good season!
This was our best game during the pre-season. The players look like they are enjoying themselves on the pitch once again after last season's woes. There's a lot of discussion about van Gaal's faith in this squad, but the fact that the players seem to have faith in the new manager and follow his instructions to the letter is equally important. Top manager+modern tactics+happy players=recipe for a good season!
It's called "The van Gaal effect"
It's Van Gaal's secret magic effect.
This was the best pre-season game so far in my opinion. The Galaxy game was a goal feast, but they weren't a proper opposition to test against. I think most of the players had a good game today. Young has been in super form the past few games, Mata was feeding some good passes in, and Shaw had his best game yet. I wish Herrera would have a little more freedom going forward, it really looks like he has been anchored to play as the second defensive midfielder, where he played a more free attacking midfielder role in LA (where he absolutely dominated). Hopefully Van Gaal lets him float around more and go forward more. All in all though, great game. It's hard to pick a MOTM today, it's toss up between Young and De Gea.
Solid game but let's not pretend as if Real was really trying that hard. On that third goal, Kagawa had more time and space than he'll ever have in a single BPL game and that was just on sequence. When Real turned it on, it showed that we still have flaws in our game.
Young, Welbeck, Jones, Fletcher and Kagawa - all were absolutely brilliant!
Hope Danny is not seriously injured
Hope Danny is not seriously injured
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