Eliaquim Mangala set to join Valencia CF

Valencia CF is set to sign Standard Liege central defender Eliaquim Mangala and the deal should be done within 2 days. His price is set to be between 3-4 million euros, but his salary would be very low bellow 1 million.

Eliaquim Mangala (born 13 February 1991) is a French professional football player of Congolese descent who currently plays for Belgian club Standard Liège in the Jupiler Pro League. Mangala is a France youth international and is currently playing with the under-21 team having made his debut on 13 November 2009 against Tunisia.

SK Rapid Wien 4-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

Well the third match didn't turn out as we'd all hoped and expected as Valencia CF was pretty much embarrassed by Rapid Wien and while they are already in their season and I've written that they will be in full form and fitness and for us to expect a tough game, I didn't expect Valencia CF loosing 4-1.


First goal Wien scored was mainly because of a Rami mistake, he marked the same player Costa marked and then Portu failed to mark the player Rami was supposed to cover in the first place. So this was a double fail, although I'm not blaming Portu so much as he isn't a right back in the first place.

Second goal for Wien was a weird one as one of their player tried to cross and ended up being a shot, fooling Diego Alves and ending up in our goal.

In the second half in was a completely different starting 10 with only Diego left on the pitch, but the result did not become any better.
Wien would go on to score 2 goals, before Pablo Hernandez scores a consolidation goal for Valencia CF.

Wien's third goal would come after a counter attack from the right wing and even though the goalscorer was clearly offside the goal would stand.

Forth goal came from a counter attack as well, so this means that someone was loosing the ball too much in the middle of the pitch and there wasn't enough cover for the defense. I'm looking particularity at Maduro and Topal here, but would need to review the match to see exactly who committed the mistakes. Anyways Dealbert set up a nice offside trap only for Pardo to come rushing back and playing the striker onside.

Technical Details:
SK Rapid Viena (4): Novota, Patocka, Schrammel, Sonnleitner, Kulovits, Salihi, Hofmann, Katzer, Prokopic, Trimmel y Alar. También jugaron Gartler, Nuhiu,

Valencia CF (1): Alves, Rami, Albelda, Feghouli, Mata, Aduriz, Piatti, Alba, Parejo, Ricardo Costa y Portu. También jugaron Miguel, Pardo, Dealbert, Mathieu, Pablo, Topal, Maduro, Bernat, Jonas, Soldado.

Goals: 1-0 Min. 23 Alar; 2-0 Min. 41 Schrammel; 3-0 Min. 74 Gartler; 4-0 Min. 83 Gartler; 4-1 Min. 89 Pablo

Player Ratings:
Diego 4 - Received a weird goal in the first half from a cross, in the second half he looked shaken, but made few saves to redeem himself although it was not a performance to remember anyways.
Portu 3 - We can clearly see today that he isn't a right back. Lost the ball way too often when pushing forward, missed the marking for the first goal, although he wasn't particularly the main falter.
Rami 3.5 - Had a great game before and after the goal, but really screwed up for the 1st goal marking the same man that Costa was marking.
Costa 5 - Had a good showing, didn't make any mistakes which is most important.
Alba 5.5 - Good defensively, not so effective going forward as in the previous friendlies though.
Feghuoli 5 - Had an average game, few too many times afraid to push forward though.
Albelda 5 - Decent game from the veteran, showed good composure and provided good defensive cover.
Parejo 5 - Has great technique and good vision, but was not very influential in the position he was in.
Piatti 5.5 - Had blistering pace as he showed again, less effective since the left wing was crowded too much by Mata and Alba.
Mata 5.5 - Good first match from Mata, showed a bit of leadership and had a constructive game with good movement and passing.
Aduriz 4.5 - Deprived of any balls he was left alone in the penalty area.
Subs:
Miguel 4 - Not particularly good in defense or in attack. Lost several challenges and left frustrated going forward.
Pardo 3 - Helped Wien attackers get onside at least once, I'm 99.9% sure the 3rd goal was offside, but he certainly played onside the Wien attacker for the 4th goal.
Dealbert 4 - Had a debatable action for the 3rd Wien goal, but that should have been an offside, set up a good offside trap for the 4th goal which unfortunately Pardo played onside. Not very convincing either way.
Mathieu 5 - Good defensive showing and was more offensive today, but he needs more consistency.
Pablo 6 - Saved himself until the end to score a wonderful goal after passing 4 players. Didn't do much otherwise.
Topal 5.5 - Did well to pass the ball around and good in his defensive duties.
Maduro 5 - Didn't do much of anything, several touches and passes but seems like he doesn't know what his role should be.
Bernat 4 - Few touches with the ball and that was it, invisible for the large majority of the match.
Jonas 4 - Missed passes, failed to catch passes and his movement was very limited.
Soldado 3 - Came in frustrated and even if the referee didn't show him red card for that challenge I feel like he would have done anything and everything to get dismissed. Way too frustrated.

SK Rapid Wien vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Two matches, two wins, Valencia CF preseason so far so good. The training has been going on great, the players are working hard and the morale is pretty high. Tomorrow though is another challenge for Valencia CF and we all expect improved play from the previous two matches as Valencia CF has had more training and preparation.

SK Rapid Wien is an Austrian club located in the capital Vienna which is a beautiful city, kind of old looking but grandiose and anyone who can should visit. But more importantly its the club Wien that we are interested in right now since tomorrow its going to take on Valencia CF.

Rapid Wien is the most successful club in Austria and has lifted the national trophy 32 times. Some of the more notable names through their ranks have been Dejan Savicevic, Zlatko Krajncar and Mario Tokic.

SK Rapid Wien season has actually started and they have already played 2 matches and won both matches. They are currently holding first place in their league with 6 points, 4 goals scored and none received.

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to this match as the big club, the big favorite and is going to serve as an sort of promotional match for Rapid Wien in order to lure as much fans as possible after having quite low attendance no attendance because of a penalty since fans stormed the pitch in their last match of last season and Wien was penalized(thanks to randomrapidfan for pointing that out). For Valencia CF this will be the biggest challenge so far as Rapid Wien have finished their preseason a lot earlier and are towards their 3rd game in the season so they are going to be in in full form and fitness and ready to play 100%.

The weather hasn't been too good the last two day, but the squad has continued training in bad weather conditions even though some more technical training wasn't possible.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Rami, Pardo, Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Salva Ruiz.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Albelda, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical Details:
Formation: Most likely 4-2-3-1 in the first half and then change it to 4-4-2 once few players are substituted.
Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, Rami, Costa, Alba; Feghuoli, Topal, Tino, Piatti, Jonas; Aduriz
Tactics: short passing, high opposing field pressure...

Unai Emery: Victory is important

Unai Emery continued his good preseason matches with Valencia CF with a 1-0 win against Leicester City FC and previously a 2-0 win against PSV Eindhoven.

Coach Unai Emery had this to say after the match: "This victory is important, but we can improve a lot more. You've seen during the match in some moments we played really good and in others quite bad."

On the two half's he said: "The first half we were better, in some moments when we were attacking we played 4-4-2 formation which I really liked. We must continue working on it, because we are likely to use of of the two formations against Osasuna."

Emery analyzed the performance on individual players and said: "Jonas and Aduriz played great, this was the first time they played together and up till now they only worked on two trainings together. Today they have shown their knowledge and professionalism.
I also have to praise Pablo Piatti who works very hard, in him we got a great reinforcement. Then there is Daniel Parejo who immediately showed us that he is a big reinforcement for the club."

About the next match against SK Rapid Wien Unai Emery said: "The idea is for the first eleven to play a little bit more minutes and after that to have substitutions. Its very likely that Juan Mata will get his first preseason minutes playing time in the match against SK Rapid Wien."

Leicester City FC 0-1 Valencia CF Match Report

Valencia CF just won its second preseason match 1-0 over Leicester City FC. Valencia CF also won the trophy as this was a sort of mini tournament with 4 teams in it I believe with Bursaspor and PSV.

The match started slowly with both teams trying to control the midfield, but after 5-6 minutes Valencia CF became more comfortable and took the possession and initiative of the match. Maduro was quite good the first 30 minutes of the half time, really controlling the possession and spreading the ball well.
After a lot of pressing Valencia CF scored a goal with Aduriz on the left fooling a Leicester defensive player and crossing the ball to Jonas who hit a perfect volley and scored a goal.

From then on Feghuoli in particular would have more shots on goal, but unfortunately won't manage to score a goal. Schmeichel was actually beaten, but a defensive players managed to save their goal basically from the goal line and keep the score only 1-0 for Valencia.

The second half Unai Emery changed the whole squad again and having his debut this time was Daniel Parejo.

Second half was actually more interesting, but if you are a Leicester City FC fan as they had quite a bit of chances to equalize. While the second half our left side was way better with Alba and Piatti and even Pablo coming left, the defensive midfield and the center defense was worse as Topal and Portu failed to control the play and the Rami had at least 2 blunders and forced Diego Alves to come off his post twice to try and save the day. Dealbert was a bit better, but not very convincing either.

Pablo was really poor on the right and Soldado was once again too slow and rusty to do anything and he even had two good chances to score. Daniel Parejo was a welcome sight and had a very positive debut in which he carried the whole Valencia CF play at times.

Overall it was a good preseason match and this will show Unai Emery where and how to improve and lets not forget that our more creative and influential players like Tino Costa, Juan Mata and Ever Banega are yet to play.

Right now I'm personally really impressed with Miguel, Burno, Pardo, Alba, Feghuoli and Aduriz. This match I was also impressed with Parejo, but we'll see how he performs in the next match.

I'm really disappointed with Rami, Mathieu, Topal, Pablo and Soldado. Its still early though and I think the next match is really going to show the real quality and performance of the players and hopefully we'll also have Tino Costa and Mata ready to play.

Technical Details:
Leicester City FC (0):City: Schmeichel; Peltier (Oakley 46), Bamba (St. Ledger 61), Mills, Konchesky (46 Ball); Abe, Wellens (c), King (79 Moussa); Gallagher (61 Waghorn), Vassell (78 Howard), Schlupp (60 Dyer).
Valencia CF (1): Guaita(45 Diego), Bruno(45 Miguel), Costa(45 Rami), Pardo(45 Dealbert), Mathieu(45 Alba), Feghuoli(45 Pablo), Maduro(45 Topal), Albelda(45 Portu), Bernat(45 Piatti), Jonas(45 Parejo), Aduriz(45 Soldado)
Goals: 27min, 1-0 Jonas.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 5.5 - Had few decent mini-saves
Bruno 6 - Great in defense, won all his tackles and very good in attack as well.
Costa 5  - Pretty good, had some good challenges
Pardo 5 - Quite good at the beginning, very comfortable with the ball at his feet and feeds the midfield nice.
Mathieu 5 - Decent defending, few runs forward, but nothing standing out.
Feghuoli 6 - Very active around the pitch, had 3 shots towards Leicester goal and good showing overall.
Maduro 5.5 - Great for around 25 minutes with good passing and keeping possession and then went missing.
Albelda 4.5 - Helped out in defense, had a few forward passes but that's about it.
Bernat 4 - Invisible for the whole match.
Jonas 6 - Decent performance, scored a goal, but failed to link up play in the final 3rd.
Aduriz 6.5 - Great performance from Aduriz impressing once again with an assist to Jonas. Also had a shot on goal and won few crucial headers.
Subs:
Diego 5.5 - Got off the line to clear a ball with a header, then had to do it again but the second time missed the ball with his foot and Leicester almost scored.
Miguel 5.5 - Very good in defense,  was not troubled at all, but did not go forward too much.
Rami 4 - Poor performance by Rami, lost his man on two occasions on the first occasion he was just outrun and on the second he missed the ball and failed to clear it, forcing the goalkeeper to come off his line twice.
Dealbert 5 - Managed to cover for one Rami mistake early on, but as Rami didn't look too comfortable.
Alba 6.5 - Just fantastic, good in defense and great in attack. His forward moves were always threatening and linked up quite well with everyone ahead of him.
Pablo 5 -Had one or two good moves, run a lot, but he is not creating any chances or making dangerous through passes.
Topal 5 - Great helping hand in defense, but fails to move the ball forward.
Portu 5.5 - More active than Topal and pushed forward more, but he as Topal fail to keep possession, spread the ball around or move the ball forward.
Piatti 5.5 - Had a few good runs on the left side, linked up few times with Alba, but falls to the ground too easily.
Parejo 6 - Really impressive debut from Parejo, great ball control, went down deep to move the ball forward, always open to receive a pass and along with Alba they share man of the match performance.
Soldado 5 - Very rusty, had two good chances, but in one he missed the ball and the other chance he shot straight in the goalkeeper.

Leicester City vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Just few days ago Valencia CF played its first match of the preseason against PSV Eindhoven in which Valencia CF won 2-0 with goals from Piatti and Aduriz. Tomorrow is the next challenge in Austria and this time Valencia CF meets Leicester City FC.

Leicester City FC is an English club based in obviously the same named city Leicester and playing in "the Championship" league. The championship league was formerly known as second division, but the FA thought that better names would give it more importance and exposure.

The most known name in the club is Sven-Goran Ericsson, some know him because he has the name of the mobile phone company Ericsson and now as Sony-Ericsson which is almost an exact match, but some will also know him as the English national team manager.
He is considered by the FA as the second best English national team manager in the history of England.

Leicseter City FC has already had a great preseason and went on an unbeaten tour in Sweden. They also played 0-0 with Bursaspor(the club that VCF destroyed in the champions league) on July 20th and tomorrow they will face Valencia CF.  They will also face Real Madrid on 30th this month and is going to be a nice measurement of sort to see how Valencia CF stacks up to Real Madrid, even though Real is with an advantage with playing more games so far and will be with an even better advantage until they get to play Leicester City FC.

The coaches of both clubs have gotten to know each other and already seem like best buddies having so much fun playing table mini football or whatever is called in English.

Leicester City squad:
TBA

Valencia CF as you already know started the preseason very well, you can read my previous match preview to check how the training sessions went and my match report on how the match against PSV went. Suffice to say the preseason has been going well and with the added bonus of Juan Mata coming to Austria and joining the squad.

The training sessions the last 3 days have been very positive with a mix of stamina and physical workout and tactical training. The team I believe practiced few tactical movements in attack.

Emery played with a 4-2-3-1 formation last match, we'll see how he sets it up tomorrow, maybe he'll experiment and maybe not, we'll just have to wait and see.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves and Adrián.
Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Dealbert, R.Costa, Rami, Pardo, Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Salva Ruiz.
Midfield: Maduro, Tino Costa, Albelda, Nacho González, Topal, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Pablo, Portu, Piatti, Mata and Parejo.
Attack: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical details:
Formation: Most likely 4-2-3-1 once again, but everything is possible at this point.
Line-up:  Guaita; Miguel, Rami, R.Costa, Alba; Topal, Albelda, Pablo, Piatti; Jonas, Parejo, Aduriz Soldado.
Tactics: Have no idea.

Juan Mata stay to depend on economic situation

This is breaking news ladies and gentlemen. Juan Mata stay with Valencia CF will depend purely on economic results. Things are looking really bad and right now chances are that Juan Mata will be sold if an good offer comes along.

With less than 30.000 season tickets sold so far and only 2 days left and with no shirt sponsor and low chances of finding a good one, its very likely that Juan Mata will be sold in order to balance the sheets.

Even though Valencia CF has reduced the expenditures by more than 15 million just by cutting and/or reducing salaries its balance sheet depends mostly on season tickets sold. While the club can go even several months without a shirt sponsor, season tickets have been the major income for Valencia CF for so many years.

I really hope there will be at least 35.000 season tickets sold, but its really hard to tell right now. Reports have it that there were about 1000 people purchasing tickets today, but even that isn't much.

If Valencia CF doesn't have stability through season tickets and shirt sponsor expect Juan Mata to be sold if an offer of around 30 million euros comes along.