He wasn't totally bad...but one thing is for sure, he isn't the future......
36
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
Well, yeah, I agree that he's likely to leave in the summer, but whilst he's here, I try to be as objective as I can about him. That was my whole point. He wasn't as bad as people were making him out to be.
We were ineffective at breaking down West Hams two banks of 4, that was at least in part due to us not stretching them on their right at all (Lingard was at fault for this too). Valencia wasn't brilliant but he was much better than Darmian. He got up often on the overlap drew their full back out to try to create space inside him. And he got a few decent crosses in as well as getting into the box a few times nearly scoring. He was always an option out there for a pass.
Can we say the same about Darmian? Not really i remember maybe one cross , one foray into the opposition box (think he was offside, which must be a rare experience for Matteo) and very little overlapping on the outside of Lingard. Mourinho seemed to agree he wasn't contributing enough as he hooked him and moved a centre back out there.
Do you think what he offered in attack tonight was enough for a Man Utd full back?
I think we know what we get with Darmian and it's not bad. He's pretty reliable of not spectacular. I'm not sure that he'll be with us for the long-term but in the mean time, good to have available.
Most sensible post here
I actually don't remember Valencia's performance in the first half apart from his shot on goal. I do remember a couple of overlaps, but that's about it. We were generally very poor. Even Herrera and Pogba looked tired.
Darmian received the ball near the 18 yard line plenty of times. Often there was no movement ahead of him from Lingard or Mkhi to really capitalize on it. So he resorted to sideways passing. He was only hauled off coz West Ham were a man short. Else I don't think he would have been taken off.
And no, I don't think what he offered in attack was Utd caliber, but I didn't have the expectation that he would be a world beater when we had the ball. It was a typical Darmian performance.
CBJ would be a better option.
Surely.
Surely.
At this rate we're going to need to buy a blue chip left back.
If by reliable you mean incapable of getting through more than 3 90min performances a season without injury, booking, or having to be subbed to prevent getting sent off, then yes, very "reliable"
Call me crazy but he was ok. Nothing to be crazy about.
Exactly
I really don't like it when he plays at left back, he doesn't look at all comfortable on that side. When a wide player is running down that side with the ball he has to rely on the centre half to get him out of jail and when he attacks he keeps passing it backwards or sideways.
I think this is a valid post. The whole team was lethargic today and Darmian was no better or worse than most. Were it not for the Red card and need to strategically change the team he would likely have lasted 80 minutes or so.
He wasnt... bad. But tbh, dont think he was good enough either in terms of what we needed today especially against 10 men.
Dont think he will be here next season, and I dont think hes good for LB for us. But hes kinda needed now until the end of the season until we get a replacement or Shaw gets going.
Dont think he will be here next season, and I dont think hes good for LB for us. But hes kinda needed now until the end of the season until we get a replacement or Shaw gets going.
I haven't a fullback offer so little offensively before. He does nothing, doesn't even make runs to make space for the wingers.
Leftback is becoming a bit of issue for us, we need Shaw back and on form quickly.
Leftback is becoming a bit of issue for us, we need Shaw back and on form quickly.
I have been totally wrong about Darmian. Thought that he will be a very good signing, and then was quite sure that Jose will turn him in a rock solid fullback (although shit at attacking) but he has been from poor to average for his entire time here.
He'll likely be gone in the summer, and even now, I don't think that CBJ would be a worse option than him.
He'll likely be gone in the summer, and even now, I don't think that CBJ would be a worse option than him.
He's not a left back and he literally kills every attack.
hmm, he played well as defender, but as full back who has to attack too, he is really not good enough. if he's happy as squad player, I dont mind him to stay with us. back up for our LB/RB.
Very poor
Both Blind and Rojo seem to offer more than him as LB. And Valencia is never injured.
If Shaw returns to the form he had before the injury, it should be the end of Darmian. We probably could accept one fullback to not offer anything in attack, but he also doesn't seem very reliable in defense and seems to like getting booked. Really, there is nothing that he can do, that Blind doesn't do better and there are still question marks about Blind's ability in the first place.
Thats being kind every time he gets the ball he can't wait to get rid of it. There was little movement in front of him partly because whoever plays on his side gets double teamed as Darmian barely makes runs on the outside. Yes them being down to 10 men contributed to him being taken off, but when one person had to come off Jose chose Darmian even though we didn't have another fullback on the bench. He could have easily taken off Rojo to move Carrick back. But he obviously preferred Rojo at LB to Darmian.
Who is expecting a world beater attacking fullback though?
I'm certainly not and no ones expecting him to channel Roberto Carlos, i think the majority of people would just like a competent fullback who is able to contribute something, anything in attack. If he was an amazing defender i could almost overlook his attacking limitations. But he's not even that good in defence either, he's alright at times but teams often target him. If he's playing against a winger (on either side) with pace and/or strength he struggles, especially after 60-70 minutes as his stamina is awful.
TBF it is more like players have flopped for whatever reasons.
It was not like he signed the likes of bebe to perform miracles for us. His signings were spot on at that time with many of them performing good the season before and some fit the profiles we needed.
It just showed transfers can be a bitch at times.
Jose has been good with his transfers at united so far. And he will sign some players who won't do as well as we expect at some points.
Agree. Keep saying similar for a while now in defense for Darmian. I see a trend in Mourinho trusts his positioning discipline in defense against teams with better crossing into our box while Blind is more trusted to play expansively vs teams we can pushed back and box themselves. I was definitely see Darmian being subbed today despite not worse defending 1 vs 1 than his previous game, seeing we like more attacking option vs 10 men West Ham playing deep.
He was subbed off because we were playing against 10 men. Nothing more to it than that.
Considering we had practically zero defending to do in the first half, of course he was defensively fine, but how exactly is that a compliment? The onus was on us to attack and play football, and when it comes to playing football, Darmian is absolutely feckin' rubbish.
Agreed and I wouldn't be surprised to see him recalled.
Was he not also booked?
Well there is a bit... I mean, if Darmian was any form of an attacking threat, Jose wouldn't have put Rojo there, he'd simply have just taken Rojo/Jones off.
Honestly, is there nothing better out there for us? Did we have to go all the way to Italy to get this player? I don't see any special attributes, tangible or intangible. He looks like any Italian fullback that's not interesting. A total no nothing. A work horse at best. Yesterday was the final call for me on him when he was caught up by defenders despite being offside when starting his run.
No he doesn't make many runs outside of the winger, because he has a tendency to tuck in and move closer to the penalty box. He's not even a natural LB, it's very clear from the way he positions himself and shapes his body that he tends to move inward rather than outward. He made a couple of such runs, but was always tracked by someone.
Regarding the sub, it's obvious Jose rates Rojo very highly. There's no way he would have been subbed off in place of Darmian. He wanted more attacking firepower so he moved Carrick to CB and brought on Mata. It was a clever substitution and there's really nothing more to it than that.
Again, the whole team was rather poor in the first half. Even the likes of Pogba, Herrera weren't exactly playing well. We were generally tired and it showed in the way we played. Focusing all that energy from our depressing first half (The golden chance aside) on one player is a bit much don't you think ?. He did his job defensively, and that's what I highlighted.
He's not a natural RB either because he plays almost exactly the same way on that side. He moves inward so he can lay the ball off to someone else and shuffle back to where he was.
No not at all because of several reasons this performance is what Darmian offers up on a regular basis. He didn't play 48 hours earlier and yet even against a team and in a side where most the players did play 48 hours earlier he still looked one of the worst and least energetic out there. He had almost nothing to do defensively either so why he is getting praised for that i don't know.
At one point the ball came over his head on his side of the pitch, you would expect a fullback to bust a gut to get to it and start us on a counter attack. But no he calmly jogged over to it, Kouyate did bust a gut ran past him gathered the ball and could have caused us problems. And that about sums Darmian up for me he's a frustrating player to watch.
He was actually good offensively at Torino as a Wing Back. I think he's a confidence player and his confidence must be pretty low for him to instinctively pass the ball to someone else. I'm not defending him, just an assumption.
I am not praising his performance. I said in an earlier post that he had a 6.5/10 rating from me, which is pretty much par. I didn't have much expectations from him attacking wise, so I was more or less satisfied with what he did defensively. He also won most of his one vs one's on his side, even if he did let Kouyate run free. Most of the hammers threat (If any) came either centrally or from Payet's side. Lanzini and Nordtveit were constantly in their own half marking Darmian and one of Mkhi/Lingard.
He can be a frustrating player to watch and I don't disagree, but my expectations from him were far lower than what you expected, hence I can call his performance as "Acceptable".
I thought he was fine but he wasn't getting forward enough considering we were playing vs 10 men
I meant in general mate not you specifically. Few people earlier in the thread said he was fine defensively based on the fact he didn't make a few howlers. But then that should be the very least expected of a defender at this level shouldn't it.
Thats the thing mate i expected about as much from Darmian as you did, i have very low expectations of him in general. But the difference being i just don't find his level of performance acceptable not just for a Man Utd full back but for any full back at the top level.
In almost 30 years of watching football, for my money he is the worst fullback we've had in that period. And the mad thing is i think bar Shaw he is the most expensive fullback we've ever signed.
Really? I noticed him camped on the side of their box and Pogba/Ibra trying to get something going with him...
It seemed obvious to me we needed to get Martial/Rashford on. Not that he was bad, just useless in the final third.
I can't remember him getting forward much or maybe it's the fact he's just not very good in attack.
He isn't a LB. The sooner Shaw gets fit the better.
Yeah, given that he isn't LB by trade, the yellow was actually Mkhi's fault for losing the ball in dangerous place which resulted in a counter, he hasn't done much wrong. His biggest problem is that he isn't really a offensive monster but other than that it's not like he was getting destroyed time and time again.
That did my head in. How slow is he actually?
He is our 3rd choice or 4th Choice Left Back. Considering that, I thought he put in a decent shift. Hence, me labelling his performance as "Acceptable". As for worst ever full back we signed, it's tough to say. Buttner was pretty poor too tactically (Although he did play well against Bayern). Then there's Blackett who was calamitous.
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