If we are talking about the most important and historical clubs in Spain, we are obviously talking about Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, but also about Valencia.
The club from the southeastern Mediterranean coast of Spain has had many great squads and managers in its history.
Their peak was at the start of the 2000s when they reached two UEFA Champions League finals and won the UEFA Cup and La Liga in 2004.
The club fell into deep trouble because of a series of bad financial decisions and the 2008 financial crisis.
However, it never managed to recover and, therefore, was sold to investor Peter Lim.
In the early stages of the takeover, things seemed on an upward trajectory, with the club qualifying for the Champions League multiple times.
Under manager Marcelino, the team finished fourth in La Liga in back-to-back seasons, 2017/18 and 2018/19, and even reached the semi-final of the UEFA Europa League in 2019, as well as winning the Copa del Rey that year.
After that, Marcelino was fired by Peter Lim himself, and the club found itself in a downward spiral, being forced by ownership to sell players like Carlos Soler, Ferran Torres or club legend Dani Parejo and only being able to replace them for cheap or through their academy, which is one of the best in Europe.
At the end of 2024, Valencia hit a new low.
After only winning two out of their last 24 league games, legendary Valencia midfielder Rubén Baraja was relieved of his duties as manager.
On Christmas, the club triggered the release clause of Carlos Corberán, a young Spanish manager at West Brom.
Under Corberán, Valencia managed to recover and leave the relegation zone after a very desperate situation at the end of the year.
Now, theyre looking back on track.
In this tactical analysis and team report, we will take a look at the tactical changes that Carlos Corberán brought to Valencia, how his team plays and how he managed to turn around one of the worst teams in the top-five leagues in mere weeks.
New-Found Defensive Stability
In 14 games since Carlos Corberán took over, Valencia have conceded 25 goals, so you probably had to do a double-take reading the header of this paragraph.
While this is true, we have to look a bit beyond the surface.
Since the Spanish coach took over at his dream job, Valencia have lost just four out of 14 games, against Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and twice against Barcelona.
In these four games, Valencia conceded a combined 17 goals, 12 of which were in the two games against Barca.
This does not just mean that in the remaining 10 games, Valencia conceded only eight goals; it also means that Valencia are currently unbeaten against every other team outside of the top three in La Liga under Corberán.
At the start of his term in Valencia, Corberán played with a pretty standard 4-2-3-1 formation, but he quickly abandoned it for the most part.
There was a transition phase, during which he had one of his wingers drop back out of the 4-2-3-1 to form a back-three with two wing-backs early on.
For the last couple of games, Corberán had his men line up in a 3-4-2-1 formation from the start.
In this picture, we can see their defensive shape in the game against Girona.
The five defenders are forming the defensive line, with the three centre-backs crowded in the middle of the field.
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