Celta Vigo 2 - 1 Valencia CF Match Report

Celta Vigo were all but guaranteed to go through to the next round from the first leg's 4-1 result at the Mestalla. We needed to score 4 goals to go through without conceding any but we're not in any shape to get that kind of result. Didn't expect much from this match and rightfully so, it wasn't all too interesting or surprising.

The only unusual event was the inclusion of Vinicius Araujo in the squad for the game. His loan spell at Sport Recif in the Brazilian league ended recently and Voro decided to give him a chance. Well why not when nothing else has worked. Him and Rafa Mir are the closest we have to a typical 9, which we desperately need. His decision paid off with Araujo scoring in this game a few minutes after Celta Vigo were allowed to take a shot from far out which found its way to the back of the net. Araujo's finish was good and our current forwards have missed several chances of similar nature in the past. Not saying he's the solution, but he did okay. We still need a 9 with Zaza seeming more likely too join soon. Again, new players alone won't solve our problems, since these problems run deeper than that. And these players are unproven so we can't rely on them to change the result. 

This game had huge periods with it seeming like a practice game. Celta knew they had this in the bag and didn't commit to much in terms of lineup or energy. Valencia CF knew it would be near impossible to grab a win by 4 goals so didn't commit too much either. The rest was typical. Poor defending lead to a Celta goal from outside the box. We tied up the game quite quickly after but then Celta scored again in, you guessed it, the last minute of the game. This is becoming a really frustrating habit among many. We've lost a lot of points in the last few minutes of the game. We couldn't have qualified regardless but its outrageous how we keep committing the same mistakes over and over. 

Anyways, good news is Santos and Mangala are available again so we don't have to play with makeshift defenses from B team or out of position players like Mario Suarez. The other thing is, news sources are reporting up to 4 signings to come to Valencia this window. One of them is likely Zaza. Maksimovic who was signed for the summer could also come earlier if Valencia pay some money (otherwise it's for free this summer). Other players that were rumored could be Evra, Halilovic, and Roque Mesa. There was something about Jese too but I don't think that's likely.

Now we can focus solely on the league and the only mission for this year : avoid relegation. Former players are trying to urge the team forward starting Sunday against Espanyol. Let's see if we can turn it around.

Osasuna 3-3 Valencia

Osasuna means health in Basque. What we saw tonight from both teams was anything but good health, we saw two very sick teams who both looked doomed to play football at a lower level unless something radical and unexpected changes.

Let's look at the context. Osasuna had lost the previous seven games before this, conceding 17 goals against relegation candidates such as Depor, Leganes and Sporting. They'd scored a single goal in those games.

That stat tells you all you need to know about how awful Valencia are. In 630 minutes or ten and a half hours of footy, Osasuna had scored once. It took them just six minutes of this game to find their way through the defence and they'd added two more by the end. If that isn't a clear sign that Valencia fans need to prepare for trips to Reus, Oviedo, Soria and Alcorcon next season, I don't know what is.

The game started pretty well for VCF too. Mina shot just over in the opening minute. A link up between Mina and Siquiera resulted in the latter putting in a great cross for Munir to slam home. You almost knew it wouldn't last. A few minutes later Mario Suarez provided a brilliant assist (if you're an Osasuna fan) for Osasuna to equalise. We know he's not a defender, but come on? Playing out of position does not absolve you from marking opponents.

The rest of the half was mostly even with Munir missing a good chance for us. Just before half time, we had an undeserved lead, with a Parejo corner headed in for an own goal which is already a contender for Valencia's goal of the season (there aren't that many contenders for the honour.)

An uneven and scrappy second half followed with both teams proving inept in front of and around the area and misplacing passes. Osasuna scored in the 62nd, Montoya somehow managed to get himself in the left channel and put us back in front 10 minutes later. At this point, I fully expected the clock to wind down and for us to concede a late equaliser, it's what always happens. The only surprise came in the form of a penalty which gave us the chance to clinch a valuable three points, only for Parejo to hit an awful shot at the keeper. The inevitable equaliser followed. Why aren't these even a surprise now?

I said before this game that only a win without conceding would start to life the spirits. Failing to win and conceding three goals is awful. I fully expect us to go down now. If we can't beat the worst team, there isn't a team we can beat. Valencia has conceded at least one goal in the last 30 games and the last 26 away league games. In 41 league games since Nuno resigned Valencia has kept one clean sheet. It's hard to see any credible argument against relegation now.

PLAYER RATINGS
Alves 3 - needed to do much better on the goals.
Montoya 4 - good goal and marginally better than Cancelo in this position but needs to do much better than this.
Suarez 1 - wasn't the Copa disgrace enough of a sign that he is not a defender. Still no excuse for such dire football.
Mangala 4 - the best of a very bad bunch but lacked any understanding with colleagues and another stupid yellow means he's out next week just when we desparately need defenders.
Siquiera 3.5 - another guy who will not be missed when he leaves this year
Enzo 2.5 - failed to screen the defence and many mistimed challenges and moments of petulance. Lucky not to be sent off.
Parejo 3 - was he drunk again when he took that penalty? Do Sevilla still want to pay 20m for him?
Soler 3 - had his chance in a starting role and failed to inspire
Mina 3.5 - did well to win the penalty and had a couple of good link ups, but overall, way too selfish
Rodrigo 2.5 - like the guy who finishes 1567th in the London marathon. Ran and ran, won nothing.
Munir 4.5 - best of the forward line and well taken goal, but seems to lack the combinations with others

SUBS
Lato 4.5 - good to see him finally getting his chance and made a couple of good interceptions
Nani 2.5 - anonymous, might as well have just stayed on the bench recovering from his injury
Sito N/A - again, nice to see a B-team player get a debut, but didn't understand this sub at all, why not bring on Santos to shore up the defence and kill the game?

Voro 3 - not the saviour we hoped for. Very questionable decisions playing Suarez in defence and bringing on an offensive player when we should have been looking to kill the game off.

Osasuna vs Valencia CF Match Preveiw

Valencia's new coach Voro will feature for the second time this season leading the team to try and avoid relegation. So far he has 2 wins actually and one loss, so a decent record, but taking over a team long term and becoming a full time manager is different and we'll see how he does, though its important to note that he still hasn't gotten the full job, I think Peter Lim and the management are looking to the outcome of the match against Osasuna.

Good news for Voro is that Mangala and Santos are back in the squad, though unfortunately Garay and Gaya are still injured. Nani is also back to the squad and might even feature tomorrow. Voro has also called up 4 Valencia B players, including Lato, though Vero has usually been pragmatic and I think we are likely going to see Siqueira playing on the left back position.

Soler is also back in the team and I think he deserves to start from the start, he's shown that he is better than the rest, not that that is any accomplishment, but I'd start him over Enzo or Suarez. Though knowing how bad our midfield is, maybe playing with 5 midfielders could be an option to prevent being run over.

So far nothing in terms of reinforcements, supposedly Zaza is supposed to arrive after doing a 180% degree on him and the club supposedly deciding to ultimately get him. We are also hearing about the possibility of Evra arriving, but again so far nothing concrete. 

I think its really hard to predict the match tomorrow, everything is going so bad for Valencia CF so far and doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, it feels as we could drown and drown forever. I'd like to predict a victory, but my gut tells me another devastating loss. 

Jesús García Pitarch resigns

Valencia CF sporting director Jesús García Pitarch has resigned from his position as sporting director effective immediately and its an irrevocable resignation.

Current VCF Academy Director, José Ramón Alesanco, will take on the position in an interim capacity and continue in the work the Suso has been doing, trying to sign some of the players Valencia CF have been going after. So he will be trying to finish the deals for Zaza, Evra and few others that Suso has been trying to do till now.

Its obvious things are unraveling at Valencia CF and its obvious we don't have the proper people in the club, but Pitarch hasn't done really well in the time he's been a sporting director, so its not really a big loss at all.

It will be interesting if we do get a new sporting director or not and who it might be if we do.

Zaza to ultimately join Valencia CF

Simone Zaza is supposedly going to be the first "reinforcement" for Valencia CF this transfer window, which is a bit strange as Valencia CF stopped all dealings with Zaza as they looked to bring in another player, but I guess they've changed their minds and would ultimately be bringing Zaza to Valencia CF.

Suso is supposedly negotiating with Juventus to bring Zaza in tandem with Patrice Evra and with these two add some much needed experience to the squad, though if you ask me Evra will be strengthening the wrong position, while Zaza is a huge question mark if he is actually going to contribute anything as he's been garbage at his current club West Ham, in fact so bad that everyone wants him gone yesterday.

Is Simone Zaza the man to turnover Valencia's fortunes as Prandelli claimed on his press conferences and the key cog in this chain to make a turnover for Valencia CF? Personally I don't see it, I don't see how this out of form, out of confidence player is going to help us at all, but stranger things have happened.

Valencia CF after Patrice Evra

Valencia CF are supposedly interested in Juventus FC left back Patrice Evra. Patrice Evra has been instrumental for Manchester United and has helped them win many titles, with the player transferring to Juventus towards the later stages of his career, though for a defender its not unusual to play even until 36 years of age, usually not on the wings as speed does leave with age, but many full backs have went on to play as central defenders.

Either way he is now 35 years of age and his contract expires this summer with Juventus not interested in renewing his contract and with him being second choice this season Valencia CF sees an opening in order to get him. Juventus is also a weaker club in terms of revenue from tickets sold, they have a small crowd due to the smaller city they are based on, and overall in Italy the salaries are not much bigger even for the top teams, certainly bigger than Spain overall, but not by much.

Issue here is what are we going to do with Siquiera who wants to stay his full loan deal here and has rejected offers for him, and we have Jose Luis Gaya who's been disappointing, but so has everyone. Not to mention what would this do to the possibility for Lato getting a chance? We all know what happened to Isco and him not getting chances here and leaving. We don't want a repeat of that and to lose a super talented player like that obviously, so why Evra?

I mean he is a proven winner and we need his character, his experience and from that perspective I think its a good deal, but we don't need a player on that position, at least not right now, not unless Siqueira leave this winter.

I think they have the right idea of going for more experienced and proven players who have the character and winning mentality, but they need to go after the right positions and maybe a little bit younger players, Evra is 35 years old, he is not getting any younger, question is how much he can contribute on the pitch at his age as a left back. Again he is a proven player, but he is getting into years now so that can be an issue if we can't fully use him on the pitch.

Valencia CF 1-4 Celta Vigo

If anyone thought Valencia CF can do better, well here is your wake up call. I mean yes we did have terrible injuries at the back, where none of our center backs were available, but come on, conceding 4 goals because we didn't have 2 standard central defenders in the match?

I didn't watch the game, couldn't do it, but I would have turned it off immediately when the team conceded in the 3th minute even if I did start off watching the match. I just can't deal with it anymore, the garbage defense, garbage midfield, garbage attack, garbage play, etc...

Huge protests at the Mestalla during the game and outside, the Spanish fans showing their deep displeasure and as Cesare Prandelli said, the club is run by numbers people, not football people and that is why we are in this crisis now and its ultimately Peter Lim's fault, he is the owner, he is the decision maker, he led to this downfall.

But even if he leaves now, it would not fix things, everything is broken, no one is running the club, no one that has any clue on how to run a club. So VCF is like a headless chicken, we don't even know what player to purchase and its not like Peter Lim is giving us any options. Why is the scourge so worried about fair play rules, when we are going to be playing segunda division next year if we don't get proper players now?

I just don't understand it. And there is no money? Well who's fault is that Peter Lim? Yours!!!! Run runs the club? Who makes the decisions, who gets the sponsors, who signs the player contracts and negotiates salaries? You and your close team of yes men and woman, who have no clue of football! You are responsible!

What do you guys think about the result and do you believe that magically things will turn on the better, because personally I don't believe so, in fact I think its going to get much worse!

Ok, so first goal was 100% Enzo's fault, sure Jimenez could have reacted better, but he was in a very tricky situation.
Second goal was Cancelo's fault 100%. Again sure you can blame the new kid of the block, but Cancelo gave away the ball, Jimenez tried to block, but was unsuccessful, there is little that can be done when a ball is gifted to the opposition like that. Sure if he was a top defender he might have done better for both goals, but even good defenders would in most cases not be able to do much.

I see a lot of blame on him, while ignoring the real culprits for those goals. The third goal though would be a share of blame between Cancelo and Jimenez, once Cancelo failed from the start and was completely out of position then Jimenez should have closed down the opponent and run towards him, as well as be aware of his surrounding and play the offside trap. He panicked and played the other Celta player onside, allowing for an easy goal.

Fourth goal was again a combination of Cancelo and Jimenez fault, 40% Cancelo's fault and 60% Jimenez fault. Cancelo's marking was extremely poor, allowing too much space for Celta's player to play the ball into space and Jimenez was clearly out of his depth as he was so easily fooled and let the player he needed to mark go alone through on goal. 

Valencia CF vs Celta Vigo Match Preview

Valencia CF find themselves in an awkward situation as coach Cesare Prandelli resigns from his position just two days before the new year's, leaving the team in a bit of a shock at the turn of events. We've also heard that it was Suso who actually offered to resign first at a meeting between him, the president and Prandelli, with the coach saying if he leaves he would follow.

Suso was convinced to stay by the president, but then Prandelli decided to leave after he was told that only one player could arrive in the winter transfer window and he had to choose between Zaza or John Obi Mikel. The coach though this was a backtrack from the promised of Peter Lim and that he wanted 4 new players and was only getting one, so decided to leave.

Right now Voro is going to be the temporary coach of Valencia CF, for how 'temporary' we'll have to wait and see, I think it will be decided based on results. If he can muster up a few wins, say 2 wins in 5 matches he is probably going to stay, at least extend his stay to probably several more matches. He's been doing well with the team when he's taken over as a temporary coach, but that is one thing, being permanent coach is a different thing, but can he do worse than Prandelli? We've reached bottom, I don't even think its possible to accumulate less points that what our past 3-4 coaches have done, they've been so ineffective.

Anyways Voro starts his tenure with immediate problems in defense as Garay and Mangala are both injured, though both are recovering from their long term injuries they are still not fully ready to feature, but Santos also has suffered some sort of smaller health issue and is a question if he can play tomorrow. He'll have to create a make shift defense, using Valencia CF B team defenders and shifting around the positions of others. Another issue is Gaya who was recovering well from an injury, but has been injured again.

So really bad position to be in, not only is the team in dire straits in terms of results, but we are also suffering from terrible injury and personal problems, including Aymen Abdennour who is out of the squad and playing for his country for the African cup of nations and will be out for at least a month, possibly more if Tunisia do well.

Even the reinforcements that we were supposed to get like Zaza have supposedly been stopped, as the management reassess what players the club needs and Voro is going to be the person who suggests what positions need strengthening and what players he wants.

Another thing is who is Voro going to feature for tomorrow's match against Celta Vigo, he has been pragmatic in the past, choosing the best teams on paper, but making it work where others haven't been able to, though usually making one notable change that makes a difference. I'd also like to see Lato finally featured, put him on the left wing, Ayala and Siqueira(assuming Santos is injured) and Montoya as right back, with Cancelo on the wing.

Nani is also back from his injury, so he can also feature for the team, though he is not match fit and it will be interesting if Voro decides to use him right away.

Bring in the old guard in a supporting manner

Peter Lim got rid of everyone, so its not going to be easy and certainly people don't have confidence in the management of the club, but these people and former players would support the club and try and help.

Bring back Ayala, bring in Marchena, bring back Rufete in an advisory slash scout role. Its important to bring in people who are Valencianistas, who are proven winners, who love the club and let them loose in all aspects to try and help us.

If anything hire Marchena as an assistant coach or not even assistant coach, just a coach in the team of Voro, Ayala as scout and Rufette as adviser to the management. We need people who know what they are doing, who've been successful with Valencia CF and who can really help this team.

Its clear that Peter Lim is like a headless chicken with the running of this club, Layhoon and all the rest of the Peter Lim's team are garbage in managing the team as well, so bring in actual people who know to do their stuff.

I'd even consider bringing back former club presidents who know how to plan long term, who have been successful with this club. Whether its the previous president or Manuel Llorente before him, we need a stable force to lead the club.

And Happy Holidays and New Year everyone, hope you've had a great year beside the terrible feelings Valencia CF has brought you.

Official: Cesare Prandelli Resigns

Valencia CF coach Cesare Prandelli has resigned effective immediately and Valencia CF will appoint Voro as a temporary coach once again. According to sources very close to Valencia CF, he's resigned due to "irreconcilable differences with the management and transfer policy of the club".

I guess he's had enough of the fake promises and blatant lies of Peter Lim who promised him strong and good reinforcements, but when it was time for action he just completely ignored his own promises.

I mean hopefully some of the people still playing hardball will finally realize the situation is not a joke, you can't just say that people just blindly and ignorantly support the club, even though true support of this club would be to attack Peter Lim as the owner and ultimate manager of this club and putting it into an extraordinary terrible situation, rather than pathetically excusing everything that is actually happening and rushing towards segunda!

Thing is NO ONE can succeed at Valencia CF when we have such polarizing and terrible management! No one trusts Peter Lim anymore, everyone is looking at Valencia CF as a JOKE! This is all Peter Lim's doing, he has been a scourge to Valencia CF. In just three short years he's managed to destroy this club!

No planning for transfers, no long term sporting strategy, no short or long term financial planning, everything has been done haphazardly and one a day to day basic, as if he is running a pawn shop and even those shops are run at a more serious and important way, let alone a hundreds of millions euros football club. 

Joao Cancelo to Barcelona FC?

I guess this rumor isn't going away, once again reportedly Barcelona FC have signed Joao Cancelo from Valencia CF, the deal is supposedly super confidential, except that half the rumor media guess know about. The deal is supposed to be worth 30 million euros.

Valencia CF have denied these rumors, but considering its Peter Lim and the trash Valselling'a its probably true. Valencia CF sporting director said Joao Cancelo would stay in the winter, but the way he talked about Joao Cancelo and keeping him in the summer, it seemed as he knew the player was/is going to leave. He was from now basically trying to make excuses and ease the notion into people's minds.

Personally even if Barcelona FC haven't signed him, I know he will be gone in the summer, after all we are dealing with Peter the scourge Lim here, who if you read my previous posts over the past half a year, you'll know used the club as a personal enrichment toy, though he didn't expect that his garbage management would lead to Valencia CF trying to survive relegation.

I think if the club goes to second division Peter Lim is going to sell it, as he will be unable to continue with his scheme, basically cut his losses, sell the team separately, sell the stadium, try and recoup as much as possible on his purchase.

Either way we are doomed, Peter the scourge Lim doomed this club! 

Valencia 2-1 Leganes (Copa del Rey)

Tonight saw the last game of 2016 for Valencia. Probably the team's worst calendar year since the dark days of the 1980s comes to an end and in familiar fashion. Yet another game when Valencia are unable to convert their dominance over a weak opponent into a convincing win. How many times have we seen that?

Prior to the game there was the Parejo controversy. Whether for that or for the fact he's played almost every minute, he wasn't selected for this game.

Otherwise, Prandelli went with a fairly familiar line-up, with the only changes being ones forced due to injuries. In many ways it was a disappointingly conservative line-up, especially with the team 3-1 up from the first leg. What has Bakkali got to do to earn a start? And surely this would have been an ideal opportunity to blood at least one of the youngsters such as Soler, Lato or Mir?

Valencia were dominant in the first half. Rodrigo in particular was everywhere, but as ever, we saw the best and worst of him: tireless running and great positioning, but missing at least 3 good chances in the first 12 minutes, hitting the post twice,in the last case, despite it being from an angle, he should have scored. Medran skied the resulting rebound.

The midfield was doing a bit better in this game and finally the goal came, Medran put through a decent pass, Rodrigo turned well and fired home. A warning shot came soon after, though, as a lack of concentration saw Leganes with their first chance of the game, which hit the side netting.

The half ended with Rodrigo almost getting on the end of a through ball and Mina shooting over from distance.

Same old story in the second part. You almost know how it goes from here. Valencia couldn't sustain their dominance and soon into the half, Leganes, who had done diddly squat up to then managed to equalise, a single player seeming to run through four of our players while the defensive midfielders were nowhere to be seen. There were protests about handball, but it looked mostly legitimate to me. It was a mostly even half after that, with Valencia giving Leganes too much time to create chances rather than killing the game off.

The introductions of Mir and Soler in particular, provided a decent shot in the arm, but the team looked shaky and very different from that which we'd seen in the first half. There were chances for both sides but, towards the end, Medran played another decent ball to Soler who made a strong run through their defence and, after his shot had been blocked, Rodrigo followed up to score.

Though it's nice to win 2-1 and go through 5-2 on aggregate, this is another game which leaves a real sense of disappointment. The familiar pattern was there: dominate, score, stop playing, give away soft goals and look shaky. If the team had taken their chances.... if they'd maintained their early dominance. As usual, the post-match thoughts are on "if onlys" rather than celebrating a positive result. The draw for the next round is on Friday with the next round on 4 January, Valencia's first game of what could be a make or break year for the Lim project.

PLAYER RATINGS

Jaume 5 - Had little to do in the first half but didn't look fully convincing in the second and should have done better for the goal.
Montoya 5 - average performance and was overtaken a few times, with many of their attacks coming on his side.
Santos 4.5 - didn't inspire and looked out of sorts. There was one telling moment in the second half where he assumed the ball was going out and switched off. They kept it in and put in a dangerous cross .
Mangala 6.5 - covered well for others but can't be everywhere. It's a shame that he's almost certainly out of our price range next summer when his loan expires.
Cancelo 6 - better off playing as..... you know the rest.
Suarez 5 - was doing ok in the first period, but it all went south after they scored. Can we get Fuego back?
Enzo 6 - same as ever, decent first half then looked sluggish after the break
Medran 7.5 - great game, put through a number of decent balls
Mina 4.5 - his underperforming season continued with this game.
Rodrigo 7.5 - this is an average of two scores: for tireless running and effort and positioning it's a ten, for finishing a five. I can only reiterate what I've said many times. It's high time we cut this guy some slack: in the club's worst season in three decades, he's scored five goals in the last eight games and has averaged more goals per game this season to date than Alcacer did the previous three. He still needs to improve his finishing, but he is not any worse than strikers we've had in recent seasons.
Munir 5.5 - unable to make much of an impact and was constantly fouled, with many of these going unpunished.

SUBS
Soler 7.5 - great debut at the Mestalla and nice assist. As we've all said, deserves more playing time.
Mir 4.5 - failed to take his opportunity tonight and is likely to remain a fringe player at best
Gaya N/A - unclear why he didn't start. Fitness issue?

Simone Zaza to Valencia CF

Simone Zaza will be Valencia CF first transfer deal in the winter transfer window, with the player and West Ham United mutually deciding to end his loan there, where he would become Juventus player again and Valencia CF have agreed a loan deal for the player until the end of the current season.

Simone Zaza was purchased by Juventus for 18 million euros, but he didn't make the desired impact at the Torino club, so he was loaned out to West Ham, where his struggles continued as he has not scored a goal for them in 8 matches and if the team plays him a certain number of matches they will have to buy his contract, which West Ham doesn't want to do.

The loan deal between Valencia CF and Juventus is similar, though the price has been substantially lowered to a reported fee of 10 million euros and the number of matches is said to be in the higher region of 16 matches in all competitions. 

Peter Lim's failed logic

Valencia CF president Layhoon gave a press conference, along with Pitarch and in that press conference said that Peter Lim invested 200 million euros in players and that spending money doesn't guarantee results and we should be getting better results.

Spending money doesn't automatically guarantee trophies, but it does guarantee results if you buy the right players, unfortunately for us Peter Lim spend over 150 million on his buddies Mendes overprices clients.

Tell me one player that was brought by Peter Lim that made a return on his investment in terms of sporting results? Enzo Perez has not made a return, Moreno hasn't made a return, Negredo, Gomes, Cancelo, Aymen, etc... What paid off were deals made from the previous administration and those were Mustafi, Otamendi, Feghouli, Diego and our own youth players.

Valencia CF success in the first year of Lim's arrival is based purely on the old guard, on the players who were brought here by the previous administration. None of the Lim's players made any real impact, only Gomes was actually not a complete waste, he came in cheap and brought in the hard work if nothing more.

Cancelo is only now becoming a very good player, but he is still not there yet and he would need to play at an increased level for us for the next 2-3 years in order to make a return on his investment. As of right now we have not had any of Lim's transfers pay off.

What is even worse is that Pitrarch hasn't found the cheap quality deals, he says he doesn't have money and had to work to get cheaper players with quality, well he's failed. What good quality cheap players has he brought? Montoya came in free, but he hasn't paid off, he didn't establish himself and personally I think Barragan would have been more useful to us as he had a really strong attacking presence, even more so than Cancelo.

Mario Suarez hasn't turned out to be the forgotten gem, in fact he's proven terrible and I think keeping Fuego would have been a much smarter move, he was a hard working and humble professional who respected Valencia CF. Suarez is here on loan, doesn't see how he would care.

Munir the Barca water boy who was OBVIOUSLY overhyped by Barca favored media and their own fans hasn't paid off, sure he's scored few goals and hasn't been terrible, but you want someone to impose himself on the first team, someone who would consistently provide great performances.

I'm yet to see a Pitarch transfer that has paid off either. Some might say Nani is a good signing, and on paper he is, but again in terms of his contribution to Valencia CF he's failed.

So Peter Lim has invested 200 million euros into his friend's overpriced players, in the hopes of developing them at Valencia CF and then selling them off even more expensive and making profits out of it, why else would he almost exclusively make deals with Mendes? Maybe if Peter Lim kept Rufette, kept Ayala, kept Salvo and asked them which players to get, asked them what kind of transfer to make, but no, he had to get rid of the core structure at the club, from the top level to the bottom level and screw everything up.

Layhoon might be experienced sitting in an office and doing numbers, but she has no clue about football, she has no clue about players, about transfer, about tactics, about football culture, nor does Lim or anyone else who's worked with him. Football is not a business, it is, but its not. The business is so interlinked to the sporting factor, that you need to run it as a pure sport, as a competitive competition and the business aspect comes by itself.

Literally the business aspect in football is non existent, it comes by itself from the sporting aspect. The better results, the more competitions you play in, the more trophies or higher placements the more money you make, its automatic. You can make an administrative business decision to "boost sales", that doesn't exist in football, so bringing in a corporate CEO to handle a football club was doomed to fail from start and will keep on failing.

And you can't just play on a day to day basis and make decisions in hindsight, that doesn't work, in football you have to have long term plan and you have to stick with it, follow it through and do it once and instantly and do it hard. Half assing stuff doesn't work.

Who does Peter Lim in terms of players think is capable of more? I'm looking at the team and I'm not seeing anyone that is capable of much more, sure there are players who can do a little better, but I can't see Parejo doing better, Enzo, Suarez, Moreno, Munir, Santos, Siqueira, Montoya, etc...

I can see Gaya that can do better, but I don't know if he can be guided and led by the new coach to get the maximum out of him. I can see Garay doing better and I'm expecting for him to get better and better as he gels more, as he gets used to the team and environment more and more.

Cancelo can get better, but again we are talking about 6 months to get one level out of 20 better to put it in simple terms. We are looking at the long terms for him to become top player. Mina can do a bit better, but he's shown that he is wildly inconsistent and the few players that are showing amazing talent and have performed well like Bakkali, Leto, Villaba, Soler haven't been given a chance.

Soler got like one chance just recently, heck I've barely even seen Medran and he was brought in as a "future Baraja", give him a chance then, give him more minutes. I know Prandelli wants to create a consistent team, but he has to experiment with individual players, start Medran or Soler instead of Suarez few games, its not like we are getting so many points with Suarez playing.

Heck bench Parejo, it was his fault we conceded two goals against Real Soceidad, his garbage defending is what allowed them two easy goals. He just stood there like a mentally ill person starting at the grass. Literally a young teen from the youth leagues would do better than that garbage defending. Bench him and try out Medran or Soler instead of him.

I actually like the way the team played in the summer more when we had Soler, Villaba, Leto, Eugeni in the team. I thought we played much better, faster, more direct, more enthusiastically, etc... than when we had Parejo and Enzo and other players on those positions. I would literally start slower, but still make drastic changes and this would be my team if I was coach:

Formation: 4-5-1
Line-up: Diego; Cancelo, Mangala, Garay, Leto; Mina, Soler, Eugeni, Medran, Bakkali; Nani

Meeting at Lim's

Valencia CF coach Cesare Prandelli, Jesus Pitarch, Layhoon and other top brass will travel to Singapore to meet with Peter Lim to discuss the current crisis and reinforcements for the winter transfer window!

We know that the appropriated budget for the winter can be up to 10 million euros, for each player who arrives one has to leave and individual salary can't exceed 2.5 million per year. So right from the start Valencia CF transfers are limited, almost crippled, so how can Valencia CF bring any new quality players then?

The answer is it can't. Valencia CF is going to bring in loan players or super cheap players not wanted anywhere else in order to "boost" the squad, which in turn is going to cause even worse performance! Right now we have too many on loan and young inexperienced players, too many new players, so bringing in more new players without quality would mean doing the same mistakes they've done so far!

The only way out of this crisis is to disregard fair play rules! Think about it, does anyone really believe that we are going to be playing Champions league or even Europa league anytime soon? Why would we be following fair play rules if we aren't even close to the Europa league? By the time we can compete (if we buy quality and spend a lot of money smartly) then we'd be playing well enough and doing well enough to get more shirt sales, get more ticket sales, get sponsors to pay better, etc... so it won't even be an issue.

Fair play rules won't be important if we are playing in segunda division!!!!!! Peter Lim needs to inject 50 million euros into Valencia CF in order to get 3 new quality players!

We need to purchase one high quality DM, no matter what quality player we go for we'd have to play around 15 million for a quality player on that position! Then we need a proper winger for the right wing, Nani has been playing left wing for us, Santi Mina is more of a striker rather than a winger and using Cancelo as a makeshift is just temporary solution, so we need a quality right wing, preferably someone who can hold the ball and is technically gifted.

Finally I'd purchase a new central midfield as well, look Parejo wanted to leave in the summer, he might want to leave again next summer and he is the only midfielder of that kind we have. Also he doesn't need to play all matches, having another CM preferably a playmaker would do us a lot of good. I'm a fan of controlling play, keeping possession and this would work in Valencia CF favor as holding the ball would prevent the opposition from attacking us so much, if we control the ball, the opposition can't attack us.

I know we technically need a striker, but even if we went back in time and got the real Ronaldo(9) in his prime years, he can not score goals if we aren't creating enough chances for him. Yes sure a real Ronaldo would improve our attacking play and would go on to score a few individual goals, but ultimately I think any striker can do well enough if the team provides enough good chances!

So I think between Moreno, Munir, Santi Mina(who is technically the closest to a striker) we can score goals if we actually create good chances and often enough!

Now of course the issue is that Peter Lim is not going to want to invest any of his money into Valencia CF, I think he is of the thinking that he invested a lot of money in the first year and it didn't really pay off, but the main point here is that he invested a ton of money on overpriced players from his friend Mendes, when in reality these players should have cost half the price we paid for them!

Sure Aymen wasn't Mendes client and we paid 25 million for him, we now know we overpaid for him and in terms of the performance he's given us he is not worth more than 5 million. Enzo Perez worth around 10 million at most, Cancelo is our best buy at 15 million euros, but he is still a potential, sure he is basically one of our most valuable players now, but when we got him he wasn't worth 15 million euros, Moreno cost us 35 million euros, at best he is 10 million and for Andre Gomes we paid 15 million in what was the only decent deal at the time, we even sold him for a big profit.

But the truth is none of the big money players have ever made a return on their investment in terms of play, in terms of performance on the pitch. The issue was that the purchases weren't chosen from a sporting point of view, they were chosen on a personal relations point of view with a scheme to enrich Mendes, develop these young players and sell them for profit down the line. I bet Peter Lim wasn't expecting that his financial and personal deals that has no basis in sporting decisions would fire back so terribly.

Essentially what saved the first season with Peter Lim as the owner was Otamendi who was purchased by the previous administration, Paco who was a youth product and had an amazing season, Gaya who broke through the youth ranks and had a breakthrough season and our coach Nuno at the time, who's defensive style counter attacking football allowed Valencia CF to perform optimally with the players that it had.

If you remember none of the big money players made any impact, Negredo was injured than came back and couldn't replace Paco, it was the other players like Diego, Mustafi, Otamendi, Barragan, Gaya, Parejo, Fuego, Piatti, Paco, Feghouli who made the difference. Only Andre Gomes featured regularly in the midfield, but as an attacking midfielder and he was the only one fairly priced at the time.

Look at the team just 2 years since then! We only have Diego, Gaya and Parejo left. Our core defensive duo is gone(for Otamendi realistically we couldn't keep him), but everyone else we just threw away. Now we have a makeshift team of loanees, mercenaries, new players that have no fusion together, that have no relationships together, that have no history together, that don't even care in many cases.

The only solution to the current problem is 3-4 high quality players in the most needed positions. Get rid of Ryan(I'm sorry for him, but once again our terrible planning that we ended up with 4 goalkeepers and Yoel has been the loan out victim), get rid of Guilherme Siqueira(and promote Leto already), sell Fede or send him on loan since he doesn't want to be in Valencia CF(and who could blame him?, sending him on loans time and time again) and that is 3 players left, now we can use the money saved on their salaries to bring in 3 new players. 

Sociedad 3-2 Valencia post-match thread

That was a bit unlucky.

That performance deserved more.

As they go home tonight, the players will be asking themselves how they didn't get a better result.

Those players care. And they play for Real Sociedad and they will really wonder how they were only able to beat a mediocre Valencia side by a single goal.

I switched the game off in disgust after the second goal and only switched it on now and again after that. I did see effort from some players. Abdennour, who has been much criticised here, put in a decent display, for example, but in typical "Valencia jinx" fashion, just as he's starting to show a few decent performances, he has to disappear on international duty for the African Nations' cup! Most of what I saw did little to inspire hope that we can get out of this nightmare and I ended up watching the tv, which will be far better for my mood in the next few days.

Nice to see that Prandelli's words in the press conference fell on deaf ears.

What do you think? Excited about the prospects of new destinations like Mirandes, Alcorcon, Huesca and Soria next season?

I'm too fed up to say any more so I'll leave it to you all to work out if there's a way out of this mess.

Real Sociedad vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Valencia CF drew the last match at the Mestalla against Malaga, conceding a last minute goal and losing the valuable three points, only managing to share the spoils with Malaga. Thing is draw was the fairest result, Valencia CF played better in the first half and deserved to win based on that performance, but in the second half, especially around the 55th minute the team collectively stopped playing and to be honest they deserved to lose, so I think we should be grateful that we got one point, when we could have gotten zero the way the team played in that second half.

Remember my articles in the summer how this is a makeshift team, how there are no real Valencianistas, how there are no players to root for and that the name of the team itself is just a name, its the culture, organization, players that make the team? Well now we are seeing that that is the case, Valencia CF has been having record LOW amounts of crowds this season, even though this blog has been fairly inactive, in the past in similar inactive periods there were still tons of people reading the match previews and reports, but now its getting lower and lower.

Today Prandelli held a press conference basically saying what I was saying in the summer, many of the current players for Valencia CF are not Valencianistas, they don't care, quite a few are on loan, quite a few are extremely new so they don't care, barely any have history with Valencia CF.

The longest staying players right now in Valencia CF you can count on one hand and even those years are pathetic, Diego Alves, Gaya, Cancelo, Parejo, Fede(yeah even though he's been on loan for the past 3 years, he'd actually one of the elders now), Moreno. Out of these only Parejo and Diego Alves have been here for over 5 years. 

This team is a JOKE! Only 2 players out of 24/25 or whatever that have been for 5 years, ALL the rest are here for LESS than 5 years, in fact less than 4 years! Pablo Piatti and Ruben Vezo who have been here longer are out on loan, and the way we've treated Piatti I hardly doubt he'd want this team, not the way we are playing and bound for relegation. 

And to think the "geniuses" at the club wanted to sell Diego Alves in the summer, to think that there were people that dumb to want to sell Diego Alves! One of our best players in the last 5 years, one of the most Valencianista, one of the hardest working players!

I'd fire them all, I'd fire Lim if I could and I'd fire half the players, replace them with some of our youth players like Villaba, Lato, Soler, buy few hard working humble players and rebuild. I know firing half of the crop would be basically another rebuilding, but these players we have now are relegation players, we've rebuild when we've had a champions league team over and over, that is not when you rebuild, you only rebuild when you have a relegation team! 

So pretty much ALL of the players were up to 15 minutes late to the training today, up to 15 minutes late, if you work in a grocery store, if you work in a packaging factory and you show up 15 minutes late, you don't get the salary for the day or you get one out of 3 warning before being fired. And these players come in 3-4 days per week, train for one and a half hour and they still pull this kind of crap? Your average worker who earns 30x times less than these footballers works 8 hours a day for 6 days a week for over 300 days a year. Yet these prima-donas can't even come on time on a one hour training, its pathetic! 

Prandelli is right to have called a conference and say what he has, these bunch are a bunch of whinny, unprofessional, ballerinas who haven't earned even a penny from their millions! They haven't earned even a penny of their millions! 

If I'm Prandelli I'd keep them every day for 8 hours, they don't have to do fitness or exercise, obviously you don't want to injure all the players and tear their muscles, but have them to exercise for 2 hours and for 6 hours hold them there, talk tactics, watch match replays, have football theory classes, whatever, make them work!

Some of these players deserve all the booing and whistles and insults hurled at them, I haven't seen a bigger bunch of whiners and lazy ass players. This has to change, they need strict regiment, they need to be held 8 hours a day, 2 hours of training, 6 hours of football theory and tactics and all the rest. These players shouldn't be allowed to make a mockery out of this club, shouldn't be allowed to come to a training as a sort of field day, as a sort of excursion, screw around for an hour and a half to two and go home. They need to work their asses off!

I still overall blame Lim for it, he didn't plan long term, he got too cozy with Mendes which got the fans super angry in what they saw as money grab deals and all these things lead to another to another and we are where we are today!

If he was more strategic and planning long term, if he kept the top brass, Ayala, Rufette, other lower end people that have been working in the club for decades, who kept the core of the club, kept the continuity, etc... we'd be much better off, the club would have been more stable. He had to get rid of everyone, he had to cozy up and make deals with mostly Mendes overpaying for average players, etc... If he just held back a bit, if he wasn't so aggressive in having his way and being 100% in charge of everything when he no clue what he is doing, we'd be much better off today!

At this point its going to take a miracle to turn things around, I tried to be more optimistic once the season begun, last season Leicester City won the premier league, I thought once the season starts anything can happen, just be positive, take the good things and run with it, but at this point there are no good things anymore, everything is so bad, its terrible!

Peter Lim has announced that there is no money for transfers, basically up to 10 million euros overall and even then if we add a new player we have to sell one to reduce the salary payment! Good job not getting a sponsor Peter Lim in over 3 years! How is Valencia CF supposed to add any players then? No sponsors, you overpaid tens of millions on average players, you sold the ones with potential and sure we got a good cash infusion, but with being relegation battlers who would buy tickets and shirts to fund this club? 

No champions league, no sponsors, less and less fans to buy stuff, less and less prestige for this club and soon enough we are going to lose the advantage we have in the TV deal and get screwed over and barely get anything from there as well.

Anyways what do you guys think? I don't see anything positive anymore, can anyone point to something positive? We seem to have a good coach overall, but he doesn't speak Spanish, he's a bit off his prime, he got the team during the season, so he didn't have the summer time to sort things out his way and the team, the players he has are not good enough, so he is limited what he can do! 

Other than that we have terrible players, terrible owner, terrible management, terrible planning, terrible financials, terrible results, terrible luck even, pretty much everything is terrible.

Valencia 2-2 Malaga match report

Did this team spend a previous life microwaving kittens for breakfast before spending the morning torturing small children? I'm struggling to understand why we seem to be permanently jinxed. For the third time this season Valencia squander the points by conceding a goal in the 93rd minute. That's a critical 4 points flushed down the toilet. If the team goes down to Segunda, which they will if they don 't start winning at least the home games, they can count games like this as the crucial ones. The frustrating thing, as always, is that there were many encouraging signs.

Prandelli is a man of habit who seems to know what he wants and so far he's stuck with mostly the same sides with little changes. In this game he continued the 5-3-2 that he had debuted the previous week against Sevilla. The only changes were for the injuries to Enzo and Nani, with Medran coming in for the former and Munir being rewarded for his good form by continuing in the team, partnering Rodrigo up front.

The game got off to an explosive start. Even with 5 midfielders, Valencia let Malaga go through their midfield like a knife through butter. This ineffectiveness quickly proved costly. Before I could even start dreaming about a Valencia clean sheet, Malaga had the ball in the net, running down our wing with Abdennour blocking well, but the rebound volleyed home from outside the area. Who was or should have been marking? Where was Suarez? This was a calamity and down to the midfield rather than the defence. 41 games out of 42 we have conceded.

A few minutes later it was all level again. Parejo whipped in a super free kick and Rodrigo made a smart run to plant a great header past the keeper. We had a similar chance in the 14th minute with an almost identical free kick, but Suarez popped up at the wrong end to make a key deflection to take the ball away from Munir who would have had a tap in.

For the neutrals, the first half was a lively one with Valencia edging it. Our left side looked the weak one with Siquiera not doing the business either in attack or and Abdennour, who was having a good game, often having to clean up for him and making some good interceptions. In the 33rd minute Parejo misplaced a pass and just as many of us were cursing him for a business-as-usual "Parejoism" he showed great determination to win back the ball and send the ball across the box, where Medran finished well.

For the first time this season in the league, Valencia were ahead (the team had been leading at half time in the cup against Leganes.)

As in the previous game, Valencia looked less threatening after the break, though we generally provided a more solid wall than in previous performances. While Malaga would have more of the ball and won a lot of the 50/50s, they were unable to do much with it. A really nervy second half looked to be ending in a hard fought victory until Malaga equalised with virtually the last kick of the game. Again, it's hard to argue that it was undeserved, Valencia had sat back for much of the second half and invited Malaga to have a go. Another crucial thing that seems to be missing, especially compared to some of the better VCF sides, including the one from Nuno's first season, is the ability to counterattack. Other sides, when winning like this, would not only be able to close the game down, but would be able to hit back on the break and establish a cushion.

PLAYER RATINGS

Alves 7 - looked solid, couldn't do anything about the goals
Siquiera 4 - weakest link of the back ineffective in attack, we need Gaya instead
Abdennour 7 - decent game, covered well for Siquiera and dealt with the threat of Ontiveros
Garay - 6.5 - good game, decent interceptions and had 80% passing effectivity at the end of 1st half
Mangala 6 - part of a mostly solid defence tonight, this one's down to the guys in front
Cancelo 6 - showed again why he's much better further advanced than as a defender
Suarez 4.5 - hard to imagine wy we traded out Fuego for him
Medran 6 - well taken goal, would Enzo have scored that? Deserves more starts.
Parejo 6.5 - Two great assists, looked tired at the end, had played every minute of all VCF games, so smart move from Prandelli to take him off, the first time this season he hasn't played the full 90.
Munir 6 - some good running and movement, but seems to have more understanding with Nani
Rodrigo 6.5 - great effort and well taken goal, now Valencia's top scorer

SUBS

Gaya 5 - didn't look fully fit, maybe why Siquiera started instead and should have been further back
Fede 5 - struggled to impose control on the midfield
Mina N/A - again looked out of sorts and at this rate his appearances will be limited to late subs

Give Prandelli the full season

I know the results haven't been the most stellar and looking at the trend they are likely not going to get much better, maybe slightly better, but we have to stick with Prandelli and give him the support and confidence for the whole season. Fans need to be patient with the coach and it would be absurd if supporters(especially Spanish ones) started acting up. We are on our 3rd coach since Nuno, 4th if you count Voro the temporary coach, so just from purely numbers perspective we are out of coaching options.

Prandelli won the European cup with Italy, that is no small feat, you don't achieve that by chance, he knows which players to choose, what kind of tactics for each opponent, etc... He needs the full time to get to learn some basic Spanish so he can more effectively translate his thoughts to the players, his ideas and he needs time to learn the best tactics, formation and players for this team, he took over months after the season started and he hasn't had a summer preparation, he probably didn't even know much about VCF before coming on.

He still hasn't gotten it right in terms of best squad and optimate tactics and formation, but he is trying and changing stuff up, small changes and rotations, not sudden shifts to lay waste all that progress, he is slowly building up his preferred team, though it will probably take another 2-3 months before he is able to find the best possible squad and tactics and formation for that squad.

As I've been writing for I think about a year now, this team lacks good movement, this is THE PRIMARY ISSUE! When the team moves, they move as individuals, not as a team. This is why so often we only see 2-3 guys in attack, because the players don't move in unison, so when we are attacking, only the attackers are out there attacking, our back line is too far back, our midfield is too in the midfield, when the defense should be at the centre of the field, midfield should cover the 25-35 meters and the attackers should be anywhere between 25-10 meters from the opposing goal.

Right now Valencia CF defenders are in their own half, usually at least 5 to 10 meters back from the center line, midfield is somewhere on the centre line with ONLY Parejo slightly more forward at times. Then we have the 2 or 3 forwards our there in attack against 6-7 opposition players, this way they can never score, its almost impossible to score in such a situation.

So the PRIMARY ISSUE Prandelli needs to sort is team movement, team cohesion, team coordination, they need to all move in unison and move as a one single unit. Numbers in attack, numbers in midfield, numbers in defense, even the goalkeeper should be involved in game play, just like most modern teams with modern coaches like Juventus, Chelsea, Manchester City, etc...the play starts with the goalkeeper, he is the one who builds-up the play.

So while we shouldn't copy-paste 100% such system, especially when we don't have the proper players for it, but we should be implementing the features that we can do, that will benefit us, picks parts of that system and implement them. This team, this Valencia CF would literally become 2x times better just by learning better movement as a team!

Leganés 1-3 Valencia (Copa del Rey)

Valencia in two-goal win shocker! It's a sad comment on the team's recent misfortunes that this is the first time in over seven months that we've won by a 2-goal margin.

Prandelli stuck with the same 5-3-2 formation as the previous game. The injured Perez was replaced by Medran, with 4 other changes. However, there were no big surprises and no rare appearances for cantera players. With the exception of Jaume getting his first start of the season instead of Alves, the other replacements were all squad regulars: Munir, Gaya and Montoya. I guess the thinking was that, if the usual 11 can't do it, the usual 11 mixed with youth players are not likely to do it either.

Valencia were by far the better side in the first half and, for once, made it count. In just the second minute, Montoya floated a great ball over for Munir who needed just one touch to score. It wouldn't be all Valencia though and in fact it wouldn't be Valencia at all without some heart-stopping moments of fairly cowboy defending. In the 11th minute we lost the ball near our back line and the cross floated to the back post was just missed. Shortly after, Mangala took too long on the ball and just kicked it straight at a Leganés player who raced past him, squared it well and, with Jaume diving the wrong way, we got off lightly, with our opponents skying the ball over the bar.

On a positive note, Valencia were creating some chances, with Gaya heading over and Nani very unlucky not to score with a brilliant overhead kick. The pressure soon told, Montoya played a one-two with Munir and crossed well for Medran to head home. Valencia were 2-0 up, but looked almost determined to throw it away. Mangala was throwing himself around clumsily, got booked yet again and conceded a free kick in a dangerous position. In contrast, Montoya was having a good game, but there was the problem of him being too far forward and a Leganes break led to a dangerous opportunity, with Mangala redeeming himself by making a great block. From the resulting corner, Jaume produced a great one-handed save. For the first time this season, Valencia were leading at half time.

The second half saw a less assured Valencia performance, passes were being misplaced, the midfield was failing to assert control, chances were not being created and Leganes were being presented with too many chances and sure enough, Valencia gave away a needless goal in the 60th minute. There hardly looked any danger, with 3 defenders around one Leganes player, but he still managed to turn them and beat Jaume, who also should have done better. There were nervy moments after that, as Leganes pressed for the equaliser. With Mangala on the verge of a second yellow card, he was subbed off for Santos, while Fede and Bakkali would come on for Munir and Nani, leaving our forward line as the somewhat unusual Bakkali-Fede combo at the end, a clear sign of how lacking in depth we are in strikers.

Weirdly, it paid off. With the game petering out and Valencia seeming set for a narrow win, Bakkali was put through on the wing. He showed great skill in cutting inside and scoring from a narrow angle, as Leganes players stood off.

Not an amazing performance, with still some glaring issues, but the attack looked better with Munir in it, but it remains to be seen if 5-3-2 is the answer for us. We sacrificed a lot of possession and often got caught out on the wings. Nonetheless, a morale boosting win and one that should give us enough of a lead to reach the last 16. If you missed it, goals are on youtube at links like this one.

PLAYER RATINGS

Jaume 6 - great save in the first half, but looked out of sorts at times and should've done better for the goal.
Gaya 5.5 - limited impact and needs to work on his anticipation, as he got caught offside several times
Abdennour 6.5 - doing much better in this formation, made some timely interceptions and covered well
Garay 5.5 - at times the communication with Mangala doesn't seem to be there as it's unclear who should cover who
Mangala 4.5 - a let down, clumsy and had to use physicality to make up, will get sent off before long if he keeps this up
Montoya 7.5 - best game in a Valencia shirt. Lively and threatening and assisted both the first half goals.
Suarez 4 - utterly anonymous. Don't remember him touching the ball once and after 30 minutes I even had to check that he was playing.
Parejo 6 - limited to covering the midfield but was still able to link up at times
Medran 6.5 - good to see him back, decent first half with good passing, but less effective in the second
Nani 7 - decent game, creative and unlucky to score
Munir 7 - given his chance and took it well. Now joint top scorer with (a pitiful) 3 goals. Should start in future.

Subs
Santos 5 - couple of nervy moments and he looked rusty and not better than Mangala.
Fede N/A - limited impact
Bakkali N/A - showed why he's often the go-to impact sub with a great goal out of nothing

Sevilla 2-1 Valencia

I know the problem. You know the problem. You'd have to be blind not to see it. Valencia is toothless up front. This affects all areas of our game. With no one up front to hold the ball up, the pressure immediately switches to our midfield and defence. Prandelli attempted to fix this, opting for a 5-3-2, with Abdennour recalled to play in a 3-man central defence and Siquiera and Cancelo as attacking full backs, with Nani partnering Rodrigo up front. Any defence which has Siquiera and Abdennour covering our left side causes shudders, but for the first half the formation generally did its job. With two proper strikers, we could even win with this formation, but that remains a dream.

The first half was mostly a turgid affair. Neither team really had many chances. A worrying moment came in the tenth minute when Sevilla were able to pass straight past 3 of our guys, though Vietto was flagged offside. Valencia's main chance came 5 minutes later when Rami misplaced a pass and Nani intercepted well, but blasted high and wide. The game was scrappy for much of this half, with Abdennour often charging around like a bull in a china shop and being lucky to avoid being booked. One of the problems for us lay in possession, which we struggled to retain and our passing was ineffective: 54% completion midway through the first half compared to 69% for Sevilla.

Sevilla were playing dirty and we were getting a few free kicks, but were unable to do anything with them. The main chance came in the 32nd minute, with another mistake by Rami being intercepted by Parejo, but his first touch was poor and a corner was the best we got.

For only the third time this season, Valencia had kept a clean sheet in the first half. But doing nothing up front was inevitably going to tell and in the 52nd minute Sevilla pressure lead to an own goal from Garay.

Valencia responded well. In the 60th minute a Parejo special almost caught the keeper out from distance. Nani shot over after turning well a minute after. Munir came on for Abdennour, turning the 5-3-2 into our usual 4-3-3. With Sevilla rattled, Cancelo threaded a good ball through for the sub Munir who showed Nani and Rodrigo how it should be done with a great finish. Though, Sevilla looked nervous after that, they were still able to come back. I've said it before, but Parejo fades badly at the end and it was his mistake, losing the ball which led to the corner from which Sevilla scored, exploiting another of our weaknesses: awful defending at corners.

Mina and Gaya came on, switching to a 3-3-4, but in a chaotic finish, we were unable to get anything, with Gaya blasting straight at the keeper with the last kick of the game to finish off another lousy day.

PLAYER RATINGS

Alves 6 - Not a lot to do
Siquiera 4.5 - Didn't look fully fit to me. Struggled a lot with Sarabia and offered little in attack.
Abdennour 5 - Not one of his worst games, but the same criticisms as before, too physical, lucky to escape a yellow and awful, unimaginative passing.
Garay 5.5 - Did his job for most of the time, but hasn't been the top class defender we hoped for.
Mangala 6.5 - Decent job in defence. Has been our best defender this season.
Cancelo 6 - Better off as an out and out right winger than a defender, some sloppy passing at times but great vision to create the goal.
Suarez 4 - Bypassed too easily at times and still not making a case for a permanent move.
Enzo 5 - Needs to show more control of the midfield than this and be better with passing.
Parejo 5 - Had his moments, especially with the free kick, but we'd be better off replacing him with Medran for the last 20 minutes.
Nani 5.5 - Some good tricks and skills but lacked understanding with his partner.
Rodrigo 4 - Had very little to work with, but also missed a couple of decent chances.

SUBS
Munir 6 - Great goal, should get more starts.
Mina N/A - largely wasted in a central midfield position, should be given more chances as central striker.
Gaya N/A - would have been better than Siquiera in a 5-man defence.

Valencia 1-1 Granada post-match thread

I have to apologise for the lack of a usual match report, but I was unable to get a reliable stream for this game, meaing I only watched the first 20 minutes and the last 25, so I'm putting up this thread instead for people to comment.

From what I saw of the game, though, there's little to add to what I've said in previous match reports. It was the same old story. Tonnes of possession but little real chances to show for it. We were woeful in the first 20 minutes and only marginally better at the end. Granada are the worst team in La Liga, coming to Mestalla with 4 draws and 7 defeats from their opening 11 games and 9 goals scored. Yet despite all that, and a 5-4-1 formation which was clearly designed to park the bus, they, like so many other teams, managed to score. That's 39 games out of 40 we have failed to keep a clean sheet. Granada were rubbish and are going down to Segunda and on the strength of performances like these, we have every chance of joining them. If we can't beat Granada, who can we beat? Valencia have really hit rock bottom, with little sign that we can exit from our malaise. The only way I can see us avoiding the drop now is if other teams are even more rubbish.

From the parts of the game I saw, Cancelo and Nani were the best on our side, though Nani's replacement for Bakkali was a little weird.

What do you think? Is there an exit from this?

Analysis of Transfer Needs

Valencia CF finds itself in a tricky situation. Economically, it is not in a great place. The stadium got delayed again, the club has reported losses, and Financial Fair Play might be an issue despite a summer of heavy selling.

However, it is clear that the current squad just won’t do; it needs reinforcements. Because of the restrictions on the team financially, the team needs to prioritize its spending to get what it needs.

The most important thing right now is depth. As it is, we have 4 midfielders. That isn’t good for a team that likes to play with 3 midfielders regularly. It means that in the case of sanctions and injuries, the options become extremely limited. So, Valencia will definitely need at least one new central midfielder.

The ideal option would be a destroyer with good ball handling skills. A pipedream would be Morgan Schneiderlin, for example. He’s a possible option only because Manchester United wants to get rid of him this winter. However, due to the scarcity of players with that profile, it is more likely we will have to find a more regular central midfielder, like the Turkish Tolgay Arslan or the Mexican Hector Herrera. A truly cheap option would be a player like Fabregas or Esteban Granero, players with known quality who have been struggling recently and their teams are desperate to get rid of them.

Another position that needs strengthening is striker. Rodrigo Moreno is a very hard worker, and he has good positioning and makes good runs. However, it is a little known secret that his finishing can sometimes be sub-par. In addition, sometimes the team lacks a true physical presence when he plays. Players like Munir and Santi Mina are no better due to their slight frames.

The ideal buy would be someone like John Guidetti from Celta. Big, strong, surprisingly fast, and with good ball skills and associative play, he is exactly the type of player Valencia would benefit from. Seeing as he is such a good player, however, it would be unlikely that Celta let him go for a reasonable price. Other possibilities include Simone Zaza, who’s situation at West Ham is complicated at the moment, Belotti, another player who’s likely to be too expensive, or Gabbiadini from Napoli.

Valencia has done little to hint interest in any target in particular, so it’s difficult to say whether they will pursue any of the named players. However, it is likely that if they don’t go for the players themselves, they will go for the mold outlined above. 

Who do you think Valencia should go for? Feel free to tell us in the comments below.

Celta 2-1 Valencia

It's another day of frustration for Valencia. This had always looked a tough game on paper, but it's all the more frustrating because Valencia were the better side, but came away with nothing. Before the game odds had given Celta a 43% chance of winning, with a 30% chance for Valencia. By the start of the second half that had shifted to 25% for Celta and 35% for Valencia. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Football is not about playing better, it's about putting the ball in the net.

Prandelli, as predicted, learned from his mistake of starting Abdennour in the previous game and switched Montoya to left back with Cancelo dropping back. Fede starting rather than Munir or Mina was the only real surprise.

Valencia started well, constantly pressing and pressurising Celta and giving them no opportunity at all to get the ball into dangerous positions. When Celta had the ball, they came up against two walls of four and the first half hour mostly was a midfield slugfest, with Valencia also unable to create any real chances. The only real one came in the tenth minute when a cross found Nani, who headed straight at the keeper.

In the 32nd minute, VCF were deservedly ahead. Rodrigo was hauled back in the area and Parejo slotted the penalty home well. It wouldn't last. The goal galvanised Celta who started to play better. 10 minutes later Celta had the ball in our box and 3 (!) of our players were unable to close down one guy, who had enough time and space to turn and shoot, with Suarez just watching the ball sail past him.

Valencia would be on top for most of the second half too. In the 49th minute Nani crossed well for Medran, who headed over. Rodrigo shot wide 5 minutes later from an angle but with only the goalkeeper to beat and Parejo and Nani also joined the "party" with misses of their own. After the 70th minute Valencia again started to get sloppy, concentration went and more and more passes found their way to opposition players. In the 75th minute we gave the ball away in midfield resulting in a good chance for them which Alves saved well. However, from the resultant corner, Celta scored. They'd had 3 chances the whole game and had scored twice. We'd had countless ones but had been useless in attack.

Prandelli belatedly brought on Mina and Munir but they did very little to change the dynamic of the game, which ended in a frustrating loss. If there's any criticism of Prandelli from this, it's that the subs should have come on 10 minutes earlier, when legs were starting to tire.

Valencia now has 10 points from 11 games. If we keep this points average, we'll end with 34 points. In all of the last 10 seasons, that would be enough to be relegated. The team that has finished 18th has had 35-43 points, with 39 being the average. Forget the Europa league, Valencia need to improve and fast, unless we want to play Murcia, Mirandes, Lugo and Huesca next season. The hard fact is that in the past, we could've complained about the manager or the defence. It's now obvious to most of us that the manager knows what he's doing but the players simply aren't good enough and only major reinforcements will improve things.

PLAYER RATINGS

Alves 7 - Didn't have a lot to do but mostly did his job well. Couldn't do much about the first goal in particular.
Montoya 4.5 - Average performance. Mostly held his ground well, but the first goal came from his side.
Garay 5.5 - Not living up to his 20m price tag so far. Should have closed the space down better for the first goal.
Mangala 6 - Reasonable enough game, was solid in the first half, but got a bit sloppy towards the end.
Cancelo 6 - No real mistakes to complain about, but he's far better off in an advanced position.
Suarez 5 - Was ok in the first half, but offers little going forward.
Medran 6 - Had a quiet game and was less effective with his passing than before.
Parejo 6.5 - There's a pattern emerging with him. Good in the first part of the game, but flags later and seems to lose concentration, with poor passing the result.
Nani 5 - Created a few chances, but missed a couple as well. All too often he can be a bit greedy and fails to track back
Rodrigo 5.5 - Same again. Tireless running, good closing down and this season, he's been getting himself in better positions, but can't finish to save his life.
Fede 5.5 - First start in two and a half years. His passing and decision making could be better, but he did track back well to help the defence.

SUBS
Munir 4 - highly rated by Barca fans, but it's hard to see why. Offered little after coming on.
Mina 3.5 - hard to know what's gone wrong, but the fact that Fede and Munir are now preferred ahead of him is a sign of how out of form he is. Might as well have stayed on the bench.

Celta Vigo vs Valencia CF Match Preveiw

Celta Vigo vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Stadium: Balaidos

Date: 07.11.2016 16:15 CET 

11th matchday, La Liga 

Coaches: Eduardo Berizzo and Cesare Prandelli

Just when you think Valencia CF is ready to take a step forward and improve upon the play and results, they actually take a step back, that was the case last week against Deportivo La Coruno who Valencia CF managed to look like a world class opposition, and not a fellow relegation battle team. Everyone had high hopes after the FC Barcelona match, even though Valencia CF lost it was a terrific play from the team and an outstanding performance that if not for the referee Valencia CF might have even won it. 

Unfortunately that good play against Barcelona didn't translate against Depoirtivo and the team was back to their worst with sloppy passing, terrible final ball, missed chances and error prone defending. It was no surprise than that Valencia CF could barely muster up a draw in what could have easily been a heavy defeat.

Valencia CF coach Cesare Prandelli has said over and over again in interviews that he plans on having continuity in the team and stability, so he is going to go into this match against Celta Vigo with the same formation and the same players, with some forced changes due to injuries or suspensions. Since Enzo Perez is suspecded due to accumulation of 5 yellow cards, Mario Surez will likely be partnered by Alvaro Medran to form the defensive midfield, with Jose Luis Gaya still injured its likely going to be Montoya this time around at left back, since Aymen as always guaranteed a goal for the opposition. Even when the guy defends well overall, he always makes a crucial mistake that underscores all of the good he's done and damages the team.

Apart from that its going to be pretty much the same team, once again Bakkali not going to feature, this time due to a muscle injury and at this rate I would be surprised if we see him play at all. Between being injured and recuperating and just not being player due to tactical reasons, I doubt he'd have any minutes for the foreseeable future. 

Celta Vigo have also been quite weak and certainly not the team of last season or the season before that. It seems their time has gone, but they are still a dangerous and efficient team, certainly dangerous enough to give Valencia CF problems, especially with our leaky and error prone defense. The coach has talked about forming tighter lines between the players and pressuring immediately after losing the ball, but we'll have to wait and see if that manifests itself on the pitch, bad habits die slow and I doubt the players would so quickly start playing better football, personally I think it would take a full year for any meaningful changes to happen to the play style and mindset of the players.

Valencia CF Squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego, Jaume, Ryan
Defenders: Cancelo, Montoya, Mangala, Santos, Garay, Aymen, Siqueira
Midfielders: Suarez, Soler, Parejo, Medran, Fede, Nani
Forwards: Santi Mina, Moreno, Munir

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Cancelo, Mangala, Garay, Montoya; Suarez, Medran; Fede, Parejo, Nani; Moreno
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, fast tempo pressing, mixed style passing, winged attacks, counter attacks

Result Prediction:
Celta Vigo 2-2 Valencia CF
This is the result I think of when I think about this match, I'd love Valencia CF to win, I'd love to write 2-1 for VCF, but in reality I can't. I have to be objective and I don't see Valencia CF winning this match, if anything I think we should be lucky not to lose and at least get a point, I'd consider that a success at this point and go for the wins at our home terrain against weaker teams. 

Valencia CF can still reach Europa League

I know it seems like a pipe dream now, but look at it with the facts, Valencia CF is only 6 points from 6th place, that is just two wins.Sure its not like all the other teams will stay in place and wait for Valencia CF ti catch up, but if Valencia CF can manage 4 wins in a row or at least 4 wins out of 5 games we'd be right up there, fighting for 6th position.

Now can we realistically hope for 5th spot and automatic qualification to the Europa league? That seems kind of a stretch, especially since 5th spot it 9 points away and in reality that would have to be at least 6 wins from from 9 matches or more to realistically fight for 5th spot, but 6th spot is realistic and reachable.

Sure we had a chance and blew it against Deportivo La Coruna, it was a good opportunity to get in a winning streak, and the team blew it against one of the weakest teams in La Liga right now, but this is a long haul and all Prandelli has to fix is just two key issues, one of which already seems quite better and that is the defense, but of course it still needs improving and that would also mean Aymen not playing ever and another issue is recovering the ball quickly, marking the opponents tight. When Valencia CF loses the ball none of the players start pressuring the opposing players, they all start falling back and moving into defensive positions, when instead they should be instantly pressuring, with just one defensive midfield and the two central defenders standing further back into their positions. Everyone else need to put pressure on and try and get back the ball instantly.

Valencia CF coach Prandelli talked about this in his interviews, he gets it, he understands the issues, the problem now is fixing these things and here is the challenge, is this a tactical issue, player issue, formation issue, technical issue, or a combined issue? Prandelli will have to figure out how to solve these problems in order to make this team more competitive.

We can also look forward to the winter transfer market, the team has money now, but I doubt its too much and I doubt we could we spending a lot of money. In all likelihood the team can spend about 30 million euros at most and would be looking to possibly get two to three players for those money. Personally I think we need a quality defensive midfielder, someone who is a true destroyer, but also possesses technical skills and can pass the ball efficiently. I think we can find a player of that mold for about 15-18 million euros, leaving potentially 12 to 15 million euros for an additional player.

Another weak spot is the wings and attack, we basically don't have any pure striker and Moreno hasn't paid off the trust in him. Truth be told Valencia CF has failed to create too many chances, but even when they do Moreno has been unlikely to finish them. Our wings are also suspect, we can't seem to be able to provide good service from them, but rather than turning to the market, we could look inward and give Fede and Bakali a chance. These two have barely featured at all, so they could be given chances and they could surprise and offer a solution there.

Anyways I think we still have a lot to look forward to and Valencia CF can turn this situation around and make this season a success yet! 

Sans Enzo Perez

On Monday’s game vs. Deportivo la Coruña, Enzo Perez was given his 5th yellow card of the season. Not wanting to risk going down to 10 men, Prandelli took him off soon after, replacing him with Alvaro Medran.

Medran has not played many minutes under Prandelli, but he showed what he had: Sharp, incisive passing, lots of youthful energy, although also a slightly off sense of positioning, both offensively and defensively. While attacking, sometimes it looked like he didn’t quite know where to be, wanting to be near the ball and affect play, but also wanting to create space. Defensively, he would sometimes run a little too hard and become overextended. resulting in him getting bypassed a little too quickly.

These issues might resolve themselves as he gets more game time. He certainly displayed a lot of potential last season at Getafe, and it might be unfair to try and project from the minutes played in Riazor.

In any event, Enzo Perez will not be able to play this weekend against Celta, so Prandelli has an interesting choice to make with the starting 11. Up until now, Perez has been an integral part of Prandelli’s scheme, making up the double pivot in the 4-2-3-1 alongside Mario Suarez. He has been key in playing the ball out from the back, due to Mario Suarez’s technical limitations. Perez's absence will need to be accounted for tactincally in Prandelli’s game plan.

Prandelli has a few options of how to set up for the next match against Celta.

The easiest option would be to simply put Medran in the double pivot with Suarez and continue the usual 4-2-3-1 with Parejo as the no. 10. On one hand, Medran would be very involved in build up play. Thanks to his dribbling and passing abilities, he would have no issue filling in for Perez on the attacking side of things. However, Medran is not very big, and Prandelli might be worried that he won’t bring the physicality needed for defending. Also, as mentioned before, Medran lacks good defensive positioning, which will not do against a team as fluid as Celta. Discipline will be required, and while Medran could be capable of this, it might be unwise to take that chance.

Another choice without changing the 4-2-3-1 layout would be to pull Parejo back into the double pivot and have Medran play as the no. 10. Parejo has played in a double pivot before, and he would be a more dependable player in both phases of play. Medran would have the freedom in attack to create, and his running could be used to press while defending. However, he's unfamiliar with the role as a pure 10, so Medran might be a little inconsistent as he gets used to the position.

Should Prandelli want to change formations, he could switch to a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Medran and Parejo side by side and Suarez behind them. This way, all three players would be in their preferred positions. However, this might be a departure from what Prandelli has been working on in practice, so he might decide against it so as to not stop the momentum he’s built in instituting his ideas.

The last viable option would be to switch to a 4-4-2, with Parejo in the double pivot and to start Santi Mina or Munir up top alongside Rodrigo, and to keep Medran on the bench. In terms of defensive structure, this would be much more closer to the 4-2-3-1, but it could result in Valencia being a little flat in attack, as they’d be lacking the extra player to help move the ball from the back to the front.

Prandelli definitely has a tough choice ahead of him, and it will be very interesting to see his decisions come Sunday.

Which setup do you think Prandelli should choose? Let us know in the comment section below.

Deportivo 1-1 Valencia

A year ago to the day the boos and veteya chants rang round Mestalla. It seems strange now, because we'd just beaten Levante 3-0, were seventh in the table with a 4-3-3 record and second in our champs league group, five points ahead of the third team with 3 games played. Those days seem like a golden era now.

In 38 games since then, Valencia's record is W10 D9 L19. Thirty nine points from the equivalent of a season's worth of games. If we'd got that points total last season we'd have escaped relegation by a single point. We've conceded a goal in 37 out of those 38 games. It doesn't matter who the opposition is. Even Deportivo, the team with the worst attack in the whole of La Liga can still manage to score against us.

I said on the forum that we should consider preparing a template for future match reports, because our games seem to follow a familiar pattern: lots of possession but totally ineffective with it, sloppy passing, missed chances, letting weaker teams dominate us for large periods of the game and, quite often, not playing as a team.

We'd debated who should replace the injured Gaya at left back. Most of us were going for Montoya, with Cancelo dropping to right back. Prandelli, in his most dubious call yet, opted for Abdennour. I guess he wanted to reward Abdennour for a half decent performance against Barca (penalty aside) but his faith proved misplaced as Depor effectively targeted that side.

The first half produced many nervous moments. Luckily, as I said, Depor's attack has been the most useless in the league, so they were rarely able to take advantage. Nonetheless, Alves had to come to the rescue a few times. Up front for Valencia, it often looked like every man for himself, with the front three almost acting independently, with little interaction. Rodrigo had limited opportunities, but squandered three of them, including two which were (wrongly) subsequently penalised for offside. Just before half time, a cross came from Abdennour's side and Depor were in the lead. As they'd created the better chances, it wasn't unfair.

Valencia looked a little better after the break, especially when Munir replaced Abdennour. Not that Munir had a particularly good game, but he was a bit less greedy than Cancelo. In the 56th minute, Parejo robbed a Depor player, put in a cross, and Nani sent the ball back for Rodrigo to poke home, with questions from Depor as to whether the ball had fully crossed the line. (Replays seem to say yes, just about.) This wouldn't be the only controversial decision. Late in the game, an attempted cross from Munir hit the arm of a Depor player. It was a carbon copy of an incident in an earlier game when Abdennour conceded a penalty, but as usual, Valencia seem to be constant victims of inconsistency.

Valencia were pushing forward towards the end and Rodrigo and Montoya missed chances, though the home side had some of their own. In the end a draw is a fair result, but the coming weeks bring much tougher challenges and we need to be much better than this if we want to make the top half of the table.

Player ratings
Alves 7 - another decent game and had to come to the rescue of us a few times. Can be suspect with aerial balls and his distribution could improve, though.
Abdennour 3 - after a decent performance against Barca, it was business as usual. Clumsy, caught out of position and gave away too many needless fouls. His passing remains awful and unimaginative. Wouldn't be a huge surprise if this was his last start in a Valencia shirt, has to be a prime candidate to be sold in January.
Garay 5.5 - generally did his job, but needlessly booked
Mangala 5 - couldn't do much about the goal as he was marking someone else
Montoya 4.5 - better than Abdennour on the left, though the standard was low, often exposed at the back
Suarez 5 - after a few decent games, this was an average performance, and Depor all too often managed to bypass him
Enzo 4.5 - same as Suarez, not as effective as previous games and had to be subbed off to prevent him getting a second yellow
Parejo 6.5 - generally had a decent game and is thriving in this position further forward, but we saw signs of the old Parejo near the end with a few sloppy passes
Nani 6 - had an ok game and set up the goal
Rodrigo 5.5 - despite the goal, he needs to do better than this, missed a few decent chances
Cancelo 6 - yes he has quality, but several times in this game and previous ones he seems to be "showboating" : taking on another defender when passing the ball would be a better option

Subs
Munir 4.5 - came on early in the second half and had his chance to stake a claim for a regular place. Didn't take it.
Medran 5.5 - some decent passing after he came on, deserves to start more
Fede N/A - first competitive game for Valencia since May 2014. While it's nice to see him back, didn't do enough, ineffective in possession and passing could've been better.