Jeremy Mathieu profile

Name: Jeremy Mathieu
Playing position: Left back
Previous club: Toulouse
Number: 22
Birthday: October 29, 1983 (age 28)
Nationality: French
Height: 1.90m
Weight: 83kg
Contract ends: 30.06.2012
Player Rating:



Market Value:

Previous clubs:
Sochaux, France 2002-2005
Toulouse, France 2005-2009

2010/11 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Valencia	Esp Cup	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2009/10 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Valencia	Esp Cup	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Valencia	Europa	5	0	0	0	1	0	7	4	3	0
Season Totals		6	0	0	0	1	0	7	4	3	0

2008/09 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Toulouse	Fra Cup	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2007/08 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Toulouse	UCL	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2006/07 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Toulouse	Ligue 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2005/06 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Toulouse	Ligue 1	34	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Season Totals		34	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	0

2004/05 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Sochaux	Ligue 1	33	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Sochaux	UEFA	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		40	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	5	0

2003/04 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Sochaux	UEFA	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sochaux	Ligue 1	21	7	4	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Season Totals		26	8	5	0	0	0	0	0	6	0

2002/03 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Sochaux	Ligue 1	17	5	4	0	0	0	0	0	6	0

Glossary

GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides, W: Wins, D: Draws, L: Losses

Mathieu gets called to French national team

Jeremy Mathieu has finally been called up by Blanc to join to French national representation. Jemery Mathieu has been performing great for over a year for Valencia CF and only after several injuries in the French ranks did Blanc call up on Mathieu. Right now Sagna, Ribery, Abidal, Matuidi, Benzema and Kevin Gameiro are injured.

This will be Mathieu's chance to become standard in the team and if he performs to his best ability there is no doubt that he will become standard.

The French team will play the qualifications for EURO 2012 against Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Alba and Paco contract renewals

Valencia CF and Paco Alcacer started contract negotiations last week and are on good way to finalize the deal within few days that will have Paco Alcacer stay for at least 4 more years at Valencia CF.

Paco had gotten a lot of attention in the summer with his great performances in the Spanish youth teams and several teams and the likes of Barcelona have been closely following him and with his current buyout clause at only 9 million he could be poached right under our noses just like Isco was.

The new contract is set to improve his salary, add new bonuses and guarantee first team place next season, to which Valencia CF has agreed, but is negotiating the details of just how much money increase will Paco get and from the looks of it, not too much. He is going to be one of the lowest earners.

Valencia CF have also started contract negotiations with Jordi Alba with his contract set to expire in 2013, the team management want to renew his contract as soon as possible. Jordi Alba has been performing great this season, even starting over Mathieu and in other cases playing alongside Mathieu on the left side. His good performances haven't gotten unnoticed and he was called for the first side for the Spanish national team.

Valencia players with national teams

Hey guys, I was planning on posting a match report and player ratings for the Granada match, but I got caught up with something and Valencia CF won so a tactical analysis is not worth it, play by play I forgot most of the stuff that happened so I decided best thing in not to write anything.

Anyways I'll be hopefully doing some interviews in the very near future with few persons from other blogs or websites about different teams so stay tuned for that, its going to be really interesting.

But anyways here are the players that received a call for their country:
Jordi Alba got a call up to the Spanish national team for the first time ever and this is a great opportunity for him and hopefully he grabs this chance and goes with it.

Hedwiges Maduro got a call to the Holland national team even though he hasn't played too much for Valencia CF and said that he might leave to get more playing time. Of course since then Emery has given him a little bit more playing time, certainly more than Tino Costa gets right now.

Ricardo Costa also got a call for his Portugal national team and is likely very happy, since he has only played 45 minutes so far for Valencia CF.

Sergio Canales also got a call for the Spanish under 21 team and this was to be expected, its just a continuation for him. Canales has so far played quite well for Valencia CF, with the last match being probably his best in a Valencia shirt.

Our new B team goalkeeper Cristiano Pereira got a call for the Portugal under 21 team, but he hasn't really impressed in the B team and apart from one really poor match he hasn't features as far as I know in the Mestalla first 11 team.

Last but not least Adil Rami has been called for the France national team. Adil Rami has been regular for the French national team and apart from not being called two times where Blanc was testing out different players he has been a regular.

Valencia CF vs Granada CF - Match Preview

Valencia CF vs Granada CF

Stadium: Mestalla

October 1st 2nd 2011; 20:00CET

7th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 36.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Fabri Gonzalez

After going through one of the toughest weeks in the last 10 years through top teams like Barcelona, Sevilla and Chelsea and even getting good results considering Valencia CF will have a bit of a breather, but only for a moment, because Granada is a dangerous team and if the team goes overconfident or too relaxed it may just end up loosing.
Still though considering Valencia CF played 4 matches in 11 days, 3 of which top clubs, its great that we have a weaker opposition to play with and after this match we'd have a bit of a breather, although some players have been called to international duty so they are not going to get much rest after this.

Valencia CF as I've said is coming to this match after one of the most difficult 11 days in which it played against 4 teams, 3 of which top opposition. Against Barcelona it was a great match in which Valencia presented a big challenge and even had its chances to win, but in the end ultimately it was a good result for both teams. Then only few days later they traveled to Sevilla and just as history showed Valencia lost 1-0 and played quite bad. Valencia had chances to win as Sevilla were reduced to 9 men, but then Aritz Aduriz got himself send off and Banega missed a penalty. Last match was against Chelsea FC in the Champions League at the Mestalla and it ended in a 1-1 draw. Valencia scored from a penalty, while Diego Alves had an amazing match in which he saved 4-5 shots in the span of just 5 minutes and saved the team from loosing badly.

Valencia coach Unai Emery after the Chelsea match said that the attack must improve and I fully agree with him. Right now with Mata playing for Chelsea we lack a player on the wings that is going to play deeper, drop in the penalty area and help out the attacker by having people track him. Pablo isn't that guy and while he is very versatile, he is not naturally a deep winger, Piatti is also not a deep winger and with his poor passing and crossing is actually best suite for attack and not even on the wings. Feghuoli hasn't played much and from when he's played he seems more comfortable going deep, but its too early to say and Mathieu is a left back and lets not kid ourselves. He is fast and has good crossing ability, but in matches like Chelsea it shows he is not a winger.

So right now Emery will need to find either a player that can drop deeper or have some new tactics as to how the team can score goals, because right now apart from crosses and the rare through passes players don't have ideas on how to score. For example we only have one long range shooter in Tino and he still doesn't try to shoot from distance very much and players from the wings don't cut inside the penalty area and no one even dribbles outside the opposition area to get away past 1 or two players and create a chance. So right now Emery has to work around the problem or find a solution, but I'd expect us to be more dangerous against Granada either way.

Everyone except Topal is fully fit, the only absences for sure are Topal who is still recovering from injury and Aduriz who is serving his one match ban after the red card with Sevilla and Paco is looking likely to take his place as he was training with the first team this week.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Rami,Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Albelda, Maduro, Tino Costa, Éver, Parejo, Piatti, Pablo, Feghouli, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Paco Alcácer, Soldado.

Granada CF is based in the same named town Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. The club finished fifth in Segunda, but by winning the promotion playoffs they were promoted to La Liga.
The 2010/11 La Liga Play-Off took place in June 2011. This was Segunda's first season with purely promotion play-offs since 1986–87 and the first time play offs had been used for movement between the first and second tier since 1998-99. This new promotion phase (known as Promoción de ascenso) was introduced to determine the third team which promoted to 2011/12 La Liga. Teams placed between 3rd and 6th position, excluding reserve teams, took part in the promotion play-offs.

Granada basically earned the promotion with the help of mostly on-loan Udinese players last season. This season they got five Udinese players on-loan and 3 from Benfica.

So far Granada CF has had a mixed start with 3 losses, 1 draw and 1 win. Their win also comes against Villarreal so that either speaks that Granda are quite good or that Villarreal are quite weak this season. Granada is currently 17th position on the table with only four points out of five matches and will be looking to make their biggest progress by at least getting a point against Valencia and if anything they certainly won't need to be pumped up for this match against the big favorite Valencia.

Granada CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Roberto, Julio César
Defenders: Diakhaté, Íñigo López, Mainz, Nyom, Siqueira
Midfielders: Abel Gómez, Dani Benítez, Fran Rico, Martins, Mikel Rico, Yebda, Mollo, Jaime Romero
Forwards: Ighalo, Geijo, Uche

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Tino; Feghuoli, Canales, Pablo; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Technical Details Granada CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Roberto; Diakathe, Siqueria, Nyom, Mainz; Yebda, Hurtado, Geijo, Benitez; Uche, Jara.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 3-0
Valencia is playing at home, it has had decent amount of time to rest and prepare and considering Granada has been playing mostly bad, with the exception of their last match I fully expect Valencia to win comfortably. The only debatable thing is the scoreline, whether its going to be 2-0 or more.

Betting odds:

Valencia	1.38
draw	5.30
Granada	12.00

Some news

Hey guys, finally some time with no matches and a little bit of downtime to take to write for other stuff instead of match previews and match reports.

Anyways I did an interview with barcablaugranes so check that out and see what I had to say mostly about Valencia, but also about Barcelona and the Champions League and Europa League.

Also if you want to know the top 10 football clubs of the world of the world go to www.footballclubrankings.com. It features a weekly ranking of the top 10 football clubs in the world.

This week Valencia play with Grenada, finally a weaker team and a chance for us to start winning again. I agree with Emery when he says our attack must improve, but I'll leave my thoughts for the match previews. Anyways that's that.

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC - Match Report

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC

Possession: 56%-44%

Goals: Lampard, Soldado

Assists: Malouda

Attempts on target: 8-8

Valencia CF and Chelsea FC shared the spoils in last night's match what was an interesting and competitive game that should have both sided pleased, although Chelsea do have more to rue about, since they've had several shots saved in time of 3-4 minutes.

Technical Details:
Valencia CF (1): Diego Alves; Miguel, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba; Albelda, Éver (Jonas, min. 73); Pablo (Feghouli, min.73), Canales, Mathieu (Piatti, min. 59); Soldado.

Chelsea FC (1): Čech; Bosingwa, David Luiz, Terry, A. Cole; Ramires (Meireles, min. 66), Obi Mikel, Lampard (Kalou, min. 83); Malouda, Torres (Anelka, min. 72), Mata.

Goals: 0-1 Lampard (min. 56), 1-1 Soldado (p) (min. 87)

Anyways Unai Emery started the match with the standard 4-2-3-1 formation:
Diego
Miguel Rami Ruiz Mathieu
Albelda Banega
Pablo Canales Mathieu
Soldado

The start of the match was a handful for Valencia as the players were really nervous and pretty much half the team made stupid, silly mistakes. For example Albelda had a back pass that gifted Torres the ball and if Rami wasn't as good and Torres as bad it would have resulted in a goal for Chelsea. Rami himself also had few lapses, as did Banega who also lost the ball in dangerous positions.
Sufficive to say the first 10 minutes or so were all filled with mistakes on both sides, but mostly on the Valencia side.

After the storm calmed down and the players settled we started having more possession and a bit of a breathing room and maneuvering place. Both teams were pressing hard when they lost the ball, but quickly fall back to their own half to form a double line defense and basically put positional pressure.

So the game turned into changing turns who was in attack and defense. Valencia will start attacking and Chelsea will pull back and defend and vice versa. The first half was played without too much chances and the battle was fought in the middle where Valencia was a little bit better with 54% of the control of the ball in the first half. Apart from few sporadic forward runs from both sides and dew crosses nothing major happened.

Second half started a bit more intensely and this is when things got much more interesting. Valencia CF started strong with control of the ball and threatening in attack, but about 5-6 minutes in the second half for some reason Valencia almost felt apart and in a total of 5 minutes Chelsea managed to create 4 huge scoring opportunities that if it wasn't for the superb Diego Alves would have probably went in. So Diego saved Valencia, but he can only do so much as in an incoming attack Malouda would beat Alba and cross to the lone Lampard who's shot easily found the net. 

Valencia will go on a strong attack after the recieved goal and Chelsea started setting up for defending their small lead, as the game was physical and hard and Villas-Boas knew chances would be rare so he closed up his team and they started defending. Emery brought Piatti for Mathieu to provide a more attacking threat and Piatti instantly made an impact after founding himself alone in front of goal with only Cech, but failed to score. Emery noticed that Chelsea were comitted to defense and won't move out, so he took out Banega as he wasn't needed too much at that point and put in Jonas. This was a double substitution so he also took off Pablo who was quite ineffective and brought Feghuoli on. The changes had immidiate effect and Jonas and Feghuoli really started probing and opening up Chelsea. 

With Valencia now more dangerous Piatti and Soldado found themselves with more chances, but couldn't quite score and as attacking as Valencia was, Chelsea seemed like it was going to go away with the 3 points from Mestalla, until Kalou decided for some reason to play with his hand in his own penalty and it was pretty stupid as there was absolutely no need for it and there was no absolutely no threat towards Cech goal. Anyways the referee gave a penalty and Soldado took the penalty superbly, sending off Cech in the wrong direction and scoring the goal.

Match statistics

Valencia		Chelsea
1	Goals scored	1
8	Attempts on target	8
7	Attempts off target	1
6	Corners	5
3	Offsides	2
9	Fouls committed	10
2	Yellow cards	4
0	Red cards	0

Ricardo Costa profile

Name: Ricardo Miguel Moreira da Costa
Playing position: Central defender
Previous club: Wolfsburg
Number: 20
Birthday: 16 May, 1981 (age 31)
Nationality: Portuguese
Height: 1.83m
Weight: 80kg
Contract ends: 30.06.2014
Player Rating:



Market Value:

Previous clubs:
Porto, Portugal 2002-2007
Wolfsburg, Germany 2007-2010
Lille, France 2010 (loan)

2010/11 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Portugal	WC	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1
Valencia	UCL	7	0	1	0	4	2	9	2	1	0
Portugal	Int	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Valencia	La Liga	29	0	0	2	14	3	61	16	7	1
Season Totals		38	1	1	2	18	5	72	18	8	2

2009/10 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Lille	Ligue 1	9	1	1	1	4	1	15	8	3	2
VfL Wolfsburg	Bund	10	1	1	0	10	3	20	13	2	0
VfL Wolfsburg	UCL	5	0	0	0	7	0	5	5	1	0
VfL Wolfsburg	Ger Cup	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Season Totals		24	2	2	1	21	4	40	26	6	2

2008/09 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
VfL Wolfsburg	Ger Cup	2	0	0	0	2	0	6	0	0	0
VfL Wolfsburg	Bund	10	1	3	1	6	3	23	5	3	1
Season Totals		12	1	3	1	8	3	29	5	3	1

2007/08 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
VfL Wolfsburg	Bund	19	1	2	0	12	3	48	10	8	0
Season Totals		19	1	2	0	12	3	48	10	8	0

2006/07 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
FC Porto	UCL	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	0
Season Totals		2	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	0

2005/06 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
FC Porto	UCL	3	0	0	0	2	1	5	0	0	0
Season Totals		3	0	0	0	2	1	5	0	0	0

2004/05 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
FC Porto	UCL	2	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0
Season Totals		2	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0

2003/04 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
FC Porto	UCL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Glossary

GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides, W: Wins, D: Draws, L: Losses

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC Player Ratings

Diego Alves 10 (MotM) - Absolutely brilliant performance, in a period of 5 minutes made some amazing saves, had one more amazing save towards the end to keep the result 1-1. Just perfect. Biggest mark I've given.
Miguel 4.5 - Slow and clumsy performance from Miguel, exposed numerous times and forced Rami to come out way too often on the side, couldn't get a decent cross for his life.
Rami 7 - Great performance once again from the Frenchmen as he commanded his area and made few curucial interceptions.
Ruiz 6 - Did well enough, but when pressed by the Chelsea attack made mistakes. Not his best performance and maybe he needs a little rest to get his strength and focus up.
Alba 6 - Did well in defense overall, but crucially allowed the cross that lead to the goal for Chelsea. Offered support going forward, but wasn't too secure and convincing in defense.
Albelda 6 - Had several misplaced passes in the beginning, giving the ball away to Chelsea in dangerous positions and Torres almost scored from his back pass. Improved later on and did good, but could have easily cost the team to loose with his poor passing early on.
Banega 7 - As Albelda was nervous at the beginning and lost few balls in dangerous positions, but improved later on and provided good passing, outlet for going forward and his performance was generally positive.
Pablo 6 - Quite the ineffective performance from Pablo even though he was rested on the weekend, but tonight he failed to provide anything of note and while he was full of running, failed to make an impact.
Canales 7 - Good performance and provided some good piercing passes that players couldn't take advantage of, dropped deeper when needed and worked very hard for the team.
Mathieu 6 - Its in this matches when one can see Mathieu is not a winger. Had good forward runs and good crosses, but wasn't intelligent with his crosses and they were all instinctive missing some opportunities. Still though had a decent showing.
Soldado 6 - Moved in some good positions and had decent service, its just that his first touch let him down and failed to control the ball so often, ruining his chances. Perfectly taken penalty though.
Subs:
Piatti 6 - Instantly effective as he was dangerous for Chelsea goal, had two shots towards goal, probably should have done better with those, but was more dangerous than Mathieu.
Jonas 6 - His and Feghuoli's coming on provided some urgency into the attack and Valencia became more dangerous, had a good shot on goal that Cech saves and created trouble for Chelsea.
Feghuoli 6 - Ditto Jonas, had great positive effect on VCF attack, provided some good passes, some good crosses and did more in 20 minutes than Pablo did in 70.

Unai Emery 7 - Set up the team great, pretty much what you'd expect though and in the second half made great substitutions that added depth and urgency in the attack and got lucky as Valencia equalized, although that was more Andre's sub helping us out.

Valencia CF vs Chelsea FC - Match Preview

Valencia CF vs Chelsea FC

Stadium: Mestalla

2nd fixture, Champions League

Expected attendance: 55.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Andre Villas-Boas

Here we are once again facing Chelsea FC in the Champions Leauge. The last time Valencia CF faced Chelsea at the Mestalla was in year 2007 in September as well I think when Valencia CF lost 2-1.
Valencia took the lead after nine minutes back then when David Villa raced clear to beat Petr Cech, but was unable to keep the composure for 90 minutes and eventually lost 2-1.

New Chelsea FC signing Juan Mata will have a swift return to Valencia CF after the Group E draw and is going to return to Valencia CF wearing the opposition dress this time.

In his first press conference for Chelsea, Juan Mata said: "I have a wish that [the two clubs] will meet in the final of this season's Champions League." I guess his wish came true, but a lot sooner than he had wished.

Both teams are pretty much the same in quality with young managers on the helm, with Villas Boas reminding a bit of the Jose Mourinho story, since he was his assistant and then went on to become Porto manager and win everything with Porto and then transfer to Chelsea, albeit one year sooner than Mourinho.

Head to Head
12/12/2007	UEFA CL	Chelsea vs Valencia	Group B, matchday 2	0 - 0
04/10/2007	UEFA CL	Valencia vs Chelsea	Group B, matchday 1	1 - 2
11/04/2007	UEFA CL	Valencia vs Chelsea	Quarter Finals	1 - 2
05/04/2007	UEFA CL	Chelsea vs Valencia	Quarter Finals	1 - 1

Valencia CF is coming to this match after a hell of a week with FC Barcelona the first opponent, then Sevilla FC next and now Chelsea FC and apart from such a difficult weak it did great and will try to get the better of Chelsea and win as it has certainly shown that is has the quality to do so. Unai Emery doesn't have much room for maneuvering and must go for the win after an unexpected draw with Genk and is going to use the home matches to win against everyone.

Pablo Hernandez has been rested as he is one of the most important players for Valencia CF this season and should be fully ready to help the team try and win.On the other hand Banega, Mathieu, Rami, Ruiz and even Soldado played in the Sevilla match with all but Soldado starting the match.

Valencia CF lost the match against Sevilla FC 1-0 and I've written a technical report on it explaining why Valencia CF played bad in the first half, how and why it improved in the second half and why Emery's substitutions worked against us.
But that is behind us now and the focus in on Chelsea FC who are a dangerous opponent and the players will need to play at their best and be fully focused to beat them.

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery had this to say in the press-conference: "Tomorrow is a big game with the usual complications, but we feel confident. We know all about Chelsea but also know that we are a very strong side, even more so here at Mestalla. We are only focused on ourselves and want to produce a great game and a victory for our fans. Tomorrow every player wearing blue [including Mata] will be our enemy.

Chelsea defend and attack their own way, and we'll try to exploit this and hurt them. I expect a physical game and we have to be switched on. We respect all our rivals but this doesn't affect our philosophy of playing football.

We want a full stadium and it's our responsibility to put on a great show so the fans can enjoy a great game. I can't promise victory, but we will give our all to get one. We played our best match of the season against Barcelona [2-2 last Wednesday], but every opponent is different and we have to adapt to them.

In the Champions League there are many great teams, and we're one of them. Chelsea were the top seeds and we were in the second pot, but the favorites don't always win"


Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Bruno, Miguel, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Maduro, Éver, Feghouli, Pablo, Parejo, Piatti, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Adúriz, Soldado.

Chelsea FC on the other hand is coming to this match after a big victory in the Premier League against the newly promoted team Swansea and they completely destroyed them even with one man less. Torres scored his fourth goal I believe, but was later on given a red card and would be thankful that his team managed to beat Swansea easily even without him.

Juan Mata played 60 minutes in the game and provided the assist to Torres for the first goal, he was quite dangerous on the left side all the way until he was substituted.
Whether Juan Mata play against Valencia CF is still unknown as Chelsea manager Boas may think its too early of a return to Valencia and Mata may not give his best, so we'll have to see.

Chelsea FC have also made a great start to the Champions League and they beat Bayern Leverkuzen in their first match, so right now they are the group leaders and are surely planning to leave the Mestalla with at least one point from it.
In their match against Leverkuzen Luiz came in and scored a fantastic goal who he himself started and set up basically, but he has not featured in the premier league at all, so this may be his chance to start and personally I don't know why he hasn't been starting in the Premier League, I mean they did spend 20 million on him last season and he was supposed to be Terry's hair, but it seems everyone so far is ahead of him right now.

Lampard has also gotten the back seat treatment as well, as his showing this season has been underwhelming and former Liverpool men Meireles is chosen over him. Meireles just joined this summer and has been quite the regular for Chelsea considering, with Malouda also loosing his place to Mata, although Malouda has been benched quite often last season as well.

Anyways there are no reported injuries for Chelsea and all of their squad is fit to play and its definitely going to be an interesting game.

Chelsea FC manager Andre Villas-Boas had this to say at the press conference: "Valencia will be extremely motivated. They had a good game against Barcelona but lost last weekend against Sevilla. They will try to get the three points. In the first game they only got a draw when they expected three points. We have to believe in our philosophy, the game will be very fast and intense, and if we get to win the three points tomorrow we will be in a very good position to go through.

'I am very good friends with [Valencia coach Unai Emery]. I think he is one of the best in the country. He has been extremely successful here in Spain and I hope one day he will go to England in the Premiership because the philosophy is very similar to what Unai believes in. I am very impressed by the way Valencia play football and by the way Unai motivates his players.'


Chelsea FC squad: to be announced...

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups) Updated 28.09.11:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, Tino Albelda; Pablo, Canales, Piatti Alba; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.

Technical Details Chelsea FC (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Mikel, Meireles; Anelka, Torres, Mata.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half closing, three way attacks, free role Mata, mostly short passing.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Chelsea FC
Well hopefully Emery has learned not to experiment with formations especially against tough opposition and hopefully he'll return to the 4-2-3-1 formation. This is going to be a tough match and there is no telling what may happen, but I expect if Valencia play with full focus and desire as against Barcelona we can win this match. Chelsea are dangerous in attack because they use brute force, since Mata has joined they have a little bit more flair and finesse, but they are still mostly a brute force team so our players will need to be ruthless in their tackles to gain an advantage.
I think Valencia CF will take this match 2-1, but ultimately anything can happen.

Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia CF - Match Report

Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia CF

Possession: 37%-63%

Goals: Kanoute

Assists: Navas

Valencia CF lost its first match this season at the legs of Sevilla FC. And it wasn't just the loss that is bad, but it was how Valencia CF played in the first half.

Technical Details:

Sevilla FC (1): Javi Varas; Martín Cáceres, Emir Spahić, Julien Escudé, Fernando Navarro; Jesús Navas, Piotr Trochowski, Gary Medel, Diego Perotti (Coke Andújar, 70m); Álvaro Negredo (Manu del Moral, 80m), Frédéric Kanouté (Ivan Rakitić, 59m).

Valencia CF (0): Vicente Guaita; Adil Rami, Hedwiges Madruo, Víctor Ruiz (Roberto Soldado, 72m); Bruno Saltor (Antonio Barragán, 46m), Tino Costa, Éver Banega, Jérémy Mathieu; Pablo Piatti (Sergio Canales, 63m), Jonas Gonçalves, Aritz Aduriz.

Goals: 1-0 Frédéric Kanouté (18th minute).

Unai Emery started with a 4-3-3 formation:

Guaita

Miguel Rami Ruiz Mathieu

Banega Maduro Tino

Piatti Aduriz Jonas

This formation has never worked for Valencia CF in any shape or form, and having some weird transformations in it as well didn't help one bit either and it just made it more confusing to the players. But I know what Emery was thinking and why he set up the formation as he did. 

He was planing on playing Maduro so back that in a way it would be only Tino and Banega in the middle with Mathieu and Bruno standing in the middle as playing as wingers and have Jonas come in deep whenever possible when attacking.

Here is an illustration:

The first image is the starting formation, but that formation was fully transformed when defending and attacking. For example when transforming to attack the formation changes to what it is in the second position.  As you can see from red arrows the distance from Tino to Banega was huge and not to mention the distance from Tino to Mathieu or Bruno so most of the time the ball ended up circling in the defense for too long until Rami crossed forward or until Bruno came back and got the ball. As it was, Banega did not come back and with Tino unable to bring the ball forward Valencia was forced to play with long crosses that ended up just giving the ball to Sevilla.

In the situations when we did manage some try at an attack our left side was fully exposed. As you can see from the second picture the red arrow from Matheu and the back. Our whole left side was exposed and as we saw Jesus Navasu used this space to get a counter attack and pass the ball to Kanoute who had ample time to slot the ball into the net.

But that wasn't Valencia's only problem. Since Emery wanted the full backs to play as wingers this also left our right side exposed since Bruno was way too slow to came back from attack and his attacking contribution wasn't something to talk about either. 

Ultimately it was Emery's fault for the formation and tactical setup and only did he fix it at the start of the second half.

Anyone noticing any difference? As you can see Emery made some good changed in the second half, that he should have probably started with. As you can see from the above picture Ever Banega and Tino Costa changed places. Why was that you ask? Well its because this way Valencia CF had someone (Banega) who can actually bring the ball out of defense and transfer it in attack. This could have possibly left us more vulnerable in attack and I suspect this is why Emery didn't start this way, but Banega and Maduro were able to cope good in defense and Tino Costa dropped deep anyways since once we controlled the ball there was time for Banega to move forward still on the left side and Tino Costa to come backward, still on the right side.

The other change was Mathieu  came a little bit more back and this created the perfect passing opportunities for Banega who could play to Mathieu on the wing, Maduro back if under pressure or forward to Tino Costa.  It also created a natural progression for the ball to be passed.

Third change was the arrival of Barragan in the place of Bruno and this had basically one effect and that is to add some speed on the right wing. It made the right wing more safe defensively and more dangerous offensively. 

Fourth change was the position of Jonas. As you remember in the first half he barely touched the ball and was nowhere to be seen and this is because he can't play as a left winger. He is either a striker, support striker or an attacking midfielder. Emery decided to put him just behind Aduriz, but give him the freedom to roam and this paid off as Jonas linked up quite well with many of the players after this change and we can see him doubling on the right a lot of times or coming in the center straight towards goal and he had quite a few shots and passes with his new position and given freedom.

The biggest mistake Emery did in this match looking from retrospective is the substitution of Piatti for Canales. 

With the four changes Emery made we were basically stranded with only one attacker as Jonas was positioned as an attacking midfielder. 

At this point Sevilla were with two players down and I guess he wanted to add some more precision passes from the right into the penalty area and with Piatti missing 20 passes it wasn't going to happen by him. The problem was that our midfield at that point became too crowded and with Canales playing more in the middle than right it sort of strangled our own attack and decreased the effectivness of Jonas. 

Mathieu was also tiering as always around the 70th minute mark and instead of Canales, it would have made perfect sense to Bring on Feghuoli for Tino Costa who wasn't really needed at that point and all he did was provide short passes to Banega and nothing else. 

Replacing Tino with Feghuoli would have put Piatti on the left side and he would have helped out Mathieu, Feghuoli would have slotted on the right and added more depth to the right wing and later on Emery could have brought on Soldado for Ruiz.

As it is this loss was not Emery's fault per say, as Banega missed a penalty, Aduriz got himself send off by falling for Navarro's provocation and basically gave Sevilla a lifeline. 

Ultimately it was a combination of things that resulted in Valencia CF loosing, from the bad formation, the unknown 3 defense system that caused Rami and Ruiz problems to Banega missing a penalty, Aduriz getting send off and generally the weaker play by all the players in the first half.

Sevilla 1-0 Valencia - Player Ratings

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6 - Had one good intervention, and could do nothing for the goal.
Bruno 5 - In no mans land, wasn't good defensively nor offensively. Properly substituted at half time.
Rami 6 - Mixed performance from the French. Did not communicate with Ruiz as he should have and both managed to mark absolutely no one.
Ruiz 6 - Same as Rami, both share responsibility for first goal. Other than that was pretty good.
Mathieu 6.5 - Some great runs forward and provided crosses and passes in abundance, but similarly as Dani for example for Barcelona was absent from defense and it showed as Jesus Navas counter attack led to the goal.
Maduro 6 - Was actually quite effective in defense, though I guess was a bit of a nuisance to Rami and Ruiz as he was ordered to go the sweeper position when Valencia defended and they weren't used to a 3 man defense.
Banega 6 - Overall it was a good match for Banega, but did have two bad reactions where he lost the ball in dangerous positions and missed a penalty. Still he was pretty much the only guy that can actually start an attack from the middle.
Tino Costa 6 - Absolutely terrible in the first half, improved in the second and finally started playing good when Sevilla were 2 men down. Overall if Sevilla wasn't 2 men down would have gotten a rating of probably 5.
Piatti 5.5 - Ran channels, was very active and did actually have one good pass to Aduriz that put him clear on goal, but misplaced 10 other passes and goes down to the slightest touch. Messi is similar stature but can dribble and pass.
Aduriz 4 - What a bad day for Aduriz. As if achieving nothing in attack isn't bad enough, he felt to Navaro's provocation and stepped on Navarro's leg and was shown the red card just when Valencia were 2 men up.
Jonas 6 - Was quite crap in the first half, improved quite a bit in the second, but not quite enough to score a goal.
Subs:
Barragan 6.5  Was quite the step up from Bruno and if this didn't place him above Bruno in the pecking order I don't know what will. Played good in defense and attack, albeit he had a little easier time as Sevilla lost 2 men later on.
Canales 5 - Didn't bring anything in the field. Should have played right, but he was always going to the middle, crowding the place.
Soldado N/A - Not enough time.

Unai Emery 4 - Started with a wrong formation. We would have controlled the game without 3 midfielders. Should have just started with 4-2-3-1 as its served us so well so far. He put Jonas on the left a position Jonas has publicly said he doesn't like and can't play. It is what it is, but he also made a wrong substitution by subbing Canales for Piatti. He should have brought Feghuoli and added depth to the wings as our team with Canales now had 4 central midfielders and no wingers !

Sevilla FC vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Sevilla FC vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán

September 24th 2011, 18:00CET

6th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 42.000

Coaches: Marcelino García Toral and Unai Emery

Valencia CF is in its toughest week or so as far as I can remember back. Before the match against FC Barcelona just 3 days earlier, Valencia CF played Sporting Gijon just 4 days before the Barca match. And if the match against Barcelona wasn't hard enough we now face Sevilla FC and after that once again just 4 days later we face Chelsea FC in the Champions League. So over 11 days Valencia CF is to play 4 matches against 3 top clubs. Good thing is that two are down with good success rate, two to go.

Valencia CF had a great match against Barcelona and deserved to win no doubt about it as it was the far better side of the first half. Soldado had the amazing chance to put Valencia up 3-1, but unluckily he missed from less than 1 meter. Of course Valencia CF had other opportunities and also started the second half with more dangerous attacks and it wasn't until the 70th minute when Valencia tempo slowed down and Barcelona started to dominate and had their best chances of the match, including a goal.

Overall Valencia CF has had a good season so far and is currently first place in the league, but its only the beginning of the season and Valencia CF must keep its momentum.

Sevilla FC is coming to this match after a fairly good start to the season and have had a two difficult matches themselves against Malaga and Villarreal in which they managed to draw 2-2 away from home. Sevilla FC have 8 points from 4 matches and are capable of beating Valencia CF as history can testify if.

They have the same core team from last season and they are experienced and great players that know their football and with a new coach they are reinvigorated this season. Its obvious that they are a top level club as they managed to beat Malaga at the start of the season, who sports some big talent now, then went on to draw with Villarreal on the road. A bit of a bummer for them would be their latest match in which they only managed to draw with Osasuna, the team that lost 8-0 to Barcelona just few days earlier.
The biggest changes in the transfer were the departure of central defender Didier Zokora and the arrival of striker Manu Del Moral  from Getafe. Other than those two they had quite a bit of changes overall, but mostly fringe players, except for probably Diego Capel.

Negredo is curently the top scorer for Srvilla as can be expected and he is in good form, as shown from his club matches for which he was called for the Spain team where he showed his good form as well scoring some goals and helping out Spain.

Sevilla FC squad:
Goalkeepers: Andrés Palop, Javi Varas
Defenders: Coke Andújar, Martín Cáceres, Alexis Ruano, Emir Spahić, Julien Escudé, Fernando Navarro
Midfielders: Jesús Navas, Emiliano Armenteros, Diego Perotti, Gary Medel, Ivan Rakitić, Piotr Trochowski, José Campaña
Forwards: Manu del Moral, Álvaro Negredo, Frédéric Kanouté

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to this match as second place on the table and after a great match with Barcelona, having competed with them and beat them at their own game for 70 minutes of the match. Of course then changes were made and players got tired and Barcelona dominated the last 20 minutes, but I'd say winning against Barcelona for 70 minutes is whats the main story here. Soldado even had an amazing chance to put Valencia up 3-1, but he missed a sitter from less than 1 meter.
If you havent seen the match go see as it was great football, great spectacle and you are missing a lot.

Unai Emery decided to change the squad up for this match and rest few players like Pablo Hernandez and Miguel Brito, while Jordi Alba is suspended and David Albelda injured and will be out for at least a week.

In their place Emery brought Barragan, Feghuoli, Parejo and Ricardo Costa. Basically all but Costa have not had their debut in La Liga yet and this could be their best chance to make it. 

We should not forget that after this match Valencia have an even difficult opponent just 4 days later in the Champions League where we face Chelsea and our former player until a month ago Juan Mata. So Emery should probably rest the strongest players for that Match and give the other players some playing time.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Diego Alves
Defenders: Antonio Barragán, Bruno Saltor, Adil Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu
Midfielders: Hedwiges Maduro, Tino Costa, Éver Banega, Dani Parejo, Pablo Piatti, Sergio Canales, Sofiane Feghouli
Forwards: Roberto Soldado, Jonas Gonçalves, Aritz Aduriz

Technical Details Sevilla FC (probable setups):

Formation: 4-4-2

Line-up: Javi Varas; Navarro, Alexis, Escude, Caceres; Navas, Medel, Rakitic, Peroti; Negredo, Kanoute.

Tactics: Medium defensive line, own third closing down, mixed passing, high frequency wing attacks with mostly crosses from the wings.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Maduro, Tino; Feghuoli, Canales, Piatti; Aduriz;

Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, high frequency wing attacks, counter attacks, mixed  passing. 

Result Prediction:

Sevilla FC 0-1 Valencia CF

Sevilla have been quite shy for goals so far in the season and with Valencia players spening all of their energy against Barcelona I don't think this is going to be a goal fest. I think both teams are going to be equally matched and the defenses will give us the winner and that should be Valencia as I know Alexis is very bad and if he plays we should score.