Posts Tagged ‘Ander Herrera’

Why Would Jose Mourinho Sell Juan Mata Yet Keep Wayne Rooney at Manchester United?

Posted: August 11, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Mata keeps his distance while Rooney, as usual, creeps up to the boss)

This is a perfectly reasonable question and yet the answer, for some unknown reason, appears to be quite complicated.

Certainly, over the last couple of years Juan Mata has contributed much, much more to the team than has Rooney. He is not a volatile character and represents the club in a much more positive and favourable way than Rooney.

Last season, for example, Mata made 49 appearances and scored 10 goals whereas Rooney made 38 appearances and scored 15 goals. Mata was also responsible for assisting many more goals than Rooney. (more…)

Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United Team To Face Leicester Is Quite Predictable

Posted: August 6, 2016 in European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The easiest choice for Jose is the goalkeeper. My guess is that David De Gea will not only start the game, but he will finish it as well and be present during the middle bit.

Now begins the fun. At left back should be Luke Shaw, a young kid who shows all the promise in the world and should, barring injury, be around for a long time. The other full back will probably be Antonio Valencia, who has spent the last two years getting older and proving that he cannot defend so, to me, he has always been a strange choice for this position and is lucky to still be at the club.

Despite Mourinho’s dislike for playing people out of position, it is likely that Daley Blind will occupy one of the two central defensive roles, particularly if Smalling is still injured. The other will be taken by another Eric Bailly, another kid with little experience. (more…)

For That Amount Of Money Paul Pogba Has To Be The Main Man Under Jose Mourinho At Manchester United

Posted: August 5, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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He doesn’t look the shy, retiring type. Gold lamĂ© backpacks and matching trainers certainly make Paul Pogba stand out in the crowd, even in America. He is also nearly as well known for his hairstyles as his football so what can Manchester United fans expect on the pitch?

Well there will be a few who already know what to expect as he only left the club four years ago having been a youth and reserve team player there. In fact it was his perceived lack of opportunity which resulted in him leaving for Juventus when only nineteen years of age.

Now, unless he suffers a dramatic loss of form, he will be a regular and one of the first, if not the first, names on the teamsheet. He will be able to thumb his nose at Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager responsible for his leaving the club in the first place. This, however would be unlikely as Pogba appears to be bigger than that sort of behaviour. (more…)

When Jose Mourinho Arrives, Woodward Needs To Go!

Posted: May 22, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Challenging at the sharp end of the Champion’s League. Challenging for the Premier League title. Mounting serious attempts at both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup.

These are all answers to the question, “Where would you expect Manchester United to be this season?”

These answers would probably have been a lot closer to the truth had Ed Woodward had the courage to sack Louis van Gaal when it became apparent, to everybody except Woodward, that United’s season was actually going nowhere and that a replacement was required.

This became the case reasonably early in the season. United were out of the Capital One Cup almost as soon as entering it and the Premier League challenge was faltering virtually from day one. Elimination from the Champion’s League at the group stage just heaped more humiliation on a once great club.

Now was the time for Ed Woodward to stand up and be counted. To be a hero in the eyes of the United fans he needed to get rid of van Gaal. What he didn’t need to do was dither. Ed had proven himself remarkably good at dithering. (more…)

Louis Van Gaal & Manchester United Have A Slice Of Good Luck For A Change

Posted: February 22, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, The FA Cup
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So yet again Louis van Gaal has one game to save his job. I’m starting to doubt this ultimatum business as this is now about the fourth or fifth time he has had one game to save his job and he certainly hasn’t won many of them.

Against Shrewsbury they played reasonably well although Memphis Depay showed, yet again, how moving to Manchester United can be a nightmare just as easily as it can be a dream.

He had two shots which were both closer to going out of the ground than they were to threatening the Shrewsbury goal.

When United took the lead it was very fortuitous. Smalling had gone up for a corner, without anybody really knowing why. His last header from a corner had gone miles over the bar! As is usually the case with Smalling, once the corner had been wasted he forgot to run back to his defensive position. In fact, had Shrewsbury been a little more awake they could have mounted a decent counter-attack. They didn’t, in fact not only didn’t they mount the counter-attack, they forgot all about Smalling, who had turned invisible. Anyway, the ball arrived at Smalling’s feet and, with a trademark swing, he whacked it straight into the ground in an attempt to put it over the bar and the bounce took it over the keeper and into the net, much to the amazement of Smalling and everybody else in the ground. (more…)

Louis Van Gaal Needs To Look At Himself, Not The Manchester United Players!

Posted: February 8, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Louis van Gaal, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal

(Louis adopts the pose which would immediately endear him to the majority of  Manchester United fans!)

He’s a card is old Louis! You have to admire him really. After all, once his fleeting visit to these shores is over, who will fill the void left by his departure? Is there any other self-confessed genius who could step into the role? Well actually, yes there is, there’s Jose Mourinho but that’s another story.

Fresh from snatching a draw from the jaws of victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Louis was immediately looking for scapegoats. Was it HIS team selection? Never! What about HIS tactics? No chance, perish the thought! How about players not following HIS instructions? Now, there’s a possibility. And, if the players don’t follow the manager’s instructions who’s fault is that? The players of course, according to King Louis. He is the manager, he can do no wrong, he can only do right!

Having taken off Marouane Fellaini, who had chugged his way through the game like a Belgian Thomas The Tank Engine and replacing him with Morgan Schneiderlin, the United players set about trying to defend their one goal lead. They did this by the further substitutions of Memphis Depay, on for Lingard and Ander herrera, who came on for Juan Mata.

The substitutions had a very negative effect in that United immediately started giving the ball back to Chelsea as soon as they won it. (more…)

Louis Van Gaal & Manchester United Just Don’t Fit Together

Posted: January 17, 2016 in Football, Liverpool, Louis van Gaal, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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A win is a win, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this was a good performance from United. They were second best for 75% of this match and only Liverpool’s inability to finish kept the scoreline at 0-0 for so long.

Yet again van Gaal infuriated with his selection. Ashley Young, a winger, playing at wing back. Matteo Darmian, a right back, playing at left back and Daley Blind , a defensive midfielder, playing at centre back. Marouane Fellaini was selected, inexplicably , ahead of Juan Mata and he actually managed to last the ninety minutes.

If anybody wonders why this type of selection always annoys me then imagine Manchester City doing it. Jesus Navas playing at wing back, Fernandinho at centre back and Pablo Zabaleta as left back. Pellegrini would never play these players out of their natural positions which goes a long way to explaining why City are challenging for the title and United aren’t even in the top four!

United were totally disjointed and looked completely out of sorts for the vast majority of the game.

Daley Blind seemed to have his own game plan whereby he kept firing long high balls towards Wayne Rooney. As was to be expected every single one of these was easily won by either Sakho or Toure. (more…)

United & Van Gaal Do Nothing To Convince

Posted: December 26, 2015 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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PRE-MATCH

So Louis gets another chance against Stoke. Judging by the team he has picked he has been listening to the supporters, which he will obviously deny. A manager listening to the supporters! What is the world coming to?

It actually might not have been a bad ploy to mention that he was bowing to incessant fan requests to drop Rooney and play Herrera. At least that way, the fans are less likely to have a go at him, whatever the result.

On Soccer Saturday, the pundits couldn’t quite believe why Rooney had been dropped for what they saw as a “must win” game. Well guys, I’ll tell you. Rooney has been the standout worst United player this season. I have watched every minute of every game and, apart from the game against Bruges, where he had three goals laid on a plate for him, he has been awful. Every time he has played it has been like United started with ten men. Why is it considered such a “big decision” to leave out your worst player? I would have thought it was one of the easiest decisions of the season.

Van Gaal appears to have realised that, in a must win game, he has more chance of winning WITHOUT Rooney and WITH Herrera. Let’s hope so anyway. (more…)

Fanpower, Where Has It Gone?

Posted: October 30, 2015 in Fans, Football, Opinion
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‘I always say the same – if the footballing world doesn’t think of the fans, it’s going to lose the passion and the love. So I was impressed but I was very happy because the fans come first here.
They travel around the world, they spend the money, they spend the time so I think we have to be very, very thankful.’

A nice quote from a rich Premier League football player. Is he English? No. Is he even British? No. Of course not, there aren’t any British footballers left in the UK according to all the harbingers of doom.

This is a quote from Manchester United’s Ander Herrera, who can’t yet consider himself a first team regular, although he should be able to.

Having only spent a relatively short time in England he has quickly grasped what makes football what it is. (more…)

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