[Randall Flagg]

Winning games despite playing like shit.

Reminds me of a certain other great manager.

We rarely reached these levels of shitness

 

[charleysurf]

This wasn't a match between two teams, it was an exhibition of a player that is Robin van Persie.

This was like a dozen games in 2012/13: United are poor but RVP gets us the 3 points.

 

[RetroStu]

How many freaking times did our players get caught on the ball, especially our defenders.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Re: RVP I thought he was excellent, would have looked a lot better if he got some support. Rafa and Shaw in the wing back slots would have given us way more energy, not to mention Di Maria in CM

 

[Ballache]

I only managed to catch the second half, but damn... that was painful

we were fantastic in the second half compared to the first...

 

[Insanity]

Robin Van Persie 2 - Southampton 1.

VP single handedly won us the game with a little help from De Gea. A really terrible performance against a team that was there for the taking. Our only attacking option was Young's crosses in the box from the left. The formation and tactics were baffling to say the least.

The man who first phrased the phrase, "It's better to be lucky than good" is sitting in a heaven with a 'I told you so' look on his face.

 

[Sied]

Ambivalent,thats how I feel. Great result but will it reaffirm Louis's bealif in the madness that is the 352? I hope not.

352 is surely a solution to having no fit full backs, against teams who can actually attack.

 

[KM]

Don't care about the performances if we've got half the team injured. 5 wins in 5 is terrific.

 

[Tarrou]

Don't remember playing that badly and winning before. In fact, I'm struggling to think of many games we've played that badly ever.

But feck it, we won.

 

[Mockney]

LVG will say we were shit, and then play exactly the same team/formation for our next big away.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

So, only me that didn't feel any pain?

 

[Vidicious]

Absolutely woeful performance. Southampton will be kicking themselves, overall a better team but when you have a world class striker like RVP it can be the difference.

 

[bosnian_red]

Positives:
+RVP
+Young
+Carrick

Negatives:
-Everything else


Disgusting performance, but if RvP had an better performing forward next to him, I think we could have won comfortably. Both Rooney and Mata were pisspoor, which is a shame as Rooney has been playing very well recently. If he misses even one game, it's like he needs another pre-season to get back on it.

Even when we went 2-1 up, I didn't think we'd get the points. Southampton didn't threaten anywhere near as much in the 2nd half. They'll be disappointed they didn't go for it more.

Typical defensive injury to an in-form defender. I was really hoping Smalling would kick on and keep his place in the side. It looked like the usual tiny niggle he always gets, yet they keep him out for months at a time. Urgh.

We grinded out a win for sure but it was hardly disgusting

 

[Chorley1974]

Awful awful first half. Slightly better in the second. Anyway, it keeps our momentum going, going into the Liverpool match. We are on a very impressive run, despite looking anything but impressive. Fair play to RvP, he was excellent tonight; two decent finishes and he worked his boll*cks off.

He looked quicker, and sharper than he has done, and two goals, he was superb, better than in a long while.

 

[Member 39557]

We really didn't, they were just as poor. The 2 goals were poor mistakes and we gifted them plenty of chances and they fecked them all up apart from the goal.

They're Southampton coming off 2 defeats in a row. We're Man United.

They had more possession and more chances. If they had Robin Van Persie, we'd have got buried. They gifted us our first goal too!

 

[Natener]

Great match. LVG was obviously trying to get all the mistakes and poor play we can muster out of the way for the upcoming Liverpool match. Expecting a 4-0 win this sunday now. Boy I've never seen a team try so hard to lose a game and still win. LVG is a miracle worker.

 

[Invictus]

Brilliant. Three in the bag vs a good team at St. Mary's in less than ideal circumstances. Can't ask for more really, this could easily have been a match where we played pretty football but lost out on point(s).

On a separate note, loved how people were losing their shit with the 3-5-2 and blaming the manager or the system for the fundamental ills that plague a lot of our players, real show of support and faith. He could play a 10-0-0 for all I care, as long as we get results, which is of primary importance this season in a way of steadily progressing towards pre-Moyesian standards.

 

[Zen]

Have it! But it's all about 6 in a row now.

 

[Mersault]

Playing absolutely terrible and getting another away win against a very good attacking side moving into third despite implementing a new philosophy (which is far from being established) and contending with a ridiculous amount of injuries. Today was a superb result. And Louis van Gaal defended his team in the build up being "disgusted" by transfer talk. He's really starting to change the atmosphere at the club.

I can't wait for us to actually play like he wants.

 

[Raoul]

One good sign is we are winning out matches when we perhaps shouldn't be. Just imagine how good we could be if we play like we always deserve to win.

 

[Señor]

Unacceptable performance, regardless of the result. Hope LvG gives the team a boot up their arse and Woody a boot up LvG's.

On the flip side, great result but the performance was just horrendous.

 

[daniel9988]

We won. So feck it.

We must play better against Liverpool, surely?

 

[Ole'sbodyguard]

A very unconvincing win and similar to most of our away performances this season. Reminded me of the Arsenal game in that we were second best for long periods of the game but have managed to win.

Unless we improve on the away performances we are going to get found out sooner or later. Happy with five wins in a row and the league position though.

We look far better at home and much more comfortable in possession and in the tactical set up for the game.

 

[Dylan94]

Look at those stats! And wtf is Evans doing in the post match interview. Young should be there. He was the 2nd best player tonight.

 

[Devil may care]

As poor as we've played this season for me, RvP, Carrick and Young were good to decent but beyond that it was woeful. LvG's refusal to switch from the 3-5-2 system was bizarre and I don't think I have ever seen a United team so devoid of pace when breaking, we just haven't got enough players that can carry the ball at place, in fact without Di Maria we don't have any.

It's great to get 3 points but it's impossible to be happy with that football we played.

 

[Someone]

Fellaini should be dropped for Liverpool, he was dreadful tonight.

Fellaini was terrible when he had the ball, but he made plenty of clearances in the box tonight which is why i think he wasn't subbed.

 

[Galactic]

Why were we so nervous? Totally baffling.

 

[Crackers]

Mental game. I was so frustrated during it. Complete smash and grab there.
Can't believe me managed to hold out for 20 mins.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

We grinded out a win for sure but it was hardly disgusting

Well, De Gea did have to make...what, two saves?

 

[SkeppyRed]

Rooney, mata, Herrera and fellaini all poor.

Carrick good.

Rojo excellent.

Van Persie Magic.

 

[KeninDC]

RvP and Rooney were standouts for me. Thought Herrara helped to settle the MF. Mata was anonymous and Fellani was awful. De Gea his usual brilliant self. McNair crapped the bed-thought D strengthened as the game went on. Three points-third place. Not bad.

 

[saivet]

Just heard, 3 attempts on goal, the lowest of any PL side in a single game today. United's lowest shots on goal total since Opta have been collecting stats.

It was bad bad stuff. One of those performances whereby even though we got the result, that performance was worrying.

 

[Dex_Utd]

Don't know whether to be happy that we won despite playing like shit against a decent team or to be sad that we actually played like shit with far too many mistakes by almost every player!

 

[Revan]

I only managed to catch the second half, but damn... that was painful

It was a brilliant performance compared with the first half. That was a total abomination.

 

[Hed Zitin]

That lot could of lost to Accrington. The basics were all gone. Shocking touches, shocking passes. They looked like kids in the park.

 

[Mersault]

Don't care about the performances if we've got half the team injured. 5 wins in 5 is terrific.

It really is.

 

[.Rossi]

Awful performance.

Better raise the game for Sunday

 

[Dylan94]

I don't think it's possible to play any worse than we did tonight and still win. LVG is a genius! To be fair though as the 2nd half went on we looked more and more solid.

 

[bosnian_red]

Well, De Gea did have to make...what, two saves?

Yeah, people make it sound like they destroyed us. All they did was hoof it pretty much and hardly created anything. We weren't great but they weren't very good either.

 

[montpelier]

Dunno how we've got 6pts from that and Arsenal.