Your Team - The Half Way Point - How they doing - Discuss
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Caporegime
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Well that got taken a little off topic 
Caporegime
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Wow i mentioned how badly we have done with a back5 and despite winning at Yeovil this confirmed how bad a formation this is for us. Now we have more defensive injuries what next? 6 defenders?
I can't support the managers choice especially if it means playing paddy mcnair who seems to have lost all footballing ability. We're playing awful as we can't retain the ball in midfield yet playing only 2 central midfielders (including fletcher/rooney) is such a bad idea.
I can't support the managers choice especially if it means playing paddy mcnair who seems to have lost all footballing ability. We're playing awful as we can't retain the ball in midfield yet playing only 2 central midfielders (including fletcher/rooney) is such a bad idea.
Team: Man United
After last season I was glad that we got rid of Moyes and appointed a decent high profile manager to replace him. Early season wasn't brilliant but we had a number of new players, a new manager who was very stubborn about they way we were going to play and we have had huge injury issues so it wasn't surprising.
The worst part of last season wasn't the results but the way we played. We were awful to watch and most of the time we got the result we deserved. There was no team spirit or fight and Moyes would simply hope things turned around without any sense of making it happen himself.
At this point in the season we have played some of the best football I have seen us play in years and although we are sitting in third we could be much closed to the top of the table if we had turned a few draws into wins. We have a lot of ups and downs but in general we look good in all areas bar defence.
Plenty of players have been given a chance this season and others have had a bit of a resurgence which has been nice. Young has probably been the most improved player which is something I never thought I would say after the last few years. Valencia... not so much.
Our signings have been good in general but with a lot of injuries its hard to make a proper assessment yet. Even though Falcao hasn't been scoring freely yet I am confident he will start and I really like his effort levels and commitment. He adds a lot of muscle and drive to the strike force even without the goals. Thats obviously not enough on its own but hopefully the goals will come.
Season grade so far
B+
After last season I was glad that we got rid of Moyes and appointed a decent high profile manager to replace him. Early season wasn't brilliant but we had a number of new players, a new manager who was very stubborn about they way we were going to play and we have had huge injury issues so it wasn't surprising.
The worst part of last season wasn't the results but the way we played. We were awful to watch and most of the time we got the result we deserved. There was no team spirit or fight and Moyes would simply hope things turned around without any sense of making it happen himself.
At this point in the season we have played some of the best football I have seen us play in years and although we are sitting in third we could be much closed to the top of the table if we had turned a few draws into wins. We have a lot of ups and downs but in general we look good in all areas bar defence.
Plenty of players have been given a chance this season and others have had a bit of a resurgence which has been nice. Young has probably been the most improved player which is something I never thought I would say after the last few years. Valencia... not so much.
Our signings have been good in general but with a lot of injuries its hard to make a proper assessment yet. Even though Falcao hasn't been scoring freely yet I am confident he will start and I really like his effort levels and commitment. He adds a lot of muscle and drive to the strike force even without the goals. Thats obviously not enough on its own but hopefully the goals will come.
Season grade so far
B+
Team: AFC Wimbledon
Third year in League Two, but with a bit of a bigger budget than previous years due to a few price rises and fundraising efforts so hoping for an improvement in fortunes.
The Gaffer
Neal Ardley, spent several years at Cardiff City's youth academy and wimbledon playing legend. Ardley has got a lot of ideas and is having to work out a style that will be effective in league two. He's generally getting there although we have the odd game where we get dragged into a scrap and cant play our way out of it.
Most improved Player
George Francomb, he's progressing quite nicely on the right side of the pitch and will attract attention from higher up at some point. A lot of our team was changed this season, only two or three players from last year remain in the starting XI.
The Christmas Turkey
Ross Worner lost his place to Shea and is now back from a pretty average (at best) loan spell at Woking.
End of Season Predictions
Unfortunately lost Tubbs today who was joint top scorer in the division. So unless we replace, mid table. If we get a suitable replacement, we'll be up there in the mix for play offs (I'd predict somewhere around 9th)
Third year in League Two, but with a bit of a bigger budget than previous years due to a few price rises and fundraising efforts so hoping for an improvement in fortunes.
The Gaffer
Neal Ardley, spent several years at Cardiff City's youth academy and wimbledon playing legend. Ardley has got a lot of ideas and is having to work out a style that will be effective in league two. He's generally getting there although we have the odd game where we get dragged into a scrap and cant play our way out of it.
Most improved Player
George Francomb, he's progressing quite nicely on the right side of the pitch and will attract attention from higher up at some point. A lot of our team was changed this season, only two or three players from last year remain in the starting XI.
The Christmas Turkey
Ross Worner lost his place to Shea and is now back from a pretty average (at best) loan spell at Woking.
End of Season Predictions
Unfortunately lost Tubbs today who was joint top scorer in the division. So unless we replace, mid table. If we get a suitable replacement, we'll be up there in the mix for play offs (I'd predict somewhere around 9th)
Soldato
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Another Hearts fan
I think a win on Friday and the Championship is done and dusted
Caporegime
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What's interesting abiut this thread is that you can see in a time stamped manner how quickly fans will roll over in awe of a couple of games in a row that were non losses.
fast forward just 2 weeks and suddenly everything has changed due to one bad result.
It seems some people equate not losing to playing well, or that it means progress had been made on the pitch. In fact we are playing worse than ever. Home game, no shots on goal. No sign of a consistent formation or cohesive play style.
fast forward just 2 weeks and suddenly everything has changed due to one bad result.
It seems some people equate not losing to playing well, or that it means progress had been made on the pitch. In fact we are playing worse than ever. Home game, no shots on goal. No sign of a consistent formation or cohesive play style.
Man of Honour
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Another Hearts fan
I think a win on Friday and the Championship is done and dusted
Here's hoping.
Perhaps these people are actually looking for positives e.g. not losing can generate confidence and in turn build a platform to progress from. I'm not a Man Utd fan so someone may want to correct me but hasn't the team had a full team plus subs bench worth of injuries at various points this season? If that's right then I'm not entirely surprised that consistency and cohesion is difficult to generate.
It might have been suggested before but since Man Utd seem to cause you such consternation that you've scarcely ever had a good word to say about them then perhaps it might be easier if you stopped following them? I must admit it's a bit of a defeatist attitude though, I suspect I simply lack the willpower to keep following a team that disappointed me every single week irrespective of whether they were winning or losing.
No, runningman just makes up everyones opinions for them. We say that we are getting better and we are overconfident in his eyes. We whinge about a game or a few games where we have been poor and suddenly we are all saying that United are crap again.
He is just the worst kind of supporter. If you actually read what all the United fans on here say its not that hard to follow yet runningman reads it in a way that fits his own narrative which is pretty much always "United are rubbish and you are all fickle and wrong"
Caporegime
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Maybe i just care more having been a fan for 24 years and having seen the good, bad and indifference.
If i didn't care i wouldn't be bothered and I'd tolerate fan apathy a little more? There's no way you could have watched UTD in any but about 2-3 matches this season and thought, wow we are playing well, or 'that's progress'.
Like i said in my analysis at the top of this page LVG has managed to create a team and a playing style that virtually every game we look much less than the sum of our parts. That's actually very difficult to do given the foundations already in place.
Bit late with this, but -
Team: Manchester United
For the club as a whole, things are much brighter than they were 12 months ago. We've demonstrated we're able to spend serious amounts of money and have no problem doing so, which has always been a talking point. Our medium term future is not a concern because we'll always be able to attract a high quality of player, if not the very best, and that should be enough in contrast to the rest of the league.
However, while things are indeed better, they are far from being fixed. We have players who aren't performing properly, players who barely feature at all and are sucking money out of the club, and a bit of a mixed bag of quality when it comes to certain roles in the team. Our goalkeeper is excellent, but his future is a concern. Our defence is a mess, I don't really like any of our defenders except Rojo (jury still out though) and Shaw. The collection of midfielders don't really fit well together, and our strikers runs aren't being found, or they're not making them properly.
As for the tactical side of things, see below.
The Gaffer: Louis van Gaal
The biggest change since last season. LvG has delivered a lot of what people expected, he's arrogant, he's instilled some belief back in players that had their confidence utterly destroyed, and his track record provides a reason for people to stick with him, rather than become massively worried at this stage.
Having said that, he hasn't got us playing attacking football, or good football at all. He's more worried about losing, which isn't like him, historically. He's obviously seeing huge problems with the team defensively, which is forcing him to play three centre backs. The problem with this is that it doesn't really work for the centre backs, as none of them can bring the ball out, or pass it forwards accurately. I'd much rather he threw caution to the wind a bit, and we tried to outscore teams, and at least make them fear us. As it stands if a team plays very defensively and they're fairly well organised, we can't break them down at all.
He needs to outline a system that he thinks will work best, and it really isn't the 3-5-2 (or whatever you want to call it). I'm obviously no expert, so maybe I'm wrong, but he really needs to try out different members of the squad in their 'natural' positions, in a different formation, even if it means leaving people on the bench. It's not possible to shoehorn all our best players into a starting 11, it hasn't worked, they seemingly can't function together.
Let's take Di Maria for example. He thrived as part of a central midfield trio, on the left side. This allows him to pick the ball up in deeper positions and run at the opposition. He can play well as a winger too but seems to struggle there sometimes. He doesn't really work playing behind strikers (as there's less space for him to stride in to), and he certainly doesn't work up front, with rare exceptions. On top of that, Di Maria has been played as a striker, with Rooney in midfield. Rooney has some good attributes that make him slightly better than rubbish in midfield, but he isn't a proper midfielder. Stupid pundits seem to think he is based on the fact he randomly hits diagonal passes out wide. He should be up front instead.
I think LvG is very astute tactically, I'm sure he's trying to think of a way to achieve what he calls 'balance' in the team; crippling our attack is not really working. Obviously this isn't what he wants, but almost everything we do in every area of the pitch is a struggle at the moment and it's not good to watch.
All that said, he's a good man for building teams and that's what needs to be done now. David Moyes wouldn't have been able to do a better job at that, and I think LvG is doing just enough for people to support him, we'd gain nothing by changing manager again. You also have to remember a lot of experience has now gone from the team. Moyes took over a fairly settled and confident team and then upset the majority of the players (not on purpose, but he did). If LvG had taken over from Sir Alex, then I think we'd be in far better shape today.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'm happy to stick with LvG and I do think we'll only get better from here, but not if he doesn't change anything.
Tactics, team selections and training methods all need a major rethink.
Most improved Player: De Gea
Nobody else stands out and De Gea has continued to get better and better.
The Christmas Turkey: Evans
It's difficult to pick someone for this really, but any small amount of quality that Jonny Evans had left has now well and truly evaporated.
I don't hold Falcao responsible for most of his issues so far, so would feel harsh picking him, even though his time here hasn't been great and he's not cheap either.
End of Season Predictions:
3rd or 4th.
Team: Manchester United
For the club as a whole, things are much brighter than they were 12 months ago. We've demonstrated we're able to spend serious amounts of money and have no problem doing so, which has always been a talking point. Our medium term future is not a concern because we'll always be able to attract a high quality of player, if not the very best, and that should be enough in contrast to the rest of the league.
However, while things are indeed better, they are far from being fixed. We have players who aren't performing properly, players who barely feature at all and are sucking money out of the club, and a bit of a mixed bag of quality when it comes to certain roles in the team. Our goalkeeper is excellent, but his future is a concern. Our defence is a mess, I don't really like any of our defenders except Rojo (jury still out though) and Shaw. The collection of midfielders don't really fit well together, and our strikers runs aren't being found, or they're not making them properly.
As for the tactical side of things, see below.
The Gaffer: Louis van Gaal
The biggest change since last season. LvG has delivered a lot of what people expected, he's arrogant, he's instilled some belief back in players that had their confidence utterly destroyed, and his track record provides a reason for people to stick with him, rather than become massively worried at this stage.
Having said that, he hasn't got us playing attacking football, or good football at all. He's more worried about losing, which isn't like him, historically. He's obviously seeing huge problems with the team defensively, which is forcing him to play three centre backs. The problem with this is that it doesn't really work for the centre backs, as none of them can bring the ball out, or pass it forwards accurately. I'd much rather he threw caution to the wind a bit, and we tried to outscore teams, and at least make them fear us. As it stands if a team plays very defensively and they're fairly well organised, we can't break them down at all.
He needs to outline a system that he thinks will work best, and it really isn't the 3-5-2 (or whatever you want to call it). I'm obviously no expert, so maybe I'm wrong, but he really needs to try out different members of the squad in their 'natural' positions, in a different formation, even if it means leaving people on the bench. It's not possible to shoehorn all our best players into a starting 11, it hasn't worked, they seemingly can't function together.
Let's take Di Maria for example. He thrived as part of a central midfield trio, on the left side. This allows him to pick the ball up in deeper positions and run at the opposition. He can play well as a winger too but seems to struggle there sometimes. He doesn't really work playing behind strikers (as there's less space for him to stride in to), and he certainly doesn't work up front, with rare exceptions. On top of that, Di Maria has been played as a striker, with Rooney in midfield. Rooney has some good attributes that make him slightly better than rubbish in midfield, but he isn't a proper midfielder. Stupid pundits seem to think he is based on the fact he randomly hits diagonal passes out wide. He should be up front instead.
I think LvG is very astute tactically, I'm sure he's trying to think of a way to achieve what he calls 'balance' in the team; crippling our attack is not really working. Obviously this isn't what he wants, but almost everything we do in every area of the pitch is a struggle at the moment and it's not good to watch.
All that said, he's a good man for building teams and that's what needs to be done now. David Moyes wouldn't have been able to do a better job at that, and I think LvG is doing just enough for people to support him, we'd gain nothing by changing manager again. You also have to remember a lot of experience has now gone from the team. Moyes took over a fairly settled and confident team and then upset the majority of the players (not on purpose, but he did). If LvG had taken over from Sir Alex, then I think we'd be in far better shape today.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'm happy to stick with LvG and I do think we'll only get better from here, but not if he doesn't change anything.
Tactics, team selections and training methods all need a major rethink.
Most improved Player: De Gea
Nobody else stands out and De Gea has continued to get better and better.
The Christmas Turkey: Evans
It's difficult to pick someone for this really, but any small amount of quality that Jonny Evans had left has now well and truly evaporated.
I don't hold Falcao responsible for most of his issues so far, so would feel harsh picking him, even though his time here hasn't been great and he's not cheap either.
End of Season Predictions:
3rd or 4th.
Spot on summary.