Valencia replaced Rafael.
Rafael wasn't playing even long after he had become fit last season . Darmian was simply competition for Valencia.
Thank you Van Gaal Thread
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Rafael wasn't playing even long after he had become fit last season . Darmian was simply competition for Valencia.
And what is Van Gaal's excuse for every other beating against Mourinho? English referees?Anyone that watched the 2010 final without Truus Van Gaal tinted glasses would see that the best team won. Milito should have scored more too. Jose used the same method that many other premiership managers would use against Van Gaal years later. Give him all the possession then create all the chances that matter. As shown through his disastrous spell here,he has no idea how to figure that one out.
Yes,easy money. Dutch football is a poor relic though that has been passed by time, just like their 2nd greatest manager.
That's true but doesn't make the decision any less wrong. LVG just didn't rate Rafael. He plays instinctively which LVG just doesn't like. He was never going to be first choice under LVG. If he was still at the club he would be the best right back at United.
Allowing LVG to make those decisions was a mistake. He had a short term contract and is a very unorthodox manager. He was in charge of a squad rebuild and ended up with Valencia and Blind in his first choice back 4.
It was fitting that howlers by both cost the team their place in the Champions League for next season and probably sealed his fate.
As for "thank you Van Gaal". My thank you is for doing so badly that the club had to end the terrible "3 year rebuild and handover to Giggs" plan. United is in a much better position now than if he did well enough to survive.
Rafael hasn't been great since 2012. He was injured and even when he played wasn't anything special
In hindsight maybe but if that was the case, we could probably make a case for many players since Phil Neville (whose replacement kleberson in mid was shit too)
A few of my friends who support Lyon complain that he doesn't have defensive awareness and attempt to go forward even when he shouldn't. Plus he had many injuries there too. We are missing nothing frankly.
Darmian isn't a bad player by any means. I think Mourinho will get the best out of him.
Bloody hell the Big Sam comment was clearly tongue-in-cheek. But you can't deny the similarities: the arrogance, the shite football, and the unintentional comedy moments.
The arrogance and delusion in this post is very strong. Modern football? feck me
He got us to play some of the worst football known to mankind after spending feck loads of money. The man was a complete clown. Comparisons with Big Sam are clearly very harsh on Big Sam. At least his football had some kind of purpose.
Valencia isn't a right back and never will be, he replaced no one in my eyes. He was played simply because he's turn back Tony. Round and round in circles he goes keeping possession. Van Gaal loved that shit.
Rafael had the terrible habit of carrying the ball up the pitch and trying to help the team create something. Van Gaal didn't like that sort of stuff.
His best season was in 2013 not 2012, when on form he was a cracking fullback better than anything we currently have bar Shaw potentially. Everyone was shit under Moyes in 2014. Van Gaal didn't like him from the start, takes too many risks with the ball.
Yeah maybe if Kleberson had not joined in 2003 and left the same time Phil Neville did and/or Phil was a midfielder when he was actually a fullback. But apart from those minor details yeah great comparison.
Compared to Darmian he's a fecking modern day Cafu, so yeah we are missing having a right back with the balls to get up the pitch and attack. Personally i would rather have a fullback who gets caught out of position sometimes in driving the team forward and helping us attack. Compared to one that camps out in his own half like a tortoise. Id swap them tomorrow and drive Matteo to France myself.
But the truth is we need a first choice right back better than both and one who isn't constantly injured or returning from injury like Rafael and Darmian.
Van gaal played him in quite a few games and he wasn't anything special. In fact I'm sure most feel Valencia is still the better RB and was the better RB last season. Especially who had been decent at best for a good 3 years.
Well frankly no. Lyon fans seem to think he has no defensive awareness based on last season and plus he is always injured. Valencia has been more or less the same albeit defensively solid. Plus he doesn't have stupid niggles every other game.
Anyway mourinho would rather darmian and Valencia I'm sure. He likes defensive full backs and Valencia is a better mix of attack and defence.
The number of United fans on here who think Valencia is good defensively is utterly bizarre.
Because he is? He isn't lahm but he is actually strong, disciplined and fast. And he is reliable. Does he make mistakes at times? Yes. But so does 90% of the RBs out there. Plus he also gets into good positions attacking and essentially rules the entire right wing on his own due to mata being ineffective as a winger.
This, good post. It's only natural for a winger turned rightback to make those mistakes positional wise.
If I had to pick a team for a death match Valencia would be in it for sure.
Edit: to stay on topic thank you Louis for trusting Tony the Tank.
Thank you for turning the light off when you left. Adios.
So let's disregard the guys entire United career because he wasn't great under Van Gaal, yeah ok that makes no sense at all.
Valencia isn't a right back and he's shit defensively, anyone who thinks he's a better right back than Rafael despite his faults is fecking mental simple as. Valencia is a failed winger impersonating a fullback.
Well frankly yes and i honestly don't give a single solitary feck what Lyon fans think, their thoughts are irrelevant to my opinion on a player i have watched play almost 200 times.
Indeed.
So you would also play Rooney right now as our main striker as he has had an amazing United career even though he isn't good enough?
It's similar. At the end of the day, Rafael wasn't good enough for us to rely on him as a squad option due to him not performing for 2 seasons and his injury problems.
You are essentially comparing Rafael of 2012-13 with darmian of present. It's like comparing Rooney of 2005 with martial of 2015 an saying there isn't much difference.
Darmian of 2014-15 wasn't worse than Rafael of 2014-15 and Valencia of 2014-15 and that's what we look at the end of the season. It was a no brainer for anybody with even half a brain cell.
He really isn't. He did a reasonable job in Van Gaal's system where the key to defending was hoping to have 100% possession so you don't have to do any.
He has good recovery speed and is physically strong so he is good one on one vs a winger. But he has zero defensive instincts and his positional play is very poor. Defensive play for a full back is mostly positional and being able to spot danger. He does his best but he just isn't a defender.
I think he has a role to play off the bench as a full back when chasing a game or a winger when looking to defend solidly and counter attack. But he is not good enough defensively to play full back for a big club like United.
Rafael was one of my favourite United players, and I felt really bad when he was pushed out of the club. Darmian is ok I guess, but he does not excite me as much. Rafael is a typical Fergie player while Darmian is all LVG.
His defensive stats prove otherwise. Statistically he was one of the best right backs in 14/15 and is very solid. Wouldn't be surprising if he started for mourinho too frankly.
We sold Rafael for around 5m and bought Darmian who is inferior player to him for three times that. How on earth was that a good decision?
Well it's two decisions.We sold Rafael for around 5m and bought Darmian who is inferior player to him for three times that. How on earth was that a good decision?
Getting rid of Rafael. That wasn't a mistake,and he had done nothing at his new club to suggest that we made a mistake. Injuries and poor form means he hasn't been missed here.
Bringing Darmian as a replacement. Seeing as Valencia was first choice when Rafael was here and is first choice now,it simply means we have changed out rightback cover. Darmian has disapointed though and perhaps we should have looked elsewhere.
Two decisions.
I strongly believe this.
He'll start and they will wait patiently for any mistake that he makes to slate him.
I think Jose will like him,although Darmian may improve too.
How do you think Rafael would be under Mourinho? Water under the bridge at this point, but I still wonder.
Absolute bullshit
Exactly, which is idiotic.
It isn't. Darmian was worse last season than Rafael ever was for us, much worse both defensively and from an attacking point of view. With the added ironic bonus that he was injured just as much.
At least when Rafael missed half the season he was a good player the other half. With Darmian last year we didn't even have that consolation.
We're not discussing Rooney here mate, he is of no relevance to this discussion. Your comparisons are odd.
No you are essentially talking a load of old waffle mate. Comparing two strikers 10 years apart is nothing at all like comparing two fullbacks 3 years apart. As i said your comparisons are odd so please stop them and discuss the subject at hand or don't i honestly don't give a shit anymore.
He was worse than Rafael in any of his years at United as was Valencia. How Rafael is doing in France in another team playing in a different league is irrelevant to how he would be performing for Manchester United in the Premier League. Clearly.
Careful mate no need to get nasty.
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Not even that much according to some reports. Some listed it at only £2m, £2m for Rafael.We sold Rafael for around 5m and bought Darmian who is inferior player to him for three times that. How on earth was that a good decision?
http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/04/did-m...er-fee-for-rafael-da-silva-from-lyon-5326495/
And signed Darmian for £13m.
Cheer Louis you crazy Dutch bastard.
I don't think so.
Thought Valencia did quite well in that season until the Arsenal game.
Bar the brilliant 2013 season,Rafael himself didn't particularly impress. He showed a lot of passion,and that led to the **** following. But no player should be judged on form from 3 or 4 years ago.
We sold him that low to allow Lyon to offer him a decent salary.
And also to ensue the sale as we had very few suitors for him,and his wasn't part of our plans at all(Didn't even go on tour)
Yeah i know mate. We do it with most of our sales because of how much we pay. But it's still a bit annoying to see a good young player go for a relative pittance.
The fact he wasn't part of our plans was another one of Van Gaal's brain farts. Rafa wasn't the best RB in europe nor the most reliable in terms of fitness but he could and probably should have been kept.
Oh come on mate thats going way too far. Between 2008 and 2012 he was basically the first choice right back of Manchester United for the majority of that time. We were a bloody good team during that period, if he was as you describe Ferguson wouldn't have kept him in the side when fit for all those years.
He impressed in many many games during that period. His drawbacks were his injuries and his inconsistency at times. Which is hardly uncommon in such a young defender.
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Why was that a good decision? Were you paying him his wages from your pocket? Was he on 200k per week so we absolutely had to get rid of him? Was he ruining the atmosphere in the dressing room?
He played just around 500 minutes less than Darmian this season, and he actually has a very good fullback to compete with(or at least that's what French posters said) in Jallet. Darmian had no competition for majority of the season and was crap. He is also injured a lot and quite often didn't finish games, few times even hauled off at half time. Darmian had games this where he was worse than anything else Rafael put in his entire career.
You yourself agreed his last good season was in 12/13. Plus they were similar in form and ability even this season for their clubs. Darmian has a rating of 6.85 and Rafael has a rating of 6.91. But hey, he would have magically been good for us. If van gaal hadn't sold Rafael mourinho would have first thing.
3 years makes all of a difference obviously in this case. Rafael was good for us in the past but he isn't good enough for what we needed and Valencia on merit took him off the team.
Darmian was one of the best fullbacks in serie a, won Italian NT's player of the year and had little to no injury problems. It was a no brainer to buy darmian selling Rafael and unless the club had a time machine to go into the future and see how he turned out, it's the most sensible thing to do.
I agree we needed an upgrade on Rafael but the most sensible thing to do was to try and ease in his successor not get rid and replace let them fight it out over a season together (Darmain, Rafael and Valencia).
We honestly have no idea how Rafael would have performed this season at United, also just like Darmian we couldn't have predicted if he was going to stay fit or not. But at a guess i imagine he would have been comfortably better than Darmian was last season. As every year he was at United he was better than Darmian was last season (no magic needed) . And with all the injuries to Matteo he would have played plenty of games.
Valencia didn't get the RB slot on merit in my eyes. He got it simply because he plays it safe 99% of the time and Van Gaal values that more than anything to the detriment of our play. LVG was a loon who also thought playing 5'10'' midfielder Daley Blind at centre back all year in the Premier League was a fantastic idea because he was left footed. So i wouldn't put much stock into which players Van Gaal preferred, his judgement is obviously very questionable.
I have absolutely no problem with us signing Darmian, a player who i think will improve immensely under Jose btw. He was the right age, profile etc. And i have already said we definitely needed to replace Rafael as first choice because he was unreliable due to his injuries. But selling him wasn't a no brainer as you imply it was another rash decision by LVG without much thought behind it.
We had only one proper RB in Rafael at the time so bringing in Darmian and having the two compete for slot was logical. We didn't need a time machine just common sense, a virtue Louis was in short supply of it seems.
Eric, good to hear you safe and well. Enjoyed you on the podcast and asked a while back if you were okay, glad to hear you are. Regarding the bold, I think a lot of the infrastructure will benefit. A lot of technical upgrades behind the scenes, I don't think much of what he was teaching us will remain however.
He doesn't play it safe at all Valencia. In fact he gets forward most of the time. And he doesn't bomb forward blindly either. It's clear that he is in the team on merit. As for Blind he was one of our best outfielders and better than some of the actual CBs in the league so looks like he was right on that one.
It's not a big leap to assume that someone who had not played particularly well for 2 seasons at United and was marginally better at best in an inferior league would not be very good for us.
He seems half the player he was years back, injured most of the time, not an international anymore. Common sense would show that Valencia had been better at RB, reliable, disciplined vs Rafael who had average seasons for 2 years, unreliable, not the best defensively and any manager would do exactly the same. I liked Rafael but it's the tryth
I don't really mind when the club does that,especially for long serving players. Maybe it's a club strategy.
Maybe I could have put that better . He was phenomenal in 2013,but his perfomances post then and general lack of availability meant that it was a reasonable sale.
Yeah, I'm a huge Rafa fanboy but selling him was reasonable given his injury record. Signing Darmian on the other hand was an appalling piece of business.
Stats can't account for the million times Valencia gets caught out of position. Usually it's when a cross is arriving from our left and he has for no reason got sucked infield leaving the back post open. Though this season I noticed some variety in his positional mistakes - he also lets runners ghost past him and get goalside, and occassionally doesn't bother to track back into anywhere near our box if he fells the move has gone far enough ahead.
A man of many unique defensive talents.