Source: Manchester_EveningNews
Valencia goes Ron better
ANTONIO Valencia is already one step ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. Having lost the awesome goal power of the £80m world-record winger to Real Madrid last summer, the Reds' comparatively modest £16m outlay on the Ecuadorian didn't augur well. Valencia had notched up just seven goals in his Wigan Athletic career, six in his final season from 52 appearances. As United monitored the 24-year-old, Ronaldo was compiling a 26-goal farewell campaign, to follow his astonishing 41 goals the previous term. However, Ronaldo's initial goal stats were modest. Valencia now has six goals from 17 starts this season, whereas Ronaldo scored only two in the same period in his debut campaign. The 17 appearances at the start of the following term yielded just one goal, two the next and four in 2006-07 before his contribution went through the roof. Thanks to his strike in the Reds' 3-0 win against Wolves, Valencia now has six goals in his last 11 starts, having taken nine appearances to break his United duck. And manager Sir Alex Ferguson is delighted with his progress. "Antonio's improvement has been tremendous," said Sir Alex. "He came to us as a quiet young man but now he is expansive in his game and is expressing himself really, really well. "That is the area in which we like to see him improve. All young players come here to develop and he is. "Goals are also an area we want to see him get better. "He is capable of scoring goals now. We see it in training all the time." What is your verdict on Valencia's form? Have your say.
