It's clearly a miracle, the likes of which have never been seen! Fred on the other hand we are obviously completely right about!
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It's clearly a miracle, the likes of which have never been seen! Fred on the other hand we are obviously completely right about!
This isn’t really one of those told ya so situations. Lindelof looked like an absolute car crash last season and that’s a fact.
He looks a lot better now, genuinely. But there are still misgivings about his ability to head away balls into the box. Even last night (Bailly is even worse at this) we struggled to clear a couple of first half crosses. But maybe a partner that can head the ball will help him out.
So pleased that the Iceman is proving me wrong. He looks so much better playing in a team that tries to play on the front foot.
Heading is incredibly important in England. Always has been and always will be, in spite of the purist snobs that seek to depict the English game as some sort of cave-dwelling ignoramus.
No team has won the Premier League without a defender that dominates their own box. I’d be surprised if any team in English football has won a league title without one, in fact.
I don’t agree. He showed quality last year but even when he played well lots of people disliked him. It’s just the way it is, everybody can’t like every player and many had made up their minds about him. He has made big improvements in special areas, but still it is a bit funny to read how people are so surprised that he is a good player. He has played well in the national team for some time and in several matches in United and any semi-trainee eye could see there was quality.
If he wasnt signed by Jose, he wouldnt have played half the games he did after his initial comedy games, Jose stuck with him because he was his signing, there was no hiding from that fact.
People werent harsh on him due to the fact he was a Jose singing, the majority of people were harsh on him because he was crap. Otherwise they would still look for small mistakes, but he gets praise all around, deservedly so.
And that poster has half of his posts in here, of course i will call someone out on that who was only waiting to shit on posts that were mostly true at the time, performance related, because he couldnt cope with the Lindelöf criticism.
We have basically Fred in the same position like Lindelöf last season, and he will be judged the same.
He started to play really well already with Mourinho, but I think as OGS has sorted out the midfield really well, that has helped Lindelof. The main effect from Ole seems to be that Lindelof now dares to dribble, take the ball forward and pass more advanced passes. The whole team seem to be less afraid of failing.
IMO his improvement comes from being more aggressive, last season he looked like a scared boy who was put into a match by his parents. He can defend (which is evident from Sweden/Benfica performances) but that added aggression which he has shown this season (Including under Jose) has made him more comfortable in prem and for some reason I believe he has Vidic type aggression in him.
He was poor last season but people would rather subject a player to extreme derision in the bid to come across as knowledgeable about football than consider factors like settling in and gaining confidence, which is for "deluded idiots".
Talent and performance are not the same. Just because the latter is poor doesn't mean you attack and deride the former blindly. And time, a little patience to increase the sample size of judgement usually helps too.
Talent and performance are not the same. Just because the latter is poor doesn't mean you attack and deride the former blindly. And time, a little patience to increase the sample size of judgement usually helps too.
Actually agree with you on this last year Lindelof when given run of games showed signs of settling and enough promise to persist with but Mourinho dropped him for no apparent reason, like you said some posters were quite harsh in their assessment and had written him off prematurely so it would take prolonged period of good performances from Lindelof for them to admit they were way off the mark in Judging him
Brilliant again, long may it continue.
Nobody except the team that currently holds the league title. And the one before them. Heading ability is still important, its professional football after all, but its slipping down the priority list. Other things are more important now. You don't need Stuart Pearce in defence anymore and you don't write a player like Lindelof off because he's not Vidic in the air.
Well said. Nothing wrong with your initial assessment but isn't it nice to see a player start fulfilling his potential.
Solid. Has always been pretty good at the ball, but you very rarely see him being outmuscled.
Really starting to stamp his place down om the team.
Really starting to stamp his place down om the team.
Smalling does sometimes play on the left depending on his partner. Will be interesting to see which of he or Lindelof move over now that Ole is in charge.
Tbf I haven’t stuck the boot in the last 3-4 games
Otamendi played 34 games last season and is one of the best aerial defenders in England? City still have Kompany in the squad, too. Stones is no joke in the air either.
Irrespective, City are also a unique case in that they play a brand of football that is impossible to recreate for just about any normal team in the country. For almost every other team in England, having centre halves that are good in the air is absolutely crucial. In England it always will be, as I said.
Lindelof can’t be written off entirely, but I don’t think we’ll win anything with him at centre half unless we give him a partner that can head the ball. A Smalling that is comfortable on the left being the ideal sort of partner.
It definitely is. I look forward to watching his progress over the next few years. Hopefully we have our next Vidic level defender on our hands, in the process of blossoming.
Looking better every game. If we can secure a top class partner next to him then we're sorted.
Delighted for him, after Rashers and Pogba the best player under Ole.
I think better than Pogba. He's been in the best form for the longest of any player, going back to Juventus and Chelsea games under Mourinho. POTY form imo.
Agreed. People show no patience and it's infuriating.
One of the few players who was looking good under Mourinho and now is getting better and confident with every game.
Given your comment, he has every right to tell you: "I told you so". It's ok to criticize the performances of the player. But you made a statement with absolute certainty that Lindelof has zero chance at United. In this case, you're obviously wrong, so own up to it, eat the humble pie, say you are sorry, so we all can move on.
I tens to stick by our players and especially the ones getting unfairly criticed by posters like yourself who has never played football.
That your comment was laughable. What you wrote about Vidic and Evra is easy to say with hindsight but it was not how it was back then. People like yourself would've been the first to critice and call them duds, shit etc.
To become a top top CB in the prem i do think he needs to bulk up more, but he has all the raw attributes and intelligence. Having a very good season though. Hes young anyway so hopefully that comes with time, getting that bit more strength and aggressiveness to be stronger in the air and in physical battles. Potential for that is there though. We might yet find that a lindelof-Bailly partnership is the way forward!.
People seem to make judgements so quickly on players. Almost like they know more than the coaches that watch them every day. It’s fine to criticise a performance but to come out with phrases like ‘flop’, or ‘will be sold to a mid table club next year’ is just embarrassing really. There are many, many examples of top players that took a few years to get to a high level.
Colossus. I think him and Smalling would become a tough as nails defense, and we should be adding a CB in the summer to make it better. For now, I can't wait for Smalling to be back to see how these two work together.
I am not trying to say that he's been world class from day one or anything. But a fact is that you wouldn't be able to know a proper defender when you saw one.
Generally people on the caf have a hard time differentiating between adjusting to a new league and team and footballing ability. De Gea is quite a recent example of this.
Agree. This also keeps the constant negative culture on the caf which is getting really boring, imo.
This.
Not saying this applies 100% to Lindelöf, but it was clear as day that de Gea was most likely going to be top class once he had adjusted. The only things he lacked were the ones that can be taught.
look at the professional football player here. You dont have to play football at a high level to recognise shit performances.
you mean you tend to stick to your darlings and defend them no matter what. Thats fine, just say how it is really.
I said “he looks a lot better now, genuinely”. That’s an admission that he has improved.
That’s pretty clear. Unless you’re a raging halfwit.
Defenders are easy to spot a mile off. Lindelof was disastrously bad. There was nothing (particularly in terms of positional sense, demonstrated through numerous goals in which he struggled to close space and was turned inside out, evident even in his first pre season) that indicated he would start putting in these performances.
Hindsight is wonderful, as always. But this isn’t a case of ‘look at all you impatient idiots, how wrong you were!’
Lindelof looked, at times, horrific. Now he doesn’t, which is good for us - and him.
That's simply not true. He was getting shit on because Jose signed him and they could add his fee into Bailly and slam Jose for wasting 60m on CB. Or how we wasn't what we need etc.
Where would we be without him?
Posters defending him thoughout the period claiming patience was the key have every right to point out how wrong certain posters were in their definite, unwavering statements.
Now we still have posters throwing him back handed compliments or praise with an Astrix attached.
Its not his fans that's being unreasonable here.
The differences between his performances now and then are like night and day
Eight wins in a row and you idiots are still bickering. Go wash your vaginas and drink a diet sprite. FFS.
It's a pleasure to see him play with confidence and that he finally dares to use the talent he has fully. It also seems that the teammates are not only nice anymore but really respect and listen to him as he directs the defense.
He and the whole team work so much better now and I have a definite feeling that we have only seen the beginning so far, they will be even better.
When it came to Lindelöf and Smalling, before Smalling's injury, they had begun an understanding of each other's games and positioning which looked very promising.
I can hardly wait until they get the chance to continue developing that cooperation, they looked to be able to get something really good from it. Bailly also looked good at Arsenal, so there is hope that even the defense can become more stable.
But as so many pointed out, top class we can probably not hope for until we get a natural left CB.
He and the whole team work so much better now and I have a definite feeling that we have only seen the beginning so far, they will be even better.
When it came to Lindelöf and Smalling, before Smalling's injury, they had begun an understanding of each other's games and positioning which looked very promising.
I can hardly wait until they get the chance to continue developing that cooperation, they looked to be able to get something really good from it. Bailly also looked good at Arsenal, so there is hope that even the defense can become more stable.
But as so many pointed out, top class we can probably not hope for until we get a natural left CB.
Somehow, I'm still not convince he'll become a world class CB. But his progress is very encouraging.
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