Bayern Munich 4-1 Valencia CF Match Report

The first big test in the preseason and Valencia CF failed miserably. Bayern Munich are a strong team and it was never going to be easy going against them, but I don't think anyone expected a 4-1 trashing.

What we learned from match is that our defense sucks, I mean we are talking about huge mistakes, bad tracking, bad covering, bad positions, etc... Everything went bad in this match.

The midfield lacked any sort of control or power, Bayern Munich always seemed in control, I didn't get the feeling that Valencia CF could muster up any serious chance at any point. The one goal we got was decent, but it wasn't some intricate play that led to it, it was a sort of scrappy cross finding Moreno at the right place.

Okay so lets start from the beginning of the match. Right off the game Bayern Munich had control of the match and more possession, Xabi Alonso and Tiago Alcantra completely dominated our midfield of Javi Fuego and Daniel Parejo. Valencia CF coach started with a weird line-up, Enzo Perez was in defense and Gaya and Barragan as wingers. Depending on who you ask its either a 5-3-2 or a 3-5-2.

The main defense was Vezo, Enzo and Orban, while Gaya and Barragan were on the wings much further, though they did track back a lot. Even with this formation it didn't take Bayern Munich long to score, with Lahm running on the side and finding Muller completely alone, he shoots and scores.

Bayern Munich would still keep on dominating in midfield and have control, but Valencia CF would be able to muster up few attacks, one of which resulted in a goal. Pablo Piatti cross from the wing found Rodrigo who headed the ball into the net.

Unfortunately apart from those few chances and that sole goal Valencia CF was completely lacking. The players couldn't muster up even several passes in a row, they lost the ball constantly, the midfield was unable to move the ball forward, the forwards were too static and separated from the rest, and it just didn't work at all.

Just before half time whistle though Bayern Munich would score one more goal, it was Thomas Muller again with a precise finish.

Nuno made few changes in the second half, bringing in Mustafi, Feghouli and Negredo, but this actually resulted in a worse play. Alvaro Negredo was so static that he might as well not been there, he was losing passes, his anticipation was lacking completely it was just a terrible match from him.

Mustafi wasn't an improvement in defense over Enzo Perez, but Enzo's move to midfield didn't help out midfield at all. Enzo Perez was completely lost in midfield, the few times Valencia CF moved forward he has so deep back that there were no players to pass the ball in midfield. It was either try a chancy pass forward that is 95% not going to work or pass straight back to defense.

I don't understand why he was basically in our own third when VCF were attacking. He was completely useless in midfield. 30 million euros for him it seems down the drain, same with Negredo.

The other unfortunate things was that Gaya was injured really really in the first half, so that is a huge blow to the team, hopefully its nothing serious, because we lack so much in defense and Orban is not on the same level as Gaya, he can't move forward and isn't amazing in defense to compensate either.

Anyways Bayern would go on to score two more times, once again by Muller so he can complete a hattrick and one goal by Lewanowski who just played games with our defense. He was pretty much alone in the penalty box and he played games with Mustafi, tricked him twice, making space for himself to shot.

Yoel wasn't helping things either, I'm thinking that if it was Diego Alves on goal he would prevented at least one of those goals. I didn't like Yoel's positioning, it was really predictable and Bayern strikers knew how to exploit it.

No one impressed from Valencia CF, but Parejo played on a high level, he was consistently trying to do stuff, trying to organize play, when he left the pitch Valencia CF completely lost control, I don't think the team had the ball for more than 10 seconds and that is sad truth.

Apart from him Piatti was really active, I thought he was the biggest threat for Bayern, his final ball is lacking, we all know this its not something knew, but overall his high energy, pacey runs did bother Bayern a bit when we had the ball.

Overall its just a preseason match, yeah it was a terrible loss, the team played terrible, but the purpose of these preseason matches is to expose weaknesses like this and fix them. Hopefully you lose and play badly in the preseason when it doesn't matter, so that you fix these and play good when it matters.

Another thing to mention is that we desperately need Nicolas Otamendi, I hope we don't lose him, I hope he stays, because finding a viable alternative to him would be extremely hard. Garay is similar defender and is very good, but not on the same level.