Mikhi needs to improve

[RedNed77]

If he's not scoring or assisting he's generally giving the ball away. It's the same semi-valid criticism that Zlatan got last year. I suppose his inclusion in the team depends on whether you're a glass half-full/half-empty kind of person.

Edit: I'm thoroughly on the fence with him at the moment.

 

[GM K]

If he's not scoring or assisting he's generally giving the ball away. It's the same semi-valid criticism that Zlatan got last year. I suppose his inclusion in the team depends on whether you're a glass half-full/half-empty kind of person.

Edit: I'm thoroughly on the fence with him at the moment.

That generally sums up Miki this season. IMO, he is the most frustrating player in that team. You know he is capable of so much more yet he gives the ball away so much and yet, he still manages to contribute to at least one goal.

My concern is how he'll fare when we meet stronger oppositions who might not give him the space to assist or score. Will he then become a liability? I hope not. What I am sure of is that he has so much he can bring into a game if he can improve his spacial awareness for 90 minutes.

 

[2cents]

I'm expecting nothing from him in the upcoming big games. Really really hope he surprises me.

 

[ROFLUTION]

It seems these sort of small players always have a hard time protecting the ball / giving it away. It was the same with Kagawa.

I do think Mou has utilized him correctly this season with his attacking midfielder spot though. He might make mistakes, but the 3rd / 4th time he tries something it might lead to a big chance.

If he loses the ball, it is in a less critical place on the pitch. In big games, I just hope it wont be 4 failed dribbles he have to try before something works.

To sum it up: He's great in those games where we have all the ball-possesion and where the tough part is to create that one big chance.

 

[whatwha]

He is often a frustrating player. I just wish he was more clinical in front of goal. Wouldn't trust him to convert an important chance. And despite putting up decent assist numbers, he's not played all that well.

I think maybe he shouldn't play against the likes of Liverpool where he will be pressed hard. Suspect he may go invisible against them, as has happened before.

 

[SachinJ22]

He is the type of player who looks world class when he plays well but looks really bad when he plays poorly. I know he was done well but imo he can do better, he needs to be more consistent. Maybe he isn't suited to the PL or Jose's tactics.

 

[RedDevil@84]

He is no world class player. But he is a good player and he is doing his job well. He has good no of assists and decent goals. So unless you had expected him to tear the league apart, you should be happy I think.
Maybe in a different system or league, he will do better. But then the league is what it is. And we ll have to play it in the way we think it is best. Mikhi is trying hard, committed and seems to keep himself and Jose happy.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Mourinho dropped him last season after the Man City game and made him work hard for his place. We haven't lost yet and Mkhitaryan has been very productive. If Mourinho is playing him then he must be doing something right and I trust Mourinho. Mourinho will drop him if he believes Mkhitaryan is underperforming.

 

[Brightonian]

Mind you, I don't think he's been particularly poor. He still clearly finds it easier in the slightly less hectic/physical European matches but he's looked very good in spells in some of our PL games too. All in all, a gradual upwards trend. He's settling in and getting better all the time. I see absolutely no need to be concerned.

Agreed. He's by no means been terrible, just off-colour, and as you say there've been good spells, matches and moments. It's probably mainly noticeable because so many of our other players are in such excellent form.

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

The thing is that his stats look very impressive,but I can completely see the OP's point.He always ends up getting an assist or a goal,but his all round play leaves much to be desired.His passing is erratic,his final ball is often poor and he gets brushed off the ball far too easily.I wouldn't call him the weak link in our attack,but I think he definitely needs to do more.....

 

[Redlyn]

I think in the bigger games we are better off with a third mid ie Herrera (still can't believe we actually have a mid of this calibre sitting on, or shoud I say standing and shouting orders from, the bench - how far we have come). He can create but also massively contribute to keep possession and circulate the ball. Miki is a bit of a luxury player at the moment and not sure we can afford that in the big games where pragmatism wins over high stakes risk taking.

 

[Redlyn]

Shamelessly stolen from September potm thread.

In 7 matches he makes 5th spot twice. For an attacking player with decent stats and lots of minutes it speaks volumes about his overall play. Definitely room for improvement.

 

[fellaini's barber]

Frustrates the hell out of me, loses the ball so often for no reason. Will always rack up good numbers because he's playing a lot and is very intelligent in the final third but boy is he frustrating. Forgotten if it was the Crystal Palace game or the game before where he lost the ball like 5-6 times in the first 10 minutes, what the hell is that? And no he wasn't trying anything special or unlocking any defence, he was just passing the ball straight to the opposition. Doesn't seem to be improving after an extended run of games which is weird

 

[Smoking_Owl]

Absolute rubbish contribution from him over the past few games.

 

[minoo-utd]

Second season failure? Then he needs to go.

 

[MAME DIOUF 32]

Infuriating. His goal and assist record doesn't tell the story of a player who goes missing for huge chunks of time. He's one of the most experienced players in the squad and he should show some leadership.

 

[Ace?]

The "almost" thing is spot on. You can see he has massive talent, but simply isn't consistent enough.

I still have hope that he will find the consistency in his game. No matter what, he is the best option we have right now for the AM position.

I think that its a lot to do with the different styles of football, coming from BVB, and even though it's his second season and he could be providing just a little more for the team, he's doing pretty well as it is. With his number of assists, we should be glad that we've got him, his creativity and pace on the ball is what we need in the mid field. After last season's start, he's getting off a lot better now then he was. If he develops even more this season it would be amazing.

I think he's made a very strong start to the season, particularly when considering where he was at this time 12 months ago.

Sure, he goes missing at points in the match but for all the times he isn't affecting the game positively with his creativity he is working hard for the team and contributing. I like how he fits in with Lukaku and Rashford/Martial; those players demand so much attention and pull defences out of position and Mkhi is - on his day - one of the best at exploiting the space opened up by this. He isn't totally dissimilar to Ozil in many ways; the obvious differences being that Ozil's passing ability is superior but Mkhi pips him on effort and general contribution.

Rather than dictating the tempo and rhythm of the match for 90 minutes, he just has decent moments now and again. But when he has a good moment, he usually makes a chance. He's like Mata in that respect. Im not sure his style of play will ever be in the Xavi mould, where he makes the entire front line tick. But as long as he's making chances and scoring, I'm cool with that.

Martial last season had 4 goals and 6 assists to rashford's 5 goals and 1 assist. Did martial have a better season than rashford last season?

 

[MataFanatic]

Maybe it's not the case that he needs to improve but rather he needs to be consistent. He's just too hit and miss at United. Needs to realise that he has to turn in good performances every week at United because every week the team we are playing treat a game against United as their cup final. It's a battle each week and he doesn't look like he's up for it at times.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

If any one player is missing what Pogba adds to their play and cohesion it's Him

 

[prtk0811]

Our form depended on his form. Needs to step up massively from now on. I think he is physically still struggling in the epl.

 

[VeevaVee]

He's in such a crucial role that it's unacceptable, specially at his age.

 

[Blue always red]

Lack of Pogba is telling in Mikhis game. Nobody moves the ball from midfield quick enough so he's constantly got his back to goal and by the time it comes to him he's facing 5-6 opposition players with maybe 2 of our forwards in there.

On another note, it's not coincidental how we've had Kagawa/Mata/Mikhi all struggle. It's because we transition from midfield to attack so slow.

 

[Lentwood]

The problem with Mhiki is that over the course of a 90 minute match 90% of what he does is terrible and 10% is utterly brilliant

That kind of keeps you hanging on to the hope that everything will come together for him, but still now 14 months down the line I am not sure it will

If we had a squad of 16/17 brilliant players and Mhiki I would say that's great but as a regular starter? Not convinced

 

[shamans]

Shamelessly stolen from September potm thread.

In 7 matches he makes 5th spot twice. For an attacking player with decent stats and lots of minutes it speaks volumes about his overall play. Definitely room for improvement.

\

Like I said before, I think this is just his level. Not much to improve upon.

 

[MThomas]

Lack of Pogba is telling in Mikhis game. Nobody moves the ball from midfield quick enough so he's constantly got his back to goal and by the time it comes to him he's facing 5-6 opposition players with maybe 2 of our forwards in there.

On another note, it's not coincidental how we've had Kagawa/Mata/Mikhi all struggle. It's because we transition from midfield to attack so slow.

He should be more than capable of enough of drifting deeper to pick up the ball and bring it forward.

 

[LJJT]

Let's all be honest, he's a decent player, a great player when he wants but he hasn't the balls or the desire to be great. He's not good enough. He earns great money. He's not good enough for us sadly he's got no fight in him

 

[Noc-Z]

He's 28 and in his second season, so I feel he's all the man he's ever going to be. What he needs to improve, I don't think he can. He doesn't need to work on technique etc. He needs a bigger heart, with more fight and to be braver. Won't happen.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Such a strange player. Appears to be extremely gifted but manages to do nothing for most of the time. If this is as good as it gets from we still need that quality 10 (after Kagawa, Mata and him). We seem to struggle with them.

 

[The BlackGaijin]

I was worried last season that we would have to carry Rooney and Zlatan in the team. I should have been more worried about him. I would take Ozil over him in a minute.He makes my blood boil every time he looses the ball. It's like he is the teenager and Rashford is the 28yr old mature player.

 

[Oooh_aaah_cantona]

I think it’s partly because our movement in attack is generally poor. If people are not making the right runs, there’s nowhere he can pass it to.

Of course, I also generally agree he lacks a bit of quality and fight. But the problem is exaggerated by our overall movement.

 

[Bestietom]

He has all the skills but don't show them enough. He needs to buck up or get benched. We need 11 men on the pitch.

 

[SammyUnited_83]

He isn't good enough, yes, he gets some assists and goals but he is an attacking player for one of the strongest teams in the league so what do you expect.

Watching Salah yesterday, even in defeat, he still looked dangerous, quick, direct, every time he got the ball. He would have been a Utd player any day of the week.

 

[Sunny Jim]

I haven't posted stuff about Mikitarian but a sample of one season and ten games gives enough evidence to state the following: he isn't good enough for Manchester United. I don't know how he played for Dortmund but given how he has performed for United i struggle to understand why we got him.

 

[RobinHood]

A luxury player at the moment. When he's good, he is very good. Shame that it only happens about 10 minutes every match and he's invisible for the other 80.

Look, like some posters have mentioned above, he's good when he has fellow attacking players with great movement and link-up play up front. We're not 100% there yet. He's not the sort to assert himself on a match otherwise.

He's like the seasoning that makes a good meal so much better. He's not going to make cafeteria food taste much better.


Hmmm dunno if that analogy actually worked that well, because I think our team is better than I implied. Oh well...

 

[LoneStar]

He's one of those players who will play very well when he is surrounded by great players and the whole team is playing well. When the chips are down and the team is struggling, when we need someone to step up, he certainly won't be that guy.

The role he is playing in is too crucial for us. When he doesn't play well, it leaves Lukaku totally isolated and ineffective. Not that our other players are playing well, mind.

We need to upgrade on him with someone like Dybala or Griezmann. I guess even Ozil would be fine, but, again not sure about his mentality.

 

[ruairifionnan]

Miki is a bit like Kagawa , just never seems to do enough .

 

[Scarlet Spider]

It's a strange one as I remember when he signed reading in World Soccer how he would do extra training by himself to make sure he was constantly at the top of his game - I thought we were finally going to solve our number 10 problem and instead it has been exacerbated - I wouldn't be heartbroken if we actually sold him and Mata in January so slight have been their contributions.

 

[Esquire]

He thrives in a counter attacking system. He doesn't have the strength, close control, or vision to play in the sort of matches that we're typically involved in, where we have to break down a team who put 10 men behind the ball.

Spot on. The number of times he loses the ball when challenged or is bumped off the ball leaves me fuming. He needs to toughen up. If he does, he will be a truly dangerous player for us.

 

[prtk0811]

Watching Salah yesterday, even in defeat, he still looked dangerous, quick, direct, every time he got the ball. He would have been a Utd player any day of the week.

Nah..

But Mane yes.

 

[Maradona10]

United need to improve upon mkhi. Mkhi will not improve, i think dortmund was his best. I would take ozil over him easily.