Robin van Persie | 2012-14 Performances

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Bross said:
Rooney's defensive work shows how dedicated he is on the pitch. Its not like hes chasing about like a headless chicken when its going well for the team, but if things arent working out he does his part to try and drive the team on. And that includes putting in a defensive shift. In RVPs case he just goes completely invisible when the team isnt clicking.
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Rooney is a liability when playing in his current 10 role and has been for a while, he's declining physically and although he may huff and puff on occasion he's generally not very good going backwards. Zonal Marking had an excellent paragraph on it after the Italy vs England game in the Euro's.

More important, however, was the freedom Andrea Pirlo enjoyed. At times England’s shape was good, bringing both strikers back into the midfield zone, remaining compact and getting both Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney goalside of Pirlo. When Welbeck was in a position to close down the Juventus midfielder, he generally did his job excellently.

Rooney was much sloppier, and after half an hour when Pirlo’s dominance had become clear, Joe Hart was clearly heard shouting at Rooney to pick him up. Hodgson clearly wanted Rooney to do this, because for much of the game Rooney could be seen half-heartedly jogging towards Pirlo. It was reminiscent of the 2011 Champions League final, where he started off marking Sergio Busquets, before gradually leaving Manchester United outnumbered in midfield.

It’s odd that Rooney’s tactical indiscipline has become such a problem – only a few years ago his willingness to sacrifice his own attacking game for the good of the team was reagrded as one of his main qualities. England could have done with someone like Rooney’s club teammate, Park Ji-Sung, who did a superb job on Pirlo in 2009/10 – Urby Emanuelson did something similar for Milan earlier this year. Leaving Pirlo free was suicidal, and he completed over 30 more passes than any other player.
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We had a similar incident in the champions league final when Fergie could be seen scolding Rooney to pick up Busquets to no avail, of course this is totally ignored in the press because he scored such a sublime individual goal but it's one prime example of a much larger problem.

It's fine to let Rooney roam about and play off the cuff as a striker since he's actually more mobile than RVP and those occasional bursts to hunt down defenders would be more than RVP offers in a pressing sense but as our 10 he's a problem going forward and defensively.
 
RVP is really annoying me lately. His attitude, his body language on the pitch, his facial expressions - alll reek of a spoilt child. And this is a guy who was captain of Arsenal so you would think he would be trying to set an example during a difficult time.

I would be happy for Rooney to be the main man up top. On the 2 occasions he has been used as that main stiker - he has scored 34 goals each time. All other times he has had to play in the shadows of RVN at first. Then Ronaldo and now more recently RVP.
 
It's that time of year again, the Caf become body language experts and whoever is getting negative press bares the brunt of their bullshit analysis.

I can't be the only one who's not noticed any of this supposed on the pitch sulking? It reeks of perception bias. They read in the papers he's not happy and they see what they want to on the pitch.

That goes for the rest of the team. He and the rest of the players were celebrating every goal against West Brom like they'd won they'd won the world cup, and this has been true for a while. Look at the Fulham come back at Old Trafford.
 
Dominos said:
I can't be the only one who's not noticed any of this supposed on the pitch sulking? It reeks of perception bias. They read in the papers he's not happy and they see what they want to on the pitch.
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I think he does look a bit unhappy on the pitch, for the most part. Kind of the like the whole team do, as we're not performing well. I don't expect any of our players to have a Ronaldinho-like grin blazed on their face all over the pitch. There's alot of frustration in the squad. On the flipside, RVP also looks chuffed to bits every time he scores a goal, and even with the assist he got with the first goal. That celebration vs Arsenal didn't look like someone who was unhappy.
 
Dominos said:
It's that time of year again, the Caf become body language experts and whoever is getting negative press bares the brunt of their bullshit analysis.

I can't be the only one who's not noticed any of this supposed on the pitch sulking? It reeks of perception bias. They read in the papers he's not happy and they see what they want to on the pitch.

That goes for the rest of the team. He and the rest of the players were celebrating every goal against West Brom like they'd won they'd won the world cup, and this has been true for a while. Look at the Fulham come back at Old Trafford.
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I think his frustration was there for all to see last Saturday, when he was lucky not to be sent off and Moyes rightly subbed him before he did anything else silly. Add to that his post match comments on other occasions and the only conclusion you can come to is that things aren't going right for him and he's not happy about it.
 
Dominos said:
It's that time of year again, the Caf become body language experts and whoever is getting negative press bares the brunt of their bullshit analysis.

I can't be the only one who's not noticed any of this supposed on the pitch sulking? It reeks of perception bias. They read in the papers he's not happy and they see what they want to on the pitch.

That goes for the rest of the team. He and the rest of the players were celebrating every goal against West Brom like they'd won they'd won the world cup, and this has been true for a while. Look at the Fulham come back at Old Trafford.
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Pretty much a media brainwash. As you said, people see what they want to see. I have no idea how many times Moyes and everybody else have to repeat that he's on good terms with Robin and that it's all fine. What's more surprising to be fair is that some people would sell him now despite him carrying us massively at times last season.

He's a fantastic striker, hardly anything's working well in our team this year so it's no wonder he isn't scoring as many goals as he did last season. Doesn't stop him for being vital to us anyway.
 
Kostur said:
Pretty much a media brainwash. As you said, people see what they want to see. I have no idea how many times Moyes and everybody else have to repeat that he's on good terms with Robin and that it's all fine. What's more surprising to be fair is that some people would sell him now despite him carrying us massively at times last season.

He's a fantastic striker, hardly anything's working well in our team this year so it's no wonder he isn't scoring as many goals as he did last season. Doesn't stop him for being vital to us anyway.
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I believe the stories that he's not happy. It's not hard to believe.

No evidence of it on the pitch though.
 
9 - RvP
10 - Mata/Shinji
left: Adnan/Rooney

We all know it, everyone does but Moyes
 
Of course we should aim to keep our best players and he is a world class striker but you have to look at the situation. The squad needs serious investment and along with that comes serious wages, RVP is a player that can attract a decent transfer fee, whatever anyone says, he just doesn't look like he wants to be there. So really, it kind of makes sense to look at the options and possibilities that come up if we let him leave.
 
Important Update

Further to the megathreads announcement, this megathread has been renamed and should be confined to discussing Robin van Persie's performances this season. For any other discussions about Robin van Persie (e.g. his future at the club), please bump or create separate threads.

Thanks!
 
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Where do we think he'd sooner play? I don't think he suits being our furthest forward player at the moment one bit. His comments about people occupying his space are true (today's heatmaps show a total cluster of incoherence between the forwards) but could RvP play in behind Rooney along side Mata and do we think this is what he'd prefer?
 
Even the chances that were offside he was missing.

Seems like he doesn't want to get injured for World Cup.
 
He is horribly out of form right now and a shadow of his former self. I'd go as far as dropping him as he isn't adding anything to the team at all in his current state.
 
He is missing that sharpness. He had two chances that were offside but he didn't even test the keeper with his shot. And it is not just his finishing, his general play is lacking. Last season he could control any pass with two CBs closing down on him and still play his way out of it.
 
Why Moyes didn't bring him off at about 60 minutes is beyond me. He was completely out of the game and let's be honest hardly looked interested.

We needed somebody to stretch their defence out and he just was not doing it.

Moyes seem's scared to take him off though with all the recent speculation, its harming the team badly.

We are a bunch of individuals rather than a team.
 
I still think that he will be gone in the summer. It will be for the best too. He and Rooney create a massive problem for us as was painfully evident yesterday.

There was no link from midfield to attack as both Rooney and RVP were right up top. That gap in our midfield was exposed by Liverpool's formation and tactics. Their fullbacks pressed our wingers, who were our only attacking outlet and then with the extra man in midfield they sliced through us like butter on the counter. Brendan had David over his knee yesterday. It wasn't a new low, just a different type of low to which Moyes treats us to many.

Either Moyes is a tactical troglodyte or he isn't big enough to drop RVP or play Rooney where he doesn't want to be played.

Either way it does not bode well for Dave.
 
Last season he made you feel like he could score from any angle. This season when he tried his shots from difficult angles it just leaves you almost as frustrated as Rooney and his obsession with lobs.
 
This is what happens when you don't have an authority manager who can tell them both to stfu and start playing or get dropped

Seems like Moyes was happily leaving the status quo, while failing (or probably knowingly) let the partnership rot and remains ineffective. 7 passes between them in a game.. that's not a partnership.

He doesn't have the guts to tell them to work together.
 
Woodzy said:
Last season he made you feel like he could score from any angle. This season when he tried his shots from difficult angles it just leaves you almost as frustrated as Rooney and his obsession with lobs.
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He's getting rusty, that's what you get when you get 1-2 chances in a game.. never mind a goalscoring chance, how many times did he received the ball yesterday?
 
He does. Might help if we dont take 2 minutes to get the ball forward each time. I think the most concerning part was even when he was offside he was fluffing his shots.
 
What a magnificent beast. To think some actually want him out in the summer and claim that he can't be arsed. Shame of you (you know who are).
 
I thought Giggs, Rooney, DDG and Welbeck were probably better than him but goals are what win matches. Brilliant contribution from him.

I hope its not his cruciates or anything like that.
 
Exactly the same contact as when I did mine and the pain he was in, looked the same. ACL and out of the world cup if I was a betting man. So unlucky.

Thanks Robin for the goals though.
 
Hope he gets good news regarding the injury. When he plays with a purpose he's deadly.

Would be a great shame for him to miss the WC and rest of this season.
 
I have been on his case all year about what I deem as a poor attitude and what looks like him wanting out.

class tonight. Absolute class and he wore his heart on his sleeve. Fingers crossed he was just putting on a show to waste time :/
 
I only saw one replay of the challenge. Was it that bad? It looked like a thud to the hamstring muscle. I didn't spot any awkward bend or twist. Hopefully it's just a dead leg. Even better if he was just hamming up how bad it was to shave a few minutes off the clock. He's no stranger to pissing off opponents.
 
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