[poisson]

We're now almost a third of the way through the season, and I'm yet to see any convincing evidence of this 'philosophy' that LVG supposedly has. I've not seen much chance since the first game against Swansea. Occasional flashes of brilliance in attack, fragile at the back and mentally quite weak. Though to be fair, injuries are limiting us from putting any sort of consistency out there.

Luke Shaw was fantastic today, our biggest positive. I was still bricking it any time their attackers got the ball.

I'm glad the international break is here. Hopefully we can get a few more players back and get some of them fitter and return to some sort of form.

We've been saying the exact same thing for the last 2 international breaks, but nothing every changed.
Not expecting anything different with this one either. sigh

 

[Devil may care]

Good to get the 3 points but that was a pretty sterile performance, only Shaw and Valencia gave much tempo to our attacks and I thought McNair was again solid at the back, plus Wilson had a couple of good moments when he came on, other than that there were a bunch of lethargic displays out there and a real lack of tempo in our play with Rooney and Fellaini as CM's.

 

[Amadaeus]

If Crystal Palace had scored early on, we would not have won based of this performance. Nevertheless, hopefully with the international break coming up, we can have some key players back and have a chance against Southampton in our next fixture.

 

[Sam]

*Facepalm* I guess you were hiding under a rock when Leicester and Dons happened.

It needed a lot of work, obviously, but it was quite clear what direction we were heading, and what the plan was.

Today was as bad as anything Moyes produced. Stale, boring, slow, predictable football.

 

[Galactic]

Great win considering players we missed and the way Palace parked their bus.

Januzaj needs to be 'rested'.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

When teams put 10 men behind the ball the players look like they have no idea how to open up the defense. It's worrying considering our attacking options.

Want to see Falcao (if he's fit) Herrera, and Mata in against Arsenal.

 

[Godfather]

*Facepalm* I guess you were hiding under a rock when Leicester and Dons happened.

We played very good football against Leicester, had too many defenisve brainfarts but that game was actually enjoyable. More than today. Sure we got the points but feck me we play some boring football at times.

 

[sizzling sausages]

Any decent side will beat us.

Chelsea didn't.

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

I know possession isn't the best stat but we had 72% of the ball today.

That must be some sort of record for us surely. Rooney had 100+ touches in the match. I don't think I've ever seen him have that much of the ball.

 

[WyoManU]

Getting the 3 points was obviously vital and I'm happy for that. However, I've seen a lot of people writing in here that they are feeling better about this season than last but I just don't see the improvement. We have no balance or shape and it shows. LVG is trying to accommodate all of our "big names" and it isn't working. Our defense is paper thin and injury prone and look likely to concede every match (We may well have lost had CP's golden chance in the first half gone in). We lack intelligence in our play, our pace of play is far too slow and we have almost no imagination.

I thought our best players were Shaw, Fellaini and Carrick. I'm happy for them but this also sort of signals some major problems in our squad, truth be told.

ADM was average again. He has class but his form has fallen as of late.

I thought RVP was a 3/10. Can't understand why he is still playing. He is slow, lazy and his first touch is atrocious. The play rarely develops through him when he is on the ball.

Rooney was a 4/10. He gives effort, but his touch and magic are long gone. I fear he will slowly fade into irrelevance over the next 2 seasons.

Valencia 2/10. Needs to go. Looks lost and afraid.

Januzaj 2/10. Yes, he is young, but his last few performances have been depressing. Needs a lot of polish and a better understanding of the game. Lost the ball far, far too often and created almost nothing for it.

McNair was pretty solid, although CP rarely looked to attack. His mix up with Blind in the first half should've lead to a simple goal and may well have changed the result for us.

Blind 5/10 Not good, but not bad.

In the end it took the maligned Mata to save us. He should've had two. Wilson looked an immediate threat and I would give him a run of games over RVP while Falcao is injured.

 

[Freak]

Bring the bloody diamond back with Mata, di Maria, Herrera, blind. We've played our best football with them and they have a good chemistry going. Enough of fellaini and januzaj.

 

[sport2793]

Some of you need to have a word with yourselves. Worst performance of the season? Leicester was an absolute disgrace of a higher order than 4-4 vs. Everton.

 

[hundred_trillion]

People who are comparing this to a Moyes performance couldn't be more wrong. After Mata's goal, we kept possession well, working the ball around the field. They barely got a sniff. Under Moyes, we would have been camped in the eighteen yard box hoofing it at every opportunity and eventually conceding. It's not easy to play against a team who parks the bus. We controlled the game and got the goal. Not a classic, but it's three points.

 

[Mr Anderson]

1 up top doesn't not work. Simple as that. RVP has to move wide to look for the ball, and no one is coming in behind him. Our final 3rd play Suffers due to this.

 

[Dylan94]

at the overreaction.

Last week Chelsea scraped past QPR, we had more shots on Palace's goal and possession than Chelsea at home to QPR.

This is what happens when the opposition park the bus, you need to persist and we did that then we closed the game out excellently.

I do agree we need to increase the clear cut chances and we do need to improve the performance but if we created quite a few clear cut chances then we would not be in the rebuilding phase.

Difference is Chelsea are sitting at the top of the table, are currently unbeaten, and have 29 points out of a possible 33. And we are 6th, with 16 points out of a possible 33.

 

[Tarrou]

I'm guess McNair is injured then?

At least we have Smalling back for next game if he somehow manages to not injure himself on Int. duty.

 

[Dylan94]

We were only slightly better than Crystal Palace today. Just think about that for a second.

 

[Ole'sbodyguard]

That was just terrible, can't believe we sat back against Palace at him. Played the wrong players at the start, wrong formation, best players out of position and the subs were poor too.

3 points though.

Our approach made sense in the context of the game as the back four were likely to crack under any sustained pressure and today was all about a win and were always likely to score with the possession we had. I would not say we sat back as we were still attacking all game but we did have long spells of possession without much cutting edge or end product. Other than the Campbell chance Palace did not threaten to get anything and that's a big positive bearing in mind the goals we have conceded with more centre backs fit.

Long-term, we will have to play a lot better than this to get anything from Arsenal and I don't think LVG has any indication what his best side or formation is yet. We have tried three different formations this season already from 3-5-2, to the diamond and now this 4-3-3 and no one of them have been overly convincing.

Januzaj and Di Maria struggled today but then Mata and RVP have been struggling in the weeks coming into this game and we have defensively looked vulnerable all season, so far more questions than answers at the moment. I have seen plenty think changing back to the diamond is the way to go back but there were just as many problems with that formation as this one.

League position is not to bad in light of everything else and we are finally back above Liverpool who have had an awful start to the season.

 

[The Red Thinker]

We played very good football against Leicester, had too many defenisve brainfarts but that game was actually enjoyable. More than today. Sure we got the points but feck me we play some boring football at times.

Yes, I absolutely agree. But, to say today was WORST performance of the season is spouting hyperbole, not on your part of course.

Considering we don't have a defence because the bubonic plague has spread at Carrington seemingly, we did okay. The feature under Fergie was if we played shit, we still managed a 1-0 and that\s what happened today.

 

[Raoul]

We were only slightly better than Crystal Palace today. Just think about that for a second.

It won't matter in the end as we've got the points.

 

[JUPITER]

Hopefully Van Gaal ends his experimentation with Januzaj and Fellaini and restores Mata and Herrera next time.

Indeed, especially Januzaj who's been woeful. I'm also increasingly concerned about the decision to play Wayne Rooney as a CM and ADM as a winger. Playing Rooney out of position is particularly bothering me. We're playing our two best layers out of position!

I can only deduce that LvG feels that while our defence is decimated by injuries it's crucial to have Fellaini on the pitch, and so he's had to push other players out of position to make way for him.

On the game itself, I think a lot of posters aren't actually appreciating just how negative Palace were. They were playing a back 6 whenever we attacked, we were right not to commit into careless attacks that could've led to the counter.

Even after going 1 down Palace did absolutely nothing to try and get back into the game.

A good, entertaining game football takes two teams to tango and Palace turned up to stink the place out today.

 

[The Red Thinker]

We were only slightly better than Crystal Palace today. Just think about that for a second.

Yes, and we managed to draw Chelsea two games ago. Imagine that.

 

[caisenma]

Yeah it wasn't great but it wasnt bad either. And the bottom line is we got 3 points.

Carrick and Shaw played excellently. Mata also did well, though his goal may have been a bit fortunate.

 

[RuudTom83]

A bunch of random thoughts...

The feel good factor the new players brought to the team has been diminished for the more rough and ready! get the job done! approach.

The center of the pitch lacked creativity today...Carrick/Rooney/Fellaini did "ok" but that was as good as it got.

RVP had to occupy the entire Palace back line so he had a tough task in all honesty when no one was willing to join him.

The defense played well all things considered and McNair is improving nicely (no way Smalling deserves his place against Arsenal) and Mata was lively when he came on.

I hope after the Arsenal game the Fellaini/Di Maria/Januzaj idea can be scrapped because it has gained very few points to shout about, and it could be argued the diamond might have earned more points or at least matched the points tally over the 5 games.

But it should be mentioned that today's game was no different to many many many matches in the past, breaking a team down is always frustrating, but the 3 points are all that counts.

 

[#07]

They created feck all. A team with more quality than Palace wouldn't play with literally 11 men behind the ball and rugby tactics to hold us down. We weren't good today, but no way better teams than Palace would trash us if we play todays level.

Happened to us several times last season e.g. West Brom (H), Newcastle (H), Spurs (H) etc. Teams came to United and gave us the ball, not cos they feared us but because they didn't: They knew if they let us come onto them we'd do nothing and leave gaps they could exploit. Palace used the same tactics today its just when they did get forward they spurned their chances. Imagine how different the game would've been had Campbell buried that long ball..?

 

[Dylan94]

It won't matter in the end as we've got the points.

It doesn't matter today no. But it will when we play Arsenal in a couple of weeks.

 

[Mani]

We retained ball well,but lack creativity.Di Maria need to be played centrally. We held on to ball for too long especially Januzaj. Finally 3 point.

 

[bosnian_red]

We've been saying the exact same thing for the last 2 international breaks, but nothing every changed.
Not expecting anything different with this one either. sigh

Well to be fair, they came back for the first game after the break both times but then proceeded to collapse right after.

 

[Raoul]

It doesn't matter today no. But it will when we play Arsenal in a couple of weeks.

I'm not in the least bit concerned about Arsenal. Should be a competitive match, especially as we'll have several players back.

 

[togg]

we dominated the match, keep possession (72%?) and won. Wasn't pretty, but despite our injuries, our makeshift back four I thought we still deserved to win. LVG is not an idiot, he's produced amazingly attacking teams before and knows that there is a serious unbalance to the team. Probably more than her realised. I dont' think it' helpe us with him being at the world cup, to be honest, since it was much time lost. However, I still have amazing belief in him and willing him to get it right in the end.

 

[Dylan94]

Yes, and we managed to draw Chelsea two games ago. Imagine that.

Don't try and compare us or put us on a level with Chelsea. We're a whole class below Chelsea at the moment. We got a draw in a game they should have buried at 1-0 and had chances to do so but didn't. Chelsea are also top of the table with 29 points out of 33. We are sixth with 16 out of 33.

 

[littlepeasoup]

And so continues the great disappearing act of Angel di Maria.

 

[The Man Himself]

Not pretty but important win. Some of the players, the attacking ones, are clearly not being played in their favoured positions but it will continue till we get more solid at back and have a settled CB partnership.

 

[Dylan94]

I'm not in the least bit concerned about Arsenal. Should be a competitive match, especially as we'll have several players back.

I am because it's going to be the same story once again. Another week, and another new back 4 that has never played with each other before. The only blessing is that Arsenal's defense is as bad as ours at the moment. So if Di Maria can get back on form then we will have chance at 3 points. If not then I highly doubt it.

 

[sport2793]

LVG has intentionally made this side a bit boring to shore up the defensive aspect of the game. It worked today apart from the Campbell chance so you can't completely write off the tactics. The one thing I liked was towards the end Crystal Palace could not get a sniff of the ball as our possession game was fluid (apart from a couple of giveaways that were quickly rectified). This definitely would not have happened under Moyes.

 

[Raoul]

I am because it's going to be the same story once again. Another week, and another new back 4 that has never played with each other before. The only blessing is that Arsenal's defense is as bad as ours at the moment. So if Di Maria can get back on form then we will have chance at 3 points. If not then I highly doubt it.

Smalling and Jones should be back, as will I'm guessing Falcao, which will more or less put us back at near full strength. At that point its all about lineups, tactics, and luck.

 

[jem]

That was just terrible, can't believe we sat back against Palace at him. Played the wrong players at the start, wrong formation, best players out of position and the subs were poor too.

3 points though.

Surely you're not including Mata in that assessment?

 

[krazyrobus]

It's clear that ADM needs to play centrally, in a 4-3-3 or a diamond. This 4-4-2 or 4-1-4-1 is not utilizing him at his best out wide he is just not having the same impact.

Yes, it probably gives us more headaches when defending but right now we are using a 56 million pound gun to hammer in nails.

 

[vivaronaldo]

Take the 3 points and move on..... But I won't lie the Di Maria swap was baffling

 

[Steven Seagull]

A title winning result that was. Brilliant.