As I wrote in my quick half time report Valencia CF played terribly this in the first half and even though the second half was better, by that time Real Madrid had the huge lead and were preserving their stamina, content to just sit back for most of the time. This was mostly the case in the first half as well, with Valencia CF attacking and Real Madrid sitting back and catching Valencia CF on the counter attack, but they were pressing more in the first half and were playing differently in the second half.
What to write about the first half. Four of the five goals came from a counter attacking situation, most of them on the right side of the field, though some through the center as well, with Gago failing to provide sufficient cover for the defense.
First goal Di Maria passes the ball to Higuain who is quick to react and scores past Valdez, with the goalkeeper not being able to do anything.
For second goal Cristiano Ronaldo was pretty much playing games with R. Costa and easily tricked him to put him out of place, passes the ball to Di Maria who was better positioned than Guardado and scores.
Just a minute later a mistake in the midfield grants the ball to Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo is quickly released, as Ricardo Costa try to block the ball fails and Ronaldo runs in the penalty, outmaneuvers Rami and scores. Diego Alves was also quite terrible for this goal, although he did save the net several times, so overall he had a good match.
Then again from the right side, from a cross by Ozil I believe it was to Higuain, who just touches the ball to lead it to Cristiano Ronaldo and this one completely unmarked scores.
Then the fifth goal came from a simple header by Alonso in the middle of the park, it was a dead ball situation and Di Maria easily outruns Ruiz gets the ball, runs towards goal and completely unchallenged scores.
I'm just going to sum up what I wrote in the half time report. Basically it all came down to Ricardo Costa who just failed miserably to cover on the right wing and most of the goals came through there. Second was Guardado's terribly positioning for 2 of the goals in the defense and finally Gago failing to provide any sort of cover for the defense.
Overall the first half was just terrible, with absolute horrific defending.
Second half started and it was like a different match. Valencia CF went on to dominate proceedings, had several decent chances as well, but Real Madrid were content to sit back and defend with their huge 5-0 lead from the first half.
Ernesto Valverde saw his error and instantly changed Gago for Barragan, who went on to the right back position, R. Costa went to center defense and Ruiz went in midfield to play as defensive midfielder and actually provided a lot more cover than Gago did.
In fact I've talked about Ruiz being able to play defensive midfielder quite a lot of times, especially knowing his great and accurate passing and it seemed quite good. We'll have to evaluate him at a more stressful match, where there is more pressure, like say the Real Madrid of the first half, but for his time spend there in the second half he was good.
Of course Barragan easily dealt with Cristiano Ronaldo and again I just wonder why start Ricardo Costa there over Barragan? It just didn't make any sense. In fact I guarantee that with just that change Valencia CF would have probably been down only one goal and not the five. Because if you look at when the goals came in, its in a matter of 10 minutes, after the players lost morale and conviction after the second goal and who wouldn't? Ronaldo was playing games with R. Costa, he could have juggled his way into the goal.
Here are some of the chances for Valencia CF in the second half and I only took notes until about the 70th minute, since there was no point taking for the whole match.
49 minute Piatti shoots from long range and hits the bar.
52 min. Conetrao saves Real Madrid net from the line, after a good header by Rami.
58 min. Tino Costa shoots after a rebound, from just outside the penalty area, but Cassilas saves.
60 min. Barragan passes Conetrao and goes into the penalty area, passes the ball to the lone Jonas, but this one shot is inaccurate and goes above the goal.
63 min. Jonas leaves the ball to reach Soldado and runs into the penalty area, Soldado instantly passes the ball to Jonas, but once again Jonas shot is poor and the ball goes wide off goal.
68 min. Cross by Barragan to Valdez, but Valdez shot just goes wide.
76 min. Good pass by Banega to Valdez, but Cassilas was alert and comes out of goal to block Valdez shot/pass and the ball goes into corner.
Technical details:
Valencia CF (0): Alves; R. Costa, Rami, V. Ruiz, Guardado; Gago (Barragán, min.46'), T. Costa; Piatti (Bernat, min.77'), Éver, Jonas; Soldado (Valdez, min.64').
Real Madrid (5): Casillas; Arbeloa, Varane, Albiol, Coentrao; Khedira (Callejón, min.74'), Alonso (Essien, min.58'), Cristiano, Özil (Modric, min.66'), Di María; Higuaín.
Goals: 0-1 Min 9’, Higuaín. 0-2 Min 34', Di María. 0-3 Min 35', Cristiano Ronaldo. 0-4 Min 40', Cristiano Ronaldo. 0-5 Min 45', Di María.
Player Ratings:
Diego 6.5 - Not much he can do about the goals, he was left hanging by a terrible defense in the first half. Even so, he actually had several great saves to keep Valencia CF loosing by only 5 goals.
R. Costa 3 - I mean come on. He was just terrible as right back. Slow, cumbersome, bad positioning, you name it. Was good in the central role in the second half, but the damage was already done.
Rami 4.5 - Made some interceptions, but was played by Ronaldo and Ozil and Higuain time and time again in the first half.
Ruiz 4 - Terrible positioning, was slow as seen by his race to the ball against Di Maria that caused the 5th goal, it was just bad defending overall. Did a better job in the second half as defensive midfielder.
Guardado 4.5 - Not troubled too much from the left wing, but when it came down to him defending in the penalty area he had terrible positioning.
Gago 4 - Completely failed the team, was invisible in the midfield, failing to provide any cover for the defense or get the ball from defense and into offense.
Tino 6 - Worked very hard, was simple in his passing and what little Valencia CF could do in the first half came mostly from him. Very good in the second half, having few shots on goal as well.
Banega 5 - Lost the ball so many times, was overly confident and just strutted around doing nothing. Improved in the second half, but the match was already over by then.
Piatti 6 - Was the most active player in the fist half, tried to do stuff, cut back in the middle and tried to make things happen. Had a few shots, provided some good passes, but the teammates were just not there to help him out.
Soldado 5 - Completely shut down, he barely saw the ball all match long.
Jonas 5.5 - Did find himself into dangerous positions and tried several through balls, most of those failed though, but was active, had at least 2 good opportunities, but his shot accuracy is zero.
Subs:
Barragan 6.5 - Completely shut down Ronaldo and provided much needed support to Piatti, providing few good crosses and passes into dangerous positions, one pass finding Jonas alone. Why wasn't he a starter?
Valdez 5 - Was more dangerous than Soldado and was a nuisance to the Real Madrid defense, but didn't get a chance to score.
Bernat N/A - not enough time.
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Sunday, January 20, 2013
Valencia CF 0-5 Real Madrid Half-Time
What a trashing from Real Madrid. Half time and already 5 goals down. Let me just write where Valencia CF coach Ernseto Valverde went wrong.
Firs is the right back choice. Why choose Rocardo Costa to go against Cristiano Ronaldo? Ronaldo is extremely fast, Ricardo Costa is relatively slow, especially for a right back, he is absolutely slow. This was his first mistake, you can't put a turtle at right back. I'd put the worst real right back over a good, but slow defender.
Antonio Barragan isn't even bad, its more of a strange belief that somehow he is terrible, but he is not, he is actually quite good, very fast, very attack minded and while not the best defensively he at least has great pace. He could have easily covered Cristiano Ronaldo. The biggest problem with Barragan is that he is so attacking, most of the time he is more forward than the winger and leaves space at the back, but you could instruct him to not be as offensive and only go to a certain point. With the slow Ricardo Costa we see what happens.
The next mistake he made was putting Guardado over Cissokho. The signs were there from last match, I wrote how he dealt good on the left, before Di Maria came in and he had trouble dealing with him. But more importantly he is not a defender, he doesn't have the defensive instincts, the doesn't have the positioning and as we saw he was at fault for at least two goals. He was positioned time and time again in the wrong spot in the penalty area, we clearly saw this with the 4th goal.
So why Guardado over Cissokho? I mean Cissokho is fast, strong, great defending sense. Not as great in attack, but Valencia CF barely attacked all match long, the most they came was the final third and that is where they lost most of the balls.
Third mistake is playing Banega too far forward yet again. I think it may be a fluke and Banega being too adventurousness but its clear this is a tactical decision to play Banega way forward. But he is not an attacking midfielder, he is a box to box central midfielder, why play him so high and forward?
Valencia CF actually lost the midfield battle this time around, Gago also failed to provide cover for the defense or stop any counter attack and this is what I mean when I say he is not a defensive midfielder. Yeah he is probably the best on that position when Albelda isn't here, but he is not a defensive midfielder.
I don't even want to talk about the wings, which were non existent. Jonas plays too centrally, Ricardo Costa failed to support Piatti and Soldado was over crowded and easily marshaled.
And Real Madrid still aren't playing good, its just that they are playing effective football with 1 goal per 2 chances, with strong counter attacks.
That is not to say I blame Ernesto Valverde completely, no the individual players are playing terribly. Rami is playing terribly, Ruiz is playing terribly and about Costa and Guardado I already wrote. Gago also isn't closing down the middle, the midfield is loosing the ball to easy, etc...
Firs is the right back choice. Why choose Rocardo Costa to go against Cristiano Ronaldo? Ronaldo is extremely fast, Ricardo Costa is relatively slow, especially for a right back, he is absolutely slow. This was his first mistake, you can't put a turtle at right back. I'd put the worst real right back over a good, but slow defender.
Antonio Barragan isn't even bad, its more of a strange belief that somehow he is terrible, but he is not, he is actually quite good, very fast, very attack minded and while not the best defensively he at least has great pace. He could have easily covered Cristiano Ronaldo. The biggest problem with Barragan is that he is so attacking, most of the time he is more forward than the winger and leaves space at the back, but you could instruct him to not be as offensive and only go to a certain point. With the slow Ricardo Costa we see what happens.
The next mistake he made was putting Guardado over Cissokho. The signs were there from last match, I wrote how he dealt good on the left, before Di Maria came in and he had trouble dealing with him. But more importantly he is not a defender, he doesn't have the defensive instincts, the doesn't have the positioning and as we saw he was at fault for at least two goals. He was positioned time and time again in the wrong spot in the penalty area, we clearly saw this with the 4th goal.
So why Guardado over Cissokho? I mean Cissokho is fast, strong, great defending sense. Not as great in attack, but Valencia CF barely attacked all match long, the most they came was the final third and that is where they lost most of the balls.
Third mistake is playing Banega too far forward yet again. I think it may be a fluke and Banega being too adventurousness but its clear this is a tactical decision to play Banega way forward. But he is not an attacking midfielder, he is a box to box central midfielder, why play him so high and forward?
Valencia CF actually lost the midfield battle this time around, Gago also failed to provide cover for the defense or stop any counter attack and this is what I mean when I say he is not a defensive midfielder. Yeah he is probably the best on that position when Albelda isn't here, but he is not a defensive midfielder.
I don't even want to talk about the wings, which were non existent. Jonas plays too centrally, Ricardo Costa failed to support Piatti and Soldado was over crowded and easily marshaled.
And Real Madrid still aren't playing good, its just that they are playing effective football with 1 goal per 2 chances, with strong counter attacks.
That is not to say I blame Ernesto Valverde completely, no the individual players are playing terribly. Rami is playing terribly, Ruiz is playing terribly and about Costa and Guardado I already wrote. Gago also isn't closing down the middle, the midfield is loosing the ball to easy, etc...
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Valencia CF vs Real Madrid Match Preview
Valencia CF vs Real Madrid Match Preview
Stadium: Mestalla
Date: 20.01.2013; 21:00 CET
Coaches: Ernesto Valverde and Jose Mourinho
Valencia CF
Valencia CF
Valencia CF is coming to this match after a 2-0 loss from Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Copa Del Rey. Even though Valencia CF outplayed Real Madrid for the most part in that match, some silly individual mistakes, coupled with paid referees made sure Valencia CF would loose 2-0. You can read my match report and find out more. To sum it up Valencia CF had the possession, chances, attacking and in a very unfortunate way it still managed to loose.
The first goal for Real Madrid came after a mistake by either Tino or Parejo, couldn't tell at the time, where he gave away the ball and there was no one in the middle to prevent or slow down the counter attack, which resulted in Real Madrid taking the lead. Valencia CF had chances on their own as Jonas had 2 great chances, one he shot straight at the keeper, the other he missed a whole empty goal from less than 10 meters. Real Madrid second goal would come from Higuain, as he received a pass from Conetrao, though that goal was controversial as well as it seems Higuain handled the ball with his hand.
Anyways Roberto Soldado criticized the referees after the match and said they helped Real Madrid win, Manuel Llorente was furious with the referees as well, saying every time Valencia CF plays against the big two weird decisions go against us. Of course you won't hear anything from Jose Mourinho when his team wins with refereeing help, but yells and screams if his team don't get special treatment by them.
To make matters worse coach Ernesto Valverde has been handed a 2 match ban for simply trying to substitute a player and not being allowed to for 5 minutes. Of course Jose Mourinho can poke Tito Villanova eye and not receive any penalty, but you try to make a substitution against Real Madrid and you are out. So conveniently he has been banned for the two matches Valencia CF play against Real Madrid. I mean you can't make this stuff up.
If I wanted to make up stuff to discredit the referees and their whole guild there is Spain, I wouldn't have been able to come up with this. I just don't have such weird and crazy imagination. Its like they try everything possible to make Valencia CF loose against Real Madrid and they don't even hide it anymore, its all out in the open.
But enough of that, Fernando Gago obviously returned from injury and played some minutes in the last match, though he is going to start this time, as Parejo has broken a finger in the match against Real Madrid, so he will be missing for at least 2 weeks, possibly more. He is going to play as a defensive midfielder and he is best suited of course out of the others we have. Tino and Banega are probably going to start as well, though this time Tino can play more freely and venture forward more, which should be positive for Valencia CF. Of course Joao Pereira is unavailable due to accumulation of yellow cards and Albelda is still injured, though could probably return for the 2nd match in the cup.
Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Vicente Guaita.
Defenders: Cissokho, Rami, Victor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Barragan.
Midfielders: Guardado, Gago, Ever, Tino Costa, Viera, Piatti, Canales, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Vicente Guaita.
Defenders: Cissokho, Rami, Victor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Barragan.
Midfielders: Guardado, Gago, Ever, Tino Costa, Viera, Piatti, Canales, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Barragan, Rami, R. Costa, Cissokho; Gago, Tino, Banega; Piatti, Jonas, Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, mixed passing, mixed attacks.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid are coming to this match after a lucky victory against Valencia CF. They were second best all match long, had the referees on their side and had Jonas on their side basically, missing some crucial goals. Even before the match against Valencia CF, Real Madrid have been poor, they were second best against Osasuna as well, though again managed to get away with a draw.
Their whole season has been mixed bag with some good and bad matches and they are clearly lacking form. Right now they are still 3rd in the league with 37 points, though hopefully after tomorrow's match they'd still be sitting on the same 37 points. They have scored 45 and conceded 20 goals and of course the main goalscorer has been Cristiano Ronaldo with 16 goals and Karim Benzema leading the assists chart with 6.
Real Madrid have had trouble with their defense for some time time and have been missing their key defenders, they also had Albiol injured for a long time, before coming from injury and being put instantly in the heart of the defense. Jose Mourinho also seems to have problems with Casillas as he has been putting Adan in goal over Cassilas, though working out terribly two times. In fact come the summer, its possible Real Madrid will be looking for a new goalkeeper and Guaita could be their prime target. FC Barcelona are also on the lookout for a new goalkeeper, after they failed to reach a deal with Valdez so they are going to be looking at Guaita as well, especially since he hasn't been getting the proper minutes here at Valencia CF.
Real Madrid is also in negotiations with Milan to offload Kaka, who's been bellow par and warming the bench ever since he came in at Real Madrid, I'd say probably some of his best years wasted. He is on the way out and Real Madrid realistically lack depth this season. They only have Ozil really, got Modric in the summer, but he's been forced to play central midfield most of the time and they lack proper cover there as well with no real replacement for Alonso. They also lack cover on the left for Ronaldo and cover for right wing for the aging Arbeloa. So loosing Kaka, as insignificant as he has been will be further blow to them.
Real Madrid squad:
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adan and Tomas Mejias.
Defenders: Varane, Coentrao, Carvalho, Arbeloa, Albiol and Nacho.
Midfielders: Khedira, Ozil, Alonso, Essien, Modric, Callejon and Di Maria.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Higuain.
Technical Details Real Madrid (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Casillas; Arbeloa, Varane, Albiol, Coentrao; Xabi, Khedira; Callejon, Ozil, Ronaldo; Benzema.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, mostly wide wing attacks, long balls from the middle.
Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Real Madrid
Valencia CF outplayed Real Madrid last match at the Bernabeu and after coming in as underdogs, but now playing at the Mestalla with a strong belief that they can win is going to propel Valencia CF to victory. Real Madrid are always dangerous from counter attacks with their defensive style of play, so I expect them to get one in, probably from an offside with the help of the referees. I see Valencia CF scoring two though probably one by Soldado and one by Tino Costa.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Valencia CF foundation in trouble
Anyways the foundation is unable to pay the debt of 86 million euros to Bankia, not just the interest on the debt of 4 million this year. Right now the Valencia government is negotiating to refinance the debt and if unable to take over the club.
What can happen is Bankia can also take over of the club, though they are not interested in doing that and would not really have any use of the club, especially since they own most of the debt anyways.
So it is an interesting situation that is developing and I just hope there is not going to be intrusion in the club and its operating, as that could destroy Valencia CF season. It could really ruin our whole season and ruin the club.
So right now its all in the hands of Bankia and what they decide, although the bank itself is bankrupt and going through major internal changes, so that is also to look for.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The story of Manuel Llorente
Warning: long text ahead...
Valencia CF presidential elections are coming up this summer and current president Manuel Llorente could be on his way out. Right now there is only one challenger for the presidency in the former Valencia CF player and recently former sporting director Fernando Gomez.
Many Valencia CF fans, but especially Spanish fans are unhappy with where the club is at right now and understandably so, since the club is about 380 million euros in debt, no trophy has been won since 2007 when the team Managed to win the Copa Del Rey, but that is the season the team barely survived relegation as well, just in the final few matches. The team has been selling its best players like David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata and Manuel Llorente has been president for the past three and a half years and has presided over what has been happening.
Lets start from the beginning. Manuel Llorente had studied economics as a young adult and had found himself working as director for Juan Roig food business Mercadona. The Roig family consists of 5 brothers who are all into business. He was doing a great job at Mercadona, so he was given a job at Valencia CF in 1995 as a club manager by Juan's brother Francisco Roig and subsequently became director-general. Manuel Llorente was in charge of the finances at Valencia CF from 1999 all the way until 2005 when he was sacked by a board meeting headed by Juan Soler.
So Manuel Llorente presided over the best and most successful years of Valencia CF from 1999 to 2004 when the club reached two Champions League finals, won two Spanish titles, Uefa cup, Super cup, Copa Del Rey and more. While things were great sporting wise, the financial situation wasn't booming. Even though Valencia CF had great success, that meant high wages for the players and big bonuses for the officials, putting the club 200 million euros into debt. Even though Manuel Llorente was known for his firmness and tight control of the finances, which actually led to the dismissal of Rafael Benitez as the two were unable to reach an agreement over Benitez salary and the club's transfer budget, the spending was still big and Valencia CF was spending a lot more money than they were taking in and even though the preseason tickets were always sold out and the stadium was full, it just wasn't enough as Valencia CF didn't have the TV revenue or established high paying sponsors.
To his defense he wasn't responsible for the transfers and promises made by the presidents at the time and Pablo Aimar's 24 million euros transfer, Gonzalo De los Santos 15 million euros transfer, Salva Ballesta almost 11 million transfer and others were weighing heavily on the budget. Ultimately the club was forced to sell Gazika Mendieta to Lazio for a record fee at that time of 48 million euros. Unfortunately Lazio went bankrupt the next year and so Valencia CF was left without the money and settled for two players Stefano Fiore and Bernardo Corradi.
As I already wrote Manuel Llorente was sacked in 2005 by a board decision headed by Juan Soler who had become the major shareholder of Valencia CF and he wanted to have someone closely related who he can trust fully with the finances, so he can do things undisputed.
Juan Soler had a good chance to put the finances in order and finish up the stadium, but he had illusions of grander and went on a shopping spree for good and talented, but overpriced players such as Miguel Brito, Asier Del Horno, Joaquin Sanchez, Manuel Fernandes, Nikola Zigic, Ever Banega and others, who not only cost a lot to bring in, but had huge salaries.
Joaquin Sanchez for example cost the club a whooping 25 million euros at the time, Manuel Fernandes 16 million, Ever Banega 20 million. Joaquin Sanchez never repeated the performances he did with Real Betis, same with Fernandes and only in the past 2 years has Ever Banega really been performing, though not after a lot of headaches before that and in the midst of it.
Step forward, Vicente Soriano, the club’s former vice-president, promising €500 million of new investment from a company called Dalport Investments that would clear the club’s debts and enable them to build the new stadium. It sounded too good to be true – and it was. The mysterious backers, whose company logo was revealed to be copied from a children's coloring book, failed to deliver and Valencia faced a serious liquidity problem.
This is when building of the new stadium stopped as the company doing the construction hadn't received one penny for the last year of construction.
Without going into details there was a huge fight from 2008 till 2009 over the club, in which 3 presidents came and went until Manuel Llorente with his foundation Valencia came in and purchased the majority of shares, then soon after had an increase of the shares of the club in order to gain some capital in order to refinance the debt. Of course all of this was sanctioned by Bancaja which later became Bankia, because Bancaja went bankrupt as well, but merged with Caja Madrid and 5 smaller banks and became Bankia.
So officially Manuel Llorente became president of Valencia CF in June of 2009 with a contract until June 2014 and a annual salary of 360.000 euros. At the time Valencia CF had accumulated debt of over 550 million euros, it had an annual loss of over 20 million euros and an interest rate of over 16% on its debt. In other words the situation was terrible, the club might as well have went into bankruptcy and clean the slate, but Bancaja would have lost its money and they were interested to keep the club operating, in order to try and regain their investments/loans in the club, which by then was clear it was obvious loss with little chance of being repaid.
Anyways Manuel Llorente did the only thing possible at the time and that is to start selling the club's biggest stars, though not immediately and not before he basically had no choice. He sold Raul Albiol for 16 million euros to Real Madrid, but was determined to keep David Villa and David Silva, even publicly stating they weren't for sale. Whether he was serious and somehow thought he could keep them or if it was just a trick to try and increase their price is unknown, but whatever it was, by the end of 2009 it was clear they would have to be sold in order for the club to survive and not go into bankruptcy, which would have meant the club drops to the lowest league in Spain. In fact 2009 was a year that had the players not receiving salary, payments were constantly late and so in the summer of 2010 David Villa was sold to FC Barcelona for 40 million euros, David Silva to Manchester City for 30 million euros and Nikola Zigic for 10 million euros to Birmingham. Alexis and Carlos Marchena were also sold, but not because their transfers brought any money, but because their salaries were too big. Hugo Viana and Asier Del Horno also left on a free transfer and offloading them meant the club would for the first time in years not have an operating loss and due to the sales it even made small profit.
Manuel Llorente had fired sporting director Fernando Gomez in June, appointing Braulio Vazquez as his successor, citing money saving as the reason. Certainly that would have been part of the reason, but I think it was more of an authority move so that he wouldn't have much to contend with with the sale of the biggest players as Braulio Vazquez would have been a yes men and wouldn't have had much say, with the only things concerning the new sporting director would have been to get as much possible for the sales of Valencia's top players.
Valencia CF got 80 million from the sale of Villa, Silva and Zigic, but due to the fact that all of the big earners were offloaded it was the equivalent of 100 million profits. Villa, Silva, Del Horno, Hugo Viana, Alexis, Marchena were all earning over 20 million per year combined. That year a lot of the contacts were renegotiated as well and all of the players got a salary reduction. To compensate Manuel Llorente had to put in lower buy-out clauses so that if the players were approached by other clubs they would have easier time leaving.
Small portion of the money gotten from the sales of Villa and Silva was spend on bringing in reinforcements such as Roberto Soldado (10 million euros), Tino Costa (6.5 million euros), Mehmet Topal (5 million euros) and others. Obviously Roberto Soldado turned into a huge star and Valencia's key players, but Tino Costa and Mehmet Topal were useful as well, both combined playing key matches and helping lead the team to consecutive 3rd place finishes.
Unai Emery was brought in in 2008 and even though in his first season he only managed 6th place with the club, he was kept as manager and that decision paid off as Emery would lead Valencia CF to three consecutive 3rd place finishes that meant Valencia CF automatically qualified for the Champions League and had received some much needed cash.
The next year 2011, there was a lot of talk how Juan Mata, who by then became a huge star would be sold, though Llorente came out publicly again and stated that the debt had been reduced by over 150 million euros and there was no need for the club to sell anymore players and as such he would keep Juan Mata. In fact he actually managed to convince Mata to sign a new contract. Came the summer though Chelsea FC came knocking on the door and while Manuel Llorente was serious that he didn't want to sell Mata, Mata wanted to leave and urged Llorente to look at the Chelsea FC offer, so he did and decided to accept their 30 million transfer fee for Juan Mata.
The sale of Mata went a long way though of bringing in new players and contrary to popular belief Manuel Llorente spend all of the money from the sale of Juan Mata on new players, bringing in players such as Victor Ruiz, Pablo Piatti, Adil Rami, Daniel Parejo, Diego Alves and even loaned in Sergio Canales for 1.5 million euros from Real Madrid on a 2 year long loan.
In fact it is rather miraculous how Manuel Llorente managed to lower the debt by over 150 million euros within just 2 short years, considering the total sale of players such as Villa, Silva and Mata was 100 million euros and the money from Mata's transfer were all reinvested into the purchases of 6 new players. Yeah the team made 20 million profit as well in the two years due to playing in the Champions League, but the fact that he managed to stem the tide when he came in, went through the whole thing of players not getting salaries without loosing even one players for it, to lowering the salary players were earning from 89 million euros in 2008 to 74 million in 2009, 73 million in 2010 and less than 70 million in 2011, all the while bringing in new players, keeping old players and reducing their salary and the club's expenditures at the same time.
On December 12th, 2011 it was announced that the club has reached a deal with Bankia to resume construction on the new stadium. The deal was supposed to have Bankia loan Valencia 140 million euros for the completion of the new Mestalla, while Valencia CF gives away the old Mestalla land and new Mestalla land, including the hotel, to the bank and in turn have their 240 million debt to the bank wiped out. Manuel Llorente boasted how the future of Valencia CF was secured and all problems were solved.
This year though Bankia unilaterally broke the contract as it was announced that the bank was not solvent and had no money to loan out, and acquiring the stadiums wouldn't have meant anything to them, since they wouldn't have anyone to sell them to and recoup the money.
Ultimately the breach by Bankia was good, since the deal was rather bad for Valencia CF and was done in desperation to get rid of the debt and would have meant Valencia CF looses the stadium and ends up having 140 million additional debt to the bank and still paying interest. Basically the deal would have moved the situation further, made it reasonably better and eased up conditions, but it was in no way a great solution.
Valencia CF also had trouble finding sponsors for the 2011/12 season and it took Manuel Llorente a lot of travels to try and find one, with Valencia CF playing the first half of the season without a shirt sponsor. Manuel Llorente finally found a sponsor and it was Chinese energy company Jinko Solar. The contract was signed in January of 2012 for the rest of that season. By the end of the 2011/12 season Jinko Solar officials were satisfied with the relationship and the two parties announced a new two year contract that was signed in the summer of 2012.
The club also did a promotional tour in the USA at the end of the 2011/12 season, basically instantly after the season finished, and did a promotional tour in Indonesia as well as part of the preseason friendlies. Even more recently, around the time Mario Alvarado was making the waves, supposedly wanting to purchase Valencia CF, Llorente was all over Asia and the middle east trying to find investors and/or sponsors.
So we come to the present and what the situation is now, but what has also been achieved in the past. Well what it was achieved is stability, after a large fight in 2008 till 2009 about who will run Valencia CF. Since Manuel Llorente took over the club in 2009 the worst has passed. Due to the increase in shares later that year, the club increased its capital over 92 million euros and that was used to pay off some of the urgent debt and operating fees, so that the club can continue operating normally. Then next year Villa and Silva were sold to net the club a whooping 70 million euros in profits just by those two, but Llorente got rid of some of the high earners as well, reducing the players salary from almost 90 million euros in 2008 to 73 million euros in 2010 and even lower in 2011. The fact that he kept Unai Emery as the coach and negotiated a low salary with him on a yearly contract also led to success as Emery led the club to 3rd position three times in a row, which qualified the team for the Champions League in which it earned 22 million and 16 million euros respectively.
So in just two years he lowered the debt by over 150 million euros and Valencia CF actually started making a profit, rather than big losses every year. Since 2011 though the debt has remained at 380 million euros, but the club also hasn't sold anyone, though it could have actually sold Roberto Soldado to Tottenham last summer for 30 million euros, but Llorente decided to keep him and luckily enough Soldado also wanted to stay at Valencia CF, confirming his commitment to retire at Valencia CF, and that has obviously lead to stability this season as Soldado has been the key player for Valencia CF, netting a lot of goals for the team.
Now, it hasn't all been great. Under Llorente Valencia CF lost Isco and Jordi Alba, although one could argue that was more of a fault by Braulio Vazquez the sporting director rather than Llorente, though the blame will ultimately reside at Llorente as he is the head of Valencia CF and has the ultimate say.
So that is in short the story of current Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente in terms of his history with the club and what exactly has been going on. Hopefully this will make it easier on some to decide whether they support him or not.
If you think there is something I should have written and haven't, if you have found some mistake in the article, like mistaken date or just want to share your viewpoint about Manuel Llorente, please do so in the comments.
Valencia CF presidential elections are coming up this summer and current president Manuel Llorente could be on his way out. Right now there is only one challenger for the presidency in the former Valencia CF player and recently former sporting director Fernando Gomez.
Many Valencia CF fans, but especially Spanish fans are unhappy with where the club is at right now and understandably so, since the club is about 380 million euros in debt, no trophy has been won since 2007 when the team Managed to win the Copa Del Rey, but that is the season the team barely survived relegation as well, just in the final few matches. The team has been selling its best players like David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata and Manuel Llorente has been president for the past three and a half years and has presided over what has been happening.
Lets start from the beginning. Manuel Llorente had studied economics as a young adult and had found himself working as director for Juan Roig food business Mercadona. The Roig family consists of 5 brothers who are all into business. He was doing a great job at Mercadona, so he was given a job at Valencia CF in 1995 as a club manager by Juan's brother Francisco Roig and subsequently became director-general. Manuel Llorente was in charge of the finances at Valencia CF from 1999 all the way until 2005 when he was sacked by a board meeting headed by Juan Soler.
So Manuel Llorente presided over the best and most successful years of Valencia CF from 1999 to 2004 when the club reached two Champions League finals, won two Spanish titles, Uefa cup, Super cup, Copa Del Rey and more. While things were great sporting wise, the financial situation wasn't booming. Even though Valencia CF had great success, that meant high wages for the players and big bonuses for the officials, putting the club 200 million euros into debt. Even though Manuel Llorente was known for his firmness and tight control of the finances, which actually led to the dismissal of Rafael Benitez as the two were unable to reach an agreement over Benitez salary and the club's transfer budget, the spending was still big and Valencia CF was spending a lot more money than they were taking in and even though the preseason tickets were always sold out and the stadium was full, it just wasn't enough as Valencia CF didn't have the TV revenue or established high paying sponsors.
To his defense he wasn't responsible for the transfers and promises made by the presidents at the time and Pablo Aimar's 24 million euros transfer, Gonzalo De los Santos 15 million euros transfer, Salva Ballesta almost 11 million transfer and others were weighing heavily on the budget. Ultimately the club was forced to sell Gazika Mendieta to Lazio for a record fee at that time of 48 million euros. Unfortunately Lazio went bankrupt the next year and so Valencia CF was left without the money and settled for two players Stefano Fiore and Bernardo Corradi.
Juan Soler had a good chance to put the finances in order and finish up the stadium, but he had illusions of grander and went on a shopping spree for good and talented, but overpriced players such as Miguel Brito, Asier Del Horno, Joaquin Sanchez, Manuel Fernandes, Nikola Zigic, Ever Banega and others, who not only cost a lot to bring in, but had huge salaries.
Joaquin Sanchez for example cost the club a whooping 25 million euros at the time, Manuel Fernandes 16 million, Ever Banega 20 million. Joaquin Sanchez never repeated the performances he did with Real Betis, same with Fernandes and only in the past 2 years has Ever Banega really been performing, though not after a lot of headaches before that and in the midst of it.
Step forward, Vicente Soriano, the club’s former vice-president, promising €500 million of new investment from a company called Dalport Investments that would clear the club’s debts and enable them to build the new stadium. It sounded too good to be true – and it was. The mysterious backers, whose company logo was revealed to be copied from a children's coloring book, failed to deliver and Valencia faced a serious liquidity problem.
This is when building of the new stadium stopped as the company doing the construction hadn't received one penny for the last year of construction.
Without going into details there was a huge fight from 2008 till 2009 over the club, in which 3 presidents came and went until Manuel Llorente with his foundation Valencia came in and purchased the majority of shares, then soon after had an increase of the shares of the club in order to gain some capital in order to refinance the debt. Of course all of this was sanctioned by Bancaja which later became Bankia, because Bancaja went bankrupt as well, but merged with Caja Madrid and 5 smaller banks and became Bankia.
So officially Manuel Llorente became president of Valencia CF in June of 2009 with a contract until June 2014 and a annual salary of 360.000 euros. At the time Valencia CF had accumulated debt of over 550 million euros, it had an annual loss of over 20 million euros and an interest rate of over 16% on its debt. In other words the situation was terrible, the club might as well have went into bankruptcy and clean the slate, but Bancaja would have lost its money and they were interested to keep the club operating, in order to try and regain their investments/loans in the club, which by then was clear it was obvious loss with little chance of being repaid.
Manuel Llorente had fired sporting director Fernando Gomez in June, appointing Braulio Vazquez as his successor, citing money saving as the reason. Certainly that would have been part of the reason, but I think it was more of an authority move so that he wouldn't have much to contend with with the sale of the biggest players as Braulio Vazquez would have been a yes men and wouldn't have had much say, with the only things concerning the new sporting director would have been to get as much possible for the sales of Valencia's top players.
Valencia CF got 80 million from the sale of Villa, Silva and Zigic, but due to the fact that all of the big earners were offloaded it was the equivalent of 100 million profits. Villa, Silva, Del Horno, Hugo Viana, Alexis, Marchena were all earning over 20 million per year combined. That year a lot of the contacts were renegotiated as well and all of the players got a salary reduction. To compensate Manuel Llorente had to put in lower buy-out clauses so that if the players were approached by other clubs they would have easier time leaving.
Small portion of the money gotten from the sales of Villa and Silva was spend on bringing in reinforcements such as Roberto Soldado (10 million euros), Tino Costa (6.5 million euros), Mehmet Topal (5 million euros) and others. Obviously Roberto Soldado turned into a huge star and Valencia's key players, but Tino Costa and Mehmet Topal were useful as well, both combined playing key matches and helping lead the team to consecutive 3rd place finishes.
Unai Emery was brought in in 2008 and even though in his first season he only managed 6th place with the club, he was kept as manager and that decision paid off as Emery would lead Valencia CF to three consecutive 3rd place finishes that meant Valencia CF automatically qualified for the Champions League and had received some much needed cash.
The next year 2011, there was a lot of talk how Juan Mata, who by then became a huge star would be sold, though Llorente came out publicly again and stated that the debt had been reduced by over 150 million euros and there was no need for the club to sell anymore players and as such he would keep Juan Mata. In fact he actually managed to convince Mata to sign a new contract. Came the summer though Chelsea FC came knocking on the door and while Manuel Llorente was serious that he didn't want to sell Mata, Mata wanted to leave and urged Llorente to look at the Chelsea FC offer, so he did and decided to accept their 30 million transfer fee for Juan Mata.
The sale of Mata went a long way though of bringing in new players and contrary to popular belief Manuel Llorente spend all of the money from the sale of Juan Mata on new players, bringing in players such as Victor Ruiz, Pablo Piatti, Adil Rami, Daniel Parejo, Diego Alves and even loaned in Sergio Canales for 1.5 million euros from Real Madrid on a 2 year long loan.
In fact it is rather miraculous how Manuel Llorente managed to lower the debt by over 150 million euros within just 2 short years, considering the total sale of players such as Villa, Silva and Mata was 100 million euros and the money from Mata's transfer were all reinvested into the purchases of 6 new players. Yeah the team made 20 million profit as well in the two years due to playing in the Champions League, but the fact that he managed to stem the tide when he came in, went through the whole thing of players not getting salaries without loosing even one players for it, to lowering the salary players were earning from 89 million euros in 2008 to 74 million in 2009, 73 million in 2010 and less than 70 million in 2011, all the while bringing in new players, keeping old players and reducing their salary and the club's expenditures at the same time.
On December 12th, 2011 it was announced that the club has reached a deal with Bankia to resume construction on the new stadium. The deal was supposed to have Bankia loan Valencia 140 million euros for the completion of the new Mestalla, while Valencia CF gives away the old Mestalla land and new Mestalla land, including the hotel, to the bank and in turn have their 240 million debt to the bank wiped out. Manuel Llorente boasted how the future of Valencia CF was secured and all problems were solved.
This year though Bankia unilaterally broke the contract as it was announced that the bank was not solvent and had no money to loan out, and acquiring the stadiums wouldn't have meant anything to them, since they wouldn't have anyone to sell them to and recoup the money.
Ultimately the breach by Bankia was good, since the deal was rather bad for Valencia CF and was done in desperation to get rid of the debt and would have meant Valencia CF looses the stadium and ends up having 140 million additional debt to the bank and still paying interest. Basically the deal would have moved the situation further, made it reasonably better and eased up conditions, but it was in no way a great solution.
Valencia CF also had trouble finding sponsors for the 2011/12 season and it took Manuel Llorente a lot of travels to try and find one, with Valencia CF playing the first half of the season without a shirt sponsor. Manuel Llorente finally found a sponsor and it was Chinese energy company Jinko Solar. The contract was signed in January of 2012 for the rest of that season. By the end of the 2011/12 season Jinko Solar officials were satisfied with the relationship and the two parties announced a new two year contract that was signed in the summer of 2012.
The club also did a promotional tour in the USA at the end of the 2011/12 season, basically instantly after the season finished, and did a promotional tour in Indonesia as well as part of the preseason friendlies. Even more recently, around the time Mario Alvarado was making the waves, supposedly wanting to purchase Valencia CF, Llorente was all over Asia and the middle east trying to find investors and/or sponsors.
So we come to the present and what the situation is now, but what has also been achieved in the past. Well what it was achieved is stability, after a large fight in 2008 till 2009 about who will run Valencia CF. Since Manuel Llorente took over the club in 2009 the worst has passed. Due to the increase in shares later that year, the club increased its capital over 92 million euros and that was used to pay off some of the urgent debt and operating fees, so that the club can continue operating normally. Then next year Villa and Silva were sold to net the club a whooping 70 million euros in profits just by those two, but Llorente got rid of some of the high earners as well, reducing the players salary from almost 90 million euros in 2008 to 73 million euros in 2010 and even lower in 2011. The fact that he kept Unai Emery as the coach and negotiated a low salary with him on a yearly contract also led to success as Emery led the club to 3rd position three times in a row, which qualified the team for the Champions League in which it earned 22 million and 16 million euros respectively.
So in just two years he lowered the debt by over 150 million euros and Valencia CF actually started making a profit, rather than big losses every year. Since 2011 though the debt has remained at 380 million euros, but the club also hasn't sold anyone, though it could have actually sold Roberto Soldado to Tottenham last summer for 30 million euros, but Llorente decided to keep him and luckily enough Soldado also wanted to stay at Valencia CF, confirming his commitment to retire at Valencia CF, and that has obviously lead to stability this season as Soldado has been the key player for Valencia CF, netting a lot of goals for the team.
Now, it hasn't all been great. Under Llorente Valencia CF lost Isco and Jordi Alba, although one could argue that was more of a fault by Braulio Vazquez the sporting director rather than Llorente, though the blame will ultimately reside at Llorente as he is the head of Valencia CF and has the ultimate say.
So that is in short the story of current Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente in terms of his history with the club and what exactly has been going on. Hopefully this will make it easier on some to decide whether they support him or not.
If you think there is something I should have written and haven't, if you have found some mistake in the article, like mistaken date or just want to share your viewpoint about Manuel Llorente, please do so in the comments.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Ernesto Valverde to be offered new contract
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| Valencia CF coach Ernesto Valverde |
Its unclear what the details with the new contract are and if there is a change in the salary, but if things keep going the way they are Valverde is going to be offered the new contract several matches before the season ends, so that the club don't loose him out to another club, namely Athletico Bilbao, but few others would surely be interested in him as well.
I sure hope Valverde manages to lead the team to a victory over Real Madrid in the upcoming match against them in La Liga and no amount of paid referees, paid shills can change that and they will be exposed and go to jail.
There is match-fixing in La Liga
I knew it. I just knew that all those crazy calls going against Valencia CF and always in favor of the top duo of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona weren't just weird flukes, weird coincidences. In fact I'm on record at least several times where I wrote about match fixing.
Just go use the search on the right and type in "match fixing" and its going to give you the articles. Now LFP vice president Javier Tebas has come out that there is wide spread fixing going on and fears that a scandal on the scale and even bigger than the Calciopoli and Scommessopoli could be on the cards.
All you have to do is look at Valencia's matches against Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in the past at least 3 years to find out. What is important to know is there are no such things like coincidences and they certainly don't happen over and over and over and over again.
In fact just last night in the Copa Del Rey there were not one, not two, but three offside decisions against Valencia CF. Not only that, but Higuain handled the ball with his hand for the second goal and this supposedly wasn't seen by any of the referees! I mean give me a break, give me a break.
So how did I know about it? How could I not know about it, it has been in my, in your face all the time. The difference with me is that I can understand a coincidence happening once, really terrible luck twice, three times is a random fluke, but fours, five, six times is a trend.
So we all need to expose this fraud, we all need to call media, call organizations, those of you in Spain call your political representatives and demand an investigation. We need to make sure this doesn't go unnoticed and we need to expose this corruption in Spanish football.
Just go use the search on the right and type in "match fixing" and its going to give you the articles. Now LFP vice president Javier Tebas has come out that there is wide spread fixing going on and fears that a scandal on the scale and even bigger than the Calciopoli and Scommessopoli could be on the cards.
All you have to do is look at Valencia's matches against Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in the past at least 3 years to find out. What is important to know is there are no such things like coincidences and they certainly don't happen over and over and over and over again.
In fact just last night in the Copa Del Rey there were not one, not two, but three offside decisions against Valencia CF. Not only that, but Higuain handled the ball with his hand for the second goal and this supposedly wasn't seen by any of the referees! I mean give me a break, give me a break.
So how did I know about it? How could I not know about it, it has been in my, in your face all the time. The difference with me is that I can understand a coincidence happening once, really terrible luck twice, three times is a random fluke, but fours, five, six times is a trend.
So we all need to expose this fraud, we all need to call media, call organizations, those of you in Spain call your political representatives and demand an investigation. We need to make sure this doesn't go unnoticed and we need to expose this corruption in Spanish football.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Real Madrid 2-0 Valencia CF Match Report
Well the first match out of a series of 3 has ended, but two more matches remain, one in the Spanish league and then the second leg of this fixture in the Copa Del Rey.
The first half started with both sides battling for midfield control for the first five minutes with neither side able to exert much influence, though as time passed Valencia CF started controlling more and more of the possession Real Madrid would have the first chance though after a quick steal in the mid enable Real Madrid to mount a counter attack, but Benzema would shoot wide.
For all of Valencia CF domination in midfield by the 20th minute, it was Real Madrid though who had the more chances with Benzema, Ozil and even Essien coming close. Valencia CF has its own opportunities though and for example Soldado was ruled offside in the 21st minute for a perfectly timed run, then in the 35th minute Casillas saves a shot by Jonas or should I say Jonas shot at the keeper. Jonas had one chance earlier where he shot from distance and barely missed the goal.
Well just after that poor shot right at Casillas, Real Madrid would punish Valencia CF and score a goal. The situation started when Tino Costa found himself too forward and misplaced a pass, basically giving the ball to Real Madrid, from there Essien got the ball, started a counter attack and Real Madrid had more people in attack, so Essien passed to the free Khedira who passed instantly to Benzema and this one converted the chance into a goal.
Valencia CF would try to mount a comeback, but usually the attacks would be stopped by the final third. Problem for Valencia CF was that the players were too wasteful with the chances and were making some poor passes in the final third, instead of playing more intelligently and circling the ball around.
The second half would become more open and dangerous, with a lot more chances on both sides. Valencia CF were ruled 3 offside's this game where it wasn't even close to being offside 3 times. All three times Soldado was in a scoring opportunity, in one even hitting the post.
Jonas would miss a sitter in the 66th minute, in what should have been one of the easiest goals of his career. Ever Banega would start the chance by getting away from his marker and passing the ball to Piatti who run a bit with the ball and released Soldado alone on goal, but Soldado only managed to hit the bar, with the ball falling on Jonas feet basically with the whole goal empty and he completely missed the goal.
Of course few imaginary offside's, few wasted chances and the retaliation would come from Real Madrid in the 73rd minute after a counter attack on the right hand side with Di Maria releasing Coentrao who easily went past Adil Rami and passed the ball forward, only for Guaita to completely miss the ball and Guardado to score his own goal with his hand no less.
Real Madrid would go on to have several more chances after that in what we be amazing misses by Ronaldo as well, who was released on goal alone, but Guaita saved and then just few minutes later Adil Rami would decide to dribble literally just in front of goal and loose the ball to Ronaldo, who like Jonas went on to miss the whole goal alone in front of Guaita.
Ultimatelly the game ended in a 2-0 victory for Real Madrid, albeit I'd say an undeserved one as they were second best team all match long. What saved them was stupid, I'd even say moronic individual mistakes by the Valencia CF players that shouldn't have happened. Also Jonas had a field day of misses, with Soldado as well missing and hitting the bar, instead of burring the chance himself.
Technical details:
R. Madrid (2): Casillas, Khedira, Ronaldo, Benzema (Higuaín, min. 68), Ozil, Carvalho, Marcelo (Coentrao, min. 46), Alonso, Essien, Albiol and Modric (Di Maria, min. 61).
Valencia CF (0): Guaita, Rami, Jonas, Soldado, Piatti, Joao, Guardado, Victor Ruiz (Ricardo Costa, min. 73), Dani Parejo, Ever (Valdez, min. 84) and Tino Costa (Gago, min. 77) .
Goals: 1-0 Min.37 Benzema; 2-0 Min.73 Guardado (o.g.).
Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 - Had few stretches in the first half, though nothing direct, but failed miserably for the second goal as he missed the ball completely. Made amends just few moments later when he made a terrific save from Ronaldo.
Pereira 5.5 - Was not tested much in the first half, but once Di Maria entered the fray he was left hanging few times and couldn't deal efficiently with him.
Rami 4 - Slow as a turtle and Coentrao just flew past him to provide the pass that would lead to the second goal. Made a terrible error in judgement when he decided to dribble in front of goal and lost the ball. Lucky that Ronaldo didn't score.
Ruiz 5 - Lacking any understanding with Rami, while he did made few blocks here and there, there was a lack of cohesion in the defense.
Guardado 5 - Completely overrun in the second half and lost Ozil and Essien several times, while bringing little offensively.
Tino Costa 4.5 - Completely failed as a defensive midfielder by finding himself too far forward and making the inaccurate pass that lead to the Real Madrid goal. Wasn't very effective in spreading the ball either.
Parejo 6.5 - One of the few bright spots in this match as he took it upon himself to come deep and spread the ball and organize the attack. Did very well with accurate passes and controlling possession for Valencia CF.
Piatti 6 - Was very active on the right side, making many runs and winning ground for Valencia as he was getting fouled in dangerous positions.
Banega 6 - I have no clue why he plays as an attacking midfielder and so forward, he rarely got back to claim and spread the ball and wasn't too effective in the final third either. Did have some important passes though and set up Soldado's chance when he hit the bar and Jonas missed the rebound.
Jonas 5 - Very active and involved in pretty much every action that took place, having few shots at goal, but had a terrible miss in the 66th minute when he missed a clear goal.
Soldado 5 - Ran a lot and found himself 4 times in a position to score, 3 were rulled offside even though none of it was and the 4th time he hit the bar.
Subs:
R. Costa N/A - Not enough time
Gago N/A - Not enough time
Valdez N/A - Not enough time
The first half started with both sides battling for midfield control for the first five minutes with neither side able to exert much influence, though as time passed Valencia CF started controlling more and more of the possession Real Madrid would have the first chance though after a quick steal in the mid enable Real Madrid to mount a counter attack, but Benzema would shoot wide.
For all of Valencia CF domination in midfield by the 20th minute, it was Real Madrid though who had the more chances with Benzema, Ozil and even Essien coming close. Valencia CF has its own opportunities though and for example Soldado was ruled offside in the 21st minute for a perfectly timed run, then in the 35th minute Casillas saves a shot by Jonas or should I say Jonas shot at the keeper. Jonas had one chance earlier where he shot from distance and barely missed the goal.
Well just after that poor shot right at Casillas, Real Madrid would punish Valencia CF and score a goal. The situation started when Tino Costa found himself too forward and misplaced a pass, basically giving the ball to Real Madrid, from there Essien got the ball, started a counter attack and Real Madrid had more people in attack, so Essien passed to the free Khedira who passed instantly to Benzema and this one converted the chance into a goal.
Valencia CF would try to mount a comeback, but usually the attacks would be stopped by the final third. Problem for Valencia CF was that the players were too wasteful with the chances and were making some poor passes in the final third, instead of playing more intelligently and circling the ball around.
The second half would become more open and dangerous, with a lot more chances on both sides. Valencia CF were ruled 3 offside's this game where it wasn't even close to being offside 3 times. All three times Soldado was in a scoring opportunity, in one even hitting the post.
Jonas would miss a sitter in the 66th minute, in what should have been one of the easiest goals of his career. Ever Banega would start the chance by getting away from his marker and passing the ball to Piatti who run a bit with the ball and released Soldado alone on goal, but Soldado only managed to hit the bar, with the ball falling on Jonas feet basically with the whole goal empty and he completely missed the goal.
Of course few imaginary offside's, few wasted chances and the retaliation would come from Real Madrid in the 73rd minute after a counter attack on the right hand side with Di Maria releasing Coentrao who easily went past Adil Rami and passed the ball forward, only for Guaita to completely miss the ball and Guardado to score his own goal with his hand no less.
Real Madrid would go on to have several more chances after that in what we be amazing misses by Ronaldo as well, who was released on goal alone, but Guaita saved and then just few minutes later Adil Rami would decide to dribble literally just in front of goal and loose the ball to Ronaldo, who like Jonas went on to miss the whole goal alone in front of Guaita.
Ultimatelly the game ended in a 2-0 victory for Real Madrid, albeit I'd say an undeserved one as they were second best team all match long. What saved them was stupid, I'd even say moronic individual mistakes by the Valencia CF players that shouldn't have happened. Also Jonas had a field day of misses, with Soldado as well missing and hitting the bar, instead of burring the chance himself.
Technical details:
R. Madrid (2): Casillas, Khedira, Ronaldo, Benzema (Higuaín, min. 68), Ozil, Carvalho, Marcelo (Coentrao, min. 46), Alonso, Essien, Albiol and Modric (Di Maria, min. 61).
Valencia CF (0): Guaita, Rami, Jonas, Soldado, Piatti, Joao, Guardado, Victor Ruiz (Ricardo Costa, min. 73), Dani Parejo, Ever (Valdez, min. 84) and Tino Costa (Gago, min. 77) .
Goals: 1-0 Min.37 Benzema; 2-0 Min.73 Guardado (o.g.).
Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 - Had few stretches in the first half, though nothing direct, but failed miserably for the second goal as he missed the ball completely. Made amends just few moments later when he made a terrific save from Ronaldo.
Pereira 5.5 - Was not tested much in the first half, but once Di Maria entered the fray he was left hanging few times and couldn't deal efficiently with him.
Rami 4 - Slow as a turtle and Coentrao just flew past him to provide the pass that would lead to the second goal. Made a terrible error in judgement when he decided to dribble in front of goal and lost the ball. Lucky that Ronaldo didn't score.
Ruiz 5 - Lacking any understanding with Rami, while he did made few blocks here and there, there was a lack of cohesion in the defense.
Guardado 5 - Completely overrun in the second half and lost Ozil and Essien several times, while bringing little offensively.
Tino Costa 4.5 - Completely failed as a defensive midfielder by finding himself too far forward and making the inaccurate pass that lead to the Real Madrid goal. Wasn't very effective in spreading the ball either.
Parejo 6.5 - One of the few bright spots in this match as he took it upon himself to come deep and spread the ball and organize the attack. Did very well with accurate passes and controlling possession for Valencia CF.
Piatti 6 - Was very active on the right side, making many runs and winning ground for Valencia as he was getting fouled in dangerous positions.
Banega 6 - I have no clue why he plays as an attacking midfielder and so forward, he rarely got back to claim and spread the ball and wasn't too effective in the final third either. Did have some important passes though and set up Soldado's chance when he hit the bar and Jonas missed the rebound.
Jonas 5 - Very active and involved in pretty much every action that took place, having few shots at goal, but had a terrible miss in the 66th minute when he missed a clear goal.
Soldado 5 - Ran a lot and found himself 4 times in a position to score, 3 were rulled offside even though none of it was and the 4th time he hit the bar.
Subs:
R. Costa N/A - Not enough time
Gago N/A - Not enough time
Valdez N/A - Not enough time
Iago Aspas signs for Valencia CF?
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| Iago Aspas signs for Valencia CF? |
Supposedly (from some sources) all the details have been worked out, and in the personal agreement Iago Aspas would become a Valencia CF player for 5 years.
Supposedly Valencia CF want to reach the buy-out clause of the player.
I'm actually positive that a deal has been made, I knew for a fact that Valencia CF was/had signed 2 players, I've reported this numerous times for at least a month now, but didn't knew exactly who the players are going to be! I'm in the forum as well explaining this.
Even more important here is that Antonio Sese one of the officials at Valencia CF announced through his twitter account that Valencia CF in the coming period would sign a big player, someone that "would restore the fans faith in the club".
So Iago Aspas is a big name, at least for Valencia CF, certainly one of the great up and coming players, some big clubs were interested in him, reportedly Chelsea FC was interested in him.
So from my sources, from what I'm reading and from what I know and can asses the deal with the player has most likely been made, although I believe there is still ways to go until Valencia CF reach and agreement with Celta over the transfer of Iago Aspas, though most likely Valencia CF are going to pay the buy-out clause or come to an agreement to pay less than 10 million in order to avoid paying big taxes to the government, but put in big bonuses to be payed to Celta for sporting stuff.
For example if Iago scores 20 goals they would need to pay Celta say 1 million, if he plays 40 matches they would need to pay 1 million more and that type of deal. That is what Valencia CF is negotiating right now, though we'll see what will happen.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Real Madrid vs Valencia CF Match Preview
Real Madrid vs Valencia CF Match Preview
Stadium: Santiago Bernabeu
Date: 15.01.2013; 21:00 CET
Semi Final, 1st leg, Copa Del Rey
Coaches: Jose Mourinho and Ernesto Valverde
Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid is coming to this match after a disappointing game in the week against CA Osasuna where they only managed to draw and were lucky to escape with a point as well. I watched the whole match is order to asses them and from start to finish Real Madrid were second par to Osasuna, managing only on rare counter attacks to threaten and even that was mostly done by one person, in this case Callejon.
Real Madrid have been having troubles with injuries and to add to their problems is Sergio Ramos who got himself a red card the week before and went on to insult the referee, insuring he got a 5 match ban. Cristiano Ronaldo didn't play as well, serving a one match suspension due to accumulating 5 yellow cards. Already weakened, Jose Mourinho decided to rest Ozil and Benzema in order to have them fresh for the match against Valencia CF and fielded Higuain who just recently came back from injury and Modric in the attacking midfield spot.
Real Madrid instantly started the match on the back foot as CA Osasuna surprisingly started exerting influence on the match and I guess caught the Real Madrid players off guard who seemed rattled that a relegation zone team is challenging them. What from the initial shock, what from fatigue, the Madrid midfield failed to control the ball and were constantly on the back foot, unable to mount any strings of passes. Even though Real Madrid were on the defensive most of the time, they did have the first chance and then a few more dangerous chances to score, including one goal that was deemed offside, accurately so.
Osasuna had their own chances and numerous times they were with more numbers in attack, but failed to either provide that final pass or have an accurate shot at goal. Later in the second half Real Madrid would be left with 10 players as Kaka got himself a red card, although the decision was way too harsh. That pretty much sealed the deal as Osasuna attack was toothless and Real Madrid playing with only 10 men, meant they would defend at all time and that's what it happened.
Apart from their last match Real Madrid have been very inconsistent this season and not even surprisingly. I was able to asses their situation judging by their preseason and I wrote an article explaining why so. So I'm on record writing this would happen and as is always the case I was right 100% yet again. Not to boast, but when someone is right all the time, you'd want to take it seriously. Of course when I tried to present this to Real Madrid fans of several of their favorite fan-sites, I was ridiculed and laughed at, similarly as the season before than, when I predicted or rather knew Barcelona would fail and wrote that Real Madrid would take the title and I was of course right.
So to me, to find Real Madrid in the situation they are in was expected, though if you read in the article I also predicted that their season would also start off in the second half of the season, although that it would probably be too late. Hopefully Valencia CF manages to beat them 3 times, or at least 2 times, before Real Madrid turn their season around. Who knows, maybe even a big victory over Real Madrid may end their season, though I highly doubt it.
For the match against Valencia CF, Real Madrid are coming without Pepe and Ramos, though they have Ronaldo returning so that is a worry, but their midfield is tired, Alonso has pretty much played almost all of the matches and Khedira is in a similar situation, though he has been rested a few times. Mostly though Khedira has not played when injured.
So I expect them to settle up and come fighting, especially since they are at home terrain in the first leg of this fixture, while Valencia CF has rested some of its players. The biggest problem for Valencia CF is the loss of David Albelda though who's been rock solid at the back, shielding the defense superbly and Gago is still recovering from his injury so he is not going to be fit enough to face Real Madrid.
Real Madrid squad: to be announced...
Technical Details Real Madrid (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Casillas; Arbeloa, Varane, Albiol, Coentrao; Xabi, Khedira; Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo; Benzema.
Tactics: High defensive line, own half pressure, mostly wide wing attacks, long balls from the middle.
The win against Sevilla FC was very important and a step forward to achieving a top 4 place this season in order to qualify for the Champions League next season. Right now Valencia CF in in 7th position with 30 points, but only 4 points from 4th position, which is occupied by Real Betis right now. Not to play down Betis, they have been playing great and beat Levante 2-0 on the weekend, but their squad lacks depth and I'm expecting them to loose steam at a certain point.
Knowing Valencia's form and play currently and Real Madrid form and play, I'd say Valencia CF has real chances of beating Real Madrid over the 2 legs in the Copa Del Rey, but also in the league, as Valencia CF will meet them just few days later at the Mestalla and then again at home for the 2nd leg for the cup.
Valencia CF biggest problems ahead of the match against Real Madrid is the injury of David Albelda and then the accumulation of yellow cards for Joao Pereira in La Liga. Apart from that Fernando Gago still isn't fully fit to start and we lack a proper defensive midfielder. This gives me worries as Tino Costa can play as defensive midfielder, but is not very secure and Valencia CF is playing against a top side here, not some smaller team.
Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Joao, Barragán, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Cissokho.
Midfielders: Tino Costa, Gago, Éver, Dani Parejo, Guardado, Viera, Piatti, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Pereira, Rami, R. Costa, Guardado;Albelda Tino, Banega; Piatti, Jonas, Parejo, Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, mixed passing, mixed attacks.
Sorry for the inaccurate info I had for the line-ups, copy/paste from the previous match.
Result Prediction
Real Madrid 2-1 Valencia CF
Real Madrid are playing at their home terrain and its the first match of the fixture, so I expect them to win, although knowing Valverde Valencia CF is going to come out attacking as much as possible and due to Real Madrid's weaker defense at the moment I can see Valencia CF scoring one goal.
Real Madrid squad: to be announced...
Technical Details Real Madrid (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Casillas; Arbeloa, Varane, Albiol, Coentrao; Xabi, Khedira; Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo; Benzema.
Tactics: High defensive line, own half pressure, mostly wide wing attacks, long balls from the middle.
Valencia CF
Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to this match after a secure 2-0 win over Sevilla FC in the league and has the team in great form, as Valencia CF has won 7 out of the last 8 matches. Valencia CF has slowly been improving with Valverde at the helm and the team is in great form and great spirits. Heck even Parejo claimed he was very happy at a press conference recently.The win against Sevilla FC was very important and a step forward to achieving a top 4 place this season in order to qualify for the Champions League next season. Right now Valencia CF in in 7th position with 30 points, but only 4 points from 4th position, which is occupied by Real Betis right now. Not to play down Betis, they have been playing great and beat Levante 2-0 on the weekend, but their squad lacks depth and I'm expecting them to loose steam at a certain point.
Knowing Valencia's form and play currently and Real Madrid form and play, I'd say Valencia CF has real chances of beating Real Madrid over the 2 legs in the Copa Del Rey, but also in the league, as Valencia CF will meet them just few days later at the Mestalla and then again at home for the 2nd leg for the cup.
Valencia CF biggest problems ahead of the match against Real Madrid is the injury of David Albelda and then the accumulation of yellow cards for Joao Pereira in La Liga. Apart from that Fernando Gago still isn't fully fit to start and we lack a proper defensive midfielder. This gives me worries as Tino Costa can play as defensive midfielder, but is not very secure and Valencia CF is playing against a top side here, not some smaller team.
Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Joao, Barragán, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Cissokho.
Midfielders: Tino Costa, Gago, Éver, Dani Parejo, Guardado, Viera, Piatti, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Pereira, Rami, R. Costa, Guardado;
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, mixed passing, mixed attacks.
Sorry for the inaccurate info I had for the line-ups, copy/paste from the previous match.
Result Prediction
Real Madrid 2-1 Valencia CF
Real Madrid are playing at their home terrain and its the first match of the fixture, so I expect them to win, although knowing Valverde Valencia CF is going to come out attacking as much as possible and due to Real Madrid's weaker defense at the moment I can see Valencia CF scoring one goal.
Adil Rami in support of Manuel Llorente
I've also already written an editorial about Manuel Llorente, I call it 'the story of Llorente', though the title may change, but I'll go over it once again to tackle some grammar mistakes and then publish it when there is not much going on. Its not a defense of Llorente, its more of a history of what happened, infused with my comments. So expect, probably after the matches against Real, though if I can squeeze it in between I'll do that.
In other news related to Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente there are reports that if he looses the presidency of Valencia CF, he could become the next president of the LFP. The Provinces writes: "The truth is that the current president of Valencia is very well regarded in the LFP. For this and said pressure from the fans, it is not unreasonable to think that Llorente, would at least consider the offer that comes from the capital of Spain to take the position as president of the LFP."
Llorente has a contract till 2014, but some are hoping to oust him at a board meeting and have a vote of no confidence, though its highly unlikely that could happen.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
I need your help
I need your help in order to build a database of all Valencia CF players, but can only do so with your help. I need you take this survey http://obsurvey.com/S2.aspx?id=F6E75CED-3EAE-4E85-87E6-83DFC1830E8B. You need about 15 minutes of free time in order to complete the survey. The survey is about all of Valencia CF players strengths and weaknesses and all questions are mandatory.
The questions are: What are "full name" strengths and weaknesses? And then you need to write your answer. So please take the survey and make sure you have 15 to 20 minutes of free time so that your answers and insightful and of good quality.
Thank you very much in advance.
Valencia CF 2-0 Sevilla FC Match Report
Valencia CF wins 2-0 over its fierce rival Sevilla FC. This was a must win match tonight for Valencia CF and fortunately the team did not disappoint. This puts the team only 1 point off of 4th place and since Malaga is playing against FC Barcelona tomorrow, I'm assuming they are going to loose. Of course Betis and Vallecano are also ahead with one point, but I don't think they are capable of challenging for 4th spot over all of the season, similarly like how Espanyol fizzled out I believe 2 years ago when they were in contention for top 4 until the second half of the season.
So a very important win, loosing this match would have been terrible and would have distanced Valencia CF too much from the top 4 positions, which would have affected the players moral and then you have big problems. As it is the team got a boost to the morale and will face Real Madrid next in the Copa Del Rey, who drew today to Osasuna.
The match itself started slowly with Valencia CF exerting its influence on the proceedings with Albelda and Banega able to control the midfield and easily spread the ball around, with only low level pressure coming from Sevilla players. First opportunity for Valencia CF would come through Jonas who released Soldado, but the ball was too fast.
Jonas would get the ball again close to the penalty area of Sevilla, but instead of shooting or passing wide he decided to complicate stuff and try to get the ball through the center and it failed. Ricardo Costa would have the best chance of the first half and for that matter in the second half as well, as he got to the ball through the chaos after a corner kick, but failed to hit the goal.
Towards the end of the first half David Albelda got injured with what seems a thigh muscle injury and I guess his 35 years of age finally showed as he also played just 3 days ago in the cup against Osasuna. He should have gotten a rest either then or today.
Overall there were several opportunities for Valencia CF in the first half, but the players complicated stuff in the final third too much and failed to convert them to chances or goals.
Second half started with Valencia CF positioning higher on the pitch and Piatti switching from the left wing in the first half to the right and this had a positive effect immediately as Valencia CF were able to move the ball quicker to attack and have more penetration on the right with Piatti and Joao Pereira combining well there.
First goal would come in the 50th minute with Soldado scoring a header to an assist by Adil Rami.
After the goal the team tempo dropped a bit though and for whatever reason Banega started playing as a second striker. This allowed Sevilla FC to start creeping back into the game and slowly regaining control of the midfield. In fact over the match there were few scares for Valencia CF as Tino, Banega and Parejo all lost the ball once in dangerous positions allowing Sevilla fast and dangerous counter attacks, especially the one when Parejo lost the ball or rather he was dispossessed of the ball, with Sevilla attacking with 5 players vs 3, but they failed to score thanks to a rather good save by Diego Alves who was alert and quick to react, even though he had virtually nothing to do for most of the match before that one chance for Sevilla.
Then in the 89th minute Roberto Soldado sealed the deal scoring with a header after a corner kick done by Banega.
Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Alves, Joao, Rami, R.Costa, Guardado, Albelda (Tino Costa, min. 40 '), Ever; Piatti (Valdez, min. 81'), Parejo (Victor Ruiz, min.90 '), Jonas, Soldado.
Sevilla FC (0): D. Lopez Cicinho (Perotti, min.63 ') (Baba, min.80'), Fazio, Spahic, F. Navarro; Medel, Kondogbia; Navas, Rakitic, Reyes (Stevanovic, min.83 '); Negredo.
Goals: 1-0 Min 50, Soldado; 2-0 Min89, Soldado.
Player Ratings:
Diego 6 - Had absolutely nothing to do except for a fine save late in the match and did well to save the goal.
Joao Pereira 6 - Had a good match defensively and a great offensive display as he was very active in the first half and providing several passes and crosses into the penalty area.
Rami 7.5 - Great performance by Rami, anticipated the ball very well and had few crucial interceptions, providing the assist to Soldado's first goal as well.
R. Costa 6 - Secure performance from Costa who dealt with everything that came his way.
Guardado 6.5 - Very secure defensive display as he easily dealt with Navas and while he didn't provide too much in attack he did serve as additional midfielder often times and was open to receive the ball.
Albelda N/A - Had a great start, taking the ball out of defense into attack easily and was even involved offensively at times, but unfortunately he got injured and had to be substituted.
Banega 6.5 - Not a great performance by any means, he was quite ineffective in the second half and was barely even involved in the match, receiving the ball only several times. Was lucky enough for his cross from a corner kick to find Soldado and get himself an assist in what was an otherwise poor display.
Piatti 6 - Limited performance from the Argentinian as he was quite ineffective on the left wing, improved a lot when he switched sides and had some good runs on the right.
Parejo 6.5 - Complete performance by Parejo as he was always available to receive the ball and link up with players, dropping deep in the second half and organizing the play. Only one slip up and he was lucky it didn't turn out in a goal for Sevilla FC.
Jonas 6 - Was very involved in the first half, trying serveal passes into the penalty area and trying to find Soldado, but none really worked out. Did provide a good outlet for attack and tracked back often as well.
Soldado 7.5 (MotM) - Scored two goals and decided the game. Was full of running all match long and found himself in great positions to be able to score the two goals.
Subs:
Tino 5.5 - Very limited performance after coming on, making only simple and easy passes, though he did cover for the defense quite somewhat and provided some energy in the middle.
Valdez N/A - Not enough time
Ruiz N/A - Minute after coming on got himself booked.
So a very important win, loosing this match would have been terrible and would have distanced Valencia CF too much from the top 4 positions, which would have affected the players moral and then you have big problems. As it is the team got a boost to the morale and will face Real Madrid next in the Copa Del Rey, who drew today to Osasuna.
The match itself started slowly with Valencia CF exerting its influence on the proceedings with Albelda and Banega able to control the midfield and easily spread the ball around, with only low level pressure coming from Sevilla players. First opportunity for Valencia CF would come through Jonas who released Soldado, but the ball was too fast.
Jonas would get the ball again close to the penalty area of Sevilla, but instead of shooting or passing wide he decided to complicate stuff and try to get the ball through the center and it failed. Ricardo Costa would have the best chance of the first half and for that matter in the second half as well, as he got to the ball through the chaos after a corner kick, but failed to hit the goal.
Towards the end of the first half David Albelda got injured with what seems a thigh muscle injury and I guess his 35 years of age finally showed as he also played just 3 days ago in the cup against Osasuna. He should have gotten a rest either then or today.
Overall there were several opportunities for Valencia CF in the first half, but the players complicated stuff in the final third too much and failed to convert them to chances or goals.
Second half started with Valencia CF positioning higher on the pitch and Piatti switching from the left wing in the first half to the right and this had a positive effect immediately as Valencia CF were able to move the ball quicker to attack and have more penetration on the right with Piatti and Joao Pereira combining well there.
First goal would come in the 50th minute with Soldado scoring a header to an assist by Adil Rami.
After the goal the team tempo dropped a bit though and for whatever reason Banega started playing as a second striker. This allowed Sevilla FC to start creeping back into the game and slowly regaining control of the midfield. In fact over the match there were few scares for Valencia CF as Tino, Banega and Parejo all lost the ball once in dangerous positions allowing Sevilla fast and dangerous counter attacks, especially the one when Parejo lost the ball or rather he was dispossessed of the ball, with Sevilla attacking with 5 players vs 3, but they failed to score thanks to a rather good save by Diego Alves who was alert and quick to react, even though he had virtually nothing to do for most of the match before that one chance for Sevilla.
Then in the 89th minute Roberto Soldado sealed the deal scoring with a header after a corner kick done by Banega.
Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Alves, Joao, Rami, R.Costa, Guardado, Albelda (Tino Costa, min. 40 '), Ever; Piatti (Valdez, min. 81'), Parejo (Victor Ruiz, min.90 '), Jonas, Soldado.
Sevilla FC (0): D. Lopez Cicinho (Perotti, min.63 ') (Baba, min.80'), Fazio, Spahic, F. Navarro; Medel, Kondogbia; Navas, Rakitic, Reyes (Stevanovic, min.83 '); Negredo.
Goals: 1-0 Min 50, Soldado; 2-0 Min89, Soldado.
Player Ratings:
Diego 6 - Had absolutely nothing to do except for a fine save late in the match and did well to save the goal.
Joao Pereira 6 - Had a good match defensively and a great offensive display as he was very active in the first half and providing several passes and crosses into the penalty area.
Rami 7.5 - Great performance by Rami, anticipated the ball very well and had few crucial interceptions, providing the assist to Soldado's first goal as well.
R. Costa 6 - Secure performance from Costa who dealt with everything that came his way.
Guardado 6.5 - Very secure defensive display as he easily dealt with Navas and while he didn't provide too much in attack he did serve as additional midfielder often times and was open to receive the ball.
Albelda N/A - Had a great start, taking the ball out of defense into attack easily and was even involved offensively at times, but unfortunately he got injured and had to be substituted.
Banega 6.5 - Not a great performance by any means, he was quite ineffective in the second half and was barely even involved in the match, receiving the ball only several times. Was lucky enough for his cross from a corner kick to find Soldado and get himself an assist in what was an otherwise poor display.
Piatti 6 - Limited performance from the Argentinian as he was quite ineffective on the left wing, improved a lot when he switched sides and had some good runs on the right.
Parejo 6.5 - Complete performance by Parejo as he was always available to receive the ball and link up with players, dropping deep in the second half and organizing the play. Only one slip up and he was lucky it didn't turn out in a goal for Sevilla FC.
Jonas 6 - Was very involved in the first half, trying serveal passes into the penalty area and trying to find Soldado, but none really worked out. Did provide a good outlet for attack and tracked back often as well.
Soldado 7.5 (MotM) - Scored two goals and decided the game. Was full of running all match long and found himself in great positions to be able to score the two goals.
Subs:
Tino 5.5 - Very limited performance after coming on, making only simple and easy passes, though he did cover for the defense quite somewhat and provided some energy in the middle.
Valdez N/A - Not enough time
Ruiz N/A - Minute after coming on got himself booked.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Valencia CF vs Sevilla FC Match Preview
Valencia CF vs Sevilla FC Match Preview
Stadium: Mestalla
Date: 12.01.2013; 22:00 CET
19th matchday, La Liga
Coaches: Ernesto Valverde and Míchel González
Valencia CF
Valencia CF is coming to this match after a 2-1 victory over CA Osasuna in the Copa Del Rey that puts Valencia CF in the semi final to face off against Real Madrid, in what would be 3 matches against them in a short period of 2 weeks. Valencia CF has 5 wins in the last 6 matches since the arrival of Ernesto Valverde, though 3 of those have been against Osasuna and this will be Valverde's first big challenge.I got to say that since the arrival of Ernesto Valverde Valencia CF has improved and is playing a more attacking and entertaining football, but we haven't seen some big improvement that would sweep us off our feet, its been more of a gradual, slow improvement. So we'll see just how much or how little improvement has been made tomorrow night against Sevilla FC.
My thoughts are that the match against Sevilla FC is a must win one, I mean Valencia CF is playing at home in the Mestalla, has the form and results coming in and the players have been playing better individually and collectively. On the other hand Sevilla FC have been struggling this season and are worse off than Valencia CF. They have been mediocre all season and their squad is technically weaker than Valencia's squad. I mean they have Hedwiges Maduro who Valencia CF sold as he couldn't get a starting spot in Valencia's squad, although truth be told he hasn't found too many opportunities at Sevilla FC either, with only 7 appearances so far.
Yesterday Valencia CF had some good news from the medical department as Sergio Canales has been given a clean bill of health and he could return to full training and we may even see him given some minutes as substitute towards the end of January. Jeremy Mathieu is also recovering well and is not going to need a surgery, though he still has some time to go before full recovery.
Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Joao, Barragán, Rami, Ricardo Costa, Víctor Ruiz, Cissokho.
Midfielders: Albelda, Tino Costa, Parejo, Éver, Piatti, Guardado, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Pereira, Rami, R. Costa, Guardado; Albelda, Banega; Piatti, Jonas, Bernat, Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, mixed passing, mixed attacks.
Sevilla FC
Sevilla FC on the other hand are coming to this match after a 2-1 loss to Mallorca in the cup, though they were already qualified for the next round as they beat Mallorca 5-0 in their first match, so the loss last game wasn't important and they played with a second grade squad mostly, keeping some of the more important players fresh for the match against Valencia CF. Sevilla FC results have been mixed in the past 5 matches, heck they've been mixed the whole season with no trends or strings of results. One match they'd win, other they'd loose and third they'd draw. They have been struggling and performing inconsistently.Right now they are 12 spot on the table with 22 points out of 18 matches, 6 of which are wins, 4 draws and 8 losses. Their goal scoring record is average with 23 goals scored and 26 goals conceded. So overall statistically speaking they have been decent, with no notable problems. Their top goal scorer is obviously Negredo with 8 goals scored, which is one less than what Soldado has scored in La Liga, while Ivan Rakitic has the most assists in the team with 3, while Valencia CF has several players with more assists then that.
Sevilla FC squad: to be announced...
Technical Details Sevilla FC (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego Lopez; Cicinho, Fazio, Spahic, Navarro; Medel, Kondogbia; Jesus Navas; Rakitic, Reyes; Negredo.
Tactics: Low defensive line, own half pressure, counter attacks, mixed passing, wing attacks mostly.
Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 1-0 Sevilla FC
Valencia CF is in better form and have the better squad no questions about it, so I expect a win, but its probably going to be a hard match with back and forth between both sides that is going to be decided by one goal.
Valencia CF interested in Jeremy Toulan
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| Jeremy Toulan Malaga CF |
Atletico Madrid is also interested in him and they would be in prime position to get him with all the money they would make from the sale of Falcao.
Valencia CF could use the French connection with Jeremy Mathieu, Tino Costa and Adil Rami though to try to persuade Jérémy Toulalan to sign for Valencia CF.
Its unclear right now if Manuel Pellegrini will be available in the summer as well, with Malaga's financial situation getting worse by the day. If he leaves, Valencia CF could try and sign him, though there is likely to be strong competition from other clubs outside of Spain, but since Valencia CF is based in Spain it will have bigger chance to get Pellegrini as he doesn't have any serious experience coaching outside of Spain.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Sergio Canales given clean bill of health
Last time he was rushed into action and his knee injury returned, but this time the recovery time was longer and his inclusion in the first team is going to likely be slower as well.
Jeremy Mathieu is still injured though and will need to continue with his recovery, but the doctors have said he won't need an operation. So that is some good news and hopefully he will be back in two to three weeks.
Javi Fuego signs for Valencia CF
This is the same type of deal as Valencia CF did with Andres Guardado where they reach an agreement with the player and get him on a free transfer in the summer. Javi Fuego is the same as his contract expires this summer and he would simply join Valencia CF as a free agent.
I'll list the transfer in the summer and not now, since technically the player still hasn't transferred.
Javier 'Javi' Martinez Fuego is 29 years old and has played for Rayo Vallecano since 2010, featuring 68 times for them. So obviously not the most talented of players and certainly not a young prospect. He has played mostly in the second Spanish division.
Will this guy be a decent replacement for David Albelda? Certainly not and I don't think he will improve the team one bit. He is a mediocre player that has played mostly in the second division and certainly isn't young to hope he can turn out a huge talent. At best he can provide good cover for whenever the first choice defensive midfielder in injured whoever that may be come the summer.
New statistics page and more
The first table is on all matches, (at least the ones there is data for), but there are discrepancies in the data, so for example average passes per game and passing accuracy is only for La Liga and Champions League, while the total minutes played and other data is for ALL competitions.
So you need to have that in mind, as well that additional official competitions like say World club championship or Super cup if Valencia CF were to play would be added to the totals, while friendlies and exhibition matches would not.
After the first table come individual tables for the goals and assists for each competition.
After the first table come individual tables for the goals and assists for each competition.
I'll be adding a lot more data to the statistics page, but a lot more data and statistics and info on the players pages as well, so when you to to the individual players pages you'd find data for them and their key information that isn't necessarily going to be in the statistics data and vice verse. Overall there is going to be a lot more data and information by which you can determine the players performances and playing style.
So none of this is completed yet and its probably going to take few months before everything is finished and published.
I'll have a beta page ready within a week or two so you can check it out and provide feedback on it and what kind of data and information you would like on it, if its not already there.
3 matches against Real Madrid
Real Madrid beat Celta de Vigo last night 4-0 and secured their place in the next round of the cup against Valencia CF.
This means Valencia CF will play against Real Madrid 3 times in 2 weeks.The dates are still to be confirmed and could change, but they would be in a span of two weeks, along with the La Liga game against Real Madrid.
Lets all hope Valencia CF wins all three matches.
This means Valencia CF will play against Real Madrid 3 times in 2 weeks.The dates are still to be confirmed and could change, but they would be in a span of two weeks, along with the La Liga game against Real Madrid.
Lets all hope Valencia CF wins all three matches.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Fernando Gomez plans to oust Manuel Llorente
He is accompanied by José Manuel Romero and Javier Villalonga. They have launched their campaign which is called "Sempre Valencia" which is basically a set of plans and ideas how to "fix" Valencia CF.
"The delicate situation of Valencia CF is forcing us to act now and start our campaign Sempre Valencia. This is a set of plans to help solve Valencia's problems that have weighted down on the club. We are aware of the gravity of the situation, but we are confident we can solve the situation. Our first step is to solve the internal problems within the club(he means a purge) and current Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente needs to resign right now, as he promised he would if a person who can fix the situation came along" said Fernando Gomez on the press conference.
"We have studied the situation at the club closely and carefully and we will eradicate this erroneous policy that has been followed by Manuel Llorente(he means the amazing job that Llorente has done will be eradicated) and the time is now. My conscience requires me to appear before the Valencisnistas with an exciting project to bring the club back on its feet. I promise not to receive any compensation for the work I will do until we achieve the much needed economic stability and sell the land of the club(Don't know if he means the stadium and which one). Once that is achieved I will only receive a salary that is half what Llorente earns. If we fail in our plans and within 18 months we can't achieve what we promise we will leave(that is a lot of promises there buddy boy!)." Said Gomez further.He went on to criticize the transfer policy? of Llorente: "Llorente's transfer policy is terrible and the loss of Isco and Alba is a tragedy to this club and example of the terrible transfer policy by Llorente. Our youth players also also leaving the club and that is normal now. When I was sporting director we didn't have youth players leave for Real Madrid and Barcelona" Gomez boasted.
Juan Romero had this to say: "The sale our our top players like Villa, Silva and Mata only went for fat salaries of Valencia CF officials and not to pay off the debt(Gee, from 550 million to 370 million isn't debt reduction, what amazing math this guy has, sure hope this is not the math he will use if in charge of Valencia CF and destroy the club). They promised the sale of these players would go to reduce the debt, but this has not been the case and the transfers have been used to line up the pockets of Llorente and his friends."
There you have it ladies and gentlemen, the presidential contenders for this summer elections. I don't know if you buy this stuff, but I sure don't. In fact I'm so sick and tired of this false charade that I will write a nice, long editorial about Llorente and the facts from my unbiased perspective and huge knowledge of the club history and events.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Valencia CF 2-1 CA Osasuna Match Report
Valencia CF managed to beat CA Osasuna in the second match of the round of 16 of the Copa Del Rey for an aggregate score of 4-1 and moves on to the next round, the semi final to most likely face Real Madrid, if they don't loose to Celta De Vigo of course, but I seriously doubt it.
Valencia CF and CA Osasuna played a fairly equal game tonight with both sides equal in ball possession and for two thirds of the match in chances and opportunities as well. Valencia CF coach decided to shuffle the team for this match and started with a whole set of different players than in the last La Liga match and he gave a chance to all of the bench players so they can try to stake a claim for a starting position. The biggest claim was probably made by Juan Bernat who put in a very good performance, quite mature performance and was active all match long on the right side of the field and I think this side fits him better as he was very good.
The defense was having troubles all match long, starting from the beginning Ruiz and Rami not communicating well, to Ruiz being out of position on few occasions and being at fault for the goal Valencia CF conceded, although Guaita should have done better as well.
But first thing is first, after quite a boring match with battle in the middle of the park, Valencia CF got a free kick some 35 meters away from goal and Tino's direct shot at goal seemed to surprise the Osasuna goalkeeper and the ball ended up in the net, making it 1-0 for Valencia CF vs Osasuna.
The lead would not last long though, as Valencia's defense was caught in a counter attack and Ruiz was way off position and unable to close down Llorente who scored the equalizer. Vicente Guaita could have also done a better job, but it was Ruiz poor positioning and poor closing that allowed that goal.
The bright spark for Valencia CF in the first half was Juan Bernat who was having a great match, being involved in most of the chances Valencia CF created.
CA Osasuna came out with a lot more fervor in the second half and started pressing harder and higher on the field, forcing Valencia players into mistakes and stealing the ball effectively in the middle and starting attacks. Ernsto Valverde saw this problem and took off the ineffectual Viera and replaced him with Ever Banega. This change would prove key as the game instantly shifted with Banega on the field with Valencia CF controlling the ball a bit more and Ever Banega providing some great passes and spreading the play.
The Soldado came in for Valdez and that lifted up the team even more, with the last third of the match belonging to Valencia CF as the team was having chance after chance that Jonas kept ruining and missing. In fact he had 3 great chances that he pretty much ruined. One in particular was when Soldado lobbed the ball over to Jonas, but this one's first touch failed him miserable as he basically kicked the ball to the goalkeeper. Then later on he had another chance, against provided by Soldado that he failed to convert.
Ultimately after a lot of probing and prodding, Valencia CF would manage to get another goal, this time courtesy of Ever Banega and Roberto Soldado. This was one amazing through pass by Banega, one of several great passes he provided in this game.
Next stop is Sevilla and I hope Ever Banega will be at this level of performance for that match and hopefully with the first team back playing we'd have more solidity in the defense as well.
Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Guaita; Barragán, Rami, V. Ruiz, Cissokho; Albelda, T. Costa; Viera (Éver, min.57'), Jonas, Bernat (Guardado, min.87'); Valdez (Soldado, min.67').
C.A. Osasuna (1): Andrés Fernández; Echaide, Rubén (Miguel Flaño, min.69'), Arribas, Nano; Lolo, Timor; Cejudo (Onwu, min.), Oier (Puñal, min.62), Lamah; Llorente.
Goals: 1-0 Min 33’, Tino Costa. 1-1 Min 36', Llorente. 2-1 Min 92' Soldado.
Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 -Didn't have much to do all night, but could have done better for the goal and was rather insecure at the start, making some suspect decisions.
Barragan 6 - He had a good time, unlike the other defenders at the back and offered big help to Barragan going forward.
Rami 4.5 - Poor performance by the Frenchmen, he was better than Ruiz, but the partnership between them didn't work out very well at all in this game.
Ruiz 4 - Terrible defending and was guilty of poor positioning at least 3 times, failing to cover properly for the goal and generally being a weak link the defense.
Cissokho 5.5 - Did decent at the back, not great and offered a lot of support forward, making some great runs, but to little to no effect.
Albelda 6 - Good performance by the captain, offered enough protection to the defense and provided some good short passes.
Tino 5.5 - Not one of his better performances. Failed to exert any influence in the middle and failed to provide any kind of forward momentum. Scored the first goal, but that was his only contribution.
Bernat 6.5 - He was the only one in attack that worked and provided some good crosses and passes, beating his marker often and creating one man advantage for the team.
Jonas 3.5 - What terrible performance by Jonas, his long range shots are terrible and they aren't even that long, like 25 meters shot is too hard for him and made all the wrong decision in this game and missed several opportunities.
Viera 5.5 Was ineffectual as a winger and often overshadowed by Cissokho, he did try some through balls and had some sucess, but Valdez wasn't on the same level as Viera.
Valdez 5 - Very ineffective performance, mistimed many of his run and didn't contribute anything of significance.
Subs:
Banega 8 (MotM) - Came in and instantly changed the game, providing energy, ball control, accurate passing and some good positional play. Provided some terrific passes and one of them found Soldado for the goal. Just amazing performance.
Soldado 7 - Came in and instantly made an impact, having more chances in 10 minutes than Valdez has all game and he timed his runs so perfectly and found himself in all the right places, definitely showing his top qualities and managed to score a goal.
Guardado N/A - Not enough time, but he was very active in the short 5 minutes he was on the field.
Valencia CF and CA Osasuna played a fairly equal game tonight with both sides equal in ball possession and for two thirds of the match in chances and opportunities as well. Valencia CF coach decided to shuffle the team for this match and started with a whole set of different players than in the last La Liga match and he gave a chance to all of the bench players so they can try to stake a claim for a starting position. The biggest claim was probably made by Juan Bernat who put in a very good performance, quite mature performance and was active all match long on the right side of the field and I think this side fits him better as he was very good.
The defense was having troubles all match long, starting from the beginning Ruiz and Rami not communicating well, to Ruiz being out of position on few occasions and being at fault for the goal Valencia CF conceded, although Guaita should have done better as well.
But first thing is first, after quite a boring match with battle in the middle of the park, Valencia CF got a free kick some 35 meters away from goal and Tino's direct shot at goal seemed to surprise the Osasuna goalkeeper and the ball ended up in the net, making it 1-0 for Valencia CF vs Osasuna.
The lead would not last long though, as Valencia's defense was caught in a counter attack and Ruiz was way off position and unable to close down Llorente who scored the equalizer. Vicente Guaita could have also done a better job, but it was Ruiz poor positioning and poor closing that allowed that goal.
The bright spark for Valencia CF in the first half was Juan Bernat who was having a great match, being involved in most of the chances Valencia CF created.
CA Osasuna came out with a lot more fervor in the second half and started pressing harder and higher on the field, forcing Valencia players into mistakes and stealing the ball effectively in the middle and starting attacks. Ernsto Valverde saw this problem and took off the ineffectual Viera and replaced him with Ever Banega. This change would prove key as the game instantly shifted with Banega on the field with Valencia CF controlling the ball a bit more and Ever Banega providing some great passes and spreading the play.
The Soldado came in for Valdez and that lifted up the team even more, with the last third of the match belonging to Valencia CF as the team was having chance after chance that Jonas kept ruining and missing. In fact he had 3 great chances that he pretty much ruined. One in particular was when Soldado lobbed the ball over to Jonas, but this one's first touch failed him miserable as he basically kicked the ball to the goalkeeper. Then later on he had another chance, against provided by Soldado that he failed to convert.
Ultimately after a lot of probing and prodding, Valencia CF would manage to get another goal, this time courtesy of Ever Banega and Roberto Soldado. This was one amazing through pass by Banega, one of several great passes he provided in this game.
Next stop is Sevilla and I hope Ever Banega will be at this level of performance for that match and hopefully with the first team back playing we'd have more solidity in the defense as well.
Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Guaita; Barragán, Rami, V. Ruiz, Cissokho; Albelda, T. Costa; Viera (Éver, min.57'), Jonas, Bernat (Guardado, min.87'); Valdez (Soldado, min.67').
C.A. Osasuna (1): Andrés Fernández; Echaide, Rubén (Miguel Flaño, min.69'), Arribas, Nano; Lolo, Timor; Cejudo (Onwu, min.), Oier (Puñal, min.62), Lamah; Llorente.
Goals: 1-0 Min 33’, Tino Costa. 1-1 Min 36', Llorente. 2-1 Min 92' Soldado.
Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 -Didn't have much to do all night, but could have done better for the goal and was rather insecure at the start, making some suspect decisions.
Barragan 6 - He had a good time, unlike the other defenders at the back and offered big help to Barragan going forward.
Rami 4.5 - Poor performance by the Frenchmen, he was better than Ruiz, but the partnership between them didn't work out very well at all in this game.
Ruiz 4 - Terrible defending and was guilty of poor positioning at least 3 times, failing to cover properly for the goal and generally being a weak link the defense.
Cissokho 5.5 - Did decent at the back, not great and offered a lot of support forward, making some great runs, but to little to no effect.
Albelda 6 - Good performance by the captain, offered enough protection to the defense and provided some good short passes.
Tino 5.5 - Not one of his better performances. Failed to exert any influence in the middle and failed to provide any kind of forward momentum. Scored the first goal, but that was his only contribution.
Bernat 6.5 - He was the only one in attack that worked and provided some good crosses and passes, beating his marker often and creating one man advantage for the team.
Jonas 3.5 - What terrible performance by Jonas, his long range shots are terrible and they aren't even that long, like 25 meters shot is too hard for him and made all the wrong decision in this game and missed several opportunities.
Viera 5.5 Was ineffectual as a winger and often overshadowed by Cissokho, he did try some through balls and had some sucess, but Valdez wasn't on the same level as Viera.
Valdez 5 - Very ineffective performance, mistimed many of his run and didn't contribute anything of significance.
Subs:
Banega 8 (MotM) - Came in and instantly changed the game, providing energy, ball control, accurate passing and some good positional play. Provided some terrific passes and one of them found Soldado for the goal. Just amazing performance.
Soldado 7 - Came in and instantly made an impact, having more chances in 10 minutes than Valdez has all game and he timed his runs so perfectly and found himself in all the right places, definitely showing his top qualities and managed to score a goal.
Guardado N/A - Not enough time, but he was very active in the short 5 minutes he was on the field.
Valencia CF vs CA Osasuna Match Preview
Valencia CF vs CA Osasuna Match Preview
Stadium: Mestalla
Date: 08.01.2013; 21:30 CET
Round of 16, Copa Del Rey
Coaches: Ernesto Valverde and José Luis Mendilibar
Valencia CF
Valencia CF met CA Osasuna two times before and won both games. First Valencia CF played against CA Osasuna away in La Liga and managed to 1-0 and just few days later played Osasuna away again, this time for the Copa Del Ray and managed to win 2-0 then as well. This is now the second match of the fixture and Valencia CF is coming to this match with 2 goals lead, so its looking very likely that Valencia CF is going to go through to the next round, unless something really unexpected happens and Valencia players all of a sudden loose their skills.
Valencia CF is coming to this match after a small 2-1 win in La Liga over Granada CF on the weekend and has now come closer to the Champions league positions in the league, falling only 4 points from them and with a good chance to overtake Malaga and the rest of them if the team plays good. Now that said Valencia CF will be meeting Sevilla next and then Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is quick succession, so some hard matches ahead in the short term, but Valencia CF should look to win them all. Sevilla are playing poorly, Real Madrid are playing poorly and have big troubles right now, so that is a chance for two wins against big rivals and against Barcelona getting a draw would be great and Valencia CF has a chance, as Barcelona have to falter sometime, they can't go on winning forever.
Valencia CF coach Ernesto Valverde has said that he will do few changes to the team and the first change is going to be Vicente Guaita who will be on goal, second change is going to be Cissokho at left back and then he said its likely that he will give a chance to Bernat or Viera. So quite a few changes are expected, its also likely that Neslon Valdez is going to start over Soldado.
Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Barragán, Rami, Ricardo Costa, Víctor Ruiz, Cissokho.
Midfielders: Albelda, Tino Costa, Dani Parejo, Éver, Viera, Piatti, Guardado, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Barragán, Rami, Ricardo Costa, Víctor Ruiz, Cissokho.
Midfielders: Albelda, Tino Costa, Dani Parejo, Éver, Viera, Piatti, Guardado, Bernat.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.
Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Guaita; Pereira, Rami, Ruiz, Cissokho; Albelda, Tino; Piatti, Viera; Bernat, Valdez.
Tactics: High defensive line, own half pressure, mixed passing, mixed attacks.
CA Osasuna
CA Osasuna were beaten twice by Valencia CF the last two times the teams met, once in La Liga and once in Copa Del Rey, so they are coming to this match with a deficit of 2 goals and the added pressure of playing at the Mestalla. But apart from the two losses suffered at the hands of Valencia CF, Osasuna has lost 2 of the last 3 matches or if you count the 2 losses from Valencia, then they've lost 4 of their last 5 matches.
Osasuna are also rock bottom on the table right now with only 14 points out of 18 matches and is struggling in the relegation zone, battling with Deportivo and Espanyol. While Osasuna's defense is actually really good, they have only conceived 20 goals, their attack has been very poor scoring only 14 goals and most of the matches they've lost has been by one goal difference, so they definitely are better than their position on the table would show and could turn their season around with a bit of luck.
CA Osasuna squad:
Goalkeepers: Andrés Fernández, Imanol Elías.
Defenders: Marc Bertrán, Nano, Miguel Flaño, Lolo, Arribas, Echaide, Rubén.
Midfielders: Puñal, Oier, Cejudo, Timor, Lamah, Armenteros.
Forwards: Kike Sola, Onwu, Llorente.
Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 CA Osasuna
Valencia CF is in good position to win this match with a 2 goal difference from the first match of this fixture and is expected to win. The team is performing well, has already beaten Osasuna twice and Osasuna aren't known for their goal scoring prowess. So I think Valencia CF will score two goals, while not conceding and win by 2-0.
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