He played very well for the U21s last week. Obviously couldn’t handle the step up in intensity to the big boys. Which is to be expected after being out for so long. And it wasn’t a completely hopeless performance. He did actually link up quite well in the final third a few times. That’s always been his strength. Neat and tidy passing and movement. Be interesting to see what Amorin makes of him when fully fit.
12
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 3
- Clean sheets
- 0
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 1
I think people need to really manage their expectations on this one.
Some of the comments from last night are ridiculous.
He's playing his first top level game in over 500 days, of course he is going to be rusty.
Lets give the lad some time and support him.
If he doesn't get to the level, then fair enough, but the rush to judgement based on 45 minutes of football is crazy.
Long term injuries always take time to recover, and his has been longer term than most.
Some of the comments from last night are ridiculous.
He's playing his first top level game in over 500 days, of course he is going to be rusty.
Lets give the lad some time and support him.
If he doesn't get to the level, then fair enough, but the rush to judgement based on 45 minutes of football is crazy.
Long term injuries always take time to recover, and his has been longer term than most.
He looks like a lad who hasn’t had a professional game in two years but he looked up for it. He’ll need to be managed carefully up to the Xmas fixtures and then see where him and Shaw are at. It would be great to have some actual width on at least one side…
I said it even before his lengthy injury lay off that he's not good enough, and last night's performance hasn't changed my mind!
I told you so brigade is out in full force. For a lad who hasnt played in 1.5 years.
Congrats.
Congrats.
I'm not going to criticise him after not playing in almost 18 months. But I've always worried about his final ball. A number of times last night he had the overlapping run, or a crossing opportunity, and he just aimlessly lumped it in. Quite why he's taking corners I do not know.
Hopefully this season he does enough to attract a buyer. That simple really*.
*I’ve been saying this long before he ‘just came back from injury and played his first game in 550 days’, by the way.
*I’ve been saying this long before he ‘just came back from injury and played his first game in 550 days’, by the way.
I think it was to soon to start him and you could see he was well off the pace, after 18 months out he should have been eased back in to the side with short substitute appearances where possible.
Good to see him back on the pitch
Looked well off the pace but understandable after such a long absence.
Although he didn’t perform well last night, Malacia hasn't played football in almost two years. It's understandable that he's off the pace.
I feel the same - he was clearly rusty and off the pace (as we saw for the second goal) but there were moments where he looked ok. I've always thought he was quite impressive in his first season (a couple shocking performances in the middle of that season and people were saying he was shit all season.) He's clearly not ready to be a starter, but I have no problem with his providing squad depth if he's able to get his fitness back to the required standard.
Before we signed he was known for his pace.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37629791/what-malacia-brings-man-united-signing-feyenoord
https://www.skysports.com/football/...oord-left-back-his-first-old-trafford-signing
If we are purely talking about his pace, then had bags of it in his first season when we watched him pocket Mehraz, Salah, and battle Saka in 2022/2023, he was quick enough and strong in tackle too, not much of an output in attacking sense but his passing was decent.
I don't know how it work for him post his lengthy injury absence, but based on his first season here, no one questioned his pace at all.
I agree with this too, at worst he could be a squad option if he gets back to his previous levels physically at least, he'll need game time to get back his sharpness.
Those
Those articles are wide off the mark. He might have had ok pace for a LB in the Netherlands but not against PL winger.
There are plenty of posts on here from years ago (can’t figure out how to copy them in here) where people comment on his lack of pace - as well as the opposite. I also clearly remember him being beaten in foot races regularly by average players.
His good performances defensively were due to his aggressiveness and tenacity - not his pace.
He was a bit rusty to say the least but expected after been out for so long. His crossing was woeful , I didn’t think it was as bad prior to his injury
I doubt the bolded to be true, if he was that slow it would be a topic about him, I browsed a little bit of his thread of 2022-2023 and not a single mention about his pace but I could be wrong, I clearly remember him being quick enough to deal with the likes of Salah and Saka.
Even if he wasn't quick enough, there are/were FBs who despite not being quick managed very well in the PL, the likes of Blind, Azpi, even Neville or Ivanovich were slower than the average FB, and yet managed to perform well.
If he fails here it would be because he lacks the quality, not because he is slow.
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From memory he wasn't outright slow, but it certainly wasn't a strength either. Fairly average pace for his position and slower than most top fullbacks.
I think he has the basic pace needed for his position, and probably he can deal with quick players like Salah and Saka, and I feel we have forgotten how he used to play because he's been missing for almost 18 months, I certainly had to watch some YouTube vids to see how he did because what the poster said felt so strange and I could not remember till I had to go through some pages of his performance thread, he was criticised a lot for the lack of his offensive output and he also had lapses in defensive duties, but not once his pace was criticised or mentioned as an issue.
Another thing, pace is not be all and end all, Maz is also not that quick but be can pocket any RW, so the thing that we should worry about with Malacia is his actual football quality as an LB or LWB in Amorims system, can he defend and attack, can he go up and the down the line etc...
That analogy gave me a giggle....my fav Batman movie by the way
I never saw the game so I cannot really comment on his performance.
When he came to the club I thought it was great business as he was so cheap and was already an international for a good team ( I think) but after starting off well I think he struggled with both parts of his role in his position.
His strength of character has to be admired to get back on the pitch again and maybe now with a stronger physique and experience of the league he may have improved and can contribute to the team.
I wish him well.
When he came to the club I thought it was great business as he was so cheap and was already an international for a good team ( I think) but after starting off well I think he struggled with both parts of his role in his position.
His strength of character has to be admired to get back on the pitch again and maybe now with a stronger physique and experience of the league he may have improved and can contribute to the team.
I wish him well.
I thought he had plenty of the ball and was surprisingly unpredictable on the left with his constant cutting inside move.
Obviously his fitness level was not upto par and you could see from his reaction to the goal as well. He just couldn’t keep up with his man, it was a sad sight to see him not being able to move as fast as he wanted to/could do earlier.
Need to give him a few more games and I’m sure he will be quite useful on that side.
Obviously his fitness level was not upto par and you could see from his reaction to the goal as well. He just couldn’t keep up with his man, it was a sad sight to see him not being able to move as fast as he wanted to/could do earlier.
Need to give him a few more games and I’m sure he will be quite useful on that side.
The slow mo while he’s trying to catch up did make me laugh but thankfully no harm done. Amorim’s early substitutions will also increase his minutes on the pitch a bit quicker, even if he doesn’t start.
There are several mentions about his lack of pace in that thread - and others. However, it’s true that consensus is that he’s fairly quick - hence my post trying to challenge that notion.
All of those FBs belong to an era gone. The game has moved on and requires better athletes than ever - our club just hasn’t realised yet.
Fair enough on the first paragraph, I don't mind you challenging that notion, it's just that he really hasn't played in very long time and I myself I am not sure about how quick he is actually.
On the second paragraph, I'll push back and say Maz is not an athlete and yet he has been so far an excellent FB for us, for me, quality as a player entails more than technical ability, it's understanding of the game, reading the course of play and making correct decisions defensively or offensively, AWB or Dalot are both very quick but then their quality as FBs is questioned, the idea is to be good footballer first and foremost, not an athlete, but I see where you coming from when you say we need players who, aside from being good footballers, are athletic and strong physically.
I agree with you about Maz. I was actually quite apprehensive about signing him due to his lack of pace (I do think he’s a better athlete than Malacia though). But I must admit he has proven that you can make up for some athletic shortcomings with great technical abilities and a good understanding of the game - although he’s it’s probably easier as a LCB than WB. Unfortunately, Malacia doesn’t seem to possess any of the above in abundance.
Thanks for a good debate!
I was low key worried with Maz too but I'm happy with how he's been performing consistently.
Yes it was good discussion, I felt like I have never seen Malacia play for us before and my perception was he is very quick, hence why your post about his pace stood out to me and me look into why we signed him in the first
Thanks though for the discussion
Arsenal 2:0 Man Utd
New
Did well given the circumstances.
Not bad tbh.
Proven he can contribute this season if he can stay fit which is more than expected after such a long time out
Did well. Thought the yellow was extremely harsh as it was our own player blocking him from moving away from the ball to allow the restart. Saka had far more freedom after he went off.
I thought he did pretty well for the most part in that first half. Yellow card was nothing really.
Did well
Did really well in a tough night. Pleased for him.
Not sure the point in playing him in a game like this just to hook him at half time.
He played well though.
He played well though.
Chuffed for him to be back and played really well. We're managing his minutes well too.
Bless him
Pleasantly surprised by how ready he was for this. Hope he's kept as a squad player, he's comfortably worthy of at least that. Could play wing-back on both sides maybe too.
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If it wasn't for his stupid yellow card, he wouldn't have come off
Played well
Played well
He was miles better than Dalot in the same position. The Dalot at LWB experiment needs to be binned pronto.