There's truth in that. Lots of possession gets given away needlessly. Retaining the ball in many games is paramount to reducing the momentum of the other team. When teams do this against ye it has the same effect even if they are not hurting you, it prevents a build up of pressure on the defence and reduces the chance to get stung by a counter from losing the ball in midfield. The guy is young, I remember a certain Brazilian chap who got slated and slated and also that he only made safe sideways and backwards passes. A lot of those opinions from back then would look rather silly now, and to make a point, it took longer than two years to come together. Regardless of skill and technical ability the football brain needs to develop and central midfield is one of those more demanding places to play footballing brain wise, I think the guy has played nowhere near enough games to be judged. My two cents, even though I have not seen much of the lad.
Yes, Cleverly has been our most reliable central midfielder, more consistent and reliable than Anderson or Giggs. But that is only relative, because we can do so much better as that is our weakest link. Ok I won't make any comments or predictions for what the future may hold for Clev., but at present he just ain't good enough. Could somebody remind me one game when we were struggling, that the boy made such an impact, to turn tje game around? I can't think of any. When the chips are down, Cleverly tends to fold. He only looks good when United are cruising. Last week at Chelsea, and even more so, last year against Bilbao, against the flair opposition,Clev. seriously looked like a blue sq. League player. Sorry to offend fellow United supporters, but the lad ain't no Fabregas or Scholes, he ain't even no Joey Barton.
The community shield. 2-0 down at ht. Cleverly comes on at ht and instantly improves the team helping us to win 3-2.
Thanks for reminding that.....well tbh then all of us thought this young lad, with an interesting haircut, will do something. Kinda let us down a bit after that. hopefully I'm proven wrong.
After some assesment in the last few matches, I have come to the conclusion that Cleverly is really useful when he's fresh and not tired. The role he plays in the team, constant passing and moving, moving into small pockets, filling up the spaces, all those require a lot of stamina. And the lad is agile, eager and energetic to do that for an hour or so, but naturally his work rate goes down, as he doesn't have the best of stamina, and thus his effectiveness. In that sense, the way forward for Clev. is to be more efficient, like how Carrick has become since joining United or just work on his physical side. And in the context of United, the latter is the best option for him.
