Excellent in attack, that part of his game is coming on nicely. A bit shaky defensively but he wasn't terrible. 1 bad mistake where he should have played the ball back to De Gea. Seemed a bit off the pace a little and got knocked off the ball a bit much, but in fairness Fulham were strong today and he wasn't the only player to get knocked off the ball. Having a more natural/experienced centre back next to him would likely have helped him. Good start to the season overall and hopefully he's worked that final out of his mind.
Rafael da Silva | 2010-14 Performances
- Thread starter amolbhatia50k
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I can't believe how much stick our full backs get when a cross comes into our box. Opposition full backs must be the worst players in the whole world.
If a full back is outstanding going forward but abysmal defensively, has he had a good game? I'm using two extremes there, but people's logic here seems to be "well he was brilliant going forward [which he wasn't], therefore he had an excellent game".
He's a defender first and foremost, which most of you, and Rafael himself, do not seem to realise.
He's a defender first and foremost, which most of you, and Rafael himself, do not seem to realise.
To be fair today rafael looked a bit out of character in his defending, i dont know if it was because he kept slipping but his body strength seemed down, perhaps he has not been in the gym enough in the season break.
Either way he is still progressing very well, his football at times is
Either way he is still progressing very well, his football at times is
The system we play they are wing backs. Football is a fine balance between attacking and defending, and we seem to have it right on majority of occasions, and so does our full backs. If our coaches wanted players who are pure defenders they would give precise orders to the both our full backs to defend and not to venture forward.
I thought he wasn't that awful defensively, had quite a few nice tackles but was caught out of position a few times. Did very good offensively though, and is definitely our best rightback (probably because he is our only real one)
He was our best attacking player today, Liam.
He wasn't Kagawa was.
He's our fullback, as important as offense is, defense is a little more important and he was all over the shop.
Threads going the way like the one here today make me wanna leave this forum & never return. fecking bananas the lot of you.
He was our best attacking player today, Liam.
rather he'd be mentioned as our best defender. united have enough attacking options. kagawa was better by the way and i thought tony was better too.
Nonsense, we play wing backs, lots of attacking play goes through Evra and Rafael, they look to get up along side our wingers when we're attacking down the wing.
He scored a goal, had one disallowed, had a great shot saved. Made an assist for Kagawa which hit the post. Not bad day for a full back.
Wing backs also need to defend, it's fine utilizing them in attack, but Rafael is a disaster waiting to happen at times when on the back foot.
Both goals came from his side, one from a free kick he gave away. He was skinned about 3-4 times to boot. He needs to improve his defensive work massively.
If full back was a position where it was just about defending every team would just pick players who are just best at tackling and clever at defending. Best full backs in the world need to be good at both defending, overlapping and crossing.
Completely agree. For his attacking contributions he gave the ball away quite a bit, which Kag hardly did. Fantastic performance from him. No surprise our worst spell was when he went off.
Right, but when his attacking means he can't defend, is it worth it? You make it sound like we play with two defenders, which is ludicrous.
Carrick gave away the free kick. People seem to forget opposition teams also have players who can attack and score goals. Like a poster said above we must be playing against some very poor full backs who are skinned every week by Nani, Valencia and Young.
No, I make it sound like we play with wingbacks, which is what I said.
Is it worth it? Overall I think so, we win more games than we lose.
Is it worth it? Overall I think so, we win more games than we lose.
agreed - his defending - the bolded bits above is where the wheels come right the feck off the rails.
and another thing those three wingers you posted above would f him over well and truely all day long. thank feck they play for united.
Missed the first goal, but heard Carrick gave away the free kick.
It was Carrick actually.
This is something I keep reading on this forum (not just today). I'm not sure what to make of it, because it seems fecking retarded. I'd hate to be a fullback in anybody's team around here, because if the ball approaches the box from your general direction, you're now at fault. It's such a simplistic view of football. Was the Fulham fullback at fault for RVP's goal, because Evra crossed it to him?
Valencia and Rafael form a partnership down the right hand side which results in the former occasionally covering for the overlapping latter. It's really not that hard to grasp. Players move around the pitch, surprisingly.
I think he could've curtailed it a little bit, usually he'd get away unpunished, but we're playing a makeshift centerback at the minute and his positioning could've cost us 2 points.
he did after rafael gave it away.
Exactly!
Which means we have the balance right. I've been trying to say exactly this with my posts above.
Rafael did not give the ball away. He made a good tackle and the ball unluckily ran to their player. Happens! Hardly his fault.
Playing two attacking wingbacks, no matter where you're playing is very risky with a central midfielder in defense next to a guy who missed 8 months through injury. This is especially so when none of your central midfielder are particularly good defensively.
Don't know why you folks are trying to be all reasonable. Rafael plays for Manchester United! He should be world class at both attacking and defending as a bare minimum.
Don't know why you folks are trying to be all reasonable. Rafael plays for Manchester United! He should be world class as a bare minimum.
You have to be realistic. He's a fullback and his defending was extremely poor today, some people just see the goals and chances and think he was phenomenal.
Can't believe a player who has been with United for many seasons (Evra), and a fantastic young talent who has just been awarded a 5 year contract are criticised for not able to defend. If what you guys claim was correct they'd be no where near the first team.
The mind boggles.
The mind boggles.
he lost the ball - he got caught on it. he could have played it into touch. he dwelled on it and turned it over.
It could also have got us 2 more goals, actually it was probably closer to getting us 2 more goals than it was to costing us the game.
Depends how you want to look at it I suppose, I'd always much prefer we play an attacking game, particularly against a side like Fulham, at OT.
His defending wasn't poor though. Granted, he made a couple of mistakes, but no more than any of our other defenders did. He was probably the pick of our defenders today, in fact.
Try and explain your wisdom to our legion of professional coaches.
You'll find we won the game today, and have had considerable success with the system over many years with Evra, and the last few years with Rafael in the mix.
"He knows better than me"
Ehhh? I would've picked Rafael today as well. He just didn't play well and I'm here to counter balance the delusion, so you can gladly take your own suggestion and feck right off.
It's fine playing that way when we have a settled back four, but when Rafael gets caught out we have a very weak center back partnership behind him.
Also, lol. We won the game by the narrowest of margins today, if that last minute header went in this place would be in meltdown. Ferguson even said today we were stupid to let them back into the game.
If your right back defended like that he'd get hell in the dressing room and wouldn't figure next game. It would be 'feck off with the wannabe winger shit and do the basics'.
I would much sooner us have players trying to play football and occasionally making a mistake than have players who just hammer the ball out of play every time an opponent comes near them.
Was at the game and my impression was that he was excellent going forward but defensively looked a bit shaky. His positioning was suspect, however, I do not think he got adequate cover when Fulham were in our final third. They tended to double team him or when Carrick went slightly forward to close someone down he felt he had to cover for him and move a bit in.
I do think he needs Ferdinand or another proper CB next to him, whether it genuinely helps him or just thinks he feels safer its better than Carrick next to him. One of the issues I had was with our midfield in that they at times didn't get back quick enough to defend and help so it left him (and others) slightly exposed.
I do think he needs Ferdinand or another proper CB next to him, whether it genuinely helps him or just thinks he feels safer its better than Carrick next to him. One of the issues I had was with our midfield in that they at times didn't get back quick enough to defend and help so it left him (and others) slightly exposed.
But we didn't win 5-0 and we conceded 2 goals FFS!!! Don't you know that conceding a goal means that a defender HAD to make a mistake? All other teams are terrible - any goal conceded means our defenders are bad..
Completely agree with what you have been saying Sultan, but people here need to complain sadly -some just don't get how lucky we are to watch good teams. I'd hate to be here if we ever weren't successful - the moaning would be RAWK-like. Yes, I said it.
This is why Pete is one of the best posters on the Caf. He understands football.
Thats where the coaches come in, Rafael didn't just go out and decide to attack, that would have been his instruction.
And had Rafael sat back and defending like you're suggesting he wouldn't have scored and we would have drawn 2-2,.
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