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.
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.
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