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littleDinosaurLuke said:
It's a symptom of having too many new players at once. All the Utd players are happy to receive the ball and are comfortable in possession. But they do so in static positions, they always need to look up, see where teammates are, wait for someone to move into space or make themselves available and then play a pass. The tempo is painfully slow and the passes are telegraphed. The players are unfamiliar with each other's strengths and weaknesses and are tentative about moving out of position and being selfish with the ball. Only Shaw seems to be playing with the freedom he did at Southampton, having the confidence to make advanced runs down the left. I hate to use the word, but it takes time for players to "gel". There have been signs against Bruges that when players play without fear of failure (because they know they are comfortably better than the opposition), the shackles come off and they play with more risk - which means making runs, taking on shots, trying one touch passes etc. There was a lot of expansive play v Bruges, but none against Swansea.

The PL is a tough league. Play a risky forward pass against a team who attack with pace and you can give away a goal very easily. Until today, Utd had been picking up results by dominating possession and defending solidly when the opposition had the ball. So van Gaal was happy to keep playing in this no risk style. He also lacks a centre forward who can hold the ball up and occupy defenders. Rooney is best as a #10 or switching positions between #9 and #10 as he did with RvP. He is not suited to playing a lone striker's role where he constantly has to move left to right and vice versa along the front line. What he wants to do is either run between the centre backs and be picked out with a quick pass (as Carrick has often done) or drop deeper to receive the ball and play either a quick pass wide, allowing him to sprint forward awaiting a return pass, or through the middle as he used to do to find RvP who had run beyond him. Rooney is best when attacks are launched at a high tempo with quick passes which spread the opposition defence and enable him to find space in and around the box. At present, he's getting no space at all and no pace on the ball.
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I keep beating this drum. No team should bring in too many new starters each year. What that number is varies, but the key factor is whether it leaves you wondering what your style of play is and/or should be. It doomed us with the seven, and I agree you look to have all the signs of the same problem. In a game of fine margins, it makes all the difference in the world whether players can anticipate what their teammates will do. One player can be integrated fairly rapidly, but the problem increases geometrically with every additional player. The sensible thing would be to say: you’ve got to win your spot, and to bring in new signings very gradually, beginning as late substitutions.

I think you have an only partly related Schweinsteiger problem as well. It made no sense to bring him on in the game against us where you had been comfortable. Subbing the 25 year old Schneiderlin while leaving Schweinsteiger on made no sense yesterday. Having to put a star’s interest first and the team’s second doesn’t help.
 
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Stan Collymore, on TalkSport tonight, reckons that he spoke to one of the top agents in the game and that Levy was offer this player by Monaco for £14 million, three weeks ago. If that's true, either Levy has ****ed up big time or United have been ripped off by £28 million!
 
Hoddle Is A God said:
Stan Collymore, on TalkSport tonight, reckons that he spoke to one of the top agents in the game and that Levy was offer this player by Monaco for £14 million, three weeks ago. If that's true, either Levy has ****ed up big time or United have been ripped off by £28 million!
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Is there any sentence less credible than "Stan Collymore reckons"?
 
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Citizen Kane said:
'No panic signings' said Van Gaal yesterday evening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34107092

The Dutch prankster...

Again a huge amount of money on a player who really won't help them where they need it. Martial is a fantastic talent but far too similar in style to Depay. They need a world class CB and an out and out striker with guile and craft to get the best out of Rooney. And he is neither of those.
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Martial was the player I most wanted, but the thing to do in retrospect was buy him for 14 million, then sell him to United for 36 milion. 22 million will buy you a lot of Windows upgrades. You might even be able to afford a project manager for the transfer paperwork.
 
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