Season Preview

By: Cesar | August 26th, 2008

I’m not going to dwell too long on the events of Sunday’s crushing defeat to Real Madrid in the 2nd leg of the Spanish Supercopa.

It would have been nice to win the trophy, but let’s be honest with ourselves: It’s a glorified friendly.

I know, I know. A lot of you out there will disagree with me. It’s a trophy that was in our grasps. We lost our way in the 2nd half, ceding the midfield to Madrid, letting them whack us around the pitch.

But still, what does the game mean? Sure, we have some egg on our faces, but the season starts this coming Sunday, not last Sunday.

Watching Madrid celebrate like they’d just won the Champions League made me realize the idiocy of the game. If we let this match define our season, we’re in trouble.

We made mistakes. We looked awful in defense, couldn’t keep possession, were outmatched in midfield all while fielding two more men than Madrid, who were down to nine (Albelda and Baraja looked very old in the second half). Timo Hildebrand can’t hold onto the ball and Alexis made an awful pass to seal the victory for Los Merengues.

It’s over. Unai Emery’s men need to forget this match and look forward with optimism to the new season. If we’re to believe all the words the players have been uttering about this season being different and the attitude of the team being different, now’s the time to show it.

With that in mind and with our first game of the season against Real Mallorca ready to kick off, here’s my super-abbreviated, super short 2008-09 Valencia CF preview edition. Enjoy.

Let’s break the squad down first. I did this a few weeks ago, but let’s do it again with a month of pre-season under our belt.

GK – Timo Hildebrand, Renan

I don’t know much about Renan, but he has to be better than Timo. I’ve been high on the German international for a long time, but I think he needs some competition to make him a better ‘keeper. He looked overmatched in Sunday’s game. He couldn’t hold onto the ball and let in some soft goals.
Much of that can be attributed to our putrid defense. But still, can Timo please learn to catch the ball??

Renan was with the Brazilian national team at the 2008 Olympics. Anyone see him play?

DF – Albiol, Marchena, Helguera, Alexis, Miguel, Moretti, Curro Torres, Del Horno

This is our club’s greatest weakness. How times change. A few seasons ago, we had arguably the best defense in Europe. Now, we’re Levante.

The central defense HAS to be fixed. Why haven’t management manned up and bought a new CB?
Albiol needs maturation and Marchena needs to play. He looked wonderful at Euro 2008, but he hasn’t played much in the pre-season.
Helguera is horrible.
Alexis needs more time to develop. His silly backwards pass in Sunday’s game showed that. Isn’t that Football 101? Don’t pass laterally in your own defensive zone? Bad play. He should be benched for this.
Miguel’s been a surprise this pre-season. He looks solid and inspired. He’s still big boned, but quick and agile with the ball.
Moretti is exposed as a defender every week. You’re telling me Del Horno can’t do better than him?

We need better defenders. It’s that simple. For this team to go anywhere, the defense needs to be shored up. As we all could see Sunday, the team’s lacking in that department.

MF – Maduro, Albelda, Baraja, Manuel Fernandes, Pablo, Vicente, Joaquin, Silva, Edu, Viana, Ever Banega

This is one of our strengths. But unfortunately, we’re relying on the wrong people.

Look, I love these guys. I adore Albelda and Baraja. I also love Vicente and Edu. But Albelda and Baraja looked very old this pre-season. Vicente is oft-injured as is Edu. To think we can count on these guys to lead us to glory this season is lunacy.

We need guys like Manuel Fernandes, Maduro and Ever Banega to slowly take over.
Of course, Banega, who just won a gold medal with Argentina in the Olympics, is off on loan.
Maduro, who could learn a lot as Albelda’s understudy, is probably off on loan.
And Maunel looks to get insignificant time on the pitch.

Pablo looks like a great pickup.

Joaquin either needs a new team or needs to be more consistent.
He’s so hot and cold. I still love Pisha, but he’s frustrating.

Silva is Silva. What more do I need to say about this lad? I love him!

Still, as bad as we looked Sunday, the midfield looks slick when it wants to.
Even during Sunday’s game, there were flashes of brilliance.
Great one-touch passing, decent organization and good distribution. Now, we need to keep that up for the entire game, not just one half.

F – Villa, Morientes, Angulo, Mata, Zigic

This is another area of strength. Of course, we need to get the ball to them before they can do anything.

David Villa is the star of the team and one of the most sought after forwards in world football. Real Madrid tabled a 47 million Euro bid for him yesterday which Valencia flat out rejected. That’s how highly he’s thought of.

The press is buzzing with word that Madrid may table a 50 million Euro bid for El Guaje, but I just can’t see him leaving. Let’s hope I’m right and all the naysayers are wrong (read this lovely article for what I mean … how horrible is this article?? Notice my comment on the site … simply rubbish journalism.)

I can see Villa having a breakaway season, provided he stays healthy and gets some time on the ball.

Mata is also looking like he’ll have a break out season. The Madrid youth product looks like a solid all-around scorer.

Morientes may be sold and Zigic should be sold.

So who’s coming in? Zapater? Huntelaar? We’ll see.

What’s obvious from this list is that no matter how much we’ve improved, the team needs reinforcements. We need a CB. We need a creative midfielder. We need more firepower.
But the management team cries poverty and so we wait, debating the ills of the club for ourselves.

The team’s much better than they were last season. But so are Barcelona. So are Atletico Madrid. So are Sevilla. So are Villarreal.

So where will we finish?

If we can shore up the defense before the transfer deadline closes at the end of the month, I think we can challenge for the Top 4. I think we can scare some people with our one-touch passing and our flowing play.

If we don’t, if we focus more on the offense and try to outslug clubs by scoring goals and leaking goals, I think we’ll be in trouble.

So although my heart says we’ll win La Liga, the UEFA Cup and storm into next season’s Champions League, my brain tells me we’ll finish mid-table and be forced to buy what we needed this season next season.

So my guess? 7th … UEFA Cup, here we come.

It pains me to say this, but we’re still not good enough. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Let’s see what happens before the transfer deadline. Maybe we’ll buy an Ayala replacement after all??

What do you think? Prove me wrong … please … I beg you …