Robin van Persie | 2012-14 Performances

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He hasn't been shit by any standards, but yeah there's been a dip in form. I don't really mind about the goal drought, it happens and he'll soon be scoring again at will, but it's his overall play that annoys me a bit at the moment, I think it's not as consistent as it has been during the first half of the season. I think the pitch at home isn't doing him any favours either.
 
Andrew~ said:
I was kind of hoping this phrase had died out... Remember when people were calling Ronaldo and Henry 'big game bottlers'? I really hate that phrase.
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Some tools still call Ronaldo a "flat track bully", which is equally as annoying. Especially as he scores in all the games.

He was pretty quiet against us and still scored in both games.
And I think i heard that he's scored on his last 6 visits to The Nou Camp!
 
Sandikan said:
Some tools still call Ronaldo a "flat track bully", which is equally as annoying. Especially as he scores in all the games.

He was pretty quiet against us and still scored in both games.
And I think i heard that he's scored on his last 6 visits to The Nou Camp!
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When people talk about flat track bullies they're talking about players who don't bring their best form to the big games - it's not about the numbers, it's about the performances. Big-game bottler is different, I think. If van Persie were to have played as he did against Madrid - great focal point for the attack and initiated a number of great moves, unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions - then there would be some justification to calling him a big-game bottler, but he's shown he can perform at a high level and back it up with goals. Some of van Persie's best performances for us have come in the big games - goals or no goals. That's rarely the case with our Ronnie.
 
Brwned said:
He's scored 6 goals in 10 games (9 starts) v Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Spurs and Liverpool - what more objectivity do you need? In 07/08 Ronaldo scored 7 in 13 v Barcelona, Roma, Chelsea, City, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool. He failed to score in both legs against Barcelona and missed guilt-edged chances in both - that penalty miss being the main one, of course - and he followed that up by coming off the bench at the hour mark v Chelsea but he failed to score as we lost the game 2-1. In that time he went on a run of 5 games without a goal or just under 400 minutes without scoring - van Persie's on 359 minutes at the moment. Even the best in peak form go through goalscoring lulls in a season, but anyone who thinks he's been playing "shit" in the last few weeks needs their eyes testing.
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Spot on (except for the Madrid part)

Rooney in Paris said:
He hasn't been shit by any standards, but yeah there's been a dip in form. I don't really mind about the goal drought, it happens and he'll soon be scoring again at will, but it's his overall play that annoys me a bit at the moment, I think it's not as consistent as it has been during the first half of the season. I think the pitch at home isn't doing him any favours either.
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What!? He was mainly scoring goals in the first half of the season. It was only until 2-4 months into the season did we really start to see his quality with his overall play. How has his overall play been inconsistent? The main culprit with inconsistent overall play is Rooney. It's not like Rvp's touch has gone to shit.

In each of the last 6 games he's played, he's provided at least one moment of quality. Notice how it gets overlooked because he's not really scoring. The only thing that's dipped for me has been his shooting and the fact he seems a bit slower than usual. It's easy to jump on the bandwagon but I don't think he's been inconsistent with his overall play. Unless you can point to some specific examples.
 
What do you mean except for the Madrid part? He's scored 6 goals in 7 starts if you ignore the Madrid games and the appearance off the bench v Chelsea last week, but I don't see how ignoring 3 of the 4 games he didn't score in makes sense.
 
The charge of big game bottler at Van Persie is fairer than against most who are subjected to it* because he's got a relatively poor goalscoring record in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Still, in light of his track record of scoring in pretty much every single big domestic game over the last two seasons it's pretty harsh.

I reckon next season is huge for him in terms of his legacy in the game. We'll be well up for the CL and he'll have a World Cup at the end of it to show just how much of a great he truly is.

*Except Ibra, it's entirely justified with him.
 
Brwned said:
He's scored 6 goals in 10 games (9 starts) v Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Spurs and Liverpool - what more objectivity do you need? In 07/08 Ronaldo scored 7 in 13 v Barcelona, Roma, Chelsea, City, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool. He failed to score in both legs against Barcelona and missed guilt-edged chances in both - that penalty miss being the main one, of course - and he followed that up by coming off the bench at the hour mark v Chelsea but he failed to score as we lost the game 2-1. In that time he went on a run of 5 games without a goal or just under 400 minutes without scoring - van Persie's on 359 minutes at the moment. Even the best in peak form go through goalscoring lulls in a season, but anyone who thinks he's been playing "shit" in the last few weeks needs their eyes testing.
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I blame Messi and Ronaldo for this. Their goal scoring exploits have distorted the way people judge performances. Strikers can hardly go a game without scoring and the press will be having a meltdown on their lack of form
 
Brwned said:
What do you mean except for the Madrid part? He's scored 6 goals in 7 starts if you ignore the Madrid games and the appearance off the bench v Chelsea last week, but I don't see how ignoring 3 of the 4 games he didn't score in makes sense.
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The way you worded it made it seem as if he had scored against Madrid. That's what I mean.
 
Brwned said:
When people talk about flat track bullies they're talking about players who don't bring their best form to the big games - it's not about the numbers, it's about the performances. Big-game bottler is different, I think. If van Persie were to have played as he did against Madrid - great focal point for the attack and initiated a number of great moves, unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions - then there would be some justification to calling him a big-game bottler, but he's shown he can perform at a high level and back it up with goals. Some of van Persie's best performances for us have come in the big games - goals or no goals. That's rarely the case with our Ronnie.
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Huh.
 
adexkola said:
Huh.
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His last two big games in the CL have been v us and Bayern - he scored 2 in both yet still managed to look unimpressive. He said himself he was particularly poor in the game at OT because of the occasion and I agree, but I think it's quite common to see him fail to shine in big games. His best performances for us off the top of my head were v the likes of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Villa and co. He enjoyed playing Arsenal and Roma but other than that I don't remember him scoring or excelling against many big teams. Since 08/09 he's been scoring regularly against big teams but I don't remember him being a standout performer in many of them. Maybe I have a short memory or maybe I'm just biased/bitter but that's how I remember things.
 
I think if you were to look at any players best performances they would be against fairly weak teams. It's a weird point because very few players actually look better against better teams. Drogba is hailed as one of the best big game players in recent history but then his best performances are probably against the likes of Wigan.
 
Atletico should count as a big game considering they were above Real in the table before as well as being rivals. He was great against them IIRC.
 
I'd say van Persie's best performances for us have come against Chelsea, Arsenal, Wigan and Southampton and last season some of his best games were v Chelsea, Liverpool and Dortmund.
 
Brwned said:
His last two big games in the CL have been v us and Bayern - he scored 2 in both yet still managed to look unimpressive. He said himself he was particularly poor in the game at OT because of the occasion and I agree, but I think it's quite common to see him fail to shine in big games. His best performances for us off the top of my head were v the likes of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Villa and co. He enjoyed playing Arsenal and Roma but other than that I don't remember him scoring or excelling against many big teams. Since 08/09 he's been scoring regularly against big teams but I don't remember him being a standout performer in many of them. Maybe I have a short memory or maybe I'm just biased/bitter but that's how I remember things.
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People just remember goals, and I'm sure in a year time many will say Ronaldo knocked us out single-handedly, eventough he was pretty much invisible in both games, except for number of odd shots that ruined lot of Real Madrid's good attacks. He set the record for this year's CL campaign for number of shots in one game by one player, in that game at Old Trafford,(yet people will say he didn't want to score goal against us). Except for that goal at Bernabeu, I haven't seen anything spectacular from him over those two games.


AttackingFlair said:
Atletico should count as a big game considering they were above Real in the table before as well as being rivals. He was great against them IIRC.
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You might check Real Madrid's record in games against Atletico in recent years, with or without Ronaldo.
 
Probably doesn't know what to do at this stage.

I mean it's not like Arsenal sustained a title challenge when he was there.

Still though, it's a great return for a first season.
 
It'd be great if he actually had some clearcut chances, bit low on confidence but it was pretty obvious with our production from the wide positions that once RVP lost a bit of form a drought may well ensue.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
It'd be great if he actually had some clearcut chances, bit low on confidence but it was pretty obvious with our production from the wide positions that once RVP lost a bit of form a drought may well ensue.
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The team created some very good chances for him against Madrid. He's just out of form.
 
Ok he doesn't get chances to score from so can't say anything about his finishing but tonight his passing was so off.That and his first touch looked very bad
 
It was gonna happen eventually. We've taken it for granted how sharp he's been up front. Thankfully others have continued to deliver for us when we needed them to. He just needs to get out of this temporary rut and we'll see him influencing games again.
 
Most of his goals at the start of the season were from his own sensational play. He was never going to carry that on throughout an entire season and he doesn't seem to get a lot of easy chances.
 
kps88 said:
The team created some very good chances for him against Madrid. He's just out of form.
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We've played other games in between then, RVP's rightly held to a high standard but our production in the wide areas we so often use has been worryingly under par all year.
 
Feels bad criticizing him after all he's done for us this season but for the past month he's been terrible.
 
Dont think he has played well for around 10 games if i am been honest. Maybe could do with just taking him out for a couple weeks let him freshen up and hopefully watch the goals start banging in again.
 
Castia said:
Feels bad criticizing him after all he's done for us this season but for the past month he's been terrible.
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That's a bit ridiculous, it's not like he's been missing sitters left, right and centre or been detrimental to our play at all. Just not been at the ridiculously high level he was before.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
That's a bit ridiculous, it's not like he's been missing sitters left, right and centre or been detrimental to our play at all. Just not been at the ridiculously high level he was before.
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Nah it's not like he's just been quite and drifted through games, he's giving the ball away a lot and contributing very little to attack, even his usual classy first touch looks off at the moment. Just needs a tap in or a penalty to get him on the score sheet again.
 
He isn't missing sitters so I'm not too much worried about his finishing, but his all-round play is really bellow his average. He chooses quite often wrong passes, and I swear he is running more with the ball in opposite direction than he does it in right direction. That pass for Welbeck at the end of game when Welbeck lost it summed this today, he had Kagawa in much better position, and Welbeck was surrounded with two or three Reading players and yet he chose Welbeck.

Maybe it's down to poor service he gets, because he quite often ends up in midfield trying to influence the game, but he wasn't getting too much service in games against Madrid and IMO he was very good in those games, he did more in those games than he did against the likes of Reading, Norwich and QPR recently.

I really don't care about lack of his goals, as long as we are winning, but I am not big fan of his football lately.
 
Castia said:
Nah it's not like he's just been quite and drifted through games, he's giving the ball away a lot and contributing very little to attack, even his usual classy first touch looks off at the moment. Just needs a tap in or a penalty to get him on the score sheet again.
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His first touch has been fine, really hasn't had a lot to work with recently.
 
He's still the reason we are as close as to regaining the championship. Apparently he's a perfectionist so i'm sure he himself is not best pleased with his form of late. Didn't he have a few spells like this at the Arse?
 
I don't remember seeing single one-two between them in whole game. Rooney being shifted wide later probably didn't help either.
 
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