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.