Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances

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Guarantee if he signed for Liverpool and then bossed it people would bitch and moan about why we didn’t sign him.

The whole team is playing shite. Give him time.

A far cry from when he played a makeshift LB & people were loving him.

We sure do like to write off players here at the drop of a hat. Almost as if they should have 10/10 performances week in week out.
 
UnitedSofa said:
Guarantee if he signed for Liverpool and then bossed it people would bitch and moan about why we didn’t sign him.

The whole team is playing shite. Give him time.

A far cry from when he played a makeshift LB & people were loving him.

We sure do like to write off players here at the drop of a hat. Almost as if they should have 10/10 performances week in week out.
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Must be tough for any new player to walk into Old Trafford these days, expectations being what they are. There's probably a good player in there and hopefully we'll see him.
 
UnitedSofa said:
Guarantee if he signed for Liverpool and then bossed it people would bitch and moan about why we didn’t sign him.

The whole team is playing shite. Give him time.

A far cry from when he played a makeshift LB & people were loving him.

We sure do like to write off players here at the drop of a hat. Almost as if they should have 10/10 performances week in week out.
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People are not asking some super star level performance. Currently he's below average. Even ETH thought starting McTominay and Eriksen away is better idea.

Also Gakpo, Darwin Nunez haven't been doing that well that we're regretting badly to lose them to Liverpool. There is no guarantee that Amrabat suddenly would play at a different, several fold higher than he has ever displayed if he played for Liverpool or if he has more time in this league. Some hyped midfielders from Serie A simply failed to adapt to the PL. Veron was seen at one of the best playmaker came from one of the top teams in Serie A, the top league in the world at the time, and failed to adapt to PL. Jorginho hasn't lived up to Serie A reputation and now he even lost his Italy NT call up due to his poor form. You seem to have very high expectation for Amrabat if you think he can just go there and boss it for Liverpool.

Ironically, Arthur who flopped so bad at Liverpool is doing very well at Fiorentina is kinda Amrabat replacement.
 
At Fiorentina, his only good asset was his long-range passing from deeper positions in a league where games are played at a considerably slower pace than the PL and midfielders of the same mould usually enjoy lots of space and time on the ball to dictate the tempo and pick the right option. Either than that, neither his positioning ever suggested that he could screen the defence, nor did he ever possess any other outstanding midfielder qualities. You could see the "why" behind the transfer, as we desperately need someone able to affect the rhythm of games to our benefit (with Casemiro and Bruno being who they are) and add a bit of nuance to our frantic plays, but it's the wrong player and the wrong idea from the manager. I feel for him, though. His transfer saga combined with our midfield woes turned him into some kind of saviour for some. Secondly, i'll never agree with the idea that individual quality is the way to mend a bad situation. There's not a point in signing De Jong, let alone Amrabat, when the rest of the midfield consists of Case/Bruno and your best attackers thrive in open spaces. If more control and composure is what you want, the problem isn't what you lack. It's what you already have.
 
UnitedSofa said:
Guarantee if he signed for Liverpool and then bossed it people would bitch and moan about why we didn’t sign him.

The whole team is playing shite. Give him time.

A far cry from when he played a makeshift LB & people were loving him.

We sure do like to write off players here at the drop of a hat. Almost as if they should have 10/10 performances week in week out.
Click to expand...

100% agree. We've had that so often recently, people should be wise to it now. Players that are decent for other teams but suddenly shite for us. Only the proper elite mentality players seem to have an impact. Zlatan, Cavani, Bruno, Casemiro (though the latter's legs are gone).

It is worrying though that every signing Ten Hag brings in comes with problems and Amrabat is the latest to make virtually no impact.
 
FerociousCorgis said:
that makes zero sense. Those are two different things. 1) upgrade on fred. 2) find the specific player.
They are not mutually exclusive it wasnt like we had literally two options in the entire world, keep fred or sign amrabat.
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As I said at the time, I would be happy to upgrade on Fred but it wasn't going to be as easy as people made out. Sure he was capable of having some absolute shockers but nowhere near as many as people make out. Especially in his last 18 months when we moved him into a slightly more advanced role with more freedom (the role that he blatantly should have been playing the entire time) he was actually one of our most consistent players. He was our best player during Ralf's time here, and other than a poor first month he was then generally good throughout ETH's first season (not counting that one game where ETH played him as the deepest midfielder again and he was terrible).
 
TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
At Fiorentina, his only good asset was his long-range passing from deeper positions in a league where games are played at a considerably slower pace than the PL and midfielders of the same mould usually enjoy lots of space and time on the ball to dictate the tempo and pick the right option. Either than that, neither his positioning ever suggested that he could screen the defence, nor did he ever possess any other outstanding midfielder qualities. You could see the "why" behind the transfer, as we desperately need someone able to affect the rhythm of games to our benefit (with Casemiro and Bruno being who they are) and add a bit of nuance to our frantic plays, but it's the wrong player and the wrong idea from the manager. I feel for him, though. His transfer saga combined with our midfield woes turned him into some kind of saviour for some. Secondly, i'll never agree with the idea that individual quality is the way to mend a bad situation. There's not a point in signing De Jong, let alone Amrabat, when the rest of the midfield consists of Case/Bruno and your best attackers thrive in open spaces. If more control and composure is what you want, the problem isn't what you lack. It's what you already have.
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Long range passing was absolutely not his only asset.
 
Mackerdaymia said:
100% agree. We've had that so often recently, people should be wise to it now. Players that are decent for other teams but suddenly shite for us. Only the proper elite mentality players seem to have an impact. Zlatan, Cavani, Bruno, Casemiro (though the latter's legs are gone).

It is worrying though that every signing Ten Hag brings in comes with problems and Amrabat is the latest to make virtually no impact.
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I think we have to go back to why he was signed and what was realistically expected of him.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, he was signed to provide competition for Casemiro (and cover / relief / tactical options), as EtH said a few times that we had no competition in deep midfield.

Amrabat has played well in fits and starts and had the best ball retention and passing stats two or three games running (for what that’s worth) but generally he has been injured, used in various positions and subbed off when doing okay. He hasn’t played well, it’s true, but it’s way too early to judge him. It’s also, therefore, too early to judge whether it was the right decision to loan him as cover / competition. It’s not too early to suspect that he’s not going to transform the team on his own. I don’t think anyone really thought he would but you will see plenty of posts in this thread claiming he was being vaunted as a messiah. He’s not the messiah but I wouldn’t have him in the naughty boy category either.
 
OrcaFat said:
Long range passing was absolutely not his only asset.
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I beg to differ. It was his best quality in his primary role, which was to provide stability in the midfield and help them control the rhythm/flow of the game. He was by no means a creative player and his defensive positioning was, more often than not, suspect, thus his tendency to give away lots of fouls in dangerous areas. He had a good eye for a pass when a direct route was available, and the timing of his switch-play long balls helped them keep circulating the ball until an opening became available. But all that with the abundance of time on the ball he was afforded in Italy. That's from a sample of a dozen Serie A games i watched him play. If you follow Fiorentina more closely and therefore have a more conclusive opinion, fair enough.
 
I saw maybe one game of him at Fiorentina, the European final, where he was really good, but on sites like WhoScored he was one of their lowest rated regulars in the 2 seasons he was there which was surprising to see when the hype started around him. I don't think those type of sites are particularly reliable, but also it is probably not a good thing to be rated so low.
 
TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
I beg to differ. It was his best quality in his primary role, which was to provide stability in the midfield and help them control the rhythm/flow of the game. He was by no means a creative player and his defensive positioning was, more often than not, suspect, thus his tendency to give away lots of fouls in dangerous areas. He had a good eye for a pass when a direct route was available, and the timing of his switch-play long balls helped them keep circulating the ball until an opening became available. But all that with the abundance of time on the ball he was afforded in Italy. That's from a sample of a dozen Serie A games i watched him play. If you follow Fiorentina more closely and therefore have a more conclusive opinion, fair enough.
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No, I don’t want to claim I have more extensive experience of watching him. But the games I have seen, I saw something different to you. To my eyes he is a decent no6. Good on the ball, good in tight spaces, doesn’t give the ball away much. Strong. Decently mobile.

He’s not a special player in any sense but if he manages to settle and adjust to the higher demands of the prem he can be a good squad player, better than several others we’ve had in recent years and more suited to EtH.

If you don’t rate him much, I wouldn’t seek to persuade you otherwise but I think a lot of people have seen him struggling in a few games for us and have decided he’s shit which I think is a bit hasty.
 
Bobski said:
I saw maybe one game of him at Fiorentina, the European final, where he was really good, but on sites like WhoScored he was one of their lowest rated regulars in the 2 seasons he was there which was surprising to see when the hype started around him. I don't think those type of sites are particularly reliable, but also it is probably not a good thing to be rated so low.
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Yeah, those sites are shit but we can’t ignore these things altogether. He has qualities but, perhaps, we loaned him (rather than permanent signing) because we were not at all sure he would
make the grade here.
 
Another poor signing despite it being loan. Not sure whose target it was, scouting team or ETH target because paying 8m just to loan him doesn’t look that good at the moment. This alongwith Mount transfer has actually weakened us. There is no doubt we could have spent the money better in midfield department than what we did in the summer
 
UnitedSofa said:
Guarantee if he signed for Liverpool and then bossed it people would bitch and moan about why we didn’t sign him.

The whole team is playing shite. Give him time.

A far cry from when he played a makeshift LB & people were loving him.

We sure do like to write off players here at the drop of a hat. Almost as if they should have 10/10 performances week in week out.
Click to expand...

Very true. Over here, players shift from heros to villains from a week to the other. The main problem is that any player who joins is suffers. They all underperform.
 
Telsim said:
His performance as a midfielder remains to be seen. Not going to be anytime soon by the looks of it. Of course, I doubt he is the saviour the Caf seems to think he is.
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And he isn't. He is like a combination of Fred and McTominay, just somewhat better. Certainly not at the level you need if you plan on challenging the highest honours, assuming that's what this club wants, that is. I hope we don't make it permanent, at least not at the price Fiorentina want. For 15 million and a reasonable wage he could be a good squad option, though.
 
Telsim said:
And he isn't. He is like a combination of Fred and McTominay, just somewhat better. Certainly not at the level you need if you plan on challenging the highest honours, assuming that's what this club wants, that is. I hope we don't make it permanent, at least not at the price Fiorentina want. For 15 million and a reasonable wage he could be a good squad option, though.
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Nothing so far at Utd suggests he is as good as Fred, let alone better. Fred had many shockers of course but he also had many genuinely great games, match changing games, with a top level clearly significantly ahead of anything Amrabat has shown.

It is really a bit Sabitzer so far, were we start with the optimistic assumption that he will obviously be better than what we have, overrate his opening appearances with large amounts of confirmation bias, then gradual disillusion as reality hits.
 
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Seems to have a very loose touch at times and not very mobile. Is there a mandatory buy clause in the loan deal, or can we just ship him back if we want to?
 
Going back to Fellaini, every non-youth player who has come to OT since Ferguson left has underperformed relative to expectations. Realistic expectations. Bruno might be the only exception.
 
lex talionis said:
Going back to Fellaini, every non-youth player who has come to OT since Ferguson left has underperformed relative to expectations. Realistic expectations. Bruno might be the only exception.
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Zlatan did well for an old man.

Martinez.
 
OrcaFat said:
I think we have to go back to why he was signed and what was realistically expected of him.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, he was signed to provide competition for Casemiro (and cover / relief / tactical options), as EtH said a few times that we had no competition in deep midfield.

Amrabat has played well in fits and starts and had the best ball retention and passing stats two or three games running (for what that’s worth) but generally he has been injured, used in various positions and subbed off when doing okay. He hasn’t played well, it’s true, but it’s way too early to judge him. It’s also, therefore, too early to judge whether it was the right decision to loan him as cover / competition. It’s not too early to suspect that he’s not going to transform the team on his own. I don’t think anyone really thought he would but you will see plenty of posts in this thread claiming he was being vaunted as a messiah. He’s not the messiah but I wouldn’t have him in the naughty boy category either.
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Maybe some people hoped loaning him at tje end of the window was a shrewd way to get a coming key player in to replace Casemiro, but to me it seems more realistic that we needed cover for Casemiro and didn’t want to go the Antony route of overpaying for a squaddie.

As a cover/plan B where Casemiro-Mount-Bruno is the long term plan A and we hopefully go into the market next season for a more classy midfield option, it makes sense. Unfortunately, he comes in (from injury) as a newb at a time where noone gels and he’s suddenly supposed to be a starter because of injuries. Only 1 of 4 hit the ground running as a general rule, and 1 in 4 take up to a year to find their feet at a new club, so that kind of expectations will help nobody.
 
What is going on with this bloke and are we going to keep him after January?
Seems a bit pointless if we brought him in to be cover for Casemiro who is now out injured and now we are not even going to play him.
 
Bondi77 said:
Some on here were saying he was as good as Declan Rice :lol: :lol:
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If they were, that looks like a bit of misplaced optimism.

He is a better player than what he has generally shown for us. Without stating the obvious, he hasn’t had much game time and therefore insufficient time to adapt to a new club and a new league. He has been injured off and on, which doesn’t help. He’s had to play out of position a few times, which isn’t easy. And, he’s done okay in some games but, for some reason, got hooked at half time.

I would agree he’s been disappointing but I think he has a few excuses there. At this point I doubt he will be made permanent but the season is still young and he might settle and start looking the part.
 
OrcaFat said:
If they were, that looks like a bit of misplaced optimism.

He is a better player than what he has generally shown for us. Without stating the obvious, he hasn’t had much game time and therefore insufficient time to adapt to a new club and a new league. He has been injured off and on, which doesn’t help. He’s had to play out of position a few times, which isn’t easy. And, he’s done okay in some games but, for some reason, got hooked at half time.

I would agree he’s been disappointing but I think he has a few excuses there. At this point I doubt he will be made permanent but the season is still young and he might settle and start looking the part.
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I would just like to see him play as a DM and see if there is any chance that we will make the deal permanent if he is up to playing Premier league football.
 
Bondi77 said:
I would just like to see him play as a DM and see if there is any chance that we will make the deal permanent if he is up to playing Premier league football.
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Agreed.

If he gets fit and has a clearly defined role, I could see him being a useful squad member even if we do recruit another DM (assuming he’s not going to cost a lot). But he has to prove he can play at a decent level.
 
He’s obviously a better player than he looks at the moment. He’d need to be a hell of a lot better than we’ve seen to justify buying him, though.
 
Reminds me of Sabitzer and Weghorst. They are nearly men i.e. They could be great but are lacking that extra bit that can make them good players. Antony as well. Ten Haag seems to love these players. Players no top team will touch - except us
 
UpWithRivers said:
Reminds me of Sabitzer and Weghorst. They are nearly men i.e. They could be great but are lacking that extra bit that can make them good players. Antony as well. Ten Haag seems to love these players. Players no top team will touch - except us
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Sabitzer was better and he wasn't good enough.
 
Didn't get a lot of minutes today but I thought he didn't look good at all. I think, the pressure of the big club is getting at him. Don't know how he looked earlier but I actually can't imagine how this player racked up those passing stats... That being said, I thought he should have started over McTominay today.
 
I'm not feeling it. He's just slipping further and further down the list with Mainoo coming in today.
 
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