Valencia CF right back alternatives

Since Valencia CF haven't agreed terms with Ajax over the transfer fee for Van der Wiel, Valencia CF is looking elsewhere with latest reports linking Lille's right back Mahtieu Debuchy to Valencia CF and the player himself confirmed the reports, but saying he is currently focused on Lille.

That can easily change though as Rami can insert some influence on him and persuade him to join Valencia CF, he is also the cheaper option to Van Der Wiel and is believed to be released for 8 million euros, the amount that Valencia CF is currently offering Ajax.

Another player the club follows is Jorge Fucile who played for Porto and was a big part of their league wins in Portugal and the Europa League last season. He is currently playing for Santos on loan from Porto and is likely to want to move to Valencia CF after being thrown out of the squad by Porto's new manager.

Martin Montoya is another player that has been linked for over a year now with Valencia CF. He plays for Barcelona B squad and Valencia CF is keeping close tabs on him, although he would be the last option if given the choice.

Granada CF vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Granada vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Camp Nou
4th, March, 2012; 18:00CET
26th matchday, La Liga
Expected Attendance: 22.000

  Coaches: Abel Resino and Unai Emery

Granada CF is based in the same named town Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. The club finished fifth in Segunda, but by winning the promotion playoffs they were promoted to La Liga.
The 2010/11 La Liga Play-Off took place in June 2011. This was Segunda's first season with purely promotion play-offs since 1986–87 and the first time play offs had been used for movement between the first and second tier since 1998-99. This new promotion phase (known as Promoción de ascenso) was introduced to determine the third team which promoted to 2011/12 La Liga. Teams placed between 3rd and 6th position, excluding reserve teams, took part in the promotion play-offs.

Grenada CF has recently been on a good streak with 3 wins out of the last 5 matches and these 3 wins have helped push Granada CF out of the relegation danger zone and right now Granada CF is 16th position on the table with 28 points, 4 more from the nearest relegation club.

Their top scorer is Inigo Lopez with only 4 goals and Franco Jara leading in the assists department with 4 of them.

Granada CF squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming off a rather miserable week with a lot of speculation about the possibility of Unai Emery leaving and with good reason as the loss to Sevilla at home was the cherry on the top of a whole new 2012 year with only 1 win in the last 8 matches, 4 draws and 3 losses. In other terms Valencia CF has lost a total of 17 points in the new year and there has been doubts about whether Unai Emery can lead the team to third position once again this season.

Valencia CF still has a decent cushion of points from the other teams and Levante I don't consider particularly threatening, but beating Granada CF today is crucial or else someone would need to push the red panic button and things would go into a bad place.

Some good news is that the team is full and no other injuries apart from the known long terms ones of Canales, Banega and Miguel, but even Hedwiges Maduro has been training for some time now and while I don't expect him to feature against Granada CF he can return soon.

Other good news is that Roberto Soldado had an amazing international performance for Spain, scoring his first hat-trick for Spain in his return to the Spanish team after a break of 5 years. Jordi Alba played great for Spain as well and other players like Mehmet Topal and Adil Rami had good performances for their national teams.

Valencia CF squad: 

• Goalkeepers: Alves, Guaita
• Defenders: Bruno, Barragán, V.Ruiz, Dealbert, Rami, Mathieu, J.Alba.
• Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Feghouli, Pablo, D. Parejo, Piatti.
• Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldad.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Dealbert, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Parejo; Pablo, Jonas, Piatti; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Technical Details Granada CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Roberto; Diakathe, Siqueria, Nyom, Mainz; Yebda, Hurtado, Geijo, Benitez; Uche, Jara.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Result Prediction:
Granada CF 0-2 Valencia CF
Unai Emery is likely to give the likes of Alba, Rami, Feghuoli and Topal a break from the international duty and place them on the bench, although with Soldado's form at Spain he is likely to start and players like Pablo, Dealbert and Albelda starting. I think that Valencia CF will take the match 2-0, but only if everyone is playing 100% and Tino Costa or Parejo have a good match, especially Tino if he starts.

Betting odds:

Valencia	1.40
draw	5.30
Granada	12.00

Jordi Alba extends contract with Valencia CF to 2016

Radio Nou just announced that Valencia CF and Jordi Alba have reached an agreement about a new contract that will have Jordi Alba stay until the year 2016 at Valencia CF.

Jordi Alba and Valencia CF have been negotiating for weeks now about a contract extension and the negotiation was recently intensified with Barcelona and other clubs increasing their interest in him.

Its said that Alba's agents and Valencia CF staff will meet again to conclude the final detail of the contract and that is the transfer fee which is supposed to be in the region of about 20 million euros.

Valencia CF players on international duty (February)

Spain:
Jordi Alba started and played the full 90 minutes for Spain and he had a great match providing 2 assists and never troubled at the back.
Roberto Soldado was introduced at the start of the second half as he came on for Llorente and pretty much immediately scored. He scored a second goal soon after his first as well, got a penalty after being brought down as he found himself alone in front of goal after passing the goalkeeper. He missed the penalty, but went on to redeem himself and scored a hat-trick in the final minutes of the match.
This was an amazing performance by Soldado as he made the case to be included for the Euro 2012.

Brazil:
Diego Alves was called in for Brazil, but sat out their match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cesar had a poor match though and Alves chances of becoming the first keeper are very big.
Jonas Goncalves literally was put in the game in the last minute.

Turkey:
Mehmet Topal started and played the full 90 minutes for Turkey and was one of their better players, but unfortunately for him Turkey lost 2-1 to Slovakia.

Portugal:
Ricardo Costa did not feature for Portugal and its highly unlikely if he'll make the squad for Euro 2012.

France:
Adil Rami played the full 90 minutes for France and had a good match with few decent interventions. Good, but not great. He still has a lot to learn and much to improve.

Unai Emery should leave in the summer

I've been a big proponent and supporter of Unai Emery, but even I can not go on and defend him anymore. Since the defeat from Sevilla at our home ground in the Mestalla and mostly fresh players who were rested against Stoke City it hit me that out team hasn't really improved over the 4 years Emery has been here.

You can read my previous editorial on Unai Emery and find out in more about the details of the sporting and financial situation when he took over and what he's had to deal with to get a better understanding of the pros, but also cons of Emery's reign as Valencia CF coach.

I've been a big supporter because when Emery took over the team was in shambles, barely avoiding relegation under Koeman and most of the veterans on the periphery of the team and bad vibe in the dressing room. I thought that would be it and Valencia CF would become a middle table team and thus a rein will end, but it didn't.

Unai Emery was appointed as coach in the 2008/09 season after successfully leading Almeria to promotion to the Primera League and then finishing 8th in his first year in the top division. After taking over the reigns at Valencia CF, he led the team to a bright start, with a tough middle term battle and a weak finish that put us into sixth position, instead of third or fourth. Still that was a success considering the situation Valencia CF was in, sporting and financially wise, with a bankrupt looming and players not even getting paid for few months.


The next two years he would lead Valencia CF to two consecutive 3rd places finishes amidst loosing some of the best players like David Villa and David Silva and previously Albiol and later Baraja.
What is not so obvious within this is that Villa was towards the end of his sublime form and he literally had one more year in him of the performances we've gotten to know and expect from him and Silva would need a whole year to step up his level and play at the level he is playing right now at Manchester City and with a bit of luck Valencia CF also had some players step up like Juan Mata and Ever Banega. Valencia CF also brought Jeremy Mathieu immediately strengthening the left back spot, something that was weak link in previous years.
So while Emery has been loosing amazing players, he has also been getting new ones, in what one could attribute as luck or even a miracle if you wish and ultimately the team has kept the same level of talent and skill between the changes, what hasn't changed though is the level of play with any and all of the players that have played under Emery, almost always playing at the same level.

The results against teams of equal or slightly less quality is defeating and our results against stronger teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid are even worse. Our play in European competitions is equally defeating with losses against Atletico Madrid in a year when we were realistically stronger, losses against Schalke 04 in a year where they were playing poorly and were in the bottom of the table, but even more defeating are the results in the Spanish cup Copa Del Rey where every time we've faced a little bit of opposition, we've come crumbling down and loosing.

This year I see the same things happening, that has been happening in the past 4 years. Very strong start to the season with few to several unbeaten runs, then loose to a tough opponent, but continue with the momentum even challenging for first place, slowly going out of steam until we hit the winter vacation. Then we start in a slow fashion just as we've finished and sort of frantically adding wet steam to the machine hoping it gets dry fast enough and the machine starts picking steam up and towards the end we have a small push where we gain few places, only for the end to be on a downward spiral, but ultimately finishing strong because we've had weak competition.

So to me it seems that while Unai Emery deserves huge credit and respect for what he's done, the combination of circumstances has allowed him and our team to perform better than it otherwise would and with non existent success in all the other competitions other than La Liga which realistically we can't win, leads me to believe that our team has been performing above the level because of weak competition in Spain and the financial crisis that has engulfed all Spanish teams, but the Spain economy as well.

I think Valencia CF should part ways with Unai Emery this coming summer with both coach and club head held high knowing its on a good line. That said Valencia president Manuel Llorente should only bring in a coach that can improve and build upon Emery's reign and not start over, destroying everything that has been build and achieved over the past 4 years. We need a coach that can sort of take the pieces which are in place already and give them that final polish to be able to reach the next level.
The new coach must also be more experienced and must be proven that he can win and manage a winning team.

Valencia CF 1-2 Sevilla FC - player ratings

Guaita 6 - Maybe could have done better for the second goal, but not really at fault and dealt with crosses and such well.
Bruno 6.5 (MotM) - Was very good defensively and went forward to a good degree, don't know why he was replaced with Barragan of all people when Valencia were loosing.
Rami 4 (FotM) - Missing for the first and second goal and generally looked shaky all night. Should be replaced with Dealbert for some time.
Ruiz 5.5 - Nowhere to be seen for the second goal, but as always did have some nice tackles and marking.
Alba 6 - Failed to offer much in offense and while not troubled when he was back, it was a limited performance.
Albelda 5 - Early card and that prevented him to be more aggressive. Failed to break up Sevilla's attacks and lost the midfield battle.
Tino 5 - With this kind of performance Parejo may prove himself sooner than he'd hoped. Apart from the goal was almost invisible and unable to move the team forward or retain possession.
Feghuoli 5 - Few bright sparks here and there, but a far cry from a good performance.
Jonas 5 - Few nice touches, few bright moves, but ultimately failed to change the outcome in any way and the game mostly passed by him.
Mathieu 4 - Lost Navas for the first goal and was ineffective in attack.
Soldado 5 - Not enough service. In fact the whole team barely had few chances.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Tried really hard after he came in and had a try and involved in few actions, but couldn't muster a goal.
Barragan 5.5 - Didn't improve over Bruno and I have no idea why he was put on the field.
Pablo N/A - Not enough time, although he was probably the most active of the rest in his time.

Unai Emery 3 - Rami has been playing rather poorly for at least 2 weeks now and should have noticed that and started Dealbert over him. Tino has been playing very poorly for a month or more and Parejo should have gotten the starting spot in absence of Banega. Played with Alba and Mathieu on the left and while its a good move in some cases, its never been a consistent things and performances have been hit and miss.

My opinion: I would have started with Barragan, Dealbert over Rami, Costa and Alba in the midfield. Rami has been playing poorly the past two or three weeks and should have been left out of the starting eleven.
I would have played with Albelda and Ruiz in midfield. I really feel like Ruiz can fit very well in the midfield with his passing range and play style. If that didn't work, I would have probably made a change at half time and bring Parejo over Ruiz.
On left wing I would have started Piatti and I feel like his pace would have caused Sevilla troubles at the back. The rest would have been the same.

I feel like Mathieu, Tino and Rami have been playing rather poorly over the past few weeks and need to be dropped and told to improve their game.

Valencia CF players called to national squads

Days ago Vicente Del Bosque released the list of players to feature for Spain and Roberto Soldado was on that list on the place of Frenando Torres. Jordi Alba was also called in and continues to steadily feature for Spain, but this makes him more and more close to Barcelona as well.

Adil Rami was also called in for France. Jeremy Mathiey did not found his name on the list, as Patrice Evra and Eric Abidal both returned to occupy the left back position.

Ricardo Costa got a call for the Portugeese national team once again, he has been on and off the Portugal national team for the past 2 years.

Mehmet Topal has been called for Turkey national squad for their friendly match against Slovakia.

Jonas and Diego Alves both got called back to the Brazilian team and it seems both are becoming regulars, especially Diego Alves who with the fall of Inter's goalkeeper Julio Cesar has got the opportunity to become Brazil's next starter goalkeeper.

Hedwiges Maduro is still not fit, but he is likely to get a call anyways for Holland, while Victor Ruiz who's shown some good plays is still on the waiting line for Spain, even though Albiol has been removed now and Spain continue to have defensive problems.