They're some pretty damning statistics. I really think he's looked quality in flashes in just about every game, but those stats are proof that he's just struggling to get on the ball at all.
20
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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Was awful for me yesterday. Looks so dis-interested and slow. Had maybe 1 or 2 good bits of play. But that was it, and thats too little in a game against a top side. Fair enough 10 men made it difficult but he was really poor.
A break would do him good.
He's not fit enough to play a lone striker role, it's a very demanding job. You need to combine some strength, technique and pace. RVP has only technique
Don't know what people expected with us playing with 10. Di Maria was the most guilty of wasteful play when we were in good positions on the break.
I don't want to turn this into one of those threads but we did have a striker who had those things...
His movement is terrible, it seems he's in some kind of energy saving mode when playing from the start, and bursts into life for short periods of time in the closing stages. At this point I think he is a big part of a problem. However, it can be solved easily.
To be fair, I don't think it's possible to discuss any of our strikers without turning it into "one of those threads". Why should we all ignore the elephant in the room?
I guess people feel as if the point has been made enough. The longer RvP struggles though, and the more games Falcao misses, the worse the Welbeck sale looks. I have no doubt he'll score against us in a few weeks.
Yeah, that's fair enough. Although it's impossible not to stew on what happened when you see RvP slowly trundling around up front on his own. Far too much is made of Welbeck not taking his chances, when you have a lone striker as dynamic as him it also creates space for others to share the goal-scoring burden.
Which we saw whenever he played that role for us last season. We consistently looked much more threatening with him in the team than we do without him. Just so fecking frustrating that he has in abundance exactly what we lack up front at the moment. Pace, power and work-rate. Would have caused City (and Chelsea) so many more problems with him instead of RvP, irrespective of their chance conversion %'s (and it's not like RvP is taking all his chances anyway).
Showed his class, when he turned nicely and had a good shot saved.
No pace there though, and it is making the Welbeck sale look a little questionable at this moment. I still think we should be looking for another striker, who is quick and powerful, something we lack at the moment.
No pace there though, and it is making the Welbeck sale look a little questionable at this moment. I still think we should be looking for another striker, who is quick and powerful, something we lack at the moment.
Exactly - he is getting far too much criticism for his performance yesterday. Even with 11 men in the last few games he has looked very isolated on his own upfront, with 10 it is even more difficult for him in that kind of set up.
Obviously he doesnt offer the kind of pace that we got from Welbeck - but that is not what he is there for, that should be coming from Adnan and Di Maria.
I hope we switch to a more attacking line up for the Palace game with 2 strikers - even if it has to be Rooney and RvP, who dont link up that well, then so be it.
He looks f*cking feeble at the moment - like an old man. I know Kompany is a unit, but RVP just bent over for him time and again yesterday.
He needs a break and I hope LVG can see it and gives him a week off and starts Wilson against Palace.
He needs a break and I hope LVG can see it and gives him a week off and starts Wilson against Palace.
Or just puts Rooney in his best position maybe
Robo Clog
Big time man. I loved that awesome bike & the fact they incorporated his wife etc. into the story, unlike the original..
It was definitely one of the better modern re-imaginings I've seen, the bike was badass.
Sweet Jesus some sense! I was beginning to think that this 'Rooney as a midfielder' madness that everyone is swallowing hook, line and sinker was something that only I could see!
We've got one of the best strikers in the PL playing in midfield with two really good midfielders sat on the bench...
The stick RVP is getting is ridiculous, the other players are hardly setting the world on fire are they?
He played well against Chelsea, all his efforts were on target. Had a thankless task against City, and created a half chance out of nothing which seemed to give us a bit of a lift. Holds the ball up better than any other striker we have and given chances I would still back him.
He played well against Chelsea, all his efforts were on target. Had a thankless task against City, and created a half chance out of nothing which seemed to give us a bit of a lift. Holds the ball up better than any other striker we have and given chances I would still back him.
Lord Neville has absolved him of most criticisms.
I don't think he did. He admitted he's not playing well but also pointed out (correctly) that he's making all these clever runs and no-one is picking him out. He's never been particularly pacy and doesn't rely on it to score goals, he makes runs off the shoulder of the last defender and relies on service into that space in behind and he's not getting it. I'm not suggesting he's been amazing either but when you have a striker like RvP if you're not playing to his strengths then he's wasted.
I remember Fergie saying it took a good while for our players to get used to his runs when we signed him. I'd have thought LvG would know how to get the best out of him but he hasn't yet. Maybe Carrick coming back will be a blessing.
Up to approx 4:45 about RVP.
He never really got stellar service at this club even in his first season. Difference was his allround game. He needs to recapture his playmaking attributes because now he only seems to think about goals. I don't know if Van Gaal has instructed him not to come deep but it seems like has no real interest to create and playmake anymore.
Will we ever see this RvP again?
the only player who isnt scared to play the killer ball is Herrera. Play him.
One of the two examples Gary pointed out was ridiculous unless he thinks Blind can pass like Scholes or Pirlo, and he mentioned Carrick but I'd love to see some stats on how many assists for RvP Carrick has had. The problem is that even if we did suddenly have Carrick rolling back the clock and picking RvP out, the hold up play and all around work running the channels in the loan striker role is not suited to RvP, even at his best for us he had a partner close to him who did all the other work in Rooney or Welbeck.
I'm not looking to just take a shot at RvP but if we are moving to a loan striker formation the same problems will keep happening because it's not a good role for him. When you look at top teams who play with one up top like Lewandowski at Bayern, Benzema at Real, Costa at Chelsea, the workrate, running and hold up play is vital in making it work, RvP is missing too many aspects required for the loan role at 31.
I definitely agree about the Di Maria part too, he has been useless for the past few games on the wings, it's easy for teams to nullify him, he needs to be inside more and I honestly think he is the player with that vision to play those balls to RvP, our players need to have confidence in him and as someone said Herrera as well needs to come back because he plays those balls through too.
Fenerbache have inquired apparently
That pretty much sums it up. I was screaming for Fellaini to slip the ball in to RVP in one of the situations shown there, but the guy clumsily held on to the ball for too long. It was terrible.
We need Herrera in the advanced midfielder role.
Fellaini and RvP were in the exact same position about 5 minutes prior to that chance, but van Persie managed to get himself offside when MF tried to release him. Fellaini hesitated on this occasion because he was afraid the same thing would happen again.
Fellaini isn't the hapless passer you're making him out to be.
I'm not buying this. So Fellaini decided against playing the correct pass because Van Persie was caught offside previously? Do we then decide not to be aiming for Fellaini's head in set pieces because he got beaten to the ball by a defender?
Offsides are an occupational hazard for strikers, just like losing an aerial duel is for players. Van Persie didn't stop Drogba's goal when he was at the near post in the Chelsea game. Do we then decide against putting a man on the post at corners? Of course not.
Falcao would replace RVP wonderfully in that case. Nothing beats playing a striker on loan in the loan striker role.
In any case, I would much rather have Falcao than RVP playing alone up top. Falcao gives much more energy and he showed pretty good holding up play in the couple of games he started as well. RVP just look so lethargic these days, seems as though he ages twice faster than normal.
Ooops.Yeah, I think if we can get Falcao a run in the lone striker role we'll start to see the benefits in our overall attacking play.
He's human. It happens with players all the time. The word most people use to describe it is confidence. Fellaini obviously had the ability to spot the pass, because he did exactly that only a few minutes earlier.
I thought City defended that first run of RvP's (as shown in the Neville clip) quite well. Kompany (I think it was Kompany) and Clichy were very close together and Fellaini was probably thinking his pass was going to be intercepted if he tried the pass so he probably thought not to. That being said, obviously he should sometimes take the risk.
He does not look the player that we bought. Don't know if he is in decline or is not comfortable with the system. Didn't look himself at the world cup either.
Carrick/Giggs brought out the best in him with the passes they picked from the deep. May be we'll see a resurgance now that Carrick is back.
Carrick/Giggs brought out the best in him with the passes they picked from the deep. May be we'll see a resurgance now that Carrick is back.
I know. You're making it out as if I'm berating Fellaini for that mistake. I'm not. I just agreed with Neville's assessment that RVP is not getting the service he needs.
If di Maria would pass more to Shaw (or Rafael, depends were he is) it would be much harder to nullify him. He is just keeping the ball to much.
we should have kept Welbeck and let him go. If said that several times. Give Wilson a go until Falcao is fit again.
The day van Gaal came in, that was never going to happen.
Plus wages.
If it was possible, I'd have done the same though. In fact, I probably wouldn't have bought him in the first place. Just seemed a signing done to stop him going to City, to flex our muscles, and to add a match winner that we actually didn't need.
And it's a mini representation of how we've not been been making a proper effort to play a certain way for the last couple of years. Basically - win however.
I don't really agree with Nev's defence. The nature of being a striker is that you make dozens of runs in every game you play, hoping that maybe once or twice you might get the perfect pass to pick you out. You can't pick out three runs he's made over 90 minutes (one of which would have required an absolute worldy of a pass to pick out) as evidence that he's not getting the service his performance deserves. We had players in the team like Rooney, Januzaj and Di Maria who are well capable of spotting a run and delivering the perfect pass. If Van Persie was consistently making great runs over 90 minutes they would have definitely been able to provide the through balls Nev seems to think he's lacking.
There is no elephant in the room. Welbeck wouldn't have miraculously changed our fortunes. He's an average-good striker, and one who works best in a fully functioning team. Our team is so disjointed that Welbeck would have looked as ineffective as ever.
Disagree. There's far too many examples in the recent past of the presence of Welbeck making the difference between our team functioning well in an attacking sense or functioning poorly. As recently as this pre-season.
Even if you focus on his most basic of attributes you can see how having him up top would have improved us. Having someone with genuine pace would have made a massive difference on Sunday. With both City CBs able to comfortably out-sprint our lone striker if required their job was made far too easy.
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