Brugges 0-4 Manchester United

I didn't see any of the first half so this is just a reflection of what I saw during the second half and what i got told about our first half performance. I was slightly surprised to see Schneiderlin dropped to the bench, I mean it was always going to happen, it's just that this was the last game I thought it'd happen. I didn't think Januzaj would start again, but Van Gaal must see something that or he's putting him in the shop window.
Apparently the first half performance was basically more of the same, except they got that crucial goal that basically killed the tie. It was a nice little run from Memphis to put Rooney in who opened his account for the season in style.
As to the second half, obviously it was great to see United attacking, creating chances and at times looking like they could score at will. But I'm afraid we really have got to take the paucity of the opposition into account. There were times United were almost playing at walking pace, but still managed to rip them apart. I think we can safely say that will not be the case on Sunday.The second goal was a lovely passing movement, but even there Brugges gave the ball away far too easily in a ridiculous area of the pitch. It was also a great pass from Schweinsteiger for Herrera's goal, but surely the centre half should have cut it out, think Phil Jones having a moment!
What to say about Hernandez, the penalty miss was that of someone whose confidence looks to be shot. And then that miss minutes later from Young's cross was the kind of chance he'd have finished in his sleep when he first came. There's differeing take's on Van Gaal's glance at Giggs after the penalty miss, it didn't look good for his future at United was my take on it.
So on to Swansea on Sunday, I hope I'm wrong but I'm expecting this performance to turn out to be a temporary blip at the beginning of the season. That doesn't mean we won't win, I just don't expect to see that kind of football from United in the premier league any time soon.

Manchester United 0-0 Newcastle United

Disapointing result and generally and a disapointing performance. Yet those first twenty minutes saw us play some fast attacking football. It seemed once Newcastle actually got into the game and started to create the odd chance, United became more conservative and regressed to the sterile possession based football that Van Gaal loves and I and it would seem an increasing amount of reds do not.
I had to laugh at the grumbling though, you can bet your life if United had won that game by the odd goal everything in the world would be sweet. Van Gaal was probably right to say that it was a better performance that we gave in either of our two victories. A bit of credit shoud go to the visitors, once they had escaped going behind during those opening encounters, they showed much more resillience than most Newcastle sides of recent years.
If Rooney's disallowed goal had been allowed to stand who knows how the game would have gone. Sorry to sound like a broken record though, he wasn't really at the races again was he. His lack of pace must surely be a detriment to our attack. People say he suffers through a lack of service and the "philosophy", but surely his lack of pace makes it even harder to put defence splitting passes through to him when there must be hardly a centre back in the league who can't easily out pace him.
Januzaj came in for plenty of stick yesterday, he wasn't great, but I'd still have left him on before Rooney. It can't be easy for flair players to perform when they're told they can't do this and must do that.
Memphis Depay came down to Earth after his excellent display on Wednesday as Newcastle proved that Brugges really were as poor as some of us thought on Tuesday. He started well enough, but the longer the game went on the more erratic and Nani like his decision became. It's a learning curve for him, his combination play with Shaw was still quite good.
Some have said Schweinsteiger went off the boil after suffering an injury. But was he injured, he didn't come off did he, at the game, I thought he just looked knackered, after half an hour! Even though our play became more conservative I thought we looked better with Carrick and Schneiderlin in the middle.
I've always thought that if we get Bale, which I still think might happen, it will Be Mata that would make way. And that would be OK by me, whilst he a nice little footballer, he is too slow to play out wide and I don't think good enough to be our main number ten. He did some nice things during the game, but he just slows things down too much at times.
Which brings me to Herrera, it seems to do a lot of reds heads in that Van Gaal isn't starting him. But where would you play him? Too slow to play wide not dazzling enough for number ten and I'd have Carrick and the two Sch"'s infront of him in the middle of the park. Again, for me, yes, he's a nice, neat and tidy player but he's not a really top player, a valuable squad player but no more. I really don't get what some reds see in him. When you see Silva play for City, I'm afraid he really is on a different planet to our two attacking midfielders.

Music

Calexico - Edge Of The Sun: I love their brand of American tinged by mexican influences and this doesn't disappoint, another little cracker.

Django Django - Born Under Saturn: Their first album was pretty good and this follow up is another decent electronic indie pop effort.

Jagga Jazzist - Starfire: This is a superb album from the Norwegian jazz/rock/experimental combo. It's more of an electronica album if anything, almost symphonic electronica, top stuff.

Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs: I was expecting something a bit more out there, but this is an album of superior singer/songwriter craft. It's chock full of lovely tunes.

Paul Weller - Saturn Returns: I've always been in and out of favour with Weller, loved the Jam, not so much the Style Council. Loved Wild Wood, but thought the run of albums that followed whilst having occasional gems were a bit conservative. But the run of albums since the brilliant 22 Dreams have all been right up my street and this is no exception, excellent, again.

Saun & Starr - Look Closer: Sharon Jones backing singers got out front on their own and the results are pretty good, similar kind of soul to Jones, unsurprisingly with the same backing band.

Terakaft - Alone: If you like Tinariwen you'll like this, from the same part of the wrold as their north African desert compadres, it's a similar kind of electric desert blues.

Manchester United 3-1 Brugges

I'm not getting carried away, it was only Brugges and Belgian football isn't what it was, but still, the second half especially was the most I've enjoyed the football on show at Old trafford since the City win.
I thought there would be a few changes, given we've now got a squad that can be rotated. But he kept Januzaj in, which was a surprise, a pleasant surprise for me. Carrick started, when I'd thought Schweinsteiger would definitely start. Mind you he came on even earlier than during the first two games.
We didn't get off to the best start, with that own goal from Carrick, that was unfortunate, but also a bit sloppy. It didn't take long for United to get back on level terms as for the first time we started to see what all the hype over Memphis Depay was all about. He took the first goal excellently, he was cool under pressure and didn't just blast it when he got a sight of goal, he placed it expertly, a natural goalscorers goal. He looks far better on the wing, I can see why Van Gaal tried him in the middle, but it didn't really work, he just looked lost. Now he's out wide it's as if he has come alive. The second goal was the type of goal Young actually scores. And you wonder when he will come back into the picture and if so, who for?
Schweinsteiger came on at half time and gave his most convincing performance in a red shirt as United played some pretty exciting stuff. The third goal took it's time in coming though, there was relief all round at the thought of taking a two goal cushion across the channel next week. To be honest I was reasonably happy with a goal cushion, we should have enough to not get beat over there, they didn't really look much. A final word on the last goal, it was a fine finish from Fellaini in his brief cameo, but it was an excellent cross from Memphis to cap off a possible man of the match performance from the Dutchman.

Aston Villa 0-1 Manchester United

The winning start continues, I suppose that is all that will concern Van Gaal. For some of us the football matters as well, and so far there has been nothing to write home about on that front.
The positives from last night were that defensively, we are starting to look far more solid than we did at any stage last season. I would put that down mainly to the signing of Schneiderlin, who really looked the part last night, it looks like the Frenchman really is going to be the business for us. He was making tackles all game long and alongside Carrick has given our back four a good shield. A settled back four may be part of the answer. Though i still can't see Blind as a centre half against the better teams. We look really strong in the full back positions though, Darmian and Shaw are both strong defensively and both get forward well.
Creatively it still really isn't happening though. Partly this must be due to the philosophy, but you can't help feeling that Rooney really has finally gone at the game. He has been on a downward trend for the last four or five years as far as I have been concerned. Each year he seems to lose a little more pace and as that has gone his inconsistent first touch has been going the same way. Januzaj may not have been brilliant last night despite the goal, but I still couldn't believe he was hooked before Rooney. He really was awful last night, he barely did a thing right and was so sluggish it was untrue.
I was glad Januzaj started as I have always rated him, as I've said he may not have had a great game, but he's capable of scoring goals like that. He needs to be loved and to be given a run of games. But Van Gaal doesn't seem great at man management does he. Why did he have to be so churlish about his performance after the game.
The way we strangled the game towards the end was encouraging in a way, but I'd sooner see us strangling the opposition with goals. Saying that, if Memphis had converted the fantastic pass from Mata during the second half maybe we would have done. I can see that we will probably improve during this season and that we will see better football than last season. But I can't say that the manager or the philosophy are really my cup of tea or my idea of what Manchester United should be all about.
It'll be interesting to see how much squad rotation we'll see during this season, I suspect Tuesday's game against Brugge will give us a fair idea. I'm expecting Schweinsteiger to start the game, if I'm right, it will be interesting to see who joins him.

Music

Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs: I've heard a little of Boz Scaggs, the singles and what not, but never any of his albums. So this his first critically acclaimed solo album was a bit of an eye opener, very superior blue eyed soul with a smattering of country and blues along the way. The peumultimate track Loan me a Dime with Duane Allman on lead is just majestic.

Dutch Uncles - O Shudder: I wasn't sure about this, personally I wasn't that blown away by their previous album, it was a touch, sub par Everything Everything for me. I'm still not mad on the vocal style, but this is a better album, not great, but an improvement.

Nneka - My Fairy Tales: I am really into this album, hip hop, soul and reggae, it's got a really good fusion of styles from the Nigerian female artist.

Palma Violets - Danger in the Club: Their debut was a decent indie rock album that owed a debt to late 70's/early 80's punk/new wave. This follows the same formula and to largely similar results, good, but not earth shattering.

Seasick Steve - Sonic Soul Surfer: The song remains the same for Seasick Steve, and I for one aint complaining, he hits the spot again.

Tal National - Zoy Zoy: I don't know much about this west African outfit, except they are supposed to be a mish mash of African styles, well it works because this is a pretty good listen.

The Staves - If I Was: Another good album from the UK soft rock sister trio. Memorable songs and superb vocals.

Villagers - Darling Arithmetic: I loved the Irish mans last album and this is just as good, it's a more introspective affair, heavy on anit bigotry, homophobia, a compelling listen.

Manchester United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

New season, same old Louis Van Gaal's United, at least we fortuitously came away with the three points. After the four Summer signings I'd allowed myself to get at least a little excited about the new season. But watching the pre-season friendlies knocked that out of me. They were only friendlies, so not too much should ever be taken from them, but the same old possession based " philosophy " looked like new players stifled by the same way of playing.
And after a quarter of an hour of Saturday's game it was obvious that we were back where we were at the end of last season. Tottenham are a decent team so it's still a useful three points, and it's obviously a far better start than last season. But for me, this season is as much about our style of play as it is where we come in the league, so Saturday was pretty depressing.
Saturday also showed, as if we didn't know already, that we are still short at centre back and I'm afraid I really don't think Wayne Rooney is going to be that much of an improvement as the main man as centre forward. It's hard to see how we are really that close to competing for the title or god forbid, the champions league, until we fill those two positions with real top class quality. The Summer saw us finally deal with central midfield, but there's still plenty of work to do.
I seem to be in a minority, but to me if you took Ashley Young out of that side on Saturday then we would have had almost nothing going forward. That forward line is just so slow and the lack of flair, creativity and imagination is a little soul destroying.
Of the new boys, I was impressed with Darmian, he looked like a good acquisition, especially being able to play right or left. Once Schneiderlin got into the game and felt at home, he increasingly looked the part. He definitely gave us a physical presence we haven't had in years there. If he improves as I expect him to, we have got a real player on our hands there. I don't know what to make of Memphis, I'm not going to judge him on one game, but I was expecting a bit more of a burst of pace. He never really looked to take anybody on in that way. He didn't look entirely comfortable in the middle behind Rooney either. The one time he seemed to come to life to me, was the one occasion when he got the ball wide on the right during the first half, it was if his natural instincts took over and he knew what he was about.
Schweinsteiger looked overweight and off the pace, for all the guff I have seen on social media. He may have had a commanding presence, barking orders, but his one meaningful contribution to the game was to give it away in a very dangerous position that Spurs completely failed to capitalise on.
As for Spurs, they were slightly disappointing, but if they'd converted that early chance that Kane provided for Eriksen who knows how the game would have panned out. And a final thought, If Tottenham are ever willing to let Kane go, I'd hope United are in for him, because he really is a proper centre forward. If he isn't England's number one striker by the end of this season, reputation's really do count for everything, because he's far better than Rooney for me.