Valencia CF vs Sporting Gijon - Match Preview

Valencia CF vs Sporting Gijon

Stadium: Mestalla
12th, February, 2012; 18:00CET
23rd matchday, La Liga
Expected Attendance: 35.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Iñaki Tejada

 

After a disappointing loss from FC Barcelona at the Copa Del Rey, Valencia CF will once again focus on the primera league and try to get its first win in 5 matches. With Atletico Madrid and Atletico Bilbao drawing and loosing respectively Valencia CF has a chance to get away from them and increase the lead to a comfortable 9 points lead over Atletico Madrid. 

Levante is also playing against Real Madrid so its safe to say that if Valencia CF wins it will increase its ldead over Levante to 8 points.

 

Valencia CF has been in a slump the last month or so in La Liga and has gone 5 matches without winning, 4 of those matches drawing and loosing to Real Sociedad. This kind of performance is not surprising, as almost every year with Emery now he gets similar results with Valencia. We always seem to slump after returning from the short winter break.

Will today's match again Sporting Gijon be the turning point or will we continue on this bad run of results. Certainly this is the match we must win, before the alarm bells start ringing. The fact that Valencia doesn't have tough opposition this season is benefiting us, since we are not under pressure to start getting results, but this is very important match and one we must win.

 

Unai Emery has brought 18 players with him, with Ruiz injured and Pablo as Emery says left to recover further from his injury, after a bleak performance in the last La Liga match.

 

Valencia CF squad:

• Goalkeepers: Alves and Guaita.
• Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Rami, Dealbert, Jordi Alba.
• Midfielders: Mathieu, Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Éver, Bernat, Feghouli, Piatti.
• Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldad.

Sporting Gijon is in the relegation zone with only 19 points, only less than Zaragoza and with Villarreal improving under their new coach its going to likely be a tough season for them with every match a battle to avoid relegation. 

In the last 5 matches Sporting Gijon have won once, draw once and lost 3 times. They are also the worst team defensively with a staggering 39 goals conceded and only 20 goals scored which while not worst, its pretty low.

David Barral is their most proficient goal scorer with 7 goals scored so far which accounts for 1/3 of their overall goals scored.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups)
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Barragan, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Tino, Albelda; Piatti, Jonas, Bernat; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.

 

Result Prediction:

Valencia CF 2-0 Sporting Gijon

With no more Copa Del Rey to defocus the players and no more room for mistakes the team should be able to beat Sporting Gijon, especially since we are playing on home ground.

Valencia CF interested in Jonathan Viera

Valencia CF technical director Braulio Vazquez admits interest in Jonathan Viera, Las Palmas striker. Speaking to the newspaper La Provincia he said that Valencia CF is interested in Viera and that Valencia CF has been following him and analyzing his play and he likes what he's seen. He announced to make a move in the summer to try and sign him.

With a clause of six million euros, the fact is that Viera contract with the Las Palmas ends in June 2013 so they are going to be forced to sell the player, as the player has announced he wants to move.

Report have it that Jonathan Viera has reached a verbal agreement with Valencia, so its likely in that circumstance Valencia CF to be able to sign him in the summer without too much trouble from other teams like Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Malaga.

Join me to a new forum and lets get the discussion going

Hi there. I've changed my forum link to a new forum one managed by Gavin, Rezaur and now me. There are already more than dozen people there actively discussing and I hope to see all of you there. Its obviously an English language forum.

You can go on there immediately and engage in discussion right now even without registration, but preferably you would want to register if the rules change in the future.

http://valenciacflosche.proboards.com/

Valencia CF 19th richest football club in 2010/11

Deloitte released their football money league results and Valencia CF is 19th on the list of the most richest clubs in 2010/11.

Real Madrid head the Money League for the seventh successive year and require one more year in top position in order to match the dominance of Manchester United’s during the first eight years of the Money League. FC Barcelona complete a Spanish one-two for the third successive year, whilst the top six positions remain unchanged.

German club Schalke’s run to the semi-finals of the Champions League has allowed the club to claim a top ten position for the first time, climbing six places. We expect Manchester City to claim a top ten position in the next edition of the Money League. England retains the largest representation from any single country with six clubs, with the other 14 clubs from the other ‘big five’ European leagues. There are three new entries into this year’s top 20 in Borussia Dortmund, Valencia and Napoli.


2010/11 Revenue (€m)
1 Real Madrid 479.5
2 FC Barcelona 450.7
3 Manchester United 367
4 Bayern Munich 321.4
7 AC Milan 235.1
8 Internazionale 211.4
9 Liverpool 203.3
10 Schalke 04 202.4
11 Tottenham Hotspur 181
12 Manchester City 169.6
13 Juventus 153.9
14 Olympique de Marseille 150.4
15 AS Roma 143.5
16 Borussia Dortmund 138.5
17 Olympique Lyonnais 132.8
18 Hamburger SV 128.8
19 Valencia 116.8
20 Napoli 114.9

FC Barcelona 2-0 Valencia CF Match Report

FC Barcelona 2-0 Valencia CF

Possesion: 66%-34%

Fouls: 12-22

Shots: 14-4

The match started fairly calmly with both sides trying to establish control in midfield with Valencia CF being more successful in the early stages and pressuring Barcelona aggressively and deep in their territory and this would have an effect and Barcelona players would commit quite a few errors.

First chance was for Valencia in the 12th minute with Mathieu's great through ball to Feghuoli who was basically alone on goal, but his shot was inaccurate.

15h minute counter chance for Barcelona and their actual first chance and Fabregas converts it into goal after poor marking by Miguel and an even poorer reaction and positioning by Diego Alves.

18th minute a huge blunder by Rami who gives the ball to Messi, trying to pass to Banega, Messi sprints towards the goal and shoots, but Alves was alert and saves.

Good save by Digeo once again in the 25th minute after a shot by Messi after the free kick. Minutes later Barcelona would start pushing hard on goal and would get their chance in the 31st minute with Diego clearing the ball short to Ruiz and this one fails to receive the ball properly and ends up giving it to Fabregas or Messi, but luckily the shot is saved by Diego yet again.

36th minute one more chance for Fabregas after Mathieu fails to get the ball off of him in some very poor marking, but once again this shot was saved by Diego.

Valencia would try to get something going and in the 39th minute it would come close to Pinto's goal, but Jonas shot is blocked.

Ultimately the first half was rather poor and we are lucky the result is still only 1-0 for Barcelona after their several chances to score.

Second half started and a quick chance for Alba as he gets to a pass from Jonas and in front of goal, but Pinto reacts fast and saves.

53th minute Chance for Messi as he escapes Ramim but Ruiz is close and blocks with a sliding challenge. Just a minute later Messi goes past Jonas, Albelda and Ruiz and manages to shoot at goal, but Diego saves.

58th minute chance for Valencia CF as Aritz Aduriz finds himself in decent position and Pinto is out of goal, but Aduriz fails fails to score as Mascherano gets to the ball and heads it out.

62nd minute Ruiz gets the ball kicked off his legs by Alexis and the ball finds its way to Messi whonow has huge chance, but Diego or Ruiz just manage to get to him and get the ball to go just wide and into corner. 

72th minute Mathieu tries to pass to the lone Aduriz after a counter attack, but only gets a corner. From the corner Jonas manages a volley, but Pinto saves.

74th minute good chance for Barcelona, but Miguel is there and blocks.

79th minute good chance for Aduriz , but he slips just as he is to shoot and ruins his chance.

Minute later Barcelona make it 2-0 after a quick counter attack in which 3 Barca players find themselves against 2 Valencia defenders and Xavi scores while being all alone and unchallenged by anyone.

From there the match was basically over and Barcelona had few more tries and chances, but the match ended 2-0 for Barcelona after a deserved victory in which Valencia CF had very little chances of even drawing and not to mention winning.

Player Ratings:

Diego (MotM) 7.5 - Man of the match even though the saves weren't that hard to make, but he did have quite a lot of them so he gets a good score and man of the match.

Miguel 5 - Dealt with most of what came from Cuenca and Abidal and not overly troubled.

Rami 4 - Terrible night from the Frenchmen as he made few huge blunders and only gets a reasonable 4 because he actually did make few decent tackles and blocks.

Ruiz 4 - Same as Rami. Was better in the first half, but as if not to let Rami look bad did the same blunders Rami did in the first half.

Alba 6.5 - Actually good performance on an individual level and had few good runs forward that if he had a little bit more luck could have converted.

Albelda 6 - Good match from the veteran and steady as always and simple in his play.

Banega 5 - Was overrun in midfield and had no chance against Xavi and Thiago. Some cheap and inaccurate passes as well.

Feghuoli 5 - Started well and was involved in some attacks, but got himself taken out with two yellows after a stupid and needless foul on Puyol in Barcelona's half.

Jonas 5.5 - Not too involved and didn't drop deeper to try and help the midfield. Had two good plays with a pass to Alba and a good velley shot, but he was too invisible to get a better score.

Mathieu 5 - Very ineffective in attack as he was by formation the more forward of him and Alba, but failed to do anything of note and wasn't very effective in defense as well.

Aduriz 5.5 - Had few decent chances, but he failed to convert them reacting rather poorly in all of them. Got in good positions though, but it just didn't go his way.

Subs:

Tino 5 - Did not offer anything over Banega and was as isolated and ineffective as Banega before him.

Piatti 5 - Could not make any difference.

Parejo N/A - not enough time.

Valencia needs a win in La Liga

While I'm pleased with the draw with Atletico Madrid and I think that is the fairest result by all measurements I feel like Valencia CF has overall slipped in the domestic league with 4 draws and 1 loss in the last 5 matches. That is basically 11 points lost and considering we drew 3 of these matches in the last minute practically it really increases the pain.

Part of this is probably the Copa Del Rey as Valencia CF has really been focusing on going further and with now Barcelona and previously Levante it probably did have an effect of the overall performance, but since Emery has been rotating the players it shouldn't have affected us so much.

Right now though first things first we need to go and win against Barcelona and no less at the Camp Nou, but the fact that we've drawn with Barcelona twice this season shows that we can compete with them and our bigger squad should theoretically give us a bit of an advantage, although I really doubt how much real the freshness effect is and how really tired players are.

But no matter if we win or loose at Camp Nou we must prioritize the domestic league as top priority and 3rd place is a must, especially after such poor season start from all Valencia CF competitors.

Villarreal, Sevilla, Atletico Bilbao and for much of the start Atletico Madrid have all been poor, with Malaga not really being a direct competitor just as I've actually predicted it won't and said it will finish around 6th and now it seems increasingly likely that way, so the biggest competition we've had is from Levante another Valencia based club, which I guess is good.

But thing is Atletico Madrid are catching up really fast and just as I've predicted again accurately before the season began that Atletico Madrid have a very strong squad, realistically stronger than Valencia squad and if things go their way will be our main competitor and hold and behold with the change of coach that is happening right now.

Surprisingly though even I couldn't predict the disaster that is going to turn out Villarreal and their miserable season, especially since their current squad is practically the same from a season ago minus Cazorla.

So yeah right now the biggest worry I have is Atletico Madrid as I feel can challenge our 3rd place which up until now was pretty safe and even Emery admitted yesterday that after the last draw 3rd place is no longer safe and it will be a challenge to keep it.

What I'm enthusiastic about is the fact that even without Mata and with some big injuries and quite a fewer overall players than last season we are doing as well as last season and this time the Europa League might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise if we can reach the latter stages of it like the semi final or even final and dare I say win.

But on to another topic I want to say that I was right yet again about Parejo and wrote that it would be best for him to leave as he is not combining with the team and the fact that his character is standing in the way is an even bigger reason for him to have left. Now how was I right again? Well that is because first my rating of players is based in fact and statistics and not feel. I agree it has a lot of feel and subjectivity in it, but in all that it has an actual formula of how it works.
 
First off all the players start off with a score of 5 and at the end of the match I calculate with the points they lost or received and that creates the final score in the majority of cases.
For every goal, assist, penalty save and major block or perfect offside trap the player/s in question receive +1 point.
For every positive action in the game, say good through pass creating a chance or distributing the ball precisely in a positive way the player/s gets 0.5 points.
For every negative action like giving the ball few too many times, failed shots or blocks the player/s gets -0.5 points.
For major mistakes like giving/loosing the ball away close to own goal or in very dangerous position or a 5 meter clear goal miss or things of that nature player/s gets -1 points.

So ultimately I end up giving each player from 3-4 points up to 10-12 depending on his involvement.

Example: I give Albelda 4 0.5 points for positive actions and 1 negative 0.5 point so that is basically 2-0.5=1.5. So 5 starting point + 1.5=6.5 final rating.

Now every once and a while I'd increase or decrease the rating based on pure feel about how they played, but it mostly has some science behind it.

Second thing was the team play analysis. Sometimes you can have the best player, yet he not going to play well for example Messi for most of his Argentina performances. You got to see how he fits with other players, which role suits him and does not suit him and just the general feel of the game and how the player is part of it.

The fact that he has done pretty bad in both and coupled with his negative attitude about the situation was enough for me to write him off. And he is not going to improve this season. If we don't sell him next season and he also decides to stay and try and fight for a spot from the ground up and has a really good summer he may become a valuable asset to our team, but that is obviously a long shot.

/End discussion-rant.

Atletico Madrid 0-0 Valencia CF match report

Atletico Madrid 0-0 Valencia CF

Possesion: 48%-52%

Fouls: 22-21

Atletico Madrid and Valencia CF shared the spoils tonight and ended up both getting a point with a goalless draw. The match itself was interesting, although it didn't have many chances on both sides. Most of the play was in midfield and both teams were evenly matched. Both team would have good chances to score with both sides unable to convert their chances into goals.

Atletico Madrid would have the more direct chances including one towards the end and then one went through Rami legs, but deflected to a corner.

With so little chances most of the battle was in the midfield and both teams were at the same level with pretty much equal ball possession, with the latest statistic having Valencia 52% of the ball control vs the 48% for Atletico Madrid.

First chance would come for Atletico in the 8th minute with a shot by Arda, but Diego Alves saved the goal without too much trouble.

Then in the 28th minute Valencia had a chance through Piatti, who's shot was saved by Atletico goalkeeper.

The other interesting thing was when Diego gave Diego Godin a KO trying to punch the ball and hit Godin with his elbow.

79th minute Diego would fire a shot, but Diego saves again no big deal and then in the 88th minute a huge chance for Atletico Madrid after Rami made a big blunder and miss-kicked the ball, but luckilly nothing came out of it as Diego once again claimed the ball.

Player Ratings:
Diego 6.5 - Assured performance and when called upon made the saves.
Miguel 4.5 - Largely anonymous performance with few lapses of concentration.
Rami 5.5 - Started well making several interceptions and ruined a good performance with his late game mistake.
Ruiz 5 - Started shakier of the defensive duo, but improved as the game wore on and made few good blocks.
Alba 6 - Had a good defensive display and more offensive than Mathieu at times on the side there.
Albelda 6.5 - Great performance from the veteran who made some key interceptions and fouls at key moments to stem the Atletico Madrid attacks.
Tino 5 - Largely anonymous performance with more defensive play and wasn't very influential in midfield as the midfield was constantly bypassed from defense to offense.
Pablo 4 - One of those really bad performances where he did not do enough and what he did was all bad or didn't work.
Piatti 5.5 - Drifted on the left side and unable to link up play forward, but was active in trying and has few decent moments.
Mathieu 5.5 - Some good and some bad moments for Mathieu and while the left wing was a lot more dangerous than the right it doesn't say much as both Miguel and Pablo were bad tonight. Had few defensive lapses later in the match.
Soldado 5.5 - Did run channels and tried to position himself in a good position, but he lacked service tonight.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Did well after coming off for Soldado and found himself in few decent positions, but as Soldado really lacked service.
Jonas 5 - Did not have enough time and the match largely passed by him.
Bernat N/A - Not enough time.