Man Utd 0-0 Middlesborough (1-3): Lets dissect United's dreadful performance!

Manchester Utd vs Middlesborough

0-0 
Penalty Shootout: 1-3

Wed 28th October - 8pm
Capital One Cup

To start things off, I want to say how well Middlesborough played. Although they sat back and played on the counter, they played with passion, determination, speed and flair, everything Man Utd didn't. To say I was in shock at some of the performances from United tonight is an understatement. Lets dissect exactly who I am talking about.

For me this evening, Memphis Depay was atrocious. I understand he hasn't had many games over the last couple of weeks, but that doesn't excuse the sort of performance he gave. The accuracy of his passing was appalling and he didn't pose any sort of threat to the opposition's defence. From what I have heard, his attitude has been criticised by other members of the squad and after watching his body language after a stray pass in the second half and add on the rumours of him & RVP falling out whilst on national duty, this makes me think he needs a right kick up the arse and to knuckle down & prove his price tag. 

Then comes Sergio Romero, now he did make some fine saves but all of that will be forgotten about because of 1 moment. What he was doing when he nearly let a pass back creep into his net I don't know. He looked nervous and that was seen by Middlesborough and at every possible point applied pressure on him. It's a massive difference to the goalkeeper we are used to in De Gea, and that might be unfortunate for him but as a Manchester United goalkeeper, this is what the fans expect after being graced with such world class talent like Schmeichel, Van Der Sar & De Gea etc. He needs to improve very quickly and unfortunately for him, his next game might not be for a while.

In terms of quick snippets on individual performances..... Darmian, Blind & Rojo were OK, Smalling definitely still shines in the back four. Carrick still shows exactly why he should be in the starting 11 every match. Fellaini, Lingard, Perriera, & Wilson were just fine  but nothing more and Romero & Memphis I have already mentioned. In terms of the substitutions, Rooney had no impact on the game and carried on his dreadful form, Young came on and seemed lively but still couldn't deliver any balls of any class and Martial was yet again a stand out player. As a team I feel we haven't quite got the final pass figured out, the passing is way too slow and looking at Fellaini trying to score a Scholesy sort of goal shows we don't have anyone who can put the goals away with ease other than Martial.

Now regarding Louis Van Gaal, I thought that on paper, the team choice was a good one. We brought in players like Perriera and Wilson and gave them the chance to get some minutes under their belt. At the same time, it gave the other players that haven't had too many minutes on the pitch, an opportunity to show what they are about. In hindsight, I think he maybe tinkered a little bit too much. It was a team full of players who weren't match fit and it showed in the tempo of United's play and quite frankly in the first half I might as well have been watching paint dry it was that boring.

There is one final point that I feel needs to made, and that was the performance of the referee. In short, he was awful. And it's not the first time. He missed so many little fouls like when a Middlesborough player grabbed hold of Ashley Young's shirt, dragged him off the ball and off the pitch but he decided to award the free kick to Middlesborough. Not sure what he was watching but It definitely wasn't that play. Then we have the two major penalty appeals. The first one is debatable but when you watch it in slow motion, he moves his arm towards the ball and therefore I would have to say it is a penalty but I understand why he hasn't given it. What I can't understand, is how the second handball is not given as a penalty. In the slow motion replay, it is clear that the referee can see the incident as clear as day. He is in a great position to see it and he isn't blocked in any way. How he hasn't given it, I have no idea but it is a dreadful decision. Quite clearly I am saying that Middlesborough deserved to win the match but for him to miss a penalty shout like that, all I will say is that Jose Mourinho's claims are nothing in comparison. 

Anyway, I really hope the team learn from this, and learn that they need to be putting in much better performances if we are going to get anything out of this season. Lets hope they put in a great performance at the weekend and we can show what we are all about.

Hope you have a great 2nd of of the week and don't forget to like our Facebook page, Follow us on Twitter & Instagram and finally if you want to read the blog every week then make sure you follow us on Google Plus too!

Over & Out!

Romero                  5
Darmian                6
Smalling                7
Blind                     6
Rojo                      6
Carrick                  7
Fellaini                  6
Lingard                 6
Perriera                 6 
Memphis               4
Wilson                  6

Rooney                 5
Young                   6
Martial                  7

How long until Van Gaal drops Rooney?

Manchester Utd vs Manchester City

0-0

Sun 25th October - 2:05pm
Barclays Premier League

At what point does Louis Van Gaal take the decision to drop his Captain & Leader, Wayne Rooney, and make him learn that his performances so far this season have been abysmal. Before I get into the whole discussion of Rooney though, I think its only right to discuss the match itself. 

It seems that defensively this season we have done quite well. Chris Smalling has been incredible so far and it seems that now Phil Jones is back from injury, he is going to stick with the two Englishmen as his two main centre backs, which for me, is the best decision. I really think that Phil Jones has the potential to become great, but due to his injuries over his United career, it hasn't really happened for him. Hopefully, he stays injury free and he can kick on in the same way Smalling has done. Today we had Valencia and Rojo in the full back roles. Now if you'd have asked me in an ideal world, who I would have had, it would hands down be Darmian and Shaw, but Shaw is out for a while, which leaves either Rojo or Blind to fill in. Surprisingly though, both Rojo and Valencia were solid today. They both bring the strength that maybe the other two don't have, and that is something we needed against a pretty tall Man City today.

The problem comes in attack. The stats show we played mostly on the wings, but every time there was a delivery into the box, there wasn't anyone there! Rooney is always late, Herrera and both wingers are normally part of the play that sets up the delivery, and that leaves Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlein who can't get in the box because they are playing so deep. A week ago against Everton, there was a point in the game where we started getting people in the box and I really wanted to see that today.

In the attacking positions I would say that the only person who can be proud of their performance today was (yet again) Anthony Martial. He takes players on, speeds down the wings and has an immense amount of skill. He reminds me of Ronaldo before he made that massive improvement to become one of the worlds best. He needs to work on the final product and his shooting (other than the typical Thierry Henry finish) and he will become one of the worlds greatest. I am extremely excited by this boy.

Then comes the point that most United fans seem to be discussing at the moment. What is going on with Rooney and why does Van Gaal keep playing him?

I honestly think he has lost his fire. I'm not sure why but everything about his game seems to have taken a massive drop. It's as though he has played 'Freaky Friday' with Bebe or David Bellion! The main issue for me is how Van Gaal doesn't see this. He refuses to drop him. He refuses to substitute him. He refuses to admit that he isn't the same Wayne Rooney we have come to know and love. I would give him a certain amount of games out of the team to show him that he's not indispensable and then we might see some of that fire return to show everyone that he has every right to be in that team. I just hope he doesn't carry on the way he has been because it could come as a huge risk to United. 

When are we going to see the Wayne Rooney in this video?

We shall wait and see.

In other news, Chelsea seem to be imploding and I am starting to wonder how long it will be before Jose Mourinho gets sacked. He seems to have lost the belief of the players and fans and I truly think that the whole physio issue has been the cause of this. He seems to have lost the plot and it will certainly be something to keep an eye on whether he can come back from this.

Arsenal seem to have started the season well but this happens every season and I have not one bit of doubt in my body that Arsenal will yet again collapse and finish 3rd or 4th.

Liverpool sacked Brendan Rodgers and hired Jurgen Klopp and  I really think that they have got one of the best managers out there right now. It will be interesting to watch whether he can turn a team like Liverpool into world beaters again.

Hopefully, United can keep up the brilliant defensive displays and work on how to start scoring for fun again.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any comments below. Would love to know what you think whether you agree or disagree.

Have a great week!

Over & Out!


De Gea                             7    
Valencia                             7      
Smalling                              8     
Jones                                     7
Rojo                                        7
Schneiderlein                           7
Schweinsteiger                       7
Mata                                      7
Herrera                                7   
Martial                               8 
Rooney                            5

Darmian                      7 
Lingard                        7
Fellaini                          7

What Went Wrong For United Against Arsenal?

Arsenal vs Manchester Utd

3-0

Sun 4th October - 4pm
Barclays Premier League

Whenever I watch Arsenal I am not sure what I'm going to get. Its either brilliant or awful. Which is why Arsenal fans keep changing their mind when it comes to getting rid of Wenger. One minute he is the best manager around and the next its #wengerout. Unfortunately for us, today was one of those brilliant days. Their passing was fast, accurate and with that came that little bit of luck you need to compliment the flair from the players on the team. I was very impressed by them and was wondering why we were so bad, so lets try and break it down and figure out what went wrong for United today...

The Pace of United's Passing was Slower than a Tortoise Running the Marathon

I can't think why we are not playing at a faster tempo. I remember in Louis Van Gaal's first pre season, we were up against teams like Roma, Inter, Real Madrid and Liverpool. We beat all 4 of those teams and one of the main reasons for this was the speed of the passing we played. Then we kicked off the season against Swansea, lost all of that speed and of course lost the game. Ever since that preseason, I haven't seen the pace that won us those games and I am so confused as to why this hasn't been addressed. What is it about a fast tempo that makes us win I hear you ask. Well today we got a brilliant lesson in how it can kill teams off. We couldn't handle them. If your passing is slow, it gives the opposition chance to pressurise you and then you are forced into making mistakes. If your passing is at a high speed, the opposition don't have time to think and therefore you become in control. See here in our preseason match against Real Madrid. In this video you will see how the fast tempo of the passing play creates a beautiful goal....

The Pressure Game has to be Done as a Team & Not Just Bastian

Gary Neville seemed to be confused as to why Bastian Schweinsteiger was so high up the pitch and leaving such big holes in between our midfield and defence. I am not so sure he is to blame. I think the pressure game is a good tactic but everyone has to do it and not just one player otherwise he is given the run around and this creates spaces that the opposition can take advantage of. If everyone puts in a huge amount of desire to pressurise the opponent and force them to make passes they don't want to make instead of making it incredibly easy to play around us, then I really think we wouldn't have conceded those goals.

Ashley Young is NOT a Left Back

Lets be honest, Ashley Young is not a left back. He can fill in if we are winning a game 2-0 and we want to give someone else a rest but not to start against one of the 'Big 4'. Why LVG didn't play Smalling & Jones in the centre of defence and move Blind out to left back is beyond me? Instead he chose to keep the midfielder/left back Daley Blind in the centre back role and play the very attacking Ashley Young in the left back role. He cannot defend to save his life but hey ho why not give him a chance. Not as if we are playing a good team or anything. To add insult to injury, Young is known for his pace and yet got beaten by Bellerin for the first goal even though he was ahead of him to start with. Just shocking! 

How Badly Does Rooney Need to Play Before He Is Dropped?

I really feel that Louis Van Gaal is treating Wayne Rooney like the Arsenal board are treating Arsene Wenger (or at least in Jose Mourinho's opinion). He hasn't scored an away goal since last November. LAST NOVEMBER?! That is unbelievable. Now I am a huge fan of Rooneys but he has been so bad recently I think he needs to put in another transfer request to get him to play well again. He seems to have lost every bit of fire in his belly and that worries me. There is something going on there and I'm not sure what it is, but its really playing on his brain and its causing him to play like a giraffe on drugs! Then comes the question of why he isn't dropped, then Mata can come into the number 10 role and we can play with two proper wingers like United are built to do. I would possibly even try 4-4-2 and play 2 wingers (Choice between Depay, Young, Valencia, Lingard or Perreira), and then have Wilson & Martial up front. Rooney is playing really badly at this moment in time and just because he is the captain doesn't mean he has a right to be in the starting 11. He needs to play well and earn his spot like everyone else. 

Schweinsteiger & Carrick Are Too Similar

When we are talking about rotating between the midfield, I feel that it must be either Schweinsteiger or Carrick in there with someone else rather than both of them together. They are too similar and don't complement each other as well as people might think. They tend to try and do the same thing and doesn't really give us that protection that Schneiderlein would give us against the better teams. I thought it was a mistake to leave Schneiderlin out of the team and left us very open in the first 20 minutes.

Why Have We Played The Same Team For Every Competition? 

I cannot not understand why a manager such as LVG cannot see that we are currently in 4 competitions and will be playing a considerable amount of games over the course of the season. So with this thought, it is confusing as to why he decided to get rid of a lot of players in the transfer window and not replace them. Then comes the conundrum as to why he keeps playing the same team whether we are playing Arsenal, Wolfsburg or Ipswich. Fergie always said that rotation was needed if you wanted to be successful in the 4 competitions. I felt that at the end of the game against Wolfsburg, we look extremely tired and in need of a rest. Now I am not saying that we needed to rotate the whole team for the Arsenal match because lets be honest, we needed our best team out there, but why did he play more or less the same team for games like Club Brugge's second leg when we were ahead on aggregate and could have afforded to bring in players like Ashley Young, Januzaj etc and could have given Mata & Depay a well deserved rest. I just think it's going to come back and bite him later on in the season when these players become exhausted. It happens to the smaller teams when they realise they don't have big enough squads and I am scared that we are going to start to become more and more tired as the season goes on.

Overall, I was very disappointed with todays game but it didn't help that players like Alexis Sanchez (who looks like a steal at £38m) are playing so well.

Now comes the international break, which I always hate because it feels like an age before I get to see United again and its even worse that we have finished on a performance and result like that but hopefully time will go quickly and we can come back and respond. After all, Sir Alex always said defeat will always happen but it's how you respond to it that puts you apart from everyone else. Lets show everyone what we are made of against Everton and put this result to bed. After all, it's not as if we lost 8-2! :-P

Over & Out!

(Feel free to comment below, like or even follow my blog by adding your email below) 

Manchester Utd vs Sunderland

Manchester Utd vs Sunderland

3-0

Sat 26th August - 3pm
Barclays Premier League

Firstly, apologies for the gap since my last blog, I have been on holiday to Orlando, Florida visiting Disney & Universal and generally relaxing after a hard few months. I missed a few of the games whilst I was away but the biggest news from the past few weeks was that Luke Shaw horrifically broke his leg during the match against PSV Eindhoven. I genuinely feel gutted for him. He had a really difficult season last year and for him to start this season the way he has is such bad luck. I wish him the best and I hope he will be back as strong as has been over the past few months. Get well soon Luke!

Now onto yesterday's game against Sunderland. This was a chance for us to show everyone a classy performance but I can't help but feel the same as I have for every other game we have won this season..massively underwhelmed. I am really glad that we are producing the results and lets be honest, that is the most important thing, but I can't help but want a brilliant performance to go with it and I just felt that the scoreline made it out that we were brilliant and in my opinion, we weren't as good as the scoreline suggests.

Individually, a lot of the players had solid games and this is a good sign but creatively I want more from them in terms of producing the beautiful football everyone talks about. Maybe I am asking too much, but I guess that is what United fans are used to over the past 20 odd years.

Defensively this season, I have actually been pleasantly surprised. 

Yesterday I thought all 4 of the defence were solid, nothing to shout about, but then again when you're playing a team like Sunderland, you can't really expect anything spectacular. 

Valencia hasn't played much this season but when he has come in he looks strong and capable. Yesterday he put in a solid performance again.

Now for me, Darmian has been the signing of the Premier League so far this season. He is brilliant defensively and has really impressed me when on the attack. Probably his greatest asset is his positioning. He knows where to position himself defensively and he seems to have great decision making skills when it comes to when to overlap and attack and when to stay back. The shock came yesterday when he was put at left back. He seemed to fit into it perfectly and this makes me a little calmer when it comes to Shaw being out for 6 months.

When it comes to 'Mike' Smalling, I have never been a huge fan. I always thought his passing was atrocious and he just looked so vulnerable at making huge mistakes at exactly the wrong time. His biggest mistake was probably against Man City last season when he had just been given a yellow card and then he goes and launches himself at James Milner. Of course, he missed the ball, took out the midfielder, got his second yellow and was sent packing. At that point, I would have quite happily given him away for free, but no one saw what was coming next. Shockingly, he has slowly improved in all aspects of his game and has become the main piece of our defence this season. His performances have been brilliant so far this season and long may it continue. His injury problems seem to be behind him and he is really becoming the defender most thought he would never become. Lets hope Phil Jones follows in his footsteps and becomes the defender Sir Alex thought he was going to be (the greatest player that United have ever had).

His partner in the centre of defence Daley Blind has also shocked me. I honestly thought LVG's decision to put his trust in Blind rather than spending money on Hummels or Otamendi was going to be a stupid one but its turned out that he's putting in a great performance game after game. Long may it continue but if I am honest, I can't help but worry he may be caught out when he is against players like Aguero & Costa but we shall see.

For the past 5 or 6 years, all United fans have complained that we have missed a world class centre midfielder in the ranks but I feel that in purchasing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlein, we have brought in experience and talent that I felt we have long needed. They may not be a Paul Pogba or Yaya Toure but Bastian Schweinsteiger seems to control the game exactly the way he wants (in the style of a certain Paul Scholes), and in Morgan Schneiderlin we have got someone who can match Carrick in protecting the back four. I would happily play any of the three of them in those centre midfield roles and wouldn't be worried at all. My only complaint is that Schneiderlin seems to always pass backwards but I have seen some improvement over that last few weeks so I am trusting he will develop that in his game.

Yesterday, Memphis Depay disappointed me even if he scored. He has not caught up with the pace, strength and quality of the Premier League so far. He seemed lost against Sunderland and seems far far away from the Memphis we've seen in the Champions League and also for PSV last season. I do believe he is a quality signing and he will continue to improve as his United career continues.

If I am honest I was a little disappointed with Juan Mata yesterday. Maybe this is due to his brilliant performances of late but I just felt that he wasn't as good as I have seen him. Saying that, he pulled out a brilliantly unselfish assist for Depay and put away a lovely goal so I can't say he was bad because that would be unfair. I just have high standards for a player that has been a vital part of so many great performances so far this season.

Now comes Wayne Rooney....yesterday I had a long debate with a close friend of mine over what is Rooney's best position. He feels that up top in the number 9 position is by far his best position. I disagree, he does it well and the proof for that is scoring 30 goals a few years ago when that was his main position, but for me the number 10 role has always been his best position. When he plays the number 10 role, he gets less goals but his assists improve so you can;t really compare with the stats. The number 10 role is a position that links the midfield and striker role and somewhere that Rooney can influence the play. His creativity is just too good to ignore and isolate him up front where he can;t affect the play as much. Rooney is physical, he's got good pace and a great range of passes, which is why his best position is behind the striker. Don't get me wrong, when he is on his game, he is brilliant at both but would I rather have him as a lone striker as a part of a 4-5-1 or have him just behind a world class striker like Lewandowski or Van Persie of old then I know which way I would go. Yesterday he did play in that role and he was probably the most disappointing of everyone and I think the reason for this was because he can't control his want to come deep and get the ball. He needs to occupy the hole between the midfield and the defence and I just felt that yesterday he was way too deep and got lost. I do hope his form starts to improve and he gets back to his best because I still feel he hasn't been great so far.

Finally we come to Anthony Martial. I have come under a bit of stick recently because I have been quite critical of Ed Woodward & LVG when it comes to the Martial deal and I stand by my thoughts even after his blistering start. 

To go back to deadline day, when I heard we were about to sign this kid I immediately did some research and watched a lot of videos of his best bits. If I'm honest, I really wasn't impressed. He looked clumsy on the ball and although he has come up with quite a few nice bits of play, there was nothing in there that made me jump up off my seat like I did with players like Lucas Moura, Odegaard or James Rodriguez. Once I dug deeper, I found out that the striker scored only 12 goals in all competitions last season and even worse only played 4 full 90 minutes in the whole season. To then hear that we were signing him for £36m (around the same amount as Aguero, Mata, Pastore, Benzema, Lucas Moura, Modric, Hazard, Costa, Fabregas, Sanchez, Thiago Silva), my response was one of utter shock. Even worse was when the news came out that the deal could rise to £60m. Now I am sorry, but any idiot that says that this is due to potential or due to inflation is talking utter crap. When Chelsea signed Hazard, they were signing potential. Potential that had scored 50 goals and looked like a brilliant prospect for a big team. "but that was back in 2012! prices have gone up since then!" I can hear you saying....well how about when Real Madrid bought James Rodriguez only a year ago. He was bought for £38m and his stats were that he had scored 63 goals and honestly looks to be a huge talent and has the potential to reach the heights of his current teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. That is what it costs for potential! Not £60m for an unproven kid whose position is striker and has only scored 15 goals in 4 seasons!!!

Now, the start of his United career couldn't have got off to a better start and it looks like I am eating my words but I can't eat my words because that is irrelevant to my point. I want to make it very clear....he could turn out to be the next Messi and I would still look back and say it was too much money. It is not about what he COULD be, its looking at the facts on paper at the time of the deal and saying its a crazy amount of money to be gambling on hoping that he fulfils the potential that he has. I really hope that he turns out to be the next Thierry Henry because that will mean great things for Man United but I feel that we would have been very lucky in the business we will have done. It will also become the deal people will revert to when dealing with United in the future. For example, "Hi Southampton, we would like to buy the next Gareth Bale off you?"....."Ok well if you're willing to pay £60m for a 19 year old unproven Anthony Martial, then we think this kid is worth £80m and won't accept anything less". Its just a silly deal!

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I am sure there will be some who will disagree with me but that is what I love about football.

Hope you all have an amazing week and I look forward to watching United's midweek game against Wolfsburg!

Come on you Reds!!

Over & Out!

Swansea City vs Man Utd

Swansea City vs Manchester Utd

2-1

Sun 30th August - 4pm
Barclays Premier League

One of the biggest problems with football fans is that whenever your team is doing well, its always 'we're back' and 'we're gonna win the league' etc, when in actual fact you might have just come up against a poor team or just had a game ridden with luck. Arsenal fans are known for this...one minute they want Wenger out and then the next they think he is a genius and they are back on the road to a title winning season. I don't really watch Arsenal that much so can't really comment on whats wrong but I definitely thought Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher made a couple of brilliant points on MNF and certainly worth a watch. 

Now, lets look at United's season so far....

1. We've bought a good couple of players in midfield and at right back, 
2. We had a good preseason against some good opposition but nothing magical. 
3. We have actually started the league pretty well. Kept 3 clean sheets, looked really solid at the back and look like we have another exciting player in Memphis. 
4. Rooney on the other hand hasn't started very well. He has looked a shadow of the player he has been and has been pretty poor until this week's champions league match against Club Brugge where he comes back in style and scores a hat trick. 
5. All of a sudden, United have found their feet and Rooney is back in form and now we are unstoppable. No. Firstly Champions League is not the same as the Premier League and as Kiko Macheda will tell you from a bench somewhere in Wales, one match doesn't change anything. Its all about consistency. 

I have quite a few issues I want to talk about so here goes....

Are Smalling & Blind good enough to be our centre back partnership and win the league?

In short the answer is no. I definitely think that Smalling has turned into a brilliant CB and if he can keep up his form and stay injury free, then he could be our new Rio Ferdinand. Daley Blind is a brilliant reader of the game and his positional play is brilliant but there are 2 issues in him that worry me. When he comes up against a strong centre forward like Gomis, he is caught out. The other issue I find is that he sometimes gets pulled out of position easily and gets caught out, especially when Luke Shaw has committed himself too. I would quite happily see him playing as a centre back for 60% of the matches in the Premier League but if I am honest, we need a Hummels or Varane to go alongside Smalling with Jones & Blind as back up. Just thinking about it gets me excited but I know it probably won't happen.

Do we need another forward or do we have enough?

We definitely need a world class forward! In my opinion, I think Wayne Rooney plays well when he is a part of a top two. Someone who can make the runs for him but can also hold the ball up and play him through. In short, I would play Wayne Rooney in the number 10 role and someone like Cavani or Benzema in the number 9 role. Now comes the issue that we have too many players whose best position is the number 10 role. We have Rooney, Mata, Herrera, Fellaini, Januzaj, Pereira, Memphis. So with this news, it really frustrates me that I wake up this morning, to rumours that LVG has told Hernandez that he is no longer needed at the club. He is one of 3 players who are any good in the number 9 role and as much as I hate agreeing with Michael Owen, he is one of the best substitutes in world football. I really rate him and although he had a tough match on Wednesday (where in all fairness, he slipped for the penalty) a run in the team could be brilliant for him. 

I would like to take you back to the Champions League Final in 2011. Our opponent was Barcelona and the player their defence was quoted as saying they were most worried about was Javier Hernandez. He was unstoppable. For whatever reason he hasn't been played and he hasn't been given the confidence to become the player he can be and this frustrates me! 

So in conclusion I think we should keep Chicharito, play Rooney in the number 10 role and sign Cavani or Benzema. LVG over to you!

Are we a long ball team?

It starting to really frustrate me that we are resorting to hoofing the ball up to Fellaini and hoping we nick something. I would much rather see him bring on Chicharito and playing the ball along the floor like I know we can. Twitter blew up over the instant tactic change when Fellaini came on and I'm afraid I have to agree. Seriously need to reconsider this approach, especially when Fellaini and Smalling seem to be the only players of substantial height in our team.

Is Romero good enough to be our Number 1?

I am really not a fan of this Romero. He may have kept 3 clean sheets before this match but I would not put that on him. The defence has stopped everything before it has even got to him. He has not been tested one bit....until today. The second goal was so bad from his point of view and it was his chance to prove his critics wrong. Unfortunately the initial thought that he has come in as a number 2 is actually correct. We need to either bring De Gea back in the team or if he goes, we need to bid around £25m for Lloris because with Romero in goal I don't think we can win the league.

How did we play today versus Swansea?

Well, I actually thought we started quite well. I was glad he decided to keep with Herrera after his midweek game and thought we were in complete control of the game. Unfortunately that is all we were....in control of the game! We needed to be penetrating their defence a bit more but yet again every time we got the ball forward, it was passed backwards again. Now I completely understand that LVG wants us to play a possession based game but we need to score goals at the same time. Possession for the first 10/20 mins to kill the crowd off....fine. Possession when your 3-0 up....fine. But we need to start turning that possession into something. As i have mentioned one of the things we need to improve on is our delivery of the ball. When we have sorted that out and we buy a world class forward, I really do believe we can start to think about the title. Until that point we are going to be settling for fighting it out for 4th. We need to be concentrating on crossing in training because I remember when Beckham was in the team and he would plant the ball anywhere he wanted to but now we don't have anyone doing that. Not even once during the whole game and this is unacceptable. In terms of individual performances, I thought Smalling played well again. Damian didn't play as well as he has but still put in a solid performance. Blind played well in moments but was caught out on too many occasions. Luke Shaw is still looking one of the biggest threats and I am a big fan so far. Schweinsteiger looked tired towards the end of the game and probably could have been substituted instead of Schneiderlin who actually impressed me today. Normally he is a backwards/sideways passing player but he commanded the middle of the park well and even went on a few forward runs himself. Just don't want him to revert to the passing that has frustrated me so far this season. Rooney looked like he was a spectator but that could be the system rather than him. Memphis looked frustrated and his delivery has to improve. Mata played ok. Good goal but as I have said he is better in the number ten role. Herrera was also a little lost but wasn't given the support I think he needed. Its also worth mentioning that Martin Atkinson had a poor game. No major decision was wrong but just felt he got a lot of the smaller decisions wrong. In no way is that an excuse but just a little side note.

Match Report - Marks Out of Ten

Starting Eleven

Romero                      5
Darmian                     7
Smalling                      8
Blind                          6
Shaw                         7
Schneiderlin               7
Schweinsteiger         7
Herrera                     6
Mata                         7
Memphis                    6
Rooney                       6

Subs

Carrick                       7
Young                        7
Fellaini                       6

In Other News...

• A little worried about Wolfsburg. Although they have lost their best player, they have just bought Dante from Bayern Munich & Julian Draxler from Schalke. Gonna be a difficult few games when we meet in the Champions league group stage.

• As Martin Tyler nicely mentioned during his commentary, Manchester City have completed the signing of Kevin De Bruyne. I have always said that the Manchester City squad should be running away with the title and any manger that doesn't do so, deserves to be sacked. They look absolutely formidable. They are playing gorgeous football and I would bet a whole load of money on them winning the league. Unless United sign someone world class in the next 24 hours, it seems a forgone conclusion already. Just my opinion.

• If anyone remembers a few seasons ago, Chelsea started brilliantly and they were in a position where they were going to run away with the league. Then all of a sudden they sacked Ray Wilkins and crumbled. Anyone think Eva Carneiro is the new Ray Wilkins? ;)

Thanks for reading. Please share! 

(p.s. Hopefully next time I post, we will have signed a few superstars but very much doubt it!)

Over & Out! 

Club Brugge vs Man Utd

Club Brugge vs Man Utd

0-4 (1-7 Agg)

Wed 26th August - 7:45pm

Champions League Qualifier: 2nd Leg

I decided to do this blog because Man Utd are one of my biggest passions in life and I really enjoy a good ol' natter and debate about it. Not just United, I intend to talk about all things United as well as some of the big talking points that come up over the season ahead. So feel free to leave a comment and I would love it if people actually enjoyed these things, so follow me to hear more about football but mainly United's quest to knock Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini & Arsene Wenger off their perch. Before you say what about Liverpool....lets be honest, you can't count them as serious contenders while Brendan 'we showed great character' Rodgers is in charge :) Hope you enjoy....

So, tonight was the night that Wayne Rooney would return from his so called goal drought and lets be honest, we have come to expect quite a lot from this guy. Now, if we look back over the last 10/11 years, you will see that his career has been these bursts of form. He is either in a rich vein of form or he is in a goal drought. Sir Alex has said it in many a press conference. I knew as soon as he got one he would probably score 2 or 3 and then go on a goal scoring run. All this is typical, as it was only 2 days ago that I decided to use my wildcard and take him out of my fantasy football team. Oh well!

In other news, Louis Van Gaal decided that he would bring Ander Herrera back into the fray. If im honest, I am not sure why he hasn't been picked to start any of the matches so far this season because it was plain to see that he was one of our best players in the second half of last season. And lo and behold he came back and scored a great goal and also set up a brilliantly worked goal for Wazza too. Now, he didn't start the game very well. He lost possession on more than one occasion and nearly gave them a goal that would certainly have changed the tie. He then went into the book after a reckless challenge and I thought, if LVG was going to haul someone off at half time, it was going to be him. Instead he brought on Bastian Schweinsteiger for Januzaj and moved Herrera into a more advanced role, almost a number 10. This worked wonders as he was able to move more freely and make more of an impact on the play. 

The one thing that continues to confuse me is the way LVG hasn't rotated the squad yet. He has used the same team bar maybe one or two players for every game so far. This baffles me because you have players like Young, who played brilliantly last season, and Chicharito, who also played very well for Real Madrid in the second half of the season, who aren't getting very much game time, never mind the players who haven't even made the subs bench like James Wilson and Marcos Rojo. Now, how long do we think these players are going to stay planted to the dugout, before they start to either lose confidence, or lose interest in playing for the club. Then, when we have made it into the latter stages of a few competitions and we are fighting for the title in April/May, we have players who are knackered because they have played so many minutes at the beginning of the season, or we have players who haven't played in a while and haven't got their touch or they have completely lost confidence because they don't feel like they have a manager who believes in them. I just feel that LVG could have used players like Chicharito, Young, Fellaini, Schweinsteiger, Valencia, Rojo, Evans and they would be gaining fitness as well as the confidence of playing in a Champions League match because lets be honest, we were 3-1 up and they really weren't the best team we are going to come up against in the near future. Just felt a little tinkering would have gone a long way and would prevent it coming back to bite us in the backside later on in the season. Sir Alex was a master of rotating his squad and I thought tonight was a good opportunity to use a couple more players that may not get into the starting 11 against most of the premier league opposition we are going to be coming up against.

Anyway, I am glad we went on to win 4-0 on the night and 7-1 on aggregate as we are finally able to say that we are back in the champions league. 

Today is the draw for the group stages, and I am looking forward to seeing who we will be up against for the next few months. Just keeping my fingers crossed that we avoid teams like Barca, Bayern, Juventus and basically anywhere far away like Ukraine or Russia as you don't really want to be travelling back from Russia on a Wednesday evening when you have a match vs Liverpool at 12:45 on Saturday lunchtime. 

Thanks for reading!

Over & Out!

Match Report - Marks Out of Ten

Starting Eleven

Romero                     6
Darmian                    8
Smalling                    8
Blind                         7
Shaw                        8
Carrick                     7
Herrera                    7
Januzaj                    6
Mata                        7
Memphis                 8
Rooney                   9

Subs

Schweinsteiger       8
Young                     7
Chicharito               6