[andersj]

It's what I expected. Good passer but terrible at shielding the ball under pressure.

Was he not one of the best players in the PL when passing under pressure while at Spurs? Looking at metrics like completion rate, line breaking passes under pressure etc?

I think Statsbomb had something on it. Anyone have it?

 

[croadyman]

It’s like a slightly worse Thiago

Guess that is kind of a back handed compliment

 

[NewGlory]

I'm not bitter mate just an admittedly overly Frank opinion

Fair enough. I can respect that, even when I disagree.

Cheers.

 

[NewGlory]

Where’s that poster that posted those stats of how utterly shit De Gea as at every facet of being a keeper apart from shot stopping. You’re going to be in for a nasty surprise. Davey boy is statistically amongst the worst in Europe for most aspects.

Always amazed by alleged football fans who are so obsessed with "statistics". This is not baseball, mate, statistics mean very little without context. And the #1 job of a goal keeper is to stop shots. Just like #1 job of a striker to score goals. So, the reality is De Gea and Ronaldo were the only two class players last year. Anything else is whatever.

You can have your opinion, and I have been mad at De Gea enough times, over the years, but the fact remains - he is head and shoulders above everybody else we have in this team right now, sans Cristiano. By ANY measure.

 

[simonhch]

It's what I expected. Good passer but terrible at shielding the ball under pressure.

Good grief. He’s very good facing the press, has the time and composure all really good players have. I honestly have no idea where you are extracting that opinion from. Most likely from somewhere betwixt your cheeks.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[GoldanoGraham]

Really hoping he is heavily involved sunday - we really need his creativity

 

[theyneverlearn]

Really hoping he is heavily involved sunday - we really need his creativity

Agreed, we’re going to look a lot better with him in the side. I think he’ll start Sunday and will cement his place in the first XI very quickly.

We’ve not had someone like him who just drifts around the pitch making it look effortless since Carrick. Pogba was meant to be that player but just didn’t happen consistently.

He’s going to be the buy of the season.

 

[Bwuk]

I can’t see why he wouldn’t start.

 

[WirralRed]

Agreed, we’re going to look a lot better with him in the side. I think he’ll start Sunday and will cement his place in the first XI very quickly.

We’ve not had someone like him who just drifts around the pitch making it look effortless since Carrick. Pogba was meant to be that player but just didn’t happen consistently.

He’s going to be the buy of the season.

I agree with this, we haven’t got many great passes of the ball in the team. With him on the ball the likes of Rashford and Ronaldo (if he stays) Will be picked out more, hard to see on the TV sometimes but when you’re at the game last season you could often see them making runs but none of our players pick them out from deep. A lot of this was down to our Midfielders not having the vision, confidence or ability to make the pass.

 

[Marwood]

I can’t see why he wouldn’t start.

He didn't look all that fit to me in pre season. Maybe even a bit thicker set than he once was.

But then another weeks hard training might have done the trick.

 

[SoCross]

Don’t think he’d start, still well short of match-fitness. Cameo off the bench though, will be useful in either scenario of us chasing a game or defending a lead.

 

[Olecurls99]

Don’t think he’d start, still well short of match-fitness. Cameo off the bench though, will be useful in either scenario of us chasing a game or defending a lead.

Ideally I'd agree with you but I just think we need him to start. Martial being out means we need an extra hand in the build up play.

 

[SoCross]

Ideally I'd agree with you but I just think we need him to start. Martial being out means we need an extra hand in the build up play.

Midfield three, Bruno on the wing?

 

[Olecurls99]

Midfield three, Bruno on the wing?

Could be but I heard they've been training with Ronaldo up top and Bruno Fred and Eriksen in midfield

 

[Godfather]

Could be but I heard they've been training with Ronaldo up top and Bruno Fred and Eriksen in midfield

Let's hope this will be the case

 

[Abraxas]

Was better/more involved deeper. Maybe this is his position now as he ages.

 

[MattofManchester]

Our best player. By a big margin.

 

[Ayoba]

Class

 

[Rockets Redglare]

He really shows how overrated Bruno is.

 

[quiet_united]

Misplaced a few passes. Didn’t create much either.

 

[Raw]

Best player for us today and he almost died last year.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

Definitely looked better as he dropped deeper. Thought he was poor in the first half further up.

 

[Yagami]

So overrated. Any time he was faced with a press he went backwards.

 

[thegregster]

Best player today by a mile.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Best player on the pitch for us by some margin. Class act.

 

[Lyng]

So overrated. Any time he was faced with a press he went backwards.

You have him confused with MCT here....

 

[Yagami]

You have him confused with MCT here....

Eriksen, Bruno, Fred, McTominay... it's all the same. All weak under pressure which is why Brighton played us off the park.

 

[Godfather]

Never in a million years a false nine. Just like Bruno. Buy a fecking striker

 

[RedIan]

Not brilliant but our stand out player today.. wasnt much comp mind.

 

[Judge Red]

Amidst utter dross he looked semi competent in his role. Semi competent = MOTM.

 

[NZT-One]

Definitely looked better as he dropped deeper. Thought he was poor in the first half further up.

He was better in 2nd half because the whole team tried to put more intensity on the pitch and Brighton backed off. Eriksen is a good footballer but he is too weak to play some sort of holding role. No idea, what ETHs plan was in 1st half when Eriksen and McTominay played so far away from Fred who suffered a lot from it.

 

[Idxomer]

He was terrible in the 1st half, and his passing was worse than Bruno's.

 

[JPRouve]

It's fair to mention that he was really bad during the first half and pretty good during the second. It's not as if it was an even performance.

 

[Someone]

Will do better with real midfielders. Should replace Bruno.

 

[#07]

So overrated. Any time he was faced with a press he went backwards.

I half agree with this.

Since Eriksen signed its like a fog has descended on the CAF and we must all agree everything he does is brilliant.

I didn't actually see much difference between him and Bruno today. Both pretty average compared to their top levels.

I don't think he was that bad when pressed and his choice of pass was mostly good. However, there was nothing particularly stunning about his performance.

 

[InspiRED]

Like half a team out there in the second half. Shocking how much better one Eriksen is that combo of McFred. One of the only players of true Utd quality and one of the few positives of this season that we have him in the team. Immense player.

 

[Telsim]

Our best player today. I'm not sure exactly what that means considering the overall performance, but his quality was evident by contrast. He should play from the deep however. Let's hope he can stay fit.

 

[Ekeke]

Definitely looked better as he dropped deeper. Thought he was poor in the first half further up.

Agree. Although I think part of that is playing in an advanced position waiting for Fred and McTom to give you the ball with a defender breathing down your neck. They arent the midfielders you can trust to do that.

Eriksen became the midfielder we could trust to feed the ball into some of our front players when he dropped back. In other words he needed someone doing what he did later in the game, to help him get on the ball when playing in the advanced position.

But yes I agree that he was closed down and struggled to wriggle free and make progress in advanced positions, much like Bruno often does

 

[Superunknown]

He is useful and will be useful for us. Liked his positioning in the second half. Think playing him further back is where we're going to get the best out of him compared to further forward.