[Adam-Utd]

Good defensively but absolutely no composure on the ball and his attacking play is horrible. He really stifles our attack.

 

[Obiorahking_]

I don't understand the logic. As a defender, shouldn't your main job be to DEFEND?

Who cares. Lets get Varela and Valencia back so that our right side can be completely exposed once again and leave us right back to square one. The fickleness of the Cafe is unbelievable.

 

[Skills]

Varela's a better player. Both ends of the field.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Why?

Knew nothing about him before he signed but was basically told by those that had watched him, that we were getting the complete fullback. A game when England played Italy was used as a reference by plenty on here at how good he is not just defensively but also going forward. It's fair to say that he's completely useless going forward and very average defensively. Considering how important fullbacks are these days, Darmian is nowhere near good enough for a top team.

 

[Kraftwerker]

Actually makes me angry. Varela didn't deserve to lost his play to this guy.

 

[Striker10]

Noticeable our width from fullbacks was poor with Rojo and Darmian. The kids are better.

 

[untitled_6899]

He's ok defensively but offers absolutely nothing to attack - I don't think he is ready or has the attributes to play at United

 

[Virtuoso]

I don't understand the logic. As a defender, shouldn't your main job be to DEFEND?

Who cares. Lets get Varela and Valencia back so that our right side can be completely exposed once again and leave us right back to square one. The fickleness of the Cafe is unbelievable.

I completely agree with the sentiment. Some of the reactions on here to his performance today are actually pretty disgusting and some of them genuinely pathetic. This guy is a good player, at times a very good defender especially.

Today he made a number of clean tackles, positioning was largely fine but I would agree that he didn't offer much going forward. But what do people here expect? We had 10 men, basically no threat going forward and switched right wingers 3 or 4 times today. There was no rhythm to the attack.

Also, WBA didn't afford any space basically - 4 CBs and 2 DMs against 10 men. They stifled us and we lacled imagination. I would question Van Gaal today as he had no answers whatsoever once we went down to 10 men.

His performance was fine today.

 

[shaggy]

He's hopeless. Give me Rafael over this guy any day of the week. Even Jones would be better.

 

[Devil may care]

Offering nothing in attack and plays as much on the edge defensively as Rafael did.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I know we should learn from Evra, and not write him off just yet... but I never remember thinking Evra was this bad - his debut aside.

Also, Evra didn't have to be our starting full-back whilst he was adjusting to the Premier League... actually, Darmian doesn't have to be a starting full back for us either.

 

[stevoc]

Pointless player.

I don't know if he is cowardly or lazy with his attacking but he offers zero to us. Down to 10 men we really needed everyone to put a shift in offensively to create something and he just did his usual sitting on the half way line and passing it inside bullshit.

Soul destroying to watch.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Varela is as good defensively as Darmian, or maybe slightly inferior, but miles and miles better than him going forward.

Absolute madness to drop Varela today.

 

[Leftback99]

What is he supposed to be good at? What makes him any better than West Brom's right back (Dawson) ?

 

[Obiorahking_]

Knew nothing about him before he signed but was basically told by those that had watched him, that we were getting the complete fullback. A game when England played Italy was used as a reference by plenty on here at how good he is not just defensively but also going forward. It's fair to say that he's completely useless going forward and very average defensively. Considering how important fullbacks are these days, Darmian is nowhere near good enough for a top team.

I think it is unfair to reference him as an average player defensively. I think he does a great job in one and one situations and keeps good track of his man. One part of him that has been caught on now ever since he moved to England was his lack of athletcism. He was never overly quick or fast to begin with, so obviously after moving to one of the quickest paced leagues in the world he is going to be slow to react and it was inevitably going to cost some goals. We just need to be patient in that aspect and I think he has been improving.

No doubt his crossing is his biggest weakness. That wasn't really picked on as much in Italy because you don't so much crossing in contested situation in Italian football. In addition, Lingard isn't very good going forward at all on the right hand side leaving him very isolated and both Lingard and Herrera are too slow to pick or sloppy to pick out a decent pass for him, so that is not going to help matters out either.

I was quite shocked as of recent on how sloppy he has been passing the ball in the final third. I think it is a confidence issue because he has done much better in the first half of the season...

 

[Hojoon]

He could wear a Sunderland jersey and no one would bat an eyelid. Shocking on the ball and OK at best defensively.

 

[Scorpy]

Pointless.

 

[Zoo]

Disappointing today he didn't look interested at all.

 

[Obiorahking_]

I don't know if he is cowardly or lazy with his attacking but he offers zero to us. Down to 10 men we really needed everyone to put a shift in offensively to create something and he just did his usual sitting on the half way line and passing it inside bullshit.

Soul destroying to watch.[/QUOTE]

You do realize that if he tries something We are completely exposed on the right hand side. Who did you expect to cover for him? Rashford, an 18 year old striker?
Smalling, who was pratically a 1 man center back?

This thought confirms that the general consensus among his criticizers is for us to attack attack attack and pay no mind to the damages on the defensive end it could do to us.

 

[Obiorahking_]

Varela is as good defensively as Darmian, or maybe slightly inferior, but miles and miles better than him going forward.

Absolute madness to drop Varela today.

He really isn't. As I have said before, he only looks good when he is playing with Lingard since he hustles his butt off. It makes sense to play him, but don't say he is better than him. After the red card, it would have been open season on our right wing.

 

[100]

i've never seen such a drastic drop in performance from the start of a season to the end. can't pass the ball 10 yards now. if he continues on this trajectory we'll need to teach him how to walk

 

[Cutch]

Thought he was good defensively but absolutely rubbish going forward

 

[MarkC]

LVG obviously wanted his added height in there. We focused on not losing the game rather than what our defenders could add to winning it. Says it all about LVG.

 

[Sylar]

Still dont understand why he started ahead of Varela. Why drop the inform player for somebody who is coming back from an injury, who wasnt even in the best of form before it anyway.

 

[Obiorahking_]

I completely agree with the sentiment. Some of the reactions on here to his performance today are actually pretty disgusting and some of them genuinely pathetic. This guy is a good player, at times a very good defender especially.

Today he made a number of clean tackles, positioning was largely fine but I would agree that he didn't offer much going forward. But what do people here expect? We had 10 men, basically no threat going forward and switched right wingers 3 or 4 times today. There was no rhythm to the attack.

Also, WBA didn't afford any space basically - 4 CBs and 2 DMs against 10 men. They stifled us and we lacled imagination. I would question Van Gaal today as he had no answers whatsoever once we went down to 10 men.

His performance was fine today.

Wow logical reasoning does exist.

 

[SilentWitness]

Varela back in for him. He offers nothing going forward.

Bizarre that Varela didn't play instead of him unless a rest was needed.

 

[berbatrick]

I think it is unfair to reference him as an average player defensively. I think he does a great job in one and one situations and keeps good track of his man. One part of him that has been caught on now ever since he moved to England was his lack of athletcism. He was never overly quick or fast to begin with, so obviously after moving to one of the quickest paced leagues in the world he is going to slow to react and it was inevitably going to cost some goals. We just need to be patient in that aspect and I think he has been improving.

No doubt his crossing is his biggest weakness. That wasn't really picked on as much in Italy because you don't so much crossing in contested situation in Italian football. In addition, Lingard isn't very good going forward at all on the right hand side leaving him very isolated and both Lingard and Herrera are too slow to pick or sloppy to pick out a decent pass for him, so that is not going to help matters out either.

I was quite shocked as of recent on how sloppy he has been passing the ball in the final third. I think it is a confidence issue because he has done much better in the first half of the season...

Good post.

 

[KikiDaKats]

He has had a sound game defensively. Name one player today who has beaten him 1 v 1 or got passed him?

Besides he is also just returning from injury. Whatever, you guys probably just want to see TFM or someone from U21s just because they are younger and upcoming. Then when they start playing badly you can destroy their confidence and claim he was never ready in the first place and have him sold.

Has it crossed your mind some of us just wanna see players with the ability to do things with urgency.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Really poor going forward. Great defensively, though. Him and Varela need to be infused.

 

[Offside]

Varela is better and that has been clear for a few games. Yet Darmian gets the start.

 

[Robbie Boy]

I think it is unfair to reference him as an average player defensively. I think he does a great job in one and one situations and keeps good track of his man. One part of him that has been caught on now ever since he moved to England was his lack of athletcism. He was never overly quick or fast to begin with, so obviously after moving to one of the quickest paced leagues in the world he is going to slow to react and it was inevitably going to cost some goals. We just need to be patient in that aspect and I think he has been improving.

No doubt his crossing is his biggest weakness. That wasn't really picked on as much in Italy because you don't so much crossing in contested situation in Italian football. In addition, Lingard isn't very good going forward at all on the right hand side leaving him very isolated and both Lingard and Herrera are too slow to pick or sloppy to pick out a decent pass for him, so that is not going to help matters out either.

I was quite shocked as of recent on how sloppy he has been passing the ball in the final third. I think it is a confidence issue because he has done much better in the first half of the season...

I think he's very average defensively though. Lets take a player like azpilicueta for example; he's very limited in an offensive sense but he's very good defensively. Darmian has shown nothing to say he's above average in a defensive sense. He's ok but I think he's very weak and gets muscled off the ball far too easily. Players like Shaw and Bellerin are what I look for in a fullback; dynamic, quick and good at both ends of the pitch.

Fullbacks are so so important and unfortunately Darmian kills so many attacks with his sloppy control and ponderous play. Anytime he receives the ball in the final third, he has to basically stop, have a look around and he usually picks the wrong option. This kills any kind of momentum that we have built.

He's certainly not talented enough defensively to make up for his blatant offensive shortcomings. For me, he simply hasn't been good enough. I wouldn't sell him in the summer and he showed during his first month that he has talent, but feck me he needs to improve.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Maybe he's just the reverse Evra? Looks amazing on his debut, but then will be horribly shit for the majority of his career - getting injured a lot in the process - before finishing with a flourish.

 

[KikiDaKats]

I know we should learn from Evra, and not write him off just yet... but I never remember thinking Evra was this bad - his debut aside.

Also, Evra didn't have to be our starting full-back whilst he was adjusting to the Premier League... actually, Darmian doesn't have to be a starting full back for us either.

The difference Evra was an attacking minded player struggling to defend. So playing in a team that was likely to be on the front foot, those issues were bound to get ironed out and not forget he's pacy as well.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

The difference Evra was an attacking minded player struggling to defend. So playing in a team that was likely to be on the front foot, those issues were bound to get ironed out and not forget he's pacy as well.

Like I said, he's the reverse Evra.

It's a bit like the Reverse Flash... except not evil and completely feckin' useless.

 

[Nighteyes]

Really poor going forward. Great defensively, though. Him and Varela need to be infused.

What?

Where is this coming from? He's had numerous brain farts this season.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

What?

Where is this coming from? He's had numerous brain farts this season.

He wasn't bad today. Over the course of the season, he's been very inconsistent, I agree.

 

[Robbie Boy]

What?

Where is this coming from? He's had numerous brain farts this season.

Plenty seen to think he's brilliant defensively? I'm yet to see it myself.

 

[Hed Zitin]

He's been poor on the ball most of the season.

 

[Amar__]

I seriously still can't grasp how van Gaal decided after 10 games that Rafael isn't good enough and yet he starts Darmian whenever he can even though he is inferior in every aspect to Rafael. I am not sure Darmian is any better in terms of staying fit either. Rafael had his brainfarts and maybe Darmian can be better defensively in general over the course of the season, but when he is terrible he is just terrible that even Rafael's worst games for us are nowhere near close. And those games for Darmian happen quite often.

No way we should plan the next season with him as our first choice full back.

 

[Scorpy]

It's not like he's great defensively to make up for his pointlessness in attack. As Akash said, he's had many brainfarts since his homeymoon period at the start of the season ended and has been pretty shit since then. He's absolutely useless with the ball at his feet and his brain seems to switch off every time he has to make a pass that's not backwards or sideways.

Varela is much better than Darmian at the moment. His attacking play is on another level and also did very well against Sanchez, who destroyed Darmian at the Emirates earlier in the season. Varela's attacking was one of the things we missed today and when Van Gaal finally decided to sub Darmian, he put Fosu-Mensah instead. The mind boggles.