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Wait, if he can't play DM with Herrera and Fellaini in front of him, then he's not much use as a DM is he? Two players who have played DM themselves.....
Actually he is a DM. Herrera and post premier league fellaini are no DM's either.
No, he isn't a DM. He played there for Ajax, in a second rate league. But was shocking for us when he played there, in a possession based system that should have suited him. People say he wasn't protected enough, but who needs a DM that has to be over protected? He just can't do that job, in my subjective opinion, for a top level team. Whereas he excels at LB and CB. So why move him? Successive managers haven't played him there for a reason I suspect.
The thing is Blind playing at CB would have made him a much more competent defensive midfielder. He is now used to dealing with attacks of some of the best strikers in the world & playing just in front of them with his amazing ability to read the game could make it very hard for the opposition.
He really wasn't.
Mental masturbation at its finest.
and still able to get back right? thats how fecking awful darmian is, siting back everyone can stay defensively solid/not exposed and he is hardly solid.. and to imagine to have fit and confident Shaw who is also twice player Blind hismelf is, the left hand side would be working on a different level, like the one with Tonyo
Says the one who is adamant his view is the only one that is right. If anyone is touching themselves up it definitely is not me love =)
You could argue he is a DM (a player of the year DM in the Eredivisie), and no he wasn't shocking when he played there, the whole unit under LvG was pretty dysfunctional and Blind's performances were on the whole pretty decent amongst the chaos. You have a point about protection though (not over-protection), but then Carrick and other playmakers need some space to get their passes off as well, not like it's unique to him alone.
It is not about needing protected. It is about the whole midfield functioning as a team by pressing, covering, following runners etc. Dm alone can not do covering fb/cb/following runners then going back to cover the space that he might leave behind all alone. Even earlier this season, both ander and felliani got exposed so many times because the likes of pogba was not putting much work with it.
I don't know - one of the biggest problems I have had with Jose is his inability to try something different when difference is required.
Blind is dependable and will put in a good shift, but I think he's a level below what we should be aiming for - I certainly don't think he regularly puts in 8/10 performances, especially this season, he's been closer to 6/10 with a couple of really disappointing performances too.
Well, Darmian is playing with Valencia on the other side who is much more attack oriented. Mourinho does not like to have both FB in attacking third at the same time, and since Valencia is because of the pace and mentality more in that area, Darmian is usually staying behind. Against Palace, when has been subbed, Darmian was more offensive then Blind.
The majority of the caf write him off DM I find.
I think that you're exaggerating a bit. I think that, like Rojo, we have to give Blind a shot at his premier position. Neither of them have been used in their 'prime' positions since their first season with us. In his first season he did struggle with the pace but the way he took on that CB role in his second season showed alot of the qualities that Carrick currently provides from midfield. He's cool, he read the game brilliantly and snuffed out threats in a very unspectacular and simple fashion while also providing a threat with his vision and direct passing. He might not be the next Carrick but now's the time to find out.
Sometimes you need to endure with players when you see that they have the traits for a certain role even if they don't manage make it their own at first. Antonio Valencia would've never been the player he is today, if we hadn't moved him into that RB position, in fact there's a good chance that he'd not even be with us if he'd stayed a winger. Think back to how controversial that was and how long it took before people started to embrace the idea. Now we're talking about him as one of our key players. By enduring that rough first period we saved 30 million £ from buying Clyne who's no better, or we could have been stuck with Darmian as our first choice RB.
I'm not going to disagree with the point you make about Valencia. It's an excellent analogy. But, of course, everything is easier in hindsight. We've also seen these kinds of positional experiments not work out too. The extended Rooney trial in CM over multiple seasons, never took. If it had worked it might have saved us 90M on Pogba, but it didn't and we dropped a lot of points and lost a lot of ground in the process. So it's a difficult situation to judge.
Sums things up perfectly for me.
This whole desperate desire to "replace" Carrick like for like is nauseating. People have short memories. When Roy Keane's squad number and position was taken by Carrick fans were initially disgruntled that we had replaced a combative hard tackling defensive central midfielder with a deep lying playmaker who while defensively excellent, was more passive. Instead, we evolved as a team while still maintaining our levels of success. You can't replace great players with a like for like. We will evolve as a team with a different style of midfielder when Carrick is gone.
