Tom Cleverley | 2012-14 Performances

Status
Not open for further replies.
Well played TC...disciplined performance...good possession...good covering...all aways available for pass...high tempo...grafted hard.

Did his job well.

Totally professional.
 
He's improving and I'm sure that a lot of people will be proven wrong about him in the next two or three seasons. He's definitely good enough.
 
Did what Tom Cleverley does. Played well in the first half then disappeared.
 
I thought he was decent but there was nothing new. He uses the ball neatly but he is neither a particularly creative player, nor someone who really drives the team and he's not defensively strong. Hopefully the competition will spur him on, though tbf if Fellaini does stay in the team it's not on merit.

I think if we can get the rest of the attack to click then he can still have a role in the first team from the current choice of players as thus far Fellaini hasn't shown that he adds a whole lot more defensively and not attackingly either yet.
 
Had a rock solid first half...went missing a little in the second
 
Ash_G said:
I thought he was decent but there was nothing new. He uses the ball neatly but he is neither a particularly creative player, nor someone who really drives the team and he's not defensively strong. Hopefully the competition will spur him on, though tbf if Fellaini does stay in the team it's not on merit.

I think if we can get the rest of the attack to click then he can still have a role in the first team from the current choice of players as thus far Fellaini hasn't shown that he adds a whole lot more defensively and not attackingly either yet.
Click to expand...


I've long maintained that Cleverley is a really nice player to have in a midfield 3. He makes those around him look good, plays the ball well under pressure and rarely misplaces a pass. With 2 quality players beside him I reckon he will have long term have a future at United.

Needs to add another string to his bow to play in a 2 for us though. If he was more solid defensively he'd be perfect.
 
NinjaFletch said:
I've long maintained that Cleverley is a really nice player to have in a midfield 3. He makes those around him look good, plays the ball well under pressure and rarely misplaces a pass. With 2 quality players beside him I reckon he will have long term have a future at United.

Needs to add another string to his bow to play in a 2 for us though. If he was more solid defensively he'd be perfect.
Click to expand...


Could be, but can't see it happening for a while. Rooney and RVP pretty much guarantee needing two more deeper midfielders more often. Even in a 3 though I still think he would need to add more to his game. Again can't think of many players in that role for a top team who would mainly be someone to give it to the better players. That person is usually also poviding a strong defensive performance which thus far Clev hasn't shown often.
 
Ash_G said:
I thought he was decent but there was nothing new. He uses the ball neatly but he is neither a particularly creative player, nor someone who really drives the team and he's not defensively strong. Hopefully the competition will spur him on, though tbf if Fellaini does stay in the team it's not on merit.

I think if we can get the rest of the attack to click then he can still have a role in the first team from the current choice of players as thus far Fellaini hasn't shown that he adds a whole lot more defensively and not attackingly either yet.
Click to expand...

Good post and sums him up in a balanced manner.

I don't know why some people are obsessed with overrating average performances from some of our players, it's awfully tedious. I personally expect more from him as he clearly has ability and I would certainly like to see him add an attacking edge to his game. He has, for me, failed to build on a promising start to his United career and I would love to see him really kick-on this season. Sadly, I'm not sure he will.
 
I thought he was our second best player behind Vidic. Cleverley doesn't do anything spectacular but he does the simple things extremely well. If we would actually play our creative players in the front 4 positions Cleverley would be much more useful. He deserves to be starting next to Carrick currently, Fellaini has done nothing to suggest he should be ahead of him in the pecking order.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Good post and sums him up in a balanced manner.

I don't know why some people are obsessed with overrating average performances from some of our players, it's awfully tedious. I personally expect more from him as he clearly has ability and I would certainly like to see him add an attacking edge to his game. He has, for me, failed to build on a promising start to his United career and I would love to see him really kick-on this season. Sadly, I'm not sure he will.
Click to expand...

Cheers, I guess with your favourite players/ ones you've defended you always are a bit lenient when judging, sure I've done it before.

I do think he can be a good player but right now I just see him as someone who doesn't give the ball away cheaply. Which is great but it needs to come with something else. Most the top players do that as a minimum.
 
Ash_G said:
I thought he was decent but there was nothing new. He uses the ball neatly but he is neither a particularly creative player, nor someone who really drives the team and he's not defensively strong. Hopefully the competition will spur him on, though tbf if Fellaini does stay in the team it's not on merit.

I think if we can get the rest of the attack to click then he can still have a role in the first team from the current choice of players as thus far Fellaini hasn't shown that he adds a whole lot more defensively and not attackingly either yet.
Click to expand...

Yup.
 
Looks much better player than Fellaini tbf, should keep his place in CM.
 
He played well tonight but faded in the second half. I would probably start him against Sunderland now. I'm happy now some know what he brings to the team. He'll never a be a top class midfielder in my eyes, I'd love to be wrong, but he's a very good player to have in the squad.
 
When the team has good movement and utilize space well, Cleverley plays well - when our movement is poor, he's poor
 
It's funny how before we signed Fellaini the consensus here was generally that he was a decent player, nothing special, not good enough to merit being a first choice midfielder but a good squad option (about right I think), now suddenly Fellaini comes and he's gone way up in peoples estimations again. Fickle.
 
So, he made 10 successful aerial duels out of 13 tonight, made 8 successful tackles and had 1 clearance. Is our Tom becoming better at the defensive end of things?
 
He also tracked his man very well unlike Fellaini who likes to amble back
 
Tom was definitely one of the reasons why the team slightly improved today......Fellaini might be a little slow with the pass to ever have in a midfield two
 
Yes he is becoming better, as one of our previous matches this season already suggested when he was playing a Carrick like role. Needs to do a bit more on the ball as well though. But at least it looks like he's going to stand up and be counted on nights like this, not fail to do the basics like Fellaini has done
 
I barely noticed him.

The question I'd ask here is whether people actually believe he's a player the manager would actually sign from another club?

He just hasn't really progressed enough and it's not really the level we should expect from a player here.
 
Thought he was good today. Have played well twice in three days now and his stamina levels didn't drop off which is very encouraging.

Some of the shit he takes from United fans is unreal though.
 
The weakest part of his game is that he doesn't score enough; or for that matter, shoot enough. Maybe I'm wrong but he seems to be turning into a defensive midfielder more that a playmaker.
 
he was great defensively, nice crunching tackles just when we needed to reduce the pressure on defence
 
KM said:
Thought he was good today. Have played well twice in three days now and his stamina levels didn't drop off which is very encouraging.

Some of the shit he takes from United fans is unreal though.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of Fletcher a wee bit, the stick he gets that is.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.