[Wolverine]

His most marked deterioration in him being pushed off the ball so easily and a slight loss of pace too. Not good signs, what's clear though is that he's being kept in for his poacher abilities and perhaps van Gaal's belief that he needs game to turn it around. But he's not giving us anything at the moment. A break would do him well, Rooney and Wilson/Mata upfront for me.

 

[kouroux]

His most marked deterioration in him being pushed off the ball so easily and a slight loss of pace too. Not good signs, what's clear though is that he's being kept in for his poacher abilities and perhaps van Gaal's belief that he needs game to turn it around. But he's not giving us anything at the moment. A break would do him well, Rooney and Wilson/Mata upfront for me.

The loss of pace can be understood as he's old and it's normal but losing the ball so easily ? Controlling it so badly ? Something is wrong with him. I have been really disappointed by him.

 

[RedSRM]

I did say on this forum months ago that I was worried Van Gaal might prove to be a little too loyal to RVP. (Of course I was immediately told to stop talking shite and trust the manager to make the correct calls etc.) I'm not at all surprised that RVP has remained in the starting XI regardless of his poor form because he and Louis are best buddies. It was always gonna take a lot for the manager to drop him. This was always going to be bad news for Falcao, because of course you can't really put Rooney, him and RVP in the same team.
The thing is, dropping RVP doesn't mean you have to play Wilson (Louis may not want to throw him in just yet) or wait for Falcao to return from injury. He could bring in Mata, Herrera or Januzaj and let Rooney play up top.
Right now I just can't see an argument for RVP being in the side (especially when Falcao comes back). A break from the team will probably do him good and hopefully give him the motivation to come back stronger.

 

[PSingh]

We have to remember how poor we was before we got the first goal, we couldn't string 2 passes together, not much van Persie can do.
The service was non existent, on the caf some posters forget that RVP's game is not to pick up the ball and dribble past players at pace. His game is all about his movement and technique.
Wilson came on and did ok, he ran around a bit. But to say RVP should be dropped for him is bizzare. RVP has a lot to offer this team we need to start playing to his strengths.
Fans are fickle, a couple of months ago everyone was saying Rooney is finished as a number 9. Now everyone has turned on van Persie.

 

[RedSRM]

We have to remember how poor we was before we got the first goal, we couldn't string 2 passes together, not much van Persie can do.
The service was non existent, on the caf some posters forget that RVP's game is not to pick up the ball and dribble past players at pace. His game is all about his movement and technique.
Wilson came on and did ok, he ran around a bit. But to say RVP should be dropped for him is bizzare. RVP has a lot to offer this team we need to start playing to his strengths.
Fans are fickle, a couple of months ago everyone was saying Rooney is finished as a number 9. Now everyone has turned on van Persie.

My argument would be that I think RVP needs a break from the side. He doesn't look sharp and the games seem to be passing him by right now.

 

[togg]

I really feel it's also psycological. It's as though once he had that League winners medal....then Fergie left....all that ambition, drive, determination just drained out of him. He just doesn't look like he is bothered to win.

 

[Drainy]

RvP's all round play has been questionable since he got injured against QPR 2 seasons ago, but at least he was scoring regularly.

Now he's only scored 3 goals in 11 games, as well as not being great on the ball- it's only natural that people are going to question what he's actually offering to the team. The fact someone can play so badly so consistently for United under Van Gaal and still be an automatic selection is worrying.

 

[ipodnani]

It's difficult to see exactly what he's bringing to the team right now. He is completely devoid of pace, doesn't have a particularly strong work-rate and his finishing seems to have dropped off - he misses quite a number of decent chances.

Perhaps it's down to the system and other players not playing to his strengths, as well. Last night the team was clearly set up to play on the counter, which effectively made RvP, with his lack of mobility/pace, useless. Unless the ball is played into his feet, he really is a passenger.

 

[Dr. Funkenstein]

If a strikers has so little of the ball as he had yesterday, there's a much bigger problem than the form of this striker. A world class striker on top form wastes more posession than he got yesterday.

 

[Jev]

It's difficult to see exactly what he's bringing to the team right now. He is completely devoid of pace, doesn't have a particularly strong work-rate and his finishing seems to have dropped off - he misses quite a number of decent chances.

Perhaps it's down to the system and other players not playing to his strengths, as well. Last night the team was clearly set up to play on the counter, which effectively made RvP, with his lack of mobility/pace, useless. Unless the ball is played into his feet, he really is a passenger.

At the moment he offers absolutely nothing, and the only reason he's in the team is that he's pals with van Gaal. There isn't any sound argument for playing him at the moment.

 

[Freak]

He's more or less finished imo. I hope he proves me wrong, but at his age its unlikely.

Certainly seems like it. He looks sluggish and slow and even his fantastic hold up play seems gone.

 

[DWelbz19]

The fact is, he is out furthest forward player. To slag him for not influencing a game in which we struggled to get out of our own half for large parts seems odd. If our team managed to dominate possession, he would have been a lot more involved, and then actually have an opportunity to play badly. Yesterday, he was irrelevant, but I think that's different to playing badly.

He can't just palm responsibility off as being the striker who isn't involved. A lot of the game a striker has to do is hold the ball up, he just didn't offer that at all, with Monreal, Mertesacker and Arteta seemingly always in control. All three of which are fairly average players. Fine, if he isn't doing that, he has to be making runs, as some sort of focal point. But he just isn't doing that. He looks so lazy, so lethargic, he needs to be dropped.

 

[SirAF]

I love van Persie, but he's been dreadful lately. I'd rather see Wilson start ahead of him for the next two matches - I'd be interested to see what he can do in 90 minutes.

 

[Jerch]

RvP's all round play has been questionable since he got injured against QPR 2 seasons ago, but at least he was scoring regularly.

Now he's only scored 3 goals in 11 games, as well as not being great on the ball- it's only natural that people are going to question what he's actually offering to the team. The fact someone can play so badly so consistently for United under Van Gaal and still be an automatic selection is worrying.

I think he is automatic selection just because funnily we don't have other options. Wilson is good but not ready to start in the most important game so far. Rooney showed why he must play in number 10 role. For me RvP coming of in the last matches is a sign that LvG think he is not good enough atm.

When Falcao come back i am confident that he will replace RvP in the first team.

 

[Speak]

Wow just seen the MotD analysis, 12 touches of the ball today and 3 of those was the corners he took. Absolutely dreadful these days, I haven't got a clue what's happened to him. In a game of this size he's had 9 outfield touches of the ball, that really is mind boggling.

2 were clearing headers at corners. 1 was the kick-off. 2 were inaccurate passes.

That's seriously shocking.

 

[starman]

Its getting to a point where its like playing with 10 men. People try and defend him by saying hes getting no service but hes offer virtually nothing to give service to. Whenever he make a run it like watching him run through quicksand.
His hold up play is still there but he loses out a lot more than he used to.

If Falcao did have his injury problems i would say get rid of him in Jan and promote Wilson further.
Maybe even swap him and recall Hernandez, and hope real pay us a decent amount in the summer.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

This is exactly what I mean when I say RVP is being judged very unfairly.

I guess some people on here are too thick to realise how good of a team Chelsea is, and how difficult it is to play well against them. It's not Rafa Benitez' Chelsea anymore, they are literally up there with Bayern, Barca and Real in terms of quality. Last season they beat every top team in the league and made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. They've added Fabregas, Costa and Courtois to that and are completely dominating the best league in the world at the moment.

Compare this Chelsea team to Mourinho's Real Madrid we faced in the CL two seasons ago. Ronaldo is the only player of that team who would be a guaranteed starter at Chelsea's team at the moment. Costa or Benzema? Fabregas or Xabi? Oscar or Ozil? Hazard or Di Maria? Matic or Khedira? Ivanovic or Arbeloa? Terry or Ramos? Pepe or Cahill? Azpilicueta or Marcelo? Courtois or Casillas? Chelsea literally haven't got any weak spots in their team and they were in great form when we faced them.

Robin van Persie was easily our best attacking player and our main goal threat vs. Chelsea. Yet people on here feel 'he didn't add anything just got a lucky last minute goal'. So here are the highlight of RVP vs Chelsea, for the people with goldfish brains:



How can a player who is capable of putting in a performance like that against one of the best teams in the world just 4 weeks ago!!!!! be past it? I don't get it, I really don't understand how the brain of some of the people on here works. Especially when RVP played an excellent match 6 fecking days ago against Latvia. But that didn't count because they were shite. Rooney vs. Scotland who are shite too did get credits, showing how random the criticism is.

Sure RVP could always do more and the high expectations are justified. But us getting dominated by Arsenal is the reason RVP wasn't involved. None of our forwards got a shot on goal until the fecking 85th minutes. No combinations. The moment you use RVP in the right way and the rest of the team plays well, like for example against Chelsea, you can see how good he still is. He is not past it at all.

 

[Galactic]

That's seriously shocking.

Could mean a few things though:
1. He didn't find spaces
2. Marked out off the match
3. Lost some pace
4. No one wanted to pass to him

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Nothing to be a scapegoat for. He's been shit all season pretty much. A few decent performances without looking like much of a threat, but today he had like 12 touches in ~75 minutes, and 3 of those were corners, one being the kick off. So 8 touches in open play. That's awful.

The best strikers do a lot of their best work off the ball. 12 touches for a striker is not unusual. If 3 of them end up in the back of the net, then no one discusses it.

 

[Minimalist]

Yesterday was a bit hard to judge again for me.

He didn't bust a gut but the service just wasn't there for him. I find it difficult to criticise him when that's the case.

Did think Wilson's acceleration made us look a tad more dangerous though.

 

[Irrational.]

Until he finds some form, let's keep him on the bench as an impact sub.

Was well below par yesterday, and sadly I think we've seen the best of him in Fergie's final season. Wilson deserves the promotion.

 

[DWelbz19]

This is exactly what I mean when I say RVP is being judged very unfairly.

I guess some people on here are too thick to realise how good of a team Chelsea is, and how difficult it is to play well against them. It's not Rafa Benitez' Chelsea anymore, they are literally up there with Bayern, Barca and Real in terms of quality. Last season they beat every top team in the league and made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. They've added Fabregas, Costa and Courtois to that and are completely dominating the best league in the world at the moment.

Compare this Chelsea team to Mourinho's Real Madrid we faced in the CL two seasons ago. Ronaldo is the only player of that team who would be a guaranteed starter at Chelsea's team at the moment. Costa or Benzema? Fabregas or Xabi? Oscar or Ozil? Hazard or Di Maria? Matic or Khedira? Ivanovic or Arbeloa? Terry or Ramos? Pepe or Cahill? Azpilicueta or Marcelo? Courtois or Casillas? Chelsea literally haven't got any weak spots in their team and they were in great form when we faced them.

Robin van Persie was easily our best attacking player and our main goal threat vs. Chelsea. Yet people on here feel 'he didn't add anything just got a lucky last minute goal'. So here are the highlight of RVP vs Chelsea, for the people with goldfish brains:



How can a player who is capable of putting in a performance like that against one of the best teams in the world just 4 weeks ago!!!!! be past it? I don't get it, I really don't understand how the brain of some of the people on here works. Especially when RVP played an excellent match 6 fecking days ago against Latvia. But that didn't count because they were shite. Rooney vs. Scotland who are shite too did get credits, showing how random the criticism is.

Sure RVP could always do more and the high expectations are justified. But us getting dominated by Arsenal is the reason RVP wasn't involved. None of our forwards got a shot on goal until the fecking 85th minutes. No combinations. The moment you use RVP in the right way and the rest of the team plays well, like for example against Chelsea, you can see how good he still is. He is not past it at all.

You're trying a wee bit too hard. His performance against Chelsea was still a 7/10. I guarantee if he hadn't scored that lucky late goal, nobody would even be talking about it.

 

[Red Dreams]

if we had conceeded Wilson would have replaced him.

RVP is not fast enough. But when we have our full team. I would always have him alongside Rooney or Falcao.

 

[PvsNP]

He is quite simply not good enough as a lone striker anymore. He needs a partner up front if we are to get the best out of him.

 

[Devil may care]

Certainly seems like it. He looks sluggish and slow and even his fantastic hold up play seems gone.

The hold up play is the shocking aspect, the way he was brushed off the ball so easily by Arteta yesterday was really surprising.

 

[ZDwyr]

He is quite simply not good enough as a lone striker anymore. He needs a partner up front if we are to get the best out of him.

He had Di Maria kind of up front with him yesterday and still looked poor.

 

[Nighteyes]

I've been trying to defend him all season but he's become a bit shite lately. He needs a Schmeichel-esque break from football. 31 is not too old and certainly not for someone who's never relied on his apce.

 

[imperi]

We shouldn't use him as a deep striker anymore. Falcao or Rooney up top, with RvP around him. I think he would greatly benefit from that, if not I'm afraid its game over.

 

[Raoul]

In his defense, he didn't really get much service yesterday. His best chance was probably on Di Maria's long run where Rooney couldn't get the ball over to him. Would've almost certainly been a goal for RvP.

 

[bosnian_red]

The best strikers do a lot of their best work off the ball. 12 touches for a striker is not unusual. If 3 of them end up in the back of the net, then no one discusses it.

No, 12 strikers for a starter is very rare. It means they weren't in the game at all. Especially as 1 was from kick off, and 3 taking corners. Think he usually gets like 20-30 touches, which still you'd like him to get on the ball more. Welbeck for arsenal had around 40 I think. Hell, wilson had 18 touches in the 15-20 minutes he played.

 

[wr8_utd]

RvP is someone you just can't carry in these big games/high intensity away games because he's going to offer no threat and no work rate and it's not even like his finishing is good enough to make it worth keeping him in the starting XI. He couldn't beat Arteta for pace, was getting brushed aside by the same guy, had no pace to run at Per and Monreal in a 2v2 situation and just had zero involvement in the game. His only contributions these days are clearing headers at corners.

 

[Sandikan]

got himself off the pitch remarkably quickly when subbed!!
couldn't wait to get off.

 

[Sandikan]

No, 12 strikers for a starter is very rare. It means they weren't in the game at all. Especially as 1 was from kick off, and 3 taking corners. Think he usually gets like 20-30 touches, which still you'd like him to get on the ball more. Welbeck for arsenal had around 40 I think. Hell, wilson had 18 touches in the 15-20 minutes he played.

Stats always look amazing post game.

When you think someone getting 100s of thousands of pounds a week only touches the ball a mere handful of times in a game, it's a real joke.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

You're trying a wee bit too hard. His performance against Chelsea was still a 7/10. I guarantee if he hadn't scored that lucky late goal, nobody would even be talking about it.

I obviously dissagree, he rarely lost the ball and showed brilliant movement against one of the best and most organised teams in the world. And how was his goal lucky? If anything he looked like scoring during that whole match and was unlucky not to score two, just like you can see in the highlights.

Made a Real Madrid vs. Chelsea comparison because I remember people on here talking how good he was vs. Madrid two seasons ago, when he didn't even score once in two legs, didn't really got more involved either.

7/10 for that Chelsea performance pffff, he was not playing with Xavi, Iniesta and the rest of Barca in their prime, benefitting from insanely talented teammates. At 0:40 minutes you can literally see him having to set up the attack from the halfway line after a long kick from De Gea, exactly emphasizing where our problems really lie imo.

He looked like scoring if Rooney wasn't flagged offside yesterday, if that went in I guarantee nobody would be talking about his performance yesterday either by the way. By which I mean the criticism is just too much. But there's no denying he's not in brilliant form.

 

[Firstouch20]

He looks devoid of confidence. I think Van Gaal has restricted him alot and took away the freedom that he thrives on. Van Gaal is not a manager who gives his players freedom and it seems like Van Persie is told not to come deep, change positions and move around like he did during his best years(one of the big reasons Ferguson signed him was because of this). He plays like a robot now. All he seems to do is make runs and remain disciplined in certain areas of the pitch. I think thats why Van Gaal always plays him because he's good at following instuctions and is probably doing what the manager wants him to do. A young player like Wilson would probably be a bit more ambitious in their play and at times vacate from his managers instructions.

 

[Amethyst]

In his defense, he didn't really get much service yesterday. His best chance was probably on Di Maria's long run where Rooney couldn't get the ball over to him. Would've almost certainly been a goal for RvP.

If Rooney hadn't been flagged offside when he was clearly on in the second half van Persie would probably have scored.

 

[legball]

Play him into form in the reserves then. He has been pisspoor since DM took over. Nani would be benched after one poor game. Rvp isn´t benched after 1 and a half season. Really amazes me

He was piss poor under Moyes according to you, but he was our top scorer or the second. You don't play top players in the reserves for them to gain form. The way some of you go on about benching RVP, it's like that will immediately resolve all our problems. Sending a top player to the reserves is not a good idea sorry, AVB at Chelsea will tell you that. When the likes of Falcao and Mata start showing better form, and RVP continues in poor form, he'll be benched, until then, it's not going to happen.

 

[legball]

got himself off the pitch remarkably quickly when subbed!!
couldn't wait to get off.

Christ, is this a criticism? Nani was booed for being slow to get off, RVP getting criticized for coming off quickly, this place.

 

[Cheesy]

In his defense, he didn't really get much service yesterday. His best chance was probably on Di Maria's long run where Rooney couldn't get the ball over to him. Would've almost certainly been a goal for RvP.

Even when he was on the ball though, he just looked incredibly lethargic and slow. I don't think his finishing itself is too bad some of the time, but his general game has really deteriorated.

 

[Kag]

The lack of service argument is really stretching. Let's ignore the Danny Welbeck finishing debate for a moment, but his work rate, motivation and will to get involved in the game yesterday was on another level to Van Persie's. He put him to shame. Rooney playing at #9 wouldn't have managed only 12 touches yesterday, no way on earth.