Man United fan goes viral with moronic VVD criticism, but is schooled by Titus Bramble statistic

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A Manchester United fan account has got over 14,000 retweets for a tweet that suggests Virgil van Dijk’s season pales into insignificance compared to Nemanja Vidic’s in 2008/09.

@TheManUtdWay show that Vidic, United’s formerly world-class central defender, who despite being schooled by Fernando Torres on countless occasions – was very good – made more tackles, blocks, interceptions and clearances than VVD has this term.

But as Paulo Maldini famously said, “If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”

These statistics are not reflective of a defender’s performance, because they don’t take into account firstly positioning, but secondly what is actually required in a match.

Van Dijk doesn’t make many tackles, because Liverpool nearly always have the ball and no attacker tries to dribble him anyway.

https://twitter.com/TheManUtdWay/status/1123238998015651841

As confirmation of this, a Liverpool fan shared a stat that shows Titus Bramble made more blocks, tackles and interceptions than Vidic in the mentioned season for Wigan Athletic!

Did Bramble enjoy a better campaign than Vidic?

Of course he didn’t.

There’s nothing wrong with using stats in football, but when they’re used incorrectly to state facts it’s incredibly annoying.

We hope this is now cleared up.

More Stories Nemanja Vidic Titus Bramble Virgil van Dijk