Southampton 1-2 Manchester United

I didn't see the game live last night, so my reading of the game is probably not as objective as I'd like it to be. A few weeks ago I thought this might turn out to be as hard a game, if not harder than the trip to the Emirates. But after Southampton's dip in form after their defeats to Arsenal and City, I thought it might be a good time to be playing them.
None of that takes into account Van Gaal's, brave, bull headed, take your pick, decision to continue with the three at the back that saw us perform like a shapeless rabble during the first half at Arsenal. And guess what, they played as if it was the first time they had met each other again, and that was despite being gifted the opening goal, as a careless back pass from Southampton defender Fonte was received gratefully by Van Persie and dispatched beautifully by the Dutchman who had his best game in a long, long time. He was probably our player of the match, there wasn't much competition though, Young had another reasonable game, after that?
Another defensive injury, Smalling went off after ten minutes, didn't help, but seeing as though we kept the same shape, I don't think that can be much of an excuse. Individual mistakes, all over the shop, Mata was invisible, Fellaini was the Belgian we saw under Moyes, Rooney tried hard, but he had nothing around him, no support. Herrera came on, but was no better, as Carrick was pushed back to centre half. It was interesting to note that when Southampton got their equaliser, Carrick was the United player closest trying to close him down. Trouble was, he was still playing in midfield at the time, where were three centre halves?
I'm not sure the second half was that much of an improvement, going forward United created absolutely nothing. The back three were still dicing with death at the back and there were still numerous sloppy passes in the middle of the park. But Southampton couldn't make the most of it, and when they threatened to, they found De Gea still on top form.
So third spot, it doesn't seem to matter how badly we play at the moment, it's onwards and upwards. With Liverpool on Sunday, long may that continue. Oh for a proper United performance though.

Manchester United 2- Stoke City

One step forward, two steps back, with United at the moment, It's getting to the point where you don't know what to think, from one game to to the next. No Di Maria and even no Rooney, can't believe I tyrped that, and we turned into the nothing team of Moyes infamy.
And yet under Van Gaal we won, still not sure what that means, does it mean Van Gaal is a lucky manager and Moyes wasn't. There would be something in that, after watching that tonight, it was as poor as the crap we saw under Moyes. Seeing the team selected ahead of the game, you had to wonder where the vision was going to come from. Well after suffering that 90 minutes, and speaking as one who had started to come round to had started to believing Van Gaal had started to turn the corner, tonight had me lost.
We started reasonably enough, which I suppose is an improvement over the previous manager, but not the kind of standard that will have the top sides of Europe fretting about United any time soon. But the thing about English football is, the opposition will not roll over an die, whatever the rest of the right and wrongs of the rest of the premier league. Don't start me on the best league in the world, I haven't the foggiest.
The opening goal came out of nothing really, but credit to Fellaini, I thought he showed his limitations as a Utd player tonight, but it was a fantastic run and header for the opening goal. I'm Not sure it was really deserved for the play that had gone before. But saying that, you can't really say any more about Stoke's equalier, which itslef came out of nowhere. Fellaini lost the ball far too easily, showing he's not really United quality, which we already knew. It was a fantastic shot for the equaliser, but it should have never have been allowed to happen.
I can't say I was thrilled by our second half perforance or by Van Gaal's late, late substitutions. I couldn't see that winning goal coming, and when it did, it was a total freak really, happy freak obviously. But those late ten nail biting ten minutes were totally predictable and the answer to it was not to sit back and let it come. We got through it, but against a team of a better quality than Stoke and who knows!

Manchester United 3-0 Hull City

Given our record against Hull, this seemed to be a good time for this particular fixture to come around. Three victories on the bounce, four if we can Beat Stoke tomorrow night, was just what the doctor ordered after our indifferent start to the season. The sooner we can start to pull away from the teams immediately below us, the sooner I will start to believe that that all important top four spot and Champions league football next season is likely rather than possible.
I don't know what it is about United, but that 5-3 aside, Hull City have never really turned up at United. They seem to occasionally give the big boys a bit of fight, but they offered nothing last season and offered even less on Saturday. Once United took the lead, it was only ever a question of how many goals United would score, not whether we'd bag the three points.
Once again Van Gaal surprised us with his selection, bringing Rojo back, deploying two wingers as full backs and in seemingly starting Van Persie behind Rooney and Di Maria. The Van Persie positional switch didn't really have time to prove worthwhile or not, as Di Maria's injury and replacement saw the Dutchman revert to the number 9 spot I'm sure he'd much rather start the game in.
Carrick's return to the team and United's improved form, or at least our improved run of results, is not an accident. It would seem the Geordie's poor form of last season is yet another black mark to be put at the door of ex manager Moyes. Since coming back from his enforced lay off, he has shown how much United have missed him. The quality of his passing, both simple and the adventurous, as with the ball that saw van Persie's header brilliantly saved by the opposition keeper, have been badly missed. I'd rather not see him move back to centre half for the last quarter of an hour as he has been for the last couple of home games, but even that shows how highly Van Gaal rates him.
I suppose I better remark on Rooney's vastly improved form over the last month. He is playing miles better that's for sure, it's still not the level I'd ideally want from the number ten, but it's a massive improvement on what we've had to endure over the last couple of seasons. The question for me, is where has it come from, can we chalk this Loony Van Gaal and the coaching staff or has it come from within.
It was nice to see Van Persie rediscover his scoring boots, that was a quality goal. Though if truth be told, his play in general was pretty much where it's been so far this season. He did improve in the second half, but he has a fair way to go to get back to the form we saw in the first six months of his United career.
I can see tomorrow's match against Mark Hughes Stoke being a far tougher proposition. For one, whilst I don't think they have too much craft in midfield, they have pace and do possess a goal threat going forward as well as being well organised as Hughes teams generally are. Losing Di Maria will make us a little less direct, I wouldn't mind seeing Wilson getting a start tomorrow, if fit, his pace would come in handy. Looking forward to it anyhow, you didn't say that too often last season.