Questions

Questions for this weekend

What formation?
Can Van Persie really start every week, when so out of form?
Can our defence last 90 minutes without picking up yet another injury?
Can we win 3 games on the bounce?
Why oh why, couldn't we be playing Liverpool NOW?





Music

Clipping - CLPPNG: Superior left field hip hop, I really liked this, top drawer.

Gulp - Season Sun: Is there anything the Super Furries or the various offshoots do that's less than excellent. Guto Price and the Mrs deliver this poppier effort.

Ibibio Sound Machine - Ibibio Sound Machine: Afrobeat with the emphasis on the funk from this London based international colective, superb.

Jungle - Jungle: Very 80's sounding, but in a good way

Matthew Halsall & the Gondwana orchestra - When the world was one: The bar was set high, but I think this is his best album yet, very Coltrane!

Peter Buck - I Am Back To Blow Your Mind Once Again: Wasn't really sure what to expect from a Peter Buck solo album, think it's safe to say it wasn't really a dirty scuzzy rock n roll album. Needless to say, I love the dodgy as fuck vocals even add to the charm.

The John Steel Singers - Everythings a Thread: Another excellent Aussie indie band, I've seen them bracketed along with Tame Impala, I don't that's fair, no they're not as good, but they veer more to the cosmic wig out than Kevin Parker who I always think has a big Beatles influence hidden away in his songwriting.

White Fence - For The Recently Found: Innocent. Sometime TY Segal collaborators, hit their own motherload with this excellent heavily 60's influenced cracker.

Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United

What a weird game, we got the three points which was vital, but jesus we were stomach churningly bad for the first half an hour. How Arsenal didn't score during that period of domination, god only knows. The Wilshere miss was a real howler, all he had to do was pass it into the corner of the net, instead he hit it straight at De Gea. The big Spaniard had another fine game, but there were times when he shouldn't have been given the chance to shine.
I can't say I was thrilled when the rumours of a three man defence first started to surface. We haven't got the players to make it work and the players never look comfortable in that formation. That first half an hour was just plain embarrassing, nobody played well and nobody looked as if they had a clue about what they were meant to be doing. Let's be honest, at least the debacles at home to Liverpool and City last season were against decent teams at the top of their game, you couldn't say that about Arsenal yesterday, Moyes would have been murdered for a performance like that yesterday. What got me about the reversion to a back three, was that it completely handed them the intiative, that they failed to take advantage was just pure luck for our part, ineptitude from their's. Maybe Van Gaal is a lucky general, because you just know that last season we would have lost that game yesterday. I have to be honest though, I'm starting to think that I'm never really going to warm to his methods.
At least when we managed to emerge from that nightmarish opening the game became a more even affair, as United actually enjoyed some decent possession for the first time in the game. Even so I couldn't really see a goal in us, and it was no surprise that when it came, it came with a huge slice of luck. Di Maria whilst being nowhere near as impressive as he was in those first few games in the middle, was at least far more involved in his more central position. He really should have scored when clean through, thankfully Rooney spared his blushes when the Argentine put him clean through near the end to hit that all important second goal. Important, because Giroud's blast in the dying minutes made it a bit more arse twitching than it had looked like being when Rooney had made it 2-0.
So we're back in the top four, and we have our first away win of the season, things are looking up, or is it just such a poor league this season?

Injuries!!!

International breaks are getting ever more irritating, there certainly seem to more of them, but when halfway through this particular break, we have seemingly lost Carrick for next Saturday, De Gea possibly our player of the season so far, and now Daley Blind for who knows how long it's getting a touch beyond a joke.
As if we don't seem to lose players on our own, week in week out, the last thing we need is for them to get crocked playing for their national teams. Fingers crossed there are no more!

Music

Abdulla Rashim - Unanimity: Swedish electronica that's maybe too beat driven to be ambient, but leans towards te more chilled out at times, it's good stuff.

Ethan Johns - The Reckoning: The producer turned recording artists second album, his debut was pretty good and this is on a similar level, it's hard to believe he's English sometimes, it's such an American sound.

James - La Petit Mort: A pretty solid James album, wasn't too sure after the first couple of listens, but it's a grower.

Klaxons - Love Frequency: It's a decent enough album, but I'm not sure that their sound will be a model for band longevity.

Manic Street Preachers - Futurology: I've always liked the Manics but never loved them as others do, but over the last decade they have produced consistently excellent albums, so maybe I should love them. This is another corker.

The pains of being pure at heart - Days of abandon: A heavy Smiths/Belle and Sebastien type influence pervades the US indie/pop bands third album, it's a good album, but their debut, which was a real belter, had a hint of power that they seem to have lost, not for the better.

Tori Amos - Unrepentant Gerladines: The US left field singer/songwriter is still delivering the goods and this really does deliver.

Manchester United 1-0 Crystal Palace

Just when you think United may have turned a corner, as the draw against Chelsea and the creditable defeat at City seemed to suggest, we get Saturday's lacklustre performance. Still it was absolutely imperative that we got the three points, and with a bit of luck we managed it.
We continued the 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 formation, that has seen us get tighter at the back, but as Van Gaal admitted after the game, it seems to be at the expence of attacking threat. It doesn't help so many of our attacking players are just not clicking. Van Persie really should have been dropped by now, you could see the difference when Wilson came on and immediately we had speed up front. Di Maria seems to have lost his spark, since he's been moved from the middle to his current position on the flanks. I have been a big fan of Januzaj, but his form has absolutley slumped, he seems to have lost all his confidence. One of Van Gaal's big plus points was supposed to improving young players, something has gone badly wrong there.
I couldn't understand why Fellaini was chosen in front of Herrera, it didn't do much for our creativity, that's for sure. I'm presuming he was picked for his height at set pieces, but was that really necessary against Crystal Palace at home. The big plus points were the return of Carrick, who showed was we have been missing right from the start of the game. It was a touch strange that he ended the game at centre half, but given Blinds lack of pace, I wasn't that unhappy at that move. The other big plus was the improved form of Shaw who really looked the player people have been saying he is capable of becoming.
I have to admit being non plussed at the introduction of Mata for Januzaj, not player for player, that was fair enough, but at the introduction of Mata on the right hand side of our attack. We were slaughtering Moyes for playing him out wide last season and I still think it was a dodgy substitution. But, he came up with the goal, so all's well that ends well. He could have had another at the end and Rooney should definitely scored right at the death. It was game we had to win, and win we did so there's only so much grumbling to be had at the performance. Given Arsenal's woes at the moment, that is going to be one hard to call game at the Emirates in a couple of weeks.

Music

Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin: His last solo album was a bit of a cracker, this is a solid follow up, without touching the same heights.

First Aid Kit - Stay Gold: Another good effort by the Swedish folk/rock sibling duo, the more listens, the more it delivers.

GoGo Penguin - v2.0: The debut album from the Mancunian jazz tinged outfit was pretty good, this follow up is even better.

Jack White - Lazaretto: His first completely solo album Blunderbuss was one of his very best, this follow up is good, but not quite as good, no shame in that, most artists would die for an album as good as this.

The Soundcarriers - Entropicalia: The first album I've heard from this UK blissed out psychedelia flavoured band, and it hit the spot almost straight away.

TuneYards - Nikki nack: This album got some impressive reviews, yet i noticed some people out there seemed to absolutely hate it. I can see why, some times I listen to it and thinks it's alright, at others I want to turn it off after a coule of tracks. Not one for the memory banks.

Manchester City 1-0 Manchester United

I was confident going into this derby, not so much because we we were on top form, but because we  seemed to be improving, whilst they seemed to be all over the place. Even though the game went against us, it was a reasonable assesment of the game to come.
Whilst we seemed to dominate the first 20 minutes, terrtotorially, we didn't create the chances that the possession deserved. And then out of nowhere, De Gea had to make two wonder saves to keep us in the match. One day somebody will explain to me, what it is exactly that leads them to believe Valencia can do a job at right back. Smalling was idiottic to get sent off, but it was easy to see why he lost his head, when he thought he had to charge into the right back position to get the Soth American out of another mess of his own making. The only problem being he was as of the pace as Valencia.
Any chance we had of winning the game disapearred at that moment.There can be argument over the substition of Januzaj, he had looked one of our more more promising forward players. I wouldn't have took him off that is for sure. But fot all Van Gaal's big talk we have all seen he will not take Roney or Van Persie off when it matters. Though the late substitution of Van Persie may signal that the Dutchman is no longer untouchable.
Once Smalling was sent off, I feared the worst, expecting us to get murdered. So from that point of view the second half can only be seen in a positive light. There was a spell when it looked as if we may be in for a humiliation, but once we got over that wobble. United put in a reasonable display. That was helped by City's performance of course, their display over that last fifteen minutes or so, against ten men and against that back four was unbelievable. It's hard to be sure of how the game would have panned out if it had been eleven against eleven, but it's hard to believe we would have come out of that game without something to show for it.
Despite our poor start, results and points wise, you can see we are heading in the right direction. Though the defence is going backwards, injury wise and playing wise, their is miles more character and fight from the players than there was under Moyes. It still defies belief though, that we didn't buy an established centre half during the summer. That said, I can't say that I'm jumping for joy at any of the centre backs that we've been linked with in the press over the last couple of months. Once we get the Arsenal game over and done with, we have a run of games where we should be able to go on a good run. If we that doesn't happen, the journalists who this morning have tried to paint a picture of doom over Old trafford, will really have something to write about.