United under LvG: verdict so far!

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Mciahel Goodman said:
The people that were moaning for the last few weeks, your endorsements aren't worth a hell of a lot because if we lose at Anfield next week you'll be calling for his head again.
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Depends how we perform.

At least that what counts for me. If we give a good account of ourselves, play some decent football and lose to a genuinely better Liverpool then Van Gaal has done his job.

If our performance is hampered by negative tactics, bizarre substitutions and/or a frustrating formation then, quite rightly, focus will be placed into Van Gaal.

That's how it works (for me at least). I don't really understand the propensity on here to attack, either directly or passively, fans who differ in opinion to your own.
 
JUPITER said:
Depends how we perform.

At least that what counts for me. If we give a good account of ourselves, play some decent football and lose to a genuinely better Liverpool then Van Gaal has done his job.

If our performance is hampered by negative tactics, bizarre substitutions and/or a frustrating formation then, quite rightly, focus will be placed into Van Gaal.

That's how it works (for me at least). I don't really understand the propensity on here to attack, either directly or passively, fans who differ in opinion to your own.
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Simple, we win: "I'm 100% behind the manager." We lose: "He needs to leave, he won't get us into the top four and his style of football is shite."

Very fickle, fair-weather sort of support.
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
Simple, we win: "I'm 100% behind the manager." We lose: "He needs to leave, he won't get us into the top four and his style of football is shite."

Very fickle, fair-weather sort of support.
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Not sure what on Earth you're talking about as I made it perfectly clear in my post that my personal attitude is - we perform to the best of our abilities and I support the manager regardless of result or league position.

Dr. Funkenstein said:
Does it? I don't see that much difference with the match against Arsenal.
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You don't see a difference between the Spurs game and the Arsenal game on Monday...?

Wow.
 
JUPITER said:
Not sure what on Earth you're talking about as I made it perfectly clear in my post that my personal attitude is - we perform to the best of our abilities and I support the manager regardless of result or league position.
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You must be unable to read or comprehend simple sentences, then. I was summing up the attitude of certain posters who call for LvG to leave after a bad result but then give him their unrequited support after a victory.

If you support the manager regardless of result or league position, then fair enough, my post obviously has no bearing on you whatsoever.
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
The people that were moaning for the last few weeks, your endorsements aren't worth a hell of a lot because if we lose at Anfield next week you'll be calling for his head again.
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Eh? If we keep playing like this then I'll be more than happy to give him more time, even if we lose. Glad he finally realised Rooney is striker though, took him a while.
 
This result is why I'm so frustrated with LVG's management to date. We are capable of so much when he sets them up to do so. Trust them Louie, they are all good footballers, let them play!
 
PlayerOne said:
Eh? If we keep playing like this then I'll be more than happy to give him more time, even if we lose. Glad he finally realised Rooney is striker though, took him a while.
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I agree, but it was always going to take the manager time to realise his best squad, figure out his formations, what he needs to bring in, etc. Which is why he needs time. So we agree, I think.
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
I agree, but it was always going to take the manager time to realise his best squad, figure out his formations, what he needs to bring in, etc. Which is why he needs time. So we agree, I think.
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Took longer than expected but I agree. Where we go from here is important though, hopefully we get top four and then we take it from there.
 
Get us top 4, get the players identified and get them in (no excuses to leave it late this summer with no World Cup) and have a full productive pre season and hit the ground running next season.

Our start to the season (2 points in the first 3 games when we should have had at least 7), has cost us a title tilt this season.
 
That was so much better, but we've got an absolutely killer run to come, so let's see how we look after that run of games.

We were bloody excellent today though. Really pleasing.
 
golden_blunder said:
This result is why I'm so frustrated with LVG's management to date. We are capable of so much when he sets them up to do so. Trust them Louie, they are all good footballers, let them play!
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This.
 
golden_blunder said:
This result is why I'm so frustrated with LVG's management to date. We are capable of so much when he sets them up to do so. Trust them Louie, they are all good footballers, let them play!
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There is definitely truth in this.

I would look at it this way - a performance of this nature against a direct top 4 rival erodes further excuses if the dreary rubbish comes back.
 
Anti philosophy football.

Lot more intensity, direct and less of the sideways and back passing. I sensed instructions to players were different when even De Gea was kicking out the ball than simply passing to a defender a lot more today than he has done this season.
 
It's kinda annoying though, he finally brings Herrera back in and starts playing Rooney up front and we start playing better. Shame it took LVG this long to see something everyone was calling for.
 
JUPITER said:
You don't see a difference between the Spurs game and the Arsenal game on Monday...?

Wow.
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No, the main difference between today and the boring football of the last few months is the quickness of decision making, no hesistation in who to pass to, whom to press and where and when to run to. I saw lots of that monday, it just didn't work out, and the weeks before there was also progression to be seen.

golden_blunder said:
This result is why I'm so frustrated with LVG's management to date. We are capable of so much when he sets them up to do so. Trust them Louie, they are all good footballers, let them play!
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No, they're not. Finally after months and months of training they understand when and where to move and where to pass. So they look much better now, better than they are.
 
pocco said:
Very good performance today. I hope this is more like the football we will play going forwards. Prove me wrong Luis and keep this up!

And let's not feck about with Herrera, Mata and Rooney (positionally) anymore. This could be the turning point.
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That's the thing with him though, we are inconsistent because we are constantly shifting our best players around to pacify lesser players.
 
Result shouldn't be a huge surprise. Our home record is excellent and our record against the big teams this season is up there with seasons under Fergie.

The performance was great, of course but again, not a huge surprise. Thought our first 45 was just as good at WHL. Just didn't get any break of the ball. Today everything that could go right for us did go right for us.
 
Dr. Funkenstein said:
No, they're not. Finally after months and months of training they understand when and where to move and where to pass. So they look much better now, better than they are.
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I'd argue that today's result was partly because they were more direct and less constrained as per the system you describe
 
Jury's still out, obviously, as we've got a lot to do yet in regards to securing a top four spot, but today was a firm step in the right direction.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
If we play well people are happy when we don't we are not. Not exactly a contradiction.
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But there's a line between not happy, and asking for him to be sacked based on one match. The latter has happened far too often on the caf this season.
 
Can't believe that people are talking about today like it was some kind of triumph of will. No. It was the fruits we bore of playing a lone striker system. From second half onwards versus Sunderland this has been what we deserve. Dominating and making chances. Can't believe it has taken LVG this long to realise that it has to be a one striker formation.
 
Let's not go overboard here. In my posts so far regarding LVG and his philosophy, I have called for patience and a broader perspective.

Whilst I believe that the team is moving upwards on a slow trajectory, I think that the novelty of the system, the relative youth of our players, the need for a large number of players to gel together will create occasional blips and occasional highs.

What's for sure, the players are more certain about their responsibilities, LVG is finding a more suitable tactic and getting used to the Premier League.

If we win or lose at Anfield, let's maintain the right perspective instead of just jumping behind LVG (if we win) or calling for his head (if we lose).

We all like to watch entertaining football, no doubt and in general entertaining football does bring with it certain results though note that Arsenal have been playing entertaining football for a long time without winning the league, and last season's fan favorite was playing entertaining football with Everton but where are they now?

This season the consideration should be a pragmatic one; an improvement in the squad and a top 4 finish. The rest can wait.
 
This football business is a weird one. If we win all our remaining matches we will as a bare minimum finish second in the league. Imagine that. :p
 
To some of the so-called "die-hard" fans on here, who call others fickle: What if DDG starts to play shite in one game and then brilliantly in another. What will you call him? Inconsistent, I guess. Same applies to the rest of the squad. By the way, same applies to Louis van Gaal. Some were telling that the squad is still shite, without putting no responsibility on Van Gaal. Guess what, it is just in the last two games we saw what we were craving for the last 30 games. Playing at higher tempo, pressing, moving between the lines, players playing in their natural positions. So, if anything, it was obviously LvG's effect on the team. He is getting full praise when he gets it right, and will be justly critisized when he gets things wrong. If your faith in LvG is based on pure baseless unconditional support, then that is what I call fanboyism. Hopefully, we are in top 4 by the end of the season, which will show that the manager has what it takes to compete for trophies. If the philosophy is what we have shown in the last two games, then nobody will moan.
 
My concern is that LVG was forced into the changes he made for the spurs game.
I think that if Rojo was available, he would have started him at left back instead of Blind or Young would have.
Blind would have probably started in midfield and Herrera or Mata would have been on the bench.
If Di Maria was available, both Herrera and Mata would have been substitutes.
That would have changed the whole dynamic of the game.

I hope he sticks with this formula, Young provides the width and energy we need to keep the right backs occupied and Herrera gives Carrick the freedom he needs to put those passes of his through.
Only change required, if that, is Di Maria in for Mata.
 
Hopefully all those claiming that the Sunderland and Newcastle games were good performances have now remembered what it's actually like to see United play well?

We need to keep it up for a run of games before it means anything...which will be tough wit the games we've got coming up...but it pretty much had to happen yesterday for it not to be too late. Under Moyes we'd play well for a game, or half a game, then he'd change everything around and completely feck it up the next week. So we'll see what happens here.

Pogue Mahone said:
Result shouldn't be a huge surprise. Our home record is excellent and our record against the big teams this season is up there with seasons under Fergie.

The performance was great, of course but again, not a huge surprise. Thought our first 45 was just as good at WHL. Just didn't get any break of the ball. Today everything that could go right for us did go right for us.
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The performance was a huge surprise to me. We played well in the first half at WHL...but our play was still quite slow and laboured. Nothing like yesterday...it was also months ago and there's been many a shite performance since.

Before the game I was hoping we'd just grind something out barely deservedly, like we have been doing. Instead we just slapped them around for 45 minutes.

One thing that annoys me is the clear difference in the last few games having a non mopey/crap striker makes. Why in the feck has RVP been getting games? He'd probably still be in the team now if he wasn't injured!

Equally baffled on yesterday's evidence why we've seen so little of Mata. It was like having a new player or someone returning from long term injury...but he's just been sitting on the bench doing nothing.
 
noodlehair said:
One thing that annoys me is the clear difference in the last few games having a non mopey/crap striker makes. Why in the feck has RVP been getting games? He'd probably still be in the team now if he wasn't injured!

Equally baffled on yesterday's evidence why we've seen so little of Mata. It was like having a new player or someone returning from long term injury...but he's just been sitting on the bench doing nothing.
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Agree with both these concerns, especially the former.

Van Gaal has done the correct thing in dropping the woeful Falcao and now he must show the same resolve to the static and ineffectual RvP.

He's dedicated almost the entire season to these two immobile strikers and Rooney has now stepped in and shown him what movement, penetration and finishing can do - Van Gaal simply must leave Rooney up top.

I'll be really, really disappointed if we see the same nonsense when RvP is fit again.
 
noodlehair said:
One thing that annoys me is the clear difference in the last few games having a non mopey/crap striker makes. Why in the feck has RVP been getting games? He'd probably still be in the team now if he wasn't injured!

Equally baffled on yesterday's evidence why we've seen so little of Mata. It was like having a new player or someone returning from long term injury...but he's just been sitting on the bench doing nothing.
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Agree about RvP. Van Gaal has obviously been assumin (along with almost everyone on here) that he would get his shit together eventually but you can only give him so many chances. The injury was definitely a blessing in disguise.

On Mata, it's Di Maria who's been keeping him out of the team. Which is no disgrace. Fellaini has more physical presence than both of them put together so adds something different and more than justified his continued selection by arguably being MOTM.

Anyway, wasn't it only a month or two back you were calling Mata an inffectual coward? Now you're using his non-selection as a stick to beat Van Gaal with? You should at least try and be consistent.
 
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