Eriksen said United tried to sign him 3 times before he joined. LVG, Mourinho, Ole, and ETH wanted him. He is a good player and definitely wanted by us for a long time. I still don't think he's the exact profile we need there as a #8. Not one that should start in every game, anyway. If he's not starting, we don't have a replacement for his ball progression from deep.
How many times will we need to get thrashed to realise Eriksen is not a CM?
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Hasn't Eriksen been playing regularly in midfield 2 in the games we won?
Donny must have felt orgasmic when ETH walked through the door. Finally, someone who understands the guy and knows how to use him. Donny has been utter tripe since he joined and has shown not an ounce of improvement which is why he must be shown the door in the summer. Send him back to Ajax. He has enough credit in the bank over there and they would take him with open arms. £15-20m should do it. What a waste he’s been. Terrible terrible footballer. Offers zilch.
It's about balance not skill. He needs someone alongside him that will help off the ball. Swap VDB for Fred or McTominay today and he'd have been fine.
bodge until FDJ saga pt 2
He played next to DvB and the defence mostly caused the loss with personal mistakes. On top of that Ronaldo can't score.
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Eriksen is one of the best things that happened to us this season. He has made our midfield formidable, it is not his fault that DvB and Ronaldo are useless
Yeah, you can definitely see why ETH was targeting (along with the other midfield profiles he bought in) a player in that ilk. Eriksen Casemiro and Bruno have played some really nice football against some good sides, but that particular ability of being able to carry the ball in tight and congested areas isn't something they really excel in, or any of the other current United midfielders.
Eriksen was one of the better players today which doesn’t mean much but still. You will see how much worse we get when he is injured
So now we’re missing Pogba?
I’m glad he is gone.
So now we’re missing Pogba?
I’m glad he is gone.
He's lost form for the past few games but I wouldn't say it's anything more than that. We haven't been run through at all. Teams haven't been destroying us other than City, because well it's City (and the first 2 games where it was a different team).
Eriksen is key to our deep build up, but he's just been off form IMO. Mishitting passes, getting the weight off etc. It's not his defensive work, it's his on the ball work which has let us down the past few games. And that's just form.
As a team, defensively and off the ball, we have been perfectly fine with Eriksen in there, whether it was against big teams or small teams. We conceded for the first time in 7 games from open play, were 9 unbeaten, and have been excellent defensively from an xG perspective (today as well).
Eriksen is key to our deep build up, but he's just been off form IMO. Mishitting passes, getting the weight off etc. It's not his defensive work, it's his on the ball work which has let us down the past few games. And that's just form.
As a team, defensively and off the ball, we have been perfectly fine with Eriksen in there, whether it was against big teams or small teams. We conceded for the first time in 7 games from open play, were 9 unbeaten, and have been excellent defensively from an xG perspective (today as well).
Pogba has at best 10 good games a season during his time for us. Can’t believe anyone is dumb enough to still think we miss someone like him.
Jesus the Pogba Defence Force are doing some clutching at straws in this thread. Very good, very good
With all due respect mate that Spurs season ticket holder must have his eyes painted on.
The Erickson of 13/18 was easily good enough to play for United and I remember clearly when Chelsea bought Hazard and we brought in Kagawa and Spurs got Erickson for about 10mil we were the worse off.
I've always been supportive in putting a playmaker in a double pivot and I think Eriksen is doing a great job passing the ball between the lines. That said, his defensive contribution is worse than Pogba and I'm surprised the lack of criticism he's getting. Look at the first goal conceded yesterday, he allowed so much space for Ramsey to collect and pass the ball and he was marking no one. We need to solve this or the "we need another DM" notion will never end.
Nope. Modric was a LW/CAM and Kroos was also a CAM. Both converted.
Vdb makes him easier to cut through
Since the comparison is coming up a lot, per 90 stats over the last 5 seasons, I've highlighted the ones where the difference seems important:
Pogba has more accurate passing driven by much better long passing, better defensive stats, much better dribbling stats, but gets dispossessed a lot more. He has more goal creating actions, though Eriksen is more productive (don't ask me how that works).
The defensive numbers could be explained by position - Eriksen as the 10, Pogba as the CM/DM. But the same trend (even more pronounced) is seen this season, where Eriksen has played deeper.
So I guess a hypothetical fit Pogba would be have been a better defender, a better passer and much better dribbler, but more of a liability in possession and general misfit because of how much he likes to dribble and hold the ball. Pretty much matches what an eye test and their reputations would suggest.
| Pogba (usually a CM) | Eriksen (usually an AM) | Eriksen this season (as CM) | |
| Passes attempted/Pass % | 67/82.5 | 66/77 | 62/78 |
| Pass% short/medium/long | 90/85/71 | 88/80/54 | 88/82/49 |
| Tackles attempted/successful | 1.4/1 | 1.25/0.77 | 0.66/0.57 |
| Interceptions/Clearances | 0.9/1.2 | 0.7/0.7 | 0.3/1 |
| Dribbles attempted/success/% | 3.3/2.3/70% | 1.1/0.7/54% | 0.6/0.2/33% |
| Total touches/Dispossessed | 79/2.2 | 75/1.3 | 68/1 |
| Fouls/Fouled | 2.2/2 | 0.5/0.5 | 0.4/0.2 |
| SCA/GCA | 4.31/0.61 | 4.55/0.43 | 3.2/0.4 |
| G+A (no penalties) | 0.45 | 0.57 | 0.28 |
Pogba has more accurate passing driven by much better long passing, better defensive stats, much better dribbling stats, but gets dispossessed a lot more. He has more goal creating actions, though Eriksen is more productive (don't ask me how that works).
The defensive numbers could be explained by position - Eriksen as the 10, Pogba as the CM/DM. But the same trend (even more pronounced) is seen this season, where Eriksen has played deeper.
So I guess a hypothetical fit Pogba would be have been a better defender, a better passer and much better dribbler, but more of a liability in possession and general misfit because of how much he likes to dribble and hold the ball. Pretty much matches what an eye test and their reputations would suggest.
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Clear and obvious, but many still refuse to apply the same standard on Eriksen.
There were like 4 goals we conceded against City directly related to our CMs not tracking late runs. Eriksen kinda really really sucks at defending this kind of action and I generally don't blame him, he wasn't defending this in his prime, how can we expect it now. Against teams that employ late runs from deeper players and like to create numbers advantage he can't be out there without 2 CMs or DMs. I'm talking DMs better than Mcfred because they too don't track jack away from the ball.
Eriksen should not be playing with DVB who was invisible. The problem is that Fred could be brilliant or horrible. He is so unreliable. What Eriksen does is bring the quality like the cross he put in at West Ham.
Eriksen is a brilliant attacking player to be played in a more forward position, 8 or 10. He has been out powered by DeBruyne and lesser mortals when asked to be our midfield engine. He lacks pace and physical strenght when required to play as central midfielder. In an ideal world Casemiro at 6 and Erikson at 8 and someone like DeJong or Bellingham as box to box or physical presence in the middle. McTominay is a good athlete but has limitations in technique and passing. Money is likely to be limited in the immediate future with multiple positions demanding attention. Going to have to find a better midfield solution with the resources currently available.
Aston villa didn't outplay us by any means. They scored on the counter. Rashford giving little cover at right back....Eriksen bypassed easily and Lindeleof too weak.
Another match where he's completely torched by a half decent midfield.
Thrashed? So called pundits still talk about him as a massive revelation in CM!
What are you on about? He had a non existent partner in McTominay and we still only lost to a last minute goal.
Ignore him
Half a decent ? Tough crowd
You would think we have someone like Keane or Scholes sitting on the bench and Eriksen taking their place. Eriksen has his flaws but what other choices do we really have?
We lack quality in CM. A decent DOF would have sorted that by now by finding buyers for McFred
He is doing alright overall as long as he has Casemiro
If you look at the way Arsenal set up, they have a holding midfielder in Partey, a box to box aggressive player in Xhaka and a playmaker in Odegaard.
Against teams that drop deep, you can probably get away with two playmakers (as we have done most of the season). However, in games such as today, you need a box to box midfielder with energy.
We're not exactly spoiled for choice, but I believe Fred would have been the better option today.
Against teams that drop deep, you can probably get away with two playmakers (as we have done most of the season). However, in games such as today, you need a box to box midfielder with energy.
We're not exactly spoiled for choice, but I believe Fred would have been the better option today.
I don't think ETH wanted to go with McFred. Had Casemiro been fit I think Fred would have played and we matched the lineup against City
My question is why, though?
I know the agenda has been set with the 'McFred' combination but the two did well in games where we had less off the ball and set up to counter.
The issue was their lack of creativity to unlock low defensive blocks.
Because ETH doesn't want his sides to submit possession and just play on the counter
Well, that and their complete lack of press resistance. They tend to crumble and give away the ball a lot when pressed which would have been an issue against this Arsenal side.
We need an Eriksen upgrade and a Casemiro backup, at least.
Did he not do that against City, though?
I think ETH had a strategy in place in Casemiro's absence and it seemed to be effective for much of the game. We were never going to control the game in his absence, nor where we going to out possess them. Eriksen would've probably not played had Casemiro been available because the latter has equally/better passing ability thereby rendering the former somewhat redundant and ETH would've probably gone with Fred. This is where a player like Tielemans would've been a handy option to have.
Maybe Barcelona will be the turning point for everyone