[pacifictheme]

Sat in the car coming home. Crowd was awful today. Very flat. Game was fairly dull too, but a win is a win.

 

[marlowe78]

Much more difficult than it needed to be. On paper, we have to talent to maul a side like Leicester at home, but we (or, shall I say, our manager) tinkered with players when we were comfortably ahead. I can understand RVP coming off because we have a game on Tuesday but all LVG needed to do was replace him with Herrera and have him take up Rooney's spot in the middle. It is getting ridiculous seeing Rooney struggle in a position he was never meant to play.

Besides that, there was no need for McNair to replace Valencia when Leicester were posing no threat at all on his side. After they scored, we needed to bring on Wilson for pace, which probably wouldn't have been needed if we just kept things the same to begin with. BTW, I also think bringing Mata on was a poor decision after he got flattened by Leicester's bigger players in the away match.

The goal we gave up is more of the same. Confusion amongst the backs, multiple players marking one man. Week after week this is happening. I thought Rojo was by far the best of our backline and I think he'll be a very good signing. Shaw was also pretty good but Jones was a trainwreck for the most part. That back pass to De Gea was a ridiculous decision to make and he even tries to outheader his own teammates!

Up front we were much better, playing some ambitious balls through. I am really glad to see Falcao score and make some good plays in the middle of the pitch. Di Maria was wasteful a few times but his ball control is invaluable and creates so much space for us. van Persie was van Persie. Blind, pure class.

Overall I would give us 8/10 for the first half and 5/10 for the second. Clearly improvement is needed and some good backs need to be signed.

 

[Wumminator]

Good win.

Strikers need to start scoring moremore

 

[Yorkeontop]

Was I the only one telling the Stretford End to sod off with their groans at the end there(when Wilson passed to McNair who subsequently passed it backwards)? We are 3-1 up for heaven's sake!

 

[markhrad]

With such world class strikers we really should be scoring more but there is no service centrally eg through passes, although Blind made two good ones, and the supply from the wings was poor. We really need a quality central midfielder who will feed Rvp and Falcao. No-one should question their movement up front.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

We could, and probably should, of sent a bit of a message with this game but in the end, its just ended up another frustrating and unconvincing performance.

 

[Nik70]

I agree. It won't be an easy decision, no, but I fear he'll be heading the same way as his predecessor if he doesn't do something soon. I'm aware I'm being a little negative considering we've got a great three points on the board, but a home win against Leicester just doesn't fill me with the necessary confidence.

Yeah I hear you but as the old cliche goes, you can only play the team that's in front of you. I'll take the three points considering what happened the last time we played them. I do agree with your sentiment that we have some tough days ahead of us and still have plenty of room for improvement.

 

[marlowe78]

With such world class strikers we really should be scoring more but there is no service centrally eg through passes, although Blind made two good ones, and the supply from the wings was poor. We really need a quality central midfielder who will feed Rvp and Falcao. No-one should question their movement up front.

To be honest, I thought there was a good amount of service from the wings today but we don't make up the numbers to play the ball. Januzaj made a few decent moves to the goal line but no one stationed themselves in front of the goal to make use of them. Falcao and RVP might've only been in the 6-yard box a couple of times.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

I'm glad Van Gaal looks to have dropped the 352. Progress on the formation front, now it's time to drop a striker and let the likes of Di Maria and Januzaj run riot.

I'd be shocked if he's dropped it. I think at home vs a relegation zone team isn't enough evidence to say he's dropped it

 

[gasmanc]

Gave a little room for complaints, so that's most of us happy.

 

[Ramshock]

Rabble Rabble Rabble LVG OUT BRING MOYES BACK etc etc

 

[Snow]

With such world class strikers we really should be scoring more but there is no service centrally eg through passes, although Blind made two good ones, and the supply from the wings was poor. We really need a quality central midfielder who will feed Rvp and Falcao. No-one should question their movement up front.

Perhaps there hasn't been service this season but there was plenty of service this game. RvP, Falcao and Di Maria all missed some.

 

[Cristiano Jonaldo]

Jones, not content with just being shit himself, has now infected his boots.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I'd be shocked if he's dropped it. I think at home vs a relegation zone team isn't enough evidence to say he's dropped it

Be interesting what he does at West Ham. Big Andy Carroll.

 

[KeninDC]

Normal service resumed. Comfortable home win against lesser opponents. As it should be.

Thought Januzaj was a nice surprise-showed flashes of last year's form. Still made some youthful mistakes-but overall was dangerous on the wing.

Two goals from the strikers-both got into dangerous areas all day. Falcao was much stronger with his back to goal. AdM made nice runs in the center.

Especially liked how the MFs allowed no space when Leicester countered. Jones had his obligatory brain fart-but defense was nonetheless solid. Let's hope the 4-4-2 stays.

 

[SammyUnited_83]

Was I the only one telling the Stretford End to sod off with their groans at the end there(when Wilson passed to McNair who subsequently passed it backwards)? We are 3-1 up for heaven's sake!

I was more annoyed when one end was chanting for De Gea and I thought the Stretford End would follow, but the response was the stupid anti Liverpool chants.

 

[Wumminator]

Can't believe the negativity today, was a good home win.

 

[Mister Ed]

Happy with the result not with the performance

The opponent today was very weak( borderline phatetic) especially in the first half. They had no ambition to come and win here today, they used defended and let us have the ball. Obviously resulting in us controlling the game with 75% ball possession or something in the first half. The thing is we dont do anything with the ball. The build up was still too slow, there was no real organisation in our attacking play, just players that are being searched and then they have to do something with the ball, but hardly any decent combination football. Altough first half RVP and Falcao had a few good combinations between eachother but it didnt result into anything and second half those combinations were gone. Ofcourse we did score 3 goals which always gives a good feeling and basically also killed the match for us but those goals didnt really come from our build up. The first 2 were on counter attacks that started on Leicesters half (so defensive mistakes from Leicester) and the third one was an OG on a corner kick. So we are just lucky in fact that we got those goals because they kinda came out of nowhere all 3 them. The first goal even was offside so lucky the ref didnt see that one. Second half we didnt have that luck and we hardly created anything despite an playing a very weak opponent that did virtually nothing to turn this game into a real match. In fact we even allowed them to score a goal due to our bad defending. A goal which didnt mean much because it was late in the game and we had already scored 3 but if it would have happened sooner or if we didnt have had such a big lead could have given Leicester wings and bring them back into a game that seemed as good as won in the first half.

In short:
-Build up too slow
-Not enough chances
-Poor finishing on a number of occassions
-Overall too sloppy and sometimes also too selfish in our attacks

Whilst playing a very poor opponent that did not show up for the game today and was there for the taking. Lucky enough we scored 3 goals that came out of nowhere to secure the 3 points.

Same performance in a different game and I can easily see us losing so again happy with the result but not with the performance.

Rooney was poor, Di Maria was poor, Januzaj was poor, substiutions didnt add anything at all except Wilsons

We will need to start doing much, much beter than this if we want to secure champions league football because our closest rivals Souton, Arsenal and after seeing Tottenham and Liverpool today play much beter football than us !

 

[Yorkeontop]

I was more annoyed when one end was chanting for De Gea and I thought the Stretford End would follow, but the response was the stupid anti Liverpool chants.

Lets go tell it to their faces, you first!

 

[matherto]

Play 4 at the back, score three goals, play well(ish).

Switch to 3, invite pressure, concede, don't score or do anything positive.

Glad we won but my god LVG pisses me off.

 

[Striker10]

I think we did fine. The passing was quick at times. They were decent movement. We looked like we had ideas. Second half we got ourselves in one or two decent positions but didn't capitalize. Di Maria was exceptional up to a point but he should have scored or even lay it across for Wilson for the tap in. I think we can be pleased that we had four at the back. We weren't completely reliant on our full backs for the width. Adnan had a decent game and is building up his confidence. No complaints

 

[matherto]

Be interesting what he does at West Ham. Big Andy Carroll.

Injured.

 

[bosnian_red]

Play 4 at the back, score three goals, play well(ish).

Switch to 3, invite pressure, concede, don't score or do anything positive.

Glad we won but my god LVG pisses me off.

We weren't a back 3 at any point... McNair came on at right back and Valencia pushed up to the wing after the sub.

 

[matherto]

Only blot for me today, we didn't score a couple more.

Still waiting for that 5/6 goal victory.

We never carry on. Forever just settling at 2-3. Hate it.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Injured.

Didn't realise that.

 

[VanGaalEra]

We never carry on. Forever just settling at 2-3. Hate it.

Irks me as well. Should have scored 5 today.

 

[sunama]

This was a typical home performance.
Solid. Confident. 3pts in the bag.
This game went pretty much according to our usual statistics (ie. 3 goals at home).

Our problem is away matches, not home games.
Yeovil, Cambridge, A.Villa (against 10 men) - we have barely created a shot on target in these away games.
Our next away match will be a better indicator of where we are heading.

 

[VanGaalEra]

Kompany left it

 

[poisson]

Any excerys

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Kompany left it

Wrong thread.

 

[lysglimt]

I don't understand why some people can complain after today.....we totally dominated the game and these are Leicester's last results:

Spurs (a) 2-1
Stoke (h) 0-1
Villa (h) 1-0
Newcastle (h) 1-0
Liverpool (a) 2-2
Hull (a) 1-0

Add to that - Leicester are yet to lose by more than 2 goals all season.

It was a good win against a team that are doing really well at the moment

 

[Raw]

 

[sunama]

We really need a quality central midfielder who will feed Rvp and Falcao. No-one should question their movement up front.

We already have this player.
Rooney, Mata, Herrera, Di Maria even Blind.
All these players can feed our strikers.
You want to buy another?

 

[Mister Ed]

This was a typical home performance.
Solid. Confident. 3pts in the bag.
This game went pretty much according to our usual statistics (ie. 3 goals at home).

Our problem is away matches, not home games.
Yeovil, Cambridge, A.Villa (against 10 men) - we have barely created a shot on target in these away games.
Our next away match will be a better indicator of where we are heading.

We won this game because the opposition didnt show up and we had a bit of luck on our side with the goals.

Really dont see any positives about the performance. Sure amazing possession stats but we do nothing with that 75% possession, build up remains slow, play in the final third remains too sloppy and finishing of certain chances remains below par. Only difference we had with certain away games is that the opponent really did feck all today and we got some easy goals where we really didnt have to do much for to get them.

I've seen games were we played beter and criticism was ridiculously hard but because we have a happy flappy 3 points today nobody cares anymore about the performance.

 

[Kakeru]

Bar a couple of mistakes and Rooney showing that he is not a midfielder, I rather enjoyed the way we played today. We both controlled the match and showed a lot more of attacking purpose than we did in a while. If we just had the finishing touch from Di Maria, this baby would have ended up 5-1 or more.

Anyway, that's the kind of purposeful approach I want to see from now on.

 

[cyberman]

Good performance
1 defeat in 15
Get our scoring boots on now and well have a good end to the season

 

[stepic]

People just like to moan. Oh noes a 3-1 win. It should have been 7-1.

God knows what they'd say if we had of drawn or lost.

 

[Mister Ed]

We already have this player.
Rooney, Mata, Herrera, Di Maria even Blind.
All these players can feed our strikers.
You want to buy another?

Yea the man is crazy

We do not need anymore creative midfielders we are drowning in them !

What we need is a more balanced formation with actual wingers and most of all defenders that can bring the ball forward alot quicker.

 

[Nik70]

I don't understand why some people can complain after today.....we totally dominated the game and these are Leicester's last results:

Spurs (a) 2-1
Stoke (h) 0-1
Villa (h) 1-0
Newcastle (h) 1-0
Liverpool (a) 2-2
Hull (a) 1-0

Add to that - Leicester are yet to lose by more than 2 goals all season.

It was a good win against a team that are doing really well at the moment

Thanks for bringing some perspective into the discussion. I for one am very happy. With a bit more luck and better finishing we could have added a couple more.

 

[Raw]

Good performance
1 defeat in 15
Get our scoring boots on now and well have a good end to the season

10 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss out of 15.
9 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss in the league out of those 15.

Not too bad, hopefully the recent dip in form is no more. It's the away form killing us at the moment (all those draws were away).