His defensive stats where awful at Fiorentina. No clue how anyone thought he could be good enough.
Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
I thought he was good apart from the error/foul ofcourse.
Was always going to be difficult to come back from 2-0 down against Newcastles solid midfield.
I think today we got the same Maguire and Lindelof that we’ve always hated as a pair. Dalot being absolutely awful didn’t help.
We only started playing well when Sofyan came in - this part won’t go down well with the agenda posters ofcourse
Was always going to be difficult to come back from 2-0 down against Newcastles solid midfield.
I think today we got the same Maguire and Lindelof that we’ve always hated as a pair. Dalot being absolutely awful didn’t help.
We only started playing well when Sofyan came in - this part won’t go down well with the agenda posters ofcourse
He played well until that mistake that cost us the third goal. Both he and AWB came on and were clearly our best players after halftime, but then Amrabat made the mistake and he was fairly average after that. Unfortunately average was still better than most of the others out there, which is the second or third match I've said that about Amrabat.
I'll say it again....Fiorentina, Brugge, Verona, Twente.
There's a reason he only ever played at those clubs. One great game against France in the WC and apparently that counted for nothing any more.
There's a reason he only ever played at those clubs. One great game against France in the WC and apparently that counted for nothing any more.
As soon as Andy Mitten said on the Talk of the Devils podcast that his peers in Italy advised that he's too slow for English football I became worried about this signing (after initially being happy with it). He will be okay in games where we dominate the ball but in these games against high pressing midfielders like Joelinton/Longstaff etc he will cost us goals. As I typed that last sentence I realised that could be written about Eriksen too.
With how volatile our passers are at retaining possession, we barely dominate the ball these days
Our scouting and recruitment is a joke, though seems they are ignored. Antony already been ruled out before ETH spends £80m on him
I never seen that but yeah, he’s far too slow and I’m now glad he’s a loan and should never become permanent. Can’t believe I got sucked into thinking he was the answer when he’s clearly not.
We need to steer clear of signing players on loan - the only ones available are not good enough.
It's like we learned nothing from the Weghorst / Sabitzer debacle last season.
It's like we learned nothing from the Weghorst / Sabitzer debacle last season.
Play him and Casemiro together, it's so obvious now that this "2 8's" vision isn't going to work.
Yeah very true. His 2 good performance have been Brentford and Palace in the cup - I assume we'd have had 60-65% of the ball in those games without checking the stats. Anyway it's early days and he could still adapt but early signs are concerning.
We had no money and he was signed on loan as a backup. He's not supposed to be the be all and end all of defensive midfielders, he's been decent for us and made some mistakes, essentially what everyone said he was going to be before we signed him.
He’s alright on loan. Just don’t sign him permanently.
This was a bit different though as we wanted to sign him permanently and the only reason we didn't was due to budget constraints.
I called it at the time that he's a mid table Serie A player.
Too many people were getting giddy over his performances at the world cup. The same world cup where Harry Maguire looks like a world beater!
I thought his deep midfield performance was acceptable. He moved around, had a decent pass accuracy, relatively quick thinking and recycled the ball effectively. A couple of awful shots and a lack of creativity in front of him shouldn't take away from a solid 6/7 performance. I would start him given the lack of options and quality currently.
Very, very average but at least he's being deployed in the role he's meant to play in so in that sense it's a positive.
Always found it a bit peculiar that anyone expected any different.
He was very publicly available for not a lot of money all Summer long and no one apart from us was particularly interested.
He is guff, I hope it's not an obligation to buy.
Option to buy. Whew.
I don't even we'd be stupid enough to enter into a contract like that.
Good.
Hes only on loan right now because we couldnt sell Mctominay right? Everything in the summer indicated we wanted to sign him, but couldnt because we couldnt shift Mctominay, thus had to get him on loan instead.
I do think we should probably look at 2 'holding' and a 10 especially whilst Martinez and Shaw (and varane) are out. WIth case out, I think we should try him, Hannibal or Mainoo + one (eg bruno or eriksen). It might make us stop conceding 3 every match.
I do think we should probably look at 2 'holding' and a 10 especially whilst Martinez and Shaw (and varane) are out. WIth case out, I think we should try him, Hannibal or Mainoo + one (eg bruno or eriksen). It might make us stop conceding 3 every match.
He held his position as a 6 and made 40 odd passes(I think) in one half.
That's actually kind of what we need. Shame he's not a bit lighter on his feet but I'd have him in the team every week.
That's actually kind of what we need. Shame he's not a bit lighter on his feet but I'd have him in the team every week.
If the whole 90 played out like the second half, with Ambrabat on the pitch, the result would have been a lot closer, that’s for sure. That one error is making people forget how much more possession and territory we had after he replaced Casemiro.
He is slow and might be the worst DM in the league aerially. That is a really bad combination of defensive issues when the boss is insistent on playing a single pivot. On the other hand he is active, asks for the ball and has a good engine but he seems the equivalent of an Eleney at Arsenal, a reasonable back up you really don't want starting a large number of games.
From an article about why we should have signed Palhina (who is always very good whenever we play Fulham and will probably score tomorrow)
Funny enough as everytime I watched Palhina play for Fulham, he looked every bit as average as his teammates, bar the odd game
I’ll go against the grain here. He has his flaws but I still think he’s a really good addition to the squad and imo hands down the best DM at the club atm.
Yes he is slow and aerially poor. But he has more defensive contributions per 90’ (tackles, interceptions and blocks) than any other midfielder in the squad. Casemiro fell off a cliff stats wise from last year, defensively. When Amrabat is taken off or absent you can really see it. He also shows a lot for the ball and he keeps it moving. He has per 90’ the highest number of passes (60), highest pass success rate (85.3%), and most progressive passes and total distance out of all of our midfielders. He’s a pretty reliable metronome.
Now consider he has just transferred to a new, harder league, on the last day of the window, missed all pre-season, missed his first few weeks here with injury, he’s basically had only a few weeks and 7 matches so far to adapt and all this during a time when the club has been an absolute shitshow, due to no fault of his own. I think when taking into account his performances and the mitigating circumstances, the signs are quite promising. Like, people were clamouring for Caicedo but he went to another club in turmoil and he’s struggling to find his feet much more than Amrabat is. Despite being experienced in this league. I think everyone is just very frustrated at how bad we’re doing right now and are rubbishing every player without really judging them fairly individually.
Finally I have a soft spot for him due to his character. He is passionate and fiery without going overboard. He was really keen to come here and he is paid peanuts compared to our other midfielders (65k pw, according to capology).
PS. Mistakes like last game will happen. No one is flawless. And it was compounded by timid defending where the defenders backed off constantly allowing the shot.
Yes he is slow and aerially poor. But he has more defensive contributions per 90’ (tackles, interceptions and blocks) than any other midfielder in the squad. Casemiro fell off a cliff stats wise from last year, defensively. When Amrabat is taken off or absent you can really see it. He also shows a lot for the ball and he keeps it moving. He has per 90’ the highest number of passes (60), highest pass success rate (85.3%), and most progressive passes and total distance out of all of our midfielders. He’s a pretty reliable metronome.
Now consider he has just transferred to a new, harder league, on the last day of the window, missed all pre-season, missed his first few weeks here with injury, he’s basically had only a few weeks and 7 matches so far to adapt and all this during a time when the club has been an absolute shitshow, due to no fault of his own. I think when taking into account his performances and the mitigating circumstances, the signs are quite promising. Like, people were clamouring for Caicedo but he went to another club in turmoil and he’s struggling to find his feet much more than Amrabat is. Despite being experienced in this league. I think everyone is just very frustrated at how bad we’re doing right now and are rubbishing every player without really judging them fairly individually.
Finally I have a soft spot for him due to his character. He is passionate and fiery without going overboard. He was really keen to come here and he is paid peanuts compared to our other midfielders (65k pw, according to capology).
PS. Mistakes like last game will happen. No one is flawless. And it was compounded by timid defending where the defenders backed off constantly allowing the shot.
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He is good, indeed. Just need to find the way to play him and it’s the same for the whole team.
Good by what standard though? He's not good enough to be near the starting midfield of any club with any aspirations. Personally I wouldn't be signing him permanently. I watch him and our other midfielders and I actually miss the energy and mobility of Fred.
I don‘t think that can be fairly ascertained after such a short time. He’s doing individually well despite the team being abysmal. Give it time. There’s no rush to sign him permanently. We can sit and watch how he does for the season.
But from what I see so far he seems valuable and you would be really hard pressed to find better DMs to sign for £20m and 65k pw next summer. And it isn’t just about the bargain of the situation. He is legitimately playing better than McTominay or Casemiro in DM by every metric. Based on the season so far I get the feeling that we’d be better off singing him next summer as a squad option, getting rid of the other 2 and using the money to buy a starting quality DM.
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Palinha isn't good enough on the ball. We need press resistant, technical players we already have enough donkeys.
Wow! Seems I watching a different player because his performances have been ok for me. He is not world class and lets be honest, playing at this level is totally new for him plus the team is not that good at the moment but atleast he is consistent in his strengths. We don't have to worry when he is on the ball and even though he is not defensively imposing you have to cut him some slack on that aspect given the whole teams structure is not working. I have a feeling he will get better with more experience playing here and lets be honest, unless Mainoo proves to be absolute baller of a DM I don't think Amrabat as a squad DM was or is going to be a bad deal at all.
I’m not arguing we should sign Palinha. I’m posting those stats to show that Samrabat is making more tackles/game than any other United player. Which is something, at least.
I think he's been Ok. He's a high volume passer and rarely makes mistakes. If he actually plays with 2 8s, not two "almost number 10s", he'll be fine.
He's not brilliant, he's pretty basic, but we need some pretty basic in midfield right now rather than high risk, kamikaze football. A lot of the other folks we have in midfield can't do basics right, so I don't mind him at all.
As been said, we markedly improved against Newcastle when he and AWB came on.
He's not brilliant, he's pretty basic, but we need some pretty basic in midfield right now rather than high risk, kamikaze football. A lot of the other folks we have in midfield can't do basics right, so I don't mind him at all.
As been said, we markedly improved against Newcastle when he and AWB came on.
My bad mate
A nothing player. This is what happens when you waste your budget on Mount.
I never want to see him wear this jersey again
Seeing nothing to justify making it a permanent transfer
What do people, more importantly, ETH see in him, really?