Yup. Pretty much.
Adds some flesh to the bones of the case for Fletch to be MOTM. Considering he was stuck out wide for most of the game, the extent of his involvement was seriously impressive.
Central midfield this season...
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Yup. Pretty much.
Adds some flesh to the bones of the case for Fletch to be MOTM. Considering he was stuck out wide for most of the game, the extent of his involvement was seriously impressive.
You know Fletcher must be playing well when even Jamie 'I only say the blatantly obvious' Redknapp is praising him in his Weekend Watch newspaper column.
That stands out.
Giggs always has a fairly low pass completion, because he like to make really risky, creative passes.
It's the same reason that Anderson's passing stats look poorish in a game where I thought he passed the ball well. I remember him pinging an absolute peach out to Berba, with his wrong foot, leading to a shot on goal in the first half.
I'd like to see Anderson make a few more tackles though. The lack of tackles attempted by his CM partner might have contributed to Scholes attempting one too many.
Schoels only attempted 3 tackles the entire game, and he's bound to at least make a couple tackles each game. You can't expect Anderson to make sure that Scholes never attempts a tackle.
We didn't need to make that many tackles in midfield against Tottenham, as they usually attacked down the wings or didn't attack at all.
Tottenham hardly got a sniff, so there was no need for Anderson to tackle more in the game - what he and the rest of the team were doing obviously worked.
There were tackles to be made, clearly. Which you can see from Fletcher's stats (most of which were attempted, presumably, when he moved infield after Scholes went off). My point was that it's never a good idea for Scholes to be the central midfielder who attempts the most tackles, for obvious reasons.
I know you think I've got an agenda against Anderson but this is constructive criticism. I thought his overall performance was very good and I hope to see him start a lot more games in coming weeks. I just want to see him get stuck in a bit more.
See, this is what I meant about editing when someone is quoting you.
Scholes only made 3 tackles the entire game.
The ball is bound to come near him during 90 minutes of football - you can't expect Anderson to just push Scholes away yelling "NOOOOOO!!!!"
Fletch and Giggs made that many tackles because Tottenham attacked down the wings, as I stated in my previous posts.
Hehe. I've edited my previous post an' all.
Fecking nightmare arguing the toss between two 'tards who constantly edit their posts!
Quoting posts which are currently being edited should really be a banable offence.
I still can't figure out what our best centre midfield-partnership is, I just know it includes Fletch.
I still can't figure out what our best centre midfield-partnership is, I just know it includes Fletch.
He wasnt really playing in central midfield though. Looked like he was playing in an attacking position, just in front of Palacios, and then later Huddlestone. And IMHO, that should be the position he should be playing in week in, week out, if we want to get the very best out of him consistently...
Same here.
I would always have said it involved Carrick too but his form is a bit gash at the moment.
Anderson looks to be coming into a bit of form himself and Giggs can be amazing or awful, depending which side of the bed he gets out of.
I've a funny feeling that we might see a renaissence from Scholes this season actually. Which makes picking our best partnership even more complicated.
I had us down as playing a fairly conventional 442. I don't think Anderson was noticeably more advanced than Scholes.
I'm worried about Carrick, when he came on at the weekend something didn't look right with him, can't put my finger on what it was - just something didn't seem right. Should I be worried?
Pretty much.
Well tbf it's not Anderson's natural game to play as a holding or combative player to be a foil to a Scholes. Plus If memory serves me correct this is the only game in which Scholes and Anderson have been excellent in a 4-4-2 partnership against anyone.
If a player going through a bad patch of form is worrying then yes.
Yup. Every other game I can think of where they've lined up together we ended up being shite. They just don't seem to complement each other.
Which says a lot about how well they both performed at the weekend.
He's gone from 'guaranteed starter' to 'buck your ideas up or you're on the bench' so I reckon he's nervous. Will be interesting to see how he responds to the challenge. If he plays himself back into the side it could be the best thing ever happened him.
Exactly. If they ever got better than that I'd be over the moon. Their passing potential is "off the chain"
Ando's first game for us as a CM in a 442, against Wigan two seasons back. I thought they both were excellent together. We were struggling to score goals before that game, and in the 2nd half, we scored 4 goals. Same thing happened in the Villa game next.. another 4 goals.
Since then Ando-Scholes played like in the first half of that Wigan game after Ando came on. Ando not involve in things and Scholes passing the ball to anyone other than Ando.
That was Andersons second game, he came on as substitute for Scholes original midfield partner, John O'Shea. His first was behind the striker against Sunderland
Against Villa we played 4-3-3 with Ggigs in center midfield with Ando and Scholesly.
Carrick is the sort of player who will gradually play himself into form. There won't be any all action performances, but it will just reach a point in about January or February where we all say, "Oh, Carrick. He's been good for a couple of months. When did that happen."
He won't play a couple of barnstorming matches and announce his renaissance.
I think he would benefit from playing along more workmanlike players. He'd start to thrive alongside Fletcher in my opinion, where he is charged with the responsibility of taking control of the ball. Perhaps for a player like him, it's not easy to play yourself back in when you are alongside Giggs or Scholes because their ability is such that they demand the ball and Carrick can be left in the shade.
Every player has bad form and Carrick is no different. He's shown that when he's good, he's very good and we need to get behind him really. He performs that vital function of controlling the tempo better than anyone else in the side in my opinion. He'll definetly start against Besiktas for me, for that very reason. The perfect player to take the sting out of the game in front of a vociferous crowd and opponent.
He won't play a couple of barnstorming matches and announce his renaissance.
I think he would benefit from playing along more workmanlike players. He'd start to thrive alongside Fletcher in my opinion, where he is charged with the responsibility of taking control of the ball. Perhaps for a player like him, it's not easy to play yourself back in when you are alongside Giggs or Scholes because their ability is such that they demand the ball and Carrick can be left in the shade.
Every player has bad form and Carrick is no different. He's shown that when he's good, he's very good and we need to get behind him really. He performs that vital function of controlling the tempo better than anyone else in the side in my opinion. He'll definetly start against Besiktas for me, for that very reason. The perfect player to take the sting out of the game in front of a vociferous crowd and opponent.
Surely nobody is doubting that Carrick will be back to his old self soon enough?
I'm pretty sure it was 442. Everyone was raving about him after the game. Everyone thought he was the new Ronaldinho, so it came as a surprise when he came on and played alongside Scholes in a 442 setup and did really well. After that we went on a 4 goals run scoring in 3-4 games.
Dead link there, Wan.
You'd be surprised. Knee-jerk opinions are the life-blood of this place after all.
Nope. But I think Fletcher playing well is much more of an asset than Carrick playing well. I'd like to see Carrick playing better so we can have a consistent partnership in the middle. I'd still see Anderson as the player who will take Carrick's place in the team in the long term.
Frankly ive always thought that our partnership for the future would be Anderson/Carrick - but based on Fletchers form who knows?
Anderson and Fletch would compliment each other better imo. If Fletch will continue to play and improve like that and if Anderson fulfills his potential, we have an excellent, no brilliant MF partnership (a la Keane / Scholes)
My comment wasn't meant to be knew jerk, honest!
I like Carrick as a player and I think he's a vital player to bringing success to the team. I'm just slightly worried about his total lack of form, even simple passes are a problem for him at the moment.
Wasn't aimed at you
I took your comment to be more of a concern about his current form/confidence than whether or not he'll get going again.
It's the comment from people who are implying that his current form is evidence that he was never good enough for us that i would consider knee-jerk.
Thats alright then
Fletcher is playing better than either Anderson or Carrick have ever played for the club though so he probably deserves his place in the side to be fair.
They did very well against Villa away in 07-08(albeit Villa had two men sent off during the second half but it was 3-1 by that stage) and Wigan at home after Anderson came on after aout 20-25 minutes.
Another poor performance by Carrick last night, he and Neville were our worst players easily I reckon.
Carrick needs to really pull himself together - Wes Brown and Nani have both been dropped for long periods because of "poor performance" and frankly Carrick is playing worse at the moment than either of those two did.
Carrick needs to really pull himself together - Wes Brown and Nani have both been dropped for long periods because of "poor performance" and frankly Carrick is playing worse at the moment than either of those two did.
Again, did he play? Oh well there was this shot
Vs Villa the played with Giggs in the midlde with Ronaldo, Rooney and Nani as a three man forward line.
I thought Carrick did ok. He tried his best to support Rooney anyway.
Better than in his previous games this season for us, but then again, that doesnt mean much