Worrisome preseason for Valencia CF

Valencia CF had played 8 preseason games so far, in which it won twice against Al Hilal and Hannover 96 and sort-of won yesterday against Napoli on penalties but only after a triangle game with Napoli/Palermo in only 45 minutes of play by each side. So you can say that it only managed to win 2 games.
Whats more worrisome is that it lost 4 games out of 8 and only managed to score 5 goals in 8 games, 4 which were only in two games played against Al Hilal and Hannover 96.

The problem though as I see it, is in the formation. Its just plain out simple that 4-3-3 doesn't work for Valencia.
There is no ball possession, no attacking threats, very little chances and poor defending with the 4-3-3 formation.
Valencia were better with a 4-2-3-1 formation and the slightly tweaked 4-4-2 formation.

Now I'm worried that the bad form from preseason is going to affect the start to the new season and its only going to get harder in the real competition.

Unai Emery has to change the formation and try different one or everything has been in vain. All the new players, all the good players, the sellings of Villa and Silva and so on...

Napoli vs Palermo vs Valencia CF live

Okay so it 33rd minute now, Napoli have most of the ball possession and more initiative towards Valencia goal.
Valencia is still not playing like a team, too many long balls, too many lost balls and too much solo play.
38th minute: Del Horno should have sealed his faith right now. If I was Unai Emery I would immediately terminate his contract. Valencia had the ball, I think that Tino Costa passed the ball towards Del Horno, but Del Horno didn't go towards the ball to get it and allowed a Napoli player to steal it and score a goal.
45th minute: The referee whistles the end of the first half.

Overall it was a poor game by Valencia once again. No real progress has been made towards more ball possession and the passing was terrible by all Valencia players.

Palermo vs Valencia started. Valencia has more ball possession this time around with Manuel Fernandes spreading the ball well in midfield. The flanks also look more dangerous now, with Pablo and Vicente playing on the wings.
Palermo scores a goal though, with another Valencia's defensive mistake, this time Dealbert was out-jumped and its an easy goal for Palermo.

Valencia CF season 2010/11 squad

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery has chosen the 25 players for the 2010/11 season. I don't know if this is the preliminary or final official choice, but youth players Isco, Aaron and Paco are not in it.

I'm also having doubts if the new 4-3-3 formation will work. We certainly have the players from such a formation on paper and than some, but in practice it hasn't shown to be working. There are two more friendly games to play though and we will see how it works out, but to me a 4-2-3-1 systems seems more reasonable.
Since we have a weak defense, 2 defensive midfield players can provide a lot of cover, while we have just the right forward players for a 3-1 attack. We have Pablo, Joaquin, Mata, Chori, Soldado and Feghuoli.
I know where Unai Emery is going with the 4-3-3 formation, since we have so many midfield players theoretically needs to work best, but as we've seen so far, its far from the best formation.

The season hasn't even begun yet, but I still feel that when the winter transfer opens we need to bring at least 2 more defenders, preferably a good and reliable right back and one more center back.
Jeremy Mathieu has been good at left back and considering he had a long injury last season, he is exceeding all my expectations.
David Navarro and Ricardo Costa should be able to handle the defense very well, especially Costa as he has won so many titles with many teams and is considered a great player with huge experience.

The one thing I like most is the fitness and stamina build-up. Valencia have played 2x2 games within 24 hours of each other. Then there are the physical and fitness training sessions and Valencia players have really shown they can play like this with no problems.

Anyways the next game Valencia will play is against Italian side Palermo and than 6 days later against Fiorentina.

preseason match report: Manchester City 2-0 Valencia CF

Valencia played Manchester city tonight in a quite interesting match depending for which side you root. Valencia were bad, really bad in the first half, they defended all the time, had almost no chances, no play in midfield and no attack. In one word they sucked.

Manchester City had all the ball possession, control and great chances. David Silva played his first match for City and he played really well, creating few chances for his new team mates. The first goal for Manchester City came from Barry after Boateng beat 3 Valencia defenders and managed to find Barry who positioned better than Miguel and easily scored.
The first half ended with Manchester City leading 1-0.
Unai Emery didn't make any changes at half time, while M. City made 3 changes as well as Silva and Tevez from the first half. The second half was played much in the same fashion, City dominated and Valencia only defended. There were few sporadic chances for Valencia coming mainly from Joaquin and Pablo, but nothing significant or particularly threatening.
Valencia did start to play better towards the 75th minute and Juan Mata was introduced close to the 80th minute mark. The side began to open up and attack more, with more control in midfield and more shots towards Manchester City goal. But it was too little too late I guess, as Valencia attacked they lost the ball and a quick counter attack from City saw Jo make it 2-0 for City.

The starting teams were:
 City: Hart (Given), Richards, Boateng (Kolo Toure), Kompany (Ibrahim), Kolarov (Cunningham); De Jong (Vieira), Barry (Weiss), Yaya Toure (Lescott), Silva (Wright-Phillips), Tevez (Johnson) and Adebayor (Jo).

Valencia: Moya; Miguel(Ivan Rubio), Navarro, Dealbert, Del Horno (Bruno); Tino Costa (Mata), Topal, Ever Banega; Joaquin, Pablo, Soldado (Isco).

Players Ratings:
Moya - 7: Very secure at the goal, made a couple of good saves and showed he can be reliable.
Miguel - 4: Defended poorly, was caught out of position on more than one occasion and didn't bring anything in attack.
Navarro - 4: A poor performance, caught out of position and scrambling to catch up several times.
Dealbert - 4: Similar to Navarro he was caught out of position, though did make a few decent tackles.
Del Horno - 4 : The cross for the first goal came from his side, he was beaten a lot of times and didn't support the attack a bit.
Tino Costa - 5: Practically defended all the time, he didn't link up well with Pablo, didn't make any significant passes, though defended decently.
Topal - 5.5: Was moving around the field quite a bit, good in defensive duties, but he as all his team mates couldn't bring anything to attack or control the ball in the midfield.
Ever Banega - 6: Tried hard to do something and to spread the ball to his fellow players, but just couldn't really do it. Had almost no support from his midfield teammate.
Joaquin - 5.5: Lost way too many balls in the first half and wasted way too many balls. He improved in the second half and even created one or two chances but nothing really noteworthy.
Pablo - 5.5: Run like hell all night long, crossed the ball decently, linked up well with the midfield and even had a shot on goal, but without much support it wasn't really meaningful.
Soldado - 5: Mostly anonymous, had few decent balls forwarded to him, but failed to make them into goals.

preseason match report: Aston Villa 0-0 Valencia CF

Valencia played Aston Villa on Friday at Villa Park which ended in a 0-0 draw.

Valencia started with a 4-2-3-1 formation and the starting players were the following: Cezar; Alexis Ruano, Hedwiges Maduro,  Ricardo Costa, Jeremy Mathieu; David Albelda, Manuel Fernandes; Sofiane Feghouli, Isco Alacron, Artiz Aduriz.

The game started slow, with a lot of cross balls, back and forth moving and mostly unimaginative play from both sides. Feghuoli had the best chance when he did a 360 rotation to leave 2 Villa defenders standing behind, than made a great pass towards Aduriz who unfortunately did not collect the ball as he should have had and lost all chance of scoring, even though he did fire a shot at Aston Villa's goal, but it was too little too late.

Aston Villa also had one or two half chances, so did Valencia CF, but the first half ended in a draw.
Second half did not start any better, both sides going back and forth, but never coming close to scoring chances. Mathieu as always has been a great influence going forward and provide a good option in attack, but the back-line didn't cover for him too well. Maybe Albelda needed to drop down deep in defense and cover Mathieu position when he was forward. Anyways there were very few chances on both sides, the most dangerous one coming from a corner kick from Villa in the 90th minute when the free kick taker hit the bar, but the danger stopped right there and the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

I was once again impressed with Cezar Snachez who did a great job saving the goal and its clear he is returning to top form. Positioned well and was quick to respond to any danger, his one on one skills and instincts are top class.
Jeremu Mathieu was great going forward once again, he provides huge support for the attacking trio and is a pretty good crosser. Again his defense needs to improve, but otherwise he is very good.
Ricardo Costa had a great showing, but its clear he will need more time to adopt to the teamplay. Never the less he good and hopefully he can impress when the season starts.
Pablo was once again great when he came in, great determination and constant running from him.
The rest were average, nothing special, but no big mistakes either, Manuel Fernandes was a little bit more than average with some good passes and few shots going forward.

Olympic Marseille 1 - 0 Valencia CF preseason match

Valencia lost their latest preseason match against French champions Olympic Marseille 1-0. This was somewhat to be expected since Valencia CF played the game with Hannover 96 only one day apart.
Valencia CF fielded these first eleven players: Cezar; Ivan Rubio, Maduro, Del Horno, Mathieu; Ever Banega, Albelda, Tino Costa; Pablo, Feghuoli, Aduriz.

The game started in Marseille favor, they took control of the game and were dictating the pace and possession. Valencia had a good chance around the 20th minute but couldn't score. The match continued with Marseille the team in control and Valencia was forced to defend for long periods of time.
The first half ended in a draw. In the second half Valencia coach Unai Emery choose to stick with the same players. After several substitutions later on Marseille finally managed to score a goal.
Valencia's players were clearly tired from the rough preseason and could not muster enough forces to push for a goal. The game ended 1-0 for Marseille.

What is promising is that the team defended very well and was moving around the pitch precisely and unified as a team. Pablo was once again great on the wing, with good dribbling and pace.
The midfield trio performed admirably in defensive duties and looked very determined.
Goalkeeper Cezar Sanchez performed extremely well in this match, even though he was pretty bad in one of the previous preseason matches.

Jeremy Mathieu is doing better and better each time he plays and with his attacking abilities as well as height can be one of the staples in defense.

There is just the problem of fleshing out which formation is Unai Emery going to choose. He has played a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 4-4-1-1.
He has almost tried every formation there is, but this needs to go faster. The team needs to gel together under a strong formation and tactics, while we also have the depth to easily transform formation mid game with versatile players.

Hannover 96 1 - 2 Valencia CF preseason match

Valencia CF played their 3rd preseason game on the 31.07 against German Hannover 96.
Valencia fielded the following starting players:
Moya; Alexis, Navarro, Dealbert, Jordi Alba; Joaquin, Fernandes, Topal, Vicente; Isco, Soldado

Valencia started the game in shy and scary fashion, allowing Hannover 96 to control most of the ball and letting it play and dictate the game. Valencia grew more confident as the match went on and a good corner kick saw Soldado head a goal in the opposition net in the 21st minute.
Hannover continued to control the game for most of the time, but a lucky semi-counter attack and a good one-two passing between Joaquin and Soldado made the score 2-0 for Valencia, as Joaquin chipped the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net.

Second half the same players were still on the field, first substitutions were Pablo and Feghuoli for Joaquin and Vicente respectively.
Between 73 and 75 minute Unai Emery changed the whole team. Valencia started playing better, especially in the midfield, but once again I didn't like the 2nd half central defenders.
Del Horno played horribly in center defense, Maduro as usual is very unreliable and the right back position is not covered at all. Between youth players and Alexis as a makeshift right back its the weakest point in Valencia team.

Youth team player Isco is showing signs of being a good player, but a lot more testing needs to be done and he needs to prove himself not only in these preseason matches, but under pressure in the official league, if he is being given a chance.

So far in the preseason matches I feel Topal has played great. Very good presence in midfield, excellent in defensive duties, keeps things simple and has been a good passer of the ball.
Jeremy Mathieu has been good, but not so much in the back, but rather when supporting the attack, he has contributed a lot to attack and is always an option to pass the ball to, but what he brings to offense he lacks in defense. I think he needs to work more on defensive skills and he is going to be great.
Soldado is also gaining good ground and he seems to be really incorporating well into the team.
Moya has actually surprised me in the 3 games so far, as he was really bad last season and very unreliable, but so far so good. He might actually be first choice for the next season and if he is reliable may as well stay first choice.
Pablo also seems very lively, his dribbling skills are really great and it seems as he is very motivated to play a huge role in the team. He has been very hard working so far, great dribbling skills and decent passing.

Anyways Hannover managed to get a reconsilation goal in the very last seconds to make the final score Hannover 1 - 2 Valencia.

Next game is against Olympic de Marseille on 01.08.2010. Yes, very strange, since it only gives the players less than 12 hours of rest, but we'll see, it may actually be postponed for a day.