What was the difference today? De Gea should have been sent off for his handball panic, another massive clanger for the third consecutive game. He got away with that but not his poor keeping for the Haza winner. Courtois would have made himself large and never let Hazard slot the ball through his legs so easily. Poor keeping under pressure. Or was it simply another case of Jose owning LVG? Which duel was most crucial?
To be fair, it is hard to judge where to go with this one. United had a run of a few good games against (who am I to judge) average clubs but then they met the masters. However, United are back. LVG is king,
Agree De Gea was very lucky not to go, but think any keeper would have had a problem with Hazards finish, it was exemplary. Joses' "tactics" worked extremely well, not just the defence, but the way our players stopped the in form Utd players in their tracks. Rooney and Fuzzy Fellaini were shuffled out of their usual roles, Falcao was handled fairly easily most game, but got away a couple of times, as a player of his class should. Young Zouma was again impressive as were all the defenders, but as a young bloke in a match of this intensity, Zouma deserves special praise. A hard to watch, nail biter, settled in a flash of brilliance and the better footballing team on the day were done like a dinner, by the master of defensive play and counter attacking. Got to say Jose 2 Van Gaal 1 ( He has got Utd from dross to a very good team in one season, and deserves a point. )
I would say vG had Jose worried in that first 30 minutes. Then he copped what I have been saying since they beat us at Anflield. TELL THE PLAYERS TO CUT PASSING OPTIONS OUT INSTEAD OF PRESSING LIKE CLOWNS AND GETTING SUCKED OUT OF POSITION. Fabergas pressed early on as did others and United just went around them. Then in the second half Fabergas held, cutting down optionsand forcing united wide with the ball. vG also likes to suck the opposing midfield out wide by overloading on either side and have his central defender move into midfield. It worked on your lot well as McMare was able to move up as far as 25 yards out with no pressure on him. A failing tho was Cahil and co being afraid to move forward with the ball, you could have put united under more pressure in the second half if Cahill had the courage to move forward with the ball, you need a ball playing CB lads to compliment a Terry type. Dicipline is required, at Anflield I could see this during the game and yet, we played like amateurs. Getting sucked out of position time and time again. It's no secret that Pep's Barca also did this, and Jose handled those tactics in the same way, discipline, thought Barca were much better than this United. I laugh at all the social media clowns, 3 points in the bag, over 100 goals this season. Yep, Boring! Costa was a HUGE miss, it allowed United's back line to move right up, had Costa been playing it would have made Smalling and McMar poor their shorts a little, Drogba being the striker meant there was no threat in that respect, poor old Drogs, Chelsea legend, but he's done. Was surprised how much his legs have gone. Even with no Costa, a bit of pressure shows united at the back for what they are, loose passes and #fear crept in when under any real pressure. De Gea's failing for the goal was pretty much that he didn't attack the ball, he stood where he was when he should have flew out at Hazard in the last minute, no one can react to a between the legs shot from 2 yards away usually. If you don't get some attacking flair to compliment Hazard, you are 100% gonna lose him to Real or Barca. Herrera. Went from world beater to ball loser and diver overnight Jose's tactics, were right mainly because he had no Costa, with Costa you could have held the ball up higher, had more threat on set pieces and counter attacks. You didn't so you had to be solid. Bit like when you went to OT last year with no Striker, cos you didn't have one worthy of doing the job. Great win, Lous van Gaal, or an anagram, A Vaginal Soul - given his BBC interview won the possession, united are now 2 or 3 wins from winning the possession league. All that is left to say is, C'mon West Ham!!
Obviously Zouma was crucial into cutting out De Gea's long balls to Fellaini. But because zouma was pulled put wide to stop diagonal punts to Fellaini we lacked bodies in midfield. Herrera was superb. And had lots of freedom to pass and initiate attacks principally on the left with Young and Shaw. Mata was non existent. Jose put ramires on to stop the attacks on the left. Herrera could not pass there any more. Got frustrated and started diving out of desperation. Agree that Drog And Fabregas pressing did not work. Pressing with Costa and Oscar as no 10 works better
Herrera was good and bad. He caused no problems. Shaw was United's most creative player, man boobs n all Zoom had to pull out wide because of the UNited overload, which opened up the middle allowing Rooney to almost score, he should have, and McMare to have free shots from 20 25 yards out. In saying that, there were three occasions in the first half where poor balls from Drogba and Oscar failed to set hazard free, you could have been three up in the first half had the passing up top been better. That was actually the same at Anfield, We failed to find a good pass to set Sterling free. If United played that high line against say Barca they'd lose 10 0 cos they have the quality to pass through and over the top of their high line
Agree. We should hAve got Ramires on earlier on the right to stop shaw and played Oscar as no 10 to press. Or Willian as no 10 to press, was he injured ?
vG calls this a foul on Herrera Thankfully Micked D was well placed. The scream from Herrera was pathetic. Players should face bans for this sort of thing where there is no doubt they were trying to con the ref #cheat
De Gay's premature celebration was crinch worthy.. Thib would never do that. But This thread points out one common denominator. Both Courtois & Jose will always thank De Gay & Vaginal Soul (hilarious anagram Sisu), for giving them their big break in their early days.
For me it was the manner of his celebration, it wasn;t "wohoo we scored" it was "yeah who's your daddy" which made it funnier when he realised it wasn't a goal
