Quite a performance today. Gosh I wish he had just tried to smash it when he made that tackle and run thru the middle. Kind of funny he did the right thing and setup a great opportunity for our forwards to squander once again.
2
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 15
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
Solid shift. Solid man.
We have to keep him at all costs. Solid player without Maguire.
Very good CB. Would have been viewed much differently if he wasn't partnered with Maguire for so long.
He's been brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant last night, in this form he'd keep Martinez out.
He was excellent last night and has stepped up massively when we needed him.
I've always thought that he's a much better backup than Maguire. Must keep.
Hes been so good, Martinez missing has hardly been noticed.
Footballers make mistakes. Even good footballers, when performing well. With Felix's goal you could in hindsight point at either one and question why they didn't commit. Then again if they did and left their players free for Felix to pass to and they scored, there'd be posters criticising their actions. In the first half they had some fun against the left side of our defense where both Shaw and Lindelöf made some mistakes.
Best defender last night. Looks to have toughened up a bit which gives me hopes for his United career.
Very good footballer who seems to be ok with playing his part and puts in a good shift when called upon. Valuable.
He's one of those rare High Performance individuals
What I don’t like seeing is so many people using Maguire as the excuse for 6 years poor form. No, there were things that Lindelof and the coaches (not just the player responsible for improvement) has to take ownership off. The ability to head, timing, positioning, passiveness, lack of aggression. Not things you’d typically have to think about as needing work for a CB.
but even I can say that his form the 2nd half of the season has shown that he has addressed some of those issues. Well done to him and the coaches.
my gripe is why has it taken 6 years for it to be addressed?
obviously we will have to see how Martinez returns from that injury but I’m happy to see Lindelof perform the backup role in the meantime.
but even I can say that his form the 2nd half of the season has shown that he has addressed some of those issues. Well done to him and the coaches.
my gripe is why has it taken 6 years for it to be addressed?
obviously we will have to see how Martinez returns from that injury but I’m happy to see Lindelof perform the backup role in the meantime.
And then you go and say that.. gack
Jake Humphrey enters the chat
I would be happy to keep him on for another season as 3rd or 4th choice CB. We cannot get 2 CB's in this summer, so its clearly between him and Maguire.
I do not want to see Maguire play for United again, Lindelof at least can do a job.
I do not want to see Maguire play for United again, Lindelof at least can do a job.
This is a fair point. There were plenty of times when he wasn't any good and Maguire wasn't playing. It mainly looks like whoever's doing the coaching has addressed some big questions in terms of his aggression and positioning.
He consistently plays up to his abilities.
Varane did both. He committed to the run on the right where AWB was already paying attention to it. He fully gambled that the pass was going to be paid, then when Felix went inside for the dribble Varane spun himself around slowly allowing a big gap for him to run into. He also had enough space to pass to a player making a run in front of him who had got in between Varane and Lindelof due to the overcommitment to AWB's side. He didnt play the pass, he instead casually took the shot on under no pressure and scored.
And yes Lindelof was let off at times too. The finish wide from Gallagher was from Lindelof being outplayed in that move as an example. But there were less mistakes and more good defensive involvements from Lindelof than Varane, so again Lindelof put in the stronger performance and I dont think it was that close.
He's been great recently. He's always been a passive defender, which is ok, but i think it meant he struggled when we didn't have anybody to step up and lead the back line. Now we have Varane and Martinez, both experienced, capable players and confident leaders, he is much more content in his role on the pitch.
I think it’s hard for a defender to show up to his ability when the team is playing shit.
Lindelof likes to defend reactively not proactively - it’s hard to defend on reaction when your team mates behind, on the side or in front of you are making mistakes themselves.
A forward or midfielder can pull off a valuable pass, skill or goal whilst Lindelof has to show his defensive ability in front of a keeper like De Gea, a partner like Maguire and midfielders like Mctominay or Fred.
I’ve been happy with Lindelof all season and that was noticeable when he started playing with a different partner.
That’s again making excuses for his individual failings. It’s not Maguire or any other player that makes him mistime a jump for a header for example. Something that we have seen repeatedly over 6 years. But something has changed because we don’t see that this season. I think the big change has been the straight forward ruthlessness of ETH, probably telling people what their weaknesses were, what he expected and how they could improve. In short, coaching. I’m annoyed it’s taken 6 years to get to that stage. We may have had a defender at the very top level IF these errors has been addressed years ago
That’s true to some extent but there have also been times when Maguire -Lindelof have performed well, even for for longer periods of time. Two seasons ago when we finished second, and they played the majority of the matches together with 1 goal per game conceded as average. Defensively they were good despite the fact they had McFred aka the gaping hole in front of them in the midfield. The problem was mainly the whole back 4 plus midfield were slow in passing, and we couldn’t build from the back.
He actually looks like genuine competition to Varane and Martinez, which is great for us.
Agree. A very good CD as a back up.
I'm happy he finally gets some recognition. Was always a much better player then Maguire or Smalling or Rojo etc.
i thought after licha injury wed be royally fecked. Lindelof is one of the main reasons weve managed to secure our place in champions league for next season. Should be kept as the 3rd/4th cb option as long as he wants to for next season for sure.
When Licha dropped out I felt certain Shaw would be CB in the final but I have to say Vic has been excellent and I now think he'll get the nod which is doubly good as Shaw can be LB where he'll be crucial
Not to say either was blameless, but I thought the combination of Eriksen getting rinsed time and again plus Rashford not doing any tracking back when he came on were much bigger issues in the first half.
I've wanted him gone for a long while but with the way he's stepped up this season it's made me change my mind on him. Don't know if he's a bit of a late bloomer, if it's Ten Hag, the fact that we have a better team in general or if it's a little bit of everything but I think there's no doubt now that he can definitely contribute to this team.
It's nice to know that our backup CB would be part of the first team of most Premier League clubs.
I know about your dislike for Lindelof, but you bring up a fair point. Our coaching has been lacking throughout the years. It no coincidence that the like of Lindelof, AWB and Rashford who were considered deadwood at the start of the season all went up a level(a couple of levels in Rashford's case).
Makes you geniunely wonder as to what the feck where our previous managers doing?
Mitchell van der Haag, loyal assistant manager to EtH, is a former defender and has played a huge role in the defensive shape and tactics.
It's very nice to see players improve with proper coaches and see who is able to adapt their game like Shaw (LB/LCB), Dalot (both fullback positions like in AC Milan), and Lindelof (RCB/LCB).
Lindelof has been an unsung hero this year and without him, United would have been fecked. I know it's hard for people to accept that, but that's where we are as a club and it's sad to see people unable to give him credit for his performances and professionalism and dependability/stability he's provided this season in particular.
It's very nice to see players improve with proper coaches and see who is able to adapt their game like Shaw (LB/LCB), Dalot (both fullback positions like in AC Milan), and Lindelof (RCB/LCB).
Lindelof has been an unsung hero this year and without him, United would have been fecked. I know it's hard for people to accept that, but that's where we are as a club and it's sad to see people unable to give him credit for his performances and professionalism and dependability/stability he's provided this season in particular.
It's pretty obvious what the difference is. He is a completely different player in this team
Poor first half but much better second. Backed off too much for Felix's goal even though Varane was out of sorts tracking no man's land too.
Perhaps Lindelof has turned a new leaf, which you would expect and hope him to do as he's been here for 6 years now; in that time he has played a lot of games and not been consistently convincing at all. If this continues, we may finally have the dependable (squad) player that can step in or rise to the occasion, the one that many of us have been criticising him for not being during his entire time here.
Also it is indeed sad and indicative of recency bias how his past form and performances are somehow now excused because of Maguire/Ole/Mourinho/McFred etc and making it out like he's been exemplary when he hasn't. People have already forgotten the first half of this season before the world cup where he was very below par against mostly poor opposition
If a player needs 6 years and a whole squad change of personnel and managers to perform at a decent level, then the chances are not that they were being held back, it's just that they weren't that good individually to rise above that in the first place. I say this because this standard applies to players like AWB, McT (lesser extent) and Fred, who have all improved under ETH this season but was also capable of showing really high peaks/elite ability on their own terms previously, something the Swede hasn't really shown despite his wealth of appearances.
Perhaps Lindelof has turned a new leaf, which you would expect and hope him to do as he's been here for 6 years now; in that time he has played a lot of games and not been consistently convincing at all. If this continues, we may finally have the dependable (squad) player that can step in or rise to the occasion, the one that many of us have been criticising him for not being during his entire time here.
Also it is indeed sad and indicative of recency bias how his past form and performances are somehow now excused because of Maguire/Ole/Mourinho/McFred etc and making it out like he's been exemplary when he hasn't. People have already forgotten the first half of this season before the world cup where he was very below par against mostly poor opposition
If a player needs 6 years and a whole squad change of personnel and managers to perform at a decent level, then the chances are not that they were being held back, it's just that they weren't that good individually to rise above that in the first place. I say this because this standard applies to players like AWB, McT (lesser extent) and Fred, who have all improved under ETH this season but was also capable of showing really high peaks/elite ability on their own terms previously, something the Swede hasn't really shown despite his wealth of appearances.
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He had brief spells like this where he played with confidence. During Maguire's first year he was part of the defensive unit that had third least conceded or something. He's good enough to be a backup and would walk into most teams in the league. People tend to exaggerate his highs and lows though.
Lindelof is proof of having good coaches and a good manager.
The Iceman has been hot and cold for us over the years, but he’s how now. Start the man v Citeh.
To be fair, coaching wise no one really improved on any weaknesses under Jose or Ole.
ETH and his men are the first we’ve seen who have actually managed to improve the players here. AWB looks like a completely different player, for example.
Uh huh. Living in hope of a real shit fest disaster from Lindelof to maintain the validity of an ungenerous view. You never know..,fingers crossed, he may still royally feck things up.
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