Tom Cleverley | 2014/15 Performances (on loan at Aston Villa)

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Very strong performance tonight from Cleverley. Really looked his old self. Confident, willing to take risks with the ball and choosing the right pass, even under pressure. Very happy to see him back to something like the player he was before we lost to Madrid in 2012/13. Van Gaal's arm(band) around the shoulder routine has worked a treat with him. When I read Cleverley's pre-game interview with our official webpage about how he has pictures from the Roma game, and will always remember captaining Man Utd, I knew he'd had a confidence boost. Cleverley's renewed self-confidence really showed tonight.
 
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. I don't want to hear about him 'hiding' ever again. Such bravery.
 
Much, much better from him tonight, good to see him actually getting forward instead of hanging back. Still wish he would attempt more killer balls when the opportunity presents itself rather than choosing the backwards pass though.. But mainly the focus is on the positives.
 
Miles better in every way tonight. I know he played a different role to the match against Roma, but even his tackling was more impressive. Just a better performance
 
Good job Tom. Showed he has some heart and drive tonight that he hasn't shown for some time.
 
Good half from him. More bite and confidence; even tried to volley that bobbling cross. More of the same please.
 
Blue always red said:
Fletcher played behind Cleverley today. A more attacking, 'memorable' performance, no?
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I wouldn't really say Fletcher played behind, they switched around quite a bit. Fletcher got forward into the edge of the box with Cleverley sitting deeper a fair share. Even still as you say much better attacking from him. Great drive from him to get in for that penalty shout which should have been given imo. A few good long balls and some great tackles. Looked much more confident and look forward to seeing more of this from him. van Gaal seems to be already working his magic with Tom.
 
He did ok, I think he looked more at ease in the slightly advanced role Herrera has been playing in.
 
Much better performance from him tonight - good to see, lets keep the improvement up!
 
Played well yesterday, but he still has to improve a lot. What annoys me is that he goes hiding in games a bit too long and that he runs away when the ball is in defence. He suddenly just sprints forward to realise that the ball still isnt played out of it and returns. Herrera was the exact opposite yesterday. Always available and never too far away from Fletcher. Cleverley on the other hand was far too forward when the ball was at the back and we couldnt play out of it.

Also he stands too far away from players dribbling at him and just looks instead of tackling them instantly, where i was reminded of Sandro last year when he let him come close to the box and he scored, even though he had a great tackle near the end yesterday. Offensively he was good and improved, but his positioning and lack of definsive awareness is a problem for me.
 
izec said:
Played well yesterday, but he still has to improve a lot. What annoys me is that he goes hiding in games a bit too long and that he runs away when the ball is in defence. He suddenly just sprints forward to realise that the ball still isnt played out of it and returns. Herrera was the exact opposite yesterday. Always available and never too far away from Fletcher. Cleverley on the other hand was far too forward when the ball was at the back and we couldnt play out of it.

Also he stands too far away from players dribbling at him and just looks instead of tackling them instantly, where i was reminded of Sandro last year when he let him come close to the box and he scored, even though he had a great tackle near the end yesterday. Offensively he was good and improved, but his positioning and lack of definsive awareness is a problem for me.
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Sorry but I feel like you're criticising Cleverley for the sake of it. Herrera did many of the same things you're saying Tom did wrong last night. Cleverley played better than Herrera did against Inter. The entire tempo of our game went up after he took on the #8 role. I'm not saying I think Clev's better than Herrera but you should give him credit when its due: He was sent on to make an impression and he did.
 
#07 said:
Sorry but I feel like you're criticising Cleverley for the sake of it. Herrera did many of the same things you're saying Tom did wrong last night. Cleverley played better than Herrera did against Inter. The entire tempo of our game went up after he took on the #8 role. I'm not saying I think Clev's better than Herrera but you should give him credit when its due: He was sent on to make an impression and he did.
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He did an impression and i said he improved, but he just isnt good enough defensively in a two man midfield. He played better than Herrera yesterday, but one game cant change the perception i got from him. It is way too much praise for him on here after just one decent game against a team that never wanted to score. Cleverley was definately higher up the pitch than Herrera yesterday and therefore was more often than not unavailable for a short pass from the back line. Herrera is normally solid defensively, Cleverley isnt but can still improve. No question that he was better and like you said upped the tempo of our game, but lets wait and see if he can maintain and improve further. I am not bashing him, it is the first time i write a post about him. I think that he can improve and will play his part under van Gaal, i just wrote what i noticed yesterday and last year about his bad habits.
 
izec said:
He did an impression and i said he improved, but he just isnt good enough defensively in a two man midfield. He played better than Herrera yesterday, but one game cant change the perception i got from him. It is way too much praise for him on here after just one decent game against a team that never wanted to score. Cleverley was definately higher up the pitch than Herrera yesterday and therefore was more often than not unavailable for a short pass from the back line. Herrera is normally solid defensively, Cleverley isnt but can still improve. No question that he was better and like you said upped the tempo of our game, but lets wait and see if he can maintain and improve further. I am not bashing him, it is the first time i write a post about him. I think that he can improve and will play his part under van Gaal, i just wrote what i noticed yesterday and last year about his bad habits.
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It's a 2 man midfield with 3 CBs behind him, so any defensive shortcomings are mitigated, something else that's helpful about 352 considering our limitations, as we don't have a truly dominant DM.
 
He could be our Henderson next season. Just kidding, we need to aim higher than that.

Joke aside, he did well and I can see he was oozing confident against Inter. He made a great forward run inside the box, which should have been a penalty and some good tackle and passes aswell. I also realized that even though he does not have the killer pass attribute or crisp movement when on the ball, Cleverly is a number 8.
 
Was a better performance from him last night and he was ok overall but is still some way short of the level required and lacks the technical ability to be effective as a number 8 at this level. Opinions on Cleverley are too extreme, when he plays a few bad passes he is labelled as useless and when he plays a few decent ones or goes on a good run people start saying how good he is. Truth is he is a very average player who wouldn’t get in the starting 11 or probably even on the bench at any of the top 6 or 7 sides but he could be a decent player further down the league. He will have a role to play under Van Gall until we can bring in some better players but the fewer games he plays next season the better. At least he did show some signs of improvement though.
 
@izec @#07 didn see too much between herrera and cleverley's performances but i would definitely say Herrera is better defensively than Tom. Although his tackling technique may be a bit unorthodox, seems more likely to recover possession than Tom.

The biggest difference between them imo is speed of thought and play.
 
Roboc7 said:
Was a better performance from him last night and he was ok overall but is still some way short of the level required and lacks the technical ability to be effective as a number 8 at this level. Opinions on Cleverley are too extreme, when he plays a few bad passes he is labelled as useless and when he plays a few decent ones or goes on a good run people start saying how good he is. Truth is he is a very average player who wouldn’t get in the starting 11 or probably even on the bench at any of the top 6 or 7 sides but he could be a decent player further down the league. He will have a role to play under Van Gall until we can bring in some better players but the fewer games he plays next season the better. At least he did show some signs of improvement though.
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Which is why the manager of the 5th place team has sung his praises and rates him very highly.
 
limerickcitykid said:
Which is why the manager of the 5th place team has sung his praises and rates him very highly.
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I don’t really care what the Everton manager thinks to be honest because he would still pick Mccarthy, Barry and Barkley ahead of Cleverley and a few nice words don’t change that. Cleverley would also have Besic, Gibson and Osman to compete with for a place on the bench and he would need to be at his best to be ahead of all of them.

Sure Martinez has said nice things about the likes of Kone, Gomez and numerous others as well so I really don’t think some comments from him are a good way to judge our players.
 
Roboc7 said:
Was a better performance from him last night and he was ok overall but is still some way short of the level required and lacks the technical ability to be effective as a number 8 at this level. Opinions on Cleverley are too extreme, when he plays a few bad passes he is labelled as useless and when he plays a few decent ones or goes on a good run people start saying how good he is. Truth is he is a very average player who wouldn’t get in the starting 11 or probably even on the bench at any of the top 6 or 7 sides but he could be a decent player further down the league. He will have a role to play under Van Gall until we can bring in some better players but the fewer games he plays next season the better. At least he did show some signs of improvement though.
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What technical aspects are not good enough?
 
Stack said:
What technical aspects are not good enough?
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His passing, control, movement, dribbling, everything really, it’s just not good enough at this level, I am not saying he is awful but in comparison to other players and in the context of a team that wants to win the trophies he is a very average player. If he had more pace, trickery or a physical presence then that would compensate but he doesn’t so I personally don’t think he is someone who we can afford to keep playing regularly.

Playing lower down the league or being used as a starter 5-10 games a season to plug gaps then fine but there is a huge gulf in class between Cleverley and players at other top clubs and we need to stop trying to make do with ordinary players otherwise we will struggle to compete.
 
I rewatched the game vs Madrid and he was quite good when we were in possession, some very good passes (both long and short). Positively surprised by that.

However, he takes strange positions while defending. He’s a little Mata-esque in that regard, it’s the weakest side of his game by some distance. He’s so easy to go past it’s incredible at times.

In that regard Herrera has a massive advantage.
 
He's English so that helps with the quota. Nothing more than a squad player for me.
 
Borys said:
I rewatched the game vs Madrid and he was quite good when we were in possession, some very good passes (both long and short). Positively surprised by that.
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He's always had that. It's just last season our players were forbidden to express themselves properly. It'll take a bit of time for that negative instinct to be driven out of our players. It's the same scenario with Kagawa, he's starting to rediscover his creativity and flair now that we're playing positive football again. But they'll have the stigma of Dave Moyes football attached to them for a while.

You cannot compare players under the guidance of Moyes with those same players under the guidance of Louis van Gaal.
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Great in the build up for the third goal. Amazing two of our scapegoats from last season are amongst our best players this pre season
 
Good ball for Shaw for our second goal, too. He's done well in pre-season, and it's what you expect of Cleverley.
 
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Cleverley did well after he came on. Liberated Herrera a bit and in the build up to our third goal he played two very cute passes. Also put in plenty of good tackles. A positive step back towards the standards he hit against Inter.
 
Thought he did well when he come on. Was instrumental in the third goal and played a nice switched pass (that everyone seems to moan about when Rooney does it) that resulted in the second.
 
I like Clev but wasn't too impressed with his cameo. Apart from few good passes(including the build up for the goal), he did nothing. If anything he showed how weak he is in one on one situations.
 
#07 said:
Cleverley did well after he came on. Liberated Herrera a bit and in the build up to our third goal he played two very cute passes. Also put in plenty of good tackles. A positive step back towards the standards he hit against Inter.
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Did he feck! He won maybe one challenge and it was an unnecessary challenge on a payer going nowhere, which went straight out of play.
He gets bullied all over the pitch. He shites out of 50/50 challenges and any time he attempts a pass, longer then 5 yards, he gives it away.

Why do people insist on bigging him up for doing the basics? He's a fecking Premier League footballer, the very least we expect are the basics.
He ran around a bit but didn't really do very much. Also don't try and kid me with this, 'what he did was subtle', bollocks. It was so subtle it was basically non existent.
 
Decent performance again.
I'd keep him till christmas, with carrick injured he'll get the odd chance here and there hopefully.
If he takes them then ... i dunno.

The problem is we really do need to buy another midfielder. So hes basically competing against fletcher, carrick and herrera for 1 one the 3 remaining spots.
You'd expect Hererra will take one. Might take him a while to settle but hes shown enough to suggest hes a fair bit ahead of the other 3.
 
Played the ball into Shaw for the Mata goal and played the ball into Young for the Lingard goal. Not sure why he is once again being singled out as the shittest guy on the pitch.
 
DId well when he came on. Better than against Madrid. Still shouldnt be starting. We need reinforcement.
 
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