David Moyes admits that Antonio Valencia psychologically is better off after giving up the iconic number 7 shirt to return to his old squad number, 25.
Valencia signed for Manchester United from Wigan Athletic for £16million back in 2009, wearing the number 25 in his debut season before switching to the number 7 shirt made famous by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, & Eric Cantona.
But, back before the season start, Valencia requested that he would be issued the number 25 shirt for the 2013/14 season, giving up the famous number 7. A decision that seems to have built his confidence back up after somewhat pressure from such an iconic squad number.
Valencia scored Manchester United’s forth goal midweek in their 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen and reds boss David Moyes has asked him to go out and score more.
Speaking at Friday’s press conference from Carrington, David Moyes said:
“He has done very well
“They keep telling me that he needed to change his number so we got that changed for him!
Sometimes, psychologically, it can make a difference to a player.
“Overall, I’ve been really pleased with him. I actually said to him today:
“You should be getting yourself seven or eight goals a season regularly.
“He looked at me and squinted a bit! Hopefully he knows what I mean!
“I don’t know how many he scored last season, I think it was only one or two.
“He’s got off to a good start and hopefully he’ll get close to the target I’d like to him get this season.”
Hopefully Antonio Valencia can kick on now and find a good run of form, running at the opposition and striking fear into defenders once again.
3 replies on “Antonio Valencia psychologically better after giving up the number 7”
[…] David Moyes admits that Antonio Valencia psychologically is better off after giving up the iconic number 7 shirt to return to his old squad number, 25. Valencia signed for Manchester United from Wigan Athletic for £16million back in 2009, wearing the … Continue reading […]
Generally, I’d say stuff like changing your number for “psychological” reasons is silly. But this is an exception. Tony V was clearly not a confident man last year and it showed as he was no longer taking on his defender in and near the box. He showed a bit more of that flare he had two years ago Tuesday night. I especially loved the move he put on his defender in the first half, chipping the ball past him and running up the wing to beat his man. Result ended up a goal kick I believe as the chip was just a bit too far. But it was the fact he made that attempt, and it nearly worked, that showed maybe we’ll have our confident, class winger back this year. It’s all in his head. If he keeps this up – the goals can pour in for our strikers.
If it makes a difference “psychologically” to revert back to his old number, then why not.
However I can’t help feeling that it’s a sign of a man with fragile self-confidence, which is a bit of a worry.
Maybe he’s just rather superstitious.