Rio - SAF's greatest defender?

Evans definitely deserves a chance - and Rio should never be asked to play 3 games in a week.

I find it ridiculous that we suddenly think he's capable of doing so this year when SAF constantly stated that he had to be used correctly last year.
 
17 Van Der Gouw said:
I'd be fine with not buying in. Jones and Smalling are being wasted. Jones especially has the potential to be a fantastic CB and Smalling keeps being used to cover Rafael. Not to mention Evans who was one of our best last season. The central defense is overstocked as it is.

If anything I'd buy a backup RB - use Fabio on the left to cover Evra, and sadly send Buttner on his way.
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I think that's what should happen. Get a proper RB to cover Rafael - let the CB's be CB's.
 
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/sep/25/rio-ferdinand-footies-award-ceremony

Rio Ferdinand's Footies football award ceremony is a step too far said:
The same cannot be said, alas, for the newest addition to the desperately thin awards ceremonies calendar: the Footies. "Football's answer to the Oscars", according to the Sun, which insists: "An awards ceremony for the beautiful game in this country is LONG overdue."

Do consider that monstrous injustice righted. At the end of this season, the inaugural Footies will take place at what the organisers promise will be "a glamorous central London location". But what form will this exciting evening take? Well, the event appears tailor‑made for all those who look at today's Premier League and remark that what it could really benefit from is more self-regard, and a greater emphasis on celebrity. "Bringing together football and music," the blurb promises, "the star-studded event will celebrate the best of what the season had to offer, with live music from headline acts famous for their love of football".

It was Rio Ferdinand who famously once explained: "The music, the fashion, the TV – it all goes to make up Rio Ferdinand," so it is no surprise to see the game's most self-effacing polymath listed as one of the event's founders. According to Rio: "We want it to become the most unique awards event in the calendar." The categories have already been decided upon, unfortunately, so it doesn't look like there'll be room to add a self-parodic one for "Most Unique". But there'll be Player of the Year, Goal of the Year, Free Kick of the Year, Result of the Year, Game of the Year, Manager of the Year, Fan of the Year, Journalist of the Year … it goes on. James Corden will host, obviously.

"I think the Footies is going to become a date in the diary for many years to come," Corden honked obligingly. I certainly hope it will prove itself a worthy contender for the Awards Awards, a genuine awards ceremony which honours the best of the awards ceremonie
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That sounds like a truly horrific and utterly pointless experience that is doomed to failure.

James fecking Cordon.
 
Been shite this season..
 
Wouldn't write him off just yet, it was only last season he was one of our best players. Not like people have never said he's past it before.
 
I wouldn't look past it either. Moyes' use of Ferdinand has been poor thus far.
 
Thats the worst I can ever remember seeing Rio play. He looked like an ex-player playing in a Legends game.

Just terrible.
 
He can't run. Should be out the team.

It's like having Blanc back.
 
What does his pace have to do with anything? Even if he was as quick as before he wouldn't have caught up with Amalfitano after getting nutmegged. It's like when people suggested Giggs was past it because his legs were gone following a game when he gave the ball away a couple of dozen times. Rio hasn't been good and he's probably past it. He's no slower than he was last season though. He looks like he's lost a bit of sharpness but that's got feck all to do with pace. His biggest mistakes today were getting caught flat-footed in Amalfitano's run and being caught flat-footed from his corner which Olsson headed over. Being quicker wouldn't have helped.
 
Beginning of the end for him today possibly. Hope I'm wrong but that was an absolute shocker, looked so slow (both in pace and in reacting) and made dreadful decisions. When his positioning goes, as it did today, he's got nothing to fall back on, except his arse.
 
It was unusual for us to give him so many games in succession, and that's cost us. That's not the best way for us to manage him at this age. Right now he desperately needs a break from the team. Defensively we've been shocking from the start of the season. A settled defence must be picked without him for the time being.
 
It is quite painful to watch him at the moment. I hope I'm not jumping the gun but he looks finished to me. It's like watching Scholes last season.

He got bullied today. Evans and Vidic would be the way forward for me, providing Vidic is fit and able to play.
 
The cries that he should be more carefully managed in terms of how many games he plays doesn't really help his cause for me, it just raises the question why we're continuing to build our side around players who have to be constantly rested and rotated due to age/fitness issues rather than at the manager's discretion.. This has been driving me mad with Giggs/Scholes and it's been an issue with Rio and Vidic over the recent past as well.
 
Dominos said:
The cries that he should be more carefully in terms of how many games he plays doesn't really help his cause for me, it just raises the question why we're continuing to build our side around players who have to be constantly rested and rotated due to age/fitness issues rather than at the manager's discretion.. This has been driving me mad with Giggs/Scholes and it's been an issue with Rio and Vidic over the recent past as well.
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We're not ruthless in getting rid of players. SAF lost that trait after we lost Stam and have been extremely careful while getting rid of players ever since.
 
Bestie07 said:
We're not ruthless in getting rid of players. SAF lost that trait after we lost Stam and have been extremely careful while getting rid of players ever since.
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To be fair it was hard getting rid of Scholes or Giggs after the service they put in for us. Even Neville. Atleast with Neville he saw his performances drop and decided it was for the best.
 
I don't get what his shite performances have to do with pace. He's made huge errors in every game he's played this season and none of them have been down to pace. The goal against Liverpool for example, was down to him not paying attention. He was guilty of that on about 4 seperate occasions today. The goal today was down to his ridiculously pathetic attempt to challenge for the ball by planting his feet. He could have been Usain Bolt and he wouldn't have got back. The chance against Palace was down to him not bothering to position himself correctly. It's all basic errors and on top of that with the ball he's absolutely fecking atrocious. Nothing about his game atm is anywhere near Premier League standard, let alone Manchester United.

It could be a fitness/age thing but I fid it hard to have any real sympathy for him when he runs his mouth about what a winner he is so much, and constantly finds time to piss around making guest appearances and poxy award ceremony shows with his celebrity mates.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are two of the brightest young centrebacks in the country and can't get a game there between them because of Rio Ferdinand. That's the part that annoys me. One of them will get fed up and leave if it carries on, and Rio will cost us a couple of places in the league unless his performances get a LOT better, and frankly he's had more chances than any player deserves considering exactly how sub par they've been. Gary Neville retired himself for less.
 
Bojan11 said:
To be fair it was hard getting rid of Scholes or Giggs after the service they put in for us. Even Neville. Atleast with Neville he saw his performances drop and decided it was for the best.
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We've got a new manager now and can't afford to be giving players games who are dragging the level of the entire team down, just because of what they've done in the past.

What Rio Ferdinand could do 5 years ago or even 1 year ago is completely irrelevant. His performances NOW are consistently a liability to the entire team. We have alternatives who are at a bare minimum, more reliable.

I didnt think he was that good last season anyway. Evans was our best defender last season and behind him Vidic for the games he was actually fit for. Rio had a spell of being dependable. I thought he did just about enough to justify his place in the squad tbh. I thought there was already an argument to be had of him hampering the development of Smalling/Jones more than he was helping the performance of the team. Jones suffers hugely being shunted to fullback, and Smalling may as well not exist. How well he plays when he is selected seems to be irrelevant as Rio just comes back in for the next game regardless.
 
Lets not let this drag on like it did with Valencia. Evans and Vidic are far more than capable to be starting for us for a while so he can have a break from the team for a while.
 
Just get Hummells in alongside Evans, Smalling or Jones and were sorted, will cost around £30m but worth just like RIO was, will have to be in the summer as Dortmund will not sell easily
 
Smalling is probably a better foil for Vidic should Moyes decide to take Rio out of the firing line for a while.

He's the most natural defender we have after Nemanja too, and we'd look far stronger defensively if we took this route.

Please, for the love of God, Moyes, stop playing centre-backs at right-back, though. It's an abomination for a club such as ours.
 
Sam said:
Thats the worst I can ever remember seeing Rio play. He looked like an ex-player playing in a Legends game.

Just terrible.
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Some of those ex players are still better than him right now. Jaap Stam for example.
 
I am a big Rio fan, but he has had a very bad start to the season. We need to give Smalling and Evans a chance now.
 
More than the mistakes, the thing that worries me is that he's definitely lost pace and acceleration. This means our centerbacks have to play much deeper and as a whole that leaves a gap between our defense and midfield. Definitely shades of Blanc.
 
I refuse to believe that he went from great to shit in the space of a few months.

He probably can't handle the intensive training methods that Moyes has implemented (nothing wrong with Moyes' methods by the way) on top of playing regularly, but does them anyway because without Sir Alex here, he no longer has the security of being one of the managers trusted senior players anymore and has to prove himself against some good opposition in Evans and Smalling. I could be wrong because I have no idea what goes on in training, I just don't think a top player would become noticably poorer in such a short period of time without some major injury like a broken a leg.
 
gulli_G said:
Just get Hummells in alongside Evans, Smalling or Jones and were sorted, will cost around £30m but worth just like RIO was, will have to be in the summer as Dortmund will not sell easily
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Hummels have been very ropey in the past year for Dortmund and recently was dropped by Low. I'd go for Mangala at Porto, albeit based on Arruda's opinion and watching him 2 or 3 times at most.
 
manutddjw said:
I refuse to believe that he went from great to shit in the space of a few months.

He probably can't handle the intensive training methods that Moyes has implemented (nothing wrong with Moyes' methods by the way) on top of playing regularly, but does them anyway because without Sir Alex here, he no longer has the security of being one of the managers trusted senior players anymore and has to prove himself against some good opposition in Evans and Smalling. I could be wrong because I have no idea what goes on in training, I just don't think a top player would become noticably poorer in such a short period of time without some major injury like a broken a leg.
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He's just being played a lot more than he should be. Which brings us to the next question, why do we have so many players in the squad whose game time has to be carefully managed?
 
nahealai said:
Please, for the love of God, Moyes, stop playing centre-backs at right-back, though. It's an abomination for a club such as ours.
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:wenger:

What? Sergio Ramos played at centre back for Sevilla and repeatedly said he was a centre back, yet for a good 5+ years he played at right back for Madrid and Spain. Puyol played at right back for Barcelona for quite a while. Carragher played at right back for quite a while. Ivanovic has been Chelsea's right back for however many years. It's a completely normal thing to do.
 
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