He is a beast.. Great vs Bournemouth.
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 43
- Clean sheets
- 19
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 7
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Is it just me or he found his good crossing again?
You clearly don't remember the game well.
A bit unfair. First of all most crosses are just that. It also needs good strikers with movement to make them effective. Secondly - our second goal had nowt to do with Zlatan - good cross, martial miskick, rooney header. He could always cross but I get the feeling it was decided in Fergie's last year that he should put crosses low because we had no great headers of the ball especially after Rooney messed up himself vs Bayern that last year he was a wrecking ball.
RvP himself said that year that the low ball across the goal line (which is where he's always aiming it when he kills someone's shins) was an actual training ground routine that AV and him worked at.
Was he playing left-back then? Because most of their goals came from our left or down the middle. First half Dembele had no change from AV and switched over 2nd half where he terrorized Rojo & Shaw. Also he was subbed for Darmian mid-game. Go watch a replay.
Did you even watch that Dortmund game? Dembele had to change flanks because Valencia kept him in his pocket.
Your endless criticism and dislike for this guy is having some effect on your memory. Come back when he has a bad game like some suggested; you'd have a better chance at putting him down convincingly then.
I haven't rated Valencia in a long time, but to be fair to him he actually looks like a decent player again.
He has definitely improved his crossing, it's not as good as it used to be but a big improvement over the last couple of seasons.
Mourinho is pushing him so far up the pitch, he must have a lot of confidence in him to do a job going forward and being able to defend well.
I want to see how well he does with someone else playing on the RW though, Mata was decent but he barely spends anytime on the right side of the pitch, so we could be getting even more from Valencia if he had a player making runs down the right or even overlapping him.
He has definitely improved his crossing, it's not as good as it used to be but a big improvement over the last couple of seasons.
Mourinho is pushing him so far up the pitch, he must have a lot of confidence in him to do a job going forward and being able to defend well.
I want to see how well he does with someone else playing on the RW though, Mata was decent but he barely spends anytime on the right side of the pitch, so we could be getting even more from Valencia if he had a player making runs down the right or even overlapping him.
Ignoring that he was actually one of our few decent players in that game... A bad performance doesn't mean a player can't play there. Dortmund destroy lots of teams with their speed of play, hell they made Bayern's defence look a bit amateurish plenty of times on the weekend, just couldn't finish. Does that mean the likes of Alaba and Hummels are shit? Of course not.
Did you mean to post this in the Shaw or Rojo thread?
I like Valencia a lot but his positional awareness is not very good. Obviously that's because he's a winger converted to fullback but it still grates me whenever he makes a lot of mistakes due to his positioning. We will get caught out a lot against good teams with him but if he produces the goods attacking wise then I think he should stay.
His average rating is 7.1 but my rating is only a 7. I'm a hater 
In all seriousness, he has started off very well and looks like Cafu compared to that mess that is Darmian. Well done Antonio (not the other winger turned RB at West Ham), keep up the good work.
In all seriousness, he has started off very well and looks like Cafu compared to that mess that is Darmian. Well done Antonio (not the other winger turned RB at West Ham), keep up the good work.
Honestly his positioning is nowhere near as bad as people make out and frankly it's no worse than any other 'true' fullbacks. This is just nonsense that is thrown around on here to try and prove he's not a real fullback when the reality is that he's one of the strongest in that position in the league. Shaw is a top LB and yet he's had just as many of these positional lapses because the reality is that no player is ever perfect. The example you used (Dortmund game) was a game in which Valencia was superb and had Dembele in his pocket so it's a shocking example. If your referring to their first goal then the blame lies solely in the GK.
Hating Valencia can be so addictive that sometimes you have to invent a bad game to badmouth him.
Think he's the best fullback at the club right now, infact i'm just going to say it, on this form I think he's turned into one of the best fullbacks in the league, I didn't like his limitations as a winger, but at RB, he's fecking ace.
I'm not hating. In fact I think hes a fantastic servant. Just not yet United quality.
With some players I don't rate, I sometimes wonder how other fans seem to rate them so much. With Valencia though its the other way round, I like him and think hes a good solid RB.
Do you mean at rb? Although i don't agree i could understand your point if it was about the position. If its not that then its a pretty silly to say about a player who won players player and fans player of the year award in his 3rd year at the club.
Was Gary Neville United quality? Phil Neville, John o Shea, Phil Jones, Heinze, Rafael, Fabio, Silvestre, Owen Hargreaves or champions league winner Wes Brown?
What is Utd quality? the best player in the world at every position? More than half of Leicester squad is not Utd quality but its about team work, work ethic and effort as well.
Valencia may have less flair on the ball but he has so much of every other attribute.
Are you comparing Valencia as a fullback to these players?
Tbh I think Valencia is better than O shea, Phil Neville, Fabio or Rafael were in those positions.
He has really really started to grow on me again. Actually I really rate him in that fullback position again. It's just that he still has to position himself better at times.
You could make a case that he has been or could develop into a better defender than Fabio. But the other 3 not for me, not at this stage anyway and considering hes 30 i doubt he will become a better defender than 3 career defenders.
I like Tony and he is doing well there at RB. But i honestly think people are getting carried away now.
His age is nothing. He is still fit as a tank and his pace is still there too. Frankly he is better than both of Rafael and Fabio. Oshea may be almost the same but I think Phil Neville was better
Valencia's individual highlights vs Bournemouth. Very solid performance.
I disagree on Rafael if we're talking about his peak performances under SAF, specifically 2012/13. I remember even in 2010/11 he looked at ease against Bale.
Speaking about Valencia specifically though he's been very good at RB for awhile and has taken way too much flack for his bad performances and seemingly little credit for his good ones.
My only concern about him is in matches where we decide to sit back and invite pressure, if he'll have the consistent positional sense of where to put himself and keep track of runners on the inside and outside channels. IMO he's struggled at times in those situations last year, but that also could be the function of team wide issues, rather than just his own individual mistakes.
I've slated him, I've stated he can do a job there, I've said he should only ever be considered a back up....but he's proving me wrong. Credit where he's due, he has insane workrate, fantastic attitude, and he is doing the job for now. Can't ask any more than that.
He's in great shape and could play on for a few years yet without declining physically, but that was hardly my point.
At 31 having played at fullback for just over a year he is not really going to have time to develop the defensive side of his game to a familiar level as career fullbacks such as Rafael, O'Shea and P.Neville who all played the position from very young ages and were all very good full backs for us. He may be better offensively than Neville or O'Shea but he will never in my opinion be as good a defender as those two or Rafael.
If you think that fair enough mate thats your opinion, but as much as i like Tony and think hes done well at RB i just don't see what other people are seeing to rate him so highly these last few months. Some now think he's better than very good fullbacks and others even think he's one of the best in the world.
Man Utd 2:0 Southampton
Such a threat with his pace and direct style, as of late!
It was all about the managers then. Seems like Mourinho has specifically told him to attack instead of passing sideways.
i think his defensive positioning is awful. he's not having a bad match, he just has terrible awareness of where to be at defensively. look at southampton's attacks down that side and is usually miles away from his man or not in that area at all
really don't think he should be our starting RB, against better teams we won't get away with that
really don't think he should be our starting RB, against better teams we won't get away with that
Hes well and truly back
Someone needs to give Valencia a not so random drug test!
Different player than we have seen for years
Different player than we have seen for years
He is running the whole right side of the pitch by himself, defence, offence. Beastmode!
He's obvisouly been instructed by Mourinho to keep narrow as Soton have a lot of good passers. Attacks from the right hand side and the left hand side have both been of same number. Valencia has been solid, so has Shaw.
Best player on the pitch.
Looks to be so much more confident when running at players recently.
Mourinho's already turned him into the best RB in the League. Incredible.
Has he actually managed to find anyone with a cross yet?
I hope this is sarcastic
Just wow. Mou's magic wand changed him and Fellaini by 180 degrees.
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