PSingh
Correctly predicted France to win World Cup 2018
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2014
- Messages
- 953
The most impressive thing about him tonight was his hold up play. Took his goals well, stood up and faced his criticism.
The most impressive thing about him tonight was his hold up play. Took his goals well, stood up and faced his criticism.
Came in to say exactly this. At times it was like watching the Van Persie of 12/13, brilliant hold up play and was cleverly bringing others into play, especially in the 2nd half. Man of the match by a mile for me.
The judging of strikers is a funny business, especially Van Persie.
He had the best game of his season today, but if you look at his chances, they were all extremely difficult -- none were gimmes. In fact, the entire season, people have been bagging RVP because he's "missed those chances he would have buried in 12/13", failing to realize those chances were extremely difficult and by no way a sure goal (I'm thinking of one I think against Chelsea where he was semi-through on goal and had to turn and shoot while Courtois was coming out to get him. He got so much crap for that when it was an extremely hard opportunity that needed a big stroke of luck to get it). Today, he put himself in the position to score (which, imo, he's done all season except vs Arsenal and maybe one or two others) and had that stroke of luck to nutmeg Forster twice.
I should preface by saying Van Persie is my favorite player to justify any bias, and I got angry when tons of the Caf gave him stick for not burying "the chances strikers should bury" and then now praising him for these two goals, considering his movement, build up play has been pretty consistent and the only difference between his Chelsea chance and his first goal today was the goalie opening his legs. He had a great game today in that everything he did was exceptional, but perhaps more importantly, luck was on his side today and that made the difference.
He hasn't been as bad as some have made out and it has been greatly exaggerated how poor he has been. He has struggled at times and had some poor matches, yet he still has 6 league goals to his name. Our changing of formation and awful play at times, certainly haven't helped.
Even if you take away those two goals, he played at another level tonight compared to what he's been doing for a good while now. Most of the criticism towards him has been on that basis, not the fact that he's missing too many chances.The judging of strikers is a funny business, especially Van Persie.
He had the best game of his season today, but if you look at his chances, they were all extremely difficult -- none were gimmes. In fact, the entire season, people have been bagging RVP because he's "missed those chances he would have buried in 12/13", failing to realize those chances were extremely difficult and by no way a sure goal (I'm thinking of one I think against Chelsea where he was semi-through on goal and had to turn and shoot while Courtois was coming out to get him. He got so much crap for that when it was an extremely hard opportunity that needed a big stroke of luck to get it). Today, he put himself in the position to score (which, imo, he's done all season except vs Arsenal and maybe one or two others) and had that stroke of luck to nutmeg Forster twice.
I should preface by saying Van Persie is my favorite player to justify any bias, and I got angry when tons of the Caf gave him stick for not burying "the chances strikers should bury" and then now praising him for these two goals, considering his movement, build up play has been pretty consistent and the only difference between his Chelsea chance and his first goal today was the goalie opening his legs. He had a great game today in that everything he did was exceptional, but perhaps more importantly, luck was on his side today and that made the difference.
Sometimes we only see what we want to see, I watch him like a hawk, he's utterly mesmerising. He's had maybe two sulky games where he's given up as he's not had the service (amazingly Arsenal wasn't one) but he's been increasing in effectiveness with the supply opening back up.Fair enough.
Dunno why it's so much more obvious on the telly tonight but I'll take your word for it. Hard to see all the off the ball graft when you're not at the game.
Pity we didn't bench him and start Wilson instead.
What has Wilson got to do with anything? I get your trying to be sarcastic but a little childish. RVP's best game in a long time. Pleased he got up from that tackle as we've some big games coming up.