Young is the new angel of Old Trafford
Six league wins on the spin and a collective 9-3 pounding of their rivals in Spurs, Liverpool and City; it’s safe to say it might be time to believe that the Louis Van Gaal philosophy has finally landed. If that was perhaps a matter of time, what was less expected is the personal that are currently responsible for this resurgence. The four scorers today have all had their Old Trafford careers questioned over the past 12 months. Juan Mata was perhaps unfortunate to have ever found himself in that situation. A World Cup, European Cup and Champions League winner, Mata is about as close to proven class as you can get. His omission from several team sheets during a guileless period for United at the start of the year were beginning to resemble a sick joke. His reinsertion into the team, coupled with a move to a fluid 4-3-3 have been instrumental during the recent wins. The doubts remain over Smalling as a defender, but he carries the ball out from the back in a manner befitting the ball playing centre back Van Gaal demands. 3 goals in 4 games to go with his run of performances have helped his case further. Fellaini meanwhile, finds himself in the unique position of being a piece of ironic genius. Ironic? How so? Simple. David Moyes knew how good Fellaini could be, if played in the right way in the right team. The trouble was, Moyes was so scared of being critisiced for his style of football he refused to play him in such a way. Instead he relegated him to a holding role in what was often a 4-2-4 formation and watched as he toiled trying to play one touch passes in small area of the pitch. Van Gaal, unlike Moyes, does not give a flying fuck what other people think of him. And so, ironically, he has resurrected the career of the Belgian by playing him in his favoured role, just off the front man in a highly mobile position that has managed to bring the best not only out of him, but of every other player in United’s front six. Let’s be absolutely clear about this, Van Gaal has genuinely built his team around this player. Against Spurs Fellaini was United’s best attacker. Against Liverpool he was their best defender. Against City he bullied Kompany and Toure to a point where one was lucky to stay on the pitch and the other was a passenger. All of which, finally brings us to a flying winger who is suddenly beating players, scoring goals, assisting goals and running up and down the line like the energizer bunny. Manchester United’s best outfield player this season. No, not £57m Angel Di Maria. Ashley fucking Young. Of all the resurrections mentioned above, none can hold a candle to the story of Young. Offered a transfer in the summer and told his Old Trafford career was over, Young asked to stay and fight for his place. He has played left back, right back, left wing back, right wing back, the number ten, right forward, left forward and inside left so far this season and has excelled throughout. He is right now, with the possible exception of Glenn Murray, the best example available of how far confidence and belief can truly take you given half the chance. Nobody has benefitted more than the introduction of Van Gaal than Ashley Young, and whilst he might still often resemble a dying swan come Marlo Stanfield look a like, it’s fully time he got the credit he deserved.
United are back, you heard it here first. 3rd is the new 1st anyway...
Is Alan Pardew the best manager in the league?
51 points, that is how many Alan Pardew has achieved so far this season from the 31 games he has managed. That would place his collective team 8th, with a game in hand and 5 points off 4th. That doesn’t sound that good I suppose. Only his collective team are the now shambolic Newcastle and the formally shambolic Crystal Palace, both of which came with a collective transfer budget of around zero. Only Arsenal, United and Chelsea have taken more points than Crystal Palace since Pardew took over, and his team are not winning games via defensive nous or negative organisation. Palace are rocking up and out gunning opponents time and time again. Pardew has rolled out a 4-2-3-1 formation with the pace, power and trickery of Bolaise, Puncheon and Zaha behind the forgotten figure of Glenn Murray. Having barely cobbled together a handful of games over two seasons, Murray has blasted 6 goals and 4 assists in his last six matches at an average goal involvement of a frankly preposterous one every 41 minutes. Palace, now safe in mid-table are playing with a reckless abandon that the likes of Manchester City can only look at and stare longingly. Forget Stuart Pearce’s controversial Manchester “best XI” - on form, a Palace/City best XI would feature 4 of the Palace front 6. Oh, and the entire back four. Without wanting to go over this again, I will simply direct readers to my comment from last week. Newcastle fans should be careful what you wish for...
Hull are in deep trouble
It’s hard to look at the table, remaining fixtures and the top of the Championship and make the statement that, yet again, Yorkshire will be without a team in the top flight next season. The biggest county in England, famed for it’s Olympic prowess, savoury puddings, rolling hills and losing the War of the Roses, remains in a footballing cesspit from which their seems little immediate recovery. Clinging on to Hull is never good at the best of times, but with Leicester winning and both Burnley and QPR scoring more goals, it’s hard to make a case for Steve Bruce’s team to stay in the division come May. Hull have six games left to play and they read as follows:
Away to Palace. See above. No chance.
Home to Liverpool. Small chance, depending on if Liverpool have arrested their mini slump by then.
Home to Arsenal. No chance.
Home to Burnley. A real relegation six pointer, but if they’ve already lost the three above...
Away to Spurs. Hell, everyone has a chance against Spurs.
Home to Man Utd. No chance.
Even the most optimistic of fans would look at that and see 5 points. Max. Which frankly Steve, ain’t gonna be enough.
Still, Brucie might lose a bit of weight back in the Championship. So there's always that.
Leicester can do this
Three points off safety with a game in hand, Leicester have the form, the fixtures and most importantly, the luck to pull of a recovery that seemed impossible just a month ago. In a curious move, Pearson has basically benched all his new players in favour for the core of the team that got them promoted last year. Although having the still mythically underrated Esteban Cambiasso in central midfield has certainly helped. The foxes have five home games remaining owing to a rearranged match and fixture quirk. With Burnley, Newcastle, Sunderland and QPR all still to play, it is in their own paws.
Sherwood was always, always going to win at the Lane.
I refuse to believe anything other than this. Tactics Tim walked in to face his side in the dressing room before kick off, looked them up and down, side to side, rubbed everything off the chalk board, brought out a copy of Alex Ferguson’s autobiography and read three words from it.
“Lads... it’s Tottenham.”
Team of the Weak
Pantilimon - Showed the confidence of a teenage girl on prom night. And was about as good with his h... and I probably can’t say that anymore.
O’Shea - Rubbish
Jones - Garbage
Vergini - Seriously Sunderland is there a middle ground between great and absolutely awful defending with any of you lot?
Zabaleta - In fairness, he won’t be the last player torn apart by the World Cup Finalist and man of the match in last years Champions League Final. Oh hold on, no wait, I keep thinking this is all still a dream.
Huddlestone - Career is nosediving faster than a penguin without a parachute.
Toure - A genuine disgrace. Regularly walking and just not bothered. A World Class player who couldn’t be more fair weather if he tried.
Townsend - Those tweets don’t like quite so good now do they Andros...
Berahino - Looked very average and was then blamed for the entire defeat for not laying in his teammate on the overlap. Which may have been a touch harsh.
Pelle - 1208... oh wait, he scored? Really? Oh. Well, hell of a run kid. Hell of a run.
Kane - Possibly a little tired now. Plus he really can’t do it all Spurs. Come on guys.
Aluko - I’m not even sure I know who this player is. Only that he sometimes plays for Hull. Badly.
What you may have missed
The early kick off bore fest between the not really bothered we’re going to finish in mid-table Swansea and the not really bothered we’re going to finish in mid-table Everton. Saints managing to win 2-0, rather than the usual 1-0... with Pelle scoring. Apparently. Spurs, being Spurs. Tim Sherwood not being remotely bothered at the final whistle and quietly putting his finger to his lips. That or celebrating like his kid had just scored the winner in the World Cup, either’s good. Sunderland wondering why they bothered sacking anyone. West Brom wondering where the Tony Pulis they hired has wandered off to. West Ham drawing 1 all with Stoke in dear Christ that was a boring game AGAIN wasn’t it. Burnley being unlucky to lose 1-0 to Arsenal. QPR being desperately unlucky to lose 1-0 to Chelsea. And finally, for the first time in what felt forever, a Manchester United midfield actually running rings around another genuine top four team.
Viva la philosophy.
Now let’s all go and cheer on Justin Rose.
https://twitter.com/HinduMonkey
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