The last 2 seasons he has been disappointing defensively....he gets caught out of position too many times and costs goals, I think making him skipper was a bad move too...Very good going forward but he is a fullback and needs to defend also

Well it wasn't a good season for Evra but he still had 2 or 3 performances that were very good. I don't think I would replace him completely, he would still be the starter next season but I do think that this is his last season as a Utd player, while we can still get value for him I think Sir Alex will want to get something, on form he is still amongst the best left backs in the world (unfortunately that's not saying much). I think we will get an experienced left back to replace him (prob Baines) and then after a season or 2 Fabio will take over from the replacement.

While Evra is still a very good player I think his days as a Utd player are numbered. Nonetheless he will go down as a Utd legend and will be remembered for when he was easily the best left back in the world. Also, I didn't know his brother died, that must have been awful for him, my condolences to his family.

As for the stats thing, well I don't pay any attention to them, something everyone should know, stats lie and don't listen to those who say they don't because they do, there's a reason managers don't sign players based on their stats and one would be thought of as crazy if they were to buy someone without ever seeing them play.

Trouble is Evra has never had that competition so it would surprise me if Fergie started doing so now when he didnt do it from the start. It wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't a similar problem at right back where we've not had a consistent performer since G. Neville. Ok we have plenty of choice there as opposed to left back, i.e the da Silva's show promise for that position as well as Smalling but nobody has really nailed down that position yet and can call it their own. Only need to look at Da Silva v Everton and there's no disputing that Fergie was furious about that and I doubt he would want too many more of these costly memories. So that kind of rotation in both attacking defensive positions at the same time might be too much even for Fergie. I would have gone for Baines a few years ago once Evra started making a few lapses. At least age wouldnt have been as big an issue as it might be now combined with his price tag.

i"m with you man,i wish all our squad would show some of the b a l l s that pat shows,like SAF said,he captain coz he commited and "he plays regularly",shrugs off bumps,does his best,even in the face of such adversity and personal tradgedy,,that"ll do for me,should do for all you slaters too!!!

Yeah like you say Evra is always the one who plays the most games. It certainly can't harm him for us to bring somoeone in to provide competition/cover. We could then rest him more and he will be fresher for cerain big games bur i still think he should be mumber 1 which is why signing baines wouldn't make sense he's too good and would cost too much to just provide competition/cover. Unless ferguson really wants to get someone who he think will eventually take evra's place which baines could do but i don't think he will do that. i can see him buying a younger/cheaper option who he can train and improve, sum1 who won't mind playing 2nd fiddle to evra mainly. who that could be im not sure but will probably be sum1 we dont really know much about.

Yeah but it does seem to have been a lot easier for teams to cross in from his side for scoring chances. That continued in friendlies for France and he was subsequently dropped to the bench in turn for Clichy by Blanc for the Euros. Sadly we dont have that luxury. So until competition/cover comes in for him we will never know if his defensive side of his game can return to his early United days and of course that he may be still able to make an attacking contribution. Because we have to say his defending has gone back a wee bit and not just against his bogey wingers like Aaron Lennon. You can argue that Young or whoever is the winger needs to track back and help Evra, but no matter what way one looks at it that would seriously hinder our counter attacking ability in most situations (I don't care who we are playing unless we are under the cosh and holding onto a lead late on). Lets face it too, a few years back Ronaldo hardly ever did any tracking back and Evra was quite good defensively then, so I think its only a recent problem. Therefore only thing as i have said that we've not tried is giving him more competition and cover for his position, and the ball is in Fergie's court on that one. But we will never get the best out of Evra if he has to go through the same number of appearances next season, maybe a new signing for that position and then start changing the 2 around once the Champions League start, and as we know already with the league fixtures announced United have 5 away games after 5 CL games making a tester of season before its even started, so we will need a decent amount of rotation for nearly all the positions including left back

Yes totally agree with you. He certainly need some cover/competition but we shouldn't be dropping selling him. I know the critisism won't go away that's i have tried some statistical analysis rather than people saying "he had a bad season, he was rubbish, he was at fault for loads of goals". people say these things but don't anything to back it up so it's just all talk and an opinion only on the evidence they've seen which might not be everything. It's like i don't really comment on players i haven't seen much of cos if you haven't been watching the games they play in, there's no way you can know how their actually playing. Highlights IMO don't give a clear indication they will only highlight a couple of key moments.

James Graham:

Dont know tbh. why not read wud take 2 mins?

Just after reading now. yeah some good points on Evra. But as im sure you know criticism of him on here aint going to go away. Im not one who thinks he shouldnt be dropped as our regular left back but we do need some cover in that position. Only need so look at the number of apperances he made last season, every player needs a rest every now and then. And thankfully he isnt injury prone but if he was to we dont have any proven cover for left back position. So he needs competition to keep him at his best and some protection, i.e the occasional rest every now and then. but not get rid of him or drop him. he can still make a contribution

Dont know tbh. why not read wud take 2 mins?

Didnt bother reading this but why is Evra considered bad language on here. What did poor Patrice do???? Can the mods not handle it??? :-D

Getting annoyed with people having a go at Evra saying he needs to be replace and all that rubbish so I thought i'd write some stuff to back him up. For a start Patrice has already admitted himself that last season wasn't one of his best for united. while we would all acxept that's the case I really think there were mitigating circumstances. Firstly his brother died which is a pretty horrible thing to deal with, then he had all the Suarez cenario to deal with which he admitted how found tough to cope with for a bit. I want to stand up for him. He always gives 100% for this club, he loves united and the fans. he turned down liverpool, arsenal and inter milan to come here so that tells what he thinks of united. He is only 31 which is not old for a defender, he's always been a good athlete anyway. Somebody tried to say he's stopped attacking and doesn't get any assists anymore. So i looked this up and in the league last season our top assisters were, valencia, nani, giggs and young all on 8 or above. after those its rooney, welbeck & evra jointly on 4! so that kind of proves that notiin is nonsense. if your left back is getting 4 assists in the league as many as the strikers thats more than acceptable. Also of course he was probably at fault for a few goals last season but in reality all defenders will be. i can't think of any defender that won't be at fault for a few goals a season, there hunan beings they can't be faultless! Anyway i took a look at the castrol index rankings to see how they have rated his performanced over the past year. now of course it's not a difinative proof of how a player has been playing but i think it's a pretty good indicator (it's no coincidence that the best players have the best ratings!) Evra seems to score very well. He rates basically as the 58the best defender over the top 5 leagues and champions league of the last 12 months, not too bad and he is 23rd in the premier league, again very good! in terms of what you would class as prem left backs he is behind just 2 (baines & clichy) so 3rd best in the prem, again very good! so statistically his performances were still top level even though he didn't think he had played that well. just thought i would share those thoughts and stats with everyone, just too put a bit of weight behind my thoughts that we dont need to replace evra, he's got a good few years left in him yet and i personally reckin fergie will not replace him,ni think he' much more likely to buy an understudy if he gets one! if you dont know about them, check out the castrol index ratings at www.castrolindex.com . makes for good reading and shows evra ahead of many of the top left backs around europe including the likes of ashley cole & jordi alba among others. he basically comfortably top 10 in europe which is fine by me!