Ahead of the clash between La Liga's top two, ESPN FC's Sid Lowe explains why Barcelona aren't underestimating Valencia.
First he got injured, pulling a muscle at Real Sociedad; then he got suspended, sent to the stands at Espanyol. On Sunday night, when Valencia play their most important game of the season so far, a match that will go some way to defining who they are, they'll be without their most important man.
Manager Marcelino García Toral will be forced to watch proceedings from an executive box at Mestalla, a square, glass-fronted cage containing the tiny, tidy little bundle of energy, who normally spends 90 minutes hopping, skipping and jumping up and down the touchline. He might look like a schoolboy, slight and smart, hair neatly combed, but when Valencia beat Betis 6-3, Marcelino declared: "I'm too old for this."
Yet he's only 52, and besides, he just can't help himself, which helps explain why a man who once got cramp in a postmatch press conference ended up hurting a hamstring in one game and why he got sent off in another, even if an overly strict referee probably better explains the latter incident.
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That night at La Real's Anoeta, Valencia won. As a late winner went in and Marcelino celebrated, pain shot through his leg. Last week on the outskirts of Barcelona they won too, beating Espanyol 2-0. Winning is what Valencia do these days. Things have changed at Mestalla.
Things? Every thing. For much of last season they were dangerously close to relegation; 12 weeks into this one, they're unexpectedly close to the title. Last Sunday, the front page of every sports paper in Spain led on the number 10. Only that wasn't the gap from first to second but Barcelona's points advantage over Real Madrid in third and Atlético Madrid one place further behind.
The lead over second-placed Valencia was only seven. By the next morning, it was four. "Only Valencia keep up the pace," said the headline on the front of one sports daily. The question -- an inevitable one whenever one of Spain's "other" teams finds itself near the top of the table -- was: For how long?
Sunday will help to answer that. Twelve games into the season, Valencia have never had as many points. They have won nine and drawn three, including at Madrid and against Atlético, for 30 points. Next up: Barcelona at Mestalla. And if you're wondering how seriously the leaders are taking the game, just look to their bench at Juventus, where Leo Messi sat on Wednesday night.
"This is not chance," Valencia defender Jose Luis Gaya told Plaza Deporte. "Luck doesn't explain a team that goes 12 games unbeaten and wins eight in a row."
The key, Gaya says, is Marcelino. At last Valencia have a proper manager, an actual manager. And an extremely good one, too, who has changed everything. Before one preseason training session in the United States, Marcelino inspected the pitch and found that it was too dry. He demanded that something was done, so the fire brigade was called to hose it down. Staff at Valencia have photos; proof of his attention to detail, as well as of their faith in him and their willingness to back him.
With Anil Murthy as the new president and Mateu Alemany as the new CEO, Valencia have restructured. They set about rebuilding the squad, always with the active participation of Marcelino, to whom they gave backing and authority and whose knowledge of and access to players impressed. "He knows everyone!" said one board member. Marcelino would identify and contact some targets directly -- he pursued Goncalo Guedes, who is on loan from PSG and has been a revelation -- and his word is final; more manager than coach.
Marcelino, right, has overseen Valencia's superb start to the season.
Owner Peter Lim, meanwhile, did some deals directly -- Andreas Pereira on loan from Manchester United, for example -- and others were done by Murthy or Alemany. They still have a good relationship with the agent Jorge Mendes, while former sporting director Jose Ramon Alesanco has been moved on. Decisions are taken more quickly, they say; the channel of communication is clear, swifter and more efficient. Above all, it is more rational. They insist that football comes first, always. Which means that Marcelino does.
Although seven players arrived before the season, Valencia admit they did not get everyone in that they wanted. However, they managed to get everyone out that they wanted, and that was a lot of people. Sixteen footballers left, but this was not a wild purge; it was carefully done in search of a change of culture. It was, they insist, necessary. Some that stayed, players they thought they might "lose," were effectively brought back into line, redeemed. Leadership and authority was concentrated in the hands of the manager.
Ask players to define Marcelino and the word "exigente" gets repeated over and over: demanding. Even the diet has changed; Dani Parejo admits there were times when they "went hungry" to start with. Marcelino insists on players not surpassing 9.5 percent body fat -- the norm in football is closer to 11 or 12 percent -- and he is inflexible on that. The team is quick and dynamic, counter-attacks with great speed and is very direct. But that doesn't mean long ball; Valencia break in numbers, playing with precision as well as pace. Players with something to prove are proving it. Sessions are short, intense. "We train every day as if it was the end of the world," Gaya says.
The results have been spectacular and so have the performances. A lack of European football might be an advantage, as might the sense that this might not be a 100-point league; if Barcelona do not maintain their pace, the target may be more realistic for a team like Valencia. There are some tentative parallels to when Atlético won the title in 2014. It's not a bad thing for the headlines to talk of a 10-point lead rather than a four-point lead, for the pressure to be elsewhere.
On the inside, though, the question is starting to be asked. Could this actually happen? Sunday at Mestalla might help to provide the answer, with Marcelino watching through the glass. "We're still not candidates yet," Valencia's assistant coach Rubén Uría insisted last week. Beat Barcelona and maybe, just maybe, they will be.
Sid Lowe is a Spain-based columnist and journalist who writes for ESPN FC, the Guardian, FourFourTwo and World Soccer. Follow him on Twitter at @sidlowe.
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Source: espn.co.uk