Valencia CF vs Real Zaragoza

Valencia are coming from a big win in terms of what it actually means to the players and as a big confidence booster before some very important matches.
Valencia demolished Logrones 3-0, though the result may be a bit misleading. While Valencia did play better and Logrones had only 1 shot towards goal, we were unable to break them in the first half and only the second half we looked more threatening in attack.
Still a win is a win and this is hopefully the morale, form and confidence booster we've been looking for. Valencia will face Zaragoza on home spoil and after last week's loss at home to Mallorca a win is a must, especially since after this game, there is a Champions League match that will determine who will go through.

Unai Emery is likely to field the reliable 4-2-3-1 formation that's been working so well for us and not risk it with stupid formation changes against dangerous teams like Mallorca.
Anyways Cezar and Feghuoli and Alba are out of the squad due to injuries, while Tino Costa, and Maduro will be given a rest. Dealbert did not found his way in the squad again and this leads me to believe that he and coach Emery are not on good terms.
I hate when the team suffers due to player-coach misunderstanding, but there is not much anyone can do. Bad news is that Alba got injured during our last match and that is a big blow to us, as we only have Mathieu on the left back position.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Miguel Ángel Moyà, Vicente Guaita

Defense: Miguel Brito, Marius Stankevičius, David Navarro, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu

Midfielders: Mehmet Topal, David Albelda, Éver Banega, Manuel Fernandes, Joaquín Sánchez, Pablo Hernández, Juan Mata, Vicente Rodríguez

Strikers: Chori Domínguez, Roberto Soldado, Aritz Aduriz
Technical:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Moya; Miguel, Navarro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Joaquin, Topal, Banega, Vicente; Chori, Soldado.
Tactics: Frequent crosses from the wings, final third center through balls, deep laying defensive midfielders and second attacker positional changes.
I feel that Emery is going to experiment with more through balls in this game coming from the center of the field, because he will want to break the tough Rangers defensive line in any way he can, and crosses did not show to be effective against them, so this will be a chance for small experimentation.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 Real Zaragoza
We should have enough firepower to overcome Zaragoza who are sitting in the bottom of the table and in the process not receive a goal, as it would really be important to have a good defense against Rangers. Some may expect bigger victory, but I think even if we lead early 2-0 we should slow the game and conserve strength for the Champions League match against Rangers.

Blog news

As you can see I've updated the theme for the blog, the previous theme was too dark, not very inviting and also wasn't very Valencia like. Ultimately wasn't too use friendly and so I changed it. I've also been working on new pages like VCF fixtures calendar that will show games played with link to reports and rating for the team in that particular match, as well as upcoming matches, I have a page about the new Mestalla with info and pictures about it, was working on a flash rating system for players, so its an automated process and not manual one, but turns out blogger doesn't really support this and ended up being more manual labor so I'm looking at other ways of doing that, I'm also working on a squad page and will slowly but surely start adding them one by one as they are complete and I want to make it stylistic and not just have tons of text.

In few hours(hopefully) I'll have the match preview up and I'm also looking at ways to standardize the match previews and reports and not be so different every time i post them, though so far I have not been able to pinpoint the best way.

Various Valencia news

Moya will be keeping the net once more for Valencia in tomorrow's match against Zaragoza. Cezar has recovered from his injury, but he's unlikely to be fit to start the match.
Moya said that he is quite happy with his performances and hopes to have more chances to prove himself. He said that Cezar is the goalkeeper, but that he and Guaita are very young and are working hard to grab their chance and getting some quality goalkeeping chance helps him towards that goal.
He said that he is feeling more confident now, as opposed to last year and is hoping to slowly push Cezar out of the first eleven and make that his own position.

In other news Mata and Aduriz spoke to AS about the upcoming match and both want to do their best and score goals to help Valencia win games. Aduriz said:" Winning is whats most important, me scoring goals is good, but the important thing is to help the team win matches."
Mata commented how he is happy with his contribution in the last match and he as well said he hopes to play his best game and help Valencia win matches.

We now have almost the full squad available and ready and only Feghuoli is out injured. Cezar recovered earlier than expected from his injury, but its still going to be some time until he is fully fit and prepared.

UD Logrones 0-3 Valencia CF match report

Valencia played a good game against Logrones and ultimately cruised to a comftorable victory. As expected Unai Emery fielded all out of form, recently injured and with little playing minutes players in the hopes that they can regain their form and be ready for tougher matches.
As expected Valencia started with control of the ball, though maybe unexpected had only a slight possession advantage. Chori and Joaquin were particularity active right from the start side and linked up well, Miguel who returned from injury was playing really well and helped out Joaquin in attack.
With most of the initiative and forward runs the players were making it looked like the final ball was missing, much like in all the previous 4 matches.
There were few chances here and there, but nothing of real importance and the first half ended 0-0.

The second half continued much like the first ended, with Valencia threatening more, but ultimately falling short of any scoring chances. Then in the 51st minute Maduro was substituted and Stankevisious came on, hopefully its not an injury and only a precautionary measure.
Anyways Logrones were attacking in Valencia's box, but the ball was cleared and after a quick counter attack the ball ended outside, but Jordi Alba quickly threw the ball back in, that found its way to Mata who passed the ball to the oncoming Aduriz and he found the goal, it was 1-0 for Valencia.
Just Minuted after Aduriz found itself in a similar situation to Mata previosly, passed the ball to Mata(as if to return the favor) and Mata scored, but the linesman flag was up for offside. Mearly minutes later Mata found itself in a similar position as when he made the assist and this time passed again in a similar fashion, again to the oncoming Aduriz and it was 2-0.
Quick two goals started and converted in a very similar fashion and you can basically see the motivation this gave the Valencia players.
After some calm period there was another chance for Valencia, this time Joaquin got into the opposition box almost getting a goalkick in the process, but ultimately crossing the ball towards Ever Banega, the Logrones keeper punched the ball out of the 16 meters field, only to find its way to Vicente, who calmly took a shot and found the net, it was 3-0 for Valencia.

After the third goal, Valencia came down to second gear and slowed down the game as they now had a high and secure victory and didn't want to risk receiving some crazy goal in the last minutes of the match.

Technical details:
UD Logroñés 0: Rubio, Nacho, Molina, Gibanel (Guira, min. 55), Iñaki (Popo, min. 61), Osado, Gregory (Cervero, min. 70), De las Heras, Pepe, Izquierdo y Gaspar.

Valencia CF 3: Moyà, Maduro (Stankevicius, min. 51), Albelda, Joaquín, Domínguez, Mata (Vicente, min. 67), Aduriz, Dealbert, Ever, Miguel y Jordi Alba.

Goals: 0-1 Aduriz 54min; 0-2 Aduriz 61min; 0-3 Vicente 79min.

Referee: Undiano Mallenco

Player Ratings:
Moya 6 - Didn;t have anything to do at all, though calm and collected when dealing with crosses.
Miguel 6.5 - Had an easy evening as he wasn;t troubled at the back, helped out in attack, good come back for him.
Maduro 6 - Seemed slow to react at times and Logrones attackers didn't really test him.
Dealbert 7 - Very alert and effective, what little threat came from Logrones he dealt with it perfectly, admitedly Logrones are not Barca or Mallorca, he did a great job still and its a question why hasn't Unai Emery started him more.
Jordi Alba 6.5 - Good defensively, but only occasionally threatened and did well to support in attack.
Joaquin 6 - Some good runs of his right side, made the cross that ultimately lead to the third goal, but its clear he is still a bit rusty and not in full fitness.
Albelda 6.5 - Very active in the first half as Banega was unable to find his feet, helped out in attack and disrupted Logrones attacks.
Banega 6.5 - Slow start, he wasn't very active in the first half, but improved and grew in confidence in the second, made few great through passes.
Mata 7.5 - Really anonymous in the first half, but had three brilliant runs in the second, two resulted in assists for Aduriz and one resulted in scoring a goal, but it was decided that he was offside. Good stuff from Mata, but needs to be more active thought the whole game.
Chori 6 - Not very effective in front of goal, missed two good chances and his judgment on two other opportunities was questionable at best, but fought hard, run well and tried to draw the defense to him to open space to his team mates. Needs more practice though and hard work.
Aduriz 8 - Did not have much service in the first half and he was rarely visible, but as Valencia became more dangerous in the second half, he was at the right places at the right times to score two goals.
Subs:
Stankevicious 6 - Replaced Maduro in the 50th minute and played well, though was not really tested.
Soldado 6 - Replaced Aduriz and slotted right into the action, had one try and fought solidly.
Vicente 7 - Great game from Vicente with the limited time he had, made the most out of it and scored a great goal. Hopefully he can continue scoring and contributing and will get a contract extension.

UD Logrones vs Valencia CF match preview

In a hour and a half the Copa Del Ray match between UD Logrones and Valencia CF will start.
UD Logrones was formed only in 2009, so they are a very inexperienced team and basically the biggest minnows Valencia can face.
Valencia on the other hand has played 3 matches in a row without victory, 2 losses to Barcelona and Mallorca and just a fraw against Rangers in the Champions League. This is a great opportunity to bounce back and regain some of the form and confidence.

There is not much to talk to about this game, everything except a high 3/4-0 victory for Valencia will be considered failure, especially taking into consideration Unai Emery did not call up any youngsters for this match.
Most of the out of form or recently injured players are expected to play and ones that have no or little playing time are also probably going to start in the match.

Technical:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Dealbert, Maduro, Alba; Joaquin, Albelda, Banega, Vicente; Chori, Aduriz
Tactics: High frequency crosses from the wings, deep zone defensive midfielders, very high defensive line, positional change for the secondary attacker that Chori is probably going to start at, long shots by Banega/Tino.

Result prediction:
UD Logrones 0-4 Valencia CF
Basically Unai Emery will be playing with a full strength squad, with the usual rotation policy, there are no youth players and the team is going to play the tried and reliable 4-2-3-1 or possibly 4-4-2 formation, so anything less than a high victory will be considered big failure and may even question Emery's job.

Official squad for Copa Del Ray match against UD Logrones.

Valencia coach Unai Emery chose not to bring any youth player to the first Copa Del Ray match against UD Logrones, instead some of our players who were injured or didn't play much will be featured.

The biggest surprise is the inclusion of Pablo who has played all 4-5 last matches and I think should have received a little rest.

Feghuoli and Cezar are injured and are not expected for at least another week, while Joaquin and Miguel have recently returned to normal training after quite long injuries. Also featuring will be Dealbert who is yet to start in the first eleven.

Official Valencia squad:
Goalkeepers: Moya and Guaita
Defenders: Miguel, Stankevicius, Maduro, Dealbert and Jordi Alba
Midfielders: Albelda, Éver, Tino Costa, Joaquín, Pablo, Mata and Vicente
Forwards: Chori,Soldado and Aduriz

Jaoquin and Miguel fit and set to return to action

Valencia duo Miguel and Joquin are fit and have been training normally for the last few days, the coach didn't risk them in Valencia's last game vs Mallorca, but they could be given some time in the next game, which is against Logrones in the Copa Del Ray on Wednesday, in order to boost their form.

Ever Banega also seems a bit rusty after coming from a long injury and may be given full 90 minutes in order to regain his form.
Feghuoli and Cezar are still injured and will need probably one more week to recover.

I would like Emery to field a team with some of the more rusty players or ones who returned recently from injury to give them chance to sharpen their skills and get to full form and then mix them up with some of the more standard players.

I would like to see this line-up against Logrones:
Guaita; Miguel, Maduro, Dealbert, Alba; Joaquin, Banega, Topal, Vicente; Chori, Soldado.