Man Utd Thread:

[magpie seanie]

I'd pay Benfica to sign Bebe, nothing short of clean useless

As for Nani, I hope he does leave. hasn't shown much promise of fight for the club! if Wenger is stupid enough to give 10-15m happy days!

Nani has ability but very little football intelligence from my observation of him. Don't think he will be LVG's cup of tea but I'd prefer to see him signing for someone outside England as the ability for him to come back and bite ya in the arse is quite high.

Read a pretty good deconstruction of the new 3-4-3 formation that Van Gaal is bringing in on the score.ie. He will need to sign a centre half (Vermaelen/Hummels/De Vrig), cover for Shaw (Daley Blind would be ideal as he could play centrally also). It might be possible to accomodate a few "10's" in the side at once. Huge things expected of Valencia/Rafael and Shaw in terms of workrate so the lack of Euro games will help.

I'm more excited about the upcoming season than any for a long time. It may not work out but surely it will be better and more interesting than last season.

[gawa316]

Nani has ability but very little football intelligence from my observation of him. Don't think he will be LVG's cup of tea but I'd prefer to see him signing for someone outside England as the ability for him to come back and bite ya in the arse is quite high.

Read a pretty good deconstruction of the new 3-4-3 formation that Van Gaal is bringing in on the score.ie. He will need to sign a centre half (Vermaelen/Hummels/De Vrig), cover for Shaw (Daley Blind would be ideal as he could play centrally also). It might be possible to accomodate a few "10's" in the side at once. Huge things expected of Valencia/Rafael and Shaw in terms of workrate so the lack of Euro games will help.

I'm more excited about the upcoming season than any for a long time. It may not work out but surely it will be better and more interesting than last season.

That's a matter of opinion

How do you see them lining out?

----------------De Gea-------------
----Smalling---New CB---Jones---
Valencia--Herrera--Carrick--Shaw
----------Mata------Rooney-------
----------------RVP--------------

[pullhard]

lads, where would i get a ticket for the QPR game? happy to sit in the home or away end, if it makes it cheaper!

If you're a member there'll be a ballot sometime soon that you can enter or maybe some of the lads that are members/have season tickets on here can help. Failing that donedeal usually was plenty of ads offering the use of season tickets or there are multiple Facebook/Twitter groups that you will get one off, search for mufchometickets or the like

not a member of any club. moved over this way, i might join the QPR club and get away tickets to games in the north west, What are there fans like?

[rodney trotter]

Carrick is out for 3 months so there be a new midfielder,  there was going to be another midfielder bought as it was.

It will be interesting to see how they play, will be very attack minded.

[EC Unique]

Fletcher could still do a job in the middle. As good if not better than Carrick.

[Kidder81]

Fletcher could still do a job in the middle. As good if not better than Carrick.

What form lines are you using here for Fletcher, 2007 or 2008 ?

[Shrewdness]

Surely neither Fletcher or Carrick are serious options for United at this stage. Both well past their best ...Think Bebe got himself a 4 year contract at Benfica, undisclosed fee.

[gawa316]

Surely neither Fletcher or Carrick are serious options for United at this stage. Both well past their best .

Who else then? Fellani, Cleverly, one of the cubs?

[rodney trotter]

Van Gaal will buy another midfielder.  He said as much when carrick got injured.  Need more in midfield anyway,  pedestrian pace past season. Another player to work alongside Herrera, he looks a big improvement for a start.

[magpie seanie]

Nani has ability but very little football intelligence from my observation of him. Don't think he will be LVG's cup of tea but I'd prefer to see him signing for someone outside England as the ability for him to come back and bite ya in the arse is quite high.

Read a pretty good deconstruction of the new 3-4-3 formation that Van Gaal is bringing in on the score.ie. He will need to sign a centre half (Vermaelen/Hummels/De Vrig), cover for Shaw (Daley Blind would be ideal as he could play centrally also). It might be possible to accomodate a few "10's" in the side at once. Huge things expected of Valencia/Rafael and Shaw in terms of workrate so the lack of Euro games will help.

I'm more excited about the upcoming season than any for a long time. It may not work out but surely it will be better and more interesting than last season.

That's a matter of opinion

How do you see them lining out?

----------------De Gea-------------
----Smalling---New CB---Jones---
Valencia--Herrera--Carrick--Shaw
----------Mata------Rooney-------
----------------RVP--------------

----------------De Gea-------------
----Smalling---New CB---Jones---
Valencia--Herrera--Mata--Shaw
-----Welbeck---Rooney-------
----------------RVP--------------


Something along those lines with Young/Januzaj/Kagawa possibly playing instead of Welbeck at times. Kagawa is thought to be Mata's understudy for the creative midfielder role. From what I've read LVG is looking like settling on Mata for the important distributor role in midfield. I find that thought mouthwatering to say the least. The players will need to be flexible and I think it can work with somethnig along those lines of personnel.

[rodney trotter]

Smalling is a bit of a liability,  he needs to step up this season. I think Van Gaal will bring in another central midfielder,  another month of the deadline.  Needs to be a quality signing at centre half after losing the experience of Vidic.
Vermalean is a good technical player for a defender, lacks pace.

[Shrewdness]

gawa316, the problem is that United's midfield resembles a wasteland of mediocrity..Not long ago United and Real Madrid were of a similar Champs Lge standard. But look at things now.. Compare Madrid's current midfield to the players currently in United's squad as midfielders...Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini, Cleverly plus ineffective wide players such as Nani and Young. Even Valencia is below par. The above players represent a shambles.

[gawa316]

gawa316, the problem is that United's midfield resembles a wastefield of mediocrity..Not long ago United and Real Madrid were of a similar Champs Lge standard. But look at things now.. Compare Madrid's current midfield to the players currently in United's squad as midfielders...Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini, Cleverly plus ineffective wide players such as Nani and Young. Even Valencia is below par. The above players represent a shambles.

Yip I know what you're saying. As bad as Fellaini was last year still think he has potential. But it'll cost another 20 odd million at least to get someone in there. Who is being rumoured apart from Vidal? In hindsight Pogba would've been perfect.

Having Mata in beside Herrera would leave Utd weak through the middle imo. The likes of Yaya would just plough straight through

[Shrewdness]

Seems Kevin Strootman is being strongly linked with a move to United. Of course the problem with that is the fact that he's recovering from a bad injury and won't be fit until October at the earliest..We've been linked with many other midfielders this summer, but most of it was paper talk. For instance, whatever happened to William Carvalho?

[magpie seanie]

gawa316, the problem is that United's midfield resembles a wastefield of mediocrity..Not long ago United and Real Madrid were of a similar Champs Lge standard. But look at things now.. Compare Madrid's current midfield to the players currently in United's squad as midfielders...Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini, Cleverly plus ineffective wide players such as Nani and Young. Even Valencia is below par. The above players represent a shambles.

Yip I know what you're saying. As bad as Fellaini was last year still think he has potential. But it'll cost another 20 odd million at least to get someone in there. Who is being rumoured apart from Vidal? In hindsight Pogba would've been perfect.

Having Mata in beside Herrera would leave Utd weak through the middle imo. The likes of Yaya would just plough straight through

He has kinda ploughed through United the last few years as it is, even in a year United won the title. I think if you watch the subtleties of LVG's system which I did during the WC, you would see that it's very fluid and flexible with cover available from all areas. In your suggested weakness there I would suspect the likes of Jones would be more advanced than the other two CB's to fill in for a Mata if he got caught out. or indeed one of the wing backs if they got caught. That's the beauty of his system from my viewing of it.

Key to this and it was also key for the Netherlands, was how several unheralded players fit into the system and performed admirably. For example Janmaat who signed for Newcatle. I suspect he is very ordinary but looked decent in this setup. For that reason I would still have lingering hopes that some of the lesser lights in United's squad will be able to make a squad players contribution. CL qualification (or, dare I dream, even the title) won't be won by 11 players. I do think one or two big signings will come before the off to strengthen the options considerably.