MEMPHIS DEPAY: I AM A TEAM PLAYER

In the last few weeks, Memphis Depay has
been accused of not being a team player by
Holland coach Danny Blind and of not buying
into Louis van Gaal’s philosophy at United.
But now he’s hit back.
MEMPHIS
I’m at a new club and it’s a different level.
Such things are playing a big role and you’re
trying to find your way and it was a bit easy
at the start but then I fell back and you could
see it in the way I played.
‘‘
But I’m working on that and getting back to
the top. I feel fit and I’m trying to show on
the training ground that I’m doing my best to
perform well.
People are used to seeinf me score and that
shall come, it just takes a bit longer.
I think I’m a team player and the other
players in the team also think that. I don’t
think I’m in a difficult spell of my career as
the media say but I just think my form isn’t
good right now.
I’m still working hard and just because I don’t
show the exact form that I showed at the
World Cup or last year, it doesn’t mean I’m
not working hard. But I feel good again and
other people don’t see what I’m doing in the
training so people think I’m not busy with
football but that’s not true."

NEVILLE: MARTIAL IS AN ABSOLUTE BARGAIN.

The France international joined the Reds from
AS Monaco on transfer deadline day and
immediately enamoured himself to supporters
by scoring the final goal in a 3-1 win over
Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Martial has since scored against Southampton
(2), Ipswich Town and CSKA Moscow to take
his personal tally to five goals in 13
appearances in all competitions. However, it is
his all-round ability and excellent contribution to
Louis van Gaal’s team that has impressed many
observers and pundits.
Neville is currently a coach with Valencia and
came across Martial when the La Liga
contenders beat Monaco 4-3 in this season’s
Champions League play-off round. Clearly
impressed, the Treble-winner predicted great
things for the player and has been pleased by
his progress at Old Trafford so far.
"From the very first time I saw him early in the
season, when we [Valencia] played Monaco in
the Champions League qualifying rounds, he
was someone who was devastating against us,"
Neville explains in a video posted on his
personal Twitter account. "Every time he got
the ball he made me nervous; he made our
defenders nervous because he likes to turn and
he likes to dribble.
"What I think he brings most to this Manchester
United team is genuine speed and speed on the
counter-attack, like we saw against Everton
when they went to Goodison Park and won, as
well as speed when United play a passing
football style under Louis van Gaal.
"He has brought genuine speed to the team, he
is strong and he is quick. People question the
amount of money that van Gaal paid but I think
United have got an absolute bargain and his
style suits the Premier League. I think there is
more to come. He is still young, he still learning
and there is more to come from this striker,
who I think could become one of the best in the
world."

SMALLING HAILS MANCHESTER UNITED'S DEFENCE

Chris Smalling feels Manchester United's
defensive strength has been key to their
good form and has hailed the entire team's
contribution.
Chris Smalling has hailed Manchester United's
defensive strength following their 2-0 Premier
League win at home to West Brom on Saturday.
Louis van Gaal's men have kept five consecutive
clean sheets in all competitions and Smalling is
delighted to be part of such a strong defensive
unit.
"Over the last year we have had a very good
record and in the last month we've had many
clean sheets and as a back four, that's really
pleasing," Smalling told MUTV.
"We've been able to do that even when we've
had a few changes in the back four and have
stuck together. Everyone knows their jobs so it's
great to be a part of such a good defensive unit,
especially knowing that we've always got that
chance of scoring at the other end if we can
keep it tight.
"I think a lot of managers say that it starts from
the front and us as defenders know it helps our
job when the front two strikers put that pressure
on. If they can do that it makes our job a lot
easier. You know that without the whole team
working together, it's a very hard job for the
defenders, so everyone plays a part."
United have the best defensive record in the
Premier League after 12 games, conceding just
eight times so far, with Manchester City and
Arsenal having let in nine apiece.

NOT PERFECT , BUT CLOSE : THE EVOLUTION OF GUARDIOLA AT BAYERN MUNICH

This is not the German champions trying to
replicate Barcelona, but rather a fast, hungry
side littered with players capable of creating
chances and scoring goals.
No team in Europe has produced football like
Bayern Munich did in the first half against
Wolfsburg last week in the DFB-Pokal. They
totally destroyed the German cup holders; the
second best team in the Bundesliga last
season.
It was so good that the question of whether or
not Bayern had achieved football perfection
was asked with not a hint of hyperbole.
"Perfection doesn't exist," Pep Guardiola said.
"The first half was very, very good, but not
perfect. There are always details you can
improve."
Not perfect but pretty damn close. It was the
purest representation of what Guardiola has
sought from his players since taking over at
Bayern.
His team sustain possession as well as ever
but, significantly, the coach has made some
key tweaks. This is not Bayern trying to be
Barca; this is a fast, hungry team with players
placed in every position with the express
intention of creating chances and scoring
goals. Guardiola has dispensed with the players
who cannot execute the football he demands
and signed younger, quicker ones like Douglas
Costa and Kingsley Coman for their place.
Jerome Boateng's long balls have been
decisive against Borussia Dortmund in the past
as a way of skipping the first press and that
tactic is deployed on a more regular basis this
season - regardless of the opponent.
Arturo Vidal and Joshua Kimmich have been
brought in to quicken the pace through the
centre of midfield, while a fit, functioning
Thiago Alcantara stitches the play together.
This Bayern team are more direct in getting to
the final third and, once there, they raid down
on goal as quick as lightening. They are not
trying to walk the ball into the goal; there are
more conventional methods deployed in trying
to score goals thanks to Costa and Coman and
their ability to go past markers. That in turn has
allowed Robert Lewandowski to gorge himself.
"Maybe [Guardiola] has changed a bit," captain
Philipp Lahm told Goal. "Now we have wingers
like we had two years ago with Arjen [Robben]
and Franck [Ribery] - players which you put in
one-on-one situations, players who create
space. Now we have again two more of this
type of player, which we all know we have
missed at crunch times in the past.
"We have more possibilities. By doing this we
maybe have adjusted our game a little bit as
you try to get these players in position. But we
have not changed the way we play."
When a team is defending extremely deeply
with two rows of five, as is the norm these
days for teams facing Bayern, an attacker who
can beat his man can tilt a game in his side's
favour.
Costa's opening goal in that cup match against
Wolfsburg demonstrated exactly how Bayern
have changed. Other players in the Bayern
squad, for all their strengths, are simply not
wired to shift the ball past defenders and lash
home from outside the box. That will never be
the strength of, say, Thomas Muller, Robben or
Mario Gotze.
Moreover, Costa conjured classic 'wing play'
from a central position; formations only exist
on paper for this Bayern team. Exchanges of
position occur so frequently that it is pointless
trying to ascertain who exactly is playing
where.
"We can play a back three or a back four, we
can play with one or two support strikers,
whatever," said Lahm. "I don't know how many
systems we have. Our game is very flexible in
any case. This is often only about how you
write in down.
"It depends on the types of players. If you take
me for example as a right forward or Arjen it is
a completely different thing."
Guardiola, in the Marti Perarnau book 'Pep
Confidential', is shown to be obsessed with
passing lanes; the idea of having multiple
channels of attack for moves to develop. This
can easily be seen in Bayern's current set up
where David Alaba, Coman, Lewandowski,
Muller and Costa provide the options all across
the pitch for forward passes from midfield. The
effect is overwhelming for even the very best
of opponents.
The second and third goals on the night paid
testament to the overlapping abilities of
Alaba. That the Austria captain was missing
against Frankfurt and Bayern did not win is no
coincidence. His interpretation of what
Guardiola asks from a 'full-back' is fundamental
to how Bayern not only play but win.
"There are of course still full-backs, but the
type of player has changed a bit," said Lahm.
"Most can play in midfield." The 31-year-old
has done so frequently under Guardiola and
even now, when named at right-back, still
appears more often in the middle.
A common criticism of Guardiola's Bayern has
been that their possession-heavy game can be
sterile; that it's not only boring, but pointless.
Bayern spend so much time in the opposition
half and put so many of their players in that
sector of the field that the opponents have no
choice but to retreat to the very edge of their
own box. And for 90 minutes, too. Guardiola's
challenge, then, has been to figure out how to
win in this very specific context.
Against the best teams in the world - Real
Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League
semi-finals for the last two years - Bayern have
been unable to come up with the goods. The
twin problems of the ball moving too slowly and
failing to get the best from Lewandowski have
been addressed. Sterner tests await in the
spring when injuries will need to be avoided,
but right now the plan is coming together.

LONG BALL MAN UTD ARE BORING: WHERE DOES VAN GAAL GO FROM HERE ?

The Red Devils crashed out of the Capital One
Cup on Wednesday after another performance
which lacked any dynamism in the opposition
half
COMMENT By Kris Voakes at Old Trafford
While Manchester United’s second successive
League Cup exit to lower-league opposition was
the main headline of Wednesday night, the
manner of their defeat to Middlesbrough was
even more frustrating than the loss itself.
Last season’s second-round humbling at Milton
Keynes Dons was at least a one-off, with Louis
van Gaal having sent out a team full of players
who were set to have no real future at the
club. That 4-0 defeat was embarrassing but
ultimately inconsequential in the bigger picture.
Yet Wednesday’s 3-1 penalty shoot-out defeat
to Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough left Van Gaal
with much to ponder, with the 0-0 draw in 120
minutes having provided the perfect showcase
of United’s current issues on a wider scale.
There were some positives to take from the
draws with CSKA Moscow and Manchester City
in the previous seven days, but in both fixtures
United had started slowly and rode their luck.
Too many of their passes went sideways, giving
their opponents very little to fret over. In both
matches United ended the game with a much
higher tempo and looked all the better for it.
But still there was no change in approach when
Boro came to town, despite Van Gaal making
nine changes to his starting line-up. There were
different faces, but the body of work was much
the same. United had plenty of ball, but very
little to show for it. Once more, it was their
opponents who had many of the better
opportunities in front of goal, with full-back
George Friend in particular missing a gilt-edged
chance before skipper Grant Leadbitter
spawned two very good openings.
For United’s part they improved slightly after
the break, but it wasn’t until extra-time that
they really asked questions of the
Championship side. And the fact that it took a
change to a 4-4-2 formation and long-ball
tactics for the 20-time champions of England to
pick holes in Middlesbrough’s defence says an
awful lot.
“I’m disappointed we are out, that we came so
close and we are still out,” said Van Gaal after
the match. “I thought we didn’t play so well in
the first half. They played in a compact way as
Man City did. In the second half we had much
more chances but you have to finish them. In
extra time we had even better chances, but
when you are not finishing the chances it is
difficult to win games.”
While it is true that Anthony Martial and
Marouane Fellaini both should have done better
with close-range headers at the end of extra
time, it would have been unjust on Boro to be
denied by that point.
The home side had a couple of big penalty
shouts, but Jesse Lingard could have seen red
for a nasty studs-up challenge in the first half.
Lingard hit the post, but Kike did too before
Daley Blind sliced into his own net only to be
saved by the offside flag. For every argument
in United’s favour, there was one for the
visitors. The difference was that Boro had the
better game-plan, and carried it out to
perfection.
So how has it come to this? Why have
Manchester United suddenly become a side
against whom teams can set up a base of six
or seven defensive players and hold out with
something to spare? Clubs arriving at Old
Trafford with men by the ball used to be asking
for trouble, but not any more. Should £300
million or more of spending really result in
desperation tactics against a Championship
side, with a series of long balls for Fellaini to
flick on?
The Red Devils have a squad packed with
potentially exciting footballers. Memphis Depay,
Lingard, Martial and Andreas Pereira are among
those who should be revelling in the wide-open
spaces of Old Trafford yet too often when the
ball comes to them the tempo has dropped to
walking pace.
United are not playing to the strengths of their
attackers, and it can be no coincidence that
this has happened regardless of their personnel.
There can be no denying that Depay has yet to
deliver his best football since arriving at Old
Trafford this summer. Again on Wednesday he
cut a frustrating figure, with his 70-minute
appearance littered with lost possession and
poor decision-making. But one player alone is
not to blame.
Were it just an issue with the way certain
individuals were performing, then the wholesale
changes would have done something to fix their
recent issues in front of goal. Instead, the high
turnover for the cup tie made no difference at
all. This was the latest in a string of dull, rigid
United performances. In five matches so far in
October, only at Everton have they started the
game with any kind of purpose. Coincidentally
enough, that is their only win this month too.
The issue is that Van Gaal’s desired approach
simply isn’t hitting the right note. His side have
dominated possession in most of their games
this season, yet the slow starts have laid the
wrong kind of platform in matches. Yes, they
have still created chances late on in games,
but United are not stretching and exhausting
opponents as they should be. Any side with
sturdy resolve and a high level of concentration
is finding them to be easy enough to deal with.
The lack of tempo and attacking flair is also
affecting the mood around Old Trafford. While
United fans are not the type to take out their
frustrations by booing, the general atmosphere
at the Theatre of Dreams has gradually
decreased as the Van Gaal era has gone on.
Some people might treat the Capital One Cup
as an unnecessary distraction, but it
represented one of four chances for Louis van
Gaal to collect his first piece of silverware as
Manchester United. Now he has three more
shots at glory, yet the exit to Middlesbrough
must serve as a warning to the Dutchman that
things need to be quickly addressed as he goes
in search of long-awaited success.

HAS MOURINHO FINALLY RUN OUT OF LIVES AT CHELSEA?

The Portuguese coach saw his side slump to
another defeat as the club crashed out of the
League Cup at Stoke City on Tuesday night,
and time is running out for the boss.
The League Cup has usually served as the start
of something for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea
but this time, following the defeat to Stoke City
on penalties, it could be closing in on the end.
There cannot be many more chances left for
the Portuguese manager at Stamford Bridge.
As Goal revealed on Monday, Chelsea owner
Roman Abramovich plans to review the former
Real Madrid coach’s position at the club during
the international break in two weeks time, and
while patience is running thin after two defeats
in the space of four days, it is unlikely that the
club will move before mid-November.
The 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Saturday
demonstrated the air of desperation permeating
the club, as Nemanja Matic was sent off, acting
as the catalyst for a complete emotional
collapse, with Cesc Fabregas and John Terry
booked for dissent and Mourinho ultimately
sent to the stands for an incident at half-time.
Tuesday night’s defeat, in the difficult
conditions of Stoke’s Britannia Stadium, was
less despondent and more controlled. There
were few histrionics, few outbursts at the
referee or stinging challenges, but the club still
ultimately sunk to another defeat as Eden
Hazard, usually reliable from the penalty spot,
missed the final spot-kick of the shoot-out.
Chelsea appear broken and Mourinho doesn’t
seem to know how to fix it.
Sitting 11 points behind Premier League
leaders Manchester City, it looks an almost
impossible challenge for Chelsea to retain their
Premier League crown but now, following
Hazard’s missed penalty, the Blues have also
failed to regain the League Cup trophy, won
against city rivals Tottenham last season.
That trophy was the 21st of Mourinho’s career,
adding his 22nd with the Premier League title,
but the Portuguese boss has never looked
further from adding to his tally. After that win,
captain John Terry, who scored in the final,
said: "It is the start of something. We've got a
great squad, with some great young players,
and hungry and experienced players too. It's a
great mix.”
Now, with the league almost a distant memory
and the League Cup gone for the season, the
perception is that the squad is ageing and
imbalanced and there should have been more
additions in the summer. What worked last
season is now failing and Mourinho is at the
centre of that. It is perhaps ironic that Hazard,
the player that failed to convert the decisive
spot-kick, has seen a usually good relationship
with the Portuguese manager fracture over
recent weeks, with the Belgian left out of the
2-0 win over Aston Villa and criticised for his
defensive efforts.
As well as playing host to some sort of bust-up,
Mourinho’s sides have been known for
beginning a winning cycle with the League Cup,
as they did in 2004-05 and 2014-15, but they
have also been known for grinding out dogged
results in robust fixtures at challenging away
grounds. The cliche in English football suggests
that a wet weekday away to Stoke can be one
of the biggest tests of an aspirational side,
with Chelsea usually rising to that challenge.
But, despite an improved performance since the
weekend, this season is different for Chelsea
and Mourinho may be quickly running out of
time as the defeats begin add up
Source (Goal. Com)

Fit-again Jones ready to fight for United place

Phil Jones is back fit and firing, and ready
to cement his place at the heart of
Manchester United's defence.
Manchester United centre-back Phil Jones is
unfazed by the potential arrival of defensive
reinforcements, with the fit-again Englishman
ready to fight for his first-team spot.
After overcoming thrombosis that ruled him out
of the opening games of the season, Jones
started only his second Premier League match of
the campaign as United drew 0-0 at home to
rivals Manchester City on Sunday.
Jones has partnered Chris Smalling in the centre
of United's defence for the past three games in
all competitions, having ousted make-shift
defender Daley Blind.
Despite his return to action, Jones is aware
United will continue to be linked with some of
the world's best defenders following an off-
season dominated by speculation over the
possible arrivals of Sergio Ramos and Mats
Hummels.
The 23-year-old England international, however,
is not daunted by new competition, insisting it is
part and parcel of life at the top.
"We are at Manchester United," said Jones.
"We are always going to be linked with Ramos or
Hummels or whoever it is, we are always going
to be linked with players.
"It's not a problem. It's something you have to
deal with from when you are under-14s.
"I remember being at Blackburn and someone
comes along at under-14s, or under-15s,
under-16s, under-17s, under-18s.
"That is football for you but you have to battle
your way through and show people.
"If you can't cope with that you don't deserve to
be at the club. There's competition here.
"We are at one of the best clubs in the world. I
would be a bit worried if we weren't linked with
the best players in the world.
"It's natural and it's healthy."