[kps88]

Sorry but they won 6-0. Latvia are shit. Means nothing.

Did you watch the game? More than the goal, his overall performance and touch were encouraging.

 

[Hed Zitin]

Did you watch the game? More than the goal, his overall performance and touch were encouraging.

Yes I did and Robben was a class above as he was at the WC. If we had a player as good as him, we'd go far and RVP would benefit from a WC player like him.

 

[Stringer]

Yes I did and Robben was a class above as he was at the WC. If we had a player as good as him, we'd go far and RVP would benefit from a WC player like him.

What does that have to with Van Persie's performance? We all know Robben is exceptional and the better player.

 

[Hed Zitin]

What does that have to with Van Persie's performance? We all know Robben is exceptional and the better player.

His performance was massively benefited by Robben, without him he would of been just as shit as he's been this season.

 

[dejans]

Sorry but they won 6-0. Latvia are shit. Means nothing.

Easy there.

 

[Stringer]

His performance was massively benefited by Robben, without him he would of been just as shit as he's been this season.

Not really. Creative players are supposed to supply the strikers with chances and strikers are expected to finish them which he did. In the end he scored a goal which hasn't happened all that much this season so there's no need to be so negative.

 

[Rossa]

Sorry but they won 6-0. Latvia are shit. Means nothing.

Of course they are shit, but so are several PL teams, and yet he has failed scoring against them. Let's just hope that he has turned things around and start scoring.

 

[Devil may care]

He did ok, very hard to gauge against such a poor side as Latvia, I mean Huntelaar also looked good and Robben was easily the main man.

 

[ZDwyr]

Even if Latvia are awful, anything to build his confidence. You'd think he'd be keen to do well against Arsenal though, so hopefully he'll put in a good performance.

 

[dirkey]

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.

Talk about hyperbole! Literally no hope if he has a bad game against his old team? Do you work for a tabloid?

 

[FromTheBench]

 

[Cassidy]

His performance was massively benefited by Robben, without him he would of been just as shit as he's been this season.

Thats the point of the attacking midfielder

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Talk about hyperbole! Literally no hope if he has a bad game against his old team? Do you work for a tabloid?

Incase you've not noticed RVP has been utter dross for months now (not a few weeks but months!!!) so if he can't put in a good performances against the team he used to play for that have given him so much hate and bitterness since he left then there is no hope for him and he is done.

 

[dirkey]

Incase you've not noticed RVP has been utter dross for months now (not a few weeks but months!!!) so if he can't put in a good performances against the team he used to play for that have given him so much hate and bitterness since he left then there is no hope for him and he is done.

Ludicrous comment. Absolutely ludicrous. He hasn't played well for a while - I wouldn't say dross to be honest, but he hasn't been his usual self. But to say there's no hope if he doesn't play well in his next game ... well, that's just a stupid comment.

 

[Boycott]

If he's not up for Saturday I'm seriously concerned. This is the game where he needs to be in rhythm to the game and cause havoc among their make shift defence.

 

[Walrus]

How old is RVP? 32? I am surprised that nobody seems to have foreseen a decline in his performances. For me it was foolish from LVG to get rid of Hernandez and Welbeck, and place all our eggs in the RVP/Falcao basket - both similar types of player who have question marks regarding injuries.

(Ignoring Rooney in this equation as it looks like LVG sees him as a #10 or even CM)

 

[dirkey]

How old is RVP? 32? I am surprised that nobody seems to have foreseen a decline in his performances. For me it was foolish from LVG to get rid of Hernandez and Welbeck, and place all our eggs in the RVP/Falcao basket - both similar types of player who have question marks regarding injuries.

(Ignoring Rooney in this equation as it looks like LVG sees him as a #10 or even CM)

I guess it comes down to what you see in a player. Louis obviously saw a lot more in the likes of RVP & Falcao, despite injury concerns, compared to Welbeck. I'm on record as agreeing with his decision, I really don't think Welbeck is ever going to get to their level, which is the level of player we should be after. So stick with them for a few years ... while always looking to unearth a new gem. Maybe he really sees a lot in Wilson, just doesn't want to throw him in too early while results aren't great.

 

[Walrus]

I guess it comes down to what you see in a player. Louis obviously saw a lot more in the likes of RVP & Falcao, despite injury concerns, compared to Welbeck. I'm on record as agreeing with his decision, I really don't think Welbeck is ever going to get to their level, which is the level of player we should be after. So stick with them for a few years ... while always looking to unearth a new gem. Maybe he really sees a lot in Wilson, just doesn't want to throw him in too early while results aren't great.

Thats the thing though - "stick with them for a few years" sounds great for a player in their prime, but for RVP? I have my doubts. As for Falcao he isnt even ours yet - personally until I see some game winning performances from him then I am yet to see why we want to be paying the £50 odd mil buyout clause for his loan..

Welbeck (and this is all I will say as I dont want to turn this into another Welbeck discussion) offered something different to our other strikers - pace and huge work rate, for that reason in my book we should have kept him. Having plan Bs and Cs is always nice.

 

[Amethyst]

How old is RVP? 32? I am surprised that nobody seems to have foreseen a decline in his performances. For me it was foolish from LVG to get rid of Hernandez and Welbeck, and place all our eggs in the RVP/Falcao basket - both similar types of player who have question marks regarding injuries.

(Ignoring Rooney in this equation as it looks like LVG sees him as a #10 or even CM)

Not long turned 31, 5 months older than Robben who's been in the form of his life recently and a whole 2 years younger than Ibrahimovic who's still scoring bucket loads for PSG. It's not an excuse, especially given van Persie isn't a player who relies on lightning pace to perform well. In his first season he went 10 games without scoring and still missed easy chances.

 

[dirkey]

Thats the thing though - "stick with them for a few years" sounds great for a player in their prime, but for RVP? I have my doubts. As for Falcao he isnt even ours yet - personally until I see some game winning performances from him then I am yet to see why we want to be paying the £50 odd mil buyout clause for his loan..

Welbeck (and this is all I will say as I dont want to turn this into another Welbeck discussion) offered something different to our other strikers - pace and huge work rate, for that reason in my book we should have kept him. Having plan Bs and Cs is always nice.

But the thing with Welbeck is that he didn't want to stay as second choice - or in this case fourth choice. And I still fail to see that he's a better player than any of them, thus he didn't justify inclusion ahead of them. At that point, you might as well send off a player who is unhappy.

Yes, I know what you mean about a player in their prime alright. And I don't expect him to get back to his prime, but it's not that long ago that he looked pretty darn good in the world cup. People have very, very short memories.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Ludicrous comment. Absolutely ludicrous. He hasn't played well for a while - I wouldn't say dross to be honest, but he hasn't been his usual self. But to say there's no hope if he doesn't play well in his next game ... well, that's just a stupid comment.

Hahaha You obviously don't watch our matches ever since fergie retired he has been beyond useless. All throughout Moyes short reign and so far this year. Nothing stupid or ludicrous about it. I would have liked to see welbeck stay and RVP binned. Better for the team and for the future. RVP will never get to his previous form and he's been on a downward spiral for ages.

 

[acnumber9]

Hahaha You obviously don't watch our matches ever since fergie retired he has been beyond useless. All throughout Moyes short reign and so far this year. Nothing stupid or ludicrous about it. I would have liked to see welbeck stay and RVP binned. Better for the team and for the future. RVP will never get to his previous form and he's been on a downward spiral for ages.

So if he is shit on Saturday but then has a run of great form then all hope would still be lost?

 

[dirkey]

Hahaha You obviously don't watch our matches ever since fergie retired he has been beyond useless. All throughout Moyes short reign and so far this year. Nothing stupid or ludicrous about it. I would have liked to see welbeck stay and RVP binned. Better for the team and for the future. RVP will never get to his previous form and he's been on a downward spiral for ages.

I've watched every game as it happens. As @acnumber9 mentions in the next post - so he plays badly this weekend, then goes on a monster run of form, is all hope still lost? He wasn't as bad as people make out either last year, he didn't play a lot, but without looking up the stats, he still had more than a goal every other game (I might be slightly off on that, but that's from memory). Even on a downward spiral, as you call it, with a goal every other game last season, that's better than I think Welbeck will ever manage as a main striker. Obiously, I might be wrong on that, but that's my feeling, and obviously Louis' feeling too.

Very interested to see how RVP finishes the season, but to say he's finished if he doesn't perform well this weekend, yes, ludicrous comment.

 

[sunama]

As for Falcao he isnt even ours yet - personally until I see some game winning performances from him then I am yet to see why we want to be paying the £50 odd mil buyout clause for his loan..

I am glad we didnt buy him.
Clearly LvG was thinking that Falcao may not ever return to his previous levels of performance, so wanted to "try before we buy".
Personally, I am 50-50 on Falcao, as to whether or not he will ever beat his injury problems.
I've seen many players end their careers due to injury and I hope it doesnt happen to Falcao.

As for RvP - he is a threat up front.
I saw an analysis video a few weeks ago. I think it was G.Neville who did the analysis.
What he stated was that RvP is doing everything correctly. The problem is that his team-mates are not seeing his runs, where 2 years ago, they were.
In summary, he was blaming the supply, not RvP.

 

[DWelbz19]

Gary Neville's analysis was absurd. He was blaming our players for not having the ability to pick up wonder-passes and basically not being Paul Scholes or Xavi.

 

[dirkey]

Gary Neville's analysis was absurd. He was blaming our players for not having the ability to pick up wonder-passes and basically not being Paul Scholes or Xavi.

They weren't wonder passes! Plenty of them were relatively simple through balls. Wasn't like he was asking them to play delicately lobbed through balls with the outside of their bad foot.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

I've watched every game as it happens. As @acnumber9 mentions in the next post - so he plays badly this weekend, then goes on a monster run of form, is all hope still lost? He wasn't as bad as people make out either last year, he didn't play a lot, but without looking up the stats, he still had more than a goal every other game (I might be slightly off on that, but that's from memory). Even on a downward spiral, as you call it, with a goal every other game last season, that's better than I think Welbeck will ever manage as a main striker. Obiously, I might be wrong on that, but that's my feeling, and obviously Louis' feeling too.

Very interested to see how RVP finishes the season, but to say he's finished if he doesn't perform well this weekend, yes, ludicrous comment.

We played welbeck out of position quite a lot he never got a fair run as a striker, welbecks workrate and pace (something we are now seriously lacking) were huge parts of his game and it's something we are definitely missing

RVP was always going to get special treatment from van gaal any other manager in any other team would've benched him by now for his ghost performances, currently I'd love to see Wilson get more game time ahead of RVP he definitely deserves it.

 

[dirkey]

We played welbeck out of position quite a lot he never got a fair run as a striker, welbecks workrate and pace (something we are now seriously lacking) were huge parts of his game and it's something we are definitely missing

RVP was always going to get special treatment from van gaal any other manager in any other team would've benched him by now for his ghost performances, currently I'd love to see Wilson get more game time ahead of RVP he definitely deserves it.

I know we played him out of position, my thinking however is that even playing regularly up front for Arsenal, he won't match RVPs tally from last year.

Why does Wilson deserve it? Are you seeing him day in, day out in training? I've seen this mentioned before by someone, that Wilson deserves it. I find it a curious statement to be honest. I don't think Wilson has done a lot in his performances. Admittedly, they've only been cameos, but he hasn't looked particularly threatening, and also hasn't done a whole pile to get involved with the build up play. That is not to say that I don't think he has the makings of a great player etc, I just really haven't seen a lot from him to say he deserves it.

 

[jem]

We played welbeck out of position quite a lot he never got a fair run as a striker, welbecks workrate and pace (something we are now seriously lacking) were huge parts of his game and it's something we are definitely missing

RVP was always going to get special treatment from van gaal any other manager in any other team would've benched him by now for his ghost performances, currently I'd love to see Wilson get more game time ahead of RVP he definitely deserves it.

Based on what?

 

[dirkey]

Based on what?

Yeah! Thank God, it's not just me who's wondering that.

 

[Amethyst]

Hahaha You obviously don't watch our matches ever since fergie retired he has been beyond useless. All throughout Moyes short reign and so far this year. Nothing stupid or ludicrous about it. I would have liked to see welbeck stay and RVP binned. Better for the team and for the future. RVP will never get to his previous form and he's been on a downward spiral for ages.

Absolute nonsense.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

Yes I did and Robben was a class above as he was at the WC. If we had a player as good as him, we'd go far and RVP would benefit from a WC player like him.

After 45 minutes Holland were 3-0 up and the game was over. First 45 minutes RVP was the best player on the pitch, not Robben. Although they were both playing very well.

Sorry but they won 6-0. Latvia are shit. Means nothing.

If you combine it with the fact he also had a very good match against Chelsea, the strongest team in the league, I think it does mean something.

Gary Neville's analysis was absurd. He was blaming our players for not having the ability to pick up wonder-passes and basically not being Paul Scholes or Xavi.

It was a bit over the top, but I agreed with him to some extent.

In Holland there's a big group of (ajax loving) people who always seem to feel RVP hasn't played a good match, no matter how much he scores for Holland. They feel it's obvious Huntelaar should play instead of Van Persie, because RVP is the "problem" if we don't win. Very comparable to the people who feel Falcao and or Wilson should start ahead of RVP, because they think he has been a "problem" for us this season and we would've done better with somebody else playing up front.

Huntelaar got his chance last week and struggled for the full 90 minutes playing as a #9 vs. Mexico. Holland lost, without RVP even playing. Huntelaar was also invisible in the first half vs. Latvia, only notable moment was scoring the 3-0 in the 45th minute after a nice cross. He's one of the best rated strikers in the Bundesliga, has the experience and yet he was definitely not better for Holland playing the #9 than RVP has been this season playing #9.

Point being: it's way too easy to put the blame on a striker who gets isolated because the rest of the team is not playing well enough. Especially not when that player looks like he's trying, works hard and shows glimpses of genius almost every match, which I think is the case for Van Persie. Apparently some people doubt that, maybe they should watch back some of our matches this season without the matchday emotion.

What Gary Neville says is pretty simple: the moment a team plays better, a striker can benefit more. Valid I think, but sometimes it's even simpeler. Van Persie scored against Chelsea when Wilson had come on. Week before against WBA he hit the inside of the post after Falcao had come on. His other two goals were assisted by Falcao. His best match for Holland this season, he was playing with a strike partner in the name of Huntelaar. The moment we add even more quality up front, RVP becomes his old dangerous self, but we seem to lack balance in that sort off set-up.

Put Ramos, Pepe, Kroos and Modric at CD/CM and we would be up there with Madrid, I guess that's what frustrating me a bit, up front we're actually fine, that's not where the problem is. Got some talented full backs and in-depth quality too. The attacking players are really not the problem, all of them have showed some good and bad moments, played good and poor matches, all scored and assisted. And like I said with two world class defenders and two world class central midfielders, we would be easily up there with Bayern and Real in terms of quality.

But because we lack that quality in our squad and have had some poor results, RVP gets randomly blamed. First he was never going to get to full fitness, then his movement (probably his best quality) was deemed to be poor. Then he wasn't interested anymore and already past it. While in reality, looking back matches and leaving emotion out of it, he is doing quite alright. Sure he could have done better in some matches, but that also goes for Di Maria, Rooney, Mata, and every other fecking player in our squad. Players are not robots, and overall I still don't really see what RVP has done in particular to deserve the slack he's getting.

 

[Brightonian]

If you combine it with the fact he also had a very good match against Chelsea, the strongest team in the league, I think it does mean something.

He wasn't very good against Chelsea. Didn't provide enough movement or energy up front, didn't give the Chelsea back line many problems, and was basically too quiet until the last-gasp winner.

If Falcao's fit, it's a no-brainer for me that we should be starting him and Rooney and giving RVP a rest.

 

[Brwned]

Van Persie against Chelsea was the best performance we've seen from a striker all season.

 

[Amethyst]

Van Persie against Chelsea was the best performance we've seen from a striker all season.

Did you watch his performance vs. Latvia? Apart from Robben (who is outstanding at the moment) he was the best player on the pitch I thought.

 

[DWelbz19]

Van Persie against Chelsea was the best performance we've seen from a striker all season.

Because he is basically the only striker we've seen.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

He wasn't very good against Chelsea. Didn't provide enough movement or energy up front, didn't give the Chelsea back line many problems, and was basically too quiet until the last-gasp winner.

If Falcao's fit, it's a no-brainer for me that we should be starting him and Rooney and giving RVP a rest.

You mean like after five minutes when he moved out brilliantly to the left? Adnan passed that ball 0.30 seconds too late so there wasn't a shot on target, but Chelsea looked clueless because of his movement.

You probably don't even remember that moment in the first half where RVP either made a hands ball or a chest control at the half way line. He ran al the way to the box, where Adnan passed it to him after which he had a good diagonal shot. That moment is the perfect example. Our number nine having to set-up his own attack from the halfway line was our way to get dangerous. How is RVP to blame for being isolated because our team lacks the quality to dominate against Chelsea?

He was easily our best attacking player and our main goal threat that match, scored an important goal against a great side. That performance wasn't different in terms of quality than his performances against big teams like Real Madrid or Chelsea when he was still considered 'very good'. The difference is that he's playing in a side that's not in good form and has less quality, yet somehow people convinced themselves it's the other way around.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He wasn't very good against Chelsea. Didn't provide enough movement or energy up front, didn't give the Chelsea back line many problems, and was basically too quiet until the last-gasp winner.

If Falcao's fit, it's a no-brainer for me that we should be starting him and Rooney and giving RVP a rest.

He was excellent against Chelsea. And he didn't score the winner.

 

[Devil may care]

Van Persie against Chelsea was the best performance we've seen from a striker all season.

Just to clarify, from, one of our strikers not strikers in general right? Because in truth no one would have to play that well up top to register our best striker performance of the season so far.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Based on what?

Obviously you don't watch any of our youth teams have you seen his performances and record playing for them he deserves a "promotion" to the first team to further himself and get better.