With LVG every player is responsible for his own performance. If they don't perform they wont get to play with a more experienced player next season. If McNair or Blackett show more promise than any of them they are gone.
33
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 18
- Clean sheets
- 5
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
With LVG every player is responsible for his own performance. If they don't perform they wont get to play with a more experienced player next season. If McNair or Blackett show more promise than any of them they are gone.
Agree but equally if they are not fit, LVG can't make an assessment. I can't say that Smalling isn't good enough or Jones for that matter, they've just not been fit long enough. Evans equally. I can't see McNair or Blackett being pushing those two. These are players that are very good once fit, even potentially world class in the future and people often forget this.....
The thing about fitness, is that we all knew before the season started that all 3 of those players would have injuries this season. The assessment will be made on their performances whilst fit, I doubt the boss is going to be thinking they are potentially world class on those performances, ok maybe Smalling is the exception but the rest I doubt it tbh.
EDIT: We're going to be aiming for the title and potentially the UCL next season, I think you'll find the boss will be quite ruthless.
Jones I believe is a very good player, maybe the best CB at the club. I think he's looked pretty good since coming back. If Smalling or Jones became available, they would be bought by a top 3 club. Can't be any potentially better English players at their age. These players have international and CL experience too....
Chelsea or City wouldn't sign either of them.
Arsenal already wanted Smalling and I think Chelsea would take Jones. He's potentially a young Terry.....plus for CL major factor that they are both English. As much as I think he's a idiot, can you imagine either player next to Terry......
Arsenal are not a top3 club and are not going to win the league any time soon.
Jones hasn't played 20+ games at CB over a extended period and looked top class so why would Chelsea (managed by Mourinho) ever sign such a player? Just beacuse he has england caps?
Most people on the cafe have been over reactionary about players. If it were up to redcafe we'd have terminated the contracts of Mata, RvP, Falcao, Young, Valencia, Jones, Smalling, De Gea, and more by now. So obviously the cafe is a terrible barometer of player performance. I'm not trying to offend you, I don't mind that you are supportive of your countrymen. If We ever signed a Canadian player (lol) I'd be overly supportive of them too.
We have, Owen Hargreaves.
sort of, the bloody crock!We have, Owen Hargreaves.
We've just signed that youth player too, josh doughty his name is I believe. Hopefully he'll make it here and stay with Canada as he is eligible for the us and England too.
I think otherwise
Blackett looks the bigger talent to me than McNair. It will be interesting to see which one of them survives longer.
No, he was a little under par and we could see clear weaknesses. Posts in the Blackett thread will tell you that several people including myself remarked that he didnt look comfortable defending high balls, often letting them bounce and getting himself into trouble.
McNair on the other hand coped with pretty much everything in his first handful of games, including impressive reading of balls behind the backline and being able to see off the attackers trying to get on the end of them. He also took responsibility for a lot of the headed clearances, tending to make more of them than Rojo who was alongside him. It was that maturity and ability to cope with what was thrown at him that made him look a better defender than Blackett. He didn't look a world beater, but he looked like he could do the job when asked to.
You have McNair who is putting in a 6.5-7/10 defensive performance and then you have Blackett putting in a 5.5-6/10 defensive performance. Its obvious that if McNair has a dodgy game he's going to be forgiven a lot easier because we know he can do a job.
I have to agree, I know it goes against popular opinion on here but I really like the look of Blackett. Nothing against McNair, I just see more in Blackett.
Who knows how their careers will play out though.
Blackett is harshly criticized on here. Nothing against McNair either, I hope he's not another Jonny Evans though.
Yeh, Blackett felt the full force of the United fans backlash after a costly mistake in a game that we lost. If McNair's nightmare cost us against Southampton, he sadly would have been in for the same treatment but we won, so it's easily forgotten and put down to being a young player.
I don't see anything special in either of them. I see two young players with limited ability who look very shakey at times and need to have the whole game dictated to them.
McNair looks a better defender currently, its as simple as that. Blackett had some bells and whistles with his distribution and dribbling in pre-season, but those havent looked as good in the premier league so far (in fact he's looked shaky and suspect) and they are fancy fluff on top of the important stuff. The important stuff is the actual defending, where McNair has clearly done a better job so far.
I can see why someone might think Blackett will become the better player, but there's no evidence at all to suggest he'll become a better defender. Thats one of the main areas he's lagging behind and needs to improve if he's going to have a future at United.
Right now McNair is clearly ahead in the pecking order, and Michael Keane is doing well on loan. When he returns in the summer Blackett might be the 3rd choice of the 3 unless he has a dramatic improvement
I can see why someone might think Blackett will become the better player, but there's no evidence at all to suggest he'll become a better defender. Thats one of the main areas he's lagging behind and needs to improve if he's going to have a future at United.
Right now McNair is clearly ahead in the pecking order, and Michael Keane is doing well on loan. When he returns in the summer Blackett might be the 3rd choice of the 3 unless he has a dramatic improvement
People need to understand how quick a pecking order can change. Who would have thought McNair would be in the position he is in at the start of the season?
One injury, one good performance, a signing, a player leaving etc anything can dramatically change the outlook for a player.
One injury, one good performance, a signing, a player leaving etc anything can dramatically change the outlook for a player.
He's not going up that order without playing well himself, thats the point. If Blackett plays like he has done so far this season we're more likely to sign someone than bump him up the order
Blackett is actually a better natural footballer and defender (especially on one vs one situation).It just that his weakness (concentration lapse and unaware of the runner near/behind him) are so obvious and easy to be exploited.Those are coachable but I haven't seen much improvement from him.It's a shame because he would be very good otherwise (his sloppy passing is more due to being nervous/inexperience than his ability).Currently playing Blackett would be suicidal in the type of game against good counter-attacking team.
He (Blackett) needs to up his game before the season ends otherwise it's very hard for him to keep his place for next season.The one that matters (LVG) seems to rate McNair higher at the moment and we'll have a young defender who's a regular at PL level (Michael Keane) coming back.
I actually think Borthwick-Jackson (U18s) is a better version of him so it would be interesting to follow their development in the next few seasons.
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He was about as under par as McNair has been, no more. Also, McNair gives you the impression that Andy Carroll could breeze by him given the ease with which he's beaten 1v1. Even on his debut, Valencia went past him as if he wasn't there and that's happened way too many times since then. He's made mistakes in just about every game he has played.
Agree. Course he's must be of a quality cause he's come from the academy but young players promoted to first team have to be ready now. Yes, they will be inexperienced at this level but they should have the quality, but I can't see it. Like I said Young players here get their chance but don't always get their time. Even potentially after this window, we may have signed another CB. If he's that good, he should be playing weekly if fit. He will never get a better opportunity than this season.
With respect the McNair and Blackett, I hope we keep in mind that we're talking about two very, very young players. We can't rely on either to lead us to a CL trophy next season, but they are both outstanding long-term prospects for us. They may or may not break through as our first choice central defenders 3-4 seasons from now, but all things considered they've stepped up very well for us.
I'd have no problem having either in the rotation for us to deal with the QPRs of the world to give I've senior defenders -- such as Jones, all of 22 years old -- the occasional break.
I'd have no problem having either in the rotation for us to deal with the QPRs of the world to give I've senior defenders -- such as Jones, all of 22 years old -- the occasional break.
Yeovil 0:2 Man Utd
I thought he looked shaky as part of the back 3 again but perked up a bit when he moved to RB.
It looked like it was all going horribly wrong in the first half, but I thought he looked quite composed at FB in the second half. He doesn't look scared of the ball, which is certainly something.
Has no positional awareness at RB though, which is fair since he never played there before.I wouldn't play him there against any PL team.
Felt sorry for him as he should have been taken off after his head injury. Not surprised he looked dazed for the rest of the first half.
He's obviously not ready, he should've been loaned to a lower league team this season but injuries dictated that he became a regular.
Accident waiting to happen, has been fortunate to get away with a lot of errors, not his fault as he has been forced into action but he needs a year or two in the championship and dramatic improvement if he is to be here long term which in all honesty I don't think he will be.
He was much more agressive today. First time I've seen him try to assert himself physically. Is actually very good on the ball, can make that out by how easily he was bringing the ball out of defense, just needs to learn to make a pass quicker instead of trying to find the perfect pass.
His 100% record continued today though, didn't it? 
Thrown in because we have injury prone CB's and FB's. Poor lad. Not ready.
I think he will be the moment we bring someone in to replace him.
His 100% record continued today though, didn't it?
He started against Tottenham.
Ah, still unbeaten so, the dodgy bastard.
People said what they want but we actually had a very good defensive record with him starting.
Yeah, but he's obviously not the reasoning for that. de Gea saved our bacon in most of them games.
Definitely but the way some said about him as if he's another Wootton is funny.
I still persist with my opinion that Keane and Thorpe are better than him at the moment but I don't think the lad has been as poor as some made him out to be.
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