The Manchester United Thread

Some excellent interviews in a day.


Van Persie interview was brilliant. He loved Wenger and Fergie, praised them so much. Also he is very good friends with Vida and Rio. Rumors about Rooney and RVP rift is pure nonsense and how Van Gaal didn't give him fair chance to prove his worth.


On top of all this, he praised Ed Woodward. He received message from Gill, Fergie and Ed once he moved.


Shaw and Januzaj attitude is fantastic. They both hired one of the coaching staff and did 4 sessions per day. So Januzaj has filled up and Shaw looks leaner. Love this attitude from players.
 
You can only beat what's in front of you Nick it's true and I've no problem at all taking a chance on players from lesser leagues.

But it's natural folk are weary, particularly when it comes to strikers, when you look at the likes of Kezman, Guivarch, Kalou, Cisse etc who've had nothing like the same success in better leagues. Top notch talents like Van Nistelrooy are the exceptions to the rule coming over in situations like that.

Be very interesting to see how Depay both adapts and how quickly or not he settles. Very promising talent no question but a very big step up that we've seen can just as easily go the other way.

But the main point as regards any foreign player is not too many today take into consideration just how different the English game is to anywhere else. All they see is such and such a name that's done fantastic in a league where he's had the time to showcase his ability, and presume you just go out and get him and he'll fit straight in.

This isn't FM. If only team building was that easy.
 
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iNickStuff said:
This is definitely the most fruitful season Lyon has had since eradicating the previous mentality of big-money moves every other season. The talent coming through in Lacazette, Umtiti, Fekir, Tolissi - to name a few - shows the change in direction the club has taken since those unbridled glory years in the mid-00s. So it's no surprise that they are taking the stance they are.

Also, just to chip in on the Ligue 1/Eredivise dispute. If we were to all judge players by what league the play in, then we would never see the best of what said nations can produce. Therefore, if they succeed in areas that are not England or Spain, they are deemed "not good enough" a lot of the time by the end of their careers, Because they "never played at the highest level".

You can only beat what is in front of you.
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Exactly. Also few of the best players to ever play in PL are from lesser leagues.

Cantona, Henry and lot of Arsenal players were from French league (directly or indirectly).
RVN, RVP, Bergkamp, Robben, Stam, Suarez are from Dutch league.
Ronaldo was from Portuguese league.

Also there are many players like Matic, Ramires, David Luiz, Nani who were from Portuguese league and did very well.

Using strength of league as defense is just silly.
 
Scouseinthehouse said:
Robin Van Persie blasts Man Utd boss Louis van Gaal (but praises Arsenal's Arsene Wenger) | Football | Sport | Daily Express

Interesting views from RVP on the difference between the cold ruthlessness between Van Gaal and others.

The more you read from ex-players he's either a guy they love or hate. Little in-between.
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Imo, Van Gaal's management style goes too far. 99% of players have positive things to say about Wenger or Fergie, while Van Gaal has had a multitude of issues with players in the past. Wenger and Fergie have always been ruthless, however Van Gaal has always taken it too far. He doesn't show enough loyalty to players, particularly in a drop in form or a bad patch.
 
damola3 said:
Imo, Van Gaal's management style goes too far. 99% of players have positive things to say about Wenger or Fergie, while Van Gaal has had a multitude of issues with players in the past. Wenger and Fergie have always been ruthless, however Van Gaal has always taken it too far. He doesn't show enough loyalty to players, particularly in a drop in form or a bad patch.
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Benitez is of the same ilk but takes it one step further.

He'd go game to game without speaking to the players. And if you got left out, you became completely ostracised. And often that would bizarrely come after you'd done something great. Score a hat-trick one week. Disappear for the next 3 or 4 with no explanation from the manager at all. Far more former players have little love for Rafa than those that do.

I'll never understand how guys expect that type of man management to work and expect grown men to go out and give their all for you on a Saturday after treating them with such disdain through the week.

You have to have that separation of who's in charge and who's not, but respect should be the least you can expect. They expect that and more off the players and 100% professionalism and commitment/ loyalty.

It works both ways.
 
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damola3 said:
Imo, Van Gaal's management style goes too far. 99% of players have positive things to say about Wenger or Fergie, while Van Gaal has had a multitude of issues with players in the past. Wenger and Fergie have always been ruthless, however Van Gaal has always taken it too far. He doesn't show enough loyalty to players, particularly in a drop in form or a bad patch.
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Got no problem with LVG's way of management its proven successful and I'd rather he take a strong approach to ship out the off form players who are past it like RVP rather than keeping him just because he has a good relationship.
 
Mike. said:
Considering you've been pushing this about Memphis, hardly comes across as tongue in cheek.

He specifically mentioned the transfer market about a surprise striker.
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No he didn't. He said he will play Rooney there and mentioned about the press banging on about it. Then mentioned also Wilson and Hernandez and possibly a surprise. He never said anything about buying this surprise. He could just as easily have is eye on somebody in the squad to fill the role. We don't know what they have been working on in training.
 
zzeezzy said:
Got no problem with LVG's way of management its proven successful and I'd rather he take a strong approach to ship out the off form players who are past it like RVP rather than keeping him just because he has a good relationship.
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It's not always good though. We should have right balance. At least with Fergie he gave everyone fair chance and gave players proper chance to leave to their desired clubs.
 
Mike. said:
Lacazette at 35m euros? Why didn't Liverpool move for him? That said he has all the attributes to succeed. Think people need to look past the French and Dutch league thing, and evaluate the player themselves.
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Lyon said 50-60m euroes, so probably 35-45m pounds. Still worth a punt for Liverpool though seeing that they are already splashing 32.5m on Benteke.
 
sunilvk7 said:
It's not always good though. We should have right balance. At least with Fergie he gave everyone fair chance and gave players proper chance to leave to their desired clubs.
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LVG does give everyone in the squad a chance then assesses from there, can't see what's wrong with it personally.
 
sunilvk7 said:
Exactly. Also few of the best players to ever play in PL are from lesser leagues.

Cantona, Henry and lot of Arsenal players were from French league (directly or indirectly).
RVN, RVP, Bergkamp, Robben, Stam, Suarez are from Dutch league.
Ronaldo was from Portuguese league.

Also there are many players like Matic, Ramires, David Luiz, Nani who were from Portuguese league and did very well.

Using strength of league as defense is just silly.
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Over a decade ago, the world and football was a lot less globalised abs you never knew what to expect from foreign countries. Nowadays, there are many more ways for club's and even fans like us to collect and interpret data that wasn't possible before. More qualitative data means that it's much easier to evaluate player ability, thus I like to call this the 'Opta generation'. Here's interesting information on Arsenal owned StatDNA 'The workers watch footage of matches from around the world, and they code them in the most meticulous fashion. They look beyond a mere assist, for example, and examine whether the pass has enabled the goalscorer to shoot without breaking stride. Did it put the chance on the striker’s favoured foot? Was the goalkeeper properly positioned?'.
 
zzeezzy said:
LVG does give everyone in the squad a chance then assesses from there, can't see what's wrong with it personally.
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Not questioning Van Gaal here as he has proven and has decades of experience (people questioning his methods must be thinking he is some rookie) just that we shouldn't be over ruthless. You need players continuity to develop team spirit.
 
damola3 said:
Over a decade ago, the world and football was a lot less globalised abs you never knew what to expect from foreign countries. Nowadays, there are many more ways for club's and even fans like us to collect and interpret data that wasn't possible before. More qualitative data means that it's much easier to evaluate player ability, thus I like to call this the 'Opta generation'. Here's interesting information on Arsenal owned StatDNA 'The workers watch footage of matches from around the world, and they code them in the most meticulous fashion. They look beyond a mere assist, for example, and examine whether the pass has enabled the goalscorer to shoot without breaking stride. Did it put the chance on the striker’s favoured foot? Was the goalkeeper properly positioned?'.
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What's your point? That league matters when signing players?
 
sunilvk7 said:
Not questioning Van Gaal here as he has proven and has decades of experience (people questioning his methods must be thinking he is some rookie) just that we shouldn't be over ruthless. You need players continuity to develop team spirit.
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True but so far he's been spot on with players like RVP, Falcao, Valdes and all the other deadwood that he shipped out which had been lurking around for years under the Fergie era so can't fault LVG.
 
zzeezzy said:
True but so far he's been spot on with players like RVP, Falcao, Valdes and all the other deadwood that he shipped out which had been lurking around for years under the Fergie era so can't fault LVG.
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Yeah, till date can't fault him for trimming the squad. Players earned so much without contributing a lot, so he did fantastic job in clearing out players.
 
Lol, what a load of bollocks that interview.

"Buhuhu, he didn't give me an honest chance"

So who was the Dutch striker that started started in first team entire first half of the season and sucked all the time?

Oh.
 
Tyton said:
Lol, what a load of bollocks that interview.

"Buhuhu, he didn't give me an honest chance"

So who was the Dutch striker that started started in first team entire first half of the season and sucked all the time?

Oh.
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Depends on what you want to see. His answers about Rio, SAF, Arsenal, ManUtd were fantastic.
 
Tyton said:
Lol, what a load of bollocks that interview.

"Buhuhu, he didn't give me an honest chance"

So who was the Dutch striker that started started in first team entire first half of the season and sucked all the time?

Oh.
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Rooney, Van Persie and Falcao only managed 26 league goals between them last season. None of those three have the athleticism to dribble half the pitch and score (maybe Rooney 5 years ago). Manchester United were shocking creatively for most of last season, meaning that the strikers struggled. To make things worse, Van Gaal was chopping and changing tactics and strikers. Van Persie wasn't particularly bad up front, unlike Falcao who was stealing a living. It was unfair on Van Persie that he struggled to make the match squad in the second half of the season, when Falcao did nothing to warrant displacing him. When Falcao, Van Persie and Valdes are deadwood within a season, something is not right.
 
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