Your Says of the Day: The Joe Allen verdict; a (sort of) defence of LvG

Joe Allen: Leaves Liverpool for Stoke switch

Joe Allen: Leaves Liverpool for Stoke switch

Also the jury is out on Laurent Blanc for Manchester United and normal service is resumed as one United fans says they deserve better than Louis van Gaal. 

If you’d like to contribute, we’d love to hear from you. Join the debate here.

Time up for Hazard

To be honest, I’ve lost patience with Hazard now and I wouldn’t be too sad to see the back of him. I think his problems this season have been more to do with Attitude than anything else, and at this level that is unforgivable. Sure, have a little hissy fit if you want about Jose, or the treatment of Eva, defensive football, etc. But then put your boots on and get on with it – it shouldn’t last a whole season.

He clearly wants out and has said very little all season to suggest to the fans he wants to stay and get things back on track.

Having said all that, £32m is a ridiculous fee and I would expect closer to double that. Maybe there if there is a player added to that fee then we might be getting closer.

BlueLion

 

Allen ‘just not good enough’

As much as he has improved this season he still really hasn’t done anything to justify his £15m price tag.

With Grugic already coming and Stewart’s emergence, it would make a lot more sense to sign a better quality midfielder to take his slot in the squad. He’s just not good enough to take us to the next level in our development.

Razor

 

£37m for Benteke – sometimes football transfers don’t make sense

What everyone on here seems to be overlooking is this is football, and sometimes transfers seem to make no sense what so ever.

Look at two summers ago, you had Mourinho confirmed as Chelsea boss the first thing he wanted to do was get Luiz out of the door, PSG knew this and yet paid 50M for the player, I know 37M for Benteke doesn’t make sense but sometimes football transfers don’t make sense.

We know West Ham want him, and he has been linked with Juve so maybe Atletico are just trying to make sure they get him.

Paxman

 

A (sort of) defence of Louis van Gaal…

I don’t want to defend LvG here, because he’s a loony, but a couple of these (five strange tactical decisions) aren’t really that strange. Lingard has played centrally for us in a lot of games, and has done okay. He’s a very limited player, but he’s clearly playing through the middle to press high and stop centre backs from being comfortable in possession. Mata won’t do that, which is why he gets shifted out wide. Mata played on the right for nearly the whole of last season and the majority of this season.

It’s a myth that Rashford played as a right-back. It’s just not true. It’s just that Liverpool suffocated us with their high press and possession high up the pitch, we couldn’t get out of our own third. Rashford on the right and Martial were both pegged back. Rashford had to track the run of the full back, so he was constantly defending. He’d have been criticised if he just let Varela be doubled up on. He had to track back, and as a result, he was constantly pegged back.

Schweinsteiger sticking to Cazorla, is that the first time that has ever been done? Ji Sung Park did it to Pirlo against Milan, and Fergie was hailed for it. Phil Jones did it to Ronaldo at the Bernabeu, and he shut him down for the most part. It’s not really that strange to see it happen. It’s very common. Just because it didn’t work on this occasion doesn’t make it strange.

Fellaini being on the pitch at all is the poor decision. He is such a nothing player, but again, he has played as the deepest midfielder plenty for both us, Everton and Belgium. When asked what his favourite position is, that is the position he prefers to play in.

There’s plenty of sticks to beat LvG with, but most of these aren’t it.

evratime

 

We deserve better from Van Gaal

@Evratime – fair assessments mate but would just like to make two points:

On the Schweinsteiger / Cazorla vs Park / Pirlo – you just have to look at the players assigned to know why this was brought up. Park was excellent at man-marking, quite possibly the fittest player at United and was always up for a big game. On the other end of the spectrum, Schweinsteiger isn’t currently made for that role; his legs are gone and anyone and their dog could’ve told you that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Cazorla and Arsenal’s midfield that day.

On Lingard through the middle – he may be able to press more in the middle, but that doesn’t change the fact that Mata is utterly useless out on the wing. Why not play Herrera in the centre (whose great at pressing) and leave Lingard on the wing? Why not drop Mata for another right winger?

Whilst both these points can be seen as ‘solutions’, they weren’t the best solutions by any stretch of the imagination. It’s like LVG having all the products in the world available to him to put two pieces of wood together – instead of using screws or even glue, he used chewing gum – it’s a solution but my God, can’t he have done better?

Sympathy for the Devils

 

United’s standards have dropped so low

There was a time when a win was expected and anything else was unacceptable. We have now got to a point where anything slightly better than poor has people shouting from the rooftops and I see that as a reflection of how low our standards have dropped.

It was very rare that I would comment about a result. It was more about the playing style, potential signings or form of players because the wins would come under SAF. We are now in a position where every single result is commented upon because there is no margin for error due to the poor management in place.

Scholsey

 

Jury out on Laurent Blanc for United

Laurent Blanc: Signed a new two-year contract

@jm1502. I’m not sure about Laurent Blanc either. He has a lot more resources than anyone else in the league so it’s a given that he’ll win. He obviously did quite well at Bourdeax as well.

Ultimately Blanc has failed in the real objective at PSG which is the Champions League. He also put a lot of square pegs in round holes last night. Something I am very wary of since van Gaal has subjected it to us.

hatters

 

City atmosphere flat

Didn’t see many empty seats last night but City were advertising tickets on general sale on the radio earlier this week which is a bit disappointing. Arguably their biggest match in their history and they struggle to sell out.

In terms of the atmosphere, it sounded pretty flat on TV until the goal. Apologies if that wasn’t the case.

Well done city though. I didn’t think City would get through this tie. PSG didn’t turn up last night but you can only play whats in front of you. Be good to see what a full strength City can do against the big boys when it matters.

If its Barca and Bayern who progress tonight I’d expect UEFA will find a way of keeping the two Spanish sides apart in the semi and in turn City and Bayern (Guardiola) apart.

Manthistle

 

£4 for a ‘small crap pie’ at The Etihad

Aguerooooo we are both lucky we can afford to go. But I know one or two City fans who just can’t afford to go to all games these days.

When you are talking about food drink and travel you are not going to get much change out of £140-150 for two adults for last night. I realise we have fantastic owners, but they are not short of a few quid, the club has just sold 10% shares for £280m, imo it would be good to see some of that go back to the fans.

On top of that £4 for a small crap pie, £1.50 for a mars bar and crap service to boot is not really acceptable. Part of the problem is we are in four competitions for a lot longer these days hence more games to go to??. I sound like I’m moaning, oh dear !

Happy days are here. Jim

Mancity Jim