Man Utd Thread:

[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.

[stew]

I see the new manager is whining like a little bitch about the game time again st, it will be ninety degrees at kickoff but he tells us he is going to make sure the players get water breaks during the game. I think this guy is going to get the verbal shit kicked out of him when he meets jose, love the playing style but he seems to be setting himself up as fergies ditto, and be ain't fergie!

[AZOffaly]

Whatever about whining about kickoff time, he's positioning himself as looking after the players with water breaks etc. That's the sort of thing that goes down well with players.

I'm quite sure we won't hear van Gaal saying Liverpool or Manchester City are 'favourites' when they play United. Moyes was so small time (like Roy Hodgson) it was unreal.

van Gaal may or may not turn out to be a good manager for United, but he is definitely big enough for the roll.

[gallsman]

Half the point of Van Gaal being in there is that he won't have to live in Fergie's shadow the way Moyes did. He's his own man, who has coached and succeeded at the highest level. Don't think there'll me too many whisperings of him stopping by Fergie's office looking tor tactical advice.

[Boycey]

I see the new manager is whining like a little bitch about the game time again st, it will be ninety degrees at kickoff but he tells us he is going to make sure the players get water breaks during the game. I think this guy is going to get the verbal shit kicked out of him when he meets jose, love the playing style but he seems to be setting himself up as fergies ditto, and be ain't fergie!

I think that moaning is a positive not a negative and I don't think anyone will overawe or kick the verbal shit out of him. He most definitely won't try to be Fergie, if anything he's even more combustable which will be entertaining

[stew]

If he is more combustible than fergie he is going to get eaten alive, jose is already warming up on him and so far so good but before these teams meet jose will go after him, it will be interesting and I think this will be an epic premier league season.

[Boycey]

If he is more combustible than fergie he is going to get eaten alive, jose is already warming up on him and so far so good but before these teams meet jose will go after him, it will be interesting and I think this will be an epic premier league season.

You make sound like a young wet behind the ears manager.. I expect and hope he carries on the same way he has for his whole career.

For anyone interested in watching match on ipad/iphone download Live Media Player from App Store and search for mutv. Cracking stream, game just starting

[Boycey]

Big interest in the match I see, I suppose this hour of a Sat night is for old fogeys like me...

United 3 up at ht, Rooney 2 and Mata. Roma far the best team for 1st 30 mins