Nani

I remember the day like it was yesterday when I heard that utd had signed Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves or was it Tevez.

I just couldn't hold my excitement because I had watched Anderson in a youth world cup and he was sublime. Brazil went on to win the competition and he was the best player of the tournament if I'm not mistaken. Unfortunately I never saw him replicate his genius except a very few moments of brilliance in the utd shirt and he played in different position for utd.

Nani was so exciting to watch especially his combination with Cristiano devastated Epl defences. But his end product was frustrating. He kept frustrating match after match with his dribbling and final ball.

I think I expected too much from the kid, that he might one day turn into a Figo, Cristiano or quaresma especially when Cristiano left but my hopes were dashed every time I watched him play. Anyway I became the happiest person when he left first on loan and later permanently.
 
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Big_Bro said:
I remember the day like it was yesterday when I heard that utd had signed Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves or was it Tevez.

I just couldn't hold my excitement because I had watched Anderson in a youth world cup and he was sublime. Brazil went on to win the competition and he was the best player of the tournament if I'm not mistaken. Unfortunately I never saw him replicate his genius except a very few moments of brilliance in the utd shirt and he played in different position for utd.

Nani was so exciting to watch especially his combination with Cristiano devastated Epl defences. But his end product was frustrating. He kept frustrating match after match with his dribbling and final ball.

I think I expected too much from the kid, that he might one day turn into a Figo, Cristiano or quaresma especially when Cristiano left but my hopes were dashed every time I watched him play. Anyway I became the happiest person when he left first on loan and later permanently.
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Shame Tevez didn't work out as he continued to have another 5 or so successful years at a top level after.
 
Offside said:
He wasn’t World Class. Even in 2010/11 where he felt like he might have been our best player at one point, he later lost his place when Valencia came back.
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Valencia could only play on one side so SAF tried to have both of them in the same team by playing Nani on the left. Nani was fully capable of brilliant games on that side but he always struggled badly for consistency. The one time he played consistently on the right he absolutely was world class. Our best player, the best player in the league and probably the best winger in the world that season not named Messi/Ronaldo.

In hindsight we really should have moved Valencia to fullback a few season earlier and let both of them just utterly dominate that right side together.
 
One of the United players whose career with us is misrepresented the most. The "terribly inconsistent" trope covers over the fact he was our best player for at least one full season, and very consistent in that one. 9 goals, 19 assists. Good the following season too.
 
Offside said:
He wasn’t World Class. Even in 2010/11 where he felt like he might have been our best player at one point, he later lost his place when Valencia came back.
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He lost his place because he got injured no?
 
Offside said:
He wasn’t World Class. Even in 2010/11 where he felt like he might have been our best player at one point, he later lost his place when Valencia came back.
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He and Nasri were surprisingly world class for like 2/3rds of a season as I recall.

Another example that comes to mind is Grafite that one year or arguably Maddison right now if he was on a better team and been healthy and had gotten to start in the Euros. Mata at Chelsea for like 2 years also. Basically talented players with flaws in their game who put it together for a short period of time at their peak when they got to play their best position and had the right setup around them.

Fletcher probably counts too, he was tremendous for like what, 18 months?
 
AndersB said:
One of the United players whose career with us is misrepresented the most. The "terribly inconsistent" trope covers over the fact he was our best player for at least one full season, and very consistent in that one. 9 goals, 19 assists. Good the following season too.
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He was inconsistent, and his decision making could always be iffy.

But yes, he had lengthy spells of great form, particularly on the right. He was a hard worker as well; a trait that never seemed to be appreciated.

I made my peace long ago with the fact that lots of United fans have never liked him, even though I’ve never really understood their reasons.
 
One of the most underrated wingers in PL history. He and Berbatov won us the 2010/11 premier league title. He would be the best right winger on the planet if he played today. A true definition of a winger.
 
Raoul said:
Shame Tevez didn't work out as he continued to have another 5 or so successful years at a top level after.
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I remember I was quite surprised to see how good he was for City when he was on song.
Never watched him for Boca Juniors,
but at United, while I loved him to bits and he added a super important dimension to the great team we had,
I never thought he was all that as a pure attacker.

maybe I'm misremembering, or inadvertently comparing him to Ronaldo and Rooney.
 
Nani was insanely good. His biggest problem was that he broke through at a time when casual football fans transitioned from reading articles and watching MOTD to seeing more live football on TV. Most of which was taken up by the likes of United. On the highlight real, Nani looks like one of the best players going. In a live match, he has moments of brilliance but not for entire matches. No one did. But the expectation to live up to highlight reels and early youtube videos was ridiculous.

Thankfully expectations have been adjusted to accommodate now. If Nani came onto the scene today, he'd be hot property.
 
ScholesyTheWise said:
I remember I was quite surprised to see how good he was for City when he was on song.
Never watched him for Boca Juniors,
but at United, while I loved him to bits and he added a super important dimension to the great team we had,
I never thought he was all that as a pure attacker.

maybe I'm misremembering, or inadvertently comparing him to Ronaldo and Rooney.
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You're definitely right. Tevez was good for us in his first season, but hardly great. Then in the second season he was quite average. One of the things I always remember was that he always played like he was a bit of a Rooney fan-boy, regularly trying to play passes and combining with Rooney despite the fact that Ronaldo was in a better position and was obviously the best player in the world that season.
 
Big_Bro said:
I remember the day like it was yesterday when I heard that utd had signed Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves or was it Tevez.

I just couldn't hold my excitement because I had watched Anderson in a youth world cup and he was sublime. Brazil went on to win the competition and he was the best player of the tournament if I'm not mistaken. Unfortunately I never saw him replicate his genius except a very few moments of brilliance in the utd shirt and he played in different position for utd.

Nani was so exciting to watch especially his combination with Cristiano devastated Epl defences. But his end product was frustrating. He kept frustrating match after match with his dribbling and final ball.

I think I expected too much from the kid, that he might one day turn into a Figo, Cristiano or quaresma especially when Cristiano left but my hopes were dashed every time I watched him play. Anyway I became the happiest person when he left first on loan and later permanently.
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Bit of a poor write up on someone who was our player of the year at one stage
To think he was going to turn into Figo is odd and quaresma doesn’t belong in that sentence
 
A very very special player.

There are many ways to try rate players, but as far as entertainment and pulling off things few would even attempt, Nani is right up there with the best we’ve ever seen.
 
It's annoying after so much trash talk about Nani no one has posted these pictures here yet.



:drool:
 
Offside said:
Falls into the same bracket as Berbatov whereby all the inconsistency he showed and fan infuriation he suffered has been forgotten because he’s so much better than everything that had come since. On his day exceptional player.
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Disagree about Berba, we've had a few forwards/strikers since he left who performed better than he did.
 
He was competing with, Rooney, Tevez, Giggs, Ronaldo, Bebartov and a peak Valencia,
He was frustrating at times, but to call him a failure is out of order. He would walk into todays team.

I will always remember his penalty in the CL final in 2008. The biggest pressure penalty of them all. If he missed, Chelsea would have won.

Great player. Great man!
 
It seems he has got better with people’s fading memories.

“Insanely good”? “world class”?

In brief moments he could be, but he was very frustrating and incredibly inconsistent over his career at United. I remember a lot of people looking to him to step up and be the star man after Ronaldo left but he left them disappointed.

He scored some great goals and I imagine his highlights reel will be great viewing but he had the talent to be so much more.
 
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Lights Out said:
It seems he has got better with people’s fading memories.

“Insanely good”? “world class”?

In brief moments he could be, but he was very frustrating and incredibly inconsistent over his career at United. I remember a lot of people looking to him to step up and be the star man after Ronaldo left but he left them disappointed.

He scored some great goals and I imagine his highlights reel will be great viewing but he had the talent to be so much more.
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I'm with you. Insanely talented but very frustrating to watch at times.
 
Lights Out said:
It seems he has got better with people’s fading memories.

“Insanely good”? “world class”?

In brief moments he could be, but he was very frustrating and incredibly inconsistent over his career at United. I remember a lot of people looking to him to step up and be the star man after Ronaldo left but he left them disappointed.

He scored some great goals and I imagine his highlights reel will be great viewing but he had the talent to be so much more.
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Only the delusional suggested he should step up and be the main man, he was never as good as Rooney and very few players are. But its quite unfair to suggest he wasn't a very very good player.

For his first 5 seasons he was great for us.
 
Amar__ said:
It's annoying after so much trash talk about Nani no one has posted these pictures here yet.



:drool:
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That the tweet I bumped the thread with
 
One of my favourite players. Could breeze past players for fun.
 
I will say though - that goal in the 3-0 win over the scousers at OT is one of my all time favourite United goals.
 
Lights Out said:
I will say though - that goal in the 3-0 win over the scousers at OT is one of my all time favourite United goals.
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That was a great goal.

Another one of my favourites:



The amount of ground he made up in the last seconds of the game, and the composure - was incredible.
 
Big_Bro said:
But his end product was frustrating.
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He scored 41 goals and added 71 assists in 210 games, goal and assist around every 140 minutes. Ronaldo's record for us was goal or assist every 127 games, including penalties and he was basically a striker for half of his time here.

I think Nani was definitely our player with biggest expectations from our fans for some reason, everything he did was regarded as something he should do, and that he should do much better than that for some reason.
 
Amar__ said:
He scored 41 goals and added 71 assists in 210 games, goal and assist around every 140 minutes. Ronaldo's record for us was goal or assist every 127 penalties and he was basically a striker for half of his time here.

I think Nani was definitely our player with biggest expectations from our fans for some reason, everything he did was regarded as something he should do, and that he should do much better than that for some reason.
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He was a high risk/high reward flair player at a time (the peak Fergie era) when moderation and consistency were the expected norm, hence the frustration of some fans at the time. And yet it was that flair that often ignited a new creative dimension to our late 2000s early 2010s success and was a crucial cog of creative continuity after CR7 fled for Spain.
 
Raoul said:
He was a high risk/high reward flair player at a time (the peak Fergie era) when moderation and consistency were the expected norm, hence the frustration of some fans at the time. And yet it was that flair that often ignited a new creative dimension to our late 2000s early 2010s success and was a crucial cog of creative continuity after CR7 fled for Spain.
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Yeah, we've won 2 premier league's after Ronaldo in which Nani was one of best players (most assist and included in PFA player of the year in 2010-2011), one league Cup, two community shields, and was very good that year when we reached CL finals. The amount of underrating is ridiculous.

We haven't had even similar quality winger ever since he left us.
 
Lights Out said:
I will say though - that goal in the 3-0 win over the scousers at OT is one of my all time favourite United goals.
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Irrational. said:
That was a great goal.

Another one of my favourites:



The amount of ground he made up in the last seconds of the game, and the composure - was incredible.
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I really liked his goal in the City bicycle kick game at OT. He was at his very best around that time.
 
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