Valencia CF close to signing Chori Castro

Valencia CF are considering purchasing players and strengthening the squad this summer and one of the favorites to be purchased is Chori Castro, the left winger from Mallorca.

With Vicente Rodriguez almost surely leaving this summer, since his contract will run out and the team won’t renew with him, there is a need for a back-up for Mata on the left wing and Chori Castro fits perfectly, as he is a good player and will come cheaply.

Valencia has followed him this whole season and it’s said that Braulio Vazquez went to watch the Mallorca match several hours before the Valencia match and was specifically watching Chori Castro and defender Ivan Ramis. Both have impressed this season and have shown some great games, especially Castro.

Now Radio 9 program 'La Taula Esportiva' is reporting that Braulio has been in contact with Mallorca and that the teams are very close to agreeing about the transfer of Chori Castro, which the radio reports is in the region of 1-2 million euros.

Juan Mata and Pablo Hernandez to be sold?

Well what would the newspapers be without some much needed transfer speculations.

Pablo Hernandez is reportedly in the transfer plans of many clubs, but the most serious offers are from Italy. Juventus has shown interest for the player and this is not the first time either, they've been interested in Pablo for 2 years now. There are also mentions of Roma and Inter being interested in Pablo Hernandez.

Valencia CF stance on the transfer of Pablo is that he is not for sale, but they will look at substantial offers and make a decision from there.

The other transfer news is that Juan Mata could potentially leave Valencia CF and various teams from England are showing interest in the winger. The likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and even Manchester United have reportedly made contact with his agent/father.

Valencia CF stance on a possible transfer for Mata is that he is not for sale and won't listen to any offers, though that can change if a huge offer comes, along the lines of 30 million euros.

Aritz Aduriz out, Kevin Gameiro in - Valencia CF

Do you remember my Aprils fools post about Aduriz being sold and Gameiro purchased in the summer? Well turns out the joke may be that it isn't a joke at all.

Various reports from Spain and France suggest that Aduriz lack of playing time is due to the fact he will be sold this summer and the cash gathered from his sale would be used to purchase Gameiro. Lorient wanted 12 million euros for the player, while Valencia was offering only 8 million, but since he would have only 1 more season left this summer and Llorient can loose him next summer for free, its said they are going to listen to offers lower than 12 million euros.

As far as where would Aduriz go, there are reports suggesting he will move to Athletico Bilbao or transfer in England where with his stature he would fit perfectly.

Osasuna 1-0 Valencia CF - Match Report

Another week, another lackluster performance from Valencia, so whats new you ask? Absolutely nothing. I think there is sort of stagnation and lack of enthusiasm going on in the camp right now. There is no other way to describe these two looses, two weeks in a row.

Right from the start, from the first minute you can see Valencia started off with lack of ambition and lack of enthusiasm and lack of direction as well. Osasuna started the match as the dominate side and for most of the match they were in full control, absolutely outplaying Valencia.

The goal from Osasuna came from a deflection, so it wasn't as if the defense was bad or anything like that, but the problem is that it wasn't good either, against if R. Costa commits to these challenges he will actually block these shots.

I will say it last time and I've been saying from 5-6 times so far this season about Ricardo Costa, he needs to commit more, he is like every time about 3 seconds slower, shorter or back for these shots and all of them end up in the back of Valencia's net. If he is to stay with Valencia he needs to commit more in these kind of challenges and stretch out his legs, block the shots, he is not a ballerina, he is a football player and needs to get this sorted out.

Its really bothering me now as he has made the same mistake 5-6 times now and I'm starting to think he should be sold this summer as clearly he has no clue how to play football.
I wish someone would slap R. Costa and everyone else for that matter several times in the head to wake them up.

These kind of performances in such crucial stages of the competition can't be overlooked. Villarreal won its match against Getafe earlier and is now to only 3 points behind Valencia, with 4 more matches to play. All of a sudden 3rd position isn't really guaranteed and the team is in danger of loosing the 3rd place at the table which would be terrible and knowing the president Llorente heads are going to be flying for sure if 3rd place isn't achieved.

So why did Valencia CF loose, what are the reasons for such a bad performance? - Well I seriously know that the team lacked enthusiasm, lacked ambition and had absolutely no self belief, did not the the champions material and when I say champions material I mean the stuff when they think, no they know they are better than the opposition and they would rather die that loose.

In other words the players take this as their job, you know come in the office, run around for 90 minutes, quote filled and go home. What they should be taking these matches are like finals, like every eye in the world is pointed towards them and a failure to win would mean all kind of nasty things for them, a failure to win would be the most tragic thing that has ever happened to them. They need to carry the club in their heart, in spirit and in mind and not look at it as job.

Why this is the case is another thing though and I don't have an answer for it. I seriously can't think of anything to justify or explain it.

Having written all of that I can't and wont forget Unai Emery. If they players played badly, he set up the tactics, line-up and formation badly. The moment I heard he was planing the 4-4-2 with Topal and Albelda in the middle I had a bad feeling about this match, but thought a miracle would happen and VCf would somehow win, but this is the second time I'm making this mistake.

First of all lets look at the formation, 4-4-2. It was the wrong formation, especially if you plan to play two defensive midfielders that have absolutely no organization or possession skills. If Osasuna is good somewhere its at midfield, their defense is okay, but nothing special, their attack is okay, but again not really good, that leaves their midfield where they are best, so if you are going to be going for two DM you need to play a different formation in order to gain control of the midfield. With Albelda and Topal in the squad I would have went for a 4-2-3-1 formation, it would give us better defensive coverage, more midfield control with small sacrifice in attack, but using counter attacks more often to try to score goals.

If I was to go with 4-4-2 for some absurd reason I would at least play Banega alongside Topal in midfield in order to have more ball possession and in order for the attacks to be more organized and there to be some build-up. Also with the way Mathieu performed last week I would have benched him and put Alba in his place instead. I would have also given the chance to Aduriz to partner Soldado just because he hasn't played too much lately and this would have provided him with a good morale boost and provide him with a challenge.

Anyways these kind of wrong choices from Emery frustrate me, and in these cases I really want for him to be sacked and someone else put in his place. The biggest problem though is that for the amount of money Valencia have for a coach, our options are limited and its debatable if we could bring a better coach without breaking the bank, which is empty anyways.

Sorry this wasn't the standard play by play analysis or even a normal match report, but I feel its more important to address the bigger issues here, rather than just the simple play by play. I can just hope that next week Valencia win 5-0 in order to erase my bad memory from these matches.

Technical Details:
CA Osasuna (1): Ricardo; Nelson, Lolo, Sergio, Monreal; Puñal, Nekounam; Cejudo (Soriano, m.82), Camuñas, Calleja (Damiá, m.66); and Kike Sola (Josetxo, m.90).

Valencia CF (0): Guaita; Miguel (Pablo, m.79), Stankevicius, Costa, Mathieu; Joaquín, Albelda (Banega, m.64), Topal, Mata; Jonas (Aduriz, m.69) and Soldado.

Goals: 1-0, m.59: Stankevicius, own goal.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6.5 - Had several saves to keep Valencia in the match, a bit lucky though in his first major intervention as the attacker sort of shot into him, rather that Guaita making some kind of superb save.
Miguel 6 - Very good defensivelly, very little threat coming from his side and was able to help out in attack, but did not have a good understanding with Joaquin and they both sort of play as individuals.
R. Costa 3 - Once again if he commited just a tad more he probably would have blocked the shot that lead to the goal, he is just not the winner material and I think its best if he was sold.
Stankevicious 5 - Suspect at times, sort of unlucky to have an own goal, not necesarilly bad performance though.
Mathieu 5 - Decent in defense, but nothing special and he just did not go forward often enough, similarly as Miguel had very little collaboration with Mata.
Joaquin 4 - Absolutely impractical, when he managed to dribble past anyone he would just either return the ball back or dribble even more and loose the ball, very bad decision making and lacks the final ball to be useful at all.
Albelda 5 - Did well defensively and realistically nothing more should be expected from him, he is not a playmaker or some wizard of a passer that can find the tiniest hole in a defense and provide the killer pass, so not much to blame him for.
Topal 5.5 - He is similar to Albelda in that he has a bit more flair and can be a bit more offensive, but he is just not a type of player to keep possession or organize the play. He is a simple passer with good defensive skills.
Mata 5 - He was totally cut off from the action for large periods of time, did not link up at all with Mathieu and for most of the match struggled to do anything.
Joans 5 - Had very little to no balls to work with, often had to come down deep to get the ball and then circulate it himself in attack.
Soldado 5 - As Jonas had very little to go on to, often forced to come out wide right to get the ball and get something going, but that just left no one in the Osasuna penalty area.
Subs:
Banega N/A -  Even though he came with some time left, it just wasn't soon enough to have any influence on the match.
Aduriz N/A - Came on too late to change the outcome of the match.
Pablo N/A - Came on too late.


Unai Emery 1 - Chose the wrong formation in my opinion and the wrong line-up for this formation. He basically set up the team to loose.

Osasuna vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Osasuna host 3rd place Valencia tomorrow night in yet another deciding match for both clubs, since Valencia can't end its objectives earlier and must go the additional length to do so, while Osasuna is battling to stay in the first division and each match for them till the end counts.

Osasuna have been a strange team this season and while they are in relegation zone and battling to stay in the first division at times they have been capable of playing amazing football and Valencia has been a victim of them when Osasuna managed to mount a comeback from 3-1 to 3-3 in the Mestalla and take crucial points from us.

Osasuna are now in relegation position since they've lost 3 matches in a row and Malaga has won recently so the positions have changed. Before this recent string of losses Osasuna were playing very good and even managed to beat Espanyol who were very good for a long time and battling with Valencia even for top spots.

Osasuna have a great defense, in fact for their bad position on the table they actually have a defense on par with Valencia, Villarreal and the likes at least statistically speaking with only 41 goals conceded. They also have a good scoring record as well, certainly nowhere near relegation level, but it seems they haven't had much luck and are now in a tough spot.

Osasuna is a compact side with good defending and able to score goals as well, so its going to be a tough challenge for Valencia. If there is one club that doesn't deserve to be in relegation position this is Osasuna and they have played better all season long.

Osasuna squad:
Goalkeepers: Ricardo López, Asier Riesgo
Defenders: Nélson Marcos, Nacho Monreal, Manuel 'Lolo' Ortiz, Josetxo Urtasun, Sergio Fernández, Damià Abella
Midfielders: Javad Nekounam, Francisco Puñal, Álvaro Cejudo, Javier Camuñas, Javier Calleja, Fernando Soriano
Strikers: Carlos Aranda, Walter Pandiani, Ferran 'Coro' Corominas, Kike Sola

Valencia CF on the other hand are sitting in 3rd position, still 6 points more than Villarreal after Valencia failed brutally last week at the might of Real Madrid and lost 3-6. Thankfully for us, Villarreal also failed and lost as well, leaving both sides at the same positions with the same points as before.

Mathematically a win tomorrow doesn't guarantee anything, but practically its going to secure the 3rd place position for Valencia, assuming Valencia don't go on to loose all other matches, but that is very unlikely and Villarreal also face Real Madrid and have a European competition to worry about so they are bound to loose at least once.

A win over Osasuna will also recuperate everyone, players, staff and fans after last weeks big loss from Real. Also finishing the season on a positive note is important and with Emery's position as coach still in question he would surely be looking to win tomorrow.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César Sánchez, Vicente Guaita
Defenders: Ángel Dealbert, Marius Stankevičius, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu, Miguel Brito, Jordi Alba
Midfielders: Hedwiges Maduro, Mehmet Topal, David Albelda, Joaquín Sánchez, Juan Mata, Pablo Hernández, Éver Banega
Strikers: Roberto Soldado, Aritz Aduriz, Jonas Gonçalves

Technical details:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, Dealbert, Alba; Joaquin; Banega, Topal, Mata; Jonas, Soldado.
Tactical: medium defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with high frequency crosses from the wings.

Result prediction:
Osasuna 2-3 Valencia CF
Judging from past experience with these sides I'd say there would be goals here, but I think Valencia will edge out a victory thanks to Mata and Soldado's good form.

Valencia transfer plans?

Superdeporte has reported Valencia's transfer plans? Personally I''l take this with a lot of salt and I certainly don't think Valencia staff have given them transfer plans, knowing that Llorente stopped 2 transfer negotiations because of leaks.

Anyways reportedly Valencia's whole back line will change for next season. David Navarro will go, Miguel Brito and Bruno will also go and apart from Adil Rami Valencia is suposedly searching for another central defender to partner Rami, so Dalebert and/or Stankevicious will go as well. Basically only Ricardo Costa is safe and on the left back position if they manage to keep Mathieu they will not buy anyone, but if a good offer comes along and no deal has been reached with the player they will sell him and then purchase another left back.

It is said that the midfield will also change with Vicente Rodriguez definitely ending his career with Valencia, Maduro contract will be extended, Ever Banega and Pablo may also leave if big offers come along, basically only Albelda is certain to stay and extend his contract by one year and even Joaquin may be sold as his current salary is too big and if they can't reduce his salary, VCF staff are going to listen to offers for Joaquin. The likes of Chori Dominguez Nacho Gonzales are certain to be sold.

The attack will reportedly be unchanged with the trio of Soldado, Aduriz and Jonas performing within expectations and last but not least there would be 3 goalkeepers next season with Guaita, Diego Alves and either Moya, Cezar or Renan.

Again I'd take this with a lot of salt as its quite hard to find two new right backs and just sell the current ones, I mean what happens if the new purchases turn out flops, you end up with no cover for the position. So one right back is certainly going to come, but not two.

As far as the midfield goes I think Chori, Nacho and Fernandes are certainly going to be sold, Feghuoli possibly loaned out again, but other than that I think everyone else will stay.

Valencia will go on...

Near, far wherever you are, I believe that Valencia CF will go on... :)

After the trashing from Real Madrid its hard to imagine such thing, but the best way for Valencia CF to break from this embarrassment is to win convincingly against Osasuna this week. Since Valencia CF is better at away matches anyways the stadium won't have any effect on the players, so a big win would be amazing and would also be a revenge for only drawing in the first half of the season against Osasuna.

Valencia is also still 6 points clear from Villarreal and we need to keep it that way, knowing the fact that Villarreal are yet to play against Real Madrid and also have matches against Porto in the Europe League, so that will keep them preoccupied and hopefully they will loose points against Getafe, Mallorca and Real Madrid.

Realistically Valencia have tougher matches coming up and they are all capable of taking points from us, so we should approach these matches cautiously, but yet energetically so we are able to win.

Next week or the one after I'll be doing a summer transfer windows analysis of who should Valencia buy and/or sell. And then either before or after the final match I'll be giving out awards for the best player, best new player, best young player, most promising youth player and this time I'll be also adding the worst player of the season award.

Valencia Mestalla Champions

Well the main team lost to Real Madrid pretty badly, but there is at least some comfort to be found in the fact that the youth team Mestalla have become champions in their group in the trecera division in Spain. Its not a huge achievement, but its a step forward from the past years where the youth team was talk of laughter and despair.

Mestalla are champions and with style after beating La Nucie who were second at the time. Right now Mestalla are first place with 79 points, 13 points more than second placed Olimpic.

VCF Mestalla are going to be competing with 16 other teams for access to Spain 2nd B division and are going to basically have 2 chances to get in. Its going to be hard, but I think they have the quality with the likes of Isco, Paco, Gil, Montoro.

Right now Paco is second on the scoreboard with 19 goals, Isco is second with 14 goals. So the chances to qualify for 2nd division are pretty high and hopefully Valencia youth team will be playing 2nd division B next year.

Valencia CF 3-6 Real Madrid - Match Report

Well its official, Valencia CF defense sucks and it couldn't be more obvious than today. The cover tactics were also poor, as there was only 3 players covering 3 countering players from Real Madrid and today the Real Madrid players proved more successful.

Basically all the goals Real Madrid scored were from counter attacks, but otherwise they played rather poor and sat back in their own half and defended. This was basically a very defensive approach by Jose Mourinho, something of the sort what Inter played Barcelona in the last year in the Champions League, not that defensive, but definitely may be called anti-football by some if people go into an argument.

Most of all though it was individual mistakes that made the big score differential, with Guaita, Mathieu, Stankevicious and Ricardo all doing defensive mistakes. The whole back line in a word sucked and this may as well be possibly one of the worst defensive showings in the last 3-4 years.

I won't go into detail or play by play, because its pointless, but I'll say that this is historically Valencia's biggest loss from Real Madrid and its pretty embracing actually.

Well at least this shows the disparity between the two top clubs in Spain versus the rest of the teams and maybe some huge and powerful guy reads this blog and makes something about it, or we are going to be seeing real-barca borefest for the next 10 years as things are going.


Player Ratings:
Guaita 2 - At fault for the first and third goal, should have done much better overall.
Miguel 4 - Lost Kaka for the 5th or maybe it was the 6th goal, who can remember there were so many, but yeah not a good performance overall, though he was probably the least at fault.
Stankevicious 1 - Made look like a newbie, lost position for one of the goals, got dribbled past for the 5th and bad performance overall, the scoreboard shows all.
R. Costa 1 - Same as Stankevicous, too relaxed and could have stopped at least one goal has he committed, but lost the challenges too easily.
Mathieu 1 - Very poor performance from the Frencheman, he went forward a lot, but completelly forgot about his defensive duties and 4 out of the 6 goals came directly from his side.
Topal 5 - Not his best night, covered pretty decent at the back and made a nuisance of himself, but in a 3 on 3 situation he looses position as he is not a core defender.
Maduro 3 - Not really effective at anything, was not doing much at defense, was not doing anything at attacks, he was basically just standing there and just returning every passed ball to him immediately.
Banega 5 - Same as Topal, more effective going forward, but is not too good defensively.
Pablo 4 - Had some good moments, but as much as they were good, they were bad at the same time as he missed 2 good chances for goal and didn't make the final pass on two other occasions.
Mata 6.5 - Very active in attack, very creative and run all over the pitch, one assist, but the match was over by then.
Soldado 4 - Little service tonight, had one run towards goal, but otherwise completely covered by the Madrid defense.
Subs:
Joaquin 5 - Same as Jonas, was not more successful than Pablo, maybe a bit more direct running, but could not change the game.
Jonas 5.5 - The match was pretty much over when he came in, not the game changer by any means, although he did score a goal.
Alba 5 - Scored a late goal.

Valencia CF vs Real Madrid - Match Preview

First of all sorry for the inactivity this past week, but what can I do, it just happens sometimes.

Anyways its this time again, Valencia CF faces the big guns Real Madrid in a basically season defining match. If Valencia CF win this match its done, they are going to finish 3rd place, it would be impossible for Villarreal in any way to finish above Valencia. Real Madrid on the other hand would most certainly finish in 2nd place, but after their recent success against Barcelona in the Copa Del rey, winning 1-0 over their fierce rivals, Real Madrid would be looking towards the champions league as that is more important to them now, winning 2 titles over Barcelona 1 Spanish title would be success for Real Madrid.

Valencia CF are actually coming to this match as favorites, I know how this sounds, but its true. Real Madrid just won over Barcelona 3 days ago in extra time no less and Jose Mourinho is going to rest most of his important players, such as Xavi Alonso, Ronaldo, Di Maria... So they should come out weakened in this match and Valencia CF should take advantage.

Valencia CF on the other hand have had a full week to recover and prepare for this match and should be in better form to take this match. The only player that is unavailable right now is Tino Costa, but otherwise all of the players are available and this should be an exciting match.

Emery has been practicing with the formation played against Villarreal again and the plan is to keep the ball as much as possible and also when the ball is lost to quickly pressure Real so they loose the ball too.

Its very likely Roberto Soldado will be the sole attacker once again, with Mata and Pablo on the wings, supported by Ever Banega and most likely Topal, although who knows as Emery has been playing Topal as defender in couple of matches.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César, Guaita.
Defense: Miguel, Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Stankevicius, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Albelda, Maduro, Topal, Éver, Joaquín, Pablo, Mata.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Real Madrid are coming from a huge 1-0 win over their fierce rivals Barcelona. After suffering for 3 years domestically and even more years internationally, since the last galacticos era, Real Madrid have been under performing, each year they throw money at the problems, 40,50,80 millions of euros and still unable to win anything.

This season they have been rebuild and under the tutorship of Jose Mourinsho, arguably the best coach in the world Real have been able to break their "curse" in the champions league, beating Lyon, then totally trashing Tottenham and in the next round they face their biggest rivals Barcelona. Real Madrid hold the advantage as they lost one game, drew one, but won their last game in the copa del rey final against Barca and they have 2 more matches in the champions league, but they are going to go into them as favorites.

Since Real Madrid are 8 points behind Barcelona and even though there are 6 more matches to be played the battle is pretty much over so they should rest their best players against Valencia CF and this could give Valencia a chance to win and ultimately confirm that 3rd place finish.

Real Madrid squad:
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adan, Dudek
Defense: Albiol, Garay, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo, Nacho Fernandez
Midfield: Lass, Ozil, Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Pedro Leon, Canales, Granero, Juanfran
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain

Technical details:
Formation: 4-1-4-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Topal; Pablo, Banega, Maduro, Mata; Soldado
Tactical: low defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with decent amount of crosses from the wings.

Results prediction:
Valencia CF 1-0 Real Madrid
This is defenatelly a very interesting match and you shouldn't miss it for anything. Valencia CF are the favorties coming into this match jsut because Real Madrid should rest its best players and Valencia CF is in good form right now, the players are performing so I think we should be able to win 1-0.

Valencia CF 5-0 Villarreal CF - Match Report

Valencia CF absolutely dominated over Villarreal and beat them 5-0. In fact Villarreal defense most of the time looked like little kids to the powerful Valencia CF attack, which furiously bulldozed through their defense and absolutely dominated all match long. Not that Villarreal didn't have chances to score a goal themselves, they did in fact come close to scoring 3 times, but were luckally denied by some good defending, especially from Stankevicious who made few crucial interceptions.

From the start Valencia CF started with full control over the game and went on the attack. Miguel Brito after a lenghty pause with suspension from the club was playing admiarablly and a lot of the chances were coming from him on the right side. There was a good cross first with Topal header going just wide off goal and then came a great through pass from Miguel to Soldado, with this one not missing the opportunity and scoring a goal. It was 1-0 for Valencia CF.

Valencia CF continued dominating and had several more chances to increase the score, Miguel yet again found Soldado with a through pass, but the attacker failed to score.

Just few minutes later a good through pass from Tino put Soldado on chance again, but once again Soldado failed to score.

With Tino Costa getting injured and getting taken off for Dealbert, Valencia CF lost a little bit control and Villarreal made few chances and tries towards Valencia CF goal, but Ceraz and Stankevicious saved the day and the result ended 1-0 for Valencia CF at half time.

The second half started with Villarreal with more control and better play in the first 5-6 minutes, but then Valencia CF took over again and never looked back.

In the 55th minute Valencia CF would score again with Mata starting the attack, running forward and then doing a fast one-two with Banega and Mata was through on goal with just the keeper to beat, he scores and Valencia is up 2-0.

In the 62nd minute Valencia CF will score again, Pablo recieved the ball quite deep into Villarreal's teritory, run past one defender and passed the ball to the oncoming Ever Banega who easily slotted the goal in the net. Valencia CF 3-0 over Villarreal CF and the match was begging to feel like over, at least for Villarreal, though Valencia will go on to score two more times.

The fourth goal came from a good build-up by Soldado, who made a through pass to Pablo, this one with an assist towards Mata, who didn't have problems scoring to an empty goal. Valencia CF were basically playing very good, attacking very well with good build-up play and good individual movement.

With Villarreal's defense in shatters and completely disorganized it was pretty much right for them to receive one more goal, someone gave the ball away right to Topal who had easy time passing the ball to Soldado who sort of chipped the ball and lobbed the goalkeeper to make it 5-0, the final result.

Fantastic match with absolutelly positive score and result. Valencia CF are now still third in the table, but with 6 points ahead on Villarreal and the better side in the head to head matches with a draw away to Villarreal and tonight's 5-0 win at home at the Mestalla.

Technical details:
Valencia (5): César, Miguel, Stankevicius, Topal, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu, Pablo, Banega (Albelda, m.77), Tino Costa (Dealbert, m.30), Mata y Soldado (Aduriz, m.78).

Villarreal (0): Diego López, Mario, Mussachio, Kiko, Capdevila (Ruben, 57), Marchena, Bruno Soriano (Joan Oriol, m.65), Borja Valero, Cazorla, Nilmar y Rossi (Wakaso, m.70).

Goals: 1-0, m.14: Soldado. 2-0, m.55: Mata. 3-0, m.63: Banega. 4-0, m.72: Mata. 5-0, m.75: Soldado.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 6 - Made one good save, had a little mishandling, but largely untroubled, he had a confident performance.
Miguel 7 - Brilliant first half, best player in the first half, provided the assist to Soldado's first goal and almost had a 2nd assist to Soldado again.
Stankevicious 7 - Brilliant performance where everything he did was great. Had few crucial interceptions to keep Valencia CF from conceding a goal.
R. Costa 6.5 - Good performance from Costa as well, a little bit less effective than Stankevicious though.
Mathieu 7 - Good performance from Mathieu, went forward often enough, had a good assist to Pablo that could have put VCF even more forward, had also one shot that was a bit inaccurate.
Topal 7 - Slotted in a somewhat strange position between DM and CD, changed positions with Stankevicious, generally useful, covered in attack well and also provided good depth going forward with 1 assist and few good forward runs.
Tino Costa 6 -  Good until injured, had one great through pass and generally active and useful.
Banega 7.5 - Had some questionable passes and somewhat insecure after Tino left injured, but came back and provided a good performance with good ball control, passing and scored a goal himself.
Pablo 7 - Somewhat average first half from Pablo, but opened up in the second and became more active and really helped the team win with some good moves, passes and assist.
Mata 8.5 - Now this is the Mata I'd like to see, two games in a row with super performance, man of the match performance no doubt. Scored two goals and I believe he had an assist also.
Soldado 7.5 - Great once again. Full of running, always in dangerous positions and really useful to the team. Scored two goals, the second one especially good, could have scored at least 2 more times, but this is a good performance nevertheless.
Subs:
Dealbert 6.5 - Came in for Tino Costa, but ended in the back, had one bad situation as usual, but other than that had a very good match alongside R. Costa.
Albelda 6 - Not too much time for him to do anything, but provided some more defensive cover to close out the match.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs Villarreal (villareal) - Match Preview

Sunday 21 hours the match between Valencia CF and Villarreal will start, two direct rivals and competitors for the 3rd spot in Spain will clash in what may very well be the deciding match this season. Both Valencia CF and Villarreal are very keep to finish 3rd as it automatically places the team in the group stage without having to play an additional fixture.

Valencia CF broke its spell of scoreless performances and the curse of strikers who have not scored since February and Soldado was the main man, netting 4 goals against his former club Getafe. Previosly Valencia CF had lost 3 matches in a row and less than convincing when performing.

But all that is forgoten now and the team will go into this match with renewed vigor and strength, ready to bring the fight to Villarreal, as Valencia is also playing at the Mestalla and with a home advantage it should make things a little bit easier.

Valencia is currently sitting at 3rd position, 3 points more than Villarreal, so this will be a crucial match and winning tomorrow and getting 6 points ahead of Villarreal will practically guarantee a 3rd place finish.

VCF coach Unai Emery has been experimenting with a 4-1-4-1 formation, fielding Maduro, Tino Costa and Ever Banega in the middle and another option has been the standard 4-4-2 formation. In the 4-4-2 formation Emery played with Jonas and Soldado again in attack, which means if he chooses this formation the same strikers are going to play. Which one Emery chooses is up for debate and anything is possible, but knowing Emery I think he is going to go with the 4-1-4-1 formation.

Anyways good news is that Albelda is back and is training with the rest of the team just fine, Guaita is also back and training good after his tragic events, Chori Dominguez was seen training, though may be a doubt or left for technical reasons anyways. Maduro has been training as well and basically everyone is pretty much fit and available for selection.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César Sanchez, Vicente Guaita.
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Miguel Brito, Ricardo Costa, Angel Dealbert, Marius Stankevicius, Jeremy Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Mehmet Topal, Hedwiges Maduro, Éver Banega, Ricardo "Tino" Costa, Pablo Hernandez, Joaquín Sanchez, Juan Mata.
Attakc: Jonas Gonclaves, Aritz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado.

Villareal CF is currently sitting in 4th position, 3 points behind Valencia CF. They are coming off from a big win in the Europa League where they trashed Dutch team FC Twente 5-1. 

Villarreal coach, Juan Carlos Garrido said at the end of the morning practice today held behind closed doors at the Sports City of Villarreal for the League match against Valencia tomorrow (21.00 hours Mestalla) will be different for several reasons. "It's a special game for many reasons. We're playing for position and that also goes into the goal average. Clearly we want to be in the Champions League and we know that is a decider. Let's play outside and that is an important factor. No favorites in a great match between two great teams that have a positive sporting rivalry. We want to win this match and the only way is playing good football."

Villarreal CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego López y Juan Carlos.
Defense: Mario, Musacchio, Catalá, Capdevila, Marchena, Cicinho, Kiko y Joan Oriol.
Midfield: Borja Valero, Bruno, Santi Cazorla, Matilla y Wakaso.
Attack: Rossi, Nilmar y Marco Ruben.

Technical details:
Formation: 4-1-4-1
Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, Stankevicious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Topal; Joaquin, Banega, Tino, Mata; Soldado
Tactical: low defensive line, mid field opposing team pressure, wing and central attacking play, mostly short passing with decent amount of crosses from the wings.

Results prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Villarreal
If Valencia CF have a good day at the back and don't mess things up really bad, we should take this game. I think our defense is bad enough that it must concede a goal, but I'm sure VCF is going to score two goals.

Valencia CF is a top team

Well after today results in the Champions League there can not be any doubt in anyone's mind that Valencia CF is a top team and not only in Spain, but in Europe.

We see Real Madrid trashed Tottenham 4-0 today with ease, although they were helped a bit by Peter Crouch red card though, but non the less Real were levels above Tottenham.

To remind you Valencia CF lost to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu by 2-0, but it was a closer fight and right now Valencia CF has improved as opposed to the start.

Another fact to support this is the demolishing of Inter Milan by Schalke 04, who beat Inter at home with the result of 2-5.

Valencia CF only lost to Schalke 04 in Germany and only due to our bad defensive players making individual mistakes. Valencia CF pretty much controlled the match otherwise and created a ton of chances that somehow Aduriz missed all.

Finishing 3rd this season in Spain would be a huge success and as Manuel llorente has said it we should work towards getting more competitive with Real Madrid and Barcelona in the next 2 years, but we can't expect miracles.

With Ever Banega, Chori Dominguez, Vicente Rodriguez, Cezar Sanchez and Miguel Brito potentially leaving in the summer Valencia CF needs to do good business in the transfer market and get some very talented players that can help Valencia CF become more competitive with Barca and R. Madrid.

But the core team is here with the likes of Guaita, Tino Costa, Pablo, Mata, Soldado, etc...

Mata to be sold this summer?

Like it or hate it, Mata is a key player for Valencia CF and even though he has his frequent ups and downs he is so far the most important player for Valencia CF with 13 assists in all competitions and 6 goals. He is also a versatile player capable of playing as left winger, attacking midfielder, center forward and striker.

Apparently there are several clubs keeping close tabs on Mata and are interested in purchasing him.
First up is Manchester City, which tried to bring Mata last summer along with Silva, but Valencia management did not sell Mata and instead sold Silva. They are reportedly willing to pay up to 22 million euros to get him.

Next up are two more English teams in Manchester United and Chelsea. Manchester United squad is aging and they are reportedly looking for someone to strengthen the midfield and Mata is the perfect option.

Chelsea are reportedly also on the lookout and Mata fits their bills as he could play just behind the striker, Torress in this case and also on the left in a 3 man attack.

There are reports from Italy as well, suggesting that Inter Milan and Juventus are interested in signing Mata as well.
Juventus have been following Mata for 3 seasons now, before that they followed Silva, though they have not made an official offer as far as I know for Mata.
Apparently Inter is also looking so strengthen their left side with young and talented players and Mata is first on their list of reinforcements this summer.

The Italian clubs are said to be willing to dish out 25 million euros and even more to get the services of Mata.

Getafe CF 2-4 Valencia CF - Match Report

Valencia CF fans had a big scare tonight after Valencia felt 1-0 down to Getafe, who realistically were a lot better than Valencia in the opening stages of the match and looked set to take on the full 3 points home.

Valencia had to work really hard to comeback and it was former Getafe player Soldado who was the hero for Valencia as he scored 4 goals against his former team to enable this win for Valencia and get the team back on track and in third place.

The match started with Getafe the more dangerous team, the Valencia players were slow and barely moving, allowing Getafe to quickly close down and steal the ball, then do an attack towards Valencia goal.

Just 12 minutes in the game and Getafe scored the first goal. It was Manu who scored the goal, after he easily dribbled past Bruno, avoided R. Costa and Dealbert block and shot past goalkeeper Cezar and into the net. It was 1-0 for Getafe and it looked like this was going to be another disappointing match for Valencia.

Valencia players woke up at about the 20th minute and Mata and Pablo started doing some runs and passes, though nothing really effective. Mata was probably the most creative and lively player on the pitch for Valencia in the first 45 minutes and he had few good passes, 1 decent shot that went past the bar and few decent runs.

Not much happened otherwise, VCF midfield was pretty inactive and the link-up with the attack non-existent and the first half finished 1-0

Second half started and Valencia immediately got back on track. Mata got the ball, ran a bit forward and made a through pass that reached Soldado, who slotted the ball in the net.

Valencia livened up a little bit and were now more dangerous going forward. Anyways in the 64th minute a similar situation as as with the previous goal arose, this time Jonas was in place of Mata, he also made a through ball that found Soldado and this one much like in his previous goal, scored again. It was 1-2 for Valencia CF.

Soldado would go on to score twice more, the third time, his hatrick was due to a silly mistake by the Getafe defense basically giving Soldado the ball and the forward did not disappoint, scoring a goal from a tough position on the wide right side.

Roberto Soldado's fourth goal would come again by an assist from Mata, who received the ball in the middle of the field, ran forward, got in a good crossing spot and found Soldado who headed the ball into the net.

Technical Details:
Getafe CF (2): Ustari, Cata Díaz, Mané, Borja (Sardinero, min. 73), Miku, Parejo, Manu, Arizmendi, Mosquera (Pedro Ríos, min. 66), Marcano y Torres.

Valencia CF (4): César, Bruno, Topal, Soldado, Mata, Dealbert, Jonas (Maduro, min. 79), Pablo, Ricardo Costa (Stankevicius, min. 57), Mathieu y Tino Costa.

Goals: 13min, Manu 1-0; 47min, Soldado 1-1; 63min, Soldado 1-2; 67min, Soldado 1-3; 78min, Soldado 1-4; 88min, Sardinero 2-4.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 5.5 - Was not tested much, had one decent shot calmly caught, made a good save minutes later, maybe could have done better for the first goal, but not really at fault for any of the goals.
Bruno 5 - Allowed Manu past him for the first goal and looked vulnerable all match long. Did not offer much going forward.
R. Costa 6 - Decent showing, could have done better to mark Manu for the first Getafe goal though.
Dealbert 5.5 - Got a fast yellow, seemed stressed when alone at the back and unsure when on the ball, otherwise he actually did decently good pure defensively.
Mathieu 6 - Good defensively and went more forward than his partner Bruno. Decent match overall.
Pablo 5 - Offered some depth in the middle third in attack as he played more as a attacking midfield than winger, but too often overlapped with Mata. Not very effective on the right wing and invisible for long periods of the match.
Topal 6 - Did well to break up Getafe attacks and cover ground, a bit too simple at times with his passing. Needs to improve his passing range if he is to become great from good.
Tino Costa 5.5 - Tino was playing 2x better at the first half of the season than he is now. I don't know what it is, but he hasn't seem himself in the past month and a half. Didn't really do much of anything.
Mata 7.5 - Thankfully a good match by Mata. He was really creative all match long, run a lot, covered a lot of ground, made 2 assists and this is the Mata I'd like to see every match.
Jonas 7 - Great work rate, nice movement and seems to be developing good understanding with Soldado. Provided the assist for the 2nd goal.
Soldado 10 - What can I say the goal tally says it all. He scored 4 goals, worked very hard and found himself in good goalscoring positions.
Subs:
Stankevicious 6 - Solid enough, did not have trouble at the back and his passing actually helped Valencia in the middle to bring the ball from the back.
Maduro 5 - Made few touches, few misplaced crosses, pretty rusty and lacks match practice. Not enough time to do much though.
Alba N/A - Not enough time.

Getafe CF vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Valencia's finals start tomorrow, the first final is against a very tough and dangerous opponent, playing with the advantage of home soil, it is Getafe. Last year Getafe were really good and while this season they have been particularly weakened by the selling of some key players, including Roberto Soldado who is now at Valencia CF.

Getafe CF have been struggling this whole season, while they are certainly not a push over team and are in the middle of the table their results have been left wanting. They are currently seating in 13th place on the table with only 34 points, 20 less than Valencia.

Their last 3 matches have been bad, a loss to Sporting, then a draw with Athletico at home and a more expected loss to Barcelona, though they did play pretty good in that match and even threatened Barcelona with a comeback in the later stages on the match.

Getafe is one of those teams that has good goalscoring record, in fact they are actually one of the most prolific teams in the bottom half of the table. Their problem has mainly been their defense and if you think Valencia CF defense is weak, you need to see Getafe's defense.

Getafe right now has two former Valencia CF strikers in the form of Miku and Arizmendi and both have spoken out and said how amazing of a match this will be for both of them.

Getafe CF squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand are in a good position on the table, sitting 4th place down to just goals difference to Villarreal. Nevertheless the objective this season is to finish 3rd place and a win tomorrow is a must. Valencia CF has lost its last 3 matches, 2 in La Liga and one in the Champions League and its about time they started winning again.

The international break must have been welcomed by the players to get some much needed rest from football every 3 days and to clear their heads and start a fresh in the last stretch of the season.

Not all is positive at Valencia though and as usual something has to be happening to keep it varied and interesting for us fans even though it is usually bad stuff. For example Vicente has been seen staying late at nigh, till the 5am in the morning and has been accused of beating up some college kids.

Albelda and Navarro suffered some setback with injures and are out of the squad, same as Guaita who suffered some injury on his hand, while Vicente, Chori, and Miguel are out due to the still ongoing punishment by Emery for their bad behaviors. Joaquin meanwhile will sit out the match due to a collection of 5 yellow cards.

Tomorrow match is also an opportunity for the strike force to start working and start scoring goals again, as none of the strikers can be happy about his goalscoring record and the last goal was scored by Jonas somewhere in February.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: César Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Moyà
Defense: Bruno Saltor, Ángel Dealbert, Marius Stankevičius, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu, Jordi Alba
Midfield: Hedwiges Maduro, Mehmet Topal, Juan Mata, Pablo Hernández, Éver Banega, Tino Costa, Isco Alarcón
Attack: Roberto Soldado, Aritz Aduriz, Jonas Gonçalves

Valencia CF technical:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Cezar; Bruno, Stankevivious, R.Costa, Mathieu; Pablo, Topal, Tino, Mata; Aduriz, Soldado
Tactics: High zone defense, high opposing field pressure, high frequency of crosses, mostly wing attacks, positional change from Mata and Pablo.
- This is going to be a standard 4-4-2 play and nothing that we haven't seen so far, with mostly wing play and high frequency crosses, with rare forays through the middle.

Result prediction:
Getafe CF 0-2 Valencia CF
I expect nothing other than a convincing victory here for Valencia CF. They had the rest, the practice and the support and now they must win tomorrow if they are to be able to finish in third position at the end of the season. A loss or a draw tomorrow is going to set us back too much and with having to face Villarreal next its not going to be a good thing fighting from behind.

Aritz Aduriz will be sold this summer

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente confirmed that Aduriz will be sold this summer, he is going to be sold to Atletic Bilbao who are said to sell their star player Llorente to Real Madrid and are looking for a replacement.

Aduriz is a similar style player with great headers and big presence in the area, so he is the perfect choice for them.

Valencia CF is not really impressed with his goalscoring tally and is looking to make as much money from him and then go for Gameiro.
The president said that Valencia CF are going to try really hard to sign Kevin Gameiro and are even likely to offer 12 million euros for the forward.

EDIT: Happy Aprils fools day. Yes people this was a Aprils fools day joke. Its not real.

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente taking things into his own hands

Probably one the best presidents in the past 20 years for Valencia, Manuel Llorente is taking things into his own hands to get the job done and that is Valencia CF finishing 3rd place.

Third place means so much to the club sportingly and financially that president Llorente doesn't want to leave no stone untouched. In fact there was similar meeting very recently on 17th of March where the objectives were laid out and where Llorente asked of the players and technical staff to give it their all and reach the objectives.

This new meeting will be pretty much the same, with the only difference being that Manuel Llorente is going to ask full professionalism and commitment from the players in the recent wake of the controversy with Vicente.

The meeting will take place Thursday when all the players have returned from their international games and as I've said the focus will be to get the team together and fully committed to reach the final objectives of finishing 3rd place in the league.

Players on international duty - report

Marius Stankevicious played in Lithuania's both matches, 2-0 friendly win over Poland and a 3-1 loss to Spain for Euro 2012 qualification. Stankevicious was also the scorer of the one goal against Spain. As usual he had few glaring mistakes, especially for Mata's assist as he was nowhere to be found and was suspect in positioning a few times as well.
Still in the previous match against Poland he was one of Lithuania's best players on the field.

Adil Rami played in France both matches, 2-0 win over Luxemburg for Euro 2012 qualification and a 0-0 frindly against Croatia.
Adil Rami was solid in both matches, though overall France looked more dangerous against Luxemburg, but against Croatia they were quite easily contained. In fact Adil Rami had the best chances to score for France through headers.

Hedwiges Maduro didn't play for Holland because he is injured, although he was still called to the squad and traveled with them.

Jordi Alba played in Spain U-21 squad one match when he came in as a substitute in the 1-1 draw against Belarus U-21 squad. He was selected to play as a left back in the short time he did get. While this isn't something special for Alba at least he is getting some confidence playing for Spain U-21 squad.

Ever Banega played in Argentina's both matches, the first match against USA he played the full 90 minutes and was quite good, keeping high possession for Argentina and having good passing. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, even though Argentina dominated is every aspect.
In the second match against Costa Rica he played 45 minuted and in that time he was also pretty good, unfortunately Argentina couldn't win in both of their matches so that may weigh heavily for the current starting eleven, as its wins that count.

Mehmet Topal returned to the Turkey squad after a long absence and did play in both of Turkey's matches, a 1-0 loss to Finland and in the 2-0 win over Austria for the Euro 2012 qualification. He played just few minutes in the second match, but this is positive since he is finally back to the national team.

Juan Mata played in the second match against Lithuania for the Euro 2012 qualification, he came on as a substitute and single-handedly won the match for Spain. Spain were level at 1-1 with Lithuania when Mata came in, but he provided the assist for Spain's second goal and then scored the third goal himself, after a beautiful pass from former Valencia CF player Silva.

Jonas Gonclaves came in as a substitute in the 78th minute in Brazil 2-0 win over Scotland. Jonas almost scored two goals for Brazil in his short time on the pitch, though he was a bit unlucky. This is Jonas first Brazil call-up and first match to actually play for Brazil national team.

Valencia CF transfer rummors and speculation

In the last few weeks, especially the last two weeks there has been a ton of transfer speculation who Valencia will bring in the summer. The most talked position to get strengthen is the right back position with Miguel facing possible jail time and his off field antics worrying and Bruno getting old and rarely ineffective in helping out the attack its fairly logical there to be ton of rumors.

Andreas Beck and João Pereira were one of the first speculations these past two weeks, from then on it seems the rumor mill blew wide open and can't stop. Beck plays for Hoffenheim and is considered by many as Philip Lahm replacement in the German squad. His contract ends in June 2012 and by that account only it may have a little merit for Valencia to really be following him.

Joao plays for Portugal's Sporting club and has also been called to the national squad, he has started his career with Benfica through their youth system and has always been considered a very talented player.

Next up is Kiko Femenía, young Hércules fullback who is reportedly followed by Valencia after some impressive performances for Hercules. He has played 25 games for Hercules, scoring 1 goal in the process, but his release clause is set very high at 10 million euros.

Next up is the young right back Martin Montoya from Barcelona B team. He has been impressive this season and has caught the eye of several club from Spain, reportedly including Valencia. His contract is also set to expire at the end of the season and there is a potential in that sense to get the player.

One of the first rumors was the possible signing of Celta Vigo right back Hugo Mallo.He is reportedly eager to switch teams and go into a bigger club and Valencia is interested in him as he has big potential. Hugo has also been called 3 times to Spain U-19 team.

Coke Andújar is a player for Rayo Vallecano, he is 23 years old, soon to be 24 and has been playing some good football, enough to catch the eyes of Valencia staff. He is also one of the cheapest players and is reportedly going to cost Valencia only 1 million euros.

Bogus or not? Well its certanly not bogus that Valencia technical staff is following a lot of player and not only for the right back position.

In fact Valencia technical staff are following players for the left back position, center defense position, left wing position and central midfield position as well.

Whether all the players above are followed is uncertain, but what is certain is that Valencia are going to try to bring a new right back for the lowest amount of money, who is also the best option for the money.

Personally I'd go for Andreas Beck from all the above, though there are some better players out there that I'll write about once the season is closer to finish.

Ever Banega to leave Valencia CF?

In a bit of surprising news coming from Spanish media it seems that Ever Banega could be on his way out of Valencia CF this summer.

Reports suggest that Valencia CF has received several offers for Banega and that the player himself has told his agent that he want to leave Valencia and go to another club.
How much if any of this is true is unclear at this time, but such a possibility is not totally remote.

Ever Banega has been very important to Valencia CF this season and even though he is not in the form he was last season, he has shown that he has skill. He has also started most of the matches, though Unai Emery has been changing him with Tino Costa.

The club management probably wants Banega to stay as he is an important player and one of great quality, but should a big enough offer come along they might consider letting him go.

Valencia CF players called for national squads duty

Valencia CF players have once again been called for international duty for their respective countries.

The ones that features for their countries, but have been since left out are Manuel Fernandes and Ricardo Costa. Manuel Fernanded featured for 2 matches for Portugal, but once the coach changed he hasn't been called up. Ricardo Costa was called the last time due to injury in the Portugal back line, but he is not a standard player for Portugal and its likely that is the way its going to stay.

One new inclusion has been Jonas Goncalves to the Brazil national team, which is a bit of a surprise, but is good for the player and Valencia CF as well, as getting international experience is always good.

Stankevicious has been called in for Lithuania, he is one of the most standard players there and is considered one of the best players in the country.

Topal has been recalled to the Turkish national team after a long break, he has a standard player for Turkey before, those for much of 2010 he haw out of the national team. Anyways he has been recalled and is probably going to be a first eleven player as Turkey has been suspect at the back and Topla is going to provide some much needed defensive cover.

Maduro seems to have found a permanent place in the Holland national team and has been called up for all of the matches after the world cup in Africa ended.

Mata has also been recalled to the Spain team, he was only out of the senior team because he was playing for Spain's U-21, but Vicente Del Bosque has decided to bring him back to the senior squad.

Banega has been called for Argentina once again and he is already a standard 11 player for Argentina. When Banega has played Argentina have not lost, the only match Argentina were without Banega was against Japan and they lost by one goal.

Jordi Alba has been impressive this season and in great form so he has been called up for Spain U-21 squad and this is I believe his first national squad call up.

Valencia CF also has a lot of youth players called up for Spain U-21 and bellow squads.