"Watching him at Manchester City two or three seasons ago, he made a big impact in the Premier League and he was almost like the perfect striker; he was wonderful and there is no reason why he can't get back to that level ",
was a statement made by former Valencia Manager Gary Neville concerning the out of form and favour Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo before a La Liga game against Basque club Eibar.
Fast forward to end of March and Negredo proved Neville wrong and proved that former Portuguese coach (Nuno Espírito Santo )was right in ostracising him , after Negredo criticised his tactics. The decline in Negredo's form has been steady and gradual, starting from January 21, 2014 (the day he scored his last Manchester City goal). Negredo proved to be the main reason Neville was sacked as his 'Big' miss of nine is the biggest for any Valencia player this season . This season, Negredo has played 16 La Liga games scoring just four goals and assisting one. His shot accuracy is a low 37 per cent, as he has also created a mere 11 chances all reason . Also in the Europa League , Negredo scored no goal in four games and had no assist before the bitter elimination of Valencia by Athletic Bilbao in the round of 16. This season, Valencia have won three games out of the 10 games he did not play and at the same time losing all six games he played for them in La Liga under Neville. To show that his demise was gradual, Negredo scored only five times in 30 La Liga games last season , before Valencia took the option of making his one year loan deal permanent after parting with £22.2m to then parent club Manchester City. The only positive so far for Negredo and Valencia this season, is the goal he scored in the 1-2 loss away to Monaco which helped Valencia qualify for the Champions League group phase after an aggregate of 4-3 in favour of Valencia.
To buttress further, his record at City will be important. At Manchester City after signing for £16.4m from Sevilla, the former Rayo Vallecano academy graduate scored 23 goals from August 2013 - 21 January 2014 in 33 games, but became a flop from January 22 2014 until the end of the season, scoring no goal in 16 games. This was the reason he was dropped from the final 23 man squad that represented Spain at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
At 30, and having struggled in two years under three different managers (Manuel Pellegrini, Nuno Espírito Santo and Gary Neville) and two different clubs and countries, Negredo might be on the decline . One thing we can authoritatively conclude however, is that Alvaro Negredo's loss of form was one of the many problems of Gary Neville's ill-fated Valencia reign.
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