26 Oct 2015 13:14:29
Manuel Pellegrini on the Derby result:, if we need to defend, we can defend. It's a tactical game, the mind games, it's easy to defend with 10 players behind the ball, in
our own box. I don't like this way, our normal way to do it, but if we need, we can do it and of course you cannot win the game or lose it . We try to continue to play the game the way we normally do in our next game. For me it's not the way to do it but if you cannot find the right space and you are not clear of what you might try to do well. His statement shows City were content with defending and coming out with a draw. That's opposite of their style and philosophy. I think its a statement of intent that Old Trafford is becoming a difficult ground for clubs. Stats showed we have kept 6 clean sheets in the league than any other EPL team this season. We have conceded only one goal all season at home. That shows some improvement that we are a compact team. I think we are only lacking in our final ball and attacking play. We need to be more penetrating and forward passing to kill off teams. Re-instate Depay at left wing, Martial central and I wouldn't mind Lingard playing right wing to give us that pace upfront till we can buy a pacey forward like Greizmann. Rooney in all honesty needs to be dropped for the good of the team going forward.
Andy Piece.
26 Oct 2015 13:47:24
A draw for City was better than a draw for us. Pellegrini adapted his tactics to get what he wanted, we didn't take advantage yet again.
We have sacrificed our attack to over hedge our defence. The fact LVG won't allow us to open up tells me he has little confidence in our defence so the chances of us developing our attacking play are nominal. We rely as always on a moment of magic or luck.
Yaya could have easily swept that ball in and we wouldn't have known how to break them down. Toss of a coin stuff.
26 Oct 2015 14:09:55
Beast without a balanced squad you have two options to win a game, you either make yourself hard to beat and defensively solid, or you go all out and try and outscore the opponents. Considering the lack of quality in our forward areas atm going all out attack and expecting Rooney and Depay to score more than our opposition seems foolish. Therefore a strong defence is the best way to get the most out of this group of players.
26 Oct 2015 14:21:42
Maybe so Shappy, but when a team is clearly for the taking like CSKA and City 2nd half, you need to be able to at least look like you want to win the game.
Of course the bigger issue is why do we have a lack of quality going forward after XXX amount of money spent and time to correct matters? The clear answer is our manager has gotten more cautious as he has aged, which is recognised by a lot of so called experts. We have tried a vast array of different players who are/were regarded as top draw footballers and all have suffered under this manager. Martial is the only one that looks good and he has yet to absorb the P word I believe.
26 Oct 2015 14:55:25
Beast,
We hit the bar and Hart made a good save from Smalling, if we weren't trying to win the game them 2 chances were very silly of us to create weren't they?
26 Oct 2015 15:50:05
GDS2 - Yeah those two moments woke me from my slumber. I think a non-league side could fashion a couple of efforts on goal against any opposition.
San Marino scored the other day!
26 Oct 2015 15:50:24
The top teams these days when playing against a close rival, be it at club or international level all have one thing in common and that is they are all well organised making themselves hard to beat. I have said for a long time that football at its highest level is played more with brains skill and technique not with legs lungs and passion. To throw players forward willy nilly is just asking the opposition to pick you off. Witness city and arsenal in the champions league in the last few years who have tried to play bold attacking football only to be picked off by teams that no how to counter attack. Although city beat sevilla on another night they could have been humiliated such was the ease sevilla passed through them.
Yesterday city may have been without 2 top players but they still had there first choice goalie and back 4 plus 2 holding midfield players who rarely ventured forward. They still however had 2 £50m wide men and a capacity to break forward at pace when the chance arose which they threatened to do 2/3 times. I therefore reject the assertion of some that they were 'there for the taking'. If you can't beat your closest rivals hen make sure they don't beat you. Yesterday we were compact, well organised, well disciplined and on another day could have nicked it 1-0. De gea on the other hand never had a save to make.
G nev in the telegraph today described yesterday as the best match he has seen this season being as it was a match played between 2 top teams determined not to make mistakes and let the other team in. I would recommend 1 and all to read it.
Finally 1 person said on here yesterday that he would rather utd lose 3-0 as long as they played with passion. Yes really! . Shame on him. Can i suggest he goes and supports chelsea whose passion resulted in 6 bookings and 3 sendings off ooh and they lost and are in the bottom half of the league. We all want our team to play better football but give me a boring 1-0 win over an exciting 5-3 loss ( leicester last yr) any day.
26 Oct 2015 15:56:02
Beast, against CSKA and City which players would you have brought on to open up the game and show more attacking intent? And who would you have taken off.
Sadly our squad is lacking those top end attacking talents we had in previous seasons.
Remember when we had Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer, with Giggs, Beckham, Scholes. We had options to change things.
Or when we had Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez?
Who do we have on the bench now to seriously change a game? Lingard, Young, Pereira, Memphis or Fellaini?
Three of them are kids, one is good but not great and the other people moan and say "here comes hoof it football".
The fact of the matter is we haven't got enough options upfront nor the quality to attack teams or change things significantly mid game.
You keep laying the blame for that at LvG's door with comments about the amount of money he has spent, but that money was NEEDED to rebuild the rest of the squad. The final pieces, the star on top of the tree are the most expensive players to buy. We need a top striker and a top winger Bale and Cavani or Neymar and Hazard? These kind of players cost in the reigon of 50-100m each in todays market and we need two of them. But if the manager bought two of them instead of Darmian, Blind, Rojo, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Hererra, Depay and Martial then where would we be?
Great we would have players like Bale on the right, and Cavani up top but hey would have Cleverley, Nani, Anderson ect behind them. In short the squad was a farce when LvG took over and required a massive rebuild. The top attacking talent is always hard to bring in and the most expensive. As yet we haven't been able to bring them in. So we will have to put defending ahead of attacking for the minute. I don't like it as much as you don't like it. But its what we have to accept.
26 Oct 2015 16:21:30
GDS - 'them two chances'. Is that what we've come to, mate?
Celebrating a whole two chances, at home, in the last quarter of the game.
After a big, fat zero attempts on goal up til then, and another 70 minutes of stifled, pedestrian, mundane football.
26 Oct 2015 16:54:24
You're a glory hunter Stevie. Back in the 70s and 80s we'd be luck to get two chances all season, now we're getting upwards of two or three in a single game.
26 Oct 2015 16:54:16
Moon
Soem find a silver lining in pi dung around here and will try and tell you it does not smell bad or it might look bad but its really black truffle. :) Sorry GDS could not help myself lol.
26 Oct 2015 17:04:39
Shappy
I have to disagree and so evident we play not to lose and simple as that. We pass on crossing opportunities for the fear that we might get caught up field and try and score with 4 or 5 players being forward against teams that have 8 players defending.
It is sad how cautious we are that we are scared of a couple any pacey forwards/wingers that we try and keep a back 4 and 2 holding midfielder back to guard against the break.
Next week we have palace who do have pace on the wings so I expect another dour boring game. Beast put it absolutely correct when he said we wait for that one divine piece of individual skill to score a goal. People seem to compare Van Gaal to Guardiola, for me 2 completely different managers and philosophy.
I don't mind the man but my god are we boring to watch and difficult to warm up to this style of play.
We can only use the pace thing for so long as we have bought players who have pace and already had a few with pace, the style nullifies pace IMO as there is nowhere to run and the slow build up makes sure teams have 8 or 9 players behind the ball and even championship level teams can defend to decent level if they are allowed to defend in numbers.
26 Oct 2015 17:34:16
Guilty, Danny! Spolit feckin' rotten, me :)
26 Oct 2015 20:24:02
Just don't understand how anyone can say we didn't try and win the game, this place is a joke these days.