It's Valencia all over again.
29
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 54
- Clean sheets
- 21
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 5
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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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Reading the thread and I am already fuming. The fourth tweet is criminal for a fullback at this level.
No one gives a feck that he had come back from an injury and was looking worse than ever straight after and clearly not the most confident.
Our fans are some next shit.
Ride Netos dick until he fails against the worst RB in the league that happens to play for the top 2 premier league's teams.
Our rivals have better fan clubs that's for sure Rashford is Welbeck, Ole is a PE Teacher, Shaw is Obese and all of you are perfect.
Our fans are some next shit.
Ride Netos dick until he fails against the worst RB in the league that happens to play for the top 2 premier league's teams.
Our rivals have better fan clubs that's for sure Rashford is Welbeck, Ole is a PE Teacher, Shaw is Obese and all of you are perfect.
Damning but not surprising. I genuinely think he’s become less productive going forward as time has gone on. That is quite staggering. The lack of urgency is telling, he does seem to just coast through games at the moment.
I think it's also damning of the coaching staff that we can't get him to do more, also the scouting work that went behind the signing needs to be questioned . Surely we had tons of stuff to watch on him and felt that he had enough talent & we could help him take the next step. Clearly that's not happening
He’s in a relatively poor spell of form. Kyle Walker is held up as one of the best attacking full backs. Same number of Premier League assists as Wan Bissaka last season and the same number in all competitions this season. Liverpool have ultra productive full backs and that skews perceptions.
The signing of Max Aarons is being championed. He had half the assists Wan Bissaka did last season. I know there’s more to it than stats but he is nowhere near as bad as people are making out. I don’t like it, but none of our full backs get to the touch line and it seems tactical as much as anything. He looks tired through being overplayed and basically doing everything on the right side because anyone we play there cuts inside and doesn’t track back.
The signing of Max Aarons is being championed. He had half the assists Wan Bissaka did last season. I know there’s more to it than stats but he is nowhere near as bad as people are making out. I don’t like it, but none of our full backs get to the touch line and it seems tactical as much as anything. He looks tired through being overplayed and basically doing everything on the right side because anyone we play there cuts inside and doesn’t track back.
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You weren’t here for Evra’s latter years then, huh?
What others have said about AWB is no different to what you have commented about DDG who is our longest and best serving player in our squad.
Stop acting as if you are the best fan in the world.
De gea has been here for nearly a decade and still doesnt come off his line but okay lad.
That makes sense he will change next year. Wan Bissaka wont with some experience even though he is 3 years in to learning his role.
Il change my mind on Wan Bissaka if he is here the same time as de gea and still not putting a cross in or checking his surroundings well.
The thing with Walker is that he's not a very good crosser but he is an outlet on the right hand side, progresses play well, links up with forwards, can pass and dribble so he doesn't inhibit his side going forward. A players final delivery is just one aspect and while Walker isn't great at that, neither is AWB and AWB can't or doesn't do a lot other things Walker does.
Shaw is similar in that he gets criticised for being a shit crosser but he doesn't breakdown play like AWB and has other attributes useful for building attacks.
You may well be right, but it doesn't mean that those with different opinions are 'shit' fans as what you have said about DDG is pretty disrespectful too - I don't see any difference.
Do you mean he'll lose a lot more possession down that side than other areas of the pitch? What does breakdown play mean?
In my opinion AWB is similar to Walker because he has pace and he does in fact dribble in tight spaces to create something from standstill when we attack. It's just that he hasn't been in that type of form lately, and likewise Walker isn't doing that consistently anymore himself. Walker also has a player like Bernardo or De Bruyne close to him and always create triangles. We usually struggle with that type of play down that side and it's just not due to Bissaka but because of slow movement.
Not necessarily lose the ball but we lose momentum a lot of the time when he receives the ball in promising situations.
I agree that Walker's situation is better but I think if you were to put AWB into the City side he'd be a lot worse than Walker as he's a few levels below him technically.
What is very damning is that opposition players don't worry about AWB an an attacking outlet.
I remember one time in particular against Wolves the last day, you could see AWB in acres of space in an attacking position and Matic had all the space to pick him out and he ignored him. (Now AWB didn't really look like he wanted the ball either)
However, the Wolves LB was tucking in and not worried about getting out to close down the space in front of AWB.
I remember one time in particular against Wolves the last day, you could see AWB in acres of space in an attacking position and Matic had all the space to pick him out and he ignored him. (Now AWB didn't really look like he wanted the ball either)
However, the Wolves LB was tucking in and not worried about getting out to close down the space in front of AWB.
With the same token, most teams don’t bother attacking down his wing. It’s why we see many goals conceded from a cross from the other side targeting AWBs weakness in the air
Don't disrespect Antonio Valencia like that. He was absolutely amazing at one point of his career. Guardiola called him the best traditional winger before the 2nd CL final we had against Barcelona.
Not the first coach who’s done this either. Teams are obviously happy enough to let AWB have it.Hasenhuttl outright said it.
That's another player I don't understand. Valencia suddenly lost any crossing ability. I mean, it's common for player to lose pace, acceleration when they get older. But crossing skill?
Although Valencia had a horrible injury that might cause that though.
That stat about him averaging 0.77 crosses per 90 mins is quite incredible really. He's not a bad crosser on the evidence of last season, he just doesn't seem to get himself in enough good positions and doesn't seem to back himself when he does. I hope the coaches are working with him specifically on his movement. If he has the bravery to make the runs he's good enough to chip in a bit in attack. He might also benefit from mixing it up more, no reason not to cut inside sometimes as well as go on the outside for example.
This is what I agree with regarding his crossing not being particularly being bad but his positioning being worse.
When he gets another attacking RB to work with, the attacking RB has Wan Bissaka's tackles he can learn from and Wan Bissaka can learn from a natural RB's positioning and attacking play to help him iron out his flaws.
Ole is left with hopefully a near ironed out fullback system of an attacking minded fullback with decent defensive ability and a defensive minded fullback with a decent attacking ability one day.
The logical explanation is Ole is keen for him to not bomb on as much a people in here make out he should. if Bailly stays fit, i think you'll see him with a bit more license but his role when we're out of possession and the ball is coming down our left he comes in narrow and Lindelof moves across - it's happened every game and is clearly a tactical plan, I'm assuming to stop/deter the simple direct balls behind Maguire/Lindelof which we'd struggle with against any mobile forward.
As a few posters have said, despite him obviously being tasked with more defensive work than our LB, he still got 4 assists in year where we scored a relatively low number of goals. We also don't really have much of an aerial threat up top with Martial and so our full backs will only really cross it when Cavani plays - even then Bruno likes to sit out on the right and will often have AWB pull it back to him and then he'll whip it in. Point is AWB is a top defensive full back and limited going forward, however we don't play like Liverpool and we don't need him doing much more than being a part of attacks (which he does already), tidy up his passing/ball retention a bit (his biggest flaw) and chip in with ~5 assists a season. Reese James, Walker, Coleman, Aarons all got less/the same assists as him last season.
AWB’s a very good player who was bought as a strong defender - which he is.
When United introduce a dedicated right sided forward/midfielder you’ll see a different balance to the side.
Can’t blame the lack of symmetry to us going forward on AWB I’m afraid. We just don’t have anybody capable ahead of him on the right. It’s been obvious since last season when we signed him.
He‘d get into most Premier League’s back 4/5’s.
When United introduce a dedicated right sided forward/midfielder you’ll see a different balance to the side.
Can’t blame the lack of symmetry to us going forward on AWB I’m afraid. We just don’t have anybody capable ahead of him on the right. It’s been obvious since last season when we signed him.
He‘d get into most Premier League’s back 4/5’s.
I rate AWB but the bolded is arguable. Compare Shaw’s excellent ball carrying/dribbling and link up play as well as Telles’ final ball and general decision making it’s chalk and cheese. We could play anyone on the left and our two left backs would still stand out in that area - it’s not much to do with Rashford (bar maybe the link up).
Yes and no.
It will obviously improve the shape if we had a proper right attacker and we might stop being as lopsided as we are, but that right attacker will find it difficult. Most wide players will be used to their fullback helping them stretch the play and creating problems for the opposition who struggle to stop them both. With AWB being so ineffectual going forward there will be less space and time for them to really make an impact.
I don't think he'd get into a lot of the big sides.
Definitely not Chelsea or Liverpool I don't think. Probably not Spurs though it's debatable certainly, Leicester no chance if Ricardo was fit, Villa probably although Cash has broadly done pretty well this year, Everton maybe, City maybe but probably not, Wolves yes, Arsenal (lol) yes.
Bit of a toss up really, I don't think he stands out at all at the moment which is what we would ideally want. In fact Chelsea, Leicester and Spurs could even make a case for their backups being better than him so it's not ideal.
I don't think criticizing a player needs your type of reaction. We all want AWB to do well. I have defended the kid since the return. I think he's had some goal saving tackles, but saying he isn't good at attack isn't blasphemy. Wasn't early this year he fell while on the ball?
I think letting the Italian go on loan when we know the inconsistency with AWB was poor from United. The only other option we have there is someone who is left footed. I hope he finds form or we buy a player so we can sit for a few games here and there.
It's not saying he isn't rubbish in attack that annoys me exceptionally too - it's people that already are done with him and say they dont see a future for him here.
It's the same shit I hear for Rashford being a championship player for missing key chances when he is still some how ends up scoring or on track to more than a 20 goals a season ration in the PL. Consistently progressing at the age of 23.
Ole has a plan for Wan Bissaka, the same plan he did with Shaw. Wan Bissaka needs a coach for his role just as much as Shaw needed a coach for his crossing from Telles.
A lot of fans don't see this though, say he is useless, that he wont be here anymore, that we made a mistake - not that Ole wants 4 fullbacks in his squad 2 defensive and 2 offensive learning from each other.
Wan Bissaka has learnt from absolutely no one, has played nearly 60 games in 2 season by him self at RB, came back straight from a direct injury - had a completely off game in the match after where the fans of United dont recognise the injury (similar to how many never cared about Rashford's injuries, remember that?) but just talk about how rubbish he is and how he shouldn't be here because he doesnt try hard and jogs - that Ole has started to see it to, that's why he is buying another RB.
That's why I dont like our fans, not because I think I am angelic or I am better but because we are all shit as a fan club; the support is far from there trying to be dickheads all the time thinking it means it's the mindset to success. It's why alot of us didnt support Ole either and some still dont when we are 2nd possibly about to go 1st.
And.. Wan Bissaka hasnt got a future here either when he has started as the RB for that team aswell.
Anyway enjoy the match and the players.
I agree with your general point. The grass isn't always greener.
Just wanna add that Aarons played with poor players so he wouldn't have a lot of assists
Hasenhuttl outright said it.
Don't know about others but I think assists are a very inefficient way of judging a fullbacks attacking quality.
I see what you mean on the left side with our current options of Telles and Shaw. AWB will never be as attack minded as either. I’d say look at how poor we were in some games post lockdown last season when Williams was covering for an injured Shaw. There was absolutely no synergy between Brandon and a recovering from injury Rashford. Everything now goes down the left as both Shaw and Rashford are firing. It’s great to see.
What I’d want to see before writing off AWB though is him given the opportunity to play with an outstanding right sided player further up the pitch as I think he’s a better defender than Telles and Shaw. I think we’d get the same results albeit in a different manner.
AWB never seems committed to taking on an opposing fullback. Maybe he's averse to the idea of losing possession so he rarely takes the man on, but the price of that reluctance is that we rarely create anything back to front on the right side.
My first post ever in the Caf after years of lurking..
on AWB, I'm still hopeful he'll be a super RB, he just needs a bit of confidence & coaching to improve his overall play.
on AWB, I'm still hopeful he'll be a super RB, he just needs a bit of confidence & coaching to improve his overall play.
Got to be worth a try though as he’s a quality defender when he’s on form and not returning from injury.
His assist record last season was ok, again without a dedicated right sided option further up the pitch.
Yeah, it’s not the fairest comparison but teams also don’t defend deep against teams like Norwich.
Man Utd 2:1 Aston Villa
His first half was his best in a long time imo. Second not as good.
Not sure what he was doing for their goal but that aside, thought he was tremendous.
Great rightback. Really good runs forward, a good cross for the goal
He had his best game for us, apart from one moment that contributed to their goal.
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