Verdict on Valverde

As any Valencianista knows, a few months ago, freshman coach Mauricio Pellegrino was sacked for poor performances in the league and replaced by Ernesto Valverde in early December. I raised questions on whether Valverde was the right man for the job, but since his appointment, the Extremaduran coach has made me eat my words. Not only does he have Valencia firing on all cylinders, winning seven of their last eight games, but he has done something that no manager has done at the club in five years; change the formation. Valverde is the first coach since the Koeman era to shake strategy up at the club. It was Koeman who started using the 4-5-1 instead of a 4-4-2. The result was Valencia’s rapid decline, though it has to be said Koeman’s overall coaching ability was the root of that issue. Still, even under Emery, VCF played a 4-5-1 and didn’t put in the kind of performances the fans had come to expect. Eventually Emery got VCF back to where they deserved to be, 3^rd place, because he understood how to build a squad and motivate players. The problem, of course, is that not every manager knows how to play the 4-5-1 like Emery did, which was evident when Pellegrino tried the same system and found himself in 14^th place before he was shown the door. Valverde chose a different route, changing the VCF formation, this time to a 4-3-3 against Sevilla this past weekend. In what is usually a tightly contested matchup, Valencia dominated and came away with a 2-0 victory.

 

Valverde’s understanding of strategy and rotation has really helped bring the best out of VCF. However, while the team has remained responsible in the back, the team still struggles up top. Soldado is on fire, having scored 17 goals in all competitions this season, but unfortunately the rest of the attacking unit hasn’t been performing up to scratch, with the entire team only managing 27 goals in La Liga so far. Valverde has managed to create a team that can control possession and defend properly, now he just needs to find the goals. 

It would appear as though Valverde is certainly the man for the job. He has surpassed all of my expectations, rotating the squad properly, changing strategy to suit the squad, and most importantly, winning games. I’m looking forward to seeing the future for this squad and to seeing how the rest of Valverde’s regime will go. Amunt!

written by David Wall