Does he know what he is doing? I am not so sure.

The team is top heavy simple as. No point having the red arrows up top when your defence is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

When they invest in 2x solid centre half's they will be much stronger. As long as they keep putting faith in Chris Smalling ans Phil Jones then they wont challenge us. They look like they are doing ok in 4th but in reality they are only there because liverpool/spurs/arsenal have been so poor.

The 3 at the back is clearly not working but his insistence to play it is quite comical

The 3 at the back is clearly not working but his insistence to play it is quite comical

Probably because he doesn't have any quality back there so he thinks his front 7 are so powerful that the back 3 wont matter. Kind of a 'You score 4 we will score 5' approach. Its not really working though.

He can't take criticism well at all either. He was reminded that he has the same points as Moyes did and he said "you've been waiting to tell me this". When you spend 150M you are open to criticism and I think he's been getting an easy ride with the press.

Course he gets an easy ride haha, its the United boss! I thought Moyes got an easy ride by the media last season too but seeing as LVG has spent a fortune, he certainly gets it far easier. Interesting to see what he does in January, no doubt they need a couple of defenders if they want to ensure top 4 this season.

Chelsea

 

2003/04 - £153 million

2004/05 - £60 million

 

£213 million

 

Man United

 

2013/14 - £68 million

2014/15 - £146 million

 

£214 million

 

Now I recall us being told that we bought the league in 2005. That if you gave any manager that money then they'd win the league and that Jose was nothing special. Can we put both of those the bed now?

Edited January 12, 201511 yr by Blue Daze

Bets on United being the biggest spenders in the Premier League (maybe Europe) come the end of the January transfer window? 

 

van Gaal is going to bully the United board in spending big on at least one centre back by saying that unless they want to finish outside of the Champions League places they need to spend. 

 

They could be looking at a £200m investment on their squad in total this season and not being anywhere near the being a part of the title race. 

 

Hilarious. 

Man U were spending 30mil on centerbacks before Roman even bought the club

How do you spend that much money in two years and still need a spine of a team? I find Smalling to be an offensively poor defender yet he's arguably their main guy. You could argue that they still need a proper midfielder and their strikers are 28 (29 in February), 29 and 31. It's a mess of a squad.

They're massively unbalanced thats the problem but you have to blame both Van Gaal and the club for that. They were too focused on getting players for big money some were required wheres as some felt like novelty buys. Falcao is costing them something ridiculous and thats just a loan. Why didn't he/they use that money for a CB? Heck even a cheap option like Vlaar would have made sense.

their strikers are 28 (29 in February), 29 and 31. It's a mess of a squad.

 

Yet they sold Welbeck (24) to a direct rival for the European places as the manager doesn't think he is good enough and his replacement Falcao has fitness problems and has a strike rate for United similar to that of Welbeck who played a lot of his games out on the wing. 

 

I really don't understand the 3 centre backs and wing back system when they just don't have the players to play that system... The fact that Ashley Young has played games as a left wing back this season despite £150m investment is just laughable. 

 

They don't have one top quality centre back and yet play a system that requires them to play more centre backs than a traditional back four. 

Yet they sold Welbeck (24) to a direct rival for the European places as the manager doesn't think he is good enough and his replacement Falcao has fitness problems and has a strike rate for United similar to that of Welbeck who played a lot of his games out on the wing. 

 

I really don't understand the 3 centre backs and wing back system when they just don't have the players to play that system... The fact that Ashley Young has played games as a left wing back this season despite £150m investment is just laughable. 

 

They don't have one top quality centre back and yet play a system that requires them to play more centre backs than a traditional back four. 

 

Welbeck is sh*t though.

 

The Falcao one was a panic one, just like Fellaini and Mata were. Get a big name in and placate the fans move all day long.

 

Truth is that Fergie left the cupboard bare with regards defenders and midfielders. He never adequately replaced Vidic, Ferdinand, Scholes or Fletcher. You could even throw Neville and Giggs in there. They spent £37 million on a number 10 who isn't as good as Rooney in that position and £28 million on a midfielder they could've got for about £5 million cheaper if they bought him sooner. Ridiculous transfer policy.

Welbeck is sh*t though.

 

The Falcao one was a panic one, just like Fellaini and Mata were. Get a big name in and placate the fans move all day long.

 

Truth is that Fergie left the cupboard bare with regards defenders and midfielders. He never adequately replaced Vidic, Ferdinand, Scholes or Fletcher. You could even throw Neville and Giggs in there. They spent £37 million on a number 10 who isn't as good as Rooney in that position and £28 million on a midfielder they could've got for about £5 million cheaper if they bought him sooner. Ridiculous transfer policy.

 

I agree Welbeck isn't great but considering Falcao's loan is going to cost them somewhere in the region of £20m in loan fee and wages you have to wonder if for a 3rd choice striker it was worth the money and effort especially as they bought in di Maria as well, so it's not like they were short on attacking options. 

 

They completely neglected their defense and to replace the experience of Evra and Vidic with an 18 year old full back (breaking the record fee paid for a teenager) with no European or international experience was just bizarre. 

I honestly can't see why he is was ever rated highly, I don't think he understands the league properly, playing 3 at the back with such poor defenders shows that. His World Cup highlight was changing a keeper for a penalty shootout, would say he got lucky not that one rather than it being a genius move. I think some have mentioned that he wasn't hyped until he was linked with the united job. Hes managed to somehow escape criticism for how they have performed by picking up some undeserved results and with the investment they've had it should be a big deal. He should be thanking arsenal Tottenham Everton and Liverpool for their indifferent first halves of the season because their position is a result of other teams failings rather than their success.

Any manager that says it takes 3 months and completely gets it wrong seems like and idiot to me.

I honestly can't see why he is was ever rated highly, I don't think he understands the league properly, playing 3 at the back with such poor defenders shows that. His World Cup highlight was changing a keeper for a penalty shootout, would say he got lucky not that one rather than it being a genius move. I think some have mentioned that he wasn't hyped until he was linked with the united job. Hes managed to somehow escape criticism for how they have performed by picking up some undeserved results and with the investment they've had it should be a big deal. He should be thanking arsenal Tottenham Everton and Liverpool for their indifferent first halves of the season because their position is a result of other teams failings rather than their success.

Any manager that says it takes 3 months and completely gets it wrong seems like and idiot to me.

 

Van Gaal has always been very good at hyping himself by continuously putting himself in the limelight. And it works, he always gets the high profile jobs.

They've been average all season, the luck they have had has been incredible, especially during December.

 

In my time of watching football to this day I have never known a team to have so many sitters missed against them as United have.

 

I still expect them to finish top 4, wouldn't surprise me if they got 3rd, I seriously hope they don't though, would love to see them spend that much and finish outside of it.

Though against Southhampton, Mata missed a slew of chances, so it does go both ways.

It's not like their singings are doing well either. Blind looks average, Falcao is apparently always unfit, Shaw the same, Herrera is average and Di Maria is in and out of games.

van Gaal has a face like a block of Spam. 

 

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11339835/Seven-ways-Manchester-United-have-got-worse-under-Louis-van-Gaal.html

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11339835/Seven-ways-Manchester-United-have-got-worse-under-Louis-van-Gaal.html

 

The media are so annoying. It's only a couple weeks ago they were saying Van Gaal is great and that United are back in the title race. Now they coming up with reason's why Van Gaal is worse than David Moyes

Just spotted his mum on the bus

He has to deal with a lot of mediocre players. He actually needs two decent CBs, probably one LB as well because Shaw is not that good yet and probably one RB because Rafael is injured 50% of time. Considering that his defensive line is Top 8 material at best, he has done well. In this season he will be quite happy with a Top4 finish and the FA Cup.

 

If they reach Top4 this year he'll make them serious contenders for next season. Best thing would be if they actually missed out on CL football for one more year. I haven't given up that hope yet because Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool could have a better second half of the season ahead of them. All three of them have underperformed in a certain way and yet they've remained within the reach for the Top 4. Or if Southampton do manage to qualify for the CL, then I am fairly confident that Arsenal will grab the last Top4-spot.

Edited January 27, 201511 yr by Uxanga

He has now handed out a pamplet to dispute the long ball claims by Big Sam.

How embarrassing!

Its like the time FSW pulled out his 'facts' sheets