Valencia CF wins the last match of the preseason friendlies against Italian side Fiorentina in the Orange trophy cup. It was once again a hard fought victory and much like last game won in the last minutes of the match. All that said it was clearly an improvement over the previous results, but its clear that Valencia CF still has major issues.
One is that we keep on conceding goals in all matches, against all sorts of opposition, weak and strong, so we really need to improve DRASTICALLY in defense. Then in attack we still can't find reliable goals, we still struggle to score goals and most of the goals come through individual skill, rather than smart build up play or clever chance. So we need to improve our systematic attack, we need a more dynamic formation, with players changing positions, rotating around, mixing it up and new style of play.
We can't rely on the decades old static formation, rigid positioning, pure roles, etc... we need to step into the 21st century and we need dynamic formation, dynamic tactics, positional changes, etc...Teams like Bayern, Juventus and others change 10 different formations in a single match, each field of play brings in a different formation, each positioning of the players a new one, etc... this makes them unpredictable and hard to counter, also harder to study on how to counter them.
Good news is that the boring counter attacking football seems behind us and Valencia CF are playing a much more direct and possession based game, the team is pressuring much higher, something which was a huge issue last season as the team dropped really deep to defend, rather than pressuring immediately in the opposition half.
Once again Lato impressed, Rodrigo Moreno impressed and Alvaro Medran proves to be a quality asset for now, though things can change rapidly in actual real and meaningful matches when La Liga starts, so we'll have to wait and see.
I don't know if Nani is injured, but he hasn't played in the past 2 matches, so maybe fitness issues, maybe the coach is certain of his value and doesn't need to test him out, but its weird how he has barely featured.
Its also weird that Mustafi didn't feature either, even though he's been training with the team for a while now, maybe he has an injury as well I don't know about, or maybe he is already half way through the door at Arsenal and no point to play him when he won't play for us anymore. We'll have to wait and see, but with Peter Lim being seen in England it doesn't look good for the prospect of Mustafi staying.
What are your thoughts about the match, who you thought did the best and who did the worst?
One is that we keep on conceding goals in all matches, against all sorts of opposition, weak and strong, so we really need to improve DRASTICALLY in defense. Then in attack we still can't find reliable goals, we still struggle to score goals and most of the goals come through individual skill, rather than smart build up play or clever chance. So we need to improve our systematic attack, we need a more dynamic formation, with players changing positions, rotating around, mixing it up and new style of play.
We can't rely on the decades old static formation, rigid positioning, pure roles, etc... we need to step into the 21st century and we need dynamic formation, dynamic tactics, positional changes, etc...Teams like Bayern, Juventus and others change 10 different formations in a single match, each field of play brings in a different formation, each positioning of the players a new one, etc... this makes them unpredictable and hard to counter, also harder to study on how to counter them.
Good news is that the boring counter attacking football seems behind us and Valencia CF are playing a much more direct and possession based game, the team is pressuring much higher, something which was a huge issue last season as the team dropped really deep to defend, rather than pressuring immediately in the opposition half.
Once again Lato impressed, Rodrigo Moreno impressed and Alvaro Medran proves to be a quality asset for now, though things can change rapidly in actual real and meaningful matches when La Liga starts, so we'll have to wait and see.
I don't know if Nani is injured, but he hasn't played in the past 2 matches, so maybe fitness issues, maybe the coach is certain of his value and doesn't need to test him out, but its weird how he has barely featured.
Its also weird that Mustafi didn't feature either, even though he's been training with the team for a while now, maybe he has an injury as well I don't know about, or maybe he is already half way through the door at Arsenal and no point to play him when he won't play for us anymore. We'll have to wait and see, but with Peter Lim being seen in England it doesn't look good for the prospect of Mustafi staying.
What are your thoughts about the match, who you thought did the best and who did the worst?