Rafael would be chastised for playing City's most dangerous player onside
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 35
- Clean sheets
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 4
Rafael would be chastised for playing City's most dangerous player onside
Just give Valencia credit for good defending ffs.
OK OK, he recovered well even if it was his fault to begin with...Of all the players to blame you blame Carrick? It was Valencia rushing out of position, jogging back and ball watching that caused all the problems.
Carrick just stood there, and I thought that players covered for each other when one is out of position; why nobody followed the run in the middle is also beyond me. We'll win this anyhow, so who cares
It was carrick covering so yeah, his mistake also .-) Valencia on the other hand did great work to chase down Aguero on the break.
The real question is, if Smalling is covering right back in 9 times out of 10 City attacks, is it even Valencia being out of position or is Smalling actually playing right back?
You in here as well Ekeke looking to beat this guy? Lol he's actually playing well why you choosing these moments? Strange from you as you are usually a good poster!
Great recovery play in terms of the Aguero chance but he did show he still has defensive frailties, which is no shame since he's been converted from a winger. Will be replaced as the first choice RB in the summer but he's shown that he can be a very good back-up RB now. To be fair to him though, the players which you are touted as being interested in such as Coleman and Clyne have those mistakes in their game too, but they are able to recover from them by their pace, like Valencia does with his strength.
Improved drastically in this half in my opinion. Much more on the ball defensively.
Yeah, this. Awful for the first half hour or so, and I've been one of Valencia's biggest fans this season, but he was ghastly, and his mental positioning cost us a goal. Much better towards the end of the first half, and throughout the 2nd.
Absolutely superb.
Brilliant in the second half - no doubt about that, one should think. He probably made a weird throw in though.
Tony V for president
Haven't been a big fan of Valencia, but he did very well today after a shaky start.
He did a very important close down at an important stage of the game.
Pathetic defending for their first goal, but some quality stuff after that.
I'm drawing focus on whats important
Terry and Carragher are always criticized on here for playing players onside then making a dramatic tackle. Valencia does it and its different? Its very small to be changing the rules based on whether a player is on your team or at a rival's.
Having said that, City barely managed an attack in the 2nd half and Valencia did better. He made some good tackles and was good going forward.
But he will cost us again if he doesn't dramatically improve his positioning and the pace he gets back into his position. Its championship standard.
One of his better performances. He was all over the place and played his heart out.
Good enough today.
He's a fecking machine. Whatever food he has, it should be United main menu.
Very good today
Great today!
Beastmode !!!
He played well today. One of his better performances as RB.
Slowly but surely people will come around to him.
Does it matter as long as he has the pace to recover? I don't care much if he stands holding his ehrm pencil at the opposition half as long as he is able to get back and intercept or tackle. The way he outpaced Clichy with Clichy having a head start, starting a counter is something that is so vital. Rafael isn't much slower, so not sure if the pace card is the be all for Valencia, but he is good at using it to his advantage, compared to last season where he was just standing still.
Played well once we had passed the game out of City. Its the second big side that's he's been found hopelessly wanting against. Thought Blind on the other side had a poor game today too.
He's a beast
MOTM for me. Someone needs to gif that defensive job on Aguero.
A couple of positioning errors aside he was brilliant today
He is just so strong and fast. If he had a footballing brain he would be a top class player
He's not recovering. He's casually jogging back at a leisurely pace, so someone (usually the RCB Smalling) is forced to go take up his position at right back for the coming move.
Almost everyone thinks our defence needs a new CB in the summer, so how can anyone be okay with making our current CBs jobs a lot harder with suicidal play like that? Instead of protecting our defence, Valencia exposes it
Again thats not to say he doesnt do anything well. He made good tackles and did well going forward with his energy and his final ball was better than normal. Incidently these are all things 19 year old Rafael did in his first season at the club.
But playing Valencia at right back is like putting a bullet in a revolver's chamber, spinning it, placing it in your mouth and pulling the trigger. We'll get away with it some of the time, at other times its going to be the end of us
I recall one FIFA game where you could create players and you had a given amount of points to create that player and place those points in various attributes like technique, awareness, speed, strength etc. It seems the real world is like that too. Imagine Mata's technique and passing in Valencia's body...
Would be number 1 Ballon d'or candidate.
Do you think there's a player out there busting his lungs and making more sprints than Valencia? He stopped three or four very dangerous City attacks today due to his speed. If you want him to contribute in attack, he will leave gaps in defense, and I have no problem with Smalling covering his flank if Carrick drops into Smalling's spot, which he should and does most of the time.
I think you are far too harsh on him. He was one of our better players today, and has been this season.
He would be awesome on FIFA
Improved edition of Ronaldo?
I dont think you're watching when teams are building up down our right side because he's caught up the pitch, moving forward before he needs to. He's casually jogging back before he's made a single lungbusting sprint
He's being lazy defensively so that he has that energy to burst forward when it suits him. Thats a winger's trait. They can get away with it. Defenders cant cheat
If we had Rio and Vidic in their prime at CB it wouldnt be as much of an issue. Its exactly what Evra did after a couple of years, with Vidic having to bail him out every 5 mins
Superb in the 2nd half.
Terrific performance. Saved a clear goal by tracking Aguero. But as usual the caf moans.