Nani was world class for most of his career. During a short period of time he was up there with the very best. Absolutely phenomenal player. Re Martial, I highly doubt he will ever become even close to being as good.
Luis Nani back to Sporting
- Thread starter SportingCP96
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To the end of his time here Nani was treated unfairly. If he had a bad game he was dropped immediately. Whereas Valencia could play like shit for ages but he would still get picked every week. It was the most infuriating thing ever. Talent wise he was easily the best player we had.
People would Complain about him taking other players on and losing the ball or shooting and not scoring. Oh how times have changed.
Those were probably the same people who are now complaining that we aren't playing attacking football.
Nani was a real United player. His mind was always attack first. For that and his talent he should have been awarded with more playing time. One of my favourite players ever.
People would Complain about him taking other players on and losing the ball or shooting and not scoring. Oh how times have changed.
Those were probably the same people who are now complaining that we aren't playing attacking football.Nani was a real United player. His mind was always attack first. For that and his talent he should have been awarded with more playing time. One of my favourite players ever.
Common mistake names are a tad similarI don't want to argue with you, but I think you are confusing @SportingCP96 with me. I clearly didn't said it. At all.
@EkekeCompletely wrong. He was consistent as his career stats show :
Posters found him frustrating because he would lose the ball with a simple pass sometimes.
Nani's pass accuracy on average throughout his career is actually 1% better than Anthony Martial's. Alongside the fact Nani's average key passes per game over his career is 1.8
The highest key passes for United this season are Pogba and Antonio Valencia averaging 1.5 key passes a match. Anthony Martial's is 1.2 and the average over his career so far is 0.9.
Its better to look at data per 90 mins though so the numbers arent watered down by sub appearances, more on that later.
Nani gave the ball away a little bit more than some of our other players at the time because he was a player trying to find that final pass and create something out of nothing. The results speak for themselves. He created and scored a lot for us. Being Portuguese but not as good as Ronaldo counted against him. But he was very consistently one of our best attacking players until he was frozen out.
Posters mistook not liking his style as a player who tried things that didnt always come off as "inconsistency" but consistency for an attacking player is how many goals you make or score. And he consistently delivered on that front when he was playing regularly. Thats why he was such a good player.
LVG's United was all about keeping the ball, not creating anything. Thats the opposite of Nani. So its not too surprising that he was considered surplus to requirements to a manager who doesn't care for the things he was good at. 11/12 was the last time he was used regularly and made more than 7 league starts for us in a season. He got 10 assists and 8 goals in the league that season.
Now if we take a look at his key passes per 90 mins of his career (so the stats arent watered down by sub appearances where you come on for a few mins) heres the story :
In Nani's entire career he's had 2 league seasons where he created less key passes per 90 mins than the most one of our first team starters has produced this season :
Thats right, in his time on the pitch Sanchez has created far and away the most chances for teammates this season. But like with Nani, posters dont like his style and fans wanted something different. So Martial is the first team starter with the most key passes this season on average with 1.8 over the course of 13 appearances.
Nani had 1 season with 1 single start where he had less than that. So obviously that one doesnt count.
But he also had 1 real season where he played 12 times for United in 10/11 and had 1.3 key passes. Thats the only season where he played a similar amount and created less than Martial has this season.
It just shows how far the club has fallen that the narrative back then was that Nani was inconsistent for consistently creating lots of opportunities for teammates and having just under 80% pass accuracy, but Martial is a top player even though he creates less and his passing accuracy this season is 1% better than that this season.
We wouldnt need a "peak" Nani to improve us. Even Nani in one of his shittiest seasons would add more creativity to this team.
I never considered Nani world class but he has been one of my favourite players for United and Sporting. I love watching him live at the stadium. Always gave everything for Sporting, good transfer money, performance and cups. I hope he retires with us.
Loved Nani - supreme balance and could go left or right and was a good finisher and crosser of the ball. I think when he was backed and given consistent runs in the team he was very good. That season when he was top assister he was unplayable.
I always thought the goal he scored against City was top class, lovely control and deft finish but it was massively overshadowed by a certain goal Rooney scored that day.
I do think he perhaps suffered for being in the same team as Ronaldo because it was difficult to have 2 players that didn't really track back hence we always had players like Park to balance the team.
I always thought the goal he scored against City was top class, lovely control and deft finish but it was massively overshadowed by a certain goal Rooney scored that day.
I do think he perhaps suffered for being in the same team as Ronaldo because it was difficult to have 2 players that didn't really track back hence we always had players like Park to balance the team.
Have not seen you post on here in a while ..or maybe just don’t see the same threads@Ekeke
I never considered Nani world class but he has been one of my favourite players for United and Sporting. I love watching him live at the stadium. Always gave everything for Sporting, good transfer money, performance and cups. I hope he retires with us.
either way welcome back! Also I agree I would love to see Nani retire with the green and white ....preferably while lifting a league title as well Wish he always played on the right flank. On the left he was less efficient. Still love him, terrific player.
He was one of the few right footed players who didn't want to play on the left, despite Fergie's insistence that he did
That 10/11 season where he just kept coming in on his left foot and scoring
I always thought Nani got a really hard time on here and from the crowd at OT, much like Pogba.
Hey mate. Thank you. Been extremely busy so i haven't had time to post much. Also hated Mourinho's tenure at United and that reflected in my Caf participation. I'm glad he's gone now and will probably get back to posting more often.Have not seen you post on here in a while ..or maybe just don’t see the same threads
Regarding your title chances, i don't want to get too excited but it has been great watching Sporting under Keizer's guidance. I hated Jesus and the quality of our football was abysmal with him and Pé0. I didn't go to the stadium in the beginning of the season because i dislike Varandas and Pé0 but i haven't missed a home game since we appointed Marcel Keizer. Attacking, quality football how i've missed this type of football. Sick of portuguese catenaccio type managers. I was highly skeptical of dutch managers but he has been surprising me so far. Even Judas Fernandes, who was rotten with Pé0, looks like a completely different player. His influence is notorious.
you don't remember things well then, he definitely had a couple seasons where he was top 3 winger in the world
He was world class for about a year, then got that injury right before the World Cup in 2010. Still kept it up for a while but it didn't last much more than a year.
Favourite Nani performance was the 6-2 home win vs Bosnia in the playoff for Euro 2012, scored one of the best goals I've ever seen live.
Impossible not to love him. Great celebration, great chant, strong personality, entertaining to watch, played a big part in Premier League and Champions League titles, a huge part in us winning the Euros... only thing missing in his career is to lift the title for Sporting at the end of the season.
Favourite Nani performance was the 6-2 home win vs Bosnia in the playoff for Euro 2012, scored one of the best goals I've ever seen live.
Impossible not to love him. Great celebration, great chant, strong personality, entertaining to watch, played a big part in Premier League and Champions League titles, a huge part in us winning the Euros... only thing missing in his career is to lift the title for Sporting at the end of the season.
He was never World Class*, he was excellent in patches for us, and then was consistently of a high standard for about a year. In his prime, he's far better than what we have currently. Making him a makeweight in the Rojo transfer was one of the worst bits of business we have done in 30 years.
Sparks a - what is world class? debate.
It could happen but I don't think so, Martial has all the inconsistencies of Nani (imo more) but not as much of the talent. Nani could dribble both ways, finish with both feet, play on both sides. He was a natural dribbler the way someone like Sterling is. Martial's close control is good, but his dribbling as a whole is pretty predictable and easy to counter. Bear in mind also that Martial is 23, Nani joined us at 21 and was very good for us in his first two seasons - not world class, but better than what Martial's show us so far (bar one or two matches). Of course around the age of 25 Nani had that world class spell for us around 11/12, something which I hope Martial can reach but I've yet to see.
I have the unpopular opinion that Nani was a better dribbler than Ronaldo.
I have the same opinion.
5 EPL titles, Euro cup and a CL medal. Played a good role in all of them. 99% of players can't even dream of that.
Bruno has been fantastic if he keeps this form up especially in the big games he will be forgiven I reckon.
I agree and Quaresma was 2x the dribbler of both of them.
Great post.Completely wrong. He was consistent as his career stats show :
Posters found him frustrating because he would lose the ball with a simple pass sometimes.
Nani's pass accuracy on average throughout his career is actually 1% better than Anthony Martial's. Alongside the fact Nani's average key passes per game over his career is 1.8
The highest key passes for United this season are Pogba and Antonio Valencia averaging 1.5 key passes a match. Anthony Martial's is 1.2 and the average over his career so far is 0.9.
Its better to look at data per 90 mins though so the numbers arent watered down by sub appearances, more on that later.
Nani gave the ball away a little bit more than some of our other players at the time because he was a player trying to find that final pass and create something out of nothing. The results speak for themselves. He created and scored a lot for us. Being Portuguese but not as good as Ronaldo counted against him. But he was very consistently one of our best attacking players until he was frozen out.
Posters mistook not liking his style as a player who tried things that didnt always come off as "inconsistency" but consistency for an attacking player is how many goals you make or score. And he consistently delivered on that front when he was playing regularly. Thats why he was such a good player.
LVG's United was all about keeping the ball, not creating anything. Thats the opposite of Nani. So its not too surprising that he was considered surplus to requirements to a manager who doesn't care for the things he was good at. 11/12 was the last time he was used regularly and made more than 7 league starts for us in a season. He got 10 assists and 8 goals in the league that season.
Now if we take a look at his key passes per 90 mins of his career (so the stats arent watered down by sub appearances where you come on for a few mins) heres the story :
In Nani's entire career he's had 2 league seasons where he created less key passes per 90 mins than the most one of our first team starters has produced this season :
Thats right, in his time on the pitch Sanchez has created far and away the most chances for teammates this season. But like with Nani, posters dont like his style and fans wanted something different. So Martial is the first team starter with the most key passes this season on average with 1.8 over the course of 13 appearances.
Nani had 1 season with 1 single start where he had less than that. So obviously that one doesnt count.
But he also had 1 real season where he played 12 times for United in 10/11 and had 1.3 key passes. Thats the only season where he played a similar amount and created less than Martial has this season.
It just shows how far the club has fallen that the narrative back then was that Nani was inconsistent for consistently creating lots of opportunities for teammates and having just under 80% pass accuracy, but Martial is a top player even though he creates less and his passing accuracy this season is 1% better than that this season.
We wouldnt need a "peak" Nani to improve us. Even Nani in one of his shittiest seasons would add more creativity to this team.
No surprise some on here don't know what they're talking about
My taking of it is this there are players with world class talent for example Quaresma springs to mine as does Nani but to me what makes a Player a WORLD CLASS player is one who can show that level of talent and ability at a consistent rate. To me that is how I would define it so from the end of 09/10 and then all of 2010/11 and 2011/12 Nani was easily top 5 winger in the world and was a world class player. Nani now is not world class obviously but he as too Quaresma have moments that show their world class ability.
Nani created a youtube channel which will have videos showing the life of a professional footballer, first video is out. It's in portuguese but has english subtitles. Thought people here might enjoy it, it's not too in-depth but it should get more interesting as new episodes come out.
Thanks, wish more footballers would do things like this.
Honestly he would have kept it up if someone gave him some bloody consistent games. Remember being mad that he wasn't playing at all. Played good, got benched. Played bad, still got benched. Meanwhile Valencia at the time was just playing the same horrible way he is now and played every single minute. I was just so confused.
All the stats in the world won’t stop me from being annoyed at Nani for not fulfilling his undoubted potential. He was good for us, but what always annoyed me was his lack of conviction across a stretch of say 5-8 games. He proved time and time again how good a player he was against top opposition, I might be recalling it wrong but he almost always had a 9/10 performance v arsenal and Chelsea. When you’re talented enough to stand out amongst some of the Better players in the league you’re talented enough to make a mockery of the smaller teams and Nani didn’t really do that.
So while comparing his key passes and other stuff to martial might seem worthwhile, I’m just annoyed that his stats aren’t other worldly compared to martials so far because he had the talent, the manager and the teammates to elevate him to a higher level.
On his day, untouchable.
So while comparing his key passes and other stuff to martial might seem worthwhile, I’m just annoyed that his stats aren’t other worldly compared to martials so far because he had the talent, the manager and the teammates to elevate him to a higher level.
On his day, untouchable.
It's funny how at the time both Nani and Valencia preferred the RW and we struggled to get a LW. Now its the opposite.
He'd be great in this team.
He'd be great in this team.
For a long time he was the second best player in Portugal after Ronaldo but it was always a mistake since he arrived to United on the same year as Anderson to be compared with Cris. Don't know if those comparisons ever influenced him, but looking from the outside maybe its main weakness has been his mental strength reacting to adversity compared with Cris.
Think most would agree with you. Remember even Rio saying he was the best dribbler at the club.
His penalty in the 2008 champions league final was the most pressurised of the lot, as if he he missed, we would have lost. (His was the one before John Terrys). There was no second chances.
He's the type of player that you probably appreciate more when he's not their, than when he was.
The great memories out weighed the frustrating moments at Utd for me.
He's the type of player that you probably appreciate more when he's not their, than when he was.
The great memories out weighed the frustrating moments at Utd for me.
Let’s face it. Nani would was in to our team today, right or left. He was our best player after Cristiano left.
Martial gets all of the plaudits now about how he’s becoming world class... whereas he wasn’t as productive or as exciting to watch as Nani.
Martial gets all of the plaudits now about how he’s becoming world class... whereas he wasn’t as productive or as exciting to watch as Nani.
Prime Nani in our current set up opposite Martial on the flanks would be so damn sexy to watch.
Love this guy. Use to be a avid supporter of his, was upsetting seeing him play on the LW, where he was clearly less effective in favour of Valencia. When he was played on the right for probably the only consistent time at United (around Valencia's injury) he was amongst the best players in the league and arguably the World. Valencia came back from injury, pushing him to the left, where for the next few seasons he wasn't nearly as effective.
Absolute class on and off the pitch and one of my favorite players
He did the 10 year challenge thing on his Facebook 2009 with Man United jersey and 2019 with a Sporting jersey was a nice picture and brought back nice memories.
He did the 10 year challenge thing on his Facebook 2009 with Man United jersey and 2019 with a Sporting jersey was a nice picture and brought back nice memories.
FECK me, how many of those assists were crosses or cut backs?
Nani was probably my favourite to watch because unlike most of the team (bar Ronaldo, Tevez), he had it all in terms of continental style and just pure balling ability. Was press resistant, had pace, good off the ball movement, had technical ability in abundance, first touch, one twos, could stand up a player and use genuine skill to beat a player (unlike 10 step overs and then pass it Ronnie) or just push it ahead and breeze past.
A 21 year old Nani would be a world class talent in today's game.
I think he's still one of the top Premier League assisters or something right? His numbers must be right up there in terms of minutes to assist ratio though.
Seems like a lifetime ago:
On his day he was much better than any of our current wingers
2010/2011 especially he was just unplayable that season probably top 3 wingers in the world he was so unpredictable because he could so easily go out wide and cross the ball inch perfect and if he cut in you were still In danger because he shoots and crosses just as good with his left. So pretty much as a defender you can let him cross with his right because its dangerous, You cant let him cut in because he will score and if you cut an angle for him too shoot he will pass it or cross it with the left. Unplayable on his day.
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I don’t speak Portuguese so at first it sounded convincing until the swearing started
great job that’ll wind plenty up