Brainfart aside - should he start ahead of Phil Jones or not (this weekend)? I think he should and to me it was a mistake in pulling Rafael in the previous games in favor of Jones when he came back from injury. Rafael had been playing quite well.
Rafael da Silva | 2010-14 Performances
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Showing signs of going back to old habits - which involves sloppy positional play and generally weak defensive plays.
Picking up momentum and confidence is key now.
Picking up momentum and confidence is key now.
I thought it had been established that it was a refereeing error? The Ref told United Bilbao were going to pass the ball back and then their strikers competed for it and everyone was a bit confused and they capitalised on it.
Still was a mistake by him and you know if you try to down play it by the mitigating circumstances, people are going to say it's just a poor excuse.
Aside from the mistake, overall still better option on the right than Phil Jones and I hope Fergie sees that. It's not like Jones didn't make a blunder yesterday for the first goal either. Can't punish Rafael and drop him and not Jones.
There is no need to criticize player who is dropped after every good performance. Yes, it was poor reaction for their third goal, but I'm sure that kind of thing wouldn't happen if he was playing regulary.
Jesus how melodramatic do you want to be.
Agreed, I posted this in the other thread:
"Jones/Rafael are getting an absolute hammering, the former is 19 and has played in 3-4 positions in and out of the team this season, whilst the latter is 21 and has only played 2 games in succession once this season (and I think Rafael was one of our better players until his brain-fart). Mistakes aren't only likely, they're inevitable.
Couple this with the fact that Rafael has been playing behind Park, Nani, Young and Valencia, whilst Jones has been playing alongside about 10 different players this season and it's obvious that they will have little understanding of their defensive/midfield partners and will get caught out positionally (I'm sure for instance Valencia would be in a defensive position to cover Rafael at times, whereas Nani might not be, likewise Nani might overlap him the majority of the time, whilst Young could be inside).
To expect young inexperienced players to deal with these constant changes in naive. If we must pin blame to last nights performance, look no further than Fergie, Rooney, Giggs, Young, Evra etc. Experienced players (and the manager) who looked like they were playing a practice match and got the tactics totally wrong."
Yes it was a bad mistake and yes it cost us a goal, but that's all it was. The real inquest should be into the performance and tactics as a whole, not a 3 second hesitation by a 21 year old with sporadic appearances this season.
Seems like a bit of a silly excuse, really.
Still, it happened, and it's over. He'll learn from it and that's that. Shouldn't be overly judged.
It would be nice if we had a settled rightback...
Fergie will be furious. Barring more injuries Rafael won't be starting again any time soon. He's be more likely to forgive an all-round poor performance than an incident as unprofessional as that.
The "problem" is that we have to make a sacrifice if we want to play with a settled right back. I would love to see Rafael start every game of the season on the right back, but that would mean that we had to sacrifice the progress of Smalling and Jones, as Rio and Evans seems to make a great partnership at the back.
With the way things are at the moment, we desperatly need the experience that Rio brings which means that we would have to rotate all of Jones, Smalling and Evans at centerback just to make sure they progress and gain experience. As much as I love to watch Rafael play, and he's turning into one of my favorite players, I would much rather have us rotate the right back, rather then the centerback.
With Vidic back next season, we'll have to rotate even more at the back to make sure the players get enough gametime, but I reckon it's to be expected that Rio gets less gametime next year. If he continues the form he's in right now though, he's still (along with Vidic) the best centerback we got.
With the way things are at the moment, we desperatly need the experience that Rio brings which means that we would have to rotate all of Jones, Smalling and Evans at centerback just to make sure they progress and gain experience. As much as I love to watch Rafael play, and he's turning into one of my favorite players, I would much rather have us rotate the right back, rather then the centerback.
With Vidic back next season, we'll have to rotate even more at the back to make sure the players get enough gametime, but I reckon it's to be expected that Rio gets less gametime next year. If he continues the form he's in right now though, he's still (along with Vidic) the best centerback we got.
But that RB/LB position is crucial - with our modus operandi in attack being, get the ball up the field, then get it to one of our wingers asap, and hope something happens.
The RB is crucial to our success - his runs, understanding, positioning, all will help to dictate how effective the right winger(Nani or Valencia) is, and obviously not to forget his primary task of defending.
Smalling defensively is good enough to cover at RB, though attacking he is clueless, Jones while eager to attack, is out of control, and defensively is a nightmare.
Rafael is the best of both worlds atm, and should be No.1 injury permitting.
The RB is crucial to our success - his runs, understanding, positioning, all will help to dictate how effective the right winger(Nani or Valencia) is, and obviously not to forget his primary task of defending.
Smalling defensively is good enough to cover at RB, though attacking he is clueless, Jones while eager to attack, is out of control, and defensively is a nightmare.
Rafael is the best of both worlds atm, and should be No.1 injury permitting.
I'll be shocked if SAF punishes Rafael for that era. For its his own tactics that made that error inevitable. The 4-4-2 we played for so long put our defence under so much pressure that eventually a crack was bound to happen. It's no surprise one of the youngest members of the back 4 cracked.
What an idiot you are seriously.
Some players to defend to death and some you just criticize at the slightest of chance.
fecking hypocrite!
What an idiot you are seriously.
Some players to defend to death and some you just criticize at the slightest of chance.
fecking hypocrite!
Kind of ironic calling someone an idiot for criticising a player when you're too thick to highlight the bit of the post that contains an actual criticism.
Actually, it's kind of ironic for pond life like you to call anyone an idiot, full stop.
no doubt he'll have been given an almighty ear bashing from the boss and its possible the error could see him dropped but i'm of the opinion he'd have missed out anyway as i can see Smalling playing at RB now he's fit and he's arguably ahead of rafa in the pecking order anyway
You can't blame tactics or any other reason for Rafael turning off like that. It was a terrible mistake by him and I'm sure he was the first to admit it in the dressing room
Even David De Gea had a bit of a go at Rafael in his post-match interview. It's safe to assume Fergie tore him a new one.
I'm sure the public dressing down is unnecesary though. Rafael will be livid with himself regardless.
I'm sure the public dressing down is unnecesary though. Rafael will be livid with himself regardless.
He switched off, a poor mistake ofcourse but hardly something that should leave him our of the team for a long spell. Shit happens. In any case, with the amount of rotation we do at RB, and in general, we'l never know the reason why he doesnt play the next game if that indeed happens. And then we'l have a long discussion here speculating the reason.
Bit OTT there Pogue, it was very poor by Rafael, but so was Giggsy's mistake last weekend and he started just a few days later.
Everyone makes mistakes, Rafael switched off and will certainly learn his lesson.
Too much drama in this thread.
Whatever the reason for the mistake does not make him a bad football player. I can't even imagine SAF would drop him for that mistake in it's isolation.
Whatever the reason for the mistake does not make him a bad football player. I can't even imagine SAF would drop him for that mistake in it's isolation.
Did SAF drop Schmeichel after that terrible mistake in Munich? Do we just drop players for long spells now because of one mistake? We won't have a bloody team left
I doubt the coaches would be even analysing the mistake as much as us fans. Most likely a quiet word, or bring it up in a team meeting resulting in a few minutes discussion on the matter.
Yeah sometimes players make mistakes and tbh I'm guessing sometimes no one needs to say anything, with stuff like this the player knows they messed up.
Yeah, you could see his reaction immediately which, for me, reflected the understanding of how avoidable the goal was...He's 21?...I mean, it's just the beginning of his career - he'll have to learn about playing to the whistle, but the future remains bright
Young and learning.
Its just a mistake that could be made by anyone really.
Giggs is 38 and yet that mistake against Tottenham.
Such mistakes happen irrespective of age. Good players make them less often.
Do one!, hypocrite!
Rafael needs to play all the time or he will never learn. Too many changes at right back. I don't like this changing lineup depending who you are playing. Gary Neville played all the time.
Drama queens.
it wasn't a mistake it was lazy defending. you play to the whistle regardless.
I hope we don't drop him. He fecked up, as have plenty other players, so give the boy a roasting but don't drop him. He's already been unlucky in that he's been dropped when he's played well. Despite his mistake to me he is still our best right back.
Yes you can blame other reasons. Our defence was put under incredible pressure by Bilbao. Pressure that was there strictly because of our poor tactical set up. We are lucky more of our less experienced defenders didn't make more costly mistakes
Of course it was a shocking mistake. But my point is it was understandable. That is why I cant see the staff and SAF making a big deal of it.
Calling it now. Out for the season.
Damnit I was going to the same but he is up on his feet at least.
Yep doesn't seem as bad now.
Quoted.
What does Park do apart from run around and fall over?
I know they look alike but..
i must admit to thinking "here we go again" when he crumpled
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