Unpopular Opinions Thread

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Jaytay said:
The thing is sometimes fans need to realise players don't automatically have beef with the fans, it's how they feel the club has treated them.

For instance when Tevez left I completely understood as he felt he was being dicked about. He left for Manchester City as he didn't see them as our rival compared to Liverpool. When he first came up against us he never celebrated but the fans still turned on him so he next time he though feck it. Tevez loved the fans his problem was with SAF more than the club but fans don't understand this.
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Fans are generally like that, RVP was booed by Arsenal fans, Young still gets booed by Villa fans, I personally believe that not celebrating against your former club has to do with your personal relationship with the club, take Ronaldo for instance, Welbeck celebrating was out of spite for LVG, he was right to do so given that it was a cup winner.

Anything is acceptable except for Adebayor's celebration against Arsenal in my opinion.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
I was thinking £80m minimum.

Essentially he'd be an investment that won't be changed for 15 years and they'd actually be saving money in the long run, £40m would be an absolute steal but I pray everyday before I go to sleep Ed hands him that contract.
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£40m and Varane would be ideal IMO
 
DDG will be Spain's nt goalkeeper for the next decade, something real madrid want to buy desperately, and should make fans forget about Casillas' departure. He could be sold for a fortune.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
With every bad game from Casillas, the more likely it feels Big Dave is nearing his exit.
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I think it rests on us finishing top 4. If we do, and challenge for the title next season and compete in the champions league then he'll hold off I think. Who knows, Madrid may be on the way down in the next few years with Ronaldo getting older, and we may be on the way back up. If we don't get top 4 then De Gea will probably leave to Madrid.
 
Madrid should try dropping Benzema. Just play striker-less and let the other team's CB's panic all game when Madrid have it and have to build up play when they don't. :

---------------------
Ronaldo--------Bale
--Isco-----James
---Kroos-Modric---
Marcelo-----Carvajal
--Ramos-Pepe/Varane
 
dxadel said:
Fans are generally like that, RVP was booed by Arsenal fans, Young still gets booed by Villa fans, I personally believe that not celebrating against your former club has to do with your personal relationship with the club, take Ronaldo for instance, Welbeck celebrating was out of spite for LVG, he was right to do so given that it was a cup winner.

Anything is acceptable except for Adebayor's celebration against Arsenal in my opinion.
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Why should he feel spite toward LVG though? The reasons he gave for selling were completely just and we let him go and to be successful somewhere else. Welbeck was thinking of leaving since before LVG took the job anyway. We could've held him down and not allow him to leave but we did, and to a direct rival at that. Thats pretty damn generous if you ask me.

And I don't care wether you have grief with the manager or not, you play for the fans and United fans have given more support to Welbeck than he's often deserved. I think that a player should respect that, respect the fans, that's how I feel about it anyways.
 
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Our biggest problem is our wide players. Young and Valencia simply are not good enough. A huge percentage of our attacks die when we go wide because neither can deliver a quality ball. Young is stuck on the left and cant cross with his left. His main attacking method is to try and cut in so he can use his right foot. Opposition teams have this worked out and use their defensive lines to try and keep him on his left. Consequently attacks down the left more often than not slow down and strikers have to check their runs while Young wastes time trying to cut in. Valencia is so horribly one footed that defenders do a similar thing to him, they now try and force him inside. I am watching every team do this to these players in all games now. Keep an eye on opposition defenders defending runs and their body shape and you will see this. I think the entire premier division has been passing this memo around for the whole season.
Our attacks slow down in the final third because the delivery is so slow from out wide that the strikers have to reset their runs all the time.
 
Possession football is tedious to watch and only really effective with a freak like Robben or Messi.

Our fans question Giggs as assistant and his accomplishments as a player due to him getting caught sleeping around.

He was almost 40 and was the best player on the pitch against real Madrid. He also was our main source of creativity countless times well into his 30's. Incredible.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Possession football is tedious to watch and only really effective with a freak like Robben or Messi.
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I have to admit I never liked watching Barca play. Everyone always spoke about their amazing possession and play but it just didn't do it for me. I prefer a mixed style with the ability to control possession but also effectively use quick counter and wing attack. Bayern under Jupp Heynckes played some great stuff and I found them much more enjoyable to watch than Barca under Pep.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Possession football is tedious to watch and only really effective with a freak like Robben or Messi.

Our fans question Giggs as assistant and his accomplishments as a player due to him getting caught sleeping around.

He was almost 40 and was the best player on the pitch against real Madrid. He also was our main source of creativity countless times well into his 30's. Incredible.
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I probably agree with this.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Possession football is tedious to watch and only really effective with a freak like Robben or Messi.

Our fans question Giggs as assistant and his accomplishments as a player due to him getting caught sleeping around.

He was almost 40 and was the best player on the pitch against real Madrid. He also was our main source of creativity countless times well into his 30's. Incredible.
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I think a lot of people would agree with the first one, myself included.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Possession football is tedious to watch and only really effective with a freak like Robben or Messi.

Our fans question Giggs as assistant and his accomplishments as a player due to him getting caught sleeping around.

He was almost 40 and was the best player on the pitch against real Madrid. He also was our main source of creativity countless times well into his 30's. Incredible.
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The first part a lot of people would agree with, I think. They were always on to a loss when LVG was appointed though.

The part about Giggs I don't agree with. He used to get plenty of criticism before we ever knew about the cheating thing.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Our fans question Giggs as assistant and his accomplishments as a player due to him getting caught sleeping around.
QUOTE]
You phrase it euphemistically the better to defend the morals of your pet legend. He wasn't sleeping around. It was an eight year affair with the wife of his coal miner.
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MyOnlySolskjaer said:
I was thinking £80m minimum.

Essentially he'd be an investment that won't be changed for 15 years and they'd actually be saving money in the long run, £40m would be an absolute steal but I pray everyday before I go to sleep Ed hands him that contract.
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Will probably be closer to £20million unfortunately, due to his contract situation.
 
My shit doesn't stink.

EDIT - We will be crap next year as the great players we signed this season will be leaving.
 
More end product? I think statistically Di Maria has been very good. 4 goals and 11(?) assists in 24 games is nothing to complain about. Particularly when you consider the fact that he was never a consistent goalscorer, and he is playing in a side that has been stifled in attack and two OAPs bottling any chances we actually make.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
For that price tag you'd have expected more end product.
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More goals or assists ?
If it's the first than you can only blame yourself for expecting something that he never provided and if it's the second his numbers are pretty good when you consider the amount of opportunities missed by our strikers and their general level, outside of Rooney who has been good forward.
 
DWelbz19 said:
More end product? I think statistically Di Maria has been very good. 4 goals and 11(?) assists in 24 games is nothing to complain about. Particularly when you consider the fact that he was never a consistent goalscorer, and he is playing in a side that has been stifled in attack and two OAPs bottling any chances we actually make.
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End product was probably the wrong word, but so far united haven't go their money's worth on Di Maria.
 
JPRouve said:
More goals or assists ?
If it's the first than you can only blame yourself for expecting something that he never provided and if it's the second his numbers are pretty good when you consider the amount of opportunities missed by our strikers and their general level, outside of Rooney who has been good forward.
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End product was the wrong word. I do think for that price he's been underwhelming.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
End product was the wrong word. I do think for that price he's been underwhelming.
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Di Maria has been his usual self meaning, frustrating and inconsistent in his game, but pretty productive. The state of our attack doesn't help him at all and despite that he has good numbers, in terms of opportunities created and assists.
Now we obviously overpaid, he should have cost around 40m, but it shouldn't be counted against him or his performances.
 
Saying Di Maria has been underwhelming for the price paid is hardly an unpopular opinion.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
I was thinking £80m minimum.

Essentially he'd be an investment that won't be changed for 15 years and they'd actually be saving money in the long run, £40m would be an absolute steal but I pray everyday before I go to sleep Ed hands him that contract.
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I like your optimism but lets face it we're not getting that for a player with just over one year left on his contract.
 
DWelbz19 said:
More end product? I think statistically Di Maria has been very good. 4 goals and 11(?) assists in 24 games is nothing to complain about. Particularly when you consider the fact that he was never a consistent goalscorer, and he is playing in a side that has been stifled in attack and two OAPs bottling any chances we actually make.
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Fully agree. He hasn't scored over 15 goals in any season.

People need to temper their expectations because he's been just as effective as most of his career to date. In a season that's the most demanding (physically) and tough (given the 7th and pressure) culturally to adapt to in his career also. And throw in the longest calendar year of games in his life, at the highest level too.

We overpaid and currently don't have an attacking line up to take the focus off him from midfield where he has shown his best work as the bonus option and assist provider.
 
DWelbz19 said:
More end product? I think statistically Di Maria has been very good. 4 goals and 11(?) assists in 24 games is nothing to complain about. Particularly when you consider the fact that he was never a consistent goalscorer, and he is playing in a side that has been stifled in attack and two OAPs bottling any chances we actually make.
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The fact that a lot of fans have to actively check his stats to actually see how he has performed despite watching every game is evidence alone that his stats and performances aren't saying the same thing, he hasn't been our best player in a match since Everton(not significantly at least), after his assist against West Brom he stopped being effective in fact from the Chelsea game to the Burnley game he was only able to rack up 3 assists with numerous average performances,he even managed to miss a golden opportunity against Arsenal.

From the Chelsea game on the 26th of october to the Burnley game on the 11th of February he only had 3 assists in 17 games which is terrible for a player of such calibre, he got 4 assists in september and October then went on a barren streak which ended in February(yes i'm fully aware of his Injuries,he still managed to get a lot of games, he against lower division teams in the FA Cup).
 
@dxadel you know he missed most of December, right?

You make good points but during that period Rooney and Mata were struggling too, not to mention our strikers. There were poor runs and system failures across the board.
 
FC Ronaldo said:
Fully agree. He hasn't scored over 15 goals in any season.

People need to temper their expectations because he's been just as effective as most of his career to date. In a season that's the most demanding (physically) and tough (given the 7th and pressure) culturally to adapt to in his career also. And throw in the longest calendar year of games in his life, at the highest level too.

We overpaid and currently don't have an attacking line up to take the focus off him from midfield where he has shown his best work as the bonus option and assist provider.
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That is an astute observation. The last sentence in particular is very underplayed when it comes to Di Maria and a lot of times, we as fans demand mechanically consistent performances (to justify the price tag) without putting the human element of physical and mental exhaustion of playing long calender years into perspective.

As an example, Patrice Evra was considered the iron man of United in the sense that played almost every game without breaking down. If we take a sample of four seasons at any point during his career, the highest number of club matches he has played during that duration is 195 from 2007-2011. Di Maria has played almost as many matches as Evra from 2010-2014 at 189.

Last season was especially brutal for him with 52 total appearances for Madrid including long Copa and Champions League runs on top of World Cup qualifying matches, friendlies and the tournament finals in Brazil. That works out to about one match in less than 5 days for the whole football season which on top of travelling, training, preparation is a lot when we factor in the piled up fatigue for a player who has a very high workrate playing style and always gives 100% every single game.

Plus, like you said he is transitioning to a more physically demanding league, new culture, the whole burglary shenanigans, new team-mates (which affects his rhythm) without an adequate recovery period. It's a lot to deal with and Di Maria has done quite well all things considered. I think the best plan for him going forward should include an extended summer break instead of again parading him in the pre-season marketing exercise. Then we'll see a more focused and rejuvenated Di Maria IMO.
 
FC Ronaldo said:
@dxadel you know he missed most of December, right?

You make good points but during that period Rooney and Mata were struggling too, not to mention our strikers. There were poor runs and system failures across the board.
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I understand what you're saying, i even pointed out that he had an injury which kept him out of our squad for a while, but you also have to understand that Rooney isn't a midfielder and Mata isnt as effective as we would like him to be, sure he gets a couple of goals here and there, you still can't base your attack around someone like him - last season we had a problem and needed someone to feed the attackers,run past defenders,score about 5-6 goals, someone who would be the go to guy in our team, someone with plenty of experience, a certain UCL winner just happened to be available, he was arguably the player of the season for Real(not counting Ronaldo), he was "world class", it was really the perfect scenario, i mean why did we spend £60million and give him our #7 shirt if we weren't expecting our attack to improve (significantly).

The only reason we are currently 4th and not 6th or 7th is the fact that our opponents were all terrible in the first few months of the season, if after so much expectations, we are back to looking for a midfielder then something is definitely wrong and fans have every right to complain, if Di Maria was English, the backlash would have been much much worse, i mean just look at what Ozil went through last season and his numbers were pretty much as average as Di Maria's right now.

I still think he will come good though, if he doesn't look like the player he was in Madrid next season then he shouldn't be here after that.
 
dxadel said:
So his job is just to consistently maintain a top 4 finish for the next 3 years then, for the right man to come and take us to the next level?
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Well no, but due to Chelsea's current level and the fact he might not even be good enough makes it very unlikely we will win the league within 3 years. Of course a lot can happen between now and then but to go from what we have seen this season to winning the league, that would arguably be Van Gaals best achievement if it happened, and I'm not sure he has that in him anymore IMO.
 
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