Luis Nani | 2012/13 Performances

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How exactly was nani rubbish in the first half? He was sloppy few times, yes, but he still was a constant threat in the first half.
 
Orton said:
No, that's not what I mean though is it? People are going to remember one moment like that over the 2nd half where he was very good. It's just the typical Nani discussion on here. Same at the weekend, he hit a wild shot in the first half and because of that he played shit apparently.
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Actually, the first thing I remember is the first twenty minutes, when I don't recall him retaining possession. Seemed to give the ball away every time. I haven't said he had a bad game, yet you're jumping on it.
Orton said:
Valencia wasted over 10 crosses and created nothing. No criticism.
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Because apparently Valencia is nowhere near as good. Valencia will get crosses in. It's what we expect, and it's what he delivers. If people can't get on the end of them, what can he do? Although I do agree that he did waste a number of crosses tonight.
 
Brophs said:
It's not, but we get the point you're trying to make.
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It is, at least it was a couple of seasons back. It is only natural for any dribbler to lose the ball quite a bit, and Messi does it all the time - it's just that he gets past two or three people regularly also that makes him one of the all time great.

I would be more worried about losing the ball in the middle of the pitch than out on the wing anyhow.
 
Hectic said:
I get frustration, but when you are putting that many chances on a plate for your teammates, does it really matter? It's like crossing for wingers, but instead passing for Nani. You have to accept that a lot of those attempts aren't going to come off, but when one does, that's what counts. Unfortunately tonight none of those counted, but that really is outside of his control, the point is he consistently created more goal scoring oppertunities than anyone.

Although, yeah, it's not always like tonight which makes the frustration a bit more relevant.
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I suppose so, it annoys me when people complain about Giggs for the same reason.

It's just with Giggs it's usually a good idea that doesn't come off, either cos he screws it up or cos the others aren't on his wavelength. With Nani it's when he's either incredibly selfish and goes for goal when he should pass, or when he makes a decision that's just completely inexplicable.
 
Thought he was wasteful, some nice passes in the final third, his penalty was poo. And when he picked up the ball with his hands... :lol:
 
Plechazunga said:
I suppose so, it annoys me when people complain about Giggs for the same reason.

It's just with Giggs it's usually a good idea that doesn't come off, either cos he screws it up or cos the others aren't on his wavelength. With Nani it's when he's either incredibly selfish and goes for goal when he should pass, or when he makes a decision that's just completely inexplicable.
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Yes, exactly, I get the same thing with Giggs. You have to accept that things will go wrong, because they go for the brilliant. Tonight we happened to see a lot of brilliance, albeit in the second half.

I'm not so sure, Giggs also tends to go for the luxury pass when it isn't needed, often ignoring far more easier options, or even attempt a beautiful side-ways chip to a man marked by about three defenders. Nani just manages to run into a defender head-on, pass it 30 mph into a defenders foot, or try to kill off someone in the crowd.
 
I honestly can't believe I'm seeing so many people unhappy with Nani tonight. That ridiculous penalty aside, he was easily our most dangerous player.
 
jdmufc said:
On his day Nani can be brilliant, the real problem lies with the "on his day" bit, those days have been few and far between for quite a while.
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Considering he was injured a fair bit last season, I suppose that makes sense. The on his day bit sounds like an Andy Townsend comment, which might have been accurate a few years ago. These days when he gets a run of games, he tends to be one of our best players.
 
Brophs said:
I remember seeing that alright, but I thought someone had said the stat wasn't correct. If not I stand corrected.

Either way it's nonsense as it only shows how much more he has of the ball than every other player in the league.
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Agree completely - and I was only posting it as a response to Nani being frustrating because he loses the ball too much. To me, Nani's short passing is sublime when his game is on. But by trying the through ball, crossing and dribbling you will lose the ball on numerous occasions, sometimes by fault of your own and sometimes by fault of your teammates. Tonight the latter was mostly the truth.
 
Can't believe Charlie Nicholas on Gillette, just basically said nani was poor and Valencia was one of our best plyers. Exactly the same as joe hart, some players are portrayed in a positive light all the time and others are criticised as soon as they make 1 mistake, such as the poor pen.
 
His link up play with Kagawa looks very promising, probably because Kagawa's movement forces Nani to make quick decisions.
 
:lol: it is a bit surreal reading this thread after tonight.

Usually is with the Nani thread, mind you.
 
See, the difference between the comments in this thread wouldn't have been down to Nani doing much different tonight, instead it would have come from other players finishing the chances he created, than we'd have assists to talk over and everything else would take a backseat. It's what makes this place annoying at times because when we see flashes of brilliance like tonight, it's not really appreciated, instead it's combined with a general dampener because there's some weird thing about not affording Nani any leeway, and a fascination on stats, even when his end product is as high and clear as it was tonight.
 
The penalty was ridiculous. As I said in the match thread, even if he had scored it, I imagine the ref would have made him take it again as you can't just come to a standing stop in the middle of your penalty run-up.

Other then that he had a very good 2nd half... some good link up play with Kagawa/others, and created some good openings. There was some very occassional bad passing, giving up possession in there, but certainly nowhere near as much as some of our other players.
 
Liam147 said:
Because apparently Valencia is nowhere near as good. Valencia will get crosses in. It's what we expect, and it's what he delivers. If people can't get on the end of them, what can he do? Although I do agree that he did waste a number of crosses tonight.
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Valencia had a poorish game overall, although it was more to do with his final ball than anything else, his movement and speed at times were excellent, but he's a safe player, who is consistent in what he does, so it's almost as if he's immune from any criticism. Liam summed it up best above without even knowing, he can't see anything wrong his performance tonight because Valencia's job is to cross the ball, and that's it. The players know that, so if 10 chances didn't go in, it can't be on Valencia, because his job was to cross the ball, and he did that!
 
Hectic said:
Valencia had a poorish game overall, although it was more to do with his final ball than anything else, his movement and speed at times were excellent, but he's a safe player, who is consistent in what he does, so it's almost as if he's immune from any criticism. Liam summed it up best above without even knowing, he can't see anything wrong his performance tonight because Valencia's job is to cross the ball, and that's it. The players know that, so if 10 chances didn't go in, it can't be on Valencia, because his job was to cross the ball, and he did that!
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Spot on.
 
Thought he was a 7/10 tonight.

Rubbish penalty, but aside from that the number of opportunities he created and the the link up play between him, Kagawa and Evra was great to watch.

He created two chances for Hernandez alone in the last 10 minutes.

Nani was one of the better players tonight.
 
Created a lot of chances with some really good through balls from the left. Good game, shame about the penalty.
 
Some good link-up play and passing. Nowhere near as good as he can be, IMO. People saying he was outstanding must have lowered their expectations for the lad. He has put in some really quality performances and that certainly wasn't one of them. Good second half, poor first. 6/10.
 
Hectic said:
Valencia had a poorish game overall, although it was more to do with his final ball than anything else, his movement and speed at times were excellent, but he's a safe player, who is consistent in what he does, so it's almost as if he's immune from any criticism. Liam summed it up best above without even knowing, he can't see anything wrong his performance tonight because Valencia's job is to cross the ball, and that's it. The players know that, so if 10 chances didn't go in, it can't be on Valencia, because his job was to cross the ball, and he did that!
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Er. What I'm saying is, what would you say the respective roles/tasks are of Nani and Valencia? We don't expect Valencia to be cutting inside, bamboozling defenders and scoring belters. We expect him to run down the right hand side, beat his man, and cross the ball. He did that, although as I've said, the quality of his crossing tonight wasn't very good. Whereas we know what Nani can do. He's a player with enough ability to be a real game changer for us. Using pace, trickery etc to beat players, create chances, and score goals. Eventually, he did create chances.

Much like with Carrick. We expect Carrick to break up play, keep possession, and help dictate the tempo of a match. So if he does all these things perfectly, he's in with a chance of MOTM. You don't say "well, yeah, he broke up play, but how many runs did he make with the ball? He barely even ran past anyone. And don't get me started on how few shots he had," because we know what his role is.

EDIT: But The Sun gave Valencia star man, so I'm delighted!
 
Funny how opinions differ, I thought he was pretty disappointing tonight. Made some fantastic passes (a chipped pass to Hernandez was incredible) but I felt the good was bogged down too often by him choosing a stupid option. The penalty miss obviously being a huge black mark, given the context within the game.

Valencia was slightly more frustrating as despite looking more assured on the ball & getting himself into some great positions, his final ball was awful throughout.
 
I thought Nani was pretty good tonight and is showing signs of returning to his best. He created loads of chance but typically gave the ball away sloppily a few times and his penalty was shocking. He's definitely showing signs of improvement but whilst he's not in top form yet he was still our most dangerous attacking player on the night.

Hopefully the Liverpool game is the one where he'll really turn it on. If not I'll settle for a performance like tonight.

He looks to have a good understanding with Kagawa blossoming, they both like those reverse passes so with more playing time I think we'll see them linking even more.
 
Nani created goalscoring chances, it was Valencia who was frustrating tonight.. regularly beat his markers with some breathtaking play (especially in the first half), then regularly put in nothing crosses.
 
Imo penalty misses are no big deal, i mean anyone can miss one and they had the balls to step up and take it, its the manner of the miss that pisses me off... what a retarded run up by nani, he was trying to be too clever. same with rvp's ''chip penalty''.
 
The last 3 penalties have been terrible. I wonder who gets to take one next - Carrick also missed his last one.

Edit: Well Fergie answered that.
 
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