Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Lol you're saying that about van gaal then, difference between us is that he had hundreds of millions to do something about it with in the summer and didn't, nice to see you're giving him the same level of support as you gave moyes though

---------- Post added at 06:50 ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 ----------

Yes after watching the hammers year them to shreds I tend to agree

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Moyes I had (and still have) zero time for.

LVG is only going to be able to buy players who are available and will work in the vision he has for the team. In Di Maria's case be was available and it's pretty clear he wanted a flagship signing, no decent manager in his position would have turned him down.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

No they wouldn't turn him down but decent centre backs and midfielders were available, benatia for example would've been an immense signing

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

In league competitions a strong defence is always more important than a potent attack. Palace finished 11th last season on that basis, with a squad that most would have said should have been relegated. 1 nil (Chelsea at home!) is worth more in points than 3 all (Liverpool, take note!) so the logic is inescapable. £150m in the summer on a team that already contained the likes of Rooney, RvP, etc without adequately resolving the loss of Vidic, Ferdinand (even though they were past their prime) is a ludicrous waste of money.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Just as Torres was for Chelsea? Just because a player is talented doesn't mean he'll be able to work in a team or can adapt to a manager's strategy.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Well he was great at Roma and he's doing great at bayern, a ball playing centre half who can tackle, mark and head who is strong and quick, your right, he'd never fit in with utd's other defenders or adapt to how poor they are.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

So United can only buy who's available and can fit in with LVG's tactics.

Whoever he does get in January or the summer will likely end up replacing most of the backline players he's used so far, I can't only really see Shaw and Rojo getting much in the way of first team games in to next season. Jones and Smalling (if they stay) will likely be used as back-up and for cup games, Rafael might get a look in now and then, McNair and Blackett need more experience.

Once he's then bought a decent midfielder or two the engine will be firing properly. In the relative short space of time he had before the season he could only look at who was available and would fit. Possibly January but certainly in the summer the team will be complete.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Benatia was clearly available as demonstrated by the fact he moved clubs over the summer, perhaps if utd had a manager that wasn't distracted by the world cup there would've been more time to address these glaring deficiencies

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

'Distracted by the World Cup'? You mean the biggest football tournament in the world that he'd already committed to long before United offered him the job? Yeah that sounds practical.

Yes Benatia was available but for the third time...he may not have fitted in with United's style of play, LVG's vision, tactics, maybe his wage demands were too high etc etc. Maybe he wanted CL football, maybe he just didn't want to play in the PL.

Again, Torres - everything about that deal meant he should have done well at Chelsea, same with Shevchenko

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Yes and he is just an example that top quality players were available, actually Torres was really poor in his last Liverpool season and you think given van gaal's experience he would given them a list of targets to go for pre world cup rather than relying on moyes targets, perhaps they were hoping they could just wing it this season and get top four regardless

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

....and for the 4th time just because a player is available doesn't mean he'll work in a particular team....

'Really poor'? Considering he'd managed exactly half the number of league goals that he'd scored the previous season and left in the January transfer window I wouldn't call that 'really poor'. It may not have been his best few months but it was a respectable amount and to go from that to only scoring one goal for Chelsea during that season indicates he just didn't work in the team.

Given the mess Moyes left the club in I think it's pretty obvious any player United were interested in would want more assurances than just sending a club rep while LVG was in Brazil. Woodward made a right pig's ear of transfers up to that point so they only really had the short space of time after the WC.

A man of Van Gaal's experience is not going to be so stupid as to not be 100% involved in transfer targets, or assume he justify his contract on what was already in the team.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

and for the fourth time no one is saying that particular player, just using him as am example of what was available, we all know about the ones that weren't like hummels


The rot had clearly set in and his signing for Chelsea was no more the managers signing than shevchenko was

Moyes was there a season, not many players came or went during his time so he can hardly be blamed for the mess the club was in when he arrived and Herrera and Shaw were moyes choice of transfer target, I don't even blame moyes for getting rid of the backroom staff, most managers would've done exactly the same.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

:banghead:

OK.

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

Don't know why your doing that, it's crystal clear if the manager hadn't been at the world cup these deficiencies would've been rectified, it's nothing to do with Moyes and all to do with running out of time

Re: Football Season 2014/15
 

What a goal from Ronaldo! Brilliant football