I think right now LvG just wants a bit more of an attacking threat on the overlap from his RB since Mata hardly ever pulls wide in an attack. Darmian started off very well defensively for us but has yet to show much in the final 3rd even in his best games, Young offers a bit more in that regard.
36
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Clean sheets
- 20
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 10
- Status
Man Utd 0:0 PSV
How can he be this bad with ball at his feet? How is it possible that he played/plays wingback regulary in/for Italy?
His passing is really bad, first he needs time to spot a player, then he looks where the ball is and then his pass is late for about 3 seconds because opponents obviously aren't that slow to intercept it. When he is not doing that he is passing it randomly forward and if he is lucky someone from our players will be there.
I was seriously impressed with him at start of the season and I thought this guy is a great buy and is already great player, mostly because of his defensive game and that that will be good enough to compensate for his average attacking game but I think it's obvious he is nowhere near good enough attacking wise and that he simply doesn't have quality in his legs to improve there. I am quite sure he can't be a starter in future for us if we don't have strong winger ahead of him or if our left back isn't great in attack.
His passing is really bad, first he needs time to spot a player, then he looks where the ball is and then his pass is late for about 3 seconds because opponents obviously aren't that slow to intercept it. When he is not doing that he is passing it randomly forward and if he is lucky someone from our players will be there.
I was seriously impressed with him at start of the season and I thought this guy is a great buy and is already great player, mostly because of his defensive game and that that will be good enough to compensate for his average attacking game but I think it's obvious he is nowhere near good enough attacking wise and that he simply doesn't have quality in his legs to improve there. I am quite sure he can't be a starter in future for us if we don't have strong winger ahead of him or if our left back isn't great in attack.
He looks like a central defender playing as full back good when defending but offers very little going forward.
He looks very, very average lately, and I think I'm being generous. Not writing him off yet but a disappointing turn after a promising start. Even his defending is looking suspect currently.
Adds nothing to the attack.
This is a pretty accurate summation.
Doesn't look like a full back. He plays like a DM played at right back.
I'm happy to give him some time, he's coming from a very different league.
I thought he was decent. Certainly an improvement over his recent performances.
You guys are overreacting. The guy looked quite good in the first half making some overlapping runs and kept tidy with the ball.
I noticed that our fullbacks too often have no one to pass to. The midfielders and wingers are always too far away. Dont want to make excuses for him, he was poor as the others, but too often they are isolated and cant contribute much
He looks like a CB playing full-back offensively, and is physically bullied defensively. Worrying signs, even if yesterday wasn't one of his worst performances.
He was good yesterday. Weird to say he offered little in attack when Lingard didn't touch the ball until he scoffed a chance in the 75th minuted of the 2nd half. There was just nothing happening in offense so of course the full back isn't going to be the one to make stuff happen. All in all I thought the full backs did well yesterday. Rojo was dangerous every time he got into a crossing position. He either put in a good cross or got a corner. That being said I would like to add that our corners looked good yesterday. Many people have been frustrated with them this season. The reason we've been taking them short is because they've been getting the ball out to Blind (who took our corners for the most part yesterday). Blind is the best crosser in the team hands down. I've been saying it all season, he's actually a top class crosser.
I'm still waiting for any evidence at all as to what it is he's supposed to be good at.
He's average defensively and on the ball he makes Smalling look like Paul Scholes.
He doesn't look like someone playing out of position to me. He just looks like someone who's not good enough at football. Although he did look ok at left back in the one game he played there.
He's average defensively and on the ball he makes Smalling look like Paul Scholes.
He doesn't look like someone playing out of position to me. He just looks like someone who's not good enough at football. Although he did look ok at left back in the one game he played there.
He was okay yesterday, but that's probably coming from the fact that there were several players on the pitch who were a lot more terrible than him. Not too bad, but didn't offer all that much either.
I thought he was a bit naff to be honest.
Whilst he does make a few overlapping runs (though not enough for my liking), he never seems to be that annoyed when the ball doesn't come his way. I also can't help shake the feeling that he's a massive wuss.
Whilst he does make a few overlapping runs (though not enough for my liking), he never seems to be that annoyed when the ball doesn't come his way. I also can't help shake the feeling that he's a massive wuss.
It's true though. If one of the main problems is an inability to pass the ball to someone else on your team in simple situations, then moving to defensive midfield or centreback is probably not going to resolve this, and definitely isn't going to make it unimportant to your performance.
He just seems to have no composure at all. Any hint of pressure and he just kicks the ball in a direction and hopes for the best. It's Manchester United not schoolboy Sunday league.
It's too early to write him off but extremely drastic improvement is needed.
It's often the ones who live in the Premier League bubble and haven't seen these players at previous clubs who come with misguided 'not good enough' comments. Happened with Blind last season, when he was being written off even before we signed him without taking his performances for Ajax and Holland into consideration. Is happening now with Darmian who was wonderful at Torino before he signed for United. Matteo will be fine in the medium to long run, Van Gaal's 'system' or method or whatever you wanna call it - is notoriously harsh on newer players and there's a substantial growth learning before they start clicking. Right now he is worrying about positioning and ball movement (two keys for Louis' fullbacks), and that can be mentally taxing as players go against their natural instinct, and what they've learnt under previous managers - hence the circumspect playing style (as players play within themselves instead of doing things organically) and positional errors; but soon enough he'll get a hang of the whole thing, and start playing with automatism. This is how new players have historically performed under Van Gaal, and Darmian is not an exception to the norm.
Feels like Blind's first season seems to be seen quite negatively in hindsight, but I actually thought he was decent. Far from inspiring in midfield, but a comfortable, reliable passer when that was what he needed. Also someone who managed to put in some good performances at left-back when we needed him to.
Anyway, as for Darmian, I've still got plenty of hope that you're right on this one because he looked terrific in some of our pre-season games. Dangerous going forward, and comfortable in defence. He's not shown that at all recently though, which is obviously a concern. The problem is so far that like noodlehair said, he's just not been looking like a particularly good footballer. Again though, I'm hoping that's just a temporary thing, and that he'll come good for us.
He started off well till Southampton game. Well is an understatement. He annihilated most of the opponents he faced. He was especially good in the 1v1 situations.
After that he has been injured or has been benched. It's been 2 months. He isn't playing amazingly well of course and nobody would be saying it is. But to make statements like he isn't good at football or that he is not good enough at this level is highly knee jerk. He was also the Italian player of the year ahead of many other talented players. He is clearly a very talented player who is going through an off form period
He's actually got pace. Not sure why he doesn't run beyond his winger much.
I thought he was just ok and people seemed to get ridiculously carried away. I don't think there's been a game where he's looked really good. He's suspect in 1v1 situations. He gets caught square footed a lot and ends up having to try and foul the opponent when he shouldn't have needed to...and then sometimes buggers that up as well.
The thing that makes me reluctant to write him off is that he's not as bad as Evra was in his first 6 months...but Evra DID improve drastically. Darmian will need to do so.
Yep, Blind was silently impressive last season. Sometimes I think modern fans like us are guilty of losing any form of perspective when it comes to new additions. Many of them are coming from small clubs, from less physically intensive leagues, they can't speak the language and have lived rather sheltered lives. To go from there to a club like United can be daunting - and they do need a bit of an adjustment period. But no one cares on the back of a few bad performances.
As for Darmian not looking good as a footballer, that happens quite frequently with Van Gaal's players in fairness. His instructions are very demanding, and the players have to forsake the comfort of their natural game. Every footballer thrives when he's playing with full confidence, but right now - for players like Darmian - every time he doesn't do what the manager wants, he will be pulled aside, and that is likely always in the back of his mind. Hence the mistakes, lapses in judgement and errors in concentration. Once he 'gets it', and he eventually will - Italians are very thorough with tactics, he will get back to being the player he was at Torino. We'll just have to wait until his natural rhythm catches up to the instructions.
You may have a point with the Van Gaal stuff but the first part of your post is presumptious nonsense to be fair.
No one wrote Blind off before he'd played for us, and in anycase I'm still not sure on him now...he's currently used as a makeshift centreback who massively struggles whenever he has to do any defending, because he hasn't proven reliable enough to be in the starting line up anywhere else. He hasn't been awful but you would struggle to explain how he fits in to a United team that's actually as good as it wants to be.
Are we sure about that though?
This is just from the first page, would have to trawl through 64 more to find the real gems.
It's not presumptuous because we've seen it happen time and again on here with players we're linked with, or ones who are signed from lesser leagues. and if they do sign for United - every time they commit an error we see heaps of comments declaring that they just aren't good enough for a club of United's stature. The underlying point is that we need to atleast give these players a chance to prove themselves for before writing them off, or being overly critical of them (not aimed at you mind - he does admittedly look a bit shite right now, but there's one poster who has a clear agenda against the lad).
I agree with you on Blind being marginal so far too by the way. He is a good utility player, who's being thrust into the starting job given the lack of alternatives. Those that saw him at Ajax knew that he was a step below what we needed in terms of starters, but he would be a good squad player, the kind of jack of all trades almost every team needs - his ideal position is on the bench as a relief for worn out starters, or an emergency stop gap. Now he's being thrust into regular duty with a heavy workload, and sometimes we see cracks in his game. And for that, the manager is culpable for blame, moreso than the player himself.
He's fine. Really ought to utilise his stamina and respectable pace a little more - rarely bombs up and down the flank. I'm sure that's down to confidence.
As for your "Premier League bubble" logic, it may as well go the other way; there´s a long line of players United has signed from sides as good or better than Torino who haven´t made in the Premier league. I see you conveniently don´t mention them. And don´t compare Darmian to Blind. Anyone who wrote Blind off from last year is a football genius clown, which sounds like you would agree with.
I also don´t get, just because Blind came good, it means Darmian will. It doesn´t. You use Blind as an argument, but then again you can use as a counter argument any player who started off well and turned to crap. There are thousands of examples. You might as well use one of them, it would be just as valid as using the Blind example.
I just don´t see how Darmian is suddenly going to change. He´s never going to take defenders on, and beat them. It´s not going to magically happen. His understanding with the wingers seems to be getting worse. He looks slow, lost and lethargic going forward and our wingers seem to ignore him. Even Valencia, with only one foot, is far more technically astute, and a much better passer and makes great runs (albeit with a less than satisfying final product). The same can be said for Young. In these days of United´s poor offensive form, Darmian seems much more symbolic of it than any kind of solution to it. It´s mad to bitch about our offense, and then turn around and want Darmian to be at right back.
He´s not suddenly going to be graced with pace to keep up with these quick PL wingers who continually skin him. Besides his good one on one play, where is there anything else laudable, or the potential for this guy to get better? This is not Torino. This is not Serie A, nor international play. Some pointed out he was "good" and "decent" last Wednesday, but this of course was against a toothless PSV playing at Old Trafford. This is when Darmian seems to "shine" as decent. But back in Holland, with a more lively PSV, they killed him, and he was at fault for both goals. Opposing managers haven obviously taken notice. Rainieri has probably creampt in his drawers thinking about putting Jamie Vardy up against this guy. I can´t imagine LVG would let this happen to this supposed "natural fullback and great defender."
I also hate the fact that when he plays and we are chasing the match, LVG must always substitute him. Why are we having to waste a substitution on a right back when we´re needing a goal? This guy was gifted the right back position. It was his for the taking with all the wanky bandwagon support he could ever want, and by mid season he has fallen back to second choice behind Ashley Young. Ashley Young!!! I said before, with a healthy Valencia (not to mention Shaw), Darmian would not even be on the subs bench. What would be the point?
I don´t dislike the guy personally, and would certainly never call him stupid or a coward or question is footballing brain, but this guy is not good enough for the PL (well, maybe for Stoke), and the bandwagon created for such a bang average fullback has been a joke, and one that seems difficult to disappear. People keep wanting to compare him with Evra´s poor start, but Evra was never even near this poor, and the potential was obvious as he took an excellent Gabby Heinze´s place
Why shouldn't Darmian be compared to Blind? Both of them were labelled players who would struggle with the physicality and pace of the Premier League at the fullback spot. Blind was named to the Eredivisie Team of the the Year, and Darmian to the Serie A team of the Year. Blind was Dutch Footballer of the Year, and Darmian won the Pallone Azzurro for the Best Italian national team player in 2014. The real clown here is the agenda poster who keeps creeping into the threads to have a go at Darmian when he's barely played 10 games in the league for United, and needs to settle down a bit.
Who said Darmian will improve just because Blind did? Blind was merely an example to show how players are written off in a hurry before being given a fair shot. No need to take it on a tangent.
Except he took defenders on with frequency at Torino, and takes defender on quite regularly for the Italian national team? There's clearly something wrong at United that a player who's perfectly capable of bombing forward for Italy from the wingback position seems circumspect at United. Maybe those are positional instructions, maybe he's taking time to adjust to Van Gaal's requirements - how can you state with great gumption that a player who was comfortable going forward for his previous club, and is currently capable of going forward for Italy can never go forward for United, and that's not going to change? It's a bizarre form of argumentation.
Has the thought ever crossed your mind that he looks suddenly slow and lethargic because he's bogged down by technicalities, or is still adjusting to the physical demands of the league like a lot of imports need to? Like how Ander seems less adventurous; or how Schweinsteiger played it safe under Van Gaal at Bayern but found his groove under Heyneckes, and has now again started playing safe passes at United. Valencia and Young aren't even in Darmian's class provided he settles in. This is a player who was being chased by the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and neither club would entertain the notion of the players you hold superior to Darmian.
Utter crap. Azpilicueta and Zabaleta are no faster than Darmian, and they're among the best fullbacks in the league, and have been for a while now. Arguably the greatest rightback in Premier League history - Gary Neville was no faster than Darmian. Football isn't just about raw speed, or we'd just have 100m athletes playing for every team. It's also about positioning, tracking the runners and working as a unit to contain the pace. He has barely stepped into the United setup, he hasn't had the time to build chemistry with the team-mates, he's processing what the manager wants from him - that's a lot to adjust to, and it takes time. You dismiss Serie A because you didn't watch him play there, that much is pretty evident, otherwise you wouldn't be spouting the same kind of rubbish over and over again, on almost every single page.
Guess what, everything that Van Gaal does in terms of substitutions doesn't make sense, no matter how much you hate it. He leaves Rooney on to play as a withdrawn midfielder, he brings on Mata with 7 minutes left, he subs out Ander without a second thought - it's a mess. This guy was gifted the right back position because he was rated as one of the best rightbacks in Europe, and created more chances per minute than your darling Valencia, Clyne and Coleman; as well as being defensively secure. That's the reason United went for him in the first place, and that's the reason we handed the spot to him. Your hard-on for Valencia is just hilarious.
Alrighty then.
I like how preferring one player in a team mostly means that you hate other player who is his direct competition(see Nobby).
Really? I think a few silly rumours are way too often translated to being actively chased by all top clubs and then someone concludes that he has to be quality. Pretty much every player who signs for a top club these days has been rumoured to be chased by every other top club. I rate your posts highly and value your opinion on the player (even though I disagree in Darmian's case). I just think that this line of reasoning simply doesn't work. Of course it doesn't negate everything else you wrote in your post, just pointing this one out.
For what it's worth, I never understood the hype about Darmian. I thought he looked decent at best whenever I've seen him for Italy or in Serie A games. And I didn't understand the early hype on the Caf after the first few games either. But that's just my opinion and it's certainly not based on a big enough samplesize to make a good judgement. Just my impression that I got so far.
You have this weird tendency to be negative to extreme. He's been absolutely fine in a lot of games and was very good back in Italy.
Dunno, I was just going by La Stampa and Gazzetta Italia's reports:
http://www.gazzetta.it/Calciomercat...-darmian-torino-vira-donati-12089654091.shtml
http://www.football-italia.net/68515/bayern-battle-napoli-darmian
And links on a couple of Bayern boards:
http://www.bayernforum.com/transfers-f1/matteo-darmian-t12697.html
http://www.bayernzone.com/transfers/4308-matteo-darmian-5.html
And the Juventus forum where some posters were losing their shit because they weren't going to sign him
:http://www.juventuz.com/threads/41208-Matteo-Darmian-RB-LB-Torino-F-C/page7
As for rating Darmian, that's fair enough, it differs from person to person. I've admittedly liked him quite a lot since his Torino days, thought he could be Azpiliueta part II at United, a defesively sound fullback who was decent to good going forward - the likes of which are becoming a rarity these days. Maybe it doesn't turn out too well for him, who knows, but still, the sample size at United is a bit small to judge him harshly like the poster quoted does.
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I know that there were rumours and it was discussed but nothing was ever confirmed from players, agents, managers as far as I know and the newspapers close to Bayern never published anything based on their own sources. Donati is also still in Leverkusen, even though Darmian left 
.
.Obviously true.
Oh please, stop with this lazy argument. Address the valid criticisms of why this guy has fallen so far down in the pecking order and why LVG has so little confidence in him, meanwhile you bitch and whine about the lack of a dynamic attack.
And I seriously doubt Bayern or Juventus or anybody else is still interested at the moment. Probably the contrary.
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And the irony with that is the vast majority would (and maybe still do) have Azpi in their TOTY's each season in those threads but will come in and bitch about Darmian having the same downfalls. Grass really is always greener, I suppose.
Well, I actually criticised him a lot this season, but you are one of his biggest critics, and it's quite obvious why.
One thing this summer has taught me is to ignore the so called caf experts who pop up whenever we sign a player. You could have been forgiven for thinking he was going to be Gary Neville reborn when in fact he's only been marginally better (if that) than Valencia which is rather disturbing given horrible Valencia is. I'm beginning to think Clyne might have been a better option, as spectacularly average as he is.
See I am not a huge fan of Azpilicueta because he is bang average on the ball. He normally gets away with it because Chelsea had Hazard ahead of him who could do most of it alone last season. Azpilicueta sticks out like a sore thumb in the Spain team too, he is the only one who isn't good on the ball.
Very good defensively but I think a full back needs a lot more than that these days. And that's why I have been critical of Darmian from September onwards. It is is first season mind so lets give him time
Leicester 1:1 Man Utd
Non-existent in that first half and I thought he was every bit at fault for that goal as Young for not cutting out the pass
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