Antonio Valencia... | Will wear #25 shirt from this point onwards by request

Status
Not open for further replies.
Not a hugely influential performance but his sheer presence tied Clichy up and allowed Rafael loads of space to attack when he needed to.

Looking forward to him getting back to form though. When his crossing hits the mark we're going to score even more.
 
I thought he played okay today, getting better and better. An in form Valencia is a massive asset for us.
 
playing at 70% after injury

he'll improve

Clichy seems to do well against him and defended smartly

he made Valencia look very one footed at times
 
He seems like he's lost a bit of pace, just not as explosive as he was, unless he's played injured all season.
 
He was poor, and played at a similar level to what he's been at most of the season. Thankfully, Young appears to have picked up some form. But those who are praising him for his performance today must have certainly lowered the bar for a United regular winger in my view. Stuff like 'provided constant width'. Now we're just praising a right winger for standing on the right all game?

He is better than he showed today (although I personally don't think tooooo much better), but it certainly wasn't one of his better performances. I do believe that he'll be better in the second half of the season too. However, watching him today, given how well we played in attack left me feeling sort of positive in the sense that it was clear to me that, as good as we are, we could be so much better. There are still levels to come for this team.
 
Give him another 2 weeks and games and he will be his old self. Clearly not 100% fit and sharp today
 
Devil may care said:
He seems like he's lost a bit of pace, just not as explosive as he was, unless he's played injured all season.
Click to expand...

He's not 100% so I think that explains it. I doubt a loss of that pace and explosiveness will be permanent thankfully.
 
buckooo1978 said:
playing at 70% after injury

he'll improve

Clichy seems to do well against him and defended smartly

he made Valencia look very one footed at times
Click to expand...

Dont think that was by any good play by Clichy tbf.

He wasnt great today. Still keeps stopping and passing backwards, which is very frustrating.
 
One thing I can't understand about Valencia is that fair enough if his injury is inhibiting from properly running at his man, but he seems very hesitant to try and whip a ball in which is part of the problem. His fizzing cross can be great but as he can't seem to run at full pelt all the time atm, he's stopped from doing that quite often, but he still usually has the time to try and pick someone out with a floated ball and he seems very hesitant to do so.
 
Only thing that was like wtf for me was when he did the little outside of the boot flick on Clichy and had like 5 yards on him and for some reason hesitated letting Clichy get back.

Otherwise was a fairly solid performance considering been out a couple of weeks and it was such a big game.
 
Played well today imo, best performance of the season
 
Shimo said:
Only thing that was like wtf for me was when he did the little outside of the boot flick on Clichy and had like 5 yards on him and for some reason hesitated letting Clichy get back.

Otherwise was a fairly solid performance considering been out a couple of weeks and it was such a big game.
Click to expand...

charlenefan said:
Played well today imo, best performance of the season
Click to expand...

:confused::confused:
 
Even when he's off form he always remains a superb outlet on the wing. I actually thought he was pretty shit with the oppurtunities he had today, he still remained a threat the whole game though and obviously worked hard without the ball.
 
Still clearly not at 100%. Plenty of his cross were behind the player and wasted in the first half and he seemed a little behind the pace of the game at times. I feel he was only played today to give us that easy escape ball. Valencia no matter if he is or isn't in form gives us that player who you can give a ball out wide for him to run onto and you would back him to get it and then be able to hold onto the ball.

While at times it is frustrating as hell watching him stop once he has the ball in the other half, it also gave out team time to regroup and get everyone up the pitch so we can try and pin City back. It was definitely more noticeable when it was 2-0. So in that way he played his role very well.

Hopefully when he gets back to full fitness his offensive side comes back and we start to see him beating his man and putting in quality cross with ease again.
 
If I have to criticize something from the game yesterday it would be Valencia in the second half. He was immaculate in the first half; good crosses, good interchange with Rafael, fast, powerful, solid defensively, sights of last years inform Valencia.

Surely the come back from injury was a reason that he faded away a little in the second half. Also, we lost a few attacking initiatives due to Valencia stalling and pondering on the ball a little too much. I know it was an attempt to try and slow the game down to keep possession but I thought it would have been better him for to cross the ball and try get another goal. I have noticed myself shout because of this a lot of times this season. I hope he corrects that as he regains top fitness and form.
 
buckooo1978 said:
playing at 70% after injury

he'll improve

Clichy seems to do well against him and defended smartly

he made Valencia look very one footed at times
Click to expand...

:lol: come on Buckoo, the whole world knows Valencia is exactly that - 1 footed!

He had a perfect half volley opportunity in the 1st half with the left! & didn't even try.
 
He's taking a liking to standing still and looking at the ball this season.
 
Hes done about 5 times more staring contests than actually taking his defender on this season.

He should definitely be benched and let to heal his injuries. We have kagawa and welbeck who could fill in on the right flank, once Nani is back too.
 
As with Young, it's an issue of confidence. When he finds confidence we'll see the real Valencia.

May the lord have mercy on those silly enough to be employed as a left back in matches vs us.
 
Devil may care said:
He seems like he's lost a bit of pace, just not as explosive as he was, unless he's played injured all season.
Click to expand...

Several posters have made this same point, which I agree with. He has yet regain that burst of pace, which in turn has him standing up his opponent with the ball, which you just want to see. Once he turns this corner he'll be a mare to defend...again.
 
It's clearly a mental thing. He's often taking too long to make up his mind. He's second-guessing himself or at least not trusting or hearing his intuition. But that's a confidence thing. I think that's a bigger issue than him having lost pace (which I'm not sure that he has, he very recently said that he's played with an injury all season, and I'm guessing he's still not 100%).

And those nekkid Ecuadorian men are scarily ripped.
 
He's not lost a yard of pace. The same thing was going on last season until about november, then he hit top form and went into beast mode. It's a confidence issue plus surely an issue with himnot being fully fit.

He'll go back to beast mode and he'll rape. Believe you me.
 
Another very average game from him so far. Not even trying to beat the LB. Thats the worst part of it.
 
Varun_Utd said:
Another very average game from him so far. Not even trying to beat the LB. Thats the worst part of it.
Click to expand...

Nah, they're doubling up on him and not giving him options. Its this that has given Jones the freedom to express himself as he has.
 
Fiskey said:
Nah, they're doubling up on him and not giving him options. Its this that has given Jones the freedom to express himself as he has.
Click to expand...
He has had plenty of chances to go past his man, yet he just seems to stop and wait for an overlap on almost every occasion, or pass it back to Carrick. Seriously lacking this season. Our full backs offer more going forward than he does.
 
Orton said:
He has had plenty of chances to go past his man, yet he just seems to stop and wait for an overlap on almost every occasion, or pass it back to Carrick. Seriously lacking this season. Our full backs offer more going forward than he does.
Click to expand...

Ask yourself why this is, look if they keep doing it in the second half. Usually for most wingers the wingers tracks the overlapping fullback, while in most games we've played this season they've focused on Valencia which in turn has given the fullback more space.

What makes Valencia great is that he often takes the correct option.
 
Fiskey said:
Nah, they're doubling up on him and not giving him options. Its this that has given Jones the freedom to express himself as he has.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Jones is driving forward with the ball making a bee line to their box. He doesn't have the intelligence of movement that Rafael has in moving the ball around in the final third.

Valencia and Rafael often swap positions, one wide one tucked inside, pass the ball, dummy run and generally work hard to create space for each other and if it doesn't work they move it to Carrick or Cleverley and spread the play.


So far Jones isn't doing any work for Valencia and he is hitting a wall of two players each time while Jones is getting acres to run into as a result but not being overly effective with it.


It's Valencias threat that is allowing Jones the freedom.
 
Just an average bit of form and even at that he is still a threat and incredibly useful defensively, wouldn't worry about it.
 
Positioning really good.

But his decision making and crossing, probably even worse than Nani.

What's gone wrong?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.