Valencia CF 1-2 Real Zaragoza - Match Report

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery has lost the team and there is no other option than to let him go in the summer and appoint a new coach. The players he brought to the match, the players he started and the formation he used were wrong and some bad decisions, other bad luck and we once again loose at home to a relegation zone team that has lost most of its matches and to make matters worse we loose with Real Zaragoza playing more than 70 minutes with one less player.

Yeah sure the penalty was a huge mistake by the referee and shouldn't have happened in the first place, it was as big mistake as one can make and the referee should suffer the consequences, but that doesn't excuse the team for the loss.

Valencia CF started brightly, controlling the match from the start and very soon came the first goal courtesy of Soldado and Pablo Hernandez. Pablo has been in rather poor form for some time now, but today he had a great match, unfortunately the rest of the players had a poor one. Pablo scored in the 11th minute to give Valencia CF the lead. Valencia CF kept attacking and forming actions, but our attackers kept missing and missing. For example Aduriz missed a huge chance from few meters, later on him and Jonas would miss several chances between them.

In fact Aritz Aduriz best contribution was being fouled, that led to the dismissal of Pablo Alvarez for Real Zaragoza.

At this point it seems to me, if things don't improve drastically over the next week or two we may be looking at a possible coach change within the season in order to save 3rd position.

For example starting with Albelda was a bad decision as he has been in rather poor form for the past two weeks and starting all 3 of out attacker, but not bringing Paco was a mistake and where did Maduro go? I haven't heard that he got injured, so him missing in the squad is a bit strange.

This would have been the perfect occasion to start Maduro and Piatti and Pablo to get their fair share of football and to have a more motivated squad from the start with players wanting to prove themselves.

I would have probably even started Paco with Soldado with Pablo and Piatti on the wings and Parejo and Maduro in the middle. If things don't go well, then bring in Jonas for Paco.  I mean this should have been an easy match to win.

Valencia (1): Guaita, Barragán, Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu (Jordi Alba, m.62); Albelda (Feghouli, m.70), Parejo, Pablo (Piatti, m.82), Jonas; Aduriz and Soldado.
Zaragoza (2): Roberto, Álvarez, Paredes, Lánzaro, Abraham (Luis García, m.75); Pinter, Dujmovic, Apoño, Juan Carlos (Zuculini, m.50); Lafita y Aranda (Obradovic, m.64).
Goals: 1-0, m.9: Pablo; 1-1, m.23: Apoño, pp; 1-2, m.77: Apoño.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 5 - Didn't have anything to do for all of the match, except for the penalty and goal. Should have done better for Zaragoza's second goal.
Barragan 6 - Good match by Barragan with dangerous runs and crosses in the penalty area, once again started brightly, but faded off a bit in the second half.
Rami 5.5 - Didn't have anything to do and wasn't at fault at all for any of the goals.
Dealbert 5 (FotM) - Unlucky to be the victim for the penalty, but guilty for the second Zaragoza goal, as it was his mistake that lead to the goal.
Mathieu 6 - Didn't have any defensive troubles and was free to roam forward and provided several good crosses to the penalty area.
Pablo 8 (MotM) - Man of the match with a great performance. Scored the goal, provided countless passes and crosses and was all over the field.
Albelda 6 - Decent match from the veteran, but nothing special that can really help the team in these kind of situations. Maybe the contract extension was a bit premature as he's been really been on a downward spiral.
Parejo 6 - Fed the ball to the forward players with good precision and was controlling the midfield great, but wasn't able to produce a ppiercing pass or some cross that would make the difference.
Jonas 5 - Found himself in good position thought the match, but misses all of them. He could have scored at least one goal had he been more accurate with his shots.
Soldado 7 - Good performance by Soldado, provided the assist to the goal and very active all over the pitch, had few chances, but couldn't quite convert them, way better than his fellow attackers.
Aduriz 5 - Some big misses from Aduriz and right now doesn't look certain if he is going to stay at Valencia CF. He's had chances to score, but he just misses way too often.
Subs:
Alba 6 - Replaced Mathieu and continued with a similar fashion, wasn't really better or more effective than Mathieu, but did a good job overall.
Feghuoli 5.5 - Few good moves and passes, but failed to produce anything of bigger significance.
Piatti N/A - Not enough time.

Valencia CF in the top 13 teams in the world

Valencia CF is in the top 13 teams in the world according to the results released by the Institute for history and statistics in the last decade.

This places Valencia CF as the third best team in Spain, behind Barcelona who are first and behind Real Madrid who are fourth. Sevilla is the forth team at 18th place.

Of course Barcelona is first overtaking Manchester United, Arsenal surprisingly is 3rd, while Real Madrid has made some strides last year and this one, reaching the 4th spot.

List:
1. FC Barcelona (ESP) 2.917,0 points
2. Manchester United (ING) 2.793,0
3. Arsenal (ING) 2.618,0
4. Real Madrid (ESP) 2.569,0
5. Inter Milán (ITA) 2.567,0
6. Bayern Múnich (GER) 2.544,0
7. Liverpool (ING) 2.538,0
8. Milan (ITA) 2.490,0
9. Chelsea (ING) 2.412,0
10. Roma (ITA) 2.140,0
---
13. Valencia (ESP) 2.074,0
18. Sevilla (ESP) 1.799,0
23. Villarreal (ESP) 1.732,0
38. Deportivo (ESP) 1.545,0
47. Atlético de Madrid (ESP) 1.404,0
73. Athletic Club (ESP) 1.126,0
81. Espanyol (ESP) 1.092,0
88. Mallorca (ESP) 1.053,0
89. Osasuna (ESP) 1.038,0
98. Zaragoza (ESP) 966,0

Valencia CF should raid Swansea AFC for players

I have been following Swansea AFC from the Premier League and have seen few of their matches, they play very good and have one of the best defenses right now in the Premier League. What is so great about Swansea is that this is their first year in the Premier League, after coming from the lower ranks and they have been doing amazing, in large thanks to a rock solid defense.

So I feel like Valencia CF should really look at some of Swansea players, especially from the defense like Williams and Rangel. Most of these players are likely to come cheap as well, since they are still considered second tier players, but this could change come the summer and Valencia CF would be wise to react now and try to snatch some of their players.

If Ricardo Costa and Dealbert are to leave in the summer, then certainly snapping one or two of Swansea's defenders would be great.

Valencia CF gets AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League

Valencia CF got AZ Alkmaar in the draw as the opponents in the quarter final of the Europa League.

The first match is going to be played on 29th March in Holland, and 7 days later the second leg rematch in Valencia CF.

Teams quarter finals:

AZ-Valencia

Schalke-Ath.Bilbao
Sporting-Metalist
Atl.Madrid-Hanover

Teams semi finals:

Atletico/Hanover-Valencia/AZ
Sporting/Metalist-Schalke/Bilbao 

 

 

Negotations with Ajax over Van der Wiel fail

As I informed you earlier Valencia wanted to reach a deal over Van der Wiel fast as time was going out and Valencia CF want to sign a right back before the summer comes and prices start to sky rocket.
After the arrival of Valencia CF in Holland the management team met with Ajax management to continue the negotiations over the transfer of Gregory van der Wiel. Valencia CF technical secretary Braulio Vazquez attempted to reach an agreement, but the two sides failed to come to an agreement.

Ajax wants about 10 million euros for Gregory van der Wiel and Valencia CF max offer is 8 millions euros. While the negotiations are not completely dead, Valencia CF will now focus on other targets and second in line is Lille's Mathieu Debychu, although this is going to be very difficult as well as reports have it that Bayern Munich, PSG and Inter Milan are interested in the player.

PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

Diego 6.5 (MotM) - Did not have too much work, but reacted superbly two times to save the goal.
Bruno 5.5 - Had a good performance overall, but was at fault for PSV goal.
Rami 6.5 - Good defensive display with no major mistakes, also scored the goal for Valencia.
Dealbert 6 - Good performance, did well to stop most threats with Rami.
Alba 6.5 - Great performance by Alba, great defensively and had one good forward run that tested PSV keeper. More quiet in the second half though.
Albelda 5 - Decent performance by the captain, but you can really tell he is running on half gas. Did well defensively, but did not get involved in passes and avoided them as much as possible.
Tino Costa 4.5 (FotM) - Another weak performance with lots of mistakes and inaccurate passes. Failed to control the midfield also.
Feghuoli 5.5 - Willing runner and did cover a lot of ground, but wasn't a threat in attack at all.
Jonas 5 - Few nice touches here and there, but nothing worthwhile.
Mathieu 5.5 - Same as Feghuoli with a more defensive role in the second half. He dealt decently with attacks coming from the left side.
Aduriz 5 - He had one header and that was about it. Didn't have too much service and couldn't create anything for himself either.
Subs:
Topal 5.5 - Late substitution over Albelda and did well enough for Valencia to close out the match.
Piatti N/A - Not enough time
Parejo N/A - Not enough time

Manuel Llorente talks directly to Lass Bangoura

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente has met with Rayo Vallecano player Lass Bangoura and asked the played if he'd like to join Valencia CF. This move was made because of reports that Atletico Madrid has reached an agreement with the player to transfer to their team, so Llorente wanted to know if the player would like to join Valencia CF.

Alhassane “Lass” Bangoura (born on 30 March 1992 in Conakry) is a Guinean footballer who plays for Rayo Vallecano in La Liga, as a forward or a left wing.

He is obviosly a reinforcement for the left wing, as this season the lack of options there has been really exposed and Emery has been forced into using Mathieu as a makeshift left wing.