Manchester United

You guys are just so lucky, try having an owner like Flavio Briatore and a succession of managers that would fill a team squad, then let's see how you all go. It was never boring at QPR but for fucks sake could we get a decent owner and a decent manager. Tony Fernandez is ok but Harry has lost the plot. 

United will come good so long as Fergi and his deciples like Giggs and Scholes dont undermine Moyes. Although Fergi did have a big say in Moyes so who knows. I'd give him 3 years.

I think Moyes will come good. I do get slightly concerned that he will spend big when he needs to take his time and build.

Be careful with Harry, it is a one way street and once he goes the financial mess could be be a house of cards for Tony..

Just sitting outside Lowry outlet in Salford waiting for the match to start drinking a few beers!!!! Come on United!!!!!

Starting line up with giggs fellaini carrick midfield, plus Valencia and wellbeck Rooney. Back 4 of jones Ferdinand vidic Buttner.
Dreading a smashing.

Danny should have scored; great save by De Gea; Kagawa on for Giggs at HT is a good move

Fellaini looks a mudshark out of water in that team. Too slow in thought and movement IMO. Where was Mata? Injured?

Is he cup-tied? Played for Chelsea in earlier round?

Mata cup tied.

Didn't have commentary and was watching a terrible stream, but I don't really mind that we played horrible hoof-ball - we started showing a little bit of belief and got our tails up a bit.

If any team is goingto get up from the season we've had and win 1-0 away its United. Am looking forward to it.

Don't understand why people hate on Buttner. Much better going forward and back than Evra.

Why play Young over Januzaj?

Ah. That'll be it. Ta. Good game - if you were a neutral. Should be even better in Munchen - ditto.

Only managed to catch the first 20 mins. Better than I expected so lets hope for a big game in the return leg.

Not sure how these top coaches earn their money but the continual absence of defenders on the post defies belief..

Probably the top man in Europe and he has no players on the post and Vidic scores. A joke.

If you're man-marking then you may not put guys on the posts because you're trusting your players to each do a job on their marker. 

If you're going zonal then you might throw them on there as part of that zone, but equally you might not. 

I read a study on this years ago that said you're more likely to cleanly clear the ball if you have those extra two guys out in the box mixing it, then if you slap them on the goal line. Makes sense I guess but any time the ball goes in and there's no one standing there I suppose it has backfired hasn't it.

I'm not a proponent for either which way, but there are pros and cons. 

A big ask to either win or draw 2-2 in Munich.

Usually the attacking side will have the fullbacks back, and everyone else either in the area or on the edge waiting for a shot (and therefore needing marking). So that's basically 8 in the mix for attacking the corner. 

The defending side will usually have one player out with the opposing fullbacks, so 10 in the mix to defend. Take 2 of those back to the goal line along with the keeper, and you've got 7 defenders on 8 attackers, hence the argument I read that they're better off marking a man or trying to win the ball, rather than resigning themselves to winning the second ball. 

However as I said, I'm a proponent of neither, just putting some other info out there - I too get frustrated if one of my teams concedes at the post from a corner, but would be interested to see more analysis i.e. how many more attacking headers does a defensive side give up when they have players on the posts? It may be negligible as you suggest.

Lately I've seen teams do both. Have a man marking a zone close to the post, then when they see the ball is nowhere near them they retreat to the post. Seems a good idea, though you're really trusting the defenders judgement. Have seen a couple of times where it has backfired. - whether its a player retreating when they should have gone for the ball, leading to a free attacking header, or a player retreating into their keeper, or a player deciding not to retreat and the ball goes in on that post. 

That's a good point, and a decent approach to be fair. 

Actually now you mention it I remember an Arsenal game a wee while back where one of our guys was stationed in the 6 yard box, then when it wasn't heading his way he stepped back to the goalline, but was a tad too slow - the header went only just over his head but he was still moving backward and wasn't balanced to be able to jump for it, otherwise it could've been stopped. 

What a free kick. Nice goal in a crap game so far

It becomes clearer and clearer with every game - Man U have to sell RVP in the summer and Moyes has got to show the balls to do it. Have Kagawa and Mata as attacking midfielders with Carvalho playing as a defensive midfielder.

The team looks different with kagawa on. Much better team

Bayern Munich away. Dreams are free, right ?

They've not had an amazing time against English clubs at home recently though have they? City, Chelsea and Arsenal winning there, Arsenal drawing again. 

I'd still back Bayern, but it's far from impossible.

The dream lasted just 30secs, after evras wonder goal.

Kagawa. So good on the ball.

The gap between EPL teams and BM is massive. They are far more athletic, sharper and technically superior.

Perhaps our coaches should go on an course in Germany.

Man that Evra goal was nuts

Dave Sexton used to do just that. Spent hiurs in Holland and Germany and came back and introduced it to QPR in the 1975-76 season. Tried to do it Man United but that United side couldnt or wouldnt adapt and he left after 2 years.

Paul Lambert did his coaching badges in Germany. Look at how that is working out for him.

He was 20 - 23 years old at Chelsea, and 25 - 30 at Bayern Munich, that's why. 

I'd say that has a lot to do with it. Numerous studies have shown that players generally reach their peak performance in the 26 - 29 bracket, solely because of experience. 

Better coaches and training... ok so you're saying working under Mourinho and his team at Chelsea for four years would be vastly inferior to working under 4 different coaching teams in the last 5 years at Bayern? I'm not so sure about that. 

I think his development and the experience he gained at PSV, Chelsea and Real Madrid has a lot to do with the player he is now, and does not reflect badly on any of those clubs. 

Perhaps Welnix could go over there and study what they or how they operate. Of course we'd have to do it on a smaller scale but the principles are the same.

A big difference between Germany and let's say the UK is that in Germany there are 10's of thousands of qualified coaches and that is not the case in the UK. 

The incredible depth of Germany's coaching resources, as well as the DFB's close relationship with Bundesliga clubs, helps to make the programme. According to Uefa, Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence and 1,070 (115) with the Pro licence, the highest qualification. It is little wonder that Ashworth said last month that there will be no quick fix for English football. The country that invented the game has forgotten that we need people to teach it

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/23/germany-bust-boom-talent

Wow now that's interesting... so rather than have the coaches go on courses in germany, they just need more coaches full stop!

The difference in those numbers is quite phenomenal.

So what do all these qualified german coaches even do? There can't be enough jobs for them all!