van Gaal alone could be worth 5-10 points. the guys will be so glad to be playing for a 'real' manager, that they will push themselves a little harder. this United team did not play for Moyes. they gave up. a real bunch of assholes

qs! wrote:

Mata is an average wide player though IG. He thrives at number 10 but move him out of there and you lose a lot. More importantly I think he's a better number 10 than Rooney in most modern systems.

I don't think United have any hope of being "golden" next season. They have far too many poor to average players and they'll struggle for a top 4 spot.

Definitely, but it's the only way I see all of the pieces "fitting."

Rooney is on 300k a week, hard to believe that he'll be benched or shunted out wide. In all fairness though, RVP will probably be perma-crocked next season as well which will allow Rooney to play at 9 with Mata at 10.

I thought when they gave Rooney the big contract RVP was definitely off, I think they did too TBH. Be interesting if he sticks around now with van Gaal. Rooney and RVP as a pair is a lot better on paper than in reality too.

Claud even if van Gaal was worth another 10 points they'd still have only made 5th.

We finished 15 points ahead of United. That is 5 wins. A massive amount to make up. Thats just to maybe get 4th.

Keeping players fit and right signings we could easily be well into high eighties next season so they could have an even bigger gap to close. Especially as Chelsea and City will also look to improve. Liverpool will need to retain Suarez and add a lot more depth. Teams will also be more clued up about how to play against them as well so will find it tougher

It will also help them having no European football, like we saw for Liverpool gives the players extra recovery time so they are more fresh and also the manager extra time to prepare tactically. That alone will help them close the gap significantly IMO.

Be interesting to see how much trouble there is at United with one game a week. They will probably end up playing very consistent teams without the CL to worry about but that means a lot of guys left on the bench. And with van Gaals personality and the lack of trophies to make up for it I can see even more complaining than this season.

I've skimmed at least one paper by those guys. They've done some interesting work on head-to-head result simulators ... they had a system that for a particular season's data did a better job on match results prediction than humans.

Does sound like a sweet gig.

Anyone else starting to get a bit fed up of Paul Scholes? Never heard a single peep out of him when he played but suddenly now you can't stop hearing almost hourly.

What's he saying now ?
He had a pop at Manu and Jack. All in all he hasn't said a lot. Players go into deep depression for at least a year after they retire. Probably why he's spurting all the negative crap now.

It's his job to spout shit nowadays, he's a pundit.

invisibleman18 wrote:

Anyone else starting to get a bit fed up of Paul Scholes? Never heard a single peep out of him when he played but suddenly now you can't stop hearing almost hourly.

What did you expect? He's always been a horrid little shit.

He's one of the biggest cuntbuckets to ever kick a football. His horrid character is generally overlooked because of his bland personality though.

Germany are playing Armenia now.

Does anyone know what is considered to be Germany's first XI?

And how is Per viewed in Germany? Just curious.

Podolski got three assists and a goal.

Germany won 6-1

He's seems like a horrid personality in general to be honest, rarely smiles, grumpy as fuck, always having a whinge. Wish he'd go back to not talking.

'Kinell. That's unbelievable stuff. Great video.