Players you believe get a raw deal on the caf

simplyared

Full Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
4,349
Location
somewhere ouside the UK
We have all have a right to have opinions on players but aren’t there always players who get slagged off no matter what?

Sometimes it becomes a pattern of behaviour. Some examples of players unjustly treated according to my experiences:

Smalling
Rashford
Maguire
Matic

Views on this!
 

lsd

The Oracle
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
10,784
James
Lingard

They get the most critism by far mostly for not being Ronaldo or Messi
 

The Cat

Will drink milk from your hands
Joined
May 18, 2017
Messages
12,108
Location
Feet up at home.
James - at least so far give him more time then judge him if he's still here in a couple of years.

He wasn;t supposed to start so many games for one thing.
 

OleBoiii

New Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2019
Messages
6,021
Smalling for sure. Overall he's been our best CB in the post Fergie era. He deserves a lot more respect.

Maguire also gets a raw deal. I think 50% of the reason is his price tag, which obviously isn't his fault.
 

Oldyella

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
5,755
Smalling definitely. He got lumped in with Jones as the chuckle brothers when he was a decent if not outstanding defender and a good servant for the club.

Pogba maybe, although the longer he has stayed with us the harder it is to defend him.

James and Lingard. They just arent up to it, it's not their fault they get picked, some of the abuse goes too far.

Fellaini was another. Got abuse simply because he came to represent Moyes spell in charge.
 

Bilbo

TeaBaggins
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Messages
14,207
Lindelöf is the first one that springs to mind. He's a key part of a defence that on the whole has been pretty good throughout last season and this, but he gets no love on here and he doesn't really make that many mistakes. He isn't Baresi and he never will be, but he's better than he gets given credit for.
 

groovyalbert

it's a mute point
Joined
Feb 14, 2013
Messages
9,608
Location
London
James - I think we need to lower expectations for a £12m signing from the Championship. We knew at the time that he was a relatively damage free signing, if it doesn't work out, move on.

Maguire - Has his off games but in contrast to our other cb/cb signings he's been a far more reliable and consistent signing.

De Gea - May not be the best in the world any more but he's more than earned fans respect and patience. Way better than any other feasible alternative right now.

Rashford - He's class but will obviously struggle against sides when he's the sole threat.

McTominay - Can't ever fault application and desire, and consistently performs better than those with higher skill sets.

AWB - Judged against players who he simply shouldn't be judged against. Not a wing-back but an excellent defensive rb.

Only deserved criticism -

Pogba - Too many brainfarts and not consistent enough. Should be the best there is, but rarely hits that level.

Lingard - Lost it. Become a bit of a charity case, the sort which we seem to accommodate too often. See Jones and Rojo for similar issue. Ole has been the only manager since SAF committed to moving these players on, however.
 

pascell

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
14,113
Location
Sir Alex Ferguson Stand
It goes a whole lot further back, even Nani was sarcastically clapped/cheered when subbed off in a game. What we'd do to have a prime Nani on RW now.

Every player has had the same treatment, some on here even believe Bruno is going through a purple patch and isn't the player we're led to believe he is.

Someone will always have something to complain about as everyone has an opinion.
 

simplyared

Full Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
4,349
Location
somewhere ouside the UK
Matic: "Matic takes the piss out of us"
"didn't care whether we won or lost"
"There's not a single decent thing I can say about him, he's complete and utter garbage"

Maguire (after last night's game)
"He's been really poor for a long time"
"even his heading technique is comical"
"May as well start calling him calamity Maguire"

Rashford (written 22nd Nov)
"he is just not good enough"
"we will be waiting for him to develop till the cows come home"
"this kid really lacks any natural footballing ability"

Ridiculous comments!
 

Borys

Statistics Wizard
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
9,023
Location
Bielsko Biala, Poland
McTominay and Maguire currently, labeled as not good enough despite being core of the team.

Pogba definitely should not be on that list, the number of people defending him was ridiculous, so were the excuses. The tide has turned in terms of fans support though, but he has deserved that.
 

norm87cro

New Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
1,782
Location
Split, HR
I guess Jones. Despite everything his transfer wasn't all that bad. We got a few very good years from him. The likes of Rashford, Pogba and Martial have a decent amount of critics and fan boys alike
 

Wilt

Full Member
Joined
May 22, 2017
Messages
6,551
Jones
Lingard
Martial
Jones
Lingard
Pogba
Lingard
Jones...
 

STYLOISRED

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
Messages
729
Location
Nigeria
The simple fact that even a single one of our player gets a raw deal here is sad in itself.
This is a man utd forum ffs! We should always be behind our players and managers no matter what.
 

Idxomer

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
15,009
Pogba, of course. Almost every thread now turns to "let's bash Pogba".

A lowkey one is Luke Shaw.
 

Devil may care

New Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
35,976
Martial and Pogba are the only players I feel get ridiculous levels of criticism, they deserves it at times of course, but the extreme nature of it with those 2 is often bonkers imo. Most of the others listed here I feel often get soft treatment, like "Ah leave him alone, it's not his fault he's average, he's trying his best!" type mothering.
 

Rossa

Full Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
10,403
Location
Looking over my shoulder.
Ashley Young! So much abuse on the Caf, but he was the one who stood with the supporters in the stands. He was a professional and had some good moments and some not so good.

smalling is an obvious one. Even Valencia got so much stick, but with Smalling and Young it was personal bashing as well as performances.
 

AndersB

Full Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2016
Messages
696
Can't believe no one has mentioned Shaw yet. He's mostly been solid for a long time now (less so this season, maybe, but still), but gets ridiculed time and time again
 

RedRob

Full Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2007
Messages
900
Location
"I believe. I believe there will be more. T
Butt - for the fact that he isn't recognised more on the site. He played about as often as Keane and Scholes in CM during the years at the top, but is always seemingly thought of as having been a bench option - it wasn't until about 2002/03 that he stopped getting around 30 starts per season.

De Gea had a string of poor form for a good long while, but very much seems to be largely past it now. People are still quick to rush in and blame him for every goal we concede.

Can't agree with people saying Maguire though. He's our second-most expensive player of all time. He needs to bring a lot more to the team than being a decent but error-prone centre back.
 

Ekeke

Full Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Messages
53,080
Location
Hope, We Lose
Smalling and Ander without a doubt. Shaw has routinely been called fat for years.

Jones to some extent, the way a lot of people talk about him you'd think he plays in League 2. Certainly treated worse than Maguire
 

marktan

Full Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
6,907
Nani. Always got a raw deal on the CAF for not being Ronaldo, when in reality he was a supremely talented technical winger.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

Creator of Player Performance threads
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
26,843
Location
Player Performance Threads
Rashford I never understood, people are way too critical of him when his output is great, he's a good bloke and an academy player that wants nothing more than to succeed with United. Get the feeling some people want him to fail so their favourite players can succeed.
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,124
Valencia as a right back. He really wasn't bad there especially in Jose's first season. One of the few players we had that performed well over a season or two in the post SAF years....and that's from a very small list. Rashford gets too much criticism IMO, Lindelof too.

The sad fact is we haven't challenged for a title in 7 years and for a club like United i'm afraid criticism is going to come the way of players/managers falling way short of the very high standards that were previously set. Even for the hyper critical caf, it's kind of hard not to criticize players involved in a period of massive failure. I look at some of the players quoted above and think 'well, they kind of have been pretty bad'.
 

Wittmann45

Full Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
6,814
Location
'Keep the flag flying Jimmy'
Ashley Young! So much abuse on the Caf, but he was the one who stood with the supporters in the stands. He was a professional and had some good moments and some not so good.

smalling is an obvious one. Even Valencia got so much stick, but with Smalling and Young it was personal bashing as well as performances.
Seems to have only been mentioned twice in this thread but I think Young is a very good shout. He gave his all for the club and I just don't think he was as appreciated as other players who were similarly versatile and became sort of cult heroes.

I hope one day is can return to Old Trafford and get a good reception.
 

Red_toad

Full Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
11,587
Location
DownUnder
Any player whom the Caf turns on at any given time. Currently it's Maguire. Our fans are just bizarre with their dislike of our players, build them up then relish in slating them when they're down.
 

Teja

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
5,701
Any player whom the Caf turns on at any given time. Currently it's Maguire. Our fans are just bizarre with their dislike of our players, build them up then relish in slating them when they're down.
It's almost as if there's more than one person on this forum :lol:

To the caf's credit, people don't flip flop a lot, they just make up their minds and come out in droves depending on whether the player in question has had a good game or a bad one.
 

The Boy

Full Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
4,317
Supports
Brighton and Hove Albion
Not a player anymore, but Ole gets far more abuse than he deserves
 

MadDogg

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
15,809
Location
Manchester Utd never lose, just run out of time
I think it's important to note that sometimes a vocal minority will make it seem much worse than it is because the majority aren't bothered enough to give their opinion on the player being fairly good.

Smalling is the best example of this. Reading this forum at times it felt like everyone disliked him and wanted him out, but every time a vote or poll came up it was always Smalling +1. Then when the latter group are more vocal about "Why are we selling him" or "I wish we'd given Smalling+Maguire a chance", the former group start going on about them thinking that because he's no longer here and the grass always being greener. No, they always thought that but didn't feel strongly enough to post it, and it was the first group who were basically in an echo chamber that made them think everyone agreed with them.

Overall it tends to be people with short memories. Martial is copping it at the moment because he's started this season poorly, despite the fact that he was probably our best player over the whole of last season and we largely got into the CL spots because of his form after lockdown. Rashford likewise in the past, although I actually think he's getting off very lightly at the moment because people are focusing on Martial while Rashford's barely been any better.

Generally it's people going overboard with their criticism, and pretty much every player has been on the end of that. People going on about them barely being a premier league player and some such nonsense. Unfortunately with the media and social media we live with today it all encourages over-the-top point of views rather than weighing up the good and the bad fairly. It's how you get clicks and reactions.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
Maguire has had one bad game this season against Spurs and takes dumb amounts of flak, despite being our best CB. Aside from him, probably James, Rashford and Mata. The French lads, especially Pogba, get defended too much sometimes. Their fanboys can’t take constructive criticism.
 

Red_toad

Full Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
11,587
Location
DownUnder
It's almost as if there's more than one person on this forum :lol:

To the caf's credit, people don't flip flop a lot, they just make up their minds and come out in droves depending on whether the player in question has had a good game or a bad one.
They don't flip flop :lol:, Rashford goes to Rashford then better then MBappe over the course of a season. A lot of youtube channels influence the hearts and minds in here and people are so sheep like and just follow.