Of course he is a part of the problem. He is nowhere to be seen when Arsenal have the ball.
31
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Status
Yeah, he's been horrible so far.
He's obviously following orders today, van Gaal's been outdone by Wenger today.
Uzz knows.
He is our only midfielder doing anything a midfielder should be doing, it is not his fault that Rooney can't press or drop into Schweinsteiger's postion when he presses or that Carrick is too immobile. He's been doing this every game for us so far, I think if anything van Gaal has been too naive in our setup and perhaps the whole team should drop off as a whole.
He's trying to do Rooneys job for him.
He usually does this while the other sits so I guess it comes from LVG. Either one of him or our staff should have realised it wasn't working after 5 minutes and changed it though.
Mata? They're playing different sides of the pitch. Rooney hasn't helped in there at all but Schwein has still been awful.
Gone all kamikaze.
As shit as Rooney has been, trying to blame him for Schweinsteiger being shit is ridiculous.
He's one of the most experienced midfielders in the game and he's wandering all over the frigging place leaving huge gaps in behind himself.
He's one of the most experienced midfielders in the game and he's wandering all over the frigging place leaving huge gaps in behind himself.
There is no pressing of Arse's midfielders. Memphis is doing it on his side, but Rooney isn't doing it and Mata isn't doing it which is why Schweini is leaving a huge gap behind him.
Awful, awful, awful off the ball. I can understand why he's in the team, because his movement in the attacking third adds a different dimension to our otherwise flat midfield (unless Herrera is there to that job, which he isn't), but off the ball he has been shocking. He, like the rest of our midfield, including wingers, are nothing more than mildly lively traffic cones in this match.
There's a robotic element to Van Gaal's teams. No doubt Basti was told to get forward and support pre-game, but instead of stopping when things went wrong he's carried on.
After a totally bizarre first half he was good in the second offering the energy and drive to keep us pushing at Arsenal.
I dont get why Basti is being flamed, he was 10x Carrick.
That first half was mental. Has to be instructed to do that.
Great footballer but that was shocking. A man of his experience leaving centre midfield wide open, time after time.
Seemed like he was frustrated with the flatness of the whole team and as a result ran around like a madman everywhere which didn't really help us. In the second half he was probably one of our better players still.
I thought he was great in the second half.
Neville kept laying into him in the beginning but it was clear he was being told to push on, not his fault if he's being instructed to do something wrong.
Neville kept laying into him in the beginning but it was clear he was being told to push on, not his fault if he's being instructed to do something wrong.
He was good. Worked his bollocks off. Needs runners around him though. Carrick and him will not be good enough against pacey, top teams.
Pathetic stuff from him. Playing him and carrick immediately drops our tempo.
He worked far harder than Rooney or Carrick. If Rooney put a similar shift in during the first half Schweinsteiger maybe wouldn't have needed to push so far forward. Maybe he was naive to keep doing it but he was the only one pressing like he did and looked like he gave a shit.
Who cares if he looks likes he gives a shit when he's leaving us exposed in the first half. It was stupid and Neville was right.
Neville was also ignorant at Rooney's, Memphis' and Young's failings in that. If Schweinsteiger was following his man, he's part of a unit that should also follow their men. If you stop an outlet ball to any of those players, you stop the run in behind. Rooney, Memphis and Young didn't cope with that at all and so the openings were available.
Blaming Schweinsteiger in an isolated case would be ok but this was a clear instruction and a repeated exercise throughout the game and as such the whole unit needs to be scrutinised too. To blame Schweinsteiger alone is wrong, in fact when you consider the above, you could actually say he was the least to blame from all of the aforementioned parties.
So people thought he just pressed around like a headless chicken by himself? Really? Not his fault for the instructions.
Well he did.
I suspect the problem actually was that other players that were supposed to be pressing weren't, i.e. Memphis, Rooney but if they're not he has to the presence to cajole them to do it and not to run around like a loon because a one man press doesn't work.
He was 100x better than Cariick who I think shouldn't be anywhere near the team atm. Playing like he's about to retire.
If the rest of the unit isn't pressing, you shouldn't either unless you're a forward and you're not going to leave a massive hole behind you.
An experienced player like Schweinsteiger should see how Young was struggling down his side and hold his position or call Memphis to come back.
And if this is a tactical instruction then LVG should be blamed. He should've seen his instructions weren't working and should've told Schwein to hold his position until half time.
Stats:
1 shot
1 on target
79/92 passes
85.9% completed
11 attacking passes failed, of which 5 were through balls into the box.
33/34 middle third passes.
6/6 defensive passes.
2/4 crosses
3/3 take ons
1 chance created
3/7 tackles
1 block
1 aerial duel won
Statistically he was our best player looking at the above.
1 shot
1 on target
79/92 passes
85.9% completed
11 attacking passes failed, of which 5 were through balls into the box.
33/34 middle third passes.
6/6 defensive passes.
2/4 crosses
3/3 take ons
1 chance created
3/7 tackles
1 block
1 aerial duel won
Statistically he was our best player looking at the above.
To be fair he should't need to cajole the captain into putting in a shift. Memphis does need to up his game with the effort he puts in defensively though.
Sure, but then someone has to stand up and get some instructions to the players and change it. Leaving it up to them when nobody steps up is not the answer.
Shocking in the first half, much better in the second.
plus if the others saw him furthest forward you would expect one of them to try and cover for a few seconds
LVG said last year he expects players to see danger and think for themselves
That is working quite well. I guess he will leave in a year and our players still wont be able to think for themselves, so i dont know what the fuss is all about.
We're talking about 5-10 minutes into the game. I don't think he can expect them to all collectively shit their pants and not do their jobs or what they talked about the whole week leading up to it.
I'd have been fuming if I was Van Gaal.
Judging by LVG's post match comments he wasn't. So odd for a player of his experience to ignore his instructions as drastically as that though.
He pressed all game, which tells me LVG did instruct him to do it. The bad thing about pressing is, if you do it alone you look an absolute madman. Rooney Memphis and Mata didnt press for shit in the first half.
I had 0 issues with his perfomance tbh. Whilst Neville was screaming at him for trying to be proactive, I was looking what Rooney was doing and wondering why he aint doing the same. People need to realise, Basti is playing as a box to box and as a number 10 for us. He is doing his and Rooneys jobs.
I had 0 issues with his perfomance tbh. Whilst Neville was screaming at him for trying to be proactive, I was looking what Rooney was doing and wondering why he aint doing the same. People need to realise, Basti is playing as a box to box and as a number 10 for us. He is doing his and Rooneys jobs.
Needs to learn he isnt 27 any more he cant cover the ground he once did, the amount of times he was caught out of position today was ridicules!
should also never be on the pitch at he same time as carrick!
should also never be on the pitch at he same time as carrick!
he's 30 not 35! He had the energy to do the running but was just out of position too often. Whether it was LVG instructions or off his own back it didn't work today- Status