2014 Pre Season Tour

Zaha playing well as a stiker

Zaha did well.

Fletcher was great.

Nani sub was kinda harsh, makes him leaving a certainty.

Blackett did well too maybe we don't need Vermaelen after all

We were able to create more chances in the second half.

We're also struggling to create anything from out wide.

I like what I saw.

Our pressing was good. Our posession play was good. Movement off the ball, the triangles we make, always having players available for the pass, less reliant on wing play- It is such a breath of fresh air to what we witnessed last season. Such vast improvements.

We were up against a solid defensive team, yet we still carved up a few chances through the middle in the 2nd half. this is the kind of football I've craved to see at United. 1st half was far too condensed in the middle, both teams played the same formation, but we still kept probing.

Every player, whether experienced or not, is bursting with confidence right now and that is a testament to LVG's system.

For me, this was our best performance so far. Couple of stand out performances from:

Fletcher- Marshalled the middle well.
Zaha- Looked lively when he came on. Has a wicked burst of pace. looked a threat.
Our defence- Looked assurred. Seems as though they are growing into the roles. I like the highline and the offside traps were executed well. Granted Inter hardly threatened it.
Shaw and Blackett- Both had their best games yesterday.

Special mention to Young, who is having a fine pre season. I know it's only pre season, but credit where it's due.

Nani getting subbed after coming on as a 2nd half sub means his Utd career is as good as done.

Them penalties though

Starting 11 v Real Madrid

De Gea; M Keane, Jones, Evans; Valencia, Herrera, Fletcher, Young; Mata; Rooney, Welbeck.

Pleased with that half.

Young has had a very good half, so has Mata.

Keane showed his inexperience by conceding that foul on Bale.

We're assertive in our play, I'm loving the movement off the ball.

Good game. That attendance is something serious too. Looks like a World Cup final whenever the camera pans to a bird eye view.

shinjiiiiiiiiiiii !! what an impact since coming on.

Good win. All round good performance. We have to carry this onto the season now.

Very pleased with what I've seen in this pre season so far.

Compared to the horror show of last year when we got beat by Singha All Stars. Ugh

Will break my heart once Shinji leaves

Young played well, but I want to see this kept up for a long period of time, he did this before under Fergie.

We lost control when Herrera came off for Cleverley, if Young can perform better under LvG I don't understand what's wrong with Cleverley

Oh, and thanks Ronnie for coming on

yea man. Hopefully its Lolerpool in the final.

i watched only the 2nd half and oh boy it was good. Shaw beasting. The best player from what i saw. He is tooo good. 18 years of age. what a gem we have got.

lingard and kagawa espeicially kagawa putting up a show out there. Herrera-esque
Bring in lingard into the first team. He is twice the player valencia is right now. he should be the back up to rafa on the right (provided its not some rb like varela of course)

Zaha has been disappointing/unlucky. Time running out for the lad.

It's eye opening what a gameplan and some belief could do for footballers. We may lack depth, but not every player of ours is shet.

We've been playing some lovely stuff, the important thing now is to take this on and continue it next season.

Busby Babe wrote:Will break my heart once Shinji leaves

he wont leave man. He is really turning it on here. That confidence it seems is back. Saw that long bullet ball to Zaha through right from the midfield? He couldnt have done something like that if it was moyes who was managing us, like ever. LvG is working wonders with the lad.
He is gonna be the huge this season if all goes as planned.   

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:
Zaha has been disappointing/unlucky. Time running out for the lad.

Pretty hard for him to beat Welbz, Januzaj assuming Chico leaves and that's just for a back-up spot, he still won't be starting with RvP and Rooney there.

He played well vs Inter, I think he should leave imo, trying not to hate on him here just think that it will be very hard for him.

Fergie shouldn't have bought him knowing he was going to retire, very unfair to Zaha.

The Moyes outcasts are putting in good performances.

Kagawa, Chicha, Zaha. They all have a desire to do well.

LVG letting it be known that everyone will have a fair chance is doing wonders for their confidence.

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:

Busby Babe wrote:Will break my heart once Shinji leaves

he wont leave man. He is really turning it on here. That confidence it seems is back. Saw that long bullet ball to Zaha through right from the midfield? He couldnt have done something like that if it was moyes who was managing us, like ever. LvG is working wonders with the lad.
He is gonna be the huge this season if all goes as planned.   

I hope you're right, just wanna see him play with wazza, they've got great chemistry. They showed it in the CL group stage. Also has great chemistry with Mata. Kagawa is the type of player that can make others look good as well as himself.

RED wrote:The Moyes outcasts are putting in good performances.

Kagawa, Chicha, Zaha. They all have a desire to do well.

LVG letting it be known that everyone will have a fair chance is doing wonders for their confidence.

I said in another thread everyone will improve by at least 30% under LvG, deadwood would look like good squad players. When I said that, I was thinking of the likes of Fletcher, but the magic is working on others like Young.

End of last season, we needed to get rid of 7-8 players. How many would we actually need to get rid of now? Not as many imo. A CB and CM we could do really well this season, obviously would like a RWB, winger and another CB for depth but we could get away with that type of stuff under van Gaal. For example, Young could be the RWB/winger we need and Blackett will step as the extra CB. Those names are just examples, it might not be them, but under LvG everyone is performing at a much higher level.

Individual highlights already up, that 7am dedication from the Japan fans.

Kagawa had a fine game.

He looked in his element. If he can deliver that level for this season, we are in for a treat. I hope he stays with us, I really do.

Is Rafael set to be a starter?

Is this for fantasy league RG? Not sure, he got injured during the tour, so we don't know how LvG plans to use him

Yea. Thanks. Might not take a gamble just yet but with LVG's 5-3-2/3-5-2 Rafael would look excellent in it imo

Rafael is Brazilian though, and we all know LvG's well documented problems with Brazilians, which have long spilled over from coincidence into a pattern

I think Rafael will not make it under vG.

Van Gaal has also fell out with van Bommel and Cruijff in the media, doesn't mean he won't get on with any other Dutch people he will ever meet. Same with Brazilians, Rafael will get his chances if he can keep off the injury table.

RealGunner wrote:Yea. Thanks. Might not take a gamble just yet but with LVG's 5-3-2/3-5-2 Rafael would look excellent in it imo

Yeah, I think so too.

Sloppy half. Started off slowly, but growing into the game, having better posession. Not much chances being created, which is frustrating.

Pool are pressing us well in our half and we are at times struggling to cope with it. They're also closing our channels well, so threading a ball through the middle is a struggle.

Stupid pen to give away by that bone head Jones. Given us hill to climb in this climate. Pool can just conserve heaps amount of energy since the onus is on us to attack.

Our first 'competitive' game against a team that wants to win, and I've seen the problems that could be highlighted.

A work in progress, and nothing can be taken from this friendly, but to head into the season with this squad is asking for trouble. I don't care how good a manager LVG is.

Fletcher is badly struggling today too, I must add.

Good win. Any win against Liverpool is a good win.

Picked it up in the 2nd half.

Shaw, Young and Blackett had very good performances.

Good goals by Rooney, Mata and Lingaard. Great assist by Chicha for the first.

Pleasing win. I still stand by what I said, that this squad is still not quite ready. Hopefully LVG saw that 1st half and thought 'I need to bring in more needed players'.

Fletcher's performances have been inconsistent. I really hope Van Gaal will sign Vidal or someone as good as him.

I didn't watch the match yesterday, so I can't really comment, but since the tour is over:

Pros:

- Some of the young players did well, especially, Blackett and Reece James.

- We've only conceded 4 goals, 3 were penalties (the one that hit Keane's hand shouldn't have been given), and a wonder goal by Pjanic but De Gea would have saved that.

- Ashley Young has given us some good options but he must be consistent during the league, tour means nothing otherwise.

- Our style of play has dramatically changed, we've been dieing for good football since '09 and we've finally got it. We've only been playing this system for 2 weeks, van Gaal said it will take 3 months to full implement his style so the Liverpool test came too early, we were not ready it seems.  Defenders misplacing passes when getting pressed is not unusual, a lot of midfielders struggle with this too, we will improve in that aspect I think, but I also didn't watch the match so I don't know how bad it was. Not a lot of teams press in our league anyway.

-We are playing with so much hunger, playing pre-season games with the same intensity we played Bayern in the CL. There is great competition within this squad.


Cons:

- Herrera needs a good midfield partner if we really want to see him shine, he seems shackled having to do someone else's dirty work. I read Fletcher played poorly, he should be used every once in while, he had a good tour but needs to be used rightly. Van Gaal made a mistake playing him vs Liverpool because of his fitness.

- An experienced CB is missing, we need a leader at the back. 5 at the back, a new CB, a ball winning midfielder and Luke Shaw will improve us a lot defensively from last season.  

-  I also read Evans distribution was poor yesterday, he is usually good on the ball, so maybe he was just tired. Phil Jones gave away a stupid penalty, unlike Evans' distribution this is becoming usual of him. Rafael was like this until 12-13, but returned to this in 13-14, so maybe consistent game time is what will help erase it out of his game. The upcoming season for Phil Jones will be big. He had a good tour, imo, from the games I watched.


Anyway, pre-season can only tell you so much, it's about fitness and avoiding injuries, the real tests will come when we start the league. We still haven't done anything of note and still have everything to prove.