QPR vs Man United- 17/01/2015

Ahh I see. Oh well... what does Marc know?

Well, apparently Evans starts instead of Smalling

Good news.

And they say Moyes is a tactical dinosaur. Fuck off back to Germany or Spain VG and take your boring, predictable anti football with you.

For 60 minutes it was as bad as anything we've seen the past month, dominating possession but creating nothing. Di Maria once again up front and Rooney once again in central midfield, nobody but the manager seems to know what he's doing as with a little tweak...swapping both players' positions we'd see a world of difference for me.

Then we switch to a back 4, score almost instantly and looked pretty dangerous for the rest of the match, particularly impressed with Wilson, not just because of his goal but I thought he looked good from the second he stepped onto the pitch. Fair enough we also looked more vulnerable at the back but this club has always been about outscoring the opponent, not playing a formation to specifically make sure you're less susceptible to concede a goal especially against the sort of opposition we played today. Hopefully that half an hour of football will convince the manager to drop the 3-5-2, although I won't hold my breath.

As for positive player performances, thought Rojo was top notch, Blind again played well at wing/full back and as I mentioned was impressed with Wilson. Falcao tried again but just doesn't seem to be fully at it yet in England, Di Maria also falls into that category wasn't impressed by him at all yet again, hopefully if he plays deeper in future games we'll start to see improved performances from him. We all berated Fellaini last season and still do this season (rightfully so) but he made more of an impact than Mata did or has done for weeks. Really don't see a bright future for Mata. Another week and another no show besides about 20 seconds at the end for Herrera, don't see where the manager is coming from with this one, he must be absolutely awful in training because we've started the last few games with 2 guys in Rooney and Mata in central midfield whilst neither are out and out central midfielders.

Herrera being left out is the big mystery for me, because his introduction would solve a lot of the issues we're seeing. I wish we could have some way to understand his omission.

I disagree when people say our defence is shit. Sure we're still bound to make mistake because our defenders are still very young, but from what I see it's in midfield that the issue truly is. There is a lack of connection and mobility in tat CAM position behind our strikers, so much so that we are unable to take advantage of our possession spell. I believe the roots have been built up pretty well by LVG in terms of tactical awareness and possession (although there is still plenty f work to do), but now the times has come to move forward attacking wise or we won't be able to break the best teams.

I wish we could add some bodies behind our strikers closer to each other to penetrate from the middle, especially when you have players like Di Maria, Rooney or Herrera (and even Mata) who can play quick passes/one-touch football and offer great mobility.

All in all, I think that LVG is trying to implement a tactical and "philosophical" change, and I respect that because we're improving on many levels, but at the same time a part of me doesn't understand many of his decisions, such as the basic tactical set up, with Di Maria upfront, Rooney so deep, Herrera left out completely...

Oh he has an answer on Di Maria

"That is also the reason that Wilson has played in the striker's position, because he also has pace and speed and we have to stretch the pitch," Van Gaal admitted.

"Because when you are not stretching with your strikers the opponent makes the space compact, so you need players who can stretch the pitch.

"So when I changed Di Maria to midfield then I had to put Wilson on to stretch the pitch and that's what is in behind."

He still isn't a striker.