Top 10 United players 12/13

Mad Winger

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Seeing as there are 5 games left you might think that it's too soon for threads like this, but what the hell, I'll just start us off. I'll doubt there will be a lot of groundbreaking performances that will change my mind anyways. The top 5 are pretty much set in stone by now. I'd be interested to see your lists as well, so please don't hesitate posting your own.

NOTE: Whenever I point to statistics in this thread, I'm only including stats from the Premier League and Champions League.

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1. Michael Carrick
This has been a fantastic season for Carrick. Not only is he the piece that holds United together, but he has also single-handedly controlled our midfield in a time where he doesn't have a decent partner, nor wingers on form. Deserves the PL POTY award, but Bale sadly seems to be the favorite.


2. Robin Van Persie
Ah, what a dreamy signing he has been. He has more than lived up to our already high expectations by saving our arse several times and becoming our top scorer. The only reason he's not in the number 1 spot is because of a dip in form(and Carrick's sheer brilliance).


3. David De Gea
Some might call it controversial, but I truly believe that the young Spaniard has been one of our best players. He's made countless world class saves, almost to the point where he's been as important as RVP in terms of points secured. Easily the most underrated player in the league. It's a shame he wasn't nominated for YPOTY.


4. Rafael da Silva
His best season for us by far. He has in fact been so good, that even opposing fans no longer dare to underestimate him. Too bad certain people still fail to notice his brilliance, seeing as he also wasn't nominated for YPOTY. A shame, really..


5. Patrice Evra
Bless this man! At age 31(soon 32), he plays week in and week out in the position that requires the most stamina, in the toughest league in the world. That in itself is amazing. But to have 4 goals and 10 assists just in the Premier League so far, is just crazy. He's looked a bit shaky in previous seasons, but no more. Welcome back, Patrice!


6. Wayne Rooney
For Rooney's standards, this season has been a bit sloppy. Nevertheless, his goals/assist ratio is almost exactly the same as RVP, so that just says a lot about how high our expectations are. Rooney can and should do better, but he's already at a really high level. Had this been any other player than Rooney, then we would have praised him for his effectivity and energy.


7. Shinji Kagawa
For a player who's been injured, played out of position 60-70% of the time, in a new league, he's had a pretty good season. Easily our most enjoyable player to watch, and by far the one with the most potential. He's not quite lived up to his Dortmund hype, but give him some time, and he'll get there. Also, very few people know that his goals/assist ratio in fact is better than Hazard's(currently nominated for POTY). He's also United's second most accurate passer of the ball, and the player with the most successful through-balls(stats from the Norwegian United fan club a couple of weeks back).


8. Nemanja Vidic
The monster is back! While our central defense generally have been below par this season, Vidic has had some majestic performances. He's still our best central defender by far, and it's hardly a coincidence that we've looked a lot less shaky ever since his return.


9. Danny Welbeck
"Neutrals" laugh at his goals/assist ratio, but what they all forget is that Welbeck's strength doesn't lie in his end-product. In fact, that is his only actual weakness. Moreover, he's played as a winger most of the time, so that complicates things even more. Besides this, he's had a pretty good seasons in my opinion. We're left with a lot of positive performances to remember, particularly the one against Real Madrid.


10. Javier Hernandez
The Little Pea is back in form, after a mediocre season last year. I suspect that he would have been much higher on this list, had it not been for RVP. His goal/assist ratio is just gold, and he's a really good backup striker to have. The Solskjær comparisons are there for a reason. Hopefully he'll not be too discouraged by the lack of playtime. He's easily one of our most likeable players.
 
Personally wouldn't have Vidic in there after a limited amount of appearances, perhaps to replace with Scholes? Also, to be fair, Clev played a large part of the first half of the season... can't argue with most though its on point.
 
There is a lack of Jonny Evans I feel...

1. Carrick
2. RVP
3. Vidic
4. Rafael
5. DDG
6. Evra
7. Evans
8. Ferdinand
9. Rooney
10. Hernandez

Or something like that, the order past the top 3 probably needs tinkering with.
 
1. Carrick - Finally shut the doubters up and established himself as a true great. Best midfielder in the league.

2. RVP - Goals, innit. Everything we hoped for and more, despite going off the boil recently.

3. Rio - Still the classiest centre-back in the country. Those who said he's passed it have egg on their faces. Please retire from England now.

4. Rafael - Answered the question: Yes, he is our future right-back for many years. Some fantastic performances against some top opponents.

5. De Gea - Answered the question: Yes, he is our future goalie for many years. Even toughening up to the point of taking on the West Ham donkey now!

6. Welbeck - Obviously needs to sort out his finishing, but that will come. 10/10 for pretty much every other aspect of his play, looks set to be a great player.

7. Cleverley - Effortlessly tidy, great rythm. Established himself as the man to play alongside Carrick. Or at least I thought he had...?

8. Kagawa - Not as spectacular a debut season as we may have hoped, but showed his class on many occasions and, importantly, is really improving with time.

9. Hernandez - Limited opportunities, but sharp as ever in front of goal. Really hope he stays and is happy with the role he has... who wouldn't want to be OGS?

10. Rooney - slated way too much for what has, in reality, been an injury hit season. Has come up with the goods when fit.
 
Sir A1ex said:
7. Cleverley - Effortlessly tidy, great rythm. Established himself as the man to play alongside Carrick. Or at least I thought he had...?
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I like this. Because he's had had one or two average games recently (and I actually mean average, not bad - I'm not sure he's had a bad game all season) and subsequently been returned to 'not allowed' status, people will forget that the team's period of best form this season, from November-ish until the Madrid injustice, coincided with Cleverley and Carrick being our settled midfield partnership. Not top 5, but definitely deserves to be in the top ten somewhere.
 
I'm not sure how Kagawa can be in the list really, though MW does seem to have a lot of man love for him.

I would go

1. Carrick
2. RvP
3. Rafael
4. Evans
5. DDG
6. Evra
7. Rooney
8. Rio
9. Hernandez

10. Hard to pick, lots of players like Cleverley, Vidic, Giggs etc who have generally played well but have had limited appearances compared to most of the others, apart from Hernandez obviously, who has done brilliantly to get 16 goals in so few appearances. I'll go Vidic.

For me the likes of Welbeck and Kagawa, whilst showing lots of promise, haven't really done enough overall to be considered.
 
Thing about Vidic is, he makes such a massive difference whenever he is in the team... and I can't think of one bad game he has had this season. He's also started 1 less league game the Evans, and 20 games total (Evans 24, Rio 29) so I'd say he's feature enough to warrant a high place.
 
Vidic has been largely excellent when he's played, considering the fact that he has had such awful injuries and the fact that he's 31/32 now, makes it all the more impressive. overall though I think Rio and Evans have had better seasons, more so through playing more and in bigger games.
 
We actually have the same 10 players... just in a different order. There can only be one Highlander however, and I vote that it's me.
 
Cina said:
I'm not sure how Kagawa can be in the list really, though MW does seem to have a lot of man love for him.
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It's not like I've put him in my top 5 or anything, lol.

Kagawa makes a goal/assist every 114 minutes, has a passing accuracy over 90%, and the highest successrate of through-balls in the squad, despite playing out of position. Keeping this in mind, is it really that absurd that he makes a top 10 list? Not top 3, not top 5, but top 10. Yeah, it's obviously just man love:lol:

Oh, and I see that you have put almost our entire defense in your top 10 list, with several of them ranked really high. It's hard to believe that we conceded that many goals in the first half of the season then...
 
1. Carrick - deserves the POTY award, nuff said.
2. RVP - best striker in the PL?
3. Rafael - perhaps a slight dip in form recently, but he has been fantastic most of the season. Excellent going forwards and solid in defense. Reminds me of a younger Evra, but not quite as good at dribbling.
4. DDG - Brilliant this season - after January he has been pretty much flawless with quite a few match winning saves.
5. Evra - back to his best. Although not as fast as before, he is still immensely good in attack and has now stepped up in defense.
6. Rio - our best CB this year, and mostly brilliant.
7. Rooney - not a good season by his standard, but he'll come back strong, assuming that he'll be here next season.
8. Vidic - Brilliant after his return, but has played too little to warrant a higher spot.
9. Hernandez - Could've been higher, but even though Rooney has been below par, his link-up play is still better than that of Hernandez', and his stats are better too.
10. Cleverley - Very good in patches, but still fades too badly after 60 minutes or so. Great technique and excells at one, two touch passing. He will only get better.

Evans deserves a mention too, but he's not as good as Rio, imo.
 
Mad Winger said:
It's not like I've put him in my top 5 or anything, lol.

Kagawa makes a goal/assist every 114 minutes, has a passing accuracy over 90%, and the highest successrate of through-balls in the squad, despite playing out of position. Keeping this in mind, is it really that absurd that he makes a top 10 list? Not top 3, not top 5, but top 10. Yeah, it's obviously just man love:lol:

Oh, and I see that you have put almost our entire defense in your top 10 list, with several of them ranked really high. It's hard to believe that we conceded that many goals in the first half of the season then...
Click to expand...



I think most United fans agreed that they played well individually at the start of the season, but there was something lacking as a collective unit.
 
1) Carrick
2) Van Persie
3) De Gea
4) Rafael
5) Vidic
6) Evans
7) Evra
8) Balcázar
9) Welbeck
10) Kagawa
 
1- Carrick
2- RVP
3- DDG
4- Rafael
5- Cleverley
6- Vidic
7- Ferdinand
8- Evans
9- Jones
10- Welbeck
 
1. De Gea
2. Van Persie
3. Carrick
4. Rafael
5. Hernandez
6. Welbeck
7. Evra
8. Kagawa
9. Cleverley
10. Vidic



I don't think the list is helped by the number of players who either started the season well and since faded somewhat, or others who spent the opening weeks and months of the season stuttering along. In party why i decided Carrick and RVP would be more appropriate with bronze and silver for this reason.

Bearing in mind the pressure of his position and the progress made from his relative starting point as well as a decent level of consistency, De Gea has every right to be near or at the top of the list. Standout performances against Madrid don't harm his case either.

Hernandez shrugged off last season's less distinguishing output with a return to form this term. He IMO represents the second best striking option at the club and would have shown this more in recent times given a greater number of appearances.

Rafael was running away with the claim to be best right back in the league for a good few months although it unfortunately this plateaued out a tad, otherwise he'd have been contending for recognition as one of the best this year both for club and the league overall.
 
Van Persie
Carrick
Rafael
De Gea
Evra
Vidic
Evans
Cleverley
Welbeck
Hernandez
 
Mad Winger said:
It's not like I've put him in my top 5 or anything, lol.

Kagawa makes a goal/assist every 114 minutes, has a passing accuracy over 90%, and the highest successrate of through-balls in the squad, despite playing out of position. Keeping this in mind, is it really that absurd that he makes a top 10 list? Not top 3, not top 5, but top 10. Yeah, it's obviously just man love:lol:

Oh, and I see that you have put almost our entire defense in your top 10 list, with several of them ranked really high. It's hard to believe that we conceded that many goals in the first half of the season then...
Click to expand...

Our defense have generally been brilliant for 2013 and are the reason we have been winning games. Our mass amounts of goals conceded early on were also more to having so many injuries and being unable to pick a cohesive back four unit for months.

You could apply the same logic in reverse to our strikers who were brilliant for the first half of the season but have struggled massively for goals since then, yet nobody is arguing the inclusion of some of them!
 
Rossa said:
I think most United fans agreed that they played well individually at the start of the season, but there was something lacking as a collective unit.
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That's only part of the truth for me..

I mean, Carrick and DDG are our amongst our stand-out players. Carrick has barely created any assists or goals, so it's obvious that a lot of his strength lies in the defensive part of the game. As for DDG, why do you think he's had to make so many world class saves? It's because our defense has let the opponents get to big chances. If you look back at the Van der Sar days, you'll quickly notice that he rarely had to make any "big" saves, because his defense did such a good job. That can't be said about our defense this season.

From the look of some of these lists you'd think that it's our defending that's been top notch this season, and not our attacks. Well, I for one disagree with that..
 
Rvp
Carrick
De Gea
Rafael
Vidic (on the basis of quality rather than quantity)
Evans
Rooney
Evra

feck the rest
 
Cina said:
Our defense have generally been brilliant for 2013 and are the reason we have been winning games. Our mass amounts of goals conceded early on were also more to having so many injuries and being unable to pick a cohesive back four unit for months.

You could apply the same logic in reverse to our strikers who were brilliant for the first half of the season but have struggled massively for goals since then, yet nobody is arguing the inclusion of some of them!
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Bit of an exaggeration. But the point is valid. Also, dodgy midfield selections/performances and an overall lack of discipline and cohesion had a lot more to do with our high goals-against count for the first half of the season than any individual defensive performances. That said, I think you'd have to keep both Rio and Evans below 5 in that list because regardless of liability, a defender is not doing his job if his team are conceding lots of goals. And it has to be said that it is Vidic's return, nothing else, that has turned our defensive record around.

On another note, anyone not putting Carrick at the top of their list is having a laugh.
 
Mad Winger said:
That's only part of the truth for me..

I mean, Carrick and DDG are our amongst our stand-out players. Carrick has barely created any assists or goals, so it's obvious that a lot of his strength lies in the defensive part of the game. As for DDG, why do you think he's had to make so many world class saves? It's because our defense has let the opponents get to big chances. If you look back at the Van der Sar days, you'll quickly notice that he rarely had to make any "big" saves, because his defense did such a good job. That can't be said about our defense this season.

From the look of some of these list you'd think that it's our defending that's been top notch this season, and not our attacks. Well, I for one disagree with that..
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Wha'? Carrick has been unbelievable at getting the ball forward this season. he may not get the assists but a hell of a lot of goals we scored started because of his clever forward passes.
 
Cina said:
Wha'? Carrick has been unbelievable at getting the ball forward this season. he may not get the assists but a hell of a lot of goals we scored started because of his clever forward passes.
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I'm not disagreeing with that, but you can't deny that a lot of Carrick's best assets are in the defensive part of the CM role. His positioning and interceptions have always been top class. Every defense in the world would want to have him in front of them. That's my point.
 
Mad Winger said:
I'm not disagreeing with that, but you can't deny that a lot of Carrick's best assets are in the defensive part of the CM role. His positioning and interceptions have always been top class. Every defense in the world would want to have him in front of them. That's my point.
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of course, and in the past you could certainly argue "a lot" of his strength is defensive, but this season he's been immense attacking wise and that's where he's been best.
 
So my list would be

Carrick
RVP
DDG
Rafael
Rooney (his 'underperforming' is vastly exaggerated. Only injuries have stopped him matching RVP stats-wise. Also still the player whose absence most hurts us, bar Carrick.)
Evra
Hernandez
Rio
Cleverley
Welbeck

Lots of players would be in if they'd had more playing time. Kagawa's current form suggests that he'll be firmly on this list next season. Vidic, too, has been imperious since returning from injury - if we were doing half-seasons, he'd be near the top of the list.

To be honest I'm not sure about the order below Rooney. They're all in there, but it's hard to say who deserves to be where.
 
1. Carrick
2. Van Persie
3. Rafael
4. De Gea
5. Evra
6. Evans
7. Rooney
8. Cleverley
9. Hernandez
10. Vidic

Welbeck and Kagawa have showed plenty of promise but haven't done enough to make the top 10.
 
1. Carrick - Easily our most consistently good player this season, he may not have hit the heights RvP did but his good form has lasted the entire season.
2. RvP - He's tailed off in the last couple months but he was easily our best player the first half of the season and gave us a platform to build off of in the league.
3. Rafael - Up until his recent injury he's been extremely consistent and one of our driving forces, his attitude is probably the best in the team.
4. DDG - I never doubted him but he's truly proven his quality this season and has added some assurances to dealing with crosses.
5. Welbeck - He may not be scoring but he's doing everything else right, in a season where our wingers have been mostly terrible Welbeck has been pushed out wide and has performed extremely well. He is involved in some way in most goals that occur while he is playing even if he isn't scoring or assisting.
6. Cleverly - He changed the season for us, we started out with "zombie" passing/movement and that didn't change until Cleverley started getting a run of games with Carrick. Our best play this season has come with those two in the middle.
7. Vidic - This was a tough one when you consider how well Evans and Rio played in the beginning of the season but we look much more solid with Vidic in the starting lineup and his return has coincided with our best defensive displays of the season. He adds confidence and leadership that the other two just don't offer.
8. Rooney - He hasn't had the best of seasons but his goals and assist stats are impossible to argue against, when RvP started to tail off Rooney began to pick up his scoring and earned us a lot of points in the second half of the season.
9. Evra - Many doubted that he'd be able to get back to his best after last season but he's stepped it up again and even chipped in with a few vital goals.
10. Evans - It was between Rio or Evans and I think Evans just edges it. They've both been very good for the most part though and there isn't much between them.

Edit: looking back I'd probably switch Vidic and Rooney.
 
Cina said:
of course, and in the past you could certainly argue "a lot" of his strength is defensive, but this season he's been immense attacking wise and that's where he's been best.
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Nah, I think he's been equally good defensively.. But more than anything, he's been the "cog wheel" that controls everything. He's been a proper CM, in short.
 
1. Carrick
2. van Persie
3. de Gea
4. Rafael
5. Evans
6. Kagawa
7. Cleverley
8. Ferdinand
9. Vidic
10. Chicharito
 
Mad Winger said:
Nah, I think he's been equally good defensively.. But more than anything, he's been the "cog wheel" that controls everything. He's been a proper CM, in short.
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I think he has been equally as good, you just seemed to imply that his defense > offense, is all.

He is basically a one man midfielder for us, it's a good thing he's so good at everything.
 
Decotron said:
The state of people not picking Evans this season. Its not based on the last 2 weeks!!!!
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Most of his appearances came at a time when we were haemorrhaging goals. Whatever the reasons for that, a defender has to take some responsibility. You wouldn't include a striker who played mostly in games when the team struggled to score.

He's not been bad. But it'd be generous to include him in this list.
 
Carrick
Van Persie
Rafael
De Gea
Ferdinand
Evans
Vidic
Evra
Rooney
Hernandez/Cleverley

Evra, Rooney and Hernandez could go in any order there. I feel like Evra gets the nod for consistency and added goal threat, with Rooney's productivity doing enough to rank him above Hernandez/Cleverley.

Edit: On second thoughts, I think I do Evra a disservice here and that he should rank higher. It's pretty difficult deciding how to rank the defensive members of the team given injury and our record at the start of the season.
 
Brightonian said:
Most of his appearances came at a time when we were haemorrhaging goals. Whatever the reasons for that, a defender has to take some responsibility. You wouldn't include a striker who played mostly in games when the team struggled to score.

He's not been bad. But it'd be generous to include him in this list.
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Evans has been consistently good, his performances have been on par, at least, with Vidic and Ferdinand, two world class centre backs.
 
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