Ander Herrera Revisited

Pexbo

Winner of the 'I'm not reading that' medal.
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
72,842
Location
Brizzle
Supports
Big Days
Inspired by this article (first time Luckhurst has inspired anyone I’d imagine):




So how does everyone feel about Herrera now we've moved on and Fred and McTominay have stepped up? Personally, I felt it was the right decision for both parties at the time and I think there was definitely a time when we could have done with him earlier in the season but we’re talking a few months in what would have been a 3/4/5 year contract. I’ve always felt he’s a limited footballer and he’s reliant on a engine that will start deteriorating soon enough.

I think in hindsight, what was a heavily criticised decision at the time was the right one. I just hope we have the same approach with Jones, Rojo, Lingard and Pereira.
 
I always felt he was a little overrated. Capable of a great performance mainly in the big games but at many times was found wanting as far as ability on the ball goes. Not giving him a long term deal on a ridiculous salary was a very good decision at the time and has definitely been proven to be correct in hindsight.
 
I think he was a valuable squad member and still would have been if fit. His injuries catched up lately, but when fit, great option to have to rotate with Matic, McTom and Fred. He was on their level. Especially in the big games, he was up for it and very flexible. I still would have kept him, and moved on the likes of Pereira and Lingrad. I think Ole wanted him to stay but he made his decision to leave before he arrived.

Nothing more to add to it. Good player, some will say should have stayed others will say he was overrated, but in the end, we don't depend on him now that McTom and Fred have stepped up.
 
Was the correct decision, in hindsight, that is. Especially as Fred has stepped up and McT (not to mention Bruno’s performances and Matic’s resurgence). It’s always easy to evaluate things with hindsight but at the time - not replacing him was quite risky and it could have easily cost us big this season - lest we forget we had a ton of injuries to contend with and we were hovering mid table for large parts of the season.

But moving him on - especially on the length and size of the contact he wanted, was the correct decision for both parties. And this comes from a Herrera “fan”. I just don’t like how his contribution during his time year is sometimes downplayed though, & some of the anger directed towards him by some. He was a great professional who always gave his all - and tried to adapt his game to whatever role he was needed in. He had struggles, and he had times where he was pretty immense. But he was definitely the least of our problems.

But OGS & United’s decision seems vindicated and I’m happy Fred has stepped up. Seems Ander is also not getting too much game time at PSG (that’s last I heard - never fact checked) - but he was never going there to be a starter I guess.

And wrt the OP I agree. Hope we get rid of Lingard, Jones, Rojo - and a couple more, pronto.
 
Correct decision to refuse the money he wanted, he was a good player at times, however that was in a woefully bad midfield for much of his time here.

He was a good professional and ‘got’ what this club is about in fairness to him.

Ultimately wasn’t worth the money he wanted at his age and thankfully it’s worked our well with Fred and McTominay stepping up since he left.
 
I was annoyed at the time. He was poty in recent times and always applied himself well. Unsure if Fred could make the step up and McT having only had 1 season with first team. Now, I’ve not missed him at all
 
There might be some recency bias here, because I recall everyone being upset at our midfield before Bruno arrived.

Herrera was everything we wanted in a United player. We dropped the ball by not renegotiating much earlier (and compensating him with a much fairer contract). Instead we looked at renewing trash like Lingard.
 
Though he was a very good player who was sadly never really utilised effectively, probably because of the managers we had.
 
I never really felt he wasn't replaced as it was obvious McTominay would get his minutes, the fact Fred has performed the way he has has meant Herrera hasn't been missed at all and surprise surprise he's spent most of the season at PSG injured much like he did most of the time here
 
Decent player who played well in some big games.
Wasn't quite good enough at any one thing. Matic came in and showed what a holding player can do. Bruno shows what an attacking player can do.
Could have been a third CM but not on silly money.
 
I think it would have been better if we keep Herrera rather than Matic. That's just what I can say about the decision. It's not Ole to blamed about to let him go since the club should had sorted it out way before anyway.

I also still think Fred performance this season is our best CM/DM since Carrick. It sums up about Herrera and the rest of our midfielders that we signed post 2013.
 
Ronaldo's Mum Eh? said:
There might be some recency bias here, because I recall everyone being upset at our midfield before Bruno arrived.

Herrera was everything we wanted in a United player. We dropped the ball by not renegotiating much earlier (and compensating him with a much fairer contract). Instead we looked at renewing trash like Lingard.
Click to expand...

Nah for most of the season we have been crying out for creative midfielder, Fred and mctominay long plugged the whole he left. We did miss the depth though as it would have been better to rely on Ander rather than Lingard/Andreas
 
Players like Blind, Herrera and Di Maria could have been so much more at the club I feel. All technically very good and all would have flourished under a stable regime in my opinion. Often in football it's a matter of timing and sadly for those three it just wasn't right. There is also an argument that in the case of Blind and Herrera whilst they were good players they never fully excelled in one area which made it difficult to see them as anything but solid.

In hindsight is a loss he moved? Not at all.
 
Injuries mainly and high wage demand are the problems.

The latter is the club's problem with many players who doesn't deserve it so I don't blame him wanting similar treatment.

We don't need the then getting-more-injury-prone Herrera.
So it's no longer a big loss now once McT, Fred and even Matic stepped up while Bruno finally joined.
It's an annoying problem before then with only McT and Pogba are our two reliable midfielders.

Performance wise,
+ he's that good, an all-around complete centre-midfielder but not really a master of any to be honest so he's limited but still at good levels in all.
+ big game player.
+ consistently reliable.
+ provide strong squad depth for tactical variations, competitions and fitness management.

Oh well, there'll be United fans who won't rate him at all, so let's just make peace with that.
 
Last edited:
Herrera was a fantastic midfielder for us, don't really agree with those saying he was overrated. However Fred and Mctominnay have eased the blow of losing him for sure. Especially if Fred can add more goals to his game
 
He should've had his contract renewed a couple of years ago. The fact he was down to his last year was poor management like many other things during Mourinho's tenure.
 
Sandikan said:
Decent player who played well in some big games.
Wasn't quite good enough at any one thing. Matic came in and showed what a holding player can do. Bruno shows what an attacking player can do.
Could have been a third CM but not on silly money.
Click to expand...

For less than half a season. One of the worst value for money signings we've ever made - probably worse than Di Maria for a season which cost us 15 odd million.
 
Was a good player, but I like our current options better.
 
Herrera was a good midfielder who did everything well. He wasnt amazing at anything in particular- just really dependable and in my eyes the perfect backup squad midfielder. He was excellent at times in the defensive role under Jose and really stood out with interceptions and tackles per game. He certainly looked a better defensive option to me than Matic who was awful for years before a brief spell of good form under Ole since Christmas.

I think I'd put him ahead of Matic, Pereira and Lingard. In his final season he was better than Fred and McTominay and the collapse on our results neatly coincided with his injury too. Maybe he would have declined this season as they have come on but we will never know.

There seems to be a lot of revsionism on Herrera after his departure and it seems to be about his contract.

Although I was a fan if it is true he was after 200k a week plus then we did the right thing moving him on. That kind of wage for a squad player of his age isnt great though and I'd happily have had him stay ahead of Lingard/Matic or Periera.

I felt this was more an issue of the clubs management of his contract and we left it really late before acting - the club has previous with this re:Evra
 
A very intelligent player but his inconsistent passing lets him down and stops him from being some stop class midfielder. We could always use someone like him in the squad but it was a good decision to let him go when we did.
 
Highly overrated. Mediocre at best at no. 10 and no. 8, until he was transformed into a no. 6 by Mourinho. Many appreciated his passion and commitment, but these two attributes often put him in trouble. Defensively, he was always too committed that he found himself out of position and he missed a lot of tackles. He was even once pulled out and scolded by the manager during the game. Offensively he had too many sideway and backward passes because he didn't shoulder check, and that's one of the reasons why Matic was brought in. Nothing special and many said he's easily replaceable, and Fred has proven that.
 
He was a good all-rounder in an era where there were hardly any other all-rounders playing the game. Go back 20 years and he wouldn't have made it into the top 20 B2B midfielders in the league.

In terms of overall quality, not that great. Incidentally, I'd put Fred in the same category.
 
As my posts will attest, have never understood that reputation he had for us.

Losing him for free is irritating but he was never THE answer.

You can ‘play with passion’ all you like; if the quality is deficient I’m not won over.

That video he got when leaving is one of the most millennial pieces of nonsense I’ve witnessed aswell.
 
He is a very intelligent player too. Our second goal against Ajax came because of his intelligence. I thought he was better at a box to box player and right now Fred is better than him but we needed a player like him who could be nasty.
 
I always thought he was a pretty average player. He was over-rated here just because of the wasteland of our midfield at the time. Thankfully we’re better stocked with quality midfielders now.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
As my posts will attest, have never understood that reputation he had for us.

Losing him for free is irritating but he was never THE answer.

You can ‘play with passion’ all you like; if the quality is deficient I’m not won over.

That video he got when leaving is one of the most millennial pieces of nonsense I’ve witnessed aswell.
Click to expand...
Eh?
 
If he was still here, he would be the one I'd want to be selling.

I was never really overly impressed by his performances except for whenever he deserved respect for man marking hazard out of a game etc.

Never really enjoyed watching him.

The midfielders we have now are better and whilst many have different opinions who will definitely say no to this - I personally enjoyed watching a player like Blind at CB than Herrera in CM for us.
 
I was a big fan of Ander. Plenty of tenacity and fight, and decent quality o the ball also. He was a really useful team player and good enough quality at the time.

He was one of our better midfielders through a period of really average ones but he was never of the quality we have come to expect over the last 30 years. Hopefully with Bruno we can add some more of similar quality and get back to the standards we were used to.

His contract situation was managed really poorly, though.
 
He was a good player, and letting him go was the correct decision.
However, he was involved in most of the best moments ( goals) we have had since SAF
The fa cup assist for Martial
The league cup assist to Zlatan
Forcing Miki to go towards goal , and hence score and also covering for him during Europa
Gerard 34 secs cameo
The ball he threaded to Rashford against Chelsea and also Miki against Spurs
 
He was pretty good.. and I liked him. Would have been great if he stayed on.. but he wasnt the player you break the bank to keep around. Very few are...
 
I like him a lot, but we've not missed him too much. Maybe a little bit when McT was injured, and when Pereira was getting minutes, we could have perhaps reshuffled to fit him in since Pereira is largely ineffective most of the time.

It was probably the right time to move him on, but it was poor management to let his contract run down and get nothing for him. Could have gotten at least £20m for him if he had a year or two left on his deal.
 
Pughnichi said:
I was annoyed at the time. He was poty in recent times and always applied himself well. Unsure if Fred could make the step up and McT having only had 1 season with first team. Now, I’ve not missed him at all
Click to expand...

POTY? Never

Overrated by many fans. A very useful squadplayer, but never good enough for a regular starting place for a team that challenges for the title.

With his salary demand letting him go was a no brainer. Would never be in the first 11 for a top CL club.

Is now a bench warmer for PSG. And rightly so.
 
I was upset because We didn't bring in any replacement at the time. Bruno joined a bit too late. But yeah now that We have Bruno, We don't need Herrera. For me it was always about the numbers. The squad was so thin.
 
I honestly think Fred and Scott are on another level altogether to Herrera. Herrera seemed lightweight for a box to box midfielder, was not mentally as tough as Fred and Scott, and was injury prone. I think Herrera stood out at one point because central midfield was so awful when you look back at Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Fellaini etc.

I was delighted to see Herrera go as I always felt he was an Everton level player.
 
At the time I was upset he was leaving because he was one of our best midfielders. Looking at it now though, Fred and McTominay are both better than him and Bruno and Pogba are on another level to either or those. If he was still here he’d be well down on the list and sometimes I’d even play Matic ahead of him when we needed a pure shield and height was an issue with the opposition.
Mir looked like the wrong time, but it was actually the right time for him to go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.