I was using the excuse of form but he has played quite a few games now almost 10 counting cub and country and the performances are similar, he is slower, he has lost his hold up ability. Everything is so difficult for him. The movement is still there but this is his decline, he won't go back to what he. RVP is a 31 year old striker who has tons of injuries over his career. At this point he is hurting them team with is play. Falcao should start upfront alone in the next game so we can have anther midfielder in and more balance.
20
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
Interesting point Gary Neville made about set pieces and our team lacking height having Rafael marking players today.
Possible reason that RVP might be playing more than deserved given his height and aerial presence defensively ?
Possible reason that RVP might be playing more than deserved given his height and aerial presence defensively ?
I've thought that for a while. He is an important player for us defending corners and wide freekicks. If he were to be left out then LVG would have to think very hard about other selections, perhaps include Smalling and/or Fellaini, or be taking a huge risk whenever opponents have the chance to push their tall defenders forward at set pieces. The other approach would be to tell De Gea to come for everything and accept that from time to time he's going to miss, as he did against West Ham, resulting in us conceding a soft goal.
Wasn't a great performance by him tonight. However, the service too him was also pretty poor for large parts and he didn't get too many chances. Unlucky with that shot that hit the woodwork, should have squared that pass to Mata but also made the chance from nothing, looked livelier when Falcao came on. Maybe when Rooney comes back, him being benched for Falcao will spur him to regain form, I'm not ready to write him off yet at all.
No strength, no pace, limited mobility and a real lack of commitment in his play, there were several excellent balls put into the box and he was nowhere to be seen.
Di Maria was spoon feeding chances by the bucket load.
To be honest he was feeding on scraps today. His performance wasn't that bad, still has great movement. He was inches away from scoring a brilliant goal. However, I do think that van Persie shouldn't start over Falcao. Rvp seems to lack energy in the second half.
Di Maria played much better than most of our team and there was a couple of moments when van Persie should have done better, but Januzaj didn't offer much and the crossing from Shaw and Rafael was inconsistent.
Can we say "to hell with seniority" please? In the current situation, I would give the armband to a player who has shown he deserves it most.
Feeding on scraps? The balls Di Maria was playing in the box the Van Persie of a couple of years ago would shave and a couple of goals. He clearly just isn't the same player. If he is on the pitch due to defending set pieces that is a sad state of affairs.
Was RvP actually our captain tonight as well by the way?
Well to show that you deserve the armband you need time, and all our main players are new.
Im convinced Van Gaal is giving him as long a run of games as humanly possibly to see if he can regain any of the form that helped us to our title in his first season. From more of a long term point of view. If van persie is unable to hit the ground running after january i think he will switch to falcao fulltime and RVP will be off in the summer with falcao as his direct replacement.
Another example of how we shouldn't be blinded over big names and the thing so-called "experience".RVP hasn't been the same player this season and should be dropped.And yet people questioned why I thought Welbeck would be a better option for us this season, as poor in front of goal as he might be.
The point will be arrived at soon where LvG just has to say 'enough is enough' and drop him.
Dear God, no!
Why would RVP deserve anything to get the leeway until January? We need to win matches now and it is not by sending players who are out of form that we will win matches. I'm of those who believe LVG should corner RVP by sending him to the bench in favour of Falcao, then Rooney and then Wilson if necessary; if RVP is cornered and yet has any pride left, he should be able to come back with the mindset of a wounded animal. It's RVP the wounded animal that we need, not this RVP.
Most underwhelming player of this season for me. Gutting how much he has declined.
He needs to be benched imo. Currently, we look like we play with 10 men as he is not involved, not getting at the end of our balls and doesnt contribute much to our build up play either. For some reason, he is undroppable. Let's see if LVG benches him
My problem with him is that he doesn't involve himself enough in the build-up play, which is a shame as that has normally been one of his best attributes; his passing, vision and technique are world class (or at least used to be). When he does involve himself, he has a tendency to fall back far too much without busting his guts to get back into the box - see Rafael's cross after being released by Januzaj (that one time).
I'm far from giving up on him, but he is struggling.
I'm far from giving up on him, but he is struggling.
Why wasnt he standing over that freekick, I understand that Mata has scored one this season. But RVP at Arsenal as captain took them all and especially when on his left and tried to when he first came here. Last night you'd think he would have grabbed that ball from mata 25 yards from goal.
Seems like he's lost a bit of confidence or urgency or something. Not playing like the player we signed at the moment, has been poor for Holland too according to my dutch mates.
Seems like he's lost a bit of confidence or urgency or something. Not playing like the player we signed at the moment, has been poor for Holland too according to my dutch mates.
I thought that was probably van Persie's best performance of the season and better than anything we've seen so far from Falcao.
I'm pretty sure Mata's scored more free kicks than van Persie in the PL in 1/3 of the games.
I'm pretty sure Mata's scored more free kicks than van Persie in the PL in 1/3 of the games.
If that is correct, I would assume the same would be said for him over Rooney then, but when Wayne plays and there is a freekick on the right he nearly always has it. I'm just commenting that Im surprised RVP who has previously fancied himself freekicks wasn't anywhere near it. As captain I would have thought he would have pulled rank with it being perfectly positioned for his left foot (and Mata's as you correctly point out).
From what I remember van Persie's only ever scored one free kick for us and that was largely thanks to Clichy being a pussy, and I'm fairly certain he scored more free kicks in the (injury-hit) first half of his career than he has in his second. With Rooney it's the complete opposite, he's scored at least a couple of free kicks a season for the last 3 seasons. Mata's definitely our best free kick taker and van Persie's just doing the sensible thing in letting the expert take it, IMO.
Strange how RVP has turned from our Henry to our Ozil... I don't know whats up with him. I expected him to bang in the goals after a great World Cup but he seems completely disinterested. LVG should plant one of our players to start a fight with him. That might fire him up a little...
It was the French lesbian I believe.
I remember him getting quite a few bullets from free kicks for Arsenal but he wasn't consistent with them at all.
I thought Blackett claimed that AdM was the best free kick taker in training.
Except the volley strike yesterday, he seems to hardly strike the ball properly these days, always seem to mis-hit it, yesterday he had a great curled in ball from ADM from the left wing, which RVP of old would have smashed it, but he mis-hit it, and in the first half there was the Lescott mistake he should have squared it to Mata, who was in acres of space in the six yard box. Had we taken those chances we would have been 2-1 up in first half itself. Then there was another similar pass to yesterday against Leicester City which he hit straight at the keeper, i used to be so confident at Rvp scoring chances, but now he doesn't seem to be the same player, i felt if it was Falcao in the first half, he would have got on the end of those crosses, i felt Janujaz was the same, there were three crosses in the first half half towards Janujaz which he didn't make a proper run to get infront of his marker and ended up fouling their defender each time. i feel he has to be benched for Falcao.
I was shocked he didn't bury that chance from Di Maria's cross, was exactly the kind of stuff he's been putting away for fun for years.
Thats something that been bugging me too. Its like he can't even produce the same amount of power and venom in his shots anymore. He's been played through about 5 times by Di Maria this season, each time on his left foot, and all his shots have been relatively weak. RVP of old would absolutely lash his shots most of the time. I really can't understand it at all.
Yep. There were about 5-6 crosses where we were crying out for....you know....a striker like Falcao who could attack the 6 yard box....if only we had a striker like Falcao...
The 1 that absolutely pissed me off was when Januzaj fed Rafael to the byline. Rafael put the ball in a perfect area for a tap in, but nobody was in the box!.
I looked at the replay and RVP has come short to Januzaj looking for the pass.
That's all well and good, but if you don't get the pass you need to get into a goal scoring area.
Van Nistelrooy or Hernandez would have scored that no problem. Was frustrating having Falcao on the bench for so long.
I looked at the replay and RVP has come short to Januzaj looking for the pass.
That's all well and good, but if you don't get the pass you need to get into a goal scoring area.
Van Nistelrooy or Hernandez would have scored that no problem. Was frustrating having Falcao on the bench for so long.
Scored 1 in his hattrick in the CL aswell, but it was a weak FK that should have been saved.
I don't think its fair to say he's disinterested, He's just in decline and its probably hard for him to see such a sharp decline in the numbers he's putting up.
Form is temporary, class is permanent.
RVP doesn't attack the ball at all. His movement is good at times when he decides to look for some space (looks like he's in energy saving mode most of the time), but his strength and pace has declined a lot.
If the plan is to hit crosses into the box, Falcao should definitely be starting ahead of him.
If the plan is to hit crosses into the box, Falcao should definitely be starting ahead of him.
I've said it since last year, still think he should be used sparingly as to elongate his career here. There's no doubting his class and ability, it's just he isn't what he used to be. Give him a chance in the box and he'll bury it.
I'd say that's a simplistic 'soundbite', with all due respect KiD MoYeS: first of all, he'd need to get to the chances to bury them, loads of really good balls into the box on Monday that he was nowhere near; and second of all, he isn't half as clinical as that sentence makes him out to be. He misses quite a few chances in the box.
His performance on Monday was strange. He spent a lot of time just outside the box, I dunno if he was following orders or what. He is still a lethal striker though at times, we know this, he very nearly scored a peach of a goal out of nowhere even though he'd been anonymous.
This isn't even the case anymore. Di Maria has in every game he and van Persie have played, put Robin in for at least one very very good goalscoring chance, but he simply isn't as ruthless in his finishing anymore.
he's always been prone to missing easy chances, it's the fact that he's completely lost his ability to pull great goals out of absolutely nothing (a prominent feature of his first season here) that's been the problem. The magic is no longer there, a bit like Mrs. RiP's sex life.
- Status