Scott Parker was nothing more than a headless chicken. He tricked England fans into thinking he was a good footballer because he made a lot of hard tackles. I remember United fans hating on Carrick and wanting him to be more like Parker. I got in so many arguments over that. Amazing how most supporters changed their tune on Carrick late in his United career...
The definitive list of Caf mistakes
- Thread starter SER19
- Start date
Kante vs Herrera
Hazard vs Sanchez
Hazard vs Sanchez
My favourites are all the random shouts on our own players.
We had like a 50+ page thread demanding Moyes give Fabio a go.
We had posts berating Ferguson for not playing Possebon.
The unbridled joy when we signed Falcao was hilarious in retrospect. The pining for him to play after it was clear he wasn't good enough was funnier.
We used to have hundreds of threads begging for Kagawa to get a game FFS.
We had like a 50+ page thread demanding Moyes give Fabio a go.
We had posts berating Ferguson for not playing Possebon.
The unbridled joy when we signed Falcao was hilarious in retrospect. The pining for him to play after it was clear he wasn't good enough was funnier.
We used to have hundreds of threads begging for Kagawa to get a game FFS.
Strootman pre injury would've been the boss we're still looking for...
Weigl was going to be the new Carrick and simply had to be signed before City got near him.
BTW - Look at this thread for an example of people falling for the hype!
it’s hilarious to look back on.
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/wilshere-where-does-the-hype-come-from.316989/
it’s hilarious to look back on.
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/wilshere-where-does-the-hype-come-from.316989/
The problem with these kinds of threads is that it takes the negatives/wrong sides of the caf and puts it in the spotlight without even hinting at those who had differing opinion. If 3 people talk about a player and 2 people like him and 1 thinks he isn't good enough and he turns out to not be good enough then you can't attribute those 2 peoples view to the one who didn't agree.
"The caf" isn't an entity, people disagree on here all the time. About everything.
We play without a DM and have no real alternatives. Vidal, Dier & Rice would all even now be players that would have improved our midfield, and we could still do with Dembele despite his misses for Barcelona. Last season he had 14 goals and 9 assists in 42 games while our top scorer was Pogba at 16 and Lukaku at 15.
Some of those players have also been unlucky with injuries and have shown qualities when they weren't injured, like Strootman & Umtiti. You do realize that Umtiti would start for United easily if he didn't struggle with injuries and people wanted him on the off-chance that he could sort out that part?
Normally people on forums can also judge, in most cases, based on what is shown in games only, and a players development or regression is something that you'll have to know a bit more of their professionality or just have future-sight to be able to see. That's not something most people even engaged enough to sign up on football forums will know about players outside of their own club, let alone players outside of the leagues they follow closely.
"The caf" isn't an entity, people disagree on here all the time. About everything.
There were tons of people wanting VvD, Mane & Silva on here. There were also tons of people who didn't rate some of the dreadful-list. And who is to say that we couldn't do with some of those players back then or even now?
We play without a DM and have no real alternatives. Vidal, Dier & Rice would all even now be players that would have improved our midfield, and we could still do with Dembele despite his misses for Barcelona. Last season he had 14 goals and 9 assists in 42 games while our top scorer was Pogba at 16 and Lukaku at 15.
Some of those players have also been unlucky with injuries and have shown qualities when they weren't injured, like Strootman & Umtiti. You do realize that Umtiti would start for United easily if he didn't struggle with injuries and people wanted him on the off-chance that he could sort out that part?
Normally people on forums can also judge, in most cases, based on what is shown in games only, and a players development or regression is something that you'll have to know a bit more of their professionality or just have future-sight to be able to see. That's not something most people even engaged enough to sign up on football forums will know about players outside of their own club, let alone players outside of the leagues they follow closely.
You're correct of course, but it's just a bit of fun really. And since we so often see people hammered for signing or not signing player x y or z, it's good to self reflect a little and remember your own shockers.
Can do it lots of ways. I'm happy to point at the Di Maria money as a great big waste, but was happy when we signed him.
So go on, had you wanted Bobby zamora leading the line?
William Carvalho
Stefan de Vrij
Jordie Classie
Ezequiel Lavezzi
Stefan de Vrij
Jordie Classie
Ezequiel Lavezzi
Great call. He was all the rage
For fun it's fine, I just felt like pointing out the obvious to make sure it was done. I'm a grump.
I have a horrible memory, so remembering who I wanted that turned to be shit is hard, but they certainly exist!
Mane was decried as a terrible transfer when his name was mentioned on here during the lvg years.
I agree to an extent but IMO LvG came closest to fixing our huge problem - passing out from the back, incisive passing and generally being comfortable in possession. LvG failed to implement important things like pressing and his recruitment was largely crap.
We also missed @esmufc07 off the list
Might be an optimist but in a Sci fi world where moyes, Jose and van gaal each saw out a full 4 years, I think van gaal is the one whod have got the best result. It seemed to me he was learning from his mistakes and realising the need for entertainment. I think martial and rashford were good with him and he'd have built on that
Anyway, for another thread I guess
That is hilarious especially as it's the same thread where you're bigging up Ballotelli.
Garay
He was the only manager since Fergie where you can say there was a definite identity and style of play. Unfortunately he put all his eggs in the over the hill Rooney basket, and his best runs were stumbled across from the luck of who was injured. Otherwise he wouldn't have stopped trying to cram Rooney, Falcao and Van Persie into one team.
He deserves little to no praise for Rashford. Martial and Rooney were injured, and there literally was no one else to play up front. He totally lucked out rather than there being any idea of planning there.
That cut me deep
Yep this one was mental.
I'm no LvG fan but I strongly disagree with this. His whole philosophy as a manager revolved around having a smaller squad and relying on young players to be the backup should there be injuries. He should absolutely get credit for Rashford because plenty of other managers wouldn't have had an academy player as backup if their 2 main strikers had problems.
Weren't a lot of our fans demanding Belotti as well? Or was that only a minority?
Also, to add to your list- SMS
Also, to add to your list- SMS
Not true at all. This bold part is rewriting history.
He was out of his depth by the time he left and was trying to convince everyone to lower the expectation more so that the season looks good enough.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...-manchester-united-fans-expectations-too-high
That was his last post league game presser. Telling fans they are expecting too much. Top 4 was too much expectations apparently.
He was crap for the entierity of his second seaoson and showed no signs of him learning anything, more like he was convinced he was right anyway.
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He didn't have him in the squad though, he dipped into the youth team in desperation.
To claim that as some sort of plan is a real stretch.
He was caught out by the injuries, if not, he'd have had Rashford at least on the bench for a lot of games before that Europa game.
Who else could he have played up front if not Rashford? He'd gutted the options out.
It shows how time warps peoples' memories.
Above we have people claiming Rashford was all planned, rather than being utter desperation with injuries, and there was no semblance of entertainment at all after that 5-3 hiding v Leicester.
The amount of games that were 0-0 at half time under Van Gaal was huge. Oddly we were quite clinical in general, but just as well really, as 1-2 shots a game needed to be!
Yeah, but every so often you'll see the majority opinion get the go ahead and people who had no opinion soon feed the hype just because it's there and then even more people do the same based on the confirmation of the hype that's there. It leads to quite a few weird situations, and this thread should reflect that. Hopefully some might think twice before hyping players up without having seen them or just because they lack an alternative. But I agree in most cases it's just about individual opinions.
Yep. Too small and weak, apparently. Also farmers league and less time on the ball in premiership etc.
Tbh, I suppose they were legitimate concerns, at the time but oh how wrong those concerns turned out to be.
Also remember many posts about Mane and VVD not being good enough to make the step up.
I might add emery in the list
Some of us thinks he's a good manager
Some of us thinks he's a good manager
Yes exactly, if anything we are going back in terms of improvement since we fired LvG. It's for another thread just like you said.
For another thread or private chat, but you can't have it both ways. Whether or not you agree with how rashford came to be in squad the fact is that both he and Martial looked very good with van gaal in charge. If you can blame a manager for stifling a player you have to credit at least a little for when one excels. You don't get to just say he lucked out with him in the team and that's that. Both have massively underperformed with both managers since, though solskjaer seems to be getting it right with them
Don't forget hassenhutl
He hasn’t proved people wrong
The latter just looks hilarious now. Van Dijk at Celtic was dismissed by nearly everyone. The barometer being that Van Gaal didn't pick him for the NT, so he can't have been that good. Many were adament that his partner at Celtic, Jason Denayer, was a much better player. I don't even know what happened to him. Is he still on the books at City?
And then even when he was impressive at Southampton, he still wasn't good enough supposedly.
I still think Wilshere was an extremelty talented player. In either the 12/13 or 13/14 season where I believe he stayed fit for the full season (or the majority at least), he was excellent. I remember him being the best player on the pitch against Bayern Munich, and they had a great midfield at the time.
Shame about the injuries. Having a prime Wilshere in the current England side would be very nice.
Shame about the injuries. Having a prime Wilshere in the current England side would be very nice.
I remember loads on here wanted Charlie Adam when he was at Blackpool.
Hes a first teamer at Lyon.
Agree 100%. I've always thought that was Ozils natural progression given his lack of physical strength, similar to Pirlo again. Also, if you look at his last couple of years you will see that he has dropped a lot deeper, also because Arsenal haven't had a good play making midfielder since Carzola started getting injured.
If Ozil gets a couple of workhorses around him, similar to what Pirlo had with Vidal and Marchisio, then he would be a great passing midfielder.
Anyone remember Yann M'Vila? We were heavily linked with him and the hype behind him was rather OTT.
And he is surprisingly good, better than Andersen who was a caf darling.
Out of those, the only one I ever really rated was Wilshere.
Back in the 16/17 transfer window, I admittedly said I'd be fine with signing Morata, but that was more to do with the fact there was seemingly no other strikers available at the time bar him and Lukaku rather than being a fan.