[Mestalla]

Recreativo de Huelva (18) vs Valencia Club de Fútbol (1)
Sunday 10/26 l 16:00 GMT

Renan Brito

Miguel ----- Albiol --- Alexis ----- Moretti

Albelda ----- Fernandes

Joaq/Pablo ------------------ Juan Mata

Angulo --- Villa

Bench Options: Marchena, del Horno, Edu, Baraja, Joaq/Pablo, Vicente, Morientes, Zigic, Guaita.​

 

[Mestalla]

Unai will be aiming for our eight win in a row in all competitions and our best start in History. I think the above formation is what he'll go with but I'm hoping for this:

Renan Brito

Miguel ----- Albiol --- Alexis ----- Moretti

Marchena ----- Fernandes

Pablo ---------- Joaquin ------- Juan Mata

David Villa​

Anything not to start Angulo really and I don't think Morientes is up to start a grueling away game, as isn't the injury friendly Vicente. Joaquin has shown that he can play well off Villa with those through passes, so why not, plus it'll take him away from the frustration of the right wing where he's having a lot of problems.

 

[Mestalla]

Why? Are you in some sort of fantasy league? If so, then depending and betting on Vicente is a bad, bad choice man p

But to answer your question, yes there is a chance even though Unai doesn't like to start him as he's more used as an impact player in the second half, these days.

 

[Mestalla]

You're bringing El Bloque back? That's not only El Bloque, but that's "El Boque +1" guest starring Fernandes :dielaugh:

 

[Mestalla]

I guess somebody must be suing you atm..

I agree but at the same time he needs to be rested as he's pushing the other side of 30 now and Marchena needs playing time.

We can't play him week in week out, imo.

 

[Mestalla]

Stop trying to make it work Mestalla

p

Seriously, we should do everything necessary to make it work. Otherwise that's just 24M Euros down the drain

 

[Mestalla]

Are you suggesting we kick out Moretti??

That's a crime and you know it.

 

[Mestalla]

Vicente probably deserves a start more than anyone else, as he hasn't started a game since we played Maritimo at home, and we never know when he will suffer the frustration of being out again. Still, can he handle 90 minutes or come through unscathed?

Btw, we won't win this game, i see a 2-1 defeat.

I have a bad feeling about this game too because we traditionally struggle against easy opposition when we play away. But I think we'll come away with either a draw or a close win. I can't see us conceding two goals because of our defence, and how basically the whole team covers and helps the backline.

If we want to win this one, then our midfielders have to create enough for our forwards which is a big responsibility on Manelele and that's why it's a better to start Marchena as opposed to Albelda in midfield, so he can help Manuel out offensively.

Or if Unai is going for counter attacking tactics again, then we need to be extra quick on the break, imo.

 

[Mestalla]

The thing is, they kicked out Manolo Zambrano after that humiliation and appointed Señorita Lucas Alcaraz. We all know it's difficult sometimes to beat a team who just appointed a new coach, as everyone will be excited to begin their new era with a positive result. They want to prove something and will give it their all to get a victory infront of their own fans, so we should be careful.

An early goal would really help us out a lot.

 

[Mestalla]

La Liga Preview: Recreativo - Valencia

What: La Liga Matchday 8
Who: Recreativo (18th, 5/21pts) vs Valencia (1st, 19/21 pts)
When: Sunday 26 October, 17:00 CET (local)
Where: Nuevo Colombino, Huelva, Andalucía

The Valencia charge continues unchallenged through the La Liga pack. Unai Emery’s men have been proficient in seeing off their opponents so far, scoring freely at home when beating the likes of Deportivo and Numancia, but have been solid and steadfast away. The manner in which they have presented their flair and fluidity at the Mestalla has at times been a joy to watch. Even without the influential Silva, who has been crocked for most of the campaign, they have performed like the Valencia of Rafa Benitez, and even, arguably, the Valencia of Hector Cuper.

How has this miraculous transformation from the chaos of Koeman occurred in such a short space of time? It has many baffled; Emery has barely altered the squad, yet there is a swagger and style that was so blatantly lacking under the Dutchman’s tenure. Los Che have gone from a Spanish laughing stock to title dark horses in the space of a year.

The primary reason for the shift in fortunes is now they have a well-liked, approachable, ambitious leader in Emery. He shows respect to seasoned campaigners like Angulo and Albelda instead of the contempt handed to them from Koeman. Also, they have a fully-fit, fully committed David Villa scoring eight goals in seven league games. He is in the form of his life, an indisputably world class talent who orchestrates everything positive in Valencia’s play.

But everyone always knew Villa’s ability. What has been truly pleasing for Emery is the performance of his midfield. His first-choice central pairing that were so disparaged last season have flourished. The David Albelda of old is back controlling the engine room with authority, and Manuel Fernandes’ impudent outside-of-the-foot pass for Villa’s second goal on Sunday acts as a microcosm for his confidence and level of performance. Then there’s Mata – always seen a one for the future – he has proven most definitely one for the present, linking telepathically with Villa and also bagging a healthy four goals from midfield.

They are top of the league, unbeaten, with nineteen points from a possible twenty-one. It is unquestionably title winning form but can it be sustained, or will Recreativo burst their bubble?

They are a side who had been capable of it in the past, but last season they only maintained their La Liga status by the skin of their teeth, and so far this term they have fared no better. Firstly, Atletico Madrid poached striker Sinama-Pongolle over the summer for 10m Euros. He was their key source of goals over the previous two seasons, and as they have only managed three league goals from seven matches, he is proving extremely difficult to replace. Indeed their poor form has warranted a snap reaction from the board, and coach Manolo Zambrano was told to clear his desk after the humiliating 4-0 reverse against Malaga.

The season had started so well, with an excellent 1-0 victory away to Betis, but since then Recre have only managed to add another two points to their total. Lucas Alcaraz, who managed here previously, has been appointed to steady the ship but with limited resources at his disposal has a thankless task to take Recreativo anywhere except into another relegation tussle.

They do have some promising talent in the form of goalkeeper Riesgo, who has been gathering admirers despite shipping twelve goals this season, and 21-year old striker Marco Ruben who is beginning to become an established first-team regular and has time on his side to develop.

However, the most worrying problem for Alcaraz can be found on the fixture calendar. Their next five league games reads Valencia (h), Getafe (h), Sevilla (a), Barcelona (h), and Real Madrid (a). It is a horrible run – what kind of points target can the coach set for a team who are already in the bottom three, then face four of the top five teams in the division within the next month?

FORM GUIDE

Recreativo

Valladolid 1-1 Recreativo (La Liga)
Recreativo 0-4 Malaga (La Liga)
Almeria 1-0 Recreativo (La Liga)
Recreativo 1-1 Athletic Bilbao (La Liga)
Atletico Madrid 4-0 Recreativo (La Liga)

Valencia

Valencia 4-0 Numancia (La Liga)
Real Valladolid 0-1 Valencia (La Liga)
Valencia 2-1 Marítimo (UEFA Cup)
Valencia 4-2 Deportivo La Coruña (La Liga)
Málaga 0-2 Valencia (La Liga)

TEAM NEWS

Recreativo

Midfielder Sisi will be out for at least two weeks with a fracture of his leg sustained in the match versus Valladolid. Defender Nasief Morris, who had missed training for most of the week through injury, may still recover in time to keep his 100% appearance record in the Recreativo back line.

Probable XI: Riesgo – Lamas, Morris, Arzo, Poli – Camuñas, Akale, Tornavaca, Fuego– Ruben, Guerrero

Valencia

David Silva is not due until closer to Christmas – how good would Valencia be with him available, and Curo Torres remains a long-term concern, but other than those problems the Valencia team picks himself currently. Vicente has been performing superbly coming from the bench, and he could be pushing for a start soon.

Possible XI: Renan – Miguel, Albiol, Marchena, Moretti –Joaquín, Albelda, Manuel Fernandes, Mata – Morientes , Villa

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Recreativo

Goalkeeper Asier Riesgo plied his trade at Real Sociedad and has been a very busy goalkeeper so far this season, but the little number of points that Recreativo have amassed are down to his displays. Expect him and Villa to be involved heavily against each other on Sunday.

Valencia

For all David Villa’s goals, Mata has really caught the eye for the way he has linked with the striker, and also for his own four goals that have eased some of the expectation from Villa’s shoulders. Creative, skilful, and with an eye for goal, Mata could prove to be one the season’s shining lights.

PREDICTION

The form book will point to an away win here, and if Valencia can find any semblance of rhythm, then an away win can be the only outcome.

Recreativo 0-2 Valencia

Paul Macdonald, Goal.com

 

[Mestalla]

This is the only 4-3-3 I would consider (May God save us and the rest of the World from El Bloque):

Renan

Miguel - Albiol - Alexis - Moretti

Marchena

Fernandes ----- Edu

Joaquin ----------------- Mata

David Villa​

That midfield is defensively secure and it's quite creative going forward. Maybe Viana and Pablo having a look in for Edu and Joaquin won't be bad either.

 

[Mestalla]

Putas called up:

Goal keepers: El Nerdy & Woody Woodpecker

Defenders: Smoky, Albiol, Ruano, Kaiser & Emiliana

Midfielders: Lawsuit, Edu, Grandpa, G-Force, V14, Pablo, Ximo & M16

Strikers: Angulo, El Moro & El Guaje

 

[Mestalla]

Master Unai was once quoted as saying, "He has a strong genetic force", referring to the then-called hustler, Manelele.

p

Anyway Barca's win will give the team the needed pressure and urgency to perform, especially since we usually play away games at walking pace sometimes. If they were playing at home, they wouldn't need it as the Mestalla is pressure enough.

 

[Mestalla]

As usual, here's the second preview:

Valencia coach Unai Emery is placing little stock in the league standings as he prepares his side for this weekend`s visit to lowly Recreativo Huelva.
The two clubs could hardly have had more contrasting starts to the season, with unbeaten Valencia setting the pace at the top of the table with 19 points from a possible 21, whereas Recre are third-bottom with just five points and three goals to their credit.

Emery is not reading too much into all of that ahead of Sunday`s trip to the Nuevo Colombino however, even though Recre are winless at home and in their last match in Huelva suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Malaga - a result that ultimately cost former coach Manolo Zambrano his job.

"It will be a difficult game. The league table says one thing but what happens on the pitch could say something else,'' said Emery.

"We need to show what has got us to the top of the table because it could happen Recreativo play to their strengths and beat Valencia.

"We must avoid our weaknesses and their virtues coming to the fore. We will have to play with intensity, whichever team maintains this high intensity will have a better chance of winning.

"We will have to keep our motivation very high, they are back at home and with a new coach, and they will also be very keen to stay in this division.''

Emery also warned his side against over-confidence, saying: "Confidence can become negative if it makes you too relaxed on the pitch, thinking we will win without putting the effort in.''

Emery, 36, may be trying to keep everyone`s feet on the ground, but Valencia winger Vicente Rodriguez has been hugely encouraged by his side`s start to the season, and sees similarities between this side and Rafael Benitez's championship winning teams of a few years ago.

"There are similarities between the two sides. Some of the players are the same, but the arrival of a coach like Emery has helped us a lot,'' said the Spain international.

Emery, whose side should feel refreshed having enjoyed a blank week in the UEFA Cup, will again be without David Silva while Ruben Baraja and Carlos Marchena remain doubts, but Asier Del Horno is available after injury.

Recreativo Huelva began the season with an impressive 3-1 win at Real Betis, but have had a wretched time since then, losing four and drawing two of their subsequent six games.

Lucas Alcaraz was the man brought in to replace Zambrano, returning to the club he coached between 2000 and 2003, and in his first match back in charge he was only denied a win when opponents Real Valladolid netted a last-minute equaliser.

Alcaraz is now hoping his side`s fans can cheer them on to a first home victory since April this weekend.

"We are aware the team needs a lot of support and it`s a game in which the fans are going to be behind the team because the know how difficult it is going to be,'' said Alcaraz, who will be without injured duo Sisi and Jose Ignacio Zahinos for the encounter.

- Soccernet.

-------------------------------------------------

Super believes Morientes will start ahead of Angulo. Lets hope the suckers are right for once in their lives. But they are unsure which on of M16 or V14 will start.

 

[Mestalla]

quite boring game..

Boring? This must be one of the best away games we're having minus the goals ofcourse Recrea are getting Emeryball'd into only 27% possession p

That's all pointless though, unless we score. We had two golden chances with that piece of genius from Manelele, outside the box, and Joaquin's "lob".

Emery should continue with the same strategy but if we don't score after ten minutes or so minutes in the second, then get Morientes in there.

 

[Mestalla]

Well Emery got that "control" he wanted in away games with 700% possession but we need to be capitalize in the final third.

 

[Mestalla]

Two points lost, imo. With all the possession and the efforts going forward, we deserved more. And I taught we were gonna get something, but we lost a bit of edge when Manelele was brought out. Him and Baraja for the rest of the ninety minutes would've been better, but I guess Unai wanted defensive security in midfield to stay safe.

Still top of the table and the players should just take this as a lesson learned. Take your chances and score as early as you can.

 

[Mestalla]

Aside from Renan and Fernandes any other MoM nominations for the poll?

We need to improve our away form.

Especially in the final third.

Actually this game was very similar to the Malaga and Valladolid games.

Have to disagree a bit here, I taught we were better in this match than in those, aside from the score ofcourse. We controlled the game from the beginning to the end and had above 70% possession, while we played on the counter in those games.

We've improved in that sense, but Unai has to figure out a starting formation for our away games which doesn't include Angulo. And we have to be more decisive infront of goal.

 

[Mestalla]

Moretti has been solid.

lol :howler:

 

[Mestalla]

Don't worry guys, we've still yet to have a game this season where we've fcuked up. Compare us to our rivals especially after the two nobs and we've been far more solid than them.

Yes I wouldn't trade any of the work Emery has done with our team for any of our rivals, we are established at the back (it was so weird to seeing us concede again, I taught we were immune to that by now p) and we're not bad going forward.

But he has to fix a few details like getting the ball more to our forwards; dropping Angulo on his ass and playing any of Morientes, Mata or Zigic upfront.

Next Racing at home. And this time it's live, how dare they give Valencia two Sunday afternoon games.

Did you finally find a torrent? p

No no. I'm not saying he's a good player or anything like that. It's just that in this game he was solid defensively and I can't remember him doing anything wrong. You gotta give him credit when its due man, we can't just keep bashing the guy week in week out when some of his performances are good when you look closely.

I agree with that and no one has defended Moretti here more than I have (jokingly or un-jokingly), but I taught he was horrible yesterday. Especially going forward.

He should've also been more tight on his marker, for the goal we conceded.

Ya, we have been winning our home matches bar Almeria, but they have been far from comfortable. We had 70-30 possession, but half of it was Albiol - Alexis tossing each other off at the back. Renan (For the shit kick he did) and Moretti were at fault fo that goal, if we didn't concede there, we probably would have won

Yeah most of the possession was the back four and the midfield four passing the damn ball around (I'm not gonna say it wasn't entertaining though :horny, Recre put eleven men behind the ball and we couldn't find a way through; so much so Villa had to come back to the midfield a lot. We need to be quicker with passing the ball forward, to we set up more opportunities to score.

Miguel was fcuking gash. IIRC, the goal and every other attack we were on the receiving end of were his fault.

Maybe his only bellow par game all season, and it wasn't really that bad but the guy can't shoot for shit :howler: He constantly gets in those goal scoring positions, but he just can't convert even if his Cigars depended on it.

We could've won last night had he converted that last chance, and Unai has got to ask him to practice more on his shooting at training.

Take up Jaume Costa from Mestalla or Ximo Navarro on the RB, they're good players with interesting talent. Otherwise I like that Jesus Gamez we're interested in but with Fernando, he will talk too damn much as with K9 and totally **** the situation and raise the player's value because of his talks :wallbang:

I will catch the Sevilla-Malaga match later. I've only seen him about once before, how's his attacking and defenidng skills?

Our both fullbacks tried very hard going forward but produced no end products. With all those overlapping runs, wing plays, and crosses, we should play Moro or Zigic.

I've been saying that a long time, they could've benefited from Joaquin's crossing, who by the way still looks clueless down the middle but quite dangerous on the wing.

I hope Emery saw Moretti's inability in attacking. It's time for Del Horno to step in the starting eleven, especially when playing defensive teams like Recre, Racing etc.

From what del Horno has shown so far, he's probably worse than Moretti going forward. He has to step up, that spot is so easy to take, if he got his head out of his Horny arse for once.

Angulo is a mystery. One that we can't fathom. Lay it off already.

73% control is nothing if we can't score. Away games asked for efficiency imo, which we lacked a lot since Emery's charge.

Moretti is always useless attacking but we can't ask 8 or 7 people to attack. I still think Mata/Vicente+Villa is more than enough to cover left wing, provided some decent striker, unlike Angulo.

I'd start this:

Joaquin ------------------------- Mata

Morientes -- Villa​

With Vicente coming on later for El Moro.