09 Feb 2018 20:04:36
Question for Eds/ Posters, what was the reason why Van Gaal had our team playing so brilliant against the top teams most games? Had a fantastic record vs top 6 in his two seasons here, now we just look toothless against these teams!


1.) 09 Feb 2018
09 Feb 2018 23:30:51
Which games did we play brilliant in Scholes, results were ok but performances were very rarely decent in my mind? I can only remember 3-4 games that I came away thinking 'we played well today' during his entire reign.

In my view Jose has shown far too much respect to the better teams and has been even more negative than LVG for the most part. Sometimes it works, but often it hasn't. LVG played the same way against every team, try and keep possession and side-side being better than forward passing. Jose is happy to concede possession, it's just that better teams punish you more than weaker teams and it's harder to retain the ball playing Jose's 'Hoof ball' against better opposition.

That's why I think we have struggled against the better teams. We do better against the weaker teams now because allowing them the ball means that when we turn it over there is a slight chance they are out of shape, rarely happened with LVG as we never moved forward quickly.

Both ways of playing are negative and boring, but Jose is slightly better at breaking down opponents because we forfeit the ball - football is worse though, rare we string more than a few incisive passes together and we go long far too much. Jose is predictable now too often and good managers can exploit that.


2.) 10 Feb 2018
10 Feb 2018 01:30:36
Brilliant in terms of getting the result vs the top teams (worded wrong in original post), not neccesarily the performances, beat the scousers in every single one of his league games, 4-2 win over city and beat them at the Etihad, convincingly beat Arsenal and Spurs on more than one occassion.