[Post Matchday Thread] Manchester United Vs Southampton

Yesterday it was my first official match at Old Trafford, and it that sense it was a dream come true. I got to see De Gea, Herrera, Darmian and Martial, who are my current favourite players (along with Shaw).

If I'm allowed to try and discuss tactics for a minute, I'd like to say that I don't think van Gaal got it specifically wrong in this match. Due to our full-back situation, he decided to play with 3 CBs and 2 wing-backs, which is ugly but reasonable. BJ was protected and it was in fact Darmian who struggled the most defending on the right side, as our makeshift wing-back Lingard had one fucking shocker of a match. Embarrassingly poor. So while BJ did his bit and Blind backed him up, Lingard did shit-all and Darmian had to try and clean his mess, while also having to fulfil his duties as right centre-back. Regardless, defensive we looked really good. Smalling was immense, once more.

Now, I've said this in a couple of other comments today, but I'll say it here again: Chilean football isn't the best - you probably already know that without even having watched a match from the Chilean league. I've seen plenty of those, and they're pretty rubbish. Boring football, the ball bouncing all over the place, stupid passes, poor decisions galore. I've even seen a cup tie between a first division side and an amateur side. There were less than 400 people in attendance for that match. Well: yesterday, Manchester United were more boring and dull than any other side I've ever seen, and I'm not exaggerating. Pointless, boring football. I always thought that it'd be sad (and a little annoying) if in our match my wife spent too much of her time checking her mobile, but you know what? Yesterday, I was surprised that she didn't do it more often. I would've felt less guilty, because at least in her phone she could've been slightly entertained. We had more fun driving up and down the M61, and -again-, I'm not exaggerating. We had more fun driving under the rain, under a pitch black sky, and just listening to music in the car. I was more impressed by a supporter's face of anger and disbelief than by what Manchester United had in offer for their 70,000+ supporters in their home stadium, for the millions watching at home, and even for themselves.

Trying to think about it from the less romantic point of view, I arrive to two conclusions:

  • That these players have been over-coached. Louis van Gaal asks for creativity (at least in public), but there seems to be no space for that in real-life situations. I'd bet that at least 75% of us are be able to predict what a player will do in any given situation. If I presented you a small gif (don't worry, I'm not gonna) in which a Man United player is receiving the ball, I'm sure most of you will predict what his next move will be. In a sport where the unpredictable is key, this is obviously not good. And this also means that the players have had a very rigid and strict structured deeply drilled into them, where many possibilities seem to be regarded as mistakes.

  • These players have a very poor grasp of the positional game. This could be a very lenghty discussion, but let me just say that when four or five (attacking) players are standing in a line for more than five seconds, that's a positional mistake. And this happened a lot yesterday, from what I can remember. The area of the number 10 and the half-spaces were seldom utilised, and in the modern game they are the most important areas of the pitch to create successful attacks. I can't remember if it was Pep who said it, but you basically have to make sure your most skilful players use those spaces. We hardly ever see Man United doing that. Our attacking players don't seem to know whether to stay up or to come a bit down, to walk or to run, to run vertically or diagonally... it's just like the know that no matter what they do, it will be wrong. All of them, except for De Gea and Smalling, seem very lacking on confidence. Even Herrera looked full of doubt at times. I'm not sure if they know what the manager wants.

Unlike it was under Moyes, I do think this football is "on the right track", in terms of playing more modern football. However, that doesn't mean it was any less rubbish. This is pointless football. I genuinely felt that, however little sense it makes. "This is pointless football". It's like, why bother with anything? Why bother training or theorising or watching videos if in the end a team is going to end up playing like that? Why bother planning to overload the left if you're never going to actually ATTACK the left? Why bother training passes and vision if nobody (except for Herrera one or two times) is going to attempt killer balls?

We shouldn't expect this to change for as long as Louis van Gaal is here. I'm not saying he should go; I'm just saying that for as long as he's with us, and whether we fucking drop to the Championship or we win the Intergalactic Football Cup of the Gods, this is the football we'll play.

As a final thought: much is said about football tourism, plastic fans and the lack of home atmosphere in Old Trafford. And much has been said too about Man United as a brand. Well, as someone in attendance to a spectale, I feel like the money wasn't worth it. We spent more than 120 pounds in Man United (tickets, a couple of drinks, programme, parking) and we got a dreadful show. I wondered if I would ask for my money back should I ever go to a concert or a play, paid 120 pounds in total and it ended up being an absolute mess, and I think I would. Now I wonder why I wouldn't do that in football, and I'm not sure I know the answer.

TL;DR: yesterday was the first time I saw the club I love, and it was the worst football match I've ever seen in my life. I'm not happy, but this is our life now.

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