World class not many players play can dominate a midfield of Jake Livermore
and Niko Kranjcar..... :dance: out for the holland game? maybe a recall for Carrick

He was shit tonight. His passing was way off. In all fairness, that whole midfield sucked.

Apart from Carrick and the late cameo by Pogba, our midfield was struggling, but Cleverley wasn't playing as a central midfielder, to be fair to him, he was drifting to the right wing and started in the hole. Those of you who have watched Cleverley before this season will know that he struggles as a winger or an attacking midfielder, so it's not a real surprise. In addition to this, he was returning back from an injury. It's a great learning experience, if anything. Even Wilshere has had relatively poor games, in the same manner.

Nonetheless, when he does regain ideal fitness levels, he will help us, I have no doubt about that. At the start of the season, let's be honest, he was one of the main reasons we were ticking in midfield. He has this aura about him, he makes players around him play better. Rooney and Welbeck play more tiki-taka football when Cleverley plays.

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:Okay, I'll probably get chased around by a mod wielding pitchforks and torches but...

Who the HELL is Tom Cleverly? lol

Some United fans think United will kick butt with him back. Yea right lol. Average player at best hyped up by desperate United fans.

Tom Cleverley hardly looked out of place in a crap Wigan team last year. His previous experience consists of reserve and league one football.

If you compare him to a real midfield talent like Sahin, who is of similar age., you can see Cleverley is not even remotely of his calibre.

I have a strange feeling that Cleverly will soon be knocking it about with other former Man United Heroes-in-Training Daniel Nardiello and Liam Miller in the lower Leagues.

My verdict: Mediocre talent.

Fair enough. Butour style at the start of the season with the fast paced attack was down to him dictating our game. He might not turn into a wordl beater, but he is a cog we desperately need. Sahin, yea I have seen his class. In the 30 minutes he's played for Madrid. He's so good that RM are planning on loaning him back to Dortmund. Stay Classy.

Sahin's not going anywhere now. Both he AND Cleverley have had non-seasons due to physical problems, but Sahin is still way out ahead and is already an experienced winner. Sahin will surely be as good as if not better than Xabi Alonso, one day. I'm just of the opinion that Cleverly is terribly overrated. If you want to compare young English midfielders it'd be fair to say Wilshere is far out infront of him? Him and Welbeck are somewhat mediocre talent and United with their stature should be doing better.

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:Okay, I'll probably get chased around by a mod wielding pitchforks and torches but...

Who the HELL is Tom Cleverly? lol

Some United fans think United will kick butt with him back. Yea right lol. Average player at best hyped up by desperate United fans.

Tom Cleverley hardly looked out of place in a crap Wigan team last year. His previous experience consists of reserve and league one football.

If you compare him to a real midfield talent like Sahin, who is of similar age., you can see Cleverley is not even remotely of his calibre.

I have a strange feeling that Cleverly will soon be knocking it about with other former Man United Heroes-in-Training Daniel Nardiello and Liam Miller in the lower Leagues.

My verdict: Mediocre talent.

Fair enough. Butour style at the start of the season with the fast paced attack was down to him dictating our game. He might not turn into a wordl beater, but he is a cog we desperately need. Sahin, yea I have seen his class. In the 30 minutes he's played for Madrid. He's so good that RM are planning on loaning him back to Dortmund. Stay Classy.

Sahin's not going anywhere now. Both he AND Cleverley have had non-seasons due to physical problems, but Sahin is still way out ahead and is already an experienced winner. Sahin will surely be as good as if not better than Xabi Alonso, one day. I'm just of the opinion that Cleverly is terribly overrated. If you want to compare young English midfielders it'd be fair to say Wilshere is far out infront of him? Him and Welbeck are somewhat mediocre talent and United with their stature should be doing better.

Believe what you want. Cleverely is a good player.Why dont you worry about Madrid and stop coming in here and flaming our players.

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:Okay, I'll probably get chased around by a mod wielding pitchforks and torches but...

Who the HELL is Tom Cleverly? lol

Some United fans think United will kick butt with him back. Yea right lol. Average player at best hyped up by desperate United fans.

Tom Cleverley hardly looked out of place in a crap Wigan team last year. His previous experience consists of reserve and league one football.

If you compare him to a real midfield talent like Sahin, who is of similar age., you can see Cleverley is not even remotely of his calibre.

I have a strange feeling that Cleverly will soon be knocking it about with other former Man United Heroes-in-Training Daniel Nardiello and Liam Miller in the lower Leagues.

My verdict: Mediocre talent.

Fair enough. Butour style at the start of the season with the fast paced attack was down to him dictating our game. He might not turn into a wordl beater, but he is a cog we desperately need. Sahin, yea I have seen his class. In the 30 minutes he's played for Madrid. He's so good that RM are planning on loaning him back to Dortmund. Stay Classy.

Sahin's not going anywhere now. Both he AND Cleverley have had non-seasons due to physical problems, but Sahin is still way out ahead and is already an experienced winner. Sahin will surely be as good as if not better than Xabi Alonso, one day. I'm just of the opinion that Cleverly is terribly overrated. If you want to compare young English midfielders it'd be fair to say Wilshere is far out infront of him? Him and Welbeck are somewhat mediocre talent and United with their stature should be doing better.

Believe what you want. Cleverely is a good player.Why dont you worry about Madrid and stop coming in here and flaming our players.

I criticised 1 player, and only cos I spotted a whole thread dedicated to him lol.

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:Okay, I'll probably get chased around by a mod wielding pitchforks and torches but...

Who the HELL is Tom Cleverly? lol

Some United fans think United will kick butt with him back. Yea right lol. Average player at best hyped up by desperate United fans.

Tom Cleverley hardly looked out of place in a crap Wigan team last year. His previous experience consists of reserve and league one football.

If you compare him to a real midfield talent like Sahin, who is of similar age., you can see Cleverley is not even remotely of his calibre.

I have a strange feeling that Cleverly will soon be knocking it about with other former Man United Heroes-in-Training Daniel Nardiello and Liam Miller in the lower Leagues.

My verdict: Mediocre talent.

Fair enough. Butour style at the start of the season with the fast paced attack was down to him dictating our game. He might not turn into a wordl beater, but he is a cog we desperately need. Sahin, yea I have seen his class. In the 30 minutes he's played for Madrid. He's so good that RM are planning on loaning him back to Dortmund. Stay Classy.

Sahin's not going anywhere now. Both he AND Cleverley have had non-seasons due to physical problems, but Sahin is still way out ahead and is already an experienced winner. Sahin will surely be as good as if not better than Xabi Alonso, one day. I'm just of the opinion that Cleverly is terribly overrated. If you want to compare young English midfielders it'd be fair to say Wilshere is far out infront of him? Him and Welbeck are somewhat mediocre talent and United with their stature should be doing better.

Believe what you want. Cleverely is a good player.Why dont you worry about Madrid and stop coming in here and flaming our players.

I criticised 1 player, and only cos I spotted a whole thread dedicated to him lol.

You also called Welbeck a mediocre player.

About Cleverley, maybe when you lose 2-0 against City and his subbing in allows you to win 3-2, you may get excited.

Maybe during the start of the season, with a free-flowing football that resembles United 2008 and win games 4 goals to nil, a period where United is usually dire, you may start thinking that this new midfielder is quite good.

And finally when he gets injured, and it is back to scrapping 1-0 against lowly opposition, you may start to make a correlation.

You may understand that one day when Sahin plays, and not based on the youtube videos you saw him on.

Canales was also miles ahead numerous other players at the same age, look where he is now.

azzurres wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Travis_RM_91 wrote:Okay, I'll probably get chased around by a mod wielding pitchforks and torches but...

Who the HELL is Tom Cleverly? lol

Some United fans think United will kick butt with him back. Yea right lol. Average player at best hyped up by desperate United fans.

Tom Cleverley hardly looked out of place in a crap Wigan team last year. His previous experience consists of reserve and league one football.

If you compare him to a real midfield talent like Sahin, who is of similar age., you can see Cleverley is not even remotely of his calibre.

I have a strange feeling that Cleverly will soon be knocking it about with other former Man United Heroes-in-Training Daniel Nardiello and Liam Miller in the lower Leagues.

My verdict: Mediocre talent.

Fair enough. Butour style at the start of the season with the fast paced attack was down to him dictating our game. He might not turn into a wordl beater, but he is a cog we desperately need. Sahin, yea I have seen his class. In the 30 minutes he's played for Madrid. He's so good that RM are planning on loaning him back to Dortmund. Stay Classy.

Sahin's not going anywhere now. Both he AND Cleverley have had non-seasons due to physical problems, but Sahin is still way out ahead and is already an experienced winner. Sahin will surely be as good as if not better than Xabi Alonso, one day. I'm just of the opinion that Cleverly is terribly overrated. If you want to compare young English midfielders it'd be fair to say Wilshere is far out infront of him? Him and Welbeck are somewhat mediocre talent and United with their stature should be doing better.

Believe what you want. Cleverely is a good player.Why dont you worry about Madrid and stop coming in here and flaming our players.

I criticised 1 player, and only cos I spotted a whole thread dedicated to him lol.

You also called Welbeck a mediocre player.

About Cleverley, maybe when you lose 2-0 against City and his subbing in allows you to win 3-2, you may get excited.

Maybe during the start of the season, with a free-flowing football that resembles United 2008 and win games 4 goals to nil, a period where United is usually dire, you may start thinking that this new midfielder is quite good.

And finally when he gets injured, and it is back to scrapping 1-0 against lowly opposition, you may start to make a correlation.

You may understand that one day when Sahin plays, and not based on the youtube videos you saw him on.

Canales was also miles ahead numerous other players at the same age, look where he is now.

Once Real Madrid were gettin owned and so they put on a young striker called Javier Portillo. His display was the only thing that stopped us getting eliminated from the CL. We then went on to win it. Surely Javier Portillo, just 20, was gonna be the next big thing at Real. Yea right.

A few good displays means nothing. Tom Cleverly has spent most his days doing chores in League 1 or in reserve football, now he is United's saviour. Not at all. Mediocre talent.

It isn't as if I never saw Sahin play before this season and no one can deny that Sahin, I do watch Bundesliga, and regardless of his non-season, he is far greater in calibre than Tom Whatshisname, who is totally unknown outside of Greater Manchester.

PS: Sergio Canales tore his ACL early this year and probably wont be seen again this year. His displays for Valencia suggested he is far from a diminished talent, he was excellent up until his injury.

Quaresma was a beast at Porto yet he was not able to replicate that form for Barca, Inter Milan or Chelsea.

Why can't Sahin be classified as such ? It takes more than talent to make it at the very best European clubs.

You are talking about Castillo in one game, I am talking about Cleverley in the numerous he had at the beginning of the season. Even in his return against Everton it was all fluid, with stars falling on the pitch under a pink sky, and then the dude gets injured and we get played off the park.

His weakness is being injury prone, but saying is a mediocre player is pushing it. Gibson was a mediocre player, he was not hyped at all for a reason. Despite United fans overhyping their players, we still have common sense and there is enough signs that Cleverley is a good talent.

Even the youth coach who got us Beckham, Neville's bro, Butt & Giggs said that Cleverley is the best we have had since Paul Scholes. Would you say he is an incompetent biased old delusional fool ?

azzurres wrote:Quaresma was a beast at Porto yet he was not able to replicate that form for Barca, Inter Milan or Chelsea.

Why can't Sahin be classified as such ? It takes more than talent to make it at the very best European clubs.

You are talking about Castillo in one game, I am talking about Cleverley in the numerous he had at the beginning of the season. Even in his return against Everton it was all fluid, with stars falling on the pitch under a pink sky, and then the dude gets injured and we get played off the park.

His weakness is being injury prone, but saying is a mediocre player is pushing it. Gibson was a mediocre player, he was not hyped at all for a reason. Despite United fans overhyping their players, we still have common sense and there is enough signs that Cleverley is a good talent.

Even the youth coach who got us Beckham, Neville's bro, Butt & Giggs said that Cleverley is the best we have had since Paul Scholes. Would you say he is an incompetent biased old delusional fool ?

I'd still hold out more hope for the Quaresma type player, than a guy who was just alright for the reserves, who was simply decent in League 1. You inflict a terrible defeat on your own arguments.

Im actually talking about Javier Portillo, who once exploded onto the scene as a young youth grad of ours.

He is mediocre, there is nothing about playing just okay at low level football. Truth is that if United DID acquire Sneijder in summer, Cleverly would still be the nobody he always was, and will be that again when a player of good calibre comes in.

Fernando Gago put in a few good displays for Madrid for a month or 2. Still turned out to be a pile of crap. It doesn't mean anything.

Can you honestly say Cleverly, in terms of young midfielders of any description in the game, is even close to say Jack Wilshere for example? In honesty, I think even Aaron Ramsey is still ahead of him..

The Quaresma comparison was for Sahin, not for Cleverley. Yes he was good at Dortmund, but so was Quaresma at Porto. You can not say Sahin will surely be as good if not better than Alonso if you can not accept that we find Cleverley very promising. They both have to prove, as they are both for the future, that is my point.

Wilshere is of course way better than Cleverley, but Wilshere is not in our club. We take what we have and from what we saw with Cleverley, we have reasons to be cheerful when his name is mentioned.

This is a man utd section in where they can discuss any player however they like. It shouldn't be your worry if he is good or not. Let them discuss in peace

Azzurres

The Quaresma comparison was for Sahin, not for Cleverley. Yes he was good at Dortmund, but so was Quaresma at Porto. You can not say Sahin will surely be as good if not better than Alonso if you can not accept that we find Cleverley very promising. They both have to prove, as they are both for the future, that is my point.


Wilshere is of course way better than Cleverley, but Wilshere is not in our club. We take what we have and from what we saw with Cleverley, we have reasons to be cheerful when his name is mentioned.

I personally feel you underrate Cleverley.

Wilshere and Cleverley to me are quite different in their playing styles so therefore its difficult to compare them. Wilshere to me is more like a Steven Gerrard type player while Cleverley the more old fashioned playmaker.

Wilshere obviously is more proven than young Cleverley, but doesn't make him necessarily better as personally, I feel Cleverley is the more composed of the two with superior passing skills and vision. Although this is where it ends.

As if were not for Cleverely's injuries, I predict there would be a more closer comparison of the two.

In the end I'd have young Jack in my team, but Cleverley to me is one of a kind and of a dying breed.

He too me, is a carbon copy of a young Albertini.

Arquitecto wrote:

The Quaresma comparison was for Sahin, not for Cleverley. Yes he was good at Dortmund, but so was Quaresma at Porto. You can not say Sahin will surely be as good if not better than Alonso if you can not accept that we find Cleverley very promising. They both have to prove, as they are both for the future, that is my point.


Wilshere is of course way better than Cleverley, but Wilshere is not in our club. We take what we have and from what we saw with Cleverley, we have reasons to be cheerful when his name is mentioned.

I personally feel you underrate Cleverley.

Wilshere and Cleverley to me are quite different in their playing styles so therefore its difficult to compare them. Wilshere to me is more like a Steven Gerrard type player while Cleverley the more old fashioned playmaker.

Wilshere obviously is more proven than young Cleverley, but doesn't make him necessarily better as personally, I feel Cleverley is the more composed of the two with superior passing skills and vision. Although this is where it ends.

As if were not for Cleverely's injuries, I predict there would be a more closer comparison of the two.

In the end I'd have young Jack in my team, but Cleverley to me is one of a kind and of a dying breed.

He too me, is a carbon copy of a young Albertini.

You are actually spot on, I underrate Cleverley, mostly due to my tendency not to overhype a player and end disappointed in the end. It has been too long since a great player came from our academy.

I am really happy that we have an old-school playmaker in our ranks but his injuries kind of kill the mood.

I would have loved for both him and Wilshere to play every game this season, what a showdown that would have been for a place in England's midfield.

azzurres wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:

The Quaresma comparison was for Sahin, not for Cleverley. Yes he was good at Dortmund, but so was Quaresma at Porto. You can not say Sahin will surely be as good if not better than Alonso if you can not accept that we find Cleverley very promising. They both have to prove, as they are both for the future, that is my point.


Wilshere is of course way better than Cleverley, but Wilshere is not in our club. We take what we have and from what we saw with Cleverley, we have reasons to be cheerful when his name is mentioned.

I personally feel you underrate Cleverley.

Wilshere and Cleverley to me are quite different in their playing styles so therefore its difficult to compare them. Wilshere to me is more like a Steven Gerrard type player while Cleverley the more old fashioned playmaker.

Wilshere obviously is more proven than young Cleverley, but doesn't make him necessarily better as personally, I feel Cleverley is the more composed of the two with superior passing skills and vision. Although this is where it ends.

As if were not for Cleverely's injuries, I predict there would be a more closer comparison of the two.

In the end I'd have young Jack in my team, but Cleverley to me is one of a kind and of a dying breed.

He too me, is a carbon copy of a young Albertini.

You are actually spot on, I underrate Cleverley, mostly due to my tendency not to overhype a player and end disappointed in the end. It has been too long since a great player came from our academy.

I am really happy that we have an old-school playmaker in our ranks but his injuries kind of kill the mood.

I would have loved for both him and Wilshere to play every game this season, what a showdown that would have been for a place in England's midfield.

I dont think you underrated him. There would be no showdown either. Cleverley is following the trend of technically deficient english midfielders, wilshere is the exception to this trend, as scholes was the previous generation, as was gascoigne the generation before that

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:

azzurres wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:

The Quaresma comparison was for Sahin, not for Cleverley. Yes he was good at Dortmund, but so was Quaresma at Porto. You can not say Sahin will surely be as good if not better than Alonso if you can not accept that we find Cleverley very promising. They both have to prove, as they are both for the future, that is my point.


Wilshere is of course way better than Cleverley, but Wilshere is not in our club. We take what we have and from what we saw with Cleverley, we have reasons to be cheerful when his name is mentioned.

I personally feel you underrate Cleverley.

Wilshere and Cleverley to me are quite different in their playing styles so therefore its difficult to compare them. Wilshere to me is more like a Steven Gerrard type player while Cleverley the more old fashioned playmaker.

Wilshere obviously is more proven than young Cleverley, but doesn't make him necessarily better as personally, I feel Cleverley is the more composed of the two with superior passing skills and vision. Although this is where it ends.

As if were not for Cleverely's injuries, I predict there would be a more closer comparison of the two.

In the end I'd have young Jack in my team, but Cleverley to me is one of a kind and of a dying breed.

He too me, is a carbon copy of a young Albertini.

You are actually spot on, I underrate Cleverley, mostly due to my tendency not to overhype a player and end disappointed in the end. It has been too long since a great player came from our academy.

I am really happy that we have an old-school playmaker in our ranks but his injuries kind of kill the mood.

I would have loved for both him and Wilshere to play every game this season, what a showdown that would have been for a place in England's midfield.

I dont think you underrated him. There would be no showdown either. Cleverley is following the trend of technically deficient english midfielders, wilshere is the exception to this trend, as scholes was the previous generation, as was gascoigne the generation before that

Technically deficient ? Not sure if trolling or ... Oh wait, you are the dude who thinks Wilshere is the best midfielder in England, with only maybe Silva above. Modric and Gerrard say hello.

So sure he is no Ronaldinho, but he has silk feet just like Scholes and you can see easily the contrast between him and a "technically deficient" player like Carrick.

However, you are an Arsenal fan, so it is blasphemy comparing Cleverley with the second messiah that is Wilshere. We will see how good he really ends up though, because Walcott and Ramsey have been hyped to hell, yet...

And i would tell Modric and gerrard goodbye. Gerrard is not the player he was, simply put, whilst modric is flat out overrated, hes technically sound and has moderate vision but he is hardly an outstanding player

and i dont really remember now but i think i said wilsheres technical ability is better than all those other pl midfielders, can you really argue against that? the pl isnt exactly brimming with maestros atm, even leon britton is outshining most players.....

Im not trolling, cleverley's control is clearly quite loose, he will not thrive in tight spaces such as a player like scholes, its quite obvious, hes more lampard than scholes. Utd had a fantastic youngster but his name was ravel morrison not tom cleverley, but unfortunately for you it seems he is a bit of an idiot.
For the record, the walcott and ramsey hype was a bit cringeworthy to me, you wont find any post here of me hyping up either of them, in fact ramsey and cleverley are players of similar potential imo

Leon Britton

165 cm tall/short and yet he's a tremendous midfielder.

Modric? I don't understand the hype that he's getting. His technical abilities are solid but as a CM, he's lacking a lot.

Cleverly strikes me as someone who fits well into United's style of play. Would he do well playing for other team? He might cause I think he's got a high ceiling.

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:And i would tell Modric and gerrard goodbye. Gerrard is not the player he was, simply put, whilst modric is flat out overrated, hes technically sound and has moderate vision but he is hardly an outstanding player

and i dont really remember now but i think i said wilsheres technical ability is better than all those other pl midfielders, can you really argue against that? the pl isnt exactly brimming with maestros atm, even leon britton is outshining most players.....

Im not trolling, cleverley's control is clearly quite loose, he will not thrive in tight spaces such as a player like scholes, its quite obvious, hes more lampard than scholes. Utd had a fantastic youngster but his name was ravel morrison not tom cleverley, but unfortunately for you it seems he is a bit of an idiot.
For the record, the walcott and ramsey hype was a bit cringeworthy to me, you wont find any post here of me hyping up either of them, in fact ramsey and cleverley are players of similar potential imo

Ok fair enough, you were not trolling.

Well, it seems we differ on Cleverley. While I have no doubt Wilshere is the better player, I still view Cleverley as one of the best controllers of the ball in tight space at United. Not Rooney or Nani's level, but I don't really expect him to lose the ball when he is surrounded.

Ravel Morrison was an ass, I even went through the trouble of creating a thread about him 6 months ago and the little tard has nothing better to do than shunning the new contract United offered him. I hope he fails hard, I really do.

I agree on your attitude in hyping players Azzures, I usually feel the same way.

Lets get one thing straight though, Modric is insanely overrated. I'm with Diego here and am perplexed on how he is rated so highly. He disappears when pressured and doesn't do squat in big games.

Gerrard on the other hand is probably past his prime yet still is Liverpool's talisman and has been our best player since his return.

But to say Cleverley is technically deficient is quite absurd considering his technical skills are one to be marveled at.

Its too early to tell if he will thrive in tight spaces but in my opinion I have seen him do considerably well within the space he is given, and might I add the space given was quite constricted. Its also to early to tell whether or not he will reach Scholes level as so far, I trust he can as already at this age he makes United play and look better. I just hope he doesn't turn up to be another Pato as in context, a ridiculously talented player yet marred by injuries. United player or not, I hate to see instances like this.

I also trust he won't turn out like Carrick, who is technically a solid player yet did not ever have the mentality or vision to be a top player, despite his superb season this year.

Morrison didn't show enough to say he would surpass Cleverley along with the fact that both are different players. I myself can't help but be in disgust with Morrison considering you are being received a contract by SAF himself and have the balls to reject it for more money. Is this how the new generation will be? Absolutely unacceptable. Pogba seems to be going the same route. How long will SAF put up with him?

I don't see how Walcott can be blamed considering he never was so hyped to begin with. Ramsey on the other hand, I bought his hype but I really haven't been impressed with him to much if I can be honest.

Cleverley's silver pining

Free of the injuries which curtailed a storming start to his 2011/12 campaign, Tom Cleverley is making his mark as a goalscoring tempo-setter in Manchester United's midfield...

Your recent strike at Upton Park put you on four for the season – do you have a goals target for this term?
I have a target in my head, yes, but I’m going to keep it to myself. Scoring goals is something that’s starting to come together in my game now. I’ve managed to do it out on loan and I was hoping it’d just be a matter of time before they came along for United. I was happy with the one at West Ham. I saw [Jussi] Jaaskelainen hurrying to the other side of his goal, so I put it inside the far post.

What did you think of United’s other goal in that game, scored by Robin van Persie?
I’m sure everyone appreciated how good it was, even if they did make it look easy. From a footballer’s point of view, the most impressive thing was that Robin was under pressure as well. It’s not like he had a free space to run into, the defender has stuck tight to him and he’s still managed to take the pass and finish it. It was world class.

It took a little while for you to get off the mark this season. Had it started to play on your mind?
Yeah, a little bit. I missed a couple of chances with England, too, but the main thing was I was in the right spot. I’ve worked hard on my finishing on the training field with Rene [Meulensteen], and now it’s starting to pay off. The work doesn’t stop here just because I’ve scored a few, though – I aim to get more.

You’re our top-scoring midfielder - on the same tally as defenders Evans and Evra…
I know! Four each. As long as we’re winning, that’s what matters. It can only help if goals are coming from all areas of the pitch. We’ve been good from set pieces this year andhopefully other players on the pitch can take a bit of pressure away from our strikers. It’s a team effort, we’ve got a really good team spirit here and we’re all in this together.

How would you assess the season so far from a personal perspective?
At the start of the season, the first thing I wanted was to be injury free. Including internationals and Olympics I’ve played more than 30 games already this season so that’s out of my mind, and that’s been nice. I’ve made more appearances for the club than I did in the whole of last season, but it’s only January and there’s still a long way to go. I want to get as many appearances as I can and hopefully help the team to win some silverware.

We’ve played our best football when our tempo has been high; does that suit your style of play?
Yeah, it does suit my game being box-to-box, high energy, and hopefully that can get the job done against teams. We have played some really good stuff when it’s fast, one-touch football. It suits me and hopefully I can help bring that to the team. I think especially at home, if we’ve got teams under a lot of pressure, they can struggle if we don’t give them a second to breathe. It doesn’t really play on my mind when I’m out there; I just play my own game and concentrate on winning.

For the young players, how valuable are the experiences of last season this time around?
They’re valuable. I don’t think we got complacent last year, it was maybe just a couple of bad performances or a lack of concentration, I don’t know. I’m just taking every game as it comes, but we definitely don’t want to feel how we felt at Sunderland last season, so it’s all about 100 per cent concentration and workrate in every game we’ve got.

What’s different about the team this year, as opposed to last year?
Obviously we’ve all got the experience of last year and so we know how hurt we were on the last day. We’ve got a couple of additions: Shinji, Robin, Alex and Nick, and they’ve all done well. There’s a great team spirit. There was last year, too, to be fair, but there’s a good feeling around the place which is fantastic and to me it just feels like a group of winners. Hopefully we can do it.

Is there a feeling around Carrington that this could be a special season?
I’m not thinking like that. Obviously I’m dreaming of it and I’m ambitious, but then again it’s only January. We’re just taking each game as it comes and working as hard as we possibly can.

This interview first appeared in the West Ham (FA Cup replay) edition of United Review.

Source: ManUTD.com

Cleverley craves cup glory

Manchester United have won five FA Cup finals in Tom Cleverley's lifetime - but none since he became a professional footballer.



The Reds midfielder wants to help rectify that quirk and he's already made a decent start by scoring the club's maiden goal in the 2012/13 competition, in the third-round tie away to West Ham. Cleverley says United's exertion to eventually win the tie proves how important the cup is to the players.

"It's a squad full of winners here and we definitely didn't want to lose that match," said Tom, referring to the first game when a late Robin van Persie equaliser was wildly celebrated.

"United haven't won the FA Cup for quite a while now," he adds. "The last time was in 2004, and it's definitely a trophy I want to win. It means a lot. In fact, we've got a few players in the squad who haven't won anything [major] in this country as yet, including myself, so anything we're involved in I want to win."

Cleverley did help the Reds to win the Community Shield in 2011, in his only club appearance so far at Wembley Stadium. And having turned out there more recently for England, he's acquired a taste for the famous venue - one that could inspire him in the next FA Cup clash with Fulham this weekend.

"Playing at Wembley is one of the best feelings of my career," Tom told United Review. "I've been lucky to have played there five or six times now, but I always want more."

If Cleverley can help United to see off Fulham and eventually reach the final after three further rounds, he'd be emulating a player he watched as a boy and now plays alongside as a man.

"The FA Cup memory that sticks out from when I was growing up has got to be Ryan Giggs' goal against Arsenal," said Tom. "I can't recall everything about the FA Cup run that year [1999], because I was only nine years old, but I remember that game well. United were down to 10 men, Beckham scored and then Giggsy got that unbelievable winner."

Lets call a spade a spade, he is average at best. Never will be good enough to start as a United cm, maybe as a squad player.

He is the definition of playing it safe, scared to grab the game by the balls and be more risky. Simple passes here and there....thats all he does.

We desperately need to bring in some quality additions.

Plussss

His positioning is shittt.