Unpopular (AKA fickle) opinion time on AWB.....

Nou_Camp99

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I have stuck to my guns from the off on this. He's a very good tackler with his spider like legs but on the ball I don't even think he's in the top 10 right backs in the league let alone Europe. £50m seems like a hell of a lot of money for someone who can tackle.

What else is he offering? Looks petrified when the ball comes his way. I heard someone on a fan cam call him the best right back in the league earlier today. Can we stop this nonsense right now? He's not even close. You have to be able to play football too and he can't quite frankly.
 

hobbers

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We knew this before he signed. Hopefully he can improve on the ball.

Unlike Young or Valencia he's so good at tackling I can just about forgive how bad he looks on the ball.
 

Nou_Camp99

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We knew this before he signed. Hopefully he can improve on the ball.

Unlike Young or Valencia he's so good at tackling I can just about forgive how bad he looks on the ball.
You see this is what annoys me. Valencia and Young are hardly the benchmark. We all know they were/are poor players who long outstayed their welcome at the club.

Wouldn't even put AWB above Rafael da Silva at this stage from what iv seen so far. Rafael was vastly superior on the ball.
 

Florida Man

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You see this is what annoys me. Valencia and Young are hardly the benchmark. We all know they were/are poor players who long outstayed their welcome at the club.

Wouldn't even put AWB above Rafael da Silva at this stage from what iv seen so far. Rafael was vastly superior on the ball.
He's still an improvement regardless. We're not obligated to keep him as our starter for the next several years as we can always land better players later — of course this assumes we scout properly. Then if that were to happen, someone like AWB can be a solid backup. And the same can be said for our other signings too.

Also consider part of the problem that our midfield is nonexistent, which will put even more pressure on our fullbacks (and other positions too), thus increasing their chances of having their weaknesses exposed.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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We knew this before he signed. Hopefully he can improve on the ball.

Unlike Young or Valencia he's so good at tackling I can just about forgive how bad he looks on the ball.
Valencia and Young played much better before this season though. They did really well the season we ended up in second place.
 

Fosu-Mens

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I have stuck to my guns from the off on this. He's a very good tackler with his spider like legs but on the ball I don't even think he's in the top 10 right backs in the league let alone Europe. £50m seems like a hell of a lot of money for someone who can tackle.

What else is he offering? Looks petrified when the ball comes his way. I heard someone on a fan cam call him the best right back in the league earlier today. Can we stop this nonsense right now? He's not even close. You have to be able to play football too and he can't quite frankly.

For a team that got no idea or interesting in keeping the ball and only interested and able to counter attack, having solid defensive players like AWB is the perfect fit. Surprisingly enough this approach seems to not work well against teams also interesting in counterattacking, which must be a shock to the current management. Next manager will most likely prefer fullbacks that are not unproductive in attack(basically all up and coming managers nowadays prefers the team to be able to control the game), so AWB and Shaw will be very expensive backup players. Not that this was not foreseen by a number of posters on here during the summer...
 

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His crossing is awful but he can defend, still useful, perhaps as a centre back ? Probably not a good idea
 

Bwuk

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I said that in his thread after one of his first games here.

Hes far too limited on the ball to be a long term option at full back.

At a top team the only position I could ever see him playing at is as a ball winner in midfield.
 

MikeKing

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A negative opinion on one of our players wouldn't be the unpopular opinion. Not on here. Not currently. Now if a new player that Ole -the man of the hour- bought isn't being criticised for his price tag? That would surprise me.

Spinning this thing out of proportion about a certain players weakness after coming to United has always been the popular thing to do. Pundits and papers do it all the time, so much we've started doing it ourselves. We just reinforce the misery at every opportunity, fans have collective self pity up the ass. It's like Rawk. And people even get upset about haircuts of our players etc.. never mind any actual relevant discussion about football.
 

el3mel

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This opinion will become pretty popular as the time goes on. I still like him, good lad, but for 50m I expected more than a pretty good tackler.
 

saivet

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We knew this before he signed. Hopefully he can improve on the ball.

Unlike Young or Valencia he's so good at tackling I can just about forgive how bad he looks on the ball.
I doubt there will be a great deal of improvement as he hasn't really even show glimpses of attacking potential.

With Shaw for example, I think he's another defensive full back but he has shown potential going forward in terms of his driving runs, creating space and good passes (rather than a good crosser). With AWB, I don't see much potential on the ball or going forward.
 

Fosu-Mens

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I said that in his thread after one of his first games here.

Hes far too limited on the ball to be a long term option at full back.

At a top team the only position I could ever see him playing at is as a ball winner in midfield.
Mate, this was stated before we bought him by a number of posters on here.
 

Bwuk

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Mate, this was stated before we bought him by a number of posters on here.
Cant say I’d paid much attention to him at Palace to be honest but people harped on that he should start for England ahead of Walker, TAA and Trippier who are all miles ahead of him.
 

SER19

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One of the players and positions I'm least concerned about in our entire squad
 

Rozay

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This was evident, and voiced, before he signed. That said, there is a bit of glass half empty/full analogy here - given that as poor as he is technically and offensively, he is uniquely good at defending. That does count for something, especially in a game where you can come up against Mané’s and Sane’s who most simply can’t deal with. It’s an asset to have.

That said, I would have preferred Cancelo in the summer, and a right back who is comfortable as a traditional winger is key. It’s compounded by the fact that we get no threat from LB either. Our entire full-back area is a concern. Young is rubbish going either way, Shaw is not a great deal better, and Brandon Williams isn’t that good in my opinion, at least not yet. There are many question marks over Dalot, especially defensively, and AWB offensively. It’s a dire situation.

I do think Ethan Laird will eventually overtake the rest at RB though.
 

Enigma_87

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We all knew that he had limitations in the attacking third so not really a surprise is it? We overpaid, massively, like with Maguire.

He's a good RB option. One of the best in the league defensively, but as a balanced full back he's behind several others.
 

Cassidy

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I don’t think he is as bad going forward as many make out. He would look much better in a better side that made the runs and switches of play to open up space for the fullbacks.

We rely a bit too much on individual brilliance of wide players both fullbacks and wingers and that has been our problem for a long time
 

peridigm

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He’s better than any of the garbage we’ve had on that side in the last decade. £50m was a bargain in this market. Who do you think we should have bought for more or less?
 

Fosu-Mens

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Cant say I’d paid much attention to him at Palace to be honest but people harped on that he should start for England ahead of Walker, TAA and Trippier who are all miles ahead of him.
Some of the people on here got the same eye for talent that Woodward does... So yeah, some strange things have been said. Should also be noted that a number of the people discussing players that we are linked have tendencies to be overly subjective and gets their opinion from journos(not only regarding football but the rest of their worldview as well) that are paid to create hype, rather than actually watching footage and evaluate a player's abilities and their suitability for a club, style etc.
 

Cassidy

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He’s better than any of the garbage we’ve had on that side in the last decade. £50m was a bargain in this market. Who do you think we should have bought for more or less?
Atal for less but to be honest I am happy with AWB
 

el3mel

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He’s better than any of the garbage we’ve had on that side in the last decade. £50m was a bargain in this market. Who do you think we should have bought for more or less?
The last decade includes Rafael in our last title winning season ? And even Valencia in 2016/2017 was a beast.
 

George Owen

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I don't share this opinion. AWB has been one of our best and most reliable players. He will only gonna get better, so not worried in the slightest.
 

passing-wind

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Once we get a decent manager who can coach the attacking players into a system that is fluid enough to offer a diverse amount of movement, our fallbacks will improve along with the wider forwards.
 

Bastian

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Generally really loved him this season - and it's been hard to love any of our players - struggled in the last couple of games. Needs to improve in the final third. But more reliable than most of our players.
 

Enigma_87

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He’s better than any of the garbage we’ve had on that side in the last decade. £50m was a bargain in this market. Who do you think we should have bought for more or less?
Considering Leicester let go of Maguire at 80m, Ricardo Pereira wouldn't be far from the 50m paid for AWB and he's the better full back of the two.
 

WR10

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Anyone that actually watched him play football before he joined have mentioned that. However he is in a league of his own in tackling. Also, he doesn’t have the most elegant ball control however he has the know-how and football IQ to get himself out of any tight spot.

Im encouraged by his young age that his ball control is something he can improve
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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I don't think he's as bad on the ball as is being suggested. He put in some good crosses today but our forwards don't attack them, but he's putting them in the areas where strikers should be running in to. His ball retention and passing is good in tight spaces as well, he manages to get his pass away under pressure, in those kinds of situations on the other wing, Young would just he hammering it long and in to touch.

He gets forward, but doesn't seem to know what to do. I'd just like to see him run at his man and knock it past him more often. He's got the pace to rinse most defenders, he's just not doing it often enough. There's a lot for him to work on for sure, but a lot of tools to work with

We overpaid because we always do, but he was a solid acquisition.
 
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Nou_Camp99

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I don't share this opinion. AWB has been one of our best and most reliable players. He will only gonna get better, so not worried in the slightest.
Can't hope to be a top team and get zero creativity from the fullbacks. Not in the modern game.

Time to wake up. He's a good tackler but it's not enough. We'd have been better with Doherty at Wolves. Slightly worse defensively perhaps but overall a far better right back. He makes and scores goals for fun. Periera another one. Both of them got a goal or assist today and do so quite regularly.
 

Cassidy

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I don't think he's as bad on the ball as is being suggested. He put in some good crosses today but our forwards don't attack them, but he's putting them in the areas where strikers should be running in to. His ball retention and passing is good in tight spaces as well, he manages to get his pass away under pressure, in those kinds of situations on the other wing, Young would just he hammering it long and in to touch.

He gets forward, but doesn't seem to know what to do. I'd just like to see him run at his man and knock it past him more often. He's got tge pace to rinse most defenders, he's just not doing it often enough. There's a lot for him to work on fir sure, but a lot of tools to work with

We overpaid because we always do, but he was a solid acquisition.
Agree with this, what is worrying is that I have no idea what our coaches are doing. He could rinse fullbacks if he took them on more
 

PlayerOne

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It is weakness, but it doesn't help that we don't have a proper right winger. Add someone like Sancho there and it will help him a lot, it will allow Sancho freedom to focus on attacking and finding space while AWB can do what he does best and defend.
 

The Bloody-Nine

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I think he's been good. He's a defender, first and foremost. It'll be nice if he can add to his game going forward but I don't think he's a problem. Far from it.
 

Nou_Camp99

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I think he's been good. He's a defender, first and foremost. It'll be nice if he can add to his game going forward but I don't think he's a problem. Far from it.
It was a big issue for everyone with Valencia and Young. The double standards on here are shocking at times.

Rafael for me was a better fullback for us than what we've seen so far of AWB. It's not even close either. He's got HUGE improvements to make if he's to be up there with Neville, Irwin and Evra etc. I don't think he'll get close tbh.
 

Dinghy

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Never wanted us to sign him as he looked extremely limited going forward at Palace. He dwells on the ball a lot, his crossing is not up to standard and he's poor at passing through the lines. Not been impressed by his defensive positioning either.
 

RedMilo

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AWB is vastly overrated. Has no ideas going forward and his positional play has cost us goals on more than one occasion. Better than Young for sure but £50m improvement - not for me..
 

Litch

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Did wonder how long it would take until the vultures started to circle. The lad was pretty much the best defensive RB in the Prem last year and for me, he still is. Yes he needs to develop other aspects of his game and that's easier when the team you are playing for is playing well. These things don't happen in isolation and it's no coincidence that generally the best players in any position are playing for the best teams.

It's also clear from our performances, not sure our players are that well coached so how's he going to develop his game especially playing counter attacking or so slow football. In fairness all our players are going backwards rapidly including the new signings.....
 

The Bloody-Nine

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It was a big issue for everyone with Valencia and Young. The double standards on here are shocking at times.

Rafael for me was a better fullback for us than what we've seen so far of AWB. It's not even close either. He's got HUGE improvements to make if he's to be up there with Neville, Irwin and Evra etc. I don't think he'll get close tbh.
It's never been a big issue with me with regards to Young and Valencia. You are correct that a lot of our fans have had an issue with it.