Antonio Valencia has hailed the attitude of this current United team and reckons the ability to bounce back from defeat is what keeps them successful.
“I think that this attitude, concentration and mental strength are down to the manager and every day that he’s there,” he said. “Win or lose, you are in the next day, and you train every day and you want to win every day. If you lose a game one day, the next day you can’t afford to mope around because there’s another game in a couple of days. I think that’s the mindset of the team and of everything that Manchester United does.”
Valencia reckons that losing the title on goal difference last season has totally changed their approach this season. At least something positive has come from that Aguero goal, with United now 12 points clear at the top of the table.
“It’s very different because of what happened last season,” he said. “I don’t know if it was about the total disbelief that we could miss out on the league on goal difference, but when you lose the title like that it’s a really bitter blow to suffer. So now in every game and every training session everyone is even more focused and fully concentrated on playing well and applying ourselves to the task of regaining the league title.”
When asked how Manchester United manage to sustain their success, competing for the title every year, Valencia believes the manager deserves the credit.
“First and foremost it would be the manager, and his 26 years in the job,” he said. “In addition it’s the day to day work that goes on constantly within the club to make Manchester United what it is.”
Valencia was speaking at the launch of the no. 7-inspired Manchester United Collection which is available from www.nike.com.
Man Utd News 24/7
Come on !
Valencia looked sharp when he came on against the virux.Hopefully Nani’s presence will bring him back to life
Give him back the number 23. the 7 is freaking him out
Good comments from Tony. Definitely a senior player mentality which we will rely on more and more as some of our older players retire. Wonder if he is line for his countries armband as well since he is now crucial to them and also wears the #7.
Had a difficult recover in from after a year out after that break. But starting to show a few sparks. Lets hope next year is his comeback year and we really see what Valencia is made of.
Funny how some partnerships just click. Valencia and Rooney were quite a pair before Tony’s horror break 2 years ago. Neither player has really come back to form in quite the same way. That was United gold for almost an entire season and one could well hope to see it again.
*** Had a difficult recovery in form ****
Rio Ferdinand will not be punished for clapping referee after Real defeat
Excellent news this. Hope we we get more good news as the week goes on.
Not very hopeful about Nani, only because of Collina being the rep. But miracles can happen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/mar/07/rio-ferdinand-sarcastically-clapping-referee
Football taught us an important lesson. Those who make mistakes go unpunished, but the victims of those mistakes shall be punished. – Should be UEFA’s motto.
5 refs and they all get it wrong. Should UEFA not be looking into this?
Valencia is a class player and an intelligent player. Hes selfless and hard working. Excellent attitude and exactly the type of player that makes United better. The Denis Irwin of the right wing. The always 85% man.
ak47
They got it right the refs. They got rid of British teams from Europe. Thats their brief.
Looking at both games against Real, I’d definitely say the team showed more fight and desire compared to the Wembley final against Barcelona. Obiously we weren’t facing the same opponent but you could tell the players didn’t seem intimidated this time. A real shame the Turk fucked it up.
@Costas
It wasn’t just against Barca. The whole of last season was dire, I remembered something like we only came back from goals down to win once all season or something like that? Definitely more fire in the belly this season
Ferguson to dressing room: “Congratulations, I can’t say more”
Very strange report, take it for what you will.
http://www.futbolingles.es/el-mensaje-de-ferguson-al-vestuario/
Here is one translation:
EXCLUSIVE @ britcorner . – Finish the game between Manchester United and Real Madrid . The atmosphere at Old Trafford was the best of the season, said by his intimates players after the game . Therefore, the defeat has hurt more than others and had never seen a reaction. Ferguson was known at the time he threw a boot on Beckham and his character is feared in many games if no defeat but not always. For the newest in the locker room, Ferguson had never reacted well.
They fail to 23:00 (one hour earlier in the UK) when, as we know the non-appearance of Ferguson in the press room, the Scot broke into the locker room. The anger of the players is evident, a full rage after what happened with Nani , speaking loud until the manager. Ferguson sends a clear and concise message to the silence of his players: “Congratulations, I can not say more.” This phrase says goodbye to the players who are very surprised at the Ferguson most recently devastated and leaving the locker room.
FERGUSON: “CONGRATULATIONS, can not say more”
Mike Phelan, Fergie second, uses the word ‘distraught’ to explain the absence of Ferguson in a press conference . It means something like titled afflicted and devastated as some British media. These words define the reaction of a few technical, rarely has been so affected by what happened against Real Madrid. Training at Old Trafford since 1986, Ferguson had seen the team better than ever and with a result that did not expect much less.
Now, Ferguson’s team has the Premier in his hand and still in the FA Cup game . What is clear is that hunger veteran Scot has no limits and that is priceless.
As if people wouldn’t be interested anyway, this will have everyone tunned into the managers press conference tomorrow morning morning!
I can understand the anti-Keane sentiment, but I’ll try to resist the urge. After all, the most constructive thing one can do in a situation like this is to reflect on his own actions. So:
(1) Having seen the incident multiple times now, the challenge didn’t look like a red card to me. Nevertheless, if you look at it more intently, you can actually see Nani looking in Arbeloa’s way before attempting to reach the ball. This means he knew Arbeloa was coming and that they would probably collide. Taking this into account, Nani’s challenge was careless at best and stupid at least. Nani is a good player and I’ve always supported him (I think he’s our mostnaturally talented winger), but lunging into Arbeloa like that in a stage of the game where we had complete control was unnecessary and proved to be costly. And this happened on top of his poor performance in the final minutes against Chelsea in the League Cup, so I’m not sure SAF will want to give Nani another opportunity to make amends. If he’d pulled out of the tackle and Madrid had scored, we’d still have been in a better situation than the one that eventually followed.
(2) And the situation that followed was this: Nani was sent off (unjustly, but what can one do), and our bench was more concentrated on complaining (what good did that ever do?) than envisioning a game plan which would win us the tie. What the fuck was Ferguson’s plan? Keep 2 strikers on the pitch to provide extra room for their attacking options and let Madrid come at us with all their raging glory? Wave after wave of their attacks, our bench had no response. Nothing happened until they turned the result around. Why? Inter and Chelsea managed to keep the mighty Barcelona at bay for longer periods with 10 players, right? Why didn’t we close the shop and play a lot tighter?
(3) I’ve read Ferguson called Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) “fat”. If this is true, he should apologise. It’s embarrassing for our club for him to go around spouting garbage like that, and an ex-player of Ronaldo’s stature certainly doesn’t deserve to be called names by anybody within the footballing community. Imagine what the reaction would be if Benitez called SAF “senile”. Classless stuff from our manager.
The speculation around rooney is laughable and inevitable, anyone can see that working as a,sport journalist doesn’t require an high form of intelligence, it is sensationalism and gabbage to hike papers sale. I doubt fergie trust any of them, let alone pass on confidential information of his players to them. It seems another example of why england struggle in tournaments, they try to pack all the big names into the first 11 rather than play the player that fit effectively into a system. Rooney was left out for tactical reasons, united needed ball carriers with pace and skill to prove a threat on the counter, it had NOTHING to do with trying to sell him. There’s an obsession with wayne no doubt, you still get muppets directly comparing him to ronaldo and messi when clearly, these players of different styles, rooney is world class without having to compare him with two rare talents, rooney will stay as he’s accumulated enough experience that you can’t just discard, i don’t think this will stop neil ashton and his brotherhood from coming out with crap.
Nani did not “lunge” into anything, this is another case of people trying to be inspector gadget, looking at every angle and facial expression to give a sensible reason as to why that fixing incompetent cunt sent him off. Of course will take a glance at a defender, it is simple logic of football. Nani was trying to control the ball mid-air and burst forward, arbeola knew he had no chance with nani and slammed in like a maniac, the portuguese had no knowledge of him coming in, it wasn’t stupid or careless and if anything, he was outstanding in that match and justifies why fergie wants to keep a classy player, may happen or may not, no one knows the definite answer except if you are mystic meg and as for the carling cup, please get over it, it was the entire team’s fault for shipping 5 goals. He made an error as have many attacking players and hopefully he learns from it
2. No tactical decision would have the stemmed the flow of a world class and experienced madrid team smelling blood, they were always going to exploit gaps and they had more energy as the game dragged on. United could bring on as much midfielders and they would have been pegged back, yet again another simple logic, if a top european team has an advantage, itis rare that they do not take advantage on a massive pitch. Inter kept the mighty barca out but did they have 35mins and extra to do so? Are barca as efficient on the counter as madrid? It is tedious and dull to drag up previous matches that has no bearing on another which will take place 3years later, clutching at straws at its best.
Fergie’s comment to ronaldo was probably humorous and meant no malice behind it, up to him if he feels he wants to pick up the phone and call ronaldo. if not, so be it. “classless”, yeah right.
Valencia did well when he came on Madrid game. He push forward!~
Wrong team right tactics at least until dopey got himself sent off then no tactics other than panic
@samuel – united WE stand
Your entire argument comes down to, let me quote, ” the portuguese had no knowledge of him coming in”. Like you know. Bitch please. The referee made a call. I have no reason to believe it was aa consipracy. To use a phrase you would recognize, please get over it.
Calling Ronaldo “fat” is classless, I see nothing funny in calling a man dealing with weight issues names.
Antiscouser
You really are a muppet.
Fact ronaldo is Fat. Aint even seen the quote you speak off. And if indeed it is factual, at best a shake of the head. Instead its classless? Really?
Fact.SAF aint senile. He may be much older but that doesnt automatically translate to being senile you prick. And in your hypothetical scenario FSW can go fuck him self. Wanker.
Is it just me, or am I the only one who cannot fathom this hooha over Rooney? That’s he’s going to leave etc. I swear, throughout the entire game, and the day after, I didn’t think about Rooney’s omission at all. Not in the sense that he isn’t important, he is, but okay, the manager made the choice, had a tactic, stuck to it, and we played well. Well, if we played rubbish, then harping on the omission might make sense, but we didn’t. I don’t see the issue. Chicharito’s been omitted or ‘ignored’ (as the media would say it) even though he’s been a goal machine from the bench, why isn’t it being hyped up as much? It makes it seem as if Rooney is this untouchable player. Being omitted doesn’t mean you haven’t been playing well so I don’t get the big deal.
Way to go to try and divert the attention from the bloody ref eh?
@slim
From what you’ve written, I can only presume you’re half-witted. Whether or not Ronaldo is fat is not an issue here, muppet. Communicating class is part of our image. Calling a footballing legend who is wrestling with weight issues”fat” is irresponsible and unnecessary.
The rest of your sad rant is incoherent drivel, so I’ll ignore it.
Why the tabloids are the scum of the earth and generally report non stories, I personally think there is some truth in this Rooney story. I’d imagine United would have issues a statement by now rubbishing these reports. I’ve been saying for a while we should cash out on him if we can. He peaked early in his career, he was a man at 17 and his body won’t stand the test of time like Giggs. If we could get 20 million for him we should most definitely take it. Been a brilliant servant for United and still can win a game on his day, but unfortunately his form and fitness recently has been poor. Professional relationship between us and Rooney now after the transfer fiasco. Business is business.
AntiScouser
There is no reason to believe the sending off WASN’T a conspiracy either. If you thik for one moment that the Turkish in general and all those child baiting shit stabbers at UEFA dont like the English then you are even more deluded than I gave you credit for, and there was no credit to begin with.
As for Sir Alex calling Ronaldo (the Brazilian) fat. What the fuck is wrong with that. Football in this context (Sir Alex and Ronaldo) is a mans sport. Where men get together and air their views. If fat Ronaldo gets upset by that then he is whiney bitch and should fuck off. If anyone of the male gender is sensitive to the fucking truth then they should be an hero (kill themselves). He is fat, its the truth. He has been amongst people who are fiercly competitive and will tease each other because of fatness, or shagging a fugly bird, or vomiting after 3 pints etc etc. Dont try and put sportsmen amongst human beings and they certainly dont follow the bean flicking namby pamby rules the rest of us have to go by. If Rafa said Fergie is senile then Im pretty sure Sir Alex wont give a fuck. Publicallly he’ll call it a disgrace because in the public eye thats not the done thing and Sir Alex will milk that for all its worth, but personal insult. Why would he listen to a greasy dagoe and his opinions anyway. They have barely evolved from goat fuckers from North Africa (moorish).
Anti scouser – “bitch please”? What gang are you part of? The powerpuff girls?. Of course you have no reason to believe any conspiracy just like the fact match fixing doesn’t exist in football, not that i am trying to influence you to believe it. I’m not arguing with you, it is clear that the portuguese was trying to control the ball, he did not purposely hack into arbeola, if anything, the spaniard instigated the entire thing by making an idiotic decision, was never a red.
Secondly, why don’t you send a bunch of lily flowers and a bumble-bee to a cunt that notices the existence of his faeces more so than you? Give me a break, taking it personal as if it had any bearing on you. None of us knows if fergie has actually called ronaldo to explain but you’ve got your big pants in a twist over an irrelevant story circulated by the desperate media trying to cause controversy.
AntiScouser
Ronaldo is not “wrestling” with weight issues because if he were he would use energy and slim. You get fat by being lazy and eating garbage.
Law of Science. Energy cannot be created from nothing it can only changed from one form to another. That is a fundamental fact of Physics. A person because of their genes CANNOT create fat from nothing as fat is stored energy. They get the excess energy from FOOD.
Ronaldo is fat because hes a lazy cunt – nothing else.
And legend you must be fucking joking – he was as much a legend of his day than Rooney is of this generation.
Hahaha goat @18:01 classic
Antiscouser
Incoherent? You may want to visit the hospital. You never know.you could be you know, going senile.
Inapporpriate? Yes. Classless? Give me a break. Its as if you’re ashamed of the man
Aaah, another famous SCOUSE wits from Antiscouser
Look i know i’m fat but please dont call me fat, look i know i’m scouser but please dont call me scouser.
SAF isn’t senile old man. If u want to see the senile old man u can look at Wenger or the big boss KKK of scouse land…
Anti-Scouser – SAF classless? Yet you love Maureen. Silly boy/girl/whatever.
AntiScouser is a fucking wind up merchant, mark my words. Usually shows up same time as Joffrey.
Quality posts Goat.
Oh according to that fat blaoted alky cunt Brazil there “are problems at United” . Fucking pissed up idiot.
Steve McLaren: “‘[SAF] plans ahead and will be planning ahead now. He plans everything for the good of Manchester United, not for the good of Wayne Rooney, (Robin) van Persie or any one player.Sir Alex will look every week, every day, every season at each individual player very closely in training and games and say what kind of condition they are in and is he still mentally right for Manchester United. If not, he will have no hesitation in removing a player. But for the moment, I cannot see his (Rooney’s) future beyond Manchester United.’
@Marq
No denying that mate. It’s been evident throughout the season. I just found it interesting to compare the Real ties with the Wembley game because it was the first time we faced an opponent of that nature since that final.
Good news – TheRentBoyz lost in Romania and now have a long flight back to the UK and only two day’s rest before playing TheLads in the FACup on Sunday. Hopefully, they will be really tired, jet-lagged, and disappointed.
The Double is still on !
I don’t see how people can criticise what we did after going down to 10. We did the only thing we could – 2 banks of 4, shut the space behind us and leave 1 up top on his own. It’s what every team i.e. Chelsea, Inter etc did – difference was we came up against a side able to adapt to having an extra man.
What do you geniuses suggest Sir Alex do (bearing in mind Phil Jones wasn’t fit enough for the bench)
@Denton – How strong a side did Chelsea put out?
I have to disagree with Samuel when he suggested no tactical change would have helped after Nani was sent off. Watch the game again and look at how many touches Robin Van Persie had from when Nani left the pitch until Ronaldo knocked home the winner. Take Chelsea’s rearguard action after John Terry got sent off in the Nou Camp during the CL Semi Final last season. What percentage of Didier Drogba’s game was in the Barcelona half ?. Exactly. It was a mistake leaving RVP so far up making it hard to defend and impossible for him to hold the ball up. As soon as we went down to ten men RVP being an incredible footballer did not matter.
What should have happened ? … take Robin Van Persie & Ryan Giggs off and bring Anderson & Valencia on.
THE——————-BACK ———————FOUR
Valencia Cleverley Carrick Anderson Wellbeck
The extra legs of the two subs defending and on the counter attack too would have been vital.
Sometimes your opposition (or the referee) backs you into a corner that DOES NOT mean you cannot pick the corner.
Valencia looked more like the old Valencia when he came on vs. Madrid, here’s hoping.
Sparkz. Yes mate I want to know what side the Rentboys fielded.
Daniel – how the fuck would we have brought on Anderson since he is too fat, lazy and out of shape to have even made the bench?
AntiScouser ‘Your entire argument comes down to, let me quote, ” the portuguese had no knowledge of him coming in”’ and your entire argument comes.down that he.knew. can you bet on your house that he saw player? Only Nani and God knows…but as game was important ref wouldnt be wrong to give him yellow card…that is the point
An comment above saying we should have brought Anderson and tony v on. Anderson wasnt even on the bench..
JC. Well said.
Yeah lets take our best player of the night off by a country mile, Giggsy.
This is to the people who say, nani may have been going for the ball but its still a sending off due to its violent nature. have you forgotton when vidic was superman punched in the first half by the goalkeeper. surely by the letter of the saw he may have been going for the ball , but the opposing player was still hit and somewhat dangerously .
Look – they adjusted faster than us after red card but it was easier for them to do so. I agree with @ Daniel till we settled into playing with 10 we should have had players back and more organisation from team, the senior players and defenders. BUT, Modric goal was a goal he would probably never score again. And that rattled United further and Rafael was frazzled for a bit and lost Ronnie. After a while they settled in. But it was, too late.
Re subs, the subs would have had to warm up and come on, give that at least 5 mins or so, and by that time damage was done.
Chelsea team today: Cech 7, Ivanovic 6, Terry 6, Luiz 7, Bertrand 6, Mikel 6, Lampard 6, Benayoun 5, Hazard 7, Oscar 6, Torres 5. Subs: Mata 7, Marin 7
a few things to clear up..
1, SIR Alex, not fergie to you disrespecting cunts, said “the fatter ronaldo”, implying that he was talking about the “original” ronaldo & not CR7. hardly disrespectful. fat ronaldos reply was due to media mistranslating it.
2, this media storm about rooney is false because, if you read each paper, they’re ALL running different stories. usually when a big story is leaked the paper run SIMILAR stories but with Rooney now each paper feels they have to run a story because he was dropped. in fct, most quotes used are from OLD sources. furthermore, it’s NOT rooney or his agent either, cos most of the stories are quite damaging in respect to the reputation of rooney.
3, Nani did not use EXCESSIVE force as he was JUST trying to control the ball.. terry, cahill & gerard have ALSO been sent off by this ref within the last couple of years. furthermore, had United knocked out madrid, no spanish teams may have gone on to the QF, meaning the La Liga would be branded as a league in decline. blatter & platiini can’t have that now, can they ?
Lastly, i dont care what ANYONE says, i am PROUD of our boys !! they performed magnificently !! can’t wait for this team to flourish !! exciting times ! who would have thought 10 misn into the first leg that we would be ROBBED ?!
Love.
What’s done is done, lots of positives to take from it. It shows us that we can really compete for the top in Europe. Another 1 or 2 signings this summer, and we can really – with confidence – look to be in the final next year.
My biggest concern is how SAF and thus the team take this loss. I hope to god we don’t fall apart for the remainder of the year. We have a huge chance of doing the double – but it will all depend on SAFs state of mind – starting this Sunday. If he’s fired up even more, and aggressively pushing now for the double, good things will happen come May. Knowing him you’d bet he’ll just push on quickly, but you could see it in his face at the end – this was a HUGE hit mentally for him.
I think part of the pain for SAF is time is running out for him to get that third European cup, his third, United’s fourth. He knows he does not have many chances left.
Agreed, we should have had a plan to lock the door in the (likely, given the ref’s history) case of a sending off. Once the horribly unjust sending off took place, United did not react quickly enough. Reacting well to injustice is part of the game.
Morning Reds
could we please stop talking about Nani’s incident and what happened at Tuesday night?!people around the world and thousands of expert Referee and judges have given their verdicts, don’t need to pump it up further, let us move on those useless debates as its too little too late.
The lads need our support on Sunday, so let us take off that depressive suits and turn a new white page.bring on Chelsea who just lost last might in Europa league.I think Fergie would love to kick Rafa’s ass once again, could it be the last checkmate for the Spanish cunt;-)
**Last night**sorry for typo.
Crystal Palace Manager Ian Holloway says SAF can pick anyone he likes and he is brilliant at it http://t.co/MLqnlZ6T9g
Great words from him
Holloway captured my own feelings on both issues.
Its quite difficult to shut it, specially when photos and vidis of the incident still making rounds, you just realize how fucking robbed we were, that was fucking unjust.
It hurts more if you rewind the play we were clearly battering them up until that point
@Proverb
agree mate, it was a long night for us and we all utterly frustrated but right now it doesn’t make our lads any favor, I am sure Fergie today in his press conference would love to take any positive if there is!with Chelsea lurking on Sunday, the manager should say the right things to help to rejuvenate the psychological aspect and install the right mentality for the upcoming fixture.
@Proverb
agree mate, the press won’t let us take our breath, certainly then it was a long night for us and we all utterly frustrated but right now it doesn’t make the lads any favor, I am sure Fergie today in his press conference would love to take any positives if there is!with Chelsea lurking on Sunday, the manager should say the right things to help to rejuvenate the psychological aspect and install the right mentality for the upcoming fixture.and we as a united fans should also take that responsibility.
@Andromeda
Sure he will mate
It will be parked at the press, there’s too much to be cleared out, well.. According to the media. the Rooney dropping, and the whole CUNeyT spectacle
Morning Reds. Can’t wait for Fergies Press conference. Could be better than the game. And it was a cracking game.
Am expecting at least 3 yellow cards and a red.
Reds get banned from the press room for at least a year innit?
And sir alex’s press conference is at 9:30am, just 30 minutes from now
Haha @fletch
Morning mate, it sure is going to be intense
This will start your day well:
Cunyet Cakir is a glory seeking Referee who favors spanish football. UEFA need to get a grip
http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/ref-cakir-says-the-world-will-realise-the-truth-in-time-about-man
“I cost the team but my boss came to me and said don’t worry that’s football, it makes you cry sometimes”
Nani