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2014-15 Performances


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6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
26
Clean sheets
8
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
6
He's left footed and stays fit more often than not. That's all he's bringing to the table.

That pretty much makes him our best defender.
I actually quite like him tbh but staying fit is enough to make him better than our other options
 
From the games I saw ( all except today's one ) I agree, he tends to go for risky passes lots of time and misplaces passes a lot. If he gets that better he'll be good for us cause I think he is a good defender although he panicked in some games and was out of position. Generally I think he's not that bad as some puts him out to be.
Agreed I see him becoming a solid defender..
 
I actually didn't mind his game too much. Think he has the attributes to be a solid defender. Plus he isn't made of glass like our other CBs... and some of his passing is sexy for a defender.
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.

Sums up my thoughts fairly well - he has a tendency to try take too many risks for a centre half.

Still not.convinced.that he was the right signing for us but hopefully as he adapts to the league he will become a top player.
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.

Sums up my thoughts on him too.
 
I think he is decent.

Prone to being a bit dense at times but better than having Evans in there.
 
Decent at best and shocking positionally.

But he can stay fit, so that's a plus at this stage.
 
He will get better, it's hard to criticise any of our defenders at the moment.While we've got lucky at times and have a fantastic keeper we still have the fourth best goals against record in the league. Considering the injuries we've had in that area that's quite remarkable.
Rojo wasn't the best last night but he wasn't terrible, the midfield didn't move which meant the passing options were limited, Fellaini, Mata and Rooney gave the ball away in dangerous areas far to often putting the defence under more and more pressure.
 
No player of ours look comfortable in the 3-5-2 system, so I don't really blame him. That's on LvG.
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.

I agree with that. His ability on the pall and passing accuracy are probably his best and most noticeable qualities. Seemed to completely desert him last night, as it happens but that's only one game. Been excellent on the ball in his other recent performances.

He's definitely a bit flaky, defensively. Strong in the challenge and good one v one but very impetuous and keeps getting caught under the ball.

He actually reminds me of Koscielny and Vermaelen from a few seasons back. Hopefully he turns out more like the former.
 
I'm not sure I'd say he's "poor", definitely not really of the sort of quality we want though, defensively. But I do feel that he has the traits required, and can certainly be moulded into a much better defender. He's only 24 after all.
 
Felt a little bit to him yesterday, he wanted to play football but there was never an outball ahead of him, no one wanted the ball in tight areas which led to risky passes and spending too much time on the ball. More movement and bravery from the players in front of him and it would've been a different story.
 
He seems to get into a fit of panicking sometimes when he gets the ball, there was a time there near the end last night when he got hold of the ball at the back, was on his own with all the time in the world but by the time he had figured out what to do two Southampton lads nearly had him closed down. I was shouting at him on the telly to bull toe the fecking thing as far as he could or up into the clouds but instead he played a dangerous enough pass. He could do with them same tablets I'm on to calm his nerves a bit.
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.

I agree with this. The amount of times an attacker would ghost round the back post when he was tracking back centrally and he didn't even bother to look over his shoulder every time, poor awareness but on the ball his passing is quite sharp I feel although sometimes he holds onto it too long.
 
I actually quite like him. I don;t know what his interception stats were from last night but it felt like he was constantly nicking the ball from in front of the Southampton attackers and I don;t remember him being beaten one on one all game. Made a few risky dribbles out of defence but in general I think he has a lot of potential. Constant changes in system and personnel clearly don't help.
 
Not sure he can speak much English yet. He will still have nerves but like the team is just getting by game by game. Baring RVP and De Gea, everyone was poor. No fluidity or continuity of partnership. I think this season it's all about players throwing themselves at the ball rather then great defending. When we're not controlling the ball, we're as soft as anything but it'll come.
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.
Yeah like others have said, agree with this assessment.

However, I'm not quite sure how much of a poor defender he is, if that makes sense, and I'm not sure whether or not he has the qualities to become decent with a lot of coaching. He's got youth on his side I guess but he's a bit of an enigma to me.
 
He has seemed a fairly poor defender to me since he arrived here. Am yet to be impressed. He is good with the ball, but possibly tries to do too much with it.
 
His passing has been superb in recent games but was diabolical tonight. Can only assume he went down with the 352itis that consistently turns decent defenders into hapless cloggers.

I agree that his passing has looked very good recently. I thought him and Smalling were starting to build a good partnership in the last few games also. However again Rojo seems to be a victim of a poor system, combined with multiple different defensive partners.

If we could play 10 games with the same system and the same centre back duo I think he'd hugely benefit. Bearing in mind he's 24, has arrived from a poorer foreign league, has been played LB, CB and LCB in two different systems and has played with a different partner almost every week, his 6/10 Cafe average is pretty damn impressive I think.
 
I personally thought Rojo was especially poor last night. Constantly gave the ball away, caught in possession and had to sprint to defend. Once, he wasn't all that concerned about covering and if Pelle or whoever took his chance better last night...it would have been a draw or worse in the end. There was a cross at one point he watched go over his head to a SH player...fortunately nothing came of it. He was the worst of the bunch for me.
 
I actually quite like him. I don;t know what his interception stats were from last night but it felt like he was constantly nicking the ball from in front of the Southampton attackers and I don;t remember him being beaten one on one all game. Made a few risky dribbles out of defence but in general I think he has a lot of potential. Constant changes in system and personnel clearly don't help.

7 interceptions, 6 tackles, 9 clearances, a blocked shot and 4 aerials. That's 27 defensive interventions - absolutely immense. (Compares to Evans (4), Smalling (4), McNair (6), Carrick (6), Valencia (7), Young (10) and Fellaini (15).)
 
I personally thought Rojo was especially poor last night. Constantly gave the ball away, caught in possession and had to sprint to defend. Once, he wasn't all that concerned about covering and if Pelle or whoever took his chance better last night...it would have been a draw or worse in the end. There was a cross at one point he watched go over his head to a SH player...fortunately nothing came of it. He was the worst of the bunch for me.

It's hard to believe we were watching the same game. His defensive statistics were immense (7 more interventions than the other 4 CBs combined). He misplaced 5 short and medium range passes - too many but not unusual against a team pressing as hard as Southampton were (Carrick also misplaced 5). His was never dispossessed of the ball. He wasn't perfect but it's hard to see where "worst of the bunch" could have come from (I'd actually suspect that he was one of LvG's "three players that played well").
 
Seems like a terrific athlete and he's excellent on the ball. Definitely some potential there.
 
It's hard to believe we were watching the same game. His defensive statistics were immense (7 more interventions than the other 4 CBs combined). He misplaced 5 short and medium range passes - too many but not unusual against a team pressing as hard as Southampton were (Carrick also misplaced 5). His was never dispossessed of the ball. He wasn't perfect but it's hard to see where "worst of the bunch" could have come from (I'd actually suspect that he was one of LvG's "three players that played well").

I don't know what his stats were but he was awful in my opinion. On the left hand side he kept giving the ball away...he passed it to the opposition and then jogged back to barely bother the SH striker...

Is this a stat that you are quoting about him not being dispossessed of the ball? Or opinion?
 
He is our worst defender in the air. Overrated with the ball, kept giving it away against Soton. Good athlete. Too rash and aggressive. Imo Smalling should play with either Jones or Evans but I don't think LvG agrees with me.
 
I thought his tackling was fantastic yesterday.

He also has the ability and confidence to pass forward into feet, unlike our other defenders.
 
7 interceptions, 6 tackles, 9 clearances, a blocked shot and 4 aerials. That's 27 defensive interventions - absolutely immense. (Compares to Evans (4), Smalling (4), McNair (6), Carrick (6), Valencia (7), Young (10) and Fellaini (15).)
Thanks :) Thats an awful lot of interventions in a team that was all over the place. He's rightfully criticised for some of the things he does but he's not often given enough credit for the good things he does.
 
I thought he was the best of the bunch last night.
Him and young had a good handle on our left side i thought. He did give the ball away in stupid areas but it seemed to me
that he didn't start doing that till pretty late on in the game - last 20 mins maybe (at least giving the ball away unnecessarily).
Whereas evans and mcnair had been doing it throughout the match.
His ability in the air is ... a bit questionable for me but its something that i think a lot of cb's have a hard time with initially when they play in this league.
I hope it improves.
If it was 5 / 10 years ago i'd probably say hes not good enough etc but the standard of defending isn't that high these days
and he seems to me to be as good as it gets really.

Imo Smalling should play with either Jones or Evans but I don't think LvG agrees with me.

The chances of having more than one of them fit at any one time seems pretty slim these days.
 
I don't know what his stats were but he was awful in my opinion. On the left hand side he kept giving the ball away...he passed it to the opposition and then jogged back to barely bother the SH striker...

Is this a stat that you are quoting about him not being dispossessed of the ball? Or opinion?


It's a stat - which, of course, means it's the opinion of the Opta observer. They aren't infallible.

You seem to be a little obsessed with his passing failures while ignoring his overall defensive contribution. I suppose I'm leaning in the other direction.
 
Rojo is still fairly raw and will need to improve, but he has the necessary talent to work with. He is still settling in a new league and country, and things have not been easy for him with a very unstable and ever changing defense to work with.

It seems he is not made of glass like the rest of our defenders at least.
 
It's a stat - which, of course, means it's the opinion of the Opta observer. They aren't infallible.

You seem to be a little obsessed with his passing failures while ignoring his overall defensive contribution. I suppose I'm leaning in the other direction.

I like Rojo and hope he does well. I'm not saying I took notes or anything...I just remember an awful lot of mistakes...not just by him but by the entire squad. I may have very well missed the things that he did well, but the things that stick out in my mind...the things that upset me the most, were his passing failures and being dispossessed. My recollection was that he did quite poor. I do see that I am in the minority. I do agree with the majority in saying that the 3 at the back has to be scrapped and for us to get a win away from home playing like that is a definite positive. I am just disappointed at the way we could not seem to get it together. Cheers
 
I think I've got the opposite opinion to many on here strangely. I think he's a poor defender who's seriously lacking awareness and concentration but on the ball he's very promising. He occasionally tries a little too much but he's easily our most composed defender on the ball and 9 times out of 10 he backs that up with a good ball which injects a bit of urgency and direction into our play. I think he's our only defender who does that on a consistent basis. It's just that he occasionally gets a little carried away and today more so than usual.

I think this is what was supposed to be the case. I dont think theres any actual evidence on the pitch though. He's no more composed than the rest, including a 19 year old CB
 
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