I wasn't impressed by his performance today, he continues to frustrate me. Taking on one player then wasting his next ball doesn't count as a good performance for me. His crosses are useless, he appears to just randomly hit the ball in the box and hope for the best. This is not how you cross to your centre forwards. He frequently makes the wrong decision in the final third, he's fast on his feet but slow in every other regard, he doesn't read the game well, can't pass accurately beyond about 5 yards, can't win headers, is reluctant to shoot and I just don't see what he offers the team at all.
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 35
- Clean sheets
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 4
Was really good today, was probably one of our most potent threats along with Mata.
He should be first choice RB/ RWB, ahead of Rafa.
He should be first choice RB/ RWB, ahead of Rafa.
Good game today. He's one of the few that benefit from this wretched formation.
Least terrible of the lot. A good first half and an OK second half.
He showed real drive at times today and beat players more often than he has for a long time. I will always be at a loss to explain though how a professional footballer plying his trade at that level can be so technically deficient when it comes to crossing, especially when he has been playing as a winger for most of his career.
Only attacking player to do anything.
His touch is so underated.
His touch is so underated.
It's a shame management seem to be amused!!
He was a good outlet down the right hand side for us again today. I think he's become less predictable than what he's shown in the past.
He was one of the more solid performers today - our issues dont lie AV. If your going to diss him in a paragraph, I cant wait to read the chapters you will no doubt now have to write to be considered objective in your views? Or would you rather pick on AV and ignore the real culprits behind todays defeat?
Exactly. Still no end product whatsoever. Pointless.
Felt he was our best performer today, especially in the first half.
This him and Mata appear to be our only players capable of playing one touch football also. I guess once there was no Young to do the attacking he decided to do some today, but you get the feeling he's wary of leaving Jones by himself adn given how Elia beat ol' Phil a few times today you can't blame him!
There are other culprits. As we're in the Antonio Valencia thread I thought I'd talk about Antonio Valencia. Mainly decided to contribute due to being so bemused that people considered his performance good today. If anything it shows how low of an opinion people hold of him.
Was certainly encouraging to see more of the old Valencia again.
Maybe we should try him in the same role as against Everton in the diamond, he has the pace and engine to cover when Rafael joins attack.
The 2011/2012 Valencia!
our best player. at least he was trying to do something positive.
Was great to see him take players on again. Really want to see him put in these sort of performances more often. I think this is what frustrates me most about him. He showed today that he can beat and man and be positive, yet other games he is the most negative player on the park and kills off any sort of attack. Hopefully next game we see the same Valencia that turned up yesterday.
he can always beat players. he just can't bloody cross or put a decent ball in which makes beating these players irrelevant. he may aswell lose the ball to them
My MotM. Thought he was solid. They attacked down Blackett's side a lot so he didn't do much defensively in the 2nd half but he was alright going forward. Pleased to see he actually beat his defender a few times. Deserves to keep the position from Rafael.
People are really overhyping his performance. That goes to show how far standards have fallen. Final product was terribly inconsistent if not piss poor (again). So he beat his man a couple times more than usual. But did we create anything of note from the right? Or from him? No. Most of the time it went like this ; ball to Val, he stands still, knocks it back, ball gets recycled to centre backs.
Used his left feet twice in the game. Really a big improvement.
I'm not a big Valencia fan but he did well yesterday. The only player who wanted to try and beat their man to move forward instead of passing it around and going nowhere.
Thought he looked back to his best in parts. When he realises he is actually fast and can dribble quite well it's amazing the difference. If only he had more confidence in himself to just tear defences up he could be a great player.
He played very well. Especially when you consider how he was consistently 1 v 1 or even 1 v 2. This stupid poxy formation means we almost never create any overload down the flanks. Poor Luke Shaw had no idea what to do in the same situation.
Some players start at minus 10 in the fans mind and all objectivity about how they preform are judged by that benchmark. Sad really
People happy with these kind of performances just proves yet again how much standards have dropped. Blame the formation for everything seems to be the standard on here, not the lack of ability of certain squad members. Better than Shaw of course, who was dire, but feck me we miss a fit Rafael. I'm almost wanting us to buy someone like Coleman just to stop Valencia getting games.
No.Was class yesterday I thought, hasn't had a bad performance in a while but yesterday was beating men at will. Great to see.
Well that's wrong, because he did create a chance for mata on the volley and played a few decent balls in, but he was the only one who took players on and really made some progress going forward instead of keeping it safe and not trying anything. Getting back to his old reliable form, hopefully.
He was better than usual, but he still wasn't good.
The post injury Valencia is genuinely one of the most horrific footballers I've seen play for us and we've been subjected to it for 3 years.
The post injury Valencia is genuinely one of the most horrific footballers I've seen play for us and we've been subjected to it for 3 years.
He's been better than Rafael this season.
My point exactly. He was doing things that we would expect from any winger, and even then nowhere as good as any other wibger playing for the top teams. At least with Nani, barring his decision making, you knew that he was going to try and take on the defence with pace and make something happen.
It's easy to blame things on the formation we're using, but how about we acquire some wingers who can actually do things when they have the ball? He beat a few players yesterday but his end product is still abysmal and led to nothing. There was that one point in the first half, I believe, where he had a clear lane to shoot just outside of the box - an open shot at goal - and made a bullet cross on the ground into a maze of players. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Nani would be fecking useless as a wingback so the comparison is pointless.
He was the only attacking thrust in our team in the first half. Beat his man time and again and attacked spaces.
Laughable people don't see how well he is doing his job.
He's been better than Rafael since November.
Rafael was very good before his first (technically second) injury this season.
Except that we shouldn't be playing this dumb 3-5-2.
Nothing to do with his injury, that was 2010/11 and he won PoTY the following year.
Would be decent if he could pick people out regularly which he doesn't, I remember him pulling it back to Rooney against the scousers but that's about it. It's all well and good taking your man on, but it's absolutely useless if you do nothing with it. He always seems stuck in two minds whether to leather it across or play it back, and hangs onto it for so long that he makes the wrong decision. He definitely wasn't our worst player but I don't think he played well at all.
He was the only attacking thrust in our team in the first half. Beat his man time and again and attacked spaces.
Laughable people don't see how well he is doing his job.
Every time he plays well, there are a sad bunch of fans who remind us that he was in fact only average and that it shows how standards have dropped.