Man United’s easy 3-0 opener saw Paul Scholes take the plaudits for an outstanding midfield display against promoted Newcastle. With the veteran playmaker -and, alongside him, Darren Fletcher- picking up the majority of United’s Fantasy Premier League (FPL) points, the team’s two wingers, Nani and Antonio Valencia, were somewhat left in the shade.

As Valencia is owned by 18% of FPL managers and Nani owned by 6%, the pair’s lack of goal involvement may be of some concern to a substantial number of owners. With Scholes pulling the strings, any comparison with their team mate’s performance would be unfair, though looking at both players’ distribution stats compared to last season’s suggests they both saw significant improvement in specific areas.

Valencia
Most of Valencia’s stats were almost identical to last season’s: 58 touches compared to 56 per game last term and 35 passes (similar to Nani, 2 were “Key”) compared to 33 per game last term. With 10 crosses, Valencia was 7th overall in Gameweek 1 but, more importantly, this was a substantial jump on his average of 6 per game last term. Given that his link-up play with Wayne Rooney was a significant factor in Valencia’s nine assists last term, this increase in crossing should come to fruition when Rooney reaches full match fitness, and, subsequently, top form.

An appreciation of team tactics can work well in conjunction with the stats. Particularly when playing host to “lesser” teams, Fergie’s 4-4-2 formation is set up to put opponents on the back foot. As these heat maps shows, on the left, Nani -due to the runs of Patrice Evra bombing forward from left-back to join the attack- plays closer to the midfield, so, in any given home game of this ilk, he will subsequently tend to see more of the ball than Valencia.

Valencia is pushed high up the pitch on the right and is more of an “out ball” to get round the back of defences, so is therefore involved in less build-up play. This allows more movement from the forwards, as both Rooney and Berbatov take turns to drop back, drifting into the space vacated by Valencia.

Nani
Despite being on the pitch for just 71 minutes, Nani touched the ball 75 times, resulting in 3 dribbles and 40 passes, 2 of which led directly to goal attempts. Compare that to last season where he averaged just 28 passes per game, this suggests a sign of his growing awareness of team mates and a little less selfishness in his play. Nani averaged 8 crosses per game last season but managed 11 crosses on Monday night, which was the 6th highest amount in Gameweek 1.