Manchester City 0-1 Manchester United

I wasn't as pessimistic ahead of this game as has usually been the case this season. Probably because City have been no great shakes either. But fuck me, they really are poor. It's hard to know what to make of the United performance, because City were so bad. Aguerro apart, they were absolutely nothing. One thing is for certain Guariola aint turning them into world beaters any time soon, we're really going to see how good he is, I feel.
All that said, yesterday was one of those days where we should just be glad for small mercies. It really was one of those days, almost as if the last three years never happened. Liverpool two up and end up conceding a late goal to get beat 3-2 to kill any charge for the top four they might have entertained. And we go to City, outplay them, take the three points and kill of any small hopes they may have had for the title. And to cap it off the solitary goal was an 18 year old Mancunian amd what a fine goal it was. That front three of Martial, Rashford and Lingard were very exciting. They were all good, how refreshing to see pace and energy in the team at last.
Other stand outs for me were Blind, who had as good a game as I have seen him have for the club. I still don't see him as a long term solution at centre back, but he did the job yesterday alright. I thought he was better than Smalling, even though Smalling was awarded the man of the match award. Carrick had an excellent game, Schneiderlin gave an improved performance and our team looked far more effective with Fellaini out of the picture.
It was a pity Van Gaal tried his best to fuck things up with his usual unfathomable use of substitutions, taking both full backs off and then putting Schweinsteiger into the number ten role, what the fuck was that all about?
I'm not going to get carried away, how the fuck could you anyway with all the false dawwns we suffered under the Dutch loon, but yesterday was very, very enjoyable!

Manchester United 1-0 Watford

What a really bonkers season this is turning out to be, all the teams above us dropped points, though Leicester's seemingly disappointing draw now seems like a decent result. Meanwhile United win a game with a goal during the final 10 minutes, how often have we done that under Van Gaal, that we could have easily lost 2 or 3 nil.
I have no Idea why Carrick was missing, but it was a big call to start with Fosu-Mensah at centre back alongside fellow Dutchman Blind. He was far from perfect, how could you expect him to be, as he was up against two strong pacy forwards, but overall I think he had a decent game. Blind, alongside him, had an inconsistent game, but at least he showed some leadership, he didn't hide and I liked that. Varela had a reasonable game, I think I would stick with him, rather than bring Valencia straight back.
Some have slated our first half display, it obviously wasn't great, but with the team we had out, how much more could we really expect. We started off reasonably well, but when the chances failed to come, we started to look nervous.
Rashford was living on scraps up front, but he still managed to look the part. During the first half he made a couple of great runs that ended up with his opposite numbers opting to bring him down. I think he is a natural second forward, but he showed that if he has to play wide to get more games and gain more experience he is up to it as he caused them even more problems when switched with Martial halfway through the second half. It was between Rashford and Schneiderlin for the man of the Match for this red.
I think it went unnoticed by most, but I thought that was easily Schneiderlin's best game for the club. He was solid, but his use of the ball was far, far better. Maybe I have been to quick to right him off, though he did seem to drop off during the last ten minutes. As my dad said when we discussed the game in the pub, maybe it's a run of consecutive games instead of two or three and then out for a longer spell.
I'm afraid I was far less impressed with Mata and Herrera, Mata hit a great free kick to win the game, but in open play he did not do enough for me. Herrera on the other hand did absolutely nothing. I'm afraid I've started to dub them the powder puff brothers, lightweight, when the going gets tough.
I thought Memphis reverted to type when faced by a big strong pacy full back, he hardly got past him all night. He didn't have a bad game, but I'd be wanting more than that from my creative wide men.
So level with City after their drubbing on Merseyside, who could have dreamt that up three or four weeks back. That game at the boo camp is going to be interesting!

Manchester United 3-2 Arsenal

I can't take all this excitement, goals, attacking, off the cuff football, I want my money back. I didn't get carried away by the result on Thursday, after seeing that Danish team in the flesh, I was left wondering how on Earth we managed to lose over there, because they were as bad any away team we have seen all season. So scoring five goals against them has to be put in context.
I had no expectations at all ahead of yesterdays game, and really why should I have had. That defence was just asking for a team to have a go at it. Instead Wenger's lot came here and tried to tippy tap it's way around it. Watching United has been like banging your head against a wall for the last three seasons since Fergie left, fuck know what it must be like to watch Arsenal choke season after season. If they don't win it this season, i can't see how they will ever win whilst Wenger is still in charge. It's not as if United were really that good yesterday, we just seemed to want it a bit more and took our chances.
As to the game and stand out performers, Rashford really looks like he has a chance, physically he looks to be strong enough and have enough pace to worry defenders. He made some really clever runs as for instance the run and set up he made for the third goal. And as we have seen in both games he can finish, the headed second goal was really classy.
I thought Varela grew into the game, though he is still far better going forward than defending. but he defended reasonably well during the second half. Fosu-Mensah looked more nervous than I expected him to be and whilst he didn't really catch the eye, again, physically he coped reasonably well, he wasn't bullied or outpaced.
Can we keep the good run going, nothing would surprise me less than us fucking up against Watford, though I expected that yesterday so fingers crossed.

Sunderland 2-1 Manchester United

In a season of lows, yet another to add to the collection, it wasn't just the result, bad enough as that was, yet again it was the performance, the lack of fight, the seeming inevitability of a bad ending. We never really got going. Darmian who had another stinker, gave away a needless free kick and they we conceded a soft as fuck set piece that went straight in after just a couple of minutes.
Some have tried to make a case that we weren't too bad in the first half, really? When that equaliser came, it was pretty unexpected to me. It was a great finish from Martial who once again was our only real threat up front and that was only sporadic and confined to the first 45 minutes. Rooney never got into the game, Mata was heavily involved for most of that first half, seeing a lot of the ball and having a couple of half decent chances. But is that really enough against a team second from bottom and struggling badly. And not unexpectedly to me, when the going got tough during the second half he completely disappeared. Gary Neville was spot on the money, he isn't a Manchester United player. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh picking on him as nobody else performed or stood up to be counted, but I'm fed up of hearing people say if we carry on with him at number ten we can build a team around him, no, no, no! And another thing that I've probably said a million times before is that the combination of Mata and Rooney is just so fucking slow, going forwards slow, no balls over the top with those two and slow as in pressing the opposition centre backs, they get such an easy ride against us. Seeing Welbeck yesterday return for Arsenal will only rub that in over the next couple of months.
Losing Darmian was only a blow in the sense of having to waste a replacement on him, he was as big a liability as Love appeared to be when he came on, at least Love didn't cost anything. We were lost in central midfield, Carrick didn't have his best game, but Schneiderlin had yet another stinker. With every appearance he looks less and less a Manchester United player. I suppose we'll find out when the current manager departs the scene, it could be that he's yet another player unable to express himself under the Dutch fraud. But on the evidence we have seen so far it looks to me as if he is just not good enough with the ball at his feet. He certainly doesn't look like a long term replacement for Carrick, which means going forward we still need two class central midfield players. Add that to the list of players needed in the summer.
The only positive I could take from Saturday was the performance of Borthwick-Jackson, reasonably calm at the back and once again he delivered a couple of great crosses and set up Martial near the end with one of our best chances of the match.
Once again the replacement of Lingard, who wasn't great, with Martial against a team fighting for their lives was nuts, but what else do we expect from Van Gaal. It summed him up when he brought Will Keane on after they took the lead when he should have been brought on ten minutes earlier just to try and inject something, anything into our spluttering front line.
Of course what made this performance even worse, was knowing what an important game it was in the hunt for that fourth spot. That seems an ever more forlorn hope given results and performances like this allied to the run of game coming up.

Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United

Well the improved performance's continue, a draw at Stamford Bridge is always a decent result, but what a gutting way to finish a game. At the time I thought the last minute equaliser was harsh on us, but the more I've thought about it, it probably wasn't. Others have used the fact that we relied on De Gea to protect our lead too often, but we were away from home against a side who whilst obviously not what they were, still have good players. No, the reason we probably didn't deserve the the three points was the way we played after taking the lead, especially the last ten minutes to quarter of an hour.
I'd usually blame Van Gaal, but whilst he obviously contributed with his ridiculous substitutions, I think the players settled for that one goal lead. I'm no Fellaini fan, but he had a decent game, still Schneiderlin for him at least made some sense. But Depay for Lingard just as the pressure was really beginning to mount, was off the scale bonkers. The guy does just not put a shift in. Add to that, his confidence is low and form non existent, then you should half expect him to completely fuck up passes like the great counter attack chance we had about a minute before they went to the other end and equalised.
Of course that was equally bad defending, Blind had a bit of a moment, I'm not sure how Borthwick-Jackson gets any blame for that though. Speaking of the young left back, I have resisted the temptation to go overboard over his displays on the basis that he hasn't really played against anybody yet, for ninety minutes anyway. But I thought that yesterday was a performance to take note off, he really did look the part. I saw him play for the youth team and thought he obviously had a good technique and had a bit of pace, but wasn't sure he would be able to handle the physical side of the game. So far, so good, even when the senior players regain fitness I'd like to see us persevere with him till the end of the season, maybe resting him for the odd game. Given our position in the league, maybe the emergence of Lingard and Borthwick-Jackson are what we should focus on.
Jesse Lingard didn't have a great game, but as usual he does enough good things to continue to keep faith with him, we are a better team with him in the eleven than not. Add to that he is an attacking midfielder who is a natural goalscorer and what's not to like. He took his goal absolutely superbly, and that's another thing, he doesn't just score goals, he scores all types of goals. Let's hope Wilson gets a chance next season, another lad who can score different type of goals.
Though I don't think fourth spot has definitely gone yet, given the league this season, how can anybody say that, it's going to get harder unless we can put a string of victories together. To be honest I was more gutted over the equaliser because this sort of thing always seem to happen to us at Stamford Bridge than the league position. So onto to Sunderland, can we make four decent performance's on the bounce?

Manchester United 3-0 Stoke City

Two wins on the bounce, three goals on the bounce, a reasonable amount of chances on the bounce and two consecutive reasonably exciting performances, pinch me and tell me I'm not dreaming. As with the Derby game Stoke were not up to much, but you can only beat what's in front of you which we did and did well.
It has to be said we were playing Stoke at a good time, knocked out of a league cup semi on penalties and then dumped out of the FA cup on Saturday and with a few injuries to boot, they were never really at the races last night.
I thought the inclusion of Carrick was a big reason for last night's improved display, he gave us somebody in the middle of the park with the ability to pass forward and to move it at pace. Mata had an improved game albeit, he was given plenty of room and Lingard gave an improved performance than of late. But Martial was the real bright spark up front, he gave the right hand side of the Stoke back four a torrid time. His goal was the highlight of the night, a brilliant move involving Mata and Rooney and a finish that was absolutely fantastic, he made it look far easier than it actually was.
Stoke did give us a couple of frights at the back during the first half that made you wonder what kind of game if the Stoke that beat us at their place had of turned up. But the second half, was a bit of a procession, though United eased off towards the end of the match.
The acid test as to whether things are really looking up will come on Sunday for me. Since Mourinho got the boot, it's amazing to see the transformation in that Chelsea team and now the results and performance's have started to follow. I have to admit that I'm worried about our back four against their attack, a result on Sunday and maybe we have turned a corner. Don't worry I haven't changed my mind about the manager, he still has to go!

Derby County 1-3 Manchester United

I didn't see most of the 1st half again thanks to work, so I can't really say much about it, except I was told United dominated for the most part and even managed to create a few chances. Saying that, when Derby got into it after they had equalised they looked dangerous. With United having to field two very young full backs I had expected a bit more from the home team, but from my viewing they never really managed to get at them at all.
The opening goal was a belter from Rooney, there;s talk of a rejuvenated centre forward with is his run of 6 goals since the new year. It's good to see him scoring, anybody scoring even, but we saw last week when he has a pacy physical centre back on his case, his game went to pot. I suppose we'll see next week where he's really at, when we visit Stamford Bridge.
United more or less dominated the second half, but the moments where United generally came alive and looked dangerous were when Martial got the ball on the left. I complained about him running down blind alleys last week, not this week as he had the Derby right back on toast, giving him a torrid time.
The second goal came from the other side though, as Lingard crossed to find centre back Blind running towards the six yard box to put us back in the lead. God knows what he was doing up there, but it was vital as it seemed to knock the stuffing out of the home side. Mata finished things off right at the end after more good work from Martial.
The draw seems to be trying to be kind to us as we now head to Shrewsbury for the next round. Not one tie against premier league opposition in the FA cup, I think that's unheard of in recent years. No home tie either, no Automatic Cup Scheme, great news. No money for the Glazer's and no need to fork out an extra £50 to watch Van Gaal's brand of drudgery, result!

Manchester United 0-1 Southampton

And so it goes on, yet another utterly wretched performance, bizarre tactics and substitutions that seem to take no account of the actual state of the game.
To be fair the opposition were no better, you could make a case that we deserved absolutely nothing, we hardly tested their goalie all afternoon, but then again neither did they. They only really seemed to believe they could get something during those last ten minutes  and even then it was only ever going to happen from a set play they were so poor from open play. So having said that, what on Earth does that say about us.
Why he reverted to three at the back with two holding midfielders at home to a team badly out of form, god only knows, football genius it isn't, got that Woody! Fellaini, Schweinsteiger and Herrera slightly further forward provided absolutely nothing. Rooney with a big powerful centre half against him reverted to type as he could barely do anything right. Martial just seems to want to run headless chicken style with the ball at the moment, I like him but he's got to get his head up and involve other players, play one two's. He's showing worrying signs of going down the Memphis Depay route playing solely for himself.
I don't like United fans booing, but I have to admit what on Earth is the alternative when served up such an absolute joke of a performance. Though whilst Van Gaal deserves all the stick, the players are getting off pretty lightly really. The reception Mata got as he replaced the hapless Fellaini at half time summed that up for me. For those of us who never thought he was a United player, we have been proved right a fair few times over I would have thought. An yet here was been received as our saviour, an Eric, a Ronaldo or a Scholes he definitely is not. I told those around me, that though I was glad Bogbrush had gone off, his replacement would change nothing. Did he?
Januzaj got stick for giving a needless free kick away that led to the goal, I have to admit I was past caring by the point and I haven't seen the highlights, so I don't really know what the score is on that. But it seems a bit unfair to be blaming him, he's not been involved since August, I'll start judging him when he gets a few 90 minutes under his belt.
So here I type this on the Monday morning and Van Gaal is still the manager of Manchester United, the club is a mess from top to bottom!

Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now: I'll b honest I really couldn't get into this on th first couple of listens and I'm still not really sure just what I think of it. Musically it's clever and whilst I don't think it was worthy of the Mercury, I can se why they awarded it. But his vocals are a bit too affectd for my taste.

Christian Scott - Stretch Music: This was miles more my scene, fusion, jazz/rock whatever it's a cracking listen.

Deerhunter – Fading Frontier: Another very listenable album from the US indie outfit headed by Bradford Cox, it's not up there with their very best, but they are one of the better indie groups around.

John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure: Another decent solo album from the former Czars man, though I don't think the two follow up's to his debut album have got anywhere near the level of the excellence of that. There are great individual songs, but maybe two or three songs too many thin things out a bit.

Josh Ritter - Sermon On The Rocks: A pretty good album from the US singer songwriter, the following tracks being one of the highlights.

Sexwitch – Sexwitch: Bats for Lashes Natasha Khan's latest incarnation accompanied by the band Toy is not bad, but nothing special as far as I'm concerned, it's nowhere near as good as Bats for Lashes first album anyhoo or any of Toy's own work.

Todd Rundgren - Something, Anything: I have never heard any of his solo stuff, I've always been put off by his association with Meat Loaf. What a mistake that was, if this is anything to go by, a double album of some genius. I haven't really got much patience fr double albums anymore, but how many are packed full of great and diverse songs as this blinder has on it. More albums shall be listened to!

Liverpool 0-1 Manchester United

Pretty crap game, maybe an even worse performance but for yesterday and yesterday only, who cares, three points as we score from our one and only shot on goal. It keeps us in the chase for that all important fourth spot, whether that's a good thing or not, who knows.
The first half was a total embarrassment, we made them look half decent which at this moment in time, they obviously aren't. As for us, Wednesday's attacking performance seemed like an age ago as we failed to crate anything of note at all.
The central midfield position that we thought may have been partially solved during the summer was particularly poor. There was just no quality coming from that part of our team at all. Fellaini playing as the deep lying holding player is just so off the scale bizarre it defies belief. Schneiderlin has been pretty disappointing and Herrera playing further forward didn't affect the game at all.
As to the attack, Martial had an in and out game, Lingard, surprisingly to me, had a bit of a shocker, Rooney got the goal but otherwise had no service with which to judge him. Thank fuck for De Gea, the only player on our team who could hold his head high, having another fine game. He wasn't tested that much, but when he was, he was up to the task.
United were better during the second half, but largely on Van Gaal's terms, ie we kept the ball better. As usual we hardly did anything with it, the goal coming from a corner, and to be honest was a really soft goal to give away as Rooney found himself completely unmarked after Fellaini's header came back of the bar, nice finish though.
Still 1-0 at Anfield is always a time to enjoy a beer or three!

Newcastle United 3-3 Manchester United

I was working last night so only caught the second half so I cant rally give a match review. What I can say is though we dropped two points after leading twice, I'd sooner have watched last nights match all day long than what passed for entertainment on Saturday.
Going off Van Gaal's reactions on the bench he must have hated having to have watched such an attacking game. His reaction to Lingard's miss, said it all for me. Yes it was a bad miss, but everybody misses chances like that, the thing is to create enough of them so that you score enough to win more games than you lose. We know that just isn't his philosophy at all. It was laughable that he then brought him off to be replaced by Memphis thereby leaving us far more vulnerable to attacks from our right, where the last minute equaliser came from. He didn't really think that through did he!
Rooney has been basking in long forgotten praise from press and pundits alike last night and this morning. I'll hang fire on that if you don't mind, four goals in three games, two of them penalties against a division one team and two teams struggling relegation. That's sounds a bit premature to be telling us the old Rooney's back. Saying that, the second goal was very much the old Wayne Rooney, a superb shot.
It seems every time we do get a half decent attacking performance from United we found out what a fair few of us have always suspected, defensively we are not improved at all under Van Gaal. It's all down to the defensive midfield cover and the possession tactics. We have missed Shaw badly, he looked the real deal. But going forward, we need at least world class or at least potential world class centre back and a quality right back.
Anyway I ain't grumbling too much about last night, at last it was entertaining, as for Sunday.....

Manchester United 1-0 Sheffield United

It's got to this, it's 0-0 we're in the injury time of a third round FA cup tie and United get a penalty. My reaction is to be gutted, and to actually want the taker to miss. My reaction to the goal is to stay seated, to not clap and just shake my head. It has come to this.
Given the opposition, this was possibly yet a new low point of the reign of Louis Van Gaal. Yes it took us 70 minutes to have a shot on goal against a division 1 side and that's a statistic that says volumes. But it was the line up and then the attitude of the players, the lack of quality, just about everything really.
Two sitting defensive midfield players at home against a third tier outfit, and one of them was Fellaini for fuck sake. Just what on Earth is that all about. To compound the crime, Sheffield United offered absolutely nothing going forward. When you think of the really poor sides we have struggled against at Old trafford this season, you start to think the Moyes era wasn't so bad after all. I mean Moyes was patently not up to the job, but we did play attacking football at times. There's just nothing remotely exciting about football under Van Gaal, I'd go as far as to say I literally hate watching United at the moment. I got to about 20 minutes into the game before I knew it was going a long afternoon, against an opposition that a decent side would beat into their sleep. I could See that the players looked as if they had gone on strike again and it was going to be mind numbing. It was around that time that I realised that the only way we would get any excitement during this match was if Sheffield United took the lead.
I could go through individual players but I'll pick a couple out, Herrera and Mata, both had stinkers. But to be fair to Mata, he was trying, it just never happened for him. But Herrera, oh dear and he's got so many reds who love him. I'm not sure how you can go on loving after that, a spineless cowardly performance, they both deserved to be subbed during the second half.
As ever, who knows what will happen during the next couple of games. Newcastle are a mess and Liverpool are badly injury hit, so we could take something from both games, would you put money on it though? I know one thing, if the players don't put it in at Anfield they can all just fuck off. The club just gives off a big fucking stink at the moment, it's rotten to the core.

Manchester United 2-1 Swansea City

After the last game I had thought we maybe turned a corner, and hence was actually looking forward to this game with a hint of expectation. Those first 45 minutes knocked that out right out of my system. It was as dire as anything this season. And for once I'm not going to blame the manager. As far as I could tell the shackles were still off, they were still allowed to express themselves, dribble, etc. It was just a case of the players not being good enough as they failed to break down a Swansea side whilst happy in possession showed no attacking threat most of the afternoon. We did create a couple of chances, but it was as heavy going as it has been most of the season.
The second half saw us start at a faster tempo and Ashley Young in particular started to get some joy on the right hand side. And that was the source of the goal as he hit a long looping cross that Martial finished superbly with his head. The Young Frenchman then upped his game and for a while we had a threat from both flanks until Young we dropped further back.
Swansea slowly got back in the game and managed to start to look as they may have a goal threat in them after all. United missed a great chance to make it 2-0 and were made to pay as a looping header from Sigurdsson evaded the outstretched arms of Van Gaal to nestle in the corner of our net. A draw at home to as poor a Swansea outfit as we have seen since they hit the big time would have not been good enough, from any perspective. Thankfully a great run and a great finish from Rooney which was his only memorable contribution all afternoon restored our lead and we hoped we may go on to a comfortable win.
I suppose that was wishful thinking as we endured a nail biting final five minutes as they threw everything at us and our defence looked as dodgy as in reality it actually is whatever the stats say. The header from the goalie seemed goal bound from our view, instead it was inches wide and the whistle blew to relief from every red. The afternoon had showed what we already really knew, even when you take the philosophy out of the equation, it's a very mediocre squad, and there isn't much on the bench to change things if isn't going our way. Maybe it isn't fair to single players out when only Young and Martial had done much in the game, but Mata given a more creative role just doesn't cut the mustard for me. And as for Darmian, what on Earth did we see in him, there is no way on Earth on Rafael. Whilst Rafael had a mistake in him, there's no denying, if an attacker runs at Darmian, it curtains, full stop. Anyway are we capable of a cup run starting next week, who the fuck knows, we'll have to improve on Saturday's performance though!