Why is Valencia CF underperforming or is this the maximum this squad can give? I was shocked when Valencia CF lost last match against Deportivo Alaves the second worst team in La Liga currently. A team that has conceded 38 goals and can't even score 1 goal per game, but against Valencia CF they scored two goals and made Valencia CF look like the relegation team.
I was very pleased with the way Valencia played against Athletic Bilbao in the cup, it was a scrappy match for big parts, but we saw an attacking Valencia CF side that seemed capable of scoring goals at any given moment and we gave Bilbao a big scare, losing at home to a Valencia side that is struggling in the league, when they beat Real Madrid and Barcelona before us to reach the semi final.
Little did I know none of that fighting spirit and attacking quality would transfer over to the league match. Jose Bordalas fielded a very strong team, we had Guedes in attack, Soler in midfield, Thierry in defense, Yunus had done well in central midfield in the previous matches he started, so it was all good, this was 95% the strongest team, we missed Bryan Gil, Hugo Duro and Gaya, but apart from Gil who is world class, I don't see how Hugo or Gaya would have made a difference and truth is they didn't when they were introduced on half time. In fact it took a penalty for Valencia CF to equalize the score, but then Alaves were awarded one as well and they clinched the match.
So what is going on, is the team underperforming, is this the ceiling for this squad, is it the coach, the players? I think its an unfortunately mix of all of it. I do think we are probably hitting a ceiling with some of the players, but if you look at our squad its mostly new faces, these players are not a family, they are not friends, they are coworkers doing a temporary job in between jobs. I think this is the primary and most important reason why the team is underperforming. You can't just throw in some players randomly, even if they are world class and expect to have a solid team, we saw this with Real Madrid and the "galacticos" era where they had every superstar under their roof, it was a all start dream team, but they lost time and time again to a Barceona side who had half of their players come from the B team. The thing was these players had played together for years, they all knew each other, they were friends outside of the pitch and had a deep understanding with each other where they knew exactly when and where everyone move move and position themselves.
At Valencia CF for the past 6-7 years all we've had is "rebuilding" and each "rebuild" has been worse than the previous one. We had a mild success with Marcelino and the owner screwed that up too. Since that time we've rebuilt 3 times already, every year dozens of players leave and new arrive, there is no cohesion, there is no TEAM, there are just individuals, coworkers doing a job in between jobs.
Can you name more than 5 players that have been with Valencia CF for more than 3 years? And what do you want to bet that this summer we'll lose at least half of those players? Half of the several players that have been with the club for over 3 years we'll lose in the summer! How can we expect results?
We need a stable team of VETERANS who know each other, who are friend with each other, who are a "family" together. Everyone in our team right now is playing INDIVIDUALLY, basically auditioning for a bigger and better club, no one is playing collectively, none of the players have played together for more than a few years.
Every year everyone is saying "time to rebuild, time to start from scratch" etc... well what has that brought us? Its time to STOP rebuilding and DEVELOP the current team, have these players get to know each other, become friends outside the field, trust each other, otherwise we'll never have a decent team. We'll be a middle table garbage team forever and Peter Lim is the poor man's billionaire, he won't invest hundreds of millions into Valencia CF like certain sheikhs and big investors. He did invest a big amount in his first year, there is no question that he invested 150 million euros in players, but it was all overpaid flops from his agent buddies, not real players, those were 'investments' to develop and sell off.
We have to maintain our squad and only sell the most fringe players who never get any minutes, while we keep everyone else and develop them. Reinforcements mean you sell few fringe players who weren't contributing at all and bring in quality replacements, NOT sell our top players so we can bring in cheap fringe players who may, but probably won't help us.
Now this winter transfer we actually did well, sold mostly the players who were barely playing, who were dead wood so to speak and brought in some solid reinforcements. Gryan Gil is a class act, Eray Comert has so far been a little bit of fail, but once again he is new, he hasn't even been with the team for one month, we can't just place him immediately in the deep end and expect him to be fine, he'll need more adaptation in order to fit in and gel. Moriba Ilaix had been a decent addition, nothing special, but once again he is very new and would need at least few weeks to adapt. Bryan Gil on the other hand has been superb for us, but he is a world class player and chances are Tottenham are going to use him for themselves next season. There is no option for us at this point to purchase him.
So I think our primary issue is the freshness and immaturity of our squad, its mostly younger players who've not played with each other for a long period, so we have a bunch of individuals playing alone, rather than a collective team. We need to stick with this team and coach and see it through for at least one more season.