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Manchester United Thread 2015/16


Harryseaess

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Looking forward to and more confident about today than for a long while. Arsenal will surely leave the gaps that LvG sets us up to exploit but are some distance from any kind of form which should cause us problems.

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I'm never truly confident ahead of these "haha it's only Arsenal" clashes, because they have the quality to turn over just about any side. Hopefully we manage to exploit their weaknesses and put away our chances. Would be great with a win, obviously, to continue the trend of doing well against top teams.

At some point we need to start rotating a bit more, can't play with the same 11-13 for months on end, but today I'm expecting the team we've more or less played for the whole season, Shaw aside. The only question is on what side Darmian plays, who is on the other, and who our midfield pair is. Since Carrick had a knock recently, suppose it will be Bastian and Schneiderlin, with Carrick coming on the last 20-30 minutes for Bastian, as that seems to be how LVG manages them.

Will be happy with any kind of win.

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A win would be great but wouldn't be unhappy with a draw. It's away to Arsenal, it's not one of those games we should expect to be winning, like I'd never expect to win away at City or Chelsea or maybe Liverpool.

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David de Gea; Ashley Young, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Matteo Darmian; Michael Carrick, Bastian Schweinsteiger; Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney, Memphis; Anthony Martial.

Quite expected. Carrick fit again then.

Wilson and McNair on the bench, but not Pereira.

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What are people's team thougts for today? I'd prefer to stick with Blind over Jones at the back. Sure, I;ve said myself that I don't want Blind there long term and it isn't right that we are in the situation of playing him there regularly, but at the moment it is just about working with him there so I would much rather stick with him than start Jones. Think I'd get Darmian back to RB and start Young at LB as the lesser of two evil fullbacks - Valencia being the other.

Would favour Carrick/Schweinsteiger in the middle and stick with the Memphis-Martial-Mata - Rooney front four thing we've had going on as, again, it's just about worked well enough so far.

Well, got the exact team I asked for, so can't be any happier with the team. Though I do wonder if it will be Darmian at LB and Young at RB as we ended up against Wolfsburg. Getting excited now. Not through expectation, more hope and how awesome it would be to win.

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He's talented, but Memphis has been poor for a good while now. Head down and dribbling into three guys all the time.

Such a disappointing start to the game, must be a shock to the players to be 0-2 down barely inside 5 minutes. Hopefully LVG and Giggs say something sensible at half-time and we get out there trying to win that half at least. Points are out of reach, but at least get a good performance in the 2nd half. Shame Martial didn't score that chance just before half-time, it could have lifted the spirits if nothing else.

We'll still be third, though, so there is that I guess. Fear we're going to find out throughout this season that the team is way too thin. Already running out of defenders, and don't exactly have many options up front either, apart from in central midfield. Hope Carrick finds some form soon and this is his usual slow start to the season showings.

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Team IS way too thin. Always needed another CB. Always. And, with Rojo hurt we are in dire straits with no true LB backup. Young is trying but he is flat out poor at defending.

I said Depay is either sublime or a train wreck a while back. He runs so hot and so so so cold.

Get a goal back and make it respectable at least. Or, kick them a lot. Something.

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A Keane-Scholes central pairing would be good right about now, and not just for the kicks.

Exactly. I was kidding about the kicks....mostly.

Carrick and Schweinie don't work together. Especially in a match like this. Was only thing I was concerned about prematch. Obviously, there was more to be concerned about, but that was what caught my eye.

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Not much to take out of that game, the only positive I can really see is that Martial once again proves that he belongs in our starting eleven, he was really good today, despite the lack of a goal. Good to see Wilson get 10 minutes too, even if he stood zero chance to impact the game given the score and play.

As usual people will blame Rooney for everything between losing the game and global warming, but he was okay today. Not great by any means, but he was okay, which is more than can be said about most out there.

Smalling was good too I think, at least in parts, but I'm sure he could have done many things better too considering we were three goals down inside 20 minutes, and could have conceded 3 more.

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Rooney was his usual 5/10 showing so far this season, which happens to put him well within the top half or performers from today.

The biggest culprit is LvG, madness to start the game without Schneiderlin. While I've had my criticisms of Darmian, Blind etc. before, seems harsh to lay blame at any of the defenders feet when they were playing 4v6 constantly.

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Thanks to Redcafe I can say I gave De Gea and Martial a 6 and everyone else (not including the subs, I mean what do you even do when you come on 3-0 down?) 5 or lower, average came out at 4.5 which seems generous. Carrick getting my first 1/10 of the season for actually doing nothing, which I didn't think possible.

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I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say we were embarrassing today - certainly for the first 25 minutes.

As a unit, I said in the week an it has been proved again, that we are too poor at the back. Cut open so many times today as a unit, they should probably have had 6 goals today.

Also I said 4 or 5 games back that Depay has been poor and needs dropping, and a few people voiced against it, but by christ if anyone wants him starting our next game now then they are unequivocally wrong. He consistently has no end product, keeps running in to players and getting disposessed and his passing is pretty woeful. He's been so poor yet today he managed to have his worst game yet. Schweinsteiger also had his worst game for us as did Darmian and you can not afford to have 3 players putting in their worst performance away to Arsenal.

Rooney was pretty ineffective again. Perhaps he was as good as okay - as Pan says - but okay isn't good enough when that's the highest level of performance he has achieved in the past 18 months. He is pretty much a passenger these days, it is not even clear exactly what role he plays in the team.

Martial, on the other hand, continues to impress. Sure he hasn't scored in his last couple of games but he is the one player consistenly showing guile and willing. He is so strong and skillful, and is truly a delight to watch. He would have scored but for top-class keeping from Cech, an area where Arsenal are infinitely better this season that the past few years.

Look at Arsenal's goals today, then compare it to our lack of movement and incisiveness around the opposition box. There is no real instinct there, it's such football-by-numbers and is so easy for opposing teams to defend against.

And I think nothing sums up our squad depth at the minute more than being behind away to Arsenal and bringing on Valencia and Fellaini in some effort to turn things around. We've spent £100m/£150m two summers in a row and we still lack squad depth to such a worrying degree.

It was nice to see Wilson get 10 minutes, but I'm also worried that he only gets time on the pitch when there is literally nothing to be done about the result. Great little run in their box, just running at everyone, and beating a few players before the ball broke to Martial. That's the guile you would hope to see from others.

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Thanks to Redcafe I can say I gave De Gea and Martial a 6 and everyone else (not including the subs, I mean what do you even do when you come on 3-0 down?) 5 or lower, average came out at 4.5 which seems generous. Carrick getting my first 1/10 of the season for actually doing nothing, which I didn't think possible.

almost impressive how bad carrick was. not an ounce of speed between him, schwein, blind, fellaini, mata and rooney. just completely overrun all over the place.

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Preaching to the choir etc., cause it's been said a million times, but Carrick just don't look good in a 4231. He should be playing as a lone deep midfielder with 2 in front of him, always been his best role, where he can just intercept passes without anyone really noticing. If we're gonna keep playing 4231, even against teams with proper attacking midfielders, Schneiderlin should be the first name on the team sheet. I'd much rather we play 4141/4123 though. Think it would fit all our midfielders much better.

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Preaching to the choir etc., cause it's been said a million times, but Carrick just don't look good in a 4231. He should be playing as a lone deep midfielder with 2 in front of him, always been his best role, where he can just intercept passes without anyone really noticing. If we're gonna keep playing 4231, even against teams with proper attacking midfielders, Schneiderlin should be the first name on the team sheet. I'd much rather we play 4141/4123 though. Think it would fit all our midfielders much better.

I agree, but to be fair Arsenal were fantastic, passing with lightning speed. United just couldn't come near them in that first twenty or so minutes.

Hopefully we'll be picked up in time for the next series of fixtures.

Edit: Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal speaking to Sky Sports: “When you start like that you can never win a game, we lost every duel, every second ball, not tight on their midfielder, and they can play they are a fantastic team when you let them give them that space it is difficult.

“That was the worse United have been under me, we were not able to give a normal performance.

“I have never seen that of my team, that is the question I put to my players. You can not solve that now, a lot of emotion and I am emotional as well.

“I could not change anything, if it was just one player then I can take measure but it was more than half of my team who were not doing what we had agreed in our game plan.

“I am shocked, you don’t expect it, we were top of the league, won last four matches and have to protect our position, possible against Arsenal. Way we had started, so without emotion. Not expect that, difficult to understand and will have to look for the reasons."

Can't argue with that!

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Rooney is poo.

Would like Mata to play as our number10. He is worthless out wide. He drifts in and does most of his damage from the centre.

Young - Mata - Depay

-------Martial/Rooney-----

Too many sideway passing when at times Valencia or Young was running down the wings. It's like we don't trust them as we know they will sooner or later loose the ball and the effort to get it back is too much.

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That 15 minutes was unbelievable. Nev was saying it all game so don't want to just repeat him but it's true. Our defence was good up to then. We know how to beat Arsenal. Why suddenly did we start the game like that. Was from kick off. Again Nev mentioned when the game was about to kick off that we started off so high. Problems started from there. Schweinsteiger going walk about. Just defend properly and Arsenal will give you chances. Yet we give them a 3-0 head start.

Rooney has to be dropped.

Hate having to wait 2 weeks after a loss.

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