Progress

For years everyone has laughed at Arsenal for celebrating fourth place in the PL. Now the shoe is on the other foot. After years celebrating titles, it felt strange to be celebrating Liverpool failing to win at Chelsea and all but guaranteeing United fourth place this season. How the mighty have fallen...

Following on from C's fantastic appraisal of QPR's season, J is following suit with an assessment of United's season and where we can go from what seems like a fourth place finish (barring 2 losses and a 14 goal swing).

Review: 

It's been a strange season where United started poorly - losing at home to Swansea, drawing at Sunderland, drawing and failing to score at Burnley etc. but United have unquestionably progressed since last year. We've competed for the top four all year and looked far more entertaining (for the most part) as well as more confident and resolute.

The results picked up at the back end of the year, draws at home to Chelsea and wins at Arsenal & Southampton showed results were heading the right way even if performances were still stuttering.

For all the world it looked like everything had clicked with the run of six wins on the trot including Tottenham and the mauling of Citeh at home. Fellaini looked like a beast and it seemed like LVG had had his 'Juventus' moment that he'd been going on about all year...Only for the recent run of 3 defeats on the trot without scoring and the return of boring, predictable football again. Saturday saw United scrape through against Palace and it was fitting that it was two men who LVG has revitalised that won it for the Reds - Ashley Young and Fellaini. This and a special mention for our player of the year David De Gea, who made some unbelievable saves yet again to secure the points.

So now we have to avoid defeat in just one of our last 2 games - Arsenal at home and Hull away - to finish in fourth position and enter the qualification rounds of the Champions League.

So what should be the plan for next year?

The plan:

This year the plan was arguably to finish in the top four. Next season? Surely it has to be to challenge for the title - challenge being the operative word!

First of all, and most important of all - keep David De Gea. This is a big ask - Madrid is his home and when Real Madrid come calling you pretty rarely see someone saying no. United need to do whatever they possibly can to keep him here and get him signed up on another contract. Do whatever it takes to show his girlfriend that Manchester is much lovelier than the back of a fridge - get her on a tour of the Northern Quarter with Juan & Ander, just do whatever it takes to sign the man up! He's showed time and time again this season how he is one of the very best keepers in the world and has saved this team at least 12 points this season if not more.

Secondly - sort out the Angel Di Maria situation. Di Maria clearly hasn't settled in England and isn't enjoying life here whatsoever. He started the season looking like the quality footballer we all know he is and he can't have lost that ability and the form he showed for Real the year before. Di Maria is the type of next level player the team needs but at the moment it looks like United are putting a square peg in a round hole whenever he plays. He clearly isn't comfortable on the wing where he's playing. The system that LVG is now employing is clearly the one he likes and it looks to be staying - so is Di Maria redundant? The board and LVG need to work that out quickly. Either get him playing in this system and confidently, or call it quits.

A lot has already been said by more esteemed observers than me about who United should sign, but in my humble opinion we need four players at least. Even that depends upon whether they sign Falcao permanently and whether RVP is staying or if they wipe the slate clean and go for a breath of fresh air up front (Which personally appeals to me on both counts).

So if I were in charge I would sign a right back, a central midfielder, a central defender and at least one striker.

A winger is already sorted and I am seriously excited to watch Memphis Depay at OT next season. He's torn the Eredivisie up this year, and while that isn't always a guarantee for success he looks like one of the best prospects in European football currently. Plus, to snatch him from under the Scouser's noses is always nice! He's also scored four free kicks in his last four games - we haven't had a free kick specialist since Ronaldo and I'm sick of the amount of dire free kicks in good positions we have put up with this year.

So, the right back - all the talk is about Nathaniel Clyne and he would seem to be a very good signing. He knows the PL and has steadily improved over the years. Apparently United were in for him when he left Crystal Palace but he opted for the Saints and the move has obviously worked wonders. He's now surely got to be rated as England's best right back (Johnson, Walker? No thanks). He'd probably cost a pretty packet but he's only 24 and could be the future right back for 10 years for United and England. It's a shame that Rafael seems to be out of the picture completely but Clyne would definitely be a serious upgrade on Tony V particularly defensively where he is always suspect.

Centre back - who else but Mats Hummels? The Metro have got a story today stating that the Reds are in advanced talks with Dortmund to sign Hummels who would cost £37m. Every man and his dog has their opinion and everyone's an expert now. I've read a huge amount of talk that he's too slow for the PL etc etc blah blah blah. LVG had him at Bayern Munich and Klopp has built a team on the foundations of Hummels and Subotic at Dortmund. If those two coaches rate him then that tells me all I need to know. Sign him up, Ed. Get Jones or Rojo fit and consistently playing and we have a very decent centre back line up.

Central midfielder - Gundogan, Pogba, Khedira, Vidal, Wijnaldum? In an ideal world if this was Fifa 1998 and any bid for a player at the right price meant that they'd move to you I'd say Pogba. He has everything. We should swallow our pride and put the fact that we had him on our books to the back of our mind and just pay what it takes to get him. But I seriously can't see us getting him. Pogba will have his pick of teams to go to and in all likelihood he'll go to Barcelona (when their transfer ban is up) or Real won't he? In that case, I think we should go for Gundogan. He's got a great range of passing but can put a foot in as well. He's a great mix of qualities that we need and he's realistically "available".

Striker - I'm going to plan that we don't have RVP and Falcao. In which case, I think we probably need two strikers. I'd try and poach Danny Ings from the clutches of Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal or whoever. He's available on a free (well a tribunal fee, but considering what he would be worth it's peanuts), he's young, he's English, he can score in the PL and he is direct and pacy. At OT he stretched the play very impressively and ran the channels better than anyone else I've seen this season. In short, he's exactly the kind of player I think we've missed by getting rid of Chicharito and Welbeck. The other striker? I think we should sign Jackson Martinez from Porto. At 28 he's got Champions League experience and has shown consistently that he is better than the Portuguese Liga. In three seasons at Porto he has scored 31, 29 and 28 (and counting) goals. Martinez scored 7 goals in the CL this year so the argument that he's good in the Portuguese Liga but that doesn't guarantee goals is somewhat nullified by that. It would be a slight gamble but I don't fancy Cavani and I'm not sure someone like Benzema is realistic.

In an ideal world if those gaps in the team are plugged I think we stand a very good chance of getting into the group stages of the Champions League plus getting into the knockout stages, challenging for the PL title and potentially winning a domestic cup as well. It might be pie in the sky but this year has seen us progress and we've ground out a lot of results playing badly. I have faith that next year once LVG has a full summer to build his own team, the sky's the limit! (hopefully this hasn't jinxed United for Sunday now!!!)

J

A Tale of Two Derbies

This weekend C&J were in attendance at 2 derbies on Sunday. C was in attendance at Loftus Road for QPR v Chelsea, while J was at Old Trafford for the Manchester Derby between Manchester United and Manchester City...

J -

It's official. Manchester is Red again. Sunday was arguably Man Utd's best performance of the season. Here are J's thoughts on the game:

First point to make is that there is no Moyes-bashing here but it's funny to think that just a few months ago the papers were questioning whether LVG was not progressing the team and was just the same as David Moyes. A quick Google search showed me that on 17 January the Daily Mail asked this very question and concluded that progress had been minimal, particularly for the £150m outlay of the Glazers. What a difference 3 months makes...there is now a clear difference and hopefully the pointless comparisons will stop now. After 32 games last year, United were on 54 points and in 7th position. This year they are now 11 points better off after the same number of games and 4 places higher in the table. From a fan's perspective, there has not really been any comparison this year. The confidence has been restored and even when the team weren't performing particularly well, they still appeared like they could grind out results which they couldn't do last year. Now the performances have clicked the style of football is vastly different and the attacking verve that fans have come to expect of United is back. Importantly, the club have improved in front of the home crowd as well. Last year at home, United picked up a grand total of 30(!!) points at home over the course of the whole season. They had the 9th best home record in the Premier League. After 32 games this year they have 43 points and hold the best record in the league at home. The aura around Old Trafford and the belief in the team is returning, as is the enjoyment watching attacking and winning football.

Moving on to the game...it was striking how polar opposite this year's Old Trafford derby was to last year's. Last year United were meek and rolled over easily. They dominated possession in both games (they had 53% possession last year, compared to 59% this year) which just shows that having possession amounts to nothing if you aren't clinical and prolific with your possession. United's style has been criticised for being too direct this year but since the Tottenham game at Old Trafford it has been direct football with a purpose and has been fast paced with a real gameplan in mind, as opposed to sterile possession. United had 7 shots on target this game and scored with 4 goals. Simply put, they were clinical with their finishing and were dominant throughout the game. It looked like it could have been more more after Smalling got the 4th goal and Citeh just didn't turn up after they got their early goal.

The resurgence of Marouane Fellaini continues. I will hold my hands up and admit I thought he was way out of his depth at United after last season but he has well and truly won me and the majority of United fans over judging by his standing ovation on Sunday. He was absolutely dominant all game and ran Yaya Toure ragged. Fellaini won 9 aerial challenges on Sunday and this was again in stark contrast to his performance in this game last year where he won just 3 aerial challenges. He only had 49 touches in the game last year and was largely absent, exerting no influence at all. This year he had 61 touches including the 2nd goal for United, and he won the ball back in the move which led to Mata's goal. Defensively he had an influence as well and made 2 clearances and 2 interceptions, which again compares to last year where he had 1 interception and 0 clearances. Fellaini has shown character and ability this year in abundance and is due a lot of credit for his turnaround, as is LVG who has played him in his perfect role. It begs the question why Moyes didn't when he knew the player inside out?

Michael Carrick has been called under-rated so many times, it has to come to a point when this is no longer the case but his influence was clearly evident on Sunday. He exerted a calm presence over the midfield and marshalled Jones and Smalling in the centre of defence as well. It's no coincidence that the periods of bad performances came primarily when Carrick was absent. He has been excellent this year and his one year contract extension was an excellent decision by the United hierarchy.

C- 

It was a case of the age old hard luck story for QPR under Chris Ramsey. They fought admirably and tactically were set up perfectly for the match with the village idiots from SW6, but yet again a moment of madness cost the Superhoops so so dear. This was the most gut wrenching of all the recent frustrations, not just because it came at the hands of that lot, but because it genuinely showed we could compete with the best in the Premier League once again and make them very very uncomfortable.

Chris Ramsey was quick to leap to the defence of Rob Green after the match and insisted that the blame would not lie with him, but with the defence for their slow reactions to the situation. Whilst I agree that QPR did not use the thirty-odd seconds they had to scurry back and ensure they each had a Chelsea man very well at all, I can't absolve 'Greeno' of all blame. His kicking has always looked dodgy to me and I think he knows it is his weakness, hence his decision to throw out to his nearest defender so often. He panicked here for no apparent reason and that was inexcusable. Of course, painful as it is to say, the Chavs showed the kind of performance that was worth its weight in dirty Russian Roubles (by the way, how on earth can Jose Mourinho have the audacity to declare the fascist institution as being "Financial Fair Play compliant" and then accuse Manchester City of being the bad guys? I think if it's going to be applied, it should be applied retrospectively right back to the first time Red Rom said "I buy it!"). 

I still can't believe how ordinary we made Chelsea look, how we clearly rattled them and how they only managed one shot on target and 70% pass completion. "Still beat you though" - I can hear those smug b@stards now...

Oh, special mention for the "Captain, Leader, Fascist" John Terry, the treatment of whom by the home fans disgusted many Chelsea fans, I note. How anyone can defend the actions of that man and his family is beyond me - and don't even talk to me about the people that wrote "John Terry" and "class" in the same sentence, as some deluded Village Idiots did. They will argue 'til they're blue in the face that we are hypocrites for saying the same about Joey Barton - I don't see any QPR fan writing "Joey Barton" and "class*" in the same sentence - "class" implies role model status. Neither of the pantomime villains are anything like "class". The missile throwing was unacceptable but will the FA punish the Chelsea players for incitement? Of course not, the top teams are untouchable when it comes to that sort of thing...

*Joey Barton did, in fact, put in a Man of the Match performance - a tenacious, determined performance where he really hassled the Chelsea midfield, not allowing them any time on the ball, as well as providing a driving force as QPR sought an unlikely goal. Still not class, though. Just to clear that up.

Matty Phillips deserves a mention for his progress under Chris Ramsey. Listed for loan in the January Transfer Window and almost joining Derby County, Phillips has been a revelation since the change of management. His confidence has grown week by week and he looks more and more like the player I hoped we had signed when we spent £5m on him from Blackpool two Summers ago (wonder what the Oystons did with that money?). Second top assist maker in Europe behind Messi since the turn of the year?! You bet!

A two week break now (as we're a game ahead of the rest of the pack) this will be a horrible Saturday afternoon spent in front of Jeff Stelling and Co. praying teams around us slip up. It's crap when it's not in your hands! We must win our remaining home games and get a point somewhere on the road in our last three aways to at least have a chance. 

Whatever happens, I really don't think we'd have got this far and shown this much fight and determination under Harry Houdini. Chef Ramsey has done an excellent job since taking over. Unfortunately he can't seem to bring confidence to the fragile defence, the damage to them seems irreparable and this may yet prove to be the trigger for relegation. But he's at least instilled confidence and a new way of playing that means we're having a right good go!