Yeh but that's assuming we buy Falcao at end of season, still early days yet and I still refuse to accept that we're gonna pay the price set which is like £45m for what will then be a 29 year old seeems a bit astronomical.
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Yeh but that's assuming we buy Falcao at end of season, still early days yet and I still refuse to accept that we're gonna pay the price set which is like £45m for what will then be a 29 year old seeems a bit astronomical.
Not really. We would have 3 strikers for one position, the 3rd being Wilson. Rooney also tipped for CM by LVG.
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Mendes has said deal is done.
Rumours were that the deal was certain, unless Falcao missed a specific number of games due to injury..
The main worry I'm having is de Gea's contract expiring in two years. Wouldn't be an issue at all if he was on a LT contract, Madrid can be told succinctly to get lost, or pay 100M or so. We wouldn't be in a position where we could lose him for a free relatively soonish.
Sounds implausible, maybe, but all said and done, I'll be much happier once DDG signs a new deal.
Sounds implausible, maybe, but all said and done, I'll be much happier once DDG signs a new deal.
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Congrats to Oshea wins his 100th cap tonight.
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Not Utd related but cant believe there will be no Spain or Holland at the next U21s tournament. Well done to England. Shaw played well again.
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John O'Shea just scored the equaliser in Germany on his 100th cap.
I don't think it will be to big a problem if we have European football. Also can see Rooney dropping deeper next season or season after. Really is a ***** having all these top STRs
Not sure if that really works and also if we sign Strootman I can't see Rooney being played there. If we switch to 4-3-3 then Rooney might have to play from LW position.
Hey, I said I hate breaks not the games. 120 minutes of good international football is fun, 2 weeks of boredom that follows isn't
Hey, I said I hate breaks not the games. 120 minutes of good international football is fun, 2 weeks of boredom that follows isn't
True. At least they've started to spread out international games instead of them all being on one day.
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Big 3 games coming up. Will see where we really stand in the scheme of things after the Chelsea and City games.
"All I can think of here is that his chest hair pops out & gives them a fright!" - Gary Neville analyses THAT Ryan Giggs goal against Arsenal. Hilarious. http://reddevilarmada.com/?p=10556
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Good news on injury front. Jones,Smalling,Herrera,Carrick all fit for WBA game Also quite a few reports today saying that Guardiola wants to manage Utd maybe after LVG leaves.
Also quite a few reports today saying that Guardiola wants to manage Utd maybe after LVG leaves.Theatreof Dreams
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Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United are progressing but still lack fear factor
the game blog: Three months to the day Louis van Gaal walked into Manchester United as manager, James Ducker assesses the Dutchman’s successes and failures
When Louis van Gaal sat down with reporters during Manchester United’s pre-season tour of America, the Dutchman wasted little time in warning that the club would “struggle” for the first three months of his reign as the players adjusted to his methods.
It had, Van Gaal said, been the case at several of his former clubs, not least Bayern Munich, who were seventh after 13 matches of his debut campaign in 2009-10 before the German giants recovered to win the Bundesliga title.
From tactical changes to new training programmes, Van Gaal was adamant there would be teething problems as he imposed his much flaunted “philosophy” on the club and sought to fix a squad he described as “broken” and “unbalanced” after David Moyes’s calamitously brief tenure, which culminated in United finishing seventh in the Barclays Premier League. It was the club’s worst league season for 24 years.
So, three months to the day since Van Gaal pitched up at United’s Carrington training base for the first time, fresh from guiding Holland to third place at the World Cup finals in Brazil, how is life shaping up at Old Trafford under the cocksure Dutchman? How has he got on so far? Can he deliver the minimum top-four finish demand by the Glazer family, the club’s owner?
Transfer market
United may have stood accused of a lack of strategic planning and of adopting something of a scattergun approach to signing players after being rebuffed by a series of leading targets, including Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos, but the summer could not have contrasted more starkly to the previous 12 months, when Moyes’s indecision cost the club dearly and immediately set the Scot on the back foot.
Delays in identifying, deciding on and moving for targets proved incredibly damaging. A summer in which United required urgent reinforcements in defence and midfield culminated in the signing of Marouane Fellaini – a player who addressed none of the team’s main shortcomings – for an overinflated £27.5 million fee after late failed bids for Cesc Fàbregas, Daniele De Rossi, Ander Herrera, Fábio Coentrão and Gareth Bale.
By contrast, Van Gaal was as decisive as he was ruthless. Moves for Luke Shaw and Herrera were sanctioned early on, alleviating some pressure while the Dutchman was busy preparing Holland for the World Cup, and once in situ, the manager very quickly formed his judgements on the squad during the club’s three-week pre-season tour. Moyes had taken six months to do the same thing. The result was a summer of remarkable change at Old Trafford with a total of 20 players leaving the club, either permanently or on loan, and six new players arriving at a cost of in excess of £150 million, including Ángel Di María, the Argentina midfielder signed for a British record £59.7 million from Real Madrid.
Van Gaal also took a concerted decision to promote a number of players from the youth set-up. He is conscious that so much “churn” has its pitfalls – a “new dressing room”, in the manager’s words, is having to assimilate on and off the pitch and that can take time – but he considered the overhaul a necessity. Van Gaal has already indicated to the United hierarchy that he wants another two to four new players in the next two transfer windows and has already identified Kevin Strootman, the Roma and Holland midfielder, as one target.
Not signing a world-class, experienced right-sided centre half, after the loss of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in the summer, was arguably the biggest failure but there are moves afoot to rectify that next year.
Mark: 7½/10
Tactics
Emboldened or perhaps a little blinded in the wake of his success utilising a 3-5-2 formation with Holland at the World Cup, Van Gaal opted to introduce the system at Old Trafford and talked about “training the players’ brains” and not just their legs. His reasoning was primarily that United’s squad was “unbalanced” and top heavy, with too many “No.10s”, and that a move to 3-5-2 would help to mask the shortcomings and play to the team’s strengths. Although several players admitted the volume of new information they were being asked to process was testing, results during the club’s tour of the United States, when they won the Guinness International Champions Cup, offered promise. That optimism was soon burst during a calamitous start to the season, though.
The alarming bells were ringing only 45 minutes into an opening day 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City, when Van Gaal abandoned 3-5-2 in favour of a more familiar 4-2-3-1, but he persisted with his chosen system in the dismal draws away to Sunderland and Burnley that followed. An abject 4-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons, the Sky Bet League One club, in the second round of the Capital One Cup was a low point and Van Gaal got it horribly wrong, not least by fielding a weakened team in a competition United needed to progress in given that it represented their most realistic chance of silverware along with the FA Cup.
Rather than paper over the team’s limitations, 3-5-2 was exposing them, highlighting the absence of a recognised holding midfielder and the lack of a defensive leader and organiser. For too many British players schooled in playing with a four-man defence, the system switch looked too demanding tactically and technically. Doubtless aware that it would take longer than he envisaged for his squad to adjust, mindful that time was of the essence given the pressing need to get back into the Champions League and with a flurry of new players arriving in the final weeks of the window, Van Gaal swallowed his pride and switched to 4-3-3. Was valuable time lost in the summer working on 3-5-2? Undoubtedly, but Van Gaal did not allow stubbornness to cloud his thinking by persisting with 3-5-2 when it was not working.
The system change brought an immediate uplift, with United beating an admittedly poor Queens Park Rangers team 4-0 at Old Trafford, but while a 5-3 defeat by Leicester City underlined the work that has to be done defensively, there has been gradual improvement since. Certainly going forward, the football has been more in keeping with the club’s fast, free-flowing traditions and a far cry from the ponderous, one-dimensional fare served up under Moyes.
Mark: 6½/10
the game blog: Three months to the day Louis van Gaal walked into Manchester United as manager, James Ducker assesses the Dutchman’s successes and failures
When Louis van Gaal sat down with reporters during Manchester United’s pre-season tour of America, the Dutchman wasted little time in warning that the club would “struggle” for the first three months of his reign as the players adjusted to his methods.
It had, Van Gaal said, been the case at several of his former clubs, not least Bayern Munich, who were seventh after 13 matches of his debut campaign in 2009-10 before the German giants recovered to win the Bundesliga title.
From tactical changes to new training programmes, Van Gaal was adamant there would be teething problems as he imposed his much flaunted “philosophy” on the club and sought to fix a squad he described as “broken” and “unbalanced” after David Moyes’s calamitously brief tenure, which culminated in United finishing seventh in the Barclays Premier League. It was the club’s worst league season for 24 years.
So, three months to the day since Van Gaal pitched up at United’s Carrington training base for the first time, fresh from guiding Holland to third place at the World Cup finals in Brazil, how is life shaping up at Old Trafford under the cocksure Dutchman? How has he got on so far? Can he deliver the minimum top-four finish demand by the Glazer family, the club’s owner?
Transfer market
United may have stood accused of a lack of strategic planning and of adopting something of a scattergun approach to signing players after being rebuffed by a series of leading targets, including Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos, but the summer could not have contrasted more starkly to the previous 12 months, when Moyes’s indecision cost the club dearly and immediately set the Scot on the back foot.
Delays in identifying, deciding on and moving for targets proved incredibly damaging. A summer in which United required urgent reinforcements in defence and midfield culminated in the signing of Marouane Fellaini – a player who addressed none of the team’s main shortcomings – for an overinflated £27.5 million fee after late failed bids for Cesc Fàbregas, Daniele De Rossi, Ander Herrera, Fábio Coentrão and Gareth Bale.
By contrast, Van Gaal was as decisive as he was ruthless. Moves for Luke Shaw and Herrera were sanctioned early on, alleviating some pressure while the Dutchman was busy preparing Holland for the World Cup, and once in situ, the manager very quickly formed his judgements on the squad during the club’s three-week pre-season tour. Moyes had taken six months to do the same thing. The result was a summer of remarkable change at Old Trafford with a total of 20 players leaving the club, either permanently or on loan, and six new players arriving at a cost of in excess of £150 million, including Ángel Di María, the Argentina midfielder signed for a British record £59.7 million from Real Madrid.
Van Gaal also took a concerted decision to promote a number of players from the youth set-up. He is conscious that so much “churn” has its pitfalls – a “new dressing room”, in the manager’s words, is having to assimilate on and off the pitch and that can take time – but he considered the overhaul a necessity. Van Gaal has already indicated to the United hierarchy that he wants another two to four new players in the next two transfer windows and has already identified Kevin Strootman, the Roma and Holland midfielder, as one target.
Not signing a world-class, experienced right-sided centre half, after the loss of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in the summer, was arguably the biggest failure but there are moves afoot to rectify that next year.
Mark: 7½/10
Tactics
Emboldened or perhaps a little blinded in the wake of his success utilising a 3-5-2 formation with Holland at the World Cup, Van Gaal opted to introduce the system at Old Trafford and talked about “training the players’ brains” and not just their legs. His reasoning was primarily that United’s squad was “unbalanced” and top heavy, with too many “No.10s”, and that a move to 3-5-2 would help to mask the shortcomings and play to the team’s strengths. Although several players admitted the volume of new information they were being asked to process was testing, results during the club’s tour of the United States, when they won the Guinness International Champions Cup, offered promise. That optimism was soon burst during a calamitous start to the season, though.
The alarming bells were ringing only 45 minutes into an opening day 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City, when Van Gaal abandoned 3-5-2 in favour of a more familiar 4-2-3-1, but he persisted with his chosen system in the dismal draws away to Sunderland and Burnley that followed. An abject 4-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons, the Sky Bet League One club, in the second round of the Capital One Cup was a low point and Van Gaal got it horribly wrong, not least by fielding a weakened team in a competition United needed to progress in given that it represented their most realistic chance of silverware along with the FA Cup.
Rather than paper over the team’s limitations, 3-5-2 was exposing them, highlighting the absence of a recognised holding midfielder and the lack of a defensive leader and organiser. For too many British players schooled in playing with a four-man defence, the system switch looked too demanding tactically and technically. Doubtless aware that it would take longer than he envisaged for his squad to adjust, mindful that time was of the essence given the pressing need to get back into the Champions League and with a flurry of new players arriving in the final weeks of the window, Van Gaal swallowed his pride and switched to 4-3-3. Was valuable time lost in the summer working on 3-5-2? Undoubtedly, but Van Gaal did not allow stubbornness to cloud his thinking by persisting with 3-5-2 when it was not working.
The system change brought an immediate uplift, with United beating an admittedly poor Queens Park Rangers team 4-0 at Old Trafford, but while a 5-3 defeat by Leicester City underlined the work that has to be done defensively, there has been gradual improvement since. Certainly going forward, the football has been more in keeping with the club’s fast, free-flowing traditions and a far cry from the ponderous, one-dimensional fare served up under Moyes.
Mark: 6½/10
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Continued...
Identity
Although no one at United is under any illusions about the size of the task they face to finish in the top four this term, let alone get back on top, it is not uncommon to hear staff talking about “having their club back”. These remain very early days but Van Gaal has successfully tapped into the club’s long-standing traditions, firstly by handing debuts to seven products of the youth academy but also by putting attacking football back on the menu at Old Trafford.
In Di María, Van Gaal has signed an exhilarating player that has bums off seats in a way not seen at the club since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure in 2009. United invariably lived dangerously under Sir Alex Ferguson such was their desire to go for the jugular and Van Gaal is adopting a similar mantra, even if the defensive issues must be addressed. It is probably expecting too much for United to be as watertight at the back as a team managed by José Mourinho but there is a brittleness there that looks ripe for exposure against better teams.
In that sense, the next few weeks, when United play Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal, should offer a more accurate measurement of where this team are at in their development. The other challenge for Van Gaal is to ensure his initial commitment to blooding youngsters does not prove to be a fleeting gesture, a decision brought about solely by the glut of early season injuries.
Mark: 8/10
Man-management
Whereas Moyes looked perennially uncomfortable in the role, consistently failed to project a big club mentality with his downbeat language and desperate air on the touchline and never won the respect of a dressing room which found his tactics and approach overly negative and difficult to discern, Van Gaal has exuded authority and confidence. His exploits with Holland and past successes with Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern earned him instant credibility with supporters although he was never going to be able to trade on that indefinitely.
At times, Van Gaal has seemed to be playing with fire with his public criticisms of Shaw’s fitness and suggestion that he was unhappy with how Wayne Rooney was playing as a striker and Juan Mata as a playmaker, but the lack of tension and dissent among the squad, despite an indifferent start to the season, is in marked contrast to the discontent that soon spread under Moyes. Van Gaal’s claims that he sold Danny Welbeck because he was not “up to the standard” of Rooney or Robin van Persie were blunt but indicative of a straight-talking, exacting manager.
There are players down the years who have detested Van Gaal’s methods – from Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Ajax to Rivaldo at Barcelona to Luca Toni at Bayern – but there are plenty more who have enjoyed life under the Dutchman and United’s squad seem to have largely bought into his methods. With a couple of exceptions, those players on the periphery at Old Trafford appreciated being informed relatively quickly of Van Gaal’s intentions and others have been told that they will have to improve if they are to hang around under him.
With only one game a week for the most part, Van Gaal faces a test trying to keep his senior stars, and most talented youngsters, happy. Mata already looks like being the potential fall-guy amid United’s array of attacking talent and there is a danger of Adnan Januzaj’s development being impeded if the Belgiam does not get many games over the next 12 months. Mark: 7/10
Behind the scenes
A succession of injuries have been a setback for Van Gaal, who has had to make the best of a severely depleted defence. Tyler Blackett and Patrick McNair, two youth players, have been promoted, perhaps sooner than they reasonably expected to be with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Shaw all having suffered injuries and Marcos Rojo initially facing a wait for a work permit.
Michael Carrick’s absence since mid-July after ankle surgery was also an unfortunate blow. Van Gaal has consistently refused to moan about the injury predicament, though, and has been busy overhauling the club’s infrastructure in a bid to address the problem in the longer-term and ensure United’s facilities are optimising performance. Concerned that the training pitches were too hard, Van Gaal has had trees planted to shield them from the elements and is in the process of having two new part-synthetic Desso pitches installed to replicate the playing surface at Old Trafford.
The installation of surveillance cameras above the practice pitches has enabled Van Gaal to film training and review it in detail. Fitness and rehabilitation programmes have been drastically overhauled. He believes such measures will reap significant medium and long-term benefits.
Mark: 8/10
Overall assessment
Presently fourth in the Premier League despite United losing two and drawing two of their first seven games, Van Gaal is understandably optimistic about what the coming months hold for his team when they start to click for longer periods and the injury woes subside.
The Dutchman believes the club’s absence from the Champions League is a hindrance rather than a help as he thinks competing against Europe’s best increases performance levels. If Liverpool’s experiences last term and so far this season are anything to go by, United’s lack of European distractions could be a blessing, giving Van Gaal more time to work on tactics on the training ground and reducing the effects of fatigue. January could also yield another signing or two.
United remain very much a work in progress and it may be some time yet before they rediscover their fear factor, but they appear to be slowly moving in the right direction.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport...e?shareToken=b69094e1900b433f0e7ddf6669dba8e2
Identity
Although no one at United is under any illusions about the size of the task they face to finish in the top four this term, let alone get back on top, it is not uncommon to hear staff talking about “having their club back”. These remain very early days but Van Gaal has successfully tapped into the club’s long-standing traditions, firstly by handing debuts to seven products of the youth academy but also by putting attacking football back on the menu at Old Trafford.
In Di María, Van Gaal has signed an exhilarating player that has bums off seats in a way not seen at the club since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure in 2009. United invariably lived dangerously under Sir Alex Ferguson such was their desire to go for the jugular and Van Gaal is adopting a similar mantra, even if the defensive issues must be addressed. It is probably expecting too much for United to be as watertight at the back as a team managed by José Mourinho but there is a brittleness there that looks ripe for exposure against better teams.
In that sense, the next few weeks, when United play Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal, should offer a more accurate measurement of where this team are at in their development. The other challenge for Van Gaal is to ensure his initial commitment to blooding youngsters does not prove to be a fleeting gesture, a decision brought about solely by the glut of early season injuries.
Mark: 8/10
Man-management
Whereas Moyes looked perennially uncomfortable in the role, consistently failed to project a big club mentality with his downbeat language and desperate air on the touchline and never won the respect of a dressing room which found his tactics and approach overly negative and difficult to discern, Van Gaal has exuded authority and confidence. His exploits with Holland and past successes with Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern earned him instant credibility with supporters although he was never going to be able to trade on that indefinitely.
At times, Van Gaal has seemed to be playing with fire with his public criticisms of Shaw’s fitness and suggestion that he was unhappy with how Wayne Rooney was playing as a striker and Juan Mata as a playmaker, but the lack of tension and dissent among the squad, despite an indifferent start to the season, is in marked contrast to the discontent that soon spread under Moyes. Van Gaal’s claims that he sold Danny Welbeck because he was not “up to the standard” of Rooney or Robin van Persie were blunt but indicative of a straight-talking, exacting manager.
There are players down the years who have detested Van Gaal’s methods – from Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Ajax to Rivaldo at Barcelona to Luca Toni at Bayern – but there are plenty more who have enjoyed life under the Dutchman and United’s squad seem to have largely bought into his methods. With a couple of exceptions, those players on the periphery at Old Trafford appreciated being informed relatively quickly of Van Gaal’s intentions and others have been told that they will have to improve if they are to hang around under him.
With only one game a week for the most part, Van Gaal faces a test trying to keep his senior stars, and most talented youngsters, happy. Mata already looks like being the potential fall-guy amid United’s array of attacking talent and there is a danger of Adnan Januzaj’s development being impeded if the Belgiam does not get many games over the next 12 months. Mark: 7/10
Behind the scenes
A succession of injuries have been a setback for Van Gaal, who has had to make the best of a severely depleted defence. Tyler Blackett and Patrick McNair, two youth players, have been promoted, perhaps sooner than they reasonably expected to be with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Shaw all having suffered injuries and Marcos Rojo initially facing a wait for a work permit.
Michael Carrick’s absence since mid-July after ankle surgery was also an unfortunate blow. Van Gaal has consistently refused to moan about the injury predicament, though, and has been busy overhauling the club’s infrastructure in a bid to address the problem in the longer-term and ensure United’s facilities are optimising performance. Concerned that the training pitches were too hard, Van Gaal has had trees planted to shield them from the elements and is in the process of having two new part-synthetic Desso pitches installed to replicate the playing surface at Old Trafford.
The installation of surveillance cameras above the practice pitches has enabled Van Gaal to film training and review it in detail. Fitness and rehabilitation programmes have been drastically overhauled. He believes such measures will reap significant medium and long-term benefits.
Mark: 8/10
Overall assessment
Presently fourth in the Premier League despite United losing two and drawing two of their first seven games, Van Gaal is understandably optimistic about what the coming months hold for his team when they start to click for longer periods and the injury woes subside.
The Dutchman believes the club’s absence from the Champions League is a hindrance rather than a help as he thinks competing against Europe’s best increases performance levels. If Liverpool’s experiences last term and so far this season are anything to go by, United’s lack of European distractions could be a blessing, giving Van Gaal more time to work on tactics on the training ground and reducing the effects of fatigue. January could also yield another signing or two.
United remain very much a work in progress and it may be some time yet before they rediscover their fear factor, but they appear to be slowly moving in the right direction.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport...e?shareToken=b69094e1900b433f0e7ddf6669dba8e2
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Just thought would post this for you guys. Is Duckers 1st 3 month review of LVG start at Utd after LVG said it would take 3 months for things to change. Thought would post for you guys, was good read thought you might like it. Think its pretty spot on if you ask me, especially the transfer bit about up and coming windows.