And that Leicester game was full of some erratic defending, especially by Blackett and Rojo, not THAT much to do with our midfield.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 6
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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I don't see him as a 10, but drop alongside Blind and he could be a vital player for us. He has more impact on the game in a central role than when he is marooned on the right with Valencia. I'd like to see a magic square of sorts, one where Januzaj and Di Maria have licence to roam inside, go outside.. interchange with each other, drop deep into midfield. It can easily move into a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, you can drop Fellaini into midfield and push Rooney up top. Either way, in terms of personnel.. these are the players which need to be playing out of the current crop of players at our disposal.
Herrera Blind
Di Maria Januzaj
Rooney
Fellaini
Di Maria Januzaj
Rooney
Fellaini
He needs to play centrally with either Carrick or Blind. When Blind is alone in midfield, it's just too easy to pick up the other players. As we lack movement as well, we have no one to play to in midfield.
Put ADM just in front of them with the licence to roam and go to the left and we have a good ball playing midfield
Put ADM just in front of them with the licence to roam and go to the left and we have a good ball playing midfield
The media would be proud of the pre-determind narrative the Caf has played out over the last 24 hours.
Herrera had a poor first half and wasn't bad in the second half, the goal was well taken.
Rooney was straight up average.
Yet after weeks of bleating on about Herrera starting and Rooney up front people are desperate to be proven right. Have a sense of perspective, please.
Herrera had a poor first half and wasn't bad in the second half, the goal was well taken.
Rooney was straight up average.
Yet after weeks of bleating on about Herrera starting and Rooney up front people are desperate to be proven right. Have a sense of perspective, please.
I'd play him as the "8". I don't see why Blind / Herrera / Di Maria can't be a 3 or he can play in a 2 against lesser oppo.
There was no point in us buying him if we're going to use him as a 10, since as you say, Mata offers more guile.
"Straight up average" yet created a goal out of nothing. When was the last time either of our other strikers did that?
Penalty aside, having a striker who could actually threaten in behind made a huge difference. Forced PNE to defend a little deeper and more compact, which created the space out wide that two of our goals came from.
Yeah, I thought Rooney was decent upfront. Played with paced and had good movement, something we have lacked lately. Would like to see him given a run upfront tbh.
He was decent but nothing more. Still a level above anything we've seen from Falcao and all but a handful of performances from RvP. Which speaks volumes about how poor we've been up front this season that a 5 or 6 out of 10 performance from Rooney stands out as being way more threatening than most of our games this season.
Herrera wasn't spectacular last night but he does seem to be on the pitch when we play our best football. His passing is loose at times but I like that he tries things. He's also never stood still, he gets the ball and looks to move it on quickly and he's off again looking for space. He has a really good appreciation for the game.
He'd be in my team week in, week out.
He'd be in my team week in, week out.
Me too, even though I don't think he's been that great since we signed him. Watching Blind hopelessly press the ball at times only to look back and see he's 30 yards beyond everyone and they've barely even noticed he's gone is heartbreaking. We need genuine energy and desire in there.
Straight up average perhaps a bit harsh but everyone is trying to peddle this narrative that everything is solved now that he is playing up front. The truth is that it was far from a vintage performance (against PNE) and doesn't in any way justify the "I told you so" posts that have been made.
For what it's worth, I want to see him played there for the rest of the season as much as anyone does, I just think the posts declaring Rooney as being some sort of saviour after a brilliant performance are daft.
Yeah, we've seen glimpses of Herrera but I don't think he's been given a fair crack of the whip just yet. Hopefully he can force is way into Van Gaal plans more consistently.
Rooney was average, as till his goal (where he did really good, but got lucky with the dive) he had 2 good chances, but couldn't control the ball where he should have done it, especially the first time. He is still slowing things down, but his movement was better, I have to agree with that. Again, it's his first game after long time up front, so I wouldn't blame him to much, but it doesn't change the fact that he was average.
And that is overlooking the fact that this was Rooney's first start uptop in a few months. People are being too judgemental on this one outing when Falcao and RVP have had a considerably longer leash, for the grand total of fifteen goals between them. My point is that we need a few more matches to pass an accurate judgement on Rooney's performances as a striker as there is likely to be a period of adjustment mentally to reverting to his role, he is not a robot that one can change at the flick of a switch.
Pretty balanced view. I thought Herrera had a good second half after a medciore-poor first and along with a great finish for the goal bumped his performance from a 6 to a 7 in my view.
He wasn't brilliant and certainly hasn't done enough to cement his place in the first team, however he was one of the better 2-3 player's in a poor team performance.
Rooney was the same out of form Rooney we've seen in midfield for the last month or two... Just 30 yards further forward.
Swansea as well, there are also games where we got points but looked very shakey in the process, despite playing against weaker opposition, but I'm not saying that every loss of points is directly down to Herrera, more that with him in a midfield role we're generally more vulnerable because he's a more offensively minded player.
The post I was replying to was claiming that we should have just stuck Herrera in midfield in every game so he could adapt to the league, mine was that if trying to shoehorn an offensive player into a more balanced role made us vulnerable against the likes of Leicester and West Brom, it would have been a disaster against some of the better teams we've faced (especially City and Chelsea). Surely that's not a particularly contentious point to make?
To be fair, Herrera hasnt had a decent run recently and needs a couple of games to find his form. The same goes for Januzaj or any other player that didnt feature on a regular basis
My thoughts exactly. A player who is capable of excelling. There's a tenacity about him too, again not dissimilar to the ginger one.
I'd agree with you as far as to say it's hard to play RVP Rooney and Falcao in the same team but I don't agree with you regarding saying how more effective do you want it to be. As we haven't used the diamond for all these games plus we have struggled in many a game. Plus if you have the correct players the diamond can be as good as any formation. (We haven't as you have alluded too)
yes - when he moved to , wait for it with shock and awe , central midf from the wing.
I love the little body feint's he does when he's about to receive the ball. There was 1 moment where he pretended to turn back, then just moved forward with the ball and took out 2 players. So simple yet really effective, I don't remember any of our other midfielders doing this to the extreme he does. Really helps him shake his marker.
that was ace. i'd hate to have to play against him. always moving unlike most of the other 9 outfield players. TC23 hides , this guy wants the ball. with blind they make a smart pair of midfs.
I agree. The only reservation I have is that a Blind souped up on steroids would be the perfect partner for Hererra in midfield. However, not forgetting morals, maybe we should just buy a powerful, yet skilful box to box player ( a la Pogba, etc) to compliment them in a midfield trio?
He wasn't playing on the wing though. In the diamond, sure he needs to go wide more often when playing RCM, but I don't think that excuses him at all from his first half performance.
He wasn't THAT bad, just wasn't involved very much and so had a very mediocre half. Most of our play was through Di Maria and the opposite wing. When he moved central he got involved more and thus had a little more influence on the game.
Oh no, I agree he wasn't all that bad. I just felt the other fella was giving him a bit of a free ride by saying he was on the wing.
I remember that it was waddle esk
Aargh, that touch and feint was mint.
I find it interesting, although not surprising that people haven't mentioned his role in the Preston goal yesterday (though if someone has, bear in mind I skimmed the last few pages really, so might have missed it). Completely went to sleep.
He is the forum's latest golden boy though, through each phase of the season, the phrase "Why isn't X playing? X has to start, Louis is nuts" or such like has been showing up. It's Herrera at the minute.
He is the forum's latest golden boy though, through each phase of the season, the phrase "Why isn't X playing? X has to start, Louis is nuts" or such like has been showing up. It's Herrera at the minute.
Yeah, I sometimes feel I've to underrate him to balance out the praise he receives for the most part. He wasn't particularly good yesterday, but he scored though so that'll do for me.
I rate him enough that I'm not sure we shouldn't just sign 2 wide players and go 4-3-3/4-5-1 with Herrera as the 8.
He might not have a ton of power or defensive solidity, but when you look at the best teams in the world, their 2nd most defensive midfielder is a mobile, creative midfielder who has played some of his career as a 10 and is out there to link play like Modric, Rakitic, Thiago (when healthy, and if not him, they've done well with an offensive player there), Cesc and even Gabi.
He might not have a ton of power or defensive solidity, but when you look at the best teams in the world, their 2nd most defensive midfielder is a mobile, creative midfielder who has played some of his career as a 10 and is out there to link play like Modric, Rakitic, Thiago (when healthy, and if not him, they've done well with an offensive player there), Cesc and even Gabi.
It was definitely his fault, he let his fullback get a run on him who had the shot. Saying that though he made it up by scoring and playing well after. I think if we lost more people would be moaning though.
In fairness I thought he was our best player yesterday and I'm not yet convinced by him. Still room for improvement but defensively he did fairly well and he scored a goal at the other end so no complaints from me. Deserves to keep his place.
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Ugh. I hate stupid stats like this that in no way tell a full story. No noting the strength of opposition, nor the line up each time he played etc. Utterly pointless stat.
Most stats don't tell the whole story, but one thing is for sure we play better with Herrera in the team than without.
I don't think it can to be honest, I think you need a formation that is going to stretch both lines of an opponents defence and the diamond doesn't do that. It's a slight upgrade offensively to 352 because we push a body up field and have a man over in the centre, but organised defences will stay compact and render it obsolete. In terms of effectiveness, I'm going on a results basis and with the squad we have and our aim for the season, I think one loss in nineteen is actually quite remarkable.
Yeb, and I specifically talked about 1 and a half of those 3 minutes. But that was a match day thread. A "speak what you think about what just happened" thread.
Di Maria hasn't always been on the wing. If there was no reason for him to be on the wing then you might want to explain what he was doing there then.
Basically, United played with a diamond midfield in most of those games and he's usually on the right side of the diamond. Against Arsenal he was supposed to be one of three central midfielder in a 3 CB formation but a lot of the time he was way out right, pretty much where Valencia was.
Didn't count Swansea for obvious reasons. First game of the season, first time using this formation in a competitive game. Lingard and Blackett both started. Hernandez was up front. The team was a mess.
The point would have been fine if you had argued it better. Two games isn't a base to make your point on. Especially when the alternative is Wayne Rooney in midfield who is in no way better at playing a midfielder than Herrera is.
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