100% agree we don’t need a right back
29
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 17
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 3
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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He was always a good player , people here always wanted a scapegoat.
He still has his weaknesses : not good at crossingin final third , ball watching in our defense, leaving his attacker and moving closer to our CB position. The latter two directly contributed to goals against us last few seasons but with our defense improving it should be less of a concern now.
Other than above he is an amazing player. Carrying the ball , dribbling , short passing is very good. If he fixes his output in final third ( we have been saying this for last few seasons ) we don’t need another RB.
He still has his weaknesses : not good at crossingin final third , ball watching in our defense, leaving his attacker and moving closer to our CB position. The latter two directly contributed to goals against us last few seasons but with our defense improving it should be less of a concern now.
Other than above he is an amazing player. Carrying the ball , dribbling , short passing is very good. If he fixes his output in final third ( we have been saying this for last few seasons ) we don’t need another RB.
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I've always liked AWB, as a defender he is bloody amazing
Was in full-on beast mode today.
Only a few weeks ago someone said he was a championship player at best
The turn around has been incredible.
This is exactly the game that suits him - coming up against a skillful winger one-on-one which allows him to make tackles. Not sure how many games in a season would lay out like this though.
He absolutely is without a doubt.
Maybe they meant Championship player at worst?
He was monstrous defensively.
He might be the best 1vs1 full-back in the world.
He might be the best 1vs1 full-back in the world.
Guy signed for £50m as a, what?, 21 year old, and got no proper coaching from that point on.
I never got the hate for him, he was clearly always a good defender, shock horror he improves under a competent coach.
I never got the hate for him, he was clearly always a good defender, shock horror he improves under a competent coach.
Was great when he came on, really set the tone for the rest of the team too. As soon as he made those early tackles in the second half I knew ASM would be struggling against him. Great substitution.
Dare I say our manager made an obvious error by not starting AWB against ASM? Great display when he came on, was hoping to see his shot nestle in the bottom corner.
I said when he came back from injury he had 6 months to save his United career, and I wasn’t particularly confident he’d be able to do it, but fair play he’s giving it a right old go. Didn’t put a foot wrong today and pretty much cut out Newcastle’s only attacking threat (ASM) to the point where he looked like he’d just given up even trying to beat him.
That one game v. City is his best imo.
Really happy for him that he's worked his way back into the team, and he's performing. He provides at least one highlight reel tackle per game, but usually a couple. Great performance today.
I think he has massively improved physically and technically.
MOTM for me. Surprised Casemiro was an overwhelming choice. I thought AWB brilliantly dealt with their biggest threat.
Get where you are coming from but scoring a goal, playing 90 mins and the fact AWB didn’t feature in the half we scored the goals clearly counts.
But i agree he was excellent in the half he played
I don't think he's actually changed much in these two areas imo. He's always been athletically really good and technically 'underrated' in certain aspects i.e ball carrying, niftiness in tight spaces etc but I still think he has the same flaws such as passing, lapses of concentration positionally etc. All of these things he had shown many times in his first two seasons. I just think he's been managed better (which are practical reasons kind of forced onto ETH's hands e.g AWB initial early season injuries, preferring Dalot and then having to rely on AWB due to Dalot's post world cup injury/sharpness etc) and obviously he has a lot more experience now.
He was having a stormer of a first season (for his standards) and it sort of tailed off as I felt he was getting fatigued due to overplaying and the reliance of his athletic play locking down that right side. He barely got any help defence from Lindelof, who was stuck in the penalty box and then he tucked in as a third CB because Lindelof was so deep. Then, he was asked to play out from the back, again with little help from Lindelof, who would give him the ball in the least advantageous situations because the Swede wouldn't take responsibility himself. Of course AWB has his own faults and deserved criticism for his play too but these were things that weren't addressed by Ole and in turned like everyone else in the squad just turned into a free-for-all shitshow.
I think he's got growth to improve in his decision making and game intelligence under ETH. He's still young in his development and ultimately his game is still more instinctual than anything but that's fine, he's only had 7 months under a proper coach with a quarter of that time injured.
Have loved seeing his resurgence under ETH. Good coaching can do wonders and man has really improved. Still there are areas to be improved as many of you pointed out, and I’m sure they’ll come.
Made us more solid at the back and hardly gave asm a sniff
Made us more solid at the back and hardly gave asm a sniff
Much like Rashford 6 months ago. Trying to ride the ebbs and flows of an online fan base's opinion is hard work!
Great analysis. I share the same opinion, but I strongly believe he has improved using his underrated technical ability and his explosiveness due to his own hard work. I've seen footages when he trained with his personal coach during pre-season. On top of that sessions and ETH coaching, he has massively improved.
But where he is today, I think he is an exceptional player.
I loved how he decided to not play with ASM and just destroyed him
That is his biggest problem. Shaw had that issue as well.
He looks extremely clumsy with the ball, but somehow, I think that his crossing and passing in the box are far better than Dalot, who usually crosses the ball to row Z.
He has longer limbs, which gives him a weird gait when he runs with the ball. However, he's deceptively good at it.
I loved his performance vs Mbappe against PSG.
He does these performances quite often.
Soon as he lets a goal in people act like no other fullback in the world lets goals in either.
Was he injured during pre-season? Would love to see him improve a bit more. I’m sure he can do it.
Love how he utterly destroyed Saint Maximin. The lad looked like crying after a few of Arons tackles 
Funny thing is this has been said about a number of our players, I guess its a cafe thing.
He did very well when he came on and dealt with the defensive side of things while also getting forward well. Very good performance from a player I generally don't rate very highly.
And generally wrong
Oh of course.
Cafe needs about 2 games to make a conclusion about the player and it's usually he's a flop and shite.
Maximin can't do shit once AWB played. Might as well change his name to Minimin.
He's such a mystery for me - he runs well with the ball but makes a mess of simple passes. He's amazing at tackling but is positionally poor (improved this season I think) and is guilty of losing his man. He played as a winger in his youth (I think) but has poor crossing.
I wanted AWB to start today, that says a lot considering what i thought about him few months back. Impressive turnaround in both attack and defense.
I bet even Mbappe would have a nightmare playing against him. Even if you outpace/start ahead him, he can just tackle you cleanly from behind.
Given the scale of what we need elsewhere on the pitch and the associated costs I'd say the work put in by our four fullbacks and the coaching staff means that we don't need another fullback for a season, at least. AWB and Dalot have an effective tandem going on and there is no reason it cant continue.
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