Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

Status
Not open for further replies.
First time I have seen Old Valencia play in one and a half years. Did not expect this.
 
nahealai said:
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.
Click to expand...


Don't read the matchday thread. He was our best attacking player. We managed to isolate him with Vertonghen pretty well, though we could have done a bit better, and he did his thing (on a few occasions). He's clearly looking much, much better than last year, which is great to see.
 
nahealai said:
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.
Click to expand...


Do you just jump from thread to thread criticising Welbeck? He's been far better centrally then Kagawa was. The change has led to us controlling the game, you must have a personal bias against Welbeck not to see that.
 
He hit in one decent cross where he absolutely drilled it across the floor, it got cut out but if someone made a run to the front post it should have been a goal. Delivery hasnt been good enough in general though.

Besides that he's been one of our best players, a constant outlet and threat going forward.
 
Thought he was good first half. He seems to have cut out that couple of seconds he had been taking to make decisions the passed few years. He's playing a lot more precise and instinctively. Still needs to whip in a decent cross but other than that he's been effective.
 
datura said:
Do you just jump from thread to thread criticising Welbeck? He's been far better centrally then Kagawa was. The change has led to us controlling the game, you must have a personal bias against Welbeck not to see that.
Click to expand...


No, I don't have a personal vendetta against Welbeck at all. I just think because he's a local lad he gets the benefit of the doubt far more than others, e.g today's performance.

He's only in the team for his defensive duties today as his end product seems to have deserted him. Januzaj or Nani are better options in an attacking sense.

On Kagawa, you're being dramatic. Moyes swapped them around very early on, and Spurs dominated us up until our fortuitous goal. Welbeck was playing centrally well before that.
 
He looked completely baffled when his man wouldn't let him onto his right foot to cross near the end there. He stood there like a Rabbit caught in headlights, completely void of any sort of idea and stood still for about 3 minutes hoping the defender would change his mind and let him down the channel.

Is it that fecking hard to learn a step over, a turn that isn't the 270 degree 18 wheeler turning circle or some sort of feint? You're a winger for feck sake.
 
He used to know how to curl a crossed ball, I'm sure of it. It was never always 'just hammer it as hard as you can even if there's a player standing right in front of you'.
 
nahealai said:
No, I don't have a personal vendetta against Welbeck at all. I just think because he's a local lad he gets the benefit of the doubt far more than others, e.g today's performance.

He's only in the team for his defensive duties today as his end product seems to have deserted him. Januzaj or Nani are better options in an attacking sense.

On Kagawa, you're being dramatic. Moyes swapped them around very early on, and Spurs dominated us up until our fortuitous goal. Welbeck was playing centrally well before that.
Click to expand...


Kagawa started well but struggled to get in the game since. Welbeck was roaming from the left early on hence why you saw him centrally. Towards the end he moved Welbeck up top with Rooney in behind and we've looked far more fluent and possession has been better. Welbeck still has to get his match sharpness up, but he's held the ball up far better then we were at the start and hence the improved end to the half.
 
He's absolutely pointless. Hasnt got a clue what to do with the ball in either of a) an attacking position or b) when its on his left foot.
 
Thought he did quite well up until his final delivery... at one point he just smashed it into a crowd of players.
 
Our standards are so low when it comes to wingers. Gone are the days when we expect a Manchester United winger to be able to beat his man and cross the ball.
 
nahealai said:
He's played better than he has been today in previous weeks.

Honest.
Click to expand...


I disagree. I don't think he has had a single worthy game of himself in his prime in pretty much one and a half year. He has had defensively sound games on a weekly basis though but being a one-way player is not enough as a winger.

If it isn't enough to consistently feck up the defense, then it isn't enough to consistently fecked up the offense.

Anyhow, if he continues like this it will change our season.
 
I thought he was our only player who really went at them. Crossing's being mediocre so far but he's trying and to say after that first half that he's pointless is verging on insanity.
 
It felt like he just had a vendetta against Vertonghen and wanted to smash the ball against him repeatedly as payback.
 
Thought we looked a lot less dangerous when he went off
 
I thought he played well but seriously he's got to be more willing to put in an aerial cross to pick someone out. He's training everyday, clearly not working on his left, so surely his crossing on his right has to have more to it then a drill. Still either way good to see him running at people again but really we still need more from out wide players as more often than not we're not going to get anything through the middle.
 
I thought he did well and was as always a contestant outlet.

Most of his cross were blocked though, Vertonghen had a very good game
 
Freak said:
He was fecking shit. Every single time he smashed it against their left back.
Click to expand...


He definitely wasn't shit!

His crossing was pretty shit but he was a constant threat all game. Our second best player after Rooney IMO
 
Theon said:
He definitely wasn't shit!

His crossing was pretty shit but he was a constant threat all game. Our second best player after Rooney IMO
Click to expand...

How was he a threat if the crosses never found a man? He was about as threatening as Ashley Young in a pub brawl.
 
Theon said:
Thought we looked a lot less dangerous when he went off
Click to expand...


You saw that from 8 minutes, from which 5 minutes were used for taking corners and free kicks?
 
He was only a threat because of his physicality and the fact he could actually compete in a footrace with Spurs players. His actual ability and end product on the ball was shite.
 
He works hard, tracks back and does everything but making a decent delivery, he'll never cross with his left foot and most of the time his cross will hit the defender, i'd be ok with him if all our play wasn't going through him, but we always seem to play wide and if that's how we're going to play all the time then we better have someone special there.

Not good enough at all.
 
Still does that thing where he's in a good position and just stands there thinking about it for too long.

However, beat Vertonghen a few times with nips of pace.

Nani and Janujaz is the flair combo, Valencia and Welbeck certainly the containment option.
 
Final ball is more important than beating a CB in the LB role. He was bad, beat the record for hitting the first man with crosses.
 
He's a fabulous outlet. Gets himself in great positions and finds plenty of space but feck me his crossing is woeful.
 
Permanent substitute or a back up to Rafael from now on for me.

He's not good enough to start and hasn't been for for more than a year now.
 
The logic in here is hilarious at times. "He was great, well, apart from the fact that couldn't cross the ball at all". I could've sworn wingers were supposed to be able to cross a football, no?

Maybe I'll go into the Cleverley thread and say "He was great, well, apart from the fact that he can't pass the ball forwards."
 
Better than Kagawa and Welbeck. Our best attacking player in the first half but faded in the second, similarly to all United players. His crossing frustrated the hell out of me but you can't objectively use him as a scapegoat for today.
 
Cina said:
How was he a threat if the crosses never found a man? He was about as threatening as Ashley Young in a pub brawl.
Click to expand...


He was a threat because he was constantly the main attacking outlet the entire game, the majority of our offence came through him. He had the beating of the defence and was creating chances with his crosses. You can criticise his crossing for not finding their man but a lot of that was to do with Spurs' defending.

Edit - Just had a look in the MOTM thread and 5 of the 6 posters have him as the second best player on the pitch, so its obviously not a daft opinion to think he played well.
 
Theon said:
He was a threat because he was constantly the main attacking outlet the entire game, the majority of our offence came through him. He had the beating of the defence and was creating chances with his crosses. You can criticise his crossing for not finding their man but a lot of that was to do with Spurs' defending.
Click to expand...

That explains why we couldn't create anything then.
 
I am not a big Valencia hater or lover but I almost lost the will to watch football, watching him hit one cross after another into the first man.
Even if it works, this is pedestrian football from us, devoid of any creativity. Great wing play is not just about whipping the ball to a wide man and have him cross it in mindlessly. That's no better than long ball game.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.