The favourites always have excuses made for them. The rest of the team are why they make mistakes. Lindelof has been better than Varane this season.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 6
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 1
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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.
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People still haven't learnt from our attack, we literally got Ronaldo. You could stick Neymar, Mbappe, Messi, Ronaldinho, R9...whoever up there and we would look the same. Our midfield struggles with basics that even relegation teams have in midfield. Basic passes, control, anticipation, ball retention, tackling, positioning...even with Pogba, we still would have issues pressing, picking up the ball into midfield, positioning, anticipation and tackling. The problem we have is our midfielders can't even do these things at a basic level.
It hurts to agree with you as I really like the player but Lindelof has been the best CB we've played this season which is underwhelming to say the least.
A no sense signing
High wage, often injured, already achieved all in his career
29 yo
It’s absurd
High wage, often injured, already achieved all in his career
29 yo
It’s absurd
People are seriously saying Varane isn't good enough 
Three league titles, four Champions League titles, a World Cup. He's the definition of good enough and is still in the prime years for a defender. He would be at home in any team on the planet.
Three league titles, four Champions League titles, a World Cup. He's the definition of good enough and is still in the prime years for a defender. He would be at home in any team on the planet.
Varane wanted to leave RM to make more £££.
He might not win another trophy.
He might not win another trophy.
No he hasn't. Varane was among the best players on the pitch nearly every game, while Lindelof makes crucial mistakes nearly every game and is only lauded because he isn't as comically bad as Maguire this season.
You left out the part where he plays well whenever he plays.
Hes played to a decent level the past couple games only. Prior to that he had a mistake each game in him.
Na he’s a Utd fan
Probably the least of our problems
It does look like he makes a mistake every game but our control of football games is so shit that as a defender he's facing way too many situations, where eventually a mistake will happen
The midfield we have is atrocious for a top team and before it wouldn't be a problem when we had a manager like Ferguson
Since then we've just downgraded manager after manager and that's not enough to compensate for the lack of good midfielders needed to function
Anyway he's fine
It does look like he makes a mistake every game but our control of football games is so shit that as a defender he's facing way too many situations, where eventually a mistake will happen
The midfield we have is atrocious for a top team and before it wouldn't be a problem when we had a manager like Ferguson
Since then we've just downgraded manager after manager and that's not enough to compensate for the lack of good midfielders needed to function
Anyway he's fine
Because they never learn. If you ask people here they would tell you Damian, Herrera, Veron, Di Maria, Nani etc they would tell you that they were awful footballers and not good enough. Varane has come to a team that does not function at all, and is always with a different partner and even different full backs, and yet they expect him to carry us.People are seriously saying Varane isn't good enough
Three league titles, four Champions League titles, a World Cup. He's the definition of good enough and is still in the prime years for a defender. He would be at home in any team on the planet.
Varane has made at least one big mistake in the majority of games he's played in. Probably a good 70/80% of his games. His worst performance being against Newcastle. He made multiple big errors and was the worst player on the pitch. Lindelof was terrible against Villa in the FAC, but he's been mostly decent this season. This is not me saying that Varane is an issue. I just don't see amazing performances from him. What he's won in the past is irrelevant.
He has made some shocking blunders this season but honestly it's pretty comical to sign this guy and then pair him with Lindelof and Maguire. Only thing worrying me about Varane is his injury record. I reckon he'll be on the sidelines far more than he will on the pitch.
Was Varane suffering injuries semi frequently for Madrid? It's worrying that all of our CB's have suffered injuries this season. Even though most fans dislike Maguire at this point, we got almost two years out of him, playing almost every game. That's changed this season.
I really disagree with how his performances are viewed by you guys. We've been absolutely shocking as a team where we've had games just defending in our box for full the 90 minutes. It's no coincidence that all our CBs have had these "blunders". There's too much to do way too often.
And no it's not the CBs fault we're shit when the midfielders cant defend and the forwards cant press or wont track back.
Van Dijk or De Vrij would make the same "mistakes" if they had to make 50 crucial decisions/defensive actiond our CBs have had to make.
It's like a goalkeeper for a relegation team having to make 100 saves playing vs City and then looking like an idiot in 2 situations. It couldve been prime VDS and it would still occur. This comparison isnt a stretch when we have literally had a run of games showing relegation form and playing like a relegation team.
I never mentioned Varane's achievement. I just rate him as a defender having watched him.
We've bought countless of highly rated and succesful players over the years.
We need to stop with pretending all our players are shite and we buy bad players and just start recognizing the structural problems.
Agree! I have said it before, but there is an underlying reason (i dont know what) why so many good players (and many good managers) come and fail at united.
I believe the defensive struggle and mistakes made are largely down to opposition strikers being allowed to run in acres of space full speed at the CBs. thats an impossible situation (for example Villas first goal). Varane would have to move sideways incredibly fast or run along, but they were already sitting deep so there is no space. This is a midfield issue.
I do agree with you that our defenders will make mistakes. They're asked to do a lot every game. My main reasoning for posting in this thread was to agree with the notion that the midfield will get blamed when Varane makes any mistake. I do believe that who he is and what he's won gives him some leeway with the fans. Our other defenders aren't rewarded with the same defence for their mistakes. If Maguire makes exactly the same mistakes as Varane, everybody will call him shit and a terrible captain.
Yeah, I know that you didn't mention his achievements. Some other posters did. That's the only reason why I mentioned it. I don't think our midfield is going to massively change until the summer. If/when we get some better midfielders, it would be interesting to see how each of our CB's perform.
Says you, Varane has been nothing but underwhelming for me
Agree with what you both wrote. If we take the last match as example; maybe Varane could have done better at both goals, and Lindelof shouldn’t have done that attempt to press high at the second goal, but considering how much defending they had to do, you have to expect a mistake or poor decision at some point.
I didn’t expect much more than what we’ve got from him, but I hoped for more if you know what I mean? And that’s underwhelming.
I expected more tbh. fecking injuries didn't help either
To be honest I think the expectations are to blame. Its not realistic to expect any player in the world to change country, league, club, environment, culture, food, accommodation etc and then perform from day one. It might happen on rare occasions, but the norm is that it takes a couple of seasons. Of course with experience this introduction period can be shortened, but its unfair to write him off based on his performance so far. I DO AGREE, he has not been great, but not appalling either. Given time he will become a key player. But people struggle to allow time. Thats why people eat at McDonalds!
Brentford 1:3 Man Utd
He was class in the second half I thought.
Stood tall today.
Best game so far
Was under attack for long times during the game but didn’t put a foot wrong. Great in the air. His best performance at United. Hope Varane and Lindelof are allowed to continue to play together.
MOTM for me. Never lost his composure and was always a step ahead of everybody around him.
Yeah agree. Pretty perfect game. Hopefully settling now although we need to see that against the better teams.
Think he's had some decent games in recent weeks despite the madness around him.
Right, I don’t mean to shit on Maguire but this is the quality that we need. Lindelof is far more assured with Varane as his partner.
So composed. Think he's great today. Like everyone else is moving in slow motion.
Glides across the pitch to put out fires, if we can get a structured midfield and settled back 4 his true class will be evident.
Man Utd 1:0 West Ham
Champions League Varane today. Antonio looked intimidated by coming up against him.
Not many defenders outpace Antonio and squares off in physical duels. Antonio looked lost quite early on after a couple of tries.
Very commanding performance, didn't look troubled by anything West Ham had to offer.
Was great and it's to be expected, hopefully he stays injury free for the rest of the season as I'll comfortably have him as the first name in the back 4.
Hopefully, we will need him vs A.Madrid in CL, and in the big games too
Indeed, as bad as we've been this season were still very fortunate in cb department and with Harry getting back to his best it'll be on of less important concerns seeing how it allows us to rotate varane with great success.
My MOTM.
Brilliant. He’s been injured enough that he’s had a few restarts so I kind of forgot he was world class. Injury free and with a run of games he’s just gonna get even better.
He is made of glass. But it's a really good glass.
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