Yet another opportunity to meet up with an old friend, this time Hugo Viana. He just came off of a foot injury and has only played once. For 14 minutes. As a sub.

Allegedly the last time Valencia won at Pamplona was during happier times in 2004. If I can remember it from last season, Morientes scored a late equalizer to salvage a draw. I could be wrong though. This will be broadcast on gol tv, ergo, available to watch on 'le net'.

I'd like to see a win, but who knows which Valencia will show up. Osasuna currently sit 13th. Top scorer is Dady and Arsenal loanee Carlos Vela has only scored one goal from 470 minutes, which isn't bad when you consider it may take Arizmendi about 1470 minutes to do the same.

we lose, zigic is out

^ Are you certain that we will lose? In addition to no Zigic, there will be no Angulo, no Albelda, and no Hildebrand.

Those travelling are:

'Keepers: Canizares, Mora
Defenders: Albiol, Moretti, Marchena, Helguera and Miguel
Midfielders: Sunny, Joaquin, Edu, Fernandes, Vicente, Silva and Montoro
Forwards: Villa, Morientes , Mata and Arizmendi

Koeman also said that he will try playing with a midfield three. Who exactly those three will be I'm not entirely sure, though I would like to see a midfield three of:

.......Edu.....Sunny.....Fernandes.....

complemented by say:

...Joaquin.....Villa or Morientes.......Vicente or Silva

You need players who can cover much ground in order to have any chance of success with just three midfield players. I suppose that since Valencia seem to play better away than at home so I guess the road is the best place to experiment.

Arizmendi!!!!! Why?

Horrendous team selection. I'm disappointed with Koeman for the first time. Other times I've given him the benefit of the doubt. There's no excuse

You're right, though I think the fact that some players were really flat didn't help matters. Vicente, Miguel, Moretti, Arizmendi, and to an extent Silva and Villa were lost. I was impressed with what Sunny brings to the table, though he needs the minutes if he's going to get better. Valencia looked good at moments.... but were lost at others.

Joaquin on the left didn't make any sense to me, nor did Morientes provide anything other than a body to fill. I was hoping that Koeman would have tried Mata on the left for Vicente, but no.

When will Valencia start playing like a well oiled machine instead of some run down diesel engine that has a habit of misfiring?

Rafael Benitez is a coach that atleast is flexible while Koeman is the dutch style of coach that can't make anything else then having a 4-3-3.
He with Cruyff, Marco Van Basten and others always sees the 4-3-3 as something better than anything else.
When I saw the dutch u21 though, they played a 4-4-2 and it was brilliant by them but still their coach recieved critics because he played with 4-4-2...

Koeman couldn't go away from the 4-3-3 today and to have Morientes alone with no fast players with him (Joaquín as leftwinger is not good at all) is just dumb and besides that, Moro isn't a player that bring any spice to the play, he's a pure striker that has his mission to score goals.

Koeman needs time but 1 month without goal is VERY suspicious but if somebody have seen him with his other team, it's no suprise that this have happend.
He just plain suck on making a team attack with spice, creativity and that.
He also can't make it in a dominating team if he doesn't have the amount of talent.
Like with Ajax when he had Maxwell, Van Der Vaart, Mido, Zlatan and Chivu, it's impossible to not win a league with that team.

Btw, back to the game:
Sunny was our best player, over and out.

I disagree with you. Winning in Reino de Navarra is hard. Osasuna are a brave team, strong and they like to fight the whole match. Koeman decided to put in the field lots of muscles with Arizmendi, Marchena and Sunny. The plan wasn't bad, he expected to win it because of the quality of Vicente, Silva or Villa.

Of course, as you said, Valencia didn't do anything to win. We saw that, but that doesn't mean that the plan was bad.

To count on Silva (bad form), Vicente (back from injury, unsure with form) and Villa (no service) is just showing how great this is.
All chances start from the midfield and to have 2 extreme defensive midfielders with Silva alone against Puñal and the guys is just giving the whole midfield away.

I know that Osasuna is hard team to beat at Pamplona but atleast some danger could have been created, we couldn't make ANY chances at all besides the long shots of Sunny and Arizmendi.
I also want to really know why he subbed in Joaquín as a left winger and decided to stay with Arizmendi?
I really want to know why he subbed in Morientes instead of Villa, why even change a striker when you can't create chances?

I know that it is difficult to take over a team in crisis but the thing is, we replaced a Quique with another Quique and that's what makes me mad really...

I hope that Koeman kill the darlings in Albelda and Angulo though...

Just to explain myself:
I don't want Koeman fired and anything, I accept that he's our coach now, the thing I don't like is how Solér is acting, that's what I'm really mad about.