PARK-A true unsung hero

hungrywing

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Didn't expect much considering:

a) We're two months in and he's played four minutes of football total this season (not an exaggeration)
b) it was 2-2 and Basel had shown signs of going into an 8-0-2, soon to become a 9-0-1
c) the ref was man marking him
 

devilish

Juventus fan who used to support United
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He couldn't beat his marker down (the ref)

On a serious note he had a bad day today
 

gooDevil

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Not having much of a season so far. I'm a big fan of his, but I'm seriously concerned he may not be with us much longer, especially if we upgrade this summer, he may get pushed out.

Let's hope he gets back to his best soon, we'll need him.
 

mlclauhk

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I feel sorry for Park and for Valencia. Both great players IMO.

They've been pushed out of the side completely since we signed Young (who IMO hasn't lived up to the hype) and promoted Cleverley and Welbeck to the first team. There just isn't enough space in the squad.

How are they expected to perform at top level, without having a decent run of games in the first team?
 

mariachi-19

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I may be the devil, but i'm not a monster
I reckon Parks on his last legs at United. His lost that explosiveness that made him so dangerous.

He use to bustle players, attack space 'thank you boss', which aided him immeasurably in his link up play, but as he's gotten older, he's started losing that edge. Old three lung only has two now.

Watch the United reviews from 06-10 and he's such a handy little player. Use to scamper across the field with such vigour, but you don't see that now.
 

Hal9000

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Thought he's been poor this season. Indication of his season, was when the Crystal Palace left back kept blitzing past him.

To be fair though, iv'e not really been a huge fan of his. Works hard, and puts in a shift. How ever don't think he offers a great deal doing forward. My main issue with him, no matter where he plays, he always seems to end up playing as a striker.
 

Sarni

nice guy, unassuming, objective United fan.
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Thought he's been poor this season. Indication of his season, was when the Crystal Palace left back kept blitzing past him.

To be fair though, iv'e not really been a huge fan of his. Works hard, and puts in a shift. How ever don't think he offers a great deal doing forward. My main issue with him, no matter where he plays, he always seems to end up playing as a striker.
Me neither. He's a fine, hard-working player but I never feel that comfortable when he's running down the wing with the ball, he seems clumsy most of the time and he's not really that productive.
 

Ludens the Red

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Lots of "frustration" at De Gea and Jones the last few games with thread bumps, aged 19 and 20 btw.

No Park threads have been bumped, he may not have made any individual errors but his performance today and against Blackburn were woeful.
I dont know whether because we've been playing him as a central midfielder lately he got confused tonight and took it upon himself to continually run into no mans land in the centre of midfield.
Left Evra exposed a few times, never really gave him an option when he was going forward.
Just general garbageness over the past two games.

As one of the more experienced players, I'd say he's fairer game for criticism than De Gea and Jones.
 

Nate Dogg

Don't Make Me Angry
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Not a fan of Park, no end product and don't see the reason why he plays for us.
 

Theon

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Yeah I agree, he was dreadful going forward tonight, offered nothing.
 

SharkyMcShark

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He's not a central midfielder capable of playing in a 2 man midfield.

He can play as the most advanced of a three if we're looking for attacking threat combined with workrate to shut down a deeper sitting midfielder, as we saw against Milan and Liverpool in 09/10.

We've been playing him as part of the 2 in a 4231 - this is wrong. He can play anywhere across the 3 with proficiency but not in the deeper 2.

And if we're looking for experienced players to criticise after the last two games, Nani is up before Park is.
 

Snow

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He was paying in some sort of advanced central midfield role in a 4-4-2. He really often gets the short end of the stick when picked during injury troubles. Not sure what his role was here tonight.
 

Art

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Park used to be our big game player and by the looks of it age seems to be catching onto him pretty quick. Still seems like he works a lot but the opposition just tends to play around him.His services for United have been absolutely stunning in the past years and has been a great servant for the club but I think it would be better if he played off the bench more instead of starting.
 

Bross

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He wasnt a central midfielder but he wasnt really a winger either today. He seemed to have been given instructions to help in midfield as he offered no width at all on the left. All of our (limited) attacking came on the right side. We played a weird 4-4-2 with no left wing.
 

Theon

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Yeah I agree that's how it looked Brosstan, but I don't know how much of the lack of width was down to tactics, or Park having a shit gane.

Seems strange for Fergie to tell him to play so narrow, I think he just didn't play the role well.
 

tintedsepia

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This might sound like a slaughter job, but I shuddered when last season I heard we were offering him a new contract.

Fact is:-

1. He is now too slow. He can't actually keep up to the pace of the game.
2. His anticipation is also slow. His reading of the game doesn't compensate for his lack of pace.
3. For a small guy it is shocking that his touch of the ball is as poor as John O Shea's
4. Even with none of that he doesn't offer the team first time passing so he's not a water carrier
5. He has no vision and his passes much to often go astray.

He's simply not good enough. I think Gibson is BETTER than Park as at lease he offers a physical presence in the middle of the pitch!

To say that SAF can't improve on Park in a 3 man central midfield is disingenious. I have no idea what the stats are on us losing this season and last with Park in the side but I bet there's a correlation!
 

Garethw

scored 25-30 goals a season as a right footed RW
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I have never rated him as anything more than a squad player.
 

Cheesy

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I like Park, but he didn't seem to know what he was doing tonight. He just seemed to run all over the place, not really knowing what to do or where to go.
 

Bross

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Yeah I agree that's how it looked Brosstan, but I don't know how much of the lack of width was down to tactics, or Park having a shit gane.

Seems strange for Fergie to tell him to play so narrow, I think he just didn't play the role well.
He had a shit game regardless of whether he was being told to go centrally or not. Fergie has always praised his ability to listen to instructions and do the job tactically just as told, and unless he had his head somewhere else entirely during the match I dont really see how he could have deviated that much from Fergie's pre-match plan.

Wouldnt say it was a bad tactical choice either as Giggs is a high risk CM who can benefit from having someone like Park mopping up lose balls. But Park had a mare so it didnt work.
 

moses

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I have no idea either, yet.
He can add things to a team, and at times he has added brilliantly to ours. He compliments some formations. But he's not the sort of player who will give your team any definition.

That and his energy levels don't seem to be as high as they were.
 

Sylar

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He looks tired. Actually he looked tired last season. Normally he would be going full throttle all game but I especially remember the Arsenal game and the Barca game when he got moved in centrally where he just didnt track his man. Unlike him I thought but it could be age.

Hes not somebody that can break down teams but he would often score important goals with his movement of theball to find the space. On the ball, is a different story. I was surprised he didnt come off straight away at half time.
 

Eyepopper

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Parks a good squad player, he's never going to be a world beater but he's worth his place in the squad over a season.

He's the last thing we should be worrying about right now.
 

Theon

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He had a shit game regardless of whether he was being told to go centrally or not. Fergie has always praised his ability to listen to instructions and do the job tactically just as told, and unless he had his head somewhere else entirely during the match I dont really see how he could have deviated that much from Fergie's pre-match plan.

Wouldnt say it was a bad tactical choice either as Giggs is a high risk CM who can benefit from having someone like Park mopping up lose balls. But Park had a mare so it didnt work.
I doubt we'd play with a right winger and three central midfielders, however if you're right and we were then it was a bad tactical choice because we created nothing down the left flank all night.

Like I say though, I think Park just had a poor game.
 

SharkyMcShark

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It was a bad day at the office for him.

Think back to the Chelsea game 7/8 months ago at OT to basically decide the title - throughball to Hernandez for the opener then basically destroyed their midfield for the rest of the game.

None of that has gone away over the last 8 months.