Rafael is twice the player.
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 35
- Clean sheets
- 12
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 4
Rafael is twice the player.
A shame Rafa is injured because he should have been getting a game now. Poor from Valencia today I thought. He just doesn't have the brain when the ball is not within 5m of him.
He literally can't cross a ball to save his life, can he? I thought the stick he was getting on here lately was a bit unfair, but today he was dreadful bar maybe a few good runs in the 1st half.
Other than letting Mirralas had a free run for one on one, it's not his fault. Or am I being wooshed here?
Abysmal today. Apart from a few powerful runs he was a liability.
Him and McNair were at fault.
Nothing to do with scapegoats. Today, for me, changes nothing; we need an actual RB this summer or we will suffer. Valencia isn't the man for the job. He's done ok this season, but as I said, he clearly isn't a RB.
True enough - he's not a RB by trade, but he's done well. He plays RB but people criticize him for not being a winger in attack. He offers more in attack than most other RBs in the league, if not at the level we want him to. He held Hazard in his pocket for most of the match, and it was his speed that kept Aguero from being clean on goal. He's made mistakes that has cost us goals, but we have strikers that miss 100% chances that also do the same. Every player in the team has made mistakes that cost goals.
his defending was awful that's right but I'm still more pissed by his brainless contribution to attacking. This is ridiculous how he managed to stay in the team for his surprisingly solid defensive displays. Rafael is three times better defender, and better going forward too, it's really unfair he had to play so many games in reserves and unfortunately got kicked in the ribs. I wasn't convinced we needed a RB until today. Valencia looked solid and I was waiting for him to pick such game to van Gaal give a a chance to Rafael regain his position back, Valencia could be a good back up RB but right now. It's not going according to plan..
now we'll go full retard for clyne
now we'll go full retard for clyne
Safe to say at fault for every single one of the 3 goals today.
If there was a 1 as a rating he'd get one.
If there was a 1 as a rating he'd get one.
Offside, and why should he sprint like a maniac when McNair was much, much, much closer to the ball anyways?
gash
You are joking right?
Not offside. McNair was tracking an offside Lukaku, and Miralas was all Valencia's.
That was a week old fish down a hobos pants level stinker from Valencia today.
He is not a RB. A RB, any RB, would not have let Mirralas have that free run for the third.
Rafael's injury is far from being a disaster as he has no future at the club. In fact, if a couple of good performances from him now would have stopped us from signing a first choice RB in the summer then it would have been more damage done than playing a poor Valencia for th e remainder of the season.
Rafael's injury is far from being a disaster as he has no future at the club. In fact, if a couple of good performances from him now would have stopped us from signing a first choice RB in the summer then it would have been more damage done than playing a poor Valencia for th e remainder of the season.
Directly responsible for all three goals. Provided literally nothing going forward, not that he has for two or three years now.
The only player more useless than Falcao on the pitch today.
The only player more useless than Falcao on the pitch today.
The bit in bold irks me the most. Anyone can have a bad game but he does it so often. It's like he feels he cannot catch up with play then why bother running back.
if we can give Young and Fellaini time, two of the biggest scapegoats since early days Fletcher and Richardson, we can surely give another season to Rafael to regain his best form.
You are right. Why should he sprint? Should have just lay down on the pitch for a small nap I say.
Its particularly annoying when we hear all the time about him being a hard worker. He's a hard worker when we have the ball, he's very lazy when we dont.
Even Neville was critical of him today. He normally defends Valencia no matter what.
Managed to feck up for all 3 goals. That's impressive even for him. 
A new RB should be our top priority for the summer.
A new RB should be our top priority for the summer.
He was poor defensively today.
Managed to feck up for all 3 goals. That's impressive even for him.
A new RB should be our top priority for the summer.
Not a Carrick replacement?
He's done well enough against the kick and run merchants and lesser teams, but has been found out a bit in recent weeks.
I would also disagree that he offers a lot in attack, for someone who was the one of the best wingers in the league once, he's been pretty average going forward. Shaw offered much more penetration vs Chelsea, Blind was better going forward when playing LB and Young outshone him from the LWB position in the 3-5-2. He has the tools to be doing a lot better than those three, but he's lost any balls/confidence he had 3 years ago.
On a final note, I would also say there is a handful of posters who insist there is an agenda against him (some unwarranted criticism, but no more than say Rooney gets regularly) and engage in blame game gymnastics whenever he does something wrong. I've seen posts calling him the best RB in the league for example. It's almost impossible to have an objective discussion about his merits as a RB with some of these posters.
He's been here for ages. His fitness record has always been awful. We should have had a first choice RB long ago. A fit Rafael is not more realistic than a fit Anderson.
A picture of Rafael losing a header to Carroll. That's me told.
Thought he was ok attacking, saw some good crosses. Problem is that Everton were solid in defense today, where we couldn't get a single ball to our man unless they were in absolute acres of space.
In terms of being at fault for the goals, the level of blame on him starts low then ends high. Shame as I thought his previous performances prior to this showed some promise.
In terms of being at fault for the goals, the level of blame on him starts low then ends high. Shame as I thought his previous performances prior to this showed some promise.
He's been played out of position for so long. We should keep him as back up for both a first choice RB and a RW.
Valencia would never have that leap. He lost to Stones today, nowhere near the same height. Besides, it's usually Rafael on post duty not marking targets, so maybe someone with some concentration and some fight would have marked Stones?
He has the pace and the power and the height but not the workrate, commitment, positioning, and on-the-ball skill.
When your positioning is much worse than Rafael, that's a warning sign.
Even then, i wouldn't trust him for such duty, especially not as a backup RB.
To the same title as the other players who left us on the transfer deadline, I think it's time we cut our losses with him in the upcoming summer too.
Been a great servant to the club since '09, and he's helped us to a couple of trophies. But I think the time has come for him to either move on, or not be 1st pick as RB. The fact that we had Rafael from Dec-Apr ready to play is mis-management imo.
I think a few more people have realized after his performance today that he isn't good enough to be our first choice RB in the future.
He shouldn't get looked at as a winger again for us, if we plan on moving forward. A solid full back with nothing special about his ability. Something that should be rectified in the summer if Rafael is done here.
Played like a defender in attack, and an attacker in defence. Woeful.
At least half the goals we concede are either significantly or entirely his fault.
We concede goals that other, poor or average teams never do, because Valencia doesn't know how to pay attention during a game of football.
It's not a one or two time thing and it's not a recent thing. It's been happening all season and it crops up in every game.
You can only argue that his quality on the ball compensates for his complete inability to do his job without it...but actually you can't even argue that. Every time Valencia gets the ball the game has to stop and take a break for 5 seconds while he decides what he wants to do with it.
If he played in defence for a poor side he'd get them relegated. I genuinely think he's that sub standard. The solution to having an average winger isn't to convert them into one of the most piss poor defenders in the league.
The really baffling thing is there were people earlier in the season claiming Van Gaal had improved him! He's had one decent game all season and that was in midfield against Everton at OT.
I've never known another player who gets rewarded for getting gradually worse with more and more game time
We concede goals that other, poor or average teams never do, because Valencia doesn't know how to pay attention during a game of football.
It's not a one or two time thing and it's not a recent thing. It's been happening all season and it crops up in every game.
You can only argue that his quality on the ball compensates for his complete inability to do his job without it...but actually you can't even argue that. Every time Valencia gets the ball the game has to stop and take a break for 5 seconds while he decides what he wants to do with it.
If he played in defence for a poor side he'd get them relegated. I genuinely think he's that sub standard. The solution to having an average winger isn't to convert them into one of the most piss poor defenders in the league.
The really baffling thing is there were people earlier in the season claiming Van Gaal had improved him! He's had one decent game all season and that was in midfield against Everton at OT.
I've never known another player who gets rewarded for getting gradually worse with more and more game time
My problem with Valencia has always been that he is such a limited player. In the current system he almost gets away with it because Mata cuts inside, giving Valencia the sole duty of just bombing up and down the wing, on the byline. He is just so predictable though. I find it laughably pathetic that a professional footballer of his age and experience, can literally not use his weaker foot to the extent that it severely weakens his all round play.
I have been saying for months that if we dont want to use Rafael, then a new RB should be priority #1 in the summer - more important than a CB, more important than a CM or winger or whatever else.
I have been saying for months that if we dont want to use Rafael, then a new RB should be priority #1 in the summer - more important than a CB, more important than a CM or winger or whatever else.
First goal: he gets a nudge from Lukaku as he's jumping. McNair and Blind are at fault for letting McCarthy waltz through, like a bunch of school boys. McNair also had a wild lash at the ball, which provided a great assist for the goal.
Second goal: McNair initiated danger, the initial corner, from some rubbish defending. Although, Stones was Valencia's man, so he's largely responsible.
Third goal: He can't see Mirallas and follows his team mates in halting and appealing for an offside, which it was. It actually looks as if the linesman flagged from the reaction of our players. Horrible refereeing.
Second goal: McNair initiated danger, the initial corner, from some rubbish defending. Although, Stones was Valencia's man, so he's largely responsible.
Third goal: He can't see Mirallas and follows his team mates in halting and appealing for an offside, which it was. It actually looks as if the linesman flagged from the reaction of our players. Horrible refereeing.