[Stretford End Phil]

If we had won yesterday I would have expected the 'second' team but, I think Jose might have a rethink to ensure we are back on track. I think the selection might be a surprise for all of us.

 

[Trizy]

Love Herrera, definitely a fan favorite because of his nice guy & and mental love for the club.

He changed our game, he was excellent. Tidied up everything well and his passing was on point. If we continue with a 433 we need him in it.

 

[NinjaZombie]

I think he was excellent, and I hope Mourinho thinks the same. Besides his defensive work, he also was direct in his passing. No first station passes there. Probably followed instructions to a tee. Fingers crossed, Jose starts giving the guy chances.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

Ander Herrera has revealed to MUTV that a conversation with new Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho led to his deeper position in central midfield, with both agreeing he could be an “important player” this season.

More: http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...ith-Jose-Mourinho-about-his-new-position.aspx

It's time for him to take Fellainis position

 

[Jacky Quacky]

I think he was excellent, and I hope Mourinho thinks the same. Besides his defensive work, he also was direct in his passing. No first station passes there. Probably followed instructions to a tee. Fingers crossed, Jose starts giving the guy chances.

He screened the defense so well while giving a lot of energy. Reminded me of Kante.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

I think he was excellent, and I hope Mourinho thinks the same. Besides his defensive work, he also was direct in his passing. No first station passes there. Probably followed instructions to a tee. Fingers crossed, Jose starts giving the guy chances.

Was brilliant when he came on. Definitely should start more often in a midfield three.

 

[#07]

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[Sam M]

I really hope Herrera becomes a central fixture this season. Sure, his passing isn't as consistently crisp as the very best and he can be over zealous but he has a very useful blend of attributes, his intensity in and off the ball is excellent. I rate him highly.

 

[Water Melon]

Pogba+Morgan+Ander should be our midfield trio against teams who play fast direct football. Those three are fast, strong and technical enough to cut out opposition's penetrative passing.

 

[podurban2]

Pogba+Morgan+Ander should be our midfield trio against teams who play fast direct football. Those three are fast, strong and technical enough to cut out opposition's penetrative passing.

Just put this down as my predicted line-up for Thursday.

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

Pogba, Carrick and Herrera was my wet dream for a long time, but Herrera's performance last year turned me off from that a bit.

If he can find some form i would love to have him and Pogba as the 2 cm's with a dm behind them.

He is definitely a big game player too. That run we had in 14-15 against Pool, Tottenham and City he was excellent. The same for Bilbao against Real and Barca.

 

[Stacks]

It's time for him to take Fellainis position

He is no doubt a better football, but he lost his place due to him not consistently doing what he should be able to do. Fellaini has limited attributes. Mainly his aerial prowess, but everything else is at the basic level. Because Herrera has more ability, he tries too much sometimes and it can look sloppy which is why he should have a holding midfielder to clean up after him. All in all though he is clearly a better midfielder than Fellaini. This isn't the 1st time Herrera has played well against one of our rivals. There was City, Arsenal and Liverpool to name but a few. I feel both he and Pogba will only benefit as part of a 3. In fact I have witnessed that

 

[RedStarUnited]

I think he was excellent, and I hope Mourinho thinks the same. Besides his defensive work, he also was direct in his passing. No first station passes there. Probably followed instructions to a tee. Fingers crossed, Jose starts giving the guy chances.

He screened the defense so well while giving a lot of energy. Reminded me of Kante.

"Ander Herrera came on in the second-half and he was the one who allowed us to recover the ball fast, to press higher, to bring the team higher, to recover the ball, to build a new wave of attack, to put another long ball into the last line.

"Ander was phenomenal in his attitude."

Jose loved it.

 

[BigBebe]

As well as being our best player on the pitch in the derby, he is now becoming a real leader off the pitch.

He was put up for the post game interviews on Saturday and then again, for the pre match press conference yesterday. On both occasions, he came over as being treally honest, articulate and determined. He was asked harder questions than Jose but he handled them well.

In the last few seasons, he has come over as a little bit of a cheeky chappy wanting to be liked. This season, he comes over as totally focussed and no nonsense.

He really needs a run in the team.

 

[kr0nix]

I'm convinced that Herrera can do a good job for us. We've all seen his qualities, he's struggled for consistency but on his day he's far more versatile than either Morgan or Fellaini.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

I think he's doing well in this role, really quick at recovering the ball at making quick passes forward.

 

[izec]

Well if Herrera is our best player currently, something goes wrong.

 

[Rossa]

I think he's doing well in this role, really quick at recovering the ball at making quick passes forward.

One of the few who have done his job. He has a fighting spirit and quick feet coupled with good technique.

 

[Bojan11]

My problem with him is that he has space to run into and passes back straight away.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

My problem with him is that he has space to run into and passes back straight away.

Yeah, I have gone off Herrera now. I think he is a mid table player, he just doesn't impact the game significantly enough to warrant a place here.

 

[Raw]

Only bright spark of the match really.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Probably our best player tonight but that's not saying much. He pretty much had to run the midfield on his own so he did well.

 

[facund]

Easily MOM without putting in a particularly good performance.

 

[PepsiCola]

Decent performance. Bright in parts.

 

[Devil may care]

The only one of the 3 CM's that was actually awake in the first half, showed some tenacity and some nice touches but had no help in there.

 

[NinjaZombie]

He needs to impose himself more. Too many safe passes. His first instinct is to always pass the ball and move so it feels like he can only contribute attacking wise in a pass and move team. I don't know if we can ever play that way with the players we have now.

 

[JeffBoomTetris]

He played well today and had to hold the midfield together. Pogba was lazy today and didn't really aid Herrera and Schneiderlin in midfield

 

[BennyBlanco]

I thought he did alright today, solid outing, better first half than second.

 

[harms]

A decent game from him, says much about our performance that it was enough to get MotM

 

[Devil may care]

He's been our best player over the last 2 games, which granted we lost, but if we revert to the fecking 4-2-3-1 tomorrow I'd stick him on the right of the 3.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Yeah, I have gone off Herrera now. I think he is a mid table player, he just doesn't impact the game significantly enough to warrant a place here.

Mid table is harsh imo, but if he's a constant starting midfielder, you're not winning titles. Need better than him.

 

[MounchesterUtd]

The thing with Herrera is he does a lot of things well, but he isn't elite at any one aspect of the game. He is a 'trier' though, and Jose loves those types of players. Used in the right system and with Pogba playing up to his potential, I see no wrong in giving Herrera a combined 30+ starts and 10-20+ sub apps. You just can't expect him to be the talisman of your team, but he will give you consistent 7.0-7.5/10 performances, day in and day out.

 

[kouroux]

The thing with Herrera is he does a lot of things well, but he isn't elite at any one aspect of the game. He is a 'trier' though, and Jose loves those types of players. Used in the right system and with Pogba playing up to his potential, I see no wrong in giving Herrera a combined 30+ starts and 10-20+ sub apps. You just can't expect him to be the talisman of your team, but he will give you consistent 7.0-7.5/10 performances, day in and day out.

Wow, you really rate him highly then. He's just an ok player. Never understood the excitement over him even if he looked good in some games, he just isn't capable of performing consistently well.

 

[MounchesterUtd]

Wow, you really rate him highly then. He's just an ok player. Never understood the excitement over him even if he looked good in some games, he just isn't capable of performing consistently well.

Not really. 7 or 7.5 over a scale of 10 is just above average. That's what Herrera is; a solid, if unspectacular, above average player. He won't win you games by himself but that's what Pogba was bought for.

IMO he is only getting severely underrated in this forum nowadays because of the pro-Herrera stans of the past two years.

 

[Amar__]

Well he is obviously capable of performing better in some important games than our poster boy Pogba, at different positions, does that mean that we won't win anything with Pogba too then?

 

[kunal18]

He is a very under utilized player. He plays a lot of very good games when given a chance and has a lot of qualities in his armour
Hopefully Jose will play him consistently,if that happens, he will be the surprise package this season

 

[kouroux]

Not really.7 or 7.5 over a scale of 10 is just above average. That's what Herrera is; a solid, if unspectacular, above average player. He won't win you games by himself but that's what Pogba was bought for.

IMO he is only getting severely underrated in this forum nowadays because of the pro-Herrera stans of the past two years.

No, it's not really "just" above average. It'd be 5.5 or 6.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I would say he is the least of our worries. £89m on a midfielder who we are having to wait to hit form. I would be wanting him to hit the ground running for that sort of money. Then all the money on Mikhi who funny enough had a first bad season at Dortmund because he was played in the wrong position, so what do we do, play him in the wrong position. In the meantime we are dropping points because of this conundrum. Trying to fit Rooney in, playing Mata as a winger. If Valencia and Shaw don't play we are toothless. Loaning out CBJ yet keeping Rojo. The squad is too big. I can understand why Jose likes a slightly smaller squad. We have made some weird decisions so far. Ander Herrera is not a problem. Plenty of others are.
Also as pressing seems to be the latest thing, here is a lad who knows how to play that way. Why not play him in a position where he can do that more and tell the others to get their fingers out and join in.
This lad is an easy target. Try taking some of the big money players to task. They are paid big money because they are supposed to be game changers.

 

[kr0nix]

At this point, I'm not convinced that this is the best that Ander can do, and that goes for the likes of Schneiderlin, Martial, and Pogba too. It's easier to make a case for the latter two, but let's focus on Ander and Morgan for the moment.

A successful team has a synergy between the tactics and the quality of the individual players. So I'd be hesitant to throw either the manager or the players under the bus without looking into both sides of the picture.

The way I see it, having better players may be able to offset tactical weaknesses, and vice versa. The last league title was won with only one midfielder of genuine quality, Carrick, with the likes of Cleverley, Giggs and Anderson leaving much to be desired. Thus it was patently obvious that the tactical set up, while not without its weaknesses, was good enough to get the best out of the players. At that point, the limitations of the players became easier to see.

At this point in time it's not that clear whether the performances of Schneiderlin and Herrera are more to do with the tactics or their own limitations, given that the likes of Pogba and Martial are also struggling for form. Hopefully things will become clearer once Jose figures out what his best system is.

 

[Ban]

Some serious underrating here. It's not enough to say he was good but there needs to be a line of us not winning titles if he's a constant starter. Which is ridiculous. If he can be good in a system and if he performs constantly good then those kind of statements are silly. You can't have a first 11 of elite world class players. You need Herreras of this world too and if Herrera can do a job he's asked to do then that's it.

Mid table player statement is crazy too.

As someone said Pogba was bad vs Feyenoord, so will we win those titles with him in the lineup or we need even better.

It's similar to Fellaini. He's good, he was our best mid which tells you something. People dream about some United where all the players would be galacticos. Ok you can say we need a better player but for now we have a team which we have and most important thing is for that team to play good. If Fellaini and Herrera are working well in the team there's no need for some of those posts.

Look at Liverpool for example. Would you say they have a better squad or better mids?
I'd say no but Klopp has made them a very well organized, oiled machine. Of course we'll see if they'll be good for the whole year or most of it but system is a key.