The season so far Manchester United has been better than that of last year, looks like they are heading to clinch that elusive top four spot and put themselves in contention for next year Champions League and compete with the elite of Europe. New Manager this term, new philosophies implemented it took a lot of time for players to get used to Louis Van Gaal methodology, But it takes takes time to achieve perfection.
Guinness cup trumping their bitter rivals Liverpool in USA. You would have thought that with renewed confidence they would definitely have a good start to this term campaign with close to 145 million pounds spent in the summer transfer some major names being signed with likes of Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid smashing the British record transfer fee and the loan move of Radamel Falcao from AS Monaco and also this term a new captain in Wayne Rooney was made. But the first match was a disaster losing to Swansea at home on opening day, but the fans were still behind the new manager knowing he could turn things around. He stated to imply that same formation that did wonders to his Netherlands at the FIFA World Cup but sadly he realised that this formation of 5-3-2 seemed to not work for United. The Game against Queens Park Rangers Van Gaal decided to switch to diamond formation which resulted in an empathic 4-0 victory with Di Maria scoring his début goal for United and looked like this could be the kick start for Manchester United this season.
It took Van Gaal four games to pick up his first win as a head coach for Manchester United just like Alex Ferguson did when he took over head coach role of the club back in 1986. There was a lot of difference with United last this term as compared to last year the possession of the ball was much better, passing seemed to be more fluent less mistakes as compared to the Moyes era. With passing percentage an increase of five percentage of 5% from last year from 54% to 59% but goals conceded has also drooped has dropped down to 21 goals as opposed to 24 goals last season. Total passes so far this term 11,465 passes with a pass percentage completion of 85.2% as compared to last year a total of 10,306 passes with a pass percentage completion of 83.01% so as you can see from the statistics with Louis Van Gaal at the helm United seem to have improved.
But with these improvements Van Gaal has a not sweet start losing the first league game and then crashing out the Carling cup to League 2 Minnows MK Dons getting thumped 4-0 crashing out in the second round itself. Losing embarrassingly to Leicester city 5-3 after giving away a two goal cushion. But a lot has changed since that Manchester United sit pretty in Fourth spot with a point behind 3rd place Arsenal and two shy of 2nd place rivals Manchester City, although they did crash out the FA cup quarter finals but it was dismal display from United on that day, they lacked any winning mentality they seemed like they did not care for this match and rightly so punished by Arsenal.
The Home form for Manchester United this term has been outstanding with 15 home games being played, United have won 12 games drawn once to Chelsea and losing two so they have regained that lost title of fortress, which they had lost last season as they lost quite a few home games last season.
with a win percentage of 80%. But their away performance has been very mediocre winning only 5 games losing 3 games and drawing 7 games with a win percentage of 33.33%. But they are showing sign of improvements by winning against Tottenham and Liverpool in past two weeks with flashes of the old Manchester United style of confident play fans like me and the rest of the United supporters used to witness ages ago.
Few Facts this season:
- Top three Goal scorers for United this season
- Wayne Rooney- League-11, FA Cup-2, Total=13 goals
- Robin Van Persie- League-10, FA Cup- 0 , Total=10 goals
- Juan Mata- League- 7 , FA Cup- 1 , Total=8 goals
- Top assists this season:
- Angel Di Maria with an overall of 9 assists this term (stands seconds in the over assists this season after Cesc Fabregas)
- Clean Sheets this season:
- David De Gea Undoubtedly the player of the season with currently 10 league clean sheet three shy of leader Fraser Forester.
- Michael Carrick has the third best pass percentage completion in the League so far with a passing percentage of 89.3%.
- Manchester United stand second in the overall form guide in this year's league
Van Gaal has seemed to have found a winning formula or should i say formation with a 4-4-1-1 with Felliani playing right behind Wayne Rooney. Felliani's has been a better player this term than last season and living up to his hefty price tag. With the season heading exactly where Manchester United expected it to go, a top four finish and get back into the Champions League. With the current form, finally we see some purpose, intent and confidence instilled in the players and it seems like Louis Van Gaal's philosophy is slowly starting to take shape and he is making not only the supporters chant his name with joy probably the owners too.
As far as the season is concerned Manchester United seem to be heading on the right track and with renewed confidence i do not see them giving up that fourth spot easily or who knows maybe even finish second? anything is possible. They just have to stay focused as they approach the final stages of this term's league. With Van Gaal looking to add on already to his existing squad in the summer transfer, and the owners seem to respond happily by giving him the green signal to spend the future seems bright for Manchester United. With only eight games to go, the battle for European spot is going to go to the very last day.
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