[Kag]

That is the only thing you said that was not an exaggeration. By the way RVP is constantly looking for the through pass. You often see his hand waving in the air asking for it to be delivered.

I could stand there and wave my hand about. A bit like Van Persie does.

Rooney actually acts on that hand waving and tries to get in behind.

 

[Empire]

Why don't you feck off?

I'm in too good a mood to spoil it by engaging in an inevitably pointless and long winded discussions you like so much.

We've been generally crap for the last 2 months. We were excellent today.

End of story.

That's the thing, those that actually understood the manager's methods knew this was going to happen and in time it will happen consistently, you on the other hand didn't want to understand the manager's methods but nonetheless you wanted to criticise them, the sensible ones on here said it's too soon to judge him because they knew what would come to be.

He has now shut you up at least until our next bad game when you will be hating on him again.

 

[Rob Bowman]

That's the thing, those that actually understood the manager's methods knew this was going to happen and in time it will happen consistently, you on the other hand didn't want to understand the manager's methods but nonetheless you wanted to criticise them, the sensible ones on here said it's too soon to judge him because they knew what would come to be.

He has now shut you up at least until our next bad game when you will be hating on him again.

So you are claiming that some devine blessing of knowledge suddenly occured between tha Arsenal game and the Tottenham game? The difference was that some sudden understanding occured?

Mate I work at a football acedemy in Germany and far more knowledgable people than I have been scratching their heads at many things under LVG this year at United most of which revolve around his personel slection, not his footballing philosophy (which clearly has a track record of success).

What was different against Spurs was he actually played numerous technically skilled players who have an engine and move off the ball all at the same time:Herrera, Mata, Blind, Carrick and Rooney. You can claim some philosophical breathrough all you want. We put Falcao, RVP, and in his current form ADM back on the pitch together it will not look very pretty is my guess and it will have nothing to do with knowledge of LVG's system, but the simple fact that too many of the above impersonate statues.

 

[Escobar]

By far the most important thing is that we follow up with another great performance on Sunday and continue to show a positive trend

 

[Empire]

So you are claiming that some devine blessing of knowledge suddenly occured between tha Arsenal game and the Tottenham game? The difference was that some sudden understanding occurred?

Mate I work at a football acedemy in Germany and far more knowledgable people than I have been scratching their heads at many things under LVG this year at United most of which revolve around his personel slection, not his footballing philosophy (which clearly has a track record of success).

What was different against Spurs was he actually played numerous technically skilled players who have an engine and move off the ball all at the same time:Herrera, Mata, Blind, Carrick and Rooney. You can claim some philosophical breathrough all you want. We put Falcao, RVP, and in his current form ADM back on the pitch together it will not look very pretty is my guess and it will have nothing to do with knowledge of LVG's system, but the simple fact that too many of the above impersonate statues.

I'm not claiming it was a philosophical breakthrough, I just re-read my post and I can't see where I even claimed that.

All I said was in the past the manager has shown he can come good and usually does so giving him time was the right thing to do, I had too many posters criticising my opinion he should be given time and I also had to argue with too many that were talking about sacking him.

I told them give it time, the signs were there, that performance where it comes together was inevitable whatever the reason for it. It was no doubt a number of things, more than even what you mentioned and further I think the early goal was important in giving the players confidence. We started the match poor, the first five minutes were very nervy but Fellaini scored in the 9th minute and from there things happened how we would like.

We have had games in the past where we have created plenty of chances and had we scored early we could have put in a display like today but once the ball isn't going into the net players don't have that same calmness.

If we didn't take our chances in the first half that match could have been a repeat of the game at white hart lane.

We got off to a terrible start this season, we were still signing players and shipping others out, the manager was assessing players, he came into the job late and it's not easy to sign your transfer targets near the end of the window. Since that transfer window shut the results have produced the following:

1) Chelsea - points 55 (pl - 25)
2) Man Utd - points 54 (pl - 26)
3) Man City - points 52 (pl - 26)
4) Arsenal - points 52 (pl - 26)
5) Liverpool - points 45 (pl - 25)

So sorry for wanting to give the manager and players time to get it right and sorry for being happy there is a performance to shut up a lot of posters calling for his head.

 

[Rob Bowman]

So sorry for wanting to give the manager and players time to get it right and sorry for being happy there is a performance to shut up a lot of posters calling for his head.

The problem here is the fact it should not take 2/3 of a year to figure out Herrera, Mata, Carrick and Rooney playing together might produce some nice football. Yes we are okay on the league table and yes we had one great game. Sadly we have had a load of crappy games many of which involved horrible/questionable personel selections... and those personel selections all come back to one single person.

 

[gerdm07]

If Di Maria was not banned would Mata have played? It just seems that most of LvGs good decisions have been forced on him with injuries, bans and poor play. For example:

- Injury to RvP ended the Rooney, RvP and Falcao trio
- Falcao's poor form moved Rooney to striker and took him out of midfield or in the hole
- Rojo and Shaw's injury saw Carrick start at DM and Blind start at left back vs Spurs
- 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 (or 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1) was forced because of poor play and the crowd chanting "4-4-2"
- Herrera getting playing time because Rooney was moved to striker

I could probably think of more given time. I hope our good play continues but I am skeptical because of the 30 other games we've played.

 

[ChaddyP]

If Di Maria was not banned would Mata have played? It just seems that most of LvGs good decisions have been forced on him with injuries, bans and poor play. For example:

- Injury to RvP ended the Rooney, RvP and Falcao trio
- Falcao's poor form moved Rooney to striker and took him out of midfield or in the hole
- Rojo and Shaw's injury saw Carrick start at DM and Blind start at left back vs Spurs
- 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 (or 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1) was forced because of poor play and the crowd chanting "4-4-2"
- Herrera getting playing time because Rooney was moved to striker

I could probably think of more given time. I hope our good play continues but I am skeptical because of the 30 other games we've played.

Fellaini and Young playing has not been forced. It was solely his decision and fault why they are playing so good. I'm happy that he dropped Falcao, others may have tried to make him play out of poor form. He rates Carrick highly and was always going to play him in DM when he was fully fit. I agree switching the formations has been somewhat forced but he was always trying to find the right balance that protected our defense but gave us a good attacking threat. I also agree that RvP injury definitely forced his hand, as did the di maria sending off. I was quietly happy seeing RvP injured as I felt that we would never see Rooney up top by himself unless RvP got injured. Hopefully RvP takes Falcao's place on the bench and not in the first 11 just yet. Though I feel LvG may use Rooney in the hole and RvP as the point man upfront and Fellaini benched. Some decisions were forced but i think a lot of what has finally got right was him constantly tinkering and figuring out the best way to go about playing well and winning.

 

[Speak]

Sad to say I was busy with Mother's day, and missed this game.
Didn't watch MOTD either, because I was planning to watch the full first half properly.

But the site I usually visit for Full matches/MOTD seems to have been closed down in the past week too.

 

[Nighteyes]

That's the thing, those that actually understood the manager's methods knew this was going to happen and in time it will happen consistently, you on the other hand didn't want to understand the manager's methods but nonetheless you wanted to criticise them, the sensible ones on here said it's too soon to judge him because they knew what would come to be.

He has now shut you up at least until our next bad game when you will be hating on him again.

You really are a pompous bore.

I'll praise him when he does well and I did praise him against Arsenal despite the result. You'll have to excuse me for criticizing him for some outright bizarre decisions throughout the season. Unlike you, I find it hard to pretend that it was all part of some bs philosophy, which apparently involved playing as many players out of position as possible and then complaining about a lack of balance.

Hating on him? Jesus. Just piss off. I'm quite happy. You should try the same rather than trying to justifying the shit you've been coming up with.

 

[Empire]

The problem here is the fact it should not take 2/3 of a year to figure out Herrera, Mata, Carrick and Rooney playing together might produce some nice football. Yes we are okay on the league table and yes we had one great game. Sadly we have had a load of crappy games many of which involved horrible/questionable personel selections... and those personel selections all come back to one single person.

In a diamond with Herrera the RCM and Mata the 10 that would also be very attacking and risky, with a defence that throughout the season has continuously changed centre back pairings I'm not surprised it wasn't the preference, Young and Angel di Maria have had their injury problems but now they are fit together the 4-3-3 becomes an option.

Mata could have been used as a RW but he might not have performed the role consistently well and if he didn't then many on here would criticise the manager for it. Even as a 10 he hasn't been that good away from home.

Also when you have RVP and Falcao you obviously give them a chance, they haven't played that many games together but both players have had their chances. Falcao was dropped quite soon, perhaps RVP got longer than he should have but also we were second in the league in our chance conversion prior to the Swansea match therefore it's understandable the manager thought once the chances created improves so will RVP's goal ratio.

We've been here before anyway, it's easy saying what the manager should do but not so easy in practice, time and again posters on here have said 'but if we do it this way' only for that way to eventually happen but not work.

As I said before the key to the spurs game was the early goal, we got off to a nervy start but that 9th minute goal settled nerves and for the next 25 - 30 minutes everything went smoothly, even with those players on the pitch had we not taken our chances then that game could easily have been a repeat of the white hart lane performance. And the reverse is true, had we taken our chances early away to spurs that game could have been like this.

I do agree if we had those players on the pitch that you mentioned our attacking football would be more fluid but also I think defensively we would be weaker, therefore whether it would have produced better results I can't say and it is results that are most important. We talk about our lack of fluidity attacking but defensively we have the third best record, Chelsea and Southampton have been better, considering the lack of quality in our defence and also the constant injuries to the point we have had to continuously change everybody but Valencia (and also the two central midfielders ahead) I think we have done well defensively.

 

[Pexbo]

The problem here is the fact it should not take 2/3 of a year to figure out Herrera, Mata, Carrick and Rooney playing together might produce some nice football. Yes we are okay on the league table and yes we had one great game. Sadly we have had a load of crappy games many of which involved horrible/questionable personel selections... and those personel selections all come back to one single person.

I'm pretty sure its the first time they were all fit to play together? Wasn't Herrera injured when Carrick had his last run from Dec-Jan?

 

[Empire]

You really are a pompous bore.

I'll praise him when he does well and I did praise him against Arsenal despite the result. You'll have to excuse me for criticizing him for some outright bizarre decisions throughout the season. Unlike you, I find it hard to pretend that it was all part of some bs philosophy, which apparently involved playing as many players out of position as possible and then complaining about a lack of balance.

Hating on him? Jesus. Just piss off. I'm quite happy. You should try the same rather than trying to justifying the shit you've been coming up with.

I think it's obvious i'm quite happy, a little bit of patience and time goes a long way.

I recall Louis van Gaal saying despite some poor results that Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton had faith in him and it's always helpful when important members of the club have confidence in you.

An example of an exaggeration posted by you:

Van Gaal has spent twice the money and is playing a football that's been worse than last season which is commendable given how bad we were last season.

How has it been (prior to the spurs and arsenal matches) worse than last season when he is grinding out results? Surely that's a positive characteristic in a manager…

If SAF does it - genius, if Mourinho does it - genius, if LvG does it - Sack Watch Time.

Tempt Mourinho. Beg, if required. Surely, it shouldn't take too much for us to sell him the idea "Take the fallen giants back to the top and emulate Fergie". Should have gotten him last season but it's never too late.

If you were the CEO you'd likely have already sacked LvG by the looks of it and been on your knees for the special one!!

Another exaggeration on Louis van Gaal:

He's been absolute shit, utter shite.

Yet he has had us in the top four for most of the season even when he has had to continuously change his defence bar Valencia.

This is why people shouting out "We're 3rd. Stop complaining!!!!" were talking plain garbage.

I think they had a point since now we're two points off second place, things aren't that bad yet, the manager to date has done something right.

Anyway I'm just saying have a bit of patience sometimes, instead of doubting the man from so early on just wait and see what happens, judge him at the end of the season. He could still finish badly but he could also take second place, who knows what's going to happen, I just don't see the point in disrespecting him so soon when you could instead try to understand what he is attempting and just let him do it and see if it works. He's probably not as bad a manager as you think and Mourinho probably isn't the God you think either.

 

[Nighteyes]

I think it's obvious i'm quite happy, a little bit of patience and time goes a long way.

I recall Louis van Gaal saying despite some poor results that Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton had faith in him and it's always helpful when important members of the club have confidence in you.

An example of an exaggeration posted by you:


How has it been (prior to the spurs and arsenal matches) worse than last season when he is grinding out results? Surely that's a positive characteristic in a manager…

If SAF does it - genius, if Mourinho does it - genius, if LvG does it - Sack Watch Time.



If you were the CEO you'd likely have already sacked LvG by the looks of it and been on your knees for the special one!!

Another exaggeration on Louis van Gaal:



Yet he has had us in the top four for most of the season even when he has had to continuously change his defence bar Valencia.



I think they had a point since now we're two points off second place, things aren't that bad yet, the manager to date has done something right.

Anyway I'm just saying have a bit of patience sometimes, instead of doubting the man from so early on just wait and see what happens, judge him at the end of the season. He could still finish badly but he could also take second place, who knows what's going to happen, I just don't see the point in disrespecting him so soon when you could instead try to understand what he is attempting and just let him do it and see if it works. He's probably not as bad a manager as you think and Mourinho probably isn't the God you think either.

You're taking the piss now.

Since you have so much free time feel free to read over my posts on Van Gaal before the new year. You won't mind find much because I was reasonably satisfied with the job he was doing and signs of improvement were there. Go on..

We've been horse crap since the first half against Spurs and no amount of dressing up changes that.

And no, incorrect again. I've always said LVG should be given more time if we finish top 4. I've also said I'd be happy to give him more time even if we didn't finish top 4 as long as our football improved.

People defending some of our performances in 2015 should watch the Spurs game to know what good football actually looks like. Grinding out results is one thing and something I have no issues with it. That's not what we were doing. We were basically relying on our goalkeeper and loads of luck besides to keep us in games. I'm sure I don't need to inform a tactical expert like you on what a shit strategy that is.

You should stop taking things personally. I'm not disrespecting Van Gaal. Calling him shite when he goes out of his way to play players out of position and then blame the balance of the squad sounds fair enough to me. I have absolutely no opinion on LVG's managerial ability. I'm judging him on what I see at United and he's been all over the place this year.

Oh and Mourinho is a better manager (nice strawman about Mourinho being a god). I'll gladly swap LVG for him in the summer if it were possible.

 

[Empire]

You're taking the piss now.

Since you have so much free time feel free to read over my posts on Van Gaal before the new year. You won't mind find much because I was reasonably satisfied with the job he was doing and signs of improvement were there. Go on..

We've been horse crap since the first half against Spurs and no amount of dressing up changes that.

And no, incorrect again. I've always said LVG should be given more time if we finish top 4. I've also said I'd be happy to give him more time even if we didn't finish top 4 as long as our football improved.

People defending some of our performances in 2015 should watch the Spurs game to know what good football actually looks like. Grinding out results is one thing and something I have no issues with it. That's not what we were doing. We were basically relying on our goalkeeper and loads of luck besides to keep us in games. I'm sure I don't need to inform a tactical expert like you on what a shit strategy that is.

You should stop taking things personally. I'm not disrespecting Van Gaal. Calling him shite when he goes out of his way to play players out of position and then blame the balance of the squad sounds fair enough to me. I have absolutely no opinion on LVG's managerial ability. I'm judging him on what I see at United and he's been all over the place this year.

Oh and Mourinho is a better manager (nice strawman about Mourinho being a god). I'll gladly swap LVG for him in the summer if it were possible.

'Loads of Luck', that's the typical response when you don't want to give the manager credit, like Napoleon Bonaparte said, 'great men become great because they have been able to master luck, what the vulgar call luck is a characteristic of genius', Louis van Gaal is known as a lucky coach, in the past few days I read about his luck in staying at Bayern with that Juventus win and turning things around and also his luck against SAF in the champions league semi-final and his luck in the world cup by scoring that goal just before half time against Spain (he was going to change to 4-3-3 at half time).

For him it's important to be totally reliant on yourself and not on coincidence, as an example many said he was lucky against Burnley but he said he was very happy we scored from two set plays because the team had a plan before the game for set plays, practiced it and now successfully executed it in the match, he touched upon this in two separate interviews and it is no surprise to learn prior to that match Burnley had conceded more goals from set plays than any other team in the league.

Being attentive to opposition vulnerabilities isn't really luck. Furthermore prior to that Swansea game his side had the second best chance conversion in the premier league only very slightly behind Chelsea (I haven't read statistics since), perhaps once more this is the consequence of his ever present desire to target opposition weaknesses.

I have not taken anything personally, not sure what makes you think that, this is a website where posters can reply to posts by others, it's kind of the point of a forum...

Also your last line contradicts the one about being happy to give him more time if he finishes top four, it appears if Mourinho were available but the board opted instead to give the current manager more time after finishing top four you would actually be unhappy.

But anyway continue to call him lucky, you will be doing it for years to come, all managers have things that go against them and things that go for them, the constant injuries have been a thorn in his backside but he has coped well, limiting the negative consequences on the results, having De Gea has been helpful and he has capitalised on great saves to make sure the team go down the other end and get the points, just like Pellegrini has benefited from Aguero winning him matches, Mourinho from Costa and Courtouis, Wenger from Sanchez, Liverpool from Sterling, so what that he has one player that can compete with those mentioned as player of the season?