The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

[dubcity]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Weird. He hasn't struck me as a particularly sensitive guy until watching that. He's probably mostly annoyed that his team isn't performing any worse than last year but other teams are keeping pace with them in the table this year.

[Zac]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Hes also probably annoyed of all the talk of him being replaced when they are in 5th with two games until the mid season point. They have plenty of time to get back up in title contention, only 9 points off the lead.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Surprised it took him this long to pull out that move.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Some of those questions. Just wow. What an absolute **** show soccer media has become.

[fearwhatnow]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Has LVG now discovered the media and their role? How old is he? 15? He's crying also. That's ridiculous. He's part of this "billions show" for decades with money floating everywhere, with managers having their own paid journalists. He's suddenly annoyed by what? His job was to make the team play better than last season. Fail. ManU plays even worse. Even if ManU was in the 1st place now the fact is that the team isn't performing well or, simply put, someone must be a hero to watch for 90 minutes ManU. Even the match against Leicester was one of the worst EPL games this season.
Also, if he is one of these romantic football souls and he's away from all this "show", then his target should be some beautiful, attractive football even with a 5th place finishing.

[PabloLFC]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Although I have to grit my teeth to agree with supportleicesternow, Van Gaal has failed as a United manager. It's not all about their league position cos as has been said they could still win the league, it's more about the money they've spent to still not be in a much better position than they are. I go to uni in manchester and speak to a lot of United fans and they've always said Van Gaal has played better football than they did under Moyes. At times last season and the beginning of this I could sort of agree but not now because they've become truly dire. They've spent too much money to only be near top 4, they should be challenging for titles pretty much by default.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

You both are incorrect in your inferences. It has nothing to do with United and how they've been playing. I think maybe you two are a bit blinded by hatred for United and/or LVG.

I'm saying this as a guy who hates United quite a bit: the media has reached, honestly, unacceptable levels of nonsense this season. ESPECIALLY with LVG. They want him to get fired and replaced by Jose so bad I can pretty much guarantee you half those sorry excuses for journalists would literally bury a family member to see that happen. Jose at United would be an endless supply of click bait for these rags for his entire tenure, and they were all clearly expecting some sort of news from the press conference today.

United haven't performed well, but they aren't in 16th place either. LVG has absolutely not done anything to deserve the same level of rampant speculation and garbage slinging around his job that Jose had.

I legitimately hope these top teams just start banning these **** papers from their press conferences entirely. Like honestly, how is The Sun even allowed anywhere near a stadium?

[Suntan Superman]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

You both are incorrect in your inferences. It has nothing to do with United and how they've been playing. I think maybe you two are a bit blinded by hatred for United and/or LVG.

I'm saying this as a guy who hates United quite a bit: the media has reached, honestly, unacceptable levels of nonsense this season. ESPECIALLY with LVG. They want him to get fired and replaced by Jose so bad I can pretty much guarantee you half those sorry excuses for journalists would literally bury a family member to see that happen. Jose at United would be an endless supply of click bait for these rags for his entire tenure, and they were all clearly expecting some sort of news from the press conference today.

United haven't performed well, but they aren't in 16th place either. LVG has absolutely not done anything to deserve the same level of rampant speculation and garbage slinging around his job that Jose had.

I legitimately hope these top teams just start banning these **** papers from their press conferences entirely. Like honestly, how is The Sun even allowed anywhere near a stadium?

How is The Sun still published or taken seriously?

[dubcity]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

How is The Sun still published or taken seriously?

Because the UK loves them some tabloid journalism.

[Perceptor]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

And that friends is why UK tabloids are awful. The headlines don't even match the story content most of the time for crying out loud.

United's team is a team of aging stars and prospects not quite there mixed in with very good players who aren't performing consistently. The only world class player they have right now is their goalkeeper who may leave at the end of the season.

Rooney, Carrick, Schweinsteiger are all on the wrong side of 30. While they are good players, they aren't world beaters. In the case of Rooney, he's been inconsistent for the last 5 years.

Mata should be their best player, but he too has been inconsistent. Then you have Memphis and Martial, who are young and need time to adjust. Problem is when the team paid a ton of money for both of them, the expectations went sky high.

Defensively, they're not great. Smalling has improved but Phil Jones has been disappointing since he joined. He hasn't yet reached the potential that he was expected to. Luke Shaw was looking solid until that awful injury and Darmian has been alright.

If you really want to think about it, United's team on paper isn't all that great overall compared to Arsenal, City, Chelsea, and even the Spuds. In my mind, the fact that they are even in a fight for a top 4 spot is good considering that the team in my opinion looks more like a mid table team.

I know United fans may hate that I said it, but who in United's first 11 would you take on a team like Arsenal, City or Chelsea? De Gea would be the only one gimme on current form.

Anyhow, my point is that while LVG is struggling and has played some underwhelming football, his squad as a whole isn't great, meaning he needs to be more rigid to be competitive.

Even when United were winning titles in SAF's last season, they were doing it behind RVP's goals. This team has been in slow decline since 2010, but thanks to individual performances, some luck, and teams in transitional periods, they were able to win 2 titles post Ronaldo. The squad doesn't just need some young players - it needs a substantial overhaul

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Most people clowning LVG have still yet to fully comprehend what a good manager SAF was. LVG, for the most part, is probably doing fine. You can't just decide to play attacking soccer and then magically have your team play that way over night, especially not if you aspire to be a consistent CL contender.

[rsnomar05]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

From Arseblog: Wenger's poker face when asked about Mourinho's firing.

[PabloLFC]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

I can't agree that Van Gaal is doing a good job. He's spent too much money for what he's doing to be considered a good job. He had Di Maria last season and, while not all his fault, made him a laughing stock. Ferguson did a great job at finding title winners from average squads, Van Gaal has a better squad than Ferguson did most years, at least a much more expensive one.

The comparison point is Moyes, not Ferguson. He's fell at the first hurdle of every competition they've been in so far. Moyes at least got them to the league cup semis and Champions League quarters. The league position was worse but the points total wasn't. In Moyes' season they had 34 points after 19 games (which isn't even that bad) and United can only better that by winning consecutive games this season.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

I didn't say he's doing a good job, I said he's doing fine. His job isn't to challenge for the title, his job is to completely overhaul the squad and bulldoze the last remnants of the SAF mentality so that a new manager can come in and implement a new system. He's largely done that. Most of the money spent have been on high potential younger players. Don't think of it as "LVG spent X million and isn't winning the league " (because managers don't have sole control over transfers anymore) it's more like "United spent X million to overhaul the squad"

[Suntan Superman]

Re: The 2015-2016 EPL Discussion Thread

Merry Christmas to everyone except the Spuds fans.

























okay maybe the spuds fans