If you poked your eyes a bit then it looks a bit more orangy.We almost had that in 2015-16 isn't it, Champions league kit.
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Manager /Player knowing each other is one thing and playing in a different league is another thing. I love to see Donny as a success stroy here but he was not good under 2 managers in England. I have a feeling his game is more suited to Spain or Italy, so I am curious to see how ETH can mould him to play here.
Wondrriing if Dejong-DVB-Eriksen (3 Ajax products) can form a better midfield OR a DM-DeJong-DVB with Eriksen on left side
Wondrriing if Dejong-DVB-Eriksen (3 Ajax products) can form a better midfield OR a DM-DeJong-DVB with Eriksen on left side
ETH wins one PL and like you said, our third kit will be full orange.
Fair enough. I think Ole and Ragnick were wrong not to use him and I think he'll do well under Ten Hag. If he does then we can put his first 2 years down to manager misuse and not the player himself.
He's done the square root of f*ck-all and he still appears in fans line-ups for next season.
This kind of thinking is basically why we’re where we are now. Anyone with eyes can see tactics and systems are everything in modern football - there’s so much money floating around you can’t just buy the best players and trust they’ll come out on top.
Put peak Xavi in a non possession based, long ball team and he’d probably be benched, put him at CM in a possession heavy system and he’s probably the best to ever do it. Every single player will have strengths and weaknesses, some fit certain systems much better than others.
Rumor has it that Donny has so much potential and is so valuable and necessary that we've gone so far as to bring in 10 Hag to accommodate him.
Agree, it's always the same problem in United. They use a player in a system or position that isn't the right for them and expect to be a world class player (like Nani on the left, Mata as a RW, Donny as a DM, etc).
The less you appear, the less chance of disappointing people.
You're massively stretching it by using this Xavi example. Most top division sides don't even play long ball football by old standards so it's already starting off on a bad footing as it's hard to apply this analogy in any meaningful way. Theoretically you may be right, but to go down that road is so far removed what's the point? Even Burnley play a reasonable amount of football through midfield these days, I don't believe thinking about Xavi in Wimbledon circa 1990 will be instructive.
This leads me to think there isn't a team around Xavi wouldn't be a fantastic player in within modern football precisely for this reason, football has evolved such that even if he was at a shite team he would have stood out and been bought. He was quality firstly because he was quality, and then he had a suited team that emphasized the point and allowed him to become a legend.
So it's not my point that a system can never be advantageous, my point is why do we look so hard for excuses that are hard to support? The fact he has shown very little for us, Everton and even internationally is quite clear, whereas his success is largely in Dutch domestic football. The easiest explanation is simply that his quality and transition hasn't been good, not this vague assertion about systems that is based on one club. There's not even more than one data point. It's grasping at straws, but at least there's one more to grasp at with ETH coming in.
It’s just an example given he’s a very specific system player. If you want to be pedantic it’s very easy to adapt it to fit modern football - Xavi at Chelsea or City would be world class, at Pool be amazing albeit they are a lot more unstructured than the above two teams, for United last season he’d be terrible.
Why are you referring Everton - he was ok there but injured for most of it? Hardly fair to say he did this or that. With United he genuinely never - as in actually never - had a run of games so we really don’t know how he’ll do. It seems to me there are some on here who are desperate to be be ‘right’ about Donny not being good and the rest who are honest and realistic enough to know we simply don’t have a clue how he’ll do because he’s basically had a hiatus from regular football since Ole signed him. He might be rubbish for ETH but there’s no straws being grasped just the reality of him probably getting an actual chance for the first time in 2 years. I hope he does well.
Happens a lot in our fan base in the post-SAF era:
Can Moyes not see the genius of Kagawa? He's clueless.
Can Jose not see how good Andreas Pereria is? Why does he have such a problem with him
Can Ole not see how good Donny is? He's such a tactical dinosaur!
Then they all play for the next manager or move on somewhere else and everybody realizes- "oh. Maybe that's why they weren't playing"
I'm not writing Donny off yet but i haven't actually seen anything of him in a United or Everton shirt that screams that he's a fantastic player. Hope he can turn it around.
Doesn't make sense as a starter given we have Bruno, but there is valid reason to have hope for him, given that Ten Hag liked him a lot (and he might facilitate implementing Ten Hag's style quicker than others). I still don't see him as more than a squad player though.
He hasn't done enough to totally put me off him, I've barely ever noticed him. Not sure if that is worse than being outright terrible but there you go.
Very Morgan Schneiderlin so far.
Very Morgan Schneiderlin so far.
So, Donny has no responsibility for his own performances, his own anonymity when picked? £40 Million transfer, £6 Milllion a year as wages, couldn't make a case to get ahead of Fred and McTominay, the fans choice for our worst midfield in the modern era, and we are supposed to feel he has been mistreated.
Managers fault, not his, is this attitude not the one Utd have to stamp out if they want to get back to challenging? He hasn't been good enough, he hasn't earned anything at Utd.
I'll say it again. He's played 4 full league games in 2 years.
If the manager doesn't give you a fair chance then yes, you can blame the manager. No player can be expected to show what he can do in the tiny amount of time Donny has been given.
Like I said, I hope this manager gives him a chance and then we'll see where we are.
No player can expect to get a "fair chance" if they do as little as Donny did in the opportunities he got. If a youth player had received the same chances as Donny, performed as he did, no-one would argue about that player being put back into the under-age squad. His performances were bang average at Utd and bang average at Everton with mediocre competition for places at both teams.
No hiding place now.
Be looks very limited, like Lingard without the distant shooting and ball carrying, all he has going for him is the running into space thing.
I'm not sure it will be enough even under ETH in the EPL, but maybe we'll get more out of him as a substitute.
He is similar to Davy Klaassen. Kind of a 8-10 hybrid with high workrate and good technical ability. They can combine very well in tight spaces and utilize the spaces well. Time will tell if he is good enough.
That's where we disagree. I saw more to work with from him in those performances than I ever saw from Mctominay. Unfortunately Ole didn't. Let's see how he gets on now
VDB did have a period right at the end of his first season and then the first couple of months of the second season where he was actually starting to show some good stuff in the few opportunities that he got. He seemed more aggressive, was trying to make things happen, and while there were still definite question marks over him he did deserve more chances considering our other options were all playing terribly at the time. Ole instead insisted on continuing with what wasn't working.
He’s a dutch Tom Cleverley. Hopefully he’s not ETH’s bestie because he’s obviously nowhere near good enough for us.
Runs around a good amount and is ok at popping the ball off to the nearest player to him. Hasn't showed anything like enough when given the chance. Can't imagine we'll see huge amounts more next season.
Eleven hag will get the best out of him
That's already better than Fred and Mctominay
I don't agree that it makes him better than Fred and, regardless, surely we should be aiming higher?
I think he'll play quite a bit this season. If we get De Jong or somebody else who can pass through the lines, he will do well. He gets into good positions but is constantly ignored. Late runs, off the ball runs link up play, he can add goals from midfield. I see him and Fred leading the press with Frenkie sweeping up behind them
To be fair that's 90% of football if the running is smart.
this thread was on fire blaming ole for this and now excuses have been removed for donny it is deathly silence? surely he should be like a new signing under his absolute ideal manager?
As a United fan, you ought to know that not all new signings are successful
I appreciate that. But almost until the day ETH was announced the fans were optimistic about Donny. Now it is like he doesn't existAs a United fan, you ought to know that not all new signings are successful
Not sure why you expect a player performances thread to be active in the absence of any, you know, performances?
I for one am hopeful that ETH will get a much better tune out of VDB than either Ole or Fat Fwank but none of us will know for sure until after he plays a few games for the new manager.
i take your point - i just wasnt sure where else to post this puzzling question. kinda speaks to my point that there are no other threads about him. nobody is interested in him anymore, he was a useful tool to berate ole and seems to have served his purpose now. none of us know anything for sure but it doesn't stop people starting threads about whether jones could hypothetically be better than maguire if he wasn't injured for 10 years.
Maguire's shocking performances last season, compounded by the absurd fee we paid for him, are still fresh in people's minds. VdB has been completely absent from the club since winter and before that he had like a 100 minutes total, if that. And then he got injured and was barely present for the duration of his loan.
There's just nothing to talk about until he has played some matches for the new manager.
True.
I’m not particularly optimistic, but there’s a weird group of incredibly fanatical anti-Donnys who have been absolutely certain he has no chance. It would be great to see them proved wrong.
Think he'll prove to be a useful player now we have a competent manager who knows how to use him
Think he’ll get a good chance but will eventually show that he’s a bit shite under any manager.
Well all of us donny fans are hopeful and do think he will flourish. This just isn't the right thread
I suspect this is harsh but sort of true. Perhaps lacks a bit of pace for the Prem and doesn't have the skills he ideally would to make up for it e.g. long range passing. Obviously hope not as I quite like him but he just hasn't shown much to date.
mctominay thread is hopping with speculation of how he will play under ETH. nobody cares enough about donny to even bother here.
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