Manchester United Rumours 63408

 

Use our rumours form to send us manchester united transfer rumours.


24 Feb 2015 15:24:16
Have to ask because of the things I've read daily on this page and how many people are disgruntled with our current situation. After finishing 7th last term, losing 4 big squad members another new manager and the world cup making summer transfers a smash and grab.

what exactly did people expect for this season??? The title???

Agree6 Disagree6

24 Feb 2015 15:47:32
No, we expect good football.

24 Feb 2015 16:04:43
its about the football we're playing for me, i didn't expect the title in all seriousness for at least a few more seasons, but the standard of our game is shocking at times

24 Feb 2015 16:04:45
How much of an impact or how crucial were Vidic, Rio, Giggs & Evra last season? Most of us wanted shot of them to be fair, its only now that people say LVG's job was made harder because they left. Well he had £150m+ to deal with those almost squad players leaving, in effect aside from Evra they hardly did much last season and Shaw was a revelation with Southampton a certain upgrade in theory.

I expected the title, especially as we had no Europe. We are now praying our competitors win in Europe because it aids our chances of getting a CL spot - never thought that would happen, but many of us realise we can only get it by an "unfair" advantage over our rivals. Makes me sick we resort to that mentality, but its a fact.

I could list 100 managers that would have done better if we had a Groundhog Day effect this season. It doesn't make you a lesser fan to question the managers performance, we support the club not the manager first!

24 Feb 2015 16:05:03
Some improvement over the season and some sign that the team is moving forward and the manager is capable of improving the team

24 Feb 2015 16:22:02
I was quite optimistic up-until the Swansea game. Now, with Liverpool and Arsenal looking very strong, I don't think we will make top four unless there is improvement on and off the field.

RVP being injured is a blessing as far as I am concerned. We might see a more balanced set up.

24 Feb 2015 16:34:48
beast, expecting the title this season was adventurous, we were woeful last season, regardless of money spent, the team is no where near title challenges.

and to say it would be unfair to our competitors if we get 4th, i just don't get.

im curious to know what managers would have done better in your mind?

24 Feb 2015 16:54:25
I just thought it was a realistic expectation, maybe a bit ambitious, but we had a lot of advantages this season.

What I am saying about an unfair advantage Many of us think that being in Europe will make our rivals for CL places weaker in the league, we don't have that. I read comments everywhere with people saying "Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs have Europe to worry about so they will drop points" - basically if we had Europe to think about just think how rubbish our season would have been? In fact how much worse, as it is rubbish anyway.

So we are relying on an unfair advantage, on a level playing field (no European competitions this year) our rivals would drop less points ergo we would be worse off.

24 Feb 2015 17:00:41
firstly, I personally didn't want shot of 4 very experienced players I don't know if anyone else agrees with beast and I certainly wouldn't pick evans jones smalling etc over them

secondly, does anybody really think LVG (coming back from the world cup) said "I want these players"?? and you can't put expectations on a manager based on the price tags other teams put on the players so quoting £150m adds nothing to the debate.

As for the style of play, some of you may have seen previously my thoughts on the contained football we are forced to play due to the weakness of our defence and how that is restricting the forward play. LVG also touched on this following the QPR game. So I think its harsh to judge a manager on style of play if he's getting the results until he's had a chance to build his own team.

Are we taking other elements into consideration like Mr Woodward for example?? 2 Summers in a row have been tales of long drawn out player chasing with no results (Fabregas, Vidal)when other teams seem to land their targets with ease (chelsea have since acquired 2 of ours)

Reality check time have a look at our squad and how many would get into teams like barca, real, chelsea, bayern etc 3?? 4 if we include de gea. People are expecting too much too soon, even Mr One season Mourinho fell into 3rd last season and i'm sure decisions like selling the two time player of the year to a direct rival didn't go down too swimmingly andi would imagine there are fans of them on sites like this that blamed decisions such as that for their downfall at the time.

Give the man time he's working with a mish mash of a squad and not really doing too badly, judge him after next season

24 Feb 2015 17:06:02
spb - virtually every premier league manager, in fact if we had no manager whatsoever I think the lads would figure out the best thing for the squad. Kind of like being stranded on a desert island, the leaders would step up and boys would become men. We have too many weaklings and the manager is hampering our creativity with his rigid tactical approach.

Maybe a bit extreme above, but I would be interested to know what you think LVG has done well? For example if you are LVG in an appraisal what do you think he will be saying to his boss when asked about progress or his accomplishments thus far?

I'd love to be a fly on the wall. "Mr. Woodward, you are not a football man, you are a business man. I am a football man and everything is going to plan, don't worry it will be perfectly ok, I am LVG and LVG almost always gets it almost right or he doesn't and then that is not my fault", and I do think he would refer to himself in the third person during an appraisal!

24 Feb 2015 17:30:20
for me i wasn't expecting fireworks this season, 4th spot was a minimum expectation.

for me i feel playing in Europe and playing 2 games a week benefits a team, players are getting games, getting into rytham and for me it builds momentum.

but i'm still confident of getting 4th

24 Feb 2015 17:38:02
I'd also love to know the stats of points dropped in games following european games compared to games following no midweek games this season if somebody can find out??

24 Feb 2015 17:51:41
I was expecting a decent season maybe a title challenge if all was going well but at the least a good top four finish

24 Feb 2015 18:01:33
Wherever you stand on this debate. I feel confident in saying that every football fan of Utd and others expected a better performance from us. I don't feel the balance between getting results and sacrificing performance has been worth it, we sacrifice far more than what we are getting because let's face it the results haven't been that great, but the football has been awful.

Our competitors will all be amazed we are not walking a CL place, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool will all be surprised that there are two CL places up for grabs.

For that alone serious questions need to be asked now.

24 Feb 2015 18:37:13
Mish mash of a squad. Tell me another team that have won the league, added 200 million pound of talent to it, decent young players entering the squad, only the league to worry about, and are playing as abysmal as this lot. There is still a lot of quality in the squad but we are going into March with no one having a clue as to what the system is and none of them looking happy. Sorry but stop making excuses for Lvg. He's had a fer easier ride than Moyes but I think we are now in a worse position as it looks like we are going to have to start all over again.

24 Feb 2015 19:35:09
I was expecting us to come out of the blocks at the start of the season guns ablazing. We had a whole load of relatively easy fixtures and, frankly, I was expecting us to be close to or at the top at the end of October. Okay, so that didn't happen. Then we were supposed to kick on after Christmas, especially when our injury list improved. Well that hasn't happened either - quite the contrary, we've got worse. So what are we to think about LVG? The prima facie evidence suggests The Beast has got it pretty much spot on, sad as it is to say.

We can't keep saying we're missing Ferdinand, Evra and Vidic when all 3 of them were clearly past their best and, IMO, would not have helped our team this year. The issue is that the players acquired to replace them are simply not as good, which is probably why SAF kept going back to the old folks. Even in their declining states they were better than Jones, Smalling and Evans. The art of long term management is to get rid of players before they are in terminal decline and while they still have value. We didn't do that. It's what SAF was great at until the last 3 or 4 years. The quality of the inherited squad compared to our main rivals was simply subpar, and that will take time to fix. That's LVG's one remaining straw.

. unless of course we suddenly start playing well!!

24 Feb 2015 19:39:25
Expecting the title, expecting fantastic football.

Some realism is needed. The title would have meant taking the club from 7th to 1st and I don't believe it has been done very often, if at all. We suffered a total loss of confidence last season and started this season with no momentum. However I read some expect the title after last season where the main learning point was that we needed to play like underdogs, to look over our shoulders. Then there is an expectation of this free flowing football, despite not having played any consistently for probably 5 years. Some expected a miracle, a miracle where last season never happened. Hard to believe the totally unrealistic expectations, unless, of course you want to hang, draw and quarter the manager for not achieving to X box fantasy level.
The aim should have been to get 3rd, whatever the football, after last season and a failed transition anything more is unrealistic,

24 Feb 2015 19:59:13
Did porsche 933 skip a season???

24 Feb 2015 20:08:02
Red Man, Liverpool went from 7th to 2nd only last season. I'd have taken that, especially after the money invested in the squad and a world-renowned manager. But certainly top 4.

24 Feb 2015 20:35:46
We are 3 points better of than last season .
With a better squad .
Last season was a long time ago you can't continue to blame lack of confidence due to moyes as an excuse
Redman
There is an expectation of improvement through the season have you seen any?
Your the first to defend lvg tell me what is it he is doing that is so good ?
As for finishing 7th last season we are 3 points of 7th at the moment with some hard games coming up .

24 Feb 2015 22:25:26
Red Man -

Liverpool last year with a net spend of less than half of what we spent finished second, played the best football in the league, banged in over 100 goals and took their supporters on one hell of a ride. Why can't we expect the same?

We spent heavily. Hired an 'experienced coach' the type guys like you wanted. Plus kept the majority of our better players Rooney, RVP, Carrick, De Gea etc.

If you settle for mediocre then heck don't be suprised when you get mediocre.

24 Feb 2015 22:42:59
The realism that people need to accept is that we spent more money than any other team during the summer and, as jred points out, it has given us a 3 points boost from the same stage last season.

Nobody is demanding that we win the league, but when a manager is given a huge investment and claim that they're going to win the biggest competitions with this club, you expect to see some evidence that they're heading in the right direction. Van Gaal has had over half a season to get his ship in order, but so far our performances have been consistently underwhelming. The question is, when are we going to see any major sign that the methods that van Gaal claims the team are wholeheartedly embracing are actually having an impact on our performances?

Last year I was one of Moyes's biggest critics. Not because he's a terrible manager, but because the club has a big rebuilding job on their hands and he was incapable of proving that he was the right man to do it. Van Gaal has had a far easier ride than Moyes: more money, less fixtures and lower expectations. But he still hasn't convinced me that he is the right person to get the club back on track. Ultimately, that's all I was expecting this season, for the manager to demonstrate a decent level of improvement given the resources he was given.

25 Feb 2015 00:37:28
"Ultimately, that's all I was expecting this season, for the manager to demonstrate a decent level of improvement given the resources he was given." Danny

Nailed it, Danny.

25 Feb 2015 05:45:37
Jred.jmb

I have never said nor thought LvG was the right man, he was not my choice. However what I do see is that he is trying to structure a style of play that he feels will benefit long term, he appears to be trying to bring in talented 16 year olds to have players coming through. We don't know the plan he has outlined to the board.
I don't think people appreciate the hole we were in last season, a club and team totally without direction and severely damaged confidence, a team that hadn't played really good football for years, an unbalanced squad, a team no longer feared. His starting point was a lot more difficult than people are realising so I cut him some slack. Everyone quotes the money well it should have been spent over previous seasons on the right players, not leaving the holes in the team it did, not in one go and those new players need to settle, it just doesn't happen instantly. So whilst LvG isn't my type of manager I think we have to give him more time.

25 Feb 2015 07:37:40
Redman
Nothing's changed

25 Feb 2015 07:47:01
Redman
Shame you couldn't see all this last year

25 Feb 2015 07:53:54
Jred

We appointed someone really wrong last year and as I said many times it was a 1970 moment that we didn't learn from. Read back before last year and see what I said. Totally different situations

25 Feb 2015 08:45:24
Redman
U mean back the manager as long as redman approves .
I think we got the wrong man again this time, read back what i said at the start of the season.

Also i have said many times there are a lot of issues at united any manager will need time

25 Feb 2015 09:29:59
SAF leaving was always going to have a knock on effect and we are still seeing it now. Moyes was the wrong choice, we should have brought in someone accomplished, someone who could have kept us plodding along the way we were. We weren't playing as well as previous seasons under SAF, but we still had the fear factor and the players had their confidence. SAF going the players were always going to have a wobble unless we brought in someone with some pedigree. We went with Moyes and we simply haven't recovered from that mistake. It just proves that even with a massive spend in the summer we are still not playing well, therefore it's not just the playing squad that's the problem. The problem is still mental and until we sort that out we will not improve drastically no matter who we sign. We have become harder to beat, but that has sacrificed our attacking flair so to speak. Like I said when we were 3rd and flying high, I would replace LvG in the summer whether we finish 3rd or not. We need a manager who is going to put his arm around the players, not rejecting them and making them want to leave. I would opt for Carlo Ancelotti who would do just that. He has many friends in the game and player will want to play for him. So in a nutshell, we have improved slightly as we are harder to beat, but we are still playing some awful football and personally like I have been saying for some time now, I think there is still a mental issue that we need to overcome. We have turned Di Maria into Bebe, Falcao and Mata have come to MU and have struggled. Rooney and Van Persie continue to struggle. We have top notch players, but they cannot play well. Picture any of these players in another top side and they would be flourishing. There's something more that's the issue and we cannot use the "Our players aren't good enough" excuse anymore. I think the main issue is mental. The players need to snap out of it if we are going to have any chance of a top four finish. I have a feeling we will miss out again.

25 Feb 2015 10:29:22
I'll be honest, Syd. I expected to see Shappy's name at the end of that post.

25 Feb 2015 11:41:36
Why do people keep referring to the sum of money that was spent??? If you think any of them players were on LVG's top priority shopping list u are deluded. City spent a Billion before they won the league!!! The money spent in summer is irrelevant you could buy 15 average players at £10m each it doesn't mean you will win the league. If you are relying on money to buy trophies it costs a hell of a lot more than 150m just look at city chelsea real madrid etc etc you need to let him build his team, don't judge him on a mix of ageing players (rvp, rooney, carrick, valencia) young squad players that would not be first choice in other circumstances (evans, jones, smalling) and a couple of supermarket sweep players acquired in an opportunist fashion (di maria, falcao). The only player I believe was purpose bought by LVG himself was Blind

25 Feb 2015 12:12:45
Are you saying that we can only judge van Gaal on the players he has directly brought in?

I guess we'll have to bankroll van Gaal for another 20 plus signings because we can't expect him to achieve anything with players he hasn't handpicked.

This is, of course, a nonsense defence of van Gaal. Regardless of whether the players bought in the summer were "van Gaal signings" or not is a moot point. We signed a number of players who have performed well at their previous clubs. These are good players who obviously have the potential to improve our squad if used in an effective way. Good managers are capable of making the most of what they have got. Even if van Gaal didn't personally select these players, he still has them at his disposal. The fact that van Gaal has been thus far unable to get the best out of the majority of our new signings (and existing players) is a also direct reflection on him, and not simply a case of poor transfer strategy.

25 Feb 2015 18:34:27
Sydney

I agree and if Ancelotti was available in summer I wouldn't be disappointed if he ended at OT.





 

 

 
Log In or Register to post

User
Pass
Remember me

Forgot Pass