Tom Cleverley | 2012-14 Performances

Status
Not open for further replies.
Comsmit said:
Because he doesn't have near the natural ability of said players....quite simple really. Scholes and Iniesta are not under-achievers either, they are/have made the most of their careers. Cleverley is yet to do that although he is showing the signs that he might reach his potential.
Click to expand...

No one's claiming that he WILL be as good or better than them (that's a LOT to ask for in all honesty), it's just silly to say he definitely won't, none of us knows what the future holds.
You can predict how far you think he'll go, but to say with certainty that there's no way he'll ever be that good is just wrong.
 
OGkush said:
No one's claiming that he WILL be as good or better than them (that's a LOT to ask for in all honesty), it's just silly to say he definitely won't, none of us knows what the future holds.
You can predict how far you think he'll go, but to say with certainty that there's no way he'll ever be that good is just wrong.
Click to expand...

It's not wrong it's just a subjective suggestion based on what I can see in front of me. I'm saying it because what I see from Cleverley is not near enough to what I saw from Scholes and Iniesta at the same age. He's going to have to develop skills he just doesn't possess in a very rapid space of time to emulate either of these two greats. I'm sorry but based on what I see he won't achieve that, which is no shame on his part.

No-one literally knows what the future holds yes, but it doesn't mean we can't place a predicition on it.
 
Thought he was poor today. Needs to work on the defensive skills involed in playing central midfield.
 
Undoubtedly struggled today, but i don't think it was a case of being outclassed or anything too worrying.

A learning experience for him, and i'd expect a better showing next time he's up against such a talented opposition.

It didn't help that Carrick had a poor game passing wise too.
 
Yeah he was one the worst culprits. Kept giving them the ball back after we'd harried then and won it. Worked really hard though and seemed very keen to track his runners which I was really impressed with. Different role for him in every game he plays at the moment.
 
Utd heap said:
Undoubtedly struggled today, but i don't think it was a case of being outclassed or anything too worrying.

A learning experience for him, and i'd expect a better showing next time he's up against such a talented opposition.

It didn't help that Carrick had a poor game passing wise too.
Click to expand...

He certainly was today. Not the easiest task to be up against the likes of Mata, Hazard and Oscar though.
 
#Carl said:
Thought he was poor today. Needs to work on the defensive skills involed in playing central midfield.
Click to expand...

Agree. He doesn't track his runners from midfield nearly well enough, too much ball watching. Saying that he was poor in his distribution aswell.....step back after some positive form needs to get some consistency going. Big game today and he went missing.
 
I don't think he was as bad as some are saying and I wonder if there were some lingering effects from that kick in the chest he took. Certainly not his best game but I think he's far more effective when he has more freedom than a 2 man midfield offers.
 
He was awful. Needs to pay attention when opponents have a throw in as frankly his failure to track his man was ridiculous.
 
Wasn't really tracking runs, and kind of looked like he was trying to force it too much today. One game though, be grand.
 
Good learning experience, he had Mikel and Ramires all over him and he was always a second late to release the ball.

Not that he was terrible, but in this match Chelsea's flanks were exposed and we based our main attacking threats down the flank so we didnt' see Tom much while Defensively Tom is never going to be a powerhouse and he couldn't defend Ramires's header as it was inch perfect for the guy to head it in.

Chelsea just had more in the tank in the middle today after they found their feet.
 
He didn't have much an outlet pass/option either. Definitely a big learning experience for him. He wasn't good today but he'll better for it in the coming games. Given the way we were setup and the opposition, I'm giving him a little leeway.
 
Plato said:
He didn't have much an outlet pass/option either. Definitely a big learning experience for him. He wasn't good today but he'll better for it in the coming games. Given the way we were setup and the opposition, I'm giving him a little leeway.
Click to expand...

Can always count on Plato for some wisdom.
 
Godfather said:
He certainly was today. Not the easiest task to be up against the likes of Mata, Hazard and Oscar though.
Click to expand...

I don't understand this kind of comment. This is the class of player at the top of world football - the level we're at and wish to remain. If Cleverley can't compete with them, he has no business playing for us.

When we're up against the best, they're not going to make allowances for him because he's a homegrown United player.
 
He didn't fail miserably, he was nothing worse than his other two much more experienced midfield mates.
 
You probably didn't watch him against bilbao than.
 
He was not good enough today, but I don't think it was entirely his fault.

When you've got a team with a quality midfielder in Ramires and 3 other players in Mata, Oscar and Hazard who are willing to drift into more central positions, you want a formation that allows for you to keep possession when you get the ball (these sort of players will crowd central areas by default and make things difficult). Truthfully, I would've said had we lost that it was a bit of a balls up playing a two man midfield with Young on the wing. We need players who are comfortable on the ball, which is not something we are going to have with Young and an off form Carrick (as was the case today). Carrick/Cleverley/Scholes, Carrick/Cleverley/Anderson, etc...

Basically, we have to start lining up in light of the possibility that not all of our midfielders are going to be on form. If this happens with a two man midfield against a quality team, we're going to lose the midfield battle, particularly if both wingers aren't comfortable in possession. With three men in midfield (or just two top class midfielders), this is less of a problem. Personally would've played Anderson instead of Young with Rooney, Evra and Van Persie compensating for the lack of a winger on that side. Still, the result was a good one. :D
 
First 20 mins, Young and Valencia coming inside and squeezing space, everyone snapping into tackles and evryone economical and precise on the ball, we looked wonderful. That fell apart fairly quickly though. Cleverley was really poor, I thought. Worked hard but not effectively. In the wrong place regularly, not close enough to pressure the first touch, concentration lapses and really sloppy in possession.

He's been like a poster boy for our new, quicker style. Looked well off the pace today. Not the end of the world but a kick in the pants for him.
 
Passing was off, but put a tonne of energy and legwork in the midfield.
 
Was fairly obvious that out of the midfielders on show today for both teams he was the one with the least authority to his play, but that makes sense considering he had by far the least experience. Also Ramires must be a bastard to keep tabs on, and Carrick wasn't really mobile enough to do it so Cleverley's attacking game was diluted.

Authority is probably the last thing a young midfielder develops. Took Fletcher a while to get it but he got there. Scholes too when he was 22/23. The thing is Cleverley has so much composure and is so quick-witted you'd imagine he can improve on that with game time.
 
It frankly beggars belief. Cleverley, Carrick, Ando, Fletch, Scholes, Giggs, Kagawa, Valencia, Nani, Young, not to mention the potential coming through from the youth set-up. And yet can ANYONE, I mean ANYONE come up with a midfield combination that we look comfortable with on any sort of a regular basis?

Sorry. Largely irrelevant in this thread.
 
Like Carrick, didn't have his best game today, it was frustrating watching some of the chelsea players running through the centre fairly easily. Felt both carrick and cleverley could have done a bit better with putting pressure on and stopping that from happening. Though have to give credit to chelsea midfield/attack they were very good for large periods and run all over us.

Saying that when we did have the ball (more so at the start of the game) he was fairly effective in playing the ball through the chelsea midfield/defence as we were making it look easy and quick to get it forward. We just seemed to struggle after that to keep the ball for long period and win it back easily.
 
Still ill said:
It frankly beggars belief. Cleverley, Carrick, Ando, Fletch, Scholes, Giggs, Kagawa, Valencia, Nani, Young, not to mention the potential coming through from the youth set-up. And yet can ANYONE, I mean ANYONE come up with a midfield combination that we look comfortable with on any sort of a regular basis?

Sorry. Largely irrelevant in this thread.
Click to expand...

I still think it is largely Carrick. He nullifies any potential in a combined two.

I thought he wasn't too bad. You can see that he is a smart footballer. His movement in the first half was great. A couple of tougher passes could have seen him given the ball in dangerous positions but it's fair enough we weren't overly adventurous with our passes.

His touch was a little bit off. But I do see a problem that when Rooney is playing in the free role, off the ball he drifts into Cleverley's zone and where he's trying to operate. Forces Cleverley to be all over the shop in and around where he really should be playing and playmaking. But that is Rooney's ability to get around the pitch.
 
He wasn't very good yesterday, couldn't get into the game at all. At one point, Rooney gave him a bollocking when Chelsea were having a counter attack due to his mistake. Also, why didn't he track Mikel into the box? Sure, he got away, but he made no effort to even run towards Mikel. Evans almost scored an own goal as a result.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.