Net spend

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

fanciful nonsense really tbh

he did have the outline of his system, but it was tactical variation that saved the season - Carrick dropping virtually into a 3 at Anfield was a good tactical choice, for example. Overall it was using Fellaini's skill set and exploiting Mata that were the two key aspects that saved the season from abject failure. also high on that list was persevering with Young & Valencia as well as shifting Rooney up front out of the way and allowing Herrera to blossom a bit.

Almost sounds like he found a system and tactical approach that drew the best out of many of the players

The nature of that domination at Anfield had van Gaal written all over it and you know it

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Almost sounds like he found a system and tactical approach that drew the best out of many of the players

The nature of that domination at Anfield had van Gaal written all over it and you know it

for some unknown reason you seem to be under the impression I'm slagging off LVG

what i'm actually saying is that when the manager says it'll be 4-3-3 "more or less" that means exactly that - he will ideally go with that and stay with it, but will also happily vary his tactics and formation to suit

the wider point in here is that that included playing through Fellaini who became the main influence on the short run of great performances that saved the entire season, and that other key players were Young, Valencia and Mata - meaning that both of Moyes signings and 2 of the most slated of Fergie's supposed shit @#%&!s were key to this great continental manager's admittedly limited success last season. and btw, so was the use of Jones and Smalling at the back, who he paired together whenever he could, although as we all know, we'd have been £#%&!ed completely were it not for De Gea.

Originally Posted by the stella fella

spent

darmian £12m
schwienstiger £14m
schneiderlin £22m?
Depay £25m
romero £nil

cost: £73m

sold

adm £44m
nani £4m
rvp £4m
henriquez £1m
rafael £?

Incoming £53m

outlay £20m

hmmm warchest of £200m - someone appears to have added to many zeros to the figure. Better get a move on ed.

£23,450,000

£2.1m for Rafael wasn't it?

Originally Posted by Swagger

Considering the so called 44m from PSG probably hasn't landed in our account yet, you've made yourself look a bit of a @#%&!.

Can you do our wage bill next? Pre and post summer transfers?

Cheers

Originally Posted by wiganste

£2.1m for Rafael wasn't it?

yes mate but I wasnt exactly sure when i posted it so that takes it to a net spend of £21.35m (plus a huge saving on weekly salaries)

Originally Posted by Sparky***

£23,450,000

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

for some unknown reason you seem to be under the impression I'm slagging off LVG

what i'm actually saying is that when the manager says it'll be 4-3-3 "more or less" that means exactly that - he will ideally go with that and stay with it, but will also happily vary his tactics and formation to suit

the wider point in here is that that included playing through Fellaini who became the main influence on the short run of great performances that saved the entire season, and that other key players were Young, Valencia and Mata - meaning that both of Moyes signings and 2 of the most slated of Fergie's supposed shit @#%&!s were key to this great continental manager's admittedly limited success last season. and btw, so was the use of Jones and Smalling at the back, who he paired together whenever he could, although as we all know, we'd have been £#%&!ed completely were it not for De Gea.

I don't think any one player was the key. I think it was van Gaal finding a structure that got the best out of a very limited group, most of whom improved under him. It was always likely to be a short-term success, but with better players hopefully we can sustain it.

I remember watching the game at Palace and being depressed at how individually poor our team has become, both technically and in terms of personality. Getting them to play as they did at Anfield, which even Gary Neville thinks was the best he's seen us play there, was a great feat. Because so many of them are still limited players. Improving the quality since then is/has been vital.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

I don't think any one player was the key. I think it was van Gaal finding a structure that got the best out of a very limited group, most of whom improved under him. It was always likely to be a short-term success, but with better players hopefully we can sustain it.

I remember watching the game at Palace and being depressed at how individually poor our team has become, both technically and in terms of personality. Getting them to play as they did at Anfield, which even Gary Neville thinks was the best he's seen us play there, was a great feat. Because so many of them are still limited players. Improving the quality since then is/has been vital.

well you're wrong then - everybody knows United were desperately lacking physical stature without Fellaini, everyone knows he became an easy out ball very quickly, and everyone saw the effect he had on the left side of our team in particular. tbf first you'd have to accept that good as our run of proper performances was, it was very short.

as far as it being a very limited group, well no, a lot of the issues centred around the players LVG himself bought in, and by his team selections.

as far as liverpool away goes, it was a cracking performance, with the first 50 minutes being especially good. it offered proof of the good work being done by LVG, and promise of great things to come. but that was a terrible liverpool side, and united let them back into the game and despite them going down to 10 they got on top of us in the second half.

it was definitely one of the best displays i've seen united put in at anfield although not sure why gary neville said it was the best. pretty sure he played in a better one himself in 97/98 for starters

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

well you're wrong then - everybody knows United were desperately lacking physical stature without Fellaini, everyone knows he became an easy out ball very quickly, and everyone saw the effect he had on the left side of our team in particular. tbf first you'd have to accept that good as our run of proper performances was, it was very short.

as far as it being a very limited group, well no, a lot of the issues centred around the players LVG himself bought in, and by his team selections.

as far as liverpool away goes, it was a cracking performance, with the first 50 minutes being especially good. it offered proof of the good work being done by LVG, and promise of great things to come. but that was a terrible liverpool side, and united let them back into the game and despite them going down to 10 they got on top of us in the second half.

it was definitely one of the best displays i've seen united put in at anfield although not sure why gary neville said it was the best. pretty sure he played in a better one himself in 97/98 for starters

Well we'd had Fellaini in the squad and in the side for 18 months before that and he'd been shit. So that's partly what I mean by van Gaal finding a structure that drew the best out of limited players. And with the failures of Di Maria and Falcao and the injury/failure of RvP, it was a fairly limited group we were left with. As I say, that Palace game was depressing: good attitude and of course we ground out the win, but if iirc correctly second half the back four was Evans-Jones-Smalling-Valencia, with Fellaini and Young relied on to do the damage at the other end. So far from the United we all want to see

I think it's what Neville said. Might have said it half an hour in though

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Well we'd had Fellaini in the squad and in the side for 18 months before that and he'd been shit. So that's partly what I mean by van Gaal finding a structure that drew the best out of limited players. And with the failures of Di Maria and Falcao and the injury/failure of RvP, it was a fairly limited group we were left with. As I say, that Palace game was depressing: good attitude and of course we ground out the win, but if iirc correctly second half the back four was Evans-Jones-Smalling-Valencia, with Fellaini and Young relied on to do the damage at the other end. So far from the United we all want to see

I think it's what Neville said. Might have said it half an hour in though

but hang on, all he did was let fellaini play to the strengths he's shown since his time in england and the difference that made was marked and immediate.

tbf I don't remember anything about the palace game other than that I saw the goals the other day.

the thing LVG has got to address is goals, simple as that. under ferguson we had any number of periods where we were keeping the ball for fun and playing round teams. but invariably we score goals by being more direct and that's what this manager needs to get his head round. playing with one striker, and that player being restricted to specific tasks to boot, is all fine and dandy with an early goal or two. but an hour in when you've barely had a £#%&!ing shot at goal you do not want to be resorting to lumping it up to fellaini like we did last season. you need to mix it up from the start, and it helps if you've at least got a threat in behind...

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

but hang on, all he did was let fellaini play to the strengths he's shown since his time in england and the difference that made was marked and immediate.

tbf I don't remember anything about the palace game other than that I saw the goals the other day.

the thing LVG has got to address is goals, simple as that. under ferguson we had any number of periods where we were keeping the ball for fun and playing round teams. but invariably we score goals by being more direct and that's what this manager needs to get his head round. playing with one striker, and that player being restricted to specific tasks to boot, is all fine and dandy with an early goal or two. but an hour in when you've barely had a £#%&!ing shot at goal you do not want to be resorting to lumping it up to fellaini like we did last season. you need to mix it up from the start, and it helps if you've at least got a threat in behind...

This, so much this.

Cautious, passive football on the half way line ending up with 80% possession and barely a chance is the death of the game as a spectacle.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

This, so much this.

Cautious, passive football on the half way line ending up with 80% possession and barely a chance is the death of the game as a spectacle.

Agree with throbs point too - there was too much horrific football last year but the counter argument is that lvg was extracting the best out of a limited bunch. To play with flair means risk means potentially no top 4. We surely can't play as cautiously again this season with the squad we have now?

Originally Posted by Semantic Lisp

but hang on, all he did was let fellaini play to the strengths he's shown since his time in england and the difference that made was marked and immediate.

tbf I don't remember anything about the palace game other than that I saw the goals the other day.

the thing LVG has got to address is goals, simple as that. under ferguson we had any number of periods where we were keeping the ball for fun and playing round teams. but invariably we score goals by being more direct and that's what this manager needs to get his head round. playing with one striker, and that player being restricted to specific tasks to boot, is all fine and dandy with an early goal or two. but an hour in when you've barely had a £#%&!ing shot at goal you do not want to be resorting to lumping it up to fellaini like we did last season. you need to mix it up from the start, and it helps if you've at least got a threat in behind...

Disagree with that a bit. I thought Fellaini's movement as part of a very deliberate plan was one of the most important aspects of his contribution. Remember against Chelsea at Old Trafford when we had a very good first half, which largely came from the way we moved them around in front of their back four. Fellaini's physical qualities always help in terms of breaking the press also, but I thought the Fellaini of the last few months played with more intelligence and purpose as an actual footballer than he had at any time I've seen him.

As for the second part, systematic attacking is what you get with van Gaal. I wouldn't describe it as cautious at all, but some may well find it boring. And his club sides have never lacked goals before. But like any team the players available contribute massively. As Scholesy said a few months back, you're only as good going forward as your strikers and ours were giving us little in terms of movement all season.

I'm used to being bored by United. I've found the football increasingly devoid of any inspiration pretty much linearly since Moscow. But last season I could at least see what van Gaal was trying to do, despite not having the ideal players to carry it out. Still, we got glimpses of it at half mast. It's important though that he uses the rest of this window well. Time for players to settle is one thing, but it's hard to argue in your second season having spent so much that you still don't have the players to carry out your 'philosophy'

Questions remain over a squad that has had around £80m spent on it with about £44m recouped. What went so wrong for Angel di Maria? Will David de Gea be leaving? Who is the superstar signing that Van Gaal has hinted at?

From the bbc website. 44m recouped?

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Disagree with that a bit. I thought Fellaini's movement as part of a very deliberate plan was one of the most important aspects of his contribution. Remember against Chelsea at Old Trafford when we had a very good first half, which largely came from the way we moved them around in front of their back four. Fellaini's physical qualities always help in terms of breaking the press also, but I thought the Fellaini of the last few months played with more intelligence and purpose as an actual footballer than he had at any time I've seen him.

As for the second part, systematic attacking is what you get with van Gaal. I wouldn't describe it as cautious at all, but some may well find it boring. And his club sides have never lacked goals before. But like any team the players available contribute massively. As Scholesy said a few months back, you're only as good going forward as your strikers and ours were giving us little in terms of movement all season.

I'm used to being bored by United. I've found the football increasingly devoid of any inspiration pretty much linearly since Moscow. But last season I could at least see what van Gaal was trying to do, despite not having the ideal players to carry it out. Still, we got glimpses of it at half mast. It's important though that he uses the rest of this window well. Time for players to settle is one thing, but it's hard to argue in your second season having spent so much that you still don't have the players to carry out your 'philosophy'

No you're right, it would be harsh to say that all we did was hoof the ball up to Fellaini. But we did do a hell of a lot of that: he was very good at joining up from inside right, and at least gave us a bit of presence up front when we were launching it for second balls. It just staggers me that LVG hasn't chosen to bring in a proper defender to dictate play from back there, so I suspect we're going to see a lot more of having midfielders dropping in - i certainly hope so anyhoo...

As far as a team only being as good as its strikers that is true and is the classic basis of every ferguson team, hence why when everyone was bleating about how we're desperate for midfielders Fergie would go out and buy a striker - and win the league again

However, you are not only as good as your strikers if you restrict their role and handicap their function deliberately. In that scenario you're only as good as your tactics. If you don't have the right tactics for the players you have, well then you won't score goals. Easy to see the current squad having plenty of threat wall-passing and 3rd man running its way through highish lines. Hard to see any genuine threat in behind though except maybe Wilson, and even harder to see how we're going to break down deeper defences any better than we did last season. Remember that last time we ended up with a decent number of goals was Ferguson's last season, when a 2 years younger version of Rooney was only 3rd top scorer

Originally Posted by barca99

From the bbc website. 44m recouped?

yep, we sold NOBODY else apart from Di Maria.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

yep, we sold NOBODY else apart from Di Maria.

Laughable isn't it, a blatant lie

Originally Posted by barca99

From the bbc website. 44m recouped?

I see them and Sky are still going with the 31 million pounds figure for Depay
Absolute amateurs

The Dutch press reported it was €27.5 million (£19.3 million) which could rise to €32 million (£22.5 million) with bonuses

http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/transfersom-...ljoen-euro.htm

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

I see them and Sky are still going with the 31 million pounds figure for Depay
Absolute amateurs

The Dutch press reported it was €27.5 million (£19.3 million) which could rise to €32 million (£22.5 million) with bonuses

http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/transfersom-...ljoen-euro.htm

A slight difference there

According to this, United have spent under €100m:

Darmian & Schweinsteiger €18m each
Schneiderlin €35m
Memphis €27.5m

Sold Di Maria for €63m

http://www.betinf.com/england_transfer.htm