Stoke was the game where I felt he was losing the fans, he's been awful since that simple one and one miss.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Needs dropped, simple as that. We can't have any invisible players in other squad, regardless of their name or their pay cheque. It sends a bad message.
Martial and Rashford deserve a chance in their natural position.
I've never rated him as highly as most do. He goes missing in big games, when his team really needs him. I actually think the man thinks he is some sort of footballing god; he can't put a foot wrong. He constantly tries to do stupid flicks and fancy passes when the simple shot or pass is the best option.
Martial and Rashford deserve a chance in their natural position.
I've never rated him as highly as most do. He goes missing in big games, when his team really needs him. I actually think the man thinks he is some sort of footballing god; he can't put a foot wrong. He constantly tries to do stupid flicks and fancy passes when the simple shot or pass is the best option.
I was one of the very small minority who never wanted him here, as this is what I feared. Him slowly down the play & affecting the side. He is basically past it, scoring loads in a 2nd rate league for the past three seasons, & people believed he could do the same over here. I have no idea why. Do people honestly think our opponents fear his presence in the team. If they do they have a strange way of showing it.
Worse Mourinho seemingly is reluctant to drop/sub either him or Pogba, who are dragging us down.
Worse Mourinho seemingly is reluctant to drop/sub either him or Pogba, who are dragging us down.
how many players his age are playing 90mins every premier league game?
People need to take a look at Zlatan's underlying stats: league leader for shots, shots in box and second for shots on target. He's a phenomenal threat and provided nothing untoward happens, he'll be one of top scorers in the league with 20+ goals. There's no doubt he's scored fewer goals than he should have so far and is either underperforming with his finishing or has been unlucky, depending on how you view these things, but he's still playing well. What's making this feel worse is that a contender for the second most wasteful/unlucky player in the league is arguably Pogba, along with De Bruyne, Sigurdsson and a few others.
I'm not too worried about his performances in the big games away from home. They are a minority of the games we'll play and we've already got through 40% of them. We were desperate for a flat-track bully last year to finish off the weaker sides against whom we consistently dropped points – and he's our man.
Edit: Typos
I'm not too worried about his performances in the big games away from home. They are a minority of the games we'll play and we've already got through 40% of them. We were desperate for a flat-track bully last year to finish off the weaker sides against whom we consistently dropped points – and he's our man.
Edit: Typos
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Definitely shouldn't be extended for another year.
He's a fine player to have around but no way should he be starting week in week out
He's a fine player to have around but no way should he be starting week in week out
The one worry I had was if we would create enough chances for him, but I was certain, the ones we did he would score.
its kinda been the other way around. His finishing has been disappointing especially following the season he had last year.
yes you can say its not a strong league, but when youre in front of goal, the objective doesnt change regardless of whos in the way. Some of the chances hes missed have been really good chances but his decisions with them have let him and United down. Its a shame. Maybe he does need a rest.
its kinda been the other way around. His finishing has been disappointing especially following the season he had last year.
yes you can say its not a strong league, but when youre in front of goal, the objective doesnt change regardless of whos in the way. Some of the chances hes missed have been really good chances but his decisions with them have let him and United down. Its a shame. Maybe he does need a rest.
Having the highest number of shots and not scoring in 3 games just shows how selfish and wasteful he is in my opinion.
According to Squwaka he takes 5 shots on average per game and scores less than a goal every 2 games. 45 shots in the league and 4 goals to show for it. How is that a good thing?
Really surprised he's taking most of the heat, he started well and is still settling into a new team/league, the whole team is playing wank yet he's still managed to score 6 goals and is our leading scorer (would be on at least 8 now if he played in Europa). The last few games he's dropped off a bit but so have the team, poor results/performances against Stoke, Liverpool and Chelsea isn't his fault we've been terrible as a team there's not one player who's stood out in those 3 games.
I have faith in Zlatan, he will score goals no doubt id be more worried if he wasn't getting into the positions. feck knows what people think of our other attacking players if they want Zlatan gone already, wank or not he's been our most threatening player even today alongside Valencia he was the only one who looked to cause a threat.
I have faith in Zlatan, he will score goals no doubt id be more worried if he wasn't getting into the positions. feck knows what people think of our other attacking players if they want Zlatan gone already, wank or not he's been our most threatening player even today alongside Valencia he was the only one who looked to cause a threat.
I agree with this part -- I do think he'll score quite a few against the lesser sides. Although, I won't lie, I expected a bit more than he's shown so far. Whether that's down to the team not performing as a whole, I don't know, but hopefully it resolves itself quickly.
He wont get anywhere near 20+ goals, that is highly optimistic. He's had his purple patch where perhaps defences were in awe of him but that's over now, they've figured out he's all hype. I spoke earlier about not wanting to say 'I told you so' in regards to Zlatan but because of the absolute scolding I took in his thread during the summer I feel I should.
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/zla...the-united-forum.410554/page-32#post-19122806
What is worrying is that Rooney on Thursday in cf playing pretty averagely wasn't even as bad as Zlatan has been in 3/4 games this season. We've replaced one cone with another.
Good post. Zlatan is not the problem, although he has been a bit off form of late. The problem is our squad psychology and lack of leadership in central midfield and within the squad at large. The former is down to Mourinho and latter is down to both manager and players.
Agree. I made the same points in the summer but the thread was more like a fan club. Some of the accolades were ridiculous. All this talk of him not letting other players underperform because he just doesn't accept it. Silly stuff.
He's had some nice moments and there'll be more to come but it's surely becoming more and more obvious that we need a different style of play.
Said it then but we need to start building a team and a style. Not plugging holes and accommodating players.
Six goals in thirteen appearances is still not a bad outcome. However, those missed sitters in the past three games are alarming. Hopefully it's just a slight dip in form.
that pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.
the way i look at it is we have a 35 year old who we don't want playing 50 games and an 18 year old we don't want playing 50 games, both players form will fluctuate dramatically because of their age, and both have limitations because of their age so you split the playing time depending on the game/tactics/form/fittness.
For example today we where playing Chelsea, who play a really high line so you want pace, so you play Rashford.
but whats happening is the equivalent of when Mourinho brought Drogba back to Chelsea, who was a similar age to Zlatan is now, except Mourinho didn't expect Drogba to play every week, he is with Zlatan, and thats just a stupid way to use a 35 year, even one as talented as Zlatan
Because getting in positions and not scoring is a much better thing then not having the chances in the first place. Lack of service is very rarely the problem for a striker underperforming. A strikers' finishing will average out over a season to the norm in terms of their expected goals compared to the amount they actually score, so of course it's a plus if he keeps a high rate of shots and chances, as the goals will come. Don't forget the last 2 years when our strikers averaged like, 1.5 shots per game and overall we averaged just over 10 shots per game, among the lowest in the league.
He's part of the problem, how can you possibly have sat through today's game and not seen Zlatan as a problem? I get you're a big fan of his but seriously he's been mediocre for a good while now. Enough of the blame game, there was all this big promotion in the summer transfer thread (you included) about this and that, he's come in and stunk the place up and I don't even blame him, it's literally exactly what logic dictated would happen, he is completely the wrong fit, he isn't a player you can rely on in big games.
Today epitomised why he just won't cut the mustard. He spent the first part of the game stood around David Luiz, giving him the easiest half of his life, getting frustrated, then decided he'd drop deep into midfield and make passes whilst at the same time make as little effort as possible to get into the box. There must have been about 6/7 occasions Valencia got the ball wide and rather than bust a gut into the box, Zlatan would just jog casually towards goal. Mourinho clearly saw it as a problem because he went 442 in the second half. To make it worse when he did manage to get into the box he'd miss a chance that 'Messi' or 'Ronaldo' would score(something he's been doing very regularly lately), I use those two because that's who he was being compared to. I think it's only fair to hold him to those same standards or does Zlatan need multiple specific conditions in order to score goals and play well? I can see that pattern emerging already.
Yeah, though I'd use 'cult' rather than fan club. But yeah basically he's not suited to us or any team in this league with any sort of aspirations. Long gone are the days of players like Berbatov and Zlatan succeeding in this league as lone strikers. If you're a centre forward in the PL who is immobile and likes to drop deep you'll get eaten up and you'll make your team suffer. The crap teams will play with compact defensive and deep lines, the good ones will press you like mad and those are like kryptonite to an immobile lone striker who doesn't make runs and likes to drop deep. And if you can't have goal-scoring stats that mask these deficiencies you basically become useless to your team, which is exactly what Zlatan has become (1 league goal in 7)
I don't see our problem is being a result of a particular player, but rather a lack of squad cohesion, which lets face it is a function of the manager. Mourinho usually gets teams to punch well above their collective weight and so far the opposite is happening.
Well yeah of course it's more than about one player but He's "part of the problem". In the same way Rooney was. But when you don't have a fully functioning and cohesive squad you'll need your supposed world class players to grind you out results. 1 goal in 7 games and multiple missed sitters do not help us grind out results. Zlatans overall performances will never be good enough to compensate for his lack of goals, that's happening right now and so is a problem.
Again, individual problems with player stats are endemic of the bigger problem the squad is having at the moment in terms of communication and cohesion. If everyone is playing well, everyone's stats will look much better. Blaming individuals doesn't address the core problem.
Exactly. Generally over the last few years it has been the same players in Europe's top 5 leagues who are shooting the most and and scoring the most: Messi, Ronaldo, Zlatan etc.
Already this season the top 5 (in terms of shots per game) are Ronaldo, Dzeko (havig a great season), Messi, Zlatan and Aguero. Anyone is on that list at the end of the season will be one of the top European goalscorers.
To be fair I don't like seeing that shit and I understand to a degree what you're saying, for us as fans seeing that is a bit of a kick in the nads, I'm not sure that players really think like that anymore and it's not just a problem at this club, that's where I guess Mourinho has to earn his corn and get them to realise what it means to play for this club.
We were expecting Messi-esque & Ronaldo-esque performances?
i'm tempted to just put a row of
's in there but let's go with it as a serious question.
What were we expecting?
A half-decent number of goals scored 99% vs. the most soppy opposition & sod all else? The work-rate & mobility of a snail carrying a sack of cement?
And worst, he looks difficult to link with because his mobility makes him so difficult to find, static doesn't even begin to cover it. You even know where he'll be stood almost all of the time.
And I dread him 'dropping off' cos he's even more shite there. Might as well bring Rooney back in.
i'm tempted to just put a row of
's in there but let's go with it as a serious question.What were we expecting?
A half-decent number of goals scored 99% vs. the most soppy opposition & sod all else? The work-rate & mobility of a snail carrying a sack of cement?
And worst, he looks difficult to link with because his mobility makes him so difficult to find, static doesn't even begin to cover it. You even know where he'll be stood almost all of the time.
And I dread him 'dropping off' cos he's even more shite there. Might as well bring Rooney back in.
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I think he probably knows he's not performing to his own standards, he kind of intimated that after the Liverpool game if I remember rightly. However, we have a 35 year old striker, spearheading our attack in what is allegedly the richest club in the world....something isn't quite right....
Wasn't he brought in as part of the solution to that very problem?
There's no two ways about the fact that he's been brought in as a key player, and with the position we're in we need(ed) our key players/match winners/leaders/whatever one might want to call them, to perform right from the get go. In fact, I'm almost certain that his experience was highlighted as a pro which would let him come in and perform from the very beginning.
Instead he's been missing chances and performing as poorly as anyone else in our team as soon as the going got tough, and he has in no way contributed in the way you'd expect from a leader brought in with the very specific purpose of impacting the team and our results in the short term.
He may still turn contribute, as there's a lot of season yet to be played, but judging on what we've seen so far, the "Zlatan experiment" hasn't exactly worked out.
He was always a bottler. What's so surprising about it?
As I said the other day, the last time we had a world class striker at his peak was RVP's first season with us - that was also the last time we won the title...
At PSG he had runners literally everywhere.
Here at United, we are SO fecking static it is unreal and it has been a problem for many years, even during SAF's time.
We have the ball and nobody looks to move into space, they all stand waiting for the easy ball.
It is infuriating.
Here at United, we are SO fecking static it is unreal and it has been a problem for many years, even during SAF's time.
We have the ball and nobody looks to move into space, they all stand waiting for the easy ball.
It is infuriating.
There are a few guys in our club that pass and move- Mata and Mkhi. Right now neither of them are starting.
Agreed, starting to hate him with a passion.
Think he needs a partner up front so he can play slightly more freely.
He's really not that clinical at all is he?
What top league has Zlatan been playing in the last few years. The French equivalent of the Championship. As for Dzeko. It is noticeable how many players who leave the Premiership & then go to play for big clubs in the likes of La Liga & Italy manage to score so many goals. Tells you a lot about the standard.
No excuses. He's a top striker and he has missed chances you'd expect a top striker to take recently.
You present the one on one against Stoke, the header at Anfield or those various chances (besides maybe the chest and volley) to Suarez and you get goals.
It has nothing to do with anyone else. Zlatan just isn't doing the job at the minute. I love the fella as much as anyone but let's not pretend his misses are someone else's fault.
I would just like him to start taking long shots again. I thought the one he scored against Bournemouth was going to be just one of many. You see him on the edge of the box looking for a pass sometimes and I'm thinking 'shoot FFS'.
Its got to the point where, despite having Pogba and Zlatan, Ander Herrera is the player in our team most willing to try from range. What the hell is that?!
This.
He's been off form but then again so have most of our players. Therefore blaming him for our mediocrity is complete nonsense - a way to let off some steam for the broader frustrations of how we as a club have been playing this year.
Biggest problem is he is not a solo striker, and he hasn't been for the last 2 years. Mourinho is failing to utilize him properly. Or why sign him if that's what he is looking for?
Zlatan aged 35 is a decent option to have, but would rather have Zlatan in his prime. Not sure how Mou is going to fix the striker dilemma. Wayne's legs are gone, Zlatan's age is also showing, Rash is still too young. There is no Ruud in his prime around. I'd play either of Rashford/Martial up top, especially against teams who move the ball fast. Playing Zlatan against pacey teams limits the chance of a proper counter-attack to the very minimum. Shame that Januzaj and Memphis have not been able to fill in wingers positions.
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