I see De Laet who was on a season long loan, has been returned back to OT with immediate effect. Paul Lambert said: âRitchie has gone back to Manchester United. We thank Sir Alex Ferguson for loaning him to us and wish Ritchie well for the future and hope he goes on to have a successful career at Man Utd.â I presume it was the back injury which caused the cancellation of his loan deal. Anyway how do the Norwich fans believe he got on in those 7 appearances?
He had some absolutely quality moments but his time might be marred by a few costly mistakes. When he was playing well he really did seem good though.
Hist mistakes cost him his starting place in the team and his last two games were played at right back where he was very defensive. He never did the overlapping runs or crosses that many right backs would do. It was probably safer to play him at right back with the mistakes he had made.
What everyone else said about the mistakes, but in terms of technical ability and pace/strength etc., he's clearly very good. Good enough for Man U? Maybe, if he works hard and cuts out the mistakes, but I'm not convinced.
Some of the footage I seen of him playing for Norwich looked good though marred by one of two mistakes. Looks like he has the makings of a very good defender if like the Norwich guys say, can cut out mistakes. Needs to concentrate more.
my honest opinion is that he will end up being a decent championship defender but no more than that sadly. he did pretty well for us but as stated above, he did make some very costly mistakes early in the season and has never been able to reclaim a place in the team other than a couple of forced inclusions at right back
I was actually really impressed by him and without the injuries think he would have been doing a really good job for us. He did make a couple of mistakes at the start of the season as others have pointed out, but he also made numerous important tackles and clearances (which people forget about a bit when his one mistake costs you the game). As Lambert kept saying in his post match interviews, his mistake may have cost us but he saved us so many times during the game too. At the start of the season we were still quite shaky as a team which put the defence under a lot of pressure and as he was playing alongside players for the first time, it was perhaps a little unsurprising that a few cracks appeared. He was taken out of the team, partly because of the mistakes and partly to give other people a chance. (Lamberts approach is very much 'you'll get a chance, it's up to you if you take it'). The other defenders started to make mistakes of their own but by this time he was suffering from injury and by the time he got back, the defence was a lot more stable. The problem now is that the players in the team are doing well and looking more solid after every game. They aren't necessarily better then him, but their performances don't justify being dropped in preference of him. I think overall with the injuries as well, Lambert would rather loan a player that could make an impact on the first team rather then having a injury prone player on the bench. Overall, I don't think he will ever be good enough for United but I could see him playing for a mid table premiership team. He just needs a proper run in a first team (of a club similar to us) but without the injuries.
I've always been quite impressed by Ritchie when he's played for United. He seemed so quick and technically able on the ball. I think if he develops well, he could turn into our new Sheasy.
DeLaet has plenty of potential and shows great promise. He needs to learn a bit of focus and work on his comms though. Unfortunately he's been injury prone and with the run in approaching we can't have any slack. We'll need everyone to ensure survival and unfortunately Ritchie's place needs to be freed up. Wish him well though.
Don't put money on him making it in your first team! Too many mistakes and too injury prone. ILD OTBC
I think if Utd were to loan him to one of the better Championship sides he would learn nearly as much and would probably make less mistakes, which in turn of course would give him his confidence back in full. Shame for the lad but simply not ready for top flight football every week.
No chance of being you next John O'Shea by the way. O'Shea was miles ahead at a similar age and still only ended up 'steady'.
