Valencia CF 3-0 Leganes Match Report

I think most of us who follow Valencia and La Liga had expected the same thing from this game: a tight game against a defence-minded opponent, with Valencia probably grinding out a 1-0 win. Consider this: in their first 9 games, Leganes had kept six clean sheets, conceding just a single goal in the other three, before losing 1-2 to Sevilla last week. Five goals in the first ten is a defensive record bettered only by Barcelona, so a 3-0 win against them is definitely something to write home about. We can all grumble about aspects of the game, but this Valencia side continues to vastly exceed expectations and equal records from the 1940s.

For better and worse, most of Valencia's team practically picks itself these days. Neto in goal, Gaya at left back, a midfield of Guedes - Kondogbia - Parejo - Soler with Zaza and Rodrigo up front. Montoya usually starts over Vidal as he did today and the only question being who will play odd man out among the trio of Garay, Gabriel and Murillo. The coach seems to prefer them in that order, but it was Garay and Murillo today. Even the subs are a bit predictable, Mina and Pereira will come on at some point, with Lato most likely to be next. Why change what works?

Leganes did indeed set up defensively and showed that their unexpectedly high league position is no fluke with a gritty performance. Valencia had few chances in the early period and it took a set piece to break the deadlock. Guedes played a nice one-two with Zaza and was fouled while breaking into the box. With Parejo sizing up in his usual territory, we all expected him to curl it over the wall towards the corner. Leganes had done their homework and expected the same, with the wall all jumping. Parejo hit a really excellent free kick under the wall into the bottom corner. A key goal at a key moment, as Leganes would otherwise have been more than happy to frustrate us for longer and wait for chances.

That goal forced Leganes to come out of their shell and they were the better team in the first half. In the 17th minute they played a dangerous ball down our right side, with Montoya caught out a little, but Murillo covered. Szymanowski had been one of their most threatening players and he shot over in the 32nd minute when he could have really hit the target. Beauvue produced worse before half time, shooting over with the goal at his mercy. Not a good last 15 minutes for Valencia.

Luckily, it turned out to be a blip. Valencia came out stronger in the second part. Guedes was ruled offside after a good through ball. Minutes later, he nearly scored. Great interception from Gaya, Parejo found Rodrigo and an excellent pass from him gave Guedes the chance, he cut inside so well, but hit the post.

Leganes had a few chances of their own, the Valencia defence wasn't covering itself in glory and another ball through the middle channel was only half cut out by Murillo, with Neto forced to make a save one-on-one. A speculative shot from 35 metres, which had as much chance of beating Neto as I have of playing for Valencia next season, and a dangerous free kick, saved by Neto, represented their best efforts.

Valencia killed things off in the last 20 minutes. Pereira replaced Soler in the 65th minute and was involved soon after when we scored the second goal in the 70th minute on a counter attack. Quality stuff from Kondogbia, who made a driving run from deep, holding the ball up long enough to pass out to Pereira, whose pinpoint cross was headed home by Rodrigo.

The only slight negative was in minute 78 when Zaza was subbed off, thus missing the chance to equal the record for consecutive games scored in. He was understandably furious, but public displays of petulance like that don't help the team. Mina, who replaced him, soon justified his place by winning and scoring a penalty.

Cynics might say we rode our luck a little. The defence looked suspect at times, most notably. But good teams make their own luck, forcing errors from the opponents and clinically finishing them. That's exactly what this season's Valencia does, when last season's would have lost 0-1 to a 60th minute goal, or conceded a demoralising last minute equaliser. Tonight's win guarantees that the game against Barcelona will be a top two clash. Hard to think of any better way to build the Valencia brand.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7 - a couple of crucial stops as ever and has been an essential part of this team
Gaya 6.5 - best of the defence, screened his side well
Garay 6 - never looked fully secure, but won a couple of aerial balls
Murillo 5.5 - a couple of blunders to cancel out a couple of key tackles
Montoya 5.5 - just not his season so far, with Leganes mounting a couple of attacks down his side
Guedes 6 - provided some great moments, but also a few moments of selfishness (minute 57) when he went for goal with players better placed
Kondogbia 7 - key presence as always and crucial contribution to the second goal
Parejo 7.5 - calm and controlling presence in the centre and excellent free kick goal
Soler 6 - didn't happen for him today and he's been below form for most of the last month
Rodrigo 7.5 - excellent performance, in superb form at the moment, scoring and creating
Zaza 6 - worked hard but didn't get the service

SUBS
Pereira 7.5 - excellent cameo, proved to be far better than Soler on the right, hopefully we can use him for the whole season
Mina 7 - having a very good season, did well to win and convert the penalty
Lato N/A - not enough time

Valencia CF planning to extend Goncalo Guedes loan deal

Valencia CF has begun work on retaining some of the players that are currently here on short term deals, such as Kondogbia and Goncalo Guedes.

Valencia CF is keen to keep Goncalo Guedes, but the club is prioritizing Geoffrey Kondogbia over him as they consider him more important in terms of the overall balance of the team and are willing to spend 25 million euros to purchase Geoffrey Kondogbia from Inter.

With any potential money that Valencia CF earns going into acquiring Kondogbia, Valencia CF have begun working on extending Goncalo Guedes loan deal with PSG for at least one more year. They know PSG squad is packed and the chances of Guedes getting any significant play time is low, at best he will be a frequent bench warmer so the option is to extend the load deal and pay an PSG an extension fee of up to 4 million euros.

Goncalo Guedes recently did an interview in which he stated that he wouldn't mind staying at Valencia CF and that he feels really good here, but again it will all depend on what PSG have in mind for him. PSG may even look to sell the player and get some infusion of cash in order to try and meet "fair play" rules. In case they want to do that Valencia CF will be out of the running as the team just doesn't have the cash on hand to be able to likely pay 30 to 35 million euros for the player. 

Valencia CF to extend Rodrigo Moreno's contract

Valencia CF is looking to extend Rodrigo Moreno's contract as he's is the only one expiring rather soon in footballing terms, in mid 2019. Rodrigo Moreno has been a hit and miss for Valencia CF before this season, having had a rather solid first season, but then few weak seasons and he was on the exit door more than once, but he survived the exodus and has been much improved this season under the guidemanship of Valencia CF coach Marcelino.

He's provided crucial for this team and has playing in superb form so far, managing to attract the interest of the Spanish national team and featuring in one game for them, as well as attracting interest from other clubs.

Valencia's first order of business is to negotiate a contract extension that would have the player extend his contract to at least 2022 with increased transfer fee. Second order of business is finding money to purchase Geoffrey Kondogbia from Intel Milan, considering that Joao Cancelo was inured for almost 3 months from the start of the season and has only featured in one game so far for Inter, so the chances of him breaking into the first team and impressing, or at least impressing enough to warrant 25 million euros is low right now, so Valencia CF are looking for other way to get the money so they can purchase the player.

Alaves 1-2 Valencia

The Valencia juggernaut rolls on, even if the team was a bit off-colour today, securing 3 points from a hard-fought game against a surprisingly tricky Alaves, who had lost 8 of their first nine games, thanks to goals from Zaza and a penalty from Rodrigo.

While Marcelino reversed the substantial rotation that he'd done for the Copa game, there was little surprise in that. Maybe the only mild surprise was the selection of Gabriel for the third game running, rather than Murillo, who had rested in midweek and had had a good previous game. With Parejo suspended, Soler shifted back into the middle with Pereira starting on the wing.

Alaves clearly set up to frustrate Valencia and did it well. Playing 5-4-1, crowding the midfield and having the odd opportunity. For most of the game it was effective. Valencia were unable to hit their stride, there were no counters possible against a team which sat in their own half for most of the first period. That's not to say that they didn't cause us problems. Pedraza gave Montoya a tough time on the wing and created one of their best chances in the 10th minute with Neto having to save with his feet. Valencia were struggling to create any real openings with Alaves edging things. We saw again how key the Parejo-Kondogbia axis is to the whole team, as when one of them is missing, things usually go below average.

So it was slightly against the run of play when we took the lead. Montoya pressured the defender in the corner of the field and Pereira blocked an ineffective clearance. He then cut back to Zaza. It was only a half chance, but the big man took it well and, on his weaker right foot, blasted it past the keeper at the near post. In the 42nd minute, Valencia had what was for this game a rare counter-attack. Guedes, who was struggling to get into the game, had Rodrigo and Zaza available but overhit his pass. Valencia would have been happy to go in at half time leading in what had been a surprisingly even game.

After the restart, our ex-loanee Munir looked to be through on goal, but Gabriel made a crucial last ditch tackle. Sadly, it was in vain as poor defending from the resulting corner in the 48th minute allowed them to equalise. Bad time to concede. Alaves had their heads up and gave us real trouble in the second half. In the 53rd minute Munir hit a free kick well, forcing Neto into a super save low down.

With Alaves continuing to adopt a defence in numbers approach, it took a penalty to break them. The defender inexplicably waving his arms around as a good cross from Pereira came in for Rodrigo to convert the resulting penalty. There were some nervy moments after that, especially when Neto looked to have got injured in the 70th minute and Jaume started warming up. Luckily, Neto was able to finish the game. Alaves brought on Bojan for Munir and he caused us some trouble but ultimately we were able to hold on for the win which guarantees us second place after this round of fixtures.

After some classy performances, this one was a grind. Valencia do well against teams which play open football but, as we saw in this game and the cup, we can struggle to break down teams which play defensively. Also, while defence from open play remains good, we need to work on defending corners.

Still, that makes this team only the fifth in Valencia's history to win 6 consecutive league games (7 in a row counting the cup.) This is our best 10-game start to the season ever. In the Sevilla game, Zaza had become only the seventh player in Valencia's history to score in 5 consecutive games, joining a list of Valencia legends like Waldo, Kempes, Cabillo and *cough* Rodrigo Moreno. He now equals Carlos Diarte's record (from 1976-77) of scoring in six consecutive games and will equal the all-time record (from 1943-44) of Mundo if he can score against Leganes next week. No pressure Simone, just imagine you're taking a penalty...

I'll leave you with Marcelino's words from the post-match press conference: "If you had told me when I took over in May that we would be in this position I wouldn't have believed it. We've tried to do things correctly from the start, we have a great squad on a professional and human level. We never imagined having this many points and being unbeaten after 10 games, especially when we saw the fixture list. We're in a situation we couldn't have predicted but which we deserve to be in"

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 6.5 - a safe pair of hands as always, great save from the free kick to prevent a certain goal
Gaya 6 - good defensive performance
Gabriel 6.5 - made a key tackle to keep us in it, had a good day
Garay 6 - made several headers to provide us with the aerial power that they couldn't match
Montoya 5 - not having the best of seasons, had real trouble at the back but redeemed himself with contributions in attack
Guedes 5 - didn't help that he was fouled multiple times, but really had an off-day and was the first to be subbed off
Kondogbia 6.5 - solid cover for the defence as usual
Soler 5.5 - the decision to shift him to a wide role looked suspect, but weirdly, he seems to do better there than in the centre.
Pereira 6.5 - after being ineffective in midweek, produced a really good game, with involvement in both goals
Zaza 6.5 - didn't have a lot of service to work with but scored a great goal from nothing
Rodrigo 7 - has been my man of the match for 2 games running, active and always a threat, no surprise that his contract looks to be extended

SUBS
Lato covered well on the left, Mina had limited options to work with and Maksimovic came on with 5 mins left. All unrated.

Real Zaragoza 0-2 Valencia (Copa del Rey)

A quick summary, since it's late here. Valencia did manage a comfortable enough 2-0 victory which basically puts the tie in the bag, which is for the best, as the second leg will be on 29 November, a few days after the game against Barcelona.

Marcelino went for nearly full rotation in the end, with only 2 players continuing from the previous game: Parejo and Gabriel. Maksimovic and Nacho Gil started for the first time and both had a good game. Vezo returned from his injury and was solid enough. Orellana was recalled, though in a more centre forward position which didn't suit him, however, he didn't perform badly. On the flip side, Mina and Pereira really didn't take the opportunity provided to them as starters as both were a bit wasteful.

The game wasn't the most inspiring. The first half saw Valencia clearly dominant and mostly camped in Zaragoza's half, but the final balls were lacking and disappointing. Zaragoza had a bit more of a go in the second half, with their attack led by our ex-player Vinicius Araujo. He created their best chance in the 59th minute and it's hard to see how they didn't score from the cross. It was easier to hit the target than miss. Either side of that, Orellana had nearly scored twice, the first with a shot well saved and the second a shot just over. Zaragoza also nearly gifted us a goal with a bit of lunatic defending, the defender nearly scoring a comical own goal.

With Valencia frustrated by defence in depth, Marcelino rolled out the big guns, bringing on Rodrigo, Guedes and Soler for Mina, Pereira and Orellana and we finally broke the deadlock in the 81st minute. A short corner routine ended with Parejo centring for Rodrigo to head home. Rodrigo had had a really good game after coming on and this was a good reward for his efforts. In the 90th minute Valencia sealed it. Guedes and Gil combined well, with Gil bundled over in the area for Parejo to convert the penalty. Even the Valencia of the previous two seasons wouldn't have thrown the tie away from this position so this one should wrap it up with ease in 5 weeks' time.

Real Zaragoza - Valencia match thread

Valencia kicks off its Copa del Rey campaign tonight away to Real Zaragoza, a club with which Valencia has history. We signed David Villa from them and Aimar went the other way. In Summer 2008 Marcelino rejected us to manage Zaragoza instead, being fired in December the following year. After being in the top flight for decades, Zaragoza have considerably declined in recent seasons and have yet to return to the top level after being relegated in 2013. Despite this, they still get a healthy turnout: nearly 23,000 watched their last home game against top-of-the-table Osasuna. After a poor start, when they managed only 4 points from their opening 5 games, they've managed 2 wins and 4 draws, so this isn't a game that Valencia can take for granted.

Zaragoza's main danger man would be Borja Iglesias, who is on loan from Celta. Some of you might recognise the name. He played for us at youth level from 2006 to 2010 before we let him go and he subsequently hit top form last season, ending up as the top scorer in Segunda division B with 32 goals for Celta B, scoring in both legs against Valencia Mestalla in the promotion play-offs.

As for Valencia, the team will be without Kondogbia for both legs of the Copa tie, because of more idiotic inflexible applications of rules by the Spanish football federation RFEF. Kondogbia was sent off in a Copa tie for Sevilla back in 2012-13. He should have served the 2-game suspension with Monaco in the French cup but the RFEF forgot to notify the French, as was their duty under FIFA rules. As a result he won't play. Conversely, Parejo racked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Sevilla and is suspended for the game against Alaves. As a result he will almost certainly play tonight.

Valencia's 18-man squad is Jaume, Neto, Montoya, Nacho Vidal, Gabriel, Garay, Vezo, Lato, Maksimovic, Parejo, Carlos Soler, Guedes, Pereira, Nacho Gil, Orellana, Rodrigo, Zaza and Santi Mina.

Marcelino could have included up to 4 players from Valencia Mestalla but has chosen to play it fairly safe. Murillo and Gaya are rested completely, Orellana and Vezo return to the squad. There are still questions over whether Vezo has totally recovered from his injury, so we will have to see if he gets some minutes.

Jaume, Lato, Garay all look certain to play, with the other centre back depending on Vezo's fitness. Vidal will likely play. In midfield Pereira and Parejo look definite and we may see either Maksimovic or Nacho Gil get their first start of the season with the winger being either Orellana, Guedes or Soler. Up front, Mina will almost certainly start, just a question of which of Zaza/Rodrigo partners him.

In theory, Valencia could slip up tonight and then kill the tie at home, but I expect a comfortable win by at least 2 goals so that we can rotate a bit more when the second leg is played on 29 November.

Please feel free to comment here before and during the game and, assuming I can get a stream, I'll put a match report up later.

Manchester United to purchase Carlos Soler

Reports from England are saying that Manchester United are ready to bid 30 million pounds for Valencia CF midfielder turned winger Carlos Soler in a move to strengthen their squad in the winter transfer window in order to push even harder to the premier league title.

Jose Mourinho has been really impressed by Carlos Soler and has given the green light to buy the player once the transfer market opens. Jose Mourinho likes players who are able to attack and defend and have high work rate, something which Carlos Soler has excelled at, last and particularly this season as well. He is also adaptable and can play at several positions, including any role in central midfield, from a more defensive one to a more attacking one and of course from this season even at the wing.

Manchester United are willing to spend around 35 million euros to buy Carlos Soler, which is a hefty sum for such a young player, but Soler has shown that he can be world class and that money could go into securing the services of Guedes on the other hand for Valencia CF. Questions is does Valencia CF value Soler more than Guedes or vice versa?

Personally I'm not for selling Carlos Soler, I value him even higher than Guedes because he is hardworking and does cover at the back a lot more, he is very versatile and can play several positions and he is a youth product of Valencia Mestalla, so I think we should keep our talent in the club.

On the other hand if Cancelo proves himself in Inter and we can get around 25-30 million for him, that could go towards purchasing Kondogbia which I value higher than Guedes as well, since we need a proper midfield destroyer like that to allow all our forwards to do a good job.

Valencia 4-0 Sevilla

Another week, business as usual with a direct rival completely smashed. How high can this team go? At the start of the season most of us would have been happy with scraping into the Europa league places, now that would feel like a let down. I hoped for a win to nil in this game but never dreamt we'd win so convincingly.

As ever Marcelino stuck with more or less the same line-up. Montoya replaced Vidal and Gabriel came back for Garay.

Most of the first period was goalless, with Valencia far superior. Our midfield was bossing their's, with Kondogbia a strong presence, Parejo orchestrating attacks and Soler and Guedes looking ever threatening on the wings. When Sevilla did manage to get forward our defence was solid, with Gabriel and Murillo very active in cutting out any danger, with Neto virtually a by-stander, but looking like a solid pair of hands when called upon. Valencia had several chances, few of them clear cut. Soler cut back to Zaza who was marked too tightly to get a shot off. Soler put in another decent cross but unfortunately poor communication between our players meant that Rodrigo scuffed an attempted overhead kick over when Gaya would have had a clear shot at goal. Rodrigo and Soler missed with attempted lobs from distance and a decent cross from Rodrigo just missed Guedes. Guedes was everywhere, at times I felt like checking the line-up to see if he had a twin brother playing.

0-0 looked Sevilla's best hope and even that went just before half time. On the counter Rodrigo produced an excellent flick on for Guedes and the latter provided another wonder goal, cutting inside 2 defenders before unleashing a powerful shot into the top corner from outside the area. And you thought his goal last week was good?

After last week's scare against Betis, Valencia didn't let complacency get in the way and came out all guns blazing. Soler shot well from outside the area but Rico managed to tip it away. Minutes later, Rodrigo produced another quality assist, setting up Zaza and the latter conjured up a good goal from a tight angle.

Sevilla tried to get back into it after that. Valencia had, unusually, had most of the possession but Sevilla started to even that out only to run into some solid defending. Neto made a good stop, and the back four were ever attentive, but a header wide was as good as it got for them. Mina had a very good penalty shout turned down when the defender seemed to put hands on him inside the box. He got his revenge moments later, with another assist from Guedes letting him slide it past the keeper.

Valencia weren't done. Kondogbia had a great pass to put Guedes away and the latter showed he can score just as well inside the box as outside it, finishing coolly for an excellent win. It's at this point I usually introduce a cautionary note of things that we could do better, just so we don't all get carried away, but I'm really struggling to find one. This was yet another excellent performance to end the first quarter of the season in style. It's early days but we must now be favourites for a top four finish.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7 - surprisingly little to do but did it very well. Great signing.
Gaya 7.5 - solid in defence while linking up well with Guedes. Showing the quality that got him linked with Real Madrid in his first year.
Murillo 8 - two top games in a row. Handled Muriel like a boss, with great anticipation.
Gabriel 7.5 - a few questions were asked about him after the last game but he answered them with a confident defensive performance in this one.
Montoya 6.5 - quiet but effective game and covered his side well
Guedes 10 - I was pondering whether to give him full marks until he erased any doubts with that cool finish at the end. This guy is on a different level. It's a bittersweet experience seeing him playing this well knowing that every game like this increases his value to unaffordable levels for us, but for now, I'm glad we have him.
Parejo 7 - confident and controlled midfield performance, this season is a contender for his best with us.
Kondogbia 7 - always strong and reliable, lost possession a few times which reduced his rating but produced a killer assist at the end.
Soler 8.5 - very good game, a constant attacking threat and has adapted superbly to his new role on the right
Rodrigo 7 - the usual complaints about his finishing, especially on that chance where he was put in by G.G. and it's a shame his goalscoring run has come to an end. Despite that, this was a quality performance, with two classy assists.
Zaza 7 - his passing at times can be a let down but a really good goal to continue his streak. Fun fact: he has now scored the same number of goals this season as his former club West Ham have managed in total. He must enjoy having the last laugh.

SUBS
Pereira and Lato - barely noticed them, so no rating
Mina 6.5 - while the other two forwards are getting the plaudits, he's been beavering away and having a decent season, with his third goal. Should have the Copa game to show what he can do for the full 90.

Valencia news round up

Quite a bit of non-match write-up news to report, just in case you missed it.

In July 2016 if you'd asked Valencia fans if they'd accept 12m plus Simone Zaza for Paco Alcacer most would have laughed in your face rejecting you. 15 months later that seems like a superb deal. Zaza has been named La Liga player of the month for September, edging out Lionel Messi

and his award will be presented before tomorrow's game at home against Sevilla.

Valencia confirmed that work will resume shortly on Nou Mestalla. While most Valencia fans will probably ask "what's the point?" in moving from the current stadium near the city centre to a little bit further just to increase the capacity by 5,000, this deal is done and dusted and Valencia have an obligation to be out of the current stadium by 2022.

Rodrigo started for the first time for the Spain side against Albania and opened the scoring with a lovely goal. Unfortunately, he missed several chances and could have had a hat-trick. Whether because of that or not, he wasn't selected for the next game and his chances of making the Spain squad for the next summer hang in the balance. (I wouldn't bet on him being there.) Valencia have to decide sooner rather than later whether to renew his contract which expires in June 2019. Either way better if Valencia renew for an additional year. Superdeporte had a laughable claim recently that Man City had bid 20m plus 15m in incentives for him last summer, which was denied by Marcelino, but the fact is that if he continues to score and appear for Spain, we'd be best off making sure he doesn't leave for peanuts, so a renewal of one-year would be best.

Ferran Torres has been in great form, with Real Madrid and Barcelona sniffing around his 8m release clause which is nothing in today's market. Valencia reacted as they did with Soler, promoting him to the first team and upping his release clause to 25m.

A big question recently has been, can we sign Guedes? Valencia had been linked with Guedes twice. The reaction of Valencia fans was probably either ....

Goncalo Who?

Meh!

Or Meh...meh...meh... Mendes!

25m seemed a lot back then but now seems like a chance missed. Guedes has been great during his time with us and obviously keeping him would be great. The problem is that we have no buy option and every great game he plays ups his value. PSG paid 30m for him with a clause that if they sold him on for 25m or more they would have to pay another 7.5m to Benfica. As a result PSG would probably want 40m at least for him. That is a figure beyond Valencia's means, unless we get a major windfall from selling a player (Cancelo money would go to buying Kondogbia.) I just can't see that happening but another option that has emerged is prolonging Guedes loan until June 2019. That would give Valencia another year to identify a replacement or develop homegrown talents.

Lastly, and self-indulgently, I have to give a big shout out to my friends in the Penya Valencianista de Panama, one of our biggest supporters clubs in The Americas.

Their national team made next year's world cup for the first time due to an 88th minute home goal at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium. There's a Valencia connection there too. Rommel Fernandez was only the second Panamanian player to play in Europe when he played for Valencia in the 1991-1992 season as a backup striker. He was tragically killed in a car crash the following year while on loan at Albacete. While his time with us was unsuccessful, he does leave behind the legacy of one of only two stadiums in The Americas named after a Valencia player and a small hard core Valencia fan club in a country that is otherwise full of Barca and Real Madrid fans. I'm sure he'd be proud of what his team has achieved this season.

Valencia play Sevilla tomorrow and will be heartened by the 1-5 reverse that Sevilla suffered in Moscow in the Champions league this week.

Real Betis 3 Valencia CF 6

Forgive me if I don't go deeply into tactical formations I will leave that to others more qualified. To me football is about entertainment, passion, tension, highs, lows, goals, near misses, controversy and much more.
Last night we had everything all in 93 minutes. On paper it was always going to be a difficult test for us with Betis at home with a very partisan crowd of 48,000 supporters and doing very well in the league just behind us.
Strange to see Barragan and Guadardo lined up against us and both would have a say in how the game played out in different ways.

Kondogbia gets the ball rolling powering in a great header from a Parejo corner leaving the defenders and keeper no chance. Wow a goal for Valencia from a corner.
A minute before the break Gaya puts over a lovely cross to the back post and Soler was unlucky with a powerful volley which the keeper saved well. however the ball found its way to Guedes well out side the area who made himself some space to fire in the top corner for the goal of the weekend.  We were very unlucky to have a penalty claim turned down when Soler was fouled in the box but we are used to that by now.  Half time 0_2 and we are coasting it.

In the second half the inevitable happens, a cross from the right bounces up off the grass or possibly Zaza and glances the arm of Kondogbia.  We all know what is going to happen and of course the ref pleases the home crowd by giving them a penalty. There is a god after all and Neto makes a great or fortunate save with his feet and we are still 2 goals in front.

On 63 mins yet another corner by Parejo is easily nodded in by that man Rodrigo to make it his 6th goal in 6 consecutive games and make the score an unbelievable 0-3. Can it get any better.

On 73 mins a long ball down the line from Gaya, who was perhaps a little lucky not to have been pulled up for the use of his hand, found Santi Mina, who had replace Rodrigo. Mina always looks a bit uncomfortable running at goal but he managed to get in a shot which fortunately spun up off a defender before dropping into the net. 0-4 home and dry, what could possibly go wrong now ?

Murillo was replaced by Paulista, Soler by Andreas and Rodrigo by Mina.  This is when things started to go a bit wrong. On 78 mins a suicidal pass from Paulista to Parejo resulted in Parejo making a ridiculous short pass back, the ball was easily intercepted and its 1-4. No problem, still 3 goals in front. Many Betis supporters will have missed this as they were heading for the exits and there were many empty seats by now.  If there is one thing that I have learned from watching football, its not over till its over.

A minute later Vidal was slow coming out to play Sanabria onside and he calmly slides the ball past Neto and suddenly our arses are twitching.  At this stage anything looked possible as Valencia were all over the place and lost all the concentration. OK ref we will settle for that 2-4, blow the whistle and we can all go home.

No that isn't going to happen, Joel Cambell makes a good run down the right beating Paulista and puts over a cross for Tello to punish Valencia and all the Betis fans leaving to visit local bars. 3-4

They think it's all over but it's not.  Kondogbia wins a good ball and plays it forward. The ball reaches Zaza and he makes no mistake to finally kill off Betis, although seems to have injured himself in the process.

If the game ended now I think we would have no complaints as we have all had our monies worth of drama and excitement. However, Guedes makes a great tackle in his own area and charges the length of the pitch. He passes to Pereira on the left who at first seemed to have missed his chance. He manages to balance himself before firing an unstoppable shot into the top corner to finish an amazing game. Has to be one of the best games I have seen for a long time if for ever.

Player Ratings

Neto 6  Not much chance with the goals after being so exposed but made some fine saves including the penalty.

Vidal 5.5 Made some good tackles but was caught out a few times. Good experience for him with such a pressure game.

Murillo  7.5   Had a great game, he is such a good player and saved us a few times.

Garay 6  Had a decent game, very calm.

Gaya 7  Involved in some of the best moves going forward and solid in defence

Soler 6.5  Unlucky not to score and unlucky not to have the penalty awarded

Parejo 6.5  Gave away a goal but was involved in good forward play and worked hard. S typical Parejo performance.

Guedes 8   For me the man of the match, super goal and super run at the end even though his legs looked tired. Involved in all the good spells.

Kondogbia 7  Good strong performance and great goal. Unlucky with the penalty. Does what he is paid to do and does it well.

Rodrigo 7  I tipped at the start of the season that this would be his year and he is proving it with his 6th goal in as many games.

Zaza 6.5  Worked hard as usual but obviously not fully funcioning with his recent injury, great goal at the end.

Subs:
Pereira  Great goal but he lacks that extra when it comes to defending. A number of times when we needed him to win tackles he was found wanting. Maybe not the right player to bring on at that time.
Although one of the two subs to score and make the game safe

Paulista  Not on for long but struggled to get to pace with the game and at fault for some of the nervy moments in the final spell. Why he passed to Parejo to give away the goal only he will know that.

Mina.  A little fortunate with the goal but always runs his legs off for the team. His goal helped to make the game safe.

Real Betis vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Valencia CF have been performing admirably this season, we've seen a fighting spirit and drive in the players like we've not seen in quite a long time and this is key to success for any team. The crucial thing was for Peter Lim to learn that he can not run the club the way he imagines, that it needs a stable professional football hand and a team who is Spanish, is from the football culture and cares about the club.

Giving away his personal power over to other people, changing the leadership at the club and giving almost full rain and trusting the new leadership and management. This has paid off immensely and we saw good moves on the market in terms of players coming in, we managed to secure a great experienced manager and boy what a difference does it make.

All is not great though as the team still has issues to sort out, some of the players here are only on loan and players like Kondogbia we need to definitely secure as our own, otherwise all the success will be for nothing because there won't be consistency and stability. We need the same core of successful players to stay put together in order to achieve long term success.

Our results have so far been great and Valencia CF will be looking to continue this trend against Real Betis who have shown themselves to be tricky opponents this season. Valencia CF has also had issues dealing with weaker teams in the past several or more years, so this season winning against weaker teams must be maintained. The trials are just now starting, as Valencia CF has mostly faced tough opponents so far, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao,Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad, etc... We'll see if we can manage to consistently beat weaker opponents and not succumb to decadence, arrogance or bravado now that we've had a very good start to the season.

Valencia CF coach Marcelino is bringing in pretty much the same squad he has used throughout the season against Betis, with the biggest change being Kondogbia returning, while Maksimovic falling out of the squad. Fabian Orellana as always is not on the list, so a loan option is certainly in the cards for him in the winter transfer window. I was hoping Marcelino would give him at least one chance, but that is not the case and the last hope is Copa del Rey for him if he is to get any play time, or at least be included in the squad.

I'm not going to be losing sleep over that though as the team is performing well and we haven't needed Orellana, but he did deserve at least some play time based on his preseason performance in my mind. I'm not the trainer and I'm not seeing all the players performance on training, but from what I've seen I do think that Orellana deserved a chance.

Valencia CF squad:
GK: Neto, Jaume
DF: Montoya, Vidal, Garay, Gabriel, Murillo, Gaya, Lato
MF: Nacho Gil, Soler, Kondogbia, Parejo, Pereira, Guedes
FW: Zaza, Moreno, Santi Mina

Valencia 3-2 Athletic Bilbao

Another win over a direct rival, with 3 goals scored, including one each for Valencia's increasingly prolific front two and a result which takes us into third place.

What's not to like? Well, if we're being critical, the second half performance. In fact, the overall performance is a contender for Valencia's worst of the season, which is not to say we played badly, just that the strong start has set a high standard for the team to aim for.

Neto and Montoya returned to the starting line-up and the main question of Kondogbia's replacement was answered. Pereira started rather than Maksimovic and Soler returned to central midfield.

The first 25 minutes were fairly even, with chances for both sides and a few individual errors. Gabriel mucked up a pass in the sixth minute and Neto had to produce a good save. Valencia's best chance came in the 25th minute. Montoya setting up Guedes inside the area and the latter turned well to give himself shooting space but the shot deflected over the bar. Valencia were ahead a minute later after quality play from our midfield. First, Soler tracked back to stop a dangerous counter attack led by Williams and, after winning the ball, found Pereira, who jinked inside creating space for Gaya. His centre found, who else, Zaza who had positioned himself well and slammed home in a manner very similar to his goal against Sociedad.

Zaza would also be involved in Valencia's next attacks which were pure route one football, with balls up field from Neto. The first was headed on by Zaza, finding a great run from Rodrigo, but, from an angle, he was only able to fire straight at the keeper. Shortly after that, there was a carbon copy, Neto to Zaza, who headed on to Rodrigo, who was using his pace to take it round the keeper. The keeper flapped at it, ending up slapping Rodrigo on the head (!) Penalty, converted with ease by Parejo for his first goal of the season.

As I've noted before, Valencia look especially vulnerable after scoring and particularly from set pieces. From a corner, Neto had to produce a superb reaction save to stop Bilbao pulling a goal back. At half time, with a 2-goal lead, Valencia looked to be cruising, however the dynamic changed in the second half.

Bilbao had been forced to rotate due to being in European action on Thursday. Inaki Williams, though a quality player, was struggling a bit as lone striker, so Aduriz and Raul Garcia came on as subs at half time and Bilbao looked much more threatening as a result. After sustained pressure from them, they pulled a goal back in the 58th minute. In fairness it wasn't so much poor defence from Valencia as a moment of brilliance from (who else?) Aduriz, who had a great first touch and turn to evade Gaya and fire across Neto. What is it with that guy? When he played for us, he produced a fairly unimpressive average of 11 goals a season. Against us, he's scored in 7 of the last 8 games!

Valencia really looked on the ropes at this point and the three points started to look unlikely, but we sealed it with a sucker punch from a counter attack. Montoya's floated cross found the onrunning Rodrigo and, with the keeper hesitating, Rodrigo was able to power home a header from the edge of the area. Valencia nearly had a fourth shortly after, with another counter attack putting in Guedes, whose shot was blocked on the line.

To their credit, Bilbao refused to give up and from a free kick, Raul Garcia was able to take advantage of poor marking by us to place a free header past Neto to set up a nervy last 15 minutes. Shaky defending by us, nearly let Raul Garcia equalise in the 80th minute, with another good save by Neto denying them, while Laporta hit the bar with a header a couple of minutes after that, but Valencia managed to hold on.

As with the Sociedad game, not our best performance, but compared to last year, when we would inevitably lose games like this, it's nice to see us holding on against a sustained fight back. We do look vulnerable after scoring, have difficulty dealing with a high press and defending from set pieces, while not as bad as last season, is still an area where we can improve. Overall though, we go into the international break with morale sky high, unbeaten despite a very tricky set of opening fixtures. Compared to this time last year, when we had lost 5 of the opening seven games, that's great progress. If you missed the game, the first half is here and the second here.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7 - a definite upgrade in the goalkeeping front, made at least three great saves to prevent a goal, but seems to have a weakness in the air
Gaya 6.5 - having a good season, was good in defence, especially in the first half and got forward well, struggled more in the second part
Gabriel 5 - off-colour in this game. While his passing overall was satisfactory, he misplaced a couple in dangerous positions and as a defender, just doesn't have that luxury
Garay 6 - satisfactory for most of the game and was the best of our defence in the air, but as with the rest of the defence struggled in the second period
Montoya 6.5 - made some good interceptions in the first period and, for the second game in a row, provided an important assist
Pereira 6 - good and bad, an attacking threat for most of it, decent assist for the first goal but had greedy tendencies and was trying too hard to prove himself
Parejo 6.5 - decent game and good to see him get his first goal, even if from a penalty
Soler 5.5 - seems to alternate between being Superman and the invisible man. Was more of the latter in this game but did play a key role in the first goal
Guedes 6 - got into good positions to score twice but it just didn't happen, put in a good shift overall even if he didn't reach the high of the game before this
Rodrigo 7.5 - was wasted for his first two seasons on the wing. Did a bit better last year as lone front man but is really coming into his own this season as a secondary striker where his running is a lot more purposeful due to his workload being halved. Goals in four consecutive games makes him only the 11th player in Valencia's history to achieve that. Starting to link up well with Zaza too.
Zaza 7.5 - in a real purple patch. Goal and assist in this game, good hold up play, link ups with other players and even gets back the odd time to help out in defence. Far too early (like 2 seasons too early) to speak of him in the same breath as Villa, as some are doing, but he's on the right lines.

SUBS
Maksimovic, Lato and Mina all came on for late cameos but didn't see much of the ball due to pressure at that time from Bilbao, though Maksimovic did make an excellent block soon after coming on.

Copa Del Rey draw and other news

Valencia's opponents in the last 32 of the Copa Del Rey were drawn today. Our possible opponents were the La Liga sides not playing in European competitions and the five remaining Segunda Division sides, 4 of them in promotion or play-off positions with the exception Zaragoza, who are 18th and just outside the relegation positions. We got Zaragoza and therefore have potentially the easiest draw possible. Both clubs have history, Zaragoza bought Aimar and Ayala from us in 2006 but are in one of their worst periods historically. When the club got relegated from the top flight in 2013, they'd spent 53 of the previous 57 seasons in the top division but have yet to return and are now even flirting with dropping to the third level. I visited the Zaragoza stadium just last month, it's big enough, holding nearly 35,000

and the club has consistently had the best attendances in the division, averaging 15000-16000 so the atmosphere should be good but over 2 legs we should have no trouble. The first leg should be played around 25 October in La Romareda and the second at Mestalla around 29 November. 

Jose Alesanco was sacked as Valencia's sporting director last week. Alesanco had been appointed by outgoing President Lay Hoon back in February but like his predecessor, Garcia Pitarch, didn't really seem to do a lot. In recent times President Alemany and Marcelino have been the driving forces behind any transfers, so Alesanco was increasingly looking like the third wheel on the bicycle. Alemany said yesterday that no replacement sporting director will be appointed and that he and Marcelino will assume responsibility for transfers. He also said that there will be money available for transfers in January.

On to bad news. Javi Jimenez suffered a serious injury last week and will be out for 6 to 8 months. Jimenez got off to a bad start with the first team, suffering a poor performance in the Copa games in January against Celta, but has grown since then and had a good pre-season. With Marcelino keen on giving young players games, he'd probably have featured for the first team sooner rather than later. The knock-on effect of this is that Valencia's plan to sell Vezo in January must now be put on hold. Vezo is expected back from his injury about 5 weeks from now and should therefore have the rest of the season to prove his worth.

UEFA confirmed this week that the top four from Spain will now gain direct entry to the Champions league. Previously, the fourth team had to go through a potentially tricky final qualifying round tie, as Valencia had to do when we last qualified as the fourth team in 2015. Now, fourth will guarantee us a place in the group stage.

In UEFA competitions tonight, Bilbao, who we will play at the weekend, put out most of their first team and suffered a surprise home defeat against Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk. That means that, after a good start to the season, Bilbao have now gone five games without a win, obviously good news for us.

Less good news from the UEFA side, though, is that us and Villarreal are under UEFA investigation due to suspicions of breaking their rules on signing underage players. Hopefully we'll be cleared as the punishments are no joke, a potential fine and/or ban on signing new players as has already happened to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

Precarious but Promising: Valencia’s Midfield

When Marcelino Garcia Toral was hired, many who had followed the Spanish manager’s career knew what to expect. At every team he’s coached, he’s been a big fan of a simple 4-4-2.

He’s been very successful with the 4-4-2, getting Villarreal a 4^th place finish in his last year as coach there, so no reason existed for him to not roll out his tried and test formation. The question was how was he going to bend Valencia’s squad into that shape.

Dani Parejo was a natural in the central double pivot, and his companion would be whichever destroyer Valencia were able to get their hands on. They were quite fortunate to get a player of the caliber of Kondogbia, a player who was a midfield force in Monaco before sinking to obscurity on Inter’s bench. A physical powerhouse, he has brought tackles and interceptions to Valencia’s midfield, as well as a silky touch and a surprising range of passing. The two players have established a strong partnership, but a problem looms in the distance.

Marcelino’s Villarreal would commonly trip and fall in the months of February and March, because the 4-4-2 is only as good as it’s double pivot. This would be a problem at Villarreal because they only had two players for their double pivot: Bruno Soriano and Manu Trigueros. They would grow tired as the season wore on, and so their performances would inevitably drop.

At Valencia, the double pivot does and doesn’t have more depth. Due to Kondogbia’s red card against Real Sociedad, he will miss Valencia’s next match against Athletic Bilbao. This will give us insight as to how Marcelino will rotate the midfield. The obvious solution is to put Soler in the double pivot alongside Dani Parejo and play Pereira and Guedes on the wings. This is a fine temporary solution, but the problem with this is that it means that there is less rest for Soler, who is giving exhausting performances every game on the wing.

Should Soler be the primary replacement for the center, Marcelino will need to rotate carefully and unprompted by injury to ensure all 3 players, Parejo, Kondogbia, and Soler, stay fresh. This will then require careful management of Guedes and Pereira, as they are asked to cover Soler on the wing. They will need rest too, and that will require for Marcelino and Orellana to figure out their personal differences to add more depth to the wings. Nacho Gil will also probably be required to rest the wingers as well. Hopefully Gil will be able to take advantage of the opportunities.

Another piece in properly rotating the midfield will be Maksimovic and how he performs when he plays. He has already had some promising cameos, and if he can establish himself as a reliable player, then he will be useful when resting either player in the double pivot. Should he end up not being good enough, he will make the rest of the puzzle much higher.

All in all, Valencia is in a good place, with a strong starting midfield and a decent bench. However, it will take careful management on Marcelino’s part to make sure that the team continues to perform at the high level it has been displaying.

Real Sociedad 2-3 Valencia

Valencia's tough set of early fixtures continued with an away game against Sociedad, a team that have been a thorn in our side in recent seasons, winning the last four games against us.

Both teams came into the game with contrasting fortunes. R.Sociedad had started strongly with 3 wins but were then brought back down to earth with a home defeat by Real Madrid and a 0-3 defeat at Levante. Valencia meanwhile were coming in on a high. While R.Sociedad had home advantage, Valencia had had 2 days extra rest. While our victory against Malaga was greeted with cheers, the reaction of some of our fans was that it was all well and good to win against a weak team like them, but could we do it against Sociedad? The answer was, yes we could, as the team managed a crucial victory against a direct rival.

Marcelino made 5 changes. 3 of them were just reversing the midweek rotations: Garay back instead of Murillo (who had picked up a knock in training anyway), Gaya replacing Lato and Rodrigo back instead of Mina. Montoya got rested with Nacho Vidal getting his first start since the opening day and Jaume making his first start of the season.

Both teams had conflicting styles, lots of possession for R.Sociedad as they tried to find a way through and Valencia staying solid, with two lines of four limiting the opposition, with quick passing and counter attacks. While Sociedad struggled to find a way through, Valencia had 2 chances in the early period. In the first, Rodrigo tried to shoot from distance when a pass to Parejo in space would have been the better option. Zaza later did the opposite, overhitting his pass to Rodrigo across the goal when he might have tried a shot. Sociedad countered with 2 of their own, the first a counter attack when Guedes took a yellow for the team and the second after a mistake from Gaya put Willian in but Jaume made a good save.

Valencia took the lead after excellent work from Guedes, who sprinted on to a loose ball, dribbled round the keeper and played a clever ball back to Rodrigo for a tap in. Unfortunately, Valencia couldn't hold the lead,as Sociedad equalised from a corner, with Paulista losing his man. Sociedad never looked like scoring from open play but threatened from a free kick at the end of the half, with Jaume making a crucial save. Equal at half time, Valencia had struggled a bit under pressure, with passing from the midfield often going astray, Guedes the exception.

We played a bit better at the start of the second half and took the lead again, Soler threading the ball through to Nacho Vidal, who scored with a neat chip over Rulli. As in the first period, the goal seemed to be the signal for us to turn it down a notch, allowing them to score. Garay didn't clear well and the marking was suspect, with a shot from outside the area beating Jaume. Valencia had a one-man advantage for some minutes, after Zubeldia was sent off for a second yellow and started to push forward more but the passing in this game had been a let down throughout. Marcelino made a triple substitution, leaving Kondogbia on, even though he had a yellow and with the referee being very card happy throughout. It was a gamble which backfired. The ref overlooked a foul which Kondogbia committed which looked like a yellow, but a minute later, sent him off.

It looked like Valencia had squandered the chance to win it, but the team sealed it. Gabriel threaded a cracking pass to Guedes who sped down the wing and put across a precise centre for Zaza to score the winner.

Despite the result, not the best game we've played this season, I mentioned last game how we seem to switch off after scoring and in this game, the passing at times left a lot to be desired, but the team has confirmed itself as a serious contender for top four. Still early days, but what a really good start, especially after the trainwreck at the start of last season.

PLAYER RATINGS
Jaume 6.5 - a few good saves to keep himself in contention for the number one spot
Nacho Vidal 6.5 - while I think Montoya does better in this position, really happy to see another youth product make the breakthrough and well-taken goal too. Should get more games.
Garay 5.5 - not bad, but one of the weaker links and poor clearance led to their second
Gabriel 6 - defensively not as secure as previously
Gaya 6.5 - defensively sound, seemed to have picked up a slight injury at the end
Guedes 8.5 - excellent game, always a threat and incisive passing for 2 of the goals
Parejo 6 - not the force he was in previous games, as the team struggled to retain possession under pressure, limiting his effectiveness
Kondogbia 5 - an off-day, while his interceptions remained good, his passing was wayward in this game and he should have been more careful with tackles especially after getting away without a second yellow
Soler 6.5 - as with the rest of the midfield, struggled to make an impact in the first half, did better in the second and is now one of the top assisters in La Liga
Zaza 7 - another crucial goal and created a couple of chances as well and to think, a week ago we were worrying about our forwards. He has five goals in six games, with only Messi scoring more.
Rodrigo 7 - good game which should go some way to silencing the doubters. This is the first time in his Valencia career he's scored in three consecutive games. Attacked space well and is now jont fourth scorer in La Liga.

SUBS
Lato, Mina and Pereira all unrated. They all came on late in the game and had limited chance to make an impact.

Valencia 5-0 Malaga

Did I just dream that?

Valencia had got off to a reasonable enough start in La Liga, but questions still remained, especially about the attack, the team's ability to win games and whether, after proving that they could cut it against the top teams, we would resort to business as usual by conceding goals and dropping silly points against the smaller teams. Even at half time in this game, those questions were still open, but in the second half they were blown away, as Malaga were, by Valencia's best performance in a half since the Europa game against Rapid Vienna.

As expected, Marcelino went for a few rotations to give a few players a rest. Nothing radical: Gabriel returned to replace Garay, Lato came in for Gaya, Guedes got his first start instead of Pereira and Zaza started again, this time partnering Mina up front.

Malaga got the slightly better start and indeed, for the first half in general, looked much better than their league position suggested. After the first 5 minutes though, Valencia grew into control and started to looked more confident, patient build up play, great technique passing and touches, generally good defense and dangerous looking counter attacks.

In the seventh minute, we had the ball in the net, but it was ruled offside, Parejo judged to have been offside when he planted the first header. It was marginal, but probably correct. In the 16th minute we did take the lead. Soler controlled a great long ball and put in a decent cross which Mina headed back across goal. 

Valencia switched off a little after scoring, something the team will have to work on. Rolon almost put Malaga level a minute later, but Neto produced a great save. Valencia squandered a good chance to make it two, with Zaza the main villain. The defender had just taken it away from him and then it got tangled in his legs, Zaza falling over and appealing for a penalty after a bit of a touch from the keeper. Malaga for their part weren't giving up, there were a few less than perfect clearances from the back, especially from Murillo. Neto had to produce another great save to deny Muro. At half time we led, but they were still in it and would remain so up until our second goal.

That goal came from another great cross from Soler, with Mina, probably luckily, just missing it, allowing Zaza to slide it in at the back post. While two questionable decisions had gone against us, it has to be said, this was in our favour as Mina was offside and interfering.

Malaga fell apart after that, though it helped that our midfield four were giving a superb performance. Parejo held the ball up from another attack and rather than wasting it, waited for the oncoming Montoya. Great cross from him and great diving header from Zaza. The Italian's hattrick came shortly after, Mina pressured the defender well, giving Zaza time to nip in and steal the ball before poking home. What a way to answer his critics. A few days ago there were questions about his ability and relationship with the manager, now he's the second top scorer in La Liga after Messi!

With the game in the bag and a tough game away to high flying Sociedad on Sunday, Marcelino sensibly decided to sub off key players, so Kondogbia, Parejo and Zaza came off for Pereira, Maksimovich and Rodrigo.

Valencia could have won this by 6 or 7 after this point. One of the best counters was led by Guedes, who played in Rodrigo, but Mina was too slow to react to his ball across the goal.

Having seen the other two forwards score, Rodrigo looked totally determined to do it himself and scored our fifth in the 85th minute, linking up well with Guedes, whose great back heel allowed him to slot home. A great win and performance which alleviates many of the doubts. If you'd written a wish list for this as a Valencia fan before the game, you couldn't have improved on it: strong performance, many goals, clean sheet, goals for all the front three. Unbeaten after 5 games, no goals conceded in the first 3 games at Mestalla. Mission accomplished.

PLAYER RATINGS

Neto 8 - Diego who? The decision to replace Alves with this guy has worked out so far. Solid goalkeeping and good distribution.

Lato 7 - the only problem with this guy is the selection issue he gives the coach. Good in defence and dangerous going forward.

Gabriel 6.5 - competent enough performance, early days for him at VCF but so far so good

Murillo 6 - good defending but needs to work on distribution from the back, as we can't have him giving the ball away in dangerous areas as he did tonight a couple of times

Montoya 6.5 - far better than previous game and a great cross for the goal

Guedes 8 - first start and deserves more if he plays like this, always an attacking threat

Kondogbia 7.5 - we absolutely have to exercise the buy option on him. Has added real bite to the midfield and provides the consistency that the erratic Enzo lacked and all without the discipline problems.

Parejo 7.5 - Marcelino has really brought the best out in him, got a deserved round of applause when going off

Soler 8.5 - after a disappointing game last time, was almost my man of the match for this one. Looked like he's been playing as a winger for years.

Mina 6.5 - upped his game after last one, scoring a much needed goal and providing the pressure needed for our fourth

Zaza 9 - ironically up until his first goal, I'd probably have only given him an average rating, but then he produces an 8-minute hat trick. If he can do that more regularly, top four may yet be possible.

SUBS

Pereira 6.5 - solid after coming on, pity he's only on loan

Rodrigo 7 - first time he hasn't started and after seeing his competitors score he put in the effort to do the same. As with them, we need more of this.

Maksimovich 6 - looked a handy player, bit unlucky for him that he'll probably be reduced to a bit role this season

Levante 1-1 Valencia

Valencia faced their city rivals Levante in the first derby in 18 months. While Levante have struggled in recent years, they've always been competitive against us, winning the last 4 home games. They've also had a decent return to La Liga, beating Villarreal and drawing at the Bernabeu, so this was always going to be a tricky tie.

Marcelino made 2 changes from the last game. With Gabriel not at full fitness after an injury he was replaced by Murillo. That means Valencia have had a different back two in all four games this season. The main surprise was the inclusion of Mina, replacing Zaza as Rodrigo's strike partner. While Mina is in his third season, this is only the second time he's played with Rodrigo in a forward two. The previous time, away to Atletico Madrid in Nuno's last season, didn't end well, with Rodrigo getting injured for 2 months. I wouldn't read too much into Mina replacing Zaza, with Valencia playing midweek, it's probably just rotation.

The first half was a bit of a dull affair. Neither team looked inspiring going forward. Valencia had the better of the first 15 minutes and Levante the better second 15 minutes. They looked the more likely to score, so it was a little against the run of play when we took the lead. Rodrigo controlled a long ball from Parejo well. I've criticised his decision making, but this time he got it exactly right. Instead of trying a wild shot or dribble he played the ball out to Pereira and, from the latter's cross, found space to power a header home. Valencia should have been 2-0 up. In both cases Soler was the main culprit. Firstly, doing good work to cut inside but placing a weak shot right at the keeper and then, after a looping header from Mina had hit the woodwork, heading straight at the keeper.

Valencia had changed tactics a bit for this game, going more for long balls, probably hoping to exploit the high back line that Levante had employed in previous games. There were also more shots from distance, though they were ineffective. Levante equalised towards the end of the first half, with Valencia conceding a disappointing goal from a cross.

The second half was a bit dull, with few chances. Rodrigo missed the best of them when put through, but as the half dragged on, it looked like neither team could score and the game finished 1-1.

So, Valencia remain unbeaten after 4 games against reasonably difficult opponents. We look a difficult team to beat, but there's a lack of creativity and danger up front. The battle for top 6 will be intense this season and we need to start to winning games if we want to achieve that. To do that, we need to start scoring. Satisfactory, but improvement still needed, especially in attack.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 5.5 - as in previous games, not a lot to do as he was screened by an effective defence, but was a bit flat footed on the goal.
Gaya 6 - reasonable game and put in a few good crosses, but needs to learn to use his right foot
Murillo 6.5 - had a good game, good to have so many solid defenders for a change
Garay 6 - no complaints, played well
Montoya 4 - ineffective in defence and attack, lucky not to get booked
Pereira 6.5 - another good game, always a threat on the left
Kondogbia 6 - competent but not the force he was in previous games and nearly got caught in possession a couple of times
Parejo 6 - a few wayward passes, but created a few good opportunities as well
Soler 4 - disappointing game, missed a couple of good chances and his passing was not that great
Rodrigo 6.5 - needed that goal and put in a good performance
Mina 2.5 - anonymous and forgettable, needs to take advantage of starts like this

SUBS
Guedes 4.5 - not sure if it was his idea or Marcelino's for him to shoot every time he was in a dangerous position, but it didn't work
Zaza 4.5 - not much impact after coming on, but Mina's lack of form means he's safe

Valencia 0-0 Atletico Madrid

Valencia faced one of their historic rivals and secured a credible draw in a tough stalemate.

Marcelino made 3 changes from the last game. Garay returned to replace Vezo. Gabriel replaced fellow new signing Murillo. Pereira came in, initially at left wing, replacing Lato, with Gaya dropping back. Both Gabriel and Pereira made their debut. To Valencia's relief, Atletico's star man Greizmann was suspended.

Valencia got off to a nervy start, Atletico were quickest off the blocks and had us pinned back for the first 10 minutes. We woke up, however and the first half resembled a chess game, with both teams carefully probing the other, trying to find a way through, but coming up against a solid defence. Atletico looked a bit better in attack and looked especially dangerous on the break. Atletico were a bit physical with the challenges and the referee was too lenient. Montoya was rightly booked but Partey had gotten away with a number of dodgy challenges.Valencia were solid in defence, dependable in midfield, but struggled to create any chances.

The second half followed a similar pattern, by the hour mark the teams were still even, with Valencia maybe even edging it but never testing Oblak. We were trying to patiently work the ball around, but possibly the odd shot from distance would have been warranted. Beating Oblak from range is a tall ask, but we could have got rebounds. After the hour mark we had a bit of a mini slump, with our intensity dropping and Atletico streaming forward more but our defence held out. On the other hand credit must go to our guys. Rodrigo and Zaza, having little to work with, put in a great shift preventing Atleti building from the back. Every time danger lurked, Kondogbia would pop up like a magician with a timely interception. The only slight criticism: Soler and Pereira switching wings seemed to confuse them and our team more than the opposition.

Substitutions for both sides failed to break the deadlock and the game finished 0-0. A fair result overall. We equipped ourselves well and showed considerable improvement in defence and midfield over last season and successive clean sheets in home games but the inability to create and take chances makes any top 4 finish unlikely for now. Despite that, there are many reasons to be positive, the team is, at last, developing in the right direction. We played with a good level of intensity today, a big change from last year when a lot of the guys looked like they couldn't be bothered. The squad looks stronger and today was the first time since 1 November 2015 that we've kept clean sheets in successive home games.

As always your comments are appreciated.

PLAYER RATINGS

Neto 7 - showed himself to be a very safe pair of hands throughout
Gaya 6.5 - starting to get back to the form we saw in his breakthrough season, with great crosses
Garay 7 - good game and solid defending, glad we kept him
Gabriel 6.5 - good debut, one nervy moment where there was apparent misunderstanding between him and the goalkeeper, but that will improve as they get more games together
Montoya 6 - far better game than last time, but doesn't seem to have developed the understanding with the winger in front of him that he had last season. Again, it's early days
Pereira 6.5 - equipped himself well and was one of our better players in the first half
Kondogbia 8 - early signs are that this guy could turn out to be our best signing since Otamendi. A great physical presence, but also spot on with his passing.
Parejo 7 - has had a great start to the season, Kondogbia's arrival has given him more freedom to act in a playmaking role with solid passing
Soler 5.5 - some good touches, but struggled to make an impact in this game
Zaza 5 - as noted above, had little to work with but put himself about as a physical presence
Rodrigo 5 - worked hard and got deserved applause when coming off, but I'll repeat what I said before, needs to be more clinical with his decision making.

SUBS
Guedes 5.5 - hard to rate him as he didn't really have enough time, got himself in good positions, but there was one frustrating one where he tried to switch to his right foot, when a cross with the left was needed
Mina 5.5 - as with the other forwards, was smothered by Atleti's rock solid defence
Murillo 6.5 - can consider himself unlucky not to have started after a good debut against Madrid, but was secure after coming on. Nice to see us finally have some quality options in defence.

Valencia CF vs Atletico Madrid

Valencia CF ended the summer transfer window on a high, bringing in Andreas Pereira and Goncalo Guedes in the last days on the transfer window, further strengthening an already strong squad, which we managed to see against Real Madrid, holding them to a draw at the Bernabeu.

Valencia CF is now packed in the defense, with Garay and Vezo both staying at the club, while we added Gabriel and Murillo in the center of defense, with Jimenez one of our youth players serving as a backup.

Kondogbia fits in nicely in the midfield alongside Parejo and we saw the partnership work wonders against Real Madrid, hopefully from here on out it can only improve. I'm not going to get carried away, but if everything goes well I can see this team placing top 6 and ending in some European competition.

Atletico Madrid our tonight's opponents are a strong team and their core have been playing together for several years now, but they failed to strengthen this summer, with none of their players getting any younger either. Their team is showing cracks in the play and I believe we can seriously pose a challenge tonight when we face them.

Once again I don't want to get carried away, so I think a draw would be a great positive for tonight, especially a say 0-0 draw, keeping a clean sheet, getting a point from Atletico Madrid and boosting our players confidence even more. A win would obviously be amazing, I'd be ecstatic by it, but I don't see it as realistic yet and would be more than pleased with a draw.

The transfer window closes; Guedes and Pereira join

The Summer transfer window has been a scary occasion for Valencia fans for at least a decade. The club's financial problems, which started in the mid-2000s and have still resulted in the club being one of the five football clubs in the world with the most debt, have meant that Valencia has constantly had to sell off its best players, usually weakening the squad as a result. Silva, Villa, Mata, Alba, Bernat, Soldado... the list goes on. Hopes that Lim's takeover would stop this were dashed when Otamendi was sold, with last year's transfer window being especially traumatic, with the club losing Andre Gomes, Mustafi and Alcacer and the replacements being Munir, Mario Suarez and Mangala. All of them, with the possible exception of the latter, flopped.

This year looked to be going the same way. By mid-August the club had only swapped goalkeepers, replacing Alves and Ryan with Neto, with Maksimovich, who had agreed to join the club 6 months earlier, the only additions. In early August, the central defensive situation looked really scary, with Garay tipped to go and no replacements lined up.

What a difference since then. Garay stays, despite late interest from Benfica. The club added Gabriel from Arsenal for 11m with Murillo joining an loan with a compulsory buy of 12m, though the club has until 2019 to find that money. With Garay, Murillo and Gabriel as main choices, and Vezo and Jimenez as back ups, the central defence looks well sorted.

In midfield, the club added Kondogbia, a loan with a buy option of 25m with the late arrivals of Guedes and Pereira completing the picture. Both join on loan without options to buy.

All in all, unlike last year, the club largely succeeded in clearing out unwanted players and strengthening in key positions. Negredo, Alves and Enzo, all high wage earners, were sold. While we can all complain that they left for peanuts and below market value (see also Piatti), their departure did allow the club a fresh start to rejuvenate the squad. Vincius Araujo's contract was simply terminated. He joins Zaragoza. He always seemed a panic buy and there was close on zero chance of him ever being a useful squad member. Other exits were Santos, Abdennour, Nani, Bakkali, Medran and Cancelo, who all left on loan. The first two were definitely surplus to requirements. Bakkali was a fan favourite, but one who, like DePaul, never seemed to gel with the team. Cancelo had his fans, but his sale was long expected to raise funds, so there was none of the shock factor that happened last year with Alcacer's sale. Medran is one of the exits who will be missed most, but the player himself was pushing for more playing time and so, like Ryan, was shown the door.

The only remaining player that the club hoped to sell or loan but couldn't is Orellana, who stays with the club. Another negative from the window is failing to land a forward. The club was linked with Vietto, who stays with Atletico, Lucas Perez, who returned to Depor and, at the last minute, Gremio striker Luan Viera, who the Brazilian club decided not to sell in the end.

Overall, in relative terms, this is one of Valencia's best transfer windows in years. The club cleared out most of the dead wood, kept key players and strengthened in key positions like central defence and central midfield. Best of all, the transfers look sustainable. Kondogbia will cost 25m if we buy him, but that's up to us and we can evaluate the player for a season without taking a risk. None of the others will break the bank. Compare that to the summer of 2014, when Lim's reckless spending on Mendes clients handicapped us for the next few years. Lessons do seem to have been learnt. The failure to land an extra forward is disappointing and means that we have to make do with Zaza and Rodrigo, with Mina as back up and Guedes possibly covering there. I suppose we can revisit in the winter window if that doesn't work.

Are you happy with the transfer window? Let us know in the comments section.

Nani and Abdennour leave on loan

In the last few days Valencia has managed to complete its objective of getting the last two unwanted high wage earners off the books.

Abdennour joins Olympique Marseilles on a one-year loan with the French club having the option to extend it to two years. Abdennour was close to joining Zenit but obviously decided that the food and weather would be better in the south of France. He joined the club in August 2015 as the big money replacement for Otamendi, with the club paying nearly 22m for him. But performances in his debut season were a big letdown. Fans praised his strength at first but questioned his positioning. After getting injured in the Autumn he made a number of mistakes which gifted the opposition goals: Getafe's second goal being typical and was followed by similar gaffes against teams like Betis and Celta, with an injury in the second part of the season not helping his cause.

Although there were some good performances in there, it was a bit like the Yoel situation: the early mistakes would be forever remembered. Reduced to back-up last season by Mangala and falling behind Garay, Murillo, Gabriel and even Vezo and Jimenez in the pecking order this season, his chances of getting any regular playing time slipped to near zero. In the past he seemed happy to sit and collect his wages, but with Tunisia in the mix for next year's world cup, he's off to France.

Nani was not on the list of players the club was seeking to get rid of, but with the club running up against Financial Fair Play limits, the club needed to rethink. Him and Mina were the obvious targets to free up space for a forward. With Nani's salary easily the highest and the club still harbouring hopes that Mina will reach his potential, it was Nani who went. He joins Lazio on a one-year loan, with Lazio having an option to buy. Gazetta Della Sport says this is 8m, while Spanish sources say 10m. His age means the club would have preferred to sell him but with time running out, as with other deals were forced to settle for less.

The remaining deals all look up in the air. Orellana continues to be linked with clubs in Turkey, Spain and Chile. Medran is reported to be close to a loan at Alaves. Reports suggest that Real Madrid are interested in Rafa Mir for 2.5m. Valencia remains confident of Guedes coming and will now try to sign a forward, most likely on an initial loan, to give the team more bite up front. The last question hangs over Pereira. A week ago Valencia were confident, but the issue seems to be that Man United are insisting in putting penalty clauses in the loan contract, so that if Pereira is fit and is not selected for a set percentage of games Valencia would have to pay Man United for his non-appearance! Obviously, Valencia are not keen on having their hands tied that way and are not going to agree to a deal which forces Marcelino to select a player who may not provide the quality needed. As a result, the club are looking at other options like Moussa Sissoko.

Latest Transfer News

The latest transfer news is:

Santi Mina   Possible loaned to Real Betis or Getafe as he is not wanted by Marcelino.

Medran    Loaned to Alaves together with NANDO and possibly MAKSIMOVIC

Vinicius    Possible loan to Real Zaragoza in Segunda.

Orellana   Interested  by Fenerbache or Getafe or a return to Celta Vigo.

Abdennour   To Zenit but also interest from West Ham, Nice and Besiktas to team up with Negredo.
This will probably be a last minute sale to the highest bidder.

Very good news is that Garay may not now be sold as Vezo has broken small bones in toe so out for 3 or 4 weeks. Apparently Marcelino now wants him to stay.

Goncalo Guedes nearer arriving from PSG after the sale of Mbappe.

Andreas Periera   very close to signing after given release by Man Utd.  Has to be a purchase or loan with option as his contract expires in June 2018

Real Madrid - Valencia post-match thoughts

So many commented on the previous thread, that I'll just give some thoughts here.

First on the players....

NETO: Not totally convinced. Made good saves but also looked unsure and flat footed for the goals. No chance on the first but needed to organise the wall better for the second. Jury still out.

MONTOYA: Anonymous and forgettable performance, one of our worst players and capable of much better than this as he was one of our better players last year.

VEZO: has made a decent start to the season and looks a capable back-up, would be sorry to see him go, especially since he could also cover right bank if needed.

MURILLO: decent start for someone who has just joined the team, can only get better when he settles and finds a constant defensive partner

LATO: great performance and assist, combined well with Gaya and having both of them covering that side really worked.

GAYA: good job, struggled at times to get down the wing but is growing in confidence and ability

PAREJO: great start to the season, really repaying the confidence in him and nearly scored one of his trademark free kicks

KONDOGBIA: what a debut, looks exactly the player we need. Strong and convincing, but also great distribution. Watch his pass for the first goal, such awareness. I thought he'd got a bit lucky, but then he produced a couple of others like that. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

SOLER: continues to grow and always looks a threat. The only worry will be what will happen if Guedes and/or Pereira arrive. Parejo+Kondogbia looks the preferred central pairing and left wing doesn't look like his best position, which is through the centre. Will need games to grow.

RODRIGO: good assist for the second, but responsible for the two goals against. Does put in good effort, but his decision making and finishing sucks and unless he improves on this his days will be numbered.

ZAZA: as with Rodrigo, ran and worked hard at closing down, but finishing needs to improve.

SUBS: Nacho Vidal looks a capable back-up to Montoya and Nacho Gil looks ready to back up but will struggle to get minutes. Mina's days look numbered.

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Overall thoughts: the team is starting to look the business and for the first time in 3 years, we look to have emerged from the transfer window stronger rather than weaker. The new additions improve the side and the young players are starting to repay the faith shown in them. What a difference a decent coach makes. Central midfield and central defence, from being a big worry for most of the summer, now almost look to have too many players. Right back could be stronger, but is not a priority and we can wait till the winter window to see how Montoya and Vidal do. Assuming at least one winger comes, the big weakness looks to be up front where we really need someone who can put the ball in the net.

As for exits, as of now Abdennour and Orellana look sure to go, with questions hanging over Mina, Garay and Vezo. Nani looks set to stay as his injury and high wage would put off potential buyers. The other question mark hangs over the midfield duo of Medran and Maksimovich who will really struggle to get playing time with Parejo-Kondogbia-Soler preferred for the 2 spots and Nacho Gil also emerging as a contender. A loan for the season shouldn't be ruled out.

Real Madrid vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Valencia CF started off the season in a proper fashion with a hard fought, but stable and predictable 1-0 victory over Las Palmas, who actually beat Valencia CF last season in our opening match 4-2, so it was a nice change for us. Last weeks victory had a bit of a damper this week as Atletico Madrid trashed Las Palmas 5-1, so it showed that they are defensively fragile and our team with a player more for almost 70 minutes only managed to beat them 1-0. Still though losing one man so early on would have closed them up more and they would obviously focus a lot more on defense, while Atletico Madrid only managed 2-2 in their opening match.

This week Valencia CF visits the Bernabeu where Real Madrid await us, albeit possibly "weakened" as Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo are both suspended, though while both great players, I think Real Madrid are even more dangerous with Ronaldo as younger players try to prove themselves and show what they can do, plus Valencia CF have been able to historically deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and limit his contributions.

Bad news for Valencia CF is that Garay is not in for this match, so our defense is weakened even though one of our new signing Murillo is on the list of players and he's one of our defensive reinforcements, I don't know how ready he is to play with the team and especially against Real Madrid. Parejo was a possible worry with injury, but he made the list, though I don't know if he is fully 100% fit.

Another new arrival that made the list is Kondogbia, who again I'm not sure if he is ready to play with the team, he's arrived only recently and would surely need more time to gel, but you never know, it may be a perfect fit, perfect match and he could instantly make a big positive impact, though it remains to be seen.

Valencia CF is playing 4-4-2 formation, we might see a variation to 4-4-1-1, but this is going to be our primary formation, so expect to see Zaza and Moreno up front either as a duo or one behind another, with the midfield consisting of Kondogbia, Parejo, Medran and Soler. Essentially no wingers, but we could theoretically fight for posession with this lineup and try and create issues for them by controlling the tempo of the match.

Geoffrey Kondogbia joins Valencia CF

Geoffrey Kondogbia joins Valencia CF on a one year loan deal, with the option to purchase the player at the end of his loan term, the purchase sum is being kept secret for now, but rumor has it its around 20 million euros.

Valencia CF sought out the player for close to a month, with Inter playing hardball at first, but ultimately the player wanted to join Valencia CF and get more playing time and Inter were forced to loan him out as Valencia CF just doesn't have the money to buy him out immediately.