So much to say

By: dan_c | August 28th, 2011

Trust Valencia to waste no time in ruining my health in the first available 90 minutes. But sho, in hindsight it was worth it.

Where I come from, we use a word “bok” to describe when something is “very” or “extremely”. Given my emotionally vulnerable state I’m going to be using that word a bok lot in this write-up. I can’t bring myself to abide by the standard accepted internet-etiquette this time. Sorry. You have been warned.

Last night’s win caused me to do a bok lot of thinking, so this piece is going to be bok long, and probably will struggle to follow any logical order. Its just a thought spew. Again, you have been warned. Please direct all complaints about my writing to valencia cf HQ, Unai’s Office.

Apart from the Game itself

I noticed a few things. Firstly the prominence of two wonderful kits. Firstly, Valencia’s one for this season looked stunning, classy and composed, modern but still controlled. Let’s hope that it isn’t ruined by the sort of ridiculous sponsoring that adorned the unfortunate racing kit (a large white square with red and black non-descript writing. Really?). Secondly, it was great to see our historic red and yellow kit being worn by many in the stands.

However, if the match itself wasn’t stressful enough, it was made worse for me by the ridiculous shade of Racing’s kit. Sure green is fine, but not when its nearly the same colour as the pitch and some poor South African is sitting in the living room with an ancient, messed up tv where the colour is distorted at the best of times. Often I just simply failed to see the Racing players! Which is partially because they spent SO much time on the ground complaining. I was really disappointed by their attitude. They tackled too roughly and went down like (to quote the masterful Eddie Izzard) a flan in a cupboard at any contact. I think I had forgotten during the off-season how bad the theatrics were, but really it is something that must be sorted out.

Thirdly, I was a little disappointed with the fans at the ground in the first 20 minutes. It was really quiet but they warmed up going into the second half, which was good to hear. Nothing like a good drum rythm being beaten out to up the ante of the players.

Finally it was nice to see Cuper getting some deserved recognition for his time at Mestalla. Fortunately though, my prematch prediction of him leaving with no points was correct. But only just…

The Match Itself

Firstly we must pay tribute to San Sol. What a player. I think it was Martijn who made a point about his temper putting him in danger of red cards etc, but I would say exactly the opposite. He is my perfect captain. His passion, desire and drive are exactly what a team, especially a bok young new team needs to overcome adversity.

Beyond that he is a bok awesome striker. His need for goals is immense and he is so great at getting balls and making really good opportunities. He knows where and when to be in positions. I was inspired by him and see him as critical to our team this year. WHAT A PLAYER.

He needs goals so bad that his second was past Guita for sure, but that was bad luck at best I think. His first and last goals were pure strikers instinct, getting into positions where the ball might spill to, and then taking advantage.

But serious problems remain. Bok serious

Ricardo’s Costas nearly had serious Ramifications

Yes. I did just use both of our centre backs’s surnames in an attempted witty wordplay. Sorry.

After Soldado’s 54 second strike and then his 6th minute piece of own goal misfortune I wasn’t too worried. It was back as we’d started and we could go for it from there. But then it quickly became apparent that our defensive tactics were horrendous. Sure, the third goal for Racing was also largely a lucky deflection, but the way in which our own stupidity gave them opportunities time and time again AND resulted in the second goal for their side was bok frustrating.

Maybe Emery assumed that the back four had understanding, maybe the defenders lost focus I don’t know. But with the tactics that Los Che use, with extremely attacking full backs in Bruno and Jordi, (who were very good going forward, provided many good crosses and outlets, and Jordi’ ball gave Sol the winner) there needs to be excellent understanding between our two central midfielders and the centre-backs.

Ever clearly contributes in a big way going forward and usually one of Mehmet, Ricardo or Rami would push forward, leaving just two at the back, which is fine except that in the first half this didn’t happen. The second goal was a prime example of how too many went forward, leaving one person stranded. Ricardo was particularly poor and Mehmet also did a bad job of martialling at the back. Mehmet failed to protect the back four and Ricardo and Bruno were poor in picking up and following their players.. The team looked far stronger following the introduction of Tino, who I definitely feel should have started in the first place. He was a better anchor man and breaker up of the game than Mehmet, who also was decent at CB. Much to ponder for Unai then, and many fingers of blame rightfully I feel point to him.

However, again credit must go to a player who was good last night and who I see as becoming a massive player for us in the future. Adil Rami. Despite being part of a leaky back line, his strength, power, calming qualities, control and reading of the game were great. He was competitive, often covered when other players made mistakes and scored a grea tgoal. Well done to him, A bok excellent signing already. And good off set pieces too!

Midfield Issues

Despite our scoring four goals, we must also lay blame on Emery for the ineffectiveness of the midfield in failing to create more chances against a poor, weak, defensively minded opposition. Emery made an interesting choice in giving young Juan Bernat a start. While it looked like a mistake because he failed to offer much in his 45 minutes on the field, it was less his ability and more Emery’s tactics and strategy that let the team down.

The problem was that with such a wealth of massive creative players they need time to gel and create understandings with each other. Emery should have realised this and maybe just for the opening few games of the season given each player more defined roles. Having a midfield that can roam and make runs where the like is great, in fact I would say that it is the Valencia way, but with new players and rusty players, they very often took similar runs, bunched up in one area and got in each other’s way. This made us really ineffective going forward in the first half as we didn’t spread the ball well and stretch the Racing back 4. Emery must address this before we come up against quality defences.

Overall though I was relieved and happy with the game. Sergio Canales looked good, Pablo was fantastically full of running and nonsense and caused Racing plenty of worries. Jonas was good off the bench and supplied the beautiful through-ball for our third.

I’m going to stop now. Otherwise it’ll just be too many words for a Sunday night. Rest of thoughts later maybe.

Relieved, emotionally ravaged, bok tired.

Thank you Valencia.

AMunt