15/9/15 - PSV v Manchester United

As Rio said, time to re-educate yourself regarding watching United. By the time that 'boring' football becomes second nature and speeds up so it's slick transition play from the back to the front you'll be watching something different again.

No-one said this transition period was going to be easy. You don't build an entirely new structure set up and way of doing things in one full season, was never on the cards.

I think we are very light at the back. Shaw is probably out for the season. That leaves us with Darmian, Smalling, Jones, Rojo and McNair who are specialist defenders, with Blind and Valencia who are converted midfielders. 7 bodies to get us through (hopefully) 60+ matches. And that is if we don't suffer any more injuries. We're a couple of injuries away from a bench full of youth players, or Carrick playing at CB.

Maybe, just maybe it's his philosophy that's strangling the life out of us. This season we have De Gea, Smalling, Rojo, Blind, Shaw, Carrick, Herrera, Rooney, Mata, Young, Fellaini, Valencia and all the other fringe players left (I won't count our youngsters as they won't get a look in unless we have a lot of injuries then if it works out we will hear, what a genius VG is) who have had a full season under him. How long does it take to learn this famous philosophy?
We have Darmian who has as you say has slotted right in, Schneiderlin who is one of the best DMs in the business, Schweini who you say once again would fit in anywhere. The only 2 who still aren't intelligent enough (no disrespect to them because they're still young and learning) are Martial who because he's just came off his mothers tit will take a few years to develop and Memphis who really is the only one who needs bedding in.
We should of hit the ground running from the start of the season, not continued on as if last season hadn't finished. Tell me the difference between how we played last season and this not forgetting that the majority of the first X1 are players who have had a full season under VG and the other regular starters are intelligent enough to know what he wants.

Get it from the sources mouth, Rooney, the captain. He says it's all very clear and simple and everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing and VG is very clear in what he wants players to do on a match by match basis.  So all the ones who were there last season under him will be further on than the newbies.

But you've still got the problem of the new players last season having only been here for a year - Rojo, Blind, Shaw, Herrera, Mata.  Look what happened to Fellaini first season and then last (second) season -  different player.  

Rojo, Blind, Shaw, Herrera, Mata all coming into that second season and should start to settle and shine - little to do with 'philosophy'.   Darmian and Schneiderlin will do the same next year, they'll look better for having a full season behind them.

Just a standard adjustment period, like Vidic, Evra and every other cunt under Fergie.

So demystify this phrase "the philosophy". Philosophy just means  system of play and way of doing things on a group and individual level.  The VG system is not total football because you can't learn that overnight and you're looking at a decade before an entire club could be converted and it's just not practical these days.  The game has changed, players have changed, quality of players have changed since the 70s.   But the basic tenets of total football remain the same and he took those and adapted it to whatever league and situation he has found himself in to great success.  

Just because players "get" what the manager wants them to do (and be) doesn't mean it's easy to break the habits of a lifetime and not occasionally revert back. It's a case of retraining your brain for some = takes time.  VG knows this, he's encountered it at every club he's been at but if they stick to it and are willing then he / they invariably gets the results.

So a few things going on then -  adapting and adjusting to the BPL / adapting and adjusting to United (biggest one of all for me) / adapting and adjusting to VG system and methods. 

It's easy to conflate and point the finger because it suits people's  bias, when it's actually a more fluid and complicated picture than that. 

Memphis just needs to adapt to the BPL, that much is obvious for all to see - he's only played half a dozen matches but worked briefly under VG with  Holland. Martial,  it's too early to tell which way he's going to go. He might breeze the BPL (Liverpool) and not be phased by United but struggle with VG methods. Too early to tell. 

Precisely. The start of the season is all about picking up the results, which we've done so far, better than 16 other clubs in the league, including a victory over our biggest rivals. Lost away to a very good Swansea side and drew at home to a stubborn and resilient Newcastle who had 10 men behind the ball for nearly the entire match. With the way people are complaining you'd think we were in a similar position to Chelsea at this stage.

As long as we keep picking up results in this early part of the season the performances are pretty irrelevant to me.

That's seriously fucked up.

Mind, Howrad Webb has come out and said it was a good challenge: www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/465180/Howard-Webb-Referee-got-decision-right-on-Man-United-s-Luke-Shaw

But that's simply not true. Wilson was started over Falcao last year, McNair was started ahead of whomever. It's a matter of whether you're good enough, or rather better than the player in your position.
People were always complaining about how Van Gaal didn't give Januzaj a chance, and when he finally did - he wasn't good. Same goes for Herrera, he started last season poorly, losing the ball way too often and then when he improved he became a regular starter.