Unpopular Opinions Thread

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I've said it loads of times, here it is again:

Blind is better in MF than LB. In our run of wins at the end of last season he looked shaky and disorientated at LB against City and Liverpool whenever he was asked to do anything that wasn't in the final third. Seemed to get overlooked because we were winning and he skinned Can/won a penalty. has prompted a consensus that it's his best position which I really don't understand.
 
Kaos said:
Don't think that's unpopular or controversial.

I think most of us would be pissing ourselves if after all the trouble and money Madrid spent getting him, he ends up being a monumental flop who angrily ditches his talentless girlfriend out of spite.

It sounds petulant and childish, but I wager most of us secretly feel the same.
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Well I wouldn't want his private life to go tits up but apart from that yeah, it would be hilarious if he ended up being a huge flop for Madrid.
 
Decotron said:
He absolutely did not. Not at any point.

Wilson has more potential than Kiko ever had imo.

Its far from certain that he'll make it here long term but hes already a better player than Kiko ever was.
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Kiko had more of the ability to make something happen in his early United career, Wilson still doesn't provide that. That's not to say that he never will in the future though, Just he is massively overrated here considering he has still done little in the first team. What he has done in the youth teams doesn't matter now, He has to prove this season that he belongs at the club, It's going to be a big year for him one way or another.
 
Young will play much, much more than people think.

PS This is the best thread for summer when there is no football to discuss. The worst is Sterling thread (because of all the money/value experts) and Di Maria thread (because it’s doing circles).
 
Bwuk said:
:lol:

You are kidding right? Did you see our defence when Carrick wasn't there to organise the side. Absolute shambles for the most part. De Gea being world class carried our defence for the second season in a row.
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Our mini-collapse at the end of last season occurred when we lost both Jones and Rojo. I know it's fashionable to attribute it to Carrick's injury, but it's noticeable that, when Jones came back, we stopped losing. Carrick was the key to our attacking play - he wasn't the key to the defense.
 
Whether we signed 1-2 or 5-6 players this summer we were never likely to win the league.

LVG is in a no win situation this summer, stick with players he had and the team is going nowhere, correct all/mostof the problems in the squad and it is going to be extremely difficult to gel the team together well enough to win the league.

Glad he has gone with the second option though because even though it will be tough in the short term, in the longer term we will be much better off and can go back to tweaking the squad in future as long as we. Haven't bought too many flops.
 
Borys said:
Young will play much, much more than people think.

PS This is the best thread for summer when there is no football to discuss. The worst is Sterling thread (because of all the money/value experts) and Di Maria thread (because it’s doing circles).
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The way people assume Memphis will just walk in and take his place is hilarious.There's gonna be a real fight.
 
Fellaini will be one of the first names on the teamsheet in big European matches and tough away league fixtures.

Our current crop of CBs (Smalling, Rojo, Jones) are good enough.
 
Daley blind is sub standard, and was aweful in a lot of games in midfield last season. (not all his fault)
 
soap said:
I've said it loads of times, here it is again:

Blind is better in MF than LB. In our run of wins at the end of last season he looked shaky and disorientated at LB against City and Liverpool whenever he was asked to do anything that wasn't in the final third. Seemed to get overlooked because we were winning and he skinned Can/won a penalty. has prompted a consensus that it's his best position which I really don't understand.
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He's lost in midfield in the Prem because he goes charging after the player on the ball and nobody presses with him.

They pass it around him because he's slow as feck and then there's a gaping hole where he should be that he can't get back into because as mentioned, he's slow as feck.

His lack of physicality is also much less of an issue at LB.

He linked well with Young and Fellaini going forward, which prompted some of our best play all season.
 
Not sure if this is unpopular or maybe has already been said but; Depay is waaay overrated by some on this board and won't be as good as people think next season. I see him in a lot of people's best XI teams or whatever but I will be surprised if he is a starter. Has to dethrone Ashley Young from a spot to begin with.
 
m1y2 said:
Carrick was downgrade on Keane and Schneiderlin will be upgrade again
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Schneiderlin will be an upgrade on Carrick, or on Keane? I agree that Carrick was a downgrade on Keane, have always thought so (despite them being different players, Keane was just far better imo).
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
Schneiderlin will be an upgrade on Carrick, or on Keane? I agree that Carrick was a downgrade on Keane, have always thought so (despite them being different players, Keane was just far better imo).
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I meant on Carrick, I think it will take maybe only a little less time to replace Keane than Scholes. I think Schneiderlin has potential to be somewhere in between Carrick and Keane, he's also a leader on the pitch, maybe one of future adepts for the armband I believe.

We shall see
 
Sammyjunn said:
Blind is too slow maybe in thought (?) but in terms of pace he's actually faster than Carrick.
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he has got decent acceleration which makes him in combination with good brain great at intercepting the ball..

wouldn't see this as unpopular statement as Carrick is one of the slowest player on the team over short distance..
 
ZDwyr said:
Not sure if this is unpopular or maybe has already been said but; Depay is waaay overrated by some on this board and won't be as good as people think next season. I see him in a lot of people's best XI teams or whatever but I will be surprised if he is a starter. Has to dethrone Ashley Young from a spot to begin with.
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I also think that he won't automatically start. Young had a decent end to the season and if he maintains that form he will start unless Depay have some wonder game, I think Van Gaal will stick to what he did last year giving players run of games until the player's form drop or the other's hit great one. The difference this season however will be that we will have much more games so player who is not first option will have a lot of time to show what he can do to make Van Gaal reconsider his options..

Januzaj will benefit from it too, will be curious which effect it has on Adnan this year btw as last time young talent like Zaha came in he had his great season. Depay will be tougher opponent though
 
Valencia will end the season having made more appearances than Darmian at right back.
 
m1y2 said:
Carrick was downgrade on Keane and Schneiderlin will be upgrade again
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Bloody hell, its bad enough hearing Pool fans shiting on about how Carrick's crap - and then hearin United fans spouting the same similar bollox :rolleyes:

Carrick's been an immense player for us & one of the best CM's in Europe for many years. You dont get to play 3 Champions League finals in 4 years havin shit central midfielders like Carrick.

Our win ratio with Carrick in the team last season was incredible & when he was out - we struggled a helluva lot. If we had of had Carrick fully fit all last season - we would have pushed Chelsea all the way..
 
Red Hand Devil said:
Bloody hell, its bad enough hearing Pool fans shiting on about how Carrick's crap - and then hearin United fans spouting the same similar bollox :rolleyes:

Carrick's been an immense player for us & one of the best CM's in Europe for many years. You dont get to play 3 Champions League finals in 4 years havin shit central midfielders like Carrick.

Our win ratio with Carrick in the team last season was incredible & when he was out - we struggled a helluva lot. If we had of had Carrick fully fit all last season - we would have pushed Chelsea all the way..
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it's unpopular, he was a great player but a bit overrated mainly by United fans like you and others, spend some years in the shadow of Scholes and even t hhis late years couldn't outperform him, it was only fergie's last season when he was world class, also fletcher at his very peak was more influential player... and there is no question that Keane was a better player despite being different type.. there are still questions how Schneiderlin will replace him, my bet will be he will be an upgrade over the years but on that we have to wait..

And btw I still rate Carrick very highly but he's been rather on level with Lampard/Gerrard (and that is a big compliment for him) than Scholes/Keane.

We will soon see how quite easily he can be replaced when we actually buy someone and don't try to stick with Cleverley or Anderson Eat it .-)
 
m1y2 said:
it's unpopular, he was a great player but a bit overrated mainly by United fans like you and others, spend some years in the shadow of Scholes and even t hhis late years couldn't outperform him, it was only fergie's last season when he was world class, also fletcher at his very peak was more influential player... and there is no question that Keane was a better player despite being different type.. there are still questions how Schneiderlin will replace him, my bet will be he will be an upgrade over the years but on that we have to wait..

And btw I still rate Carrick very highly but he's been rather on level with Lampard/Gerrard (and that is a big compliment for him) than Scholes/Keane.

We will soon see how quite easily he can be replaced when we actually buy someone and don't try to stick with Cleverley or Anderson Eat it .-)
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It's all about opinion that's for sure, but i disagree with most of what you said - apart from the Cleverley / Anderson & Keano lines.

Fletcher at his peak being more influencial that Carrick ever was? Christ on a bike :lol::wenger:

Edit: Just seen the white text :D
 
Red Hand Devil said:
It's all about opinion that's for sure, but i disagree with most of what you said - apart from the Cleverley / Anderson & Keano lines.

Fletcher at his peak being more influencial that Carrick ever was? Christ on a bike :lol::wenger:

Edit: Just seen the white text :D
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...but that doesn't really change my opinion at all, mate. Fletcher in his peak although very short was arguably the best defensive mid in the world and was most influential part of our midfield that time, just because there is more elegant footballer with a better pass and overall seeming a better footballer doesn't necessarily mean he's more influential.

And in addition to Kean, he was far more influential than Carrick, why would you deny that? And maybe that's the use of the words IN fecking fluential. Carrick with his consistency and ever calm presence was also important but having a natural leader who will take the team to another level with his hard work and braveness who leads by example it was what we missed so much over years, that was also why we tend to sit back a lot and didn't go to win the ball promptly , struggled against modern philosophy teams like Barcelona or even Bilbao, more recently Southampton etc...

football's moving on and more dynamics is needed. Carrick's quite old fashioned footballer in a sense and we will replace him again with more influential player who will match the philosophy even more I guess. But you will see. I am so glad we bought such player as he will finally open your eyes..

For Schneiderlin there is btw a lot of time to develop some passing skills but even if he stagnates in that part of his game he will still be a huge success as he's fecking beast defensively..
 
JoaquinJoaquin said:
Kiko had more of the ability to make something happen in his early United career, Wilson still doesn't provide that. That's not to say that he never will in the future though, Just he is massively overrated here considering he has still done little in the first team. What he has done in the youth teams doesn't matter now, He has to prove this season that he belongs at the club, It's going to be a big year for him one way or another.
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macheda had the advantage of playing in a stronger side with better service though - scholes, a younger carrick, giggs in strong form all year, ronaldo, berbatov, even anderson at that point wasn't the farce he became.
 
Kazi said:
Fellaini will be one of the first names on the teamsheet in big European matches and tough away league fixtures.

Our current crop of CBs (Smalling, Rojo, Jones) are good enough.
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My feelings too in regards to the CBs, I think the only reason we're in for one is down to injuries, I fully believe that if Jones and Smalling were never injured they'd be considered by fans as an excellent pairing.
 
m1y2 said:
he has got decent acceleration which makes him in combination with good brain great at intercepting the ball..

wouldn't see this as unpopular statement as Carrick is one of the slowest player on the team over short distance..
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I see multiple people posting Blind is too slow, slow as feck etc but Carrick doesnt get this, seems very weird for me. Carrick reads the game faster but put them in a race and Blind beats him comfortably. Blind is a relative slow LB, but I doubt that he is one of the slower CDM.
 
khoazany said:
The way people assume Memphis will just walk in and take his place is hilarious.There's gonna be a real fight.
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I've been saying this from the get-go.
Young was arguably our best outfield player last year (I wont include Carrick because he played for less than half the season).
Why would a manager bench the best outfield player, in favour of a player who has never played in the EPL.

I have no doubt that Young will be our No1. LW/LM option.
And Memphis will cover injury and come on as a sub for Young.
I also think that Memphis will get game time as a striker.

Now, as the season progresses, if Memphis impresses then he will get more and more game time, but I certainly dont expect him out perform Young.
 
De Gea isn't worth £30m to us for just one season and he definitely isn't worth £30m to Real Madrid for one season.
 
Our attack is still short. If Di Maria doesn't perform/is sold, then we wont win the title.
 
Giggs was misused throughout his career and should've instead been a trequartista. This in turn stopped him from competing for the best footballer of the generation title.

English football is going nowhere until there stops being an emphasis on having quality wide men.

If David Beckham was a brazilian, he'd have been a right back.

Our youth academy has produced more quality in the past 5 years than any club around, sadly we've wasted or thrown away most of the talent.
 
matherto said:
He's lost in midfield in the Prem because he goes charging after the player on the ball and nobody presses with him.

They pass it around him because he's slow as feck and then there's a gaping hole where he should be that he can't get back into because as mentioned, he's slow as feck.

His lack of physicality is also much less of an issue at LB.

He linked well with Young and Fellaini going forward, which prompted some of our best play all season.
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His lack of pace is far more of a problem at LB. There's more space on the wings for fast players to exploit than in the middle, and its far easier easier to isolate a full back than a DM. We can see this when Navas absolutely obliterated Blind for pace early in the 4-2. Granted Navas is a very fast player and most players would have struggled to keep up, but the sheer amount of a distance he put between himself and Blind was astounding. Put it this way - how many good DMs can you think of who are as slow as Blond? Alonso, Carrick, Busquets are all slow. How many good full backs can you think of who are as slow as Blind? I can't think of a single one.
 
Sammyjunn said:
I see multiple people posting Blind is too slow, slow as feck etc but Carrick doesnt get this, seems very weird for me. Carrick reads the game faster but put them in a race and Blind beats him comfortably. Blind is a relative slow LB, but I doubt that he is one of the slower CDM.
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Blind may be a tiny bit faster, but he's more flat-footed. I see Blind as a bit of a trudger, whereas I wouldn't say that for Carrick. Basically, if Blind commits to one direction, his accelaration, agility, and turning is poor. Even when he's not sprinting, his agility and turning is poor.

This is as important as raw pace - and Blind is hardly streets ahead in raw pace anyway.
Carrick knows his limitations, and plays in a way to get around them. Blind often plays as if he still hasnt realised he's a trudger. And it's not as simple as learning to play like Carrick, because his vision and passing range is way behind, amd he'll always be flat/heavy-footed.
 
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