Anderson

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mufcwarm92 said:
If he wasn't so injury prone he would probably be one of our best players. Every season he has an excellent un of about 5-6 excellent games, then picks up an injury and takes a few games to get back to his best. Big shame but that is a common stumbling block for youngsters.
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This is a fair point but it's worth noting that his form started to dip before he got his most recent injury.

feck it though. He's played a lot of football for us but he's still a young player. Young players are inconsistent. There are loads of examples of really top central midfielders who didn't achieve or maintain any kind of consistency until their mid twenties.
 
He was good in the second half last night. Played forwards with speed and found a team mate nearly every time. First half he was only as tragic as everyone else (some of who didn't improve after the interval), and was looking to get on the ball and drive forwards more than most of our players throughout.

Giggs had a mare last night, and ruined our best two chances to boot. I'd have taken him off for Valencia since Anderson looked more likely to open something up while Giggs was picking the wrong ball all the time, but there you go. He does seem to tire too easily.

Also, he's signed a new contract recently, so he's not going to be going anywhere. He's also a year and a half younger than Nani...Some of you never learn.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
This is a fair point but it's worth noting that his form started to dip before he got his most recent injury.

feck it though. He's played a lot of football for us but he's still a young player. Young players are inconsistent. There are loads of examples of really top central midfielders who didn't achieve or maintain any kind of consistency until their mid twenties.
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I agree and that's why we have so much patience with him. His talent is clear and when he's on form he's an absolute machine - good on the ball, penetrative dribbling, a great eye for a long/through ball, a good touch - but he doesn't produce that anywhere near consistently enough, for whatever reason. I've always been a fan of his and we're right to give him time, but eventually Fergie's patience will run out.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't see any dilemma in where to play him. Just play him in central midfield. When he hit a good run of form alongside Carrick earlier this season nobody was agonising over his best position. This 'problem' only gets brough up when he goes through one of his frequent dips in form.

On his day he's a quality all-round central midfielder. Strong in the tackle, mobile, direct and with a great range of passing. The issue here is inconsistent performances and ongoing concerns over his application and fitness. All this stuff about not knowing his best position is a red herring.

Reminds me of the Nani right/left dilemma. People want to "fix" an under-performing player by moving him round the pitch. Then when the player starts performing to his potential the position he plays in suddenly stops being an issue.
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Thats the one attribute he doesn't have imo
 
I sometimes wonder if noodles watches games taking place in a parallel universe. Through some kind of weird wormhole. He always comes across as knowing his onions but invariably describes a whole load of stuff that didn't actually happen.
 
You're all wrong, Andersons best position is left back!
 
Why does next year have to be make or break?

He's a very talented youngster, who suffers from inconsistenty. It's something we can certainly work on, and expect to improve upon.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I sometimes wonder if noodles watches games taking place in a parallel universe. Through some kind of weird wormhole. He always comes across as knowing his onions but invariably describes a whole load of stuff that didn't actually happen.
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Like what?

Me and my brother picked up on Redknapp proclaiming "he's given it away every time he's had it" at half time, so paid attention in the second half, and he didn't give it away once, not to mention was getting on the ball more than any other player (well, for about ten minutes, before he mysteriously seemed to die). Most of his work also involved creating space in the attacking third...something no one else in our side managed to do effectively all night, and he was mostly picking the ball up from the back four.

Giggs kept playing passes the opposite way to where the space was and closing everything up. Including one point when he could have played Nani in on goal but ignored him and played a pass into Hernandez who was being marked by three people. Our main problem last night was that when we did get control of the ball, no one was using it to create any space. Nani was cutting inside, Giggs was drfting into the middle. Rooney was dropping deep into the middle, and no one was feeding Hernandez. Anderson was the one looking to pull people out of those areas and actually create some movement and space, he just wasn't having enough effect on the game for it to tell.

I'm guessing he just knackered himself out.
 
So he was garbage for the entire first half, then mysteriously appeared to die 10 minutes into the second half?

I take back my previous comment. That's a very fair summary of his contribution.

I also agree Giggs was below par but always looked the most likely to open them up. If Hernandez hadn't miscontrolled a wonderful through ball in the closing minutes we'd all be talking about yet another match-winning assist.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
So he was garbage for the entire first half, then mysteriously appeared to die 10 minutes into the second half?

I take back my previous comment. That's a very fair summary of his contribution.

I also agree Giggs was below par but always looked the most likely to open them up. If Hernandez hadn't miscontrolled a wonderful through ball in the closing minutes we'd all be talking about yet another match-winning assist.
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I may be wrong, but wasn't that the exact same ball from Giggs where he SHOULD have just played Nani in with a six yard pass? It's not a good ball if you neglect a simple pass to play a less effective and far more difficult one. He also scuffed our only clear cut chance in the second half and seemed to find it amusing...wonder what people would have thought had Anderson or Gibson done that...or Nani last season. There's very little objectivity when it comes to comparing one player to another. Giggs never looked likely to open anything up last night. He was our most wasteful player aside from maybe Nani.

Don't agree Anderson was gash in the first half either. He was alright, but too hurried on the ball. A number of our players weren't at the races at all for the first half hour or so where as he was generally making himself available and looking to get things ticking over. He wasn't great but he was hardly gash.

Didn't a few of us have to spend most of last season telling the caf scapegoat brigade that Nani was going to be an important player once he started playing regularly? Only for most to write him off every week? Anderson's in the same position now. There's a gap in the team to be filled and he's the most suitable and talented player we have to fill it. He's going to be very important next season (as he was for part of this), unless we spend huge money on someone genuinely better than him (unlikely), or find a way to turn Scholes back into a 28 year old (probably against FA rules).
 
noodlehair said:
Don't agree Anderson was gash in the first half either. He was alright, but too hurried on the ball. A number of our players weren't at the races at all for the first half hour or so where as he was generally making himself available and looking to get things ticking over. He wasn't great but he was hardly gash.

Didn't a few of us have to spend most of last season telling the caf scapegoat brigade that Nani was going to be an important player once he started playing regularly? Only for most to write him off every week? Anderson's in the same position now. There's a gap in the team to be filled and he's the most suitable and talented player we have to fill it. He's going to be very important next season (as he was for part of this), unless we spend huge money on someone better than him, or find a way to turn Scholes back into a 28 year old.
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Agree with this. He wasn't great, but he wasn't gash either in that first half. Had a very good second half , more confidence and a stronger presence, plus his passing was far more consistent, even his long balls!

I see a good future in Anderson for us and agree with the thought that he should be playing in the position where we are lacking quality. He doesn't manage to get a strong run of games all that often, but next season I think we will see the sort of breakthrough Nani showed, given he is fit and has a run of games.
 
I don't know, the one part of the game I think he struggles with most - and struggled with last night - is keeping the game ticking over with movement and passing. He doesn't make himself available in the right positions often enough and his passing is so inconsistent.

What's annoying is that he can clearly do these things, he just isn't pulling it all together. Hopefully that will change in the next season or two.
 
noodlehair said:
I may be wrong, but wasn't that the exact same ball from Giggs where he SHOULD have just played Nani in with a six yard pass? It's not a good ball if you neglect a simple pass to play a less effective and far more difficult one. He also scuffed our only clear cut chance in the second half and seemed to find it amusing...wonder what people would have thought had Anderson or Gibson done that...or Nani last season. There's very little objectivity when it comes to comparing one player to another. Giggs never looked likely to open anything up last night. He was our most wasteful player aside from maybe Nani.
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Different incident. Like I said, the pass I was taking about took place in the closing minutes. Giggs was poor out wide but decent through the middle. We looked considerably more threatening when he took over from Anderson.
 
I dont mind giving Anderson more time, he is like the Nani of a year or two ago at this stage, and if he similarly develops then we wont be complaining.

Our midfield is imo in need of an overhaul, but I would sooner get rid of Carrick, Gibson, Hargreaves, or let Scholes retire than to offload Anderson.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Different incident. Like I said, the pass I was taking about took place in the closing minutes. Giggs was poor out wide but decent through the middle. We looked considerably more threatening when he took over from Anderson.
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We hardly created a thing in the last twenty minutes, despite having all of the ball. Thought Fergie made the right move in bringing Valencia on the try and stretch things (less sure about moving Rooney into Nani's position and then Owen into Rooney's, which just seemed silly), but Valencia was quite poor when he came on and we mostly just seemed to strive around a bit then play an aimless ball into the box despite not getting the numbers in there. Reminded me of Blackburn away last season, where Berbatov took all the blame for a flat team performance.

Think I remember the pass from Giggs, where it hit Hernandez and bounced back away from him. That would have been a good ball, but for the most part he was wasteful or trying to play passes which just weren't on. It's always a bit like that with Giggs though. He has days where it mostly wont come off but there's still a chance he might play a killer ball in the 89th minute that most other players would never have attempted. Probably why he stayed on and Nani/Anderson didn't.
 
Anderson will come good if he manages to stay relatively injury-free.

I've got no doubts about his ability but he needs to find some rhythm and start delivering on a consistent basis.

Like I said, it's not like he's incapable of putting in quality performances - he's shown glimpses of what he can do - but he struggles to do it for more than a couple of games at a time. He's spent a fair amount of time on the sidelines this last 2 seasons, which can't have helped.

Anyway, I reckon it's just a matter of time before he puts it all together and he'll be a fecking great player when he does.
 
I agree with noodle here, Giggs was absolutely rubbish last night, being a legend like him doesn't mean he shouldn't be criticized for poor performances. Saying he was the only player who looked like creating something is nonsense, because he never did. He was completely off form, especially after the miss.

Anderson coming good is a necessity, I wouldn't say next year is 'make or break', but it'll certainly play a big part in his role here in future years.
 
noodlehair said:
Think I remember the pass from Giggs, where it hit Hernandez and bounced back away from him. That would have been a good ball, but for the most part he was wasteful or trying to play passes which just weren't on. It's always a bit like that with Giggs though. He has days where it mostly wont come off but there's still a chance he might play a killer ball in the 89th minute that most other players would never have attempted. Probably why he stayed on and Nani/Anderson didn't.
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Yeah, that's my take on it too.

Believe it or not the pass I'm thinking about was a different one again! It was when he played Hernandez through on the inside left channel and his touch was heavy, which took him out wide. That's three separate incidents now where Giggs was a whisker away from assisting a winning goal. Yet people are insisting he didn't create anything all night. Go figure.
 
Top class performance from him today, worked extremely hard & played some cracking passes, slicing the Everton defence wide open on a few occasions. He did brilliant defensively & in attack. Well done Ando.
 
Our MOM by a distance I thought. This is only his 3rd start since returning from long lay-off, so he's only going to improve game by game. He wasn't too bad the other night despite the stick he got on here either. To think some are so keen to write off such a young player of such obvious ability :rolleyes:
 
Was absolutely exhausted at the end and I'm not surprised. What a display. Think that was his best (given the importance of the game) since the one against Arsenal in the FA Cup in his first season.
 
Echoing others, he was easily Man of the Match. If we could get his urgency and drive every week, we wouldn't be in the market for a central midfielder. Short passing needs a bit of polishing, but this game is what he's capable of - and what we should all be very excited about.
 
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