If I'm honest I really thought he had been improving lately in that position. But yesterday his back pass was pathetic and he got destroyed continually by Sanchez.
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 35
- Clean sheets
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 4
Cant really hold him responsible entirely. He is a winger not a defender. More the manager's fault for playing him there.
To be fair he was moved as RB partly because we needed him there (Rafael is a crock) and partly because he's as effective as a winger as Philip Neville was. His tricks had been long learnt.
Just watched LvGs post match presser on MUTV. He says Valencia was our best player, and it doesn't look like he's just saying it to prevent him losing confidence either. I think he genuinely means it. It's disappointing but he will be starting every game at RB for us whilst Rafael continues to be shunned inexplicably. What Valencia has in pace and power he lacks in agility.
Too many people here are not looking at the bigger picture. It's not Valencia's fault we lost, it was the lack of urgency in the 34 minutes which came after Welbeck's winner.
If it was scored in the 89th minute, then fine, AV fecked up. But it was scored in the 61st minute. We had a third of the match left to score and I'm not sure we had another shot in this time.
If it was scored in the 89th minute, then fine, AV fecked up. But it was scored in the 61st minute. We had a third of the match left to score and I'm not sure we had another shot in this time.
I'm mad at him. He's been suspect defensively yesterday. He's been bad recently but yesterday was an absolute poor performance by him. He hasn't been helped much by Di Maria in his channel but he's been poor.
I mad at LVG to continuously putting him at right back, we he could assess the problem earlier with either Rafael, or even Jones at this position
I mad at LVG to continuously putting him at right back, we he could assess the problem earlier with either Rafael, or even Jones at this position
I don't think anyone is literally saying it is 100% his fault. But he is a large part responsible.
And your logic is silly as you're basically saying anything that happens doesn't mean anything because it's not right at the end.
My point is players make mistakes and we had ample time to rectify the situation, but didn't look arsed enough.
I just can't fecking stand to watch Antonio Valencia play football for Manchester United. How can you make £70k a week and NOT BE ABLE TO KICK THE BALL WITH YOUR LEFT FOOT. He's a fecking donkey with the lungs of a cheetah who's bored with hunting antelope all day and would rather give a little chase and let them run back to their herd. Plus you'd think his cat died each and every morning. I've never seen a more miserable looking human being. Shit on you, Antonio Valencia.
This is all spot on. Horrendous error but overall a decent display. Especially considering he was a one man defence against Arsenal's best player, thanks to the half-arsed display by our right winger. Don't think Sanchez managed to dribble him once. Not many PL fullbacks can say that.
I thought he played ok bar the mistake and some positioning errors, understandably considering he is not a right back.
I would give him a run on the wing though and get Rafa back, not gonna happen mind.
I would give him a run on the wing though and get Rafa back, not gonna happen mind.
Wtf is this shit.
Wtf is this shit.
Well, this is more or less what everyone thinks of Antonio Valencia deep within.
Valencia was involved in both their of their goals which is bad but other than that he was one of our best players on the field last night.
He had to defend against Sanchez but still was eager to go forward and was involved in many decent attacks.
I really don't get the stubborn Valencia hatred here, get over it thank you.
He had to defend against Sanchez but still was eager to go forward and was involved in many decent attacks.
I really don't get the stubborn Valencia hatred here, get over it thank you.
True, I had a nice sleep, looked their 1st goal again and Di Maria was just strolling around while watching Monreal make a run, he didnt even try to stop him....
Nah, its just a crazy post.
Unbelievable. SAF did it a few times, Moyes made it a habit, and LVG has made it dogma. Every single time his weaknesses are there to see. He is NOT a RB, a single game watching him against semi-decent opposition will tell you that.
His positioning is always atrocious. He contests the wrong headers and makes tackles in the wrong place. He gets easily dragged out of position. His one-footedness makes it tough to play out from the back. I always look over to our right side of defence when he plays and always I see open space, a switch of play, and him scrambling to get in position from wherever he had got dragged off to. It's a disaster to watch, and I don't see how any of these coaches (but especially Moyes and LVG) don't see the harm he does from that position.
His positioning is always atrocious. He contests the wrong headers and makes tackles in the wrong place. He gets easily dragged out of position. His one-footedness makes it tough to play out from the back. I always look over to our right side of defence when he plays and always I see open space, a switch of play, and him scrambling to get in position from wherever he had got dragged off to. It's a disaster to watch, and I don't see how any of these coaches (but especially Moyes and LVG) don't see the harm he does from that position.
He just had an awful game, which happens to everyone. He's been mostly solid this season but clearly wasn't prepared to face Sanchez. Had no idea how to cope with him all game and acted like he had never watched Sanchez play (mostly showing him inside on his stronger foot). He was fine on the ball though, minus the complete brain fart that cost us the game.
That said the setup wasn't exactly beneficial to him. Having our most attacking, defensively lazy player in front of him against Arsenal's best and trickiest player was always going to end poorly. If that were our plan going in Van Gaal should have instructed our central midfielders to focus heavily on tracking Sanchez.
That said the setup wasn't exactly beneficial to him. Having our most attacking, defensively lazy player in front of him against Arsenal's best and trickiest player was always going to end poorly. If that were our plan going in Van Gaal should have instructed our central midfielders to focus heavily on tracking Sanchez.
He made a mistake for the pass back (Jones is also part culpable) but over all I thought he played very well.
Yeah, the bit where he disappeared for their first goal, and the time he gave away a stupid free kick in the edge of our box were real highlights for me.
Something about the photo of Valencia at the top of the page just makes me laugh. Its like he's contemplating on his latest mistake.
How so? Because he ordered Val to make a basic 15 yard pass?
See this I am sorry is just B.S. If Blind, Smalling, Shaw or Rojo would have put a damn tackle in on Chamberlain it wouldn't have been an issue. Instead he danced through 4 players, which then sucked Valencia in to close down the space. Unfortunately for him he also had an overlapping fullback which Di Maria did feck all to track, and left that side of the box wide open. Many many things went wrong in that goal before you can blame Valencia. Yes OK he could have maybe stood his ground better but positioning and decision making is probably the most important attribute a defender needs. Valencia clearly lacks that a little.
I am quite surprised reading this thread how many people thought he was completely rubbish. I think a lot of people are very upset he made the backpass mistake, and it's clouding the overall judgement. I am not surprised Van Gaal thought he was MOTM as apart from those 2 incidents he was solid in my eyes all game.
People saying "but Sanchez had him scared all game". Sanchez scares every defender in the league! that type of speed and balance is not easy to play against whoever you are.
He should have cleared the ball himself. Why pass the ball 5 yards to a team mate who isn't ready for the ball?. It's cowardly to pass responsibility on like that. Instead of clearing the ball first time, he takes a crap chest control and then put's his team mate in hot water.
I can guarantee you now if that was Smalling or Rojo they would have bashed that upfield first time, and we would still be in the game.
Gets picked continually over better players, first Nani, now Rafael. I don't know how he does it, but he "works hard". He was beyond terrible yesterday.
I don't blame Jones though. He's incredibly thick and still, he's getting picked. If Shaw was injured, Van Gaal could have simply moved Blind to left back, and used Carrick in midfield along with Herrera. Instead, he brought on Jones, and disrupted the entire backline.
It was mis-controlled on his chest slightly so it fell to Valencia's foot, are you seriously telling me that Valencia should not be capable of tidying up there? 'Give me the ball back Val, I am no coward'....
You mean like when Smalling failed to control a simple ball, and fell over to boot, putting Arsenal through on goal?
Val made more tackles than any other player on the pitch and was decent going forward. Sanchez still gave him a torrid time and he made some very bad positional errors too. It was a mixed bag for me but he looked like a winger playing at right back too often.
That is perhaps the case for some people. I still think he was all over the place with his positioning in general though and that it wasn't a very good game from him.
He's a good player to have, and a competent RB, but we should really be starting with Rafael and using Tony as our backup RB.
he's a fecking shit winger nowadays too though, if he was remotely good enough there maybe we wouldn't be talking about him as a right-back at all.
Again, I will say it's not his fault he was out of position often - it looked like he was told to follow Sanchez around and that's what he did (and that wasn't a good strategy, but it's hardly his call is it?)
Bad mistake that cost us dearly, however I echo what others in here have said in that up until then I thought he was actually having a decent game. The changes at half time ruined the whole rhythm and balance of the entire team but up until then he was fine. Got forward a lot and wasn't just doing his usual 'smash it low and hard' into the box type crosses. He linked up well with Di Maria. Also he dealt with a quality wide player in Sanchez very well.
The mistake cost us, no doubt about it, but he was one of the better players when you look at the whole match and not that one incident.
And I'm a big Rafael fan!
The mistake cost us, no doubt about it, but he was one of the better players when you look at the whole match and not that one incident.
And I'm a big Rafael fan!
I don't think Sanchez played that well, and Tony dealt with him ok.
Stupid for the back pass, but has to share the blame for that with the new Duncan Edwards Phil Jones.
I can't even remember the first goal perfectly, but the fact Oxlade-Chamberlain skipped past a few players before scoring is embarasing. Someone should of just took the ball off of him. We lack a physical presence in midfield big time.. (sign Wanyama please...)
Stupid for the back pass, but has to share the blame for that with the new Duncan Edwards Phil Jones.
I can't even remember the first goal perfectly, but the fact Oxlade-Chamberlain skipped past a few players before scoring is embarasing. Someone should of just took the ball off of him. We lack a physical presence in midfield big time.. (sign Wanyama please...)
Yeah, Blind went to ground with a pathetic effort.
People are concentrating too much on the back pass and not enough on why Jones decided to chest the ball 5 yards to him instead of dealing with it himself. Easy to berate the mistake itself but atleast look at what caused the mistake to come about.
Seriously, imagine chesting the ball down to your teammate who is hugely under pressure with no immediate options. Silly from Jones. It's more on him than Valencia for me.
Seriously, imagine chesting the ball down to your teammate who is hugely under pressure with no immediate options. Silly from Jones. It's more on him than Valencia for me.
Lets not be too harsh.
