Nani

[stevoc]

Its not really insane. His transfers flopped but he still did the right thing by releasing or transferring out the underperforming or old players.

His more notable transfers/releases were:

Ferdinand (36)
Vidic (33)
Evra (33)
Kagawa
Welbeck
Fletcher
Cleverley
Nani
Van Persie
Rafael
Anderson

I mean realistically who would you have kept? None of the players with the exception of Evra and Kagawa maintained their level after leaving us. And even then both of them faded out quickly within a season or two.

Mate it's a Nani thread I know I started it but lets not have a long winded LVG discussion in here. But short answer:

Nani>Depay
Rafael>Darmian (then and now)
Hernandez>Falcao
Evans>Rojo

How they performed at other clubs is irrelevant. Look at Lingard at West Ham, some players do better or worse in different clubs for a myriad of reasons.

PS Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra had already left before he joined I think.

 

[thepolice123]

van Gaal fecked it with the clear out.

In his first summer we lost Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra. Vidic he couldn't do anything about, and Ferdinand was over the hill by that point, but I losing him as well meant we lost all of our experience in the centre of defence. Losing Evra on top of that just caused a massive void at the back, that van Gaal could only cover for by playing dull as feck, defensive football.

As well as the above, he also decided to loan out Nani and Hernandez, which meant we'd lost options in attack that we knew could perform in the Premier League, even if they weren't necessarily starting quality. A similar story with Welbeck, and to a lesser extent Kagawa, who although still a bit unproven in the Premier League, was at least more experienced than Di Maria and Falcao, who were the only remotely attacking signings.

We also decided to let Fletcher go in the winter window, which left us with just an aging Carrick as an experienced central midfielder, and similar to the attacking players above, while not starting quality, he let both Cleverley and Anderson go that season.

I'm not saying we should have kept all of these players, but to let 10 players from the senior squad leave in one season is insane management, and he should never have been allowed to do it. This is without discussing the departures of Michael Keane, Zaha and Buttner in that time too.

The fact that this was followed a season later with the departures of Rafael, van Persie, Evans and Janzuaj is even more insane, not to mention that Falcao wasn't kept on, and Di Maria sold after a single season.

Massive clear outs like the one van Gaal was responsible for are FM fantasies.

Mate it's a Nani thread I know I started it but lets not have a long winded LVG discussion in here. But short answer:

Nani>Depay
Rafael>Darmian (then and now)
Hernandez>Falcao
Evans>Rojo

How they performed at other clubs is irrelevant. Look at Lingard at West Ham, some players do better or worse in different clubs for a myriad of reasons.

PS Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra had already left before he joined I think.

Most of this is just spoken with hindsight in mind. His transfers flopped spectacularly but that doesn't mean the clear out was bad, these two things aren't directly related which is essentially my point. I'm not defending LVG here, my point is our team under-performing was down to myriad of reasons. Just because Depay flopped doesn't mean selling Nani was the wrong decision, that is just using hindsight which means nothing at all.

And I remember most people here were buzzed during that transfer window. You'd hardly find people bemoaning the likes of Nani leaving. He was already out of favour even under Fergie and started a grand total of 7 games in the league, his confidence was shot and was almost like a forgotten man here.

 

[stevoc]

Most of this is just spoken with hindsight in mind. His transfers flopped spectacularly but that doesn't mean the clear out was bad, these two things aren't directly related which is essentially my point. I'm not defending LVG here, my point is our team under-performing was down to myriad of reasons. Just because Depay flopped doesn't mean selling Nani was the wrong decision, that is just using hindsight which means nothing at all.

And I remember most people here were buzzed during that transfer window. You'd hardly find people bemoaning the likes of Nani leaving. He was already out of favour even under Fergie and started a grand total of 7 games in the league, his confidence was shot and was almost like a forgotten man here.

As I said mate it's a Nani thread, we can go through each case and say this was a good sale or a bad buy etc. But the point was Van Gaal's strategy of booting almost an entire squad out the door in 18 months and then being arrogant enough to think he had such an amazing eye for players. That he could just easily go and replace all that talent and experience in one go, despite having never done so in his career having always worked under a DOF was insane. In 2021 Solskjaer is still having to work to undo LVG's madness.

And on topic selling Nani was the wrong decision.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Most of this is just spoken with hindsight in mind. His transfers flopped spectacularly but that doesn't mean the clear out was bad, these two things aren't directly related which is essentially my point. I'm not defending LVG here, my point is our team under-performing was down to myriad of reasons. Just because Depay flopped doesn't mean selling Nani was the wrong decision, that is just using hindsight which means nothing at all.

And I remember most people here were buzzed during that transfer window. You'd hardly find people bemoaning the likes of Nani leaving. He was already out of favour even under Fergie and started a grand total of 7 games in the league, his confidence was shot and was almost like a forgotten man here.

I agree with you - his clear out was still the best thing we did since SAF in terms of speeding up the team build. I loved Rafael, Chicharito, Nani etc. but none were good enough and I respected LVG's ruthlessness because we avoided scenarios like we've seen with Rojo, Romero, Sanchez where they drag out their time and contracts. His signing flopped but they were good ones on paper and there's a lot of evidence to suggest he was fecked over by the scouting team/lack of any planning. Hindsight does this to fans, despite the fact Welbeck was beset by injuries and currently plays for a relegation fighting team, Chicharito was ok for Leverkusen and then rubbish for WHUM and Nani jumped around some ok teams like Sporting and Fenerbache before semi retiring in the US you will still find people who think they would have played and done well for us.

Nani was a real crowd pleaser and scored some absolute bangers but his best season was that 10/11 one where he scored 9 and got 14 assists and then never reached those heights again. By the time LVG came in he was a shell of what he had been.

 

[Alex99]

Most of this is just spoken with hindsight in mind. His transfers flopped spectacularly but that doesn't mean the clear out was bad, these two things aren't directly related which is essentially my point. I'm not defending LVG here, my point is our team under-performing was down to myriad of reasons. Just because Depay flopped doesn't mean selling Nani was the wrong decision, that is just using hindsight which means nothing at all.

And I remember most people here were buzzed during that transfer window. You'd hardly find people bemoaning the likes of Nani leaving. He was already out of favour even under Fergie and started a grand total of 7 games in the league, his confidence was shot and was almost like a forgotten man here.

Of course they're directly related. As I said, it's FM fantasy-land that you can get lose 15 senior players in one or two seasons and completely overhaul a squad and have that squad be successful.

I'm not even going to deny that I was buzzed, because by and large I was, but I was still disappointed with certain departures. The reality is that far too many players were moved on in a short space of time, and that the signings flopping further compounded what was going to be a problem either way. There was a net loss in all areas of the pitch in terms of depth, so that was going to be a problem either way, and then there's the fact that almost all new signings need a bedding in period before fully settling, so that was also going to cause issues.

Back on topic, we should never have let Kagawa, Welbeck, Zaha, Nani and Hernandez all leave the club in the same window. We should have kept two of them, if not three, for at least another season, especially as Di Maria and Falcao were the only incoming attacking players. If it were me, Nani, Welbeck and Hernandez would have stayed for at least another year.

 

[Alex99]

I agree with you - his clear out was still the best thing we did since SAF in terms of speeding up the team build. I loved Rafael, Chicharito, Nani etc. but none were good enough and I respected LVG's ruthlessness because we avoided scenarios like we've seen with Rojo, Romero, Sanchez where they drag out their time and contracts. His signing flopped but they were good ones on paper and there's a lot of evidence to suggest he was fecked over by the scouting team/lack of any planning. Hindsight does this to fans, despite the fact Welbeck was beset by injuries and currently plays for a relegation fighting team, Chicharito was ok for Leverkusen and then rubbish for WHUM and Nani jumped around some ok teams like Sporting and Fenerbache before semi retiring in the US you will still find people who think they would have played and done well for us.

Nani was a real crowd pleaser and scored some absolute bangers but his best season was that 10/11 one where he scored 9 and got 14 assists and then never reached those heights again. By the time LVG came in he was a shell of what he had been.

No one is suggesting that these players should still be at the club now, but the amount moved on in 18 months was staggering, and amounted to monumental stupidity on the part of the club, and on the part of the manager at the time, which happened to be LvG.

 

[Joga Bonito]

Some of these goals are ridiculous

. Surprised his goal against Arsenal didn't make it.

 

[stevoc]

I agree with you - his clear out was still the best thing we did since SAF in terms of speeding up the team build. I loved Rafael, Chicharito, Nani etc. but none were good enough and I respected LVG's ruthlessness because we avoided scenarios like we've seen with Rojo, Romero, Sanchez where they drag out their time and contracts. His signing flopped but they were good ones on paper and there's a lot of evidence to suggest he was fecked over by the scouting team/lack of any planning. Hindsight does this to fans, despite the fact Welbeck was beset by injuries and currently plays for a relegation fighting team, Chicharito was ok for Leverkusen and then rubbish for WHUM and Nani jumped around some ok teams like Sporting and Fenerbache before semi retiring in the US you will still find people who think they would have played and done well for us.

Nani was a real crowd pleaser and scored some absolute bangers but his best season was that 10/11 one where he scored 9 and got 14 assists and then never reached those heights again. By the time LVG came in he was a shell of what he had been.

Yeah and how did that one work out?

A disaster is how.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Yeah and how did that one work out?

A disaster is how.

His philosophy didn't suit us but we got back into the CL and then won an FA cup - hardly a disaster but he came too late, was too stubborn and also had the issue of filtering out influential but past it players like Rooney. I feel like his clear out was a necessary one step backwards moment for a future two steps forward, a singe season of pain to save the issues being dragged over a few, issue is we then hired Mou who couldn't play a more different style and has no interest in youth.

No one is suggesting that these players should still be at the club now, but the amount moved on in 18 months was staggering, and amounted to monumental stupidity on the part of the club, and on the part of the manager at the time, which happened to be LvG.

This argument has a lot more weight and I agree although, having said that, I think he did then give a lot of youth products minutes because of the gaps in the team. He ultimately will be seen a failure here but his appointment was weird when you think of who came after him, he was out of club football with a mixed reputation and only made sense if he was to be the precursor to hiring a possession focused attacking coach who would then build on his work. He only wanted three years with us so Woodward always knew he was short term.

 

[thepolice123]

As I said mate it's a Nani thread, we can go through each case and say this was a good sale or a bad buy etc. But the point was Van Gaal's strategy of booting almost an entire squad out the door in 18 months and then being arrogant enough to think he had such an amazing eye for players. That he could just easily go and replace all that talent and experience in one go, despite having never done so in his career having always worked under a DOF was insane. In 2021 Solskjaer is still having to work to undo LVG's madness.

And on topic selling Nani was the wrong decision.

Of course they're directly related. As I said, it's FM fantasy-land that you can get lose 15 senior players in one or two seasons and completely overhaul a squad and have that squad be successful.

I'm not even going to deny that I was buzzed, because by and large I was, but I was still disappointed with certain departures. The reality is that far too many players were moved on in a short space of time, and that the signings flopping further compounded what was going to be a problem either way. There was a net loss in all areas of the pitch in terms of depth, so that was going to be a problem either way, and then there's the fact that almost all new signings need a bedding in period before fully settling, so that was also going to cause issues.

Back on topic, we should never have let Kagawa, Welbeck, Zaha, Nani and Hernandez all leave the club in the same window. We should have kept two of them, if not three, for at least another season, especially as Di Maria and Falcao were the only incoming attacking players. If it were me, Nani, Welbeck and Hernandez would have stayed for at least another year.

Look I get both of your points completely. You're trying to say that the speed of the mass exodus undermined the club. What I'm trying to say essentially is few could have predicted this to happen back in 2014 because let be honest majority of those players were either average or underwhelming. We can criticise LVG on this now that he has already failed, but it definitely wasn't as predictable in 2014, many people here were very optimistic of the season ahead including me. Its just hindsight bias.

For example, I was disappointed when he sold Nani but I definitely did not think it was huge loss and I still don't think its a huge loss. I find it very puzzling when people think it was a mistake to sell Nani largely because his replacements flopped. We can keep Nani and not buy anybody and there's still every chance that he would under-perform all the same. The performance of a player and his replacement aren't directly related at all. The lad was injury hit for two seasons and very poor whenever he played. The odds weren't exactly at our favor.

 

[Yagami]

Dropping Nani for Valencia - Young combination was around when the zombie football thread here became very active, and it's not a coincidence. Nani's productivity for about 2.5 seasons prior was astounding.

My thoughts, too.



Being able to rest Tevez, Ronaldo, Giggs and rely on him (in his debut season here) against a good Arsenal side was a real luxury. To go from that to Valencia and Young in a matter of seasons was quite the turn around.

 

[stevoc]

His philosophy didn't suit us but we got back into the CL and then won an FA cup - hardly a disaster but he came too late, was too stubborn and also had the issue of filtering out influential but past it players like Rooney. I feel like his clear out was a necessary one step backwards moment for a future two steps forward, a singe season of pain to save the issues being dragged over a few, issue is we then hired Mou who couldn't play a more different style and has no interest in youth.

I wasn't against a clear out, one was needed the squad needed some renovation. But LVG's idea of renovating was to demolish the house, set fire to the rubble and then wonder off looking for a new place to build another completely new house.

We did alright under Van Gaal, but the disaster I'm referring to was the squad he built. It's taken Mourinho and now Solskjaer almost 5 years to clean up the mess he made. And arguably it's still going, Rojo only left a few months ago.

 

[stevoc]

Look I get both of your points completely. You're trying to say that the speed of the mass exodus undermined the club. What I'm trying to say essentially is few could have predicted this to happen back in 2014 because let be honest majority of those players were either average or underwhelming. We can criticise LVG on this now that he has already failed, but it definitely wasn't as predictable in 2014, many people here were very optimistic of the season ahead including me. Its just hindsight bias.

For example, I was disappointed when he sold Nani but I definitely did not think it was huge loss and I still don't think its a huge loss. I find it very puzzling when people think it was a mistake to sell Nani largely because his replacements flopped. We can keep Nani and not buy anybody and there's still every chance that he would under-perform all the same. The performance of a player and his replacement aren't directly related at all. The lad was injury hit for two seasons and very poor whenever he played. The odds weren't exactly at our favor.

To be fair mate I can remember back then quite a few people thinking the speed at which LVG was gutting the squad was a bad idea. And so it turned out.

On Nani specifically as underwhelming as he might have been had he stayed. There's still a case to be made that he would have been and might still be our best option on the right. Mata, Lingard, etc. I'd have had Nani over them all on the right wing.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I wasn't against a clear out, one was needed the squad needed some renovation. But LVG's idea of renovating was to demolish the house, set fire to the rubble and then wonder off looking for a new place to build another completely new house.

We did alright under Van Gaal, but the disaster I'm referring to was the squad he built. It's taken Mourinho and now Solskjaer almost 5 years to clean up the mess he made. And arguably it's still going, Rojo only left a few months ago.

I think this can be said for all managers though - Mata and Fellaini were never really what we needed from Moyes, nor were Rojo, Darmian or even Sanchez, Lindelof, Matic etc from Mou's tenure. All good players, none of them great for us and some had brief periods when they looked good - Rojo/Jones CB pairing was incredible, Darmian was solid first season, Lindelof is currently good enough to partner Maguire, Mata has had periods where he's been excellent. It's all about players who suit a system, we've got a few ex players about to win the Serie A and looking completely different to when they were here - Lukaku is considered among the best strikers in the world again and Darmian as a wing back has 3 goals in 7 starts and just scored the winner from the bench the other day.

I personally think we bought too much into the rebuild nonsense in the caf, every manager coming in tries to build a team and win things and most leave a few players behind who then aren't fancied. This isn't deadwood as the caf loves to say, they're just out of favour players who eat up wages, don't ever really play and just wait for transfers. In a way I prefer what LVG did - it was brutal but I do think it has saved us time longer term although I agree it probably wasn't the 'right' decision to jettison so many at once.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

i still miss him.

 

[Jezpeza]

I think this can be said for all managers though - Mata and Fellaini were never really what we needed from Moyes, nor were Rojo, Darmian or even Sanchez, Lindelof, Matic etc from Mou's tenure. All good players, none of them great for us and some had brief periods when they looked good - Rojo/Jones CB pairing was incredible, Darmian was solid first season, Lindelof is currently good enough to partner Maguire, Mata has had periods where he's been excellent. It's all about players who suit a system, we've got a few ex players about to win the Serie A and looking completely different to when they were here - Lukaku is considered among the best strikers in the world again and Darmian as a wing back has 3 goals in 7 starts and just scored the winner from the bench the other day.

I personally think we bought too much into the rebuild nonsense in the caf, every manager coming in tries to build a team and win things and most leave a few players behind who then aren't fancied. This isn't deadwood as the caf loves to say, they're just out of favour players who eat up wages, don't ever really play and just wait for transfers. In a way I prefer what LVG did - it was brutal but I do think it has saved us time longer term although I agree it probably wasn't the 'right' decision to jettison so many at once.

LVG was pretty destructive. He made some good decisions on player sales like mugging arsenal for weetabix welbeck and knowing the end had come for evra and rvp etc but the sales of evans, nani, chicarito and rafael were criminal, essentially for the joke prices.

i think mourinho did quite badly too. Forever rotating the squad. Hed give depay his first minutes for 6 weeks with a 30 minute run out in the europa league then slag him off. Always hard to get players in form with all that rotation which affected some like darmian as you mention. Still dont think he was utd grade though ultimately

 

[stevoc]

I think this can be said for all managers though - Mata and Fellaini were never really what we needed from Moyes, nor were Rojo, Darmian or even Sanchez, Lindelof, Matic etc from Mou's tenure. All good players, none of them great for us and some had brief periods when they looked good - Rojo/Jones CB pairing was incredible, Darmian was solid first season, Lindelof is currently good enough to partner Maguire, Mata has had periods where he's been excellent. It's all about players who suit a system, we've got a few ex players about to win the Serie A and looking completely different to when they were here - Lukaku is considered among the best strikers in the world again and Darmian as a wing back has 3 goals in 7 starts and just scored the winner from the bench the other day.

I can't remember too many managers trying to sell an entire squad and buy a new one like Van Gaal.

Darmian was solid first season

He has a solid 3-4 games and then went to shit.

I personally think we bought too much into the rebuild nonsense in the caf, every manager coming in tries to build a team and win things and most leave a few players behind who then aren't fancied. This isn't deadwood as the caf loves to say, they're just out of favour players who eat up wages, don't ever really play and just wait for transfers. In a way I prefer what LVG did - it was brutal but I do think it has saved us time longer term although I agree it probably wasn't the 'right' decision to jettison so many at once.

Saved us time? As i said we're still trying to sell some of the shit he accumulated years later. He sold good players for buttons and paid 3-4 times to replace them with shit like Darmian. His transfer dealings were a disaster, even the club realized this as they've taken away some of the managers power in transfers over the last few years.

But anyway I'll leave it there, back to Nani.

 

[RUCK4444]

In form he was a proper United player. Exciting, entertaining winger, remember them?

His goal highlights for United on facetube are INCREDIBLE. As good as anyone’s in the league. Honestly watch them if you haven’t already.

 

[RUCK4444]

In a way I prefer what LVG did - it was brutal but I do think it has saved us time longer term although I agree it probably wasn't the 'right' decision to jettison so many at once.

What? ... what?

No way. Just no. No no no no no. No. N.O. No

 

[tomaldinho1]

I can't remember too many managers trying to sell an entire squad and buy a new one like Van Gaal.



He has a solid 3-4 games and then went to shit.



Saved us time? As i said we're still trying to sell some of the shit he accumulated years later. He sold good players for buttons and paid 3-4 times to replace them with shit like Darmian. His transfer dealings were a disaster, even the club realized this as they've taken away some of the managers power in transfers over the last few years.

But anyway I'll leave it there, back to Nani.

Yh I already agreed with you re the volume of exits. Not sure what else there is to discuss on that point.

Darmian was solid first season - he just wasn’t mobile enough. He was basically a slower AWB but I suspect you’re suffering from redcaf retrospective rating disorder (very common ailment on here). He wasn’t a bad signing, he just wasn’t really a good one either.

I don’t know what to say if you’re blaming LVG for the price we sold players for. You need to read up on LVG —> Mou transition and the problems they both faced, LVG more than Mou, with how the club approached transfers. I’m not excusing LVG as ultimately he failed but Ole has greatly benefitted from him and Mou’s criticisms of United’s structure and Woodward’s subsequent changes.

Back to Nani - the great entertainer. I still feel he could have been a great for us but it’s almost as if he never moved on from the tricks and flicks like Ronnie did. Long range bangers, exciting skills and somersaults. When times were good eh.

 

[stevoc]

Yh I already agreed with you re the volume of exits. Not sure what else there is to discuss on that point.

Darmian was solid first season - he just wasn’t mobile enough. He was basically a slower AWB but I suspect you’re suffering from redcaf retrospective rating disorder (very common ailment on here). He wasn’t a bad signing, he just wasn’t really a good one either.

I don’t know what to say if you’re blaming LVG for the price we sold players for. You need to read up on LVG —> Mou transition and the problems they both faced, LVG more than Mou, with how the club approached transfers. I’m not excusing LVG as ultimately he failed but Ole has greatly benefitted from him and Mou’s criticisms of United’s structure and Woodward’s subsequent changes.

Back to Nani - the great entertainer. I still feel he could have been a great for us but it’s almost as if he never moved on from the tricks and flicks like Ronnie did. Long range bangers, exciting skills and somersaults. When times were good eh.

Agree, fair enough.

Disagree on Darmian. And no I had a very strong opinion on him from way back in late 2015 before most others caught on to just how poor a player he was. He was the antithesis of a United player, I couldn't even compare him to AWB. A traffic cone would be a more appropriate comparison.

I see your point but LVG has to shoulder some of the blame on exit fees considering how fast he wanted to boot players out of the club.

On Nani that's a big part of the reason I personally think a lot of United fans were too harsh on him. He wasn't Ronaldo, he was never going to be and they shouldn't have been expecting him to become Ronaldo.

I think he was great for us and for a few years around 2009-2012 he was genuinely World Class. Yes he was inconsistent at times and frustrating at others, but he was one of the most entertaining players I've sen at United in over 30 years of watching. Whatever else he was, he was what every United player should be. Brave and always trying to entertain.

 

[Sandikan]

I wasn't against a clear out, one was needed the squad needed some renovation. But LVG's idea of renovating was to demolish the house, set fire to the rubble and then wonder off looking for a new place to build another completely new house.

We did alright under Van Gaal, but the disaster I'm referring to was the squad he built. It's taken Mourinho and now Solskjaer almost 5 years to clean up the mess he made. And arguably it's still going, Rojo only left a few months ago.

Van Gaal was a genius.
Cleared out all the even vaguely wing players, and then moaned we didn't have any wingers.

Only to buy one for a huge sum, and then not always play him as a winger.

 

[Robertd0803]

Still retains the title of most frustrating player Ive ever seen for us. As time goes in though its becomes a term of endearment. At one point or another certain players have been close to taking the title like Depay but theyve actually just turned out to be shit with none of the quality Nani had.

Post Sir Alex I can honestly not remember a single thing from him, but him taking that penalty in Moscow is still the ballsiest thing I have ever seen from any United player.

 

[stevoc]

Van Gaal was a genius.
Cleared out all the even vaguely wing players, and then moaned we didn't have any wingers.

Only to buy one for a huge sum, and then not always play him as a winger.

Or sending Nani on loan costing the club £4m in wages to seal a £16m deal for Rojo because he needed a left footed CB and then just played Blind there anyway who he bought to play in midfield.

Genius/Bonkers it's a fine line.

 

[Sandikan]

Or sending Nani on loan costing the club £4m in wages to seal a £16m deal for Rojo because he needed a left footed CB and then just played Blind there anyway who he bought to play in midfield.

Genius/Bonkers it's a fine line.

The Van Gaal days were just a horrible watch football wise, for all but that small purple patch period where we battered the likes of City, and a few other isolated games.

My main memory of the period, is us having hardly any shots, usually being 0-0 at half time, and passing aimlessly.
All with a clearly near the end Rooney as the key player.
Plus stumbling across things by accident, like Rashford coming in as everyone else was injured, and Van Persie and Falcao being injured at the same time giving us our most effective lineup.

 

[Chabon]

I loved Rafael, Chicharito, Nani etc. but none were good enough.

Nine premier league title medals between them, how many do the 14 players signed by Louis Van Gaal have?

 

[stevoc]

The Van Gaal days were just a horrible watch football wise, for all but that small purple patch period where we battered the likes of City, and a few other isolated games.

My main memory of the period, is us having hardly any shots, usually being 0-0 at half time, and passing aimlessly.
All with a clearly near the end Rooney as the key player.
Plus stumbling across things by accident, like Rashford coming in as everyone else was injured, and Van Persie and Falcao being injured at the same time giving us our most effective lineup.

I still like the crazy bastard for some reason but yeah the football was soul destroying. Put it like this after 2 years of it I'd lost all perspective and thought Mourinho's United team played entertaining football.

People on here complain about Solskjaer's style of play, I would advise them to go watch a United match under LVG. Shots on goal were the highlight of the game, I can vividly remember post match threads being positive about signs of improvement because we'd managed 2-3 shots on goal during a game.

 

[thepolice123]

On Nani specifically as underwhelming as he might have been had he stayed. There's still a case to be made that he would have been and might still be our best option on the right. Mata, Lingard, etc. I'd have had Nani over them all on the right wing.

Would be hard to make a case for Nani if you ask me. He became a journeyman after leaving us and struggled to nail down a place at every club he went. Of course, you can say if he stayed longer he might return back to form but its all hypothetical. Fact of the matter is he regressed as he grew older. I don't think our mistake was selling him. Our mistake was not investing in a proper right winger.

 

[stevoc]

Would be hard to make a case for Nani if you ask me. He became a journeyman after leaving us and struggled to nail down a place at every club he went. Of course, you can say if he stayed longer he might return back to form but its all hypothetical. Fact of the matter is he regressed as he grew older. I don't think our mistake was selling him. Our mistake was not investing in a proper right winger.

Yep that was the main mistake. But even the declining Nani that played in Portugal, Turkey and Spain was a better right winger than Mata and Lingard were for us over the same period. Lingard never did anything out there he's better centrally and Mata has had his moments but has been largely poor and certainly didn't provide any pace, width or penetration at any point.

I'm not saying Nani was great after he left I'm highlighting just how poor our options on the right have been since 2014, who was the last right winger we signed Valencia in 2009? I'm not counting James.

 

[Foxbatt]

Who can forget his goal against Spurs?

I know that this is the Nani thread but one thing I noticed is that when there is a clip of most of our important goals, Anderson is always involved in it or in the frame.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Nani was the best player in the league in 2010/11. Magnificent to watch, incredibly effective, and effectively carried United to the title - Berbatov and Rooney both had great and awful spells over the season, Nani was consistently brilliant.

He was also incredible for much of 2011/12 before fizzling out towards the end. And then he never hit that form again (and Valencia compounded things by getting hopelessly found out the next season), and United have arguably never gotten back to that level of threat from the wings since.

 

[stevoc]

Nani was the best player in the league in 2010/11. Magnificent to watch, incredibly effective, and effectively carried United to the title - Berbatov and Rooney both had great and awful spells over the season, Nani was consistently brilliant.

He was also incredible for much of 2011/12 before fizzling out towards the end. And then he never hit that form again (and Valencia compounded things by getting hopelessly found out the next season), and United have arguably never gotten back to that level of threat from the wings since.

Definitely not and for anyone who grew up watching Fergie's United sides with flying wingers like Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Nani, Ronaldo etc. the last decade under Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho have been a hard watch.

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Cracking Goal last night against Cincinnati.
This goal is absolutely filthy

 

[red4ever 79]

Definitely not and for anyone who grew up watching Fergie's United sides with flying wingers like Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Nani, Ronaldo etc. the last decade under Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho have been a hard watch.

My favourite days under united. 90 to around 99. Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis. Power and pace down the flanks. Two games stick in my memory. We beat Arsenal 6-2 at Highbury in the league Cup, I think Sharpe scored 4. I was in hospital having my tonsils out and I insisted the nurse put the highlights on. Also we best Norwich away in the league 3-1 in 1993

 

[Maciej]

Cracking Goal last night against Cincinnati.
This goal is absolutely filthy

His goals look different when he doesn't do the backflip Something is missing, feels strange.

 

[stevoc]

My favourite days under united. 90 to around 99. Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis. Power and pace down the flanks. Two games stick in my memory. We beat Arsenal 6-2 at Highbury in the league Cup, I think Sharpe scored 4. I was in hospital having my tonsils out and I insisted the nurse put the highlights on. Also we best Norwich away in the league 3-1 in 1993

Yeah going from years of watching proper wingers like Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Ronaldo, Nani to Lingard, Young, James, Sanchez and Mata has been rough.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

Nani's balance, two-footness along with fake shot skill is absolute best I can remember form any of our players.

 

[Amar__]

He is back in Italy, in Venezia. Romantic move, and an assist one minute into his first game.

Might watch Venezia now and then.

 

[Vidyoyo]

N-nani?!

 

[Mockney]

Venice have the sexiest kits in football. A valiant hipster choice.