He started badly end ended badly. The bit in the middle wasn't completely terrible.
Tom Cleverley | 2012-14 Performances
- Thread starter Bebe
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Bit of a knee jerk reaction, but he infuriated me today. Especially misplacing that pass in teh end that could've released Nani.
Am I the only one who thought he had a decent game today? Most of the time during the game he either had the ball on the half-turn with one player pressing him or in difficult, congested areas, I thought he did well under the circumstances and his ability to play quick passes really shone. He was there running around and create space for Carrick and retain the ball. Giggs was the one who is supposed to provide the forward passes.
He's becoming to Carrick what Carrick became to Scholes.
the fact that he is seems to be our only option to start in the midfield alongside Carrick is going to just murder us this season.
he seems to have lost even the little bit of creativity and the desire to move up the field that he had last season.
he seems to have lost even the little bit of creativity and the desire to move up the field that he had last season.
We were playing using two wingers. If that's the case, the CM should not go on a lung bursting run through the middle. He was not great but not that bad. People are going over the top in his criticism. He played it safe more than necessary. He's not a bad squad player to have. I would start him in most games
Man Utd deserve better.
Football is a team game - if Moyes is going to stick with Cleverley, I hope he sticks with the rest of the team around him, allowing for one or two changes, so that they have the opportunity to mould into a cohesive unit who know each other inside out and sideways. Cleverley hasn't turned into a bad player overnight - he could develop in a solid team.
We didn't play badly today.
We didn't play badly today.
I thought he was fine, the team didn't do too many favors for him. Young was invisible most of the game and Giggs was doing his best to give the ball away every time he touched it. Cleverley had very few options, Carrick looked bad as well as a result.
I agree with this in the main. When Hernandez came on Cleverley started picking him out but there was so little offered by the front 4 we started with that he looked lost on the ball a lot of the time.
It wasn't his best game but when we set up to play through the wide areas its the role of the centre midfielders pretty much just to find the wingers so they can get crosses in. Cleverley actually did this ok. But besides RVP and Hernandez nobody really ran the channels, plus apart from when the ball was with Nani and Valencia there was little happening out wide.
He wasn't that bad. But at times he seemed to defer authority in the middle of hte park to the centre backs or full backs. Didn't really help out Carrick when our team was in possession. Young had a much worse game, but Cleverley annoyed me in some instances.
I know this will sound harsh, but fecking hell, he's so ... boring. I swear that if he has the ball and spots a potentially great pass, he instead thinks "eh feck, that might not come off, I'll turn around and pass it to Mike instead."
Didn't do too badly but then again didn't show any potential of becoming better than what he is now. He is a fine passer of the ball and can retain/hold well. However, where is the goalscoring and forward play? I understand that Moyes has instructed him to sit but that doesn't mean he can't play a few forward passes or try to create something once in a while.
He was showing Rio and Vidic the back of his jersey too much today and when he did get the ball he never seemed to look up and see if there was a dangerous pass on he would just give it straight to the winger. Not his best performance
He is average. Doesnt offer anything going forward. Not creative. Anderson is a better player than him.
Thought he and Carrick played well, it isn't as if Liverpool dominated us in he middle, our creativity in wide areas was fecking shocking and that was clearly the plan. When 3 of your wingers all turn in 5/10 performances then it is time to look at them.
I would go as far as saying Cleverley had a slightly better game than Carrick. Carrick is too immobile. Whenever he receives the ball, he will not move unless he passes the ball. Becomes kind of predictable and the opponent can manipulate him into passing the ball behind very easily. Atleast Cleverley had some balls to maneuver the ball in tight spaces and release it in some instances. He should have made the best of that counter attack at the end though.
Yep. But I think there is value in having a player like that, since it helps possession.
What we lack is someone playing ahead of Carrick and Cleverly who can link up play and create from the central areas and get our wingers into good positions. There always seems to be a huge gap between our two midfielders and the strikers.
Extremely average today. It's not that he's a sloppy passer or anything, he's just way too held back. "Boring" is the right word. He'll always take the safe option and never seems to go for the killer pass. I understand that sometimes it's best to take the easy option and make the simple pass, but there's got to be a balance. Lacked in creativity and just didn't offer enough.
Scholes is a far, far more creative footballer than either of the two out there today so it didn't matter, naturally Carrick would leave that responsibility to one of the best passers of the ball ever! Cleverley shouldn't be doing the same because he's not doing the defensive work Carrick used to do for Scholes and he should be more positive.
It's alright saying its hard to go to Anfield when the cnuts are in cup final mode, but we need people who can deal with that. We are trying to win Domestic and European titles, succumbing to a bit of pressure from an average Liverpool side just doesn't add up to trophies.
The best players thrive on a bit of pressure, they're good enough to protect the ball and pick you off at will. Not just panic and give it back to Vidic. He's good when we're on the front foot and he's put in some good performances against top sides, but looking at someone like Modric earlier in the Madrid game the difference is huge. Properly huge.
The best players thrive on a bit of pressure, they're good enough to protect the ball and pick you off at will. Not just panic and give it back to Vidic. He's good when we're on the front foot and he's put in some good performances against top sides, but looking at someone like Modric earlier in the Madrid game the difference is huge. Properly huge.
Well that's the thing though, it means we have to start using three man midfields. The whole point of having a midfield two is having two players who are both so good at their respective roles (Scholes and Carrick in 06/07) in it that you don't need an extra body in there to compensate. Cleverley shouldn't, for me, be a Man Utd first team midfielder because whilst he does most things pretty well, he doesn't excel at anything.
The fact that Liverpool didn't dominate us in the middle is exactly the point. He and Carrick had plenty of the ball, but they simply didn't do anything with it when they had it. Countinho looked much more dangerous for Liverpool in the first half than either of our centre mids did at any point today.
He has become a bit of scapegoat for United fans. There were worse performances from others today such as Giggs and Young.
Yes he needs to improve, especially with his bravery in and out of possession, but that will come with experience. He's very accomplished technically and we'll always have space for such players in our squad.
Yes he needs to improve, especially with his bravery in and out of possession, but that will come with experience. He's very accomplished technically and we'll always have space for such players in our squad.
I agree with this, but I also think our movement at times is extremely static and doesn't help our CM's one bit. It's no surprise we looked better with Nani in the team, either way. CM imo wasn't the main issue, it's our terrible wingers and our tactics of trying to put crosses into the box against teams that can knock em out all day long. Play it on the floor ffs.
this frustrates me the most. what an average liverpool side. we were so poor yet they didnt look like scoring after the 5th minute.
You're right in saying Carrick doesn't move unless he passes the ball. But he can change directions quickly with his passes. I wouldn't say his passes are predictable at all. Plus he orchestrates our play from deep, while Cleverley seems to push forward at every opportunity when we are in possession. A CM needs to stay deep and stay central and recycle possession.
It wasn't Carrick's best game but he was still more important than Cleverley today. Cleverley bombing upfield means Carrick is left all alone to dictate things in the middle.
He and Welbeck are judged here by a different standard to all other players. Even when he is awful there will be people who say that he played good. It's absurd!
I thought CM was a massive issue both today and last Monday. It's no coincidence that we completely dominated possession in both games and barely carved out a proper chance in either, it's because those teams know that we don't have a creative midfielder at our disposal to carve them open. Just look at the last half hour today, it was basically Liverpool letting us knock at their door over and over again because they seemingly knew we'd be unable to break it down.
That's the problem for many people. They want him to go forward and create chances which apparently he's not doing.
Carrick is fine but you just know he'll choose the safe pass more than often and sometimes that's exactly what opponents want. They want to slow us down and it's the perfect way. He can pick a pass from deep perfectly whenever there is space but our lack of movement is not helping him out much.
Because they didn't need to. No different than any other game where they score first. Usually when we level the match they're back to attacking and causing us problems. Can't remember the last good game we had at Anfield. Lucky last season that Shelvey was stupid. Don't know why we can't seem to attack properly against them.
Whilst I don't think that is fully true, I can see your point, but it also works both ways.
The alternative argument is that both teams know that our wingers are so out of form, that they can allow our CM's to have room knowing that the wingers won't produce anything. Jones for example was continually in a position to cross the ball and the Chelsea CB's cleared everytime with ease. The same thing today.
It's easy to point the blame at the midfield, but if our wingers and forwards aren't moving and providing space then what exactly are they meant to do? Play a Gerrard Hollywood pass that may/may not come off? The one player that might be able to do that is left on the bench. The winger that imo would make things happen (Zaha) hasn't got a sniff. So therefore we're stuck with Young whos returning to fitness (and got unfair stick) and Giggs (who in a game of high pressure was pretty useless). We were basically relying on our fullbacks to do something.
It's shit tactics. I honestly haven't got a scoobies what our plan was. But this scapegoating of Cleverely is utter bullshit. It's Darren Fletcher all over again.
They have a good match in about five, people than go crazy comparing them to Xavi and Henry despite being bad in most of the matches. And if god forbid someone criticizes them (Lynk in Welbeck's case) people will ridicule that poster. If Anderson had played today and been as shit as Cleverley was, people will have been calling him all sorts of name. But with Cleverley, it's fine, he had a decent performance.
I'm not saying it's purely down to our midfield though, obviously our wingers have been shit which doesn't help, but I've said for years that we lack options when our wingers aren't playing well and now that's exactly what is happening all at once for us, so forgive me for actually wanting a midfield capable of creating something themselves.
I'm also not using Cleverley as a scapegoat, I've been saying this about him for a long time now.
I think he would be fine if we have decent movement ahead of him. Our static play does him no favors.
Cleverley is not a bad player but right now he wouldn't get into any of the other top clubs midfield as a first choice and isn't suited to playing in a midfield 2
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