[Shiva87]

I think we did really well. First game against Tottenham can be a tricky one, and we managed to get one of the top 6 teams out of the way with a 1-0 win. I would have taken this, even if it was March next year. The team was learning about each other, and building small partnerships - Darmian and Mata, Rooney and Depay, Schneiderlin and Carrick, and (sadly), Blind and Smalling. If Smalling can keep sweeping up for Blind like that, then I will worry less about getting a CB in this summer.

Overall - apart from Rooney's toothless performance - we were sharp in the defence, and ok with our passing. We won the game, and we'll go to the training pitch and work on improving pace, power andr movement. Only if Young had a few more tricks up his sleeve. I miss Giggs/Ronaldo (or even Januzaj) running at defenders creating havoc.

 

[Ji_Maria]

I miss Giggs/Ronaldo (or even Januzaj) running at defenders creating havoc.

You'd rather have Januzaj running up the wings than Young? OK I get the lad has a lot of potential, but based on the last 2 seasons, we all know what a liability Januzaj has become in terms of ball retention, poor decision-making and poor passing in the final third. Mind you Young was a class or two above Januzaj all of last season.

Giggs and Ronaldo were also 2 of the best wingers we have ever had, and it would take a player of Bale or Robben's stature to come close to replacing those two.

 

[Shiva87]

You'd rather have Januzaj running up the wings than Young? OK I get the lad has a lot of potential, but based on the last 2 seasons, we all know what a liability Januzaj has become in terms of ball retention, poor decision-making and poor passing in the final third. Mind you Young was a class or two above Januzaj all of last season.

Giggs and Ronaldo were also 2 of the best wingers we have ever had, and it would take a player of Bale or Robben's stature to come close to replacing those two.

On Januzaj - I guess u mean 1 season, as the season before that he was pretty darn good. Plus, he didn't play a lot last season anyway. My point is that he has a lot more up his sleeve than Young. Young works hard and does cause a threat, but he is not going to win us the league - Januzaj could if he has a good season.

On Ronaldo, giggs - you just reinforced my point. I miss the days when players of that calibre were creating things out of nothing. It's not about replacing them as much as believing in that kind of 'philosophy'

 

[Listar]

On Januzaj - I guess u mean 1 season, as the season before that he was pretty darn good. Plus, he didn't play a lot last season anyway. My point is that he has a lot more up his sleeve than Young. Young works hard and does cause a threat, but he is not going to win us the league - Januzaj could if he has a good season.

On Ronaldo, giggs - you just reinforced my point. I miss the days when players of that calibre were creating things out of nothing. It's not about replacing them as much as believing in that kind of 'philosophy'

You are unfairly discrediting young here. Sure he is no Neymar Messi or even Pedro, but last match we got 3 points because of him. It was his intelligent run (shadowing behind the defender to be both blindsiding him and staying onside) then delivering a good pass to Rooney that allowed us the goal. Sure Mata and Memphis were critical with that buildup and romero/smalling kept us the clean sheet, but young was critical for us in getting the three points. If he keep up his form last season, and improve on last match, we will be challenging for the title with him.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Young works hard and does cause a threat, but he is not going to win us the league - Januzaj could if he has a good season.

Januzaj had just one decent season. No guarantees on how he would be otherwise. He bottles many chances. If we are going to put "if" then I would say Young could aslo win us the league "if" he sets the stage on fire through the entire season.

I am not saying Young (with all that history of being crap before last season) is better than Januzaj, but Janu remains as unreliable as anyone in the team.

 

[Rezyuz]

Has everyone seen the post match press conference?

It includes a funny Beatles line at the 5th minute

Thats a wonderful interview. Love his honesty and insight about everything. Really really rare thing for managers.

 

[Shiva87]

You are unfairly discrediting young here. Sure he is no Neymar Messi or even Pedro, but last match we got 3 points because of him. It was his intelligent run (shadowing behind the defender to be both blindsiding him and staying onside) then delivering a good pass to Rooney that allowed us the goal. Sure Mata and Memphis were critical with that buildup and romero/smalling kept us the clean sheet, but young was critical for us in getting the three points. If he keep up his form last season, and improve on last match, we will be challenging for the title with him.

My point is not to discredit Young. He reminds me a little of Park's function in SAF's teams. I loved Park, but he wasn't the creative spark we needed to break small teams down. In the big games, his positional awareness, man-marking and work rate was essential. Young did well in the game on Saturday, but we need to have a player who can score/assist 20 goals from that position to challenge for the title.

Januzaj had just one decent season. No guarantees on how he would be otherwise. He bottles many chances. If we are going to put "if" then I would say Young could aslo win us the league "if" he sets the stage on fire through the entire season.

I am not saying Young (with all that history of being crap before last season) is better than Januzaj, but Janu remains as unreliable as anyone in the team.

I agree that Januzaj is unreliable, but he has more potential that Young. I don't really have a preference wrt. to Januzaj (it could also be Perriera), but I'd rather have someone with more flair and ability to create something out of nothing playing in the current setup. Our team play really needs that now. Of our 4 attacking players, we have 2 who are mostly playing it safe - Rooney and Young.

 

[Ixion]

It was his intelligent run (shadowing behind the defender to be both blindsiding him and staying onside) then delivering a good pass to Rooney that allowed us the goal.

Rooney had literally the entire box to himself and so it should have been a simple pass where he could shoot first time but the pass was too close to him and too strong hence he had to take the touch.

 

[Shiva87]

Rooney had literally the entire box to himself and so it should have been a simple pass where he could shoot first time but the pass was too close to him and too strong hence he had to take the touch.

I am not defending the ball from Young, but Rooney could have done much better there. Here was ponderous and slow. He should have just shifted it across out of his feet with the first touch (blocking away the defender) and put it away. We were lucky that went in.

 

[The Purley King]

Memphis is not a #10. The sooner LVG works that one out the better. I hope we don't spend the first ten games trying to shoehorn him in there when we have at least 3 players better than him in that position (Mata, Herrera, Perreira and maybe even Januzaj).

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Was good to get off to a good start, especially given Chelsea and Arsenal dropped points but are we ever going to play good football under Van Gaal or are we stuck with this functional style?

 

[Kaos]

Memphis is not a #10. The sooner LVG works that one out the better. I hope we don't spend the first ten games trying to shoehorn him in there when we have at least 3 players better than him in that position (Mata, Herrera, Perreira and maybe even Januzaj).

I don't think he's being played as a 10, rather one of the two strikers in a 4-4-2 which is pretty how much how we lined up against Spurs.

 

[Danillaco]

I love Van Gaal, but he's so frustrating at time. feck ME.

No Herrera, Blind CB, and Valencia subbing Darmian. Rooney and Schneiderlin needs to up their game, seemed a little distracted yesterday.

We had little control in midfield, and the slow zombie passing again. When we hit them hard, we scored. I wonder why?

Please, let us play 433. Thank you.

 

[jojose]

Memphis is not a #10. The sooner LVG works that one out the better. I hope we don't spend the first ten games trying to shoehorn him in there when we have at least 3 players better than him in that position (Mata, Herrera, Perreira and maybe even Januzaj).

I agree. I think LVG does too. He mentioned that Depay is playing there because "young is playing so well wide left".

It would be harsh to drop young from a personal point of view. But the team would benefit from depay there with Herrera as a 10, for example.

 

[Sunny Jim]

I agree. I think LVG does too. He mentioned that Depay is playing there because "young is playing so well wide left".

It would be harsh to drop young from a personal point of view. But the team would benefit from depay there with Herrera as a 10, for example.

I think playing 2 defensive minded cm is a bit of over kill. Play Herrera and one of Schneiderline, Carrick, Bastian. Move Mata to no10.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I agree. I think LVG does too. He mentioned that Depay is playing there because "young is playing so well wide left".

It would be harsh to drop young from a personal point of view. But the team would benefit from depay there with Herrera as a 10, for example.

I think he needs to get over the Young is playing so well wide thing. Ashley, as I said works his socks off, but if there is no end product it's a waste of effort. We had 10 crosses and 1 corner according to Sky, that is not great.

 

[The Purley King]

I agree. I think LVG does too. He mentioned that Depay is playing there because "young is playing so well wide left".

If that is the case then Depay should be on the bench then. Its precisely this sort of "lets get the best 11 players on the pitch" thinking that messes things up imo. Depay is a winger. If he isn't better than the ones we currently have (I don't agree with this btw) then he shouldn't play.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

If that is the case then Depay should be on the bench then. Its precisely this sort of "lets get the best 11 players on the pitch" thinking that messes things up imo. Depay is a winger. If he isn't better than the ones we currently have (I don't agree with this btw) then he shouldn't play.

Good point. He has bought Memphis so he will shoehorn him in, even if it is to the detriment of the team. Memphis is definitely more productive than Ashley.
So he is basically saying a lad who scored god knows how many goals and had god knows how many assists as a winger isn't as good as Ashley Young. What a load of claptrap.

 

[Shamwow]

Good point. He has bought Memphis so he will shoehorn him in, even if it is to the detriment of the team. Memphis is definitely more productive than Ashley.
So he is basically saying a lad who scored god knows how many goals and had god knows how many assists as a winger isn't as good as Ashley Young. What a load of claptrap.

Afonso Alves #justsaying

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Afonso Alves #justsaying

If he's worried he will be like him, why shell out all that money?

 

[Shamwow]

If he's worried he will be like him, why shell out all that money?

My point is, he's got a player he knows can do a job there vs one who we can only really say has potential at this stage.

 

[finneh]

I really don't understand people complaining about the lack of chances. We created a 1v1 opportunity after 20 mins and after that just closed the game out. Are we really expecting; on the first day of a new season when several players are not match fit and several players have never played for us before; to go out and try to beat Spurs by 3-4 goals? The expectations on here are total fantasy as times. Four of our back five have played a total of 41 games for Man Utd in the Premier League. It was clear every part of our game plan had this in mind. The two midfielders that were put in front of them are both steady and safe, but not creative. The two full backs were very conservative; which lead to Mata/Young being isolated at times. This is the same type of performance we've put in hundreds of times before under Fergie; sluggish & not creative, but ultimately disciplined, efficient and with 3 points.

The game would have been completely different if Erikson had put away his early chance. We'd have been far more offensive and Spurs would have sat back and it may have been a great game that finished with United winning by a few goals. However he didn't and therefore we didn't need to go out and score 2-3. Over the years there's been hundreds of games where I've gone into the last 10 minutes crapping myself; this game was not one of them. We safely closed out the 1-0 with a couple of simple saves from the goalkeeper.

 

[Nighteyes]

Quite pleased with the win. Lack of creativity from central and wide areas still a big issue but I guess that's nothing new. Regardless, a 1-0 win against top 6/7 side on the opening day of the season is good going.

 

[NL Max]

I don't think he's being played as a 10, rather one of the two strikers in a 4-4-2 which is pretty how much how we lined up against Spurs.

Van Gaal and 442? The one formation he named last year as one he didn't like when explaining why he did like 433. We play 433 with the midfield point forward (a 10), or 4231 or 4411 as some call it. The 10 plays very high behind the striker, that's how van Gaal has always instructed them so it can look like a 442 when it's only the first match I guess.

 

[Shimo]

Regarding Memphis sub - don't think he was throwing a strop - I though that at first but, it came across that way because the producers knew he was being subbed off and the camera was on him but, Spurs were making a sub at the same time and that came first, so it just took a bit before his number came up officially for him to walk off the pitch.

 

[Lennon7]

Quite pleased with the win. Lack of creativity from central and wide areas still a big issue but I guess that's nothing new. Regardless, a 1-0 win against top 6/7 side on the opening day of the season is good going.

Exactly this. We beat Spurs. It wasn't attractive or convincing but for the first game of the season it's a good result. 3 points is 3 points!

 

[Siorac]

I really don't understand people complaining about the lack of chances. We created a 1v1 opportunity after 20 mins and after that just closed the game out. Are we really expecting; on the first day of a new season when several players are not match fit and several players have never played for us before; to go out and try to beat Spurs by 3-4 goals? The expectations on here are total fantasy as times. Four of our back five have played a total of 41 games for Man Utd in the Premier League. It was clear every part of our game plan had this in mind. The two midfielders that were put in front of them are both steady and safe, but not creative. The two full backs were very conservative; which lead to Mata/Young being isolated at times. This is the same type of performance we've put in hundreds of times before under Fergie; sluggish & not creative, but ultimately disciplined, efficient and with 3 points.

The game would have been completely different if Erikson had put away his early chance. We'd have been far more offensive and Spurs would have sat back and it may have been a great game that finished with United winning by a few goals. However he didn't and therefore we didn't need to go out and score 2-3. Over the years there's been hundreds of games where I've gone into the last 10 minutes crapping myself; this game was not one of them. We safely closed out the 1-0 with a couple of simple saves from the goalkeeper.

We had one shot on target. It's very reasonable to expect more than that at home, certainly not "total fantasy".

The last 10 minutes were nerve-racking, we kept giving the ball away and Romero bailed us out on a couple of occasions.

 

[ravelston]

Good point. He has bought Memphis so he will shoehorn him in, even if it is to the detriment of the team. Memphis is definitely more productive than Ashley.
So he is basically saying a lad who scored god knows how many goals and had god knows how many assists as a winger isn't as good as Ashley Young. What a load of claptrap.

This is a bit silly. An awful lot of young players with skill and speed make their breakthroughs as wingers. Doesn't mean that that's where they play the bulk of their careers. Charlton and Best wouldn't have scored anything like the number of goals that they did if they hadn't moved infield for substantial parts of their careers. We'd probably never have heard of Schweinsteiger if he hadn't moved to midfield. We all know that Memphis didn't really play as a winger last year - the free role he had at PSV was much more like the role he's playing for us. He's finding it a lot more difficult to find space in the PL, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be given the chance.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

This is a bit silly. An awful lot of young players with skill and speed make their breakthroughs as wingers. Doesn't mean that that's where they play the bulk of their careers. Charlton and Best wouldn't have scored anything like the number of goals that they did if they hadn't moved infield for substantial parts of their careers. We'd probably never have heard of Schweinsteiger if he hadn't moved to midfield. We all know that Memphis didn't really play as a winger last year - the free role he had at PSV was much more like the role he's playing for us. He's finding it a lot more difficult to find space in the PL, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be given the chance.

Bastian might not have been a very good winger, but LvG thought he could play somewhere else. Why move a good winger? He might not make a good No.10? If he doesn't, how many goals are not being scored while LvG has to be clever again?

 

[NL Max]

Regarding Memphis sub - don't think he was throwing a strop - I though that at first but, it came across that way because the producers knew he was being subbed off and the camera was on him but, Spurs were making a sub at the same time and that came first, so it just took a bit before his number came up officially for him to walk off the pitch.

Could be. It's also very well possible that he was just dissapointed with his own performance, he gave the pass to Young leading up to the goal but I'm sure he expected more from himself. Even at PSV if he missed a chance when they were leading you could see him being genuenly annoyed, I like that about him. He's never good enough for himself and always wants more. I also think van Gaal told him about the sub before the game so I don't think it was a surprise to him.

 

[finneh]

We had one shot on target. It's very reasonable to expect more than that at home, certainly not "total fantasy".

The last 10 minutes were nerve-racking, we kept giving the ball away and Romero bailed us out on a couple of occasions.

We had one shot on target because they scored an own goal and we were happy enough with a 1-0 win. If the last 10 minutes were nerve-racking in your opinion then I'd say you probably shouldn't watch Football on a regular basis as you'll probably have a heart attack by 40! Also if Romero "bailed us out" on a couple of occasions then I'd re-evaluate what you expect of a goalkeeper; he made one or two rudimentary saves that you'd expect any even semi-pro keeper to make.

Likewise people don't seem to be giving any context to the situation itself. Half of our team were debutants. All of our team were lacking in match fitness and that showed with both teams. Spurs had one or two good chances and we had one or two good chances; the difference between the two was that we went 1-0 up so didn't need to force the issue. I'd be far more worried if I were a Spurs fan: being only 1-0 down and looking so incredibly toothless for 70 minutes against a defence consisting of a player playing out of position and 2 debutants.

If there were ever a game to take the positives it's this one (Darmian's performance, Schweinsteiger looking sharp, Smalling being excellent, Shaw looking ready for the new season, a new goalkeeper putting in a decent performance, a clean sheet, three points).

 

[sunama]

We had one shot on target because they scored an own goal and we were happy enough with a 1-0 win.

So, you are saying that we were happy and grateful for having 1 shot on goal?
I suppose against Chelsea we'd be happy with 0 shots on goal.
Anyway, this is the sort of mentality I'd expect for a relegation candidate, not from MUFC players.

 

[finneh]

So, you are saying that we were happy and grateful for having 1 shot on goal?
I suppose against Chelsea we'd be happy with 0 shots on goal.
Anyway, this is the sort of mentality I'd expect for a relegation candidate, not from MUFC players.

Don't be idiotic; read the post. Van Gaal will have been happy with the defensive solidity, happy with several of the performances and happy with the three points. No-one is saying we're happy with 1 shot on target; just that given the context the doom and gloom is bizarre. The context of the game meant there was no reason for the team to press for a second or third. As I said sometimes being somewhat pragmatic is the common sense route; with all the debutants, lack of match fitness & how poor Spurs looked in the final third... Why give them chances on the counter?

Sometimes winning ugly is the smart choice; as we've seen with Fergie and Mourinho over the years. If ever there was a game to win ugly it was Saturday.

 

[Siorac]

We had one shot on target because they scored an own goal and we were happy enough with a 1-0 win. If the last 10 minutes were nerve-racking in your opinion then I'd say you probably shouldn't watch Football on a regular basis as you'll probably have a heart attack by 40! Also if Romero "bailed us out" on a couple of occasions then I'd re-evaluate what you expect of a goalkeeper; he made one or two rudimentary saves that you'd expect any even semi-pro keeper to make.

Likewise people don't seem to be giving any context to the situation itself. Half of our team were debutants. All of our team were lacking in match fitness and that showed with both teams. Spurs had one or two good chances and we had one or two good chances; the difference between the two was that we went 1-0 up so didn't need to force the issue. I'd be far more worried if I were a Spurs fan: being only 1-0 down and looking so incredibly toothless for 70 minutes against a defence consisting of a player playing out of position and 2 debutants.

If there were ever a game to take the positives it's this one (Darmian's performance, Schweinsteiger looking sharp, Smalling being excellent, Shaw looking ready for the new season, a new goalkeeper putting in a decent performance, a clean sheet, three points).

You can dress it up all you want. Last season we scored the fewest goals out of all the top 4 teams and we still look incredibly bereft of creativity in attack. Our build-up is slow and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the play whatsoever. Which is a big worry because we cannot always get away with defending a 1-0 lead. We didn't have a decent counter-attack, we just didn't threaten Spurs at all and that's never good, even if your main aim is protecting that one goal lead.

We did okay defensively until the last 10 minutes; then Spurs started creating chances. The positives (Darmian, Smalling, Romero, the three points) are all good and undeniable but the problems of last season are still apparent. We badly need that pacy creative player that LVG was talking about. My worry is that Pedro isn't that player: he's pacy, disciplined, a good finisher, a decent passer but you couldn't really call him creative.

 

[Wumminator]

We scored the fourth most goals. We came fourth.

There's no way "we scored the least out of the top four" is anything but spin. We were in line with where we come in the league. Let's hope we push on.

 

[Siorac]

We scored the fourth most goals. We came fourth.

There's no way "we scored the least out of the top four" is anything but spin. We were in line with where we come in the league. Let's hope we push on.

Scoring fewer goals than the teams that finished ahead of us is a big reason they finished ahead of us; that's kind of my point. We scored 62 goals compared to famously defensive and boring Chelsea's 73.

Defensively there wasn't much between the top teams which is why the notion that it's our defensive issues that prevent us from being challengers was ridiculous. It's the lack of creativity, the laboured attacking play that's holding us back, it was an issue last season and we haven't done anything to fix it yet. I hope we will.

Of course, if you'd be happy with another fourth place finish then there's no need to be concerned about our attack. We can get fourth with this squad and these tactics, I'm sure.

 

[Wumminator]

Scoring fewer goals than the teams that finished ahead of us is a big reason they finished ahead of us; that's kind of my point. We scored 62 goals compared to famously defensive and boring Chelsea's 73.

Defensively there wasn't much between the top teams which is why the notion that it's our defensive issues that prevent us from being challengers was ridiculous. It's the lack of creativity, the laboured attacking play that's holding us back, it was an issue last season and we haven't done anything to fix it yet. I hope we will.

Of course, if you'd be happy with another fourth place finish then there's no need to be concerned about our attack. We can get fourth with this squad and these tactics, I'm sure.

We scored 11 less than Chelsea who were the second top scorers in the league no matter how defensive you think they were.

We need to score more goals this season. I think we will. It's stupid to judge after one game against Tottenham.

 

[finneh]

You can dress it up all you want. Last season we scored the fewest goals out of all the top 4 teams and we still look incredibly bereft of creativity in attack. Our build-up is slow and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the play whatsoever. Which is a big worry because we cannot always get away with defending a 1-0 lead. We didn't have a decent counter-attack, we just didn't threaten Spurs at all and that's never good, even if your main aim is protecting that one goal lead.

We did okay defensively until the last 10 minutes; then Spurs started creating chances. The positives (Darmian, Smalling, Romero, the three points) are all good and undeniable but the problems of last season are still apparent. We badly need that pacy creative player that LVG was talking about. My worry is that Pedro isn't that player: he's pacy, disciplined, a good finisher, a decent passer but you couldn't really call him creative.

If people are worried about this season in reference to problems we had last season then fair enough. My point was about people moaning about the game vs Spurs in isolation. It's probably the worst game you could use to take any general patterns of our play away from. Raft of new players making debut? Check. First game back after 3 month break? Check. Scored early so didn't need to focus on scoring again? Check. Opposition looked toothless so didn't need to focus on scoring again? Check. Difficult team who could punish us? Check.

I don't really buy this "pacey, creative player" requirement that Van Gaal is talking about. We've just spent £25m on a player who is exactly that. Likewise I don't think Spurs created much at all towards the end; certainly nothing that was particularly worrying.

 

[Utd heap]

First home game of the season i have missed in a decade.

fecking weird getting up at 6am to watch it in Colombia. Not helped by the tediousness of the game.

 

[RedFish]

Well, we won.....that's about it. I still believe we'll get it right, but LVG can dither as last season has shown.....I hope he chooses the tactics and players which we crave rather thaan have them enforce upon him (by injuries and suspensions). Herrera imo should be the creative hub of the team. He's the tick tock man without which we look a bit predictable. Still, its one game down and who knows what he's planning....?