Luis Nani | 2012/13 Performances

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Tomuś said:
Downplaying grit and hard work was never my purpose. In fact, I'm all for it, hence my continuous defense of players like Valencia (in his current mode), Park etc. I'm just curious and a bit tempted after watching the first leg - their back four really looked easily penetrable.

That's why I stated we should find a way to use him. If we could just find the balance between stopping them: Kagawa, Jones(?) Carrick, back five + Rooney and Welbeck(?) on the wings and exposing ourselves: Nani? Rooney, Welbeck, Van Persie, Kagawa. I think something along the lines would really prove too much for Madrid. It was there for all to see they can be gone at even at home, let's see how they can take it away from home, with the addition of another flair player in Nani.
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You should remember that they are getting Pepe back for the 2nd leg and I am positive he is going to start. He is better than Varane.
 
Boss heralds his super sub

Sir Alex Ferguson saluted the influence of Nani as the Portuguese scored and assisted in a slow-burning, but ultimately entertaining FA Cup fifth round victory over Reading.

A tepid first period was enlivened by the winger's 42nd-minute introduction in place of the injured Phil Jones, and the entire tie ultimately hinged on the enforced substitution.

"His contribution was terrific," Sir Alex said. "Just after coming on he had two great strikes, one hit the post and the other one was saved. In the second half he got us the opening goal and I had the feeling he would win the match for us.

"I think he deserved it. He's a fantastic talent. You could see he was right on form when he came on. He's a good addition. If he keeps that form, it makes my job more difficult."
Nani's well-taken opener and sublime cross for Chicharito to put United two goals ahead seemingly ended Reading's resistance, only for Jobi McAnuff to ensure a nervy final few minutes with a poached finish.

"It ended up a really good tie. When they got their goal, they went for it," admitted Sir Alex. "They hurled the ball into the box, hoping to get that vital touch. But we withstood that. And I think when you analyse it, we played some great football.

"We could have scored a lot of goals tonight. We made some chances - we had shots blocked, the goalkeeper's made some saves, I'm really satisfied with the quality of the game. We really should have punished them better."
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Why is he talking about Nani like he's some unproven youngster making a cameo? He has already proven over several seasons that he can do this. It should make his job much easier. Drop Valencia for the next 10 games and give them to Nani. If Nani doesn't start games he won't want to sign a new contract anyway.
 
MichaelS said:
Why is he talking about Nani like he's some unproven youngster making a cameo? He has already proven over several seasons that he can do this. It should make his job much easier. Drop Valencia for the next 10 games and give them to Nani. If Nani doesn't start games he won't want to sign a new contract anyway.
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Maybe he needed Nani to prove himself again?
I dunno, just throwing out a guess given the fact that he's hardly played at all this season and when he has he hasn't exactly lit the world alight (then again neither have any of our other wingers).
 
The comments by Sir Alex are a little strange, especially given the form of Valencia and Young.

In the Reading game alone Nani probably contributed more offensively than Valencia has all season. There really shouldn't be much difficulty in his decision of who to start on the wing currently.
 
The thing is, Nani is so far ahead of Valencia and Young in terms of technical ability, its not even funny. He can do things the other two can only dream of. Selling him would be a complete step backwards.
 
RDCR07 said:
You should remember that they are getting Pepe back for the 2nd leg and I am positive he is going to start. He is better than Varane.
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He was the key factor in Madrid falling so far behind. If anything Varane has tightened things up.
 
Luis Nani’s starring role in Manchester United’s FA Cup win over Reading has done nothing to convince him that he has a future at Old Trafford, with his omission from Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad at Real Madrid a crushing personal disappointment.

The 26-year-old is understood to have left a meeting with Ferguson two weeks ago convinced that he would feature in the manager’s plans for the Champions League tie at the Bernabeu, having assured him that he felt fit, despite starting only four matches in three months. His exclusion from the squad, which came as a surprise to him, only reinforced his determination to leave at the end of this season, despite the new contract on offer to extend his career beyond the summer of 2014..

Nani is also understood to view Wilfried Zaha’s arrival from Crystal Palace as another sign that his United career, which began with his £17m arrival from Sporting Lisbon in July 2007, is over. It will clearly take an integral role in the last third of United’s season to convince him that he should accept the new deal Ferguson has asked him to sign, and to stay. Ferguson said after the player helped secure a potential FA Cup Quarter Final tie with Chelsea that his display might present a selection headache.

Sources in Portugal consider it inconceivable that Nani will be a makeweight in any deal which brings a Portuguese player to Old Trafford, despite suggestions that Porto’s James Rodriguez may be of interest. Nani is motivated by money and since the highest wages he could demand in his own country is the 150,000 (£130,000) a month commanded by the Portuguese league’s top paid player – Benfica’s Pablo Aimar – that would represent a substantial pay cut, which he would not take midway through his career.

Russian clubs Anzhi and Zenit St Petersburg are likely to be interested in the player, whom the Portuguese public considered a more consistently good asset for the national side than Cristiano Ronaldo. But it would take a substantial six-figure salary to lure him there, rather than Italy, which has always been his preferred next destination. His agent, Jorge Mendes, his understood to prefer Italy for him to the prospect of him coming up against Ronaldo in Spain. The two players are not close.

Anderson, who has also struggled to nail down a United career since arriving in the same summer as Nani for a little less than £18m, said that the problem for a player at the club was where to go next. “The only places you could go to from here are Real Madrid and Barcelona,” he said. “You can't have another choice. The level at Manchester United is so big and so massive. You come here and you are definitely going to win titles.”

The 24-year-old dismissed reports that he had almost left the club on three occasions, having made 63 Premier League appearances in five years. “When I want to leave I will have to talk to the boss first. I don't have any issues,” he said. But he admitted that holding down a United career was difficult for both Nani and him. “It is hard because there are 25 players here who can play for any team in the world,” he said. “Everyone knows Nani's quality can be high. He came into the game [against Reading] and won the game for us. That could be me, Nani, anyone. It is not easy to play for Manchester United. A lot of top players came here and couldn't do it – [Juan Sebastian] Veron - some big players. Kleberson came here and didn't play. I have stayed for five years.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/nani-wants-manchester-united-exit-following-real-madrid-snub-8501831.html#
 
Out of curiosity (I was thinking about that when reading through that last paragraph) has Anderson's English improved meaningfully since he arrived? That brilliant interview of him soon after he arrived there is still one of my favourite youtube videos for a laugh. Even in Portuguese he has a very funny and endearing way of speaking.
 
Edgio said:
It's not everyone believes them all the time.

Especially sweeping statements like "Nani is motivated by money."
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Even though he would never come back to Portugal at this stage, that's a terrible way of putting it. There are plenty of reasons beyond money for that being the case.
 
To be fair, you don't have to believe the papers to think he's leaving. The writing is on the wall and has been so for a year now.

Yes, Fergie rates Nani as a footballer, but he can't promise him a starting role and thus Nani won't sign a new contract. I'll be quite surprised if he stays here after the summer. And if he does then it's to run down his contract.
 
Top said:
To be fair, you don't have to believe the papers to think he's leaving. The writing is on the wall and has been so for a year now.

Yes, Fergie rates Nani as a footballer, but he can't promise him a starting role and thus Nani won't sign a new contract. I'll be quite surprised if he stays here after the summer. And if he does then it's to run down his contract.
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The article is just making an assumption. I agree, it doesn't look great for Nani staying at the moment, but I believe there's hope - if he can prove his worth. A player of Nani's ability should be starting every week, IMO. Especially considering Valenicia's horrendous form.
 
Top said:
To be fair, you don't have to believe the papers to think he's leaving. The writing is on the wall and has been so for a year now.

Yes, Fergie rates Nani as a footballer, but he can't promise him a starting role and thus Nani won't sign a new contract. I'll be quite surprised if he stays here after the summer. And if he does then it's to run down his contract.
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I'm not sure it's about guaranteeing him a starting role, with Nani's ability he really should be starting as much as possible. He is a very versatile and technically sound player. The lineup of Carrick - Cleverley behind Kagawa/Welbeck/Valencia - Rooney - Nani with RvP up top is potentially our best lineup. Bar Valencia all of the front 4 and Cleverley are extremely versatile and would be capable of great interplay and would be very interchangeable. Personally I think that's the lineup we should be aiming for.

If I had to speculate I tend to believe it has more to do with wages.
 
To be fair, I imagine if you made a list of footballers that are not motivated by money, it would be a bloody short list. It would be astonishing if Nani was not motivated by money. That is not to say it would be his only motivation, or even his main one. I expect in most footballers' cases it is a fairly close second to winning trophies. But if there is a low ceiling on his earning potential in Portugal, relative to what he could earn in Italy or England, why on earth would he want to earn less?

Amar, you beat me to it - and were more succinct to boot.
 
Jonno said:
So if every player is motivated by money, then why is he using it as an argument for only Nani to leave? Surely he could throw that line in every single piece of journalism he ever publishes then?
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It isnt an argument for Nani to leave, is it? Its an argument for him not going back to Portugal. If I read the article correctly.
 
Adebesi said:
It isnt an argument for Nani to leave, is it? Its an argument for him not going back to Portugal. If I read the article correctly.
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What I mean is, why is this journalist picking on Nani specifically for fiancial motivation? I just think sometimes journalists pick quite a few pre-prescribed sentances and throw them into an article.
 
Jonno said:
"Nani is motivated by money".

Thats a fact is it?
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I suspect he wont be willing to take a pay cut to what probably amounts to half of his wages. Who would be?

Football is a short career. Wanting to earn as much as you can is sensible.
 
Jonno said:
What I mean is, why is this journalist picking on Nani specifically for fiancial motivation? I just think sometimes journalists pick quite a few pre-prescribed sentances and throw them into an article.
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That's because he's not enlightened enough to throw the other reasons into that paragraph. A lot easier to just say that.
 
Jonno said:
What I mean is, why is this journalist picking on Nani specifically for fiancial motivation? I just think sometimes journalists pick quite a few pre-prescribed sentances and throw them into an article.
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I think you are right. He said it for effect. It is one of those things that sounds derogatory, but when you think about it for a minute it isnt really. Most football fans wont think about it much though, they will have an emotional response to it, which is what was intended. Theyll think, "what a wanker, trying to earn money?! Whatever next."
 
Coming back to Portugal at his age, after representing United, will be seen as somewhat of a failure. Isn't that how people look at Quaresma for example? In all likelihood, there are clubs interested in him in better leagues, in bigger clubs.

Not just money. Self esteem and career expectations.

The journalist was just too lazy or dumb to add that.
 
No way he is going to back to Portugal at this stage. They'll be at least a couple of decent clubs in the top 4 leagues that would want him this summer.
 
Jonno said:
So if every player is motivated by money, then why is he using it as an argument for only Nani to leave? Surely he could throw that line in every single piece of journalism he ever publishes then?
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It's just another example of stupid journalism, nothing new.
 
The sort of skills that Nani has, his shooting ability and his ability to put in a cross with both feet and play on either wing is something that no other winger in our team can even come close to achieving. I think we have too many hard workers and non flair players in our team and you need someone like Nani in your team so when we do sell him I hope we have a good replacement for him other than Zaha.
 
Forevergiggs said:
No way he is going to back to Portugal at this stage. They'll be at least a couple of decent clubs in the top 4 leagues that would want him this summer.
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Isn't Mendes Nani's agent? I think he could be off to Madrid then and there are a lot of rumors about us being interested in Di Maria as well so it wouldn't surprise me. And he's also always been linked to a whole bunch of Italian teams. I just don't want him to be sold to any of our rivals in the PL. That would be a real kick in the teeth.
 
wr8_utd said:
The sort of skills that Nani has, his shooting ability and his ability to put in a cross with both feet and play on either wing is something that no other winger in our team can even come close to achieving. I think we have too many hard workers and non flair players in our team and you need someone like Nani in your team so when we do sell him I hope we have a good replacement for him other than Zaha.
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It is particularly annoying given our history with wingers. If you discount Nani, Rafael and Evra are our most attacking wide players. It's as though Young and Valencia are preferred merely because they can play as second full backs.

I personally would prefer Fergie tell our full backs to exercise more caution and then have wingers whose main job isn't to defend. At the moment with Young and Valencia I feel we could be just as attacking and probably more defensively solid with Rafael in front of Jones on the right and Evra in front of Evans on the left.
 
finneh said:
It is particularly annoying given our history with wingers. If you discount Nani, Rafael and Evra are our most attacking wide players. It's as though Young and Valencia are preferred merely because they can play as second full backs.

I personally would prefer Fergie tell our full backs to exercise more caution and then have wingers whose main job isn't to defend. At the moment with Young and Valencia I feel we could be just as attacking and probably more defensively solid with Rafael in front of Jones on the right and Evra in front of Evans on the left.
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I'd be a little disappointed if our winger options for next season were Valencia, Young and Zaha. It would such a massive step down from the performances we've seen from our wingers over the years! I think Rafael in front of Valencia would probably work better than the other way around in the attacking sense. Rafael does have more goals and assists this year and has been far better going forward than Tony V.
 
Valencia, Young, and Zaha as our main wingers would be terribly disappointing even if Valencia does come good again. Young should only ever be a squad player and Zaha (good as he may potentially be) is a huge step down from Nani. Then there's always the risk that Valencia does a Torres and stays permanently shit.

I do think the fact that we attempted to get Hazard and then Lucas means if Nani does go we'll be looking at a replacement that's ready for the first team immediately.
 
The Nani situation is simply one to trust Fergie on.

If he's sold it'll be the right thing to do.

Hopefully, he carries on like versus Reading, knuckles down, and stays.

But we were after Hazard/Moura in the summer, so you suspect room would have had to have been made somewhere.
 
gza the genius said:
Valencia, Young, and Zaha as our main wingers would be terribly disappointing even if Valencia does come good again. Young should only ever be a squad player and Zaha (good as he may potentially be) is a huge step down from Nani. Then there's always the risk that Valencia does a Torres and stays permanently shit.

I do think the fact that we attempted to get Hazard and then Lucas means if Nani does go we'll be looking at a replacement that's ready for the first team immediately.
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I see Kagawa on the left in the team long term. Thats the only way we can fit him in with both Rooney and RVP.
 
Sandikan said:
The Nani situation is simply one to trust Fergie on.

If he's sold it'll be the right thing to do.

Hopefully, he carries on like versus Reading, knuckles down, and stays.

But we were after Hazard/Moura in the summer, so you suspect room would have had to have been made somewhere.
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can't argue with that

you do question though who should be making room - should it be Nani?
 
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