Nani can be City's nemesis
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Nani no longer stands in Ronaldo's shadow
At Old Trafford they still find it perplexing that Nani did not even make it on to the short list for last season's player-of-the-year awards – and the sense of grievance is fully justified. Nani has not always been the crowd's favourite, but since he developed into a serious footballer it is difficult to think of too many wide players around the football world who possess a greater penetrative edge. Nani complained recently that whenever he is interviewed he is always asked about whether he feels he is still living in the shadow of Ronaldo. The truth is he has become a formidable player in his own right. Here's a statistic: Nani versus Ronaldo, goals and assists over their first 100 league matches for United – 52 versus 31.Plenty of column inches are also attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson’s assessment of Ashley Cole's reckless challenge on Javier Hernandez, as reported by ManUtd.com yesterday. The Times summarise: “Ferguson was left bewildered by Phil Dowd’s decision not to send off Cole for a reckless studs-up lunge on Hernandez’s right shin and accused the England player of going over the edge.”
Elsewhere, The Telegraph queries Rio Ferdinand’s absence from the win over Chelsea in the ‘five things we learned at Old Trafford’ feature, in which journalist Mark Ogden claims “concerns over Ferdinand’s susceptibility to injury prompted Sir Alex to sign Phil Jones in the summer.”
Nani has a strong chance to win the EPL player of the season, if he continue to play like that. I hope he can be less selfish at times.
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Manchester United winger Nani hopes to take another step toward his long-term goal of becoming the best player in the world by having the best year of his career.
Nani started the campaign in blistering form, scoring a brace in the Community Shield, including the last-minute winner against Manchester City as United came back from two goals down.
The Portugal international then bagged his first league goal of the campaign in an 8-2 romp over Arsenal, before firing in an excellent first-half effort in last weekend's victory over Chelsea. It augurs well as Nani aims to take his game to a new level alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
"That's one dream I've got: to be the best in the world," he told Inside United.
"But I don't let it frustrate me. I have other priorities like winning trophies with the team.
"Hopefully, when I have finished playing football, people will say 'Nani was a fantastic player who won a lot of titles and beat records at the club'.
"I know I have the condition to be among the select best players in the world but I have to work hard and show that."
Nani will hope to maintain that form against Stoke on Saturday, aided by the arrival of Ashley Young, whose preference for playing on the left has again released him onto the opposite flank.
The 24-year-old now has his sights set on surpassing his feats of last season, when he ended the campaign with more Premier League assists than any other player.
"Last year was my best year, definitely my most consistent season. Now I hope this is my year. I will do my best.
"If I am fit for every game, I am 100% sure I will do my best and will do well for my team.
"This is a big chance to show I can do much more; that I'm a good player with a very strong mentality," he said.
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he is never as good as ginola
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Originally posted by Ah Gong:
he is never as good as ginola
erm maybe in a few years time, as he is just 24 only, haven reach his peak yet. if only players like ginola, cantona, papin, van basten, gullit was only born 10-15 years laters, then we would see them playing in the world stage. these days the players were not as talented as in the 80s and 90s, as there were many skilled and talented players such as maradona, gullit, careca, baresi, van basten, cantona etc and many others not mentioned.these days you only have a handfulm such as ronaldo, messi, rooney, so limited number of world class players.
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Nani is hoping to repeat his Community Shield heroics in the Manchester derby this weekend.
The Portuguese winger produced a display he described as one of his very best at Wembley, scoring two splendid goals in the thrilling 3-2 success in August. After also netting in the 2-1 victory at Old Trafford last term, with his assured finish being overshadowed somewhat by Wayne Rooney's stupendous winner, the former Sporting Lisbon star is confident he can maintain his impressive run against City.
"It was important to win in the Champions League on Tuesday and go with confidence into a big league game like Sunday's match," he explained. "Everyone is ready to contribute to the game.
"It is too early to say it is just going to be about Manchester United and Manchester City for the title. I think they are one of the teams who have been doing fantastic since the season started. Of course there are a lot of teams who are doing well. Chelsea are doing fantastic too.
"But these are the games that always get the team motivated. When we play these games, the team has a different attitude and a different motivation. Of course we like to play big games like that. We hope to win as well."
It is clear that everybody is expecting one of the biggest tests of the campaign on Sunday with City buoyed by Sergio Aguero's last-gasp winner in the Champions League against Villarreal in midweek on the back of a near-flawless domestic season that has contained victories in all bar one of their fixtures.
"City have a fantastic team at the moment with fantastic players," Nani told PA Sport. "They play a lot of good stuff. It will be difficult to play against them. But we should not forget, we are United."When we play at home, it is very difficult to beat us. We will try to do our best to win the game again.
"Of course we are confident. We should be confident every time we play at home. Even when we play away. The most important thing is at home, we have to believe we are going to win most of the games.
"I've scored a couple of goals against City. The motivation against the big teams is the highest it can be. I feel very good to play in this game."
