Las Palmas 1-1 Valencia (Copa del Rey)

It's late here, so apologies for this one being quite short.

A fairly disappointing performance tonight, though one that leaves us favorites to reach the next round. Rubén Uría went for the following line-up

resting Parejo and Guedes and preferring Vezo over Gabriel and Mina over Rodrigo. The first 20 minutes were a bit boring, with neither team inspiring or creating anything of substance. Las Palmas employed a high press and looked a bit better than us when on the ball. Without Parejo we looked unconvincing, constantly losing the ball and when we had it, often just kicking it wildly upfield. There was no focus in the passing and a lack of clear ideas or imagination. On the plus side, Maksimovich was having a decent game, making several good interceptions and our defence, especially Garay and Vezo coped well with everything thrown at them. The first real chance came on the break, but Mina wasted it, shooting tamely from distance when a pass to Nacho Gil would have been a better option.

With Las Palmas controlling the game and having over two thirds of the possession and Valencia largely ineffective up front, it was the home side that went ahead. A good combination down the left side saw the ball centred to Calleri, who was able to escape his marker Lato to open the scoring. Just before half time, we had the chance to equalise. Maksimovich anticipated well, won the ball and found Pereira, who returned the ball to Maksimovich, who missed a good chance to level.

Parejo replaced Kondogbia at half time and Valencia improved in the second half, but were let down by wastefulness from both Mina and Zaza, who both had a poor game. Zaza was probably the biggest letdown and missed a clear chance, robbing the ball and with only the keeper to beat, he decided to try and chip the goalkeeper from distance instead of running on for a one on one opportunity. With the introduction of Rodrigo and Guedes, Valencia improved significantly in the last 30 minutes. Guedes was excellent, a constant threat, had a good penalty shout turned down and was involved in our equaliser, threading the ball through to the overlapping Lato, who centred for Rodrigo to score. Valencia pushed forward in search of the winner but time had run out and Zaza missed another chance.

A very inconsistent and uneven performance from us, lacking in the first half and only sparking to life late on, a pattern we've seen in several games this season and the team has to improve on this to maintain our Champions league push. The exits of Rober and Mir have been confirmed, by the way.

Las Palmas vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Happy New Year and holidays, best luck in the new year! Anyways it wasn't such a great new year for Marcelino who had a car accident and is going to miss tomorrow's match. He wasn't seriously injured, nor his wife, but it seems his mother is more seriously injured and is still in the hospital. He is taking a bit of time to recoup physically and mentally.

Tomorrow match will be led by Marcelino's assistant Ruben Uria who's already led the team twice this season, thanks to Marcelino's previous suspension. Its a small blow for Valencia CF that it doesn't have its head coach at the start of the new year, we need to be at full force in order to continue in the same footsteps as the first half of the year, but tomorrow's game is in the copa del rey and against Las Palmas, so an easier game on paper, but again it would have been nice to be at full force.

In terms of players returning from injury, Garay as you know has already been fully fit for at least two weeks, and Gaya has been training normally with the team as well, but Soler and Murillo are still out with injuries. Soler is expected to be back soon, in fact next week might see his comeback, while Murillo probably has a up to a month before he is back with the team.

The team ended 2017 on a whim, rather than a bang, losing at home against Villarreal in what should have been an easy win for the team. The play was much better than the previous 3-4 matches, there was no first half slump, the players were focused and engaged from the first minute, but a 24th minute Villarreal goal stunned the team and we just weren't able to make a dent. Things got worse in the 60th minute when Zaza received a second yellow and automatic red card, so Valencia CF played 20 minutes with one less player, before Villarreal's Manuel Trigueros was given a red card as well.

The cup is where its at though and Valencia CF has a chance to actually achieve something more, maybe even win the trophy, something which Marcelino has repeatedly said he is hoping for and focusing on. I think winning copa del rey would be huge for this Valencia team, but its going to be really hard. All the big teams are still in it, so at some point we are likely to face either one or all of them. We did well against all of them, but how well will we do a second time around?

Anyways I with the team good luck tomorrow and hopefully we can start 2018 with a win and continue in that fashion throughout the whole year!

Valencia interested in Vietto / Mir set to leave

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you all had a good holiday and are ready for the second half of the season.

The winter transfer window has opened, giving Valencia a chance to make reinforcements. The severely limited budget, said to be around 8 million euros, largely restricts us to bringing in players on loan with options to buy. Valencia have long made it clear that they are interested in up to three players, which, in order of preference, are a forward, a defensively minded midfielder to serve as backup for Kondogbia and a right back. Those financial constraints mean that it's quite possible that only one new player, a forward, will join.

For well over a month, Valencia's main target has been Sandro, who did well at Malaga last season but is struggling to adapt to the English Premier league. For a while, it looked like this was only a matter of time, with the player not featuring at Everton and keen to return to Spain. Unfortunately, Everton have been dithering over whether they want to let him go or not and it now looks like this won't happen. Consequently, our interest has turned to perennial target, Luciano Vietto.

Valencia have been interested in the player for years. Part of the deal to sign Rodrigo De Paul back in May 2014 involved giving Valencia a first refusal 5 million euros buy option on Vietto, but when Villarreal under Marcelino came in with an offer months later, Valencia declined and bought Rodrigo and Negredo instead.

The figures reported by Superdeporte suggest that Atletico Madrid want €12-14m overall for Vietto, with Valencia's offer being around €850,000 for the loan with a buy option around €10m. That's less than what is being offered by Sporting Lisbon, but it's understood that the player himself would prefer to stay in Spain and reunite with Marcelino, under whom he showed his best form.

I think Sandro would be the better option. He's more in the mould of Zaza, a physical player good at link up play and set pieces, whereas Vietto seems to be more in the mould of Santi Mina: a secondary striker.

In a surprising twist, Rafa Mir's departure looks set to happen this week. It's been known for months that the player would be leaving as he was refusing to sign a new contract, disgruntled with his lack of appearances for the first team and unhappy with the fans, who he thought had always seen him as Mendes' boy and the poster child for Mendes' over influence in the team in Lim's first years. Given all that, his transfer to Real Madrid looked a certainty. The twist is that Wolves of England look to have sealed his signing where he will reunite with Nuno. I'll admit a personal interest there as Wolves have been my English club of choice for decades, so I'm looking forward to seeing him play again. The positive from all this is that Valencia will get some money. Just a little (Marca report €500,000, Superdeporte say €2m) but any sum is better than him leaving for free in the summer.

In other transfer news, Valencia have been considering recalling Cancelo from his loan at Inter. The player is interested in returning as he's had limited playing time at Inter, though since Valencia's interest in the recall was mooted, he's played three games. For Valencia it poses a tricky dilemma. Recall the player and he can at least cover the right wing and the right back, though I'm not convinced he would be a massive improvement on Montoya in a defensive sense. He might also get more games than at Inter, maintaining his value, as at least we would control how many games he would play. The problem is that Valencia are dearly hoping that Inter will exercise their €32m buy option, unlikely though it looks.

Also on the right, Rober looks set to leave, signing for Getafe, who will loan him to Osasuna in Segunda, with Valencia having a buy back clause until Summer 2020 or receiving 15% of any future sale. Moving the other way, Sito returns from Lorca where he was getting limited playing time. The long term future of Guedes is also likely to be settled this month, as PSG will probably need to move the player on for Financial Fair Play reasons.

Valencia start 2018 tomorrow in Las Palmas in the Copa del rey, hoping to return to winning ways after a disappointing dip in form in December. Rubén Uría will be managing the team, as Marcelino got injured over the holiday period when his car hit a wild boar in northern Spain. Luckily, the injury doesn't seem too serious and he is expected to be back for the game against Girona in Mestalla on Saturday.

2017 represented a decent return for Valencia. Here's hoping for a great 2018!

Valencia 0-1 Villarreal match thread

When you're forced to watch your goalkeeper sky a good chance in the opposition's penalty area in injury time, you know something's wrong. Since the crushing and euphoric win over Sevilla back in October, the wheels have fallen off the Valencia bus, as the team missed a great chance to take advantage of defeats for Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla and end the year on a low note. I said before that talk of a crisis was premature and it still is, with the team well placed. Most of us would have been delighted at the start of the season to be third, 5 points clear in the Champions league places but the simple fact is that recent signs are very worrying and the team has now only had a win and draw in the last 5 games and even that draw probably should have been a loss against Barcelona, who have galloped out of sight in the title race, with Valencia's focus now turning to maintaining its place in the top four.

In recent games, the team could at least blame injury problems for poor showings, but today that didn't even apply. Sure, Soler and Gaya were out but the absence of two players shouldn't affect a team that way.

Overall, the match had shades of last season's Valencia: probably the better team overall but coming away empty handed as Villarreal played the way that ummm, Valencia had played earlier in the season: defending well and, while having limited chances, hitting us with dangerous counter-attacks and scoring from one of them.

The goal was avoidable. Montoya had a better game in attack but got caught out at the back and failed to stay with Bacca, while Paulista played him onside and for the rest of the game Valencia just couldn't score. There was the usual crap refereeing as well. Valencia should have had a penalty just before half-time due to a clear handball but the referee missed it.

Later in the game, Zaza lunged in with a couple of silly fouls and largely ended our hopes of a comeback by getting sent off for a second yellow. After that, Mina came on, with Valencia playing a back three but that left us vulnerable to counter attacks, though luckily they missed a few chances. While Valencia did play with spirit in the late part of the game, not even the sending off of a Villarreal player in the 82nd minute could change things. To add to the misery, Kondogbia's fifth booking means he's out for the next league game as well.  

The team has had a good season so far but risks losing what we've gained. We need to seriously improve in the New Year, as the 5-point gap is vulnerable, especially since we will face tricky trips to Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Villarreal in the second half of the season.

PLAYER RATINGS

Neto 5 - Really had little to do throughout and couldn't do a lot on the goal

Lato 5.5 - not a bad game overall, with some good link ups with Guedes

Garay 6 - good to see him back, was the best of the back line

Paulista 4 - needs to improve or lose his place to Murillo when he returns

Montoya 5 - did better in an attacking sense, but his defending is erratic and he remains one of the weak links in the team, after being one of the better players last season

Parejo 4.5 - had a poor first period with multiple passes going astray, improved after the break

Kondogbia 6 - offered solidity as usual and was one of our better players

Guedes 6 - played well overall, but still doesn't look fully fit

Pereira 5 - not convinced, has ability but often poor decision making, not releasing the ball quickly enough

Rodrigo 3.5 - anonymous and forgettable day

Zaza 3 - the aggression has been an advantage in other games but today it cost us and he was marked out of the game before that anyway

SUB

Mina 4 - unable to inspire after coming on

PSG agree sale of Gaoncalo Guedes to Valencia CF

Goncalo Guedes to sign for Valencia CF

French newspapers are reporting that Valencia CF and PSG have reached an agreement over the sale of Goncalo Guedes to Valencia CF for a reported fee of 35 million euros. Reportedly PSG want to offload Goncalo Guedes as well as some of their squad players like Di Maria in order to recoup enough money to be able to remain within FFP and have accepted Valencia's offer to purchase Guedes for 35 million euros, paid in few installments.

Peter Lim is close friends with PSG's owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi and has managed to negotiate this deal in favor of Valencia CF. Guedes price is already high enough, but everyone was worried that with his great performances for Valencia CF his value would skyrocket even further, especially in a transfer market where sums of 70 million euros, 100 million euros are thrown around like its nothing, like its pennies.

If this report is true its amazing news for Valencia CF, Guedes is one of the best upcoming players and acquiring him for VCF is an amazing deal, say this is true, now we only have to secure Kondogbia next summer and of course bring in two reinforcements in the winter transfer market to boost our current squad, especially through injuries and fatigue.

SD Eibar 2-1 Valencia CF Match Report

The 16th match day in La Liga for Valencia ends in the second loss of the season. The loss wasn't surprising, to me at least. This game was a clear indication of the current form of the team and a continuation of a pattern that began many games ago. This loss also gave Atletico Madrid to overtake us and claim the second place position. We sit 2 points behind them and 5 points behind Barca who have yet to play their game. Real Madrid also has the chance to level us on points when they play their game in-hand.

With Zaza suspended due to yellow card accumulation, Marcelino started Mina alongside Rodrigo. A Soler injury during training has also given Nacho Gil another chance to start. Parejo and Kondogbia started in midfield with Pereria on the left wing, opposite to Gil. The defense in front of Neto remained unchanged with Vezo and Paulista in the central positions, Gaya on the left, and Montoya on the right.

Eibar took the game to us from the beginning. They didn't park-the-bus and weren't aggressive as was the case in Getafe. They won the ball cleanly off us and composed some good attacking plays. We couldn't form productive counter-attacks amidst misplaced passes and poor decision making. Our best chance in the first half came from a corner which found Rodrigo at the far post in space, but he couldn't even hit the target from the free header, should've done better.

Gaya was injured at half-time and had to be replaced by Lato. This is yet another set back we have to deal with amid all the recent injuries. The extent of the injury will be determined on Monday, but it is confirmed it's a hamstring problem in the left leg.

The second half featured some really bad defending from our side. Eibar struck four minutes into the second half. A cross into the box fell to Montoya instead who tried to clear only for the ball to strike the Eibar player in front of him and give possession back to another player in the box who set up the goal for Inui. Awful clearance from Montoya and Neto just stood frozen and was beaten at his near-post.

Valencia would find their way back into the game with a stroke of fortune. Rodrigo found Pereira out wide on the right wing, the latter sent a low cross into the box and a fortunate deflection from the nearby defender took it over the defender in the box and into the path of Santi Mina who had no trouble finishing from that range.

The game would stay tied for the next 30 minutes - a period where we picked up 4 yellow cards in 10 minutes. Marcelino would also use this chance to bring on Guedes, back from injury, and to give time to youngster Ferran Torres for Nacho Gil and Pereira respectively. The subs didn't have the desired impact and we spent a lot of the time in our half just taking Eibar attacks. Eibar would eventually break our defense with a cross from the left. Paulista failed to cover his man who had time to make good contact with a header that beat Neto.

This comes back to our discussion after the last few games. The many injuries and some suspension, exposes our lack of squad depth. Even without injuries and suspension, we don't really have much on the bench to offer something different. Often changes are like-for-like, similar style players. Our defense which had been our focus in the beginning of the season is looking very shaky now. A lot of blame often goes to the right side of the defense and Montoya/Nacho Vidal have quite rightly been disappointing. But both goals today showed that the entire defense looks vulnerable.

Squad depth can be addressed in the transfer market and it seems there are plans to do so, with the four positions being looked at being a forward, a winger, a central midfielder and a right back. Squad depth won't solve all our problems though. There seems to be a lot of sloppy passing and bad decision making that are recurring these past few games which also need to be addressed.

The next and final game before the transfer window is at Mestalla against Villareal. A month back, I would favor our chances against them. I still think we can manage a win based on our home form but these past few games showed that we can just as easily lose. The period after the transfer window will be a relatively more intense schedule as Copa del Rey games will return.

Goals:

1-0, Inui, 49'
1-1, Santi Mina, 57'
2-1, Jordan, 87'

Player Ratings:

Neto 3 - Seems to get caught off-guard, stood frozen for both goals, especially the first one at his near post
Gaya 5 - Covered well before getting injured, not many chances to get forward
Vezo 4 - I don't think he has a good partnership with Paulista, they don't seem to communicate well, I think he would do better with a different partner
Paulista 2 - Some games I think I misjudge him as a poor and he proves me wrong, but this game he was poor, lost his man in the second goal
Montoya 2 - Disappointing, poor clearance resulted in first goal
Kondogbia 5.5 - He's one of the constants in our team, maintains his level even in team's poor performance
Parejo 5 - Another constant today, decent passing, corner routine with Rodrigo almost resulted in goal if not for poor finishing from Rodrigo
Pereria 4 - Selfish at times, but did well to find Santi Mina for the goal even though he got help from a deflection
Nacho Gil 5 - He worked hard out there but unfortunately his hard work didn't pay off for the team
Rodrigo 4 - He also worked hard, involved in the build up to the goal, but wasteful from chances at goal. He is the one forward on our team who I doubt his finishing from clear chances
Santi Mina 5 - Scored an easy goal but failed to hit the target at many other opportunities in the game

Subs:
Lato 4 - I think he could've done more to stop the cross to the box for the second goal, but covered decently well for Gaya otherwise
Guedes N/A - He needs a bit more time to get back to top gear
Ferran Torres N/A - not enough time to show what he's got



Any thoughts on the game? Who impressed and who disappointed? What needs to be fixed?
All your comments and thoughts are appreciated and welcomed as always.

Valencia news in brief

Let's start with the good news. Rodrigo has made the 3-man shortlist for La Liga's player of the month for November. Adnan Januzaj and Iago Aspas are the other nominees. 2 goals and an assist continues his excellent form and his transformation from an expensive flop into a key part of Marcelino's team.

I'd expect Aspas to win it, but this is the third month in a row that a Valencia player has been shortlisted. Zaza won it in September and Guedes lost out in October.

With Zaza still not at 100% fitness, the club is continuing its efforts to strengthen the forward line. With Diego Costa arriving at Atletico Madrid next month, we were interested in perennial targets Vietto and Gameiro. But Atletico have no reason to strengthen a direct rival by doing us a favour, so are not agreeing to any sort of loan. It's either buy or goodbye, and we don't have the funds or desire to make permanent signings like that. As a result, Sandro remains Valencia's top target, with the club looking for a loan till Summer with a buy option. Everton manager Sam Allardyce said today that anyone that didn't want to be there could leave, but he wasn't ready to gift players and it had to be for fair market value, which suggests we'd have to pay at least 10m euros.

If you see stories linking us with Daniel Sturridge of Liverpool, ignore. That rumour originated with Dail Mail, a newspaper notorious for make-up-any-old-rubbish journalism. There is close on zero chance Marcelino will go for an non-Spanish speaking, injury-prone striker without La Liga experience who would cost at least 30m.

Marcelino is also working in training with Ferran Torres and experimenting with using the youngster as a second striker so that he can also cover in case of need.

On possible exits, Maksimovic has been linked with Getafe. Gaya's release clause is 50m, but will fall to 30m next summer. That has alerted Juventus among other clubs. In a brief interview (in Valencian) with Superdeporte, the player said that it was up to the club and he was thinking of the present and was happy here.

Lastly, to finish as I started on a positive note, Guedes returned to light training yesterday. He remains unavailable for the Eibar game, but there's now an outside chance he will be back for the Villarreal game on 23 December.

  

Valencia 2-1 Celta

After an excellent start to the season, Valencia have looked a little more vulnerable of late. The thrashing of Sevilla was the last time the team really impressed. Since then, it's not like we've played badly, with 10 points from 5 games, but the team laboured to wins over Alaves and Leganes, should have probably lost to Espanyol and Barcelona and did lose to Getafe, despite having an extra man for 65 minutes. A convincing win was crucial to get us back on track, especially with Real Madrid winning to move level with us on points. The team managed it, though with a hard fought and nervy win.

Marcelino, for the first time this season, went for an unchanged line-up. Unfortunately, that's more a reflection of Valencia's lack of squad depth rather than a tough choice made by the manager.

In recent games, Valencia have never really taken off until the second half, but that didn't happen here. The team got off to a flying start, with Vezo unlucky not to score in the first minute, hitting the post from a corner. While Celta had a few breaks of their own, our defence proved equal to them and Valencia had the best chances. Zaza showed a great turn of pace near the corner, to force a save at their near post. Soler was put through but from an angle, dragged his shot wide when going for the near post. A superb flick on from Zaza put Gaya in, but the keeper saved. Finally, Valencia got a deserved lead, with Zaza heading in from a corner.

Celta probably should have had a penalty in the 10th minute, Paulista tripping one of their players inside but the ref didn't notice. Their best chance came in the 34th minute. Paulista sliced his clearance and Sisto's return found Aspas, whose diving header was brilliantly saved by Neto.

Any hopes that Valencia would continue the same way in the second half were quickly rubbed out as Celta scored. Errors by numerous players led to the equaliser. First, Montoya lost the ball in attack, then Parejo failed to track well enough to cut out the counter. Vezo mucked up our offside trap by playing them onside. Then him, Gaya and Kondogbia were unable to stop their player cutting the ball back, with Aspas evading Paulista. A silly goal to concede.

The game changed after that, becoming less open and scrappier and with Celta pushing forward more without creating all that much. The referee was also letting too much go and making questionable calls, such as booking Zaza for protesting when we had a reasonable penalty shout. Marcelino made the substitutions, with Soler coming off for Nacho Gil, with Mina replacing Rodrigo soon after.

The game looked to be grinding to a stalemated draw until the 80th minute. Valencia had come back into the game more in the previous five minutes, but had missed a couple. Pereira's cross not connecting with anyone then Montoya's shot from distance being saved. Parejo stepped up to take the penalty and a nervy moment was made worse when it looked like the keeper had saved it, but despite him getting a hand to it, the ball bounced past him into the net. A lucky break that we needed. Celta let frustration get to them after that and were lucky to finish with 11 men. Their defender Mallo cut out one of our attacks with his hand, but the ref ignored that and failed to give him a second yellow.

Still playing short of our best, but I liked how we played for most of the game today and 3 points against a team that drew at Barcelona last game is no mean feat. 2 more games this year and six points must be the target.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7 - always a safe pair of hands and terrific save from Aspas
Gaya 6 - some good defending and link up play
Vezo 4 - average, more on the weak side, never looked that comfortable
Gabriel 4.5 - disappointing game overall, made a couple of errors that could have cost us
Montoya 5.5 - generally acceptable, but had trouble with Sisto and his crosses missed the target
Pereira 5.5 - not great in the first half with poor decisions, but improved and provided more of a threat in the second part
Parejo 7.5 - makes it all look easy, decent game, passing and recovering well
Kondogbia 6.5 - had a solid game, recovering balls and connecting well with other players
Soler 4.5 - really lacking, exemplified by the first half chance he missed. Not sure what's been up with him recently, but he's been poor. Needs to recover his form
Rodrigo 6 - decent effort, with many nice touches, but had few chances to work with
Zaza 7.5 - excellent game, a threat in attack and always tracking back when needed

SUBS
Nacho Gil 6 - good game and if he keeps this up, can push for a starting spot in the first team
Mina 5 - failed to inspire, with poor decisions
Maksimovic N/A - 89th minute sub, don't think he even touched the ball

Copa Draw and some Transfer Rumors

First off, the draw for the Copa del Rey Round of 16 drew Valencia CF against UD Las Palmas, with the first leg away and the second leg at the Mestalla.

Now for the transfer news that I've seen these past few days. There is no doubt that some reinforcements are needed this winter to supplement the squad in the face of injuries and to add some depth.

Fans have been pushing for signing Guedes on a permanent deal for a while now and it looks like negotiations have allegedly placed the transfer few at around 40 million euros (PSG bought him from Benfica for 30 million euros). I think this amount will probably only be affordable if we make the Champions League. This would be even more true if we will (and I think we should) sign Kondogbia as well. I heard that deal is worth about 25 million euros to get him off Inter Milan. Part/all of that was supposed to be covered if they did the same and purchased Cancelo but that doesn't look likely. Also, these deals are normally paid in installments so the 40 and 25 million would not be paid in full right away but over 2-3 years, which helps with Financial Fair Play and general affordability.

In the midst of talks with PSG, rumors arose that Pastore and Moura are two names that are also being looked at to arrive in loan deals. Pastore's agent was quick to shoot down the rumors for his client but Moura still remains a possibility. At the squad, we currently have Perreira, Guedes, Soler and Ibanez who all play similar positions to Moura out on the wings. Bringing him will add another pacy and tricky winger, but will push one of them away. I only see this deal happening if Ibanez gets loaned or Perreira's loan gets cut short (Manchester United seem to want him back but he said he wants to stay).

Finally, with the forward position, it seems the club's efforts are focused on Everton's 22 year old Sandro Ramirez. He does have previous La Liga experience starting out in FC Barcelona and then with Malaga CF. He then was purchased by Everton for 6 million euros - his release clause at the time. He hasn't had many games for Everton but he played pretty well for Malaga and Barcelona for the times that I did watch him. Of course, it would be a loan deal till the end of the season and it seems that a purchase option will be included. It's an interesting player to add and it will increase competition for the forward positions. If he does impress, I think it would be a cheap purchase option since I think Everton would just want to recoup the amount they spent, maybe with a little bonus.

Thoughts on Copa del Rey fixture? Is Guedes worth the 40 million? Is Kondogbia worth the 25 million? Is Moura, a player we need? Is Sandro a good idea? Let us know below. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

The Case of Rafa Mir

For those who don't know, the 20 year old Mestalla B striker's contract expires this summer (June 30) and the club has been in negotiations to renew, however all reports show that the negotiations are at a stumbling block. The club wants to renew but the player is not satisfied. Reports say he feels that the club does not have confidence in him. His points of contention are as follows:

• He was the last of his peers (Nacho Gil, Nacho Vidal, Sivera and Sito) to be offered a contract
• He feels the fans are against him since his signing was facilitated by Jorge Mendes. When he came on in the Champions League under coach Nuno, he was the outlet for the fan's anger and it followed him on social media. Insults, criticisms, etc. 
• In fact, recently when he scored playing for Mestalla B, he celebrated by doing a celebration where he gestured to the crowd to zip their mouths and has been reprimanded for it.
• Real Madrid's subsidiary is interested in him and he could get a better chance where they do bet on him

We have to remember the player is young and criticism does affect him (we saw Cancelo do something similar). Anyway, it would be a shame to lose him since he is on blazing form (15 goals in 17 games). He is the second top scorer in the Second Division. You might have noticed that he is not training with the first team anymore as well. That's because Marcelino's stance is that the player should solve his contract situation first and then he will let him back in. 

This month would be the crucial month to settle things, as the player is free to negotiate with other clubs on January 1st and would end up leaving for free in the summer. The club is still trying and meetings with his agent are being held this month by Elemany. Hopefully, it will break the deadlock but we'll see.

Getafe CF 1-0 Valencia CF Match Report

Valencia CF's unbeaten streak has finally come to an end in La Liga (13 games) after what was quite a shocking display against Getafe. The talk of surpassing Benitez's record was pushed aside by Marcelino as he made it clear that the focus was results and not equaling record. Well, that clearly wasn't the case as we saw how the game turned out. This was also a key game to win as it was against winnable opposition, we were in good form and most importantly Barcelona had dropped points against Celta Vigo yesterday. A win would've put Valencia 2 points behind Barca and now we find ourselves sitting 5 points behind them. Still an excellent position in the table, but Atletico, Real and Sevilla are hot on our heels now (1, 3 and 3 points behind respectively).

Huge credit for the game has to go to Getafe: they knew our game plan, came up with a counter measure and remained focused the entire game in it's execution. Right from the get go, our players were closed down, pressured and harassed off the ball. They focused mostly on shutting down our key passers in Parejo and Carlos Soler. It seemed that every time Soler got the ball he was tackled instantly and taken to ground. Getafe took charge of the game and eventually put the ball in the net after a cross/shot deflected off one of their players and beat Neto. Fortunately, the goal was correctly ruled out since the player that caused the deflection was in an offside position.

This is when the problem with Getafe's strategy would catch up to them. Their challenges were really aggressive and without restraint. As such it wasn't surprising that within 25 minutes of the game, Getafe's Mauro Arambarri got booked for a rough tackle on Montoya from behind; and having picked up a booking just 4 minutes prior, he was sent off.

At this point, I thought the space would open up for Valencia and Getafe would retreat to their box to defend. Of course, it's not in our advantage since our specialty is counter attacking and not picking apart tight defenses. Getafe, however, maintained their presence and still managed to press our players off the ball quickly. There was a bit more space but the sloppy Valencia that we've seen at times. The bit of space could not be capitalized on with all the sloppy passes and player's slipping. With all the challenges Getafe was commiting to, we did get several free kicks and Parejo hit them very well but Guaita saved them all just as well. These were honestly our best chances. There was one other chance where Pereira got in a good crossing position on the right and almost picked out Rodrigo (similar to the goal against Barcelona) however the Getafe players threw themselves in front of the cross and stopped it.

I had hopes that we would pick things up in the second half as they have in previous games. With the Getafe players going down at every challenge and trying to get our players booked to even the game, Kondogbia who was already booked was withdrawn with Nacho Gil taking his spot. Getafe continued with the same mentality as the first half and had one really good chance. A through ball cut apart our defense and found Angel Rodriguez in plenty of space with only Neto left to stop him. Fortunately again, he took too many touches and barely missed the far post. Then, what happened in the first half, repeated itself. A shot from outside the box from Bergara deflected, this time off a Valencia player and beat Neto. After the lead, Getafe moved to protect their lead and played off the counter.

A lot of the time it felt like Valencia were the ones playing with a man down. We also started getting impatient and rushing everything. Crosses were put in from really far out when there was room to get closer. A corner routine from Parejo found Soler in plenty of space but the shot went into orbit (difficult shot to take but still good chance). That's when Parejo started doing these overhead passes instead of the patient ground passes. The Getafe defense found these very easy and easily reclaimed possession every time.

Pereira was taken off and Santi Mina brought on for the last 27 minutes, however without much success. The last minutes of the game featured many Valencia efforts, crosses, and shots. All sloppy, rushed or ended with poor execution. It just wasn't our day. We ended up with 65% possession but nothing to show for it. We went against 10 men for 65 minutes but couldn't take advantage and ended up conceding.

Honestly, the passing and shots in the past few games has been getting a little bit sloppy and maybe this is a wakeup call so we don't fall asleep. This game also showed that we don't really have players we can call for off the bench to change the game or offers much difference to what is already there on the field. Sure, we were missing Guedes but that's not really an excuse. Zaza will be unavailable when they decide to go through with his operation. We need a backup plan both in players and tactics. I have no doubt that Marcelino will call them out on everything and get them back up to the level we've seen earlier in the season.

As for ratings, honestly only Parejo and Zaza had any notable significance but even then sometimes were sloppy. The other players played at a considerable lower level than what they are capable of playing. We have 3 games left: Celta Vigo (Home), Eibar (Away) and Villareal (Home) before the winter break and transfer market opens. Are they winnable? Yes for sure. Should we expect a win? Not after today, we shouldn't let our guard down regardless of opposition. You never when they could surprise us. Celta will be on a high especially after taking points off Barca. It should be a good game at home and should be great to watch. Barca could slip up at any time and we need to be getting these points whenever we can. While we're in form, we could cause trouble for any team and every game is winnable. Let's hope this is just a minor slip and look forward to a great result against Celta!

Please let us know what you thought of the game? Credit for Getafe or bad play by Valencia? Or both? What went wrong? What to fix? Any players did well or poorly? Your comments are always welcome and appreciated! Thanks!

Guedes, Kondogbia and the Copa del Rey

A few rumours swirling around regarding possible future transfers, as usual treat these with healthy scepticism until anything is confirmed.

Peter Lim was in Valencia for the Barcelona game and is in Paris this week to try to prolong Guedes' stay. Superdeporte claim that Lim is aiming to sign Guedes permanently rather than on loan. This looks hugely unlikely, but his good relations with the PSG owner and their Financial Fair Play issues turn it from an impossibility into a very low chance.

Less positively, El Gol Digital claims that Valencia will buy Kondogbia then give him to PSG in part-exchange for Guedes. While that story is almost certainly journalistic creativity at best, it wouldn't be a good move. Guedes is a great player, but Kondogbia is the backbone of the Valencia team and he must be the priority. So, rather more likely, Plazadeportiva, usually a more reliable source, weighs in with better news. It claims that Alemany had wanted to pay 18m for Kondogbia. Inter wanted at least 30m. So a compromise was struck for 25m with Inter getting 20% of any sell-on. Crucially, Alemany negotiated a convenient payment structure: Valencia will pay 7m next July and 6m in July of the three years after that. That would be a very nice deal. 25m next summer would affect our ability to bring in other reinforcements, especially since we will have to pay the final instalment of 8m for Zaza. 7m is doable.

Related to all this is the situation of Cancelo, who isn't playing much at Inter, who have a 32m buy option on him. (Presumably this would also be paid to us over 4 years.) COPE claim that Valencia are considering bringing the player back in January, so that he won't lose value, as Inter are unlikely to buy him given that he's only played a minor role for them so far. This is possible, but dubious, as it's hard to see where he'd fit in. He was never that great as a right back and, even though Marcelino seems to have doubts about Montoya and Nacho Vidal, Cancelo wouldn't represent a massive improvement (Montoya did better in that position last season.)
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Valencia played Zaragoza in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey. Despite being 2-0 up from the first leg, which Zaragoza hadn't taken seriously either, Marcelino played it fairly safe, maybe noticing that Bilbao and Sociedad had both screwed up through complacency and had been eliminated by third level opposition the previous night.

Nacho Gil, Vezo and Maksimovich all got their first starts since the Copa first leg game. Playing both Paulista and Vezo, despite the increasing lack of central defenders and Zaza, despite his knee issues, seemed a bit of a risk, but the team came through it without problems.

Valencia dominated the game, but it took until the 29th minute to make the breakthrough. Mina blocked an attempted clearance and got the bounce in his favour and passed to Zaza, who returned it well for Mina to find the bottom corner.

In the second half, Zaza came close in the 52nd minute, intercepting after a Zaragoza defender was daydreaming, rounding the keeper but unable to finish from a narrow angle. 6 minutes later, he was involved, taking the ball on the right and, when his shot was saved, Mina followed up for his second of the game.

Valencia brought on Soler and Robert for Parejo and Pereira. Robert appeared for the first time in three years and marked it with a goal. Zaza was involved as usual, putting a nice short pass through. Robert still had a bit to do, but managed to shake off two defenders to cut inside and score.

Ferran Torres made his Valencia debut in the 70th minute and marked his debut with an assist, his corner resulting in a rare Ruben Vezo goal. The only negative came a minute later, Nacho Vidal losing his man, who got between him and Paulista to score a consolation. An easy win to take us through 6-1 on aggregate.

In terms of players, Jaume and the defence had little to do. Nacho Vidal didn't help his cause, as he should have done more to prevent their goal.

In midfield, Parejo was Parejo, decent passes but also some lapses. Maksimovich continues to look like a handy back-up player. Pereira has ability but needs to tame his greediness. Nacho Gil could have done better. Robert did well and the few touches from Ferran Torres were good but not enough to form an opinion.

Zaza would be man of the match and, happily, no trouble from the knee was obvious. Mina would be a close second, taking his goals well and continuing to enjoy a good season.

Not sure what it is with us doing much better in the second half but if it produces results, fine.

With Betis joining the list of top flight sides who slipped up, there will be two Segunda clubs and two Segunda B clubs in the last 16 draw, which will take place on Tuesday 5 December. The games will be played on 3 and 10 January.

If you've read this, comments would be appreciated. I'm happy to post news articles, but it's a bit demotivating if no one comments!

Referees, news and transfers

In the post-match period after Barcelona, the talk, disappointingly, has been focused on the refereeing decision. It's a shame this has overshadowed what was actually a decent second half performance from Valencia. We turned the tables on them in the second half, surprised them and nearly won. The crying about the referee from their fans is actually pretty grating, given the previous two league games at Mestalla. Last year, Messi scored while Suarez was clearly offside and interfering. He even jumped over the ball to let it go under him. Barca won 3-2 due to a last minute penalty.

2015, a similar story. Suarez was offside when he scored their only goal in a 1-1 result.

Suarez' reaction to the ghost goal the other night was apparently to call the linesman "a shit" and "a fucking midget." Two wrongs don't make a right and Rodrigo was sent off for less a couple of seasons ago.

I don't remember the same outcry those times from a media which all too often loves to fawn over Barcelona. People will argue forever about whether the Spanish or English top flights are better, but the standard of refereeing in England is unquestionably superior and is something that La Liga desperately needs to improve.

Now that the game is out of the way, the focus has shifted to strengthening the squad, which is beginning to show its first signs of wear and tear. Guedes suffered a broken toe *before* the Barcelona game and is out for 4 weeks. He might be back for the Villarreal game, but that's 50/50 and he'd probably only be a sub. Zaza will likely need a knee operation sooner rather than later and that will result in 5-6 weeks out. Murillo is out until late January and Garay will miss at least the next game at Getafe. With Jimenez also out to a long term injury, defence, which looked the best covered position now has to make do with Vezo and Paulista with a Mestalla player as a cover. Ivan Marquez is one possibility, with Zotko another and this week's Copa game will allow the coach to assess alternatives.

Peter Lim has been in Valencia discussing future transfer options (he will also go to Paris to try to prolong Guedes' loan.) The two main positions that the club are looking to fill is a forward, with Sandro the favourite and a cover for Kondogbia. Third priority was a right back, as Marcelino hasn't been totally convinced by either Montoya or Nacho Vidal, which I think is a shame, since any signing will hamper Vidal's progress. The possibility of a central defender has now entered the agenda, while the club remains open to adding a winger.

The club today announced the winter departure of Fabian Orellana. Eibar will pay 400,000 to take him on loan until Summer and will then have to pay another 1.8m to compulsorily buy him if they avoid relegation. Orellana got off to a great start at Valencia, but after the first 3 games it all went downhill and despite a good preseason, Marcelino remained unconvinced.

Lastly, the club is negotiating a contract extension with Dani Parejo. His contract expires in June 2020 and the club is looking to extend that to June 2021, with the club having the option of adding a further year as Parejo would be 32 when that expires. I can't see the point in this, really. He's having a decent season, but what's the rush? Wouldn't it be best to wait until the end of next year and then start talking?

The club has a relatively easy schedule in December. Getafe away, Celta home, Eibar away then the toughest game, Villarreal at home. However, progress in the Copa would require the team to play every midweek in January and that will need a deeper squad.

Valencia CF 1-1 FC Barcelona Match Report

Valencia CF played their toughest opponent this season and got away unscathed, managing to get a draw against an inform Barcelona side who came to the Mestalla to win and almost managed to do so with a first half goal that luckily for us went unseen by the referees and wasn't awarded.

Valencia CF had been slacking somewhat before this match and even though the team had won all the previous matches with comfortable results, the play had not been all that great, especially in the first half, before we'd improve and win the game. As such this match was a worry, all of us wondering which Valencia CF is going to show up and we got our answer. In the first half the lackluster Valencia CF showed up that did the essentials like defending good and covering the spaces well, but not really playing football and then in the second half we got the solid and much more confident Vaelcncia CF that did cause FC Barcelona problems and managed to score a goal to take the lead with a wonderful counter attacking move.

What the first half boiled down was essentially Valencia CF being pushed deep back into their own half with Barcelona relentlessly attacking and trying to create a chance and Valencia CF focused 100% on defending and nothing else. This approach could have cost Valencia CF, since FC Barcelona did technically score a goal that was essentially not seen by the referees and the play went on.

Truth be told apart from the goal that Barcelona scored, but shouldn't have as Neto did make a blunder out of it was the only serious chance they had and they never looked likely to score again.

In the second half Valencia CF showed up to compete and were a lot more imposing, keeping the ball for longer in their possession and going forward and attacking, while also pressuring higher up the pitch and causing Barcelona more problems, forcing them into errors and causing them to lose the ball often.

Thanks to this improved play Valencia CF were able to create few chances for themselves with Guedes and Rodrigo having smaller opportunities, but nothing major, no clear cut shoots at goal, that is until the 60th minute when Guedes passes a sort of through ball to Gaya who's cross found Rodrigo Moreno and he masterfully slotted the ball past the keeper and into the net. It was a fantastic chance and a great goal, especially since Moreno hasn't celebrated himself with his finishing, so being able to slot the ball into the net on this occasion was great.

Valencia CF pressed forward even more with their newfound morale and confidence boost, creating few chances in a row just after that, but nothing came out of it. Slowly FC Barcelona started taking back control of the match and by the 75th minute they were in the driving seat again and trying to find an equalizer. Unfortunately for Valencia CF they weren't able to withstand the barrage of attacks and a creative pass by Lionel Messi found its way to Jordi Alba who scored to equalize the score.

Both teams had smaller chances to score once again by the end, but neither team took their opportunities and ultimately the match finished 1-1, which I think is the fairest result, even with the ghost goal for Barca. Valencia CF have been on the receiving end of the spectrum countless of times and have unjustly lost matches against Barcelona due to refereeing "errors", strangely its never been an issue when Barcelona were the beneficiaries of refereeing calls, but now all of a sudden its a huge deal that Barcelona are on the opposing end of it?

Overall it was a poor first half and a more usual and better second half from Valencia CF, but there is clearly much room for improvement and there needs to be more intensity and more drive in the first half, we should be looking to win and play good football from the start. The team is still undefeated having played all of its toughest rivals and is still only 4 points off of Barcelona. I mean we are going to lose at some point, but I hope its not soon and that we can ride this wave for a long long time.

Player Ratings:
Neto 4 - First match to have a blunder that could have costed Valencia CF dearly, hopefully it doesn't affect him and he goes back to his best for the next matches.
Montoya 5.5 - Not the best defensive display, but considering he was pressured consistently for most of the match did well enough.
Garay 6 - Had a good showing, covered well in the back and was a physical presence in the penalty area against Suarez and Messi.
Gabriel 6 - Similar performance as Garay, was generally secure in his marking and tackles and didn't make any notable mistakes.
Gaya 7 - Good defensive showing, managed to deal with what Barca had to throw at him and provided the assist for our goal.
Soler 5.5 - Solid defensive contributions, covered a lot of ground and provided plenty of support for the defense, but was quite ineffective going forward even in the second half.
Kondogbia 7 - Solid defensively, solid offensively, good passing, good positioning and has been one of our key players this season.
Parejo 6.5 - Is becoming more and more the defensive powerhouse with a lot of interceptions and good defensive positioning. Needs to release the ball sooner as he could have been caught in possession several times and cause a huge problem for us.
Guedes 6.5 - Pretty anonymous in the first half as everyone, but was one of the most active players in terms of attack in the second half, most of the movement and actions coming from him.
Zaza 6 - Tried to help the team every way possible, including a lot of defensive marking and falling back often, his offensive threat was limited though as VCF mostly operated thought counter attacks.
Rodrigo 7 - Probably our most threatening player on the field for the whole match, doesn't always make the best decision, but caused Barcelona lots of problems and scored a masterful goal with good positioning, awareness and shooting accuracy.
Subs:
Pereira N/A - not enough time
Vezo N/A - not enough time
Mina N/A - not enough time

Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona Match Preview

Valencia CF, FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are the only clubs in the Spanish primera division that haven't lost a single game, with Valencia CF drawing 3 games, while Barcelona only one. Last match was an intense one for Valencia CF with the team starting rather slowly after the two week international break, but soon found its rhythm in the second half, playing much better football and punishing Espanyol for their lackluster finishing in the first half.

Valencia CF is on its best start in history, with several record broken already and several others that are just waiting to be broken. The team hasn't always played amazing football, but the ability to win games even when not playing great, to grind games to a win is a sign of a championship material team. Games where Valencia CF would have drawn or lost in the last minute in the past 3-4 season and now won and in many cases won in style as well.

FC Barcelona has been in amazing form this season as well, after a super slow preseason start that seemed like FC Barcelona are way past their prime and that the team would struggle, especially after the sale of Neymar to PSG for a record 220 million euros fee, they've only went from strength to strength, as such FC Barcelona is going to be the biggest obstacle Valencia CF have faced this season and in the past several seasons as well. We've not had a team play in such good form in the last several years in Spain, its been more competitive.

Both teams are undefeated and in great form, so this match is a classic and everyone should see it. Even casual viewers of football should watch this game as its likely to be a classic to remember. Both Valencia CF and FC Barcelona have scored a lot of goals, in fact between these two teams they've scored 65 goals, with FC Barcelona besting Valencia CF by only 1 goal. That said they've only conceded 4 goals, while Valencia CF have conceded 11 goals, but numbers don't always tell the whole story and FC Barcelona dense hasn't been that impeccable. They've had luck in their defending, just the same as Valecnia's luck against Espanyol, when Valencia CF could have easily conceded two goals in the first half, making that match a lost cause. So with that said FC Barcelona are not invincible at the back, and they will be weakened by the absence of Pique.

As good as Valencia CF have been and as great our position on the table is, the team would need to up their game if they are to succeed against Barcelona. 3 of the last 5 matches have been on the weaker side of things, winning, but winning unconvincingly and the team would need to rediscover their best form, Soler and Guedes would need to be at their best in order to win against FC Barcelona, especially one that is riding fast and high.

Rodrigo renews his contract until 2022

Valencia today announced the renewal of Rodrigo Moreno's contract. It was due to expire in 2019, meaning that Rodrigo would be able to negotiate with other clubs a year from now and could start pushing the club towards favourable terms come next summer. Having had bad experiences in recent years with Feghouli and going through the same situation with Rafa Mir, the club seems to have learned from its mistakes, giving Rodrigo a 3-year extension until 2022 and doubling his release clause from 60m to 120m.

Rodrigo joined Valencia as one of the newly arrived Peter Lim's first signings and it's fair to say that his early years were a massive disappointment, given that he remains Valencia's record signing, for 30m. His finishing remains a weak spot but he does bring numerous strengths to the team: good link up play, dribbling at defenders, a talent in the air and pace and the ability to attack space and drag defenders out of the way to create space for others to exploit. Some of these, especially his heading ability, have only become obvious this season, but at 26, he is in his prime and can offer Valencia several good years.

Played on the wing in his first two seasons and as lone forward last season until his injury, he has excelled this season as secondary striker to Zaza, and it's obvious that that's his best role. He still needs to maintain this level to regain the full confidence of our fans, but his hard work has always been obvious and this seems like a move which puts control of his future into the hands of the club.

It's incredibly hard to imagine anyone paying the 120m for him. In early October Superdeporte had a story that Man City had had a 35m offer for him rejected in the Summer. That was rightly laughed off as nonsense and denied by Marcelino but I don't think it would be now, as it was incredibly hard to imagine at the start of the season that he would be the fourth highest scorer in La Liga and a Spain international. So it's time to forget what happened with him (and the rest of the team) the previous two seasons and give him a second chance, which his performances so far have more than justified.

Why Valencia shouldn't (and won't) bring David Villa back

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: David Villa is a club legend on a par with Mario Kempes. His goals kept Valencia as a force to be reckoned with even when the club was struggling financially and most of us probably felt totally gutted when the news broke that he was on his way to FC Catalonia.

With Rafa Mir refusing to sign a new contract and on his way out, Valencia only has 3 main strikers, plus Guedes, who can play there in an emergency and Zaza's knee condition has been causing concern for at least a month. Luckily for us, it flared up during international breaks, meaning that he didn't miss any games, however, he was in visible pain when scoring against Betis. Marcelino previously stated that just resting Zaza wouldn't solve the problem. He will require some form of surgery. The problem for the club is that that could mean him missing a significant period of time, maybe 6-8 matches. As a result, the club confirmed today that they are going to postpone such surgery for the time being and hope that the situation doesn't worsen. This is a gamble not without its own risks as if the tear worsens, Zaza could be out for far longer, but Simone has been so key to the team that the club is unwilling to risk the momentum built up by managing without him. That's caused the issue of a backup striker to rise up the agenda again.

That's led many fans, such as in the comments section of the last match report to suggest the solution: Villa returns to Valencia, during the MLS mid-season break. The idea isn't without merit. He's been playing well in the MLS, earning a return to the Spain squad as a result. Adoring fans would give him lots of leeway and ticket sales and sales of merchandise would increase. For me, Villa will always be welcome back to the Mestalla, but in a different role. Coach, club ambassador, whatever, but just not as a player.

There are numerous reasons why. To start with, retreads can be hit and miss and sometimes and the whole exercise can just backfire. But from footballing and logistic reasons it doesn't make sense either. Villa hasn't played in Europe for 3 and a half years and the standard of football in the MLS is far lower than Europe. Had he been in his early 30s, I'd have been interested, but he's 36 next month and after so much time out of the bigger leagues, it's asking a lot to return to one of the world's top two leagues.

His age also raises other concerns as well. His injury history is impressive, but he is at a stage of his career now where he will be more prone to injuries. If we are covering possible injuries to existing strikers, then bringing in a much older striker doesn't seem wise. Most importantly, the player himself has consistently ruled out a return to Valencia or Europe, doing so in September 2016, December 2016 and again today.

But the main reason is a logistical one, the fact that La Liga and the MLS seasons are out of sync. The MLS season runs from 1 March until 30 September, with pre-season starting about 5 to 6 weeks before that, around 20-22 January. Why would New York agree to hand over their player so he can get tired out in the 2 months before their league season starts and miss pre-season training? Why would Valencia take a player knowing they'd have to return him in late February? Such a deal wouldn't make sense for either club.

Valencia does need to think seriously about bringing another striker in, at the very minimum on loan until the end of the season. Villa, for all the reasons listed above does not fit the requirements and would be an exercise in nostalgia, not football reality.

Espanyol 0-2 Valencia CF Match Report

Valencia CF entered the two week break with a historic result in the league, having broken several records this season, so it was on everyone's mind how will the two week pause affect Valencia CF, will such a long pause dampen our good form or energize the players even more thanks to having a breather in which they can take things down a notch.

Well the team continued in their winning form beating Espanyol 2-0 away from home in what was a more competitive match than the result would have you believe. Valencia CF might not have conceded a goal, but Espanyol came really close to scoring several times in the first half.

In fact Espanyol hit the post two times and forced Neto into saving mode quite a few times, with Valencia CF looking more and more likely to concede as the minutes passed by. Fortunately for Valencia CF lady luck was on their side today, barely surviving Espanyol's dangerous attacks.

Marcelino chose a different starting eleven from his normal one with Guedes, Soler and Zaza all on the bench, while Andreas Pereira, Santi Mina and Toni Lato took their place, with Lato playing as a left back and Gaya up front. Another smaller change was Paulista for Garay, though Marcelino has rotated the defense fair amount, but still it was a change from the average squad we've seen.

With so many changes to the team the fluid gameplay we've seen before was mostly gone and our attack dampened. Even our midfield which has been mostly stable before was shaky and especially Parejo who had several mishaps, few lost balls, several erroneous passes, etc...

The whole first half was weak football from Valencia CF, with the team mostly defending against very dangerous Espanyol attack, which basically pure luck saved us from conceding at least two goals. Neto was also on point and made several saves, but again it could have been different if Espanyol's players were 1% more proficient.

The second half got a little bit better for Valencia CF as we were able to mostly stop their attacks before any serious danger and with the arrival of Guedes and Garay the play stabilized and Valencia CF became a lot more cohesive.

It was soon after that Kondogbia would score and give the team additional boost of confidence, after which Valencia CF seemed the likely winner. It was a stunning goal as well, Espanyol's defenders crossing the ball outside the penalty area where Kondogbia was at, he side stepped to move into a better shooting position and a powerful and precise shot from long range ended up in the net.

Later on Soler came on Andreas Pereira and within a minute or two the substitution paid off as Soler sent a dangerous cross into the penalty area, which an Espanyol's defender managed to reach first, but it essentially positioned the ball to the oncoming Santi Mina who slotted the ball into the low right corner to make it 2-0.

Ultimately a 2-0 victory, but the result is misleading as this was a very hard fought victory that could have easily ended up in a loss or a draw if Valencia CF weren't so lucky in the first half. The team needs to improve to avoid such possibilities and I'm fairly certain that our standard players not starting had a big role to play in the poorer showing.

Toni Lato was also one of the weaker links as he did poorly in covering on the side and while he has huge potential he is still not ready for prime time.

In terms of reinforcements in the winter we could use a cover for Parejo and cover for Montoya. Even on the left wing we could use cover for Guedes, where now we only have Gaya. We could always use one of the youth players, but I don't know how ready they are, especially now that we are doing so well.

Player Ratings:
Neto 7.5 - Safe and secure at goal, made several saves and has been consistently reliable for us
Montoya 6 - Was generally secure at the back, though didn't provide much going forward and has no understanding with Andreas.
Gabriel 6 - Overall an average performance, had some troubles in defense when paired with Murillo, improved when Garay came in.
Murillo 5 - Not the best defensive display I've seen and seemed shaky and insecure often times.
Lato 4 - Was the weakest link in defense, lost his mark several times, rather poor positioning another couple of times and generally a weak overall performance.
Andreas 6 - Okay performance overall, did as best he could with what little he was given to play with, few decent crosses, few decent runs, lots of running back and forth and a motivated performance.
Kondogbia 7 - Did as much as he can defensively, not the most dominant performance we've seen from him, but a good one nonetheless, was better offensively as he was providing some good offensive passes and managed to score an amazing goal that set Valencia CF up for the victory.
Parejo 5.5 - Poor first half display, lost balls, poor passing, lackluster positioning. Improved in the second half, but wasn't even near his best. Did manage to intercept a lot of Espanyol's passes and thus improving his score a bit.
Gaya 6 - Wasn't a serious threat on the left wing, provided some decent crosses, but rather unimpressive performance on the wing. Was a lot more effective as a left back and doing a lot better defensively than Lato and linking up well with Guedes.
Moreno 5 - Was too selfish and tried to do everything on his own. Had few options to pass and make the better play, but decided to dribble or shoot and it ended up ineffective. Needs to learn to play more with others.
Mina 6.5 - Was the more dangerous of the two attackers and was rewarded with a goal late in the game. Overall good positioning throughout the match, did well with his shot for the goal.
Subs:
Guedes 6 - Didn't really do much at all personally, but boosted confidence in the team and his direct and aggressive play seemed to put Espanyol on the back foot.
Garay 6 - Solid performance slotting in for Murillo and steadied the ship at the back. His bigger physique also added a new dimension to our defending.
Soler N/A - Provided sort of an assist for the second goal, it was his cross that lead to the goal. Did rather really good for having only 10 minutes of playing time.

Fake fans and keeping Guedes

Valencia CF held its shareholders meeting in which club president Anil Murthy and general director Mateu Alemany spoke. Valencia CF president Anil Murthy basically reiterated what was written recently on the Valencia CF official website and went over how Peter Lim saved the club, how everything bad was due to third party forces and Peter Lim is actually an angel in disguise who can't do wrong, you get the point.

Personally I don't see why this push now? Why stir the pot now, why bring it up, why make this so important now? Couldn't this be said at the end of the season if the team actually achieves Champions League or at least Europa League?

Yeah we get it, there are some garbage "fans" who used violence and threatened the players and their families, no one with a brain supported that. No one sane supports violence and it was certainly misdirected at the players!

I think its also important to support free speech, people should be able to voice their opinions and anger if the team is going in the wrong direction, though the calls for violence should be replaced with calls for better play, criticizing the player and VCF staff for the sporting stuff.

The only relevant stuff to come out of the meeting was the information from Mateu Alemany who said that they are going to try everything possible to keep Guedes at Valencia CF, but that it is going to be very hard to do so, especially knowing PSG wants to recoup some money to try and get within fair play limit, having ruptured the purse and spend over 300 million on two players.

So personally I think they are going to be looking at selling Guedes, yeah he is playing amazing for us, but there is just not enough room for him to be playing regular football at PSG, so they are going to leverage his great season he is having with us to get as much for him as possible.

Best we can hope is to get him on one more year on loan and paying PSG 5 million for the loan, but again its going to be hard when they will try and get money to balance their financial sheets. Even acquiring Kondogbia is going to be very hard as Cancelo has barely played for Inter and his 33 million purchase option looks weaker by the day.

Not sure Inter are going to want to purchase him, in fact its looking highly unlikely. There is still a long way to go, a lot of matches to be played and he could get a more serious chance, but as of now its looking unlikely. 

Meriton criticises "fake fans"

After months, possibly even years of silence, Meriton released a statement through the club's main website (here) where it defends its position and goes on to attack its critics in the Valencia fanbase.

The intro sets the tone: "Since Meriton took control of VCF, a number of fake fans from different sectors have tried to dominate the news about VCF and have sold fake news and lies to our real fans. These fake fans are loud and are motivated by self-interests, not the interests of VCF, and certainly not the interests of the real fans who form the silent majority."

The article goes on to laud Meriton's achievements, focusing in particular on the Champions league qualification under Nuno and the second place reached so far this season. It points out that many of the problems such as the debt, unfinished stadium, EU fine and so on predate Lim's ownership and are due to local sources, while Lim "invested more than 200m of his own money to save the club."

It then launches a scathing attack on these 'fake fans': "The last 2 seasons, fake fans sabotaged the atmosphere in the dressing room. They attacked the team bus and threatened our players. At Mestalla, they tried to intimidate the team instead of helping them as real fans would. This lame and shameless attempt to weaken Meriton didn't and will not work."

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So what is the truth? The fact is that in some things, they have a point. Lim did come to the rescue at the right time, when no local sources could be found to put up the cash. The club was mismanaged badly before that by local owners.

There are clearly sections of our fanbase who are problematic and parochial and, regardless of the results, will never accept a foreign owner. Some of the criticisms did seem to have some racial undertones, dismissing Lim as a "chino" or Chinese when he's from Singapore, something as ignorant and stupid as calling a Spanish person a Pole (since the distances are comparable.) From that flowed some weird and wacky conspiracy theories, such as the one that Lim had bought the club simply to launder money (as though sinking 200m into an indebted football club is a smart way to achieve that.)

For all that, there are numerous problems with the statement. The first issue is the timing. As I pointed out in the previous blog, Valencia is in a fantastic place right now, so bitterly attacking fans at this moment seems odd.

The biggest problem is the total failure to admit that anything went wrong, especially in the last 2 seasons. The previous Valencian owners screwed up badly, but it wasn't only because, as the Meriton piece claimed, they had the "intention to benefit a very closed circle of people." In trying to play catch up with Real Madrid and Barcelona, the Valencian owners overextended themselves financially, leading to a cycle of debt which Valencia is still struggling with. But their motives weren't all selfish, they genuinely wanted the club to succeed, but went about it in an unsustainable way.

Meriton made exactly the same mistakes in the first year. The 77 points and Champions league qualification which they boast about was impressive, but it was built on a similarly false foundation. In committing to high transfer fees for players like Alvaro Negredo, Rodrigo, Cancelo and Andre Gomes, they stored up problems which soon became apparent further down the line. In the summer of 2015, Valencia had to make good on the commitment to pay all those transfer fees, 90m worth of spending which was only exceeded by Manchester City and Juventus. That meant that the club had little money to strengthen the squad for the subsequent Champions league campaign, which resulted in a disastrous season and mounting Financial Fair Play problems which forced the club to sell its best players in summer 2016.

Following on from that, it's totally out of order to dismiss the concerns of countless Valencia fans as just being those of fake fans. Numerous poor decisions were made in the first seasons of Meriton ownership and one of the things that drove a wedge between the ownership and the fanbase was the failure to own up to those mistakes.

The vast, overwhelming bulk of Valencia fans were hugely supportive of Lim's takeover. That only changed when numerous poor decisions were made which led to negative results, including the club finding itself in a relegation battle.

Meriton's statement would have been better if it had said something along the lines of "previous local owners made lots of mistakes, we came here to clean up those and had to invest a lot to do so. In trying to do so, with the best of intentions, we made numerous mistakes of our own. We realise that, have learned from that and moving forward, will not repeat that." That would have carried far more weight than attacking fans, blaming them for issues which arose from those bad decisions, indulging in self-congratulatory backslapping and pretending that the previous two seasons of shame didn't happen.

I do hope that they have learned/will learn but the statement doesn't inspire confidence and reopens old wounds at a time when people were forgetting them. The statement promises "a series of editorials" so we can only hope they improve on the tone of the first.

Smile, it's Monday (and Valencia are on fire)

It was a year ago tomorrow that I wrote this post after yet another poor display, while other media at the time described Valencia as being at "rock bottom" with 4^th coach in a year Prandelli failing to produce the goods. The table made ugly reading with us in a relegation scrap, a full 11 points off the Champs league places. Honestly, to read some of the negativity on the previous blog, you’d think nothing had changed. I was going to comment there, but there are too many to respond to individually.

Compared to last year...

• Valencia have equalled their best ever start to a season, the team is on fire, getting great results with football that is nice to watch. Rival after rival has been smashed: 6 at Betis, 5 against Malaga, 4-0 against Sevilla. 7 wins in a row.
• Zaza has scored more goals than Luis Suarez, Greizmann, Bale and Ronaldo combined.
• Rodrigo who I described back then as a player who “can't finish to save his life” has scored the same number of goals as Suarez/Greizmann/Bale. Even Mina has scored more than any of those “big names” despite being a sub most of the time.
• Soler, one of the most promising young players in European football has emerged to strengthen our midfield, while Kondogbia is now doing what Enzo Perez couldn’t. In fact the team has strengthened in almost every position and has done so without breaking the bank.
• We are now being talked of seriously as title contenders.

And if you doubt that anything has changed, I keep an eye on most of our rivals' blogs and we're scaring them. At the start of the season Sevilla fans sniggered about us as "a club that is ill, a disaster, lipstick on a pig." Now the same commenters are saying that we "continue to look potential league winners" or that we "look the best team in the league so far....have no European football to worry about and have a great chance to pull a huge suprise and win la liga." The fear and respect factor, absent for too long, has returned.

Do I need to go on….?

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Is everything perfect with us? Not totally, but when is it ever perfect for any club? Our 2 right backs are inconsistent, the defence needs a bit of work, especially from set pieces, Soler has been a little off-form in the last month and there were a few negative headlines about the Zaza incident, though that was blown out of proportion by Madrid media keen to see us fail.

Valencia is benefitting right now from an almost perfect storm. Not only are our manager and players performing at the highest level, most of our opponents are below their best. Maybe that’s a temporary thing but right now the situation with our rivals is.....

• Sevilla may have peaked. They don’t look like they’ve managed the change from Monchi and Sampaoli. Berizzo’s rotations are being criticised and their record signing Muriel isn’t producing the goods.
• Atletico Madrid look stale. Greizmann is badly off form and seems to have his head elsewhere, probably on a big money transfer next summer. Maybe they’ll improve once their transfer ban ends and maybe they’ll spend the money gained from Greizmann wisely but maybe not and there is a growing feeling that Cholo Simeone may have run out of steam. An impending exit from the Champions league won’t help their finances either.

• Real Madrid are struggling. Benzema and Bale are playing poorly and are being constantly whistled by their own fans. Ronaldo is off form and is starting to look over the hill. Still a star name, but his transfer value will drop if it goes on this way.

• Barcelona are the only club that looks “with it” partly down to Valverde (whose departure from Bilbao weakens them, another plus for us) and partly because Messi is on another planet. Even there, there are problems ahead. Neymar has gone and his replacement has been injured and probably won’t be as good. Suarez hasn’t been producing, partly due to injury, but he hits 31 soon and his best days may be behind him. Most of all, there’s the delightful prospect, if you’re not a Barcelona fan, that Messi may leave for nothing, as he still hasn’t signed a new contract. So a player that Barcelona hoped would carry them forward or that they could at least get 400m for, could be out next season.

I still think the last 3 clubs will likely finish ahead of us at the end of this season, but even if that happens, we are favourites to finish somewhere in top 4 and return to the Champions league, a brilliant achievement when most expected us to scrape into the Europa league at best. But that’s just short term, the longer term picture looks even rosier. While we have the youngest squad of the top sides, they all face the challenge of having replace key players who are all coming to the latter part of their careers. Ronaldo, Benzema, Messi, Suarez, Iniesta, Pique, Gabi, Juanfran, FelipeLuis are all at least 30 and can’t carry their sides forever.

With the usual caveats about how it's early in the season etc, we may well be seeing the best Valencia squad since the Benitez era, so let's sit back and enjoy it and park a bit of the negativity. With that, I'll end my rant about your rants ;) with the words of Marcelino...

"Not losing any game in 38 is impossible. But let's enjoy the moment, the attitude, the points we have, the constant support that exists between everyone."