But he's a similar player that can attack and defend like a fb should much better than any of our current options. He's doing well at Cardiff right now and is a fan's favorite. He had a crap sending off before leaving United because he was so frozen out by Moyes that it made him overly eager to impress.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 11
- Clean sheets
- 4
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
Seriously? Vidic was a rock at Spartak and his national side. He was courted by the likes of United, Juventus and Fiorentina. Jaap Stam was a year away from becoming the world most expensive defender. Evra had been courted by the top clubs for 1-2 years. All of them were available for their clubs and dependable for more then 10 games at a row something Jones, Rafael and Evans hasn't been for quite some time.
Its time we get rid of the red tinted glasses and make some decisions. These players may be the combination of Maldini, Blanc, Rio and Baresi (which they are certainly not, in fact they are nowhere near to world class defenders) but unless they are available then its pretty pointless to keep them. Now considering that we can expand the squad to an unlimited size due to logistics and financial restrictions then its time to make some painful decisions. We cant go on relying on kids and wingers while fantasising on how magnificent Rafael would have been against City, how frightened would Aguero have been if he faced Jones and his face expressions and how distracted would Toure have been whenever Helen Evans cheered her husband up.
BTW as said before, a player is young at 17-19. At 23-24 he's heading towards his peak. I can make a long list of defenders who were simply great at that age. Our defenders can hardly stay fit for 2 games at a row.
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He'd started like nine Premier League games in his time here (six years).
I'd hardly say Moyes froze him out.
that's because he hasn't yet reached his peak. Once he's 26 years of age his injuries will vanish and he will become the new Maldini.
Vidic was courted by United, Juventus and Fiorentina. Smalling was courted by United, Arsenal and others. Jones was courted by United, Liverpool and others. The only real difference is that Stam/Vidic/Evra had 2-3 extra years of making all their mistakes and getting over niggles in a crappy League, before moving to us.
The painful decisions you refer to I've outlined above. We either piss £150m on 5-6 quality defenders (4 central defenders, backup LB and a RB), skimp on the price and potentially end up with a few Squillaci's which are just deadwood or make some sensible changes. The sensible changes are to keep the player's who have shown enough to suggest we shouldn't write them off (Rafael, Jones, Smalling), move the player's on who haven't fulfilled their potential (possibly Evans) and add a player or 2 in their place.
Unless you have some certain strategy to bin Smalling, Evans, Rafael & Jones and replace them with 4 top quality player's who won't be injured, won't be a massive risk/hopeful punt and won't cost our entire budget for the next 18 months? In a World where Coleman would cost us £25-30m I'd love to here this strategy if you have one.
Oh come on. Just compare how many games he played while under Fergie compared to Moyes. He saw fewer minutes than Rafael because Evra was a guaranteed starter on the left and also because of injuries. When healthy he saw plenty of time on the pitch under Fergie.
Nine starts in six years. Sir Alex then bought Buttner.
He was on his way out whether Moyes came or not.
Buttner was bought as a makeshift lb after Fabio was loaned. He wasn't bought to replace Fabio. Fabio was loaned out to get more games because Evra was a guaranteed starter in the same way Carrick was whenever healthy. Rafael didn't have an Evra ahead of him so a loan was important. That's how it was viewed at the time of the loan.
He saw a lot more minutes under Fergie (even with injury plagued years) than under Moyes, starts or not.
Some players just need to be given a chance. We have Virmijl who can also provide decent cover but he's rotting in the reserves at 22. McNair and Blackett didn't push their way into the senior team necessarily because they were good enough, we had a crisis and they stepped up. Who's to say Varela and even Thorpe wouldn't have done the same?
Both McNair and Blackett were not front runners for anything first team before this season. Matter of fact, if not for our injury crisis most people would've probably not heard about McNair this season. His thread only had three posts all from 2012, before his call up to the team. Varela had hardcore youth team observers debating his prospects.
Jury is still out on McNair and Blackett. Nobody is saying that either of them is a long-term solution for us in central defence.
You're confusing being good enough to help us out in a crisis with being good enough to take the place of a player who has long established himself as talented enough to play at the very highest level. Massive difference between these two things.
No im not. To begin with, I think Varela should've been promoted as back up to Rafael, rotation basis and injury cover (we all know Rafael can't go on a sustained run of games without injury). On top of that, I made the bold prediction that he'd keep Rafael off the team. Its not out of the question, but we probably won't ever get to find out. At the end of the day we need a reliable backup RB to provide stiff competition in that role. We only have Valencia who is not a RB. Some people think Rafael is untouchable.
What is actually wrong with him? Will he be available for Palace?
He's like the Alfa Romeo of RB's, the purist heart loves his flair and passion but you are always wondering when the next part will fall off.
I got it from an unconfirmed source that he's back training already and that the injury was just a knock picked up in training. We'll find out soon enough.
We certainly need a new RB, Rafael averages being fit for like half the matches and Valencia/Smalling/whoever just aren't good enough. Coleman would obviously be the dream but Clyne is good and I don't watch Italian football (who does?) but I've heard good things about Darmian and De Sciglio so they could be good shouts. The latter 3 can all play both sides too.
This would appear to be a rather important detail in all of this hullabaloo, and one which, so far as i am aware, some either view as irrelevant or have already determined the outcome of. Let's say that Rafael returns for the Palace match and this has been a minor albeit inconvenient absence, well that is an occurrence that will affect most players at one time or another.
If people's concerns stem from his ability that is one thing, yet if on the other hand the focus is his availability or alleged lack thereof, then this season should be used to determine whether 2012/13 represented a sign of things to come or an anomaly.
Depending on how far we progress in the FA Cup and taking into account the several matches for which he was unavailable earlier on in the PL season, what appearances target would be acceptable [assuming an early return from this current knock]?
A range between the late-20s and early-30s is certainly achievable if Fergie's last campaign can be replicated.
Van Gaal didn't mention his injury in his presser before the City game no? So it couldn't have been that serious, they probably thought he might be able to make it for Sunday.
It doesn't really matter how many games Rafael plays, we still need to sign another RB to replace Valencia as cover for Rafael at least. In that case what's the point in just signing another limited player who will never challenge Rafael? It's not like he's so good that he couldn't do with competition anyway.
Sign another quality RB regardless. If Rafael struggles with fitness we're covered, if he doesn't then he can fight it out for his place. Either way, we're happy.
So is he playing this weekend?
Our right sided attack is garbage without him. Here we say garbage, not rubbish.
Our right sided attack is garbage without him. Here we say garbage, not rubbish.
Valencia did great against Chelsea under the circumstances
That was my thinking too. Would be fantastic if he's back.
I'd say average. How many crosses dud he get in? Did he beat his man at all? Any nice link up with other forwards? Not really. Rafael is twice the RB Valencia is and helps Valencia greatly when they play together
He was better than average defensively and overall....couldn't ask much from him attack wise when we were a man down for most of the match.
He was good 1v1 but the other aspects of his defensive play were awful. Hard to blame him given he's not a RB.
Going forward I don't expect anything from him, so he never dissappoints.
That is how I approach it too.
HUZZAH
Absolutely brilliant news. We could actually have a proper defence for Arsenal now.
Forget defense - might actually have a potent attack down the right. It's so strange that Valencia was one of the most feared wingers and one would think him playing as RB would give us that extra thrust down the right but, it's been quite the opposite. Now if only he can stay fit for the next 2-3 months and help us get a good streak going.-
Excellent news! We've really missed him, especially in attack, he adds so much down the right.
Wouldn't be too happy yet. He still has 2 weeks to injure himself.
He could dislocate a shoulder while trying to break a wishbone for example.
He could dislocate a shoulder while trying to break a wishbone for example.
needs to get a haircut before he topples over and breaks something
Was it ever explained why he didn't play against Crystal Palace? What precisely was this "knock" that precluded him from training for more than a fortnight.
That was my first thought as well.The same "knock" that has him posting on Instagram as soon as he is sufficiently recovered to start training again i.e. clearly a legitimate one.
Apparently picked it up in the warm up before a game, so more likely to be a pulled muscle than any kind of impact injury.
Really wonder why more players take up Yoga if they are susceptible to muscle injuries. Maybe Giggsy is a one off - ok not maybe he is a one off but, yoga did him wonders. Rafael's injuries tend to mostly be muscle related, surely with all the money we spend we can find a regime that will prevent them from being so frequent.
Not to worry, our state of the art facilities have him covered over the international break.
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