Anderson - is he the 'real deal'? | Retires age 31

[Womp]

How good was Fergie. Unbelivable how much we won with mediocre players like Anderson, Cleverly, Nani etc. I miss him so much.

Extremely harsh to put Nani in the same category as those two. When he was consistently played down the right he was one of the best players in the league and arguably our most dangerous player.

He was just extremely inconsistent down the left.

To compare, Cleverley was never extremely gifted and Anderson, despite all his talents was extremely unprofessional.

 

[freeurmind]

Anderson for the first three years was absolute class. So much energy and so good at moving the ball quickly and he was so quick, seemed to cover the whole field.

 

[christinaa]

He won 4 PL Titles and that's 4 more than Slippy Gerrard.

 

[Yagami]

During lockdown, when there was no footy, I watched a few of our old games and he was a pleasure to watch.

Even during the 12/13 season he was very good the rare times he played. Had he managed to stay fit that year, we would've been even better as unlike Carrick's usual partners that year (Cleverley and Jones), he actually took it upon himself to try things instead of leaving everything to Carrick.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

No doubt he's highly talented. He's the "real deal" if we consider pure abilities. He can easily become our key B2B midfielders, balance to Carrick's more holding midfield and regista roles.Wish he would be more dedicated to football. Him and Nani. Even SAF couldn't pull that "magic" <- it's self-motivated but he managed and "push" them just enough.

 

[Gehrman]

I can't imagine him writing this. Never.

Didn't he tried to score at a danceclub by saying "feck feck feck?".

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

I can't imagine him writing this. Never.

Oh yeah that was definitely written by a lawyer.

Spoiler: Actual statement from Anderson

feck feck feck

 

[Champagne Football]

A Louis Van Gall type of flop signing. But a likeable player who paid off his transfer fee with a crucial penalty kick in a CL final

 

[montpelier]

Fantastic for a couple of seasons and always got in the team during them when he was fit (haha).

So sure, the critical analysis is valid. But totally idiotic if it totally dismisses how he contributed positively.

He won a few medals I believe, and deserved to do so.

 

[Offside]

He was decent enough despite the obviously wasted talent.

07/08 he did pretty well. 08/09 was sort of shite and so was 09/10. Second half of 10/11 he had come good games and the first few games of 11/12 he was a dream. 12/13 he was good when he played too. There’s been worse players through the door. Cult hero.

 

[fps]

“Riquelme with pace”. The early pages of this thread are gold.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Anyone watched that soccer box thing where Neville interviews players? Pretty interesting on with Stevie G where he goes on to mention Ando and how strong he was. Gary said Fergie always put him up against Stevie when they met and honestly more often than not Ando got the best of him.

I’ll always remember that brief period where Carrick was injured and we started the season with Ando and Cleverley and they were awesome. Kinda poor holding midfield but when they went forward it was awesome. Quickly Ando got injured and it never happened again.

Should add the first time I saw him was for Porto against us in some Ajax tournament and he took a shot from a ridiculous distance. 40 yards or something and he’d beaten VDS but it rattled off the crossbar or post.

 

[Lay]

I thought his performances were harshly rated. Even against (bad memory here) MK dons. He came on and looked lively and actually made passes that didn’t result in his standing still like the others. But he was roundly criticised and I think that was his last game for us.

I’ll always fondly remember Anderson even if his time here was underwhelming. Plus everyone who scored in the final shootout will always be great to me

 

[Crackers]

I should dislike him for the waste of space that he was (at times), but I just can't. He was very disappointing, very unlucky and unfortunate, but I still love him.
He had a serious problem keeping his weight down, and never seemed to be consistently fit, but he was so fun to watch.

 

[Beans]

Those were crazy crazy times, I remember there was a time when people believed Nani would be better than Cristiano for United based on some stats where it was stated that Nani has more goals+assists number in his first 100 games for United compared to Cristaino.

I loved those times under SAF, when the club and fans had believe, now we are ao skeptical, even if we have Messi-CR-Lewa as front three, midfield of Verrati-Kante-DeBruyne and back of Liverpool, in our team, coached by Pep, we would still be cynical haha.

I didn't really appreciate the incredible power they had to always come back, and if they didn't it meant the keeper make 7 great saves or we hit the post twice and had 5 shots in the last 10 minutes. Fergie time wasn't just extra time, it was the last 15-20 minutes of every game.

We ran teams ragged, fitness around the league is amazing these days, the number of sprints is mind blowing, I'm not sure such a gap in fitness could be created today. But obviously the mentality was even more important. Giggs and Scholes never lost, they just ran out of time.

 

[Luke1995]

I remember early comparisons between Anderson & Fabregas. Some favored our man over Cesc back then!. Anyway he was a good character to have, his driving runs were great to watch and i remember the spunk he had. He was part of one of the greatest United sides ever and can proudly take that to the grave.

His driving runs, like you mentioned, were so explosive! If he had taken better care of his body as an athlete, he could've been part of our team for years to come... I know some people are still disappointed with him and remember more the negative moments, but i'd rather remember the good times (these first two or three seasons)

 

[Cutch]

“Riquelme with pace”. The early pages of this thread are gold.

Haha feck me what a ridiculous comparison

 

[Ali Dia]

He was decent enough despite the obviously wasted talent.

07/08 he did pretty well. 08/09 was sort of shite and so was 09/10. Second half of 10/11 he had come good games and the first few games of 11/12 he was a dream. 12/13 he was good when he played too. There’s been worse players through the door. Cult hero.

He was a lot of fun to watch. It was obvious there was a cracking player in there but he Just couldn’t stay fit for love nor money. It wasn’t a coincidence that when he played more than 3/4 games in row he started playing really well. That’s why he kept getting deals here. Everyone going on like he was hired because he was funny. It was because it would have been horrible for the club to see him fulfil his undoubted potential at another club on the cheap. He was unprofessional but I think in the back of his mind he knew he was getting way too many injuries for him to ever really hit the heights and the effort fluctuated. The football world was raving about him in 2006/7. He’d won the golden boy and the u17s World Cup golden boot in the mid 2000s. Fergie’s brother scouted him for a few weeks at Porto after he came back from his leg break and famously came back and reported “he’s better than Rooney, Alex” he genuinely had scary potential. The Brazil national team manager said we’d more than likely signed the next world midfield star, a player with massive potential. I think that was also a factor he was so good he probably thought he didn’t have to do the hard stuff in training or rehab but as time goes on if you don’t have a solid foundation you have nothing really.

 

[POF]

I’ll always remember that brief period where Carrick was injured and we started the season with Ando and Cleverley and they were awesome. Kinda poor holding midfield but when they went forward it was awesome. Quickly Ando got injured and it never happened again.

Carrick wasn't injured. He was dropped. He was taken off at HT in the Community Shield vs City and United turned it around with Anderson and Cleverley in midfield. They then started the season superbly well.

That was the season Jones and Smalling joined and it was a really exciting team. United historically had most of their attacking penetration from the wings but Ando/Cleverley added a new dimension with a threat breaking from midfield through the middle. The start of that season United were hammering teams and ran up some huge scores playing some great football.

I think Cleverley getting injured by a Kevin Davies lunge at Bolton broke it up initially and then Anderson was injured soon after.

Vidic missed a lot of games that season even before he did his knee in Basel. His absence made it harder to go back to the Anderson/Cleverley combination because they needed more midfield protection when Vidic wasn't there. The 6-1 vs City showed what a shambles they were without him.

It reminded me of Veron struggling to settle at United the season Stam left. When you have a shaky defence, it necessitates more defensive balance in midfield and doesn't allow creative players to operate centrally.

Back on topic. I loved Ando. Great talent who had injury issues at really key points of his United career. He looked an outstanding talent at the time of his first knee injury. He never really got a consistent run of games after.

 

[tenpoless]

Didn't he tried to score at a danceclub by saying "feck feck feck?".

Oh yeah that was definitely written by a lawyer.

Spoiler: Actual statement from Anderson

feck feck feck

Exactly what I thought when I read "his" statement

 

[TsuWave]

came across this video this morning and wanted to share since it made me smile. He was such a likeable guy - and this was a big performance

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[Borninthe80ts]

So was it more injuries or a lack of work that did him in? That Arsenal performance will always be one of my favourites. I really thought he could be great for us…

 

[BootsyCollins]

He was, and still is, one of my absolute favorite United players. Cant explain the love, but its there.

 

[Born2Lose]

Talented and likeable player, but a great example of why talent without discipline and hard work isn't enough. Thankfully under EtH we seem to be signing players with the right attitude and not just ability or potential.

 

[RedNome]

Still have a Brazil shirt I bought with his name and number on the back for some bizarre reason

 

[rimaldo]

i guess we’ll never know.

 

[Gopher Brown]

A weird signing and not the type we often made back then - bought as a quick and skilful winger/Number 10, we made him into a plodding, fairly effective box to box midfielder.

 

[bringbackbebe]

I remember he was recovering from a serious injury around the time he first joined us which probably wrecked him a bit. Extremely frustrating player who threw away his potential but I'll always view him in a positive light. He was basically Fred before Fred.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Had the same thing Rooney had in being dramatically faster than their body type should allow. Absolutely rapid when he went on one of his bursts from midfield.

 

[siw2007]

Had all the tools to make it as a top player, but lack of discipline/professionalism off the pitch prevented him from reaching those heights. Also picked up too many injuries, probably linked.

But he did play his part in what was a fantastic Manchester United team. Very memorable performance against Arsenal in the FA cup.

 

[Borninthe80ts]

It’s a combo of all the above for me. He was like Ronaldinho in that he seemed to really enjoy football and that transfers to fans and players. He had no fear when taking players on and I can see why we played him as a 8. He carried the ball from deep and then could pick a pass too.
And yeah like Rooney when their body shape changed it had a dramatic effect.

 

[11101]

He was brilliant on the rare occasion he was fit. Could have been such a top player for us had he had the right mentality.

 

[BerryBerryShrew]

Had the same thing Rooney had in being dramatically faster than their body type should allow. Absolutely rapid when he went on one of his bursts from midfield.

He had no fear when taking players on and I can see why we played him as a 8. He carried the ball from deep and then could pick a pass too.

You might say that he liked to.....

ATTACK THE SPACE!

 

[Hit It]

Ferguson mellowed at end, no way he would have tolerated Andersons unprofessionl antics in his early days managing United. Did have injuries i guess and you could see glimpses of his ability but nothing really more than a Quinton Fortune type player.The teams comedian to keep the morale up of the squad. Should have gone for Modric.

 

[ArbeitervonWien]

Loved him back then, one of my most favorite players. Made you enjoy watching football.

Also Raul playing for Schalke, totally forget about that

 

[stevoc]

Imagine Anderson with his technical ability + Fred's work ethic but - his love of Hamburgers.

What a player he could have been.

 

[El Zoido]

He was, and still is, one of my absolute favorite United players. Cant explain the love, but its there.

Same. I have Anderson 8 on my 07/08 season home shirt. And I’ve still got it and sometimes wear it to games.

 

[Shakesy]

At the moment I'd say I'd be wanting a hell of a lot more from a player costing £17 million

 

[Woodzy]

No age to retire tbh. The guy didn't have the work ethic or mentality for a long career at top level unfortunately. Lots of talent though, and occasionally shat on Fabregas.

 

[Ish]

You might say that he liked to.....

ATTACK THE SPACE!

Boss ffs