There's a reason we're putting in more crosses and Kagawa getting PT isn't to cut in, that's just what he does because he's not a winger. Incidentally, when you overload a flank, you only do it to a point. Once the man-advantage is secured and the FB overwhelmed, one player goes inside. Or, one player goes inside to create room for the cross, but it starts with 2 wide. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Shinji got the early hook one time because he spent too much time in field and not enough time setting up Evra to hit crosses.
I think this pretty much confirms Evra is gone this summer too. Moyes on Evra. "I speak with Patrice a lot and I know the people he works with. There are things in place and we'll tell you when we want to."
the Sunday Times claiming that because he has started 26 games for us this year he has activated a clause that adds an additional year to his contract. just consider this is only a claim and it is from the times before people run with it
I was more under the impression that he wanted to leave on his own, as opposed to the club not wanting to bring him back. I thought there were rumors of Monaco coming back for him. I imagine the automatic "extension" will have to be agreed on by both sides. I don't see Evra wanting to do that.
question time: do you guys think Evra's regression is due to his kind of cocky nature + being a senior squad member + captain at times? or is it just some massive fall off that is an anomaly? can a player really just forget the basics of defending just like that? that fast?
Evra was never a great defender but his speed enabled him to make mistakes or be caught out of position and recover. Sadly for us he lost that ability to recover seasons ago. He had a slight blip where he contributed offensively which gave him a bye for many fans. He is now fortunate that his poor play is less noticeable as there are lots of poor performers. I think you are right in the sense that his cockiness has stopped him for adapting his game to compensate for his ageing and slowing while his seniority and stints as captain only exacerbate the situation as he tries more and fails harder.
I actually tend to lean towards RvN's theory about his attitude. Evra can still cover the ground and he still is pretty pacey; but he just switches off and watches sometimes as players get into dangerous positions that he should be putting pressure on them, yet he doesn't change his pace or body language even a bit. It could be a mix of being a senior member of the squad, being a pretty consistent deputy captain, and probably the most consistent member (in terms of appearing) of our back four over the last four or five years. Whatever it comes down to, he needs to be replaced.
Evra is clearly incapable of managing the entire flank and has not been for a good few seasons. In short he is old and badly needs to adapt.
Like other players of his ilk he has struggled to adapt once he lost the physical advantage he once had. He simply had nothing to fall back on.
Evra is only 32 though..besides one season (last year I believe) where he was okay, he has been poor for four or five years, meaning his decline started at...27 or 28? That's not normal and it couldn't be related to athletic reasons at that age. Physical decline starts around 30/31. Evra is still capable of getting up and down the field, it's mental that keeps him from doing so.
I don't think average numbers relate to Evra. He has played LB for 7 years with spotty occasional backup at best, and usually only if he was injured. We have used him up and down, I'm not really surprised he's showing holes. And yet he is one of maybe 3 players here that actually seem to respect the badge.
When he isn't ball watching he's out of position. I don't want him to be perfect but for a player of his experience he is consistent in both faults mentioned
48 games a year for us in the last 7 years. I'm amazed he can run at all. Seems pretty clear to me he had a physical decline around 3-4 years ago. He still made the forward runs as that is what Fergie wanted, but would be slack or distracted on way back. I love him as a player. His days as a two way fb for us are done though, and I think if he wants to move back to France to retire, thats fine with me.
Gianluca Di Marzio @DiMarzio 14m #evra was offered a new three year contract from @ManUtd in the last days.
Almost as if he started off as a striker, was shunted to the wing and then played as a wingback. Oh wait. That's exactly what happened. Evra's positional sense was never great. It was best when he played as part of a great backline because he'd get shouts from Rio, Vida and VDS and they'd cover for him. As for his decline starting early, there's an easy explanation. He wasn't just asked to play LB. During his peak here he played left flank. We played without a proper LW for much of the time. Many other teams did/do that, but they don't expect their FB to be in position. We tried to play Evra, without rest in 2 positions at once, 50 games a season.
True, but wasn't his drop in performance almost instantaneous from the moment of the revolt against Domenech? He seemed to come back from that a demotivated, almost disillusioned player, whose workrate and concentration seemed to dip markedly. He'd still talk the talk but his performances routinely saw him stranded upfield and jogging back, or being too impetuous and rushing the challenge, being beaten by basic wingplay and not even slowing the counter. That's certainly how I remember it, however true it happens to be.