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Post by Stew on Aug 11, 2016 12:17:05 GMT
Also, why do people keep saying Blind isn't a CB, that he'll be found out against the big sides etc? He's played all last season at CB and made about as many mistakes as you'd expect from a top CB in any season, hardly any. People will use the fact Utd dominated possession last year but we didn't against Leicester. Was he troubled by the title holders? No. We might not like his size but the guy is more than capable of playing there. And it was interesting to see that Jose thought as much with Mike not playing on Sunday. He picked Blind, not Jones. I don't think Blind is a natural centre half. Against Leicester it was as all but a friendly match. I will be very surprised if Jose has him anywhere near starting at CB in important PL matches. All opinion of course. Blind is a tremendous footballer that has been educated in football to the highest standard. I still feel he lacks physical presence to establish himself as a top centre half in the PL. I will be more than happy to correct myself if he proves me wrong. When has he been proven to be anything other than a top CB though? I agree with you, physically he is lacking but I cannot think of any real occasion when he's been found out. I think we assume Blind is going to get destroyed by certain strikers due to a well established idea of what a CB should look like. Fair enough. But my point is, he doesn't get destroyed. Costa, Aguero, Kane, Lukaku (bar 15 mins in the FA Cup), Vardy, Sturridge, none of them have torn Blind inside out. Blind will start on Sunday and I don't have any real concern that he'll be a weak link. I'd feel the same way if we were going to Stamford Bridge rather than Bournmouth. |
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Post by Big_Rons_Leather_Coat on Aug 11, 2016 12:20:38 GMT
I don't think Blind is a natural centre half. Against Leicester it was as all but a friendly match. I will be very surprised if Jose has him anywhere near starting at CB in important PL matches. All opinion of course. Blind is a tremendous footballer that has been educated in football to the highest standard. I still feel he lacks physical presence to establish himself as a top centre half in the PL. I will be more than happy to correct myself if he proves me wrong. When has he been proven to be anything other than a top CB though? I agree with you, physically he is lacking but I cannot think of any real occasion when he's been found out. I think we assume Blind is going to get destroyed by certain strikers due to a well established idea of what a CB should look like. Fair enough. But my point is, he doesn't get destroyed. Costa, Aguero, Kane, Lukaku (bar 15 mins in the FA Cup), Vardy, Sturridge, none of them have torn Blind inside out. I definitely agree with you. I thought the more powerful players would take him apart but he has answered almost every question asked of him. I do worry about his pace and physicality though. I expect Jose to play Schneiderlin in front of the back 4 which will help Blind even more if he plays. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 12:21:00 GMT
I don't think Blind is a natural centre half. Against Leicester it was as all but a friendly match. I will be very surprised if Jose has him anywhere near starting at CB in important PL matches. All opinion of course. Blind is a tremendous footballer that has been educated in football to the highest standard. I still feel he lacks physical presence to establish himself as a top centre half in the PL. I will be more than happy to correct myself if he proves me wrong. When has he been proven to be anything other than a top CB though? I agree with you, physically he is lacking but I cannot think of any real occasion when he's been found out. I think we assume Blind is going to get destroyed by certain strikers due to a well established idea of what a CB should look like. Fair enough. But my point is, he doesn't get destroyed. Costa, Aguero, Kane, Lukaku (bar 15 mins in the FA Cup), Vardy, Sturridge, none of them have torn Blind inside out. I think a lot of it, and I know I'm guilty of this on reflection, comes from the association with the VG era and being the poster boy for the moving around of players into anything other than their natural positions. He's good enough, I think Smalling and Bailly will have the positions locked down inside a few months, but we could do a lot worse than Blind being in there with one of them (Jones) |
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Post by Stew on Aug 11, 2016 12:24:07 GMT
When has he been proven to be anything other than a top CB though? I agree with you, physically he is lacking but I cannot think of any real occasion when he's been found out. I think we assume Blind is going to get destroyed by certain strikers due to a well established idea of what a CB should look like. Fair enough. But my point is, he doesn't get destroyed. Costa, Aguero, Kane, Lukaku (bar 15 mins in the FA Cup), Vardy, Sturridge, none of them have torn Blind inside out. I think a lot of it, and I know I'm guilty of this on reflection, comes from the association with the VG era and being the poster boy for the moving around of players into anything other than their natural positions. He's good enough, I think Smalling and Bailly will have the positions locked down inside a few months, but we could do a lot worse than Blind being in there with one of them (Jones) Bailly and Mike will almost certainly be first choice. But I don't think we are screwed if Blind has to come in for any period of time, as you say. |
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Post by Stew on Aug 11, 2016 12:26:25 GMT
I'm also very happy it looks very likely that he's staying. Very important to have a player than can legitimately play several positions well. I know Jose likes specialists but Blind will prove important once the annual mayhem kicks in to our defenders.
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Post by . on Aug 11, 2016 16:51:47 GMT
Also, why do people keep saying Blind isn't a CB, that he'll be found out against the big sides etc? He's played all last season at CB and made about as many mistakes as you'd expect from a top CB in any season, hardly any. People will use the fact Utd dominated possession last year but we didn't against Leicester. Was he troubled by the title holders? No. We might not like his size but the guy is more than capable of playing there. And it was interesting to see that Jose thought as much with Mike not playing on Sunday. He picked Blind, not Jones. Because he isn't. He did a job there last season but imo we were treading on thin ice many times, just like when Carrick and Fletcher were forced to be CBs they were able to do a job but that shouldn't be construed as them being true CBs. Blind is better further up the pitch. He did reasonably well for us last season as CB, but those defensive numbers must take into consideration we have the world's #1 goalie saving our blushes. He might be a backup to our starters at CB but unless we have another injury bonanza I would be very surprised to see him play any matches as CB. I'm thinking in particular of Blind's tendency to rush out and challenge an attacker too high up the pitch. He did that several times and got easily burned by the attacker but it didn't lead to a goal. It's because he still thinks like a defensive mid or a player who doesn't have to worry about offside lines and so forth. |
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Post by Stew on Aug 11, 2016 17:51:26 GMT
Also, why do people keep saying Blind isn't a CB, that he'll be found out against the big sides etc? He's played all last season at CB and made about as many mistakes as you'd expect from a top CB in any season, hardly any. People will use the fact Utd dominated possession last year but we didn't against Leicester. Was he troubled by the title holders? No. We might not like his size but the guy is more than capable of playing there. And it was interesting to see that Jose thought as much with Mike not playing on Sunday. He picked Blind, not Jones. Because he isn't. He did a job there last season but imo we were treading on thin ice many times, just like when Carrick and Fletcher were forced to be CBs they were able to do a job but that shouldn't be construed as them being true CBs. Blind is better further up the pitch. He did reasonably well for us last season as CB, but those defensive numbers must take into consideration we have the world's #1 goalie saving our blushes. He might be a backup to our starters at CB but unless we have another injury bonanza I would be very surprised to see him play any matches as CB. I'm thinking in particular of Blind's tendency to rush out and challenge an attacker too high up the pitch. He did that several times and got easily burned by the attacker but it didn't lead to a goal. It's because he still thinks like a defensive mid or a player who doesn't have to worry about offside lines and so forth. There is no comparison between Blind playing there and Fletcher. None. One guy filled in occasionally, one played the entire season there and also for his national team. If he rushed out several times, where are your examples? What games? You'll see him play a game at CB in about 72 hours. |
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Post by . on Aug 11, 2016 18:26:32 GMT
Because he isn't. He did a job there last season but imo we were treading on thin ice many times, just like when Carrick and Fletcher were forced to be CBs they were able to do a job but that shouldn't be construed as them being true CBs. Blind is better further up the pitch. He did reasonably well for us last season as CB, but those defensive numbers must take into consideration we have the world's #1 goalie saving our blushes. He might be a backup to our starters at CB but unless we have another injury bonanza I would be very surprised to see him play any matches as CB. I'm thinking in particular of Blind's tendency to rush out and challenge an attacker too high up the pitch. He did that several times and got easily burned by the attacker but it didn't lead to a goal. It's because he still thinks like a defensive mid or a player who doesn't have to worry about offside lines and so forth. There is no comparison between Blind playing there and Fletcher. None. One guy filled in occasionally, one played the entire season there and also for his national team. If he rushed out several times, where are your examples? What games?
You'll see him play a game at CB in about 72 hours.Because Smalling is suspended. I think I was already clear on that and you're just being argumentative. There is definitely a comparison between when Carrick and Fletcher were chosen as a CB partnering and they functioned well enough but no one thought they were "true" CBs. This seems personal to you, but it's not personal to me. Blind did a decent enough job but I don't want him as a 1st choice CB, the end. |
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Post by Stew on Aug 11, 2016 18:45:23 GMT
There is no comparison between Blind playing there and Fletcher. None. One guy filled in occasionally, one played the entire season there and also for his national team. If he rushed out several times, where are your examples? What games?
You'll see him play a game at CB in about 72 hours.Because Smalling is suspended. I think I was already clear on that and you're just being argumentative. There is definitely a comparison between when Carrick and Fletcher were chosen as a CB partnering and they functioned well enough but no one thought they were "true" CBs. This seems personal to you, but it's not personal to me. Blind did a decent enough job but I don't want him as a 1st choice CB, the end. It's not personal at all. I just find it odd that people keep saying Blind isn't a CB despite him playing very well as a CB for an entire year., not 3 games like Fletcher did )and very badly at that) Then when asked for any kind of examples to back up why he shouldn't be a CB, poor play etc that isn't forthcoming either. Because there isn't really any. And this is a player who was previously a LB before moving to midfield. Dutch player of the year at LB no less. |
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Post by . on Aug 11, 2016 19:08:41 GMT
Because Smalling is suspended. I think I was already clear on that and you're just being argumentative. There is definitely a comparison between when Carrick and Fletcher were chosen as a CB partnering and they functioned well enough but no one thought they were "true" CBs. This seems personal to you, but it's not personal to me. Blind did a decent enough job but I don't want him as a 1st choice CB, the end. It's not personal at all. I just find it odd that people keep saying Blind isn't a CB despite him playing very well as a CB for an entire year., not 3 games like Fletcher did )and very badly at that) Then when asked for any kind of examples to back up why he shouldn't be a CB, poor play etc that isn't forthcoming either. Because there isn't really any. And this is a player who was previously a LB before moving to midfield. Dutch player of the year at LB no less. Okay, working within the parameters of your response, not trying to rile you up but only to explain my thoughts: Fletcher and Carrick played as CB more than 3 games under SAF, although I don't recall the exact number. Because they were (at the time) excellent footballers they were able to perform a job and be stopgaps. Fellaini plays as a midfielder for one of the top 5 English clubs and even scores game-winners on occasion, but despite that most people feel he is not "United quality" despite the fact that he has now played 3 seasons and 3 managers have selected him as such. Sort of applies to Blind. When it comes to Memphis everyone agrees the Dutch league is weak (at best) and so his exploits there count for little, but when it comes to Blind, we are reminded he was Dutch footballer of the year in the same league, while ignoring how bad the national team were at the same time. The times when Blind makes me nervous are when he dives into challenges. Some of those occasions happened when he was filling in at fullback, and I think he's a better fullback than a CB. He dove in on someone near the center circle, and got beat and that left Smalling and De Gea to come up with something. I honestly can't remember which game this was, but it happened, and to my eyes, it was the defensive work of a born midfielder. Positionally he's like Carrick as a CB, in that he can read the game well and he can play out nice long passes, but to me he is still not a classic CB (whatever value we want to assign to "classic"). I'm not advocating that we get rid of Blind, only that he's not first choice in any of the positions he can play. |
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Post by Bestie on Aug 11, 2016 19:52:45 GMT
How long does a person have to successfully play the part of something they technically are not to actually become the thing they are 'pretending' to be?  |
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Post by redcase on Aug 11, 2016 20:10:20 GMT
How long does a person have to successfully play the part of something they technically are not to actually become the thing they are 'pretending' to be? One season, 50+ games over nearly a year isn't enough apparently. EDIT : On a serious note, when he started in CB, we all doubted him , but boy has he done well. |
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Post by . on Aug 11, 2016 20:51:59 GMT
How long does a person have to successfully play the part of something they technically are not to actually become the thing they are 'pretending' to be? When will you let the love of Fellaini into your heart? Same answer. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 20:56:52 GMT
Blind is more of a Phil Neville than a Carrick or Fletcher.
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Post by Tatty on Aug 11, 2016 21:04:18 GMT
Blind not a CB. Definitely didn't play a full season there on the best defence in the league. Definitely not.
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