Most Improved Player Award

There’s 2 different categories, as many have mentioned.

There are players that looked like they shouldn’t be here at all but now don’t look out of place in the team anymore and can be relied upon at least until we get a top upgrade. Dalot and post-World Cup Wan-Bissaka are the best examples of such improvement (as well as De Gea — to a point — and Fred, who started to put out great performances that he was always capable of, on a more consistent basis). I’d go with Dalot on this one even though his injury derailed his progress a bit — he looks like a proper modern fullback now and we even saw him getting preferred to Cancelo for the national team, which means that he didn’t simply started to look better in a more tactically astute side.

And then you have players who stepped up to match the likes of Casemiro & Lisandro as our leaders, most notably Rashford and Shaw. Shaw surprised me a little less — he already had a spell in his career when he was genuinely world class but it’s nice to see him performing at that level again and he looks like he also became more vocal on & off the pitch. Rashford’s improvement has been insane though — it’s still a short enough spell so that we can’t yet dismiss a possibility of a purple patch, but if he keeps it up long enough he’ll genuinely be competing for Ballon d’Or (to be fair it’s gonna become a bit easier when Messi will follow Cristiano into semi-retirement). Before that I thought that his ceiling was as one of 3-5 best forwards in the league.

So yeah, Dalot & Rashford seem to be standouts but since it’s harder to get from good to one of the best in the world than it is to improve from poor to good, I’d go with the latter.
 
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Dalot for me - the other players have shown longer periods of good form previously
 
Probably AWB, looks a lot more comfortable going forward. Most of the others have shown periods of great form previously.

This! With a player like Rashford you always knew the talent was there. Think Dalot is a good candidate as well. Well coached players improve, who would have thought?
 
I think there's an argument to make that none (or at least the majority) of these players are playing at that much of a higher level than they have shown previously at various points here. However, the difference is that they are now all firing at the same time. That is testament to ten Hag.
Just came here to post this comment exactly.

We've seen heights of Shaw, Rashford, Eriksen, Bruno. Wan Bissaka - I mentioned many many times he's very competent on the ball (although I still don't see him offering much offensively).

The biggest ETH success is to keep them performing on top/close to top level for a long period of time.

Dalot from being nobody now looks like a proper RB (until his injury/WC that is). But I still believe he's good enough for next season the way ETH wants to play.

Bruno looks more mature, but I don't think he's better than his first 6 months. Rashford finishing has been clinical lately, not sure how much credit goes to ETH for that, most likely he fixed his head.

Sancho is the biggest disappointment for me, but I don't think this is something that ETH has control over and that's why he got sent off for 3 months.
 
It's obviously Rashford, but I think we'd definitely had more than glimpses of this potential before. It was know that he was capable of a lot more than he showed last season, even though I don't think anybody expected world-beater stats.

The one I'm most impressed with though is Dalot - I don't think I've ever really thought from when we signed him, that he's a brilliant full-back, but he has been great since EtH took over. He and Shaw look like world-beaters of full-backs at the moment. Again I think we all knew that Shaw had great potential that he was not making the effort to fulfil, but not Dalot.
 
I would say Dalot, until ETH came I did not even believe this guy was a defender, his level was so far below premier league it was shocking.

Obviously Rashford is improved but mostly compared to last season, he has shown how good his can be in previous seasons albeit not as consistently or at quite such a high standard
 
Wan-Bissaka, Dalot was already showing signs of being a top all-rounder under Rangnick. AWB has literally transformed in a matter of weeks, amazing really.
 
Dalot and AWB have massively improved, but it is obviously Rashford. He was absolutely awful last year, while this year not only he is on the best form of his career, but he has been looking like one of the best players in the league, if not in the world.
 
There’s 2 different categories, as many have mentioned.

There are players that looked like they shouldn’t be here at all but now don’t look out of place in the team anymore and can be relied upon at least until we get a top upgrade. Dalot and post-World Cup Wan-Bissaka are the best examples of such improvement (as well as De Gea — to a point — and Fred, who started to put out great performances that he was always capable of, on a more consistent basis). I’d go with Dalot on this one even though his injury derailed his progress a bit — he looks like a proper modern fullback now and we even saw him getting preferred to Cancelo for the national team, which means that he didn’t simply started to look better in a more tactically astute side.

And then you have players who stepped up to match the likes of Casemiro & Lisandro as our leaders, most notably Rashford and Shaw. Shaw surprised me a little less — he already had a spell in his career when he was genuinely world class but it’s nice to see him performing at that level again and he looks like he also became more vocal on & off the pitch. Rashford’s improvement has been insane though — it’s still a short enough spell so that we can’t yet dismiss a possibility of a purple patch, but if he keeps it up long enough he’ll genuinely be competing for Ballon d’Or (to be fair it’s gonna become a bit easier when Messi will follow Cristiano to semi-retirement). Before that I thought that his ceiling was as one of 3-5 best forwards in the league.

So yeah, Dalot & Rashford seem to be standouts but since it’s harder to get from good to one of the best in the world than than to improve from poor to good, I’d go with the latter.

Agreed with this, man.

Good call on Shaw. His spell as CB is as good as any CB out there, which is incredible. As good as he's defensively as leftback, playing in centeback is a different animal. But he just slotted in nicely like a fitted suit.
 
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Rashford and Shaw had shown they were extremely talented players in previous seasons even if last season was poor from them. Dalot has massively improved but imo that improvement began towards the end of last season, where he had a few good performances imo. Fred also had a few good performances last season even though this is definitely the best he's ever been for us imo, so he's a candidate for me. Imo AWB since the turn of the year has outperformed anything he previously shown for Utd, though I still don't think he's reached the level he was showing at Palace. That being said AWB had pretty much no involvement pre-World Cup and the few mins he did have were really poor.

If it's improvement from last season, I'd rank them: 1. Rashford, 2. Shaw, 3. Fred

If it's how surprised I've been by their improvement: 1. Fred, 2. AWB, 3. Dalot (though I did think he was an ETH-type player)
 
Yes - you answered Rashford. But there's a good case too for Fred. Shaw being reinvented as a centre back is another one.
I'm all for being happy that our players have turned a corner but let's not let ourselves believe he has become a decent player. Watch him play without Casemiro and he's the player we've seen the past few seasons. But he seems to be borderline world class when Casemiro is in the team.
 
Rashford - not only has he come off a poor 12 months but, even when he was playing well when younger, I didn’t realise he had this level in him.

AWB has also turned his career around after looking like a waste of money.
 
Shitting on AwB had become ingrained for me. That I chose him over Dalot (who’s also improved massively) in the vs thread for them two, says it all. He’s still not amazing mind (neither of them are), but he does actually look like a footballer these days. People have received honours for less than the magic EtH has worked with those two

Fred hasn’t really improved at all as far as I can see. Whenever he plays some footballing deity somewhere spins the wheel of fortune every ten minutes to dictate what he’s going to play like for that period.

All the other players have been decent in the past, theyve not really improved, just become more consistent. Which I suppose is an improvement of sorts.
 
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If we're going from last season to this I'd give it to Rashford. He didnt look an automatic starter and now he's our key attacking player and we can rely on him to score goals. Both a big turn around and huge importance. Its even an improvement on where he was at his best before.

AWB is back to what he's shown previous to the past season/season and a half. Really good rightback, not perfect in every way but more than worthy of his place in the squad and usually reliable for his place when picked as a starter.

Dalot I would say is more of a last season pick. I dont think he's been better this season than last season and for Portugal, I'd say he's repeated it and this is the level we should be expecting him at. Which is again a fairly reliable first team starter.
 
Gotta be shaw by a mile. He’s had shorter spells like this before but he’s always switched off or had a mistake in him.

He played centre back in multiple huge games this year including barcelona and didn’t look out of place, dramatic improvement in concentration and positioning when it’s come to defensive duties.
 
Easily our 2 RBs, but I think AWB edges it. Especially as it looked even Ten Hag had no use for him earlier in the season. To suddenly look like such a solid footballer again is the stuff of miracles. That one-touch sequence with Sancho in the game against Citeh epitomises his improvement. Absolutely no one would have thought he was capable of such.
 
Don't understand all these posters saying Rashford. He's played like this before, he's just regained the form we knew he had.

Dalot/AWB, for instance, have improved and are playing at a much higher level than either has shown before.
 
Find all the shouts for Dalot weird. He was playing well before the world cup but he's been quite unreliable since. Had to be hooked off at half time at the weekend and nearly cost us the game last night by literally stopping and watching the opposition score. I think he's the only player at the moment who gets picked fairly regularly but isn't really justifying it and needs to sort himself out a bit.

Of the names mentioned I would say Fred. Well it's obviously Rashford, but he's always kind of had it in him to play at the level he's at now. Fred, although he'll still be a catastrophe for at least 15 minutes of every game, has elevated himself to looking like an important and reliable player, where as before he was just, well, Fred.

Some of the others have been great but Shaw for example has had prolonged spells of looking very good in the past. He needs to prove he can maintain it into the following season. Fernandes is more that he's always been very good and had one bad season, rather than vice versa. Not sure what Lindelof has supposedly improved at apart from that he doesn't play anymore.
 
Don't understand all these posters saying Rashford. He's played like this before, he's just regained the form we knew he had.

I mean - a good percentage of the people saying Rashford are saying in the post that they're talking about last season to this season, so it doesn't matter if we knew he could do it or not.

I don't actually think he's ever been at this level, or not for any more than a couple of games anyway, but agree that he's been close to it.

Dalot/AWB, for instance, have improved and are playing at a much higher level than either has shown before.

Yeah, if we're taking "improved" to mean "playing the best they ever have done" then I think Dalot has a strong case to be the guy - he's gone off the boil a little bit now, which is probably why he's getting less love in this thread, but I've never seen him close to the level he's reached this season.

Not sure I agree about AWB yet, he was always an amazing tackler and his attacking going from non-existent to occasionally competent isn't a lot.


Personally I think the real answer is one who wasn't on the candidates list - Garnacho's getting a huge amount of playing time for someone who got virtually none last season, and he looks good most of the time. I know to some extent that's just a question of age, but to go from nowhere to regular sub and competent starter when needed in the space of one season is incredible.
 
Has to be Fred for me. I'm not sure if it's down to him actually improving or us having players to mask his deficiencies and allow him to play a role he actually can do a job in.
 
It's so difficult not going for Rashford but for me the choice is pretty obvious.
He had already improved immensly before the start of the season but now he's at world class level. Not only that he's putting class performances in every game and when we rest him we lose an important aspect of our play. That with all respect to Malacia who is as good a replacement as you can get.
Luke Shaw
 
Do you know there's loads going for the fullbacks Rashford etc, for me the improvement is In all of the players and that's ETHs influence. But I'd pick Fred for one who's improvement has been huge .
 
What is just amazing is the number of players in contention.
 
Dalot & AWB for me.

But problem hasn't been solved. Dalot, while being good offensively, is still poor defensively, just not as terrible. AWB, while good defensively, is still not as good offensively.

But I can see AWB being more comfortable with the ball, his overlap run is slightly improved, but delivery is still all over the place.
 
Rashford has turned from a player the majority on this forum wanted him sold last summer to our most important and valuable player that we absolutely can't do without. Magnificent revival.

AWB also revived from people thinking he had no more future here and would be replaced to a great asset for the team in last few months.
 
In light of the recent poll on who's your favourite player, I started wondering about this very NBA award. Who would win most improved for you?
Candidates are as follows:

Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Bruno Fernandez
David De Gea
Diogo Dalot
Fred
Luke Shaw
Marcus Rashford
Victor Lindelof

Having so many candidates is just a reflection of what a turn around we've seen this season.
The obvious answer vs last season stats-wise is Rashford. However, if we change the question to: what you've thought a player's fate was vs what they've showed this season. I think a case can be made for AWB. Who would you pick?

De Dea was one of our two best players last season and shouldn't be on this list.
 
Fred or AWB.

Fred for his versatility in the fact that he can link with the defense, come over to sides and play combination passes with the wingers and full-backs, his link with whoever is playing upfront and he makes some good runs into the box (an example was against Barcelona first leg where he nearly got on the end of a Fernandes cross within the first 20 seconds). Okay his interceptions and tackling could be better but I suppose we have Casemiro for that.

AWB for his improvement in his composure when in tight situations. Not sure we have seen enough of it but he seems to be getting into better forward positions now but still needs to work on his delivery with zero assists this season in the league. His one-on-one defending can't be questioned, as this is his best attribute. I think he needs more games and more positive performances to be labelled as the most improved player but if given more chances there is no reasons why he couldn't be.
 
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Got to be Rashford. After his initial breakthrough he gradually began complicating his game to the point he was basically a hindrance to his teammates.

ETH has transformed him into a player who no longer worries about getting involved in the build-up or performing useless flicks and tricks on the halfway line, but instead plays on the shoulder, gets his head down and is ultra-direct
 
Has to be Rashford. He looked like a player completely lost and devoid of interest last season. Now, he's one of the most potent forwards in Europe and has improved probably in every aspect of his game.
 
In true forum mode.
Rashford revival is a flash in the pan and will resort to par soon, Licha will be found out and shifted out to a spanish team probably Barca as too small, Antony can go wherever he wants as long as his one trick pony nonsense is not here. Ten Hag is just enjoying an extended new manager bounce and will be found out and fails to qualify for CL. Glaziers will get a US investment lift from shares sales, stay onboard and new manager Poch will salivate over the 50million transfer budget left over after dividends and debts are taken of the income under FFP. What have I missed so far ?
 
AWB for me has been fantastic, he’s going forward play and positioning has been a complete turnaround to how he was pre ETH. My vote is for him.
 
AWB for me.
Dalot and Fred have improved a lot, Rashford is having a great season but I knew those guys had it in them. Not so with AWB but he has turned it around. Shaw & Varane have been class too.
 
From last season to now you would say Rashford, though with the caveat that he hinted at hitting these levels before.

On the basis of their entire time here, I would say AWB. He actually looks like a footballer these days which was not the case before.
 
AWB still feels too limited technically for me to be the most improved, although he's go everything he needs physically to get there. I'd go Dalot from where he started from and Rashford compared to where he was last season.
 
He's not one of the listed candidates in post 1, but Garnacho has come from under-18 team to make 27 appearances already this season.
 
Rashford and I think there is yet more to come from him. He has all the potential in the world and has massively improved in my eyes but there are still things he does that are silly decisions but they are far fewer than they used to be and I feel under ETH he is only going to get better and start to live up to the potential he has.