So tired of this De Gea situation. United should've set a damn deadline for Real and told them either pay up by this point or forget about it.
Villa looked pretty poor at the weekend. Having said that Gestede looked dangerous in the air when he came on and scored, so just as well we will likely have short-arse Blind at CB ...
no problem. we should definitely win this. hopefully we are not focusing too much on the Brugge thing..........
Unfortunately with both Jones and Rojo unavailable, Van Gaal's options are drastically reduced. If Smalling can have another big game, hopefully it should go a long way in helping Blind as well.
What we need to see from Van Gaal this season is production. We went through the "possession without penetration" routine last season. I won't tolerate another season of dry-humping the opposition.
Not being disrespectfull as any oppo in the prem are to be respected, however I dont think we need two holding mids in a 4-2-3-1 against Villa away - I hope we go 4-3-3. If we get into a winning position, then fine see the game out with possession and two holding mids. Just don't want to see us start that way.
I could see that if Blind wasn't playing CB, in this case I would go with 2 holding mids to protect Blind and the rest of the defense.
If we go with 4-3-3 we can play Herrera which helps us offensively and Carrick can play in his more familiar central deep pivot role which probably gives better cover than when he plays as a square pair IMO. Then pick one of the Schmids to play alongside Herrera.
Villa in the league 3 days before an important CL match would normally be an obvious time to rotate a bit, but with so few reps for most of the first-team group in preseason I'm guessing LVG will play mostly the same lineup we saw against Spurs as more time to gel seems more critical than rest at this stage.
Schweini seems to be still working his way into form. Schneiderlin should clearly start this one. Schweini can come in at some point in the second half as he did last week. And the hope is that Schweinsteiger will be good to go on Tuesday for the Brugge tie. No disrespect to Villa but 4-3-3 would be the way to go for this one, with Mata, Depay and Rooney up top.
What is happening with Januzaj? Is he staying or what? I wouldn 't mind seeing him and Memphis as our wing forwards...with Hererra furthest forward of a mid trio...so they have alittle more freedom.
He was asked in the press conference if Januzaj was going to be loaned and he replied that he wouldnt be sold - so make of that what you will
I, for one, really hope he'll get a real opportunity to play out wide this season. As things stand, if no other creative player is brought on board, he really could be an asset, provided that he's close to the 13/14 season player. Van Gaal did mention that he's happy with his performances in training, so the hope is that he will not be loaned out either.
As much as I'd like to see that setup in a few games...I fear LVG would see it as 2 players with too much freedom. That it may be detrimental to the possession and control that he seems to want his teams to have.
Blind might be our downfall, apart from the regular troubles of not creating dont see too many issues. Micah Richards may be too fast for Rooney but is likely to have a brainfart as well.