Thanks.
20
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
I think LvG will persist with RvP and try to get him to play into form. An on form RvP is better than Rooney or Falcao for me.
And how much more do we have to suffer to get 'on form RvP'? I'd much rather see him dropped and play with players in actual form like Mata, and Rooney who has been better thus far.
Thought Van Persie should have been dropped rather than Mata after the QPR game, hope he isn't up there with Rooney as an undroppable player.
It' a tough call but he has been poor bar a deflected header...He's carried his knockout round form from the world cup right into Manchester.
His movement for the first hour or so of the Leicester game was excellent.
Yeah but then? He started his whole offside routine after that - it seems to me his legs are going if not gone. Cannot spring a trap, and never presses just jogs around, just like for Holland recently. He'll still finish chances (though he hasn't done much of that either lately) but it's at the stage where you think he has to stay in the box to be effective. I hope he proves me wrong but this is what he's been showing since late last season, apart from the game vs Spain.
It could be he lacks match fitness but it's taking a rather long time to achieve!
Cannot spring a trap? He's done so 2 or 3 times in the last 2 games just never taken the chance either time.
Agree there's an issue with lasting the full 90 but the first hour was reason for promise I think.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but the gist is that 2 years ago he was much fitter and consistent than the past 6-8 months since he returned from his last injury middle of last season.
I think it's safe to say he can't play at this level anymore to a consistent standard, everything he does is laboured and half hearted. Don't know what's happened, age/injuries? but he is shadow of the player he was in our last title winning season. At this stage of his career he would probably benefit from a move to SerieA much like Torres (scored on his first start for AC Milan).
Against west ham if RVP is in the starting 11 and mata is benched again I'll start losing faith in LVG if he continually persists playing him especially when it means mata keeps missing out.
Against west ham if RVP is in the starting 11 and mata is benched again I'll start losing faith in LVG if he continually persists playing him especially when it means mata keeps missing out.
Last season he was more prolific under Moyes than Ferguson...
This season has just started.
Even with an out of form RvP we aren't exactly struggling in attack at the moment. If that's his strategy it's low risk enough.
In terms of goalscoring yes, I agree, but there's more to it than that. The risk is that you simply cannot play three #9's in the modern game. There's no way we have the balance for it, as di Maria and Herrera both aren't really midfielders who like to defend, and are best utilised going forward. Conversely, here's far too much riding on Blind, and even the best DM in the world would struggle in such a case. Aside from defensive balance, it lacks ball rentention and keeping possession, as we are playing Rooney, who is basically a second striker, as the #10. It was an issue in the 50-60th minute mark against Leicester.
We definitely have defensive issues, but it's for a reason. Either the players aren't there or they are injured. There's not even defenders to go with a 3-5-2 anymore, and we didn't look too good doing that to begin with. Take away RvP and put in who? Januzaj? Mata? Carrick is out and the rest aren't good enough so what do you do?
Besides, defensive capabilities and formations were not the real reason we leaked 5 goals. 1, maybe 2 were due to legitimate defensive issues, 1 was Clattenburg and Rafael brain fart, the rest were a result of the team collapsing. Ie. mentality and discipline. If Rafael had been cool enough to not rush into the box there would have been no decision. Dogs routinely get shot doing runs like that at the wrong person. And if the rest of the team hadn't bombed forward like headless chickens, and doing it badly, there wouldn't have been all these counters for Leicester to seal the deal. They took a chance in trying to outscore us and we buckled under the pressure. We could easily have put 2 or 3 past them if the players had kept a bit of cohesion and mental fortitude. And that's what LvG will have to work on until he can replace those who aren't up to the task. I also think a lot of problems will even out once Shaw and Carrick get into it, and also getting Jones and Evans back. It'll be far from perfect, but if LvG has hope in RvP finding old form and scoring vital goals for us it might be worth it. In any case I don't think replacing him would have done much of a difference on Sunday.
I agree with some of what you say there, but that's not the point I'm trying to get across. You've missed the point of ball retention and the fact we had an imbalanced front line. With Mata in the side - whilst he doesn't add much defensively - he is able to dictate and control the tempo. At 3-1, or 3-2, that's pivotal. It can bottleneck their pressure and their attacks, slow down the pace, irritate the fans. If we had Mata on the field to have assurance on the ball and keep things ticking it'd have been a little better.
Golden boy better start performing today.
He'll probably score one or two today to be fair. But that still won't change that we'll be better off playing a system without him, in my opinion.
Barely ever have we looked cohesive and fluid with him playing. And the few times we've looked really good in the last couple of years have usually been when he's not been on the pitch.
Not the biggest fan of Mata either, but if we're insistent on playing two up top, I'd rather not play van Persie and get Mata in behind Falcao and Rooney instead.
Barely ever have we looked cohesive and fluid with him playing. And the few times we've looked really good in the last couple of years have usually been when he's not been on the pitch.
Not the biggest fan of Mata either, but if we're insistent on playing two up top, I'd rather not play van Persie and get Mata in behind Falcao and Rooney instead.
Yeah, it's appearing more and more likely every game that he's not a droppable player and it'll do no good for him.
I'd really hoped that the acquisition of Falcao would mean that RvP, Rooney and Falcao would all offer competition to each other, as it was clear that complacency was setting in.
Apparently not...
I guess Rooney's not the only one with special privileges.
Really needs to start justifying his starting position and Van Gaal's faith in him. He's looked off the pace in all his appearances so far. Mata is one of our in-form players and he has a strong case for inclusion. We can't be waiting for both him and Falcao to find their sharpness. That doesn't send a good message to the rest of the squad. We want fair competition for places in our attack.
Man Utd 2:1 West Ham
Has been brill so far. Great taken goal, nice interplay on the right with Herrera as well a couple of times.
Great goal but would like to see him hold up the ball better and take the pressure off the midfield/defence. Slowly working his way back to full sharpness and brilliantly taken goal.
Great taken goal with an assist from Falcao. Still seemed caught on his heels a few times but 2 in 2 justifies his starting place now.
That said, I still don't think him and Falcao should start every game together. It just makes the team too top heavy and serves no balance.
They're both looking to get into the box, rightly, and we end up surrendering possession more easily in the final third.
That said, I still don't think him and Falcao should start every game together. It just makes the team too top heavy and serves no balance.
They're both looking to get into the box, rightly, and we end up surrendering possession more easily in the final third.
I suppose that's why he always gets picked, because he guarantees you goals. Great finish by Robin.
You can slowly see Van Persie blowing cobwebs being blown off. The way he took the ball down to square to Herrera in the build up to Di Maria's chance showed he's starting to rediscover his self-belief. Still thinks he needs a few more goals to really start having faith in himself again.
Page 17 of this thread 
his touch is still off
Was that hit 50th goal for us? Definitely one of the fastest players to reach 50 goals for us?
Was only half listening, but the commentator on my stream mentioned Ruud was quicker.
Shows how ridiculously good Ruud was
Still my favourite United player.
Just out of curiousity, how do you think his career will be remembered.
Arsenal legend
Great United player who almost singlehandedly won us number 20.
Other
Just out of curiousity, how do you think his career will be remembered.
Arsenal legend
Great United player who almost singlehandedly won us number 20.
Other
He'll win us another league...not single handedly, but he'll play an integral role to it. Don't write him off just yet.
Had a good game today. Made the space for Rafael for the first goal, scored the other one, got involved in the play and ran his ass off when he was the only one left in front. Can't ask for more.
Couldn't do much on his own against 3-4 players upfront, but I bet there'll be plenty blaming him for not being involved enough. I thought he looked a bit sharper today, got on the scoresheet again... we will see how he does with Falcao/Mata upfront in the next three games. Still think he'll get around 20 league goals this season.
Done well today, expect him to take the captaincy for the next three games as surely Fletcher won't start.
Remember in 12/13 his all round game only really came to life in October. Before then he was only scoring goals. Same as this season. He will go up another gear soon.
He was good, but falcao was better at holding the ball and engaging more defenders. So was surprised to see him taken off rather than RVP..
He scored again and all but he's a complete luxury player to carry right now.
Dunno why he wasn't taken off 2nd half really. He barely pressed or touched the ball and didn't hold it up when it came to him either.
Dunno why he wasn't taken off 2nd half really. He barely pressed or touched the ball and didn't hold it up when it came to him either.
I thought he was ok but this trident with him, Rooney and Falcao is not ideal IMO and he looked legless by the end, I thought Falcao was better suited to the lone man role. For me at this point I think he's suited to the Teddy Sherringham role in our squad.
When we're not dominating the match, he's pretty useless unless he's partnered by someone with pace (Robben) who'll do all the running for the pair.
Very good goal and did okay. Think he's still finding his feet again sort of so it'll take him a bit of time but he's still a very good player. Great having 3 clinical players like RvP, rooney and falcao though. We just need falcao to get off the mark now too.
- Status