Chelsea will travel to Spain for their second group game of the Champions League game against Valencia, the former club of Chelsea’s new midfield genius Juan Mata. Despite their lack of financial power and the apparent financial problems, Valencia has managed to finish 3rd behind the two Spanish giants – Barcelona and Real Madrid – in the two previous La Liga seasons. They have, yet again, made a decent start in this current season. Their manager Unai Emery likes to change tactics and formation frequently, adding a sense of unpredictability to his side. Valencia's attack, led by their on form striker Roberto Soldado, will be handful to the leaky Chelsea defense. Dominating the midfield and possession, though, may very well be the key to beat the Spanish side at their home ground. Here's my opposition scout report.
Current Form
Valencia started their season strongly – winning the first three league games – and sat at the top of the La Liga table. However, the well-earned 2-2 draw against Barcelona at home and the 1-0 defeat to Sevilla in the last league game saw them slipped to the 7th position, though they are only 2 points behind the league leader Betis.
If Valencia manager Unai Emery were to author a football bible, he would undoubtedly begin with the line, “Let there be rotation!” So far this season, the goalkeeper Guaita and defender Rami were the only constant figures in Valencia’s starting XI in the league. The rest, including their top goal scorer Soldado and their most influential midfielder Banega, have not been safe from rotation.
The key, of course, is that Emery, who
Villas-Boas calls "a friend of mine", has been able to maintain the quality of his team despite the constant change of personals from game to game. The fact that Valencia has finished 3
rd in La Liga, behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, in the last two campaigns, is a testament to the success of Emery’s rotation system.
Additionally, Emery is the type of manager who likes to change tactics and formations according the need of a particular match. 4-2-3-1 is said to be their default formation, but it is not unusual for Valencia to line up in
4-5-1,
4-4-2,
3-4-3 or
5-2-3.
In their last home game against Barcelona, Valencia started with two left backs, one in the traditional fullback position and another in the more forward winger position, to deal with the attacking threat of Danni Alves. It worked out beautifully. Valencia were not only able to deal with Alves’s threat but were also able to effectively exploit the space behind the forward running Barcelona right back.
The left-back-turned-left-wingerJeremy Mathieu’s explosive runs down the flank and his quality crosses createdthree clear cut goal-scoring opportunities – two of which turned into goals. Will they try the same double-fullback tactics against Bosingwa? Or will they opt for 5-2-3 with an extra defender to track the influential Juan Mata? Who knows?
At any rate, it must be stressed that
Los Che can afford to rotate players and change formations only because they have the players who are versatile and flexible. They have consistently produced or pursued players who can play in more than one position. All in all, their rotation system and constant tactical changes always keep opposition guessing who will start and what formation Valencia will adopt (and it makes the life of an "opposition scout" like me endlessly harder).
The On Form Striker
Having just written about the unpredictability of Valencia’s staring line up, one player who, I think, will definitely start against Chelsea is Roberto Soldado, the team’s current top goal scorer with five goals in five league games. Since Valencia have notched a total of eight goals this season, Soldado is responsible for 62.5% of all goals scored by the team.
Within the Valencia squad, Soldado also has the highest Goal Attempts (26) and Shots On Goal (12) – almost doubled that of Jonas who is second in these rankings with 14 GA and 6 SOG. Clearly, the Spanish striker is the most dangerous player in the team. He is also the type of player who is capable of making smart runs behind the defenders. Come Wednesday, he will certainly look to exploit Chelsea’s high defensive line.
The good news for Villas-Boas’s Chelsea is that Soldado’s five goals came in the three opening games of the season. He has now failed to find the net in the last three games – against Genk, Barcelona and Sevilla. To be fair to the Valencia striker, he did have some chances against Genk and Barcelona and he only came on as a substitute against Sevilla at the 71
st minute of the game. Having gotten the rest in that game, he will be ready and raring to go against Chelsea.
Overloading The Midfield And Dominating Possession
I believe that Valencia will definitely find the back of the net in this fixture. That means Chelsea will have to score one more than their Spanish opponent to gain maximum six points after two games. In order to do that, it may be wise to look at Barcelona's second half performance against Los Che in their 2-2 draw.
Pep Guardiola's side were trailing 2-1 to Valencia at half time. According to Michael Cox of Zonal Marking, Barcelona got back into the game in the second half
by overloading the midfield and dominating possession. Barca's formation shifted to a 3-4-3, with Busquets, Xavi, Thiago and Fabregas controlling the midfield and Messi, playing as a false nine, dropping deep to pick up the ball. In the end, Barcelona equalized and could have gone on to win the game.
I am not, however, suggesting that Chelsea should go out and play a 3-4-3 formation. The take away from Barcelona's second half performance is the need to control the midfield and to dominate possession in order to be effective against Valencia. Juan Mata, as he has already been in several occasions this season, will be the key to both maintaining possession and unleashing Chelsea's attack with his clever passes.
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