In the summer of 2007, Sporting Lisbon prodigy Nani was recruited to Old Trafford for a fee of £17million, soundtracked by various hushed murmerings that the winger could grasp the baton from the ageing Ryan Giggs. It is fair to say that the intervening seasons have proven this initial billing to be wildly optimistic; six years on, Nani finds himself on the periphery on the first-team squad. Indeed, Giggs – who turns 40 this year – still often keeps him out of the side.
The Portuguese had though, at least until very recently, been a prominent member of the first-team. This season, however, the notoriously changeable winger has blown more cold than hot, with his manager singling him out for castigation in the aftermath of an October defeat at Stamford Bridge. Since that fixture, Nani has only made Alex Ferguson’s starting line-up on nine occasions – an ominous statistic with the summer transfer window looming.
Noveau riche PSG are among the clubs believed to be hovering, and Nani looks odds-on to be clearing his locker at Carrington during the close-season transfer window. But are United right to deem him surplus to requirements?
At a glance, Nani is a frustrating player in that his tangible output (goals scored, chances made) doesn’t seem to chime with his technical ability. A shanked cross becomes all the more infuriating when it’s followed by a 30-yard thunderbolt only minutes later, and the winger is often accused of overcomplicating play. But is Nani so frustrating precisely because he tries the difficult things? Dribbling, long-range shooting and crossing at pace are among the toughest manoeuvres in the game, and therefore Nani’s will not yield the success rate of other styles of play. The variation in Nani’s game – and there is no denying that he’s a supremely unpredictable player – will by its very nature procure less regular success than, say, Antonio Valencia’s more predictable ‘shift and cross’ routine, or Ashley Young’s invariable tendency to cut inside. But, crucially, Nani’s finer moments tend to far outshine those of Valencia or Young.
Nani’s 47% success rate in take-ons, for example, is more admirable than it may read – and indeed greater than Valencia or Young’s this term, while he has hit double figures in term of goals in two of his six seasons at United (Valencia and Young have done so three times across their combined careers.)
For all his faults, the winger could be forgiven for feeling that his recent demotion to the squad’s periphery represents harsh treatment.
This said, Ferguson seems to have recently veered from his old tactical model, where the flanks were the sites of flair and audacity (think Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Beckham and Ronaldo), towards one where functionality and discipline are now the priorities (think Park, Valencia, Rooney and Welbeck). With Robin Van Persie, Tom Cleverley and Shinji Kagawa, United are looking increasingly to their central players to dissect defences.
And with Rafael da Silva having this season graduated from mere promising talent to a plainly terrific right back, perhaps pairing two such unrestrained players on the same flank would leave the area defensively weak. The muscularity of a Valencia or the willingness of a Welbeck may better complement the Brazilian than the more lightweight Nani.
So, United’s seemingly inevitable dispensing with Nani may have rather more to do with tactical evolution than with the player himself. The 26-year-old has not shown his best form this term, but – on his day – remains the most dangerous of his club’s out-and-out wingers, with perhaps only Kagawa trumping him for technical ability across the midfield. Nani’s own reputation as a big-money letdown may be somewhat unwarranted – he was deservedly voted United’s Players’ Player of the Year only two seasons ago – but his manager’s new-found preference for endeavour over elegance on the flanks looks to have consigned Nani to the Old Trafford scrapheap.
There should be no shortage of takers.
The post Why Manchester United should get rid of Nani in the summer. appeared first on Squawka News.
