After the debacle that was Barcelona 5 – Valencia 1 this Sunday, it’s on to greener pastures and the Mestalla, where Stoke City comes to town.

It’s Thursday night and the UEFA Europa League.

I did another preview of the big match over at Forza Futbol, so won’t you be so kind as to check it out and tell me what you think?

Key points heading into this match:

1 – Is Unai Emery on the hot seat? The Barca loss was tough to take. Can we advance against a weakened Stoke side? If we don’t, not only would it be a major shock but a bitter disappointment. Emery’s job could be on the line.

2 – Weakened is the key word. Stoke are sitting many of their key players, including Peter Crouch and Matthew Etherington. The Potters will be playing their fourth match in 10 days and their squad simply isn’t deep enough to contend with us. So how about we do what we need to do, eh?

3 – Ever Banega. I don’t even know what to say. Muppet.

So take a peek at my preview, let’s take Stoke out and advance. How about it?

By the way, I DO think we can win this tournament. So let’s show Europe that the 5-1 isn’t indicative of our talent.

AMUNT!!!

This week, Our Beloved Valencia travel to England and the Britannia Stadium to tussle with Stoke City in the UEFA Europa League.

I wrote this article for our friends at Forza Futbol previewing the match.

Please take a minute to read it and leave comments on the site.

How will we do? How will we react to the cold, wet atmosphere of the Britannia?

Find out what I think and why Stoke’s a tougher opponent than we think.

Tough, but we’re better.
What do you think the scoreline will be?

AMUNT!

Today, a guest post from Abdul Rahman Al Ze’bi, who thinks Our Beloved Valencia needs a lot of stuff, like a new coach.

Agree? Disagree? Think Emery is over-caffeinated?

Have a read and post your opinions!

Take it away, Abdul …

What Does Valencia CF need?

This has been the question everyone asks. Valencia has started the season so well the past 4 years, falls along the way, almost at the same exact time of each year. Almost every end of December till almost the end of February, Valencia would stumble and do nothing at all. Till the writing of this article, Valencia hasn’t won in 5 liga games. That’s 2 months almost, and they haven’t been facing Real or even Barca.

So, some facts for you for the team under Emery:
- We played 9 games against Barca, won None. None even drawn in Camp Nou
- We played 9 games against Madrid, won 2. 1 of them the 1st leg of Supercopa, the 2nd leg we lost to 9 players of Madrid. Actually Madrid scored 2 goals when they were 2 players less! None even drawn in El Bernabeu.
- We played against Atletico Madrid 10 games, won 3 of them. And that’s not the Atletico of the 90s. 1 of them was Away.
- In 10 games against Villarreal, Valencia won 2! And that’s not Villarreal of Pellegrini. None was won in El Madrigal. Against a much weaker side.
- 12 games against Sevilla. 4 won. Also none on their field. That’s 8!
- In Champions League, out of 7 games at home:
3 were lost or drawn. Yes, one of them was against Man U in 2010 who went to the final, but against a weak Chelsea this season, and Schalke 04, The away games, while some may object, but 3 of them also were drawn against Schalke 04, Glasgow Rangers, and FC Genk, Hypothetically weaker teams than VCF.

Last season, Valencia lost 9 games. 5 at home, the funnier thing is, Valencia Wins outside their stadium more than in. Last season also, Valencia scored a win percentage of 55%. Only half of the games won in La liga. With basically say, 4 teams to beat. That is if they want a strong Valencia CF. With a much improved side than the last couple of years, Valencia still haven’t managed to reach a 50% win in La liga this season, Tying 7 games this season winning only 10 our of 21. Yes, one of them to Barca at home, one to Atletico away, but Racing? Osasuna? Villarreal? Mallorca?

Basically, The problem especially this season, lies in something called Tactics. While Valencia CF undoubtedly has the talent needed and sought after from the elite and everyone else, they don’t seem to work out.

A coach that insists on trying a system that doesn’t work for 4 years, And for 4 years, it doesn’t work, and he keeps using it sometimes. Emery, not having the midfield players capable of implementing this system, I mean 4-3-3. A player like Albelda who is 34 now, can’t run the whole of the midfield.

Tino Costa is not a player made for defense. Yes he’s very good and accurate, but his game is not a fluid passing game, YET he is being used in possession football situations and he kinda does the job. It is Banega (One of the most promising and talented central midfielders in the world), A player capable of doing everything that a midfielder does, yet Emery is not using him fully. Emery has been saying the same thing after every bad game, THE SAME EXACT THING FOR FOUR YEARS: “We have made mistakes and we want to learn from them”.

Which is an OK thing to say every now and then, but if Emery has been at the club for 4 years, and still needs time to correct the errors he’s making, How long he will need to master a formation and actually make it work?

To me honestly, the 1st 2 years, Valencia relied on the talents of players like Silva, Mata, Villa, and Co. Then, the 2nd 2 years, Valencia relied on the talents of the players. Emery might be doing something with the 4-3-2-1 formation he uses often, but does he know anything about tactics? I doubt it. I’ve yet still want to see Emery actually change tactics in a game. Other than defending a game and actually conceding, that is.

Now come to think of “for example” last Barcelona game in Camp Nou, Emery failed to keep his midfield intact, Barcelona was weak, actually so weak they couldn’t play well in a very long time. One obvious flaw was Albelda’s positioning, Albelda should’ve been kept in his position in DM not moving an inch from the circle, Give Banega the freedom to move, and actually keep Miguel close to Cuenca, this should solve it, Jonas was not defending at all when losing the ball and not even running, Emery wanted to play possession football with Aduriz, which is not possible because he can’t sprint fast. Should we tell Emery this? Doesn’t he know it already?

Take another look at chelsea’s game in Stamford Bridge, Valencia had 1 shot on the goal, and they needed a 0-0 draw to qualify if I’m right. The blues kept waiting for Valencia to have the ball and played nothing but the long ball to Drogba who had all the freedom to put the ball on his chest and turn to face the goal and run with it. Every time he did it. Emery didn’t see that Albelda could move toward him and give him a hard time, because he was busy trying to figure out how to score with a very idolized midfield.

Another look is how he gets players momentum and then he sideline them suddenly, proof? Piatti, in last copa games before barca, he scored 2 assissted 2 in 3 games. He plays the home game against Barca, does the best effort against Atleti, then he’s put aside on Barca’s game when it was obvious he could outrun Abidal every time they raced, no Emery saw something else.

Emery’s cycle in Valencia has ended; he can’t prove anything more than his naivety in his tactics and his weakness in personality. How? Look at Banega, one time a magical figure, one time only a shadow, who needs to motivate the players? The coach, but the coach always says when facing the big: “ We will win this game and prove we’re a champions team”, but that’s not really the truth. What he said and said so many times: “They are better than us, playing an open game against them is suicide, we’ll do our best”. And the usual comes after the game: “We lacked …” and you have to fill in the void every time. Every time something new comes up from that genius.

A coach has to keep his players motivated and eager and keep their mentality in check, NOT have fights with them and sideline them. While Jose Mourinho or Capello, or even Rafa have coached many teams, they knew how to keep the team united and serving the purpose, Emery knew how to do the opposite. Players don’t need to feel motivated for big games, what matters are the silly 3 points we lose every season and from the silliest of teams in La liga. The focus of the players is just another evident issue in recent times.

If this is not enough evident that Emery’s time is done in Valencia CF and he can’t do more, I’m not sure what will be left for him to prove.
Some may ask, who do you want? I’d say there are a couple of interesting coaches out there. It’s too early to think of it, but there are better ones for sure.

So, that’s 3 points out of 12 in 2012. 3 draws (away v Villarreal, away v Osasuna, away v Racing) and 1 loss (home v Sociedad). What’s next for VCF? Our next 8 matches are looking rather hard: Barcelona (home, CdR), Atlético Madrid (away, Liga), Barcelona (away, CdR), Sporting Gijón (home, Liga), Stoke City (away, EL), Barcelona (away, Liga), Stoke City (home, EL), and Sevilla (home, Liga). In this writer’s humble opinion, we can kiss the Copa del Rey goodbye thanks to Barca, and the Europa League goodbye courtesy of Stoke. And to be brutally honest, I think a repeat run of 3 out of our next 12 points is a real possibility in the league.

Is there any good news? Not really. It looks like we’ll finally have a shirt sponsor, with an announcement coming on Tuesday. Super Deporte thinks the sponsor is mostly likely from either China, Qatar, or the United Arab Emirates. Can’t say I’m too excited really, because not only will the design most likely be ugly, but I also doubt we’ll be getting that much money.

I guess the other positive is that Sevilla lost and Villarreal drew this weekend. The usual suspects for 3rd and 4th place are all woeful this year, and the teams currently up there (Levante, Osasuna, Espanyol) will all at some point drop back down the table (like Levante is currently doing).

Pablo played a part in all three of VCF’s first half goals. Assisting on the first and third goals (scored by Jonas and Pablo Piatti, respectively), as well as delivering the pass that the visitor’s defense failed to clear before Soldado struck. To be fair, I didn’t actually see the match, so if Pablo was shit except for these three moments, let me know in the comments section.

Also getting off the mark was Piatti, finally scoring his first goal for the club just before half time. He paid the price for scoring however, after colliding with the keeper. VCF’s official site said this morning that he has only a bruised knee, and no ligament damage. Again, for those who watched, how did Piatti play?

Thankfully, Unai Emery decided to abandon his beloved 4-3-3 for this match, and what do you know….. we win playing 4-2-3-1 \O/

Sadly, Valencia’s next match is against Osasuna on Sunday, in Pamplona. This guarantees a snoozer of a match, not to mention it’s the mid-day game (which for us here on the American east coast is 6:00 am). With Piatti and Pablo being questionable, it looks like a return to Feghouli and Mathieu on the wings. Ugh…

Now, onto today’s topic, Valencia’s shocker v Real Sociedad last weekend. Well…. it was bad, to put it mildly. Lots of blame to go around, so let’s break it down:

Unai Emery - Yes, while the players failed to, ya know, play, Unai certainly didn’t help the situation with his tactical nonsense. As far as player selection goes, we are playing two games a week (Copa and Liga) so he has to rotate. Don’t blame him there, though it must be said that Pablo Hernández has been shocking awful for quite literally over one full calendar year now and should be sold immediately, and Sofiane Feghouli just isn’t VCF quality for me. I know Pablo Piatti has been poor so far, but he has yet to play in his two best positions. Unai insists on playing him wide left, when for Almería he had more of a free role, and he’s said that his preferred position is actually wide right. I’d like to see Piatti wide right instead of Pablo H or Feghouli from now on personally.

Also, Paco Alcácer finally making his Liga debut was nice, but this was the wrong time honestly. The team was failing to get the ball to Aduriz, and with Feghouli going off injured, Unai put Paco on. So, we can’t get the ball through midfield, and he puts another striker on? WTF.

Finally, 4-3-3. I know some of you will say it was 4-2-3-1, but when Parejo is suppose to be an attacking midfielder, and he is consistently dropping back behind both Topal and Banega to get the ball, it’s a 4-3-3, simple as. 4-3-3 NEVER WORKS, and no one can defend Emery for playing this way.

Pablo H - As mentioned before, he’s rubbish now. Seriously, what happened to this guy? He has Spain caps FFS.

Mehmet Topal - He’s defo having a sophomore slump as we’d say here in the United States. Complete opposite to what he did last season. Not sure what to make of him now. Disturbingly similar to what happened with Ángel Dealbert and Ricardo Costa.

Dani Parejo - Just not good enough I’m afraid.

Tino Costa - He’s already had one bust up with Unai this season. With Emery’s laughable sub of Paco for Feghouli, I understand Tino’s frustration. I laughed at the sub myself. I’m scared he’ll leave in the summer now, and we’ll be left with Banega, Albelda, and Topal as our midfield :/

Adil Rami - Shocking loss of form (same can be said for Víctor Ruiz).

Jérémy Mathieu - I’m tired of him. Why Emery keeps playing him in midfield is beyond me. He can’t run for 90 minutes, let alone 60.

I know Griezmann’s goal was iffy, but sometimes those calls go for you and sometimes they go against you (not conspiracy theories please). Sociedad deserved to win.

Now we have a derby match in midweek v Levante in the Copa, and have to travel to Pamplona on the weekend to face surprise package Osasuna. Ugh.. won’t be easy….

Like a phoenix rising in the night (or a bat rising above Mestalla), the Valencia Offside returns.

As many of you know, Kyle’s Loco4LosChe is ending as of today. That’s very sad news.

But the good news is that Kyle’s going to write articles here, IF ANYONE FROM THE OFFSIDE ANSWERS OUR E-MAILS … (Let’s hope someone from the Offside reads this) …

So while no one’s written here for about 3 months, the blog survives.

Kyle will be here, hopefully Dan’s still alive, Javier will contribute when he can (if he wants) and yours truly will pop in weekly to offer his opinion.

I know first hand how hard writing a blog can be. And all I did here was write.

Kyle managed a website and that’s an extraordinary sacrifice of time, energy and money.

So let’s give it up to the man and thank him for the contribution.
And let’s welcome him here.

We hope to see you on the blog soon.

Next game? Sunday vs. Osasuna.

Thoughts? AMUNT!

I don’t know what to think after today’s 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League in Germany.

On the one hand, we started strong, a Jonas goal in the 24th minute just reward for our early dominance.

Our defense looked solid; our offense wasn’t scoring but we were getting opportunities and Bayer didn’t look dangerous save the last minutes of the first half.

Then, it all fell apart.

Call it lack of motivation, a bad defensive strategy or just dumb luck.

We blew it.

Whatever Bayer coach Robin Dutt said to his men at the half worked.

Whatever Valencia coach Unai Emery said to Our Beloved didn’t.

Bayer went all guns blazing after the restart and deservedly got the equalizer seven minutes into the second period through Andre Schurrle, who powered an immaculate finish into the left corner to draw the game level 1-1.

Four minutes later, winger Sidney Sam scored an even better goal to turn the match around. He burst into space and curled a super finish into the top left corner, leaving goalkeeper Diego Alves with absolutely no chance.

Germany international Schurrle continued to terrorise Our Beloved as he saw a free-kick saved by Alves shortly after the hour mark, and later on went on a mesmerizing run, skipping past five players before seeing his shot saved by Alves.

Los Che tried hard to equalize in the dying embers of the match, but were ultimately unable to break Leverkusen’s resolute defense, who in the end picked up what could prove to be a pivotal victory in Group E.

Following tonight’s result, Bayer Leverkusen are second with six points, while Our Beloved sit third with two.

So what now?

More chants of ‘Emery Vete Ya?’

More hand wringing over our lack of a killer instinct, so apparent in the Mallorca match this past weekend?

It’s been often said, but it’s not like this club lack for talent. They’re not FC Barcelona but they’re no slouches either.

Speaking of Barca, didn’t we almost take it to them at the Mestalla a few weeks ago?

What happened to that team? Where’s the pack mentality from that night?

Why so passive? Where’s the killer instinct?

After the match, Emery said the loss was unjust, that he was happy with how we played but upset with the outcome.

“Overall Valencia were better and lost. We knew they were going to have their moments and they took advantage of them, and we had moments that we didn’t take advantage of. The end result is unjust but we must accept it.”

I almost wish he’d said, ‘We sucked. It’s our fault we lost this game, not just dumb luck.’

But whatever.

So what now? Are we done in the Champions League, relegated to the Europa League or even worse – home?

Will Emery motivate the troops in time for this weekend’s match at the Mestalla against Athletic Bilbao?

How will the Mestalla accept their beloved heroes should the VCF of the second half show up this weekend?

What remedies can be taken to rectify this situation?

Is it coach Emery’s fault? Does he need to go?

As the Mestalla Turns. The Valencia soap opera never ends.

Stay tuned.

Some of my early optimism, since that near-win against Barca, has slipped since then, due to a few reasons.

1) Valencia have slipped to a few disappointing displays, including throwing away 2 points last weekend. Sure, the game may have been close, but we have better quality and going into the last stages of a game we NEED to develop the fortitude to close out wins, if we are going to have any chance of keeping up. We have started well, but we need to get that big-team, Man U-esque we DO not concede leads mentality. and we CERTAINLY do not lose.

2) Even now, in October, we JUST DON’T KNOW where this season is going. No-one has clearly pulled away or shown themselves to be another class…consistently (sure Real and Barca have shown glimpses) plus we don’t know who is the real deal yet, Malaga, Sevilla, even Betis and HOW ABOUT LEVANTE. Who will last and prove their quality? I simply can’t tell, and that’s worrying.

3) The 2-week international break is a perfect dampener on any built up momentum and excitement.

4) This is similar to the first point, but separate too. We need to be more clinical and show a greater ability to kill off games in front of goal. The tight spot that we are currently in in the champo league is simply due to our inability to beat Genk, a side who we were markedly better than. The root is simply this. We rely to heavily on San Sol. Against Genk, they forced him wide to be an outlet while the midfield moved up into attacking positions, and so we had no target or mischief-maker in the box. We were positively impotent. Even with him in he game, we aren’t scoring enough goals. Despite our markedly improved defence (I love Adil Rami!), we are still putting ourselves under too much pressure.

5) I’m writing exams.

Despite all this, we have started well. But tonight will be a huge marker in terms of how we bounce back from a let-down like the late goal against Mallorca that would have kept us within a point of Barca. And we need this win against a strong neverkusen side, who are our direct rivals in the group for the second spot in the knockouts. And boy do we need the money!

Bayer have made an average start to the season, sitting 8th with 4 wins from 9 games in the Bundesliga. They’ll provide a tough test though. They gave Chelsea a rough ride at stamford bridge. Don’t expect too many goals. Bayer have scored 12 and conceded 13 in 9 games. Not stellar numbers in either case. They did however manage a good draw with Borussia Moenchengladbach last time out, who are the closest to keeping up with Bayern Munich at the top, so they’ll be feeling good, especially at home.

Fingers will be crossed.

Amunt

Peace

The Portuguese international, 30, said about a news article about him being offered to Español.

“I didn’t want to believe it when I saw it [the story]. It is ridiculous. It is a lie and I think Valencia will deny it. What`s more, I hope they do so before I go back after the international break because it will show they don’t say one thing to me and another to other people.”

“If this news is true then he would have offered Espanyol the chance to buy me and that didn’t happen. He is the same person who stopped me going to Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus a month ago. He said then I was an important player for the squad and that I was one of the captains. It is him I believe and not ridiculous and sensational news.”

He later added when asked about his lack of playtime sice being subbed off at halftime in Valencia’s first match.

“Firstly, you must remember I was substituted when the team had let in two goals with me on the pitch, so when Racing scored their third I wasn’t there. Secondly, I remember the game well and don’t remember playing alone.

“Was it Valencia that let the two goals in or was it Ricardo Costa? I played in the first half and Racing continued to create chances in the second. Also, there have been games when we could have let in as many if not more than we did against Racing, and I wasn’t on the pitch.”

When asked if he beleived Emery has lost confidence in him:

“I honestly don’t understand this story and don’t believe the Coach has lost confidence in me. In fact, I’ve don’t know if he has confidence in me or not because I’ve not spoken to him about it to ask him, “he added.”

So there ya have it. Ricardo calling the Whaaambulance.

But really what did he expect. After all sincehis has been benched the Defence has clicked. Why would Emery throw a wrench into the machine once its finally working and risk the wrath of this blogs readers.

AMUNT VALENCIA
Javier De Roque