Yesterday United just had a bad day and not too surprised about that. More bothered that the players couldn't utilize the fact that for once we were 11 players on the pitch and the opponents 10.
First half between Liverpool and Arsenal and that intensity is just huge! Incredibly entertaining match. Arsenal seems to have large issues with how Liverpool play right now but they are far from giving up. As long as Mertesacker doesn't get the ball I'd say Arsenal can do well enough
Fourth derby defeat in a row now. There shouldn't be any doubt now, Pardew clearly knows what he is doing.
Werder Bremen defeated Dortmund! Such honor!
*no one is impressed*
I'll just leave this one here.
Watched that game from the couch at the time and almost choked on my coffee there. That was a bit unreal but none can at least say he's not passionate 
United had hardly any issues at all winning 3-1 against Newcastle and United could easily have won my a much larger margin if they didn't decide around the 65th min to just pass the ball along and Newcastle free reigns over the match. A very sloppy Jones gave Newcastle a penalty that Cisse with calm put into the net and that's it. Newcastle was awfully tame for most of the game and United alternated between lethal and looking like they suffered from a hangover. Glad to see both Rooney and Persie score goals today.
In the last match before the winterbreak here in The Netherlands, NAC played their best match so far. Finally we were shown a match with passion, work and fight. We lost 1-0, where a tie was deserved but against Feyenoord, after that match, that mattered little and we awarded the players with a well deserved standing ovation.
Meanwhile in England it looks like United found its form and is winning match after match. It's a little to late to become champion but at least they have seen some real improvement.
Southampton had a rough period with 4 losses in a row but they seem to bounce back from that and reclaimed 4th place.
I will leave you with a couple of banners from last match and a video from the Bundesliga before I go watch MOTD
https://www.youtube....KbMvZ5USw#t=338
I think I can honestly say I have never seen Nr 9 before:P
One of the best 45 minutes United has done this season and that with Falaco aiming to be as completely useless and awful as he possibly can be. United might just do better with 10 men than him at his current level. Hopefully he aim to do something right in the second half if he get to play. The rest of United is doing very well with Young completely dominating his side. The defence is still not secure but Spurs have large issues even getting that far. Hopefully the second half is just as good from United! Spurs got so many things to fix, one thing that they must do is to make Eriksen more available. Right now Carrick is doing an excellent job at taking care of him
For 24 min of the first half I was utterly convinced that Falcao is the worst player in the world because he did absolutely nothing right. Then he manage to do something right and score 1-1. Otherwise United needed about that much time to figure out how Stoke played and towards the later parts of the first half play well enough. The wind is a massive issue, mostly for United since Stoke is far more used to it so a few awkward situations have happened and surely will happen in the second half aswell.
Almost speechless on how good Tottenham is against Chelsea. Besides the unfortunate goal they conceded early they've been absolute monsters on the pitch and Chelsea are getting torn apart.
Guest_Lathrim_*
Arsenal lost again. With a makeshift midfield. Shocking.
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Apologies for not posting lately; the Christmas to New Year is always "busy busy busy" for me. Anyway, it's January, which means it's Transfers time.
Topping the headlines for now is Man United's signing of Victor Valdes on an 18-month deal. Again, this makes absolutely no sense to me. De Gea's having the season of his life, saving United's bacons more times than United fans can count, and Van Gaal decides "nah, not happy with ya, I'll go sign Valdes instead." And you can bet your chickens Valdes is not going to Old Trafford to warm the benches; he's going to get game time. Maybe this Eurosport article can explain this whole deal; Van Gaal seems to want a playmaker rather than a shotstopper, but I still say you shouldn't waste a good thing. Naturally, De Gea's own future is doubt, with Real Madrid reportedly already interested.
Also, Messi has apparently said he's all yours... ...for half a billion quid. Yeah, this is definitely contract negotiation dance turning from a slow waltz to a tango. Barca are just about ready to put pen to paper and give him what he wants - right after they finish banging their heads against a brick wall a few times.
Right, tables and fixtures for tonight:
Just an interesting note: if the season was to end right now, Man City and Chelsea would have to play a play-off game for the title.
Premier League: Sunderland vs Liverpool, Everton vs Man City, Chelsea vs Newcastle, Crystal Palace vs Tottenham
La Liga: Real Madrid vs Espanyol
Getting Valdes makes sense on two levels. For the first time in 5000 years United have two solid goalkeepers so no more nightmares of having to suffer Lindegaard. So the signing has nothing to do with any non-existing displeasure with De Gea. We also have Van Gaal openly stating that Valdes is the 2nd goalkeeper and not in any position to take Dea Geas spot between the posts. On top of the first reason to get Valdes we also got the situation with De Geas agent making a real mess of things and pushing somewhat towards a transfer which Valdes could be considered a premature solution in case it happens. With the contract being 18 months that's a very reasonable action in a world where having solid goalkeepers are incredibly hard, ask Arsenal.
The mess in Barcelona is hilarious to watch, it's like they can't have normal issues but really has to take everything to 11 and then display it openly in public. I feel bad for the fans of the club because they deserve better than this.
Things are starting to normalize in the leagues to an extent which was bound to happen but it has been a rather weird season with many teams performing unlike their usual, Dortmund being the primary exampel.
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Liverpool were all over Sunderland like a bad rash. How it ended 1-0 defies any kind of logic I can comprehend. Chelsea actually played pretty poorly, and still won 2-0. Man City actually played pretty well, and drew 1-1. Pardew's first Premier League game in charge of Crystal Palace ended in a 2-1 win over Tottenham. Good on them. Real Madrid comfortably beat Espanyol 3-0. Bale scored a great free kick and got booed by Real fans for not passing to Ronaldo. Just another day in football.
Meanwhile, French Ligue 1 has suddenly turned into a four-horse race for the title. After Marseille lost to Montpellier on Friday, PSG then lost to relegation battlers Bastia while Saint-Etienne beat Reims to go third above PSG. The top 4 are now separated by just 3 points, though Lyon has a chance to go top of the table when they play Toulouse tonight. It's like nobody in France wants the damn thing.
A bit of sad news away from the pitch: Wolfsburg's Junior Malanda was killed in a car crash. He was 20 years old - way, way too young to be dying. RIP.
Tonight's games:
Premier League: Arsenal vs Stoke City, Man United vs Southampton
La Liga: Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid
Serie A: the Rome Derby (Roma vs Lazio), Napoli vs Juventus
A good Arsenal day:
http://dl1.video.var..._0_stokcity.mp4
Iran's first goal against Bahrain is 10/10:
http://dl1.video.var...0_2_iran_en.mp4
Don't worry, the links are from a famous sport news website.
I think it's about time Van Gaal answered some questions. Like why is he doing an impersonation of a complete fuckwit? That defeat today has been coming for weeks and it's all LVG'S fault. I could understand him playing 3 at the back when we had no fit fullbacks and our wingers had to play as wingbacks. But today we only had one injury and that was ironically to one of our wingers that was playing wingback. LVG openly admitted our performances weren't good enough and yet sticks with 3-5-2. He said that Shaw isn't fit enough to play as a wingback, yet where is he today? Wingback. We have Blind at left centreback basically playing like a second leftback and Shaw completely isolated as a wingback so we get nothing from either wing. Why not switch to 4 at the back and move Blind into midfield where we are outnumbered? Blind has arguably been our best midfielder this season and he is stuck playing at centreback which is really leftback number 2.
Then we have the giant turd he handed the captaincy to but doesn't trust to play as a striker lumbering around the midfield slowing our play down and Di Maria(who bar the first 3 matches has been absolute shite, like Nani on his worst days) playing as a striker against a team that are sitting back and defending deep. What use is Di Maria and his pace playing up front against a deep defence? What good is Rooney in midfield when he isn't really creative, he is just a finisher like Lampard?
There was no reason to start with that line up and formation today and to refuse to change it when it clearly wasn't working? Diabolical. So £150m spent on Di Maria who has been mostly crap, Falcao who clearly isn't fit, Shaw who apparently isn't fit for the full 90 minutes ever, Rojo another one who can't stay fit it seems and Daly Blind who has been very good when not injured. Yet we somehow have no width, lack creativity, our midfield is still crap, our defence needs completely rebuilt because they can't be trusted to stay fit and our strikers are RVP who is in his 30's and getting no service at all, Falcao who isn't what he used to be, Rooney who is busy being a subpar midfielder and Wilson who has no first team experience. But at least we have 2 good keepers. Brilliant!
I'm not saying he needs sacked, but if this was Moyes in charge of this mess there would be protests and booing. We may have gone 11 games unbeaten but we were dire for most of them. We have the same record as after 21 games last season and Moyes got sacked at the end, we had a 9 game unbeaten run then too if I remember right. LVG needs to start looking like he has a clue what he's doing before he sits going on about his philosophy. It's hard to imagine the board trusting him with another £150m after the less than impressive results of the first £150m.
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Man United 0-1 Southampton was agony on grass. Both teams had no shots on target in the first half, which just about says it all. No Falcao? About half the team playing out of position? What has Van Gaal been smoking? Whatever it was, it's obvious Koeman enjoyed getting one over his bitter rival. Elsewhere, a pleasing 3-0 win by Arsenal. No shambolic defending like last time they played Stoke, and where would Arsenal be without Alexis Sanchez? Certainly not 5th and still in the hunt for a Champions League spot, that's for sure. Debuchy dislocating his shoulder was the one negative from the game, but he should be okay. This pretty much sums up Arsenal's season so far:
In Spain, Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 3-1, after which Messi came out and hit out at reports that he wanted to leave Barcelona and wanted manager Luis Enrique to be sacked as "lies." Here's my take; as long as Messi and Barca have yet to put ink to paper and sign a new contract, expect to hear more rumours and Messi coming out to deny them in the coming days and weeks. In Italy, Roma went two goals down to Lazio, before Francesco Totti single-handedly pulled both goals back to finish 2-2. Totti promptly celebrated his second goal with a selfie. Oh, Francesco, and you used to be cool. Meanwhile, Juventus beat Napoli 3-1 to go 3 points clear. Finally, in France, Lyon beat Toulouse 3-0 to top Ligue 1 by 1 point.
Tables:
One last thing: Manchester City have signed Wilfried Bony from Swansea, which is standard; it's no secret City have been wanting to sign him for some time. The big number? £28 million. I think I just heard someone laughing from a bank in Wales.
By each game that pass I understand Van Gaal less and less and also the subs that he has done for the last few games have neither made sense or actually done any good. It's far closer to them actually doing serious harm to the performance and United is unstable already as it is and don't need any help from the bench
By each game that pass I understand Van Gaal less and less and also the subs that he has done for the last few games have neither made sense or actually done any good. It's far closer to them actually doing serious harm to the performance and United is unstable already as it is and don't need any help from the bench
His subs have been like that all season, if we have any rhythm going at all and are looking good then his subs will ruin that. Newcastle match was a perfect example. He was getting away with the bizarre selections, shocking subs and terrible football while we were winning, but now we have lost and he needs to sort it out and quickly. It's like he is trying to show off what a genius he is by doing things no one else would attempt.
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Things you may have missed in midweek: West Ham won a chaotic 2-2, twenty-kick penalty shoot-out FA Cup replay against Everton, who somehow managed to fight back from a goal down to lead 2-1 in extra time despite being down to 10 men, before Carlton Cole saved West Ham's blushes to force penalties. Meanwhile in Spain, Ronaldo showed off his latest Ballon d'Or to the Bernabeu faithful before the Copa del Rey second leg against Atletico Madrid, before two quick goals by newly-returned Fernando Torres rained on his parade and sent Real Madrid crashing.
Also, some transfer news: Arsenal signed 17-year-old Krystian Bielik from Legia Warsaw. At first, it seemed like strange signing considering they desperately need experienced players in midfield and defence, but this is actually a symptom of a longer-term problem: Arsenal no longer develop young players like they used to. Most big deals are done on or near the final day anyway, so this doesn't say much about the now, but it is a worrying trend. Jermain Defoe has returned to the Premier League after an unhappy stint with MLS's Toronto FC, in a swap deal for Sunderland's Jozy Altidore. Also, Tottenham play Sunderland tonight. Awkward. Meanwhile, Falcao's United future is in some doubt after Van Gaal claimed that "he has to prove himself" to get a permanent deal.
Finally, check out this range of Star Wars-themed football kits by fashion designer Nerea Palacios. To where do I throw my money at so that one of these might magically appear in my hands?
Tables and Tonight's Fixtures. I reduced the font size a little to try to get under the forum's image scaling cap. Give me a heads up if they're too small.
Premier League: Tottenham vs Sunderland, Swansea vs Chelsea, Aston Villa vs Liverpool, QPR vs Man United, Newcastle vs Southampton
La Liga: Valencia vs Almeria
Serie A: Empoli vs Inter Milan, Palermo vs Roma
The first 25 min from United against QPR are atrociously terrible. Got a staggering amount of passes going wrong, throw-ins looking like they were done by a 4-year old, defending that your local retirement home could beat. This is pathetic..
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Holy crap, Fellaini just scored.
Tottenham rained on Defoe's Premier League return with a early goal, but now it's 1-1. Liverpool are leading Villa 1-0, while Chelsea is tearing Swansea apart 4-0.
Fellaini with his 3d goal this season and Wilson finally getting to score save United from one overall dreadful performance. Fellaini has been missed the last few games and it was clear that even with him being out of form that he still command a presence that United really need. Hardly anything good can be taken from this game besides 3 points and a few players getting much needed playtime.
Had Swansea-Chelsea on aswell and Chelsea is showing masterclass performance and never allowed Swansea to breath or get back into the game outside of that one shot in the frame. Oscar, Costa, Fabregas, Willian.. there're so many players in that team that are capable of completely dominating a game.
Sebastian Larsson has now scored 11 free-kicks in the premier league and is the 4th best at that in PL history. Doing Sweden proud and only one goal behind both Henry and Zola.
Guest_KnossosTNC_*
Well, United did beat QPR 2-0, but in a rather tepid performance, Marouane Fellaini scored a goal and might just have been the best player on the park. I can't believe I just typed that - somebody please go check the temperature in Hell.
Tottenham beat Sunderland 2-1, but that Sebastian Larsson free-kick... ...wow. An interesting side-note: this is the first time Defoe has failed to score on début for a club. Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-0. Borini scored in the Premier League, which may have just made him officially better than Balotelli. Chelsea curb-stomped Swansea 5-0. Southampton kept up their European contention with a 2-1 win over Newcastle. In La Liga, Valencia beat Almeria 3-2 to go 3rd above Atletico Madrid, who play Granada later. In Serie A, the title race might just die a little tonight after Roma drew 1-1 with Palermo.
Games tonight:
Premier League: Man City vs Arsenal. Abandon all hope.
La Liga: Getafe vs Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid vs Granada, Deportivo la Coruna vs Barcelona.
Serie A: Juventus vs Verona
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