Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Mod Note in OP, 25/3

bradlente

kryogen wrote: »

Jones and Smalling are awful right backs and should never be played there, I would play Rafael if it was me. No question and I am not saying Valencia has been great, I said he has not been a disgrace. I think it would be harsh to label him as that.

I'd play Rafael too but think Smalling had a very good spell out there a few years ago when he had a run of games,the defence was more balanced then though.As a wing back I can accept Tony but in a back four he's more of a liability than any of the others.Not questioning his heart but his best days are gone,he's a decent backup wide player at best now and the whole re-invention as a full-back hasn't worked out,like him has a player but can't believe he's still first choice.

Giggsy11

Nani scored winner again for Sporting Lisbon, hopefully we get him back next season and Januzaj is sent on loan to PL team where he can get regular game time.

Still can't understand why Herrea was subbed off and Blind played 90 mins. It should have been Carrick for Blind. Herrera was having good game and he was our only dynamic midfielder. A midfield trio of Carrick - Blind - Fellaini must be the slowest in the history of the game.

Still all is not over, it's just a cup hopefully we improve for the league games. Also Di Maria suspended means we might be back playing midfield diamond against Spurs or even worse 3-5-2.

Giggsy11

If we check our first 11 then with just 2-3 signings we can mount title challenge, we have quality players just needs a proper leader in defense.

De Gea

Rafael NewCB Rojo Shaw

ToughCM Herrera

Nani Mata Di Maria

Rooney

Team is more or less set, just need a CB who is a leader, CM like Schneiderlin who is good on the ball and also works incredibly hard.

If Mata is moved on then Rooney as #10 and a pacey, trickery striker would make our team complete and compete with the best.

Rafael should play every single game, he makes our right side looks far more better.

Mantis Toboggan

Didn't hear the post match interview but just going on quotes, did LVG say that Valencia was the best player on the pitch?

shadowcomplex

Giggsy11 wrote: »

If we check our first 11 then with just 2-3 signings we can mount title challenge, we have quality players just needs a proper leader in defense.

De Gea

Rafael NewCB Rojo Shaw

ToughCM Herrera

Nani Mata Di Maria

Rooney

Team is more or less set, just need a CB who is a leader, CM like Schneiderlin who is good on the ball and also works incredibly hard.

If Mata is moved on then Rooney as #10 and a pacey, trickery striker would make our team complete and compete with the best.

Rafael should play every single game, he makes our right side looks far more better.

Just because Valencia made a bad mistake today everyone are calling for Rafael to be recalled


Rafael himself has made lots of errors , is too rash and is too injury prone. We need a new right back

Giggsy11

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Just because Valencia made a bad mistake today everyone are calling for Rafael to be recalled


Rafael himself has made lots of errors , is too rash and is too injury prone. We need a new right back

Injury prone? Yes. That's the only problem with Rafael. We need a new RB to compete with Rafael, not to replace him.

shadowcomplex

Giggsy11 wrote: »

If we check our first 11 then with just 2-3 signings we can mount title challenge, we have quality players just needs a proper leader in defense.

De Gea

Rafael NewCB Rojo Shaw

ToughCM Herrera

Nani Mata Di Maria

Rooney

Team is more or less set, just need a CB who is a leader, CM like Schneiderlin who is good on the ball and also works incredibly hard.

If Mata is moved on then Rooney as #10 and a pacey, trickery striker would make our team complete and compete with the best.

Rafael should play every single game, he makes our right side looks far more better.

Who from that team would get in the current Chelsea side?

Giggsy11

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Who from that team would get in the current Chelsea side?

On form or ability?

shadowcomplex

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Injury prone? Yes. That's the only problem with Rafael. We need a new RB to compete with Rafael, not to replace him.

Hes sh1t too, compare him to Ivanovic. Its like comparing a Lamb to a Lion

shadowcomplex

Giggsy11 wrote: »

On form or ability?

Ability

Giggsy11

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Ability

Di Maria, Mata, De Gea (very arguable) and Rojo.

On form? De Gea and that's it.

MythicalMadMan

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Who from that team would get in the current Chelsea side?

New CB, Tough DM and Di maria would walk in

shadowcomplex

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Di Maria, Mata, De Gea (very arguable) and Rojo.

On form? De Gea and that's it.

Mata can't even get into our own team, I def think Rooney would get in

Giggsy11

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Mata can't even get into our own team, I def think Rooney would get in

On Ability, not coach's preference.

Yeah either Rooney or Mata for #10 position.

shadowcomplex

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

New CB, Tough DM and Di maria would walk in

We will find it very hard to find midfielders as good as matic and fabregas

bad2dabone

Giggsy11 wrote: »

On Ability, not coach's preference.

Yeah either Rooney or Mata for #10 position.

Ahead of hazard or Oscar?

shadowcomplex

bad2dabone wrote: »

Ahead of hazard or Oscar?

Oscar of course

Giggsy11

bad2dabone wrote: »

Ahead of hazard or Oscar?

Hazard is not a #10 isn't it?

Obviously Oscar.

bad2dabone

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Oscar of course

Personally I rate mata higher but Oscar does a lot of donkey work that mata doesn't. Hence Chelsea selling mata and mata not getting game time at united.

MythicalMadMan

shadowcomplex wrote: »

We will find it very hard to find midfielders as good as matic and fabregas

Pogba with vidal on his shoulders miles better than either Matic or Fabregas

secman

On Fellani, if he was playing like he is at the moment for Everton..would you seriously aspire to buy him.... think that he would add to our midfield ? On the right full , 3 successive managers have failed to sort this problem..really mind boggling. We have had several centre halves..such as o shea, wes brown, Jones, Smalling and a winger Valencia play there. Still waiting to replace Gary Neville.. how long is he gone ? In the same period we have bought several left fulls !

Would be amazed if Jones ever becomes a top drawer centre half.

Hard to be optimistic about our remaining 10 games, still not playing well whereas our rivals for 4th spot are hitting form. Still waiting for the philosophy to kick in.
Good article by Phil McNulty on the BBC Web this morning, hard to disagree with his observations.

titan18

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

The likes of Bangkok, Titan16, and robson lately anyway, can almost throw mister anarchy onto that pile for his last post, few blow ins in the match thread and after in here.

I know you kinda half said it but it wasn't in the ermahgerd lvg out he is poison, we are Manchester United let's beat our chest, we should be scoring 1 million goals with our super wow world class super on form strikers. Spoofers the lot of them.

It's titan18. At least get my name right if you're going to make up crap for the rest of it.

What makes you so confident that LVG is the right person for the job? Just cos he's had success in the past doesn't mean he's up to it now. He's stubborn, has spent poorly (whether it was him or Woodward, who cares, it was poor business), has made some ridiculous decisions in games, we're playing crap and has tried to fit the players into a system that doesn't suit a lot of them.

If not for De Gea, we'd have no chance at top 4. He's kept us in that race.

If you're happy with mediocrity and being another year outside the CL, that's fine, but I'm not. At best, we're sneaking into the CL this year and when you look at how we're playing and our form, that's a long shot imo. Considering how much was spent, that isn't a good job. A blind,deaf and dumb man can see that some players aren't good enough, yet LVG continues to pick them, and praises them as having had good games. Whether he means that praise or not, he comes off as a fool.

shadowcomplex

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

Pogba with vidal on his shoulders miles better than either Matic or Fabregas

Swap the word find with get and you'll have what I meant to say, Vidal isn't the player he was either by the way

FutureGuy

FutureGuy wrote: »

I would hate to think where we would be without DeGea.

This is a scary thought

Liam McPoyle

We saw glimpses of what a great team we could be last night but it's just not happening. Spurs are running well, as are LFC, I think CL football is beyond us at this point, we are just all over the shop.

Very disheartening.

MythicalMadMan

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Swap the word find with get and you'll have what I meant to say, Vidal isn't the player he was either by the way

Thats why id play him on Pobgas shoulders he still have the legs, he'd be even taller than Fellaini so perfect if we are chasing the game with 85mins to go we can get him up front and knock long balls to him. #fantasylineups

Robson99

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

I agreed with Roy keane when he said the fans who want lvg out don't have a clue about the game.

This soccer forum really is a great example of that. I'm no manager or tactition myself but some fans here really can really be clueless.

Did u agree with him when he said Moves should also have got more time????

MythicalMadMan

titan18 wrote: »

He's stubborn, has spent poorly (whether it was him or Woodward, who cares, it was poor business),

You cant criticise him for spending money poorly, then say you dont know if it was him and say who cares.

Well you can and you did but it makes no sense and it makes you look like your just saying whatever pops into ur head to make him look bad without any reasonable thinking.

titan18 wrote: »

If not for De Gea, we'd have no chance at top 4. He's kept us in that race.

This is another thing that gets my goat where would all teams be without their best players certainly they'd have less points and probably a lower league position. Again just saying something for the sake of spinning a negative narrative.

bucketybuck

mcratsix wrote: »

We look incredibly tentative and nervous to play any kind of pass that is risky. Even if we played the ball into a midfielder, more often that not its just sent back from where it came.

The frustrating thing is that in the first half the players showed signs of what they are capable off, there was a lot of attacking intent and energy in that first 45 minutes and despite the poor defending for the goal I was very happy with that I saw.

Then the manager got his hands on the team. The consequences of removing Herrera are obvious, but also you have to wonder what he said to the players at half time because they came out a totally different team altogether? Did he specifically tell them to stop attacking or did he just confuse them? When you see a team of professionals completely lose focus like we did last night you have to wonder about their relationship with the manager, is he able to communicate with them at all? Are they on the managers side at all?

Giggsy11 wrote: »

If we check our first 11 then with just 2-3 signings we can mount title challenge, we have quality players just needs a proper leader in defense.

De Gea

Rafael NewCB Rojo Shaw

ToughCM Herrera

Nani Mata Di Maria

Rooney

Team is more or less set, just need a CB who is a leader, CM like Schneiderlin who is good on the ball and also works incredibly hard.

If Mata is moved on then Rooney as #10 and a pacey, trickery striker would make our team complete and compete with the best.

Rafael should play every single game, he makes our right side looks far more better.

Completely agree, the idea that we need a whole new team is nonsense.

intellectual dosser

Got served a big piece of humble pie last night, humiliating that a striker we allowed to leave knocked us out, humiliating to see two of our players booked for diving within a couple of minutes of one another. My non United supporting friends have been quick to point out it wasn't Rooney or Young either.

But the worst part about last night is that Arsenal weren't even great - we just couldnt make anything happen. Pure impotence.

advertsfox

intellectual dosser wrote: »

Got served a big piece of humble pie last night, humiliating that a striker we allowed to leave knocked us out, humiliating to see two of our players booked for diving within a couple of minutes of one another. My non United supporting friends have been quick to point out it wasn't Rooney or Young either.

But the worst part about last night is that Arsenal weren't even great - we just couldnt make anything happen. Pure impotence.

Words out of my mouth, mate of mine kept going on about how Young used to be the king of it - just look at the impact he had last night - then Di Maria / Jan go and do that? Horrible feeling in me gut after it, really felt confident about the game and the lineup last night, such a shame.

bangkok

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

I agreed with Roy keane when he said the fans who want lvg out don't have a clue about the game.

This soccer forum really is a great example of that. I'm no manager or tactition myself but some fans here really can really be clueless.

this is the same roy keane who was running an entire team talk on an opposing team player who had been sold a week before hand?
The same keane who said Nani deserved to be sent off v real Madrid as "he wouldn't be the bravest lad anyway" yea...

and you called me and other posters clueless earlier on? who are you to say who is clueless or not. what right do you have? I have an opinion on what i'm seeing week in week out for the entire season.

We have a manager now who is making absolutely crazy decisions for all to see.

Rooney midfield for half the season, di maria up front, Phil Jones talking corners at one stage, herrera not getting a look in for how long, mata now in the same boat, probably one of the best no10's in the world, Spanish international and yet we are left looking at fellaini running around fouling players left right and centre and when we get desperate throw him up front and launch in a few high balls to him see what happens.

Falcao one of the worlds best finishers left sitting on the bench.

Nani(a full international and an ex man utd player of the season loaned out to Lisbon and having a brilliant season) while Januzaj a young, foolish player left at the club, bringing its name down with him with the amount of diving he is at.

The highest number of back passes to the keeper, more than any other team in the league and by a good bit as well.

Out of the capital one cup first game, losing fa cup 1/4 final at home and struggling to hang onto 4th spot with no Europe to contend with after spending 200m in the summer.

A manager who thought Valencia was our best player last night :eek:

A manager who said he is not a "casino man" but I give you a tip to bet on united to win the cup.

A double, negative substitution last night at half time. Why not bring on carrick and Mata? Put carrick centre half, rojo left back and play mata midield, but no we go all negative, carrick, blind, fellaini all on the pitch at the same time

ArmaniJeanss

Quick questions.
Camera zoomed in near the end on a lad in a MUFC jersey, with a half MUFC/half Arsenal scarf. Is this a normal thing to see, would there be traditional friendliness between the sets of fans. (I thought the 'half&half' scarves would only be MUFC/Celtic or the like). Would such scarves be sold outside the ground and which other clubs would be the 'other half'?

bangkok

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Quick questions.
Camera zoomed in near the end on a lad in a MUFC jersey, with a half MUFC/half Arsenal scarf. Is this a normal thing to see, would there be traditional friendliness between the sets of fans. (I thought the 'half&half' scarves would only be MUFC/Celtic or the like). Would such scarves be sold outside the ground and which other clubs would be the 'other half'?

yes they normally are, fans coming from abroad usually buy them, cost £10

rob316

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Quick questions.
Camera zoomed in near the end on a lad in a MUFC jersey, with a half MUFC/half Arsenal scarf. Is this a normal thing to see, would there be traditional friendliness between the sets of fans. (I thought the 'half&half' scarves would only be MUFC/Celtic or the like). Would such scarves be sold outside the ground and which other clubs would be the 'other half'?

You constantly see them for sale around Anfield too, personally I would never buy one. Its more of a souvenir type thing.

Mantis Toboggan

LVG saying that Valencia was the best player on the field is bizarre stuff.

Valencia tried his heart out last night, he worked extremely hard and fought for everything but he was caught out on a few occasions. Can't be easy constantly being played out of position by manager. Was at fault for both goals and was by no means the best player on the field.

sReq | uTeK

I think we should start a petition to bring Paul Scholes back

Honestly, our defence are not Barcelona, he needs to tell them clear their lines when the time needs it and play ball when it can be played, Jones trying to take that ball down with 2 of the quickest players in the league Wellbeck and Sanchez tearing down praying for a mistake was just ****ing madness. Jones cannot play the ball out from the back. Valencia is not a right back, sure hes done okay recently as a makeshift player but he cant use his left foot, hes hindered by what he can do at right back.

It seems long gone are the days when we had a top class ball player and a destroyer of worlds as our centre back pairing.

Pallister / Bruce
Rio / Stam
Rio / Vidic

Can we please just go sign someone who knows when to play a ball and someone who will kill everything in their sights.

I don't understand this thing that ONLY United seem to do and play players out of position just to include them in a lineup.

We have Raf, sure hes a bit hot headed but as an attacking threat who can actually cross the ball and defend I'd rate him significantly higher than Valencia and sure he makes some mistakes but no more than Valencia and at least he adds some attacking threat to his game. He would have been a much better option at right back last night.

I would also have had Daily Blind / Shaw at left back last night and young on the wing, Young is quick and despite what people say Blind has a nice turn of pace about him when needs be (see his run from the back against Santi Corzola last night) Young could have doubled up to help out Blind and we could have started with Carrick in the middle who actually looks like the only player who can make things happen for us when he gets the ball. I think Anders is a good player but he needs someone like Carrick in there with a cool head to help him out a bit.

Up top Rooney is dropping significantly deeper than he should be, the amount of times I was screaming for him to get behind Fellani, there was a few times Fellani chested down the ball and looked up only to have Rooney out to his left or right. I think this is a result of him playing the 10 role for the last 2 seasons and a habit he needs to get out of. STAY UP TOP ROOONEY.

Di Maria, better tonight but moment of madness cost us, why go down there is beyond belief he has a clear shooting opportunity, same for Adnan, he would have reached that ball and could have potentially squared it.

I would fine them both if I was LVG not only did they potentially cost us any opportunity of getting anything from the game they embarrassed themselves and the club in doing it.

Fellani, our best player by a country mile on the night (except DDG who is always top class) Great control and played some intricate through balls when they were on. Good physical presence and put himself about and actually looked like he had some fire in his belly which you can't say for many more out there.

There are a few things that start to mystify you when it comes to LVG again the above is only my opinion its probably 100% wrong, I'm not a professional manager nor do I have access to behind the scenes at United and whilst im fully behind the manager because his record speaks for itself something still doesn't fit right with me.

The ONLY difference i see with this team and last years team is that we hold onto the ball more and the players work that LITTLE bit harder because they have more respect for LVG.

There is no speed in our attack, Arsenal last night were there for the taking , Mertezacker (sp) is not fast, but we make things easy for him the entire game is played on front of him. No runs behind him, runs down the channels or pulling defenders out of position. United used to KILL teams on the counter. Rooney comes short, RVP comes short, Falcao comes short. and you can't create space in behind doing that. Our wingers get the ball and turn back or in Adnans case run the byline and then make the incorrect decision, it's infuriating to watch. Possession does not win games we need to be direct and utilize the players we have. Case in point was Bayern decimating Barca 7-0 with 40% possession 2 years ago.

I dont know maybe we don't have the players that suit our style but if that is actually the case then questions need to be asked as to why money was spent and in the volumes we've spent it.

TL:DR

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FIX OUR TEAM

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ROUND PEGS IN ROUND ****ING HOLES

TheDoc

Still feeling raw after that result. The substituation of Hererra changed everything, and there was just a gaping hole between the front line and midfield. On the one hand liking how Herrera is settling into the first team and becoming a bit of a key player. Saw some comments about him being headless in the first half? Thought he drive forward when possible, neat passing and control. He adds nice zip and urgency into that midfield.

Early days for Shaw, but signs arn't good. Subbed again for being absolutely all over the place. Was concerned at his price tag and that concern is still there. Flashes here and there this season of his ability, but more often then not he has been a very poor left back. Hopefully improves with maturity and experience.

Nothing needs to be said about Di Maria, dive, stupid reaction, off he goes, and rightly so. Maybe a spell on the sidelines might do him a bit of good. Don't buy into all the off field rubbish. Needs to dry his eyes, accept Madrid didn't want him, and get on with his career.

Januzaj is furstrating me the more I watch him play, and I question more and more why he is giving opportunities. Slow, laboured, poor decision making and a diver. Maybe will shake it out of his game as he matures, but I think he is a passenger, not really afforded in the situation we are in.

A miracle needs to take shape this week on the training pitch, or there will be no chance at 4th.

I can't blame Van Gaal at the comical defending that took place last night, but I can blame him for taking away what was letting us build pressure on Arsenal. I thought the first half we were good, I thought **** we are finally up for it, here it comes, the big result.

Back to square one, clueless, void of ideas, laboured, slow.

Your Airbag

Valencia's come out and apologised to his team mates and the fans for last night on his Instagram account.

Feel a little bad for him, sounds like a sensitive chap.

bangkok

Antonio Valencia
A horror show from the Ecuadorian. Woeful defending allowed Monreal through to score and his back pass then allowed Welbeck through for the second. 3

his rating today in the paper, its actually scary that van gaal thought he was our best player last night,

harry kane and christian eriksen I would imagine will be looking forward to the game sunday

TheDoc

bangkok wrote: »

Antonio Valencia
A horror show from the Ecuadorian. Woeful defending allowed Monreal through to score and his back pass then allowed Welbeck through for the second. 3

his rating today in the paper, its actually scary that van gaal thought he was our best player last night,

harry kane and christian eriksen I would imagine will be looking forward to the game sunday

From memory Di Maria completely stopped tracking Monreal, Valencia went to tackle Chamberlain when he drifted over.

I was roaring at Di Maria for being a slack ****..

MagicIRL

Felt the team played very well for the most part. Bar Valencia and Einstein Jones getting in each others way to muck up that backpass, everything was pointing towards United dominating the game.

The substitutions really didn't work, but that also could be because Di Maria got sent off so the team was always going to be unbalanced. For me, the game was crying out for Mata. You saw Fellaini pick out a few through balls (the one on to Di Maria was a beaut) but Mata would do that sort of thing in his sleep. I thought Young did ok, nothing great. He's not consistent enough to warrant starting every game. As a bench player, definitely.

I think the team certainly needs some work. Granted the media are going to throw the book at United because heaven forbid you spend money on players you can afford ten times over.

Will De Gea stay? I hope so. Mata too, although it's not looking good for him sadly. If Mata does leave, I see Rooney dropping back to #10 and Falcao/RVP playing up top again. Shaw has been ropey to say the very least. He's so young that chances are he'll come good given time, so a stop-gap LB should be brought in.

I make it that four first team players are still needed for the team before anything of merit is won.

De Gea
RB - CB - Rojo - LB
Blind - Herrera
Di Maria - Mata - LW
Rooney

MagicMarker

Fair play to Valencia for that apology.

TheDoc

MagicIRL wrote: »

De Gea
RB - CB - Rojo - LB
Blind - Herrera
Di Maria - Mata - LW
Rooney

Clyne, Hummels, Depay/Reus I'm sure will be linked all through the summer.

Also think we are pissing in the wind trying to assume formations. We have gone through 3-4 this year. I'm hopeful that a proper pre-season things can get sorted out and the formations he wants to use are etched into the squad. And the players we buy, are players who can actually PLAY in that system.

bangkok

TheDoc wrote: »

From memory Di Maria completely stopped tracking Monreal, Valencia went to tackle Chamberlain when he drifted over.

I was roaring at Di Maria for being a slack ****..

exactly, he is meant to be right back, he shouldn't be drifting over, he is the right back, he ended up running 10 yards past smalling in the centre of the goal, completely left his position. yea di maria should have been closer, but it was crazy schoolboy defending from valencia

Liam O

I'd like to see one game where LVG just tries to win and not merely negate the opposition. People seem to be far more accepting of that this season than last, I guess LVG's propaganda is working on that regard.

Adamcp898

Haven't any time to flick through the last few pages but was there any word on why Herrera/Shaw were taken off?

And for the first goal, I haven't seen any replays - even at at the time, but I remember Smalling following some Arsenal player very far out to the right hand side to try and win the ball, this was what meant Valencia had to move across one to the CB position. Smalling initially held the RB spot for a second before he then got dragged out of position for a second time following the ball and ended up on top of Valencia with both of them at CB. Like I say, that was my interpretation of what happened at real time and so I could be wrong upon seeing a replay, but to me the blame should be on Smalling and not Valencia.

bangkok

I see Berahino and his agent were sitting in the united directors box last night....

RobertKK

I seriously hope Jones is sold in the summer, and Evans too. Smalling is the best of that trio.

Looks like Marquinhos will again be a target if we are to believe the player that he was a target last January.
Godin says he wants to remain at Atletico for many years, so we can forget him as a potential target.
Papers that don't refuse ink have stories of United ready yo offer £30 million for Varane, while they say Chelsea are ready to offer just under £40 million...
A right back is needed.

United need to get the defense sorted, De Gea doing wonders to cover it up. I think the problems in defense leads to the problems elsewhere and it doesn't help there are problems elsewhere before you add the defensive problems.

Di Maria in the first half yesterday was good in my opinion, second half was bad. PSG may want him, but I think it is unlikely he will be sold.
Memphis Depay has been mentioned as a winger that is supposedly high on the list for United.

Nainggolan has been mentioned for midfield. According to Pogba's agent, there are seven clubs interested in signing Pogba, apart from United there are City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich.

Unfront there is Rooney, but RVP needs replacing or simply needs to do more to justify his place in the team. Falcao is gone. Wilson has a lot of improving to do, so a Dybala or Lacazette would be great.

A lot of surgery needed on the team, Mata should be sold if he isn't going to be played, which would be a crying shame, but no use if he isn't being played.

Now they just need to qualify for the CL.

Pro. F

For anybody who missed it last night, this post from Red Cafe is a good read on LVG's tactics and player requirements, his philosophy. We can't be sure that it's exactly what LVG is thinking this season, but as a model for understanding his decisions it fits perfectly.

The guy who wrote it thinks we should be reassured by it that LVG has a plan and will buy accordingly. I'm worried, not reassured, by this philosophy and how Louis is going about enacting it.

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Here's the post:

"This is my first thread here, I've been reading the Cafe for quite some time now and I've noticed alot of people still don't know how van Gaal likes to play the game. I'm not an expert by any means, but I do know some things van Gaal always has in his teams. Louis van Gaal is a teacher and as a Dutchy who knows him I see that he has pretty much tried to explain everything he did at Manchester United so far. He isn't fluent in English though so many don't get this, I hope I can explain this a bit better. Excuse the language, I'm Dutch aswell and might make some mistakes. I'll happily edit any errors.

There will be no TL;DR because van Gaal's ways are difficult. Please don't turn this into a thread about what you think of him, as there are enough threads to discuss that. I'd like to keep this thread purely about the tactical side and his team selections. You might disagree with his vision, but he's NOT changing so I'm just stating the facts. If you're not interested in reading all of this, please go and read another thread.

First of all: his philosophy isn't his playstyle. It's much more than this. It's essentially how he does his job: how he treats the players and staff, how he trains, which orders he gives to players and what his gameplan is. Louis van Gaal isn't fluent in English so 'philosophy' just about covers everything which he can't explain fully (he doesn't give out all his secrets either).

Louis van Gaal is a strong character. Players have to do what he says or you're not getting a spot in the team. If you're not pleasing him, he can be a nasty man. We've seen this with many players in the past, they collide with his personality or just can't get to grips with the way he wants to play the game no matter how hard they try. If you give everything and try to do as he says though he really is a nice man. He shows respect, always defends his players in front of the media and will never speak badly of a player in public. He's a real gentleman, he rather speaks about the team and not the individual. This might be annoying for us fans, but I'm sure the players appreciate it as they aren't getting burned after bad performances.

Rules:
His formations don't really matter too much as he generally plays the same and he still follows his own set rules. Some of his rules which his teams MUST have (he will not play without this, unless he has no choice because of injury):

-Left/right foot combinations. With the exception of inverted wingers(or wingsbacks), you're not getting a spot on the left side if you're not extremely good with your left. Ditto for the right side.
-4 defensive minded players. He categorizes his players (I'll come back to this) and doesn't play without 4 of these.
-3/4 creative players. These are the only players who can take risks in the team and lose the ball, the rest has to follow orders and keep possesion. These usually are the wingers, number 10 and the striker.
-In a midfield 3 he wants: a CDM, a box-to-box midfielder who's good defensively and a creative midfielder as his number 10.

Team selections:
He NEEDS 4 defensive minded players, this is the balance he keeps mentioning. We lack this. He bought players for a 352 but changed formation because it wasn't working and this left him in a spot of bother. With 352 he had 3 centrebacks+1 CDM, which is enough to please him.
With 4231 (his preferred 433) we got 2 centrebacks + Blind or Carrick. This isn't enough. He needs another midfielder, a box-to-box midfielder, who can bring him defensive balance. He tried Rooney, Fellaini, Mata and now Herrera but he isn't happy about them for this role. He will strenghten there in the mould of Strootman. The reason Fellaini is still playing is because Herrera is a creative player playing in his box-to-box role. We will never see Blind-Mata-Herrera as this would mean he doesn't have 4 defensive minded players. Having a defensive minded player at 10 isn't what he wants though so we won't see this next season.
This is why he doesn't fancy a 442 with wingers. He'd have 2 defensive midfielders, 2 wingers and 2 strikers and lack the most important player for him: his creative number 10.
The reason why he has fiddled around so much with players/formations is because he lacks the players for his own set rules, this won't be solved without transfers.

How he generally plays:
Apart from his creative players, Louis van Gaal plays every single position. He tells each player what they can and can't do. They must know these tasks from each and every teammate on the pitch aswell. Each player got their own do's and do not's which are based on their strenghts and position in the starting 11. Rooney/Blackett can give a long ball, Mata can give trough balls and Di Maria can do whatever he wants. They need to perform these instructions to perfection or they're getting dropped.

In a perfect van Gaal match everything is about the number 10. The team plays in service of getting the number 10 in an ideal position to set up a goal for one of his teammates. He wants to achieve this by keeping the ball (frustrating & tiring the opposition) and dragging the opponent around to find space. If this space isn't found then they shouldn't panic but stick to the plan and recycle possesion. Only when van Gaal sees it isn't working he switches to his plan B (which he always has). In our case that is Fellaini and a more direct style of play.

He analyses the opponent in extreme detail and comes up with a specific plan for each and every match. It doesn't matter if it's Cambridge, Swansea or Chelsea. We will set up in a way to counter their strenghts and exploit their weakness: we will adapt to all opponents whilst playing his possesion based style.

Fullbacks/defensive midfielders for example can't dribble because of the risk of losing the ball. Passing to one of them who is marked is pointless because they've got the instruction to pass it back. The players must analyse the situation: the player who can't beat a man is marked, the winger who can make an action is there, the creative midfielder is standing in a position where he can't lose the ball so I can't pass it to him, the weak spot we're targetting is there etcetera etcetera are all things a player needs to think about in a split second when he's got the ball. The whole team is thinking of attacking when a non-creative player is on the ball because of the gameplan, they aren't prepared to defend. The team is also set to attack when a creative player has the ball in a dangerous position where they can't lose the ball (close to de Gea). When a creative player has the ball in a position where they can take risks though, the team is ready to defend and it doesn't matter if say Di Maria loses the ball. That's why he doesn't like Herrera as a CDM/BTB, he has too much risks in his game. If he loses the ball when he's not 'creative' this disturbs all instructions given to the other players because they're all in the wrong places and we're extremely vulnerable to the counter.

This is why van Gaal always struggles at first because most players aren't used to his ways and some will never learn this. It's always a project for the long term though, so we won't see results immediately. It's a very hard learning curve to play how van Gaal wants as he's extremely demanding. Limitted players like Fellaini (no offense) who only got only a few strenghts blossom under him because they don't get tasks which they can't perform. They don't need to think and only do as they've been told.

Like I mentioned each and every player has a specific task for their position in the gameplan, which changes each game. That's why he sometimes decides to drop a player because he thinks he needs somebody else in his place with a different strenght for a specific match.

All 11 players doing exactly what he wants in every single situation is hard to learn, but if it's performed well it's a great style of playing the game. It's attractive, attacking football which the fans will enjoy. It's nothing like Fergie's style though so people will have to get used to it, we're not seeing the way van Gaal would like us to play though so don't worry just yet. This year is all about top 4 and laying the foundations for next year."