He actually got our second highest amount of key passes with 4. Thing is with RVP, he is not Rooney, he does not get involved in the game so much and if he doesn't score he looks a much lesser player because scoring is his modus operandi.
Robin van Persie | 2012-14 Performances
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He actually got our second highest amount of key passes with 4. Thing is with RVP, he is not Rooney, he does not get involved in the game so much and if he doesn't score he looks a much lesser player because scoring is his modus operandi.
Yeah I'd agree with that. You can always say he didn't have enough service, but you can't expect us to lay chances on a plate for him every game. He had a few half chances tonight. Should have gotten a shot away from that Nani pass. Surprised he didn't take the penalty.
I tend to agree with JHC, I think it's going to take some fans a little while to get used to the way Van Persie plays the game, we've not really had a striker in that mould for quite a while.
Also thought he was average today.
We were shit all around him, left him isolated, made no attempt to play it through the middle to him as Scholes & Carrick sat on the half way line and passed to each other, and then when we got forward continued to be obsessed with passing it flat across the middle and out to a wide man, who then couldn't cross it in for toffee.
He's not Rooney, he's not going to run back into defence to get involved. He started drifting out wide to get involved more the more the game went on, but then that just meant there was no one in the box for another of Valencia's rubbish crosses.
He's not Rooney, he's not going to run back into defence to get involved. He started drifting out wide to get involved more the more the game went on, but then that just meant there was no one in the box for another of Valencia's rubbish crosses.
Needs to play in a team with a midfield who can make chances for him.
There was one point where RVP was in a great position to receive a short pass from Valencia just inside the box; he could have worked a nice chance on his left foot from it. For some reason Tony V decided to push on to the line and spoon a terrible high cross into the box instead. RVP needs service and I can't remember one clear cut chance being made for him tonight.
Truth. At one point I thought that Carrick & co were disguised as blades of grass, such was the space in the centre of the field.
Or a midfield that don't play it wide all the time.
This. Our midfield didn't give him much to work with today.
They were standing next to each other 10 yards into their own half for almost an entire hour.
RVP would have been so good with the current Arsenal midfield.It's sad to see such a great player being fed virtually nothing, I thought the style of play was gonna change with Kagawa and him but so far it's too predictable
Kagawa was great. But when he loses it, we lose it, because Scholes and Carrick are 400 yards behind him. We don't need two players to sit stationary in central midfield, no matter how good at passing they are. We need support.
There's also not a huge amount of purpose in the constant deferal to the wings if we're playing with one striker. Kagawa isn't a great arial threat, and Scholes doesn't make those runs anymore. We literally play with a huge gap in the middle of the pitch. It's bonkers. And everyone's been going on about it for ages! Which makes it even more bonkers.
There's also not a huge amount of purpose in the constant deferal to the wings if we're playing with one striker. Kagawa isn't a great arial threat, and Scholes doesn't make those runs anymore. We literally play with a huge gap in the middle of the pitch. It's bonkers. And everyone's been going on about it for ages! Which makes it even more bonkers.
Not criticizing Kagawa's performance but I thought in general the style of play would change a little with him and RVP.
Not easy to stray away from a playing style we've been playing for so long. Might take a whole season, if there is any intention to change it at all.
He's not getting the ball enough but when he does him and Kagawa have seen to link well as they're both capable of one touch football. The link-up for the goal was great. We just need to learn as a team to play it through the middle more whilst still keeping our threat from the wings.
This huge gap we leave pisses me off as well. Just watch Real against City. As soon as Real lost the ball, Khedira Alonso and also freaking Essien were all over the man in possession. We don't do that. We don't press them, we let them leave the ball until they reach the end of the box where they eventually come up against Scholes and Carrick.
I just don't get why we aren't pressing teams higher up the pitch.
If we want to change our style we'd do well to stop giving Valencia the ball to just aimlessly pump it into the box. I think a front four of Rooney, RvP, Nani and Kagawa would actually produce more fluid football and get RvP more involved.
Valencia annoyed me massively today. He beat men, sure, but he was basically doing nothing with it, and holding onto it for far too long, and has certainly of late become almost as much as a magnet for passes as Scholes. He's virtually the first person anyone looks to when we're on the attack, and that isn't really a good thing atm.
His touch was off.
I think we found him reasonably well, certainly 3 or 4 times he could've done a lot better when given the ball.
There's was one where he was played in by Nani on the right, and he'd usually touch and score, but he fecked it up.
He also fecked up a lobbed ball from Scholes into him, where often he'd manage to control it and get a shot away.
I think we found him reasonably well, certainly 3 or 4 times he could've done a lot better when given the ball.
There's was one where he was played in by Nani on the right, and he'd usually touch and score, but he fecked it up.
He also fecked up a lobbed ball from Scholes into him, where often he'd manage to control it and get a shot away.
We seem to now have a group of players that are all great at what they do, but they just don't play the same game as each other at all. Surely Fergie must recognise that. Valencia is pretty pointless in this system.
Sometimes you wonder, it looked like the remit tonight was to play the 'swashbuckling' 4-4-2 way that we have always played in games like this.
Shock horror, it's not just Rooney who has poor games every now and then. By the end of the season perhaps people will finally realise that you don't have to be great in every game to be 'world class'. Either that or we'll decide Van Persie's just not actually as good as we thought. I wonder.
Thank you!
The thing is this happened plenty of times at Arsenal too (regardless of what Pete will tell you) but yet you had over half the people on here jumping at the chance to say Rooney's just not at that level because he's so much more inconsistent...it's just because we saw him more, and we cared more. He'd go through a game barely having touched the ball and then he'd score an amazing volley and that's all that people remember. Whereas with Rooney and United it's dissecting every single misplaced pass.
Same thing with Kagawa, after pre season and a couple of games, he's suddenly better than Rooney in the hole according to quite a few people. The last couple of games people have being saying that we play the ball wide too much and have that excuse for him, but with Rooney there's no excuse and he's just poor (despite also winning us all these matches with his goals).
Don't get me wrong though, I really rate Kagawa and also RVP. I'm glad we have these players at the club, but I just find it a bit harsh how Rooney's rating has gone down here, despite him being fantastic for us for so long. It almost seems like people want him out the team, despite him being one of our best players and best in my opinion.
He actually had one on a plate in the second half Pete but miscontrolled it thus losing the opportunity.
Stop fishing.
The problem was playing with 2 wingers and no target man. RvP is not the type of player who will be at the end of crosses in the 6 yard box.
Nani, and Valencia also decided to imitate Bebe for the night.
Nani, and Valencia also decided to imitate Bebe for the night.
He was pretty poor, but it was a poor performance all round. Midfield didn't really have a grip on the game and the attacking flair players were wasteful when in the attacking third.
Pleased to have got the win and kept a clean sheet.
Pleased to have got the win and kept a clean sheet.
Nani is a very modern winger though. He was all over the place last night and wasn't exactly pumping crosses into the box.
I do think RVP is the main reason Valencia has been drilling the ball rather than crossing it though. His header against Southampton aside he's not exactly known for his ability in the air whereas the last few years he's had the likes of Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck to hit who are all very capable in the air.
We created absolutely feck all for him bar the Nani pass that set him up second half. Anything else he created himself.
His play was generally poor despite the lack of chances created. The one glorious chance that was created for him he fluffed.
Early on carrick made some lovely runs from deep and seemed like he might provide the support but that dwindled later on in the match. We really needed someone like Cleverley or even Anderson to provide the legs further up the pitch
Yup. I agree.
The problem with it though is that it generally involves leaving Scholes out which, on current form, if obviously hard to do.
Will be interesting to see what happens on Sunday.
I think scholes had a poor game by his exceptionally high standards which didn't really help matters too much either. I suppose we are at the point now where we may have to tactically drop scholes at certain times to ensure we are able to effectively press high up the pitch.
There was no energy in any one of the players. It was like weary legs.
Need Powell or Buttner to give an impetus.
Need Powell or Buttner to give an impetus.
Like Giroud?
RVP is good in the air, you don't score a header like he did vs Soton as a fluke. But just like Rooney and Ronaldo he won't win aerial battles in the box, he simply converts on "free headers" and yesterday crosses were all over the place. I agree about Valencia drilling the ball because of him, Tony V should mix it up again. But overall RVP had a off game, missed a easy chance he normally scores and his obvious frustration showed with the tackle that gave him a yellow. I expect him to be eager to deliver vs Liverpool.
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