[bishblaize]

Something's still not right. In terms of our build up things are a bit better, at least we're getting our midfielders involved, not just passing between our defenders. In the first half today, poor as we were, we were at least pushing Sunderland into their own box. But we're still waiting for it to click up front. As soon as we reach 40 yards from goal, its all heavy touches, slow build up, three touches before we move, and so on. No fluency.

ADM poor, Januzaj better. Hard to argue that Januzaj and Young shouldn't be our starters after today.

Falcao awful. Yes he won the penalty, but thats not enough to say he had a good match, or justify a start. I mean does a player have be to be abject in every possible sense before he can be dropped?

We really need proper full backs. At the end, when we had an extra man and Januzaj and Valencia were dovetailing nicely, it showed how much difference having an attacking full back can be. Still, you can't blame either player out there today, its just a squad issue.

At least our formation was alright.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Three points, job done. Plenty to improve on but I thought the team was a lot more balanced today. We always play best with some semblance of width.

The striking problem still exists, however.

It's to be expected when strikers get pulled the second they do anything good. LvG just seems to think it shows a sign of weakness to change any planned substitution. It could have done Falcao wonders to leave him on after he won that pen with a beautiful touch. Would have done Rooney good too if he'd have stayed on and got a hatrick! Adnan should start next match!

 

[Raven Blade]

It's quite obvious that we're own biggest enemy. We invite pressure with our lack of speed and careless passing at the back. Going forward we need to set a high enough tempo to make the most of our possession. We're making it hard for ourselves to win games. Release the shackles and the likes of Rooney will shine again.

It's partly due to our constant meddling with positions. The players don't always look on the same wavelength or know where to find each other. Di Maria needs to step it up. Januzaj showed more intelligence than he did today.

 

[Raoul]

Sunderland were awful.

Thought they played quite well.

 

[Ivor Ballokov]

Why is that? I'd argue the exact opposite.

All the same issues that have been present all season were present here. Sunderland were awful thankfully.

 

[ChaddyP]

Okish performance. Got the points and always happy to see Rooney on the score sheet especially from open play.

Januzaj on for di Maria was a game changer for me, he kept the width, worked well with Valencia, and took on the full back. Still wish he was a little less selfish. One thing i have noticed is we are far far far better at our passing than we have ever been. a lot less wayward balls. Just need to up the tempo and threaten some more.


P.S. Valencia is more and more proving to be a near perfect right back for us. he has the energy, the pace, great defensively and decent going forward.

 

[m1y2]

after really long time I enjoyed the game. Great performances by Herrera in holding role and king Smalling. Decent Valencia and great to see Januzaj back on the pitch, he did really well. Poor from argees. DiMaria now looks like waste of money.. Rojo should never play fullback again..

 

[Wumminator]

Wahay! Will take that. Top four here we come.

 

[Ixion]

Decent performance in the end apart from the opening 15 minutes. We over complicate things in attack though, it all gets too slow and wrong decisions being made, the players don't seem to understand each other well enough and are over thinking everything.

Good result though with Southampton losing and City or Liverpool to drop points tomorrow and Spurs not playing.

 

[Raoul]

3 points. ..3rd place. Can't complain.

 

[Kag]

It's to be expected when strikers get pulled the second they do anything good. LvG just seems to think it shows a sign of weakness to change any planned substitution. It could have done Falcao wonders to leave him on after he won that pen with a beautiful touch. Would have done Rooney good too if he'd have stayed on and got a hatrick! Adnan should start next match!

Not really. Falcao is just shite and subbing him was still the right thing to do. Van Persie didn't play today but he's shite, too.

Rooney is very good, however, and that'll become clearer and clearer the more play him as a striker. He was up top himself for all of twenty minutes and scored exactly the kind of goal our other strikers haven't been close to scoring all season long.

 

[Charlie Foley]

Can I get a gif of the foul for the penalty?

 

[imperi]

It's to be expected when strikers get pulled the second they do anything good. LvG just seems to think it shows a sign of weakness to change any planned substitution. It could have done Falcao wonders to leave him on after he won that pen with a beautiful touch. Would have done Rooney good too if he'd have stayed on and got a hatrick! Adnan should start next match!

He has one good touch in 60 min, so not sub him? How sentimental, it is about winning, not about pleasing players who underperform, heavily. I'm glad Louis subbed him and Di Maria, it was fully justified.

 

[nemanja15]

Good win, good defending and domination in the second half. Shout out again for Big Dave who didn't have a lot to do, but we've only let in 12 goals in our last 17 league matches with six clean sheets. Not bad going that.

 

[Livewire1974]

Thought they played quite well.

Started off ok, I thought were very poor in the second half.

 

[Damien]

It's to be expected when strikers get pulled the second they do anything good. LvG just seems to think it shows a sign of weakness to change any planned substitution. It could have done Falcao wonders to leave him on after he won that pen with a beautiful touch. Would have done Rooney good too if he'd have stayed on and got a hatrick! Adnan should start next match!

There were five minutes left. You'd be berating LVG if he kept Rooney on and he ended up getting injured. Was right call to make as the game was won and no point in risking our best striker getting an injury.

 

[Devil may care]

The ballsy move to take Di Maria off and bring Januzaj on really was key for me, we then suddenly had a threat down either side after a woeful half from Di Maria. I thought Herrera and Blind controlled the tempo in midfield really well and we moved the ball about with a more incisive edge in the 2nd half. Defensively we didn't really get test but that back 4 looked pretty calm in possession at least and when balls did come in there was no mass panic except in the first 10 minutes.

Still concerned about up top, I'd play Rooney instead of Falcao and add Carrick to the midfield trio as soon as possible given that Blind seems keen to take on more creative attacking duties.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

First half, although we had a lot of possession, we looked pretty void of ideas in the final third and were too narrow for me. This all played into a narrow Sunderland, and they give us a bit of trouble on the counter.

Second half, Van Gaal put on Januzaj, who I thought was very good when he come on, and told him and Young to hug the touchline, in order to stretch them.

It's never easy breaking down a team with 11 men behind the ball, but thankfully we got the breakthrough with the penalty, after a brilliant bit of play from Falcao.

Once we scored and Sunderland got a player sent off, we looked a lot more threatening and had a lot more room to create openings.

I still think our decision making in the final third has to improve. I mean, there were a number of times when we got the ball in very good areas and made wrong decisions. Like the commentator said, though, I guess that should hopefully come if/when the team starts gelling together and we play the same system.

All in all, I think we were pretty good. Definitely the better team. Three points, third in the table and although I'd make a few personnel changes from today's starting lineup, hopefully the 4231 is here to stay.

 

[kouroux]

It's all about the win, performances don't matter any more. We're not going to play good football this season anyway, we had to wait for a pen and a red card to play well.

 

[dsch]

- Falcao should have gotten more time after the penalty, even if it's just five minutes. He'd have made better use of the space against 10 men. Plus, it's just basic man-management and reading the rhythm of the game.

- We still don't look like we have much of a clue what to do in the final third until the sending off.

- This whole passing out from the back thing has gone too far. Way too much of the defenders passing themselves into a whole and losing the ball/giving it to de Gea to hoof. The build-up in general is much too laboured still.

 

[Jazz]

3 points.

This. Don't care how it was done. From here on in we need to get the points, never mind entertaining football and all that. The confidence will come from winning - even winning ugly - and getting that top four.

 

[Feed Me]

Dull, but at least we won.

Dropped points at Newcastle based on the performance level.

 

[ManUnitedCanuck]

Important 3 points.

Need a result at Newcastle midweek before we get into the tough stretch of matches!!!

 

[Mali_Zeus]

With which formation did we start today and where was Shaw

 

[vivaronaldo]

Yes it was scrappy but 3 points is 3 points ... Wish Falcao was left on after the penalty though, with Rvp injured and against 10 men I think the chances would have been there for him to get a goal and get some confidence

 

[Cristiano Jonaldo]

Thought they played quite well.

Seriously? They were woeful. Created nothing and put 11 men behind the ball most of the time.

 

[Get In Scholesy]

Pretty average performance from us, but I really enjoyed how we dominated possession. Never did I really feel as if Sunderland posed any threat to us. A great game for Smalling and it was also nice to see LVG substitute Di Maria over some poor decision making. Hopefully it will set some of his passing decisions straight.

Good 3 points.

 

[Jazz]

Glad Southampton lost. Hoping City do the business over Pool and Everton grab a jammy draw against the Arse… need all the help we can get

 

[WyoManU]

Very important win, especially after Swansea loss, coupled with SH losing. First half was fairly abject, although we did create two very good chances. We settled much better in the second half. Was happy that LVG made the tough call of taking off ADM and bringing on Adnan who made a difference. I support his decision to take off Falcao right after he FINALLY did something useful. I don't think he deserves to play with us, or even at this level, ever again. One good touch and turn does not make up for a season of absolute pathetic play.

I thought Young was our best player first half and then Adnan became the danger man in the second. Our defense still scares me to death when they try to pass it around. We still give it away cheaply too many times and better teams will punish us for that.

Still top 4 and now we get to see how the rest of our competition fares. Good day!

 

[togg]

I still feel LVG will get this right. I'm relieved he can make big decisions based on what he sees and not what the status of a player is. I'm just relieved of the win to be honest, after the horror last week.

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

Good performance. We are shaky at times and needs more incisive passing but i think confidence plays alot in this. Hopefully we have gained some after today, i want to see us keeping this formation and sticking to it. Smalling, Herrera and Young were all really good.

 

[sunama]

It's to be expected when strikers get pulled the second they do anything good. LvG just seems to think it shows a sign of weakness to change any planned substitution. It could have done Falcao wonders to leave him on after he won that pen with a beautiful touch. Would have done Rooney good too if he'd have stayed on and got a hatrick! Adnan should start next match!

Dude you are making out as if Falcao has not been given much game time.
Falcao has spent lots of minutes on the pitch and has made very few good contributions.
We'd expect more from a squad player, let alone Falcao.
One excellent piece of skill does not change much. If Falcao does that in every game remaining, then I'd certainly change my mind.

I agree with your Rooney assessment - playing him out of position is not good.

Yes it was scrappy but 3 points is 3 points ...

That was far from scrappy.
We played great possession based football.
The only thing we lacked was killer instinct in front of goal, otherwise, we played perfect possession based football.

To back this up:
Man Utd had 74% possession (utterly dominant).
We had 10 shots on targets, vs 3.
We had 30 shots in total.
We crushed them.

 

[MDFC Manager]

What was our possession stats? The more I watch us the more continental we seem... We have to be the best team in the league at ball possession same we have no attacking cohesion.

79%, 600+ passes and 30 attempts in total.

 

[Will Singh]

Really disappointed, we were absolutely shit. We have world class players who looked like they won't bothered.

LVG has to sort his ego out, Falcao was gonna be subbed before his brilliant turn in the box which lead to the pen, but LVG instead of leaving him on as still subbed him, That must be a confidence killer for a player to come off after finally doing something right and it paid off!

Young had a fantastic game and was really refreshed to see Januzaj cone on and run at defenders!

Di Maria for me ain't worked out and I think he was bought for the wrong reason as LVG doesn't know what to do with him which is worrying as the amount of money it's cost to buy him!!!

Something is going on behind the scenes which is killing the confidence of the players, I think it's the philosophy bollocks which is getting to the players heads.

There been recorded on the training ground and then shown what they are doing wrong!!!

Just shoot at the fecking goal is all I ask!!!!!

 

[shivab]

With which formation did we start today and where was Shaw

Shaw was to blame for Ki's goal last week. I think Rojo has justified his selection. This should be our back 4 against newcastle as well (i hope).

 

[shabadu84]

That formation, with the right tempo, feels like something we can win matches with.

 

[Yorkeontop]

That was a good performance by this season's standards. We showcased a quicker tempo but we still lack a cutting edge.

 

[Jazz]

Good performance. We are shaky at times and needs more incisive passing but i think confidence plays alot in this. Hopefully we have gained some after today, i want to see us keeping this formation and sticking to it. Smalling, Herrera and Young were all really good.

This for me is the big issue. We just cannot shake it off. Never-mind formations, manager's philosophy or anything - we just do not play with confidence and it's killing us.

 

[EverReddy]

Boring, boring 3 points. If you'd offered me that beforehand I'd have taken it.

 

[shivab]

Really disappointed, we were absolutely shit. We have world class players who looked like they won't bothered.

LVG has to sort his ego out, Falcao was gonna be subbed before his brilliant turn in the box which lead to the pen, but LVG instead of leaving him on as still subbed him, That must be a confidence killer for a player to come off after finally doing something right and it paid off!

Young had a fantastic game and was really refreshed to see Januzaj cone on and run at defenders!

Di Maria for me ain't worked out and I think he was bought for the wrong reason as LVG doesn't know what to do with him which is worrying as the amount of money it's cost to buy him!!!

Something is going on behind the scenes which is killing the confidence of the players, I think it's the philosophy bollocks which is getting to the players heads.

There been recorded on the training ground and then shown what they are doing wrong!!!

Just shoot at the fecking goal is all I ask!!!!!

falcao and rooney are being saved for Wed's game against Newcastle.