Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

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Poor performance. That's actually worse than the times he struggles to get anything out of the fullback. He actually was in great positions time and time again and kept putting in shit crosses again and again and again. It's as if there's no thought put into his decision making.
 
jem said:
It's hard to think of many players with less subtlety, nuance, class, whatever… in their final ball. 8 times out of 10, the ball is overhit or smashed into the legs of the closest defender.
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Even Rafael was so much cleverer in those situations, like the cutback to Valencia.

I'm not sure Valencia actually tries to pick someone out. Some of his crosses were so random.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Poor performance. That's actually worse than the times he struggles to get anything out of the fullback. He actually was in great positions time and time again and kept putting in shit crosses again and again and again. It's as if there's no thought put into his decision making.
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Which is mad when you think how he played vs Aston Villa (more variety and better usage of his brain). Valencia is a mystery to me.
 
I think he was pretty good yesterday and was a constant threat - had a hand in the Young goal did he not?

Like the other attackers he was a bit wasteful in the closing stages and we really should have hit West Ham for about 6

So tight this year I think goal difference will play a part
 
Salfordlad70 said:
He must have known Jones was steaming down the right hand side surely!! Still, he's improving and we must be thankful for that and overall yesterday he was good.
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Have to disagree. Rafael was very good yesterday and this helped to paint an untrue portrait of Tony for a certain few.
 
Gaeilge said:
Have to disagree. Rafael was very good yesterday and this helped to paint an untrue portrait of Tony for a certain few.
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Personally I think Tony V is a good squad player and right now, an upturn in form can't be denied.Without Rafa in the side, he is far less of a threat.Rafael helps to get the the best out of Valencia and the two of them together provide us with plenty threat down the right, but seriously, I don't don't think Valencia has enough in his game to be a top top player and we should look to strengthen in his position!
 
Salfordlad70 said:
Personally I think Tony V is a good squad player and right now, an upturn in form can't be denied.Without Rafa in the side, he is far less of a threat. Rafael helps to get the the best out of Valencia and the two of them together provide us with plenty threat down the right, but seriously, I don't don't think Valencia has enough in his game to be a top top player and we should look to strengthen in his position!
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If I'm being totally honest and not unnecessarily critical (IMO), I think it has actually got to the stage whereby his status as a squad player should be questioned. As a winger - he is extremely fast and nobody can argue that. His pace could very well be perceived as a threat and his continuous running up an down the wing will give the FB a heartache. This coupled with his tracking back can indeed provide a mantle to argue his number at the club.

To negate this, he is a winger who best put - can not cross a football. When he gets in position to score and does, it is usually a bute! 9/10 he breaks a floodlight though.

I agree that we should look to strengthen in his position and do this ASAP. I am starting to really doubt his ability in our team though. For people to argue that he is improving from two months ago - when he still can't cross a fecking football is painful and contributes massively to the situation that we find ourselves in. Main problem with Tony is that people like to keep what 'he can do' in mind. All well said but you don't become a bad player over night and we have seen far too much of this now.
 
Gaeilge said:
If I'm being totally honest and not unnecessarily critical (IMO), I think it has actually got to the stage whereby his status as a squad player should be questioned. As a winger - he is extremely fast and nobody can argue that. His pace could very well be perceived as a threat and his continuous running up an down the wing will give the FB a heartache. This coupled with his tracking back can indeed provide a mantle to argue his number at the club.

To negate this, he is a winger who best put - can not cross a football. When he gets in position to score and does, it is usually a bute! 9/10 he breaks a floodlight though.

I agree that we should look to strengthen in his position and do this ASAP. I am starting to really doubt his ability in our team though. For people to argue that he is improving from two months ago - when he still can't cross a fecking football is painful and contributes massively to the situation that we find ourselves in. Main problem with Tony is that people like to keep what 'he can do' in mind. All well said but you don't become a bad player over night and we have seen far too much of this now.
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I am in agreement with you fella.I am happy he has improved for the good of the team but let's face it, prior to this improvement he was fecking stinking the place out!! He can't cross so well and rarely looks up and just hits the ball low and hard into the box.Percentage balls! On one hand i'm not sure we should sell him but I do think a replacement is needed.An upgrade.He is 28 though and so maybe a sale instead of an improved contract would make sense!
 
Salfordlad70 said:
I am in agreement with you fella.I am happy he has improved for the good of the team but let's face it, prior to this improvement he was fecking stinking the place out!! He can't cross so well and rarely looks up and just hits the ball low and hard into the box.Percentage balls! On one hand i'm not sure we should sell him but I do think a replacement is needed.An upgrade.He is 28 though and so maybe a sale instead of an improved contract would make sense!
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I personally see no reason to keep him any further.
 
Shimo said:
I can understand why someone might have had him first, because he was a threat constantly with only the final ball letting him down. It's not something we can say we've enjoyed from our wing play this season.

On a different note, one thing that occurred to me is that I've noticed that when Rooney has been in this more withdrawn role and been spraying the ball around, much like when Scholes was around - Valencia has looked a lot more like his old self. Coincidence perhaps but, Valencia's dip in form coincided with the final retirement of Scholes.
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I disagree. We don't need Scholes to see the quality of Valencia. We had Carrick last season and while he's not as good as Scholes in dictating play, he is able to play vertical passes to Valencia. What Valencia has missed this season is Rafael, more than anything else. The ability to underlap/overlap is crucial and it's one of the reasons why Valencia looked excellent against Aston Villa. We managed to get 2 v 1 situations on a few occasions. Yesterday's performance was good, but his delivery let him down. Maybe my standards are low, but I think he's starting to find form. He just needs to improve his delivery - I'd like him to use the same technique he used to cross the ball against AC Milan. It adds more variation to his crosses.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
What a lot of you aren't accounting for is his defensive work. It's fine saying "Put Januzaj and Kagawa on the wings" and that is a good idea against certain opposition but Valencia is important for a certain type of threat and offers great natural width.

People tend to remember Giggs for his mazy runs and Beckham for his deadly set-piece speciality, but people can forget how good they were at tracking back and working hard. Valencia is the closest we have to that in that respect. Young too, for all his criticism. That's why Fergie always opted for the two of them in the big matches last season.

These managers do actually know what they are doing. They see things we don't.
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You mean like when he started two of our biggest games last season against Real Madrid?
 
MoneyMay said:
I disagree. We don't need Scholes to see the quality of Valencia. We had Carrick last season and while he's not as good as Scholes in dictating play, he is able to play vertical passes to Valencia. What Valencia has missed this season is Rafael, more than anything else. The ability to underlap/overlap is crucial and it's one of the reasons why Valencia looked excellent against Aston Villa. We managed to get 2 v 1 situations on a few occasions. Yesterday's performance was good, but his delivery let him down. Maybe my standards are low, but I think he's starting to find form. He just needs to improve his delivery - I'd like him to use the same technique he used to cross the ball against AC Milan. It adds more variation to his crosses.
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Finally some sensible post. His distribution was wank in the second half, bar a good cut-back to Rooney for our goal. In the first half he put some good crosses, though. Ones that actually beat the first man. Sort out the crossing and we'll see the true Valencia I say.
 
MoneyMay said:
I disagree. We don't need Scholes to see the quality of Valencia. We had Carrick last season and while he's not as good as Scholes in dictating play, he is able to play vertical passes to Valencia. What Valencia has missed this season is Rafael, more than anything else. The ability to underlap/overlap is crucial and it's one of the reasons why Valencia looked excellent against Aston Villa. We managed to get 2 v 1 situations on a few occasions. Yesterday's performance was good, but his delivery let him down. Maybe my standards are low, but I think he's starting to find form. He just needs to improve his delivery - I'd like him to use the same technique he used to cross the ball against AC Milan. It adds more variation to his crosses.
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Carrick is a very good passer but, he rarely sprays the way the ball Rooney/Scholes do to Valencia - with those raking balls. Valencia seems to really take on players when he gets into those situations. Last season Rafael was one of our standout players and yet Valencia was nowhere near his best.

I don't think your standards are low - he played well IMO, final delivery definitely needs to improve, he is doing all the hard work but, still relying a lot on the thrash it across the danger area and that is probably his safe out. He (we) would be well served to start varying it up a little.
 
At least he's beating his man. People can't have forgotten just how bad ,and how outrageously scared he was to do anything last season? He literally had one good game out of about 50, and that was at right back. He was that bad.

The Valencia of this season has been better, and hopefully the quality of delivery will improve as games go by. If he was still unable to look like a threat, which he wasn't last season, then I'd understand the mass amounts of criticism. For now, though, I'm not that worried.
 
He's a winger who's supposed to create chances, and all he does is waste numerous good positions with his random crosses. I honestly don't see how anyone can think he played well
 
Shimo said:
Carrick is a very good passer but, he rarely sprays the way the ball Rooney/Scholes do to Valencia - with those raking balls. Valencia seems to really take on players when he gets into those situations. Last season Rafael was one of our standout players and yet Valencia was nowhere near his best.

I don't think your standards are low - he played well IMO, final delivery definitely needs to improve, he is doing all the hard work but, still relying a lot on the thrash it across the danger area and that is probably his safe out. He (we) would be well served to start varying it up a little.
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I'm not sure about that. Here's some of them this season:



Even if Carrick doesn't do that, to take your point - we still have Rooney in the SS position playing these balls to our wingers.

Last season, Valencia's problems were that his crossing was mediocre and he didn't take on players with much ferocity. This season, he started the season off poorly, had a very good game against Bayer Leverkusen, went back to mediocrity, performs well at right back against Stoke and Fulham, performs poorly against Arsenal, and is now experiencing his most consistent spell for us in a year or so.

I don't know why he attempts to drill crosses in every single time. He needs more variation, he's capable of it - we witnessed it in 09/10 and 10/11. At least he's doing something right, I suppose.
 
His last game he was back to his most infuriating, but not in his worst form, if that makes sense. He took up good positions, made good runs, beat his fullback, did players for pace... and then played the most consistently inconsistent balls I've seen. Overhit, underhit, drilled into the first defender, spooned straight out of play. Was a real shame to see.

Still, six months ago he wasn't even doing the first part right, so I'm happy enough. But what happened to the amazing progress of him using his left foot against Villa? He was back to being totally one-footed again.
 
Count Orduck said:
His last game he was back to his most infuriating, but not in his worst form, if that makes sense. He took up good positions, made good runs, beat his fullback, did players for pace... and then played the most consistently inconsistent balls I've seen. Overhit, underhit, drilled into the first defender, spooned straight out of play. Was a real shame to see.

Still, six months ago he wasn't even doing the first part right, so I'm happy enough. But what happened to the amazing progress of him using his left foot against Villa? He was back to being totally one-footed again.
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Feel differently frankly. Valencia is playing ok but is a million miles away from what he was 2 or 3 seasons ago. Who knows how long Young´s good form is going to last but if Young continues to be decisive for us and Januzaj keeps up his good form Valencia needs to make way for one of them.
 
Valencia has been great this season. He's created a lot of goals, and is one of our top 5 best players, alongside Jones, Januzaj, De Gea and Rooney.

It's no surprise he's starting most games, and It's a real asset to have him Januzaj and Young all in form at once.
 
lem8sh said:
An unbelievably average footballer.
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did you think that at the start of last season or are you allowing a players present form to completely discount years of consistency before that?
 
Silent_Running said:
Valencia has been great this season. He's created a lot of goals, and is one of our top 5 best players, alongside Jones, Januzaj, De Gea and Rooney.

It's no surprise he's starting most games, and It's a real asset to have him Januzaj and Young all in form at once.
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He hasn't been great by any stretch of the imagination.
 
Silent_Running said:
Valencia has been great this season. He's created a lot of goals, and is one of our top 5 best players, alongside Jones, Januzaj, De Gea and Rooney.

It's no surprise he's starting most games, and It's a real asset to have him Januzaj and Young all in form at once.
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He hasn't been great and he hasn't created loads but he's been at least decent enough to warrant his place. That's individually. Another thing is that Rafael plays even better with him than he does without him (some can only see it the other way round).
 
lem8sh said:
I thought that before we ever signed him.
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you seem like a pretty ungrateful and/or stubborn guy then, considering he had a couple of fantastic seasons for us where he was incredibly consistent. but thats your opinion.
 
SER19 said:
you seem like a pretty ungrateful and/or stubborn guy then, considering he had a couple of fantastic seasons for us where he was incredibly consistent. but thats your opinion.
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In my opinion his best form didn't come about from some fantastic ability that he possesses. It came from using the one thing he has in his locker, his raw pace. He is lightning. He was just touching it past full backs and flying past them while maintaining a decent level when it came to his final ball. But he just doesn't do that anymore. And unfortunately he doesn't have much else besides his pace to fall back on. No creative brain, no left leg, contributes a very little amount of goals for a winger, is not a skilful winger and is technically very ordinary. And his final ball has declined to the point where it's slightly embarrassing considering he's a right winger for Manchester United. He's a decent defensive winger that won't change but offensively he's a waste of time these days.
 
lem8sh said:
An unbelievably average footballer.
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Average footballer that's started majority of the games when fit for us and won player of the season, am sure many would wish they were as average as him.
 
I thought he played well the weekend and has been getting into good positions the last few weeks. He is rather inconsistent with this crosses but overall i'm pleased for him, looks like he is enjoying his football.
 
He has speed. Full stop. No brains at all. It is common sense that when the opposition has two tall centre backs, high crosses wouldn't work. But, almost all his crosses ended up with Collins and the other CB heading them off.
 
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