Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

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Raees said:
Because I know 100% he's not good enough. Kagawa, I have my doubts about too, especially as a left winger... his performance level there is arguably poorer than Valencia, he's very negative on the left wing and barely does anything of note. His good moments are exclusively in central areas when he drifts inside. I'm still willing to give Shinji a chance because I want to see if he has what it takes in the hole.
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Agree on Kagawa centrally and not on the left. The Valencia we saw today with a bit more precision in his crossing is certainly good enough for the squad and wouldn't mind him starting regularly. My concern is the two good performances he's had lately have been in Europe, which takes us back to whether he has been "found out" in the league.

I certainly rate Nani and Januzaj higher, but I like the balance Valencia offers to them as better creative/dribbling/flair options.
 
Was a beast today. Weird situation we find ourselves in here. Completely opposite from last season in fact. Pretty much all of our wingers have looked very good lately (Nani, Januzaj, Kagawa, Valencia), but RVP has been off form and Rooney on form. Let's just hope that once RVP starts getting in form that the others stay in form :lol:
 
Raees said:
Cool, I'll let you guys fawn over him against a non-existent left wing/left back. We'll see how much 'drive' he shows when we play someone half decent again.
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Oh yes - use the "against weaker opposition" card. It's always a good one. Is that the same as saying that all centre backs are fault free when playing against Messi - he's just that good? When he tore Cole a new one, I'm sure you argued that Cole was off form? If he played well, he played well - no point in arguing about past games. We know he's been gobshite for some time now - why not just enjoy that he played well?
 
antohan said:
Agree on Kagawa centrally and not on the left. The Valencia we saw today with a bit more precision in his crossing is certainly good enough for the squad and wouldn't mind him starting regularly. My concern is the two good performances he's had lately have been in Europe, which takes us back to whether he has been "found out" in the league.

I certainly rate Nani and Januzaj higher, but I like the balance Valencia offers to them as better creative/dribbling/flair options.
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Fair enough.
 
Raees said:
Cool, I'll let you guys fawn over him against a non-existent left wing/left back. We'll see how much 'drive' he shows when we play someone half decent again.
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Is it not good to know that he can at least be used in games like these and perform like he did today? A good rotation option at the very least? I don't see any need to be moaning about his performance, nobody is clamoring for him to start every game.
 
Bestie07 said:
Is it not good to know that he can at least be used in games like these and perform like he did today? A good rotation option at the very least? I don't see any need to be moaning about his performance, nobody is clamoring for him to start every game.
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I'd like to see a rotation option whose young and potentially going to break into the first team side. I don't see the point of keeping a player whose never going to be good enough for the first team and is incredibly frustrating. We've been fortunate that in europe the two teams we've played have completely sat off him and allowed him the freedom to run down the outside, against a half decent defensive unit he'd get found out.
 
Rossa said:
Oh yes - use the "against weaker opposition" card. It's always a good one. Is that the same as saying that all centre backs are fault free when playing against Messi - he's just that good? When he tore Cole a new one, I'm sure you argued that Cole was off form? If he played well, he played well - no point in arguing about past games. We know he's been gobshite for some time now - why not just enjoy that he played well?
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Because I don't think he did enough with the amount of possession he received in that game. The performance against Chelsea sticks out like a sore thumb.
 
Raees said:
I'd like to see a rotation option whose young and potentially going to break into the first team side. I don't see the point of keeping a player whose never going to be good enough for the first team and is incredibly frustrating. We've been fortunate that in europe the two teams we've played have completely sat off him and allowed him the freedom to run down the outside, against a half decent defensive unit he'd get found out.
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I'd too, but we can't always think for the future, present is important too! He has been a very important part of our qualification campaign so far. Don't know what the future holds for him, but tonight showed that he is still capable of performing. I see absolutely zero reason to moan about either his inclusion or his performance tonight.
 
Rossa said:
Oh yes - use the "against weaker opposition" card. It's always a good one. Is that the same as saying that all centre backs are fault free when playing against Messi - he's just that good? When he tore Cole a new one, I'm sure you argued that Cole was off form? If he played well, he played well - no point in arguing about past games. We know he's been gobshite for some time now - why not just enjoy that he played well?
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Agree. It's not just Valencia but it seems like it's with United in general. If we as a team play well it'll be oh the team we played were awful today or they're a poor team instead of the simple fact that United could have played well and made them look poor.
Some said the same after the Leverkusen match and look what Leverkusen are doing and what they did last season. A really good side.

Valencia had a good game tonight, don't see why some have criticised him. He was good off the ball and I thought he done well with the ball tonight. OK I get some think he should have scored but so should many of others. Link up play with the rest of our attacking players and Rafael was very good tonight too. Good performance from him I'd say.
 
Good performance from him, always up in support when we counter-attacked. But he's still so hesitant once he gets into good situations. He telegraphs what he's going to do by sort of winding up for the shot or the cross, and then does exactly what the defender expects him to do. He needs to be a bit quicker about those decisions.
 
Deserves some credit for his performance today. Similar performance to the one vs. Liverpool.
 
lem8sh said:
The lack of movement has something to do with them not having an iota where his crosses are gonna end up
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That's utter bullshit. They are strikers, they should be able to anticipate where the ball is going, against sociadad he put loads of crosses in that all went the same way but our forwards were too useless to control them or get to them.
 
paceme said:
He gets it in the box and in dangerous areas all the time. Doesn't matter if he sometimes hits someone with a drill cross. Only idiots think someone can perfectly cross a ball everytime.
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That's a very good point. His crosses are not that bad at all. I made the same argument for Evra some while back - he often hits it straight onto the penalty spot, but there are no United players there. How many times should that happen before anyone gets the idea that it's a terrific position to be in. United's movement in the box this season is abysmal. There have been quite a few decent crosses from Valencia of late, and some of them deserved a better fate. It seems that the players haven't figured out who should go first post, hold back or go to the back post. Very annoying to watch!
 
Black Adder said:
Think we'll make him as Rafael sub for the RB in the future.
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I don't see why not... he makes some excellent attacking runs from that position. (In fact, it almost suits his game more these days, as he's not relied on to beat the man - and instead just needs to run past them at the right time and hope the pass finds him)... and has he ever been as bad as Jones/Smalling at RB? I mean, he probably has, but I can't recall.

The only worry really would come from defensive positioning and what not, but we'd have to make that comprimise I suppose.
 
paceme said:
He gets it in the box and in dangerous areas all the time. Doesn't matter if he sometimes hits someone with a drill cross. Only idiots think someone can perfectly cross a ball everytime.
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Only idiots would try to defend his crosses
 
The truth is he's had more decent/good games this season than he's had poor ones. Obviously some won't admit it but it's a good start to a hopefully good season from him.
 
Sir A1ex said:
That's understating it. I'm no striker and I can anticipate where the ball is going...

straight into the nearest defenders shins and, if we're lucky, out for a corner.
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feck me that's hilarious. He put at least three brilliant crosses along the ground against sociadad which all should of led to a shot on goal but nothing happened....all our strikers are playing like shit at the moment, including Rooney who while has been brilliant outside the box, has missed some absolute sitters in and around the box.
 
He's been better than at any point last season and is contributing enough to deserve some credit. I definitely don't want to see him sold.
 
Shark22 said:
He's been better than at any point last season and is contributing enough to deserve some credit. I definitely don't want to see him sold.
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The last couple of games he's definitely improved. Start of the season it looked worryingly like more of the same, but he does seem to be getting a bit of confidence back.
 
Tomuś said:
The truth is he's had more decent/good games this season than he's had poor ones. Obviously some won't admit it but it's a good start to a hopefully good season from him.
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Half decent but not as good as Nani, Januzaj and even Kagawa's couple of starts
 
More goals and assists than Nani and Kagawa combined. Is that not what was thrown in his face last season?
 
He does look best when he has space to run. Fulham gave him ample room in the first half and he had space to run from deep when he moved to RB. However he isn't good enough to be a right back permanently and most teams won't give him the space Fulham did in the first half.

Still overall my MOTM.
 
Kept it simple as he was doing when he first joined us. Used his pace to beat a man, then drove a cross rather than the whole cut back, do a 360 to get it back to his right foot and then get a cross blocked like he did quite a bit last season.
 
Was terrific today. Full of energy and powerful runs. Outshone Januzaj and the goal he got today will only give him confidence. I think he has won a place in the first eleven that will play against the gooners.
 
There was one instance he got beaten a little easy, but other than that, solid performance. Glad we put him at RB over Jones or Smalling for his pace. I think he's got a bit more physical clout than Smalling as well. He's a powerful so'n'so, our Tony.
 
He looks like he constantly works on his strength and pace, sustaining very good stamina levels through seasons.

The guy knows how to rebuild his game from scratch... I wish Young could possess such attitude.
 
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