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2018-19 Performances


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6.1 Season Average Rating
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28
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3
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Devil may care

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It's a hang up from a previous mind set some just can't seem to let go of.

Herrera hasn't suddenly become a decent player in the last few months, I see his game largely unchanged. Except now we have frequent movement around him, so those short, quick passes many bemoaned as pointless actually add to the fluidity in our play, while the runs in behind and new passing channels in central midfield means Herrera can play those slide rule passes he loves so much on a more regular basis. He isn't winning the ball back with any more frequency either, but now we are pressing with a structure and when he does win the ball back we are captializing on it more frequently.

Despite this, there are plenty who would like to insist this 'improvement' has only happened recently, and bringing in another would only improve our play further.
Yes, the movement around him is allowing him to once again showcase his quality on the ball that we have known is there since we played Bilbao in the Europa League over half a decade ago, and having a structure now is something Jesse Lingard mentioned several times at that Coca Cola event the other night when talking about why the team has improved so much. It's weird that people forget how good Ander was in LvG's first season only to be dumped in favour of the Schmidfield and we saw how that went, then he was player of the season in Mourinho's first season only to be dumped out the side in his second season because Mourinho wanted to shoehorn Pogba into a 2 man midfield. This is a player who has proven himself and then reproven himself 3 times now, it's odd that people forget, the word underrated is overused but absolutely fits Ander.
 

Oneunited26

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It’s quiet amazing Jose mourinho demoted both Herrera and pogba the clear midfield pairing to build your midfield around, who have mobility, goals and box to box ability to help our forwards out, and decided to choose playing matic, fellaini and lukaku, and we ask why we fell has low has we did. These two easily are hell to play against, and Herrera once again showing why he’s the Darren fletcher of the current set up, simply brilliant who we must tie him down on a new contract

It’s quiet amazing this season at one point both pogba and Herrera we’re down Jose’s choice of midfielders in favour of matic, fellaini and scotty the very opposite of goals, creativity, passing range and mobility
 

MikeKing

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Wow, really back to his best again. This Herrera wouldn't have been carried off the pitch by Noble I tell you that much.
 

MetoTTT

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Always loved him! What a shame how he was misused all these years! Great attitude and excellent hardworking b2b midfielder. He loves the club for sure.
 

limerickcitykid

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He’s always been a mad dog. Under van Gaal and Mourinho to begin with. That strange strange man dropped him for no reason, though.
All the more odd because he was the player of the season the prior season. Then he just fell off a cliff in 17/18 season and was completely out of favour. Was such a strange fall.
 

11101

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All the more odd because he was the player of the season the prior season. Then he just fell off a cliff in 17/18 season and was completely out of favour. Was such a strange fall.
He doesn't suit the sit back and cover the gaps, and bring the ball up from deep style that Mourinho played. He needs to pressing high up the pitch and playing in tight spaces. Thats the difference.
 

izec

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He picked up an injury in pre season, which kept him out for the start of the season, where Fellaini and Matic played with Pogba. Herrera never looked confident and never got some consecutive games, in and out of the team with inconsistent performances. Thats why he was out of favour, some of his performances were really bad, but Jose also preferred others most of the time and with Matic and Pogba being starters, 2 spots were gone. We sometimes also played with 2 midfielders and Mata or Lingard in front, so he wasnt getting a start.
 

Gordon S

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My motm. He is keeping it simple and doesn't get the headlines but he has been immense under Ole, didn't put a foot wrong today.
 

bond19821982

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Our most important player. His role for the first goal shouldn't be underestimated . He avoided the challenge , eased the ball out of the fulham player and then a simple pass to Martial.

Yeah, no one would note these kind of contributions but he is the one making us click.
 

ivaldo

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He picked up an injury in pre season, which kept him out for the start of the season, where Fellaini and Matic played with Pogba. Herrera never looked confident and never got some consecutive games, in and out of the team with inconsistent performances. Thats why he was out of favour, some of his performances were really bad, but Jose also preferred others most of the time and with Matic and Pogba being starters, 2 spots were gone. We sometimes also played with 2 midfielders and Mata or Lingard in front, so he wasnt getting a start.
Keeps being said but they weren't. Which performances were these? Tactically our midfield was being suffocated, which is why no one performed well in there with the ball, but he always did his job defensively, he always won the ball back at an impressively high rate, it's just once he won that ball back, he had no one to give it to.
 

SinNombre

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Media perceptions are why the average fan keeps making statements like "Herrera was kept out because of his performances were really bad" (and you can swap Herrera with Martial/Pogba/anyone the media doesn't like).

The players Jose was playing instead of them had many stinkers of their own and their best performances were worse than the median for Herreras and Martials.
 

izec

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Keeps being said but they weren't. Which performances were these? Tactically our midfield was being suffocated, which is why no one performed well in there with the ball, but he always did his job defensively, he always won the ball back at an impressively high rate, it's just once he won that ball back, he had no one to give it to.
He had some shocking games where he gave the ball away too much, no doubt. But he rarely got the look in afterwards. Sometimes he wasnt match fit or had no rhythm and performed badly afterwards to no surprise. I know some of you defend him all the time, but he had some terrible games under Jose. I didnt say he was the only one, but he got dropped quickly, because he was the easiest to drop for Jose. Lets not pretend he played like this all the time and got dropped without reason. Sometimes it was justifiable. Under LvG, it was unfair more often than not. Under Jose, he didnt get enough game time and then got dropped when everyone was shit, him included. I tried to explain how he had ended up having a season he had last year, compared to the previous one. It wasnt terrible, but disappointing overall.
 

Rajma

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What a player, our attacking style suits him so much even though he evolved to a more defensive minded player and developed a good awareness under our previous conservative regimes he still remembers how to switch it on when asked to play more expansively, the role just suits him down to tea and gives us a great balance. Love his shithousery too.
 

GioF

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Can’t believe the difference in his overall game since Ole has come in. He was outstanding today.
 

Bwuk

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Love him. The trio of him, Matic and Pogba compliments each other perfectly... who’d of thought it...
 

el3mel

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That through he made to Pogba in the minute 32 was unreal.

Lover everything about him. Great player and one of the most underrated in the league.
 

roonster09

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Very good game once again. He won the ball for first 2 goals, 2nd goal was all Martial though but for first goal he did very well to win the ball higher up the pitch.

He is so important to the midfield. For me our 2nd best midfielder and that's not a slight on Matic as he is also playing well.
 

Adam-Utd

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He plays so much better deeper in the field.

I think people used to see him as an attacking midfielder (which I guess he was at Bilbao) but his best qualities are the reading of the game. Pogba scores his goal as he positions himself perfectly to win the loose ball, but he retains it with that lovely little chip control that rides the tackle. So simple but effective.

I can see him and Verratti having a great little shitehouse battle this tuesday.
 

Neptyk

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Is there anyone similiar to him in our u-23 team regarding the play style?
 

freeurmind

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Excellent performance against Fulham, he was good defensively but he also set the tempo for our play, made so many passes.
 

11101

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Hope he's had his Weetabix this morning. Him shutting Verratti down will be key to tonight's game.
 

Devil may care

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Put his all into the game, has too much work to do IMO, just too much ground to cover against a mobile midfield that was also technically good, he was his usual tenacious self and used the ball well for the most part, certainly more composed and crafty with it than most of our players.
 

nutmegrush

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If only this guy could add shooting to his locker, he gets so many opportunities around the edge of the box.
 

Cloud7

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Probably our best player tonight, but he really needs to stop shooting so much. Even though he does score every now and then, most times it's either a really weak effort or up into row Z. We would be better served finding someone in a more threatening position or recycling the ball.
 
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