It’s unbelievable how many times a diagonal cross comes from our left back area and floats over the top of AWB. And then he turns around shocked to see an opposition player there (as if he expected to be playing against a team with only 2 players). It often then results in him panicking and trying to do a slide to rectify his poor positioning and awareness.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 26
- Clean sheets
- 4
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Red cards
- 1
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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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Can I see the videos of Dalot’s stepovers and amazing touches? I need a laugh.
Yep, that's pretty much what I meant with positioning and awareness, and sometimes he just doesn't appear to have his head in the game, being on a different planet sometimes.
I still stand by my opinion that he has improved, mainly his first touch, and some passing, but I agree that Dalot is currently performing better, but I still hope that AWB will get his head in gear and improve on those areas we've all highlighted.
I know it’s common in general with a lot of footballers, but I genuinely believe AWB is just a dumb person in real life. If you listen to his interviews, he seems like a guy who is clueless about absolutely everything. IQ of a kid. This seems to come across in his football too unfortunately.
I think it's funny how you are talking about modern fullback and then surprised how Dalot is better than possibly the most dinosaur fullback in football. Which kinda show where your football knowledge level is. Again dalot is only 22 , if Luke Shaw was allowed 7 years to show whether he is good enough or not, i don't see any problem of giving dalot few seasons except if i am a xenophobic.
Keeping clean sheets is a team effort. Unless a certain player is making constant mistakes that are costing goals, one player can't be blamed for a lack of clean sheets. People love to blame specific players, but a lot of time, it was failure as a team to stop a goal being conceded. I think we have kept more clean sheets by sacking Ole. That is the most important thing that has changed. We've been nowhere near as open since he left. Many of our goals conceded under him were counters that were consistently allowed to happen. I have been impressed with Dalot. I didn't see anything in him prior to this run, but I won't say he is the reason why we're keeping more clean sheets.
He was up for sale in the summer. The only team trying to buy him was Dortmund. Milan wanted him on loan again. We couldn't get a replacement, so he stayed. His recent performances may have changed minds, but only two team teams wanted him in the summer, and they're not top clubs.
Shaw showed amazing form for Southampton and came here as an 18 year old. He played well for LVG and stalled under Mourinho. No surprise when your manager is constantly putting you down to the media. His form was much better under Ole. Only this season have we seen Shaw massively regress.
Dalot has only just started to show some good form. I don't think he will be sold. If he continues to play like this, he definitely deserves more time. He still hasn't looked anywhere near as exciting as 18 year old Shaw going forward. Not even close. You didn't say it, but the notion that Shaw only started to play well last season is very far away from being the truth.
It's funny because he was crucified of being defensively weak everytime he has a bad game . Labeling him as a bad defender.
I have never seen people coming up with this argument of "team effort" when he is having a bad game.
So when he has a good game defensively, it's a team effort and when he has a bad game defensively, he is just just poor defender ?
I personally don't think he's a bad defender. I do think his positioning can be weak, but I don't think he's bad. If he's making individual mistakes that are costing us, he can be criticised. I do still believe that a lot of goals that get conceded aren't the fault of one player. One player might make an obvious mistake, but other players could have usually done something better to help to minimise that mistake.
Nope, just saying Coufal is a bit of a clogger but with a great engine and a decent cross on him. Dalot is not a clogger. Cafu was an anti-clogger.
Dalot doesn''t have better technical ability than Coufal. Even if we consider them both similar quality fullbacks, neither are top 4 quality.
I don't consider them both similar quality full backs though, and I think you're wrong about Coufal's technical level. I do agree that neither are good enough for top 4 though, albeit Dalot has plenty of time to improve still.
We say the improvement line about every young player. The fact remains Dalot is still lacking in too many areas.
We can agree to disagree on technique. Dalot really isnt technical.
He's more technical than Coufal who is fairly poor in possession. That's all I'm saying, I'm not trying to tell you Dalot is world class.
That's fine, difference of opinion. His delivery is certainly not on the level of Coufal's and he's no more industrious.
I'll park the Coufal example and point to the numerous others that help illustrate my actual point, that Dalot isn't the quality of a starting fullback for a top club.
AWB and then Luke Shaw was an obvious weakness , at least that's what other team manager can see , they doubled up on Luke Shaw knowing he lacks discipline , and then fire crosses to back post knowing AWB has no positional sense and very weak in the air. We start looking better defensively after Rangnick bin both players. I mean try to think as if you are a football manager , would you tell your left winger to take awb one on one or just spam a high ball towards him knowing he is very bad in the air ? They ( awb and shaw ) are easy to expose , it correlate with us not keeping clean sheet for like 20+ games under Ole. Meanwhile dalot do not have an obvious weakness therefore more difficult for opposition manager to take an advantage from. You might say he is a mediocre player but he doesn't have an obvious weakness for anyone to expose. Like John O'shea was technically crap and unpleasant in the eye to see, but what is his weakness ? it's not his job to be the team creative outlet so as a manager you just tell him to work hard , be discipline, fight for the ball , annoy the opponent and be positionally intelligent.
Barca also once interested to get Dalot . Dortmund and Milan is much better club than whatever AWB is going to end up at.
He doesn't play much under LVG because of his injury , he didn't even get FA cup medal due to lack of game time , we finished 4th and then 5th in the league , he played well once in a blue moon but when he played well ,our fanbase act like he played well for 30 straight games already, even Darmian is doing his job for us to win our first ever UEL trophy. He is inconsistent , injury prone, unreliable and have attitude issues outside the pitch and we paid him 190k p/w for literally being british. Shaw is no better than Dalot, that's why most manager doesn't like him and only lesser manager like Ole use him.
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John O'Shea was incredibly sound technically, he wouldn't have played under Fergie for 10 years if he wasn't. He was much better than most of this current Utd squad.
@mazhar13 mentioned in another thread that perhaps AWB could play CB. The more I think about this, the more I think we can rescue this shocking transfer. His strengths are tackling, blocking, last ditch interventions........his positioning is shocking but perhaps the narrow area CBs play in compared to that of a FB might be better suited to him? He has the height - roll the dice I say!
I'm not sure but I wouldn't exactly say no to this.
But i don't see it happening without us getting a proper world class coach either.
He needs to bulk up for example and understand positioning etc.
The only reason I have hope for this is because he was a RW not so long ago. He got then turned to a RB due to his poor attacking, maybe he could turn to a CB due to his 1 vs 1 defending ability.
We would need to arguably play 3 at the back first though for him to play under low pressure.
Anything but this! Aerially he is non existent and positionally he is worrying, he would be awful.
Agreed. I think we will bring in another attacking right full back with the new manager. Laird will hopefully play in the PL with a promoted Bournemouth, Dalot will be extended as his contract runs out in 2023 and both will fight it out to become back-up in 2024. We should have a good choice of 3 full back to choose two from in 2024.
AWB will be loaned out next year. He will really suit a defensive side and we will probably sell him for around £10-20m in 2024. The club hates admitting they made a mistake but I don't think there will be any choice in the end.
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I'm not there yet, he's not had proper coaching and was initially a winger, there's hope and I would like to see him given a chance and we know competition can push players to new levels but he does need to improve, I don't like all this "Can he play DM or CB", it isn't a case of you are X level of footballer, he is a RB, players rarely transform into different positions well.
My suggestion wasn't necessarily based on the premise that AWB will become a regular there. He'll mainly be a right back, obviously. I was comparing him to Nordi Mukiele, another right back, who Rangnick occasionally fielded at centre back, particularly if they were moving to a back 3. Same goes for Klostermann (but the other way around; mainly a CB who'd occasionally play at right back). I don't think Rangnick will consider Wan-Bissaka a centre back option unless we're playing a back 3 and bringing in more attacking players to score more goals.
AWB could respond to better coaching but there's a lot to change. He needs to learn how to shape his crosses better and how to cross early both high and low. Gary Neville improved massively in this from 25 onwards. AWB waits too long and crosses to high and hard or low into the crowd in the box.
He also needs to improve his concentration levels as he's always in front or behind the rest of the back four, never in line, playing the opposition onside. He needs to be more confident and not take the easy backwards pass option every time. It's a lot to do. A good loan with less pressure would make it easier. Dalot has improved defensively while in Italy, particularly in the air.
For me it would be a race; who can improve the most in the next 18 months out of AWB, Dalot or Laird for one spot in the squad. Dalot is in the lead at the moment.
Proper coaching works for technical players. There's nothing a Pep can do for a player like Smalling. Would just expose him if anything.
Smalling has done well in a very technical league
Duncan Castles was talking about how AWB has been pulling sickies and sulking in training. On top of the driving issues he’s had. Sounds like another who needs getting rid of. I think Rangnick walked into an absolute shower…
He looks like a league two player in the champions league.
He doesn't have the talent of James, Trent and Walker. No amount of training is going to improve him.
If we can get 20 million for him i'd be delighted.
Agreed, it would be much easier to move him on. A £20m fee would be fine for me if we bring in Mazaroui for free. If we can't get it in the summer we should send him on loan. He will look amazing again in a defensive set up like he had under Roy Hodgson at Palace. Doubt the board will agree, we don't make mistakes with signings. Every player gets a testimonial here.
He will get a new five year contract and they will double his wages, then try to send him on loan two years later and no one will want to buy him or pay his wages!
Thats the United way!
While he does certainly lack the ability going forward that modern full day full backs should have his tackling ability is excellent. Does anyone think he could potentially be retrained as a holding midfielder for us? If we are sticking with a midfield 3 he could do alright as the 6 as the ball winner imo, but would he be able to adapt to playing centrally?
Probably one of the last members of our first team squad I would put there. His positional sense is not good and his passing is limited so no, not worth it. I would rather have Lindelof or even Jones in an emergency, but this is Manchester United, we should get someone who knows the role inside out.
Does not sound good but have to balance that against the fact that I don't think Castles has said anything truthful since Mourinho was fired so have to take it with a hefty pinch of salt.
Yeah his positional sense is iffy i was trying to think of a way we could use him instead of just selling, but we probably do need to set standards and be ruthless again. Shame cos his tackling is awesome, he just sucks at everything else. It's a bit like a poacher, in the box they're excellent but in the modern game you need a more complete striker.
Does AWB get a chance tomorrow? We've some big games against some big teams coming up and I wouldn't trust Dalot defending against them. Aaron doesn't attack well but Dalot hasn't done much in that regard either and he needs to get match fitness back.
Sort of respect how Rangnick has frozen him out for being shit, ignoring the value.
I fear for him. Can't see how a progressive coach tolerates him.
Wan-Bissaka as a 6
Yet he keeps playing others who are constantly serving up shit whenever they play. At his best AWB has been unplayable for us. I can't say Dalot has reached those heights yet
This has been one of Rangnick's best decisions since coming in. Wan-Bissaka is barely a football player.
The thought of it will keep me awake tonightWan-Bissaka as a 6
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