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

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I'm always right said:
You've just made that up to be fair. I remember him having one decent game against us and it was Vidic I remember him raping.

He was very good at Wigan, but still looked like a Spurs level player, just as he does today. His goals & assists record was still awful, Nzogbia had much better stats there.
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Actually, it was usually John O'Shea he ran rings round.

Sound/audio is terrible but this vid shows him giving J'Os a really torrid time, especially in the second half.



Who cares about his stats at Wigan anyway? As I already pointed out, the amount of end product we saw from him in first season at United showed how much more effective he could be with a quality striker to pick out in the box.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Actually, it was usually John O'Shea he ran rings round.

Sound/audio is terrible but this vid shows him giving J'Os a really torrid time, especially in the second half.
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The game I was talking about was the 1-2 win away when Tevez and Carrick scored, Valencia raped Vidic and went clean through only to miss the one-on-one if I remember. He had a couple of good games against United, although he never played in a team that got even a point of us and usually his side were on the end of a spanking. But obviously him playing well against United was one of the reasons we choose to buy him, it's just the idea that he ever "raped Evra" was completely made up.
 
I'm always right said:
The game I was talking about was the 1-2 win away when Tevez and Carrick scored, Valencia raped Vidic and went clean through only to miss the one-on-one if I remember. He had a couple of good games against United, although he never played in a team that got even a point of us and usually his side were on the end of a spanking. But obviously him playing well against United was one of the reasons we choose to buy him, it's just the idea that he ever "raped Evra" was completely made up.
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Yeah, I figured that was what you were thinking of. He beat Vidic to a bouncing ball on the half-way line and left him for dead. I think that game happened when we were already being heavily linked with him?

The game in the vid I posted will have been from the previous season.

A lot of his best performances have actually come for his country. He was nominated (and maybe awarded?) young player of the tournament at one world cup and someone posted a clip earlier in this thread of some brilliant wing play in one of their qualifiers earlier this season. He also spanked the cross-bar with a left-footed scissor kick on international duty a few months ago. Yes, I said left-footed...

Weird (and disappointing) that he hasn't been able to bring that international form back to Manchester with him.
 
I'm always right said:
He's a good player mind, but I'd prefer out wingers to be players that the likes of Chelsea, Bayern, Barca, Madrid, Juventus would be desperate to take off our hands.
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Well, there aren't many of those around usually. We certainly don't have anyone like that around right now.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Weird (and disappointing) that he hasn't been able to bring that international form back to Manchester with him.
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On that note, i am convinced we are asking something different from our "wingers" this season. In my eyes there has been a theme of; keeping the ball, protecting either the midfield or defense and generally playing possession.

I don't know if i am looking at it all wrong, but from what i have seen, Valencia, Young and Nani have all looked a lot more comfortable for their national team for some time now. You can't tell me confidence stops a winger from pushing the ball forward and just swinging any kind of cross in.

What we have seen this season is Welbeck, Kagawa, Rooney, even Cleverley on the wing. All comfortable with receiving the ball and keeping things ticking. It seems this has been another kind of tactic to help out in midfield to prevent losing the ball and having certain players who would immediately chase it down.

Young and Valencia almost cross the ball as a last resort and prefer keeping it, either going inside or backwards to keep the move going. We know what Welbeck's main contributions have been, and we see constant frustration with Nani for losing the ball despite that being a feature of a wingers game.
 
Ruud10 said:
I'm not as concerned about Valencia having "lost a step", which I think is the case. He still does a decent job getting crosses in.

What concerns me more is that he has lost the sting in his shot. I'd like to see him score 5-10 goals a year, greedy bastard that I am.
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Simply not true... he can't cross a ball, he used to be able to float a decent ball in and he knew how to cut back or drill a ball across the box. Very few crosses of genuine quality i.e. whipped in to that danger area we associate with the best crossers ala Beckham etc. He's a very poor crosser in my opinion.

Young on the other hand was a very good crosser in his Villa days, it just defies belief that his ball striking technique which was one of the best abilities he had has deserted him since he's come to United... he rarely puts in crosses of a dangerous nature since he's come to this club and keeps it safe with short passes. I for one wouldn't mind seeing him on the right and let him whip in balls whenever he has the opportunity to do so.
 
Glad he got the goal but my god is he frustrating to watch. He is so predictable its unreal. Show him down the outside and he's nullified. He's also ponderous in possession in every area of the pitch.

Come on Tony we know you've got it in you somewhere!!

He gets back and fills in very well but attacking wise we would be a far better team if we had someone of more quality in his place going forward.
 
He's so unbelievably fecking shit. Seriously. Get ball, stop, look around, pass backwards, or sideways. Rinse and repeat. Watching him is embarrassing now.

Fergie constantly picking him, is even more embarrassing.
 
Even Fergie was caught mouthing "for feck sake" when he played that ball way too far in front of Jones on the right. I know people will think "Hopefully the goal will give him some confidence" but on the current evidence, it didnt.
 
To be fair that was a brilliant cross only for it to be offside.
 
I actually thought it was a good performance, still think we need better in that position but for him personally that was good.
 
The goal certainly seemed to help his confidence. More urgency in his play today than I've witnessed from him in the entire season.
 
He had a good game imo. Put in some good crosses, made himself available and made his presence felt. Liked that a lot more than his last outings. A few moments of what the feck?? still there but still.
 
Well played. Anyone who says different is a Ihni binni dimi diniwiny anitaime.
 
He was ok tonight, certainly looking better. People singling him out for criticism must have just got used to slagging him off after games.
 
His best display in a while, actually made some crosses and his strength was helpful. Still frustrated at times for me with his inability to do much when forced a little inside but thats just the sort of player he is.
 
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