Valencia will try to follow in the footsteps of Europe, to forget everything that happened this last week in the transfer market, with a league victory over Almería, renewed by new signings and in need of a first victory to shake off relegation.
Gaizka Garitano’s team is at the bottom of a competition in which they have not yet added a victory and still have only six points, although they achieved one of them precisely against Rubén Baraja’s team, eighth with 32, who sees in this match a opportunity to confirm their European aspirations.
However, unlike Almería, which has been reinforced in the winter market, those from Mestalla have let Brazilian center back Gabriel Paulista escape, who has gone free to Atlético de Madrid, and although they have incorporated Peter Federico on loan, a winger from the Real Madrid reserve team as another wing alternative for Baraja, they will not be able to count on striker Rafa Mir as his loan was frustrated at the last minute.
For this reason, the Valencian team is experiencing contradictory days. A week ago they arrived at the Metropolitano with four league victories in a row, but the defeat with bad feelings in Madrid and this last week of the market have ruined Valencia’s great start to the year, which needs the victory to continue dreaming of Europe and to take a lifeline to your turbulent social moment.
To do this, Baraja will not be able to count on Sergi Canós, Thierry Rendall, or André Almeida, all of whom are injured, although Selim Amallah will be able to count on him, who returned to training with the group after spending the entire month of January in the Cup. Africa, and Peter Federico.
The two big doubts of the eleven are whether they will bet on the Turkish Cenk Özkacar to replace Paulista and accompany Mosquera or on the youth squad Yarek Gasiorowski, and if they will place Hugo Guillamón or Javi Guerra in the double pivot, who against Atlético de Madrid started again in the League four games later.
Up front, Almería will have a new opportunity and it will be with a ‘new’ team, the result of the arrival of players and the loss of others, although it is likely that they will approach the match with what has continued in recent days.
The team once again visits a rival from the upper-middle zone of the classification, against whom it usually performs, as it did against Girona, Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atlético de Madrid, but always with the problem of defensive errors in most of the cases or decisions outside the game, such as in the match at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Almería is caught, after twenty-two days, by the lack of stability in the management of the areas, especially in its own, but it holds on to that growth exerted since the arrival of Gaizka Garitano to the bench and, despite the absences injury to forwards, the behavior has been close to finding the long-awaited victory.
There will be news in the eleven, although always with what there was, beyond the departure of a sure starter like Sergio Akieme, transferred on the last day of the winter market and who will almost certainly have the replacement of Álex Centelles, who was the one who He occupied the left back position when the Spaniard was out.
Perhaps this is the only modification regarding the ‘type eleven’ that Garitano seems to have found for the last few days, although there is also doubt, after the recovery of the Belgian Largie Ramazani, who could not play the last match due to suspension.
The other question is that of Édgar González and whether he will play as a center back or as a midfielder, a position in which he has performed in recent days.
Garitano already announced that one of this winter’s reinforcements, the Serbian Aleksandar Radovanovic, would be the third central defender and that the Barcelona native would act in defense if necessary.
– Probable lineups
Valencia: Mamardashvili; Foulquier, Mosquera, Cenk, Gayà; Fran Pérez, Pepelu, Guillamón, Diego López; Javi Guerra, Hugo Duro.
Almeria: Louis Maximiano; Pubill, Caesar Mountains, Chumi, Centellas; Robertone, Edgar, Lopy; Up, Baptist, Ramazani.
Referee: Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz (Galician Committee).
Stadium: Mestalla.
Time: 14.00