As Manchester City’s fans celebrated victory in the derby, their fourth-straight and sixth win in seven over their bitter rivals, United’s fan could only stand in silence as their ‘noisy neighbors’ gave them a reminder of how far they’ve fallen.
“Champions of England, we know what we are!” was the cry from City’s jubilant fans at the Etihad Stadium.
In Sunday’s derby City won 1-0 thanks to Sergio Aguero’s second half strike. That defeat consigned United to their worst start to a season since 1986-87. They’ve started even worse under Louis van Gaal than they did under David Moyes last season, by four points to be exact. So, what is the main issue for United at the moment? Scoring goals? Injuries? Conceding too many?
Following United’s defeat to City, I asked van Gaal about the goalscoring aspect after his side fired a blank against City and in the last two matches they’ve created plenty but have only put one chance away.
“There was also a good goalkeeper in Joe Hart, the goalkeeper always plays a role,” van Gaal said in a defensive manner about his teams lack of goals. “We score a lot of goals, it is not so often that we are not scoring a goal. Now we had a clean sheet, but the last time we did this was against Burnley [Aug. 30] I believe. I don’t think that is our problem. I think our problem is that in the first half we gave the ball away too much unnecessarily. In positions that we can hold the ball, easily. We call that, positional game. We have to do that better.”
But United’s problems can’t be put down to one issue. It’s a multitude of issues which has hit van Gaal’s men hard at the start of this season.
Constant injuries has seen their backline collapse with Marcos Rojo dislocating his shoulder on Sunday, Chris Smalling stupidly sent off (more on that later) and they will join Phil Jones and Jonny Evans on the sidelines. At the other end of the pitch Robin Van Persie, Radamel Falcai and Wayne Rooney have hardly had a run of games together with various injuries and suspensions. A long summer tour to the USA wasn’t to van Gaal’s liking and his playing philosophy is taking much longer than expected to implement. The balance of his squad still seems top heavy. The list goes on and on.
You can make whatever excuses you want about United, but let’s face facts. They went on a summer spending spree unlike any ever seen in English soccer, or the rest of the world for that matter. Luke Shaw, Falcao, Angel Di Maria, Rojo and Daley Blind all arrived in deals worth over $250 million. Even that has failed to spark United into life as their worst-ever start to a campaign was rubber-stamped by their crosstown rivals.
Still, van Gaal has blind faith in his boys and doesn’t believe they are far away from the best teams in the PL. As things stands, United are 13 points away from leaders Chelsea and sit in tenth place in the standings. “I have seen the willpower of this team. It is fantastic,” van Gal added. “But we still only have 13 points out of 10 games. That is not so much.”
QUIET PLEASE: CHAMPIONS-ELECT AT WORK
“At this moment it’s difficult to play at home because playing here is like playing in an empty stadium… When we scored was when I realized ‘woah, the stadium is full. Good. The team then starts playing like it’s quiet, soft game at home. I was looking around and it was empty, but not in terms of people because it was obviously full.”
Jose Mourinho, ladies and gentleman.
Following Chelsea’s 2-1 home win over Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, which keeps Chelsea unbeaten at the top of the table with eight wins from their opening 10 games, Mourinho had a moan at Chelsea’s fans for not creating a good atmosphere at Stamford Bridge. Does he have a point?
After a decade and more of constant success, it seems fans of Chelsea are a pretty lucky bunch. They are used to watching some of the greatest creative minds and players the PL has to offer, week in, week out. Right now though, they should be more excited than ever as this team may be the best in their history. With Mourinho assembling an incredible attacking outfit who have yet to lose this season, maybe he’s right for wanting to hear a little more appreciation and support from the stands. Chelsea fans… “Are you not entertained?” Or does Mourinho need to take his ear plugs out?
WHEN WILL SAINTS’ BUBBLE BURST?
Southampton’s sensational start to the season shows no sign of stopping as Ronald Koeman’s honeymoon period in England is far from over.
On Saturday the Dutchman’s side beat Hull 1-0 courtesy of Victor Wanyama’s stunning goal from long range to seal the points. You can see that goal, plus all the others from Saturday, in the video above. Wanyama’s strike was Saints eighth goal from a central midfielder so far this season. Last season, under old boss Mauricio Pochettino, they scored just four. Koeman’s attacking philosophy is clear but Saints look solid as a rock as they’ve conceded just five goals this season, two of which were on the first day of the season, as they have the best defensive record in all four of England’s professional leagues.
They have now recorded three-straight shutout wins and have Leicester City at home and Aston Villa away in their next two matches. They could be on 28 points before the end of November and for a club like Saints, every season their fans only think of one thing: how will we get to the ‘magic 40 point marker’ as quickly as possible to stave off relegation? No such worries this season.
