He has to play to the left side, watching him on the right is awfull. He takes the ball to the byline then has to cut back inside, it`s like watching Valencia trying to play on the left
He is better off playing on the right side and cutting inside. Then occasionally he pops up on the left when counter attacking. In Madrid he played on the right before they bought bale while ronaldo plays on the left. If di Maria plays on the left the only thing he does is cross the ball which is not too good to watch. Asking him to play on the left is like asking Ashley Young to play on the right.
Whatever wing he is put in, doesn't matter. As long as he is not put in a central striker or midfielder He is wasted as much as Rooney is wasted at the back. I am hoping that there is an outcome to this experimenting and that we will hit upon the best formation soon and keep it. We simply cannot have more of these kinds of performances at OT
It's not so much about him being honest, it's about him taking responsibility. If those performances were sporadic then he could express his displeasure, but after 6 months of it, the question is "who's fault is that Louis? And what are you doing about it." If anything, he looks stupid saying it now. It's as if he's clueless as to why it's happening.
The way i see it is this. After 10 games we had 13 points. At that point LvG changed us to a 352 and we went on a long unbeaten run. The performances were less exciting than before (some have been awful) but the points return increased substantially. 34 from the last 45 available. So hes obviously doing something right. I don't buy luck as a reason because thats dismissing De Gea and well, the last time I checked he was our player. Him making world class saves isn't luck at all. We are a defensive side. One that on paper has a very attacking line up. Even though we have reverted to a back 4 our primary aim is to protect the defence. A tactic that has worked rather well regardless of tge formation for a while now. Its very unorthodox because of the amount of attacking players but its been working to good affect. Relative to the league anyway. There is no doubt that van Gaals job is to get us into the CL. Hes seen our frailties and compensated for them in order to achieve that goal. Once done I dont think we will see too many performances like last night. We will see come May.
I could accept all that if we weren't drawing or losing to relegation fodder. Who exactly are we being defensive against? Yesterday Burnley were at Old Trafford and we couldn't get out of our own half. We were chasing shadows at times. EVERY time they attacked they had as many as 6 PLAYERS bombing forward into our box. When we dared to pass forward we never had more than two. For Burnley to feel confident enough to attack in those numbers, for us to be afraid to pass the ball forward at the sight of their midfield is embarrassing mate. No disrespect but it's Burnley ffs! We did not look like we were going to score from open play. 2 set pieces and a penalty got our goals. The performances are bad by his own admission. I could accept it if I could see some tactical planning for each game up to May but there's none of that. Each game is as random and directionless as the last. I am genuinely concerned that if we dont take advantage of this easy run, by the time we come to our tough run of games the likes of Arsnl, Livpl and Spurs will have gone through theirs and be breathing down our necks and have an easier run at the end while we crumble against tougher opposition. If he has half a brain he should be using this period to build a cushion for that. To deflate our rivals psychologically so they don't believe we will falter or that they can catch us. Instead EVERY **** performance we throw up like last night only reinforces our rivals self belief that they can catch us. It's pure kafka !
Nuttin, pointing out that you keep writing tge instead of the. Do you post on your phone or something?
So far, we have been getting the points at home even though our performances have not been that good. I am more worried about away matches. Draws against non CL challengers are simply not good enough as 3 draws are equivalent to 2 defeats. That is why with SAF you can always sense he'll go out all out for a win in such matches when we are drawing even when we could be at risk of losing to a sucker counterattack and lose. LVG ought to view every such draw as 2 points lost. He needs to use Mata more as a 10 behind the striker/s. Against the CL challengers above, we simply cannot afford to lose. A win would be good but I'll take an away draw anytime. We simply have to keep winning the next few matches. The challengers are playing each other and we may be able to produce a gap. Fingers crossed.
