Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

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Sandikan said:
someone said it before the Tottenham game, but the opposition left back must end the game black and blue having about 37 crosses smashed into his shins, thighs and stomach all game :eek:

What is inexplicable, is that Valencia, especially compared to Nani used to take the right option the vast majority of the time.

Now he slows it down, leaving himself one option. Which is to smash it low and hard, which is invariably blocked 90% of the time.

What happened to all those dinked crosses, in that season Rooney scored so many headers? Completely doesn't happen anymore.
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Injuries,lack of confidence,being found out by defenders that he rarely uses his left all equate to him being a very mediocre player these days
 
Sandikan said:
someone said it before the Tottenham game, but the opposition left back must end the game black and blue having about 37 crosses smashed into his shins, thighs and stomach all game :eek:

What is inexplicable, is that Valencia, especially compared to Nani used to take the right option the vast majority of the time.

Now he slows it down, leaving himself one option. Which is to smash it low and hard, which is invariably blocked 90% of the time.

What happened to all those dinked crosses, in that season Rooney scored so many headers? Completely doesn't happen anymore.
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The worst thing is he's rarely dropped. I honestly think over the past season and a half he has continually put in below par performances and yet is constantly picked, where as Nani can have the odd poor game and he's not seen for a while. Though in fairness it's hard to say as last season he also had the contract issue and injuries which he's had this season, I personally can't see how if given the same game time Valencia does that he wouldn't provide a lot more.

With Young out now as well then I hope we try Januzaj and Kagawa either side of Rooney and Welbeck at least once. Valencia will have to stay in the team more often than not as we don't want to risk Januzaj burning out but someone needs to have a word with him. He's generally upped his game from last season but his final product is still well below what it should be, if he can't pick someone out he should run at people and try and draw a foul or get past them and open things up. He also sucks the midfielders to him because he's so unwilling to do anything himself.
 
I can't understand why our other players insist on playing the ball out to the right every time. It's bad enough that he keeps trying to amputate the left back's legs in the least efficient way ever, but it absolutely boggles the mind that there are 10 other United players on that field who can't be thinking anything other than "Unlucky there, mate! Here! Have another go! Maybe this time they'll finally fall off." 20-30 times a game.
 
Red Stone said:
I can't understand why our other players insist on playing the ball out to the right every time. It's bad enough that he keeps trying to amputate the left back's legs in the least efficient way ever, but it absolutely boggles the mind that there are 10 other United players on that field who can't be thinking anything other than "Unlucky there, mate! Here! Have another go! Maybe this time they'll finally fall off." 20-30 times a game.
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You'd hardly notice it if a club like Hull possessed a player like Valencia and did the same thing as they have few resources, but for a big club, it's laughably bad.
 
if he'd been like this immediately after we bought him from Wigan you could understand it.

But for a year or so he was the most effective winger in the league by a mile.

Don't know if it's the injury, lack of confidence, or simply that was a one off year I don't know
 
Crossing stats portray only one side - they don't show if the cross was good/bad. A good cross doesn't have to hit a player, but Valencia only had one good cross in the whole game against Tottenham. It's shocking. Every time he has a great game, he follows it up with a poor one. What's more annoying is that Young and Nani are injured...
 
MoneyMay said:
Crossing stats portray only one side - they don't show if the cross was good/bad. A good cross doesn't have to hit a player, but Valencia only had one good cross in the whole game against Tottenham. It's shocking. Every time he has a great game, he follows it up with a poor one. What's more annoying is that Young and Nani are injured...
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I would like to see that, but he has one good game in ten.
 
Yeah, good point, I might edit that post.
 
It's sad to see him like this. In his debut season, he struck up a productive partnership with Rooney, he regularly got the better of Ashley Cole and Chelsea over the seasons and was a consistent big-game player for us, amongst other things.

He was always good enough, despite the revisionism from some posters on here but since the start of last season, he's been extremely underwhelming.

His crossing is no longer the weapon it used to be, his direct and power forward running has given way to slow, cumbersome turns from a standing position and his general effectiveness as an attacking player is no longer there, to the extent that he's now being labelled as a "defensive winger".
 
I don't like deleting my posts, and we should stop spamming here tbf.
 
It's true to say that Valencia has had one stand out season, but his debut season was pretty good as well, considering we'd just let Ronaldo leave and there was pressure on him from the outset. Even though he's upped his game this season, bar 4 or 5 games he hasn't even recovered to the standard he had when he first joined. Interesting, pretty much all of them (Liverpool, Leverkusen, Fulham, Villa) were away from home.

When he played against Villa, he used pace to take on Luna, he switched to his left rather than turning or passing back and should have had two or three assists. He used Rafael effectively and never slowed our play down, which is one of the biggest criticisms I've seen of him in the last 18 months. But the next time he takes to the pitch, it's as though he's completely forgotten how he played in that game and reverts back to blind crosses or playing safe.

The fact he hasn't been dropped has really counted against him I feel though. At the beginning of the 12/13 season he was off form in his overall game, but got in some assists and contributed enough up until about November. Then, we got injuries to the wingers and we had to carry on playing him anyway, which is similar to what's happening now. If it's not Nani and Young injured, we need to rest Januzaj or Valencia has to cover right back because Moyes insists on not playing Fabio off the bench. People talk about full backs 'figuring his game out', but how many crosses did he put in against Spurs? Something like 12 or 13 I think I remember. It's the end product that's killing us.

I think we should probably let him go if he doesn't significantly improve, but if we do keep him beyond this season, he should play as a back up so that he can't keep being picked regardless of form.
 
He said in an interview recently that he spends hours practicing his crossing. If that's the case, then stop practicing Antonio. It's only making matters worse.

I've always liked him but what's the point of a winger that can't cross? His final ball is so consistently pointless. Such a shame because he had the makings of a wonderful player at some point. Now you just see him get to the edge of the box and confusion spreads across his face until finally he just twats the ball in the direction of the first defender.
 
He was fantastic in 09/10 and really inspired our CL and title run when he came back from that leg break in 10/11, but he's dropped off since. Such a shame.
 
Red Stone said:
I can't understand why our other players insist on playing the ball out to the right every time. It's bad enough that he keeps trying to amputate the left back's legs in the least efficient way ever, but it absolutely boggles the mind that there are 10 other United players on that field who can't be thinking anything other than "Unlucky there, mate! Here! Have another go! Maybe this time they'll finally fall off." 20-30 times a game.
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I think it's cause he is still a useful outlet when we are trying to get out of our own half. He is good at holding up the ball and combining with his full back or other attackers to get us further up the pitch.

In other words he takes the pressure off the rest of the team, a safe option if you will.
 
The thing is, if you constantly spend hours practicing bad crossing technique or something you're still never going to be any good at it. I think we must be able to give him a few pointers to start from
 
How we don't give Zaha and stick with Valencia is beyond me. Since the UCL final in 2011 its been bad game after game with him
 
I was going to ask whether he can actually take a player on without checking back going in the round circle then passing it in to Cleverley
 
Most players would have attempt to hit the ball on their left when he made that awkward outside of the foot shot that went over the bar. He's an average player who can have good games here and there.
 
wasn't that 2010/11 the season he set Rooney up for a lot of his headers.

Still hes been rubbish for the last 2 seasons.
 
kouroux said:
Most players would have attempt to hit the ball on their left when he made that awkward outside of the foot shot that went over the bar. He's an average player who can have good games here and there.
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Also had another one where Buttner couldn't really be in more space but needed a left foot to pull off the pass but he just refused. Tbf though prefer this version of him, looking to come inside a bit more to where he spends all game pinned to the flank to then do nothing. Smalling's had some decent moments but not always made the most of the passes to him, a better player there with Valencia coming inside and we could have done some damage there.
 
The moment when Buttner's crossed went over his head without him making a jump for it typified Valencia this season: Gets into good positions and then does sweet nothing. :rolleyes: How long til Nani's back...?
 
Lets hope Moyes doesn't move him to right back....we all know the outcome of that!
 
His crossing has become so poor, we now get other players to move into position and cross for him, like Hernandez, the striker.
 
He seems to be playing a lot more tucked in today and its caused them problems at times. Atleast its stopping him from aimlessly crossing.
 
I reckon he's one of those robots from Itchy and Scratchy Land that malfunctions when near a camera flash.
 
Ash_G said:
Also had another one where Buttner couldn't really be in more space but needed a left foot to pull off the pass but he just refused. Tbf though prefer this version of him, looking to come inside a bit more to where he spends all game pinned to the flank to then do nothing. Smalling's had some decent moments but not always made the most of the passes to him, a better player there with Valencia coming inside and we could have done some damage there.
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That one, it's like his nervous system is against sending the order to his left leg.
 
I can't get over how easily defenders can dictate how he plays. They literally force him 20 yards infield when he gets the ball or 10 yards back up the pitch. It hinders us far more than it should because we give him the ball so much.
 
100 said:
I can't get over how easily defenders can dictate how he plays. They literally force him 20 yards infield when he gets the ball or 10 yards back up the pitch. It hinders us far more than it should because we give him the ball so much.
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A feature of our play under Moyes has been to play it out wide, given Kagawa drifts into the middle its not hard to imagine which wing it will go to... But in this form I really wish it wouldn't
 
OneUnited24 said:
A feature of our play under Moyes has been to play it out wide, given Kagawa drifts into the middle its not hard to imagine which wing it will go to... But in this form I really wish it wouldn't
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Kagawa could spend 90 mins on the left hand side touchline and he still wouldnt see half as much of the ball as Valencia. None of our players do playing on the left. We should play Valencia on the left for a game so he realises how lucky he is to be given the ball once in a while.
 
Ekeke said:
Kagawa could spend 90 mins on the left hand side touchline and he still wouldnt see half as much of the ball as Valencia. None of our players do playing on the left. We should play Valencia on the left for a game so he realises how lucky he is to be given the ball once in a while.
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I'd disagree, when Young plays out on the left he tends to see a lot of the ball too. With Nani and Kagawa they just drift inside too much.

TBH i've just given up on him. He cant cross, he cant take a player on and this season his defending has also been suspect - an attribute you could at least say hadn't diminished.
 
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