A little word on the lack of transfer activity, coming in to Old trafford, anyway. The main priority as far as our next set of transfer dealings is to make sure we get it right, so I was quite happy to see no new faces. If the players Van Gaal has got in mind weren't available, don't buy for the sake of buying. Because when I look at the likes of Mata and Herrera, that's what I see. I was never struck on Mata at Chelsea and he hasn't done anything at United to change my mind. Herrera may be a decent player or may be crap, but it would seem, whatever he is, he doesn't fit the Van Gaal philosophy.
Saying all that, I'm not really that sure I would really want to be trusting Van Gaal with a big fat transfer fund. I'm no big fan of Hummels, fine footballer, slow as a carthorse though. Strootman, whom Van Gaal seemingly covets, would seem to be a massive risk now he's had another operation of that knee. That's if he is any good, people who have seen plenty of him, I haven't, reckon he isn't that mobile.
My main problem with Van Gaal though is the philosophy, buying players who function in multiple roles. You've got to have some specialists, and a strong quick fuck off centre half has got to be a priority, not somebody who can play left back or left wing back. Ditto, we need a top quality central midfielder, maybe even two. Carrick isn't getting any younger, Blind is a good squad player, no more and Herrera's face doesn't seem to fit.
A right back would be nice, but I have to admit, I would like to see more width up front, so a winger would be nice. I have absolutely no idea where we'll find one, but if we can't find one, I would bring Nani back for another season. I know that would be pretty unpopular, but it would give us more attacking options and as far I'm concerned we can't have too many of them.
As for attack, I wouldn't be making Falcao permanent and I have a feeling Van Persie may be off, that's a rumour anyway. We've almost certainly seen the best of the Dutchman, so I'd be reasonably happy with that. That would leave us with Rooney, Wilson and I've always thought Januzaj could do more than a job there. Maybe that's a player light, depends on the formation Van Gaal isn't going to go with next season.
For the last two seasons we have basically played with two centre forwards, yet we've been so boring to watch. I'd like to see more width in the team next season, if the best way of managing that, and staying solid is to dispense with on of those forwards, I'd go along with that. There aren't many teams that play with two out and out centre forwards any more. And we could hardly be less boring than we have been over the last few seasons. I suppose one of the tricks is to try and get the rest of the team to chip in with more goals.
Anyway that's my transfer thoughts for the moment, no doubt come May, some of those thoughts may have changed.




Be - The Seven Movements: Gareth Be from Manchester brought out this little gem last year, put the headphones on and take it all in.

Flying Lotus - You're Dead: This is the second album of his that I've heard, Until the Quiet was excellent, this is at least it's equal, electronic, hip hop and jazz combine to dazzling effect.
 
Foxygen - And Star Power: More California indie psychedelia, their last album was pretty good and this defintiely has it's moments. It's a good album that with a bit of editing down could have been a very good one.
 
King Tuff - Black Moon Spell: I love this slice of US indie rock that comes across at times as pastiche, but there still killer rock songs.
 
Monty Alexander - Harlem Kingston express vol.2: Jazz in a reggae stylee, could have been horrible, is surprisingly very good, the better the cover, the better the performance.
 
Vashti Bunyan - Heartleap: The one album sixties wonder has become prolific since her return, as with all her stuff you really need to let those songs sink in, it's no classic, but a more than decent effort.
 
White Manna - Come down safari: I've seen their first album described as space rock on The Quietus, and that's a fair description of their sound. That would usually be right up my street, but whilst their 2nd album is a decent listen, all bar the last track don't really seem to go anywhere, maybe I've been listening to so much Krautrock influenced stuff, i missed thee Motorik beat.
  

Manchester United 3-0 Cambridge United

I can't pretend I was a particularly happy bunny when I saw the team selected last night, but whilst the performance was nothing special, it was better than I'd been expecting after seeing said line up. Seeing no Januzaj, no Wilson was grim, even no Herrera. If the Basque isn't going to get a start against a team from the lowest tier in English football, he really ought to be thinking about his options for next year.
There's caution and there's caution. Moyes was accused by some reds of being the new Sexton last year, but this season feels even more Sextonesque to my eyes.
At least he didn't revert to a back four, when I saw the line up, I wasn't quite sure. But the night was lit up by an excellent performance from Di Maria. It wasn't just his runs, but he seemed last night to be going deeper, demanding the ball and playing those cross field balls that can open up spaces. In fact it looked as if he had been told that it was his job to open up the play as we hardly saw a cross field ball from Rooney all night. Given his success rate over recent games, no bad thing.
As majestic as Di Maria was at times, the same could not be said for his midfield partner Rooney. I'm not sure what the future holds for him, if Van Gaal really has decided that he doesn't fancy him as a striker any more. Because his recent form in the deeper role is just going to show what we already really knew, he can do a job there, at a push, but he's never going to be the answer there.
I expect Van Persie and Falcao to leave in the summer, so unless we are going to buy a couple of strikers, you would think he still has a future. Wilson showed last night, when he came on, why he has to start to get more first team action. Van Persie, for once, couldn't complain about the service he was provided with, I reckon he missed about four pretty good chances. Wilson scored a cracker from what you would hardly class as a chance, the type of goal he regularly scored coming up the ranks.
I was going to say the back four were hardly tested, then remembered we were almost a goal down in the first few minutes. But in the main, United were pretty much untested, which of course is how it should have been.
I'm not getting carried away though, it was a reasonable performance, which is the least we should have expected. As to the tactics, not for the first time this season, Van Gaal opted for a strategy that got Moyes all kinds of grief, crosses to the back post looking for Fellaini, to be fair, it worked. But fuck me, that against Cambridge, like I said, very Sexton.

Manchester United 3-1 Leicester City

Three goals, three points, moments of reasonably attacking play, a bit more width in our play, but still a lot of reds left the stadium not entirely happy. I wasn't as disappointed as some, but I could see why they were unhappy. When the third goal went in, you hoped that this would be the moment when United finally let rip under Van Gaal. Yet instead we got a second half of largely square and backwards passing possession football that did nothing to endear either the players or the manager to the fans.
It's becoming pretty obvious to me now, that even if Van Gaal manages to make United competitive at the top level again, i.e challenging for titles and champions league's, he won't really be fondly remembered by many. I can see why neither Barca or Bayern Munich fans have much time for him.
At least he stuck to a four man defence yesterday, I hope the three man rearguard is gone for good, but fear it's probably not. It was good to see Januzaj given another start, and I thought that was good for the team, even though we played a diamond, he gave us a natural width in attacking area's that we have missed all season. He wasn't brilliant, but that was easily his best game of the season. The longer the game went on, the more confidence he seemed to get. Hopefully he will now get a real run of games.
Yesterday was Di Maria's best game in a long time as well, again not perfect by any means, but he was a threat all afternoon. On the other hand Rooney had a bit of a shocker, I don't know how long the central midfield experiment is going to last, but he's never going to be top draw in that position. Blind had a decent game, it was a fine pass for the first goal. He's a good squad player, but if United are ever to get back to where we want them to be, he wouldn't ever be getting into your my best eleven.
Up front Van Persie took his goal superbly, he had a reasonable game without being anything special. As for Falcao, I though that was probably as well as he has played. Though he still hasn't put in the kind of performance, that would persuade me that United should make the move permanent.
The last goal was a bit of a gift, but it hadn't really registered that Jones had been demoted from corner taking responsibilities, until the celebrations, where Jones led the celebrations with Rooney as if he was more than happy with that decision.
Their late consolation was something we could have done without. From a half time scoreline where it looked as if we could really improve our goal difference, to just a two goal victory. I hope a top four spot doesn't come down to goal difference, because we have had some chances to improve it that we have just frittered away.