Substitutions under van Gaal 2015/16

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se7en

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Swansea City - 30/8/2015

I thought the decision to bring off Herrera and Schneiderlein and keep Schweinsteiger and Memphis on was strange.
 
More to the point if you need a goal and don't have confidence in the only other striker at the club to get you one then you need to bring one in. My opinion is no striker no top four finish.
 
His subs have been better this season, but they were poor today.
 
He doesn't have the required quality on the bench. It is his own fault that we have been hamstrung in the striker dept. But we have to bring in a replacement for Rooney
 
Monk made one change and it changed the game. Our subs didn't change anything really.
 
We didn't really have a game changer on the bench. Come to think of it we don't have one in the first eleven either. That is going to have to change in the next two days it we have a problem. X
 
PSV - 15th September 2015

Thoughts on the subs last night?
 
The introduction of Fellaini had a negative influence, unfortunately. I was surprised Fellaini replaced Herrera and not Mata.

I think Valencia should have replaced Darmian.
 
Subs consistently questionable, think the selection of the 7 subs is also questionable though. Too many of the same sort of player and too many defensive type players. The other night for example... Carrick, Schneiderlin, Fellaini, Valencia, Rojo and McNair. None of those are what i'd describe as game changers. Think 1 or 2 of those could have been left out for Pereira and Wilson.

Fellaini sub strange the other night as we played him deep.
 
Terrible subs. Don't really know why Mata wasn't playing but to give him 6 minutes at the end is crazy. Always worry that we go long ball when we bring fellaini on but we couldn't even do that properly. This was a terrible performance.
 
Tbf Mata has been wank in the last few games. Not that I am defending the sub. Someone other than fellaini could have come on.
 
He has cut the squad down dramatically, too much so . Our injuries aren't really that bad and yet it feels like it's down to the bare bones. We need some better quality in the last third.
 
Wolfsburg 3-2 Manchester United - 8th December 2015

Powell for Mata was a poor decision.
 
It was an absolute piss take. He's a Championship level player who has just come back from injury.
 
completely unacceptable! Nothing against Powell but a do or die CL match is nothing to introduce players back frim injury, especially when they have never shown United quality in any game before. Powell deserves his chance but in such game thi is a decision I can't understand. Fellaini was shit and still Schweinsteiger is taken off. Another head-shaking decision!
 
Fellaini was not as shit as Mata has been. I felt Mata was substituted as we needed a bit more pace. But yeah bringing Powell on when perraira was on the bench was questionable. The substitution itself was not a wrong decision but the choice of substitute was wrong.
 
Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester United - 12th December 2015

Taking off Fellaini was an odd decision. He wasn't great, but looked the most likely to score.
 
Was very surprised he took him off given he's usually the go-to man in these situations. What's Ashley Young done wrong though?
 
Throughout the time Van Gaal has been at OT, I can honestly say that I cannot recall him ever changing a game for the better with his substitutions. Whilst sometimes he gets his formations correct against the opposition, he has never changed a game with a sub and that is poor for a manager of his credentials even with a long injury list.
 
It's interesting that this thread seems to be picked up every month or so and that this has been an ongoing theme. In fact... In October did he made great substitutions? ;) There's no comments in October so he must have.

Anyway, I think for a manager with his experience his substitutions have been dire. Far too often he brings off a player who's having a big positive impact for us. It seems Herrera is his favourite to bring off? I'd be interested to see if the stats back that up though?

I can't recall him making any game changing changes though and that's a worry. And he seems to leave the ineffective players on the pitch! Rooney earlier in the season and Fellaini the other night. What's up with that?
 
I think the main problem is that he has weakened the squad so much we don't really have impact players on the bench.
 
I think the main problem is that he has weakened the squad so much we don't really have impact players on the bench.

True to an extent but he has options. OK some of them are youthful but there's some options there. In the last few games he's had Memphis, Mata and Pereira to call upon? Now he has Januzaj.

OK its not great but that's partly down to his own doing. He loaned Januzaj out, he sold Hernandez and he failed to improve the squad enough.
 
Well he tried using him at left full back last season so I can't say I'm completely surprised by it! LVG seems to like to put square pegs in round holes.
 
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Manchester United - 6th March 2016

Herrera was by no means great, but the decision to replace him and not Carrick was odd.
 
Herrera was doing OK. At least trying to make good passes and get around the pitch. If Carrick had a place in the team it was in place of blind at centre back. I don't know why we are surprised, every single time we have dragged ourselves back into the top 4 race we screw it up.
 
We were on top and as soon as the change was made we weren't. To be honest nearly everything from Van Gaal today smacked of preparing for the next 2 games, e.g. giving returning players game time while form players were rested. Think he's concentrating on FA Cup and Europa rather than top 4, perhaps knows he's off in the summer and is looking to add to his own tally now while he still can.
 
Just like every single time players become available we revert back to the failed formula!

It's the same rubbish from LVG every damn time and it's why I wouldn't credit him for our upturn in form. As soon as the more experienced players are back he changes things even enough it was working before.

Maybe Carrick wasn't awful today, maybe Darmian was steady at the back... But it kills the good momentum we had built up so it's stupidity.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the subs were pre-planned with Liverpool in mind.
 
I thought that when Herrera went off. Rashford going off made sense as young and has played a lot recently, shouldn't have started really though. Last sub, Darmian poor but changing right backs isn't a decision that's going to help you winning from 1-0 down. Likely it was planned that he wouldn't play full 90 having been out for so long. Another though, that shouldn't have started, what happened to his policy of players needing match rhythm, Van Gaal's decision to start Darmian today made me think that he was using the game to build players up for the next 2 games and wasn't that bothered about today or getting top 4.
 
Maybe that's the case... Maybe he's trying to build up the fitness of Carrick and Darmian? But for me that's a cop out and an excuse for LVG to hide behind. He changes things far too often when things are going well but isn't quick to make changes when things aren't.

Any success we've had under LVG has been when his hand is forced. When the options are available to him he pretty much always makes the wrong choices.
 
Manchester United 1-1 Liverpool - 17th March 2016

Valencia and Schweinsteiger for Varela and Carrick respectively was kinda understandable, but I'm struggling to think of any reason why Darmain replaced Rojo, unless due to injury.
 
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