Wednesday 20 August 2014

Louis Van Gaal's Nightmare Manchester United Start


The first game of the 2014/2015 campaign couldn't have started worse for Manchester United.
It was Louis Van Gaal's first ever Premier League game, against Swansea City at the, 'Theatre Of Dreams', Old Trafford.
The game kicked off at 12:45 PM.
It started extremely badly for Jesse Lingard, on his Premier League debut he was injured at twenty minutes so Adnan Januzaj replaced him with his new number eleven shirt.
26 minutes through Nathan Dyer got the first yellow card of the new season (not something to boast about!)
After an eventful first 27 minutes you could sense a goal was coming.
One minute afterwards Ki Sung-Yueng (who had a successful loan spell at Sunderland last season) scored a fabulous one touch finish which was assisted by new signing Gylfi Sigurdsson and opened the scoring in Swansea's favour.
There were a few chances before half time but all were squandered.
0-1 Swansea at the break.

Half Time substitute, Nani (who is reported by Sky Sports and BBC sport is part of an exchange with Marcos Rojo, the Argentinian player who performed excellently to get Argentina into the World Cup final, and scored in the build up to the final. It is reported Nani is only going on loan to Sporting Lisbon, his old club. Lisbon and United seem to have agreed a deal around about £16 million pounds prier to a medical ) replaces Javier Hernández (who is rumoured to go with Shinji Kagawa to Atletico Madrid for a combined fee in the region of £25 million)

Whatever Louis Van Gaal said at half time improved the overall performance.
Neil Taylor was booked for a cynical foul three minutes after the restart.
Then after 53 minutes Rooney scored a superb acrobatic bicycle kick. 1-1.
Substitution for Swansea at 53 minutes Dwight Tiendalli replaced Neil Taylor.
Then Jonjo Shelvey goes into the referees notebook for a challenge at 54 minutes.
Then in the 67th minute a substitution is made for both sides.
The new, extremely quick, signing Jefferson Montero replaced the already booked Nathan Dyer. Then for Manchester United Marouane Fellani (Rumoured to have a loan move to Napoli which he would prefer to be permanent, but if it was a loan deal Manchester United would have to pay half of his weekly wages every week, which could sway Manchester United to sell him permanently) replaced Ander Herrera the new signing who played his first Premier league game after arriving from Athletic Bilbao for in the region of £28 million.
In the 72nd minute disaster with a capital D.
Gylfi Sigurdsson who recently signed for Swansea from Tottenham for £6.8 million shot from the centre of the box and it found the net scruffily, assisted by Wayne Routledge.
77 minutes through and Swansea make a substitute, new signing Bafétimbi Gomis, who recently arrived from Leon on a free transfer, replaced Wilfred Bony.
Then for a bad foul the first goalscorer Ki Sung-Yueng was shown a yellow card. A minute later Premier League Debutant Tyler Blackett, who put in a solid performance, was shown a yellow. Obviously 80 plus minutes wasn't a time for discipline, because Ashley Young who looks to have become a different player over the pre season tour, was shown a yellow for a bad foul.
There were six minutes added time, could Manchester United scrape a draw?
No.
Final score Manchester United 1-2 Swansea.
This was Manchester United first opening day defeat at home since 1972...

This is what Louis Van Gaal had to say post match. Courtesy of BT Sport:


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