Still Following the Trawler

GOAL  | Sergio Romero Still no conclusion in the LVG-De Gea-Real Madrid love triangle so that means  Romero will keep his place for the third successive game - leaving arguably the best 'keeper in the world sat in the stands...again. It's all getting a bit boring now isn't it? DEFENCE  | Matteo Darmian, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw No change to our defencive set-up as the manager admitted this morning that Jones and Rojo are still ill and lacking in match fitness respectively. MIDFIELD  | Juan Mata,  Bastian Schweinsteiger,   Adnan Januzaj,  Michael Carrick,    Memphis Depay In the same press-conference van Gaal discussed the possibility of granting Schweinsteiger his first start, with either Carrick or Schneiderlin the player to be sacrificed - for me, I reckon Carrick will keep his place. Januzaj deserves to go on a run of games now after decent performances against Villa and Brugge in mid-week; while  Mata and Depay seem c...

1. Memphis What a perfect performance from the new-boy. Two excellent goals ( he was unlucky not to get a hat-trick ), and he sealed the night with the vital cross that met the mop of Fellaini - a highly important goal that has enabled us to go into the second leg with a two goal cushion. United fans have been waiting for this sort of performance for a while. Not just from Memphis, who up until last night hadn't quite set Old Trafford alight with his skill and flair as we had hoped following his signing from PSV in July - however the sort of dominating performance from a young, gifted, passionate individual that we have been longing for since Ronaldo left in 2009. There is no point dwelling on the Di Maria saga any longer - that is all in the past - however for me the disappointment that it didn't go according to plan after his big-money move from Real last summer outshines the bitterness of his exit earlier this month. With Di Maria's arrival United had hoped for a return ...

GOAL  | Sergio Romero It looks like the goalkeeping position will be Romero's  until the De Gea situation is sorted. According to some reports, even though  De-Gea bate Sergio Ramos is staying at Real , the move is back on with the United no.1 looking to be on his way to Spain . Focusing on Romero for a second, for someone caught so helplessly in the middle of van Gaal's very public battle between De Gea and Real Madrid, he is doing a very good job of staying focused and getting on with the task at hand. So enough about De Gea...please? Let's just try and develop this lad into a world-class 'keeper instead and (finally) bid farewell to David and the, ahem, charming  Edurne . DEFENCE  | Matteo Darmian, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw Again, a pretty safe bet these days. This will be the third game on the trot that the back four of Darmian , Smalling , Blind and Shaw have been paired together, and, like Romero, they will be looking to make it three clean-sh...

The Cockney Red: What did you make of van Gaal's first season in charge? Republik of Mancunia :  It was a bit disappointing, particularly after the pre-season. The football was dreadful for large chunks of the season and after a period of great football, we just seemed to fizzle out at the end. We should have been going for second or third, but as soon as fourth looked safe, it’s as if they gave up. Still, we got a few good wins against our rivals, which was brilliant, and ultimately, achieved the key objective of finishing fourth. TCR: What do you make of the summer signings – Depay, Darmian, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin? RoM:  I like all of them. I had only seen Darmian at the World Cup but he seems to have settled in straight away, although looking better at right back than Valencia probably isn't too tricky! Schweinsteiger should have been bought five years ago, but you can't complain about having someone like him in the squad. Schneiderlin is just what we need in mi...

1. Two wins out of two Our strong start to the season continued when we saw off Aston Villa last Friday evening with the sort of win we are rapidly (and annoyingly) becoming accustomed to. It was yet another ground-out, unattractive yet resilient performance - strong in possession (55%) however very poor in attacking prowess and creativity (only two shots on target). Of course, we'll take it if it means we carry on winning, however there were times our defence was stretched to the point you thought we were lucky not to concede. Had that been a Diego Costa/Alexei Sanchez-like player attacking the United goal, then we surely would have. So things certainly need to improve before we do start hitting the harder games. We need to remember that United do have a distinctly easier start to the season compared to our fellow title challengers - whereby Liverpool at home and Southampton away (both in September) are our toughest tests in the first seven games - therefore we need to capitalise ...

Check out this exclusive interview with United new boy Memphis Depay , who discusses his first couple of months at United. The interview was at the official launch of the partnership between Marathonbet and United.