Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

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Ekeke said:
Just that pesky crossing. But he did play very well imo
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Yeah - miss the days where he'd actually aim his crosses, and continually pick out Rooney (not exactly the tallest of players) who then scored.

Good thing is the confidence seems to be increasing, and his overall play seems to be better. Last year he was just whacking his crosses as hard as he could into the box. At least yesterday there was an intention to find someone with an aimed cross, just didn't have the accuracy. Hopefully it'll come.
 
I mean he put the ball into the box 11 times and didnt find a United player once. It wasnt even his worst crossing display but still, those kind of numbers shouldnt be happening

Regardless he played well and was good to see him scoring again
 
That stat is slightly harsh I think, he put in a few decent crosses. One when he chipped it across to the back post was a pretty good ball.

Anyway, he played excellent last night. His form in general this season has been pretty good, not close to his best but it seems to be getting there.
 
He wasn't excellent at all. He was good, by his standards, and got a goal, I can't remember any other effective attacks from him though.
 
Valencia was a constant threat all night, I think he was excellent. He destroyed Can all game.
 
Theon said:
Valencia was a constant threat all night, I think he was excellent. He destroyed Can all game.
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Yeah, he was very good. Fantastic outlet as usual and his strength on the ball was invaluable in helping us keep possession.

'Good by his standards' is a poor description, he was good by Manchester United standards. Will be brilliant when he and Rafael are united, Smalling has been good but he doesn't offer the same threat or quality when overlapping, Valencia seems to be helping out our midfield a lot more this year so a two pronged attack down the right is quite necessary IMO.
 
Theon said:
Valencia was a constant threat all night, I think he was excellent. He destroyed Can all game.
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We'll see. People said the same after the last game against these lot, then he went back to being completely ineffective in the league. Needs to put together a sequence of performances like that before I'm convinced he's anywhere close to what he used to be for us.
 
What's the point of beating your man if you then lose possession? He'll also always play the safe lay off rather than try and 70% chance through ball.

This is the problem with Valencia hype. He gets credit for being the base level we should expect from him. "Oh he beat someone...Wasn't he brilliant? Beast! Rape!"...he's a fecking winger. Of course he should be beating someone. He's still not performing anywhere near what I'd hope a Manchester United constant starter should be.
 
Mockney said:
What's the point of beating your man if you then lose possession? He'll also always play the safe lay off rather than try and 70% chance through ball.

This is the problem with Valencia hype. He gets credit for being the base level we should expect from him. He's still not performing anywhere near what I'd hope a Manchester United constant starter should be.
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Probably because everything we've seen in the last year was far below the base level for what you'd expect and thus performances like that get overblown.
 
He has lost that intent and drive that we want from him. But I feel he is becoming a little better balanced as a player. Linked up nicely with Giggs, Kagawa and Rooney at times.

So good signs in general, not in terms of a return to form but just in general I think he is offering a lot more than he did last season.
 
Cina - Of course, I also think he's been inconsistent. The bar is so low with our wingers right now that it doesn't really matter. He has done enough this season to remain first choice for the right wing position.

Mockney - He won't ever play those 70% through balls because that isn't the type of player he is, and quite possibly he doesn't even have the technique/vision/etc to pull them off. He's a proper old fashioned winger whose first thought is to get to the byline and put in a dangerous cross. Nothing wrong with that, its just a different way of playing.

I like the width he gives the team as well. There's no player in the team who opens the game up as much as Valencia, which benefits the rest of the attack.
 
Cina said:
We'll see. People said the same after the last game against these lot, then he went back to being completely ineffective in the league. Needs to put together a sequence of performances like that before I'm convinced he's anywhere close to what he used to be for us.
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True that. He seems to struggle more in the league for reasons unknown. If he puts on his running boots, he can have a field day against Verthongen. He might find using his pace a bit more difficult with Rose who gave even Walcott a hard time with that.

I saw yesterday, too, that when he kicks the ball ahead of the defender down to the by-line to cross, he kicks it slightly wide to the right, making him lose momentum. Watch how often that happens; it's annoying as he would have to be twice as fast to get past with that sloppy move, and I think that's why some people say he's lost pace. Judging by recent performances, he's just as fast as he has been - about Walcott level in a straight line (lacks agility though)
 
Mockney said:
He's still not performing anywhere near what I'd hope a Manchester United constant starter should be.
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Of course not, but he's playing better than his competition.
 
Theon said:
He's a proper old fashioned winger whose first thought is to get to the byline and put in a dangerous cross. Nothing wrong with that, its just a different way of playing
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And he didn't put in a dangerous cross all night. Yet was still "excellent"? I admire your positivity, and I'll admit I'm being a cynical realist, but I found that hugely frustrating. He's a player who can do one thing, and he's just started being able to do half of that thing again. I'll wait until he can do all of it before I claim his performances are excellent.

My opinion is still close to this I'm afraid...
Raees said:
Dying for the day he becomes a bench player, it'll be the sign that United have moved out of the dark ages.
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Only phrased much less harshly.
 
Mockney said:
And he didn't put in a dangerous cross all night. Yet was still "excellent"? I admire your positivity, but I found that hugely frustrating. He's a player who can do one thing, and he's just started being able to do half of that thing again. I'll wait until he can do all of it before I claim his performances are excellent.

My opinion is still close to this I'm afraid...




Only phrased much less harshly.
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He was excellent though, it was arguably his best performance of the season and he has had a few very good ones. I thought Kagawa/Rooney/Valencia were all great in that front four and we're linking up well.

It isn't just crossing, as I said the width he offers stretches the play which I think benefits the whole attack. He also did put in some good crosses, we just didn't happen to score from them. He had other good moments as well, I thought the one two he played with Rooney was brilliant for example.

Yeah that is a very harsh quote and he obviously doesn't like the player.
 
He wasn't excellent! Rooney, Evans and Giggs were excellent. Valencia was in the very good category along with Jones and Kagawa, maybe a little below.
 
He was certainly below Kagawa. He was in the category of "the basic level of what I'd expect from a Manchester United winger...But without any good crosses"
 
Well it obviously depends on what you class as an excellent performance, so its going to be different for every person and makes this discussion redundant and pedantic.

For what its worth I think Kagawa, Rooney, Valencia, Giggs, Evans and Smalling were all excellent.
 
Yeah but in that case you're making excellent seem very broad as Rooney and Giggs were clearly a level, or two, or five above most players on the pitch last night.
 
He was better than Nani. And Rio. And probably Jones. Though I think Jones did a relatively good job of doing Fellaini's job without fouling anyone or losing the ball. Which is a step up.

Personally I'd agree with Cina. Only Giggs and Rooney were actually excellent. Otherwise you'd have to invent another couple of levels above excellent. And then we'd just end up with a daft ranking system like the Football League.
 
They were definitely better, but like I said its just a pedantic discussion.

"Giggs and Rooney were outstanding, Kagawa and Evans were excellent, Smalling and Valencia were very very good, Jones was very good, Nani, Evra, Ferdinand and De Gea were good"
 
He was pretty good but I think his performance was also helped by the fact that Emre Can looked absolutely useless at left back position.
 
Haha

Perhaps I was over the top with excellent then, but I do think he was very good and has done enough to keep his place. Crossing needs to be better though.
 
The team performed well, Valencia played his part in that. Not a an excellent individual performance though. Up against Can, I would have expect Ashley Young to have a 'decent' game too!
 
He never went back to mediocrity after our first game against Bayer as some suggest. He's been ok all season with some really good games in between. Nothing to moan about this time round (so far).
 
Cina said:
We'll see. People said the same after the last game against these lot, then he went back to being completely ineffective in the league. Needs to put together a sequence of performances like that before I'm convinced he's anywhere close to what he used to be for us.
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This.
 
We need to isolate him with Vertonghen. Rooney has done a great job of finding Valencia.
 
Taking their left back on for fun, needs to get a bit more creative with his crossing.
 
We've isolated him plenty of times. He just can't cross the ball to save his life
 
He's getting flak in the matchday thread, but feck me, had it not been for Valencia at times in that half, we'd have been devoid of ideas altogether.

He's still not back to his rampaging best, but he's still far more confident that last season. We need Januzaj on the left, shift Shinji back inside and take Welbeck off. Danny has not been at the races today.
 
His lack of end product is really worrying. He beat Verthongen few times, and got into really good positions, but nothing came out of it.
 
Only a matter of time til he finds a cross.


Hopefully some time this side of May.

Other than that he's been very good. Has the beating of Vertongen in a 1 on 1 today. I'd like to see him take him on more.
 
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