Luis Nani | 2013/14 Performances

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Occasionally good but for the most part wasteful - you literally can never rely on him.

For that reason... I'm out.
 
I imagine he's a nightmare to play with. So many stupid decisions over and over again.
 
Moments of serious quality surrounded by even more moments of awfulness. Shame someone so talented is also so brainless.
 
Ekeke said:
Ronaldo gave the ball away 2nd most, he's awful
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He didn't exactly have a spectacular game either.

As I said, Nani did some good things and probably provided their greatest attacking threat in the second half, but he deserves to be lambasted for the amount of times he wastes possession or makes the wrong decision.
 
I have never seen his first touch look so poorly. Most of his passes were intercepted but he did look the most dangerous. Two good strikes on goal as well as couple good crosses to go along with his goal.
 
Blodssvik said:
Mixed performance. Occasions of brilliance mixed with a lot of shit.
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Sums up his career. But in weeks/months to come certain people will use the goal 'stat' from the game and that's about it. The 'lot of shit' you rightly allude to will be dismissed as people being unfair.
 
Tarrou said:
I loved how Lawrenson completely ignored Nani's decent spell in the second half where he beat the full-back and knocked in some great balls. He just kept going on about how the defence weren't closing down. The brain injury comment was just mean too! cnut.

Nani was shocking at times but had some very nice moments.
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That's the thing about Nani. It's why we're reluctant to get rid, in my opinion. He can be awful for 99% of a game but has this ability to produce something great from nothing once or twice a game. He has talent, there is no doubt about that but he produces it so rarely that he is largely ineffective and unreliable. I think we need to get rid. When is the last time he played well for a full game for us. I'm thinking Arsenal in the cup in 08? Nah, there must be some games in the last six years. None come to mind straight away though!
 
Give me a player who can have what people call an awful game where he scores, hits the post and puts in several dangerous balls over someone who can be totally anonymous and escape criticism due to nobody noticing them any day of the week.
 
Feeky Magee said:
Give me a player who can have what people call an awful game where he scores, hits the post and puts in several dangerous balls over someone who can be totally anonymous and escape criticism due to nobody noticing them any day of the week.
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+ 1
 
I really don't get it, what qualifies for a good game for Nani must be 100% success rate of passing, shots on goal, crossing and dribble. I mean, he scored a goal, hit the post, put in good crosses, misplaced passes here and there, and there are people here going on about him being brainless. That's my problem with football fans generally, once there's a perception of a particular player, reasonable judgement goes out of the window. Nani is not a world class player or anything of that level, so I don't get the scrutiny, he's obviously not shit [though some people here are bent on telling us he is]. I'll rather have him, than some other winger who's best contribution to our team is mostly to "help out" the full back and "put in a good shift". If you think his performance today was bad, then you can't be helped.
 
legball said:
I really don't get it, what qualifies for a good game for Nani must be 100% success rate of passing, shots on goal, crossing and dribble. I mean, he scored a goal, hit the post, put in good crosses, misplaced passes here and there, and there are people here going on about him being brainless. That's my problem with football fans generally, once there's a perception of a particular player, reasonable judgement goes out of the window. Nani is not a world class player or anything of that level, so I don't get the scrutiny, he's obviously not shit [though some people here are bent on telling us he is]. I'll rather have him, than some other winger who's best contribution to our team is mostly to "help out" the full back and "put in a good shift". If you think his performance today was bad, then you can't be helped.
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He definitely isn't shit. He is brainless though, the mixed game he had tonight is entirely typical of him as a player. The fact that we play players like Young who are worse again really scares me.

Most people here haven't said his performance was bad exactly, just that it was exactly what you always expect from Nani.
 
He was Portugals best player against Germany and today he is up there again.

Sylar said:
Put in some great whipped crosses from the right. I like when he keeps it simple like that, beats his man and whips in a cross between the defender and goalie.
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Must agree with this. His 1 vs 1 dribbling is amazing, after he beats his man he should keep it as simple as possible rather than trying to move in to the box and use his decision making - which usually fecks him over.
 
sullydnl said:
He definitely isn't shit. He is brainless though, the mixed game he had tonight is entirely typical of him as a player. The fact that we play players like Young who are worse again really scares me.

Most people here haven't said his performance was bad exactly, just that it was exactly what you always expect from Nani.
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He is not brainless, that's what I don't understand. CR7 misplaced as much passes, is he brainless too? He's lacking in decision making at times, but the way some of you go on about it is over the top, brainless my foot.
 
legball said:
He is not brainless, that's what I don't understand. CR7 misplaced as much passes, is he brainless too? He's lacking in decision making at times, but the way some of you go on about it is over the top, brainless my foot.
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I think one has to take in to account the small amount of football he is getting too. Portugals best player so far, without many matches the last two years.
 
If he doesn't get sold I'm pretty sure provided he stays fit he will be a very important player for us next season under van Gaal. Last season was a write off for him really so hopefully we will see him back to his best this season and he stays injury free so he can get a proper run in the team. Hardly any players performed under Moyes so it will be interesting to see how he does with van Gaal in charge.

I don't really understand why quite a lot of fans want him sold when our other wingers are hardly better options to have. It is time he steps up though and shows some consistency with his performances but I'm optimistic this season he will. If not then yeah, probably time to part ways but let's wait and see. Glad he's having a decent World Cup so far, Portugal won't win the thing but hopefully he will score some more goals before they likely get knocked out so it gives him confidence going in to the new season.
 
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Another slightly better than average performance. Scored one, nearly scored another, but his touch was a bit underwhelming at times. Definitely one of their more effective players, which isn't saying much as the entire Portugal side were quite languid.
 
legball said:
He is not brainless, that's what I don't understand. CR7 misplaced as much passes, is he brainless too? He's lacking in decision making at times, but the way some of you go on about it is over the top, brainless my foot.
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Nani's decision making is certainly the worst part of his game. I'd call players who regularly make poor decisions brainless. Thus, I think Nani is brainless. That's not being OTT, it's just being descriptive.

I don't blame him for making bad passes (as Ronaldo does from time to time too). That can happen to any player. Nani takes the wrong option on far too many occasions in a game though, which is a different problem. It's something you hope a player improves on as they get older (as Ronaldo did) but that hasn't happened with Nani and it looks like it never will.

Sometimes he does enough good things to make his presence worthwhile, other times he doesn't. You're either willing to live with that or you're not.

Also, on a side note, he should have done better for USA's equaliser. Like I said though, it's not that he had a bad game exactly, just one that perfectly summed him up as a player. One of Portugal's more effective players over the last two games sure, but that isn't really saying much considering how poor they've been.
 
Scored a goal, was unlucky not to score another, put in some peaches into the box, was one of the only Portuguese attackers looking lively, all while having little to no football for two seasons. Can't doubt the kids ability.

Don't see why he is getting all the stick when you got arguably the greatest player in the world being useless bar one great cross
 
Put it this way: if Nani was playing for another club and was linked with us I'd say we could definitely do a lot better.
 
sullydnl said:
He definitely isn't shit. He is brainless though, the mixed game he had tonight is entirely typical of him as a player. The fact that we play players like Young who are worse again really scares me.

Most people here haven't said his performance was bad exactly, just that it was exactly what you always expect from Nani.
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Its not really a mixed game for a winger to score a goal and create 2 or 3 good oppertunities for teammates. Thats a good game.
 
sullydnl said:
Nani's decision making is certainly the worst part of his game. I'd call players who regularly make poor decisions brainless. Thus, I think Nani is brainless. That's not being OTT, it's just being descriptive.

I don't blame him for making bad passes (as Ronaldo does from time to time too). That can happen to any player. Nani takes the wrong option on far too many occasions in a game though, which is a different problem. It's something you hope a player improves on as they get older (as Ronaldo did) but that hasn't happened with Nani and it looks like it never will.

Sometimes he does enough good things to make his presence worthwhile, other times he doesn't. You're either willing to live with that or you're not.

Also, on a side note, he should have done better for USA's equaliser. Like I said though, it's not that he had a bad game exactly, just one that perfectly summed him up as a player. One of Portugal's more effective players over the last two games sure, but that isn't really saying much considering how poor they've been.
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Nani's weakest area in the game is definitely decision making, that is true whether one rates him or not. I do think the last paragraph is a bit unnecessary. He is a United player and he has been the best Portugal player this World Cup, has among the highest rate of successful dribblings per game and has generally outshined Ronaldo - the worlds best player.

So far he is the second best United player in the World Cup and if it was any other player(Imagine Januzaj having this WC) we would be supporting that player with all our means.
 
Ekeke said:
Its not really a mixed game for a winger to score a goal and create 2 or 3 good oppertunities for teammates. Thats a good game.
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It is when those five or so moments of quality are surrounded by a lot of awful play. In fact that's exactly what the term "mixed game" means.
 
sullydnl said:
It is when those five or so moments of quality are surrounded by a lot of awful play. In fact that's exactly what the term "mixed game" means.
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He did what his job was to do. Supply the frontline and try and get on the scoresheet. Keeping the ball is a low priority for a winger, its what he does with it that counts and his sum was good today. A winger will try to trade possession of the ball for affecting the scoreline. They give the ball back to the opponents more than perhaps anyone else.

When he doesn't get good delivery into the front players and get on the scoresheet, thats when giving the ball away is a problem.

A mixed game for a winger would be getting a goal and nothing else, or one or two good balls into the front players but missing his chance at 0-0

He clearly had a good game
 
Sometimes he is almost Ronaldo-like. Sums up Nani pretty well i think.
 
Ekeke said:
He did what his job was to do. Supply the frontline and try and get on the scoresheet. Keeping the ball is a low priority for a winger, its what he does with it that counts and his sum was good today. A winger will try to trade possession of the ball for affecting the scoreline. They give the ball back to the opponents more than perhaps anyone else.

When he doesn't get good delivery into the front players and get on the scoresheet, thats when giving the ball away is a problem.

A mixed game for a winger would be getting a goal and nothing else, or one or two good balls into the front players but missing his chance at 0-0

He clearly had a good game
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He has quite similar statistics to the other top dribblers so far in the World Cup in terms of passing accuracy, he has good ones in terms of losing the ball by mistake/getting tackled off it. I guess it is important to take Portugal's overall performances in to account, Ronaldo has a very similar rate of losing the ball as Nani for them in this WC.
 
Annahnomoss said:
Nani's weakest area in the game is definitely decision making, that is true whether one rates him or not. I do think the last paragraph is a bit unnecessary. He is a United player and he has been the best Portugal player this World Cup, has among the highest rate of successful dribblings per game and has generally outshined Ronaldo - the worlds best player.

So far he is the second best United player in the World Cup and if it was any other player(Imagine Januzaj having this WC) we would be supporting that player with all our means.
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If Januzaj played like that I would indeed be pleased as I'd be thinking "he'll be a fantastic player once he cuts out those mistakes". Unfortunately Nani isn't a nineteen year old who has just had his first senior season for the club, he's a player who should be nearing his peak. This is as good as Nani is going to get, which is kind of sad considering how talented he is.

FWIW I wasn't particularly trying to criticize Nani or anything, Portugal would certainly have been much worse off without him in these last two games. It's not that I'm not supporting him either, I hope he has an excellent WC. If we're talking about whether or not he has a future here though then pointing out his very obvious flaws seems fair enough. As I said earlier, it's not that he had a bad game, it's that this game perfectly summed him up. Some people will be happy with that kind of contribution, others will think we could do better.
 
Ekeke said:
He did what his job was to do. Supply the frontline and try and get on the scoresheet. Keeping the ball is a low priority for a winger, its what he does with it that counts and his sum was good today. A winger will try to trade possession of the ball for affecting the scoreline. They give the ball back to the opponents more than perhaps anyone else.

When he doesn't get good delivery into the front players and get on the scoresheet, thats when giving the ball away is a problem.

A mixed game for a winger would be getting a goal and nothing else, or one or two good balls into the front players but missing his chance at 0-0

He clearly had a good game
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See, that makes it sound like whatever awful mistakes or decisions he makes don't matter once he's got his goal or created a few chances. That's not true, mistakes and poor play obviously detract from his overall performance. As does poor defending for USA's first goal. I don't have a problem with him giving the ball back to the opponents, it's needlessly giving it back to the opponents that frustrates me. I'm talking about basic mistakes, not risky passes that didn't come off.

A good game for a winger would be creating a few chances and not being involved in a lot of poor play. A bad game would be creating nothing and being involved in a lot of poor play. Nani created chances (and scored a goal) but was also involved in a lot of poor play. For me that's pretty much a dead on definition of a mixed game.
 
Sylar said:
Still remember Nani heading Ronaldos superb piece of skill goal against Spain on the line and thus causing it to be offside haha.
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Love him for that. Ronaldo has been permanently pissed off with him since that day. Showed no emotion today (as captain) when Nani scored Portugal's first goal of their campaign.
 
Nani was poor after he scored his 1st goal with sloppiness all around in his game. However, he got back in focus and became one of Portugal's most dangerous players. He created several good opportunities for Portugal and was a key player for them on the attack. Too bad their strikers and central midfielders (other than Joao Moutinho) aren't as good.

He's been better than C. Ronaldo so far in the World Cup. Still, Nani's shown himself to be prone to a period of sloppiness and a couple of interesting decisions.
 
Kazi said:
Love him for that. Ronaldo has been permanently pissed off with him since that day. Showed no emotion today (as captain) when Nani scored Portugal's first goal of their campaign.
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Ronaldo's always been like that, I don't even remember him celebrating Bale's goal scored against Atletico in the CL final.
 
He's up there with the best dribblers in the world. Under Messi, Hazard, Robben. It's just so easy for him with that twitchy quickness and change of speed.

He's too selfish and has brain farts frequently. Still, I hope he stays.
 
Plugsy said:
Sums up his career. But in weeks/months to come certain people will use the goal 'stat' from the game and that's about it. The 'lot of shit' you rightly allude to will be dismissed as people being unfair.
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The argument you speak of hasn't really been in force for a while now. When his productivity was used as an argument supporting him it was because it was true, his previous for assisting and scoring goals regularly is all there. Right now, there can be no complaints if he were to be sold, albeit I do think that injury and that previous contract wrangle have seriously disrupted his career. His hamstring could well be ruined.
 
One of the best wingers in the world if he's on form. Shame for us he is not even close to that.
 
Was it just the first half where he wasn't good? Because I Just watched the 2nd half of the Portugal - USA game and I'm trying to figure how Nani was so bad. Like the Germany game he was the only Portugal attacker causing any problems for the opposition.
 
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