That's not Paul Scholes?

e.cantona

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First, this is not ment to be a wind up, or a 'lets replace/drop Scholes' -kind of thread.

To me he hasnt been himself at all this season, save perhaps a couple of games (see chelsea). IMO he was maybe the main reason we played such exciting football last season, and now that he's maybe a little off form, we're witnessing the result in us strugeling to create/play our flowing(?) style.
Anyway, if i'm not the only one who feel this way, what's the reason behind Scholes' lack of form?
I'm sort of worried, as in I'm hoping Scholes will stay with us for another few years..
 

Justin

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Maybe the combination of Rooney and Tevez who both likes to drop deep is affecting Scholes. Scholes is playing so deep it completely takes out his creativity.
 

e.cantona

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Justin said:
Maybe the combination of Rooney and Tevez who both likes to drop deep is affecting Scholes. Scholes is playing so deep it completely takes out his creativity.
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That would be a problem for him, wouldnt it? Scholes' best when he's sort of the creative force in the team, isnt he? So now with both Tevez and Rooney doing half the job for him..
 

Bape

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I agree. He's not been much of a creative force this season at all. He's not acted as the playmaker we expect from the centre of the midfield, and his vision and passing has only been average at best. It's abit of a concern because he has already lost his pace which limits his attacking threats, but his all round game has also looked average so far. Everyone is quick to criticise on Gigg's lack of form but Scholes is facing a similar situation.

Let's just hope Scholes can play to the standard he played last season soon.
 

Canuckred64

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I just think he is playing to deep. Could be because Rooney and Tevez are dropping back into the midfield to pick up the ball. Or maybe Ferguson wants him to play more defensively, or be more of a field general. Hopefully when Hargreaves begins to play Scholes can go back to being more attack minded.
 

The Hairdryer

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He plays deep(er) these days. Has done so for a few years.
 

Red Sense

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Canuckred64 said:
I just think he is playing to deep. Could be because Rooney and Tevez are dropping back into the midfield to pick up the ball. Or maybe Ferguson wants him to play more defensively, or be more of a field general. Hopefully when Hargreaves begins to play Scholes can go back to being more attack minded.
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I agree with all you say except the defensive bit. If we have to rely on his tackling we're all doomed. He is off form the same as Giggsy really. When Owen plays I think Scholesy will play less deep though and therefore become more of a threat.
 

Wes

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one thing's for sure, Ferguson likes to play a player in a certain position which is not his usual when that role will eventually be filled by someone who plays that role and is superior at it, i.e. the particular role. I believe the very deep role that Scholes has been filling is Carrick's future role with us.

In fact John O'Shea was used to shape the team for the arrival of Carrick in my opinion. He played the same way in 06 (post Keano) that Carrick did the 07 season just gone. The only difference defensively-minded is Carrick's vastly superior pass completion rate, which is what we eventually got after Keane.

I believe Carrick's brilliant positioning to cover the back for, and find long balls and through passes will make him the man who sits in the team, getting forward only when we are attacking in full flow. Hargreaves should be used ahead of him, to push teams up, and win possestion (which is his major asset) in advanced positions. Gattuso is generally used like this, and he's half the best midfield of the last 5years.
 

The Hairdryer

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Scholesy can tackle. He just chooses to do it stupidly sometimes.
 

The Hairdryer

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Wittmann45 said:
Explain...

Everton, Spurs, Reading, Birmingham, and City were sub par days. I didn't see the Chelsea game, so I can't comment on that one.

I'm not saying he has been crap. What I am saying is that he hasn't been playing up to his own standard.
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If you haven't noticed the whole team are still lacking cohesiveness and understanding. Scholesy has been fine, other than last night and one other game, he's been keeping possesion well, dictating play and his workload has been spot on.

I know when Paul Scholes is out of form, I've been watching him long enough. His technique falls apart, he appears to have less time on the ball than usual and he can't dig those 60 yard balls from under his feet with little backlift like he usually does.
 

MadDogg

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Bape said:
Everyone is quick to criticise on Gigg's lack of form but Scholes is facing a similar situation.
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It's nothing alike. Giggs has been playing completely, utterly crap. He's been stuffing up even the simplest of things. Scholes is simply a little less effective than he was last season.

Scholes needs our attackers to move and run into holes for him to find them. He can't create something when nobody is moving into the correct openings. Which is what has been happening this season, with a real lack of movement ahead of him.
 

Kelvin

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except for his wonder goal against Pompey, he has been rather subdue and totally marked out of the game by oppositions.
 

Raven Blade

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You finally recognise that more than one of our players are off the pace so far this season. I can see it in all of our midfield and attacking players at the moment. They are just not firing on all cylinders yet.

I blame Reading for this. If we had beaten them on the opening day it may have given us some momentum to start the season. Their bore draw has set the tone for our performances so far.
 

golden_blunder

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im reading these topics all over the forum

"whats up with giggs?"
"whats up with scholes?"
"whats up with Carrick?"
"whats up with Rooney?"

The reason they are all "out of form"?

Saha

Saha is the key to our success this season. He is the one that gels it all together.

So next time someone starts yet another of these threads, hopefully they will consider that before thinking that yet another player has suddenly lost it from one season to another.
 

Sjarkus

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golden_blunder said:
im reading these topics all over the forum

"whats up with giggs?"
"whats up with scholes?"
"whats up with Carrick?"
"whats up with Rooney?"

The reason they are all "out of form"?

Saha

Saha is the key to our success this season. He is the one that gels it all together.

So next time someone starts yet another of these threads, hopefully they will consider that before thinking that yet another player has suddenly lost it from one season to another.
Click to expand...
I agree about us missing Saha. We have, however, played great football without him, even last season. Giggs doesn't have to miss every 10-yard-pass just because Saha isn't on the field. He screws up simple return passes, and uses way too much time on the ball. As for Scholes, he could be affected by the lack of width and movement in general, but he too doesn't look as aware as he should be.

Giggs should be benched, no matter how much of a United-legend he is. Teams can't be picked on the basis of what he has done for us in the past That performance yesterday was probably worse than anything Richardson ever did in a United-shirt. If it had been Park, people would have been screaming for him to be sold to Sunderland for £5,5 million.

For me, the biggest problem is lack of tempo in our passing game. We move the ball around so slowly, and seem to be lacking any sort of movement/width. The difference in the second half when Ronaldo decided to stay on the right wing and cause Birmingham problems was tremendous. Giggs played as a very ineffective extra central midfielder yesterday.
 

Sjarkus

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a_devil_inside said:
I thought Scholes was our best player against Birmingham, he seemed to be everywhere on the pitch getting the ball
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No he wasn't. He and Carrick gave it away so many times in the midfield area, completely unnecesarry. It is of course difficult trying to be creative when our general play is as narrow as yesterday.

Tevez or either one of Rio/Vidic was MOTM for me.
 

CapeTownRed

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golden_blunder said:
im reading these topics all over the forum

"whats up with giggs?"
"whats up with scholes?"
"whats up with Carrick?"
"whats up with Rooney?"

The reason they are all "out of form"?

Saha

Saha is the key to our success this season. He is the one that gels it all together.

So next time someone starts yet another of these threads, hopefully they will consider that before thinking that yet another player has suddenly lost it from one season to another.
Click to expand...
I think the problem also stems from having limited natural width on the left (Evra has been good, but I think we look a lot more dangerous when Giggsy finds himself out wide as well, too bad it doesn't happen too often these days). In fact, our play in general has been very narrow and one-dimensional and we're not stretching teams the way we were last season.
 

kanchelskis14

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Scholes hasn't been that bad in my view. His form has been a bit patchy throughout 07 though, he ended the season playing quite poorly, Carrick totally outshone him.

And he was awful against Reading on the opening day. I still think he has a lot to give as a starting player for a bit longer anyway, but as for overall balance, Hargreaves and Carrick will give us the best in the near future, allowing the 4 attackers to attack more freely.
 

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Scholes has definetly been subdued compared to last season. It is because he is playing 10 yards too deep. He is seeing as much of the ball as ever and he has probably retained the ball just as well but his passes haven't been of the incisive type because of his deep starting position.
 

e.cantona

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Looked more like his good old self today, didnt he? Hope he keeps it up :)
 

Bape

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The comment by the commentator "Theres Scholes with a Paul Scholes special" when he did a reckless tackle cracked me up.

But anyhow, was decent today but nothing special.
 

M160RA

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To be fair, none of our players except Rio, Vidic and Evra have been in good form so far this season.
 

KingEric7

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The Hairdryer said:
If you haven't noticed the whole team are still lacking cohesiveness and understanding. Scholesy has been fine, other than last night and one other game, he's been keeping possesion well, dictating play and his workload has been spot on.

I know when Paul Scholes is out of form, I've been watching him long enough. His technique falls apart, he appears to have less time on the ball than usual and he can't dig those 60 yard balls from under his feet with little backlift like he usually does.
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This is right.
We have still be controlling the midfield in most of our games this year, and Scholes has had a lot to do with that.
An off form Scholes was the Scholes we saw against Reading on the opening day. Since then he has been decent to good, nothing more or less. Even if he hasn't quite reached the heights of last year, he is still crucial to our team.
 

Steev

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I thought Scholes did ok last night. He wanted the ball at every opportunity and got it. The only problem was that he didn't seem to have anyone upfront in decent positions to play it to.
 
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