This might not be the most incisive piece of sporting analysis, but sometimes even the best need a little bit of luck.
Barcelona certainly benefitted from fortune in their undeserved victory at Malaga yesterday, where the hosts could have scored three or four goals in the first half alone before eventually succumbing to a wonderful winner from Lionel Messi.
And one man who has been dealt a particularly harsh hand by Lady Luck in the last few weeks is Gary Neville, for whom nothing appears to be going right at Valencia.
You name it, Valencia have suffered from it during Neville’s seven weeks in charge, a period of time which has still not yielded a single league victory.
Thursday’s cup meeting with Las Palmas, for example, saw Neville’s men dominate the early exchanges before falling behind when Wilfried Zahibo produced a neat finish…the only problem being that Zahibo is a Valencia player and had scored into his own net.
Before then, last weekend’s home meeting with Rayo Vallecano saw Valencia men produce a performance so poor even their manager admitted it was “unacceptable” – but they still could have won rather than drawing 2-2, following a mistaken decision to disallow a goal from Paco Alcacer for offside.
And now, ahead of today’s trip to Deportivo La Coruna, Los Che have suffered more misfortune with the confirmation that leading scorer Alcacer, who has just been appointed club captain by Neville, has been sidelined by injury – the latest in a long line of absentees over the last two months.
Not everything going wrong at Valencia can be explained by bad luck, of course. The team has not been playing well, that cannot be denied. There have been some passages of promising play, notably in the 2-2 home draw with Real Madrid which led to the sacking of Rafa Benitez.
Valencia's La Liga form under Gary Neville: DDLDLD 0 wins 4 draws 2 defeats 7 goals 10 conceded 0 clean sheets pic.twitter.com/takpGLDy7b
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 17, 2016
But generally, the team has looked lost, with little or no connection between defence, midfield and attack. The opening period against Rayo last Sunday, and the final stages of Thursday’s draw with Las Palmas were particularly disheartening, and the famously volatile Mestalla fans have already made it clear they will not put up with much more of that. Neville, though, is trying hard to put things right. He has been eager to experiment with new formations, new personnel and new styles of play, as well as making bold decisions such as removing the captain’s armband from Dani Parejo and handing it to Alcacer.
That, however, is a large part of the problem. Neville is desperately looking for a formula which works and, because none of them have, he is being forced to constantly try something new.
Valencia, right now, are a team without identity. They want to play attacking football and seize the initiative – “get on the front foot”, as Neville terms it – but his players aren’t exactly sure how they should do that after a few years of being principally a counter-attacking team.
At least they cannot be accused of shirking: Valencia have rescued draws from losing positions on five occasions during Neville’s brief tenure, and their willingness to keep battling is rightly being taken as the biggest positive by the English coach.
What they really need, though, is a winning goal – and if it’s a lucky deflection off an opponent’s backside, so much the better.
