Leganes - Valencia match preview / Europa league draw

After an uninspiring win on Thursday, Valencia learned their Europa league rivals the following day...

Krasnodar would probably have not been one of the top 8 teams that Valencia wanted to avoid, so it's a middling to easier opponent than what we could have got, but also one that can't be underestimated, since they beat an in-form Sevilla in the group stage and overcame Bayer Leverkusen on away goals in the round of 32. While the place seems obscure, and it is only the 16th biggest Russian city, weirdly, this is the second time in 6 seasons we'll have gone there. That was to play a different Krasnodar team, Kuban, who went bankrupt last year, in the Europa league groups in late 2013. Parejo played on that occasion with Jaume an unused sub, with Gaya featuring in the Mestalla leg. Bankrolled by a Russian billionaire oligarch, they're 2nd in the Russian league and will provide a tricky test and an annoyingly long journey.

Sevilla's were top of the table in early December but defeat today to Barcelona means they have now a record of 1-1-5 in their last 7 games and have slipped out of the top 4. It's imperative that we take advantage by winning tomorrow. Winning games like these against Leganes are exactly the type of games that make the difference between top4 and also rans. It won't be easy: Leganes haven't lost at home in over 5 months.

At least Marcelino has a nearly full squad to draw on at last. Garay and Mina are the only absentees, and the latter's injury is minor. Piccini, Rodrigo and Gabriel all return, with Diakhaby available again after serving his 4-game suspension.

I suspect Marcelino will have one eye on Thursday's Copa del Rey game, so predicting the line-up is difficult. But I'd expect Neto in goal. In defence, we'll likely see Gaya-Diakhaby-Roncaglia-Piccini, though it will depend on the fitness of Piccini and Gabriel. In midfield of Cheryshev and Kondogbia, who didn't play on Thursday, should play, with Parejo ever present. Right wing will be interesting: I think Marcelino may go with Ferran and save Soler for Thursday, or we may see Wass there. Up front, I'd expect Rodrigo to be eased back in as a second hand sub. Gameiro should definitely start and then the interesting thing will be if Marcelino tries Guedes there, or sticks with Sobrino.

Europa League Round of 32: Valencia CF 1 - 0 Celtic

Valencia CF manage to see off this round of the Europa League with a 1-0 home win to add to the 2-0 away win. The 3-0 win on aggregate qualifies them to the next round, but the performance today was not too convincing.

Valencia opted to sit back and let Celtic do their thing, a luxury they could afford due to the 2 away goals they had from the previous fixture. Celtic had long spells of possession and were the more dangerous side in the first half. This all changed when Jermey Toljan received two yellow cards within 11 minutes and reduced Celtic to 10 men. The end of the first half is when Valencia really started to pick it up and a barrage of attempts at the closing minutes almost resulted in a goal. Most notable was an attempt from Parejo from the edge of the box, which changed trajectory after a deflection and almost went in, had the keeper not reacted quickly to push it over the net.

Unfortunately, Garay also picked up an injury in the later part of the first half and had to be substituted for Coquelin. Since Roncaglia is out with suspension, this was literally the only replacement we could make. This further adds to the question of why all our center-backs were allowed to leave. Either this is poor planning, terrible luck or they must have pushed for a way out, otherwise it doesn't make sense in this scenario.

The second half had a change of strategy from Celtic out of necessity. They sat back and used their pacy wingers to counter attack. This was done to get effect and we almost got caught out a few times. There were a lot of misplaced and lazy passes from our end, at the fault of several players. Wass had a terrible passing day in the first half especially, Soler had a few as well, and Coquelin a few as well.

Marcelino, dissatisfied with the performance so far and wanting to push for a win, brought on Gameiro for Sobrino, who had done decently well. Within a few minutes from coming on, Gameiro would get the winning goal. Parejo played an excellent diagonal ball to find the run of Wass on the right, who would then knock the ball down with his head into the run of Gameiro, who only had to get a clean touch for the ball to roll past the keeper.

While we did win the match, it seemed like there was a lot of whistling from the crowd, especially in the first half with all the wasted possession. Marcelino was quite clearly frustrated as well, with some players being really complacent.

Many times on the counter, we would get the space opening up and then players would slow down the game or try something complicated and would waste possession altogether. Lato and Guedes a lot whenever they would reach an advanced position. Guedes still clearly needs time after his injury to get back into the game. He had some nice flicks and tricks and he was drawing most of the challenges, including the red card. However, in the final third, he would always hesitate rather than run at defenders which I personally found frustrating.

The round of 16 draw occurs tomorrow and we will find out our opponents then. A lot of the teams left are big names, however a lot of them have had poor form . There are a few teams which we could draw that would be considered "easier" in a sense. As for our next games, we are away to Leganes on Sunday before a huge game against Betis in the Copa del Rey semi-finals second leg.

Celtic 0-2 Valencia (Europa league)

I think a few of us were a bit nervous about this one, more so when we saw the match squad and team line-up, without our THREE first-choice strikers, left back and second-choice defender. It meant it was a very makeshift line-up, in fact I think we've put out a stronger line-up when facing third level teams in the cup.

Yet, it worked and the team eased to a comfortable away win barely breaking a sweat. Marcelino had read it exactly right tactically. Wass was on the left to give extra defensive cover and he and Soler covered their fullbacks, preventing them from playing it out from the back. Parejo and Kondogbia bossed the midfield and on the rare occasions they did get past there, Garay and Diakhaby were easily able to handle their attackers. We did what we often do, sat back, let them pass around uselessly and tire themselves out, then counter attack. Celtic looked about as threatening as an 80-year-old granny with a water pistol. It was only in the first 10 minutes that they did anything, forcing a shot from Neto with a stinging shot.

We dominated the game after that, Wass nearly scored with a header before we got our opening goal. Intercepting, then a brilliant pass through for Sobrino who had just stayed onside. Good decision from him, rolling the ball to the side for Cheryshev for a tap-in.

I struggled with lagging streams in the second half, but it was pretty much the same story. We were so confident that we took Parejo off at half time to rest him. The second goal was similar, great work by Coquelin, passing out to Wass who found Cheryshev on the wing and his cross allowed Sobrino to fire home.

Guedes came on for Cheryshev as a forward, but his time up front was cut short. Piccini suffered what looked like a groin injury, so Gameiro came on, with Wass and Guedes dropping back. Piccini's injury was the only black spot. Kondogbia did pick up a booking which means he'll miss the second leg, but it was soft and I suspect he did it on purpose so he can start the round of 16 with a clean slate.

Solid team performance. Great debut from Sobrino, good games from people like Wass and Soler who haven't been performing that well recently. Key players rested. Result. Of course, there are 90 minutes still to play, so we can't be complacent, but it would be a huge upset if we blundered away such a lead in front of our own fans. If Celtic can't beat our half strength team at home, they're not going to do it away.

Celtic - Valencia match thread

Usually, I would put these up a few hours before the game, mostly because, on my time zone, games like these are finished after midnight on a working night, making it hard for me to do a write-up until next day. With a match thread at least you all at least have somewhere to comment.

In this case it goes up early because we have a match squad which seems bizarre to me.

Only 2 central defenders and only 2 recognised forwards. The former situation is forced on the club. Gabriel is injured and Roncaglia has a 4-game suspension, which means Garay-Diakhaby are the only central defensive pairing available. However, this does make the decision to send both Murillo and Vezo out on loan questionable. I know the players themselves were probably pushing for it, to get more game time, but that meant that we needed to get in a player who was available for Europe. Bad planning.

Mina and Gaya also had injuries. The latter's doesn't seem that serious, but the biggest absence is Rodrigo, who the coach has just decided to leave out. I totally don't understand that one at all, with Mina out and Rodrigo hitting form recently. I thought the whole point in resting Rodrigo against Sociedad was so he would be fresh for Europe? If he was going to be rested for Glasgow, why not just play him the full league game vs Sociedad and then give him the week off?

So up front we have Gameiro, who has only recently started to get in form. With him we either have Sobrino, making his debut in a key European game, which doesn't seem wise to me. Otherwise, we have Guedes or Cheryshev as the second striker. Sure, the two have played there before, but the last time was the 2018 world cup last summer with different teams. A crunch European game is not the time to experiment.

The only conclusion I can come to from this is that Marcelino has made a strategic decision to go easy in the Europa league and prioritise the league and Copa del Rey. If so, that's very disappointing. I really thought injury-hit Celtic were there for the taking and these decisions make it harder that we can progress. Not only does progress give us instant cash, it gives us European ranking points which mean better seeding, easier draws and a bigger share of cash next time we reach Champions league.

Valencia 0-0 Sociedad

The first hour of this game will have been a great one for nostalgia fans as it was like any of the pre-Christmas games. Solid defence and very little creativity from Valencia.

Four changes from the previous game. Neto back between the sticks, Gameiro in to give Rodrigo a rest, Kondogbia getting his first start in the league since early November and Roncaglia making his debut in place of the injured Paulista. In fact, VCF went into this game with only 2 central defenders available, with Diakhaby serving the third of his 4-game ban, though he will be available for the Celtic game.

As I said, very frustrating first half. The team looked tired. I'm not convinced Parejo should be playing every minute. Sociedad passed the ball around a lot but threatened little. I was impressed with Roncaglia, who slotted in well and showed his experience. Conversely, the forwards and Soler offered little (Soler has been in poor form for a while) and Cheryshev only became a presence later in the game. Our passing was off and we struggled to hold possession or create anything.

The team only really woke up in the last 30 minutes, pressing forward and creating several chances. The best of them included a cross which Gameiro just missed, a Rodrigo header just wide and a curling shot from Piccini which was saved. I counted 1 chance the whole game for Sociedad, late on when Theo cut back to Sandro, who Gaya did well to block. One positive was the return of Guedes, who showed the odd flash, but will need more games to get back.

Overall, a bore draw, the third in a row and 16th of the season.

News round-up

Quite a bit of news has been pushed to the background recently with the club focused on Copa and the Barcelona game.

Diakhaby, of course, was suspended for four games, after being sent off after provocation at the end of the Getafe game. That should have been the end of it, but instead the president of Getafe, Angel Torres, relit the fires with an extraordinary tirade, lambasting Marcelino for events a decade ago when he was at Gijon, criticising Valencia for celebrating "as if they had won the world cup" and, most crucially, deriding Diakhaby as "morenito" a racially derogatory term. In response, Valencia have been considering filing an official complaint, even though Torres apparently phoned the club to apologise. I keep an eye on opposing fan forums and on the Getafe ones, though they're coming off with the usual ones about biased referees etc, most of them are saying he should just shut up and let it go.

Of existing players, both Kangin Lee and Parejo saw extended contracts, which is important for the club. In the case of the former, besides being a promising talent, the commercial potential of having a rising star of Korean football is immense. In the case of Parejo, he will always be divisive, but he has been at Valencia a ridiculously long time and is a motor through which the team moves. His renewal extends his contract to 2022 instead of next year, with the release clause staying the same at 50 million. He's currently 24th on the list of Valencia players who have played most games with the likelihood of him overtaking people like Quique Sanchez Flores and Carlos Marchena to break into the top 20 by the season's end.

Valencia confirmed several rumoured transfers recently. The official exit of Aderlan Santos was one. Good luck to him, he was utterly rubbish when here.

More importantly, VCF have secured, or are close to securing, the addition of several young players. It has to be said that Valencia's attempts to secure promising youth on the cheap in recent years has been more miss than hit. Bakkali and R De Paul arrived to fanfare, but were judged not good enough, though the latter may have been a mistake in hindsight. Medran, Racic and Maksimovic all have some sort of link to the club, but it looks unlikely they'll ever feature again. So the signings come against that backdrop.

The most important is Manu Vallejo, who turns 22 next week. He has a similar playing position to Guedes, playing as advanced left winger or centre forward. With Cadiz B, he netted 58 times in 94 games, before making the jump to Segunda, where he's been probably the breakout young player this year in the whole division, with 8 goals and 3 assists in 26 games, pretty credible for a midtable team and I'm optimistic about this one. The transfer fee was 5.5 million, with a further 3.5m in add-ons, 10% of any future sale and Cadiz having first option on any Valencia players sent to Segunda on loan.  

The second, joining us on a free transfer, is Salva Ruiz. He was once touted as a great promise at left back, making his debut at age 17 playing the full game in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey in 2012. By coincidence, Gaya had made his first team debut in the first leg of that game. Ultimately, Ruiz was let go, but the club has decided to give him a second go, though he'll rejoin the reserves.

Strongly rumoured, though not yet officially confirmed, are the additions of Jason from Levante and Jorge Saenz from Tenerife. The first has done well as a winger with Levante and would join on a free, while the latter would be 2 million and is a promising Spain under-21 central defender.

  

Betis 2-2 Valencia Copa match thread

Another draw! Valencia's 15th of the season but definitely one that the team will be more satisfied with than Betis. It looked like we'd screwed it up, conceding just before half time, with poor communication between Gaya and Jaume and the second was poor, Joaquin beating Jaume at the near post directly from the corner. There was debate before the game whether Neto should start instead, given that he has been in great form this season and that goal did Jaume's claims to start no favours.

So, 0-2 down, over and out? We hadn't even been bad, Rodrigo and Mina had come close to scoring before their first goal. To their credit the team rallied. The substitutions helped, with Kondogbia and Gameiro coming on and the latter was instrumental. Rodrigo fed a good pass to Gameiro in space to centre for Cheryshev to bundle a header past the keeper in minute 70. The game opened up, with Betis seeming to be unsure whether to push for a third goal, mindful of our away goal, or defend their lead. A defensive mistake nearly cost them, Gameiro getting on to it and making a good decision, centring the ball for Cheryshev whose header hit the bar. In the final minute of injury time we got a deserved equaliser with an excellent counter attack. Gameiro feeding Rodrigo on the left and the latter's pass was perfect for Gameiro to use his speed to get ahead of Sidnei to make it 2-2.

Plenty to improve. Dead balls, especially corners, remain our weak spot. Jaume and Soler among others had disappointing games (Gamiero should surely start instead of Mina) but the team did well to not give up and now has the edge of away goals, but has only half the job done.

Messi 2-2 Valencia

Valencia ended a good week with a combative display against Barcelona, coming away from the Nou Camp with a point, though it was after having been 2-0 ahead. A few changes in the line up, probably with a few players tired after the midweek exertions and the Copa game also coming up. Gameiro was preferred over Mina up front, Wass started instead of Soler on the right and Lato came in for the injured Gaya.

Valencia started strongly, putting down a marker from the beginning. A good move saw Parejo force a save from Ter Stegen and Cheryshev hit the post from the follow up. After the 10th minute, Barcelona began to take more control of proceedings, pushing up, passing around but finding the defence well-organised and it was Valencia that drew first blood. Messi was dinking around, trying to find a pass through, but Parejo dispossessed him and found Gameiro whose pass found Rodrigo. He made a great driving run then played an excellent ball into space for Gameiro to fire across Ter Stegen for the opening goal.

Barcelona pushed up, but got caught out again, Valencia broke and Cheryshev's cross was good, with Wass being bundled over for a penalty which Parejo converted in style.

Barcelona hit back later in the half, with Semedo going down in the area after taking a touch from Lato. It was dubious, but just about allowable under VAR and Messi slotted home from the penalty spot. Unfortunately, Gameiro had suffered concussion earlier after a clash of heads and had to go off to be replaced by Ferran.

The second half followed a similar pattern. Most of the time, Barcelona were passing around about 30 metres from our goal. We had the occasional breakaway with a couple of half chances falling to Rodrigo and Wass, but nothing concrete. In the 63rd minute, Lato lost the ball, Messi picked it up and managed to curl it around a group of Valencia players, with Neto having no chance. Though Gabriel was struggling a bit, he stayed on, with the welcome return of Kondogbia after a 2-month absence and Mina coming on for Rodrigo.

Overall, it's a little disappointing we couldn't hold the early lead, which would have capped off a great week, but we'd all have happily taken a point from this one at the beginning, with Barcelona coming in to the game with 8 straight wins in the league so this is a result which will keep morale high.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7.5 - had a very good game, making a number of key stops. Not a lot he could do about the goals.
Lato 4.5 - struggled in this game and was at fault for both the goals
Garay 6.5 - confident performance, especially in the air
Gabriel 6.5 - soldiered on from both head and leg injuries and was always well positioned
Piccini 6 - suffered from Barcelona targeting his side, but made a number of key interceptions
Cheryshev 6 - was an active participant throughout the game and unlucky not to score early on
Parejo 8.5 - an excellent game which continues his purple patch. Dispossessed Messi on more than one occasion and was a lively presence at both ends. We need him like this.
Coquelin 6 - a competent performance covering, through limited creation
Wass 5.5 - while he was involved in the second goal, didn't do enough in this game to stake any claims to Soler's spot
Gameiro 6.5 - very well taken goal to justify his selection, he's been playing well in recent weeks and it was a shame to see him injured
Rodrigo 7 - has returned to form and his confidence was clear to see here, great decision making for the first goal

SUBS
Ferran 5 - Valencia were on the back foot for most of the time after he came on so his role was limited
Kondogbia 5.5 - great to see him back, but will need more games to get back to fitness
Mina 5.5 - worked hard at the end after coming on, but limited chances

Transfers and transfer speculations

A lot to catch up on. First, news that went virtually unnoticed. Valencia finally got rid of Aderlan Santos, who joined Saudi club Al-Ahli. I haven't been able to find a transfer fee, so it's likely he went for free and if we did get anything it was peanuts and the club just had to take the loss of nine and a half million euros. Santos was a disaster from start to finish, probably the worst signing of the Lim era and, along with Abdennour, forming one of our worst defensive duos of recent times.

In a surprise move, Ruben Vezo went on loan to Levante for the rest of the season without a buy option. He's almost a veteran of the club, with only Parejo and Gaya in the senior team longer. He's never really convinced but was usually a handy back-up. His role this season has been more limited, with Wass preferred as the alternative to Piccini (who, it has to be said, has done better in recent weeks.) Alex Blanco was also loaned out to Alaves.

Kang-In has been confirmed as a member of the first team and sees his release clause bumped up from 20 million to 80 million.

For replacements, Valencia are said to be very close to an agreement to take Roncaglia of Celta on loan for the rest of the season with a buy option as the central defender. Ruben Sobrino of Alaves now looks the likely choice for the fourth forward. Neither one really excites me, but after last summer's spending binge, funds are limited. Valencia are still trying to get rid of Batshuayi, with English clubs Everton and West Ham reported to be interested.

More interestingly, recent speculation has linked us with Manu Vallejo of Cadiz, one of the breakout stars of Segunda division, who has scored 8 goals and 3 assists in 23 games this season, operation either as a winger or forward. He's 22 next month. The suggestion is that Valencia will pay 6 million, rising to a possible 10, with Cadiz keeping him for the rest of the season.

The window closes a day from now, so all will soon be clearer.

Valencia 3-1 Getafe (Copa del Rey) match thread

Incredible stuff. Valencia looked like they had a mountain to climb after conceding a soft goal in the first minute. 38 seconds had gone to be exact. Getafe showed their dirty side as usual throughout the game and half time arrived with Valencia needing 3 goals. It looked like the first had arrived in the 55th minute with a good cross put in and Mina finishing well, but it went to a VAR review and in that, it looked like Ferran, who had played a part in the build up, was slightly offside.

In the 60th minute, Rodrigo put us level but Getafe sat back in depth frustrating Valencia's attempts. Getafe were reduced to 10 men in the 73rd minute but still, the game reached injury time with Valencia needing two goals. Getafe's constant time wasting resulted in seven minutes added. Cheryshev, Kang-In and Gameiro had all come on and the latter two played a key part. First, a centre from Kang-In was headed back across goal by Mina for Rodrigo to score in the 91st minute. A minute later Valencia lost the ball and the defence found themselves outnumbered with Getafe looking likely to score, however their shot was saved and Valencia raced up the pitch. Kang-In found Gameiro and he put the ball across the goal for Rodrigo to score his first hat trick. What a time to do it.

Valencia held on after that, with tempers boiling over at the end and what seemed like a fight, leaving Gabriel bloody and reports (unconfirmed) that Diakhaby, who never played, got a red card?

If you went to bed during this one, I don't blame you, but unfortunately, you've missed one of our most dramatic finishes in years. The team showed huge character to claw this one back and hopefully this will be a springboard for us to continue our mini-revival.

Valencia CF 3-0 Villarreal CF Match Thread

Valencia CF just managed to beat Villarreal CF in what was a convincing win for the team, with players taking their chances and not having any screw ups at the back, allowing the opposition to come back into the match.

So far the team is in a string of few good results and we are scoring a lot more goals, playing more consistently throughout the whole match and keeping our stability at the back. There are still issues that need ironing out, I still think we need more penetration from the wings, better first touch control from most of the players and more understanding between the players so that we can actually pull off some of the through balls.

Valencia CF scored early in this match and that served as a sort of confidence boost for the players and it took some of the pressure off, so I think that helped a lot to play better and allowed us to have an easier time.

All in all the team took their chances, there were few waster opportunities and some decent passes that didn't make it as player understanding is a bit off, but we were much more effective tonight, converting a lot more of our chances. 

Celta Vigo 1-2 Valencia CF Match Thread

Finally a win and a hard fought and well deserved one by the number of chances Valencia CF had. Like most of our matches this season it looked like a lost cause as Celta Vigo scored a goal late in the first half, while Valencia CF kept on missing chances and wasting opportunities.

Thankfully Valencia CF came stronger in the second half and was finally able to realize its chances and score two goals. The difference makers were the two substitutions, with Ferran Torres scoring a goal and Kevin Gameiro providing an assist to Rodrigo, who finally scored a goal.

It has to be said that Ferran Torres has had two very good games in a row right now, so we obviously have a good cover for the right wing position. Hopefully this urges Soler to step up his game as well, as he's been good overall, but he can be great and provide a lot more.

Thankfully a win finally and lets hope we can carry on in this style for the next couple of matches. 

Gijon match thread / News

After yet another disappointing draw, Valencia find themselves fighting to stay in the cup, hoping to overturn a 1-2 loss at Gijon. In usual circumstances, that would be an easy task, but given the team's travails this season, all bets are off. When the draw was made it was expected that Valencia would have won by 1 or 2 goals in the first leg and been able to experiment and rest players. Instead, it's win or bust and therefore a near first team line-up should be expected.

Transfer news is that Uroš Račić has joined Tenerife of the second division on loan. His time with us has been very limited and NickVCF in the comments has rightly asked what the point is. We can bring in these young prospects, but if their time in the first team is limited to a late sub appearance in the cup before they're sold for a miserable profit at best, it seems worthless. We did identify a young talent a few seasons back. His name was Rodrigo De Paul. We sold him for a dismal 3 million and now he's being targeted by several clubs for 30-35 million. Sure, it's not a total disaster for Valencia, since we'll get at least 10% of that but in hindsight, it would have been better to keep him.

Batshuayi's exit looks imminent with Monaco remaining the likely destination, though late interest from Everton and Galatasaray may change that. Not our business really, since he's been a bust. A fourth striker seems almost certain, though with funds very limited the options are underwhelming. Chicarito was being touted as the likely possibility last week but high demands from West Ham have made that less likely. 

The name currently in vogue is Sergio Leon, who has been a back-up for Betis after decent spells elsewhere including Osasuna. Like Gameiro and Chicarito, this is one I think comes at least 3 years too late. Leon was a good player a few seasons back but I have my doubts he'd significantly improve things up front. In hindsight, we should have got 40-50m for Rodrigo last summer and spent that on Maxi Gomez of Celta. I said that last summer in the comments. However, that boat has sailed, Rodrigo's nominal value has dropped to 25-30m at best, while Gomez's has soared and there's close on zero chance that he will join us. Other options are limited. If we had the money, Borja Iglesias, another of our former youth players who we let leave on a free enjoyed good seasons with Celta B at the third level, Zaragoza last year at the second level and has made the step up with Espanyol, averaging nearly a goal every two games. But, at 25 million (release clause) for a player that has only has one good season in the top flight it would be a gamble.

EDIT: So a 3-0 victory over Sporting Gijon to lift up everyone's spirits, it was a dominant performance in the second half, which unfortunately due to work is the only half that I watched and we managed to turn that domination into goals, what a surprise.

This is what we need, this is how we should play all the time and this is how many goals we should score. I mean at one point it seemed like this would end in yet another draw and we would be out of the cup due to losing the first leg, but we scored the first goal and after that it was smooth sailing with two more goals coming along.
 

Valencia CF need a new striker

Last two matches against Sporting Gijon in the copa and Real Valladolid in the league have shown us just how desperately we need a new striker. In the copa match against Gijon Michy missed an open goal, a sitter and was subsequently subbed at half time and with good reason, with reports suggesting that he is going to leave Valencia CF as VCF are negotiating with Chelsea to end his loan deal. That said in the match against Real Valladolid we had several players miss similar chances. Cheryshev had a great opportunity on goal, Santi Mina also missed an empty open goal as he fumbled with his legs and missed the whole ball, in literally went in between his legs as he missed an open empty goal.

Rodrigo Moreno then had a solid chance as well from open play, he also missed and later on he had opportunity to make it right through a penalty and he shot straight into the goalkeeper. We can't win games when we can't score goals even when we are creating so many chances. There are some games that we don't create many chances, tighter games and that is another issue altogether, but in matches like last one where we create plenty of opportunities, its sad that we barely managed to score one goal. We probably had 5 games like this and I'm being conservative here, we probably drew 5 games that we should have won, and that is 10 more points right now if we'd have won. Again if we'd won 5 matches instead of drawing and we could have won that amount of games if we scored more, we've had the chances and opportunities to score more in at least 5 games, that would have given us 10 more points and we would have had 33 points now and actually be THIRD on the table, sharing the spot with Sevilla.

This is why I think the number one priority of the club is to bring in a good quality striker on loan, and give Marcelino one more month to turn things around. If we can get a solid striker who is in better form and allow Marcelino time to work with that, we can properly assess if the biggest issue is the coach. If he can't make it work even with another good striker that is going to score from these type of good opportunities, then we can think about replacing the coach.

Right now I just don't see anyone that can make a better difference. The best option would be Voro, but that is just so depressing to have him come in as a caretaker so much and so often. And the only person who can turn things around in such a short period is him, every other coach would need more time to figure out the squad and put his stamp on.

So yeah, Valencia CF should be looking to bring in a new quality striker on loan, one who can immediately make a difference, the winter transfer window is always tough to get the best and/or the ones you want, but we can't do worse than what we have now, that is for sure. Then lets give Marcelino a proper month with the new striker to turn things around, only then should he fail to improve things, should we be looking at replacing him. 

Valencia CF 1-1 Real Valladolid Match Thread

Another match, another draw. I just don't get it how we aren't winning these matches, it's absurd to draw so many games. We have periods where we dominate, but don't do anything with it and periods where we are full on defensive mode. Against Real Valladolid we had quite a few good opportunities to score goals, but all of the players kept missing.

Every single player kept missing. Soler had a chance, Cheryshev, Mina, Rodrigo missed from a good chance from open play and then missed a penalty, etc... We could have easily won 3-0 or more, but because of very poor finishing we barely scraped with a 1-1 draw.

Rodrigo Moreno sucks at scoring goals, mina does, Cheryshev does, every single player of ours can't seem to score goals, even if we have the chances, which we did today. Real Valladolid basically had just one or two chances and out of those two scored one goal. It was a masterpiece of a free kick, it passed the wall and went furthest wide into the angle, Neto had no chance to stop it. 

Gijon - Valencia Copa del Rey match thread

I'm writing this at half time. If you've missed it, well, you know the story: Valencia have dominated possession but created little and gifted the other team an easy goal. Remember this is Gijon, a midtable side in the second division who have struggled themselves this season, scoring only 19 goals in 20 games. Can't blame Jaume, the defence has been shaky and the goal was a poor one to give away. Wass was caught out of position on the counter, Vezo went across to cover but got sold and when the cross came in, Diakhaby was poor, failing to mark properly. I've rated him so far, but it's not his week. Also we have looked really weak and suspect from corners.

The midfield has been decent, especially Parejo. Kang-in has also had a good game, but his lack of playing time has translated into a lack of understanding with Gaya. Soler and Ferran subdued so far. Up front, Gameiro has at least worked hard and done a lot of running, but it's been mostly for nothing. On a couple of occasions, I've seen him make intelligent runs, but the pass hasn't come. Batshauyi has continued to be poor, doesn't get into any good positions, has a heavy touch and usually holds the ball too long. He had the first Valencia chance when they messed up a back pass, but instead of trying to nutmeg the keeper, he hit a really heavy touch to the side and the chance went. Kang-in had a shot at the keeper in the 11th minute and then there was a double chance in the 24th minute, first Gaya bursting through to be saved and then Soler hitting a curling shot which the keeper saved. Valencia equalised just before half time, Parejo's shot came down off the bar and bounced out then Gameiro headed in the rebound only to be flagged offside. VAR was consulted (for the first time ever in the Copa) and the goal was given and I'm still unclear who scored. Looking at the VAR replay, it's hard to say if the ball was completely over the line, but Gameiro was definitely onside.

It's late here so this is it for me. Win tonight, even unconvincingly, and Marcelino has more time, draw and the vultures are still circling. Lose and there's a very good chance that Voro will be back at the helm. I've backed him so far, but increasingly that's from past negative experience and because I'm sceptical that a replacement would do better. But these Gijon games and Valladolid at the weekend will determine it.

So we ended up losing and at this point Marcelino has to be on thin ice. Again, if we do not get good results in our next few matches I can't see him staying as a coach. The excuses are running thin and ultimately as a coach he is responsible for the results. Remember this is a mid-table second tier club and we made them look good in this match.

The second half we were terrible, so many lost balls, so little ball control, rushed passes that led to nothing, etc.... We couldn't string together more than 2-3 passes before losing the ball, I haven't seen play this bad in a long time. It's one thing to play this bad against a strong Barcelona side or a Real Madrid in their form, but this is absurd to play so badly against such a weak opponent.

I think Marcelino is close to losing his job if he can't get a string of a few wins over the next couple of matches. 

Alaves 2-1 Valencia CF Match Thread

I don't know what to say lads and gents, this was a must win match for Valencia CF, one coming after a good two week break for Valencia CF and one where we should have come in strong, having rested a bit and come into it swinging. This is second half of the season, there is no more room for mistakes and Marcelino better figure it out.

I've been with him 100%, but this is getting ridiculous, yeah the Spanish media and fans are a lot more brutal and surely his had a lot of pressure to deal with till now, but its just going to get worse from now one with these kind of results. We need to get all the points from the next 4-5 matches, otherwise even 6th place would be a pipe dream.

I know that we've had issues in the start with Coquelin injured, Guedes arriving late and out of shape, Cheryshev getting injured early on in the season, Mina getting injured few games in, a lot of new players arriving, but it's been six months now and sure we haven't had the best of luck with injuries overall, with Guedes, Kondogbia, Coquelin, Garay, etc... all injured often and for quite long period of time as well, but we've also had periods where everyone was fully fit and ready and we still haven't been getting results.

So I'm willing to excuse some matches from winning them, but there has been way too many draws and now even losses. It used to be draws, but we are also losing now. I hope Marcelino finds a way to turn things around, I'm a big supporter of his, I appreciate what he achieved last season, I don't blame him completely for the poor results, injuries, bad luck, new players, etc... all has taken a toll of course, but he is ultimately responsible for the results.

I'm willing to wait and see what happens through January, but we need to start winning. If we were in a better position a few draws would be too bad, but we are in a bad position, so we need to be winning. I expect to see at least 4 wins out of the next 5 matches, otherwise we'd be in a terrible position on the table and it would be over even for Europa league place.

I know we played with a few players missing today, but we should have been able to get a result against Alaves. I don't see any sort of spark, any sort of fighting spirit in the player when they play. We had that last season, don't know why that was, but we had it and this season for some reason we don't. Players are playing like robots, just doing the automated thing, the most basic of things. They aren't challenging themselves and aren't fighting as hard.

We have the same players like last season, minus Zaza, who yeah we obviously do miss a lot in more ways than one, but its the same players overall, so why are we doing so poorly? The only reason I can think of is some sort of mental issue. Some mental inadequacy that is preventing our players from playing to their best.

They need to be reminded that they need to run as hell, to fight for every ball, to try and better themselves when they are out there playing and always do better. What do you guys think about our predicament here and what is the solution?

Valencia 2-1 Huesca post-match

Valencia end 2018 with a win. So, all good, right? As anyone who watched it will tell you, far from it. It was more of the same turgid rubbish with the team achieving the miracle before Christmas of a win due to a goal with the last kick of the game in the 93rd minute. Remember this is at Mestalla, against Huesca, the bottom team and relegation favourites, who haven't won since 19 August and who have 4 points from their last 14 games. Valencia did their best to give them a Christmas gift and it looked like Huesca could seriously win it towards the end.

There had been some good Valencia moves and the team hasn't lost the knack of transitioning to fast counter-attacks, but this season, the final product is always lacking. The opening goal for us may even have been a mistake. It looked to me like Parejo was aiming for the other side, where a defender or the keeper probably would have blocked it, but instead he scuffed his shot and it looped over the keeper into the other side.

With our attacks showing the usual incompetence, you could almost have written the script for what came next. Soler was the culprit this time, giving away yet another soft penalty. The end was nervous stuff, Huesca had a breakaway that another team would have scored and a penalty shout but it was Piccini at the death who stole the points.

Weirdly, that win ensures that Valencia will finish the year in at least 9th place (could be 8th if Levante don't get a point in Vallecas later) and that's the first time this season that we've been in the top half, just 3 points away from the Europa league spots (but still only 5 ahead of relegation.) It feels undeserved and the mood of dissatisfaction and questions about the manager will persist into the New Year, though these 3 points have almost certainly saved him till January.

Europa league draw / Jeison Murillo joins Barcelona

Valencia got Celtic in Monday's Europa league draw, with the first leg in Glasgow on 14 February and the second at Mestalla 7 days later. There are no easy teams at these stages, but that's a winnable tie.

The loan of Jeison Murillo to Barcelona was confirmed today. He joins for €2 million with a buy option of €25 million. Murillo has only played three times this season: at home to Juventus and Celta and away to Ebro. While I disagree with the many fans who seem to view him as "our best defender" I don't really understand that transfer. With Garay's constant injuries and recent injuries to Gabriel and Diakhaby, why leave ourselves short in the defensive department?

Eibar 1-1 Valencia post-match

Sorry if these are short, but it's getting a bit tedious writing about dour displays and constant "what might have been" draws. Eibar have always been a tricky opponent, but this was a game we should have won despite our first 15 minutes being awful. We couldn't pass to save our lives, weren't able to hold on to the ball for more than 10 seconds. For the rest of the first half we saw much better. The team was passing and counter attacking dangerously, though with the final product lacking as usual. In one of the best chances, Rodrigo skilfully cut inside, but then chose the wrong option of threading it to Mina, who had a defender on him, when Cheryshev was free. Mina just blasted it uselessly at the keeper. We then opened the scoring and it was a good goal from the team, Parejo hitting a great pass out to Wass and the latter producing an excellent ball into the danger zone for Rodrigo to score his first in 4 months.

All downhill thereafter, both Gabriel and Coquelin went off injured before half time and Gaya gave away an avoidable penalty, mysteriously waving his arms around, with VAR awarding the penalty after a couple of minutes delay.

We were joking earlier in the season about Valencia equalling or beating the most draws in a season record (18) but the team seriously seems to be going for it, with just 8 draws in 22 games needed. That looks like the only "achievement" we will make in what continues to be a hugely disappointing campaign.

Copa del Rey draw

A bit of luck for Valencia in the draw for the last 16 of the Copa del Rey

drawing Sporting Gijon, the only remaining Segunda division side in the competition and moreover, the second leg will be at the Mestalla. We couldn't have had a better draw if we'd picked it ourselves. Marcelino will know the club well, since he spent 4 years there as a player and 2 as a manager. Like us, Gijon have had a very disappointing season: they recently parted company with our ex-player Ruben Baraja and are languishing in 12th place, having lost in the promotion play-offs last season. Given the weird way this season has gone, and our struggles against Ebro in the previous round, nothing should be taken for granted, but this is a solid draw which increases our chances of progress.

Valencia - Manchester United match thread

Valencia's centenary year was supposed to be a triumphant one, with the team consolidating its place in the Spanish and European elite. Instead, as we all know, it's been a massive disappointment, with a series of limp attacking performances making the team simply hard to watch. I usually stick with the games until half time and then, in frustration, leave the commentary on in the background while I go and do something else and I know I'm not alone. It's only reasonable defence and the fact that traditional rivals like Sociedad, Villarreal and Bilbao have also been doing poorly that has saved us from being in a relegation position. Compared to results achieved in the same games last season we have dropped a point against R.Madrid, 2 against Betis, Celta, Leganes and Sevilla and 3 against Espanyol and Girona, while gaining 1 versus Villarreal and 3 versus Getafe, so even just achieving the same results as last season in the remaining games would leave us outside top four, which is out now and I seriously doubt we can even make top 7 now. 

Worse, the reasons for it don't seem totally clear which makes solutions hard. The team and manager are the same but nothing seems to work. Various players have seriously dropped off on last year's performance, Kondogbia, who was a titan last season, doesn't even make the line-up any more, and few people care, as he's been worse than Coquelin when on, Guedes doesn't excite and Rodrigo has reverted to the Rodrigo of early seasons with us. Marcelino's tactics seem too rigid, lacking a plan B, but I think most supporters know from hard experience that mid-season managerial changes have rarely helped us, while they've definitely undermined our reputation in the long term. There has also been the Zaza question, but I'm not convinced that things would be better with him still with us. He came to us with patchy form, had a brief purple patch, then reverted to type, notching a miserable 3 goals in his last 24 appearances. In his home country, at Torino, he's struggled to make an impact, starting just 3 games, subbing in 11 times, usually in the last 25 minutes and scoring just once. He's clearly as out of form as everyone.

So to tonight's game. Valencia will finish third whatever happens. So a dead rubber game, right? Not exactly, besides the morale boost from a win and the bragging rights gained from sticking it to a much loathed figure like Mourinho, there are short term and long term advantages to winning. 

Short term, a draw earns us €900,000, a win nearly 3 million. There's also the seeding situation in the Europa league. The best 4 third-placed teams will be seeded and the others unseeded. Currently, we have 5 points and of the four groups that have finished, Napoli have 9pts, Inter 8, Bruges 6 and Galatasaray 4. Looking at the groups still to play, it seems that only a win will get us seeded, draw or lose and we will be unseeded in Monday's Europa league draw. Longer term, a win improves our European ranking, making it more likely we can get a better seeding in future, while also earning more money due to a better ranking.

In teams news, the four Gs are out. Gabriel, Guedes and Gameiro are injured, Gaya is suspended. I'd expect to see Neto in goal rather than Jaume, with Lato on the left and Diakhaby and Garay in the centre. Right back will be interesting, it would be a good chance to rest Wass and bring Piccini back  Cheryshev will likely start on the left and Parejo in the centre. Kondogbia should start this one to give Coquelin a rest with Soler making up the right wing. Up front, Bats should start with one of Mina and Rodrigo rested and then coming on later as a sub. Kangin is on the bench and this would be a good time to blood him in the second half. 

I'm not sure how much of this one I'll watch and it finishes late my time so I won't be doing a match report tonight. Please use this thread to give us your thoughts before, during and after the game.

Valencia CF 1-1 Sevilla FC Match Report

Valencia CF has looked out of sorts this season and most of the games have been goalless borefests that haven't brought us many points. Draws are better than losses, but when most of your games are draws with barely any wins, you don't gain a lot of points.

So this was the situation going into this match and you can rest assured that this is still the case after the match against Sevilla FC. Marcelino fielded the usual team, replacing the out of sorts Kondogbia with Coquelin as this is an easy choice, everyone who's seen these two play in the last few matches knows Coquelin is in way better form right now. Everything else was standard and I'd say our strongest team right now. Maybe he could have benched Parejo and started Soler in mid, but we don't actually have any options on the right wing other than Soler, Feran is just not ready yet, Cheryshev has been injured for a long time and he is a left winger, always has been, so no real options there.

Knowing its most likely our best team and going into this match on a semi decent note having went through in the Copa, we had a good chance to win at the Mestalla against a good, but quite leaky Sevilla at the back.

Valencia CF started out strong with the team having a series of great chances from the start. In the 2nd minute Garay headed a free kick ball dangerously towards goal, only for Sevilla's goalkeeper to punch it only into the incoming Santi Mina who's shot was also at the hands of Sevilla's goalkeeper. Once again our inability to score this season rearing out its ugly head.

Valencia CF would have a few long range efforts throughout the first half, with Sevilla only having 1 shot on goal which was also a long range effort. It was a tight match, mostly fought in the final third on both sides, but neither side had clear cut chances. Valencia CF should have scored in that 2nd minute, it would have made the game look much different and would have given us a big confidence and moral boost. Unfortunately that did not happen and the second half looked much more favorable for Sevilla.

After some ineffective moves up front for Valencia CF and loosing the ball a bit too much to be caught out in counter attacks, one such counter would prove fatal as Sevilla would score a goal. While the initial threat was cleared by Garay, the follow up shot was a weird one, bouncing off of the ground and acting as a sort of pass to the oncoming Pablo Sarabia who's light touch flicked the ball just enough to slot it past Neto and into the net.

Valencia CF were now on the back ropes and tried to attack as much as possible, but nothing was coming together and we had discombobulated attacks with no real danger. Marcelino brought in Michy for Santi in a bit to shore up the offense, but I would have liked to see more steel in Marcelino's decision and Gabriel's injury earlier should have served as the opportunity to bring in Michy in place of Gabriel and make a statement that we are going after the win. In this case he chose Diakhaby to replace Gabriel, which in a turn of faith would actually prove right as he scored the equalizer in the final minutes of the match.

Either way, in 99 out of 100 cases that decision would have proved wrong, but today's was Marcelino's lucky day. Earlier on still he added Cheryshev for Guedes, who even though was not particularly effective, would have been smarter to leave him and replace Parejo, move soler in the middle and have Guedes play on the right.

I've been seeing Emery's Arsenal and he seems to be making bold decisions and big statements with his aggressive substitutions and has been working wonders for him and Arsenal. I'd like to see Marcelino be a bit bolder and aggressive with his subs.

Ultimately it was Diakhaby who scored the equalizing goal, it was masterful goal, no chance for the keeper to do anything about it and we get to draw and still be kind of relevant as we are still lingering close to the top teams in the table, but obviously a win would have been obviously better, but also a sign of a changing tie, a sign that the team is becoming more decisive and frugal, being able to win these scrappy games.

That is my 2 cents, tell us what your thought are for this match in the comments section, I'd like to hear everyone's thought's on this match.

Valencia - Ebro (copa del rey) match thread

In the first leg of this round, Valencia scraped a narrow win against a third level side, yet another of many numerous unacceptable performances this season. Tonight offers the team the chance to score an easy win, for out of form forwards like Batshuayi and Gameiro to get some goals and for some of the lesser used or B-team players to try to impress.

Predictably, big changes in the starting line-up

with only Gameiro continuing from last game. Racic gets his first start in a competitive game. Hopefully the team can secure a morale boosting win. Assuming I can get a stream I'll try and update this later, but if not feel free to comment here in the meantime.

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Got a stream and wish I hadn't as it was the same old rubbish. If the team had been playing well in general we could have at least written it off as the second string but I'm bored with making excuses. Ebro, a team struggling at the third level, made us look very ordinary at the Mestalla. It was an even first half with Kondogbia coming closest to scoring for us and one of their players almost scoring with a strong shot from distance of the type that we barely ever see our players hit. It took until the 58th minute for Batshuayi to break the deadlock, heading home a good cross from Lato. Bats didn't smile and I think few Valencia fans did either.

Jaume made a couple of good reflex saves. Defence had little to do. Kondogbia had his moments, especially in the first half, but lost the ball too much and is way short of last year's level. Racic looks a handy back up. Ferran didn't do a lot apart from a decent moment of skill near the end. Kangin had a good game and worked hard. Bats despite the goal offered little, losing or delaying on the ball too much. Gameiro was awful, think he didn't touch the ball until the 25th minute and when he went off with a knee injury I don't think many cared unfortunately. Parejo came on to boos.

An in-form Sevilla next and failure to get 3 points and we can definitely kiss any top four dreams goodbye, though they already look a distant fantasy.

Real Madrid vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Tonight Valencia CF is playing against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in what is one of the bigger matches for Valencia CF. Both teams are coming into this match in mediocre form, so this is truly going to be an interesting and in theory competitive match. Valencia CF has caused a lot of issues for Real Madrid over the past few years and we've also not seen the abrigeous refereeing "mistakes" giving Real Madrid an advantage, so games have generally been closer and way more competitive. We seem to be able to compete and really give Real Madrid trouble time and time again, even ending Real Madrid's 29'th or something unbeaten streak few years ago under Carlo Ancelotti.

This season Valencia CF started in a very slow fashion, far below everyone's expectations after last season's amazing performances and results, especially since after who knows how many season's Valencia CF actually kept the same squad for the most part. The same successful squad was kept, we even spent over 70 million euros to do so, yet the results and performances this season have been subpar.

Over the past months the results have improved and we've picked up a few wins, giving the team a much needed boost and an uplift in the standing in La Liga. In fact even when we weren't getting results and drawing all of our games, we were never far from the 1st place on the table, as the Spanish league has been very competitive this season, with all of the top teams dropping points frequently. Right now the situation is decent for us, as we are only 9 points away from first place, though we need to maintain the good performances and continue to get wins in order to increase our chances for a top 4 position. Right now Real Madrid is a huge obstacle to that, but they've been fragile this season and have had issues all over the pitch, with their defense leaky and attack at times timid.

They've also improved quite a bit over the past month with the replacement of their previous coach Julen Lopetegui, who's had a horrid year, being kicked from the Spanish national team for taking the Real Madrid job, his dream job at the time, to having his dream job turn into nightmare and being sacked after just few short months on the job.

All of this is a premonition of a very interesting and competitive match, hopefully with lots of goals and a win for Valencia CF.

Juventus 1-0 Valencia post-match

Seems like it's only me interested in writing posts here these days.....

Valencia's Champions league campaign ended as it started, a useless attacking display ending in a defeat to Juventus.

Just one change in the line-up, Soler was dropped, Kondogbia returned and Coquelin shifted to right wing. Overall, I was mostly satisfied with the team's play and would give them 6/10 collectively. Neto did very well, the defence too. Wass is not the long term right back solution, but handled his side well, I remember one moment when Ronaldo threatened to go one on one and Wass made a key tackle. Gaya similarly. Paulista continues at a good level, got beaten for the goal but it was a moment of skill by Ronaldo so I can forgive it. Diakhaby I rate as a good pick-up given his age and potential, but he still has areas to improve. His aerial game is decent but could be better and he still doesn't look 100% confident releasing the ball, but he was the closest of our players to scoring with a great header just before half time. Coquelin was good as usual and deserves a starting place. Guedes better this game, but still short of last season's level, Marcelino recently put it down to the fact that he hasn't totally recovered from injury.

The let down was in central midfield and attack. Okay, Parejo wasn't a disaster. He remained calm and got us out of a few jams with his passing but he also screwed up twice, leading to breakaways which could have cost us a goal, one from a rubbish corner.... I said in the last post that he's been poor at set pieces. Kondogbia, on the other hand, was just rubbish. Offered almost nothing, don't know what's happened to him since last season?

Rodrigo and Mina were totally anonymous and bossed out of the game by the Juventus defence.  Rodrigo's substitution was due to injury worries, but it didn't matter as Gameiro and Bats offered nothing after coming on to suggest they'd have been better. Soler, similarly was poor and he looked tired same as the last game.

Final criticism is that I thought we were too negative. I could accept us sitting back in the first half but after going a goal down, we may as well have gone for it: losing 3-0 would have been the same. It's frustrating to lose out to a mediocre Man Utd team who qualified due to a handball goal, but in the end I don't think we can complain too much. The performances this season have not been those of one of the best 16 teams in Europe.

Valencia 3-0 Rayo Vallecano

Valencia finally secure their first home win of the season and do so in convincing fashion, with a 3-0 win over one of the relegation favourites.

Just one change in the line-up compared to the previous game: Diakhaby returned for his first league game since September replacing Garay. Is the latter injured again?

Valencia started well and clearly looked determined to get the 3 points from this one. Soler and Guedes both had chances in the opening 15 minutes but their keeper kept them out. It wasn't all one way and all too often attacking moves from Valencia broke down due to poor movements, decision making and most of all, passing. There were also a few individual errors from Wass, Gaya and Diakhaby which could have proved more costly. Rayo were starting to come back into it. In minute 20 an attack from them hit the post, with Neto saving the rebound.

By minute 30 Rayo were even starting to look a bit better than us when the breakthrough came. Rodrigo nodded a through ball on to the on running Mina, who finished confidently. Bonus point for ditching the LeBron James celebration too!

Valencia had a penalty shout soon after that when Rodrigo tangled with their defender but it was 50/50 situation. Guedes then produced a moment of great skill and acceleration, but messed up the final pass.

The start of the second half followed the pattern of the first, with Valencia dominant. The second came from great work by Rodrigo. It looked like the pass to him had been overhit with the defender shepherding it out, but he sprinted on to and forced a corner. From that, Gabriel chested it down and forced a save from the keeper, with Mina following up to score. For once, Valencia were looking comfortable. Mina was subbed off soon after for a rest and a deserved ovation. Gameiro came on and finished it off. A decent counter attack found him, he played a great ball into the path of Rodrigo and the latter smartly laid it back instead of shooting for Gameiro to wrap up the game.

Wouldn't get too carried away with this one, Rayo, after Ebro, are the weakest team we've played this season, but a comfortable scoreline reflected a good performance, boosts the team's morale and gives us our 4th win in 5 games to quieten veteya ideas.

PLAYER RATINGS
Neto 7 - one of the few players on the team who've been better than last season, another good performance today.
Gaya 6.5 - limited in attack but did his defensive duties well
Diakhaby 6 - his lack of recent games showed as he made a couple of mistakes, but nothing major
Gabriel 8 - continues to have a great season and has been a rock in defence this year
Wass 6.5 - looks better and more useful in this position, but still not the long term RB solution, did well in attack but looks less secure in defence
Guedes 5 - had one or two good moments but is out of form, lacks confidence and is far from the guy who lit up Mestalla last year
Parejo 6.5 - solid game in midfield, but has lost his free kick mojo
Coquelin 7 - positional play and defensive cover was excellent. Has been in good form since his return and has actually been better than Kondogbia this season
Soler 6 - combined well with Wass, but not one of his better games, looked a bit tired
Rodrigo 7.5 - a great game with key involvement in all 3 goals, just needs to score to build up his confidence
Mina 8.1 - man of the match, confident finishes and good understanding with his strike partner has given him 6 goals in 5 games since his injury return. At least we have 1 striker from 4 who can score.

Subs
Gameiro 6 - good cameo, did everything right for the goal
Ferran - not enough time
Vezo - don't think he touched the ball?

Getafe 0-1 Valencia

Just when we were preparing the obvious sarcastic remarks about it being a shock that Valencia had drawn 0-0 the team stole a close fought game with a late goal. I had to go out just after the hour mark so I missed the goal (and last 30 minutes.)

Just one change in the line-up, with returning Parejo replacing Kondogbia, who had injury concerns himself. It's notable that Marcelino has started the same 10 players in the last 3 games. Batshuayi, who has been poor, was dropped from the line-up altogether. Don't know if it's possible to terminate his loan in January and just get someone else in?

In the first half at least, Valencia and Rodrigo in particular had at least 3 chances to put us in front. In the first, in just the third minute, Guedes out him through, but he curled his shot just past the far post. In the second he shot at the keeper and Soler was left kicking at air when a knock back to Mina would have been better. Just before the end of the half, Guedes again put Rodrigo through but he shot at the keeper. We have at least been creating more chances the last few games, but remain as rubbish as ever at converting them.

Getafe had their chances as well, but fell victim to our offside trap, hit the woodwork and found Neto in good form as always. Our goal came through a penalty. Parejo hit it predictably, the keeper guessed right and couldn't get there.

So the positives. This is the first time since 2005 we've kept clean sheets in 4 consecutive away games. We lost both games to Getafe last season so this recovers three points (though we're still 10 points down on what we got in the identical fixtures last season.) The negatives are that if it hadn't been for the penalty we'd have drawn again and we remain a fair bit off the pace. So this is a step in the right direction but still so much improvement is needed.

Valencia 3-1 Young Boys post-match thread

Finally, a home win, a half decent performance, especially in attack, with the team scoring three goals in a competitive game for the first time since 18 March (!)

In the Girona game I thought the performance was better, even if we suffered from the usual wastefulness in front of goal, at least we were creating more chances. Last night, Soler was excellent with Mina and Rodrigo also enjoying good performances, Guedes showing flashes of last season and a fairly solid midfield duo of Kondogbia and Coquelin.

The win means it's very likely Valencia will continue in European football after the winter break. Unfortunately. Manchester's win at Juventus means it's almost certain Valencia will be in Europa league. Just beating Manchester at Mestalla is now not enough. If we lose or draw at Juventus, we have to hope Man United then fail to win at home to Young Boys. Alternatively, we need to win at Juventus. So, our destiny at least is in our hands, but it looks like a step too far.

Ebro 1-2 Valencia (Copa del Rey)

Valencia started their Copa del Rey campaign in Zaragoza, coincidentally in exactly the same stadium where they started it last year. Comparisons with last season pretty much end there. Sure, the team did manage their first win in just over a month but as ever it's on the back of a performance which leaves little to celebrate and the game did nothing to wash away the bad taste that's been building up. On the contrary, it was just more evidence that this team has seriously lost the plot as we scraped to a 1-goal win over a team that is bottom of the third level and that despite having a man advantage for over an hour.

No surprises in the line-up

Kang-in, as expected, started his first official game but aside from that, knowing the team absolutely had to win this one Marcelino played it safe, giving game time to first team players who have been less active recently like Lato, Murillo, Diakhaby, Ferran and Wass.

Kang-In was active in the early period, often for the wrong reasons, as his enthusiasm and lack of experience caused several fouls and he was lucky to escape a booking by a card happy referee. Ebro for the most part were happy to sit back in a 5-4-1 asking what Valencia could do. As we all know, the answer to that this season has been nothing and no different here. Despite lots of possession there was little created and the first clear chance actually fell to them. Wass screwed up in possession, did at least get a tackle in, but the ball bounced through only for Murillo to save us with an inch perfect last ditch tackle.

Our first clear chance fell to Gameiro, who did well to recover the ball, but his shot was straight at the keeper. In minute 30, the ref did us a favour, sending their player off for a second yellow. I thought both his yellows were a bit harsh to be fair. An hour to play, surely that could motivate us and give us the edge? Nope. What followed had shades of the Juventus game, with the difference that we were playing a team bottom of the Spanish third level rather than one of the best teams in the world. We passed around a bit but rarely created anything of note.

At half time, Marcelino subbed off Gameiro for Bats. I was a bit disappointed at that one as I thought this was one game where we could have risked taking off a defender for a midfielder or forward given the man advantage. After another tepid 15 minutes of the second half with Valencia looking clueless as ever, Ebro took the lead with probably only their second chance of the game. Lato fell to the ground too easily, and this let their player power a header home at the back post. Disgraceful stuff. Coquelin came on for Vezo with Wass covering at right back. 

Mina would save us with a couple of good goals. Cutting inside for the first then curling a shot past the keeper for the first. Then for the second scoring a header from a good cross by Wass to save our blushes. 

In terms of players, Jaume had barely anything to do and can't really be blamed for the goal. Vezo was average. Diakhaby had a really good game, was solid and passed the ball out from the back well. Murillo was alright. Lato was a big disappointment, doesn't seem to have progressed from last season and the quality gap between him and Gaya has widened.

Kang-In is a diamond in the rough. Has great potential but lacks experience and didn't look fully comfortable on the wing, he drifted inside at times. Wass had a couple of good moments, the assist and a stinging shot from distance which the keeper did well to save. 

Mina was one of the few bright spots but 4 seasons in would need to show more consistency. Gameiro and Bats did little to impress as usual.

Unacceptable.

Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Valencia CF Match Report

Wow what a surprise Valencia CF drew against Athletic Bilbao, who would have guessed huh? I can't believe I'm saying this, but a goalless draw, no one could have foreseen this. Valencia CF drawing against Athletic Bilbao was the safest bet in sports this weekend if you are into betting. If I as a betting man I would have placed in big money on a draw for this game.

I didn't manage to watch all of the match, my stream was lagging so bad it was really frustrating trying to watch, when your stream starts lagging and buffering every 10 seconds or so. From what I saw it seemed like the same old, we had a little different setup with Marcelino opting for Coquelin on the left wing, rather than Ferran, probably the safer bet as Athletic are usually very dominant in the midfield and can bully out unprepared teams in the middle of the field. This brought in some strength in the midfield and tougher defense, but it did not help put in attack at all.

In fact I did not see a direct shot on goal, though again it might be my stream's fault, but there wasn't any sort of progress I felt in attack at all. I might have missed some moments, but overall it felt mostly the same. Again one or two half chances isn't that great, especially when you don't score from them and any team is capable of doing that.

Good thing is that even with this draw we are in a decent position on the table. Essentially 3 wins from leading the table, but we are forced to rely on our opponents getting bad results as well and this just isn't sustainable, obviously. Valencia CF needs to start winning matches if we are to have any chances of getting into the top 4 positions, who even as of right now are quite open to us, but will not be for much longer if Valencia CF doesn't start recording wins.

We also shouldn't be looking at a manager change either, we have not been losing and we haven't been playing particularly bad, its just that we haven't played particularly good either. I'd willing to give Marcelino two more months to improve the situation, we have to start winning that is obvious in order to ease up the situation and bring back confidence. Valencia CF players lack confidence, fans don't have or are losing confidence, the staff are losing confidence, etc... Its a bad cycle that needs to change.

I'd say next week is crucial for Valencia CF, getting a win is a must, getting another draw won't help us, I'd rather see us lose, but play very good and have chances and have good attacking play, rather than play decent and draw again.

Young Boys 1-1 Valencia

Valencia throw away two points and millions of euros in prize money in another incompetent display, especially in the second half.

The line-up contained no surprises. Garay had picked up a minor injury so Diakhaby came back in. I was happy to see Ferran start on the left. The other options were Wass, who's been off form, Coquelin out of position or a Gaya-Lato combo.

The team started well enough. After a few early struggles to adjust to the plastic pitch the team started to find a rhythm and attacked, but it was the usual story, once we got to their final third play broke down and we failed to create any real chances. This was despite Bats looking better this game, taking better touches and passing well, something the team messed up at times.

Valencia went ahead in the 26th minute, Soler providing a great assist with a deft flick-on allowing Bats to round the keeper and finish well from a narrow angle. Sadly, that would be the peak of Valencia. The first half followed most of the same pattern that we have seen game in game out this season cluelessness in the final third.

Predictably, with Valencia failing to build a comfortable lead, many of us were already guessing what would happen next: the team gave away an idiotic penalty, with Captain Parejo the culprit. It's hard to see what the hell he was doing, it looked like a stretching exercise but after the equaliser, their tails were up and they dominated the rest of the encounter. Neto, who was our best player on the night, had to come to the rescue several times. A couple of the saves looked like sheer dumb luck, which we won't have against all teams.

Manchester losing at home to Juventus means that, astonishingly, we're still in with a chance of a last 16 place. But we'd have to beat both Young Boys and MUFC at home and hope MUFC lose at Juve. I just can't see it and neither do I think our incompetent displays deserve it.

After the game Marcelino said he couldn't think of a logical explanation as to why the team had drawn 9 out of 12 games. Is he for real? It's blatantly obvious to all of us why.

Neto is possibly the only player that has been playing at a consistently decent level. The defence have generally been with it too, but tonight was an off-night with many stupid errors. On the plus side as well, Piccini has been improving and may yet find his place in the team: he's gone from bad to average in recent games. Just 2 goals conceded from open play in 9 games shows that there is hope in this bunch but....

...the forward line has just been woeful. They seem to need 10 chances just to even hit the target, nevermind score. Not far behind them in incompetence is the midfield. Kondogbia was disappointing tonight and overall this season. Parejo needs a rest on the bench. There seems to be a disconnect and total lack of understanding between midfield and attack which means we are failing to capitalise on what are good defensive performances more often than not.

But the biggest problem is that we do not seem to be progressing or learning anything. We just repeat the same mistakes over and over again, with the manager often guilty. A predictable playing style (a counter attacking 4-4-2) with no plan B which just about every team in La Liga has figured out how to counter. Too much rotation leading to the lack of understanding between MF and Forwards. Certain players (yes you Dani) who seem to always play regardless of form. At times bizarre substitutions: how many times have we seen a third forward come on with Rodrigo shifted back to the wings. At least four times and IT NEVER WORKS!

I'm far from the sack Marcelino camp and agree with commenters who say it's far too soon, but the man needs to change something up rather than stubbornly repeating what blatantly isn't working as time is rapidly running out, with a quarter of the season now gone. The upcoming stretch of games is relatively easier with a cup game at Ebro in the mix to allow a few experiments, but if things don't improve then, Marcelino's credit at the bank will soon run out and we will hear jeers and whistles soon.

Valencia 1-1 Leganes Match Report

Another matchday another draw for Valencia CF, as the team can't seem to shake off this string of draws with Valencia's attack once again failing to fire up. Unlike some other matches Valencia CF did create some chances, but unfortunately that final ball is severely lacking still. Whether its a shot, a pass, a cross, touch, etc... the team fails to get that last bit right. Failed shots, failed passes, failed touches, etc... we can't seem to make that final ball.

The team was as close to standard as it could, we missed Kondogbia as he arrived late from his international duties, Guedes is still injured so no chance there, while Murillo was also out of the squad, though that isn't something new either. So pretty much the standard team with just Kondogbia and Guedes missing, though in this match Kondogbia wasn't really missed, Coquelin did a solid job deputising and handling the defensive side of things, though truth be told Kondogbia does have a bit more of an attacking presence.

Soler was rested likely for the match against Young Boys in the champions league, but Marcelino was forced to use him as an early sub for Cheryshev who got injured during the match. It was a boring match, with no clear cut chances for either side, though Valencia CF was slightly the better team and looked more likely to score.

In the second half as Marcelino made changes in order to try and score, so Valencia CF can win the match, that is when Leganes scored. Unfortunately this means subbing Piccini for Michy and this weakened our defense, allowing Leganes to become more threatening and from one attack in our penalty area to get a penalty call. The penalty was converted by Gerard Gumbau and Leganes seemed set to win this match.

Marcelino then went in all in with attack as he was now looking to not lose. Nothing worked though and we were seeing our attack fail as it has been failing all season long. Thankfully late in the match Gaya would make a good run towards goal and would receive a good pass by Parejo setting him up in prime position to score, which he did with a bit of luck.

Overall we are lacking penetration in our attack, we lack creativity, we lack build-up play, we lack the final ball. Good thing is that all of La Liga is very competitive and most of our rivals drew or lost as well. The table is very packed, so even with this umptheenth draw of ours we are still not far away from the upper table. With few wins we could essentially be leading the table with the way things are going in La Liga. Hopefully Sevilla and Barcelona draw or lose too, we've still be in decent position to catch up.