Which players did SAF stick with in spite of fan discontent?

sullydnl

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Prompted by the De Gea thread, where people are arguing that SAF would have ditched him by now were he in charge. We hear a lot about how ruthless he was but there presumably must have been plenty of times he backed players who others doubted?

Do any examples come to mind of SAF sticking by players, keeping and/or continuing to play them through extended spells of criticism and cries for them to be dropped/sold? Which players did he persist with the longest in the face of fan doubts & criticism? And who was he ultimately proven right/wrong about?

For example, I'm guessing quite a lot of fans had vocal doubts about Darren Fletcher before he came good?
 

Andersonson

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Fletcher was moaned about, so was Carrick.
De Gea is a fantastic keeper, not many who are better than him.

Yet, some want to sell him and replace him. We have other areas on the pitch that needs upgrades. The GK situation is the least of our worries
 

KetilOwren88

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Darren Fletcher in his early years playing on the right wing. I would actually also mension Berbatov in his first season, as I feel the majority of our fans wanted Tevez instead.
 

Isotope

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Anderson. SAF sticked with him for 6 fecking years. That should be a record.
 

El Jefe

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Even though he was a fantastic player, there was a point on here where there was non-stop moaning about Evra, yet it felt like he played every minute of every game.
 

Denis' cuff

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Fletcher, the stand out but Silvestre was another. Anderson was a squad player for a lot of the time and I think he liked him for bants etc. Don’t think Anderson was universally criticised by the support like the previous two.
 

lysglimt

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Let's be honest here - a large portion of our fans turned on the majority of our players from time to time. There was a time when Giggs was around 30 that they bood him.

But Fletcher in his early career and Silvestre as mentioned were not popular
 

Zen86

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lysglimt said:
Let's be honest here - a large portion of our fans turned on the majority of our players from time to time. There was a time when Giggs was around 30 that they bood him.

But Fletcher in his early career and Silvestre as mentioned were not popular
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I was just about to say Giggs. Most of our players have been continually blasted by sections of our fans at some point, even highly romanticised players like Giggs.
 

largelyworried

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Generally SAF stuck with players who were either

a) young(ish) and hadn't peaked. He was trusting them to fulfil their potential. Fletcher is the prime example, but you could stick Ronaldo, Cleverley, Evans, Chadwick and loads of others into that category. Players who didnt thrive at first but still got lots of chances in the first team. He'd give them every possible chance. Some ended up good enough, some didn't, but the principle was consistent.

b) weren't flash, but did a job for him. Silvestre, Fortune, P Nev, Butt, Brown, May, Park, loads of others. Fans often wouldn't be happy because they'd usually be replacing some far better or more exciting player. Fans understandably want the maximum number of attacking talents on the pitch. But SAF knew they could do what he needed in a given game. Whether for tactical or rotation reasons, he'd play them to get the results he wanted.

What he didn't do was stick with players who underperformed, just because of their reputation, wage, or how they played in the past. Players like Sharpe, Ruud, Keane & Ince, etc were gotten rid of, despite their popularity. Whether he sensed a drop in performance level, or he thought they weren't taking training seriously, or he thought they were causing problems in the squad, how they performed in the past made no difference. He looked at what they could do now, and in the future, and decided based on that. It wasn't so much ruthless as unsentimental.

Looking at today's squad, I think De Gea wouldn't be in the team now, given his performance levels and that we have a solid prospect on the bench to replace him. But I could see him giving Dan James plenty of game time, even if its touch and go whether James will end up being United quality in the long term.
 
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Sunny Jim

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Berbatov is the obvious one. I think the whole Tevez vs Berbs saga was the first big discussion between our fanbase and it got really toxic at some point.
After Tevez left there were still plenty of fans who couldn't stand him. IIRC he was even booed at OT
 

dcrompton

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It was the opposite with SAF and he was more likely to discard fan‘s favourites. Off top of my head Strachan, McGrath, Hughes, Ince, Kanchelskis, Sharpe, Stam, Beckham, Van Nistelroy, Tevez all moved on sooner than most fans were happy with but in majority of cases SAF knew what he was doing (Stam the one he admitted was a mistake)
 

Oranges038

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I remember Fletcher getting a lot of stick in his early days. But he came good.

I can't think of any poor quality players that he suffered for too long, he was quick to get rid of players when they weren't up to it or just when their time was up.
 

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Fletcher was the big one that was constantly getting into the first team...

He was right though.

Brian McClair in his later years at the club too.
 

buildabonfire

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largelyworried said:
Generally SAF stuck with players who were either

a) young(ish) and hadn't peaked. He was trusting them to fulfil their potential. Fletcher is the prime example, but you could stick Ronaldo, Cleverley, Evans, Chadwick and loads of others into that category. Players who didnt thrive at first but still got lots of chances in the first team. He'd give them every possible chance. Some ended up good enough, some didn't, but the principle was consistent.

b) weren't flash, but did a job for him. Silvestre, Fortune, P Nev, Butt, Brown, May, Park, loads of others. Fans often wouldn't be happy because they'd usually be replacing some far better or more exciting player. Fans understandably want the maximum number of attacking talents on the pitch. But SAF knew they could do what he needed in a given game. Whether for tactical or rotation reasons, he'd play them to get the results he wanted.

What he didn't do was stick with players who underperformed, just because of their reputation, wage, or how they played in the past. Players like Sharpe, Ruud, Keane & Ince, etc were gotten rid of, despite their popularity. Whether he sensed a drop in performance level, or he thought they weren't taking training seriously, or he thought they were causing problems in the squad, how they performed in the past made no difference. He looked at what they could do now, and in the future, and decided based on that. It wasn't so much ruthless as unsentimental.

Looking at today's squad, I think De Gea wouldn't be in the team now, given his performance levels and that we have a solid prospect on the bench to replace him. But I could see him giving Dan James plenty of game time, even if its touch and go whether James will end up being United quality in the long term.
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spot on
 

thepolice123

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Giggs was the obvious one. Fans wanted him out as early as 2002.

Rooney 2010 - 2013.

Fletcher, Evans, Smith, Carrick.
 

red woppit

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Falcow said:
There was no discontent in the Fergie era.
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There was a lot of discontent in the early Fergie years, at least three years, and probably more, until United started winning things.
There were probably more fans unhappy with Ferguson at the time, than are unhappy with Ole now. There were comments like 'our football is sh**e', 'Fergie doesn't know what he's doing', 'Fergie will get the OBE (out by Easter)' and more.
 

Gopher Brown

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thepolice123 said:
Giggs was the obvious one. Fans wanted him out as early as 2002.

Rooney 2010 - 2013.

Fletcher, Evans, Smith, Carrick.
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To be fair, Giggs was pretty poor for a couple of seasons when he was adapting to not being a flying winger any more.

I will be in the real minority here, but I think he played his best football for us between the ages of 34 and 37.
 

simplyared

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Scholes. He must have seen something special in him as in the beginning he was a striker coming through the ranks. Can't remember the fans being overjoyed by his performances. Then he transformed the player, giving him a roll in the centre of the park. No immediate sucess if I remember rightly but it came due to SAF's expertise and belief in the player.
 

Oldyella

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bosnian_red said:
Phil Jones has been here since 2011... 10 years ago...
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It would be typical Jones if he was the last man standing out of all our league winners, simply because no one would buy him. With Smalling gone and De Gea under pressure I think that's it?
 

OleBoiii

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sillwuka said:
Weren't there periods were fans were questioning Parks effectiveness for us?
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Definitely! And it was fecking frustrating!

Our fans have been spoiled for a long time now, tbh. It's just that it was only the players that received criticism before. Now it's both(but mainly the managers).
 

SadlerMUFC

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The two players that come to mind the most are Carrick and Berbatov. Seems both are appreciated more now, especially Carrick. But I remember constant arguments. Especially from English people who couldn't grasp that Carrick was a midfielder who didn't score like Gerrard and Lampard or didn't run around like Parker...
 

SadlerMUFC

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Andersonson said:
Fletcher was moaned about, so was Carrick.
De Gea is a fantastic keeper, not many who are better than him.

Yet, some want to sell him and replace him. We have other areas on the pitch that needs upgrades. The GK situation is the least of our worries
Click to expand...
De Gea is not a fantastic keeper. He is a keeper who makes fantastic saves. Problem is those saves that used to win us games are drying up and now his weaknesses are being exposed because of it...
 

Glorio

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KetilOwren88 said:
Darren Fletcher in his early years playing on the right wing. I would actually also mension Berbatov in his first season, as I feel the majority of our fans wanted Tevez instead.
Click to expand...
100% subscribed to the Tevez view then and now. The whole thing made no sense to me and I feel Tevez would've stayed if he got a fair crack
 

Zlatan 7

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First 3 names I thought of were Giggs, carrick and fletcher
 

Glorio

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Isotope said:
Anderson. SAF sticked with him for 6 fecking years. That should be a record.
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He was at least quite good (bar shooting!) for a couple of seasons where it just looked like he'd go on to be a superstar. He was what? 19 and scoring the last pen in a champions league game :o
(May have got some facts wrong there, but still...)
 

KetilOwren88

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Glorio said:
100% subscribed to the Tevez view then and now. The whole thing made no sense to me and I feel Tevez would've stayed if he got a fair crack
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Agreed. Tevez became the nr. 1 fan enemy, but I never felt the team improved or rised another level with Berbatov. Tevez struggled in his second season here, but was a major part of the 07/08 success and also scored som vital goals in 08/09. I can see why Fergie wanted to bring another type of striker to give more variation to the attack, but I don’t understand why Tevez’ role decreased that much.
 

Irwin99

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Fletcher. A lot of people were saying he was secretly Fergie's son or it was Scottish bias :lol: To be fair he didn't look that special and was seen as a runner but he came into his own around 08-09.

Also helped Keane have a good final season at the club (2004-05) by doing most of his running for him.
 
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