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Man mountain
6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Clean sheets
- 20
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 10
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Man mountain
Seriously with uncle Case off on another impromptu rest, I feel Licha would be by far the best choice to play the number 6 role, with Shaw replacing him at the back. Each time I watch him, I thinking he's too good not to be having more of the ball!
Absolute class. It’s annoying he’s not getting the plaudits he deserves. Is he the best ball playing CB in Europe right now?
Great game today. together with his CB partner they really played well today.
You think it is interesting I don’t talk more about Lindelof in Martinez’ performance thread? Besides, I already mentioned four weaknesses, not one (aggressiveness, tackling, shot blocking, speed of passing at the back).
But no point going on. You don’t think Martinez has any weaknesses at all, I think he has.
Fair enough, we disagree but agree more than we normally do so no point arguing about those small things.
My point and reason for posting was however that I don’t agree that our defence has improved massively, that it hasn’t been transformed, etc. People write things like we have the best CB pair in the PL, yet they got their first clean sheet in the PL today in almost five months. Maybe they will become the best CB pair in the PL, maybe Martinez will transform our defence. We will have to wait and see. A transformation or great improvement must also show in the results.
I don’t think we have had a better player since Fergie left.
I hope Ten Haag is trusted with getting more players in.
I hope Ten Haag is trusted with getting more players in.
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The one positive today.
Captain my captain.
No need for the "ball playing" part. He's fantastic.
Varane is amazing too. Certainly a classier player than Licha, but Licha is an absolute warrior. You get the feeling he'd still do his thing no matter who his partner was, whereas Varane perhaps is better suited being the bridesmaid.
Loved how he god a yellow for you know, standing on the pitch and someone ramming into him. Then later when Antony was driving towarss the opposition box and was taken out from behind, no card. Makes sense.
Still, he was brilliant today. Love his low centre of gravity. Surprisingly fast in chasing down Walcott!
Still, he was brilliant today. Love his low centre of gravity. Surprisingly fast in chasing down Walcott!
Had hospitality tickets so went to my first game at Old Trafford today.
Martinez was absolutely class. So calm on the ball. Compared with the centre backs you’ve relied on for the last few years who only played safe passes it’s incredible how many opportunities to progress the ball up the pitch Martinez provides out of nothing.
Martinez was absolutely class. So calm on the ball. Compared with the centre backs you’ve relied on for the last few years who only played safe passes it’s incredible how many opportunities to progress the ball up the pitch Martinez provides out of nothing.
I love how he sent Walcott back to Southampton
Yeah it’s amazing when you look back at so many highlights of our goals and you see the trigger to the start of the move was Martinez. Either with his sniper passing or him winning the ball back with aggression.
In fact I’d love to know the stats on how many of our goals have been initiated by him.
100%.
I've been thinking about that too, but you hate to mess with a player who's been
I was just saying in another thread about rabiot. I’m watching juventus now and he is brilliant, scored two goals. ETH knows football. He knows what players work his system. Got to trust him with that.
Yeah but is he better than Lindelof ?
Think he's my favourite player tbh. He was brilliant again today.
Very good today, no complaints about him and Varane.
People have made hyperbolic comments and got excited over a player, who is objectively performing really well and that's your main take? Look at your posts in this thread, many of them are backhanded comments and trying to 'correct' the narrative with 'he's been okay/good mmkay, not world class superman amazing, calm your tits down bro'. It's fine you can choose to analyse and attribute a lot of blame or downplay his contribution because you want to maintain 'context' and hear 'refreshing comments'. You had a single post in here during February where he was fantastic (Newcastle cup final, Barca, Leicester and Leeds) and the first post after that in March is to criticise him as awful in the Liverpool game. Statistically speaking, I could make a very fair assumption about your bias takes towards him but 'debate the post, not the poster' is quite trying. It's just weirdly inconsistent compared to the 'context' given i.e massive benefit of the doubt and elevating of performances, when we've been talking about a certain Swedish defender for 5+ years and years, involving 100s/1000s of posts.
Is Martinez perfect? No. Has he single handedly transformed our team? No. The manager, his tactics and individual personnel are the ones contributing to that with Casemiro, Martinez, Varane, Shaw, AWB/Dalot/Fred (for their spells in the team) and Bruno/Rashford (mainly for their chance creation and actually finishing chances meaning we don't have to defend all the time) being the standout. However, that's true of anybody.
Has he improved our defence massively? If we're judging him as an individual contributor then yes. Pressing attackers high near the halfway line, interceptions, last min blocks, aggressive covering and jostling, aerially (yes) and not to mention the best defence of all by keeping possession and playing our players into good positions with his passing. We're not talking about merely performing his duties and kicking the ball into the stands for every ball down the channel, backtracking 20 yards with 'no dribbled past' stat type of passive crap, he is being outright proactive and winning the majority of these instances; it puts us on the front foot and maintain momentum. He is obviously part of a team that had conceded goals but you can probably count on one hand, how many are fundamentally down to his individual deficiencies or poor play.
Looking forward to your 1-10 rating scores.
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So impressed with him today against Southampton. He brings pace, great ball control and is so calm under pressure. So reliable and leaves everything on the pitch. I saw us losing control towards the end of the game but he kept his cool and helped get us out of sticky situations. He looks so well suited to the premier league. Future vice-captain / captain for me.
Very impressive. His passing, the way he drops a shoulder and skips around any press, and his defending one on one. I thought Shaw was good too. Which of those two should/would be better covering for Casemiro, do you think?
He speaks decent English already so could be captain in future. He's a good age also. We could get 7 more years out of him.
I think he could easily play left back, midfield, left winger, no 10.
Feel safe as houses with him at the back. Unlucky not to be on the winning side today.
Isn't it obvious? He is a Swedish poster, so Lindelof fan. Always positive narrative around Lindelof and negative one against any other CB we have, as praising any other CB is an insult to the Swedish hero.
Please put this guy at CDM, he is an absolute gem, I bet he is miles better than anyone we have available now.
Yes that was what this discussion was about. Maybe read more before you post, to stay on topic and avoiding falling back to same old things all the time.
I changed my mind. I already gave you my ratings, and I see no point in putting more time into it since there is no interesting discussion, just you repeating over and over again.
Funnily, it seems it’s you and your friend who talk about Lindelof all the time, not me.
No matter if he's him or Mahgire or Lindelod though.
He's a gem. Absolute gem of a player. Man of the match today, did everything right.
I have 10 posts in Lindelof's thread, mostly replying to your hyperbolic how awesome he is
Backhanded praise for our best CBs and a mental gymnastics to praise our non defender and a player with most ironic nickname.
His press resistance is incredible. He just makes a quick, effortless turn in the other direction, and he's got the pressing forward running the other way. I'm sure he did it about 4 or 5 times yesterday.
I’ve only been able to get to games a few times this year but one of the biggest things I came away thinking was how good Martinez is. Obviously that’s not difficult to see on tv either but it’s even more impressive when you see all the open space behind him, while he drops his shoulder and sells the pressing player a dummy like it’s nothing.
Absolute beast.
The mountain that moves. There were so many times in the game where I had my heart in mouth and he just calmly tricked the opponent with a move and calmly pass the ball out. This man has ice in his veins. The most press resistant defender I've seen. Slightly edging Casemiro to be my favorite signing of the year. We have definitely robbed Ajax.
Ridiculously good yesterday. Honestly think that was his best game for us, which is saying a lot as he's had plenty of magnificent displays already.
Thankfully he didn't go to Arsenal.
It would help understand your selective standards and perhaps stop the constant calling you on out, on outlier takes. If you really welcome interesting discussion, then a 5 min job is definitely not going to hurt that.
What a player. Class act.
He looked like a generational talent in defense since day one in the Argentinian League, meaning a player that exceeds the basic requirements for the specific defensive role (Passarella even played wingman as a kid, fullback either in his first days, Licha even played as "enganche" as a kido and was used as midfielder more than once), it's always the case with those we deemed in such regard, he just have to keep his form for years to consolidate that status and good timing also helps a lot (or lady luck as you please).
People tend to compare him with Mascherano or Cannavaro, just for size and obvious being from more recent periods, but his real "fathers" are Ayala more recently and Passarella, thought these two had a freakish leap and Licha even having quite a leap, has to lean more into anticipation, timing and destabilization of the rival. And being different, Passarella was a freak of nature in more than one regard, the three had the smaller size, the grit, the leader ship, the malice and the composure and skills required to compensate for the size, all of them different levels in the different attributes but with the whole package.
Would be cool if he dares to approach the rival area more, he has a great shot in him, yet he does not use it as usual as he should, maybe when the team has a middle that can hold the ball better. He doesn't have a Passarella "Nelinho alike" strike, but he can easily start to score some goals with his excellent technique. Would be a shame if he doesn't add this part to his game and score more goals through strikes or headers, because he can clearly can regarding his technical ability for both tasks.
People tend to compare him with Mascherano or Cannavaro, just for size and obvious being from more recent periods, but his real "fathers" are Ayala more recently and Passarella, thought these two had a freakish leap and Licha even having quite a leap, has to lean more into anticipation, timing and destabilization of the rival. And being different, Passarella was a freak of nature in more than one regard, the three had the smaller size, the grit, the leader ship, the malice and the composure and skills required to compensate for the size, all of them different levels in the different attributes but with the whole package.
Would be cool if he dares to approach the rival area more, he has a great shot in him, yet he does not use it as usual as he should, maybe when the team has a middle that can hold the ball better. He doesn't have a Passarella "Nelinho alike" strike, but he can easily start to score some goals with his excellent technique. Would be a shame if he doesn't add this part to his game and score more goals through strikes or headers, because he can clearly can regarding his technical ability for both tasks.
Good first post. I liked the comparison with Passarella and Ayala. Pretty much spot on.
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