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Tottenham hand Jose Mourinho his worst loss as Chelsea’s manager by scripting a 5-3 win over their London rivals. Three days later Valencia end Real Madrid’s 22-match winning streak in competitive football. On that very day David Moyes masterminds Real sociedad’s win over a Barcelona team comprising of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. All within a duration of 4 days of commencement of this year. Football has well and truly got off to a boombastic start. Of course these teams will find the next gear and kickstart their year in a more positive manner sooner than later but the start signals 2015 has more surprises for us and quite frankly we won’t mind it.
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The vagaries of footballing life, the quirky nature of managers, the crotchets of inveterate players and the whimsical fans are a constant in this world. An absolutely intelligible and perspicuous explanation to this is the life of Manchester United’s ex-manager David Moyes. One Christmas he is losing matches against menial teams with a power house like Manchester United and in the next he is winning matches against Barcelona with a team placed 11 places below them in the Liga table. To say Moyes was a complete failure at the Old Trafford club is a bit harsh. He did out tacticed some of the teams with ball retention as their strength. Against Arsenal his team took 4 points out of a possible 6 over the course of the season and a more prolific result was against Pep Guaordiola’s Bayern. United took the lead in both legs in the Champions league quarter finals last season and looked to stifle the German giants as they did against Arsenal. Barcelona is the place of tiki taka provenance and Moyes succeeded in smothering them too.
While David Moyes is enjoying his time out in Spain his former employers appointed his replacement who is well, poles apart from him. He is a step ahead in his stature, prominence and influence. Where Moyes prefered a back 4 he prefers a back 3, where Moyes likes crosses and counter, he likes passing and possesion, where Moyes was indimidated by the media, he intimidates the media. Media persons have bombarded him with uncanny questions in every interaction but he remained undaunted. Louis Van Gaal may be condescending sometimes but in the world of football he is one the most pragmatic persons who has not only won all kinds of trophies but has built legacies. He built the great team of Ajax who won 1995 UEFA champions league, he won two La Ligas and a Copa Del Ray in his first stint with Barcelona and won many more titles with Az Alkmaar and Bayern Munich during the first decade of the 21st century. The Dutch national side finished 3rd in Brazil while the pundits predicted a mediocre run for Netherlands. He defies odds, disregards probabilities and admonishes predictions. And he has done no different with his new club Manchester United. United’s first month was no less than a disaster. They lost to Swansea in the opening day which was followed by draws against ‘just promoted’ Burnley and ‘just survived relegation’ Sunderland. To top them all was a dismantling at the hands of championship side Milton Keynes Dons in the league cup. There was sudden blood rush among the fans, rival fans, pundits, experts, managers who forecasted another season of extreme disappointment for the Mancunians. How times change though, the next time they play in a cup tie against another lowly side, they are being deemed as hopeful title contenders. What on earth would have happened for that to change within a span of 5 months? What magic did Van Gaal weave? Lets have a look at their performances in each month and analyse yet another transition period for Manchester United.SeptemberManchester United announced the signing Angel Di Maria just before the capitualtion against MK Dons, Radamel Falcao was signed on loan and Daley Blind was also confirmed to be coming to Old Trafford at the end of August. Fans all around the world were dumbfounded at the sight of Di Maria and Falcao in reds as their inclusions signalled the start of a new dawn at United. Many were shocked With Falcao’s inclusion and many were confused whether they would be seeing Falcao as a centre back. Van Gaal’s philosophy did not work in August but it showed glimpses of brilliance in Septmeber. The Red Devils trashed QPR 4-nil at home which saw 4 different colours and a revamped United side looked to have kickstarted their campaign. Just as everyone was pondering over how far they can go this season they were 3-1 up against Leceister City at the King Power stadium within an hour. Things looked so bright and beautiful for them just when Rafael commited a needless foul to give away a penalty. David Nugent found the net and a 3-1 lead converted into a 5-3 embarassing defeat at the end of the match. Distraught Van Gaal admitted that his team threw it away but what he did not admit was a lack of a proper centre back. Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind were the defensive reinforcements but both of them are not centre backs. Rojo played as a full back in the World Cup and Blind as a mid fielder. United went into an international break after the QPR match and on return beat West Ham with strike partners Rooney and Robin Van Persie scoring and securing the wins. The Dutch classic of 3 defenders was put to bed after the Burnley match and United suddenly looked better.
October
