scholesy comment are 100% correct
there is absolutely no justification to compromise the utd way just to fulfill lvg's massive ego. Especially with the quality of players we have.
SAF
The difference between my support for Moyes and my criticism of LVG is that I wasn't too fussed about top 4 last season. I saw Moyes needing time to rebuild the squad and build a new one in his own image. Evidently the club disagreed about the top 4 thing and fired him the second top 4 was impossible.
Fair enough, those are the parameters that the club are now seemingly setting. Woodward even said 3rd place was what we should be aiming for.
So now we're in a climate where top 4 is king I see LVG in 3rd place, fair enough but one bad result from being in 5th place. The reason for my concern is that I see a lot of bad performances on the horizon coming up and not many poor teams like Burnley, QPR and Leicester to not make us pay for playing so badly.
We have a period of 4 weeks in March/April where we play Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton.
If Rooney is still in CM by then and we're still trying to make the RVP/Falcao thing work we might just find ourselves in 5th or even 6th by that point.
I actually think the who 'no balance' excuse is a pile of rubbish. We may not have the best options but for RB we have Raf, Smalling, Valencia, Jones and McNair; LB we have Shaw, Rojo and Blind; LW and RW we have di Maria, Januzaj, Young, Valencia, Mata, Nani and Lingard. Balance isn't the problem, it's LVGs excuses and being stubborn in having to accommodate both Falcao and RVP when neither have been good enough all season.
if rooney is still in cm we will not finish in the top 4
There is hypocrisy on those that wanted Moyes gone before he was allowed time too to be fair. It's not really a fair comparison either way due to the money invested in the summer.
The priority (and minimum expectation really) has to be top four for you guys this year. If he achieves that, then he has done his job. If he doesn't, then he hasn't. Decisions or opinions on his future shouldn't really happen until the end of the season. Quality of football absolutely though, there wouldn't be much point in a forum otherwise!
TBH our points return against the bigger teams is actually better than the smaller teams isn't it?
Hafi, we need some stats fella
We have given every big team a good game so far, the one we lost to City we perhaps looked just as good as them and played the majority of the game down to 10 men!
That has been a huge difference from us under Moyes to us under LVG, games against the big teams, a world of difference.
So you are less patient with LVG than you are with Moyes because the board had higher expectations than you did for Moyes?
So you have now raised your expectations to match the boards?
Also Moyes didn't get fired for not coming top 4, he got fired for having us all the way down in 7th (amongst other things)
If, if, if, sorry I am not going to criticise our manager because we might not finish top 4 when he has us in 3rd....
I may as well praise him on the basis he is going to have us finish 2nd in the league.....
There is hypocrisy on those that wanted Moyes gone before he was allowed time too to be fair. It's not really a fair comparison either way due to the money invested in the summer.
The priority (and minimum expectation really) has to be top four for you guys this year. If he achieves that, then he has done his job. If he doesn't, then he hasn't. Decisions or opinions on his future shouldn't really happen until the end of the season. Quality of football absolutely though, there wouldn't be much point in a forum otherwise!
.....................................................
Agree with most of that...
Although I would say there can be something of an argument made for having more faith in LVG from the start than Moyes and Moyes certainly did more to erode confidence quicker...
This is coming from someone who pretty much backed him most of the way, wasn't calling for him to be fired but when it happened I realised I had a sense of relief.
"Robb - LVG has long balls. (U19350)
posted 49 minutes ago
People missing the point here. We may currently be in 3rd but we're playing the worst football of the rest of the top 4 challengers"
You have to define good and bad football here Robb. For me, the best football is the football that gets you points.
You clearly have a different definition. If you are talking style and aesthetics, then you really shouldn't be so broad in your statement.
"Although I would say there can be something of an argument made for having more faith in LVG from the start than Moyes and Moyes certainly did more to erode confidence quicker.."
Absolutely. I guess the caveat to that was the reason to have faith in Moyes from the start was also a direct request from Ferguson too.
Lvg has plenty in the bank in terms of confidence. Probably still should to be honest, at least until after another window.
It wasn't so long back that Scholes was saying that Roy Hodgson should play Rooney in midfield as he is the best midfielder at his disposal. Isn't that exactly the same as what LVG is saying about Rooney for United?
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we? Also the teams around us have picked up less, we could quite easily finish 4th this season and end up with not that many more points than last season so it isn't just a case of looking at results as the quality of opposition change from season to season.
The reason we are currently 3rd isn't primarily because of the difference between LVG and Moyes but because of the points dropped from our rivals.
I was no Moyes fan but near the end of last season with Mata and Kagawa behind Rooney he got us playing some nice football, albeit for a very brief time.
He may have been a good footballer but I haven't hugely rated Scholes' opinions since he stopped playing.... that said I am not a big fan of Rooney in midfield either...
SAF
It's not about board expectations. It's about decisions made by LVG which quite honestly beggar belief.
You can't compare results against the bigger sides earlier in the season to now for one huge reason (no pun intended) - Wayne Rooney.
I wasn't calling for LVG's head earlier in the season - i challenge anyone to find me saying LVG out anytime in 2014, because he seemed like he was making the right decisions regarding our squad. We won 6 games in a row and I was actually defending LVG on here because we were winning games with a bit of style and Fellaini had a use in the squad.
But since Rooney has been put in CM the quality of football has gone downhill massively and our results have suffered. Worryingly LVG doesn't seem to want to correct this bizarre experiment.
So to confirm what i'm saying - if we were playing the same football we were earlier in the season I would be quite happy with things. But LVG has decided to complicate things hugely and possibly at a cost of our top 4 place AS well as add a horrific style of play to our games.
That is something that is quickly becoming unforgivable. All LVG has do is change a couple of things. I wonder why he isn't?
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we?
..................................................
I think the difference is about 6 points, 7 more scored and 2 less conceded...
Although Moyes didn't do that well after this point (if I remember rightly) so that gap is just going to keep growing...
Have you considered the reason most teams have less points is because the competition have improved?
You can't just look at a point total and say that the team is obviously better worse because of a higher or lower one, there are numerous factors involved. We have had worse United teams record higher points totals than better ones and the other way around as well.
Its just lazy to say that team x and y have less points so its easier this season, it could be that the whole competition is that much stronger.
You have to define good and bad football here Robb. For me, the best football is the football that gets you points.
-------------------------------------------------
The points we've been getting have been against teams most would get points from. Burnley, Leicester, QPR and Newcastle. All easy games which tell us nothing about our top 4 hopes. More worrying is a huge lack of chances created in these games and especially the away ones.
We have some quite tricky away games to come and IMO we need to win at least 4 or 5 more away games between now and the end of the season to secure top 4.
Not sure we will, especially with Rooney in CM.
The way a team plays football is an important demand from anyone who loves the game but it is not the most pertinent outcome for a team. Results are.
Would you rather be in mid-table anonymity playing some lovely stuff or competing at the top?
At the age of 24 I've been spoiled by watching a number of United sides going for the jugular for 90 mins and usually getting the result as well. But the attacking Utd I grew up with faded out at the end of the 2010 season and we have been fairly dull since. This is not a phenomenon unique to Van Gaal.
He is however a pragmatist, in the league this season we are ranked second for defensive mistakes leading to goalscoring chances for the opposition. Our defence is so vulnerable we can no longer afford the "we'll score more than them" approach. You can do that with the likes of Stam, Rio, Vidic at the back, players of the sort of quality that we do not currently have. Instead we are forced into the laboured build up so that when an attack breaks down we already have numbers in good defensive positions.
Its just lazy to say that team x and y have less points so its easier this season, it could be that the whole competition is that much stronger.
------------------------------------------------
I think it's more that Liverpool lost Suarez, Arsenal have had a huge amount of injuries. No coincidence that since most of their big names have returned they've gone on a great run of results. City have been awful this season at times because of injuries too.
I'm sure people could point at our injuries but we actually had better results when we had injury crisises.
SAF
But the quality hasn't improved, the PL this season has been very poor overall. Also after the West Ham game we were 1 point better off than that time last season so I don't see how we are 6/7 points better off now.
If you actually bothered to read my comment it wasn't lazy and was a direct response to Busby talking about point is what matters. I took into consideration the competition, something. I feel has lessened over the past 12 months.
It's not about board expectations. It's about decisions made by LVG which quite honestly beggar belief.
..................................................
Then what was this bit all about...
______________________________
The difference between my support for Moyes and my criticism of LVG is that I wasn't too fussed about top 4 last season. I saw Moyes needing time to rebuild the squad and build a new one in his own image. Evidently the club disagreed about the top 4 thing and fired him the second top 4 was impossible.
___________________________
That made it sound like you became more expectant of United because the board were more expectant....
..........................................................
You can't compare results against the bigger sides earlier in the season to now for one huge reason (no pun intended) - Wayne Rooney.
...........................................................
So I should ignore the evidence to the contrary and just assume that we will do terrible in the big games...
Sorry not happening.
I am more than happy for you to criticise our performances. I am more than happy for you criticise playing players in certain positions or not at all...
But you criticising LVG on the basis we will drop out the top 4 is as stupid as me praising LVG on the basis he will finish 2nd...
Benched
Liverpool showed last season that you can play good football with an awful defence and also challenge for the title.
It's a belief thing. I could understand if we had all our best players in their best positions and we were shipping goals but the real scenario is that we have a right winger in defence when the actual right back is fit, we have a striker in midfield when an actual CM is on the bench and we have two strikers who don't actually work together up front which actually makes no difference to our defensive solidarity.
Bizarelly the way we play right now would actually be far better served to have one striker up front. Against Burnley, RVP and Falcao only had one shot on goal between them (the penalty).
Quite how having just one striker up front would make us any worse is weird.
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 6 minutes ago
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we? Also the teams around us have picked up less, we could quite easily finish 4th this season and end up with not that many more points than last season so it isn't just a case of looking at results as the quality of opposition change from season to season.
The reason we are currently 3rd isn't primarily because of the difference between LVG and Moyes but because of the points dropped from our rivals.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The overall quality of say the top 12/14 teams in the league is much higher than in previous years so as a natural consequence teams will pick up less points. There is no such thing as a guaranteed 3 points in the league anymore.
We have dropped points as a result and so have our rivals, the difference being that we have dropped less. The league table does not lie. It's tight at the minute and we could easily drop out of the top 4 but the reason we are currently where we are is because over 25 games we have earned more points than 17 other teams. League position is about merit, nothing to do with what where a team 'should be'.
I think it's more that Liverpool lost Suarez, Arsenal have had a huge amount of injuries. No coincidence that since most of their big names have returned they've gone on a great run of results. City have been awful this season at times because of injuries too.
I'm sure people could point at our injuries but we actually had better results when we had injury crisises.
...................................................
We've had our own injuries
Arsenal have wicked injury crisis every season
City were poor last season, can you not remember the start?
Liverpool are certainly poorer this season.
Southampton and Tottenham are much better though.
Chelsea have improved loads, as have West Ham.
Every team in the PL (almost) had a packet to spend over the summer to improve their team as well.
Liverpool and Everton have got worse but Southampton and West Ham have improved dramatically and Chelsea have improved as well. City and Arsenal more of the same from what I can see.
I think people are being simplistic and just looking at points totals and deciding the league is easier this season, it isn't, its more competitive.
Sorry we are 6 points worse off than last season. Sure people were saying it was just 1 point different on Sunday.
Benched
I really don't think the quality in the top half is better this season than in previous seasons. Our rivals have all had poor starts to the season and are now finally getting form, pretty sure I saw that all our rivals are all now the top teams according to current form. If that continues then not getting top 4 is a very real problem
comment by Robb - LVG has long balls. (U19350)
posted 1 minute ago
Benched
Liverpool showed last season that you can play good football with an awful defence and also challenge for the title.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Flukes happen and natural order has been restored.
Successful teams are built on great defences. Name a title winning team in past 15 years that had an awful rearguard.
But you criticising LVG on the basis we will drop out the top 4 is as stupid as me praising LVG on the basis he will finish 2nd...
--------------------------------------
No, because i'm using old fashioned things like logic in my expectations. We are playing awful football. We have a striker in CM. We have rivals all of who are bang in form. We are struggling to beat Burnley at home.
All the signs point to us getting worse while others are getting better. Your point about us getting top 2 is moot because we're not moving in that direction.
The Moyes debate is over. He's gone. You can't assume anything about why anyone would dislike one manager over the other because they are two completely different situations.
Right now with the squad LVG has, he's making bad decisions where results against Leicester and Burnley don't fool anyone.
The real United right now is what we saw in the first half against Burnley and West Ham. Against better teams we shall see just how badly we can and will be punished because we have quite possibly the worst CM in the PL (Rooney) in CM. It's a huge tactical error from LVG that is a massive red flag. I honestly don't know why he's getting an easy ride from people who can see how this will end.
Do people think we'll get top 4 with Rooney in CM? Honest question.
Sign in if you want to comment
Scholes with some harsh words about LVG.
Page 4 of 5
posted on 13/2/15
scholesy comment are 100% correct
there is absolutely no justification to compromise the utd way just to fulfill lvg's massive ego. Especially with the quality of players we have.
posted on 13/2/15
SAF
The difference between my support for Moyes and my criticism of LVG is that I wasn't too fussed about top 4 last season. I saw Moyes needing time to rebuild the squad and build a new one in his own image. Evidently the club disagreed about the top 4 thing and fired him the second top 4 was impossible.
Fair enough, those are the parameters that the club are now seemingly setting. Woodward even said 3rd place was what we should be aiming for.
So now we're in a climate where top 4 is king I see LVG in 3rd place, fair enough but one bad result from being in 5th place. The reason for my concern is that I see a lot of bad performances on the horizon coming up and not many poor teams like Burnley, QPR and Leicester to not make us pay for playing so badly.
We have a period of 4 weeks in March/April where we play Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton.
If Rooney is still in CM by then and we're still trying to make the RVP/Falcao thing work we might just find ourselves in 5th or even 6th by that point.
posted on 13/2/15
I actually think the who 'no balance' excuse is a pile of rubbish. We may not have the best options but for RB we have Raf, Smalling, Valencia, Jones and McNair; LB we have Shaw, Rojo and Blind; LW and RW we have di Maria, Januzaj, Young, Valencia, Mata, Nani and Lingard. Balance isn't the problem, it's LVGs excuses and being stubborn in having to accommodate both Falcao and RVP when neither have been good enough all season.
posted on 13/2/15
if rooney is still in cm we will not finish in the top 4
posted on 13/2/15
There is hypocrisy on those that wanted Moyes gone before he was allowed time too to be fair. It's not really a fair comparison either way due to the money invested in the summer.
The priority (and minimum expectation really) has to be top four for you guys this year. If he achieves that, then he has done his job. If he doesn't, then he hasn't. Decisions or opinions on his future shouldn't really happen until the end of the season. Quality of football absolutely though, there wouldn't be much point in a forum otherwise!
posted on 13/2/15
TBH our points return against the bigger teams is actually better than the smaller teams isn't it?
Hafi, we need some stats fella
We have given every big team a good game so far, the one we lost to City we perhaps looked just as good as them and played the majority of the game down to 10 men!
That has been a huge difference from us under Moyes to us under LVG, games against the big teams, a world of difference.
So you are less patient with LVG than you are with Moyes because the board had higher expectations than you did for Moyes?
So you have now raised your expectations to match the boards?
Also Moyes didn't get fired for not coming top 4, he got fired for having us all the way down in 7th (amongst other things)
If, if, if, sorry I am not going to criticise our manager because we might not finish top 4 when he has us in 3rd....
I may as well praise him on the basis he is going to have us finish 2nd in the league.....
posted on 13/2/15
There is hypocrisy on those that wanted Moyes gone before he was allowed time too to be fair. It's not really a fair comparison either way due to the money invested in the summer.
The priority (and minimum expectation really) has to be top four for you guys this year. If he achieves that, then he has done his job. If he doesn't, then he hasn't. Decisions or opinions on his future shouldn't really happen until the end of the season. Quality of football absolutely though, there wouldn't be much point in a forum otherwise!
.....................................................
Agree with most of that...
Although I would say there can be something of an argument made for having more faith in LVG from the start than Moyes and Moyes certainly did more to erode confidence quicker...
This is coming from someone who pretty much backed him most of the way, wasn't calling for him to be fired but when it happened I realised I had a sense of relief.
posted on 13/2/15
"Robb - LVG has long balls. (U19350)
posted 49 minutes ago
People missing the point here. We may currently be in 3rd but we're playing the worst football of the rest of the top 4 challengers"
You have to define good and bad football here Robb. For me, the best football is the football that gets you points.
You clearly have a different definition. If you are talking style and aesthetics, then you really shouldn't be so broad in your statement.
posted on 13/2/15
"Although I would say there can be something of an argument made for having more faith in LVG from the start than Moyes and Moyes certainly did more to erode confidence quicker.."
Absolutely. I guess the caveat to that was the reason to have faith in Moyes from the start was also a direct request from Ferguson too.
Lvg has plenty in the bank in terms of confidence. Probably still should to be honest, at least until after another window.
posted on 13/2/15
It wasn't so long back that Scholes was saying that Roy Hodgson should play Rooney in midfield as he is the best midfielder at his disposal. Isn't that exactly the same as what LVG is saying about Rooney for United?
posted on 13/2/15
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we? Also the teams around us have picked up less, we could quite easily finish 4th this season and end up with not that many more points than last season so it isn't just a case of looking at results as the quality of opposition change from season to season.
The reason we are currently 3rd isn't primarily because of the difference between LVG and Moyes but because of the points dropped from our rivals.
I was no Moyes fan but near the end of last season with Mata and Kagawa behind Rooney he got us playing some nice football, albeit for a very brief time.
posted on 13/2/15
He may have been a good footballer but I haven't hugely rated Scholes' opinions since he stopped playing.... that said I am not a big fan of Rooney in midfield either...
posted on 13/2/15
SAF
It's not about board expectations. It's about decisions made by LVG which quite honestly beggar belief.
You can't compare results against the bigger sides earlier in the season to now for one huge reason (no pun intended) - Wayne Rooney.
I wasn't calling for LVG's head earlier in the season - i challenge anyone to find me saying LVG out anytime in 2014, because he seemed like he was making the right decisions regarding our squad. We won 6 games in a row and I was actually defending LVG on here because we were winning games with a bit of style and Fellaini had a use in the squad.
But since Rooney has been put in CM the quality of football has gone downhill massively and our results have suffered. Worryingly LVG doesn't seem to want to correct this bizarre experiment.
So to confirm what i'm saying - if we were playing the same football we were earlier in the season I would be quite happy with things. But LVG has decided to complicate things hugely and possibly at a cost of our top 4 place AS well as add a horrific style of play to our games.
That is something that is quickly becoming unforgivable. All LVG has do is change a couple of things. I wonder why he isn't?
posted on 13/2/15
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we?
..................................................
I think the difference is about 6 points, 7 more scored and 2 less conceded...
Although Moyes didn't do that well after this point (if I remember rightly) so that gap is just going to keep growing...
Have you considered the reason most teams have less points is because the competition have improved?
You can't just look at a point total and say that the team is obviously better worse because of a higher or lower one, there are numerous factors involved. We have had worse United teams record higher points totals than better ones and the other way around as well.
Its just lazy to say that team x and y have less points so its easier this season, it could be that the whole competition is that much stronger.
posted on 13/2/15
You have to define good and bad football here Robb. For me, the best football is the football that gets you points.
-------------------------------------------------
The points we've been getting have been against teams most would get points from. Burnley, Leicester, QPR and Newcastle. All easy games which tell us nothing about our top 4 hopes. More worrying is a huge lack of chances created in these games and especially the away ones.
We have some quite tricky away games to come and IMO we need to win at least 4 or 5 more away games between now and the end of the season to secure top 4.
Not sure we will, especially with Rooney in CM.
posted on 13/2/15
The way a team plays football is an important demand from anyone who loves the game but it is not the most pertinent outcome for a team. Results are.
Would you rather be in mid-table anonymity playing some lovely stuff or competing at the top?
At the age of 24 I've been spoiled by watching a number of United sides going for the jugular for 90 mins and usually getting the result as well. But the attacking Utd I grew up with faded out at the end of the 2010 season and we have been fairly dull since. This is not a phenomenon unique to Van Gaal.
He is however a pragmatist, in the league this season we are ranked second for defensive mistakes leading to goalscoring chances for the opposition. Our defence is so vulnerable we can no longer afford the "we'll score more than them" approach. You can do that with the likes of Stam, Rio, Vidic at the back, players of the sort of quality that we do not currently have. Instead we are forced into the laboured build up so that when an attack breaks down we already have numbers in good defensive positions.
posted on 13/2/15
Its just lazy to say that team x and y have less points so its easier this season, it could be that the whole competition is that much stronger.
------------------------------------------------
I think it's more that Liverpool lost Suarez, Arsenal have had a huge amount of injuries. No coincidence that since most of their big names have returned they've gone on a great run of results. City have been awful this season at times because of injuries too.
I'm sure people could point at our injuries but we actually had better results when we had injury crisises.
posted on 13/2/15
SAF
But the quality hasn't improved, the PL this season has been very poor overall. Also after the West Ham game we were 1 point better off than that time last season so I don't see how we are 6/7 points better off now.
If you actually bothered to read my comment it wasn't lazy and was a direct response to Busby talking about point is what matters. I took into consideration the competition, something. I feel has lessened over the past 12 months.
posted on 13/2/15
It's not about board expectations. It's about decisions made by LVG which quite honestly beggar belief.
..................................................
Then what was this bit all about...
______________________________
The difference between my support for Moyes and my criticism of LVG is that I wasn't too fussed about top 4 last season. I saw Moyes needing time to rebuild the squad and build a new one in his own image. Evidently the club disagreed about the top 4 thing and fired him the second top 4 was impossible.
___________________________
That made it sound like you became more expectant of United because the board were more expectant....
..........................................................
You can't compare results against the bigger sides earlier in the season to now for one huge reason (no pun intended) - Wayne Rooney.
...........................................................
So I should ignore the evidence to the contrary and just assume that we will do terrible in the big games...
Sorry not happening.
I am more than happy for you to criticise our performances. I am more than happy for you criticise playing players in certain positions or not at all...
But you criticising LVG on the basis we will drop out the top 4 is as stupid as me praising LVG on the basis he will finish 2nd...
posted on 13/2/15
Benched
Liverpool showed last season that you can play good football with an awful defence and also challenge for the title.
It's a belief thing. I could understand if we had all our best players in their best positions and we were shipping goals but the real scenario is that we have a right winger in defence when the actual right back is fit, we have a striker in midfield when an actual CM is on the bench and we have two strikers who don't actually work together up front which actually makes no difference to our defensive solidarity.
Bizarelly the way we play right now would actually be far better served to have one striker up front. Against Burnley, RVP and Falcao only had one shot on goal between them (the penalty).
Quite how having just one striker up front would make us any worse is weird.
posted on 13/2/15
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 6 minutes ago
But points wise we aren't that much better at this stage compared to last season are we? Also the teams around us have picked up less, we could quite easily finish 4th this season and end up with not that many more points than last season so it isn't just a case of looking at results as the quality of opposition change from season to season.
The reason we are currently 3rd isn't primarily because of the difference between LVG and Moyes but because of the points dropped from our rivals.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The overall quality of say the top 12/14 teams in the league is much higher than in previous years so as a natural consequence teams will pick up less points. There is no such thing as a guaranteed 3 points in the league anymore.
We have dropped points as a result and so have our rivals, the difference being that we have dropped less. The league table does not lie. It's tight at the minute and we could easily drop out of the top 4 but the reason we are currently where we are is because over 25 games we have earned more points than 17 other teams. League position is about merit, nothing to do with what where a team 'should be'.
posted on 13/2/15
I think it's more that Liverpool lost Suarez, Arsenal have had a huge amount of injuries. No coincidence that since most of their big names have returned they've gone on a great run of results. City have been awful this season at times because of injuries too.
I'm sure people could point at our injuries but we actually had better results when we had injury crisises.
...................................................
We've had our own injuries
Arsenal have wicked injury crisis every season
City were poor last season, can you not remember the start?
Liverpool are certainly poorer this season.
Southampton and Tottenham are much better though.
Chelsea have improved loads, as have West Ham.
Every team in the PL (almost) had a packet to spend over the summer to improve their team as well.
Liverpool and Everton have got worse but Southampton and West Ham have improved dramatically and Chelsea have improved as well. City and Arsenal more of the same from what I can see.
I think people are being simplistic and just looking at points totals and deciding the league is easier this season, it isn't, its more competitive.
posted on 13/2/15
Sorry we are 6 points worse off than last season. Sure people were saying it was just 1 point different on Sunday.
Benched
I really don't think the quality in the top half is better this season than in previous seasons. Our rivals have all had poor starts to the season and are now finally getting form, pretty sure I saw that all our rivals are all now the top teams according to current form. If that continues then not getting top 4 is a very real problem
posted on 13/2/15
comment by Robb - LVG has long balls. (U19350)
posted 1 minute ago
Benched
Liverpool showed last season that you can play good football with an awful defence and also challenge for the title.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Flukes happen and natural order has been restored.
Successful teams are built on great defences. Name a title winning team in past 15 years that had an awful rearguard.
posted on 13/2/15
But you criticising LVG on the basis we will drop out the top 4 is as stupid as me praising LVG on the basis he will finish 2nd...
--------------------------------------
No, because i'm using old fashioned things like logic in my expectations. We are playing awful football. We have a striker in CM. We have rivals all of who are bang in form. We are struggling to beat Burnley at home.
All the signs point to us getting worse while others are getting better. Your point about us getting top 2 is moot because we're not moving in that direction.
The Moyes debate is over. He's gone. You can't assume anything about why anyone would dislike one manager over the other because they are two completely different situations.
Right now with the squad LVG has, he's making bad decisions where results against Leicester and Burnley don't fool anyone.
The real United right now is what we saw in the first half against Burnley and West Ham. Against better teams we shall see just how badly we can and will be punished because we have quite possibly the worst CM in the PL (Rooney) in CM. It's a huge tactical error from LVG that is a massive red flag. I honestly don't know why he's getting an easy ride from people who can see how this will end.
Do people think we'll get top 4 with Rooney in CM? Honest question.
Page 4 of 5