Logo

Sir Alex Ferguson believes Antonio Valencia's impressive home debut for Manchester United proved there is life after Cristiano Ronaldo.

Valencia, a £17million summer buy from Wigan, set up both goals in United's 2-0 pre-season friendly win over Valencia at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Although Valencia lacks the goalscoring threat of Ronaldo, Fergie believes his pace and athleticism can offer United something different but equally effective.

"The important thing for me was Valencia's performance," said Fergie. "I thought he was very, very good.

"He's got great balance, power and speed. Coming to our club, he's immediately taken to the challenge well and with purpose, so we're very pleased with what we've seen so far."

United will undoubtedly miss the weight of goals Ronaldo provided every season, particularly with their current midfielders who lack the ability to score on a regular basis.

And in three seasons at Wigan, 23-year-old Valencia managed just seven goals in 89 appearances, compared to 91 from Ronaldo over the same period.

Yet given their contrasting styles, any comparison made between Valencia and Ronaldo - although ostensibly both wide players - is unfair and misleading.

But the Ecuador international can at least point to having the edge over United's former star player last season when it came to the effectiveness of his crossing.

While only 16 per cent of Ronaldo's crosses into the penalty area found their intended target, Valencia's percentage was 32, making him more effective in terms of delivery.

That much was evident on Wednesday, when Valencia's superb acceleration twice took him past Valencia defenders to set up both of United's goals.

What Valencia's impressive diaplay showed is that any relief the Premier League's left-backs had at the departure of Ronaldo may have been a touch premature.

And although Ronaldo is famed for his ability to go past players with the ball, Valencia's dribble completion percentage was better, at 44 compared to 39.

Defensively Valencia also performed better than Ronaldo last season, his tackle efficiency of 79 per cent pent than United's former No.7, who managed just 75.

Fergie has already admitted United will be a much tighter, more compact unit next season in the absence of Ronaldo, and are likely to revert back to a 4-4-2 formation.

"We'll be more compact in midfield because Ronaldo was a bit loose in his defending," said Fergie.

"You could forgive that, though, because he would give you something back in another way, further up the field.

"We'll be more compact, but we also have the increasing maturity of players like Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick.

"Anderson will improve, Nani will improve and Wayne Rooney will improve. Add to that Valencia and Michael Owen, so we're not too bad."

Fergie defended United's failure to spend a huge chunk of the £80m from the sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid, claiming his prudence in the transfer market was justified.

"We're working from a position of strength," said Fergie. "We don't suddenly have to splash out to try to compete at the top.

"We're already there, thanks to a long-term strategy of buying mostly young players who we feel have the potential to become top performers.

"It's certainly our intention to challenge for everything on offer and I feel we're well-placed to take on all comers."

"I know there'll be some fans who are disappointed we didn't spend the princely £80m on another superstar.

"I would have done had I felt we would have been getting value for our money, but this close season some crazy things went on and the price of players went through the roof.

"The asking price for players we were looking at just wasn't realistic and we held off.

"We've have shown over the years that we're not afraid to spend big and we've frequently created transfer records.

"But only when we felt the level of the fees made financial sense. The level of the fees being demanded in recent months just didn't add up."