Still Following the Trawler

If it wasn't obvious already prior to yesterday’s game against Chelsea - United’s ninth goalless draw of 2015 and our eighth winless game in a row - something is not quite right at United, and it hasn't been for a while. Van Gaal watches on as United fail to win for the eighth consecutive game against Chelsea. Image via Mail Online . Louis van Gaal has epitomised everything that has gone wrong since Sir Alex left in 2013 - the anti-United, if you will. During his first season in charge we saw glimpses of brilliance while the fans (and board of directors) were content with the fourth-place finish that saw us re-enter the Champions League. We were also fooled into a sense of giddiness as the likes of Angel di Maria, Falcao and a host of World Cup stars were brought into the club, with spending exceeding £250million+ and rivaling the buying patterns that so many United fans have ridiculed Chelsea and Manchester City about. However this approach hasn't worked at all...

1. Drop him from the team. Immediately. The fact that Wayne Rooney, one of United's consistently poorest performing players, is still securing a spot in the side - week in, week out - is simply ludicrous. Rooney is a player judged on two very clear metrics - his goal scoring ability (as a striker) and his leadership qualities (as the captain) - and it's fair to say on current form he is dramatically failing to deliver on both fronts. If there is one thing Sir Alex was famous for during his successful tenure at the helm of United it was that he was a man who was not afraid to make controversial decisions if he felt it was for the greater good of the team. And that meant dropping big players: players he felt, regardless of reputation, were either a negative influence on the side, ill of discipline or simply in need of some time out of the spotlight due to a loss in form. At the moment, Rooney ticks at least two of these boxes – potentially all three if you attribute his “discipli...

As last season disintegrated into an anti-climax there was one story in United's season that stood out as the most tragic and confusing of all - that of Angel Di Maria and his inability to transform a tired looking United side as so many people had hoped. Two months prior to joining United in August 2014 he was starring in Real Madrid's Champions League triumph, right before helping lead Argentina to their first World Cup final since 1990. He was the man everyone wanted in their team: a bona fide superstar and a world beater. And he was a United player. At a British record fee of £59.7 million Real Madrid certainly got the money they felt his talent warranted. Yet United fans were more excited for the season ahead, wondering expectantly as to what he would be able to add to the team that finished a pathetic 7th in the league the previous season rather than worry too much about his phenomenal price tag. And when you heard the mighty  Ronaldo speak out in anger at Real's deci...

Every week, as another game approaches, it feels like yet another opportunity for United to turn a corner and show the world that the new United is really just like the old United. Yet it never happens. The romantic football fan in me still gets excited when I see those superstars line-up for United – I had to pinch myself when I saw Falcao, Di Maria, Rooney and Van Persie start together for the first time – yet that feeling of expectation is soon transformed into disappointment. And, just like the performances, to be a United fan is currently unenjoyable and monotonous. So many questions, all beginning with a confused ‘why’, run through my head every time I have watched United play this season. Why is van Gaal so stubbornly sticking with his 3-5-2 formation when his ‘philosophy’ clearly isn’t improving or benefiting the team? Why is our defense, complete with some shiny new acquisitions, still so poor? Why is Herrera consistently left out of the starting XI? Why has it not worked as w...

With a United-free couple of weekends, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look over an issue that I’ve touched upon at various points this season and last season: the worsening state of the Premier League’s elite… …Or, as the argument progresses, perhaps it is the heightening levels of understanding and overall improvement by the ‘other’ teams in the League? So, in order to analyse, let us look back to the way things were…  A few seasons back, the Premier League was undisputedly the best league in the world. In Ronaldo, Drogba, Torres and Henry, we had four of the best players in the world playing for arguably the four best teams on the planet. And on the Continental stage, we thrived. An English side took up at least one of the Champions League final places every season from 2004/05 to 2008/09, and three of the four semi-final places from 06/07 to 08/09. But something happened after 2008/09. As United aimed to make history by securing our second European Cup in as many years, havi...

(I've just noticed how dramatic that headline sounds!! So immediate apologies for anyone expecting an epic essay about the fall of the European Champions!) I just wanted to redirect you to a little time-line piece I've written for the Telegraph about Inter's awful decline. Given my utter distain for their fact-friendly manager, I probably wasn't the best person to write the piece. But I soon realised that the newspaper world isn't quite the same as the blogger world. So needless to say its content is toned down a notch. Inter Milan manager Rafael Benítez on the brink - by Pos Lambrianides

Well HELLOOOO my bloggy-woggy-followers! My oh my it HAS been a while. Classic token old chestnut of an excuse, but lits no computer has been at my disposal. But alas, I’ve still had my eager peepers planted firmly on the world that we are all so devotedly encapsulated by. So what has happened over the week, according to United? Well… On Wednesday 10th, we were scheduled to take on the mighty ones at wastelands. It didn’t happen. Weird, cos it was scheduled and everyone was there - waiting for something to happen. But it didn’t. Weird, again, because aren’t massive citeh supposed to have come into a bit of money recently? And haven't they done ever so well with it? Unlike a team who have never had money and don’t know what to do with it, they’ve heartily invested it into hundreds of millions of pounds worth of striking talent who’ve been banging the goals in all season…...oh. But just to f**k things up, Raf annihilated the twat from Argentina. So the shocking 0-0 no-show aside, th...

Fergie said had an ankle injury. He said he didn't have an ankle injury. The Sun said he was going to leave. The Mirror said he was going to leave. The NotW said he was going to leave. Even Fergie said he was going to leave. And, unlike his denial of the injury, he  said he was going to leave. So after the consequent strop, powerful proclamations about United's ambitions...and the little matter of a renewed double-your-money contract...the case closed after he committed himself to the club for a further three years. But is that really the end of the matter? Has it all simply been a ploy to bulk up his value and let him go to the highest bidders in the Summer? And now, thanks to his prolonged state of injury (ya know, the one he said never existed?), does that mean that he'll never play for United again? Thoughts below please...

This is my response to Brian Woolnough's rather shocking, sloppy and completely unnecessary personal attack on Nani (one of the player's of the season) after he had...the cheek to score a goal... Re: What on EARTH have I just read!!? Was your article in yesterday's Daily Star a joke? Or have you simply been mistakenly divulging yourself into the videos of Nani over the last few seasons instead of any footage from Saturday vs. Spurs? Seriously, I kept having to check the date on the top of the paper...whether it was really written in 2010. Nani is by FAR our United's most pivotal - let alone our most improved - player this season. Everything goes through him. And as for his work rate? Whereas some inevitable Ronaldo comparisons are made relating to skill and shooting ability, the effort that Nani puts into every performance is something he possesses over the great (but often lazy) Ronaldo. Nani is the epitome of the talented, yet sometimes petulant, boy who has ...

Check out this ridiculous and massively inaccurate pile of sh*te by Brian Woolnough in yesterday's Daily Star (the bits highlighted are points I'll get to later...) : Manchester United’s Nani must be the most annoying player in the Premier League .  A wonderful talent but oh, what a great big baby ! This is Cristiano Ronaldo re-visited when he first came to English football. Or Didier Drogba at his embarrassing diving best .  All the good, bad and ugly sides of Nani were on view during United’s 2-0 win over Spurs on Saturday.  Doesn’t he realise how stupid he looks every time he rolls about on the ground as if shot by a sniper’s rifle? You can’t be injured every time you are touched or tackled.  In the first seconds down he went clutching his leg after an accidental clash. Then he wanted a penalty, throwing himself to the ground like a spoilt brat when it wasn’t given.  He holds his hands to his head as decisions go against him and always goes down t...

Note : And this is a severely important note...I've been working on this all morning and was finishing literally as I got a text come through telling me the c*nt has only gone and signed a new deal! It's taken me ages to perfect, so I wasn't just gonna scrap it was I!? So I'm so sorry for the lateness, complete lack of relevance and no doubt complete hypocracy spewing from my emotional heart...but it is genuinly from the heart and how I fee. So here it is... Ok, I think its time. I’ve been putting this off for as long as I can: at first because of sheer disbelief, but then to allow the news to blossom and transpire from rumour into reality. It seems as though that is exactly what has happened. But my disbelief is still intact. When your best player is sold, it’s gutting. When your best player wants to be sold, it’s even worse. But when your best player publicly exclaims his discontent towards the way the club is run and their ambitions for the future, conseque...

A lot’s been made in recent weeks about our players apparent inability to score goals; choosing to rely on the opposition to finish the job instead. Apart from the obvious fact that that’s not entirely true – with Scholes, Park, Carrick, Berbatov and of course Rooney all contributing to the 16 goals we’ve scored in our last 5 games – is o.g hitting top form and scoring 5 in three games for United really something to be ridiculed? Or is it instead a direct result of our fine attacking form? Giggs and Rooney celebrate o.g's 10th goal of the season against Villa As much as I defiantly attach the ‘realist’ tag to my fan status, even I can’t deny our form of late has been shockingly good. The Hull game on the 23rd January, where we didn’t play particularly well regardless of what the handsome 4-0 score-line implies, has seemed to spark a sort of mini-revival. At times this season, I have rued Ferguson ’s (or the Glazer’s) decision to insufficiently replace Ronaldo as well as his constan...

As if his pathetic, childish display in front of the world - and, of course, his former employers that HE refused to sign for - was not embarrassing enough, the so-ridiculously-ugly-it-hurts-my-eyes-to-look-at-him-for-extended-periods twat decided it would be an even better idea to chat some delirious, wacko bull-shit to some of his hombre's on Argentinian ESPN; thus magnificently and oh so pointlessly vilifying himself further...but of course he is so 100% over his former club. So it all kicked off over something his former captain said, did it? So what exactly did Neville say to make him completely lose it? "The manager over the years has made many decisions with regard to players coming and going – and he has almost always been proved correct. "Over a period of 20 years he may have got one or two wrong, and I think he has admitted that himself, but he knows exactly what he’s doing and he understands when a player’s time is up. I can’t disa...