I am not very impressed so far. It's good to talk about philosophies and ideas; it's the implementation that brings results. The results so far have been disappointing. I, personally, have found it hard to judge whether the improvements are due to the spend (Di Maria, Blind and Herrera basically) or the "philosophy". Still see a lot of aimless crossing, lot of hoofing, and defensive disorganisation. The expectations have been lowered so far that I was thrilled with a draw against Chelsea at home. I want to believe that Chelsea was an inflection point and we'll see a turn towards the positive from here on. Though there have been too many false dawns over the course of last season and this, that I choose to remain sceptical. Once bitten, twice shy.
The defense remains a major worry. Rojo and Blackett as left sided CB's give me jitters, and the stellar injury record of the right sided CB's means that McNair will have a huge role to play this season. Hard to fathom that Sir Alex had Garay lined up with our 5 CB's, still the two subsequent managers chose to ignore the area (Ya, Rojo, but is he a defender? I have my doubts). Anyone with two eyes knows that we need a defensive leader to marshall our defense (His name is neither Matt, Ryan or Ron). I only have time to follow two sports regularly - Basketball and Football - and in either, I have hardly seen a team win championships with only a stellar offense.
The squad remains as unbalanced, if not more, after a big transfer window. 433/4231 looks the way forward, but we are heavily loaded in the striking/SS positions. 442 diamond with two offensive players on either side of Blind leaves too many open spaces. Our main two strikers and Mata are not hardworking enough and lack pace to make the system work. Van Persie becomes half the player when he is not in the center and has to move towards the right or the left to get the ball. And I am fearful that we may be a di Maria injury away from a total catastrophe. Currently, he is the only one who brings that little extra that keeps the opposition honest.
Van Gaal has a huge challenge on his hands. We are already behind the eight ball and there are hardly any freebies in the premier league. You have to go out and win each game in this league.
It would be preposterous to give a verdict at this moment. Will have to wait at least till the turn of the year to see how things pan out. However, our performances in the next three, especially against City and Arsenal will give a glimpse of where we might end up this season.
Well, actually you have seen a team win championships with only a stellar offense. SAF's final season. We were rubbish defensively and conceded many goals, but we sure scored goals like nobody's business.
Gotta agree that we cannot fully judge LvG right now. We have lost so many experienced players and brought in so many new players and we also need to consider the new manager's style, tactics and training. The team is simply in transition right now and it doesn't help that we have had so many injuries as well. When things average out over the season, then we'll see the results come in.
As for squad balance, I have to disagree. The team was more imbalanced before the transfer window.
1) We have more defensive options now instead of only 3 senior defenders
2) There are more midfield options now instead of only Carrick to choose from
3) We can choose ADM and Januzaj on the wings now instead of Young and Valencia.
4) There are only 2 players instead of 3 challenging for that number 10 role now
We only had a strong attack and strong goalkeeper last season. The defence was poor/too slow and had to defend deep and the midfield had to stay deep as well to cover them. That is why we only played a long ball and crossing game last season. Now we have more options across the board (not all world class options, but it's a good start).
The better balance in squad selection is also helped by LvG's organization and tactics as well. Our attack is no longer isolated upfront. We're getting them on the ball more often. The team no longer longer plays only one way of football. There is variety of play. We can play possession or we can play counter attack. We can play long balls and crosses or we can play through the middle. We can play technical players for a more technical game or we can field more physical players for a more physical game. We can play wide and we can play narrow.
Most important of all. We now also have a better balance of pace, power and work rate now. The past 10 years, any team that wants to challenge for the title must have a good combination of these 3 qualities. Last season we simply had no pace and power.
This is all good balance.
I like LVG and think he really analyses everything which is great. His lack of perfect English is slightly annoying but that will improve (although it doesnt seem to bother him remotely!) Because of that you dont criticise him like Moyes, when he always used to say words like ''try'' to improve and refer to the history etc, but LVG doesnt do this.
In terms of style / philosophy I'm actually still struggling to see what it is that LVG wants our players to do. I think we do have more impetus in attack but actual style it still seems quite confusing - I think Blind is still left alone far too much with too much space around him. Other than Di Maria players arent getting quick balls into the box, full backs arent over lapping as much as some.
LVG quotes are interesting after the game, where he is pleased with different aspects from other managers, I believe he was saying how well we played against Chelsea and West Brom because of the ''chances'' created...but few of these weren't great chances really in my mind, long shots on goal etc. He seems to appreciate different things. But Im still slightly confused as to what his perfect game / perfect utd performance would look like. Di Maria seems to want to be productive every time he gets the ball but is that LVG or him (Crosses or shots or something creative). Shaw seems to go forward but then give the ball backwards is that LVG trying to not loose possession or Shaw being cautious. Mata seems to pick it up and play it wide every time, him or LVG? Against West Brom we kept trying the chip through ball for an RVP volley, was that a deliberate tactic? Blind is often left alone in CM with large spaces either side, is that deliberate, LVG asking him to cover space pick up the ball and then find our CM's for a quick counter allow us to bring space into the middle of the park?
Im looking forward to his ideas getting installed as he's a quality manager and players trust him. The biggest thing too is that fans trust him, even though our results havent been great and our general play questionable even though spending a lot of cash etc (we do have injuries so think everyone realises this) but I like other fans have not got on the teams case and are just looking forward to watching the next game.
Anyone who thinks they can shed light on what LVG has implemented, and what he is trying to do in each position with our team, let me know?
In terms of philosophy, what I see is more variety of play. Same like under SAF. Variety, rather than just one style. We can play crossing and long balls E.g. ADM. We can play through balls through the middle. E.g. Mata and Januzaj's through balls.
As for the rest, you can read my previous post.
