jones showed against bolton away (and in the second half today) that he's more than capable of playing there. his delivery is quality. ferdinand wasn't great in midweek and looks to me like he's possibly on the wane, but surely the defense would have had a better balance to it if jones was shifted out to RB, and ferdinand partnered evans in the centre? we're lucky today pilkington missed an absolute stone wall chance. just because valencia has pace, doesn't mean he can play RB. the sooner we get (if fergie can decide) on a solid and consistent back 4 the better. it's no good for the defense and it's no good for de gea.
Well we have Fabio, Rafael, Smalling, and Vidic out injured, and we can't afford to lose another defender to injury. (Evans looked like he picked up a knock at the end of the game today too). Rio was pretty poor against Basle, and I would imagine if injuries weren't an issue he wouldn't have even made the bench. Rio is always injury prone and playing him for a full 90 could be risky, when there is no readily made back up available. Anyways we still picked up the 3 points, and Vidic and Smalling are supposed to be back after the international break.
Like Manobear said, Rio was probably pretty tired. And both Rio and Jones made mistakes against Basle so there's no guarantee that having both of them in the side again would have made us more solid. Valencia is honestly pretty good as a stand in RB given that our three first choice RBs are currently injured. He makes a few errors, but then name a club in the PL (or the world) that has a 4th choice RB that doesn't?
i disagree. we looked a much better side defensively when rio came on and jones was put to RB. i fail to see how playing actual defenders in defense won't improve things. valencia positionally is abysmal (through no fault of his own) and is always caught out. rio played in midweek but has been fully fit now for at least a couple of weeks so playing 2 games against opposition where we should have a majority possession and territory shouldnt be that demanding. putting AV at the back is just putting a square peg in a round hole when its unnecessary.
I'm not convinced Rio is fully fit. If other options were available, I'm not sure he'd have played against Basle or come on today.
Ive only really noticed AV struggle at right back in the last couple of times hes played there. Before that he was actually a decent stand in. Offered everything you expect of a right back. Not sure why hes gone off the ball a bit. Maybe its down to the mish mash of a defence we have just now?
I don't think he links up particularly well with Nani on the right in that sort of combination as well. Nani probably is used to a right back that pushes on, gives him more space to come inside on his left foot as well, don't think Valencia is able to play his normal game at right back purely because he knows he has to be a defender first and foremost. So that is my take on why our wingplay from the right generally wasn't as good as it could have been. I put a fiver on with my mate that Fabio wouldn't last the 90 minutes against Basel and considering the defenders that we have out, I think it isn't a bad option to play someone who is competent enough at right back just so we have one defender available. With the twins, it does look like they can be injury prone and I think Evans might be heading the way of Ferdinand with little niggling injuries that can almost do more damange than a single big injury. Might be a case of playing safe.
I think this was due to Rio not being 100% fit yet so Fergie probably thought it would be best to go for Jones in the CB position and Valencia as RB.
I agree with the OP here. Valencia is not a full back and is an absolute train wreck in that position. He works hard and tracks back but that doesn't mean he can play defend. He just doesn't have the defensive capabilities to play there.
Agree here, the guy can't defend. He may track back well from right midfield, to help the right back double up on wingers, but he isn't strong enough defensively to be in the last line of defence on the right. Obviously Nani has been on fire so far, so Valencia is going to struggle to get in the side at RM. Maybe SAF thinks hes to good to be on the bench, but playing him in defence isn't the answer. I've never been the biggest fan of Rio Ferdinand throughout his career, hes a good player, but he is knowere near as good as Vidic. I dont rate Evans much either, when all fit I hope Jones and Vidic are the first choice CB pairing
