Vurnon Anita (now playing for RKC Waalwijk)

[Tiotes Witch Doctor]

Most I've spoken to don't rate him claiming hes too weak etc... I always stuck up for him to the point where it annoys the people who don't rate him, and they think I'm mental when I say I don't rate Colback.

 

At matches even when Colback gets the ball and passes it 5 yards he gets a round of applause as if hes just delivered a ridiculous outrageous pass.

 

One of the main reasons I dislike him, hes a bang average CM who gets treated like hes Scholes mk 2 by our fans.

 

Anita was oustanding again on Saturday, hes turning into a class little player, his attacking game is growing also.

[Guest Recoba]

I think the "on the ground" view is changing.  Colback was more effective than Anita under the Pardew/Carver "system".  Anita struggled, no two ways about it.

 

I heard a few opinions in the pub I was in on Saturday that Colback was struggling with McClaren's system / McClaren has a "dutch style" that suits Anita / little Anita is a good footballer.

 

But then again there was a cheer when Tiote came on...

[TRon]

It doesn't feel like that in the ground. Colback seems far more popular amongst fans than Anita. Even though Anita has much more ability than him.

 

That's because a lot of fans at the ground have about as much football knowledge as Lee Ryder.

[BrettNUFC]

 

It doesn't feel like that in the ground. Colback seems far more popular amongst fans than Anita. Even though Anita has much more ability than him.

 

That's because a lot of fans at the ground have about as much football knowledge as Lee Ryder.

 

Even social networking, you see far more praise for Colback than Anita.

 

I'm surprised Anita has stuck around this long tbh. He's not had the backing of fans and his performances on the pitch have generally been way below standard because we never played to his strengths.

[mrmojorisin75]

 

It doesn't feel like that in the ground. Colback seems far more popular amongst fans than Anita. Even though Anita has much more ability than him.

 

That's because a lot of fans at the ground have about as much football knowledge as Lee Ryder.

 

Even social networking, you see far more praise for Colback than Anita.

 

I'm surprised Anita has stuck around this long tbh. He's not had the backing of fans and his performances on the pitch have generally been way below standard because we never played to his strengths.

 

he's never been openly criticised though has he?  iirc obertan for example was booed on or off once right?  can't recall that ever happening to anita, seems like he's not managed to annoy people with his performances

[BrettNUFC]

No no he hasn't been that bad to get booed, yet [emoji2]

 

Just get people standing up  shouting at him, making out like any mistake is catastrophic because it's Anita. Happy when his number is up and he's going off first.

 

Colback is treated like royalty compared to Anita.

[Foluwashola]

It doesn't feel like that in the ground. Colback seems far more popular amongst fans than Anita. Even though Anita has much more ability than him.

 

That's because a lot of fans at the ground have about as much football knowledge as Lee Ryder.

 

Realise I'm a boring twat on this issue (and all others) but Colback performed at a higher level last season than Anita had in 3 seasons. Fans generally respond more favourably to the player delivering better performances.

 

This season Anita has outshone Colback so far and I hope he continues to prove me wrong.

[Tsunami]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

[mrmojorisin75]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

 

but yeah of course, if we send him out to face a strong, physical midfield on his his own he'll get overran so it'd probably be a good idea for us not to do that

[The College Dropout]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

We didn't play much football on Saturday tbf. We set up perfectly for Anita to max his strengths and Man Utd. played to his strengths too. But Anita did his thing. It's where there's strong midfield runners looking to get ahead of the strikers and really boss the midfield is where he usually struggles. But today we saw a glimpse of what we could do.

[mrmojorisin75]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

We didn't play much football on Saturday tbf. We set up perfectly for Anita to max his strengths and Man Utd. played to his strengths too. But Anita did his thing. It's where there's strong midfield runners looking to get ahead of the strikers and really boss the midfield is where he usually struggles. But today we saw a glimpse of what we could do.

 

i honestly don't think we should be comparing what he's done or not done in the past to what we're seeing now when he plays in the right system

 

if he's playing behind wijnaldum/sissoko (or colback) and his job is as it was on saturday he'll be able to do the ball recycling thing we all know he can do, but he'll also be better protected and able to track runs, intercept and so on, just as he did on saturday and he's actually very good at

 

i know it perhaps seems like a massive excuses are always being made for anita but he's a diminutive defensive midfielder playing in the premier league, in the same way that armstrong is a diminutive striker and didn't suit having the ball launched up to him by williamson

 

armstrong hasn't "turned a corner" at coventry, he's just being played properly (and of course has dropped down levels)

 

if you expose anita he's going to look shite because he doesn't have the physical attributes, but played correctly he's twice the CM colback is and offers twice as much

[The College Dropout]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

We didn't play much football on Saturday tbf. We set up perfectly for Anita to max his strengths and Man Utd. played to his strengths too. But Anita did his thing. It's where there's strong midfield runners looking to get ahead of the strikers and really boss the midfield is where he usually struggles. But today we saw a glimpse of what we could do.

 

i honestly don't think we should be comparing what he's done or not done in the past to what we're seeing now when he plays in the right system

 

if he's playing behind wijnaldum/sissoko (or colback) and his job is as it was on saturday he'll be able to do the ball recycling thing we all know he can do, but he'll also be better protected and able to track runs, intercept and so on, just as he did on saturday and he's actually very good at

 

i know it perhaps seems like a massive excuses are always being made for anita but he's a diminutive defensive midfielder playing in the premier league, in the same way that armstrong is a diminutive striker and didn't suit having the ball launched up to him by williamson

 

armstrong hasn't "turned a corner" at coventry, he's just being played properly (and of course has dropped down levels)

 

if you expose anita he's going to look s**** because he doesn't have the physical attributes, but played correctly he's twice the CM colback is and offers twice as much

As soon as Wij joined and I found out he had been playing at CM for PSV I wanted a flat 3/ 3 man with a defensive pivot and if we go that way long-term Anita is the guy for that role. However, in a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 I still don't know about Anita. IMO he might be a bit of a specialist in that 3 man midfield and not nearly as effective in another type of set-up.

[TRon]

It doesn't feel like that in the ground. Colback seems far more popular amongst fans than Anita. Even though Anita has much more ability than him.

 

That's because a lot of fans at the ground have about as much football knowledge as Lee Ryder.

 

Realise I'm a boring twat on this issue (and all others) but Colback performed at a higher level last season than Anita had in 3 seasons. Fans generally respond more favourably to the player delivering better performances.

 

This season Anita has outshone Colback so far and I hope he continues to prove me wrong.

 

It might have something to do with McClaren changing the way we play football as well.

[mrmojorisin75]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

We didn't play much football on Saturday tbf. We set up perfectly for Anita to max his strengths and Man Utd. played to his strengths too. But Anita did his thing. It's where there's strong midfield runners looking to get ahead of the strikers and really boss the midfield is where he usually struggles. But today we saw a glimpse of what we could do.

 

i honestly don't think we should be comparing what he's done or not done in the past to what we're seeing now when he plays in the right system

 

if he's playing behind wijnaldum/sissoko (or colback) and his job is as it was on saturday he'll be able to do the ball recycling thing we all know he can do, but he'll also be better protected and able to track runs, intercept and so on, just as he did on saturday and he's actually very good at

 

i know it perhaps seems like a massive excuses are always being made for anita but he's a diminutive defensive midfielder playing in the premier league, in the same way that armstrong is a diminutive striker and didn't suit having the ball launched up to him by williamson

 

armstrong hasn't "turned a corner" at coventry, he's just being played properly (and of course has dropped down levels)

 

if you expose anita he's going to look s**** because he doesn't have the physical attributes, but played correctly he's twice the CM colback is and offers twice as much

As soon as Wij joined and I found out he had been playing at CM for PSV I wanted a flat 3/ 3 man with a defensive pivot and if we go that way long-term Anita is the guy for that role. However, in a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 I still don't know about Anita. IMO he might be a bit of a specialist in that 3 man midfield and not nearly as effective in another type of set-up.

 

[Lotus]

Was very impressed with him on Saturday. He hustled really well. He put himself in good positions that made the Manu players play the ball elsewhere quite often.

I'm not into Colback bashing for the sake of it but he wasn't really as effective as Anita. He's not not got that sudden burst of speed or the positional awareness.

I've been thinking that a midfield 3 with Anita deeper than Wijnadum and Sissoko/De Jong ahead of him could be a very nice blend of talents.

[Tsunami]

He played well on Saturday after the first 15 where we were all over the place. He was certainly better than Colback but let's not pretend he's turned any kind of corner yet. Man U didn't put us under any kind of real pressure to get at our weaknesses. For that same reason Colo and Taylor had fairly comfortable games.

 

 

what kind of corner does he have to turn like?  he's a footballer who can play football, now that we're playing football he's starting to look a decent midfielder and will continue to do so as long as we play to his strengths and not his weaknesses as we'd done for the entirety of his time with us

 

but yeah of course, if we send him out to face a strong, physical midfield on his his own he'll get overran so it'd probably be a good idea for us not to do that

 

The corner from where he has generally been rubbish. I didn't see us playing anymore football than usual, we again relied on sitting back and hitting on the counter attack. He didn't get tested on Saturday through the inadequencies of Man U and the negativity of LVG. I'll look at future performances on their own merit. We have some interesting games coming up.

[Tiresias]

Didn't get tested by Mata, Depay, Schweinsteiger etc right  They were pretty rubbish but they were still better than half the teams we'll play ffs. I agree he needs to string these performances together but ffs he had a very good game and he should get praised for that.

[Tsunami]

Didn't get tested by Mata, Depay, Schweinsteiger etc right  They were pretty rubbish but they were still better than half the teams we'll play ffs. I agree he needs to string these performances together but ffs he had a very good game and he should get praised for that.

 

No idea what you're laughing at, he didn't get tested by any of those players, what match were you watching, as you say Man U were poor. He had a good game, I've not seen anyone say otherwise. Fwiw I thought Schweinsteiger was particularly poor, Carrick was far more influential when he came on.

[Tiresias]

I don't disagree too much I guess they weren't as good as they should have been and yet a lot was because Rooney was terrible at helping out and making their service into anything. I think Anita has showed how good he can be and now it's about doing that week in week out.

[Tsunami]

I don't disagree too much I guess they weren't as good as they should have been and yet a lot was because Rooney was terrible at helping out and making their service into anything. I think Anita has showed how good he can be and now it's about doing that week in week out.

 

Last sentence nails it.

[Unbelievable]

He's done that a couple of times before, which many seemingly simply forgot as he would always be dropped for no reason soon after.

[Tiresias]

He's done that a couple of times before, which many seemingly simply forgot as he would always be dropped for no reason soon after.

 

Yep players who Pardew didn't rate weren't allowed to get into rhythms and people who do nothing and yet are paid to play football got straight back in squad

[Dokko]

MoTM for me today, thought he was superb.

[Tooj]

He's definitely improved massively like. His anticipation seems to work well in that role.

 

Hope it keeps up.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Not sure he's so much improved as just been given the chance to play his game.