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[thealxsan]

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[swishhx]

Not an ideal start..

The first weekend of Premier League football is over and it hasn’t got off to the start that was hoped for. The biggest disappointment was of course the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford to Swansea. Not only did we lose but the other big clubs all grabbed their 3 points, not all spectacularly though.

The performance was not good, lots of nerves and a need to impress clearly weighed heavily on the players minds after last years failures. Although missing 7 players to injury and lacking match fitness, the line up wasn’t a bad one; the weakest part of the side was the defence still. At the same time, the line up was still one of the weakest fielded in a while which highlights key areas that need to be strengthened by deadline day.

Starting Young and Lingard as wing backs was a forced decision with no other players really able to play there, the only one close to that was Reece James who was on the bench and is yet to make a Reds debut. Obviously Lingard was replaced by Januzaj who did well in the position, as always he caused trouble but still doesn’t possess the defensive capabilities needed for the position. Hopefully Lingard recovers soon but I have seen a picture of him leaving hospital on crutches with a heavy knee support on.

The midfield 2 were the best available, Herrera didn’t get settled into the game due to Swansea pressing quickly, a good tactic by them. Fletcher, for my liking kept going too far forward leaving a large gap between defence and midfield. The introduction of Fellaini barely made an impact, it just allowed us to try the route one tactic a bit more to no avail. He along with Anderson need to be offloaded as they are not good enough for the club. Also Nani was brought on and made no difference whatsoever. Off the ball he does not find good spaces or make good runs, on the ball his passing is not good enough, he has no crossing ability and his shooting usually ends up in the crowd. A player that promised so much is delivering very little and I despair when he is used.

Rooney tried his best and maybe tried too hard by trying to force things to happen, his equaliser was a very good finish with quick thinking on his part (not a bad start for our new captain.) Hernandez in my mind is free to leave, he’s becoming very ineffective, not a great dribbler with the ball and not finding the positions he used to that got him goals.

With still a couple of weeks left in the transfer window Van Gaal needs to start putting his thoughts into action. He won’t be rushed and won’t panic buy which is good but players need to come in. Defence is a huge concern, as it was last year, at least one defender is needed; both Benatia and Hummels are being constantly linked (the latter looking less likely after receiving the Dortmand captaincy.) Marcus Rojo is convinced he’s on his way to Manchester but for the money supposedly involved it sounds like a bit of a gamble. Juventus seem intent on keeping hold of Vidal, the acquisition of him would change the midfield of United. In Vidal you have a box to box player with great strength and technical ability, place him next to Herrera and they could dominate the centre of the park. I personally would like to see a new forward who can be relied upon when needed to score, either from the bench or not. The only problem with that is having a player that wants first team football being stuck behind a fully fit Rooney and RVP.

As I said earlier all our main top 4 rivals, except Everton, won their games but none put out a statement. Chelsea had the chance to but stopped playing in the second half, a game that could easily have been 6-1. As has been the case over the last few years Chelsea and City will be the main title challengers, both have strength and depth. Arsenal have now also started strengthening in key areas and could sneak in there.

On the view of this weekends game, I think the pressure is now off, the players can relax a bit more and hopefully this will reflect in our performance. A new face could be added by then but I’m not holding my breath, maybe just the return of a couple of players could help. 3 points please…

[swishhx]

Here We Go

Firstly, hello and welcome to a brand new blog, I have been meaning to start this for quite a long time but never got round to it. So let’s get started.

I think the best place to start is a review of last season. All in all it was pretty dismal from start to finish. Flashes of hope were seen but the feeling of such failure has not been felt at Old Trafford for a long time. The appointment of David Moyes was a gamble, but one I was fully behind. He is a good manager but the first to step into SAFs position was likely to struggle. Granted MUFC may have been a bit of a big step for him to take but I did feel sorry for him when he was sacked. The rearranging of backroom staff had a large effect on the team replacing such figures as Meulensteen, Steele and Phelan, who have been at the club for years, would have caused a stir. Then there was the loss of David Gill, the man SAF described as the best Chief Exec he’s ever worked with. The replacement, Ed Woodward, was probably not as ready as we would have liked which could have contributed largely as to why Fellaini was last summers only signing (even he was bought after his £23m realease clause ended.) Key areas such as central defence and central midfield were not strengthened and that was shown as the season progressed. The dealing with Ander Herrera was odd with many reports of him signing coming in the news only to be dashed by the fact that 3 men posing as United agents had approached Bilbao, obviously making the deal unofficial. I supported Moyes from start to finish as I had faith in him, my faith was not rewarded however. The glimpses of hope came from the signing of Mata and the appointment of Ryan Giggs as temporary manager, although even he couldn’t fully inspire the players to finish with a flurry.

The start of the close season naturally brought much talk about who the next manager would be and I was ecstatic at the appointment of Louis Van Gaal. He is a leader, he also shares many of the same attributes as SAF and demands respect. Going into the World Cup I though that Holland would be pretty weak, looking at their squad they had no real depth and the defence looked pretty ordinary. But what a job he done with them, his use of a 5-3-2 formation with wing backs and a counter attacking mentality was outstanding. You could see that every player wanted to run for him, they didn’t want to let him down and they believed in his tactics. The decision to replace Cillessen with Krul in the Quarter Finals was brilliant and an example of his extensive knowledge and planning. So I think he can lead us back to where we need to be.

Obviously pre-season is coming to an end now with only one game left to play tomorrow against Valencia. The summer started brightly once LVG had been appointed with Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw being bought in. The signing of Herrera has helped strengthen the CM position that desperately needed attending to and Shaw has freshened up the position of LB or LWB with the new Van Gaal formation. Obviously a few names have left with the old guard defence of Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra all leaving to continue elsewhere. The funny one being Evra who had just signed a years extension on his contract, I think with the introduction of Shaw he could see his time was ending. Other departures include Buttner who had promise but probably wasn’t United standard and Bebe, who was never United standard, a very risky signing by SAF which didn’t pay off. I saw him play against Crawley in the FA Cup and even then against lower league opponents he looked clueless on the ball (at least we got some money for him though.) First impressions on the new boys were positive with Herrera impressing me the most. He showed a willingness to be on the ball that only Scholes has shown in recent years, he has a range of passing all with good accuracy and is quite strong on the ball. The one thing I think we will see this season is a few bookings for him as he is prone to dive in recklessly, hopefully he adapts to England quickly and stops that. Shaw, despite being branded ‘unfit’ by LVG has looked good also, in fact probably better since being called that as he has been trying to prove a point. He has pace and energy, enough to be able to support the attack and then help the defence, both will be expected in the 5-3-2.

The 2014 ICC was a good competitive pre-season tournament to be in this year. The likes of Roma, Inter, Real and Liverpool provided different tests for the squad. Players such as De Gea, Mata and Rooney shone as expected but other players, who have been criticised over the last few seasons also showed their ability. At the back, although still not strong enough I felt Smalling showed he could step up and be a key defender, Evans had his moments but seemed to collapse against Liverpool and Jones can’t control himself, he’s a DM and needs to realise that. Fletcher returned stronger and very energetic almost looking like an attacking midfielder at times, also captaining the side and doing a good job on a couple of occasions. Cleverley, although widely seen as not good enough started to show what he done at Wigan on loan a few seasons ago. His attacking mentality is much better skilled than his defensive one. But overall I was mostly impressed by Ashley Young who seemed to relish the challenge of playing wing back. He looked more positive and like he knew what to do with the ball again.

The new sponsorship deal with Adidas from the 15/16 season is great to have as it provides the club with more income. However, although I have no doubts about us finishing in the top 4, it does add pressure to LVG as the absence of European football will decrease the amount given to us in the deal. Therefore a top 4 finish is now even more vital that it would have been.

With a new captain yet to be announced we approach the first game of the season. I still hope that a couple more signings are made, I would personally like Hummels and Reus from Dortmund but who knows. Maybe the boss is happy with what he has at his disposal. A win at home against Valencia will send us into the new season perfectly, let’s do it boys!!