September 17th 2002, Valencia CF came to Anfield & gave Houllier's men a footballing lesson. Their manager at the time? A certain Rafael Benitez.
Looking at the Valencia squad he had back then & the squad he's in the process of building here, I can see a lot of similarities that I feel give an idea of what we can expect to see over the coming season. Both squads are built on a solid defence, but the Valencia one had something we haven't been so good at until now, a serious attacking threat.
In defence where we have Carragher & Agger at the heart, Valencia had Ayala & Marchena. These are very similar partnerships, one being more of a passion player throwing themselves into challenges (Ayala & Carra), the other being more of a technical player (Agger & Marchena). As with ourselves now, this central partnership was pretty consistent, with Pellegrino coming in from time to time a la Hyypia, and the fullbacks open to a bit more rotation.
In central midfield is where I think we have the biggest similarities personell wise, and Rafa's preferred lineup at Valencia can give us a hint regarding possible tactics next season. Raul Abidal is a player similar in style if not class to Alonso. Both play a 'holding' role, but their forte really is their passing. Albelda, like our Mascherano, is much more of a pure holding player, brilliant in the tackle & playing a simple ball. Though a completely different class, Gerrard & Baraja are similar types of players, both box to box midfielders with abilities in all areas. The other option is Sissoko, who also played under Rafa at Valencia, and is very handy for breaking up play. The reason I said the Valencia model might give us an indication as to how we'll play next season is because the majority of the time Rafa's preferred partnership was Baraja & Albelda. I've said all along that I feel Gerrard has only been played on the right as a result of us having no-one better for the job, and with the arrival this summer of more options for the role I would predict a return to the centre, mainly playing alongside Mascherano. Obviously this is subject to rotations, but I think it will be the partnership we see most often. On the wings Valencia had much better options than we've had up until now, with players like Kily Gonzales, Vicente, Jorge Lopez & Gavilan, but our summer activity looks set to change our options in those areas, and we should be a lot stronger as a result.
Upfront Valencia had a target man in Carew, a goalscorer in Mista & a deeper lying creative player in Aimar. At Liverpool now we have Crouch, Kuyt & Torres to fill those roles, and with the exception of possibly Crouch the options we have are better. The preferred pairing at Valencia seemed to be Carew & Aimar, but in a league where defenders tend to be better aerially I expect our partnership to be Kuyt & Torres most of the time, with Crouch getting the nod whenever his aerial threat can benefit the team.
Obviously the teams play in two different leagues & there will always be variations, but overall there are a lot of similarities. As I said before, with the summer arrivals I feel we will have a squad similar to Rafa's Valencia but with a bit more class. One thing is for certain though, if we can start hitting the same level of domestic form I will be a very happy man.
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