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EyeOnSoccer

Deadline Day is New Season High Point So Far

It’s been an ugly start to the new EPL season for Manchester United. An opening day loss followed by two draws to close out August, plus a thorough booting out of the Capital One Cup by the MK Dons. The squad, largely unchanged prior to the last week of the transfer window, couldn’t adapt to Louis Van Gaal’s 3-back formation. It seems as if the players were so focused on where they were supposed to be, they forgot the basics of how to play the game.

Fletcher, Cleverly, Young were so frustrating, their play often characterized by bad passing, failing to drop back, lack of pace and poor, poor decision making. Jones, Smalling and Blackett tried valiantly  to shore up the holes, but were caught scrambling numerous times. Our attack was none existent, pedantic and boring. If you believe the announcers, Van Gaal’s teams have often taken 3 months or so to adjust and start on winning ways. After all, Van Gaal is hardly a rookie when it comes to top tier soccer. However, taking 3 months to turn things around is not an option for Manchester United.

End of the transfer window finished out the player changes that will hopefully provide the turnaround needed. But it’s going to be  a totally diDanny-Welbeck Leaves ManUfferent roster then fans have been used to. Gone on deals or loans are Chicharito, Kagawa, Cleverly, Welbeck, Nani, Evra, Powell, Zaha, Buttner, Bebe, Macheda, Lawrence, Keane and of course Vidic and Ferdinand. It’s a shame really that Evra wasn’t encouraged to stay as he would have undoubtedly been able to function well in the new formation. A better contract offer to Vidic to stay would perhaps have provided for the leadership that is missing on the pitch. Rooney does what he can, but he needs a ‘second’ out there to make sure players are doing what they need to do.

Incoming players, Falcao, Di Maria, Blind, Shaw, Rojo, Herrera will hopefully make the difference when added to the likes of Van Persie, Rooney, Valencia and Mata. It would be embarrassing for Van Gaal to abandon his 3-back formation at this point since much has been made of it, so he’s gone to the bank to get players to make it work.

Time will tell.

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