Darren Fletcher

Pogue Mahone

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Deserves his own thread.

Defence aside, he was the only player who stood up to be counted in the first half.

Amazing the way a bloke who has got so much stick on here never fails to put in big performances in big games.

I think there's a lot more to come from this lad. He's developing into a top, top player.
 
Bizarrely he only seems to turn up in the big games.
Which i geuss is a good habit.
Big game player.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Deserves his own thread.

Defence aside, he was the only player who stood up to be counted in the first half.

Amazing the way a bloke who has got so much stick on here never fails to put in big performances in big games.

I think there's a lot more to come from this lad. He's developing into a top, top player.
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I love him. He's like the missing part of Michael Carrick.
 
we must have watched different games

looked off the pace to me, and it was obvious he'd been out injured.

he ran a lot but did little apart from lose ballack for the goal
 
p_ps_sock said:
we must have watched different games

looked off the pace to me, and it was obvious he'd been out injured.

he ran a lot but did little apart from lose ballack for the goal
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You're in a minority of one here.

As you can see from the comments on the thread you started.

By the way, he didn't lose Ballack. He was marking Essien when he noticed Ballack make an un-marked run behind him (with Anderson at least 10 yards further back, jogging) but wasn't able to catch up with him in time. If anyone is to blame for Ballack's uncontested header it's Anderson.
 
Utd heap said:
Bizarrely he only seems to turn up in the big games.
Which i geuss is a good habit.
Big game player.
Click to expand...

Someone a while back posted a very good analysis of why he performs against good teams, and less so poor teams.

It was basically along the lines of that his strong points are his driving runs and tackling. He's more suited to breaking down attacks and driving the team forwards. He's less useful when the opposition put 10 men behind the ball and he has to try and thread the ball through their defence.
 
Rowem said:
Someone a while back posted a very good analysis of why he performs against good teams, and less so poor teams.

It was basically along the lines of that his strong points are his driving runs and tackling. He's more suited to breaking down attacks and driving the team forwards. He's less useful when the opposition put 10 men behind the ball and he has to try and thread the ball through their defence.
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Is correct
 
Utd heap said:
Bizarrely he only seems to turn up in the big games.
Which i geuss is a good habit.
Big game player.
Click to expand...

Great performance from him, letting Ballack go for the goal aside. Could he be the first player ever to have the insult, "You don't perform against the weaker teams", thrown at him??:)
 
brophs said:
Great performance from him, letting Ballack go for the goal aside.
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Pogue Mahone said:
By the way, he didn't lose Ballack. He was marking Essien when he noticed Ballack make an un-marked run behind him (with Anderson at least 10 yards further back, jogging) but wasn't able to catch up with him in time. If anyone is to blame for Ballack's uncontested header it's Anderson.
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...
 
Pogue Mahone said:
...
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I've yet to see the highlights again, but at the time I thought he reacted too slowly, the player in his position should always be watching for the breaking runner, and I think he allowed himself to focus too much on Essien, and not enough on what was around him. Covering for a player who has lost his man if often as important, as tracking your own. But, as I said, I've not seen the highlights yet so I could be talking out of my arse.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
...
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Fletcher was supposed to mark Ballack. If you bother to watch properly rather than again singing praises to your favourite Fletcher. From the whistle, Anderson was on Essien, Fletcher was onto Ballack.

Running around like a headless chicken again, let his man go to close down Drogba. A good intention, but that left Ballack with a free header.

So before any of the Fletcher fans go mental saying that this is Fletcher bashing, please watch the match again. There was nothing wrong with playing Fletcher, he ran, he harassed, he made tackles.

But on the other hand, he lost headers, made to look ordinary, gave the ball away with stray passes. Mistimed challenges, giving away the ball etc.

However, this was one of the much better performances as a whole by Fletcher. Credit to him to have recovered from injury to put in such a decent performance. This lost cannot be credited or attributed to him.

His cruching tackle in the second half was enough to give him a vote of confidence, from any loyal Manchester United fan.

May Fletcher continue to improve. But the Barcelona game is not for him, remember the problem of marking Kaka, let Hargreaves do what he was bought for.
 
brilliant today, ive been very critical of fletch in the past, but in the big games he shows up and does extremely well. well done darren :)
 
Romaleouf said:
Fletcher was supposed to mark Ballack. If you bother to watch properly rather than again singing praises to your favourite Fletcher.
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Erm.. feck off.

Romaleouf said:
From the whistle, Anderson was on Essien, Fletcher was onto Ballack.
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Anderson was at least 15 yards behind both Essien and Ballack. Fletcher was right on Essien's shoulder and only left him when he saw Ballack break past him, un-marked.

Maybe, as brophs says, he could have reacted quicker to Ballack's run but he was on his own against two Chelsea CMs, which was always gonna be a big ask.
 
I think he will be vital on Tues, hopefully will come of the bench and help us close down the game when we need to.
 
Fletch was very impressive on his return today, it's a shame he got injured when he did because had he stayed fit we might of done better against Boro and Blackburn considering the energy he brings to the team.
 
Romaleouf said:
Fletcher was supposed to mark Ballack. If you bother to watch properly rather than again singing praises to your favourite Fletcher. From the whistle, Anderson was on Essien, Fletcher was onto Ballack.

Running around like a headless chicken again, let his man go to close down Drogba. A good intention, but that left Ballack with a free header.

So before any of the Fletcher fans go mental saying that this is Fletcher bashing, please watch the match again. There was nothing wrong with playing Fletcher, he ran, he harassed, he made tackles.

But on the other hand, he lost headers, made to look ordinary, gave the ball away with stray passes. Mistimed challenges, giving away the ball etc.

However, this was one of the much better performances as a whole by Fletcher. Credit to him to have recovered from injury to put in such a decent performance. This lost cannot be credited or attributed to him.

His cruching tackle in the second half was enough to give him a vote of confidence, from any loyal Manchester United fan.

May Fletcher continue to improve. But the Barcelona game is not for him, remember the problem of marking Kaka, let Hargreaves do what he was bought for.
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It would be an almost fair assessment if you didnt blow it with the last line. Hargreaves has faired no better as a holding midfielder. In fact everything you said has been proven time after time in Hargreaves' holding midfield performances.

Against Roma where he was deployed as an attacking player he was excellent. At right back he's done everything he'd had to do very well. But in that holding role, he's not been better than Fletcher was today.
 
cina said:
All you do in threads is tell people to feck off. You're a real Keano yourself aren't you?
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I'm pissed. United lost.
And then I read idiotic replies that basically tell that our captain, legend of the club, to shut up. And another one when a poster use this moment to spout his usual shite about ironically one of our better players today.
 
Romaleouf said:
Fletcher was supposed to mark Ballack. If you bother to watch properly rather than again singing praises to your favourite Fletcher. From the whistle, Anderson was on Essien, Fletcher was onto Ballack.
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Fletcher was marking Essien at that moment. We do not mark man for man. The goal came because we failed to shut down the cross. We had 3 players close to the player yet no-one got close enough to stop the cross coming in. You cannot afford to have 3 players taken out by one cross; it is a totally different story if our defence is all in position but these were defensive players around the player who hit the cross.
 
Romaleouf said:
Fletcher was supposed to mark Ballack. If you bother to watch properly rather than again singing praises to your favourite Fletcher. From the whistle, Anderson was on Essien, Fletcher was onto Ballack.

Running around like a headless chicken again, let his man go to close down Drogba. A good intention, but that left Ballack with a free header.

So before any of the Fletcher fans go mental saying that this is Fletcher bashing, please watch the match again. There was nothing wrong with playing Fletcher, he ran, he harassed, he made tackles.

But on the other hand, he lost headers, made to look ordinary, gave the ball away with stray passes. Mistimed challenges, giving away the ball etc.

However, this was one of the much better performances as a whole by Fletcher. Credit to him to have recovered from injury to put in such a decent performance. This lost cannot be credited or attributed to him.

His cruching tackle in the second half was enough to give him a vote of confidence, from any loyal Manchester United fan.

May Fletcher continue to improve. But the Barcelona game is not for him, remember the problem of marking Kaka, let Hargreaves do what he was bought for.
Click to expand...

If Anderson was on Essien then he didn't do a very good job because Essien was the best player on the pitch
 
Scholesy said:
Fletch is great squad player.

Essien was a beast today. One player I look at and I can actually see he is great without being biased.
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I've always said, the only Chelsea signing I wish we had got. Remarkable player.
 
I always seemed to like the midfield form of Carrick-Scholes-Fletcher for some reason. I'd like to see it more often.
 
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