United's injury crisis last season...

Yeah and Van Gaal's tactics and decisions played a part, no?

It was a lot more than just an injury crisis causing the shite performances and results, hence why nobody even really mentioned the injuries.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Like I say, I wish it wasn't true. Makes it tougher to fully let go. Will need a few more summer weeks.

£#%&!ing hell. You'd be throwing yourself in front of a train if a bird dumped you

Originally Posted by MUFC One Love

Yeah and Van Gaal's tactics and decisions played a part, no?

It was a lot more than just an injury crisis causing the shite performances and results, hence why nobody even really mentioned the injuries.

The performances were poor going forward; they were good in terms of structure and obviously defensive record. Too often we couldn't get it going enough in the last third, though unsurprising given how Rooney reliant we were until Rashford came through.

Results before and after the injury crisis indicate that the injuries were a huge factor in that respect, though.

I'm expecting at least two significant attacking additions for the line up. And ideally we will have more off the bench. Spending pretty much the whole season without a striker on the bench was insane. Especially as for the first 4-5 months of it our striker was poor.

Tactics overstated. With proper options up front we'd have lots more points. LvG hung himself with Rooney, really.

£#%&! throb for starting this thread btw

Tony Strudwick must be feeling pretty smug

Originally Posted by Sloane

Tony Strudwick must be feeling pretty smug

Did he go last summer? We had pretty bad injuries the previous season, too.

Without wanting to get Sparky going, how come Barca and Real never seem to have these crisis

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Without wanting to get Sparky going, how come Barca and Real never seem to have these crisis

They can take their foot off the gas and rest players after 30 minutes when they're 4-0 up against FC El Tinpot and their 0.04% share of TV revenues.

Originally Posted by General Woundwort

They can take their foot off the gas and rest players after 30 minutes when they're 4-0 up against FC El Tinpot and their 0.04% share of TV revenues.

Though Atleti run their balls off every ninety minutes and seem to do alright with injuries, too.

I suppose it's possible that along with coaching, development and innovation, they might be ahead on fitness regimes too

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Though Atleti run their balls off every ninety minutes and seem to do alright with injuries, too.

I suppose it's possible that along with coaching, development and innovation, they might be ahead on fitness regimes too

Nah Van Gaal said it was all impact injuries. Hard league pal. Too hard for Louis' lads.

Mou will sign some solid fellas, don't you worry.

Originally Posted by Cream

Mou will sign some solid fellas, don't you worry.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

The performances were poor going forward; they were good in terms of structure and obviously defensive record. Too often we couldn't get it going enough in the last third, though unsurprising given how Rooney reliant we were until Rashford came through.

just no.

our defensive record was good, but not because of any great structure. anyone who watched us play could see we were all over the place and did a lot of last ditch defending, plus we had dave. the only structure came in the attacking sense, where you don't want structure that is restrictive and lacking spontaneity. the structure in the midfield was awful. apparently, the midfield is just for passing back to and not for providing adequate cover or to launch attacks. we were never reliant on rooney. we could have been reliant on a bit of consistent pace, trickery and tracking back from memphis. lucky for us we weren't, eh? our great possession stats were largely due to teams knowing we couldn't hurt them in our own half.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Did he go last summer? We had pretty bad injuries the previous season, too.

Without wanting to get Sparky going, how come Barca and Real never seem to have these crisis

No, he was moved to a less influential role, when LVG came in, something to do with the academy.
One of my mates is a Sports Nutritionist and said Strudders advised against LVG's demands of double sessions etc so LVG got in somebody else he knew who would just go with it.

No idea about Real and Barca. He said Leicester have a great set up which Ranieri has really embraced but that luck also did play apart to why they didnt get any key injuries.

Originally Posted by jem

just no.

our defensive record was good, but not because of any great structure. anyone who watched us play could see we were all over the place and did a lot of last ditch defending, plus we had dave. the only structure came in the attacking sense, where you don't want structure that is restrictive and lacking spontaneity. the structure in the midfield was awful. apparently, the midfield is just for passing back to and not for providing adequate cover or to launch attacks. we were never reliant on rooney. we could have been reliant on a bit of consistent pace, trickery and tracking back from memphis. lucky for us we weren't, eh? our great possession stats were largely due to teams knowing we couldn't hurt them in our own half.

It has to be. You don't have a good defensive record without being pretty well organised. Nobody is saying we're Milan under Sacchi, but our positional play and the organisation of our pressing compensated for a constantly changing backline and a flawed defensive pairing.

United also had the highest percentage of touches in the opposition third of any team in the league. So what we have here is a team well organised, who concede few goals and the goalkeeper faces few shots, enjoying plenty of the ball high up the field.

That was a good structure for the players to do their part. They didn't, for various reasons, including being short of numbers in attack.

Btw, us having such a good defensive record despite being abysmal defending set pieces is true testament to our positional play

Originally Posted by Sloane

No, he was moved to a less influential role, when LVG came in, something to do with the academy.
One of my mates is a Sports Nutritionist and said Strudders advised against LVG's demands of double sessions etc so LVG got in somebody else he knew who would just go with it.

No idea about Real and Barca. He said Leicester have a great set up which Ranieri has really embraced but that luck also did play apart to why they didnt get any key injuries.

It's obviously such an important aspect of the game. Spurs and Leicester had very few injuries last season. Had either experienced the crisis we did, neither would have finished top four imo. Hard to know from the outside how much is luck and how much good science.

United had a similar injury list around the same time last season, and it cleared up during the run-in just the same. Coincidence? Or did they £#%&! up again and put it right? Most of the major ones were impact injuries during games, but conditioning must come into that too.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

It has to be. You don't have a good defensive record without being pretty well organised. Nobody is saying we're Milan under Sacchi, but our positional play and the organisation of our pressing compensated for a constantly changing backline and a flawed defensive pairing.

United also had the highest percentage of touches in the opposition third of any team in the league. So what we have here is a team well organised, who concede few goals and the goalkeeper faces few shots, enjoying plenty of the ball high up the field.

That was a good structure for the players to do their part. They didn't, for various reasons, including being short of numbers in attack.

Btw, us having such a good defensive record despite being abysmal defending set pieces is true testament to our positional play



It's obviously such an important aspect of the game. Spurs and Leicester had very few injuries last season. Had either experienced the crisis we did, neither would have finished top four imo. Hard to know from the outside how much is luck and how much good science.

United had a similar injury list around the same time last season, and it cleared up during the run-in just the same. Coincidence? Or did they £#%&! up again and put it right? Most of the major ones were impact injuries during games, but conditioning must come into that too.

Because we spent most of th time recycling the ball outside the oppo area, terrified of losing possession and the price we paid was a lack of penetration. All designed to protect a shit defence.

Originally Posted by Denis Irwell

Because we spent most of th time recycling the ball outside the oppo area, terrified of losing possession and the price we paid was a lack of penetration. All designed to protect a shit defence.

So the way to protect a shit defence is not the usual practise of keeping a low line, getting bodies back behind the ball to retain a solid shape, but in fact is to push the team high up the field, leaving one-v-ones in your own third and piss about with the ball until you lose it and the opposition break into acres of space in behind your exposed backline? Really?

Rashford and Martial and Lingard played with the expression of players not hampered. Mata floated about with plenty of freedom, too.

It was a typically positive setup. It just didn't work.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Did he go last summer? We had pretty bad injuries the previous season, too.

Without wanting to get Sparky going, how come Barca and Real never seem to have these crisis

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

So the way to protect a shit defence is not the usual practise of keeping a low line, getting bodies back behind the ball to retain a solid shape, but in fact is to push the team high up the field, leaving one-v-ones in your own third and piss about with the ball until you lose it and the opposition break into acres of space in behind your exposed backline? Really?

Rashford and Martial and Lingard played with the expression of players not hampered. Mata floated about with plenty of freedom, too.

It was a typically positive setup. It just didn't work.

Yes.... And that frequently happened. His hands were partly tied, of course given the defence he had.

Only After Rashford arrived did we start to play with any degree of freedom.

no idea why van gaal opted to go in with just rooney up front, but nqat he was taking a big chance if he hoped memphis and martial could adapt immediately...

the idea van gaal brought keane back as some kind of desperate bid to bale himself out, and that this means he rated him ahead of rashford, is hilariousness itself though...

the real disadvantage of united's injury crisis, especially given how van gaal works, was in training sessions and preparation. the actual starting formation was just about retained throughout, though no thanks to memphis who was no help to the manager at all.