It’s bloody Christmas time, Manchester United are still unbeaten in seven matches, and the RedMancunian team are back in the studio to give you small pre-festive show with discussion on the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa and look ahead to the Boxing Day match at Old Trafford against the horse punching, non t-shirt wearing Newcastle United.
In the studio this week, we’ve got Craig Norwood, Mark Hamnett and Sam.
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RedMancunian: Manchester United Podcast
Season 02 – Episode 16.
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One reply on “Podcast SE2-EP16: "Lo, Lo, Lo, Lo, Lo, Lo Radamel Falcao"”
The Villa game was disappointing, not just because of the result, but by the cautious approach adopted by Van Gaal in team selection, positional set up and tactics. It was all quite Moyesian.
Starting with Carrick as a centreback was unnecessary with Jones, Evans, McNair and Blackett all available. A midfield of Mata, Rooney and Fletcher was hardly inspiring. Fellaini was out sick but what is the issue with Herrera? He is clearly United’s best midfielder, a potenial Robbo, but he wasn’t even on the bench. Has Van Gaal passed judgement on him even before a Spanish court has?
When Rooney drops deep to pick up the ball and then hits long sweeping balls aiming at Van Persie’s head or more often than not at Valencia’s chest out on the right, there is hardly much of a threat to a well organised Villa defence. When these tactics are adopted, Mata invariably goes MIA for long periods.
Against Arsenal, Southampton and Liverpool, United were able to successfully counter-attack against opponents who were pushing forward. Against a more deep lying Villa, United were short of ideas at opening the defence. It was like the away games at Burnley and Sunderland etc.all over again.
Rooney tried hard against Villa but using him as a playmaker is not the best tactic. Against well organised defences United needs advanced central penetration as well as width. Using the likes of Mata, Herrera and/or Januzaj with a short inter-passing game along the edge of the opponents box gives opportunity to prise open defences creating chances for Van Persie and Falcao. United had plenty of possession against Villa but mostly 35-40 yards out where Rooney often was. Constantly feeding the ball out to Young and Valencia is all rather predictable.
In Falcao, Van Persie, Rooney, Di Maria, Wilson Januzaj and Mata, United has the best group of attacking players in the country. Van Gaal should play to the team’s strengths and adopt a more positive and creative approach especially against defence minded teams like Villa, otherwise United will drop more points against teams it should be beating. If you look at games United have not won this season, only at WBA and Leicester did we score more than one goal. Our much maligned defence cops plenty of flack but it is in the attacking areas where we are failing to drive home our advantage and collect three points.
Time to hammer the Geordies.
Happy cracker-pulling to all!
Happy Cracker-Pulling!