Manchester United 3-0 Sunderland

There seems to be a pattern emerging watching United over the last few weeks, well at home at least, we play the dull sideways passing  football that drives you to drink during the the first half. But when we score just after half time against Liverpool and in first half injury time yesterday, the play becomes a little more expansive. I hate to say it but that is the philosophy in action and working. It would be interesting to see an opposition team score the first goal at Old traford to see how well the philosophy works then.
I heard people after the City debacle at Whit hart lane finished, well that will give them the incentive to go out there and go at Sunderland. It always makes me laugh when people say stuff like that, that might be football taught by Matt Busby, but it aint under Luois Van Gaal. Instead we got a first half where United huffed and puffed and generally didn't blow the Sunderland wall down. But in a nice piece of karma, the four minutes injury time the referee added on because of Sunderland's blatant time wasting, came back to bite them on the bum as Blinds superb ball found Mata who put it back across for Memphis to hit his first goal in the premier league in that added time. I thought Mata was trying to score but others didn't, after seeing on the TV, I'm still not sure.
The second half saw United really open up, but it was interesting to me how the two goals added in the second half were basically a case of wide men taking on their man, beating them, crossing it and voila.
It was interesting to see Schneiderlin get more license to get forward as the game went on. I want to se a bit more of that. Carrick had a better game than against Southampton, but still didn't seem quite back to his best. Saying that, he produced a superb ball to release Memphis in the box during the first half that the Dutchman failed to turn into the scoring chance that he should have done.
Once again the real attacking threat came from Martial, there's no question about it, we have purchased a bit of pure gold in that lad. He's quick, not lightning, but quick enough, has great feet, can create and can finish. He prety much ticks all the boxes, from what I've seen from him so far, he can be as good as he wants to be, that transfer fee could look like a snip a few years down the line.
So United, top of the league, it has to be said, it feels a bit surreal, I don't think it says that much about the overall quality of the premier league, but I'll take it.

Manchester United 3-0 Ipswich Town

I was pretty disappointed with the team selected, but with Wilson and Lingard both starting for the reserves on Monday night, it was obvious that neither would start the game. But for Wilson in particular to not be even on the bench? And then Van Gaal's comments about the pair in his pre match press briefing, he really isn't anything in the man management department is he.
So a strong team it was, Fellaini coming in for Martial and Young encouragingly, for me anyway, starting at left back. Fellaini was Fellaini, which isn't much to my liking, but there you go. Jones came in for his first start and didn't do anything wrong, though to be fair he wasn't really tested. Ipswich weren't up to much, the only time they really threatened was just after half time, when I presume McCarthy told them to not die wondering. But that petered out and United soon resumed control.
To be honest United weren't really up to much themselves as an attacking force, but once Rooney put United in front, it was never much of a contest. Rooney wasn't terrible, but the goal aside he still doesn't convince. On the positive side, Schweinsteiger really looked the part. Alright the opposition weren't up to much, but he bossed things in an encouraging way. The introduction of Memphis Depay and Martial in particular saw United really up their game. Martial took his goal well and once again his all round game looked top class. He certainly might have been bought for the future, but at this moment in time he is for the here and now.
Perreira starting was one to keep us United fans who like to see youth coming through the ranks happy. My problem with Van Gaal is who he brings through. If you look at last season, Blackett, McNair, but Thorpe not given a chance. Now it may well be that Thorpe wasn't good enough for United, my point would be, fine, but he is a better centre half than either of the players he picked. Perreira is a prospect, but is he better than Wilson, definitely not, maybe not better than Lingard and though he is not here at the moment, certainly not better than Januzaj either.
The thought of seeing Wilson and Martial playing together, either as a front two or as two parts of a front three is the most exciting prospect of supporting United for the future. Add in Januzaj to that equation and in becomes even more exciting. It's just that it won't be quite as exciting under this manager or even likely to happen.

Southampton 2-3 Manchester United

I was fairly apprehensive before the game, as I had said earlier, this was the kind of game I could see us losing. And the first twenty five minutes seemed to support that view as we conceded one and lived on the edge of conceding another. There isn't much subtlety to teams tactics when facing us at the moment, get the big strong forward onto Blind's side of defence and hammer away.
As at Swansea, it worked a treat for the home team as Pelle reaped havoc on the left side of our defence. I didn't think we'd miss Shaw as much as we did either, I'm not that much of a fan of Rojo, he's not a bad player, but he's nothing out of the ordinary either. That said, if he is going to play maybe he'd be better at centre half. There was a good case for playing Young at left back, going forward I think I'd like to see him given another go there.
Needless to say De Gea was possibly the difference between us walking away with any points or with out tails between our legs. That save in the second half, really was something else.
The equaliser came out of nowhere really, but what a cool finish it was from our new young French striker. Martial really has started as if that transfer fee was realistic. When the ball came to him for his second, I had no doubt that he would tuck it away. That's nuts really when we'd only seen him play one full game, but he just has that air about him. Rooney was absolutely awful again. Van Gaal installed him deeper in the number ten role, but he constantly joined in central midfield, instead of giving thehome team the problems that Mane had given us for that first half an hour.
I have to mention Carrick's performance yesterday, he never really looked happy all afternoon for whatever reason. That was his worst game in a long, long time. I have to admit being relieved when Schweinsteiger came on for him, I never thought I'd say that about him. Memphis Depay had another in and out game, he rarely looked like getting the better of his full back, yet he came alive when given a sight of goal when he  unluckily hit the post and Mata then finished to put us 3-1 up.
Their late second goal gave us a bit of a nervous last ten minutes or so, but we held out and probably just about deserved. I wonder what kind of line up we'll see for the Ipswich game, I hope to see plenty of youth, Wilson, Lingard, etc. I've a feeling we'll see a fairly experienced line instead, fingers crossed!