Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “S”, for shocking…

By: Kyle | January 16th, 2012

SOCCER-SPAIN/ I’m back (kind of)! For those who used to visit The Offside but haven’t in a while, welcome back. For those who have never visited before, welcome. As Cesar mentioned in the previous post, it’s sad that I closed down Loco4LosChe, but I’m very excited to be a part of The Offside team now, as I think it better suits me at this time in my life to write one to two articles a week instead of daily news updates. Thanks to Cesar and Graham for making this happen!

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….