Gary Neville's excellent analysis of RVP against City tells a different story. Please watch and comment.

He was declining since the start of last season...

Neville is right, but I think RVP's best years are over.

@quikzy you are very wrong.

Alot of players after they eave Arsenal decline in talent. E.g. Adebayor, Ashley Cole, Nasri, Van Persie, Clichy. The only player that is an exception in my eyes is Fabregas

Ashley Cole declined in talent after leaving Arsenal? He was the best LB in England for years after leaving Arsenal

I know Fred, I just realized that i wrote Ashley's name haha. Sorry =/

I agree with Neville. It has a lot to do with players not in sync with RVP...Rooney is the only one who was trying to find him last game. This is where I feel Moyes messed up United. In 2012, our midfielders were in sync with him...now its just people trying to find rythm.

@ashwin, and a lot of that comes with having an actual starting eleven that you can easily identify. You can look at Chelsea and clearly see who their starting eleven is, but with United (given all the injuries and suspensions) it is hard to tell. Mata or Rooney in the attacking midfield role? Fellaini or Herrera in the central position role? I liked the 4-3-3 because we had Di Maria in the midfield, but it looks like LVG has reverted to a 4-2-3-1, which makes me further question whether he has found one system he can just stick with.

@TheGame: Yes, but the other teams are not dealing with injuries like we are...well except for Arsenal. If you look at LVG's selections, most of his 1st team is set except for a few spots. The 2-3 midfield positions are up for grabs. DeGea, Rafael, Jones(when fit), Rojo, Shaw will start. I wished we brought Koulibaly from Genk instead of Rojo. He won't start ahead of Jones if Hummels comes to United. As for midfield, Carrick/Blind - one of them were going to start. Fellaini won a spot. DiMaria, Rooney, and either RVP/Falcao were bound to start. Which leaves 2 spots for grabs.
As for the formation, van Gaal clearly said he wants a fluid team, so I would not be surprised if we change to a 4-4-2 now all of a sudden. But the 4-2-3-1 was mostly to because we did not have fit defenders. I don't think he would have played it if he had a fully fit team.
As for your question about one system, van Gaal will not play one system. He expects players to be fluid to accommodate according to the game we are playing. It will be hard till the players return, but I think we will finish top 4.

@ashwin, so Mata, Herrera, Januzaj and Falcao are not in the starting 11? Fine.

As for your question about one system, van Gaal will not play one system. He expects players to be fluid to accommodate according to the game we are playing. It will be hard till the players return, but I think we will finish top 4.
Exactly. And this is where I fundamentally disagree with LVG. Since United are in transition, I don't think this is the way to go at the moment. We need to stick with one system and a set of players we can rely on week in and week out, because that seems to be the only way we can actually get a string of wins together and develop as a group, rather than 2 or 3 wins followed by 2 or 3 draws. We have the players. And if Simeone managed to do that with Atletico last season, I don't see why we can't as well.

@TheGame

But Simeone's and LVG's situations are different. Simeone played with an underdog team that had the players who were hungry for success. LVG has to manage a group of egoists who get weekly massive pay-checks regardless of whether they play good or not. They don't have that same attitude left if you decide on a starting XI and leave some of them on the bench constantly. Can you imagine either of van Persie or Falcao gladly warming the bench?

Great video by the way, completely agree with Gary Neville.

@D, I agree that Simeone's men were hungry for success, but so are the United players. I don't think that you can make the case that they are a bunch of "egoists who get weekly massive pay-checks" since R. Madrid also have a huge wage bill and their players are performing phenomenally. At the end of the day, I don't question their professionalism and I really do believe the attitude and effort is there, but the results aren't. The question is how do you manage that. I believe that we should have a set starting 11 and if anyone is not comfortable with that and wants to act immature and entitled then so long.

@TheGame: I'm not saying Herrera and Januzaj are not in the XI. I'm saying they haven't earned their spot in it. Falcao probably would replace RVP when fit, that I can say. I'm fairly sure Mata's days are over at United. We will probably trade him for Strootman or sell him.

I would think this is the best time to try different formation because we have players suitable for those positions. We probably won't have a decent chance once we get all our team back. I think we will start winning consistently starting January.

@Dynastian: I agree with you that Simeone's situation is different, but to say United lacks hunger is not what I agree with. Teams in EPL improved drastically since Fergie retired. This is a different United that Fergie built before he retired. He used to counter a lot, but this team plays a lot more possession. We don't have a midfield enforcer any more. Our defence was slow, not that they lacked hunger. Moyes did not understand this. He did not have any other tactics except 4-2-3-1 that messed our game. It was good against lower league and midtable teams, but not the top 6.

Alright, I'll take your word for it. I really don't watch Man United games except for their games against the Top 4 teams. The only EPL team I watched regularly week-in-week-out last season was Liverpool, so I guess I can't say anything about United aside from the games I watched of them.