Jump to content
NEurope
Phube

Football Season 2015/16

Recommended Posts

Although i'm expecting the original United get battered i'm looking forward to the away day at Old Trafford tomorrow :D

 

I'm so sorry @Blade that you've been subjected to our shite football. :D

 

We're playing a system with two holding players at home in a cup game and we've yet to have any shots on target. At least, none that I can remember. We are so fucking boring to watch. If you can't play the ball through, what's wrong with taking a shot from outside of the box? At least attempt to test the keeper.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm so sorry @Blade that you've been subjected to our shite football. :D

 

We're playing a system with two holding players at home in a cup game and we've yet to have any shots on target. At least, none that I can remember. We are so fucking boring to watch. If you can't play the ball through, what's wrong with taking a shot from outside of the box? At least attempt to test the keeper.

 

We defended with our lives. I thought (on the basis we are two divisions below you) we played extremely well.

 

Unlucky that we conceded in injury time by a penalty but thats football. Im proud of the Blades performance there.

 

Man Utd aren't anything special that I saw tonight. They were disappointing. They look bored. The manager needs to go I don't think he has the dressing room. Yeah Man Utd were just shit :D

 

Also did anyone see Van Gaal's post match interview. Talk about being bitter! Anyone would think his team had scraped through against a L1 side.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Blade you should be proud mate. Your boys put in one hell of a shift. Didn't deserve to lose that. I only saw the second half by the time I got home from our match. United should be ashamed of themselves. They've not scored a single first half goal in 10 games!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
We defended with our lives. I thought (on the basis we are two divisions below you) we played extremely well.

 

Unlucky that we conceded in injury time by a penalty but thats football. Im proud of the Blades performance there.

 

Man Utd aren't anything special that I saw tonight. They were disappointing. They look bored. The manager needs to go I don't think he has the dressing room. Yeah Man Utd were just shit :D

 

Also did anyone see Van Gaal's post match interview. Talk about being bitter! Anyone would think his team had scraped through against a L1 side.

 

I agree with all of this. Part of me was annoyed that we did get the penalty because it was an easy way out for us. Van Gaal got his victory and Rooney got his goal when really the match should have ended 0-0.

 

I don't really understand why Van Gaal is getting us to play in this style of football and why he isn't just doing all he can to win games. He's only here for the short term and he's trying to be a bit too clever by playing "technical" or "robotic" football which isn't working. It isn't working. We're so fucking boring and we can't attack to save our lives. The next manager who comes in will play his own style of football anyway, so getting us to play one way and the next person coming in and changing it all back is just....ahhhh.

 

It isn't even about the winning or losing. It's about the performance and we are not performing. The 7-14 year olds I had in my football club yesterday had much more attacking energy than we did today! It's pathetic. It's disgraceful we've gone so many games without scoring a single first half goal. That's RELEGATION form.

 

Sheffield United should have got a replay and I wouldn't have begrudged them that one bit. Not one bit. Wouldn't even have begrudged them a victory had they won it. We've deserved to either draw or lose every single one of our games this season and we're looked thoroughly awful. All teams go through rough patches, but we haven't had a rough patch, we've been awful for the entire season. All of it. The only player who I think has looked any good for us this year is Chris Smalling.

 

I said a few months back that Van Gaal would lose the fans if this continued and that point has come. Very few people actually support what he's doing now. This isn't a rough patch that we're suddenly going to come out of and start scoring for fun. This is it. This is how Van Gaal wants us to play. And it's shite. All of it.

 

Going back to that Leicester City game last season where we lost 5-3. I would take that performance over this shite today. Sure, we lost, but at least we tried to attack and look entertaining! That's what football is for. It's a sport. It's entertainment!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I definitely agree with you @Fierce_LiNk. I was certainly entertained today, I think by part due to the disbelief I had that we didn't embarass ourselves. Your team, unfortunately is in a mess.

 

I'm extremely proud of Sheffield United. Performance of the season by far from us. Top support aswell. We sold our allocation and would have brought more if we could.

 

It's a pity we don't play like that in the League. It's always the same, we play great against the big teams. Last year we reached the semi final of the League Cup and the year before the semi-final of the FA Cup. But L1 football (as one here seen it, apart from me) is just completely different. There is no skill, you just have to kick your way out of it. I think we are championship standard to be honest but we can't play L1 football.

 

Dem Blades, eh :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Who knows LVG from before, knows that his teams play attacking football and usually the defense is the problem.

 

But United's problem is not the system as a system, but missing wingers and fullbacks to give width to the team, which would give sense to the possesion (you could see that against Swansea, where we had only one winger who played good, and now imagine 3-4, and we also played quite well against Chelsea).

 

Now, when it comes to fullbacks, we are unlucky beacuse of Shaw and Darmian needs time, even if LVG messed it up with Rafael who would give great attacking options (when healthy, of course), but the wingers are on LVG as he knew Depay needs at least a year (he himself said it), do he should have at least kept Nani, or he should have bought another winger.

 

I think the best formation for us is diamond (if we want to play more atractive), while when the squad is healthy this system is good enough to win most games, but it will be boring till we get another winger, or Depay and Darmian step up and Shaw comes back and this actually would be the same.even if we change the manager.

 

PS How did we played with two holding midfielders today? Fellaini tried to attack as much as possible, while Herrera is our most attacking CM anyway.

Edited by Kounan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I definitely agree with you @Fierce_LiNk. I was certainly entertained today, I think by part due to the disbelief I had that we didn't embarass ourselves. Your team, unfortunately is in a mess.

 

I'm extremely proud of Sheffield United. Performance of the season by far from us. Top support aswell. We sold our allocation and would have brought more if we could.

 

It's a pity we don't play like that in the League. It's always the same, we play great against the big teams. Last year we reached the semi final of the League Cup and the year before the semi-final of the FA Cup. But L1 football (as one here seen it, apart from me) is just completely different. There is no skill, you just have to kick your way out of it. I think we are championship standard to be honest but we can't play L1 football.

 

Dem Blades, eh :D

 

You were unlucky. If this were to go to a replay, I wouldn't fancy our chances at all. We struggled to create anything and defensively you were tight. You do raise a point though about teams performing well in the big matches and then not so well in the "ordinary" league games. To earn promotion or to win a league, you have to be consistent in every single game. It's what Bournemouth did last year, they played exciting football but went into each match as if it were a big cup game. If Sheffield United were to do something like that, then there's no reason to say that they couldn't be a good Championship club.

 

Us, on the other hand, are fucked as long as LVG is here. :heh:

 

Who knows LVG from before, knows that his teams play attacking football and usually the defense is the problem.

 

But United's problem is not the system as a system, but missing wingers and fullbacks to give width to the team, which would give sense to the possesion (you could see that against Swansea, where we had only one winger who played good, and now imagine 3-4, and we also played quite well against Chelsea).

 

Now, when it comes to fullbacks, we are unlucky beacuse of Shaw and Darmian needs time, even if LVG messed it up with Rafael who would give great attacking options (when healthy, of course), but the wingers are on LVG as he knew Depay needs at least a year (he himself said it), do he should have at least kept Nani, or he should have bought another winger.

 

I think the best formation for us is diamond (if we want to play more atractive), while when the squad is healthy this system is good enough to win most games, but it will be boring till we get another winger, or Depay and Darmian step up and Shaw comes back and this actually would be the same.even if we change the manager.

 

PS How did we played with two holding midfielders today? Fellaini tried to attack as much as possible, while Herrera is our most attacking CM anyway.

 

Fellaini played deep to start with and was, tactically, all over the fucking place. He played defensive midfield to start off, then wide right, then number 10, all without doing an awful lot really. Herrera had one of his worst United games today in my opinion. We had no width, we had no threat from the middle and we struggled to create chances. All of our attacking players played in the wrong positions. All of them.

 

LVG is a big part of the problem and we are now going backwards. We've regressed since last season and are continuing to regress. Last season's football was inconsistent, but at least we were trying to win games. Van Gaal has had time to adopt a system and a style of play and this is what we are seeing now. He's had last summer, last January and the summer before to bring players in and mould the team to how he'd like it. He has another transfer window now. We are playing shocking football. There's no excuse for players not even attempting to take a shot from outside the box or for being so slow in the build up play.

 

This is how it is now. It's not down to injuries. In all honesty, the only player we're missing through injury is Luke Shaw. One player. A left back. We have cover there through Daley Blind. That shouldn't destroy a team's ability to attack. If we have attacking deficiencies, then Van Gaal is to blame. He brings in the players, he lets players go and above all he motivates (or is supposed to) the players. He gets them to play how he wants them to play. If they're not playing how he wants them to play, then he has to drop players. But he isn't doing that. The only real way we're going to get out of this hole is when Van Gaal goes. No single player is going to dig us out. There isn't a star player to come back from injury. Van Gaal's job was to get United back in the top four and playing competitive football. He is not doing that.

 

As far as the quality of football goes, this is the absolute worst I've ever seen us play in my lifetime. We've been useless since the very first game of the season up until now. In every single game. All of them.

Edited by Fierce_LiNk

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We don't have many injuries, but the fact this season is that when mostly healthy, we are winning most our games. It is ugly, but we are winning, as we are hard to break down and we do somehow score.

 

The bad run in results we had was after our midfield was depleted and also defense in some games (Darmian, Shaw, Valencia, Young, Jones and Rojo all injured at the same time).

 

The reason we have played tonight withouth width was because we didn't have anyone on the pitch who can play it. Lingard came on later (he was i injured before) and so did Depay (who is not in form) and that's it. Mata and Depay and later even Lingard had all the freedom they could ask for, but Depay just didn't produce, Mata's form dipped and Lingard isn't a right winger (and wasn't really lucky), so even after he played well his end product was lucking (I am now talking about our whole season and one of the big reasons, that is not conected with the system, for us playing bad in attack).

 

The third one is Young who needed a rest and that's it. My point is that it doesn't matter if LVG goes or not, we will have this problem until Depay makes the step and Shaw is back (there is also Darmian, plus Lingard and Januzaj) and we will probably still need to buy a winger.

 

I agree that it's LVG's fault when it comes to having choices as he didn't sell well, as he has sold in some positions where we were left with only young players who need their time, but when it comes to quality, I don't know what to say as we have tried to bring Bale (whom I don't really like), Neymar, Muller, Benzema, Cavani, maybe Anderson, Moura, but the clubs were not selling, while Falcao flopped, RVP's form rapidly decreased, di Maria wasn't happy in Manchester..... We should have kept Welbeck and Hernandez (but Hernandez made his mistake last season), just to many problems at once, with no realy good players on market. But with less selling, we could have a bigger squad and also a better one (I don't want to discuss Rooney here, that's a tipic for itself).

 

I agree about Fellaini and Herrera, but I am just saying that our midfield set up was attacking orientated. Their display is another story.

 

And yeah, I don't get it with the shots from distance. People are saying that LVG doesn't allow it, but Depay came in and took the shot in his first minutes, then again after that, so if he can, why can't other players? Bastian tried it once...... Maybe they are just not good at it, I haven't seen enough of Herrera before United, Mata didn't do it under Moyes, Morgan isn't good at it, Carrick stopped that long ago, Bastian tried it a few times..... Who is left? Oh yeah, Lingard takes quite a few shots actually.

 

I hope that we will bring a winger and maybe a CB now, ir we really have to hope that Depay has to improve and that Young can continue where he stopped against Swansea.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

United fans are spoilt after all those years with whiskey nose there. 6 points from City is hardly a crisis. :p

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
United fans are spoilt after all those years with whiskey nose there. 6 points from City is hardly a crisis. :p

 

Agreed. Just 3 points off a Champions League spot yet listening to their fans you'd think they were battling for relegation! I don't think they're playing well at the moment, but they are sneaking enough results in that they are still in serious contention. A few wins coupled with a loss or two for Arsenal, Leicester, etc and suddenly they are battling for the title!

 

By the way, fantastic showing by Sheffield Utd, Eastleigh, Wycombe and a whole host of lower league clubs in the FA Cup so far! As an Exeter fan I was ecstatic that we've gained a replay against Liverpool as the money could completely change the club! I don't care what kind of Liverpool team was put out or why star players such as Llana were kept on the bench. It was a good game of football and now I have to see if I can get a ticket for Anfield!

 

"So Jürgen, have you ever done a pre-match interview in a tea room before?" :hehe: Haha, priceless! Welcome to Exeter Herr Klopp!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
United fans are spoilt after all those years with whiskey nose there. 6 points from City is hardly a crisis. :p

 

 

Agreed. Just 3 points off a Champions League spot yet listening to their fans you'd think they were battling for relegation! I don't think they're playing well at the moment, but they are sneaking enough results in that they are still in serious contention. A few wins coupled with a loss or two for Arsenal, Leicester, etc and suddenly they are battling for the title!

 

6 points behind City, who are 3 points behind Arsenal. So, we're 9 points behind the leaders. I'm asumming you chose City because they're local rivals.

 

4 wins from 13 league games is relegation form. This isn't even counting the games where we went out of the Champions League or League Cup. 19 games, 6 wins, counting on from yesterday.

 

@Blade gets it as he's seen us play and you'll only get it if you've seen us play more than once this season. This isn't bad form, this is how we play football now. Not playing well at the moment is the weakest way of putting it, they haven't played well since the opening day of the season where we got past Spurs through a calamity of an own goal. Yesterday was actually one of our better performances...we've performed worse than that this season, which is shocking for ANY Premier League club. When you see newly promoted teams playing better than established Premier League clubs, then questions have to be asked.

 

In contrast, Swansea sacked Garry Monk after a run of 3 wins from 15 games. That record isn't too dissimilar from Van Gaal at United.

 

By the way, fantastic showing by Sheffield Utd, Eastleigh, Wycombe and a whole host of lower league clubs in the FA Cup so far! As an Exeter fan I was ecstatic that we've gained a replay against Liverpool as the money could completely change the club! I don't care what kind of Liverpool team was put out or why star players such as Llana were kept on the bench. It was a good game of football and now I have to see if I can get a ticket for Anfield!

 

"So Jürgen, have you ever done a pre-match interview in a tea room before?" :hehe: Haha, priceless! Welcome to Exeter Herr Klopp!

 

Think the second game will be great and it'll be interesting to see what kind of team Klopp puts out. I'm glad he gave his youngsters a chance and it'll have been a great experience for them to play against another competitive team in my favourite competition.

 

Liverpool should have enough to pull through, but you never know. Depends if they supply enough service to Benteke.

Edited by Fierce_LiNk

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Disgraceful decision from the same ref who yellow carded our player last year for being fouled in the box (Spurs away in the cup again!)! :mad:

 

Three part Spurs Jan, One down Two to go!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Disgraceful decision from the same ref who yellow carded our player last year for being fouled in the box (Spurs away in the cup again!)! :mad:

 

Three part Spurs Jan, One down Two to go!

 

I wasn't convinced it was a penalty and I still don't think it is. Dyer turns around (as the ball has already passed him) and he's swiveling on the spot to face the ball. As he's doing so, his arms swing and make contact with the ball. It's handball. He isn't deliberately knocking the ball away. If you watch every footballer (defenders in particular) turn on the spot, they do similar things where their arms will naturally follow through.

 

Think it was harsh to give it. The only reason I think the ref gave it was because the ball had been knocked out of the player's path. Had the player kept in control of the ball, I'm not entirely sure he would have given it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think refs are way too harsh on most handballs. I think unless a player obviously bats a ball away or does a Suarez in goal, they should be given the benfit of the doubt. It's not going to change the game that much, but it will stop these scenarios where players waft their hand near the ball and everyone is analysing replay frames to see if he meant it or not.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think refs are way too harsh on most handballs. I think unless a player obviously bats a ball away or does a Suarez in goal, they should be given the benfit of the doubt. It's not going to change the game that much, but it will stop these scenarios where players waft their hand near the ball and everyone is analysing replay frames to see if he meant it or not.

 

Yeah, the rule is there to stop players picking the ball and running off with it. It doesn't really make sense why the hand should be treated differently to any other part of the body when the ball strikes it, say, if a player is taking a shot on the edge of the box and it hits a player's hand.

 

I reckon that the only reason handballs are given so often is because the referees and associations don't know how to actually police it. How can you tell in a split-second (usually from poor angles and with bodies of players in front of you) if a player has motioned (even if slightly) towards the ball with intent with his hands or arms? The truth is that you can't. Hence why so many are given. It seems to be now that unless the arm is straight alongside the body, it's usually given as a free-kick or penalty. Another reason for video technology because we'd be able to see clearly how the hand has moved towards the ball. It would lead to the rule getting more complicated, but maybe more fair, too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think refs are way too harsh on most handballs. I think unless a player obviously bats a ball away or does a Suarez in goal, they should be given the benfit of the doubt. It's not going to change the game that much, but it will stop these scenarios where players waft their hand near the ball and everyone is analysing replay frames to see if he meant it or not.

 

I remember a handball was given in our match against Man Utd. I was shocked as it's not actually very often I get to see a handball given.

 

In the lower leagues the players are often given the benefit of the doubt.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought Newcastle played excellently scored some great goals.

 

This was an entertaining match. Much better than the shite game the other day. Buuuuut...we defended like retards. We conceded 3 goals against Newcastle and threw the game after being 2-0 and 3-2 up. We had chances to kill the game off and didn't.

 

Van Gaal's sub of taking Lingard off for Depay was shiiiiiiiiiiite. Depay offered nothing defensively and left Darmian too exposed. Thought Smalling was poor today but I'm shocked that Fellaini didn't get subbed off. Can't believe we took off Herrera, who was our best player tonight instead of him.

 

Frustrating. But, it carries on. We deserve to lose or draw most of our games.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am going to kill myself and it could have been a great day (watched Star Wars and got Zelda Wind Waker). LVG made mistakes, but this one was all on players, we should have killed that game off plus Darmina at the third goal and Fellaini at the first goal was a joke....). Smalling was bad and unlucky, but fine, he is allowed to have a bad game.

 

Plus what Fellaini did at the and with the chance..... I don't know what to say about Lingard. I really like him, we play better with him, but he could have had 7-8 goals by now and should have had at least 5 (4 times he hit the post and the bar, 2 great chances against Watford, today, PSV, plus he scored 2 goals.....).

 

Depay, he at least did what he can do know, created 2 chances (OK, the first one was a shot, but 4 players were out of the game because of him), which would have won us the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank the lords of football. Still, too soon to hope for a complete turnaround.

 

Also, Jonjo Shelvey? We have discipline problems and we sign Mr Bad Attitude? THAT'S ONLY GOING TO HELP!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We finally won a game of league football last night, 157 days after our last victory. The greatest ever relegation fightback is on the cards! Only 9 more wins and we're safe, probably need to sign a goalscorer first but that surely won't be a problem now that we're finally into double figures.

 

Up the Villa!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fucking hell. That was a roller coaster. Gutted to draw but it was probably fair. Need to beat Stoke on Sunday.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Haven't seen a game that good in a while, Mignolet set to sign a new contract.... awful from him as per. Some great goals scored, Giroud turn was a beauty and Firmino goal was a peach.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My gut instinct was telling me to watch the Liverpool/Arsenal game and I'm glad that I did! The first half in particular was just insane. Great game, stunning goals, excellent attacking play.

 

Crazy two days of football with some of the results. League table is a bit of a mess!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×