TEAM OF THE SEASON – ANTONIO VALENCIA

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Antonio Valencia is not really my type of player. If you’re lucky he has 1 shot per game and he is subject to the extremely frustrating rotation that comes with picking anyone from Sir Alexs team. Its the worst possible rotation as it seems that he is a group of players that when rotated seem to be subject to that 88 minute time wasting substitution that leaves you with 1 point and your head in your hands. However, Valencia has transcended these issues due to his amazing form and due to the key part he plays in Man U’s playing style. Injuries to Nani and Young also gave more certainty and a clear run of games this year.

Despite my prejudices I cant ignore the numbers. You’ll see from my upcoming strategy piece later that Valencia is the only player that I rate whose basis of points relies on assists. Without going in to it now I’m firmly in the Dempsey and VDV camp of midfielders who shoot regularly. Valencia is the exception. He has strong base key passes and assist numbers and an unnaturally high conversion rate. That’s due to the fact that he provides a large amount of key passes when he’s got in behind the defence rather than the key passes of say, Taarabt, ( I like him as a player, really, just not as a fantasy manager) which seems to involve a square pass to Buzasky to blaze over the bar from 35 yards.

Heres the stats:

Points: 140
Games played: 24
Points per game: 5.8 (2nd only to Pienaar for regular starters)
Goals: 4
Goals every 6 games ( A ratio that would normally see me ignoring this player)
Assists: 14 (3rd equal with Bale behind Silva and Mata but with far less games)
Bonus points: 17
Bonus points as a % of total points: 12%
% owned: 12.2%
Price range: Start: £8.0m. Lowest £7.8m round 17. Highest £8.6m round 35. Finished £8.3m round 38.

As far as next year is concerned I’m a little wary due to rotation so it will take some observation of Sir Alex’s team selection before I could consider him

 

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