Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [20th - 25th February 2015]

Robbo said:
Frustrating game. Had them under sustained pressure (without an end product, admittedly), then it's a typical smash and grab.
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It's quite remarkable how poor Utd are in attack despite the players they've got. Like you said, you had a lot of the ball and had Swansea pinned back but you were creating nothing - Di Maria, RvP, Rooney and Herrera offered nothing. The only time you looked remotely dangerous was either when Young got forward down the left or Fellaini's knock downs from pretty hopeful balls into the box.

Di Maria's form has to be a concern? Since the opening few weeks of the season he seems to be getting progressively worse and it wasn't a surprise when he came off.

edit: Just realised that Matic's red rules him out of the CC final. That could be huge given his importance to Chelsea but also the way Spurs set-up - Eriksen and co will find it much easier to find space without Matic there.
 
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If you watch Dutch football, it is entirely about control. Zero risk, wait, wait, wait and eventually the defence loses concentration. I think LVG is the first manager I've seen try to implement it here quite so stubbornly, and the results are really interesting. Here, defenders and deep midfielders get rushed off the ball, and holding it is a higher risk game which can lead to mistakes and messy goals. I'm really interested in seeing whether LVG does try to adapt.
 
Seems like a strange day for results all around... I predict a big Newcastle win, lets face it... if Pompy can have 7 shots on target against Cambridge and score 6 goals today then anything can happen.
 
Mourinho wasn't happy after the game, apparently there was 2 stonewall penalties not given to Chelsea.

All he said was minutes 30, 33, 43 and 69 in his interview hardly said anything after that.
 
BaZ87 said:
It's quite remarkable how poor Utd are in attack despite the players they've got. Like you said, you had a lot of the ball and had Swansea pinned back but you were creating nothing - Di Maria, RvP, Rooney and Herrera offered nothing. The only time you looked remotely dangerous was either when Young got forward down the left or Fellaini's knock downs from pretty hopeful balls into the box.

Di Maria's form has to be a concern? Since the opening few weeks of the season he seems to be getting progressively worse and it wasn't a surprise when he came off.
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It is a concern, he had a fair bit of the ball today and didn't do much with it. He's not been awful, but he's not getting any better and considering what he cost it's not good news.

He started the season off well, then hasn't looked quite the same after his injury. His personal problems haven't helped either, house was almost burgled while he and his family were inside, and his wife isn't happy, etc.

As for the team, the worst thing is that it's not even clear what the problem is, the defence is average but not bad, and the attack in theory should be able to create better chances, but it just seems to be a random mess.

LvG likes his players to play slowly and with intelligence, he doesn't really want people playing on instinct, which creates quite a blunt looking attack. This is unless you have someone like Messi up front who has devastating movement and link up play, and that's far from being the case. I think we need to shift away from this style, at least for now.

RvP had 3 or 4 opportunities where you'd expect him to get a good shot away, but I don't think he managed a single shot on target. We might as well play Rooney with Wilson.

Or, we should just start with Fellaini up top and keep crossing it and hitting it long. Of course that isn't what I want, but we look MUCH more dangerous when we start doing that, the bluntness starts to disappear.

Really not sure what to make of it all...

manic111 said:
If you watch Dutch football, it is entirely about control. Zero risk, wait, wait, wait and eventually the defence loses concentration. I think LVG is the first manager I've seen try to implement it here quite so stubbornly, and the results are really interesting. Here, defenders and deep midfielders get rushed off the ball, and holding it is a higher risk game which can lead to mistakes and messy goals. I'm really interested in seeing whether LVG does try to adapt.
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I think this is also true. The style can probably work but you need players who suit it perfectly, and most of ours don't.
 
lucarocks92 said:
Mourinho wasn't happy after the game, apparently there was 2 stonewall penalties not given to Chelsea.

All he said was minutes 30, 33, 43 and 69 in his interview hardly said anything after that.
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He seemed to handle that interview pretty well, the reporter was baiting him into giving more info but he showed a bit of class and just tried to walk away. Not normally a fan of Jose but its always good to see him sad :)
 
Lol at Anita still trying to convince us he's a footballer. Abeid bossed Yaya and co last time out, but nah let's start 2 invisible centre mids in front of the worst back 4 in the league. Glad I'm not watching.
 
Kinda concerned for Arsenal.
February is our implosion month, where we go on a fantastic run of losses and draws.
However, we're now up to third and playing some what decent.

March is still to come....
 
Wow 3-0 already.
As for United, strikers aren't the problem. The manager is, this loss has been long over due, can't rely on DDG to pull of wonder saves all the time.
 
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