Why Valencia is better for United than Ronaldo! FACT!
When it comes to transfer dealings, Sir Alex Ferguson is king. He may have had the odd flop or two but the list of players he has signed that have gone on to turn out good is one to admire. The latest one to join this list is Antonio Valencia. When Alex Ferguson decided to pay nearly £16million for the Ecuadorian winger, many people thought the wily old fox had become a little senile in his old age. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
In just over half a season at United, Valencia has already scored more goals than he did in his 3 seasons at Wigan and has chipped in with 8 assists for United. Anybody who watched him terrorise the West Ham defence in United’s 3-0 win will have seen just why Ferguson spent that much money on him.
Having been signed as a replacement for Ronaldo, Valencia has wasted no time in becoming a popular figure among the United faithful. Although he may not have the goal-scoring prowess of his predecessor, he certainly provides better service for his team-mates than Ronaldo ever did. The nature in which he volleyed a pin-point cross on to Wayne Rooney’s head for United’s first goal was sublime. He then highlighted the ease in which he can beat defenders and still have the instinct to pick out a team-mate. Yet again, Rooney was the man waiting for his dinner.
Not only does he provide better service from the wing, he is also a tireless worker and has probably covered more ground defensively than the World’s most expensive player ever did.
People may say United are missing Ronaldo. In my opinion they are not at all. Wayne Rooney has stepped up and proved that he is just as good, if not better, than Ronaldo. United’s problem this season has been defensively. Sir Alex Fergusons men have already conceded as many goals in the Premier League this season as they did all of last year.
The fact that they have scored just two goals less than their tally last season is testament to the fact that Ronaldo has not been missed. Given that they also still have 10 games left surely means that they will beat that total this year. In the 2007/08 when Ronnie scored 31 goals United averaged 2.11 goals per game. This season they are currently averaging 2.36 per game. Proof?
There might be many fans who still wish they could see Ronaldo and Rooney together but, given the evidence, the acquisition of Valencia in place of the Portuguese winger has proved a wise choice. In Valencia United have a team player and a man who not only beat his man, but provide an inch perfect cross as well. For me, the transfer of Valencia will go down as one of the Scot’s finest.
Did we really ever doubt his judgement?
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Man Utd do miss Ronaldo, of course they do, you’re always going to miss arguably the greatest player in the world from your side. Rooney has been a revelation but the reliance which Utd place on him is worrying, his form from an England perspective is fantastic. I think when it comes down to the later stages in Europe you’ll see the true difference between Valencia and Ronaldo (if it isn’t painfully obvious already)…his goals last season helped them get into the final. You can use stats to back up anything but at present,Utd have underperformed all season and this has been covered up by Rooney’s great form – defensive injuries are the main reason for this underperformance but to highlight Valencia as being better for Utd as fact seems a bit of a stretch – he’s been a good buy yes, consistent for the most part, but better than Ronaldo for Utd…not a chance.
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I can see what Sefa means when he says better for the team, he is by far more of a team player and one thing Sefa left out, is that Tony is more than willing to put in his shift and track back to help with defensive duties.
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Quite possible one of the worst articles I have ever read on here. Very, very clouded without much thought at all.
First of all Valencia was not a replacement for Ronaldo, as you put it. He came in as a new winger because Ronaldo had gone and the club needed a new winger but the job of replacing Ronaldo was not solely down to him.
Secondly, “he certainly provides better service for his team-mates than Ronaldo ever did”. Oh really? the same Ronaldo who produced over 50 assists in six years for his team mates, including 20 in the 06/07 season. Don’t believe me then check out the stats for yourself. And that isn’t including the amount of free kicks Ronaldo would take which would bounce of the goalkeeper for someone to tap in. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Valencia but if he gets that many assists in six years, we will all be raving about him. Problem is, he won’t also hit the back of the net 118 times.
“he is also a tireless worker and has probably covered more ground defensively than the World’s most expensive player ever did” Maybe so. But the ‘world’s most expensive player’ as you put it also was a tireless worker in terms of training for example and the lifestyle he lead, something which Sir Alex Ferguson raves about to this day.
” given the evidence, the acquisition of Valencia in place of the Portuguese winger has proved a wise choice…..Did we really ever doubt his judgement”
That word judgement. You make it sound like Fergie chose to get rid of Ronaldo for Valencia. As Ferguson made clear, Ronaldo chose to go. Had he wanted to stay, Valencia wouldn’t be at the club. Judgement you say.
If Valencia achieves half of what Ronaldo did at United, both as a team and individually, he will have done very very well. So just remember Ronaldo for his achievements and judge Valencia on his without comparing them.
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Come on mate, really? If United had Ronaldo this season the league would already be in the bag. Valencia has done a good job, but the fact that Nani managed to squeeze him out of the 1st team should give you a little perspective. Agree with Simon, comparing Valencia to Ronaldo is not fair, things are looking good from him so far and that’s all that matters.
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Im sorry but ronaldo is not missed last season with him we scored 67 goals this year we have 65 already, the only reason why we are 2nd is because of the defense, we have been easy to beat when not in form unlike last season we never played well except the Chelsea game but we grinded out 1.0 wins due to vidic ferdiand been fit for large parts of season we also had a goal keeper edwin playing more reguarly due to no injury, we had a better defence, therefore you could say if we had a back 4 we would be first and doing better with out ronaldo, we have nani and valencia and do not need any new winger maybe a striker and goal keeper and center mid is all we need.
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Valencia is very good at playing for the team and he is a very good player but what he lacks is match winning ability which we saw in ronaldo for the past 3 years. In my opinion i would rather have someone one can pull something out of the bag when we really need it.
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- Spanish -
Comparaciones de Valencia-Ronaldo no tienen mucho valor. Lo q’ si tiene valor es q’ un chico de un equipo sin carta de presentacion aya logrado titularidad en 6-7 meses. Se puede descutir q’ Nani es a o b pero Nani en esta temporada solo existio en dos partidos. Q’ puedes criticar de un jugador q’ nunca alla jugado una copa eufa e en dos minutos nule a a su marcador y envie un centro tan facil de convertir q’ la abuela de Ferguson hubiera concretado.
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Comparison between Valencia-Ronaldo have little to no value. I guess it’s good tweet material but nothing more. What is valuable to recognise is that a kid who came from a club without any championship pedigree has established himself among the starting line-up in a short 6-7 month period. Tweeter’s can debate between Valencia-Ronaldo-Nani all they want. After all everyone is entitled to their opinion. As a fan of Valencia I didn’t pay much attention to the EPL. But since the begining of the season, I have noticed that for the exception of 2/3 games, Valencia has deserved to play in the starting line-up. Evidence of this is that when he is called upon, he really does as my Brittish friend puts it terrorizes his markers. He’s developing as a player, and there are things that he needs to grow in, but this kid is as we say across the pond “The real McCoy”. What can you criticize about a player when he’s called in from substitution having never played a eufa cup and completely nullifies his defending marker, and converts an exquisitely simple cross that even Fergie’s grandmother would have scored.
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No more so than the reliance placed on Ronaldo the last 2-3 years! Look at most of your top clubs currently, they are reliant on one player. Chelsea are relying heavily on drogba at the moment, arsenal on fabregas and liverpool on torres. So the situation with Rooney is no different.
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Liverpool have gerrard to save them if torres is injured Chelsea have lampard and anelka just as they did in January and arsenal have nasri Ramsey as playmakers with van persie as a finisher..
But u can’t say for united as they onli have Rooney… The last time he was rested in a league match united lost 1-0 to burnley but Rooney though immensely talented was as good as carrick or fletcher last yr Manu solely depended on ronaldo.. The fact that he scored 18 goals last yr and was the second highest in the league shows how tough the league was..
Whatsoever if united had tevez then it wouldn’t have been soo heavily dependant on Rooney
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Please ………… Ronaldo has 18 goals in 19 games for Madrid. OK let’s celebrate that we’re only two goals worse off than this time last season but DONT say we’re better off with Valencia. This is an insult
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