Darren Fletcher | 2013/14 Performances

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Just wanted to ensure that time didn't distort today's performance.

Awful.

Great he's overcome his illness but he was always a back up player and a poor one at that.
 
lol didn't take long for that post.

Did well enough in his first start. Playing against a team that flooded the midfield but, was at least looking to get the ball and keep things moving. Also, made some good covering runs as well - part of his job but, good to see that he is able to do it in a real game.
 
All 3 United said:
Just wanted to ensure that time didn't distort today's performance.

Awful.

Great he's overcome his illness but he was always a back up player and a poor one at that.
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Seems you have a fine line between awful and not particularly amazing, but not too bad.
 
I thought he was just about OK though, if we're judging him by the standards of everyone else (which we should when he's selected in the starting XI.)
 
I don't think he was bad at all, we have seen much worse performances from 100% fit and in form United players this season almost in every other game, so fair play to him. It was his first start in year and a half, and he did better than anyone would expect him to.
 
He was good considering how long he's been out. Good job we had him today with all our midfield injuries.
 
I'm worried that he'll have to be shifted to a role he's simply never been able to play to allow him to continue playing in his condition. His game as a top class player in 2008 until 2010 was based on his endless stamina and pressing. He never had the passing ability nor spacial awareness of a Scholes or Giggs and I don't think his game is versatile enough to be anything but a destroyer, although he was a top class one. I hope his illness doesn't force him into playing a role he isn't quite able to play. He was at the center of a lot of the passing game today and sat quite deep, good performance from him. Couple of wayward passes.
 
Great to see him back and did himself proud considering. However I had my reservation before the game that he might be off the pace and he was at times. Still a good passer of the ball however.
 
For a first start back, he did ok. At times he was very rusty but his overall pass completion stats (51/60) are decent. Long balls were awful for some reason, not just execution but there never seemed to be an obvious target he was aiming for. If he can build on that performance then I can see him contributing for the remainder of his contract (18 months); earning a new deal is going to be tough but plenty of time to make a case for himself.
 
Thought he did well. There were a couple of long passes that didn't come off and some flicks but given he's had what 20mins of football previously in the last year its perfectly reasonable. I thought you could see the clear difference in him playing there to what we've seen from some of the other players there in recent months, straight away he came back in and was always available for a pass and generally kept the play moving well, a lot of his passes were quite simple but they were done in such a way that we didn't lose momentum. Got up the pitch a couple of times. All in all a relatively good showing I'd say.
 
I thought he did ok. A couple of passes went astray which is to be expected after a long time out. Still though, he certainly looks to have improved the midfield. He seems to always be available, always free to take a pass. He knows where to be on the pitch. After going off, Hull seemed to do better in midfield.

I'm delighted with how he has been so far. He will only get better. His influence and calmness in midfield will make a big difference in a lot of games.
 
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
 
Sam said:
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
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Who were we going to play in central midfield instead? Start Carrick? No.

Rooney? Waste of his talents.

Anderson? Giggs? Lol?

An hour and a start was fair game. I know I've not always agreed with Moyes' decisions but Fletcher had to start. Carrick was clearly drafted in because of the Jones injury...hence why he only played for 10-15 mins.
 
Plus tbh the problems we had today weren't Fletchers, or the midfields fault in general, both their goals came from mistakes, first from Rooney than from the back 4 jointly, chiefly Evans and a bit of fortune on Hulls part. Between that and Fletchers remaining time on the pitch we were doing alright and I don't think we were noticeably inhibited by Fletcher or anything.
 
Sam said:
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
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Well he hasnt played about 60 minutes, he has been playing full games for the U20s etc. Given how well he did coming on as a sub and considering our options it wasnt in any way ridiculous. The other thing is you dont see how he has been doing in training. He looked completely comfortable out there and that kind of indicates the staff have a better clue than you.
 
As others have said the alternatives would be far worse, I.E. playing Rooney deeper or starting Ando/Giggs.
 
I liked what I saw from him to be honest. His hassling and energy may never be the same, but he has developed a steady passing game which may be useful for us when Carrick is out. Uses his experience and intelligence a lot more now - he is a proper CM as opposed to the likes of Ando, Giggs etc. He knows how to keep the play ticking which IMO is what we really need.
 
Sam said:
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
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He played well today, and we lost control of the game after he went off. So maybe it wasn't ridiculous.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
Who were we going to play in central midfield instead? Start Carrick? No.

Rooney? Waste of his talents.

Anderson? Giggs? Lol?

An hour and a start was fair game. I know I've not always agreed with Moyes' decisions but Fletcher had to start. Carrick was clearly drafted in because of the Jones injury...hence why he only played for 10-15 mins.
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I heard Lol's a good player. We should have started him.
 
Thought he did well. Didn't stand out, didn't struggle, just did his job. Excatly what you want in the current situation really. Don't expect him to start for a few games now but it's fantastic to know we have him there as an option now.
 
Sam said:
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
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How's he going to get match fitness? He's played a few games for the U21s and got minutes for our first team vs Villa + Stoke. We clearly were basically forced to play. Not ridiculous at all.
 
His calmness and wealth of experience gave us something to build upon. Being 2-0 down in the first 15 minutes wasn't easy. But the team battled on. Having an experience head is something that cannot be discounted.
 
LLMU said:
His calmness and wealth of experience gave us something to build upon. Being 2-0 down in the first 15 minutes wasn't easy. But the team battled on. Having an experience head is something that cannot be discounted.
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Agreed. I was surprised at just how calm we stayed when we went 2-0 down. The likes of Fletcher, Evra and Evans were key in that.
 
Red Dreams said:
expect he will play another 60 minutes v Norwich.
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Don't think so. He will be rested and start vs Spurs, I reckon. At max, will com as sub for 15-20 min cameo. I will really like to see a midfield 3 of Carrick-Fletcher-Cleverley vs Spurs.
 
Sam said:
Starting him today was ridiculous tbh. A player thats been out for over a year and has played about 60 minutes in total since his comeback is obviously not gonna be anywhere near match fit.
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:lol:
 
I think Fletcher was solid.
Broke up play and made himself available.

Did nothing fancy and didn't offer much going forward but with Young, Valencia, Rafael, Rooney and Welbeck on the pitch (and later Januzaj for Rafael) there really was a bigger need for him to pick up counter-attacks and create a fallback option for when things didn't work forward. Get his fitness up to standard and we have a partner for Carrick that at least will be good.

Of course i want a new quality-signing in midfield, but Fletcher looks like a decent option until the end of the season if we don't manage anything in January.
Of course i want a new signing, but there is no need to slate Fletcher
 
Glad Moyes started him. I thought he played well. Can't expect a 10/10 performance so soon but over the coming weeks he will get sharper as he builds up his match fitness which us something you can't do in training and only to a certain extent playing reserve games. I doubt we will see him tomorrow.
 
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