Valencia CF vs Deportivo La Coruna Match Preview

Valencia CF vs Deportivo La Coruna

Stadium: Mestalla

Date: 26.98.2012; 23:00 CET

2nd matchday, La Liga

Coaches: Mauricio Pellegrino and Jose Luis Oltra

Valencia CF

Valencia CF are coming to this match after a hard earned draw against defending Spanish champions Real Madrid and would be looking to win this match to continue on the good starting result. The coach and players know that anything but a win against Deportivo La Coruna would mean the hard fought draw against Real Madrid would have been for nothing.

Valencia CF strengthened the squad this summer with the arrival of few quality new players such as Joao Pereira, Sergio Canales, Andres Guardado who comes from Deportivo La Coruna and was their top players the last few seasons, as well as fresh from the oven signing Aly Cissokho who will compete for the left back slot with Jeremy Mathieu. That said Valencia CF also lost few good players, namely Jordi Alba, Mehet Topal, Aritz Aduriz and right now there is a looming possibility Valencia CF would loose Pablo Hernandez to Swansea AFC. Paco Alcacer future at least for this season is uncertain as well, as he might be loaned out to Getafe CF in order to get more playing time there, though right now its not clear at all what will happen.

With the first and hard obstacle now behind, new Valencia CF coach would be more relaxed and confident coming into this match, after all Valencia CF just drew against Real Madrid and at their home terrain nonetheless. Having done well last match its likely Pellegrino will start with the exact same squad against Deportivo as well, after all why change it if it ain't broken.

One small change he might make is start Daniel Parejo in place of Tino Costa, though that is unlikely as well. Other change might be the possible inclusion of Adil Rami in place of either Costa or Ruiz, though with a match against FC Barcelona coming up just a week later, its likely he will play the same defensive duo in order to get match experience and get accustomed with each other.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Vicente Guaita.
Defenders: Joao Pereira, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Albelda, Gago, Parejo, Tino Costa, Feghouli, Bernat, Guardado, Viera.
Forwards: Jonas, Valdez, Soldado.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Alves; Pereira, Costa, Ruiz, Mathieu; Gago, Tino; Feghuoli Jonas, Guardado; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, own half pressure, high frequency wing attacks, mixed passing, doubling down in attack.

Deportivo La Coruna

Deportivo La Coruna are coming to this match after a hard fought victory against Osasuna in their first official match of the new season. Deportivo La Coruna just returned from segunda division after finishing first place last season and it was actually Valencia CF that beat Deportivo in their last match 2 seasons ago and send them to the second league. Of course you can't really blame Valencia CF, Emery back then said we are going to play our normal football as we don't want to be unfair to the other teams trying to avoid relegation. So Deportivo La Coruna has only itself to blame for their poor performances over that season, although I know the last match always sticks in everybody's head, so I guess Deportivo is going to want a revenge against Valencia CF.

Another reason and one more current why Deportivo La Coruna might want revenge is the loss of Andres Guardado to Valencia CF. Valencia CF reached out to Guardado last year and reached a personal agreement with the player, he rejected offers for renewal with Deportivo La Coruna and signed for Valencia CF this summer as a free agent. So in that sense they might want to inflict some serious pain to Valencia CF by beating them this weekend and getting a double revenge.

One of the more recognizable names that they also lost on a free transfer is Diego Colotto, though they did get Andre Santos on a loan deal from Sporting, Nelson Oliveira from Benfica for about 600k euros and former Valencia CF defender Carlos Marchena on a free transfer from Villarreal. They've done pretty good in the transfer market this season for their objectives this season, which would be to avoid relegation.

Deportivo coach Jose is likely to field the exact same squad he fielded against Osasuna that won him that match 2-0, I haven't heard about any injuries so I expect the same squad, with possibly Nelson Oliveira starting instead of Riki.

Deportivo La Coruna squad:
Goalkeepers: Daniel Aranzubia, German Lux.
Defenders: Manuel Pablo, Marchena, Aythami, Evaldo, Ayoze.
Midfielders: André Santos, Álex Bergantiños, Juan Dominguez, Abel Aguilar Bruno Gama, Pizzi, Camuñas, Valerón
Forwards: Riki and Nélson Oliveira

Technical Details Deportivo La Coruna (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Aranzubia; Pablo, Marchena, Aythami, Evaldo; Juan, Aguilar; Bruno, Valeron, Pizzi; Oliveira.
Tactics: Low defensive line, own half pressure, counter attacks, mostly long passing, doubling down defense.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 Deportivo La Coruna
Valencia CF had a good start to the season with a draw against Real at the Bernabeu, so the team will like to build on that result and get the 3 points, especially since the team plays its first match in the new season in front of their own fans at the Mestalla. That said Deportivo La Coruna would like to continue the good start as well and get at least a draw at their visit to the Mestalla, possibly stun Valencia CF on the counter attack.

Valencia CF has a lot of quality and talent and with the left wing strengthened by former Deportivo player Guardado we should expect a win here. We still haven't seen what the team is capable off and this is an opportunity to show us. I expect Valencia CF to score two goals, one by Soldado and one by Guardado, while defending nicely any counter attacks Deportivo tries.

Aly Cissokho: I come to one of the greatest teams in Europe

Aly Cissokho was officially presented today at 18:00 O'clock at the hall Antonio Puchades as a Valencia CF player where the team officials and Aly spoke and took pictures in the Valencia CF kit.

The ceremony was chaired by Manuel Llorente, President of Valencia CF, and was attended by members of the Board Jose Garcia Roig, Fernando Giner, José Antonio García Moreno and Braulio Vázquez, Director Sports, Damià Vidagany, Director of Marketing, Communication and Image and Jordi Bruixola, Director of External Relations and Institutional.

Valencia CF president said: "Valencia CF attracts players like Aly, who has given up part of his salary to come here. We are very happy with his arrival".

Aly Cissokho took the stage and said: "this is a big step forward in my career, I come to a historic club and I have really wanted to come to this team" After posing with his new shirt and it disclosed that he will wear the number 3 shirt, the press conference started, in which the French player has explained the reasons that led to him giving up money and opting to come to Valencia CF:"football is a passion and not a business and therefore it was not hard to give up money. In France every player dreams to come and play for Valencia CF".

Aly Cissokho arrives in Valencia

New Valencia CF signing Aly Cissokho arrived in Valencia this morning by plane, met with the usual Valencia CF staff and did the medical exam which he passed with flying colors.

Aly Cissokho will be presented as new Valencia CF player this evening at 18:00O'clock.

For those that don't know Aly Cissokho was a Lyon player, he arrived to Lyon from Porto and soon established himself as the main player on the left back position, playing over 90 matches in 3 years just in the French league. Overall he's played over 110 matches total, including over 20 matches in the Champions League.

He is also still young, only 24 years old and comes at the perfect time to Valencia CF, I believe he has yet to reach his full potential and in many ways is better than Jordi Alba. He is certainly stronger, more physical and more defense minded than Alba.

Official: Aly Cissokho joins Valencia CF

Its official, Valencia CF and Olympique Lyon have reached an agreement for the transfer of Aly Cissokho and the players is expected to come to Valencia in the next few days, complete the medical exam and sign a 4 year deal with Valencia CF.

Aly Cissokho deal finished according to radio Montecarlo

According to French radio station Montecarlo, Aly Cissokho will become a Valencia CF player in the next few hours. They claim the negotiations are in the closing stages and that the transfer fee is around 6 million euros.

Now I've reported this few days ago, but my sources are the transfer fee is 7 million euros and the hold up was with some of the details, like the time table for the fee and things of that nature.

But if the deal is to finish in the next few hours, we are going to officially find out the transfer fee.

Paco Alcacer on loan to Getafe?

Latest reports have it that after all Paco Alcacer will go on a season year loan and the club he will join is Getafe.

Valencia CF has done really good with some loans, like Pablo for example and so I guess they are thinking along those same lines.

Mauricio Pellegrino just earlier this month said Paco will stay and that he counts on him, but I guess with the arrival of Nelson Valdez that has changed all of a sudden.

I mean I don't have an opinion on this, it might leave us short on attackers at some point, but then it all depends on how much playing time will Paco get and one would think he would get more playing time in Getafe, but that may not necessarily be true.

Ultimately I want what is best for Paco development, so he can become a first class player for Valencia CF, but the question is where will he develop better?

What do you think about this? Post your thoughts in the comments section or in the forum.

FC Barcelona will destroy Real Madrid

You may all remember my article last season "Valencia CF will destroy FC Barcelona", well now it has nothing to do with Valencia CF, I'm posting this as an analysis of this season's league and which one of the two title contenders is better and I'm sorry to Real Madrid fan-boys, but its Barcelona.

I've carefully watched this season's preseason to Valencia CF biggest rivals and so I know everything I need to know about FC Barcelona and Real Madrid to predict who will come out on top and destroy the other.

First of all the big loss Real Madrid suffered at the start of the preseason against Benfica of 5-2, now you might say well that was only the first match and Benfica were more fix, but that would be an excuse and not an argument. Fact is Real Madrid were training way before that first preseason match and with the team being the same from last season there was no squad shuffling to cause disturbances. Now Real Madrid did went to on win against Milan and beat them 5-1, but this was a misleading result as Milan not only is considerably weaker this season, but they also played with their second team in the second half and their bench is considerably weaker than Real Madrid bench. Now this is not an excuse for Milan, but in a competitive environment we got to understand that Milan will be playing with their first eleven squad, except for injuries of course or some tactical changes.

If you've watched the rest of the matches they were good, but I'd say pretty average as well, whether it was from lack of fitness or lack of form or lack of freshness I don't know, but Real Madrid missed something and we also saw it against a rather mediocre Valencia CF side that is with a new coach, several new players and under new directive and tactics. Valencia CF can play at least 2x times better than they played against Real Madrid and they've shown it countless time, so even against a weak Valencia CF, Real Madrid misfired.

Now Barcelona is past their prime, but what was proven by the Euro 2012 cup is that Barcelona can still grind out wins if they have to and if Xavi is kept rest and not have to play most of the matches he can still reach his full potential. Last season I knew that won't be the case, because I knew Fabregas isn't the type of player to replace him and Thiago was too young, but now with the signing of Alexandre Song from Arsenal, Barcelona can give Xavi rest in key moments and have him fully fresh for the important matches. Now in case some Barcelona fans do some venting, I know Song is rather a replacement for Keita, but that still doesn't change the fact that Song can play in Xavi's position and is a great providing assists as well, having well over 10 assists last season and is a great passes as well, he is also not very fast so in essence a Xavi type player, without the positional awareness of Xavi.

David Villa who while I still consider past his prime, still has the goal scoring instincts and technique as shown in his first official match since his injury, so he can be a real joker for Barcelona, even though I don't see him being a big goalscorer.

Barcelona is also more complete now and has more depth, as some of the B team players from last season have had experience and have been enough with the first team to be able to step up and they are not likely to have the injuries that plagued them last season, like David Villa, Pedro, Affelay, Xavi, Puyol and Abidal injuries.

Now FC Barcelona has not had a good preseason either, but with a new coach, with players just coming from injury, with most players being key figures in national teams they've had a bit rougher summer than Real Madrid and went against better opponents in PSG as well as Manchester United.

To jump back to Real Madrid, the squad hasn't changed at all from last season and while that can be an advantage it can also be a huge disadvantage, especially of what can be called the winners syndrome, where after winning a title after a long wait it goes to your head and players tend to be overconfident and under-motivated. I mean Inter can really attest to this and while its not the same and Inter had a lot more aging squad and a big coach change, we've seen it happen with many sides over the history of football basically.

Not only that, but Real Madrid standard starting eleven has started more matches than any other team. Even with a deep squad of very quality players Jose Mourinho has relied way too much on the same players and that is Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo. Add to this that the Euro 2012 was this summer and all of them played key roles in their national teams and went pretty fast as well and you have a mixture of over played players, who are not fully fresh and not fully fit at the same time, who are suffering from the winners syndrome and are likely to have less motivation because they've just played too much over a period of time and are not 'hungry' for more.

Now we have the Super Copa coming between these two teams and I'm prediction that Barcelona will win if they play their first team players, but both teams have said this is in the back of their minds and won't take the cup too seriously. So whoever wins its not likely to tell us much, but its going to be a nice prelude into what is going to happen.

Now all this said Real Madrid to have huge amount of talent and can come back, but they are really going to struggle in the first two months and are likely to loose big ground to Barcelona and even if they come back strong later I'm afraid its going to be an uphill battle that they won't be able to win.

Now you can make your own conclusions and observations, but I wouldn't bet against me as I have a pretty darn good track record of calling these things.