This is what total rebuilding is all about. I for one (against popular opinion here) believe that nothing else will do. The old SAF squad which gave excellent service to the club was shot once the great man left. This will take time. He is building a a great attack and this seems to be working so far. Now he needs to build a solid defence. May be he is waiting for the right players but no doubt in January he will bring some top defenders (at great cost I'm sure). But then United is are new Chelsea (or City). Money no object so far. Once a good competitive team is established, the club will spend less. The GGS only splash out because they have to. So far so good (almost). There will always be hiccups/mishaps on the road. Fingers crossed.
Not entirely buying that. If the defence for instance needed attention (which was clear to everyone) and money is no object, why not just bid a load of money to get the players you actually needed. Di Maria is quality, but for 60 odd million plus the money you spent on Rojo and Blind you could have got 3 top class defensive minded players. Shaw was an expensive signing but with his experience it's going to be difficult to fit into an entirely new and untested defence. I think the lad is in for a hard first season and it all seems a little directionless. The team wasn't half as bad as was made out and made to look worse by Moyes being so clueless and the players giving up. LVG has come in, spent a fortune and made it look worse (whilst removing the out and out wingers United are famous for).
You are right. Problem is, the attack was the last thing that needed attention, you already had great attacking players, so defence should have been the priority. Are you telling me, with a great defence you wouldnt have been confident in the abilities of Januzaj, RVP, Rooney and Mata to deal with the attack side of things? There was no need to crowbar Di Maria in there when you have Blackett in defence. So instead of replacing Blackett or Smalling with Hummels or the like, he has replaced Mata or Rooney etc with Di Maria. Now you could argue Di Maria is better (I think he is personally), but it doesnt improve your team or balance it as much as someone like Hummels or Vidal would have. I know he tried to get these players and failed, but surely there were alternatives.
This is what's strange. The United board have got away with it this year as the big names will mask what is surely more inadequate planning or ability to get in what they actually required. Last year they wanted a central midfielder, failed to get Cesc and Tiago, then messed up the Herrera deal and ended up with Fellani. Another expensive bench warmer whose best position is behind the striker (where they already had about 4 players for that position - then bought Mata as well!). This year they seemingly tried and failed to bring in a top line defender and central defensive midfielder and ended up with Rojo and Blind.
There are both competing as well as complemetary interests here. On one hand we have the playing objective: building a competitive team to get back into the Cl and ultimately to win the title. Then there is the image of the big club objective: Big club with big players provding goals and entertaining football. United as a big club keeping the global support and "good to watch". These two do not need to be divergent or competing but I can see why buying DI Maria and (loaning) Falcao were no brainer for the club. In one fell swoop, we have got probably the most exciting attack in the league. Yes our defence may be **** but on the plus side all this roller coaster is producing publicity. Who said that "there is no such thing as bad publicity". Win or lose - United will stay in the headlines all over the world for months to come. It is possible that behind the scenes LVG tried to get the required defenders but these were not available until January. Time will tell.
So you are saying LvG decided to keep the defence **** so United would make headlines....for being ****?
I get what you're saying and from a board level it might make sense but as football fans we want to see the team getting results and playing well. Do you really care if more kids in China are wearing United shirts cos you got some big names in (perhaps at the expense of signings that would have improved the team more) ??
Thats a matter for debate. I thought it was mostly the players fault rather than Moyes. His major fault was that he was not SAF. Yes, another manager could have done slightly better but the reaction from SAF's departure was always going to be very huge. I think a lot of people think it should be easy follwoing him. He has a league winning squad and anyone , you or I even, can just keep things going. Well, as people as old as me have witnessed in the past, it is not that simple. And many people now realise how the strength of that team and sqaud was so heavily reliant on SAF himself. It is not like at Real people just buy Ronaldo, Bale, Rodrogues, Modric and the coach get them playing. At United, SAF made a team that was much much bigger than the sum of its parts. When he left we then relasied how ordinary some of the players were. LVG may have made some mistakes regarding the team building too. But he has the chance to put things right in january (may be). It seems the board trusts him with the money and he will given any amount that's required. When he gets that defence right, United will be unstoppable (fanciful for some I know but I am usually one of the most pessimistic (realistic?) people on here.)
It was soft to say the least, but Raf could have been a bit more professional about it than to come at him fast from behind, cover was there. Don't ponder too much on that one and ignore the other 4 though! Surely other clubs are already putting another zero on the price of their defenders ready for ManU to come-a-knockin.
Of course not. It does not bother me at all how much the GGs get in profits or whether they sell an extra million shirts. What i am saying is that i understand their thinking. I have been asking/wishing for us to buy top players for years but no joy as it seems that all these players were going to other clubs. Suddenly we are getting this massive investment whch dwarfs anyhting that has happened before. I am not naive to think that the GGs are doing it because they care about the team. They are desperate to keep the club's shares at the top and to do that they have keep the club at the top in the league and get in the CL. It has dawned on them that they cannot claim to have the best brand in world football if they cannot compete for or win the title soon. Too many years off the top, the share value will surely slide as sponsors start to value the deals less. United are not Chelsea or City. They do not have benefactors who can fund the club unlimited amount of cash. Any amount of money spent on players has to be generated by revenue. It is all a means to an end. It is just the objective of fans like me to have great successful team coincides with that of the GGs to maintian the clubs image and the share value in the stock exchange.
Ive said many times tge ref isnt a blame for tye loss. My issue with clattenburg goes deeper that that. Hes a **** anf im now interested to how our next game goes with him in charge. I would be confident that we will concede at leasr one pen and have at least one player sent off. Lets see.
Theres good reason we conceded the last two and in a way it was tye united way. Go down fighting. We were pushing for the winner ourselves and then tye equaliser. Moyes would have taken the 5-3. Hell he wouldnt have got the 3 so 5-0 it is. Maybe 3-0 as we wouldn't have been pushing for a goal at any point with moyes. So we left ourselves exposed. Kind of like tye city game at old trafford a few seasons back. Its good to see us going for it. Shame it didnt work but rather that than playing for a draw. Like chelsea yesterday at 1-0 against ten men.
My thoughts exactly UIR, after Leicester equalised (with a good goal i might add) then the team just went gung ho like against City and we paid the same price
Yes there are similarities with City to a certain extent. and with many other large scores conceded by big teams. It does not matter whether it is City or Chelsea or Leicester. Once you go for it and you leave yourself vulnerable at the back. United lost momentum - the substitution of Di Maria was a mistake in retrospect and Leicester was gaining it. Valuable and painful lesson. Football do throw these incredible scenarios from time to time. Remember the palace match against the RS? the RS were 3-0 ahead and went gung ho for a heavy score and in 10 minutes had been pegged back 3-3. They lost the title there and then. Any hope of the title was killed stone dead that night
You were vulnerable at the back for most of the game though.... Wasn't just the case of conceding a couple of extra in a rout. You'd already conceded 3 before Leicester were even level. But a bit of a freak game nonetheless. Very lucky for United that their next game I think is West Ham at home. Pretty much another home banker like QPR. Actually this has got to be one of the easiest starts I can remember (on paper at least) for a first 6 games. Not a single team that finished top half of the premier league last year.
There is no such thing as an easy match and home bankers (certainly not for the current post SAF United). West Ham are a good team. With SAF you could almost sense that Big Sam was beaten before the game. He has some fast strikers and his midfield is solid as the complacent RS have found to their cost.
There is always a chance but 8/9 times out of 10 United win that game surely - especially with the reaction you're bound to get after last weekend. I'm going 3-1 United. Jinx
