Brazilian striker Jonas from Gremio transfers to Valencia CF

While its still not official, the transfer can only fail if the player has failed his medical exam, so its a pretty done deal.

Brazilian striker Jonas Gonçalves Oliveira has signed for Valencia CF from Gremio for a fee of 1.2 million euros. Jonas signed a contract with Valencia that will have him stay in Valencia 4 and a half years, starting from this January. It seems that Valencia used the players low release clause of 1.2 million euros to snatch the player from Gremio and has also offered him a better salary of around 1.000.000 euros.

The player considered this his big chance and happily accepted the offer from Valencia CF.
If you ask me I'd say this is a very good deal at a bargain price for a good striker. If he settles well in Valencia and with the Spanish style of football he could become an important player for Valencia. Whatever the case at least now Valencia has 3 strikers and Valencia can play more often with the 4-4-2 formation as there would be no fears now of Aduriz or Soldado getting fatigued or injured.

How should Valencia CF improve its shortcomings?

I don't have the time to analyze the whole season for now, although I'm going to take the time in the future, but for now I'm just going to analyze the Malaga match and draw some conclusions on how to improve aspects of Valencia's game.

As you can read from the match report Valencia had a dreadful first half, was outplayed by a 10 men Malaga and they managed to score two goals.
In the second half things improved, but Malaga was still playing with a men down and 20 minutes later with only 9 men.

The main problem was in the first half and although Valencia received a goal in the second half with 2 men advantage it was more of a unlucky circumstances and individual mistakes.

When the match began the 2nd minute told me everything how this match is going to be played out. I lost the pre-match confidence and I knew we were going to be defending and tracking the ball, instead of dominating the game and setting the path of the game.

The weakest source was Valencia midfield as Tino Costa and Maduro failed to keep possession and regain possession when we lost the ball quickly.  The primary job of a defensive midfielder is to break opponents play by either winning the ball back and regain possession, or make a tackle with or without a foul to give the defense time to organize.
Maduro as a defensive midfielder failed miserably to do any of these things and all he did is mark opposition players, but without putting pressure on them or making strategic tackles. If you watch only Maduro's moves you'll easily see that his decisions were mostly wrong, depending on where he was on the field at the time of the decision he made.
For example tackling a player 25 meters from goal is considered bad, as he gives away a free kick to the opponent in a close and dangerous area. Another example would be not tackling the opposing player few meters after the half line on Valencia's side of the pitch.

The job of Alberto "Tino" Costa is to keep possession, pass the ball around and be available at all times to receive the ball, only in order to bring it back into circulation. In few occasions he can make a dribble or go to the wings to support the attacking players.
For example you don't see Xavi from Barcelona dribbling or going to the wings or making too many direct passes, because his job is to keep possession and circle the ball around so that other players can exploit a possible opening. He will sometimes put a through ball from the center or make a cross when there is a real chance to make an assist or threaten the opposition goal.

Tino Costa did everything wrong and everything he is not supposed to do. He made several inaccurate passes, dribbled too much and often went to the left wing to support the attacking players when he just shouldn't have, as this created huge space in the middle for Malaga to exploit.

When Malaga was one man down is the prime example of Tino's wrong moves, as instead of Valencia gaining possession, Malaga was still the team with more possession and constantly attacking.

Tino Costa is by nature a more attacking midfielder or AM, as he can dribble, shift position and make a dangerous pass. He is not a natural deep laying midfielder or a playmaker and this is really exposed in matches where the opponent tries to control the ball and this is why Valencia loose possession.

Banega is a player suited for the playmaker role from a deep laying midfield position as he spreads the ball around, makes himself available to receive the ball back and then passes the ball again. There are moments when he will dribble or push forward, but usually he keeps his position back in the midfield and this is why it works for him.
Last season with an experienced and great defensive midfielder like Albelda who can break up opponents play, make a foul at the right time it worked so good. Even if Banega was out of position on rare occasions and Valencia lost the ball, Albelda was there to intercept and make the right move to cripple and stop the opponents.

What works and what doesn't work?

Of course Tino has been generally playing well this season and this is because weaker teams or teams who don't try to control the ball and attack on the counter, his shortcomings are not exposed and he can in those matches make a move or a pass that has a positive result.

Another disadvantage is that Valencia lack a true leader on the pitch. While Miguel and Joaquin may be a captains they lack the leadership skills that Albelda has. Even Vicente lack those skills and the two players that have these leadership skills are Cezar and Albelda.

If you watch matches when Cezar was on goal you can see that the defense is a lot more stable and calm. They don't do stupid mistakes, don't get disorganized, because they know they can fall back to a stable and reliable leader on the goal. This is what our current young goalkeeper Guaita lacks and he probably won't have until he is 32 years of age.

Albelda is the other example case. With him as a defensive cover the defense is again much calmer and stable, as they know that in front of them in an experienced leader that is going to make the right move to help out the defense.

Leading the way!

With Albelda and Cezar injured there is absolutely no leader on the pitch and what Valencia this season lack also from the previous one is a top, top player like Villa was. David Villa was so good that people relied upon him to make a miracle and score a goal, saving Valencia from a defeat or a draw and Villa was actually more than capable of doing such things. He will move from the left wing towards the opponents goal, dribble past two defenders and score a goal from a 90 degree angle.

Right now neither Aduriz or Soldado are capable of such feats and in the whole squad there isn't a top player that adds and shares that aura of greatness that players will feel.

What Valencia is trying to do is positive and its a future project of bringing young and talented players to the squad, but its also the case Arsenal for example have won the title so little, apart from the two seasons where they absolutely dominated in the Premier League. Also don't forget that at that time they also had Denis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Vieira.

What is the best formation and which are the best working players together?

Every team that wants to be a competitor for a title must have these experienced and leader material players to fight for top honors. Valencia right not only has Albelda and Cezar and when the season is over its possible it will loose both.
With no top player also its even more crippled and there is always that sense of vulnerability.

So what can we conclude out of all this? Well we can conclude that Valencia needs Albelda and Cezar back, even if they are only on the bench or training sessions and Valencia need to buy or create a top player to share his aura of greatness around the squad.

Who is the leader?

Valencia also need starting eleven players that are going to work great together, players that can cover each others weaknesses and shortcomings. For example you need a player that can keep possession to cover for Tino's shortcomings, you need a solid defensive midfielder than can cover for Banega's shortcomings and so on...

You need a team of great mixture of strengths to cover for the apparent weaknesses. This is of course the job of the coach to find the "perfect" starting eleven and players that work best when fielded together.

Of course such starting eleven may need a formation change and those don't change easily as we've already seen how formation changes are devastating to the performance of Valencia. This is why a formation change needs to be smooth and gradual, especially at mid season.

Valencia has a weaker defense, so make sure you cover it with great possession football play and a stable defensive midfielder that can really help out in troublesome situations. I don't have the perfect formation since I only see the team play on official matches and I'm not in all those training sessions, but Unai emery must look deeper than before and find out exactly which players and where are most efficient.

Can the team work like a well oiled machine?

Valencia CF 4-3 Malaga - Match Report

What a crazy match this turned out to be. Valencia struggled for 90 minutes to win this match against 9 men Malaga who from the 15th minute played with one man less and than from the 65th minute with two man less.

The first half was a disaster for Valencia, we had almost no ball control, no chance and no shot towards Malaga goal. In one word the team sucked and did not deserve to win.
Malaga had a clear chance from the second minute when Guaita saved Valencia goal, the ball reflected to another Malaga player, but Miguel blocked the shot.

Malaga was dominating on the filed and in the 10th minute after a blunder from Dealbert Rondon scored a goal.
Malaga kept pressuring and kept attacking as they were playing at home against some second division team.
Dealbert was just awful as he made 4 huge mistakes and frankly speaking after such a performance he should sit on the bench for the remainder of the season.

Anyways going back to the 16th minute Pablo released a pass that found Mata, but newly signed Demichelis fouled Mata and the referee awarded Valencia with a penalty and a bit harshly awarded Demichelis a red card.
Mata set up to shoot the penalty and scored with a low shot in the far right corner of the net.

As soon as you think Valencia will be on the way to dominating the match from there on and playing good, just the opposite happened with Valencia pinched back and defending. This is the time that Dealbert made all those mistakes, though only 1 resulted in a goal, but the whole defensive line and cover was pretty disastrous. After a cross in Valencia's penalty area Aduriz, Maduro and Dealbert were outjumped, someone from Malaga headed the ball on the right side and found Rondon once again who easily scored totally unmarked by anyone. It was 2-1 for Malaga and a well deserved lead, because Valencia was not even playing football.

The first 45 minutes ended and change was necessary in order to restore some decency into the performance.

To Emery's credit he made the two perfect and logical choices and the ones I would pick to change the match around. He brought Soldado for the poor Dealbert and Banega for the ineffective and barely visible Jordi Alba.

Second half was different and Valencia immediately started strongly with possession and determination with Banega pulling the strings in midfield.The goal Valencia seek would come quickly in the 52nd minute from Soldado. The actions started with Banega as he made a long pass towards Pablo and this one made the assist to Soldado who scored a fine goal.

Just when it seemed there can be no more drama, Malaga defender Rosario was shown a red card for making some gesticulations to the line referee. The nervousness in the Malaga defense would be used by Valencia and Banega would score a goal to put Valencia ahead. After some chaos in the Malaga penalty area and bad judgement from Sergio Asenjo who failed to punch the ball out and the ball was traveling out of the penalty area and towards the oncoming Banega who placed a low shot in the low left corner of the net and scored a goal.

If this wasn't enough drama then Malaga would go on to score again and this time it was the collective mistake of Maduro who was out of position, Stankevicious and even Miguel who failed to get the ball out of Baptista's feet and he scored a brilliant trade-mark goal like the ones he used to score back in him prime days.

Valencia struggled to find the winning goal and just when all hope was lost, Malaga just couldn't fight anymore. The ball somehow luckally found Aduriz who after missing several opportunities managed to score a goal and put Valencia in the lead again with 4-3.

In the end a disapointing match for the Valencia fans as realistically Valencia really deserved to loose this match. The first half play was a tragedy and even though Valencia improved in the second, with a 9 man Malaga it would have been absolute even worse than tragedy not to win.

Technical details:
Valencia CF (4): Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicius, Dealbert (Banega, min. 45), Mathieu; Maduro, Tino Costa, Pablo (Joaquín, min. 70), Mata, Jordi Alba (Soldado, min. 45); Aduriz.

Málaga CF (3): Asenjo;Eliseu, Rosario, Demichelis, Gámez; Maresca (Gaspar, min. 20), Camacho, Apoño, Duda (Fernández, min. 70), Rondón (Recio, min. 67); Baptista.

Goals: 0-1, Rondón, min. 10; 1-1, Mata, min. 15; 1-2, Rondón, min .34; 2-2, Soldado, min.53; 3-2, Banega, min. 67; 3-3, Baptista, min 79; 4-3, Aduriz, min. 90.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 7 - The only man in the team that actually performed good, he made two absolute great saves to save Valencia from loosing 4-1.
Miguel 4 - Not directly at fault for any of the goals, though should have probably covered Rondon for the second one and didn't really provide any support in attack.
Stankevicious 4 - At fault for the 3rd goal as he failed to tackle Baptista and allowed him a clear shot on Valencia's goal that resulted in a goal.
Dealbert 2 - Dreadful display as he made 4 huge defensive errors and always looked nervous and unsure.
Mathieu 5 - Maybe the best on the defenders and no threat came from his side, also offered some support going forward in the second half when Valencia took more initiative.
Pablo 7 - I'm going to put Pablo as man of the match once again. He was the only player that looked dangerous and offered a creative spark. He made the pass to Mata in the first half and after Mata was fouled the penalty was awarded. The also made the assist to Soldado for Valencia's second goal.
Maduro 4 - Failed in his defensive duties and partially at fault for the second recieved goal as he along with Aduriz and Dealbert were out jumped and failed to clear the ball out of Valencia's penalty area.
Tino Costa 3 - Absolutely dreadful performance in this match. He failed to provide any pass, lost the battle in the midfield and basically did not do anything for 45 minutes, until the second half when Banega came in and provided some stability in the midfield. Don't forget that Valencia were also playing with 1 man more from the 15th minute and Tino still lost the midfield battle.
Alba 2 - Barely visible. Apart from one run and one missed header I did not see him in this match.
Mata 6 - One of the few people that actually was useful. He provided the penalty, scored the penalty and generally was useful and dangerous.
Aduriz 4 - Scored a goal, but missed 3 chances to make Valencia's job a whole lot easier. Barely even touched the ball, apart from 3 failed chances and one scored goal.
Subs:
Soldado 7 - Came in for the dreadful Dealbert and immediately provided a much needed attacking threat. Scored a quick goal after he came in and make the assist to Aduriz for the winning goal.
Banega 7 - Came in and Valencia got back control of the midfield. Started the action that lead to the second goal, scored the third goal and was always threatening when going forward and also instrumental for Valencia keeping possession.
Joaquin 5 - He failed to surpass Pablo and apart from few crosses didn't really add much to Valencia attack.

Valencia CF vs Malaga - Match preview

Time for Valencia CF vs Malaga match preview:
The second half of the season begins for Valencia tomorrow when they face Malaga at the Mestalla. The club has made an interesting innitiative for the fans to come to the stadium and tomorrow will be for all the fans to wear their scarf's and lift them in the air. There will also be prizes for hand out to the "best" supporters.

Valencia CF has been in great shape the last few matches and is on a great winning streak that it hopes will continue in the second half of the season and the first obstacle will be Malaga, who just purchased 4 new players in the winter transfer market.

Unai Emery has his hands full this time around and will have problems selecting the starting eleven. For a lack of better term the "problem" comes with the recent string of good results and which players to choose, as players like R. Costa and Navarro are back for a while now, as well as midfielder Ricardo Tino Costa and Joaquin.

Valencia CF has played great with Stankevisious and Dealbert at the defense and Maduro and Banega in midfield and so choosing the right starting eleven will be difficult.
Last match Vicente got a chance to start and really impressed with his performance. Pablo has also been out of his slump for the last few matches and is currently in top form and again do you play Pablo who is currently in great form or the more consistent Joaquin who has returned from his 2 matches suspension after the verbal assault on one of the referees after the Villarreal match in the Copa Dell Rey.

Valencia cf managed to win the first match against Malaga by 3 goals to 1 and it was a fairly comfortable victory without too much struggle. This time around Malaga has been reinforced with few new names and is hoping to make a positive start of their own.

There has been some reports that suggest Vicente got injured on today's training session and will not be able to play. This is yet to be confirmed though and I'm hoping its a false alarm.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Saúl Figueroa
Defenders: Miguel Brito, Ángel Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Marius Stankevičius, Jordi Alba, Jérémy Mathieu
Midfielders: Hedwiges Maduro, Mehmet Topal, Éver Banega, Tino Costa, Pablo Hernández, Joaquín Sánchez, Sofiane Feghouli, Juan Mata
Strikers: Aritz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado


Malaga on the other hand has been quite poor for much of the first half of the season and their rich owner was forced to spend a few more millions in the winter transfer market to strengthen the squad.

Even Pelegrini who is a renowned coach in Spain couldn't make Malaga team work and they are still in real danger of falling to the second division and only achieving good results in the second half of the season can guide them above any danger of relegation.

Julio Baptista is one of the new names in Malaga and although a little short of match fitness he is quite big reinforcement for the team. He was also quite confident that they can win against Valencia and is hopeful of a great start to their "new" season. Fact is that several Malaga players and their coach have called this a new start and the team is full of optimism, which in turn is bad news for Valencia, as Malaga probably won't be pushovers and will put up a fight this time around.

Malaga squad: to be announced...


Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-4-2
Line up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, R. Costa, Mathieu; Pablo, Maduro, Tino, Mata, Dominguez, Aduriz.
Tactics: Low frequency crosses from the wings, positional changes from the 2 wingers, very high defensive line, high opposing field pressure, forward rotation.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 3-1 Malaga
I am going to predict the same result as in the first match between these two sides. Malaga may have strengthen their squad in this transfer window, but Valencia are still a far superior side to them and with the latest calls of Unai Emery for improved efficiency in front of goal, I have every reason to believe that they have achieved good results in that department with the whole week they had of training.
Malaga new players also lack match fitness and are even unlikely to feature, since they mostly sat on their previous clubs benches.
It is also possible that Valencia will keep a clean sheet as the recent results suggest such an option, though I don't want to be too optimistic and I'm calling it a 3-1 win for Valencia.

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.