[FM21] Valencia - Dusting off the Bats

[Rabbix]

Remember Valencia?



Not the Valencia now but the one in the picture shown above. That right there was Valencia. A serious contender for the greatest team in Spain and a team who would be the only squad to win LaLiga since 2000 whilst not being the illustrious top 3 (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid). The top goalscorer for Valencia that year was Mista. Mista would stay a year or two at the bats before going to Atletico Madrid where he quickly fell out of the squad. Manager Rafa Benitez jumped to Liverpool whilst his stock was high and had a decent 6 years there before getting sacked. Ever since then, he has been hopping club after club -- most recently landing at Dalian Pro, a team in China.  Rafa has just resigned from the team due to COVID-19, but seeing how his recent stints at clubs such as Newcastle and Real Madrid went, he might not have a chance to manage a top tier club again. This hopefully shines a light to what happened to the two key figures who built Valencia to the LaLiga powerhouses they were. But what about Valencia themselves? Well if you know how their current season is going.... not good.

Is it really that bad?



Yeah. it is. Between the years 2017 to 2019 Valencia had two straight 4th place finishes in LaLiga. What's so bad about this? Well the next season (19/20) the team landed in an abysmal 9th place. But with the influence of COVID maybe it was just the conditions? They could easily bounce back the next year. Well the bats are about to finish this LaLiga season in the worst position they've been in since 2000, 13th. This doesn't even include the relegation battle this club was in by Christmas. According to an article by Football Espana: "It is said by the report that (Peter) Lim has no plans of investing any more money into the club and indeed he will look to save any potential outgoings by cashing in on more assets." Lim is the current owner of Valencia, but seeing as how he has refused to invest any more money into the team, most fans want Lim out of Valencia ASAP. Said fans even went as far as to protest outside the bat's stadium just to give off the message that they wanted Peter gone. Another key reason is the assets the club has sold, most notably, Manchester City rising star Ferran Torres who has put on an excellent showing at the Blues and could have shown an even better performance at the Mestalla under the right ownership. But instead, the club is focused on selling whatever star players it can to save itself from disbanding. This has to change, and using Football Manager I can see if I can control a new manager and do just that. This new manager has come in to hopefully end the drought this club is currently in. This will be the 12th manager in 9 years for Valencia, but the young Dane has high hopes despite not managing a club before.


Welcome to: Valencia - Dusting off the Bats.
 

 

[Rabbix]

Squad Overview


Right, time to go over the squad we have right now. I'll mostly be going over who's in the starting XI as they will be our main tools this year. I'm going through every position in our current tactic, which is a 4-2-4. That means the right-back and the left-back, two center-backs, two midfielders, two wingers, and two attackers. Before the analysis of each individual, I would like to go out on record and say this squad is amazing. At least for a person like me who loves young but proven players with a hint of veteran leadership. As well these players allow me to try out a 4-2-4 instead of my normal 4-2-3-1 and in turn allows me to play with slightly different concepts then I would have at most clubs. Anyway, time to stop stalling, It's time to show you who I'm going to use in this squad.

Defenders (GK, LB, CB, RB)

Goalkeeper: Jasper Cillessen


I'm very critical of older players. Cillessen however is a GK, so he has at least 2 years left before I can really say we need a new goalie.  The dutch international has great Aerial Reach and can play that vital Sweeper Keeper role. Not to mention his experience and leadership will help our potential younger GK's down at the academy. Other then that he's way better then my assistant claims he is and will earn the role over backup Jaume Domènech. Jaume is alright, but is only really good in terms of reflexes and even then Cillessen is not far behind. Jaume however is still a great backup and would most likely start for most lower table LaLiga sides. Therefore, the goalkeeper position is the least of my worries, at least for right now.

Left Back: José Gayà


Our captain at just 25, Jose Gaya has secured the Left Back slot for my team. Even though the graphic highlights Gaya's attributes as a CWB on support, I have decided to put him at WB on defense. He has great marking, tackling, and positioning so I trust he will do just fine in his selected role. We need to trust him with good performances as well because if he has a slump there's more of a chance the rest of the squad will too. His backup at the role is Toni Lato who is slightly worse but can easily fill in for Gaya in case of injury. Lato is only 22 as well so if Gaya tries to force a move to another club we won't have to worry about a hole in LB assuming Lato is devolved enough to start by then. Overall, we wont have to be worrying about Left Back for the next few years thanks to Gaya's class and a potential successor at backup.

Center Back: Mouctar Diakhaby and Gabriel Paulista


Well this is an interesting situation. Of course I am all for youngster Mouctar Diakhaby, he's 23 but still has a lot of potential in him and his stats right now are not bad at all. Meanwhile, Gabriel Paulista is the better player right now but the clock is winding down on his time at club. He's 29, will soon start to massively regress, and could be sold just so I can afford the money to get a younger CB who is hopefully more left footed so they can be a better pair with Diakhaby. It doesn't help that we also have fellow french CB named Eliaquim Mangala. Eliaquim has a stronger left foot but his attributes fall short to Paulista. Mangala is also 29 so like Paulista is going to start regressing soon. The only other CB in the first team is Ferro who is on loan from Benfica and is more as a fringe or backup player then a starter. I would spend whatever remaining money we had on a starting CB. but we currently don't have any. so i'm going to make that a job for future Rabbix. Hopefully when we're in January we can have enough money to sign a real talent.

Right Back: Daniel Wass


Wass is a solid player. Based off our system i'm putting him at support to distribute better to the right winger but overall he isn't going to do much. He's an all around solid player who we can put up at midfielder. This will be his last year starting though, not just because he's 31, but rather because around January i'm going to be slotting in a new player at the role. We might as well talk about him now so I don't have to write up a big analysis later, but...

Backup (Soon to be Starter) Right Back: Thierry Correia


In some ways, Correia is already better then Wass. Most notably he's faster and runs with the ball down right so he is already arguably a better player at the supporting role. However, I'm not ready to start the portuguese youngster fully as Wass is slightly better overall at the moment. However Correia will be starting some games even early on and we will be rotating between the two right backs constantly. I'll also be checking the stats throughout the season to see who's better at what, but, I'm expecting a good performance from Thierry this season and hope he can have a successful career here.

Midfielders (CM)

Center Midfielder: Carlos Soler and Uroš Račić


Lets get one thing straight. Carlos Soler is a star. He's only 23 and is a talent at the midfield. My assistant says he's reached his full potential but ideally we aren't even close. He is about to become the top goalscorer for Valencia this season and has been the sunshine in a horrid LaLiga campaign for the bats. We start the season in FM before Valencia are IRL but Soler is defiantly going to be a stud -- just like he is in in the real world. Meanwhile, Uros Racic seems like a very underrated player. He'll be playing DLP this season on defense as I think he can stop a potential attack or counter-attack from the opposition rather easily. He's solid all around and can cover for a bunch of different scenarios. He even has a bag of potential along with him so he will improve a lot as we go through the years. There isn't any other notable center midfielders, but these two will make for a great pair.

Attackers (LW, RW, ST)

Left Winger: Gonçalo Guedes


Similar to Soler, Guedes is a young star at the Mestalla. He'll be supporting our other players in a great attack, but can easily give some contributions himself. Unlike Soler though, I don't exactly know what to do with him. Right now he's an Inside Forward on the left thanks to his strong right foot. But, he can fit in at so many other positions and it has tempt me a little bit. Still, I will be holding my ground and putting Goncalo at LW until I decide to make a shake-up in the formation.

Right Winger: Lee Kang-In


Where to start with Lee Kang-In? Well he's playing IF on the right because he has a strong left foot to pair with Guedes' strong right foot. But for Lee I've decided to put him on the attack. He has decent finishing, great technique, and out of this world flair. As well he runs with the ball often and always goes for a killer ball. But Lee Kang-In only just made the starting lineup because of my consideration of another winger. If your American (like me) and fancy yourself as a football fanatic (like me) the backup right winger should already be deep in your head. But for a proper introduction...

Backup Right Winger: Yunus Musah


Why am I not starting Yunus Musah? You might be asking this right now, but the answer is simple. He's just not as good yet. He has better mental and physical attributes, but technical wise he lacks compared to Lee. As well, he doesn't have the same traits as Kang-In who better fits the selected position because of it. But though they have the same potential, I believe that Musah currently has the greater ceiling. He has all the skills of a great player but just needs to improve on some of his technical abilities.

Striker: Maxi Gómez and Kevin Gameiro


We have two quality strikers at the club. One is Maxi Gomez, a 24 year old Uruguayan who is a complete forward and an amazing goal scorer. His only real weakness is that he's usually overlooked in the squad despite having the most goals last season [19/20]. Meanwhile, Kevin Gameiro is the perfect example of a False 9, a player who will confuse the defenders to leave either Maxi or Lee open for an easy goal. Kevin is getting rather old but until he retires or we find a better False 9 I'm going to keep him in the starting lineup. These two will be leading the line and they both give me hope we can get placement in Europe this year.

The Tactic


Don't mind the international duty signs, it's mostly just because LaLiga decided to schedule games whilst some players are on international duty I guess. I mean this is 5 days before the first game league, are you mad? All jokes aside here is the tactic. I'm not going to go too in depth, but we're looking to play more attacking. Specifically, we are going to try to trick defenders and then give Lee Kang-In, Guedes, or Maxi Gomez the perfect opportunity to score goals. Anyway, next post we will HOPEFULLY be getting into games and recapping the month. But until then, I will see you all next time.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Rabbix
kevin taking up the spotlight

[13th Man]

I’m curious to see how this all works out for you. That tactic looks very attacking and I imagine you’ll score goals and also concede a fair amount too! It also looks like you’ll end up in something that looks like an offset 4-2-3-1 in attack, but with a bit different movement. I’m also interested because I’ve never managed to get a 4-2-4 to work but i like it in theory!

It’s a good squad and I’m wishing you success!

Edited May 21, 2021 by 13th Man

[Rabbix]

9 hours ago, 13th Man said:

I’m curious to see how this all works out for you. That tactic looks very attacking and I imagine you’ll score goals and also concede a fair amount too! It also looks like you’ll end up in something that looks like an offset 4-2-3-1 in attack, but with a bit different movement. I’m also interested because I’ve never managed to get a 4-2-4 to work but i like it in theory!

It’s a good squad and I’m wishing you success!

Yep! I always like to go attacking when making teams, and this is no different. Also spot on with the offset 4-2-3-1, thats really my main thing with this tactic.

[13th Man]

9 hours ago, Rabbix said:

Yep! I always like to go attacking when making teams, and this is no different. Also spot on with the offset 4-2-3-1, thats really my main thing with this tactic.

Good times! That wasn’t a criticism by the way, more just an observation. Excited to see how it works. My Livorno  side recently got destroyed 5-2 by a Hoffenhiem team that played a similar setup. It was a friendly but the movement was really good and my also risky 3-4-1-2 couldn’t handle it, and neither could I after the switch to a 5-2-1-2.

[Number seven]

Why not use Musah as a back up centre mid, he can be developed into a monster in that position?

[Rabbix]

Valencia: Four Games In


 The  season has started, and we are doing great! Losing to Athletic Bilbao wasn't the greatest start, but we have been firing since then. A smashing away at Sevilla, a draw against Atletico in which Cillessen did a class action bottle job and gave the ball away to Angel Correa, and a clean sheet against Eibar. Not much is going to be said here as it's only 4 games but expect more of an in depth review once i finish October.


(Cillessen....)