[All 3 United]

Terrible signing. Out of position, let’s his man run off him, reads nothing and even made Long look good. Get shut with half the rest of the cbs on our books, hell don’t stop there get shut of half the squad!

 

[Brophs]

The management team at WBA will have to do plenty of work on his defending when we sell him to them for £7m in a couple of years time.

 

[VainCape]

Didn't appreciate how he was needlessly berating De Gea for not coming for a loose ball, some time towards the end of the 2nd half. Surely that sort of bickering reeks of frustration and plays right into the opposition's hands? Should learn to control his emotions going forward.

 

[RonaldoVII]

Didn't appreciate how he was needlessly berating De Gea for not coming for a loose ball, some time towards the end of the 2nd half. Surely that sort of bickering reeks of frustration and plays right into the opposition's hands? Should learn to control his emotions going forward.

I thought it was good that he doesn't care who it is, when he thinks someone needs telling he'll tell them. We need more leaders in the team like that. De Gea should've come to collect it.

 

[deafepl]

I thought it was good that he doesn't care who it is, when he thinks someone needs telling he'll tell them. We need more leaders in the team like that. De Gea should've come to collect it.

Yeah, he should've come to collect it. Lindelof was used to having Ederson behind him.

 

[Cutch]

Didn't appreciate how he was needlessly berating De Gea for not coming for a loose ball, some time towards the end of the 2nd half. Surely that sort of bickering reeks of frustration and plays right into the opposition's hands? Should learn to control his emotions going forward.

You’d have hated Roy Keane or Peter Schmeichel

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Instead of moaning at our world class goal keeper he should focus on his own game.

There was one occasion where he needlessly let the ball bounce in our box while he waited for another player to clear it. The other time he needlessly got into a foot race with Long when he should have just passed the ball back to de Gea.

 

[Acole9]

Same as Jones, good performance, nothing more he could've done.

 

[Gusjaros]

Terrible signing. Out of position, let’s his man run off him, reads nothing and even made Long look good. Get shut with half the rest of the cbs on our books, hell don’t stop there get shut of half the squad!

Long did a statistically poorer performance than his average. 6.4 compared to 6.7 (source WhoScored.com). That means that Long looked far from good today, because he did worse than usual, which isn't good to begin with. He got one shot away in the whole match and that was when he was marked by Matic.

 

[Bobski]

Just watching MOTD and his recovery run for that Shane Long chance was not good, jogging back rather than sprinting.

I think he has physical limitations that are going to hold him back, mediocre speed and strength.

 

[All 3 United]

Long did a statistically poorer performance than his average. 6.4 compared to 6.7 (source WhoScored.com). That means that Long looked far from good today, because he did worse than usual, which isn't good to begin with. He got one shot away in the whole match and that was when he was marked by Matic.

Sick of all this trying to pretend new signings are going to come good. It’s not going to happen. Just get shut now, rather than doing another mkhitaryan. It’s obvious to everyone and his dog he lacks the qualities of a CB.

 

[Devil1]

He's been looking good recently but I have to agree. Definitely has a role to play here but the search for the ideal partner to Bailly goes on

Jones is our best defender in my opinion, quick, strong, fast, comfortable on the ball, good in the air and ultra competitive- if only he could stay fit.

I'm never comfortable with Bailly/Rojo- I always feel they are a rash challenge/poor pass away from a disaster. Lindelof on the other hand is a disaster himself!

 

[Gusjaros]

Sick of all this trying to pretend new signings are going to come good. It’s not going to happen. Just get shut now, rather than doing another mkhitaryan. It’s obvious to everyone and his dog he lacks the qualities of a CB.

I don't watch Southampton a lot and I imagine neither do you (or reporters at the Manchester Evening News for that matter), so I have to rely on statistics to make a judgement on whether Long did better or worse than normal, and he clearly did worse than normal. He normally does a 6.7 performance (from start as center forward) and today he did a 6.4 performance. 6.4 is a quite poor rating between. He clearly didn't "look good" this evening.

 

[Ballache]

He did well.
Regarding the time when he had a go at DDG. I was sat in the East stand and VNL shouted for De Gea to get the ball, De Gea saw that there was no pressure on VNL and shouted for him to keep it, VNL didn't here that turned to De Gea and had a go but De Gea explained the situation and then VNL pointed to his ear and apologized.
Basically he didn't hear De Gea, stop making a big deal out if everything.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Jones is our best defender in my opinion, quick, strong, fast, comfortable on the ball, good in the air and ultra competitive- if only he could stay fit.

I'm never comfortable with Bailly/Rojo- I always feel they are a rash challenge/poor pass away from a disaster. Lindelof on the other hand is a disaster himself!

The good thing about those two is that they will push up and press the opposition, not to mention they are far more comfortable on the ball than the others show. This moves the whole team up 10-15 yards, which is not appreciated enough.

 

[Home&Away]

He is a solid addition but His ball playing ability isn't a scratch on blinds.

 

[Ekeke]

He did well.
Regarding the time when he had a go at DDG. I was sat in the East stand and VNL shouted for De Gea to get the ball, De Gea saw that there was no pressure on VNL and shouted for him to keep it, VNL didn't here that turned to De Gea and had a go but De Gea explained the situation and then VNL pointed to his ear and apologized.
Basically he didn't hear De Gea, stop making a big deal out if everything.

poor communication between them isnt a small deal

 

[IMakeThingsUp]

poor communication between them isnt a small deal

Seriously? You're being picky now. As someone said earlier I've doubt you've seen schmeichel or keane play. They shouted more than that almost every game...

 

[Classical Mechanic]

No it's not enough. But it also isn't the only thing people are referring to when they say he's good on the ball. It's been said plenty of times before that pass so I don't really follow your argument.

In reality however, people call him good on the ball because he is (for a CB). He's proved that plenty of times before joining Manchester United.

Who cares what he does in a weak league where there is less pressure on the ball? His pass completion for us is 3% worse than Jone this season in far less PL minutes and he is joint last of our defenders with Smalling for accurate long balls played per game at 1.4.

People don’t bang on the Jones is a ball playing defender even though he looks comfortably better than Lindelof at it and I’ll include controlling the ball in that too.

If he was bought to help us play out then he is failing big time.

 

[A-man]

Who cares what he does in a weak league where there is less pressure on the ball? His pass completion for us is 3% worse than Jone this season in far less PL minutes and he is joint last of our defenders with Smalling for accurate long balls played per game at 1.4.

People don’t bang on the Jones is a ball playing defender even though he looks comfortably better than Lindelof at it and I’ll include controlling the ball in that too.

If he was bought to help us play out then he is failing big time.

Lindelöf is good with the ball and also good under pressure. Yes the Portuguese league is worse than PL but it is not that tough pressure in PL, in general. Another difference is that the CBs in Portugal are more involved in the offensive play and not just there because of their abilities to defend.

I was hoping Mourinho was going to continue with 3 at the back because I thought that worked very well, not only for Lindelöf but for the whole team.

 

[IMakeThingsUp]

Truth be told I want lindelof to succeed and I am probably a bit biased in some regards. But as I said in his transfer thread I honestly don't think he is as good as a man Utd cb should be. In my opinion he is consistently outperformed in the national team by our other centre back as well, regardless of what the Swedish pundits are saying. Don't get me wrong, Andreas granqvist is a decent centre back and he performs really well for our national team. But he plays for krasnodar in the Russian league ffs! A Utd cb should be better than a Russian league cb in my opinion, and even if I really want lindelof to be just that....he isn't.

 

[Ballache]

poor communication between them isnt a small deal

He physically didn't hear him, has nothing to do with bad communication. They shouted at eachother at the same time.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Shouting at De Gea to come and collect the ball when there is no pressure whatsoever on it was a completely redundant act.

 

[11101]

Just watching MOTD and his recovery run for that Shane Long chance was not good, jogging back rather than sprinting.

I think he has physical limitations that are going to hold him back, mediocre speed and strength.

I'm not sure it's physical limitations, I just don't think he's switched on enough yet. Look at the Huddersfield goal, that wasnt a lack of ability it was just lazy play. Many times something happens and he's behind the game and left trying to catch up, it's exactly like Smalling but at least Smalling often has the pace to recover. I will say he seems to be getting better although he's still a way off where he needs to be.

I also like his willingness on the ball. Forget meaningless passing stats anyone can achieve, every time he receives the ball his first move is to look for a forward pass. Time will tell if he's any good at it but it's better than some of our others whose first thought is to check if De Gea is in space.

 

[ivaldo]

Shouting at De Gea to come and collect the ball when there is no pressure whatsoever on it was a completely redundant act.

Except he was completely right. I love DDG but his reluctance to come off his line is his biggest weakness. It would be fine if this was a one off but he does it quite frequently and puts needless pressure on our defenders.

 

[Devil1]

The good thing about those two is that they will push up and press the opposition, not to mention they are far more comfortable on the ball than the others show. This moves the whole team up 10-15 yards, which is not appreciated enough.

I agree when you compare them to Smalling but Jones is equally as good if not better at pressing the opposition- he's played adequately at full back and midfield so is technically decent. (I'm a big fan of Jones if it isn't clear enough!)

My other concern with Bailly and Lindelof in particular is i think big forwards bully them in the air. Smalling is like a magnet and Jones/Rojo are decent.

Overall, going back to Lindelof, I have seen very little to offer- he is poor in the air, slow, and as Shane Long showed- easily shoved off the ball. He also has a peculiar habit of glancing crosses to opponents in the box. His only saving grace is that he can ping a long ball. I'm really struggling to see what Jose saw in him.

 

[Kostur]

Shouting at De Gea to come and collect the ball when there is no pressure whatsoever on it was a completely redundant act.

He was in the right there though, DDG has this tendency of not collecting the ball, yesterday there was no real danger but there's plenty of times where he just doesn't come out for it and nearly costs us. Basically what @ivaldo said there.

Lindelof was 'okay' yesterday bar for one thing that annoyed the feck out of me. This situation where Long nearly scored, his tracking back with him was fecking pathetic, I understand that Matić was covering for him but it nearly cost us, it was a massive mistake not to go with Long there.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

I'm not sure it's physical limitations, I just don't think he's switched on enough yet. Look at the Huddersfield goal, that wasnt a lack of ability it was just lazy play. Many times something happens and he's behind the game and left trying to catch up, it's exactly like Smalling but at least Smalling often has the pace to recover. I will say he seems to be getting better although he's still a way off where he needs to be.

I also like his willingness on the ball. Forget meaningless passing stats anyone can achieve, every time he receives the ball his first move is to look for a forward pass. Time will tell if he's any good at it but it's better than some of our others whose first thought is to check if De Gea is in space.

Backwards passes by our defenders, up to the Burnley game

1. Lindelof 29%
2. Jones 22.5%
3. Smalling 20.8%
4. Bailly 19.4%
5. Rojo 15.2%

Way out in front as the defender who makes the most backwards passes.

Pass accuracy

1. Jones 92%
2. Lindelof 89%
3. Smalling 87%
4. Bailly 86%
5. Rojo 69%

Average pass length

1. Rojo 25m
2. Bailly 20m
3. Jones 19m
4. Smalling 19m
5. Lindelof 18m

Second highest pass completion but making the most backwards passes by far and shortest passes this is less impressive.

Average defensive actions per game, blocks, clearances and interceptions

1. Bailly, Smalling & Jones 8
2. Rojo 7
3. Lindelof 6

The worst

Defensive errors per game

1. Lindelof, Jones, Bailly, Rojo 1
2. Smalling 0

Joint worst

Duels won per game

1. Jones 63%
2. Smalling 56%
3. Bailly 54%
4. Lindelof 41%
5. Rojo 29%

Second worst.

Stats from Squaka

He was in the right there though, DDG has this tendency of not collecting the ball, yesterday there was no real danger but there's plenty of times where he just doesn't come out for it and nearly costs us. Basically what @ivaldo said there.

Lindelof was 'okay' yesterday bar for one thing that annoyed the feck out of me. This situation where Long nearly scored, his tracking back with him was fecking pathetic, I understand that Matić was covering for him but it nearly cost us, it was a massive mistake not to go with Long there.

He was also responsible for conceding the Ward-Prowse chance, which was their second best chance of the game and they nearly scored from. Lost his man on the line, something he tends to do every game once.

Except he was completely right. I love DDG but his reluctance to come off his line is his biggest weakness. It would be fine if this was a one off but he does it quite frequently and puts needless pressure on our defenders.

It is a weakness of De Gea's but shout at him to come out when he needs to do it, not when there isn't an opposition player anywhere near him, it was a strange and redundant thing to do in the specific context.

 

[Lawman]

See I don’t think his use of the ball is that great. He made one great pass to Rashford, is that enough to be classed as good on the ball?

He was very smooth on the ball and composed I thought much like Blind is. Unlike say a Rojo or Smalling. But I agree he’s no Koeman but he’s significantly better on the ball than some.

 

[Gusjaros]

Lindelöf got the highest key pass rate of any Man Utd defender. It's 0.4 per 90 minutes according to WhoScored.com which basically is Barcelona level playmaking from a center back (Pique and Mascherano got 0.4, Vermaelen 0.3 and Umtiti 0.1). Bailly comes second at 0.3. Chris Smalling third at 0.1 and Jones and Rojo last at 0. That pretty much ends the discussion on who's got the best foot. The only question is why isn't Lindelöf using his foot more often?

 

[Gusjaros]

Backwards passes by our defenders, up to the Burnley game

1. Lindelof 29%
2. Jones 22.5%
3. Smalling 20.8%
4. Bailly 19.4%
5. Rojo 15.2%

Way out in front as the defender who makes the most backwards passes.

Pass accuracy

1. Jones 92%
2. Lindelof 89%
3. Smalling 87%
4. Bailly 86%
5. Rojo 69%

Average pass length

1. Rojo 25m
2. Bailly 20m
3. Jones 19m
4. Smalling 19m
5. Lindelof 18m

Second highest pass completion but making the most backwards passes by far and shortest passes this is less impressive.

Average defensive actions per game, blocks, clearances and interceptions

1. Bailly, Smalling & Jones 8
2. Rojo 7
3. Lindelof 6

The worst

Defensive errors per game

1. Lindelof, Jones, Bailly, Rojo 1
2. Smalling 0

Joint worst

Duels won per game

1. Jones 63%
2. Smalling 56%
3. Bailly 54%
4. Lindelof 41%
5. Rojo 29%

Second worst.

Stats from Squaka



He was also responsible for conceding the Ward-Prowse chance, which was their second best chance of the game and they nearly scored from. Lost his man on the line, something he tends to do every game once.



It is a weakness of De Gea's but shout at him to come out when he needs to do it, not when there isn't an opposition player anywhere near him, it was a strange and redundant thing to do in the specific context.

Please never try use statistics again.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Please never try use statistics again.

Explain and please detail how you get 0.4 key passes per 90 in the PL?

 

[Gusjaros]

Explain and please detail how you get 0.4 key passes per 90 in the PL?

First enter "detailed" under the Manchester United Squad List headline.
Then pick:
"Per 90 mins" in "Accumulation".
"Key passes" in "Categories".
"Toggle all" button in "Positions" to clear all positions and check the DC position.

Premier League matches are the default.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

First enter "detailed" under the Manchester United Squad List headline.
Then pick:
"Per 90 mins" in "Accumulation".
"Key passes" in "Categories".
"Toggle all" button in "Positions" to clear all positions and check the DC position.

Premier League matches are the default.

You didn't say what was wrong with the stats I posted? Seems especially shallow to criticise my use of statistics and then use two key passes that Lindelof made against Newcastle as proof that he is a world class play making centre back?! Almost as bad as you using the player ratings from the football 'experts' at the MEN as proof that Lindelof is our best defender!

 

[Gusjaros]

You didn't say what was wrong with the stats I posted? Seems especially shallow to criticise my use of statistics and then use two key passes that Lindelof made against Newcastle as proof that he is a world class play making centre back?! Almost as bad as you using the player ratings from the football 'experts' at the MEN as proof that Lindelof is our best defender!

I though sample size wasn't an issue?

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

Nothing CB for me. Not strong, not particularly quick, no real presence, nowhere near as intelligent as we're told (to make up for the first three points). His passing seems alright but that's basically the last thing I want my CB's to be able to do. Defensively he's just 'alright' and I don't think that's good enough for £30m.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

I though sample size wasn't an issue?

Who said that? Anyways, it is clear, you think Lindelof is the best thing sliced sliced bread whilst I think that he is mid table player. Let's see if he can improve, though given how good you already think he is then if he gets any better he would be in the running for the Ballon D'Or!

 

[red4ever 79]

Average player that we didnt need and offers nothing more than our other average CB's.

 

[11101]

Backwards passes by our defenders, up to the Burnley game

1. Lindelof 29%
2. Jones 22.5%
3. Smalling 20.8%
4. Bailly 19.4%
5. Rojo 15.2%

Way out in front as the defender who makes the most backwards passes.

Pass accuracy

1. Jones 92%
2. Lindelof 89%
3. Smalling 87%
4. Bailly 86%
5. Rojo 69%

Average pass length

1. Rojo 25m
2. Bailly 20m
3. Jones 19m
4. Smalling 19m
5. Lindelof 18m

Second highest pass completion but making the most backwards passes by far and shortest passes this is less impressive.

Average defensive actions per game, blocks, clearances and interceptions

1. Bailly, Smalling & Jones 8
2. Rojo 7
3. Lindelof 6

The worst

Defensive errors per game

1. Lindelof, Jones, Bailly, Rojo 1
2. Smalling 0

Joint worst

Duels won per game

1. Jones 63%
2. Smalling 56%
3. Bailly 54%
4. Lindelof 41%
5. Rojo 29%

Second worst.

Stats from Squaka

I appreciate all that probably took a long time to look up, but it tells you absolutely nothing. It doesn't factor in any kind of decision making.

How often does a player look for the forward pass and decide it's not on and pass backwards?
How often does he hoof it forwards anyway?
How many of those forward passes create openings vs a pass 5 feet forward to Matic?
How often does he just play the safe pass without seeing what is ahead of him?

You can only get the answers to those questions from watching them play.

 

[James Peril]

Lindelöf got the highest key pass rate of any Man Utd defender. It's 0.4 per 90 minutes according to WhoScored.com which basically is Barcelona level playmaking from a center back (Pique and Mascherano got 0.4, Vermaelen 0.3 and Umtiti 0.1). Bailly comes second at 0.3. Chris Smalling third at 0.1 and Jones and Rojo last at 0. That pretty much ends the discussion on who's got the best foot. The only question is why isn't Lindelöf using his foot more often?

Are you serious mate? This post is stretching so far it’s comical. Statisticlaly, he is making not even half a «key» pass each game, and whopping 0.1 more than Bailly, and then the discussion is over? Ridiculous! Basically Barcelona level playmaking from a centre back?

Instead of siting stats from whoscored, a dodgy parameter regardless, is just not good enough. Can you for example name/show us examples of these key passes? I have seen all of our games and I cannot remember anything spectacular about his passing game. It’s solid, he dares making passes instead of whacking the ball up the stands, but it’s nothing special.