*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[Uppercut]

Try a video of all his touches in the Sunderland or Liverpool game though.

 

[Loony BoB]

To be fair, no, Nani isn't that bad. He's just lacking in football intelligence. I certainly wouldn't say he's terrible by any means, just not good enough for United's standards at the moment. Maybe he'll get better, maybe not - he hasn't reached the level I'd have hoped him to reach by now. Having said all that, I still think that he would probably walk into at least half of the Premier League teams at the moment and, had he been signed by them rather than by United, he would probably be praised much more often had he done so. But he didn't, and there we go.

 

[Uppercut]

Perhaps it's just me. Every time I've watched him for the past year or so, he's been beyond terrible. Horrendous first touch, can't cross, can't shoot, has no pace and loses the ball 80% of the time he gets it, the rest of the time doing nothing productive with it. He's the one player in the United squad at the moment who I see no merit in whatsoever.

 

[grecian]

Perhaps it's just me. Every time I've watched him for the past year or so, he's been beyond terrible. Horrendous first touch, can't cross, can't shoot, has no pace and loses the ball 80% of the time he gets it, the rest of the time doing nothing productive with it. He's the one player in the United squad at the moment who I see no merit in whatsoever.

It's not just you.

 

[roseboy64]

Perhaps it's just me. Every time I've watched him for the past year or so, he's been beyond terrible. Horrendous first touch, can't cross, can't shoot, has no pace and loses the ball 80% of the time he gets it, the rest of the time doing nothing productive with it. He's the one player in the United squad at the moment who I see no merit in whatsoever.

That's a load of rubbish. Even some of his worst detractors I've seen would find it so as well. He's far from a brilliant player but he'd quite comfortably get into most Premier League teams. As to whether that's good enough for the level he's playing at though is another matter as well as if he'll find the requisite improvements to play consistently at that level. Not in his favour ATM.

 

[roseboy64]

Try a video of all his touches in the Sunderland or Liverpool game though.

Unfortunately didn't watch Sunderland but he wasn't the only one who may have been under par re: Liverpool. Pretty much the whole team was.

 

[Uppercut]

Unfortunately didn't watch Sunderland but he wasn't the only one who may have been under par re: Liverpool. Pretty much the whole team was.

Yeah, but he managed to stand out with his awfulness.

Not the Sunderland game, it was the Stoke match I was thinking of. But now that we're on the subject, he was utterly horrendous against Sunderland too.

I'm not sure when these decent performances are occuring because I miss very, very few United matches.

 

[sledger]

That's a load of rubbish. Even some of his worst detractors I've seen would find it so as well. He's far from a brilliant player but he'd quite comfortably get into most Premier League teams. As to whether that's good enough for the level he's playing at though is another matter as well as if he'll find the requisite improvements to play consistently at that level. Not in his favour ATM.

None of the good ones. He's very much the a Spurs type player imo. Insofar that he is one who is supposed to be good, but actually isn't.

 

[Uppercut]

None of the good ones. He's very much the a Spurs type player imo. Insofar that he is one who is supposed to be good, but actually isn't.

More of a Newcastle type player that though. Just remembering Albert Luque, Hugo Viana, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Kieron Dyer...

It was comical how they were always blagged into buying the "next big thing" that turned out to be crap.

 

[sledger]

Haha Luque was the biggest flop of the lot imo, he was a really really poor signing. Boumsong was just a joke as well, another hilarious Newcastle defender. Love how whenever they buy a defender it's all "yeah, now our defensive woes are at an end", even though this process has been on rinse and repeat since the early 90's.

 

[cpr]

To be fair, no, Nani isn't that bad. He's just lacking in football intelligence. I certainly wouldn't say he's terrible by any means, just not good enough for United's standards at the moment. Maybe he'll get better, maybe not - he hasn't reached the level I'd have hoped him to reach by now. Having said all that, I still think that he would probably walk into at least half of the Premier League teams at the moment and, had he been signed by them rather than by United, he would probably be praised much more often had he done so. But he didn't, and there we go.

Agree with this. Get his head out of his arse and stop thinking he's johnny 5 bollocks and he'd actually be a pretty good player.

 

[Jarquis]

Well there were reports that Wenger was looking at Toulouse striker Andre-Pierre Gignac (who scored 24 goals last season in Ligue 1) in the summer. Fits most of Wenger's criteria. French, and his mum is Franco-Algerian, so he has the African bit covered.

Had a bit of a 'mare tonight didn't he?

 

[Jarquis]

At least we know Armand will be tooled up come game time. Anyone but Silvestre tbh. I hope he dies.

BBC Sport - Football : Gunner Gibbs escapes long lay-off

Phew.

 

[Craig]

Forlan when he was at United was a much better player than Nani is now. Still useless obv. It just speaks volumes for how bad Nani is.

I didn't think Forlan was that bad when he got a consistent run in the team. I think it was in his final season at the club where SAF gave him 7 or 8 games in a row, and playing the full 90 minutes, and in each game, he scored IIRC.

 

[Uppercut]

I didn't think Forlan was that bad when he got a consistent run in the team. I think it was in his final season at the club where SAF gave him 7 or 8 games in a row, and playing the full 90 minutes, and in each game, he scored IIRC.

Yeah, that's true. Scored some properly good and important ones too, an awesome winner against Southamption, equaliser at Fulham, two goals to win the game against Liverpool and a stoppage time winner against Chelsea. Van Nistelrooy came back from injury and he barely got a game for the rest of the season.

He was always very popular, much moreso than Nani. He was really obviously trying hard, and you could see he had the skills despite his inconsistency, but he was just a square peg in a round hole and struggled to perform when he was only a bit-part player. It was great to see him do so well at Villareal after he left.

 

[cpr]

My favourite story to tell the Grandkids will always be the day i stood in the Stretford End and watched Forlan score his first Utd goal. Maccabi Haifa in the Euro Groups, 4 up, get a pen in front of the stretty, Beckham picks up the ball, takes one look at the crowd begging for Diego, and drags the ugly bugger to the pen spot. Being stood directly behind the goal and about 20ft higher, I nearly missed the goal (beautifully place in the bottom corner) due to instinctive evasive action.

Diego was always loved by the fans even before he got that goal, we all knew what a burden getting off the mark was, and as said, some belting important goals.

'He came from Uruguay, he made the scousers cry........' Never been happier to see a player do so well after leaving.

 

[Craig]

Yeah, that's true. Scored some properly good and important ones too, an awesome winner against Southamption, equaliser at Fulham, two goals to win the game against Liverpool and a stoppage time winner against Chelsea. Van Nistelrooy came back from injury and he barely got a game for the rest of the season.

He was always very popular, much moreso than Nani. He was really obviously trying hard, and you could see he had the skills despite his inconsistency, but he was just a square peg in a round hole and struggled to perform when he was only a bit-part player. It was great to see him do so well at Villareal after he left.

Did pretty well last year at Atletico as well!

 

[sledger]

Yeah, that's true. Scored some properly good and important ones too, an awesome winner against Southamption, equaliser at Fulham, two goals to win the game against Liverpool and a stoppage time winner against Chelsea. Van Nistelrooy came back from injury and he barely got a game for the rest of the season.

He was always very popular, much moreso than Nani. He was really obviously trying hard, and you could see he had the skills despite his inconsistency, but he was just a square peg in a round hole and struggled to perform when he was only a bit-part player. It was great to see him do so well at Villareal after he left.

Both of those goals can be acredited to one Jerzy Dudek tbh.

On a side note, most memorable goal I remember him scoring was a long range volley in World Cup 2002.

 

[Uppercut]

Both of those goals can be acredited to one Jerzy Dudek tbh.

On a side note, most memorable goal I remember him scoring was a long range volley in World Cup 2002.

Against Senegal!

Easily the best match of any World Cup in my lifetime that. Completely forgotten in the mists of time.

 

[sledger]

Was that the game where Salif Diao finished off that amazing team move with a goal? Or was that against Denmark? I forget, but he's another player who tricked everyone into thinking he was actually quite good.

Speaking of Uruguay in that competition, I remember when whilst playing France after Henry had been sent off Recoba took the ball around Barthez and then rushed his shot and booted the ball wide, real head in hands moment for me at the time, as he was probably my favourite player at that stage, would have totally altered the look of the next round as well if he had actually managed to stick it in.