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Robin Van Persie Netherlands flag

2014-15 Performances

View full 2014-15 profile

5.4 Season Average Rating
Appearances
29
Goals
10
Assists
3
Yellow cards
5
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Stadjer said:
You want him to be injured? I think he's improving game after game. If he can stay fit for a while he may even reach/get close to his old level again.
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I saw improvements in the Chelsea match, he looked a lot sharper than he ever had done all season and despite the constant misses, he found himself in very potent positions. However, the City and Palace game saw a real drop in quality again, he went back to a very sluggish, laboured approach to the games, often receiving the ball and taking far too long to release, or becoming very predictable with his outcome. I'm not sure if many would agree, but I personally believe he will never reach such levels, and is on the decline.
 
DWelbz19 said:
I saw improvements in the Chelsea match, he looked a lot sharper than he ever had done all season and despite the constant misses, he found himself in very potent positions. However, the City and Palace game saw a real drop in quality again, he went back to a very sluggish, laboured approach to the games, often receiving the ball and taking far too long to release, or becoming very predictable with his outcome. I'm not sure if many would agree, but I personally believe he will never reach such levels, and is on the decline.
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Clear difference in the games you mention is the type of service he recieved.
 
Speak said:
He's definitely lost weight since Sir Alex's last season.
It was clear anyway, but when he took his top off after the Chelsea goal, he looked really really slim.
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I remember an interview with him in his first year where he said that he gained more muscles here at the suggestion of the staff and that he was fitter than ever.
 
Cassidy said:
Clear difference in the games you mention is the type of service he recieved.
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He probably managed to hold onto the ball for more than 10 seconds once in the Manchester City game. He can't simply rely on 'service', top class players do far more than that.
 
DWelbz19 said:
He probably managed to hold onto the ball for more than 10 seconds once in the Manchester City game. He can't simply rely on 'service', top class players do far more than that.
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Many world class strikers in the PL over the last 20 years relied on service......for every Suarez there is a RVN or a Shearer!
 
RedorDead21 said:
Many world class strikers in the PL over the last 20 years relied on service......for every Suarez there is a RVN or a Shearer!
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Was van Persie ever that striker? I don't think so. It's not like he's evolving into that sort of striker, either. He's pretty wasteful at the best of times, he is (usually) just very good at creating as many chances as he can himself.
 
DWelbz19 said:
He probably managed to hold onto the ball for more than 10 seconds once in the Manchester City game. He can't simply rely on 'service', top class players do far more than that.
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He nearly scored an amazing individual goal against City when he beat two men and nearly caught out Hart from a tight angle. Like Neville pointed out his movement was good, its just that none of our midfielders could spot his runs.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Was van Persie ever that striker? I don't think so. It's not like he's evolving into that sort of striker, either. He's pretty wasteful at the best of times, he is (usually) just very good at creating as many chances as he can himself.
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At his best he's probably the most least wasteful striker in the league what are you talking about he's brilliant efficient and his movement and distribution is completely clinical. This season is messing with your mind!
 
RedorDead21 said:
At his best he's probably the most least wasteful striker in the league what are you talking about he's brilliant efficient and his movement and distribution is completely clinical. This season is messing with your mind!
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Nope, ask anybody here - his finishing is very sporadic, much like Suarez in that he'll miss a few chances you'd expect him to bury then hit you with a wonder volley.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Nope, ask anybody here - his finishing is very sporadic, much like Suarez in that he'll miss a few chances you'd expect him to bury then hit you with a wonder volley.
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When hes on form he doesn't really miss chances and scores all types of goals, yes including wonder volleys. I agree though he does go through spells of missing easy chances as do all strikers though. See Costa vs Sporting.
His form is slightly worrying at the moment though, but I do think its overplayed, I've watch a few games where hes made runs and none of the midfielders can pick him out, the only one this season that seems able to find him was Di Maria when he was playing centrally.

EDIT: In our title winning season and his last Arsenal season even last season his chance to conversion ratio was very high.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Nope, ask anybody here - his finishing is very sporadic, much like Suarez in that he'll miss a few chances you'd expect him to bury then hit you with a wonder volley.
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Yeah, definitely.
I'd have backed him to miss an easy chance over Rooney and Hernandez - even at his peak.
But then he always had/has this ability to score a goal nobody else could.
He could smash a shot in from a tight angle when other strikers (even Aguero) would try to take a touch inside.

I think it's down to his choice of technique. Sometimes lacing the ball when he should place it, and visa versa. It results in some poor misses, as well as some incredible goals.
 
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Cassidy said:
When hes on form he doesn't really miss chances and scores all types of goals, yes including wonder volleys. I agree though he does go through spells of missing easy chances as do all strikers though. See Costa vs Sporting.
His form is slightly worrying at the moment though, but I do think its overplayed, I've watch a few games where hes made runs and none of the midfielders can pick him out, the only one this season that seems able to find him was Di Maria when he was playing centrally.

EDIT: In our title winning season and his last Arsenal season even last season his chance to conversion ratio was very high.
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Even in our title winning season he missed plenty of easy chances. He's always been like that. Generally he'd compensate those misses with brillaint finishes elsewhere but that hasn't happened this season.
 
He doesn't miss many chances at all when he's playing well.

Hasn't played well in a while though. Even in his superb first season at United, he did seem to go off the boil a bit as the season wore on. Hence those memorable missed chances in the CL. Hasn't really been close to his best ever since IMO.
 
Cassidy said:
I think this is based on last season. His chance conversion is better than Rooney:

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2014/0...nversion-rate-with-liverpool-duo-riding-high/
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He was talking about easy chances. You said he was the 'least wasteful' striker in the league.
Whereas I'd say he was more likely to miss an 'easy' chance than Rooney and Hernandez.

Off the top of my head:
He missed a sitter against us in the 2-1 at the Emirates.
He missed a sitter against Milan that season.

He missed an open goal versus Reading.
He missed a good chance versus Madrid.
I remember him rounding the keeper versus Everton (?) then hitting the post.

He missed a sitter versus Arsenal last season.
He missed an open goal versus Leverkeusen last season too.

It's not a criticism, and it's not that big a deal (except for in the Madrid and Milan cases) because he'll score those ridiculous volleys and first time shots from weird angles to compensate.
 
Speak said:
He was talking about easy chances. You said he was the 'least wasteful' striker in the league.
Whereas I'd say he was more likely to miss an 'easy' chance than Rooney and Hernandez.

Off the top of my head:
He missed a sitter against us in the 2-1 at the Emirates.
He missed a sitter against Milan that season.

He missed an open goal versus Reading.
He missed a good chance versus Madrid.
I remember him rounding the keeper versus Everton (?) then hitting the post.

He missed a sitter versus Arsenal last season.
He missed an open goal versus Leverkeusen last season too.

It's not a criticism, and it's not that big a deal (except for in the Madrid and Milan cases) because he'll score those ridiculous volleys and first time shots from weird angles to compensate.
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To add to that, missed a sitter against Sunderland at home. Also missed a 1v1 against Arsenal at home (we scored from the corner following that so no harm done).
 
Speak said:
He was talking about easy chances. You said he was the 'least wasteful' striker in the league.
Whereas I'd say he was more likely to miss an 'easy' chance than Rooney and Hernandez.

Off the top of my head:
He missed a sitter against us in the 2-1 at the Emirates.
He missed a sitter against Milan that season.

He missed an open goal versus Reading.
He missed a good chance versus Madrid.
I remember him rounding the keeper versus Everton (?) then hitting the post.

He missed a sitter versus Arsenal last season.
He missed an open goal versus Leverkeusen last season too.

It's not a criticism, and it's not that big a deal (except for in the Madrid and Milan cases) because he'll score those ridiculous volleys and first time shots from weird angles to compensate.
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I don't think I said that, that is clearly Aguero.

I did say when he is on form, he doesn't miss many chances. When he missed those chances against Madrid etc he hadn't score in a few games so not on form. I also went on to say all strikers miss chances, but he will usually score most of his chances over Rooney
 
I also think Rooney has a lot more 'pop shots' than van Persie, somewhat skewering the conversion data. I'd back Rooney over RvP in most one-on-ones, and being in the right place at the right time, but when it comes to shots from awkward angles or given to him on the edge of the box with very little time to think, it's RvP.
 
Cassidy said:
I don't think I said that, that is clearly Aguero.

I did say when he is on form, he doesn't miss many chances. When he missed those chances against Madrid etc he hadn't score in a few games so not on form. I also went on to say all strikers miss chances, but he will usually score most of his chances over Rooney
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Yeah, sorry it wasn't you who said that.

Fair enough, though I'd disagree that he's more likely to score a good/'easy' chance over Rooney.
I think in a one-on-one, or after rounding the keeper, I'd back van Persie to smash it wide or over the bar (or just miss hit it) more times than Rooney.

That's not to say Rooney hasn't missed a few easy chances - just not as many.
However I would definitely agree that van Persie's more likely to score a half chance, or score when nobody else could.
 
BBC saying he was rested last night against Mexico but Manutd.com saying he was injured.
 
Thought the way we set up against Palace was woeful in terms of getting the best out of RVP. He was isolated a lot of the time and when he did the ball in the final third Palace had just about 11 men behind the ball. Quite often I counted 8 Palace players in the box. It's always going to be hard for any striker in situations like that.

IMO you can tell a lot about a player's form by his first touch and how he receives the ball. Does he look like he wants it? Is he ready to create something? Or is he caught flat footed? Definitely earlier on in the season I thought he didn't look like he was going to do anything with the ball and seemed to take a second or two too long with the ball. Thought he's looked a bit more confident and sharp in recent weeks. I think the goals will come.

I'm confident he can score 15+ goals for us this season but being on the wrong side of thirty I think we've seen his best. Which is not to say he can't be an important player for us but I can't see him being top scorer in the league again. Might be wrong though.
 
ninety said:
Thought the way we set up against Palace was woeful in terms of getting the best out of RVP. He was isolated a lot of the time and when he did the ball in the final third Palace had just about 11 men behind the ball. Quite often I counted 8 Palace players in the box. It's always going to be hard for any striker in situations like that.

IMO you can tell a lot about a player's form by his first touch and how he receives the ball. Does he look like he wants it? Is he ready to create something? Or is he caught flat footed? Definitely earlier on in the season I thought he didn't look like he was going to do anything with the ball and seemed to take a second or two too long with the ball. Thought he's looked a bit more confident and sharp in recent weeks. I think the goals will come.

I'm confident he can score 15+ goals for us this season but being on the wrong side of thirty I think we've seen his best. Which is not to say he can't be an important player for us but I can't see him being top scorer in the league again. Might be wrong though.
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I agree with that pretty much.

Van Persie has never scored goals for us by dribbling through the entire back line of team because he doesn't have the pace to, instead he isolates defenders one on one or uses his movement to make sure he's unmarked when given the ball. The way this happens is by other players around him occupying defenders and opening up the space for him to operate in, at the moment he looks surrounded as soon as it's played into him. Look at the goals he's scored just this season for example:

Leicester: Falcao turns the right back which forces their players over and crosses in for van Persie who is one on one with a defender, heads it past him.
West Ham: Falcao plays in van Persie after Herrera wins the ball as West Ham try to pass their way out of defence, one on one with a centre back, hits it across the keeper.
Chelsea: Van Persie is unmarked because their defenders are busy marking our players from the set piece, puts the ball in after the save from Fellaini.
 
Watch his first season's goals for us. The vast majority actually come from crosses. I was actually surprised.


He's getting none of that service anymore. He's not a player that creates his own chances really.
 
1 goal, 2 assists tonight (albeit one of the assists was all Robben). Played very well, looked much better dropping back to collect the ball rather than playing lone with his back to goal as he has recently for us. He's scored in 3 of our 4 games vs. Arsenal since he joined us and had the best chances in 0-0 match, so hopefully him and Rooney can do some damage against them.
 
He played well tonight as a number ten. He will be well up for the game against Arsenal.
 
Even though it's only Latvia I hope this does something for his confidence if he can't put in a great performance against arsenal then there's literally no hope for him.
 
I really enjoyed his performance tonight, I got excited by the way he set up his goal, or his first 45 minutes in general playing as a #10. Five or six passes with the outside of his left foot. Bergamp-esque performance first half, Robben had some moments of brilliance too. Particularly like the slowmotion where Robben is about to shoot, and you see RVP already smiling before the ball went in, he knew that ball was going in before looking.

Huntelaar is a very good striker, played #9 vs. Mexico last week and now vs. Latvia. Against Mexico, he struggled even more up front compared to RVP this season. Wasn't involved in the first half tonight, still scored because of great movement of him. Good for him he got two goals today because I like him, but his performances show how hard it is sometimes for a striker, isolated up top, always playing against two or three defenders.

Pressure was on, Holland was in the worst form ever, Hiddink was going to resign if it was a draw or loss. But now there is still a good chance to qualify for France 2016 after tonight. Luckily there are no more international breaks until March I think.
 
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