Lets talk about Memphis. We all know he has been dropped, and that his form in a couple of recent games was bad. Against Arsenal and Middlesbrough he was poor. But for some reason there has been some sort of revisionism going on and is it making it appear that Memphis has been terrible all season long.

Lets start off from the beginning.

Vs Tottenham

Not much can be expected from a 21 year old on his debut, but he did reasonably well. He had some good touches and passes that started off promising attacking moves. Pretty good considering he was playing the no 10 role, which isn’t really his best position.

Vs Aston Villa

He did pretty well and was a bright spark in the game. Had half a dozen attempts on goal, a couple of them were good and on another day would have gotten a goal or two.

Vs Club Brugge

Had a great game, scored 2 goals and assisted the 3rd scored by Fellaini. Best player on the pitch without a doubt.

Vs Newcastle

He was arguably our best player. Did 7 dribbles, had 4 shots (1 less than Mata, 1 more than Rooney). Lively throughout and I remember watching the game thinking if we do score today, Memphis will either score it or assist it.

Vs Club Brugge

Had a good game, and assisted the opening goal scored by Rooney with a well disguised pass into the box, and had a hand in Rooney’s second goal as well.

Vs Swansea

He had an average game. Made a couple of decent scoring opportunities, but struggled to break down the Swansea team that was deep and well organised. But certainly not the worst player on the pitch.

Vs Liverpool

Only played the first half, but created a couple of scoring opportunities and played reasonably well. Liverpool were not only playing deep, but were also double man marking him. Young replaced him in the second half and people praised his performance and directness. But, looking at that game again I don’t see what exactly did Young do that warranted so much praise for him and so much criticism for Memphis. Both were direct, except Memphis was double man marked and Liverpool were fresh in the first half. In the second half, Young benefited from being marked only by Clyne and a tiring Liverpool team. He won the freekick from which Blind scored, but had that freekick not resulted in a goal, what exactly did Young do in the second half that Memphis wasn’t already doing in the first half? I am not bashing on Young here, but looking back at the game I don’t see the difference between Memphis and Young’s approach to the game.

Vs PSV

Had a very good game. Arguably our man of the match (from our team). Scored a goal, could have gotten another one, and had finishing from teammates been better he would have had a couple of assists.

Vs Southampton

Had a decent game. Was being double teamed by Southampton because Rojo wasn’t getting forward to support him the same way Shaw did. But he kept possession pretty well and made a couple of half chances. Did better as the game went on because Southampton tired and started getting some support from Schweinsteiger. Struck the post with a great piece of individual skill, and Mata scored from the rebound.

Vs Ipswich

Come on as a substitute with 10 minutes to go. Played some good forward passes and got an assist for Martial’s goal.

Vs Sunderland

Did ok, could have done better. Scored a goal, missed a 1v1. Had a few good dribbles, and a few dribbles where he could have done better, showed inexperience by not completing a good dribble with a decent pass or shot and overran the ball.

Vs Wolfsburg

Played ok. Created a couple of scoring chances for others and could have gotten 1 or 2 goals himself. Didn’t seem to have too many options to pass the ball to when he did get the ball. Rooney’s lack of movement in the no 10 role to support him was a bit of a problem for Memphis.

Vs Arsenal

Had a really poor game. Didn’t really help out Young at LB, who in turn didn’t do enough to help Memphis in attack. Appeared confused with the team tactics vs Arsenal and didn’t press properly, which kept giving Arsenal a lot of space to attack on his side. Kept losing the ball, and simply couldn’t deal with the 2/3 men pressing him constantly which denied him space. Should have been a lot smarter with possession, but kept trying to dribble and force the issue, thus showing his inexperience of being able to play at the very highest level vs well prepared teams. i made a video of some of the problems we faced vs Arsenal and i am putting it below. There were a lot of players that played badly that day, not just Memphis. But Memphis genuinely looked confused regarding how to implement the team tactics, when/how/who to close down, etc.

https://streamable.com/9hpq

Vs Everton

Didn’t play at all

Vs CSKA Moscow

Came on as a substitute with 10 minutes to go. Didn’t have time to do much, but created one very good chance from which we should have scored.

Vs Middlesbrough

Had a poor game. Didn’t look confident at all, nor as positive as he usually is when he has possession. I think he played badly vs Arsenal mainly due to lack of experience, but his bad performance vs Middlesbrough had to be because of the loss of confidence by being dropped from the important games following the Arsenal match (Everton, CSKA, City).

Overall thoughts

He has played reasonably well in most of our matches, with a couple of standout performances. However, things started to go down when Shaw got injured and put an end to the promising partnership that was developing between them on that left hand side. Shaw is really important to Memphis game, because of his willingness to attack and speed, which prevents Memphis getting outnumbered 2v1. Rojo/Blind/Young don’t really provide the same help to Memphis that Shaw gives.

On top of that Memphis complained of fatigue and that we was still physically adjusting to the league and struggling to play a match every 3 days. Even when outnumbered 2v1 due to lack of support, a top winger can still make something of the situation. But Memphis shows his lack of experience by trying to dribble and force the issue, thus running down blind alleys, losing the ball and not creating anything. That is something which can be solved through training and he doesn’t have to start every game.

The real issue that worries me about Memphis is his confidence. Against Middlesbrough he just didn’t look confident, and he tries to play football as if he is our messiah or something. Constantly tries too hard to impress and does stupid things by trying to force it to happen, when a calmer approach would bring more results which is one that Martial seems to use. Maybe Martial does better than Memphis on the left wing because of his calmer/mature personality and/or his experience playing higher level of football (Ligue 1 being a tougher league than Eredivisie).

There are rumours of Memphis being arrogant. I don’t buy it, because there is no real evidence of it. Sure, he dresses like a clown sometimes, and I am not a fan of the gold fake teeth and bling bling, but that doesn’t mean he ignores his coaches in training sessions and doesn’t try to improve. People are judging him far too early and expecting his to be Ronaldo from day 1. Some call him the new Nani. People need to give him a little time to adapt tactically and physically to the Premier League. LVG needs to work on his confidence and instruct whoever plays left back to support him because Memphis simply is being left isolated and outnumbered in attack ever since Shaw got injured. He is talented, a hard worker, and a burning desire to prove himself, and LVG will look after him, so I am sure he will come good.

That being said, I don’t see him starting games consistently. Memphis is a guy that dreams of going right to the top, and I fear he might get disillusioned at United at some stage because he is getting dropped in favour of Rooney who has been far worse than him this season. Rooney is undroppable for some reason, and Mata, Martial and Herrera occupy the remaining attacking slots. So, if Memphis only gets a bit part role to play, I don’t know how this is supposed to help his confidence and bring the best out of him and make him achieve his full potential at United.