Flipping Frustrating: The Curious Case Luís Nani

Flipping brilliant

When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Real Madrid this summer, he left Old Trafford having achieved everything a player could at club level with trophies and personal plaudits aplenty. His time at Manchester United displayed perfectly what happens when a player’s potential is achieved as he steadily grew from one trick pony to best player in the world.

Many players break onto the football scene touted as the next big thing and sadly many don’t live up to the expectation. For Manchester United fans, it appears Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha or as he is better known around the world, Nani is set to be another player to fall by the way side.

When it was announced Man United had signed Nani in the summer of 2007 for £17m there were high hopes for the tricky Portuguese winger. Those of us who didn’t play ‘Football Manager’ rushed to YouTube to see who he was and were not disappointed. We were treated to videos of long range goals and the kind of skills that left the defenders in the clips as well as you dizzy.

He marked his debut with a goal in a 6-0 drubbing of Shenzhen and followed that with a second against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical. After victory over Chelsea in the Community shield, he finished his pre-season with another goal against Glentoran. The signs were good and most fans felt that United had signed another great Portuguese winger from Sporting Lisbon.

Wonder strikes against Tottenham and Middlesbrough were the highlight of the first half of his season and again provided fodder for YouTube football fans when in an FA Cup tie with Arsenal he scored as well as grabbing two assists. An altercation with Gallas overshadowed what was an amazing performance as the French defender felt Nani’s showboating was disrespectful, a sentiment echoed by Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

He ended his season with a Premier League and Champions League medal having scored 4 goals but more importantly 14 assists.

One of Nani’s biggest problems is a lack of consistency but after his impressive debut season Nani has consistently annoyed United fans with lacklustre performances, terrible decision making and even worse end product. He can frustrate you and excite you in equal amount because for every wonderful piece of trickery or wonder goal there are missed chances or wasted passes.

When he arrived at the club the obvious comparison was made with Cristiano Ronaldo and for a player as young as he was it was quite unfair. He clearly could not shoulder such expectation so it was thought that he would then flourish after Ronaldo departed for Madrid. Indeed Nani looked good again in preseason and started the season well with an assist for Rooney in the opening game against Birmingham and a goal against Wigan but it appears he has now reverted to type with more poor performances.

In his defence he is still young at 22, it is more than obvious that like Liverpool’s Ryan Babel he is a confidence player and getting dropped after starting the season well is not going to bring the best out of him and has never really been given an extended run in the first team but when he performs as badly as he does, when give a chance, why should he?

Now in his 3rd season, it is increasingly looking like it is now or never for Nani. Although Ronaldo was not the player we see today straight away, he steadily developed over his first 3 seasons, whereas it looks like Nani has regressed. Already Nani is a bit part player, but with the emergence of Gabriel Obertan, who has looked impressive down the left wing and in linking up Patrice Evra, Nani could now start to worry about his future at Old Trafford.