Cutch
Full Member
I was watching the game with a friend on Monday, he got into great positions, there's no denying that. But his final ball was almost always poor. He made a good few tackles as well, but he also gave the ball away almost as much as Evra and Welbeck did towards the end. If he had a little more composure and end product in that game he'd almost have rivalled Valencia for MotM. He just seems to go from one extreme to the other, in my eyes anyway. I think we can put it all down to nerves and age, but he wasn't the only one. He's just one player whose first-term place isn't guaranteed and things like that could cost him starting a match (it's possible that his mistake against Bilbao was the reason he didn't start the next game despite being decent).
I thought he kept the ball well all game. Think only Carrick and Evans from memory had more passes than him, and he only gave it away 5 times, none of which were in dangerous areas defensively. He only gave away 2 free kicks, one of which was very harsh. I agree his final ball wasnt great, but defensively i thought he was mature and going forward he was strong, linking up really well with Valencia, with his runs off the ball creating soa lot of space for others. I'd have no problem if he played like that every game.