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!