Well despite going through the festive season unbeaten, I would still regard it as a disappointment. Beat Newcastle convincingly, should have beat Tottenham but ended up hanging on and didn't deserve anything other than the point we took at Stoke yesterday. Worryingly, yet again, when you hoped United would really be able to go for the jugular during the last quarter an hour or so of yesterday's game, it was actually the home team who went closest to scoring.
Van Gaal decried our away form after the game, but whilst the players may not be good enough to adapt to his "philosophy" it's also him who's not adapting to English football at the moment. Why on Earth are we still plodding on with three at the back, when we haven't the players to make it work. And if he insists on proceeding with it, how about a little adaptability. Why didn't he go to a back four during the latter stages when we needed to go for it, instead he brought Januzaj on as a left wing back, and then the Twtitterati get on the young Belgian's back!
I've rarely been enthused at the Dutchman's use of substitutes and yesterday was another classic example of United seemingly being in control of a game away from home only to see a set of baffling substitutions see us lose all our momentum.
He's right about the away form though. It has to be remembered that under dismal Dave we had as good an away record as there was in the division. Two victories so far, and both of those were flukes is nowhere near good enough. Christ if we don't improve on this, that champions league place that we all assumed was already in the bag, will be right back in contention, never mind the players going on about title bids.
We never really play that well at Stoke despite our excellent record there, it's usually more a case of get the job done and get out of there. But those were the day when we had a top class back four. It's noticeable that we've started to struggle there since the Vidic-Ferdinand axis days. It took just two minutes for Stoke to take advantage of our defensive indecisiveness as Crouch got an unchallenged header in and Shawcross, also unmarked, coolly slotted it home. Evans was a disaster waiting to happen all afternoon, he is surely starting to live on borrowed time.
Whilst we had periods of domination of possession, it rarely led to much in the way of an attacking threat. The equaliser was almost as soft as their opening goal, a set piece that saw Falcao finsish off a near post nod on. Much was made of Falcao's performance and substitution yesterday, especially be Gary Neville. Yes it was an improved performance, and maybe he was unlucky to be taken off ahead of Van Persie who was very quiet until the Colombian went off. But Jesus he wasn't that good, his first touch was still very hit and miss and the appreciation of his game seemed to centre around his improved work rate. Maybe we should be putting a bid in for Crouch.
As I said the second half seemed to be going to plan in so much as we were bossing the game, even if we were still not creating that much. Then the substitutions were made and, nothing very much happened at all after that. To top everything else, possibly our outfield player of the season, Ashley Young pulled up with a hamstring, that seemed to sum our season up.
I'm hoping there are no experiments lined up for Sunday, along with a fair few older reds, i really want to see us go all out for a first FA cup victory in a decade. I'm afraid it doesn't matter who we play, when we play with three at the back, I'm never that confident of victory. Fingers and everything else crossed.
Van Gaal decried our away form after the game, but whilst the players may not be good enough to adapt to his "philosophy" it's also him who's not adapting to English football at the moment. Why on Earth are we still plodding on with three at the back, when we haven't the players to make it work. And if he insists on proceeding with it, how about a little adaptability. Why didn't he go to a back four during the latter stages when we needed to go for it, instead he brought Januzaj on as a left wing back, and then the Twtitterati get on the young Belgian's back!
I've rarely been enthused at the Dutchman's use of substitutes and yesterday was another classic example of United seemingly being in control of a game away from home only to see a set of baffling substitutions see us lose all our momentum.
He's right about the away form though. It has to be remembered that under dismal Dave we had as good an away record as there was in the division. Two victories so far, and both of those were flukes is nowhere near good enough. Christ if we don't improve on this, that champions league place that we all assumed was already in the bag, will be right back in contention, never mind the players going on about title bids.
We never really play that well at Stoke despite our excellent record there, it's usually more a case of get the job done and get out of there. But those were the day when we had a top class back four. It's noticeable that we've started to struggle there since the Vidic-Ferdinand axis days. It took just two minutes for Stoke to take advantage of our defensive indecisiveness as Crouch got an unchallenged header in and Shawcross, also unmarked, coolly slotted it home. Evans was a disaster waiting to happen all afternoon, he is surely starting to live on borrowed time.
Whilst we had periods of domination of possession, it rarely led to much in the way of an attacking threat. The equaliser was almost as soft as their opening goal, a set piece that saw Falcao finsish off a near post nod on. Much was made of Falcao's performance and substitution yesterday, especially be Gary Neville. Yes it was an improved performance, and maybe he was unlucky to be taken off ahead of Van Persie who was very quiet until the Colombian went off. But Jesus he wasn't that good, his first touch was still very hit and miss and the appreciation of his game seemed to centre around his improved work rate. Maybe we should be putting a bid in for Crouch.
As I said the second half seemed to be going to plan in so much as we were bossing the game, even if we were still not creating that much. Then the substitutions were made and, nothing very much happened at all after that. To top everything else, possibly our outfield player of the season, Ashley Young pulled up with a hamstring, that seemed to sum our season up.
I'm hoping there are no experiments lined up for Sunday, along with a fair few older reds, i really want to see us go all out for a first FA cup victory in a decade. I'm afraid it doesn't matter who we play, when we play with three at the back, I'm never that confident of victory. Fingers and everything else crossed.
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