Well, what's the problem with Joaquin? I don't know what everyone thinks of Joaquin, but surely, most Valencia fans must be disappointed with Joaquin so far. I don't exactly know how much cash Carboni forked over to Lopera in order to have his services, but the 'Tubby Wizard' (Soccernet's Phil Ball once used this to describe Joaquin) hasn't really played well for Valencia.

If you take the statistics from the Valencia CF main site, he is playing an average of 54.655 minutes, so not even an hour per appearance. I know that last year he wasn't very good for Betis, but the previous year he was quite good, as he helped Betis qualify for the Champions League.

The only questions that seek to try and understand the Joaquin dilemma I can think of are these:


- Does Joaquin not fit into Quique's system?
- Does Quique deliberately choose not to play Joaquin out of some sort of Carboni spite/hatred?
- Is Joaquin trying 'too hard' to justify his contract, thereby making stupid mistakes in the process?
- Is Joaquin just not that good/out of form?


Maybe there are other questions that I have missed, but I'm perplexed as to why Joaquin isn't getting more playing time. I think the talent is there, and in an area where I thought he was flawed, I thought he might be a defensive liability, Joaquin isn't really that bad. If he is going through a bad patch, I think it is up to Quique to help him work through it. I just think there is too much invested in Joaquin for Quique to under-utilize him.

All of the above, but basically he doesn't fit into Quique's system. In Betis he played from middle field onwards, and here with Quique he starts to run in our own field, way too far from the opponent's goal.

Joaquin is in Valencia at that expensive price because of Quique. Carboni wanted Mancini of Rome for that position, but when they were in negotiations Quique considered funny to say that Mancini wasn't the ideal player for the team. With this and the Portuguese's greed that stopped Simao's transfer, Valencia had to negotiate in bad conditions the only player that everybody liked. Everybody but not me. I always considered Joaquin a non effective player. He plays nice, he makes spectacle but at the right moment he fails because he doesn't know to chose the best option. I thought so and he didn't make me change my opinion in Valencia.

I don't know how to respond to both posts at once, so I'll just quote Drakul's.

You make a good point abraxas about Joaquin being a player who operates best in the opponent's half only. I think one way to make him more effective is if Quique were to play, when healthy, Silva as a Central Midfielder behind Villa, basically a 5 man midfield. This way, it would be slightly harder for opponents to break down a more clogged up midfield. I think very few wingers would fit the mould of what Quique wants, basically a box to box winger. Ribery, Navas, Lennon (Spurs), and possibly Shaun Wright Phillips (Chelsea) come to mind, but I don't think they would come cheap.

As for Drakul's post, I don't think Roma would have sold Mancini anyway, as he was Roma's 2nd best scorer last season. A great player though, who could play both wing positions. But basically, you say that Joaquin has great technique, but not such a great brain. Maybe his decision making will get better with time. Christian Ronaldo, yes he is more talented, didn't make the best of decisions either, but now he seems to be getting better for Man United. I just hope for Valencia's sake he'll start to make better decisions.

I'm for happy Joaquin that he scored against Nastic tonight, but not so happy that Valencia gave up a late equalizer.