People are so weird about LVG.
On injuries, it's widely reported he's tough in training but would you take 6 months of more frequent injuries with 5 years after of far fewer injuries(than before the 6 months) and shorter recovery time when injured? Tough training can induce injuries but also strengthen the body to a point where it is more injury resistant. It could go either way tbh, I can imagine some players becoming less injury prone with tougher training but maybe some not being able to cope with it. Really to be judged further down the line but only 1 injury going into this weekend suggests some sort of longer term tipping point in fitness/strength of the squad.
Then you have to factor in the basic thing that Smalling/Jones/Rafael in particular were injury prone before but they weren't necessarily first team, so their injuries are more apparent and they are more relied on to play when fit leading to them getting injured again more often. If Vidic/Rio/Evra were in the team still Jones/Smalling would have played less, picked up less injuries and been available more often.
In terms of points 5 games ago Utd had 6 points more than same point under Moyes, today it's the same. Except Moyes went through a run of playing Villa, West Ham, Hull, Norwich, Spurs and Swansea, winning all but the Spurs game. LVG went through a run playing Villa, Newcastle, Spurs, Stoke, Southampton only winning the Newcastle game. Stoke away is a tough-ish fixture, Southampton are pretty damn good, Spurs are improved and the result was improved(draw instead of loss) and they were a bit crap against Villa and dropped two points.
Seasons aren't directly comparable, Moyes has his easiest run of games precisely when LVG had not the hardest but not easiest run. Over the length of the season he will almost certainly significantly outscore Moyes with a far harder season.
Again Moyes took over a championship winning squad with winning mentality intact, with the senior players still there, not overly reliant on injury prone players and without a world cup in the summer to deal with nor almost any injuries for much of the first half of the season.
LVG took over a club in which the most senior players all left, the spirit was shattered, the winning mentality simply gone, the football dire. He had the summer world cup with many of his squad having played in it, he had injuries galore. Moyes was a maintenance season in which he only needed to buy and gel a few replacements into the side to replace the soon to leave and maintain the same style, spirit, he did none of that.
LVG had to rebuild the defence, rebuild the midfield, rebuild the spirit/mentality and do it with a huge number of injuries.
THe more pertinent question is, how many points would LVG have had at this point had he been in charge last season. He'd likely have made some of the same purchases, he would have the mentality/senior players, he would have bought 3-4 players and they would almost certainly have gotten top four. Then as a few senior players left this season he'd have brought in another few players.
Do I think LVG has done great, no, 5-3-2 sucks, largely because Valencia, Jones and Smalling aren't good enough or reliable enough, Rafael isn't reliable enough. There is a reason he's playing three cb's, because he doesn't have a RB to play and his CB's aren't good enough to make two CB's work well even ignoring the lack of a right back.
He'll make mistakes, but as long as the trend is in the right direction mistakes are fine. It's only when the majority of things are going in the wrong direction you should worry and with Moyes everything was going in the wrong direction.
The situation the managers have started both seasons is completely incomparable, there is nothing similar. ALl managers have the previous managers team to deal with, the training over the past year, the squad choices, the form, the mentality. Every day the new manager imposes himself on the team a bit more and the old managers work a bit less important.
The first half of last season Fergie's influence was still heavily there. The quality of football regressed bit by bit throughout the entire season. Utd were far worse at the end of the season than the beginning. LVG took over the team at their worst point of last season and has absolutely been getting the team going the other way. How far he can take the team I don't know, but to even compare him to Moyes is to pretend they took over the same team in the same situation in the same form playing the same quality football which is as far from the truth as possible.
If LVG buys a RB, maybe a CB, another proper winger and can revert to 4 at the back then the team will likely continue to improve quality of football throughout the season.
