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2021-22 Performances


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5.7 Season Average Rating
Appearances
14
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1
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0
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Quite funny all the games you mentioned we lost.
All games with the 2nd string and one had an early red. I mean we drew last night, so Greenwood cant possible compete with Rashford who has been playing in wins! :rolleyes:
 
We have to begin by acknowledging the calamitous error, but otherwise Donny was quite decent.

But that’s a bit like saying that apart from the gunshot to the Lincoln’s head, the play was quite enjoyable. It was a bad and consequential mistake. Still, it’s clear to anyone who wants to be honest about it that there’s a very solid midfielder in Donny van de Beek and we saw that again last night.

Nevertheless, we desperately need a defensive midfielder — which neither Donny nor Scotty are — to fill a gaping hole in the squad. It seems more likely than not that Pogba will be leaving United so there’s a job for Fred, Donny and McTominay to compete for. They each bring different attributes that Ralf can call upon depending on the situation. Donny is clearly the most skilled passer of the three, but Fred brings his unique style of football — for which I can’t think of a description, maybe a combination of Park and Anderson perhaps — and McTominay brings complete adherence to the manager’s instructions, although his ability on the ball is well below anything we’d ever expect of a Manchester United footballer.
 
Our standards must have dropped to rock bottom if you classed any of those performances as amazing. He was ok against Young Boys away but it was another "ok" performance and nothing special, hence him being the obvious choice to be hooked when down to 10. Carabao cup - another game where we lost. You also mentioned Watford twice when scraping the barrel. He was good against Watford and his best game for us but we were 2-0 down and he was playing further forward.
He wasn't just okay aganst Young Boys, we basically collapsed as a team the moment he was taken off and lost our entire control of the midfield. Yeah, we know he is the first one to get subbed. Hell might break loose before Fred or McTominay get subbed, but regardless, he was comfortably better than Fred and Pogba in that game. Against West Ham, I said it before, but it was the first time we had an actual control over a game and that was all down to DVB. Okay, we lost, but just like this game - we rotated the entire squad and DVB was paired once again with Mata who I can barely call a professional footballer these days. What fault did he have for being 2 goals down against Watford? What's more, you're acting like Watford was our first loss of the season. Our season was a disaster long before Donny played against Watford. May I remind you the utter spanking City and Liverpool gave us? Even against Wolves we could have been 5-0 at half-time if they knew how to finish.

You say he's solid when he comes on but most of the time he just blends in. Nearly cost us a goal against City, gave a goal away yesterday and arguably Mata looked better in midfield than him.
Mata looked better than him in midfield? I don't know what game you've watched at this point. You're carrying some serious agenda against Donny if you actually believe that.

The hype and spin around him is ridiculous. He's never going to play regularly for us and should be sold to whoever wants him in January so we can buy someone to replace McTominay in the starting 11.
Sure, sell him in January. But we might suffer for it when he goes and plays amazingly for another team. He might also be a flop, we really can't be sure. The problem is that we've never given him a chance to understand one way or another if he is or isn't good enough. if he tears it up in a new team, what are we gonna do? Sit on our asses and wonder where things went wrong? At least as long as he's here we should try and see. IF it doesn't work out, it doesn't. It's not like we're going to suffer much by not having McTominay in midfield. Come on.
 
All games with the 2nd string and one had an early red. I mean we drew last night, so Greenwood cant possible compete with Rashford who has been playing in wins! :rolleyes:

All I hear is excuses.
No idea what Greenwood has to do with it but okay. Greenwood was the only player on that pitch that looked a class above everyone else.
 
All I hear is excuses.
No idea what Greenwood has to do with it but okay. Greenwood was the only player on that pitch that looked a class above everyone else.
He couldn't have been any good, we drew, unlike Rashford who won his game.

What you call excuses is actually called context. Potato patota eh?
 
Excuses for Greenwood. He played in a draw. Rashford in a win. We need winners, so no Greenwood.

No. Greenwood has had plenty of good games in games we have won. Not sure you watched those games but I did. He was a regular last season, season before post lockdown.

If you read what the poster said, Donny has been amazing in games and went to list the games, most of them we lost and none of them we won.
 
If you read what the poster said, Donny has been amazing in games and went to list the games, most of them we lost and none of them we won.
I'm curious - how many times VDB has played with the first team? And for how many minutes?
 
No. Greenwood has had plenty of good games in games we have won. Not sure you watched those games but I did. He was a regular last season, season before post lockdown.

If you read what the poster said, Donny has been amazing in games and went to list the games, most of them we lost and none of them we won.
So you decide how good a player is based on the result of games? If only Klopp and Pepp would've done that, they'd never would have bought players that got relegated and went on to win titles with them...

Did you know football is a team game?
 
I'm curious - how many times VDB has played with the first team? And for how many minutes?

Because whenever he plays we end up losing the game. For a player who gets minimal opportunity, once the opportunity comes you have to take it, its no point blaming everyone else when the player doesn't grab his opportunity.

Ill give you an example. Greenwood. He played in the league cup, Europa league when breaking through, he kept scoring goals which meant Ole had to play him, when he came into the PL side, he scored goals.

Its called taking your opportunity.
 
So you decide how good a player is based on the result of games? If only Klopp and Pepp would've done that, they'd never would have bought players that got relegated and won titles...

Did you know football is a team game?

No, I decided a player is not good enough based on opportunities he has, and him not grabbing any of them.

I dont understand why you keep name dropping others with no substantiation? First Greenwood, I told you why he is good enough because he TAKES his opportunity. Now Klopp and Pep. I mean Pep dropped a £100m Grealish because he wasnt taking his opportunity. Pep dropped Bernado last year when he struggled and this season he got his chance and grabbed it means he starts games.

Klopp the same, he gives players the chance, they take it and there it is. When they don't take their opportunity like Minamino, they dont get game time. Its not rocket science.

No, really? Since when?

I always thought its an individual sport, wow this is mind boggling.
 
Because whenever he plays we end up losing the game. For a player who gets minimal opportunity, once the opportunity comes you have to take it, its no point blaming everyone else when the player doesn't grab his opportunity.

Ill give you an example. Greenwood. He played in the league cup, Europa league when breaking through, he kept scoring goals which meant Ole had to play him, when he came into the PL side, he scored goals.

Its called taking your opportunity.
Greenwood had a horrendous dry spell last season to the point he was dropped by Ole after months in favour of Dan James. He scored what, 2 goals in that time span? Really took his chance...

Klopp and Pep buy players from teams that get relegated. They're highly successful coaches, so it's safe to assume they and their staff use their eyeballs (and actually useful stats) when assessing players instead of looking at win ratio, which is nonsensical because football is a team game.

What you're describing would be like looking at Norway's chess olympiad team results to conclude Carlson is a shit chess player. Chess olympiads are team games and Carlson is the world champion.

I'm name dropping other things? It's called an analogy.
 
Greenwood had a horrendous dry spell last season to the point he was dropped by Ole after months in favour of Dan James. He scored what, 2 goals in that time span? Really took his chance...

Klopp and Pep buy players from teams that get relegated. They're highly successful coaches, so it's safe to assume they and their staff use their eyeballs (and actually useful stats) when assessing players instead of looking at win ratio, which is nonsensical because football is a team game.

What you're describing would be like looking at Norway's chess olympiad team results to conclude Carlson is a shit chess player. Chess olympiads are team games and Carlson is the world champion.

I'm name dropping other things? It's called an analogy.


To get into the team, you need to take your opportunity, Greenwood did that, he built his credit up, had a dry spell, manager stuck by him then dropped him. It works like that with most managers.

Who has Pep bought from relegated clubs? Again it has literally NO link to Donny.

Donny has never had a spell of good games, hardly puts a good 90 mins together.

The analogies have nothing to do with Donny, he didn't come from a relegated team?
 
To get into the team, you need to take your opportunity, Greenwood did that, he built his credit up, had a dry spell, manager stuck by him then dropped him. It works like that with most managers.

Who has Pep bought from relegated clubs? Again it has literally NO link to Donny.

Donny has never had a spell of good games, hardly puts a good 90 mins together.

The analogies have nothing to do with Donny, he didn't come from a relegated team?
Ake and Wijnaldum both got relegated.
If Klopp and Pepp would conclude based off their team's winrate that they're no good (like you're doing with VDB), they wouldn't have bought them.

The point of an analogy is that they're not directly about VDB, but show why you're thinking is flawed.
 
Ake and Wijnaldum both got relegated.
If Klopp and Pepp would conclude based off their team's winrate that they're no good (like you're doing with VDB), they wouldn't have bought them.

The point of an analogy is that they're not directly about VDB, but show why you're thinking is flawed.

Yep, Ake is a regular starter at City.. good one.

I would also like you to go and have a look at Gini's stats for a relegated team before coming out with comparisons with Donny.

Donny has done nothing to show he deserves a start, he got given the opportunity yesterday, like others Lingard, Shaw, AWB, Matic, Greenwood. Apart from Greenwood, they were all crap and is the reason they probably wont start against Norwhich.
 
Donny has done nothing to show he deserves a start, he got given the opportunity yesterday, like others Lingard, Shaw, AWB, Matic, Greenwood. Apart from Greenwood, they were all crap and is the reason they probably wont start against Norwhich.
You know, this is funny. Baily was probably our best player last night, even more so than Greenwood. Henderson was also good. I don't see you advocating for their starting spots. You really think Maguire deserves to start over Baily based on performances?
 
You know, this is funny. Baily was probably our best player last night, even more so than Greenwood. Henderson was also good. I don't see you advocating for their starting spots. You really think Maguire deserves to start over Baily based on performances?

Henderson was good but DDG has been very good this season too. At least it gives Ralf the headache knowing Henderson is knocking on the door. He didn't do his chances any harm, if Ralf choses to start Henderson based on his ability to play sweeper keeper, I wouldn't be against it.
Although, still feel DDG hasn't done much wrong to deserve to be dropped.

Bailly was good, but I dont see him starting over Maguire. Also, I am not advocating Greenwood starting on the weekend, I still think he is a bit lazy.
 
Yep, Ake is a regular starter at City.. good one.

I would also like you to go and have a look at Gini's stats for a relegated team before coming out with comparisons with Donny.

Donny has done nothing to show he deserves a start, he got given the opportunity yesterday, like others Lingard, Shaw, AWB, Matic, Greenwood. Apart from Greenwood, they were all crap and is the reason they probably wont start against Norwhich.
Yes goals for CMs is a very important metric. Casemiro must be complete shit! No goals, no trophies for club and country? :rolleyes:
 
Yes goals for CMs is a very important metric. Casemiro must be complete shit! No goals, no trophies for club and country? :rolleyes:

Casemeiro has no goals or trophies? HAahahahhahahahahahahah He won 3 CL in a row mate.

Are you comparing Donny to Casemeiro? one of the best DM's during that time?
 
This is what surprises me. The way people are going here they would have sold Evra, Rio and Vidic almost immediately. They played horribly in their first few games and honestly not that good in their first season(s). Yet SAF knew their quality and persisted. We have given no chance to DVB, he's hardly ever played any games and when he has - it's either as a sub for 5 min or in a disjointed team full of bench players and youngsters and yet people are happily saying he's not good enough and should be sold.

I would be the first one to say he should be sold, like McTominay, if he was given a chance. But he hasn't been. And what pisses me off about it the most is because nobody is asking him to replace a prime Keane-Scholes midfield here, but simply McFred.
Exactly, and it's not like he's playing badly too. He's labeled as "average" what seems to be enough to keep him away from the main team. And it's not like he's called out for bad performances, he's just "average" which seems to be enough to keep him on the bench etc.
Donny's only decent performance was further forward and he's not displacing Bruno there. Last night again he failed to deceive. Sure, it was with a young/reserve team, but that didn't stop Greenwood shining.


When has Donny performed for us in a midfield 2? Genuinely curious. Those who claim he has must have the bar set so low. McTominay has largely been poor this season but it'll be no surprise when Rangnick sticks with him over Donny.

I don't remember the hype being so big for someone who's offered so little.
The last time was good was when he actually played from the start, against West Ham. Clip.
When was the last time McTominay performed for us in a midfield 2? He's a starter so should be much easier to find an example.
There's no hype around van de Beek, people want to see some good football and there are bigger chances for that if van de Beek plays rather than McTominay.

Wtf???

You can lay lots of faults at Mctomminay that I'd agree with eg. Lack of passing ability etc....but the one thing he doesn't do is hide. He works really hard for the team for me. That's one of his only qualities.

Strange take that.
He averages very low number of passes per minute (link), that's why people call him out on not making himself available for the pass (=hide from the ball). He runs around and makes a lot of tackles with his body, but that's pretty much all you get from Scott right now.
 
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Casemeiro has no goals or trophies? HAahahahhahahahahahahah He won 3 CL in a row mate.

Are you comparing Donny to Casemeiro? one of the best DM's during that time?
Excuses. Casemiro won nothing last season, he's clearly finished.

Donny has more goals this season. He's obviously much better.
 
He was amazing against Watford, Young Boys (first game),West Ham in Carabao and Watford. Definitely deserves a chance from those games. Aside from that, he was better than McTominay's usual performances even in this game. He had one shitty sub appearance against a team I don't remember where he was subbed on for 2 mins and made a mstake of gifting the ball, but aside from that and yesterday's mistake, he has been solid whenever he's been given the chance (as rare as that is). Even in this game, playing with Mata in midfield and a bunch of players who have never even had a senior game, he had double the passes and touches of McTominay and equal amount of interceptions and tackles. On what ground doesn't he deserve to start over McTominay?


That would have been just as dangerous as what he did, especially when you try to dribble with your back turned to the opposing players.h


Absolutely. There's a difference between playing out of the back and doing it nonsensically. This has been ingrained in the players by the staff because every player does it. When you have the ball in your box, clear it. It doesn't matter if you gift possession to the opponent, as long as it isn't anywhre near our box. Hopefully Rangnick fixes this.
None of his performances at United was amazing...
 
You know, this is funny. Baily was probably our best player last night, even more so than Greenwood. Henderson was also good. I don't see you advocating for their starting spots. You really think Maguire deserves to start over Baily based on performances?
Tbf, since Ole left, Maguire’s form has gradually picked up. Earlier, it’s dire really.
 
No, it isnt. He presses a small amount, Pogba out does him for that. And wins the ball a very average amount for a player in a DM position. What is he doing exactly? Whatever it is, its ineffective other than in the air and his goals.

He has had a few hard working games, specifically for example when our Fred and McTominay midfield bumrushed Leeds last season. Both players worked hard and were very effective breaking through. Other than that McTominay doesnt have many hard working games and normally when he plays well its because a goal has offset his average contributions overall. He's younger than Fred so heres to hoping he can improve. But theres a lot of improvement to make including with his attitude and workrate.

His job isn't to press. Or at least it hasn't been. You are aware he plays under instructions by the manager?

Pogba certainly doesn't work harder than Mctomminay because he presses more. That's the issue with Pogba. It's all forward for him so he will press more. Tracking runners? He just stands still.

Mctomminay doesn't have the skill set Pogba has that's undisputed but he does work harder.
 
None of his performances at United was amazing...
Amazing compared to what this team normally puts up.

Tbf, since Ole left, Maguire’s form has gradually picked up. Earlier, it’s dire really.
Even in his current "form" he still doesn't deserve to start over either Lindelof or Baily. Aside from a shity own goal Baily's been absolutely stellar. Lindelof has also been rock solid. Maguire is the weakest link in the defence, but despite that he constantly gets to start. See the double standards?
Mctomminay doesn't have the skill set Pogba has that's undisputed but he does work harder.
Debatable. McTominay, unfortunately, doesn't impress in anything. If he was a hard working CM, I'd have no problem with his sloppiness with the ball... aka Fred. But the problem is McTominay isn't good with or without the ball. If we're talking purely on performances this season, he doesn't deserve to start over Donny. Even in this game that people are calling Donny shit, he's shown more than McTominay this entire season with the exception of the Spurs game. And that's with playing Mata as his midfield partner.
 
was a very average display last night, made no impression and certainly not enough to force his way into the first 11, seems to not have any real qualities, just a bit meh at everything.
 
I think what these last 2 performances have really told us is that we need a midfielder in January, if possible.

Absolutely. Fred and Van De Beek fighting for a spot next to a new deep midfielder with some McTominay minutes as the 4th guy.
 
Amazing compared to what this team normally puts up.
Your bar must be pretty low if you call any of them amazing. DVB might improve a lot.

But we need (much) better performances from CM than those from him to become an elite team again.
 
Your bar must be pretty low if you call any of them amazing. DVB might improve a lot.

But we need (much) better performances from CM than those from him to become an elite team again.
No doubt. But we aren't gonna get those from McTominay, are we? Nobody is arguing here whether we should get a CM in the summer or not, that is an absolute priority regardless. The argument is whether he has deserved a start over McTominay and he definitely has. If he fails to capitalize on this, you're all within your right to slack him. In fact, I'd be the first one to do it, but he has never been given such a chance. 5-10 minute cameos every 5th game and then getting to start in a disjointed side with players who haven't played a competitive game yet doesn't count.
 
Your bar must be pretty low if you call any of them amazing. DVB might improve a lot.

But we need (much) better performances from CM than those from him to become an elite team again.

Even prime scholes would struggle playing with half arsed lingard who was flat footed more often than not and dinosaurs infront and behind him in mata and matic.
 
He was amazing against Watford, Young Boys (first game),West Ham in Carabao and Watford. Definitely deserves a chance from those games. Aside from that, he was better than McTominay's usual performances even in this game.
Amazing? Seriously?

He was decent, maybe good. I don't think this is a case of semantics to pull this up, you're massively overegging the pudding and once you do that it just appears that you have a massive blindspot.

Sure they are useful games to support an argument he might get more opportunities but dear me, let's not go OTT. Very little VDB has done has been amazing in a Man Utd shirt.
 
Aside from the mistake Donny wasn't bad but he wasn't particularly good either. During our better spell in the first half hour he impressed me with the defensive work he put in and I'm more convinced now that he's a viable option in those deeper midfield roles than I was before this game. On the other hand I think even his strongest supporters would have to admit that he's not shown anything this week that demonstrates he deserves the nod on Saturday.

Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation around his form has been and still is a proxy war in the larger Ole-era arguments, I hope that dies down as we move on as a fanbase and we can be a bit more level-headed and rational about some of our players going forward.
 
Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation around his form has been and still is a proxy war in the larger Ole-era arguments, I hope that dies down as we move on as a fanbase and we can be a bit more level-headed and rational about some of our players going forward.

This.

It appears that ole cultists are eager for donny to fail because if he succeeds then that's another black mark on ole.
 
This. It appears that ole cultists are eager for donny to fail just to hang onto the fact that ole wasn't always wrong.
That would be even worse for Ole, he spunked 40 mil on a player who was shite and made feck all appearances. What's more he was the only major signing that summer.
 
To get into the team, you need to take your opportunity, Greenwood did that, he built his credit up, had a dry spell, manager stuck by him then dropped him. It works like that with most managers.

Who has Pep bought from relegated clubs? Again it has literally NO link to Donny.

Donny has never had a spell of good games, hardly puts a good 90 mins together.

The analogies have nothing to do with Donny, he didn't come from a relegated team?
How is he supposed to have a spell of good games, he has never had a spell of games full stop.
 
How is he supposed to have a spell of good games, he has never had a spell of games full stop.
Top flight football is like an arcade game. You need to score each game and your team has to win the game to proceed to the next round (get another game). If you're blonde.
 
Well, there are silent majorities. But, I don’t think it wise to just write off VDB due to that error or his overall performance in this game. Everything has to be analyzed based on the circumstances. Let’s see how Ralf integrates VDB into the team.

Yeah fair play. I'm not saying he is in any way the answer. But in the meantime Scott is in awful form so we may as well give him the chance in the first team to see if he can do better. To be honest I'm of the opinion that we need 2 CM signings but we should be willing to experiment with what we have now as we can't make any signings for another month anyway.
 
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