He was good for us. What does it matter how he is doing for Lyon?
Rafael da Silva: Van Gaal called me and said "You can leave. The meeting lasted 1 minute"
- Thread starter RedDevil@84
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
He was inconsistent for us and grossly overrated. He was also injury prone, reckless and the rest of his career doesn't warrant any regrets.
I'm guessing you're talking about Rafael Da Silva there, a lad for all his enthusiasm just wasn't good enough for United, there's a reason approaching 28 he's plying his trade for Olympique Lyonnais, and not one of the bigger clubs in Europe.
One reason LvG lasted so long was because everybody at the club wanted to see if he could match, or better his end of season speech at the players awards.
He was more than good enough, for United he was better than our current two right backs. If he wasn't Ferguson wouldn't have had so much faith in him for 5 years.
His problem was and is he is injury prone, it has hindered his development and makes him unreliable. Thats why no club bigger than Lyon will take a chance on him.
We hired a manager that we didn't expect to win the league? Then why was he sacked?
Nonsense.
You think Rafael was a better RB than Valencia? I don't.
I think it is safe to say that Herrera after the disaster of the summer before would have been a United player under Moyes and that LVG "green lit" the move that was pretty much worked out the seasion previous, with that obscenely bizarre fake lawyer incident.
Evra knew the writing was on the wall and I would bet handsomely that Welbeck, Evans and Fletcher knew the old fart was going to have the piss taken out of him by the main group. They got out nice and early and did their own handy-work.
Oh, turn it up. Awful post.
Well, yeah. It is the subject of this thread. Van Gaal came in and completely unnecessarily binned him.
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Have to agree with this. He was an exciting youngster with a lot of potential and we were happy to overlook the issues with his game because we were investing in his future. For whatever reason, Van Gaal didn't think it in the club's interest to overlook his shortcomings and didn't believe that he would mature into a footballer at a level that would justify the mistakes he would make during the learning process Whatever you might think of Van Gaal, I think it's fair to say that decision was vindicated. Van Gaal also moved Valencia to right back and I think that decision also helps justify this one as Valencia has been rock solid there for three and a bit seasons now.
He was sacked because we didn't reach the CL, not because he didn't win the league. On an other note, while reading the statement made by Woodward when he hired Van Gaal, I couldn't help but notice that his idea of Manchester United was very close to the one held by the moaners, he emphasized on attacking and youth football.
Some will think that I'm unfair but people can look at the figures, at the exception of one season, he didn't own the RB spot. Jones and Smalling played a lot
After the Moyes debacle and finishing 7th the previous year it’s asking a lot to win the league with a poor squad and confidence levels bottom.
LVG was hired to improve us, which he did getting us back in the Champions league the first year, winning fa cup the second.
He got sacked for two reasons.
1. Missing out on goal difference the 4th place champions league spot .
2. Mourinho was available.
Rafael at his best for United was easily better than Valencia is right now.
Valencia has had a good run at RB the last few years, i haven't rated him as much as some but however good he has been since the switch he is done now.
3. He wasn't good enough, he made poor signings, and he played the worst football I've ever had the misfortune of watching.
In my opinion Valencia is a better RB, even now. Rafael was always suspect defensively and the main goal of a RB is to defend.
I keep hearing this but Moyes football was a thousand times worse. Moyes has no plan, at least LVG had his possession based ideals.
Did you feel unfortunate watching us beat and dominate Liverpool and Man City that season after the pathetic trashings Moyes inflicted upon us? Feel unfortunate getting us back in Champions league, winning FA Cup?
I swear some people just have an irrational hatred of LVG on here.
No, Moyes' football was not worse than the shite served up by LVG. How many games did we go in a row without managing to muster a single shot on target? His football was absolutely appalling and the worst I've ever seen. It made me not want to watch the team I've supported for 35 years.
A few decent performances in recent weeks doesn't change the fact that his time at Arsenal has been a complete failure.I'd argue against that nowadays. There is a reason there's a thread bemoaning our fullbacks' output.
Rafael's only problem was his injury proneness. He was a much better fit for United as a right back than Valencia currently is.
A RB is a defender. First and foremost, his job is to defend. People moaning on this forum is irrelevant. They moan about everything.
The difference between Valencia and Rafael is the latter was actually a RB, not a downgraded winger. Also it doesn't matter if he stayed, Mourinho would have probably still picked Valencia over him.
Just wasn't very good at it.
Pretty amusing that the downgraded winger is a better defender and the actual RB was better going forward.
True but it's more the idea that I find interesting because you have a lot of posters who seem to think that it's a ridiculous concept.
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Yeah I agree. Its prettt clear to see, Van Gaals intent was always to play on the front foot and attack, he just had a very poor idea of how to execute it. It's why we ended up dominating possession and doing nothing with it.
LVG.
Because he didn't make top four in his second season - which was his goal. Considering the younger players he was using by his last few games - the fact he was only one position worse off than the likes of Falcao, RVP, Rooney & Co was a tad under-rated coupled with the FA Cup win.
A group of 10 strong youngsters would have been there by LVG season 3 - a better group of players for giggs than anything else - because that was the plan. Not for LVG to win the league but to build a team for giggs to manage whilst staying in top 4.
Wow i must say that surprises me. You must rate Valencia very highly or Rafael not much at all.
Ive been satisfied with Valencia the last few years hes been solid enough. But i never thought he was anything special there either. Plays everything too safe which is why LVG loved him and not really good enough going forward which is mad because he used to be a very good winger.
If you offered me Valencia or Rafael at their best for United. Id take Rafael personally. If you feel different ok fair enough.
@Rafaeldagold
No, he doesn't deserve respect. He deserves scorn for the shite he served up on a weekly basis, signing crap like Depay, setting the club back years with his tumescent possession based 'football', and failing to qualify for the CL after spending £250 million.
No, he doesn't deserve respect. He deserves scorn for the shite he served up on a weekly basis, signing crap like Depay, setting the club back years with his tumescent possession based 'football', and failing to qualify for the CL after spending £250 million.
You are telling me that Utd hired a manager and his overall objective wasn't to win the league? I don't buy that for a second.
I have no idea from which season these stats are, or if they cover both his seasons, BUT:
The second stat is a rather poor stick to beat him with. We're the team with the most backward passes, but the top teams we'd ostensibly like to compare ourselves with, have very similar stats, and the current top 6 are all in the top 7 teams with most backwards passes.
Why?
Because they enjoy more possession = translates to more backwards passes. It doesn't say much of anything about his style or his performance as a manager of Manchester United – or rather, if anything, it reflects well on him.
The shots on goal stat is horrific, granted, but some would say LVG did not have the player material to enact his philosophy totally, and with the Liverpool game I think we saw the potential that his system had.
I think he was about to crack the code, and that his third season with us would have been fantastic.
But it's history already.
So.
Meh.
Don't get me wrong I loved the kid, he 100% bought into what playing for Manchester United meant, but he was far too inconsistent(up for the big games, sometimes too much, and for the lesser games playing his own game which isn't ideal as the position requires discipline), and I think SAF persevered with him so long because he had this romantic idea that he(Rafael) and Fabio(who was by far the better youth footballer of the two)would follow the Neville bros and become United's full-back pairing for United for a decade, or more
That, and the fact we were putting a lot of effort into scouting/recruiting the best 18/19 year olds in Brazil at the time, and having the Twins regularly involved in the first team would've helped in that.
Viva da Silva,
Viva da Silva,
When they’re on the pitch,
Don’t know which is which,
Viva da Silva
Used to love Rafael, one of the few Brazilians who actually gave us some good days.
Viva da Silva,
When they’re on the pitch,
Don’t know which is which,
Viva da Silva
Used to love Rafael, one of the few Brazilians who actually gave us some good days.
He was an ex P.E teacher, I'm more surprised he didn't have antagonising nicknames for all the players.
Or towel whip them on the bare arse after their shower
Amen, freaking goldfishes all over the place
You obviously don't remember the 50 crosses per game that we did during Moyes. The fact that every top 6 team trashed us with minimum 3 goals and the only goals from our side usually came from individual initiative rather than having anything to do with tactics or a style of play.
Van Gaal was bad, pretty bad in terms of how we played, but he was definitely not worse than Moyes. Not by a long shot.
I do remember. At least we were actually trying to score, as opposed to going sideways and backwards.
LVG had better results, no question. His style of football was much, much worse, in my opinion.
And the reason is ? Please enlighten me
Chicharito loved the club and never complained when being rotated and used as a super sub by Sir Alex .
It was being treated like a dog by LVG that finally finished him.
If I remember correctly we let him go for peanuts as usual then never replaced him and went into the following season with no cover at striker .
Didn't do so shabby in Germany as I recall and let's face it everyone struggles at West Ham it's compulsory!
Each to their own but I find it hard to fathom how you can come to that conclusion, I enjoyed watching LVG matches for the most part and actually controlling games, imposing ourselves on the opposition, beating the good teams. It’s a shame that December finished him and the fans didn’t really give him a break-i would have liked to have seen a third year if Jose wasn’t available.
Rafael was much much better than valencia before his injuries.