The feeling is like it is 2009 again. As if Antonio Valencia is wearing the number seven jersey, again. As if he is in the side to terrorise opponents on the flank, like he was expected to after Cristiano Ronaldo had left for Real Madrid.
Valencia has bombed down the right. He is in position to receive the ball from Paul Pogba. He is in an even better position to unleash a strong cross, which he does. His ball is headed out, only to fall to Daley Blind. The Dutchman takes a shot, and misses. If United score from that move, they can annihilate Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City 5-1, instead of the 4-1 drubbing they hand out on Saturday. But it is only the fifth minute. It is a game against the champions Leicester City. And, Manchester United stare at the possibility of a hat-trick of Premier League defeats. But this early move signals intent. Valencia has a major role to play in it. But it is not the winger of 2009; it is the right-back of 2016.
Infusing venom at the back
Soon after the attack is over, Valencia is back behind – providing his goalie David de Gea the comfort of a dependable man in front of him. And like that, Valencia has been pacing up and down the flank throughout the game at Old Trafford. He has dispatched threatening crosses before going back and making life difficult for the opposing strikers trying to find space to cut through from the sides. He has done that for more than a year now. He has been undoubtedly consistent at it this season. Settling into the role at right-back has earned him a fresh lease of life at the club, while it has infused United with venom at the back.
With the transfer window long gone, Fabinho decides to stay put at Monaco and Jose Fonte at Southampton. Two of United’s most-wanted defenders are not coming to the Theatre of Dreams this year. Jose Mourinho’s men will, thus, have to depend on the same backline, which plagued by injuries and lack of form pulled the plug on Louis van Gaal last season. Eric Bailly is the only addition. Even the men from last season have a change in standing at the club. The defensive woes have deepened.
Guillermo Valera has left on loan for Frankfurt, while Cameron Borthwick-Jackson has been loaned to the Wolves. Marcus Rojo, brought in after playing for Argentina in their run to the 2014 World Cup final, has been lost in England. So lost that he could well be on his way out. While Bailly, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones could combine to take care of the centre of United’s back four, the flanks remain vulnerable.
Fight for right-back spot
It is the fight for the place on the field as United’s right-back that is most compelling. It pits specialist defenders like Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Daley Blind (perhaps) and Matteo Darmian (definitely) against Valencia.
Mourinho has been wary of handing the 18-year-old Fosu-Mensah too much Premier League time. Blind has been versatile enough to play wherever the team has required him to. But going by early evidence, it is Darmian’s place at the back that Valencia has made his own.
A lot was expected of Darmian when he was brought to Manchester. The Italian was from the country known for its production of supreme defensive talent. He looked comfortable with the ball. But all this was before the game against Southampton last September, where Dusan Tadic was all over him. Such were the ramifications of the match, that the defender’s United career has not been the same since.
Such was Darmian’s inability to deal with the duel on the right wing that he had to be taken off at half time. Valencia grabbed the opportunity and, following the Italian’s subsequent loss of form and injuries, became United’s first-choice right back ever since. If the 31-year-old’s showing this season gives any idea, then Darmian should be prepared for a long stint on the bench.
Doubling up as right-winger
On Saturday, United complete Leicester’s demolition by attempting one final assault. On Saturday, it is Valencia on the right flank in the thick of United’s final assault. The right-back has doubled up as the right winger. He is there; ready to launch one of the many crosses of the night. Just then the referee calls time on the game, with the ball aptly at the Ecuadorian’s feet. He has not scored any of the four goals, but his spark has kept United’s right side active and brimming with energy. It is this decisiveness and the willingness to move forward that Darmian lacks. It is this want and ability to take the ball, and with it the game, forward that allows Valencia to score over his more-established defensive colleague.
Not like in his bid to push forward, Valencia cannot hold his own at the back. He has a calm head, does not rush into tackles, is solid, can win balls, make clearances and has the pace to fall back if he is still in attack mode when the opponents launch a counter. Against Leicester, Valencia produces such dogged display of marking that Ranieri is pushed to take of Riyad Mahrez at the break.
'Best right-back in the world'
It is the kind of display that had prompted Ander Herrera to label Valencia as "the best right-back" last month. “I know he is not a proper right-back because he used to play as a winger, but right now, I think, he is the best right back in the world,” Herrera was quoted as saying by the club’s official website.
The best teams in the world have attacking full-backs. Barcelona’s wing, for eight years, was defined by Dani Alves’s pace. Valencia always had the pace, he has rediscovered ways of using it again. That, coupled with his physical strength, makes him an asset for United in that tactically critical position.
Valencia’s performances are rewards of the seeds sown by Van Gaal. With a penchant for playing his attackers in defensive roles, like he played Dirk Kuyt at left wing-back, the Dutch manager made use of Valencia at the back on the right. Similarly, with Luke Shaw injured last season, he even used Ashley Young back on the left.
It is, however, Mourinho, who has channelised Valencia’s energies and charted out defined objectives for him to achieve. And United’s latest right wing-back sensation seems set to answer his manager’s calls with élan.
