Rooney -> Carrick -> Smalling seems the right order for me.
20
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
100% pass completion rate 
Oh dear god if you lot are happy with Smalling as a captain for us.
Any other suggestions?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...epts-not-main-striker-ahead-Wayne-Rooney.html
-source close to him says RVP wants to stay.
Oh how I love those kind of sources.
I can't believe he actually has 10 goals this season.
Got a couple tonight in the U21's away at Fulham, hopefully that's enough to see him on the pitch before Falcao.
If he remained fit and first choice the whole season, he'd have more than 15. Still decent.
Looked sharper than he has done in a while. Hit the woodwork twice as well. I hope he starts the next game. I've kind of written him off but would really like if he ended up making me eat my words, this season and next.
I think he still has a lot to offer and is being written off way too early. He's had a poor season and still has 10 goals. A lot of his appearances came when we were playing shite as a team as well trying to play Falcao alongside him up front. He's also shown good quality on the ball, but failed to create space, as a lone striker in a 4-3-3 I think he'll find a lot more freedom. He is still a great back-up striker.
Surely he's ready to start this week, assuming Rooney cant. NFW should Falcao be anywhere near the pitch at his expense.
If the reports are true and he is compliant in staying as second choice, I wouldn't mind. I don't think he's good enough to lead the line for the full season but delegating him a sizeable amount of matches in this particular system will do. For a year, at least.
Can't say that was the most impressive compilation I've seen. Some good touches, and two good finishes (especially the second one) but there was still a lot of what we've seen this season. Lots of lose touches, losing the ball easily, taking too long on the ball etc etc I have to say, a couple of times he really did look like an old man among kids.
Interesting that he seemed to be playing quite deep, wonder if that was just so he was more involved?
That cross around the 4:00 min mark was beauty.
I think his legs are gone as far as competing in the PL goes, but If he's willing to play a bit part I'd prefer he stayed to us buying Ings or Jackson Martinez.
If we had 2011-2013 RVP we would have a massive chance of winning the league next season.
We might as well play him against West Brom, let's see what he can do with this new system in place.
We might as well play him against West Brom, let's see what he can do with this new system in place.
Good for him.
He is the best striker at the club, would love it if he can stay fit and give us one more season like Fergie's last.
He is the best striker at the club, would love it if he can stay fit and give us one more season like Fergie's last.
I thought he looked good. Promising signs.
I for one am looking forward to seeing RvP play as the lone striker and hopefully with Carrick and the rest of our starters. I think he could still do quite a decent job under those circumstances, of course we need to see that.
Would he be able to do the role that Fellani is doing right now?
I doubt it. Fellaini's role is not just about being tall and winning aerial duels. It requires a different kind of movement, discipline and decision making. I doubt Van Persie, being a forward all his life, would choose the pass back if he gets even the smallest chance to shoot, or stay in position if he has space to make a run in. Plus, he's definitely not as strong and solid.
Hope to god he starts instead of Falcao if Rooney isn't fit.
Hope he starts regardless of Rooney's fitness level.
It's about his own fitness and sharpness. It those are back for a longer period, he's a class above Rooney as a centre forward. And it will be very difficult to find a striker who's would do the job just as well. But is an 'if', not a 'when'.
He doesn't need to be the RVP of old, he just needs to be a quarter of that and we're good.
The main keywords with Van Persie in discussing his talent are primarily fitness and work rate. At times he looks like the type of player positioning himself around the pitch with the thought that only athletes run and everyone else just plays games. He has a certain style of play consisting of what is called 'playing lines'. He bases his spurts around these playing lines, basically confusing defenders with unpredictable positioning. He has that killer instinct when he has full confidence but he needs to be involved in build ups in order for him to feel that he can gradually grow into the game. Yes he can still appear like a phantom and create that unexpected chance from no man's land, but now at age 31 he needs the service of the system more then ever. Whether he should be picked ten faveure of Falcao is a no brainer. Pleased to see him scoring a few goals. Him picking up some confidence in the last stage of the competition could turn out to be valuable.
Looked sharper yesterday, hopefully he's fit enough to start at the weekend.
He can actually be in better shape next year than he's been this season imo. World Cup drained him no end by all accounts and he'd also had that injury (if my memory serves me right) beforehand which took a good chunk of his second half of the season. Then he missed our pre-season which is all important. If he can relax in the summer and prepare well for the upcoming season he should be good.
With Rooney injure, RVP cannot do worse than Falcao so that's enough in my books for him to start.
Will he come straight back in now that he has had a game for the U/21s? Surely Falcao won't be given another chance if RvP is fit.
I agree. He's even admitted he wasn't fully recovered for the World Cup after that Olympiakos injury and that's possibly why his performances tailed off later in the knockout rounds. A few posters have mentioned that RvP said he'd done work in the gym and that he looked bigger in 2011-12/2012-13. If he's lost weight since then he can spend the time off this summer trying to get properly fit and working on that.
Agree with those saying that at this stage he needs the system to be serving him chances consistently. His movement in the box and finishing are still outstanding. Come on RVP son prove those doubters wrong!!
I hope Carrick is fit otherwise it will be slim pickings for RVP, as usual.
I think the same. He’s top class when he doesn’t have to run a lot. That’s hardly the case in the Prem but I see him as a perfect backup striker.
Just to let you know that being "big" is not the ideal physique for a top class footballer.
Some footballers are naturally bulkier than others, but to add weight on purpose is not the way forward.
The fittest footballers are usually waif-like. When footballers take their shirts off, you get to see just how skinny these guys actually are.
In fact, the moment a footballer begins to add weight, they get branded "fat", eg Rooney and Lampard.
He doesn't have legs to run isolated all game but he should have enough to play in the right system where the ball is played to him. He's never depended on his pace. He won't be any slower than this season and he still has a respectable attacking output per minutes. Bear in mind he mostly played at the time we were a shambles this season.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/robin-van-persie-reveals-how-1646892
OK, so it says it wasn't through lifting more weights but the point is that he was more muscular and he felt that had helped his game.
Do you reckon Robin will fit into this system as Rooney is out? Did he ever play as the main striker at a 4-3-3 at Arsenal
Not sure if he did at Arsenal, but he did for the worldcup qualifiers before Strootman got injured and van Gaal moved to 352. He can do it without a problem (theoretically).
Technique wise he's head and shoulders above anyone else up front. Personally I love the guy, it was great to see him playing with a smile on his face for the U21's. Something I haven't seen from him in a while for the first team. I really want to see how he plays as the focal point for our 4-3-3 as he hasn't played here yet, but I feel it's the position where he's most suited. Undoubtedly he's lost a yard of pace but everything else is still there and I think he's far from done at this level.
- Status