Valencia Mid season awards

Valencia has ended the mid season in 4th place in the Spanish premier league and is still in the Uefa Champions League ready to face German Schalke, with Copa Del Ray progress still up for grabs.

So who was the best summer signing for Valencia CF and how do we come to such a conclusion!? Do you look at the official statistics, personal ratings, overall skill, team work all of the above or a mix of some.

Well I'll be looking at the official statistics, my own ratings I give to the players and just generally assesing who did better with the amount of playing time he got.

The three runners for the award are: Roberto Soldado, Aritz Aduriz and Tino Costa.

Roberto Soldado has scored 5 goals and provided 2 assists in La Liga, but he has not played as much as Aduriz. He works hard and has good shooting ability and good speed as well as heading ability, but lacks pace and explosiveness, he isn't very agile and looses his cool way too much as we have witnessed in few matches.

Aritz Aduriz has score 6 goals and has provided 1 assist in La Liga and has played the most of any Valencia player. He is a very hard working player and his headers are superb, but his shooting abilities not so much and in fact he has missed quite a few opportunities due to bad shooting. Aduriz is also slow and while he has strength he lacks agility and technique.

Tino Costa started slowly only featuring after Banega was injured, but has come off strong in recent weeks. He has scored 2 goals, but has no assists and has 6 yellow cards so far. Tino Costa lacks the possession ability where he can spread and dictate the match, but he is good in defending and tracking the ball as well as linking up with the attackers when really offensive. He also has great shooting ability as seen vs Bursaspor, but he lacks in other areas such as dribbling, pace and long passing.

Judging by my own ratings Tino Costa comes first, than Aduriz and than Soldado, but it must be noted that Tino has a lot less playing time and he has been left frustrated and unable to do anything on several occasions.

 The best summer signing for Valencia is Aritz Aduriz.
- He came in for 5 millions if I'm not mistaken, 5 million less than Soldado and 1 million less than Tino Costa, but has had the most playing time, has scored the most goals and has been very hard working. He does not loose his cool easily and fights to the very end for the team. He has scored some crucial goals for Valencia and if he keeps up the good work, he may become an important Valencia player.
Right now he is the best summer signing for Valencia.





Best Valencia player overall
The three runners are: Cezar Sanchez, Jordi Alba and Joaquin Sanchez.

Cezar Sanchez has been a rock, no a mountain on Valencia's goal and if we look at it statistically he is the third best goalkeeper in Spain at the moment. Since Valencia has conceeded more goal than R. Madrid and Barcelona due to the poor defense he could easily be the best goalkeeper in Spain. He has single-handedly saved Valencia on numerous occasions and has been the most consistent player.

Jordi Alba hasn't played too much and one may say the matches he has played in have been easier, but that is just not the case. Every opportunity he has been given he has used it to the fullest and not being a natural left back he has slotted perfectly in that position with good defensive displays and great offensive displays.
He has also been more consistent than Mathieu and has often contributed more to the attack.

Joaquin Sanchez has been reinvented this year and this may well be his best season in a Valencia shirt since coming here from Betis. He has scored 2 goals, provided 2 assists and more often than not provided real threat on the right wing. Pablo may have taken this place if he hasn't been playing so badly for the last month, after a very good start. Joaquin has provided a lot of pace on the right wing and on his day he is the best player in Europe, if not the world.

The best Valencia player overall is: Cezar Sanchez
-Cezar has been so influential since coming to Valencia that its hard to imagine the success Valencia has achieved without him. He has been responsible for so many good results Valencia has achieved that its really even amazing. Recently he has been struggling with injuries, but when fit he is just top class. He has also been influential on the younger players and has helped Valencia immensely.

Valencia CF player ratings

Here are the players rankings for Valencia so far in the season. I've ranked the players in 17 matches and regretably missed to watch 5 matches and were unable to rate them in additional two with my internet being down.

The best rated player as you can see is Cezar Sanchez and rightfully so as he is one of the best goalkeepers in La Liga statistically speaking with more saves than any other goalkeeper based on minutes played and saves made.

Second player may surprise someone, but its Feghouli because he has only played one match with enough minutes that he can be ranked and he played good in that match, earning him a rating of 7. So you will want to watch the cumulative points also as it determines how many matches they've played and their rating.

Realistically the picture would be: Cezar, Vicente, Alba, Pablo and Joaquin.

I know Pablo hasn't been playing well for a month, but I've failed to rate him in the last 4 or 5 matches he played, and he was getting good ratings at the beginning of the season.

Best overall player, best summer signing and who should Valencia buy article will come shortly.

Valencia Transfer Rummors

As the end of the year nears and the winter market ready to open, so to come the speculations about player transfers.

Lets first start with the non-player department as this is a new development. With Rafael Benitez sacked from Inter there has been a lot of speculation where he will end up and several reports say that Valencia is the most likely destination for Rafa Benitez.
I will disagree with this based on 2 grounds: Rafa paycheck nowdays is really big and unless he gets something like 4-5 million per season its unlikely he will sign a contract and Valencia just don't have the financial material to sign him and secondly there is no way Valencia president Llorente and the board would sack Emery at mid season. If they change the coach it will be in the summer.

Next we transfer to the players department and there has been a lot of speculation here. First is that Sofiane Feghuoli will move to Lorient a league 1 team as their key player Kevin Gameiro has expressed his desire to leave the club.

Second we have reports of Valencia purchasing French international defender Adil Rami and some reports make this sound like a done deal. I wouldn't be surprised if Valencia sign this players as he seems to be good, but his 6 million price tag may be a bit too much for Valencia to swallow, especially if they don't sell some players.
The reported transfer budget for next season is 18 million euros, if Valencia manage to go far in the Champions League, so unless Valencia wins the Champions League its more likely Valencia will spend 14 to 16 million euros on players.
One reason this transfer might actually happen is because Valencia's defense has been really so far, with only Ricardo Costa being consistent, but even that doesn't speak much. He is definitely a player I would like to see though, as I've had enough of Navarro and makeshift Maduro keeping our defense.

Next up is the speculation of Valencia exercise the option to sign Sampdoria defender Marius Stankevicious on permanent dead. This will cost Valencia 1.5 million euros and is the most likely option for Valencia.
Personally I do not agree with this one bit as Stankevicious has been mediocre at best and hasn't really strengthen Valencia's defense.

Be sure to check back very soon to find out my picks for Valencia's best summer signing, best player overall and who should Valencia buy or sell in the winter transfer market.

Valencia CF 0-0 Villareal CF Match Report

The Copa Del Rey match between Valencia and Villareal at the Mestalla finished in a goalless draw in what was a pretty exciting match for Valencia fans and not so much for Villareal fans. Even though Valencia only managed to draw with Villareal, the players were playing great most of time time with the exception of our striker Aduriz who managed to screw several cahances.

The match started with Valencia being the dominant side even though from the formation Emery did you would think Valencia would be too defensive. That was not the case and Valencia started attacking from the first minute. The first chance for Valencia was in the 6th minute and quickly after that followed several opportunities mainly involving Mata, Pablo and Aduriz, but they couldn't be converted.



Later in the match Pablo had a brilliant chance as he was one on one with the Villareal goalkeeper, but Pablo seemed to panic and shot wide of the goal.
In the meantime Aduriz had several opportunities, but each and every time he chose the wrong option, header instead of calming the ball and shooting, calming the ball instead of shooting and all kind of bad calls that could have been goals.

In the second half Valencia were dominating once again, with the rare forays forward from Nilmar and just a few dangerous chances for Villareal.
With the 60th minute coming up and the result 0-0 Valencia coach Unai Emery decided to make some changed and introduced Joaquin for Pablo, which to me was the wrong option and he should have removed a defender and placed Joaquin.

Until the end Valencia had numerous chances that Pablo, Mata, Aduriz and later on the substitutions Joaquin and Soldado managed to miss. There was no doubt that Valencia was the better team, but with so much misses up front it was clear Valencia wouldn't be able to win.

Technical Details:
Valencia CF (0): Guaita; Mathieu (Jordi Alba, min. 79), Stankevicius, Dealbert, R. Costa, Miguel; Maduro, Albelda, Pablo (Joaquín, min. 59), Mata; Aduriz (Soldado, min. 65).

Villarreal CF (0): Juan Carlos; Ángel, Musacchio, Gonzalo, Capdevila; Cani (Senna, min. 46 (Altidore, min. 71), Borja Valero (Mario, min. 90), Bruno, Cazorla; Nilmar и Rossi.
Referee: Delgado Ferreiro

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6.5 - Not much to do, but did made one great save and was always alert.
Miguel 7 - Great night for Miguel, ran all night up and down the field and his crosses were great.
Stankevicious 6.5 - Did not have much to do, but made 2 important interceptions and often moved forward to help the middle.
Dealbert 6 - Did not have too much to do, caught out of position twice, but overall good.
R. Costa 6 - Made two crucial tackles and did a good job overall.
Mathieu 6.5 - Was good in his offensive runs especially in the first half, but a bit unsure defensively.
Pablo 7 - He did a great job and was involved in most Valencia attacks, though missed a perfect opportunity to score.
Albelda 5.5 - Lost too much balls and his passing was not very good, did not bring anything offensively.
Maduro 6 - Great in the first half, but faded out in the second.
Mata 7 - Involved in most of the attacks, combined well with all players and had few chances, but it wasn't to be.
Aduriz 5 - Missed a lot of chances and did not present a threat at all.
Subs:
Joaquin 6 - Replaced Pablo, but wasn't better than him and could not make an impact.
Soldado 6 - Replaced Aduriz, but wasn't much better than him.
Alba N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs Villareal CF Match Preview

Valencia host Villareal for the first Copa Del Rey match from the 16th finals. The series are expected to be very entertaining, but also very tough for both sides as both sides are playing food football at the moment.
Villareal are small favorites to go through to the next round, but Valencia showed that they can cope with Villareal even away from home. Valencia will thus want to win in this first encounter and than probably defend like they already did when they face Villareal on the away trip and achieve that way a positive result.

Valencia had not played too good the last 2 matches, one they didn't have luck at all and the last against Real Sociedad they really had luck to pull of a victory from the hands of draw.

Valencia has a bit of a problem with goalkeeper Cezar Sanchez and his age finally started to show as he has not been able to stay fit and stable for more than a month now and as soon as he recovers he gets another injury. Luckally Guaita has been doing quite well, though he needs to iron out some mistakes and will need more experience.

Valencia CF squad:  
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Saúl Figueroa
Defenders: Miguel Brito, Bruno Saltor, Ricardo Costa, Marius Stankevičius, Ángel Dealbert, Jordi Alba, Jérémy Mathieu
Midfielders: Hedwiges Madruo, Mehmet Topal, David Albelda, Pablo Hernández, Joaquín Sánchez, Vicente Rodríguez, Juan Mata
Strikers: Artiz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado


Villareal CF on the other side are coming off from a 3-1 win over Mallorca and are showing week in, week out that they are a force to be reckoned with. They are currently the only team that is able to even slightly keep up with Real Madrid and Barcelona and are in the poll position for a 3rd place finish at the end of the season.
Valencia has a big mountain to climb with Villareal and its almost mission impossible, but if they manage to conquer this mountain they will come out stronger.

Villareal CF squad: 
Goalkeepers: Diego López, Juan Carlos
Defenders: Ángel López, Joan Capdevila, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Mateo Musacchio, José Catalá, Mario
Midfielders: Marco Senna, Bruno Soriano, Borja Valero, Cani, Santo Cazorla, Jefferson Montero
Strikers: Giuseppe Rossi, Nilmar, Marco Ruben, Jozy Altidore


Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line up: Guaita; Miguel, Maduro, R. Costa, Alba; Joaquin, Albelda, Banega, Mata, Dominguez; Aduriz.
Tactics: Medium frequency crosses from the wings, positional changes from the 3 attacking midfielders, medium defensive line, high opposing field pressure, long shots.

Valencia play the first match at home and only a victory will guarantee a calm second match so Emery will want to achieve a victory, but with Villareal dangerous attack he is not going to risk it with a full out 4-4-2 formation and will probably play 4-2-3-1 formation that should give Valencia more control of the midfield.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Villareal CF
Valencia need to play calm and control the midfield in order to win, if the players are up to the challenge I can see Valencia scoring two goals, but as usual our defence always finds a way to let at least one goal in, so its going to be a tight match with Valencia just edging Villareal by 2 to 1.