Official: Sunny loaned out to Numancia

Sunny was loaned out to Numancia for the remainder of the season. This is good news for Valencia and mostly the player, as he was left out of the squad and training sessions by coach Unai Emery and he has been training alone for more than 6 months now.

Sunny is a midfielder with Nigerian origin, but also has a Spanish passport and even played for Spain's U-21 squads a few times.

The player was excited to complete this loan move and is ready to commit to Numancia and show what he is capable for. Numancia president Francisco Rubio thanked Valencia, Sunny, and his representatives for making the deal happen and hopes that Sunny can rediscover his old form.

Sunny was once considered a huge talent and a rising star and that is why Valencia purchased him, but he had fallen out of favor with the coach and has not featured for Valencia for two seasons. 

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery Interview

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery gave an interview to the official Valencia CF website. Here it is:

50 victories
“I am satisfied with having earned the 50th win, but also satisfied in general for the work that the team is doing at the moment. The team keeps hitting targets and have the ambition to make every win a stepping stone for the next one."

The third best first half of the decade
“We have 37 points, but things don't stop yet. We have the entire second half of the season to go, in which we want to continue on this constant road. We also want some small improvements in every aspect of our play, and above all to set out our stall as a team who should be in the Champions League again next season."

Desire for improvement
“We have two teams above us in Real Madrid and Barcelona, who are at such a high level that it is difficult to compete with them and to keep up with them under the present circumstances. But we will try to do so. Our other rivals like Villarreal and Espanyol are having a great season, and we are competing against them. We also mustn't forget that other teams may join in the fight, like Atlético de Madrid or Sevilla. We are satisfied, with the door also open for improvement. We want to transmit the idea that we can keep on growing, through our effort, dedication and teamwork."

Ambitions for the future
“The team are showing that they are maturing, through their refusal to give in and their insistence on going for the win right until the end. It is this attitude that has given us wins recently, when we have refused to settle for a draw. It is an important detail. However, we have also had our dips -like the second half against Villarreal. In that game, we had the quarter final in the palm of our hand, and let it get away. That was a return to some bad habits, and fortunately we have been able to correct the mistakes in the league."

The Academy
"We can't forget about Valencia CF's history, and what we want the club to be at present. We want a hard working team and to bring through the youth team players. Youngsters are coming through to the first team from our academy in Paterna, and it is a source of great satisfaction for everyone. To give two examples, right now we have Guaita and Jordi Alba in the first team.

Mestalla
“I can't repeat often enough that for the team, Mestalla is a place where we want to feel comfortable. We want to get this through to the fans, so that they in turn pass on this strength to the players. We want the team to feel as good as possible, so that they can win games."

Home games the key
“We know how crucial it is to make Mestalla into a fortress, where we always go out as favourites to win. That will happen with the invaluable support of the fans helping us to get stronger."

Champions League knockout stage
"We can't forget that we have a very attractive tie against Schalke 04 and Raúl still to come. We have our eye on this two-legged contest, which we will begin at Mestalla before the second match in Germany. We will be looking to do a great job in order to get through to the next round, and we want the fans to enjoy the occasion too."

Source: valenciacf.com

Unai Emery spell with Valencia CF analyzed

Warning: Long text ahead...
The question should Valencia coach Unai Emery be sacked has been floating around for few weeks now and especially after Valencia lost their match to Villarreal and consequentially got out of the Copa Del Rey cup. In this article I'm going to follow Valencia CF coach Unai Emery spell with Valencia from the start to now and draw some conclusions how's he done and should he be replaced.

Going back to the season 2007-08 Valencia was playing fairly well and than came the sacking of coach Quique Sanchez Flores and the appointment of new coach Ronald Koeman, who left PSV to join Valencia. This was supposed to be a match made in haven, only in turned out it was a match made in hell as Koeman broke the relationship with many Valencia veterans, made constant first team changes and Valencia was in the relegation zone and fighting to survive. The only thing that came out from the season was the surprise Copa Del Rey trophy.
Koeman was fired before the end of the season and was replaced with Valencia intern Voro who lead Valencia to 10th place finish.

 Unai Emery was then the coach of Almeria who after guiding it to promotion in the first division finished 8th in the table with the average Almeria and was highly regarded. This caught the attention of Valencia board and Unai Emery was brought on a two year deal. This is how the journey of Unai Emery started with Valencia.

With Unai Emery now firmly at the helm the team made a terrific start to the league and was first in the standings for few matches. Valencia got beat by Barcelona to the leader spot and when the storm calmed Valencia was doing good enough, but not great. Then all of a sudden the ship started sinking and Valencia started performing poorly one and a half to two months before the Christmas break. This problem would not turn out Emery's fault as the team announced a huge debt of 400 to 500 million euros and the players were not even receiving their salary. The main people in the club at that time tried to calm down the players, media and fans and they announced that payment is going to continue normally in two months.
For those two months Valencia visibly performed bad and lost a lot of ground in the championship.

Emery's first season and he faced huge problems with players not getting payed and mounting pressure from all sides as Valencia's future was not even certain at that point. He had to work with the youthful Mata, the emerging Silva and with shattered spirits of the remaining veterans at Valencia.
Somehow amid all the chaos Unai Emery managed to regulate the sporting department and steer the club slowly but steadily to 6th place finish in the standings and allowed Valencia to go to the Uefa cup.

The season was hard and conditions were bad, the club was in meltdown, but the players with Emery at the helm managed to get to the respectable 6th place finish, an incredible feature if you ask me at that point in time, with Mata playing his best season than looking from this point of time and the continuity of several of Valencia's veterans int the next season.

The season 2009-10 started and now with a presidents change and new board and high spirits in the sporting department with the securing of Villa and Silva stay after a ton of speculation about their future at the club.
Few new players were brought in also, mostly cheap ones or on free transfer such as Moya, Dealbert, Mathieu and Bruno.

In the preseason Valencia had some very interesting training sessions that were fun and yet demanding with a good mixture of physical and technical training.

Valencia started the season with bad defense and people were calling out the coach for the defensive errors. Unai Emery reacted and replaced the goalkeeper Moya with Cezar Sanchez, as well as the defensive pairing and the results started coming and the defense was good for the most part.
After winning most of its matches and going into an unbeaten run of few matches the media started calling Valencia a title contender to Barca and R. Madrid and pressure started mounting on the players and coach and much like last season Valencia good results came to a grueling stop. Clearly the coach methods and training sessions were working and Valencia was able to achieve a good start, but the players were not stable enough to continue in their best form.
Nevertheless Valencia continued well and apart from Barca and R. Madrid was the best of the rest.
Into Emery's second season on the winter break and Valencia began to be considered as a top team in Spain again and you can tell from the reaction of many of the coaches before their matches vs Valencia, where they were making all the excuses for a possible loss before the match was even played.

Banega who was to be let go after drinking and staying late too much became a different person and player under the guidance of Emery. In fact he became so good that he was irreplaceable in the midfield and helped guide Valencia to 3rd position in the league.
 Valencia also had a bit of luck in the signing of Cezar Sanchez as he would prove to be a mountain on the goal and single-handendly won Valencia several matches. Valencia didn't perform as good in the Copa Del Rey going out to Atletico Madrid and also failed to go a long way in the Uefa cup, but it was playing really well in La Liga and finished 3rd with 71 points that in older times would have probably won Valencia the title.
 Unai Emery reached the clubs objectives for qualifying into the Champions League and his contract was extended for one year.

The 2010-11 would see the likes of David Villa and David Silva leave, but Valencia used that money to purchase some new players with the likes of Soldado, Tino Costa and Aduriz.
The preseason was once again great as they started with low exercises to gain fitness and gradually progressed into more physical training sessions. There were also the fun training session that had the players in nature and jumping and climbing and riding on ropes on the trees.

With so many players leaving and coming Emery requested as much friendlies as possible to get the squad gel and in peak condition for the start of the league. Emery got what he requested and Valencia played 8 matches in which was surprisingly poor. The problem was found in the 4-3-3 formation that Emery was trying to implement and after going to the more familiar 4-2-3-1 the results came against Fiorentina and Lecce.
Valencia started the campaign with an unbeaten run of several matches and once again same as the two seasons before was great in the start only to get into a bad run of results after the 5th or 6th match.
The rest of this season you know and yesterday was the last match of the first half of the season with Valencia currently at 4th position, 2 points behind 3rd placed Villarreal.

So what conclusions can we draw here and can we really call Emery a bad or a good coach? The answer is very complex and probably not even possible, but what we can draw from all this is that Unai Emery has done some pretty amazing things in some of the conditions he has worked under.

Imagine Jose Mourinho coming to Valencia and than finding out the players are not even taking their salary, the club future in shatters and all talk is about the financial situation and not the sporting one. Would Jose Mourinho been able to get a broken team in every regard that fought for survival last season and make it function enough to finish at 6th place?
We will never know, but I'd imagine most coaches would have been lucky to avoid relegation again, let alone fight for going out of Spain and playing in some of the European cups.
We can call Emery's first season at Valencia a total success, regardless if someone else could have achieved more or less.

Emery's second season at Valencia was also a success. Going back even just several seasons now and those 71 points could have won you the title in Spain, but with the form and way Barcelona has been playing winning the league is right now probably impossible even for R. Madrid a team full of stars and previous best players in world awards.

Valencia's current season with Unai Emery so far is also a success. Valencia finished half the season with only 2 less points than the previous season and with the likes of Villa and Silva gone.

I can't tell how good or bad our players are, because those opinions are based on how the team performs and their individual performances. All I know is that Aduriz and Soldado are not on the level of David Villa and Tino Costa, Feghuoli and/or Dominguez are not on the same level as David Silva.

If Valencia president Llorente thinks even the slightest like me this season Emery is as safe as anyone can possibly be. If Valencia also reach their season objectives at the end I fail to see why Valencia should risk getting a new coach and having the possibility of another Koeman happening.
If Valencia reaches its objective this season I think Valencia should extend Emery's contract by another year, if Valencia fail to qualify for the Champions League though, then it would be another story and Valencia should consider its options with different coaches.

Valencia CF 2-0 Deportivo La Coruna - Match Report

Valencia CF finally won in a well played match and is keeping up with still in 3rd place Villarreal. The play was amazing and direct, with every player knowing its position and movement and almost everyone played great.
I was also absolutely spot on at my result prediction as Valencia won 2-0.

The match started with Valencia CF in possesion and dictating play, but that was to be expected and it was clear that Deportivo La Coruna is going to defend and will be more than happy to get away with a point.
The midfield duo of Ever Banega and Hedwiges Maduro functioned very good and Valencia was keeping possession and the passing was mostly accurate.

Right from the start Pablo and Vicente were very dangerous on their sides and the majority of actions started and ended with them. Mata was also linking up very well with Pablo and Vicente and coming back to play them on and then running back to Deportivo's penalty area.

Miguel and Mathieu were also very active in going forward and with Maduro covering at the back the play was solid and stable. The only player that was clearly lacking was Soldado as he continuously scrambled good balls coming towards him and was very nervous from the start.

Deportivo got bombarded from the flanks with Vicente and Pablo with the support of the full backs were constantly creating chances and Mata with his running was creating spaces for Soldado or someone else to use.
With all the attacking play going on Valencia just couldn't break Deportivo and the first half ended 0-0.

In the second half Deportivo decided to start playing and was gaining back some control of the match with several attacks down the left wing. On one counter attack the defense did not mark all Deportivo players and someone made a great shot towards Valencia goal, but Guaita was ready and made a superb save to keep Valencia level.

Valencia has a lot of chances in the second half also, more than I can remember and especially Vicente and Pablo were wrecking havoc to the Deportivo defense. Pablo, Mata and Soldado has a shot at goal, but it seemed like nothing Valencia did can go in.

Maduro made way for the returning Tino Costa and soon after Ever made way for Topal. Tino was clearly lacking form as he made several bad passes and allowed Deportivo to go on the counter, but he always got back and win the ball back redeeming himself for the danger he created.
After few bad passes than came a superb pass by Tino Costa that found Mathieu on the far left side of the goal, Aranzubia came jumping towards Mathieu but Mathieu's shot past the goalkeeper and went into the net.
Valencia finally got the lead and it was Mathieu who scored the goal in the 77th minute.

The match was not over though and Deportivo tried to get back in it and started to attack. After a few messy and heart stopping situations in the Valencia penalty area, Valencia gained back some control of the midfield and mounted a few counter attack.


Somehow in stoppage time the ball got towards Mata who luckally got past two Deportivo players and ran towards the goal, with Pablo and Soldado ahead of him. Mata than passed the ball towards Pablo and again Deportivo goalkeeper left his goal and jumped toward Pablo, but this one made a nice right move avoiding the goalkeeper and shooting in the empty net, it was 2-0 for Valencia just as the match was about to finish.



Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicius, Dealbert, Mathieu; Maduro (Tino Costa, min.68), Éver (Topal, min.77); Pablo, Mata, Vicente (Jordi Alba, min.87); Soldado.

Deportivo La Coruna (0): Aranzubía; Laure, Lopo, Aythami, Colotto, Manuel Pablo; J.Rodriguez (Pablo Álvarez, min. 86), A.Tomas, J.Dominguez (Juca, min. 83); Lassad (Valerón, min. 79) y Adrian.

Goals: 1-0 Min.77, Mathieu; 2-0 Min.93, Pablo Hernández.


Player Ratings:
Guaita 7 - Did not have much to do, but made a wonderful save in the second half to keep Valencia level with Deportivo.
Miguel 7.5 - One of his best matches no doubt about that. Great in defense and amazing in attack, linked up well with Pablo and his passes were mostly dangerous.
Stankevicious 7 - Solid at the back and responsible for stopping several Deportivo attacks.
Dealbert 6 - Not as good as Stankevicious and had few lapses, but generally good considering he was also covering a lot for Mathieu's involvement in attack.
Mathieu 8 - One of Mathieus best matches and one long overdue. Somewhat missing in defense in the second half, but superb offensively and had good understanding with Vicente. Scored the first goal that essentially won the match for Valencia.
Pablo 9 - Rarely put a foot wrong, his passing was impeccable, his running dangerous and created a ton of chances for his team mates. This kind of play we would like to expect from Pablo in the future also.
Banega 6.5 - After a disappointing season that let a lot of fans down tonight he showed he still possess great skills and was mostly good with the passing, run well and got involved in few attacks. His best moment being the pass towards Soldado just before he was substituted. Made a few errors in the second half though that lower his score by 0.5 points.
Maduro 7 - Great defensive display and covered the whole field and helped out constantly at the back and break up Deportivo's play in the midfield. Also had a good involvement in attack.
Vicente 7.5 - Performance that remind us all of Vicente past glory and how he can be a superb player on his day. These kind of performances will have his contract extended and he showed that he still has fight left in him. Great play all match long, some amazing passes with Mata and a menace on the left wing for Deportivo.
Mata 8 - Somewhat disappointing start to the match as he started slowly and clumsy, loosing few balls and making the wrong decisions, but improved enormously as the match was progressing. He started linking up well with Pablo and Vicente and was actively engaged in most of the attacks. Had a shot on goal and poped-up in every spot. Started the counter attack for the second goal and made the assist to Pablo.
Soldado 3 - Frustrating performance from a frustrated man. For some reason he started the match frustrated and from start to finish he was always frustrated. Every pass, move and shot he made was either bad or the wrong choice in that situation. He seemed like a second division average striker tonight.
Subs:
Tino Costa 7 - Came in for Maduro and slotted well immediately, but made few bad passes that resulted in Deportivo attacking, but raced back to defense and won the ball every time redeeming himself. Made a superb pass to Mathieu that lead to the first goal.
Topal N/A - Not enough time, but did well to win back some balls although not involved in much of anything.
Alba N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs Deportivo La Coruna - Match Preview

Tomorrow Valencia CF will welcome Deportivo La Coruna to the Mestalla in yet another important match.
After the loss to Villarreal in the Copa Del Rey coach Unai Emery has said this can be an advantage to Valencia and that having less matches will help Valencia be more competitive in the Spanish league and overtake Villarreal in 3rd position.

The Copa Del Rey loss was not taken well with the fans and the Valencia board and president Llorente, so there has been numerous meetings between all the staff in order to lay out the objectives for third place finish in La Liga and tighten up some of problems in recent weeks like lack of stamina and fitness.
Currently everyone at Valencia from the coaching staff, fitness staff and doctors are under pressure to deliver good results and collectively help Valencia to reach its season objectives.

Valencia is currently 4th in the standings with 34 points, 2 behind 3rd place rival Villarreal and a win tomorrow may theoretically bring us to third place, assuming Villarreal loose their match tonight.

Deportivo La Coruna are  currently 13th on the table and while they are a tough team to crack and good defensively, they are desparate in attack and would probably not score even if there was no goalkeeper in their opponents squads.
Their away record is also poor and they have only won two times, drawn two times and lost five times.

Some Valencia players have returned to full fitness, while other even though have shaken off their injury are still not match fit. Navarro has been left out of the squad for lack of match fitness, while Tino Costa has returned to the squad and may even feature in tomorrow match.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita and Saúl
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, R. Costa, Stankevicius, Dealbert, Mathieu, Jordi Alba,.
Midfield: Maduro, Topal, T. Costa, Pablo, Ever, Vicente.
Attack: Domínguez, Mata and Soldado.
 
Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, R. Costa, Mathieu; Pablo, Maduro, Tino, Mata, Dominguez, Soldado.
Tactics: Low frequency crosses from the wings, positional changes from the 2 wingers, very high defensive line, low opposing field pressure, forward rotation.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 Deportivo La Coruna
Valencia is good enough to beat Deportivo especially on home terrain. Deportivo on the other hand can't score goals even if their opponents played without goalkeepers so I don't expect them to score.
Dominguiez has had a surprisingly great training and is likely to start especially since Aduriz is missing due to suspension.
If Valencia play even decent they should win this match, though Deportivo is a good team defensively and will not give up easily.

Juan Mata extends Valencia CF contract

Juan Mata has extended his contract with Valencia CF to 2014. After painstakingly long negotiations which unofficially started early last season Mata and Valencia have finally made the contract extension official.
The contract has been done a while ago, but small details needed to be sorted and finalized before the final agreement was set and signed.

The salary and details from the new contract are kept secret, but it is thought that Mata will make around 2.5 million euros per season and he is forbidden to talk to clubs about a possible move away and can only do so after Valencia has accepted the bid.

There will be a public ceremony tomorrow in which the contract will be made official in the town of Denia.

Valencia CF status updates

Here are several updates that had happened in the last few days:

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente has called an emergency meeting of the whole Valencia staff behind closed doors. This includes the coaching staff, sports staff, fitness staff and club doctors.
The rumor is that they are going to talk about transfers and the state of injured players, but I suspect its going to be more than that.
Best bet would be they will talk about transfers in the winter market, as well as the next season squad, but also talks about the current conditions of the players and level of play.
Considering Fernandes, Banega, Pablo, Chori have gained weight and Mathieu's recent stamina issues and several injuries I would guess the president is not pleased with the condition of the players and there will be talks to fix the situation fast.


Next on the list is the possible contract extension for Vicente Guaita, Valencia's current first goalkeeper. He has been in impressive form so far covering for the injured Cezar and Moya and with the failure to sign Diego Alves from Almeria the staff offered Guaita a contract extension that would see his current contract extended to 2014 and of course a salary increase. Nothing has been signed though and there are weeks, if not months of contract negotiations.

Last but not least is Valencia's coach Unai emery future. There has been a lot of talk recently and a shift in opinions regarding the future of Unai emery at the club, after the recent loss to Villarreal in the Copa Del Rey.
Unai Emery signed a 1 year contract extension last season and this means his future is not safe at the club.
With more and more people raising their voices against Unai Emery its no surprise that there is a lot of speculation and uncertainty about his future and if he should lead the team next season.
Manuel Llorente recently denied any speculations, but did not want to engage in talks about next season coach.
Anyways the biggest measurement if Emery is going to renew his contract with Valencia will be the results, for now the objectives are third place finish in La Liga and going past Schalke in the Champions League and as far as possible.