Antonio Valencia | 2013/14 Performances

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devilish said:
The point is simple. Valencia didn't turn shit. He was always more or less at this level (ie he could keep the pace in a good side but can't step up and be counted). The problem is that the squad's quality has deteriorated and we tried to compensate to that with players like Valencia.
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No way. He's absolutely dreadful now. He was excellent for a good while for us.
 


Does anyone know where to find this bloke? We put him down somewhere and forgot where we left him. If you could kindly return him to Manchester United, it would be greatly appreciated, as our current Valencia doppelganger doesn't really know what he's doing...
 
devilish said:
I disagree.

Once upon a time we had a magnificent side which had the best defense of its era (Rafael-Vidic-Rio-Evra in their prime is as good as one can ever get), a magnificent midfield (Ronaldo-Scholes-Carrick-Giggs) and a hardworking but still classy forward line (Tevez-Rooney). Age was slowly catching up on some key players but the team was still strong enough to be considered amongst the very best.

Instead of spending big on key positions that needed strengthening, we have

a) allowed key players to leave (Ronaldo and Tevez)
b) we insisted on the old guard until it reached a ridiculous state
c) we spent the dosh on either luxury signings (Berbatov and Kagawa) or on safe bets who can keep the rythm if the team is doing great but lack the quality to actually drag the team from a miserable state (ex Young and Valencia)

This sort of fetishness for boy scouts who simply obeyed their masters voice hit the youth ranks were average players like Cleverley were being preferred to great talent like Pogba. We were just lucky we didn't lose Januzaj who seem to were getting a bit fed up sitting on the bench while seeing the true 'geniuses' in action.
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Erm How does that relate to Valencia being pretty good before and like a replaced defective clone now? :confused:
 
Red Shorts said:


Does anyone know where to find this bloke? We put him down somewhere and forgot where we left him. If you could kindly return him to Manchester United, it would be greatly appreciated, as our current Valencia doppelganger doesn't really know what he's doing...
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Have you ever watched the cartoon Space Jam''
Me thinks the Moon stars visited him....
 
Tarrou said:
No way. He's absolutely dreadful now. He was excellent for a good while for us.
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He was always the hug the line and loop the crosses type of player. With the team crumbling into pieces, players were expected to drop deeper (ex Rooney and Valencia himself), creativity from CM became rare and we became more reliant on crosses. This was noticed by the majority of managers who are now counteracting such tactics making Valencia less effective.
 
devilish said:
He was always the hug the line and loop the crosses type of player. With the team crumbling into pieces, players were expected to drop deeper (ex Rooney and Valencia himself), creativity from CM became rare and we became more reliant on crosses. This was noticed by the majority of managers who are now counteracting such tactics making Valencia less effective.
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Nobody is doubting he is the same style of player. It's just, before he used to beat players with ease, often smashing them out of the way as he bulldozed his way to the by-line and delivered a dangerous cross. He completely owned his area of the pitch. These days he rarely beats his man or even tries to, and when he does he can't put a cross on a teammates head if his life depended on it.

There was one moment in the Arsenal game when Gibbs was left exposed at the half way line with Valencia in possession, so he had the entire Arsenal half of space to attack and have a go at Gibbs, but he just stopped and looked for a simple square pass instead, he knew he'd never get past him so he opted to keep possession instead. The Valencia of old would've ripped Gibbs a new bum hole and had their defence on the back-foot.

1 on 1, he isn't the same player. There is nothing tactical about that situation whatsoever.
 
Tarrou said:
Nobody is doubting he is the same style of player. It's just, before he used to beat players with ease, often smashing them out of the way as he bulldozed his way to the by-line and delivered a dangerous cross. He completely owned his area of the pitch. These days he rarely beats his man or even tries to, and when he does he can't put a cross on a teammates head if his life depended on it.

There was one moment in the Arsenal game when Gibbs was left exposed at the half way line with Valencia in possession, so he had the entire Arsenal half of space to attack and have a go at Gibbs, but he just stopped and looked for a simple square pass instead, he knew he'd never get past him so he opted to keep possession instead. The Valencia of old would've ripped Gibbs a new bum hole and had their defence on the back-foot.

1 on 1, he isn't the same player. There is nothing tactical about that situation whatsoever.
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Yep. We used to get so much space from him doing that. Stretching their defence, crossing with height rather than pace, and he had a good shot on him which seems to have disappeared. Now with him just standing still and passing inside the rest of our team have suffered as a result.
 
I think the real reason for their poor performances is that Valencia and Young realised they had to become shit in order for the manager to promote youth, but they also understood if they became shit this season, people would say Moyes has ruined them. Look at Young for example, the fool has played better the last few games and as a result Januzaj has all but disappeared. Now imagine if Valencia started crossing better, what would happen to Mata??

If you ask me, they have made the biggest sacrifice a player can make and I can only hope Januzaj repays them by becoming the best player in the world.
 
Lynk said:
It's sad seeing him like this. It's like seeing Neville or Keane in their later days, thing is Valencia is not even 30 but I feel his pace is completely gone following that ankle injury. It's easy to forget he was one of our best players for a few years, and was pivotal to Rooney's 34 goal season in 2010.
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Valencia's ankle was injured in late 2010, during the 10/11 season (vs Rangers). He returned that year and played well in the run in. The next season (11/12), he was our player of the season - people were calling him the fastest player in the league, bar Walcott. It definitely wasn't the break.

I agree with you though, he seems to have lost a yard - perhaps not through injury, but hesitation. He used to go past defenders who were still turning on their heels like a steam train, whereas now he seems too scared to go full-pelt as if he's scared that he is going to mess up his touch (which he rarely does, to be fair to him. Very good - and underrated - touch. Always consistent). To me, it's 100% confidence - physically he is still all there, the guy is a monster. I think one can tell it's a mental issue, because his defending has gone to pieces, too (which begs the question, now what is he being picked for?!) - position-wise he is all over the place.

Really hope he gets back to his old ways (he started to show some signs around the Christmas period), but we've been saying it for a year and a half now. If he doesn't sort it out, we need to reinforce - who knows if we will, though?


Blue always red said:
I think the real reason for their poor performances is that Valencia and Young realised they had to become shit in order for the manager to promote youth, but they also understood if they became shit this season, people would say Moyes has ruined them. Look at Young for example, the fool has played better the last few games and as a result Januzaj has all but disappeared. Now imagine if Valencia started crossing better, what would happen to Mata??

If you ask me, they have made the biggest sacrifice a player can make and I can only hope Januzaj repays them by becoming the best player in the world.
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:lol: They've actually been so bad that this is actually one of the most valid possible explanations.
 
Holy shit! Valencia was on The Voice.... no wonder Moyes hasnt played him recently, he needed time off for rehearsals.

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good one but not nearly as good as a lesbian nasri that won an austrian casting show.

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I really don't see why is he still being picked(subbed on) ahead the likes of Kagawa, Hernandez and especially Young(lately). We weren't even having problems defending on the right, and he is supposed to attack first, and his two turns in a row when no one was even after him summed how clueless he is with the ball.
It's probably unfair to have a go at him since he did nothing wrong in those 10-15 minutes, but I thought subbing players on with this result should mean that you expect him to show something, and I(I am sure many others too) would like to see more from some other players like Kagawa since Valencia hasn't showed anything positive in months.
 
Twenty minutes in, and despite being utilised more than any other United "attacker", he has done diddly squat with the ball.

A travesty he gets to play most weeks for us when he's been playing like this for nearly years now, let alone months or weeks.

So frustrating.
 
What a terrible player. His only quality with the ball was that he could at least protect it with his body, he can't even do that anymore.
 
Ashley Young is fecking useless yet he's 10 times the player Valencia is. That's how bad he is.
 
Sunny Jim said:
Its a mystery to me how on Earth such a limites player, who has been badly out of form for 2 years now, gets so many games at this club.

Im sure Moyes fits him in for our next game.
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For a moment I thought you were referring to Smalling.
We seem to have lots of limited players in our squad.
 
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