Valencia away to Almeria. It's these types of matches that Valencia struggled against last year, as the team either lacked motivation, focus, or both against the dregs of the table. No Villa nor Joaquin, so expect some more Angulofication of the front line. Would be nice to see new signing Fernandes get a run out, but who knows what the starting line-up will be. I'd also like to see Alexis and Mata or even Sunny get some minutes, but with Quique one never knows. I'd also like to see the match, but the problem rests entirely in my hands.

Soccernet has a preview here.

Amunt Valencia!

I'd just like to add that Valencia should win.

I am confident that it will happen

Almeria won Deportivo 0-3 on the first day. And we lost 0-3, too... I hope players are competitive.

goal.com predicts 1-1

hope our boys will disappoint them

We are without Villa,Ximo,Vicente,Zigic,Edu and Gavilan but i am sure that the players who will be on the pitch will not disappoint us! VAMOS VALENCIA!!!

We've won 1-2. Goals of Morientes and Moretti. But we've played really bad, I still can't believe we've got a victory...

Yes but dont u think that the most important is the victory?

We were without our star trio Vicente-Ximo-Villa and we won.Iam very proud of the team.



AMUUNT VALENCIA!!!

I couldn't watch the game, because it wasn't shown in Germany...The most important is the victory and I am really happy about this three points. Without Villa, Vicente and Joaquin it's difficult to win. I think we will play better in the future

Glad we won. It was difficult without our star players. We will play better when they return.

If we played this game 10 more times, just playing as bad as today, we wouldn't win any....

I'm happy about the victory, but I hope we start playing better, if not... it will be hard to win La Liga or UCL

Imagine Barcelona playing without Messi,Ronaldinho and Eto'o.It is the same.That's why i am happy with this victory and if there were Villa,Ximo and Vicente surely we should have played a lot better.The most important are the 3 points.

Yeah, but when we played against Vila-Real, we had Villa and Joaquin and eve before the referee started with his show, we weren't playing well....

I hope this will change soon

although the low quality of the game, 3 points are really good.

A win is a win, but the lacklustre display isn't entirely encouraging, but I'm stating that based on what others have said. I have yet to see a VCF match this season.

Sure, no Villa, Vicente or Joaquin hurts, but there should be enough players to step in and at least give Valencia the opportunity to control the tempo on the pitch. Where's the flexibility? Where's the imagination? I mean it's Almeria FFS!

And yes, when I read that Sneijder scored two for Real Madrid, I cringed if not died a little inside. Soler seems to know much about construction (he made his money from construction right?) but when it comes to running a football club his knowledge is, well, suspect.

I know it's still early in the season, but much of the core of this team is very young - Silva, Albiol, Alexis, Fernandes, Sunny plus add some of the standout players from last year's successful youth team - and I honestly think that some of the old guard could be holding the team back. I mean are players like Albelda, Angulo and Canizares still as hungry for titles as they were 4 or so years ago? Based on their performance last year, I would be inclined to say no. I'd like to think that Valencia can compete for La Liga and the CL this year, but with Quique at the helm, I have my resevations. Basically, I'm more encouraged by the Valencia of the future then the Valencia of the present....but getting a new coaching staff might change that.