Rafael

Looks very good so far, and Fabio is supposed to be better.

Good showing from the new players tonight, and a well-picked side with a good mixture of old and young, guile and pace.
 
As for Brwned saying he dives in too much, he's just a kid who got a cheer for his first one then went for the second. Thats not a worry, not one bit.

He does it consistently. And playing to the crowd is not a good idea for a defender, he's not ready.
 
He does it consistently. And playing to the crowd is not a good idea for a defender, he's not ready.

An 18 year old foreigner will get excited, and its more positive than negative.

He has commited only one foul tonight. He is not ready, but he plays "better football" than any of our right backs. His technique is something Brown and Neville can only dream of. Defensively I'd take Brown as first choice, he is excellent against medium level wingers. Babel has had him a few times in the last two encounters, taking nothing away from Brown he can pull off brilliant performances against top class opposition, he is United quality.
 
An 18 year old foreigner will get excited, and its more positive than negative.

He has commited only one foul tonight. He is not ready, but he plays "better football" than any of our right backs. His technique is something Brown and Neville can only dream of. Defensively I'd take Brown as first choice, he is excellent against medium level wingers. Babel has had him a few times in the last two encounters, taking nothing away from Brown he can pull off brilliant performances against top class opposition, he is United quality.

Nothing to do with committing fouls, he misses the ball completely and then the winger just skips past him. Happened 3 or 4 times in this match and he has done so plenty of times. He'll grow out of it, but he's still got another year at least before any sort of talk about being ready to start a match, especially against the second most/most physical team in the league.

Brown is miles ahead of him defensively and is rightfully first choice.
 
Is he not good enough to start against Bolton? I bet he is.

Defensively sound, amazing attacking abillity, fast, composed, very good player overall.

He will make the right back position his own in the coming season, but I think we should test him on saturday.

Great with the ball but very mediocre without it. Unfortunately that's a problem when you're a defender. Thought his positioning today was awful - got a lot to learn and until he does he should be let no-where near the first team in a real match, sorry.
 
Nothing to do with committing fouls, he misses the ball completely and then the winger just skips past him. Happened 3 or 4 times in this match and he has done so plenty of times. He'll grow out of it, but he's still got another year at least before any sort of talk about being ready to start a match, especially against the second most/most physical team in the league.

Brown is miles ahead of him defensively and is rightfully first choice.

It did? Not in crucial positions it didnt.

Who are the Bolton wingers nowadays?

Brown is the safer option I fully agree.
 
It did? Not in crucial positions it didnt.

Who are the Bolton wingers nowadays?

Brown is the safer option I fully agree.

Not in crucial positions, no.

Gardner, Riga and Smolarek are all the pacey ones, but they're all a bit shite. Davies is likely to play on the wing though if Elmander makes it back in time. But with Bolton it never really matters about quality, they could just quite easily bully him out of the match.
 
Pique last season showed the risk you take in throwing young players into a match against a physical team like Bolton. I'd still say Brown, Neville, and even Hargreaves are ahead of Rafael when it comes to starting in league games.
 
Mediocre? I thought he was excellent defensively, except for a couple of moments where he got too tight to the attackers in the 2nd half..
 
Pique last season showed the risk you take in throwing young players into a match against a physical team like Bolton. I'd still say Brown, Neville, and even Hargreaves are ahead of Rafael when it comes to starting in league games.

If it was away, no one would think of playing him, thats what happened with Pique. But at Old Trafford its totally different, we control the match almost from start to end and most of the bolton players will be as nervous as him. He should make the bench.
 
If it was away, no one would think of playing him, thats what happened with Pique. But at Old Trafford its totally different, we control the match almost from start to end and most of the bolton players will be as nervous as him. He should make the bench.


I agree with you. But he definitely won't start, if only for the reason that we need wins and you go with the players you know can get a result for you.
 
Mediocre? I thought he was excellent defensively, except for a couple of moments where he got too tight to the attackers in the 2nd half..

He was excellent defensively in all his first team apperances.
 
He was excellent defensively in all his first team apperances.

:lol:

All two of them, one in a Cup match and one 75 minutes into the game on the right wing.

Unless you're counting the friendly matches. Which really you shouldn't.
 
Nothing to do with committing fouls, he misses the ball completely and then the winger just skips past him. Happened 3 or 4 times in this match and he has done so plenty of times. He'll grow out of it, but he's still got another year at least before any sort of talk about being ready to start a match, especially against the second most/most physical team in the league.

Brown is miles ahead of him defensively and is rightfully first choice.

I take your point. But there's something about this lad which really, really excites me. If nothing else, the fact that he seems to play better, the better the opposition, speaks volumes.
 
He's looked very sound defensively, but I'm afraid that because he loves to dive in so much, he'll get absolutely skinned by top wingers who aren't as predictable as Downing.
 
I take your point. But there's something about this lad which really, really excites me. If nothing else, the fact that he seems to play better, the better the opposition, speaks volumes.

I like his confidence, and he really did come out of nowhere in that Peterborough match. I honestly do think he would get ripped to shreds if he played right back against a Premier League team any time soon though.
 
Middlesbro are a pretty physical side too but he did well against them tonight.

But Brown should now be first choice.
 
Needs to work on his defending. He's getting beaten a little easily at times, to his credit he's getting straight back in there trying to win it back again, but sometimes the initial mistake is costly enough. That said, going forward he looks brilliant. Personally if I was Fergie, I'd try and ease him in quite often this season. Play him in the cups, and give him 5 or 6 games in the Premiership as a starter, against teams that are gunna put 10 men behind the ball and try and play on the break

Supposedly Fabio is the better player...
 
He did ok got a lot of improvement on his positioning though. Needs to bulk up a bit as well gets nudged off the ball too easily. He's still young though that will come with time I'm sure. Got a few heavy challenges tonight and got straight back up again as well to his credit.
 
I like his confidence, and he really did come out of nowhere in that Peterborough match. I honestly do think he would get ripped to shreds if he played right back against a Premier League team any time soon though.

Don't overrate the attacking abillity of Premier league wingers mate. 90% of them are just rubbish. And those 90% of other 10% belong to top four teams.

He will not even get a chance to get ripped to shreds because he won't really encounter too many one on one situations at Old Trafford.
 
Needs to work on his defending. He's getting beaten a little easily at times, to his credit he's getting straight back in there trying to win it back again, but sometimes the initial mistake is costly enough. That said, going forward he looks brilliant. Personally if I was Fergie, I'd try and ease him in quite often this season. Play him in the cups, and give him 5 or 6 games in the Premiership as a starter, against teams that are gunna put 10 men behind the ball and try and play on the break

Supposedly Fabio is the better player...

Thats a great credit to him indeed.

I fully agree with this post.
 
Don't overrate the attacking abillity of Premier league wingers mate. 90% of them are just rubbish. And those 90% of other 10% belong to top four teams.

He will not even get a chance to get ripped to shreds because he won't really encounter too many one on one situations at Old Trafford.

Even fecking Liam Lawrence for Stoke could beat him if he keeps diving in like he does. It won't be a problem in the future, but until then he should only get games on the wing. It's not about one-on-one situations, it's about putting the defence under unnecessary pressure when he dives in anywhere on the pitch, be it diving in on a winger/striker or a midfielder.

One mistake can make the difference.
 
Even fecking Liam Lawrence for Stoke could beat him if he keeps diving in like he does. It won't be a problem in the future, but until then he should only get games on the wing. It's not about one-on-one situations, it's about putting the defence under unnecessary pressure when he dives in anywhere on the pitch, be it diving in on a winger/striker or a midfielder.

One mistake can make the difference.

Is this you? --> :nervous:

I'm becoming sleepy, I will dive in, before I make more stupid posts like this.
 
Is this you? --> :nervous:

I'm becoming sleepy, I will dive in, before I make more stupid posts like this.

Not normally, no.

You're overrating him though, thinking he's ready to play against Bolton.
 
Thought he had a very good game tonight, was impressed. Some good defending and looked to get forward. Lots of energy.
 
He definitely uis great, but i think brown will start @ Bolton. Maybe Fergie will wait this season and give him chances in Carling cup and FA cup, and occasionally in EPL and UCL depending on how we go?

I think this season is going to be important for him to break into first team.Exciting times ahead
 
He won't learn without playing, simple as.

Personally I'd love to see him get skinned by a few wingers in the Prem, although I am a great believer in learning by your mistakes, and those mistakes could cost us points in the short term, so...........

Not ready for Bolton yet, but a definate starter in our next CC game whoever that may be.

I have no doubts that he will be a great player for us though.
 
It's all really irrelevant at the moment. We've got neville, brown - I think brown will probably play. If we need a goal 60 minutes in by all means bring Rafael on as going forward he's shown he's capable of doing something
 
Hold your horses everyone, it's his first ever first team appearance, he looked good but not ready yet. The way he has lunged in to some tackles scare me a bit, but he looks a frigtening prospect.

Nail on head son, he's still very raw in terms of playing in the premiership especially against a very physical team like bolton. Imagine Gaz on fire showing the lad the ropes of right back in ther red jersey shame he's had such a bad run of injuries :drool: he certainly doesnt need to be told how to attack thats for sure
 
For those saying Fabio is better - I think Fabio is better at attacking but more suspect defensively. From what I've heard (admittedly very little), Fabio is VERY reluctant to get back whereas as we have seen, Rafael is always happy to get stuck in, even if he needs to stay on his feet more and not commit so early.
 
Brown or Neville should start against Bolton.


Rafael is very similar to Alves imo.
 
Hmm... He get caught out of possession quite often and is bit to eager to attack, but he was great yesterday and in the Juve game too in defense. Maybe on as a sub when we have a confident lead, just in case.