[Penna]

Was at the game, first half was only brightened for me by Young running for everything. Second half was a massive improvement and there seemed to have been an injection of energy. Relieved that we got the points.

 

[Adam-Utd]

442 has to be used in home games against lower opposition. Everything else is too slow and without imagination, we just look like we're following a script with no idea how to change the page.

 

[imperi]

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!!!!!

Nice WUM.

 

[Maroo]

The key here is that the players are just not gelling in the final third; not so surprising given the regular change of personnel there. Hopefully, that will pick up. Ashley Young awesome

 

[stu_1992]

I'll take that result. Not perfect obviously, but it was well deserved as we were the clear better team. We should still be creating more clear cut chances though.
Big call to take Di Maria off at half time, I'm happy he was brave enough to do it as it obviously paid off. Hopefully those goals from Rooney will be enough to see him play up front more often, and give him the confidence to go on a run now. Falcao seriously needs to stay out of the team, only decent thing was the penalty he won. As for that red card decision....

 

[LS17]

Thought Smalling, Young and Januzaj were miles better than the rest, hilarious idiotic that some think Smalling should go in the summer.

Januzaj was great to watch after coming on for Di Maria, what a difference..

 

[Morpheus 7]

fecking jubilant. Great performance if you ask me. Manger made the right sub at half time and won us the game.

You must have been watching a different game to me. Smalling was excellent and that was it. It was a disjointed, slow and worrying team performance against a dirt side. Happy with the 3 points but I don't know how anyone in here could be impressed by that.

 

[PlayerOne]

It's quite worrying that we end up wasting the first half in almost every game. Really can't have that in the upcoming games.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

I see we've opted for out swinging corners now, which is good. We just gift the 'keeper the ball otherwise, we had one in swinging corner today and it resulted in the 'keeper easily collecting!

 

[DomesticTadpole]

With which formation did we start today and where was Shaw

In bed.Tired it seems.

 

[imperi]

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.

What would you expect after last season? LvG had and still has a tremendous challenge ahead, the whole club was in shambles, changing this isn't going to be overnight.

 

[::sonny::]

It's more easy to win without RvP

 

[fishfingers15]

West ham lose, Southampton lose, we only want the same for Arse and a draw for Pool

 

[shabadu84]

Would say di Maria's poor play was infectious in the first half - we were slow, sloppy, and disjointed. Same goes for Adnan in the 2nd - quicker, trickier, and more adventurous. The rest of the team followed suit. Good performances from Young and Smalling.

 

[MDFC Manager]

I see we've opted for out swinging corners now, which is good. We just gift the 'keeper the ball otherwise, we had one in swinging corner today and it resulted in the 'keeper easily collecting!

Nah it was clearly specific for this game, given the height of their keeper. The one in swinging corner that we did try, ended up safely collected by him.

 

[Mystry]

West ham lose, Southampton lose, we only want the same for Arse and a draw for Pool

Why not Liverpool losing? We are not catching City.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Nah it was clearly specific for this game, given the height of their keeper. The one in swinging corner that we did try, ended up safely collected by him.

Nearly all our in swinging corners against Swansea resulted in the 'keeper collecting too, so I'd say that was a reasoning also.

 

[fishfingers15]

Why not Liverpool losing? We are not catching City.

Oh we are. Have some faith Mystry, you bellend lol

 

[Raoul]

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

They created nothing because we didn't allow it. Otherwise they were well organized and defended tightly against nearly all our attacks. Otherwise we would've knocked in a few more.

 

[fishfingers15]

They created nothing because we didn't allow it. Otherwise they were well organized and defended tightly against nearly all our attacks. Otherwise we would've knocked in a few more.

We had some easy headers to put away too

 

[LonelyFire]

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.

Actually the managers philosophy is killing us. He doesn't want them playing without thinking which means the players are taking their time with every decision...which slows everything down. Doesn't matter what formation we play, that will not change.

 

[Mystry]

Oh we are. Have some faith Mystry, you bellend lol

I'd much rather City beat Liverpool tomorrow and then lose a bunch of other matches. And watch your tone or I'll grill your fishy arse.

 

[Americano]

Are people happier now? A nice comfortable performance playing decent stuff, I'll take it for now.

Not really. First half was painful to watch. We scored twice, but neither goal came in open play against a full-strength side.

For me, the same doubts about the team's ability to create chances remain.

 

[Getsme]

I thought today was by far our best performance, with the exception of the first 10-15 minutes we completely dominated and could easily have been three or four up before the penalty.

The match day thread was a nightmare today, I'm convinced people don't actually watch the game.

 

[ForlansHair]

That was no different to a home win a couple of years ago.

Complete domination of the ball and territory, had to work hard to break them down, get the goal and then pick them off as the space starts to open up. Job done.

 

[Getsme]

Not really. First half was painful to watch. We scored twice, but neither goal came in open play against a full-strength side.

For me, the same doubts about the team's ability to create chances remain.

We scored, it doesn't matter how we score.

 

[Mystry]

Not really. First half was painful to watch. We scored twice, but neither goal came in open play against a full-strength side.

For me, the same doubts about the team's ability to create chances remain.

Di Maria was painful to watch. I'd call the first half annoying more than anything which perked up after a slow start.

And we actually created chances today. The balls in had far more purpose and were a far cry from the ones just aimed at Fellaini in the last match. It's a step in the right direction and something to build on, hopefully by dropping Falcao and playing a centre forward will actually wants to get on the end of chances.

 

[gerdm07]

Well for the first time in 2 months I saw improvement which gives me hope we can play good soccer and get in the top 4. Until today I was loosing any hope for the above.

What I saw:

- Herrera is a true cm and it showed. Each time he got the ball I was confident he would make a good decision. Blind or Carrick and Herrera should be our first choice. I will always wonder why LvG did not try Herrera in this position a long time ago as he had to have shown this quality in training. I really believe he could be our Fabregas or Xavi for many years to come. He, Smalling and Rooney played very well today.

- We played with width for a whole match and we looked more dangerous. I was really worried after Sunderland had those two early chances when DM lost it and then Rooney lost it LvG was going to pinch the wing mids in and start playing conservative again. Thankfully he stuck with it and it worked.

- Falcao and DM were huge disappointments and are the primary reasons we didn't score in the first half. When DM blew that breakaway (didn't pass to young) that probably made up LvGs mind about subbing at half time. Hopefully this will get DM to up his game and become that dangerous winger. Besides creating the PK (thanks to nice pass from Herrera) Falcao did little. I think Wilson should start next match.

I fervently hope LvG stays with wide mids the rest of the season as I feel things could start clicking very soon if DM ups his game and we find a partner with Rooney up front. And if we need to go conservative against really good teams Rooney can drop back. Please no more tinkering!

 

[SirAF]

Our general play is not going to improve for the rest of the season, so who cares how we played? We got the three points, now we just have to hope that we can get sufficient wins to get 4th. Onward!

 

[Rezyuz]

The sad story is, a 20 yr old subbing a 75 mil player we just bought won us the game.

 

[Gannicus]

Signs of improvement, but signs of continued stagnation as well. At least we're not regressing as we were last season at this stage. The players are fighting for their lives, which is great to see.

Disappointed with Falcao, though he did well to win a deserved penalty. His movement is terrible and I just can't see any case for him starting for us again this season.

Job done indeed, but we're still playing in second gear.

 

[Theonas]

The stuff the Bayern fans were saying about Van Gaal when he was there are really getting evident every week. We look in control in most of our games but clueless when it comes to opening up packed defenses. Hopefully, the players and the board show patience and support because if we raise the tempo and improve on in the final third, big ifs obviously, we are looking for a really dominant team.

As for di Maria, hopefully now, people stop the nonsense that our only problem was not buying enough world class players and that it was simply a matter of stuffing the team with established players and everything else will be smooth sailing. Playing well takes much more than that.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Pathetic until we scored. Since then we played with some confidence and swager.

 

[Enigma_87]

We needed a red card and a penalty to win against a really awful Sunderland side, that could easily be 2-0 up in the first half.

Not good enough.

And the decision to leave Mata on the bench for such game is pissing me off.

 

[bosnian_red]

We needed a red card and a penalty to win against a really awful Sunderland side, that could easily be 2-0 up in the first half.

Not good enough.

And the decision to leave Mata on the bench for such game is pissing me off.

They had a couple of shots from outside the box, how could that have easily been 2-0 up? What about Young's chances that somehow didn't go in? Or a few crosses that nearly reached their target. The goal was coming, regardless of the penalty and red card. We had 30 shots and 71% possession today, it was fine. We were just lacking in confidence until we got the goal.

 

[Nik70]

Once again plenty possession but not much bite until the last quarter of the match when Januzaj was fantastic. Finally a bit of world class play from Falcao. Too bad he got hooked right after that.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

I didn't get to see this as I was at work, but it's weird reading this thread after what the guardian wrote about the match. They were far more negative than redcafe

 

[Getsme]

Well for the first time in 2 months I saw improvement which gives me hope we can play good soccer and get in the top 4. Until today I was loosing any hope for the above./QUOTE]

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Perhaps the judgment that we had too many strikers and our lack of quality wingers was holding us back was a bit premature.

 

[Enigma_87]

They had a couple of shots from outside the box, how could that have easily been 2-0 up? What about Young's chances that somehow didn't go in? Or a few crosses that nearly reached their target. The goal was coming, regardless of the penalty and red card. We had 30 shots and 71% possession today, it was fine. We were just lacking in confidence until we got the goal.

Both Wickham and Defoe had chances to open the deadlock. Yes we hit the bar, but all in all I think they had the better chances in the first half. Putting crosses in the box really doesn't qualify as one. Having all the possession does not mean that the goal was pending we have seen it a lot in the past.