Well actually before he got injured he was a bit shit. He started the season fantastically though.
Anderson
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Well actually before he got injured he was a bit shit. He started the season fantastically though.
I wouldn't say he was shit at all. In fact the only "poor" game he had was the one against City where the result suggests a shocker when in fact it was the defence's fault for the score line and he was playing in midfield with Fletcher against Toure, Silva, Barry and Milner. Hardly a fair match up and more the fault of Ferguson, tactically speaking, in my opinion.
They may have both contributed, but some could claim that our free flowing football stopped when Cleverley was injured, not Anderson.
Great post.
It amazes me that people say we don't need him or that he's way behind the pecking order now because of a 20 minute cameo by a 19 year old and good performances by 2 37/38 year old veterans. Strange place this.
Going through yesterday training pics,its look like Anderson is back in first team training.I guess we might see him play today.
I feel bad for anderson. He was never a '20 going on 25' young player like messi, fabregas or Rooney and was always going to take time to develop and learn. But he's been very unlucky with injuries being a consistent part of every season for him. This season the doors had opened up for him to really rack up a big number of games for the season in relative continuity but again it wasn't the case.
At the same time he clearly has improved quite a lot as a footballer and its a case of fine tuning and getting his bottom level sorted imo. The way some people make him out to be a useless asset is weird. He's a good player.
At the same time he clearly has improved quite a lot as a footballer and its a case of fine tuning and getting his bottom level sorted imo. The way some people make him out to be a useless asset is weird. He's a good player.
Despite his supporters/critics Anderson really has something to prove
He started the season really well with cleverley but after Tom got injured Anderson's form tailed off
He seems to always do ok to well in a midfield 3 but can struggle in a 2
I'm still unsure about him. He is very mobile but I think he can be wasteful. If he was able to sort out his consistency he'd be a valuable player - his fitness is also an issue given the problems with injuries this season - no point in having players like Owen if they can't be relied upon to stay fit - hopefully he gets a run of games And good health
He started the season really well with cleverley but after Tom got injured Anderson's form tailed off
He seems to always do ok to well in a midfield 3 but can struggle in a 2
I'm still unsure about him. He is very mobile but I think he can be wasteful. If he was able to sort out his consistency he'd be a valuable player - his fitness is also an issue given the problems with injuries this season - no point in having players like Owen if they can't be relied upon to stay fit - hopefully he gets a run of games And good health
I stand by what I've said before which is that if its an open game, with lots of space then ando will do well. The first games we played this season were all open, end to end games. Personally I think that's what helped him more than say clev bringing more out of him. In open games he has space to run in to which he can exploit, he's got more room for his passes so he can get away with some lose ones but also he has more space to find people in. It's always the tight games where he struggles because he has to be a lot more patient and careful with his passing. He hasn't learnt that yet and still looks to try and force the issue too much. The talet is there though but he needs to stay fit so he can learn. He's running out of time though.
Can anyone provide a fitness update on Ando?
He returned against Blackburn but seems to have gone completely off the radar again.
Injured?
Is it possible Fergie is freezing him out as he did with Nani in 09/10, in order to shock him into action?
He returned against Blackburn but seems to have gone completely off the radar again.
Injured?
Is it possible Fergie is freezing him out as he did with Nani in 09/10, in order to shock him into action?
He's injured, a couple weeks away still.
Why would he need to shock him? Anderson performed very well at the start of the season, then went a bit off the boil and then got injured. Some of you are talking about him as if he's been utter crap all season.
Here's a pic of him from training yesterday
Why would he need to shock him? Anderson performed very well at the start of the season, then went a bit off the boil and then got injured. Some of you are talking about him as if he's been utter crap all season.
Here's a pic of him from training yesterday
Came back from injury really early, picked up a knock in training, hasn't returned yet.
He's injured, a couple weeks away still.
Why would he need to shock him? Anderson performed very well at the start of the season, then went a bit off the boil and then got injured. Some of you are talking about him as if he's been utter crap all season.
Here's a pic of him from training yesterday
You've got me wrong Top, I'm a big Anderson fan.
I was just speculating based on the fact that we've not really heard anything about his situation.
Glad to hear he's close to returning, though hard to see when he'll get a look in now.
Dumbest post of the year
You've even made Cina defend Anderson strongly.
A midfield three of Anderson, Carrick and Cleverley (when they're all on form) could be an absolutely fantastic option in any big away game. I can see Fergie giving it a go, sooner rather than later.
It could be but do you not think the option of Scholes or Giggsy would be a better fit right now? They would have to run less too. Not a slight on Anderson but Scholes especially has been great and he'd be even better in a 3 man midfield. With Carrick shielding, him dictating and Cleverley bombing forward I think it'd work a treat.
Obviously though, in the future it could be great.
Obviously though, in the future it could be great.
I don't think his form measurably dropped prior to his injury, it was just a matter of being paired with Fletcher IIRC, which is a poor partnership at the best of times never mind when Fletcher is struggling. I hate to criticise Fletcher but I feel he caused a lot of problems earlier this season.
Fletcher hardly ever provided an option in the games paired with Ando. Now we've all seen how poor Ando's passing is when he tries to force the play, he needs team-mates to make themselves available.
Fletcher hardly ever provided an option in the games paired with Ando. Now we've all seen how poor Ando's passing is when he tries to force the play, he needs team-mates to make themselves available.
Well I hope he's available soon, I'm sure we'll need all the manpower we can get onto the pitch in the coming months.
Who would you drop, Welbeck/Hernandez? It's weird how after going through that period of benching Berba in favour of Rooney alone up top, Fergie seems to have stuck with two forwards in pretty much every big game since, even when it made most sense not to like against Barca or City.
The prospect of those three together is a really interesting one though, they should complement each others' games really well. I personally think Anderson is incapable of playing in a two but alongside the much more disciplined Carrick, with Cleverley taking the pressure off to link play higher up the pitch (as Smores says above), it could work really well.
It is a bit strange, I agree. Can't help wondering if his recent favouring of two strikers and two CMs is down to having an abundance of options up top and not enough in the middle. If Cleverley and Anderson hit a decent run of form, I wonder if we might see a return to the lone striker system.
I could see Welbeck and Rooney both starting in such a formation fwiw. They could both be a great option coming in from the left of a front three.
I'd love to see Welbeck used on the left a little more too, actually. I think that frustrating little period where Fergie liked to play him out wide (as he and others like Wenger like to with pretty much every young striker in League Cup matches) has actually come to fruition in terms of developing his all round attacking game, he looks really comfortable when drifting out to the channels now. I'll have to step back from fantasy land now actually as a front 3 of Welbeck, Rooney and Nani all swapping round, sounds great to me too.
I agree as to why Fergie's gone with what he has at different times, just talking like this you realise how many attacking options we do have. A final bit of tinkering to the centre and we should have so much flexibility with how we line up.
For me that's pretty blatantly the case. We have 4 top strikers in comparison to a midfield that is lacking, due to injuries and the age of some of them. I can't help but think that if Sir Alex had the midfield of 07-09 we would be playing 4-3-3 far more.
If anything our strikeforce and midfield have swapped over the last few years in terms of depth. Remember how barren of strikers we in 07/08?
We don't really play 2 strikers though - Rooney plays this roving fluid role that really only has him up top for like a third of the game
I'm not sure how much longer you can give this guy.
His highest number of Premier League starting appearances in a season is 16 in 07/08, his first season at the club. Four seasons later and he's failed to improve on that figure (08/09 - 11, 09/10 - 10, 10/11 - 14, 11/12 - 8).
It wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that he's been pretty much a liability in the majority of those games. I take my hat off to him though. He's managed to build a decent reputation for himself based on a handful of good performances over a five year period. Ridiculous really.
It's time to cut our losses in the Summer and move on.
His highest number of Premier League starting appearances in a season is 16 in 07/08, his first season at the club. Four seasons later and he's failed to improve on that figure (08/09 - 11, 09/10 - 10, 10/11 - 14, 11/12 - 8).
It wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that he's been pretty much a liability in the majority of those games. I take my hat off to him though. He's managed to build a decent reputation for himself based on a handful of good performances over a five year period. Ridiculous really.
It's time to cut our losses in the Summer and move on.
We've always been more of a 442 team, regardless of the strength of our midfield. I think fergie has been working towards this set up for a while which is why he is so keen to get welbeck playing well. Right now we've got the best set up for our team with Rooney dropping back. I think ando and clev would both have to be doing amazing for fergie consider going to a 3 on a regular basis. I can see it for tough games but in general I think we'll stick with 442/4411. That's the best formation for the players we have.
This is unbelievably harsh.
He hasn't been a liability in the majority of these matches, that isn't true at all. And he's been incredibly unlucky with injuries, not disputing that.
I actually would argue that the last couple of seasons, he's played well in the majority of games he's started. He was one of our very best players at the start of this season, and last season, in that run before christmas when we played some magnificent stuff, he was sensational. Ended the season on a high as well.
I don't think he is a central midfielder by trade, and therefore he needs to alter his game. The stop-start nature to his previous campaigns has slowed down the progress I thought he would make. But I'm absolutely confident there are signs that he's maturing as a player. I still belive that the penny will drop for him, much like it did for Nani. The raw tools are all there, he need to put it together. And I think he will, if we're patient.
There's countless examples of central midfielders not fulfilling their potential until they're past their mid-twenties - not least the world's best player in that position today.
Those appearance stats are actually quite shocking. Didn't realise his record that poor.
The thing with Anderson though is that he's just not getting enough game time. He seems to be very injury prone. He won't suddenly become a better player, he needs experience and if he can't stay fit he won't get it. I reckon he needs to stay fit for the run in, otherwise we need to seriously think about signing someone in the summer.
We should be signing someone regardless. I firmly believe that he's one of the core reasons Fergie hasn't signed someone yet. He has a lot of faith in him, the start of the season showed that, but I'd say it is waning ST this stage. He's shockingly unreliable.
Wouldn't be so bad if he was the only midfielder not playing consistently. Cleverley does not seem any more reliable, Giggs and Scholes cannot possibly play in every game. So we are only left with one regular in Carrick, who for me has no effective replacement, god help us if he were to get injured!
He is very injury prone but it's worth bearing in mind that his paltry appearances record is also affected by him spending longish periods out of favour due to poor form (most memorably when he allegedly fecked off to Brazil).
It's such a shame really. He clearly hasn't progressed as well as Fergie would have hoped. When we spent big bucks on him and Nani they were obviously intended to be long-term replacements for Giggs and Scholes. Fergie is absolutely entitled to give them every chance to repay the faith/money he's invested in them. So far this has worked for Nani (albeit he's not quite there yet) but Anderson still has an awful long way to go.
All of which means that, five years after we signed them if I was forced to choose I think I'd still feel more confident going into a game with the two players in their mid to late thirties. That's not ideal, to put it mildly!
It's such a shame really. He clearly hasn't progressed as well as Fergie would have hoped. When we spent big bucks on him and Nani they were obviously intended to be long-term replacements for Giggs and Scholes. Fergie is absolutely entitled to give them every chance to repay the faith/money he's invested in them. So far this has worked for Nani (albeit he's not quite there yet) but Anderson still has an awful long way to go.
All of which means that, five years after we signed them if I was forced to choose I think I'd still feel more confident going into a game with the two players in their mid to late thirties. That's not ideal, to put it mildly!
TBF even if Anderson wasn't inconsistent we'd still end another player. It's the reason we held on to Hargreaves for so long after all.
I think that's probably harsh on Nani. As for Anderson, he hasn't become a player yet, but maybe there's still time. I am starting to lose my belief though. He always looks like someone who is great when he pulls it all together but how often does that happen? Most young players rid themselves of that inconsistency as they get older. Perhaps he'll be one of the ones that remains infuriating throughout his career.
I presume Pogue meant that Nani still hasn't reached his full potential. Scary thought!
Anderson just frustrates the shit out of me. But as Chief said, Fergie not buying a midfielder was probably as much down to Hargreaves as him. He can't put us off buying a midfielder anymore. Not after 5 years, it's shocking when you think about it. He was €30m for feck sake.
Maybe a bit but comparing him with a legend like Giggs is always going to be a tough one.
Nani was brilliant last season but hasn't kicked on as I would have hoped in 2011/12. If I had to choose between Giggs or Nani for the upcoming game against Spurs I'd go with Giggs every time.
Probably more of a reflection on Giggs than it is on Nani but still...
I will start to worry about Anderson if he hits age 25 still this inconsistent.
I can't believe he's still only 23. Seems like we have had him in our ranks for ages, despite the lack of appearances. Give him one more season, and if the long term injury re-occurs then I think it's bye bye.
It's the lack of appearances that frustrates me more than anything else. Surely by now he'd at least have bilked up more and gotten fitter, and not be injured as much? If anything his inconsistency is due to how little he plays. Most of the time when he gets a run of 5 or 6 games he plays well.
It's not ideal either that he's looked overweight during quite a lot of his time at the club. He may have a stocky build but I'd be amazed if he was at peak fitness, or anywhere close.
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