First match back after an extended International Break. Zigic may not be back to play against his former team due to the postment of Serbia's match that was scheduled on Saturday. Valencia gets a chance to say hello again to Jorge Lopez, who now plies his trade for Santander.

Racing currently sit in 7th, but they haven't had the most difficult of schedules. This could be a tricky match, made even more questionable by the fact that Marchena will not play due to yellow card accumulation. Should we expect to see Caneira or Albiol in central defence? Also, Baraja picked up an injury in training and I think he is pretty doubtful for the Sunday evening match at the Sardinero. Does this automatically mean Fernandes? Some speculation exists as to what exactly his place is in the team, so maybe this gives him a chance to prove the speculators wrong, or right. I don't know when Edu will be ready to return.

Koeman just have 3 defenders available for this match. We will have new defensive line with



I will pay attention as well to the the left winger... Will Silva play there again or we will see Vicente?

I'd prefer to use Vicente for leaving Silva and Villa in attack but I understand that Koeman will want to take advantage of the Morientes' good form.

Miguel will be fit to play.He said it in an interview.So I expect:

13.Timo Hildebrand
23.Miguel
4.Raul Albiol
15.Ivan Helguera
12.Marco Caneira
6.David Albelda
3.Manuel Fernandes
21.David Silva
17.Joaquin
7.David Villa
9.Fernando Morientes


I think it is possible to see Silva in the middle of the pitch and Vicente on the left .Or maybe Moro on the bench ,Silva behind David Villa and Vicente on the left flang. We will see soon

While watching Spain-Northern Ireland on gol tv they flashed on the screen the schedule for the weekend's La Liga matches. If I'm not mistaken this will be shown and available for everyone to watch.

Just a quick question for anyone who can answer it: Is there a Manuel Fernandes saga going on with Koeman or is it press speculation just because he missed a practive by 1.5 hrs?

Just speculation. I read an interview to diarra, that it happened the same to him in Ajax. Koeman wants them to be professionals and he pushes a lot with timetables for training, eating, etc... Diarra said that he thought Koeman was a racist and now he considers him as his white dad.

We'll see...

I'm still doubting Koeman, he wasn't rated at all at Ajax, Benfica and PSV despite some good results.
But Valencia atleast showed some guts against Murcia which was always good to see because of this crap season.

Racing will be a hard nut to crack.
Marcelino is doing a really fantastic job over there and they have a very good defense with Garay as their leader (if a guy like Toño is up high on the Zamora-part then it's because of the defence).
I hope that the midfielders help Villa alot in this game, the only way to win over them is having alot of movements and create chances by them.
I also hope that Mata can get some playing time because he's one hell of a talent.

Welcome Trela!

The list of those travelling up to Santander:

'Keepers: Cañizares, Hildebrand.

Defenders: Miguel, Caneira, Helguera, Albiol. -no competition here!

Midfielders: Albelda, Sunny, M. Fernandes, Edu, Angulo, Vicente, Joaquín.

Attackers: Mata, Arizmendi, Villa, Silva y Morientes.


I would be greatly surpised if Edu were to start. He is just coming off of a year long injury and i would bring him in gradually into 'staring minutes' if I were coach. Does anyone else have the slight feeling that Edu is possibly another knee injury away from calling it a career? I would have possibly tinkered with the idea of playing Sunny as a right back if Miguel wasn't healthy enough to play - I don't think Angulo is the answer to every problem, nor should he be. If only Angulo's skill could match his commitment. I think I'm backing off my Angulo hate to a more reasonable and tolerable level.

Whenever I get pissed off with Angulo I just think of Arizmendi and I start thinking that Angulo is pretty good.

I dont know if Sunny could play at fullback, but that does seem to be the trend of late, giving young DM's who can't demand the centre of the pitch enough yet the experience at fullback. I guess the skillset required isn't that different between the positions.

I'm pretty sure our midfield will be Joaquín/Angulo, Albelda, Fernandes and Silva with Morientes and Villa upfront. We'll see though, but as it stands I don't really see many other options. Seeing that Koeman isn't Quique I don't think we'll see 2 DM's.

Miguel seems a bit flat, but you could probably say that about the whole team. give racing credit for closing Valencia down and not giving them much space to operate.

Some changes will need to be made in the second half, but which I don't know.

bleh, jorge lopez with a goal. 1-0.

This is exactly the football Koeman have always played with his teams...
Plain boring.

I shouldn't blame anything but I wasn't at all happy with the decision on taking him as our coach because I know he's not any improvement over Quique.

But I do want to wonder how Ruiz did manage to pay 18 million euros on Manuel?
He's just the player that dribbles and pass the ball back, nothing constructive at all.
At Everton it was Arteta who was the playmaker, not Manuel.
At Benfica... well, they were just anti-futbol

Angulo too, what the...?

This team needs ALOT of improvement and I'm not sure if Koeman is the right one

Did anyone play well in this match? Anyone?

It's a shame that Koeman doesn't have more time to get the team sorted. If Valencia plays like this against Schalke, they're pretty much screwed.

I think Villa showed good intentions but that's it.

Can somebody please explain the line-up too?
Angulo?
Cañizares?

I don't like this at all, to me it seems Quique never left really, the attitude of the players is the same (Joaquín saying that a draw would be nice, is that the spirit?) and all that stuff.
I think Solér is just buying himself some time by hiring a "big name" in Koeman.

First of, no planning on the signings, 5 of our 9 new reinforcements were signings by Carboni and the rest Quique/Ruiz.
That's how dumb it gets really, you have two antagonists and everything went totally wrong.

Now with the hiring of Koeman (I give him time though) is just buying time as I said before.
Assuming that people really thinks he's in the same school of Cruyff with having the ball in possession and all that stuff, he thinks he have saved his ass but Koeman is just like Quique in his philosophy.

This sorta attitude won't work against Schalke.I hope the players realize that its a must win situation.Although i am not too optimistic.

I really can't judge Koeman too son but so far he hasn't done anything special.I haven't really seen any improvement & most importantly I don't like the fact that again Angulo starts over Joaquin.He must be feeling a Deja Vu off last season.