LaLiga Hangover: Could Freefalling Valencia Be Headed for a Relegation Battle?

Paco Alcacer sat largely motionless in the stands, wearing a club shirt he soon wouldn't need. At every opportunity, the camera flashed his way, saying so much about Valencia each time it did.

Again, something off the field was compounding an issue on it; everyone knew where Alcacer was headed and the same went for the absent Shkodran Mustafi.

Worse, though, was the feeling of where Valencia might be headed.  

As Alcacer watched on at the Ipurua Stadium on Saturday, a familiar story unfolded. In flashes, the club he's been with for more than a decade looked fast and crisp, carving out chances against a limited Eibar side and hinting that something better was coming. But something better never did: Missed chances piled up, momentum slowed, a goal was conceded, and Valencia never recovered, never responded. 

They lost, 1-0. Again.

"We should have won the game, with our play and the chances we had," said manager Pako Ayestaran afterward. "I am frustrated by the result. You have to make an overall assessment of the game, however, and that is positive."

As Ayestaran spoke, you could understand where he was coming from, but this is an ever-present theme for Valencia. Both on the pitch and off it, there's potential there, but over and over, it fails to materialise.

Since the beginning of last season, Los Che have lost 18 of 40 games in the league and have won only 11 of them—a figure on a par with Eibar, Sporting Gijon and Real Betis in the same period, and fewer than Espanyol, Las Palmas, Real Sociedad and Malaga. 

When some suggested Valencia could be candidates for a relegation struggle ahead of the season, it was easy to dismiss it as hyperbole. But now there's a growing sense that it's not. 

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Valencia finished only six points clear of the drop zone last term, thanks only to a three-game upswing in April. By season's end, the belief might have been that they'd fallen as far as they could, but the concern now is that they've got worse. 

To comply with financial fair play (FFP) regulations that have lingered because of the failure to cement themselves in the UEFA Champions League, the club has been forced to offload. Early in the transfer window, Andre Gomes, Pablo Piatti, Javi Fuego, Antonio Barragan, Sofiane Feghouli, Rodrigo de Paul and Alvaro Negredo all departed, the latter on loan to Middlesbrough. And the list continues to grow. 

This week, Mustafi will sign with Arsenal (per Sky Sports) and Alcacer will join Barcelona (per Sport). When those deals are officially announced, Valencia will have lost their best defender, their most talented midfielder, two of their leading forwards and a plethora of experience in a single window. The arrivals list doesn't compensate. 

Equally as troubling is how it has all unfolded. 

After the defeat to Las Palmas, Ayestaran insisted that Alcacer and Mustafi were "not for sale." It was, he said, the message he'd been given by club president Layhoon Chan and the message she had expressed herself (link in Spanish).

And yet both men are headed for the exit anyway. 

On the back of 12 months of turmoil, the deals point to further disconnect between team and manager and the club's owner Peter Lim. As explained here at Bleacher Report by Andy Brassell and this writer, Valencia have become a club stuck in a sort of nothingness because of a regime blessed with cash but little else. 

Since Lim's takeover, Valencia have spent recklessly, which has haunted the club this summer with regard to FFP. In the same time, critical experience has been lost in former president Amadeo Salvo, sporting director Francisco Rufete and scout Roberto Fabian Ayala.

What's more, a too-cosy relationship with agent Jorge Mendes has lingered amid Lim's detached approach, and the suspicion of Valencia being run for the benefit of Lim, Mendes, friends and clients was heightened by Gary Neville's stint at Mestalla last season. 

It's true that Lim rescued Valencia from financial ruin, but that's all. His arrival was meant to herald a new era in which stars wouldn't be sold and an upward trajectory would commence. But here we are two years on, and a mass exodus is unfolding.

Nothing has really changed. 

The toxicity of this background picture currently permeates through the club. Mestalla at its best can be an intimidating cauldron for visitors, but understandable hostility is growing in the stands to the point where you wonder whether Valencia are sometimes better off on the road. 

You can't underestimate the effect that has on players. They're aware of the wider picture, and handcuffed by the club's lack of direction and vision, Ayestaran has a squad that's unbalanced, lacking quality in key areas and is largely inexperienced.

There's talent there, no doubt, but there's no sense of confidence or belief. Uncertainty rules, and it shows. 

As they had against Las Palmas, Valencia attacked Eibar in the way a more gifted side should, and one could see the encompassing idea in their play. In the opening half, they were fluent and purposeful, but as with everything at the club right now, the potential of the performance never became something tangible. 

Rodrigo squandered a great chance early on, squaring the ball when presented an opportunity to shoot. Aymen Abdennour went next, going wide with a close-range header. Santi Mina then followed suit by missing a pair of sitters, one of them from two yards, the other in space from the penalty spot. 

What followed felt depressingly inevitable: Eibar won a penalty early in the second half and went ahead. Ayestaran was rightly furious, for it was the sort of handball decision that's seen too often in LaLiga, where the concept of intent is ignored and where having a ball smashed into a naturally positioned hand from a couple of yards away is considered punishable. 

It's just how things are going for Valencia, but they're playing their part, too. 

When Pedro Leon's penalty was initially saved by Mat Ryan, Valencia looked safe for the tiniest instant. Had they piled into the box with urgency, the rebound might have been secured. But nothing of the sort happened. Valencia's players stood at the edge of the area with hands on hips, while four Eibar men led everyone to the loose ball, Leon putting it away. 

It encapsulated so much about Valencia: the inaction and the dejection; the inability to respond to setbacks, of which they've now suffered another and which has left them at the foot of the table. 

Might they spend the season closer to that end of it than the other?

Stumbling Atleti

Diego Simeone appeared relatively calm, but Antoine Griezmann wasn't. 

The final whistle had just blown at the Estadio Butarque, where Atletico Madrid had drawn 0-0 with Leganes on Saturday night, their second straight stalemate with a newly promoted side. "If we continue like this, we'll be fighting relegation," Griezmann told beIN Sports (link in Spanish).

Still on the pitch, the Frenchman was a little out of breath as he attempted to answer amid the raw frustration. At another time, he might not have delivered such a comment, but it was significant that he did. 

Atletico's players typically repeat Simeone's message, sticking to the game-by-game mantra and rarely deviating. This, though, was the team's biggest star publicly demanding those around him snap out of it—and they need to.

As had been the case against Alaves a week earlier, Atletico dominated general play against Leganes but didn't look much like Atletico while doing it. Chances were created, and it's true that Atleti should have scored—Kevin Gameiro missed the best opportunity—but there was also something missing: the aggression, the relentlessness, the grinding of the opponent down in a physical sort of way. 

It felt like a watered-down version of Atletico. 

"We have to remain calm and keep working," Simeone said. "With work and enthusiasm we'll find what we're looking for. I'm not ashamed about the fact that we're lacking cutting edge and that this is happening to us."

Why is it, though?

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Saturday night was another case of Atletico having done to them what they often do to others. Leganes sat deep and tight, denying their guests any space to work with.

To get around this, Atletico's transfer business in recent summers has been about adding dynamism and firepower, but as pointed out by Bleacher Report's Mark Jones, Simeone's natural caution still dictates the selection of the XI, in which a narrow four-man midfield is the consistent foundation at the expense of attacking talent. 

Is that the cause of this? Maybe.

For now, Simeone remains calm even with Atleti already four points behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Evidently, though, not everyone else is.

Not Forgotten Amid the Hangover

• Real Madrid weren't at all impressive against Celta Vigo in a 2-1 win, but the performance of James Rodriguez when coming on as a second-half substitute suggested it's not all over for the Colombian just yet. His pressing of the ball played a key role in Toni Kroos' winner, and there was a dynamism to him that's been missing since the 2014-15 season concluded. "He looked good," said Zinedine Zidane. 

• Kroos' winner was a carbon copy of his first goal in a Madrid shirt that came against Rayo Vallecano in November 2014. The technique is outrageous. 

• Not everyone was pleased, though. Over in Barcelona, Sport concluded that, goal aside, the German was so quiet that he "won't need a shower after this match." The impartiality, eh? The same piece went on to describe Casemiro as a player who "doesn't know what to do with the ball," insisted that Gareth Bale is "back to being the Bale of his first two seasons" and that "cruel reality is kicking in" for Marco Asensio. What's more, every player was given a five or less except Mariano, the academy product who made a 15-minute cameo on his debut. He was given a six. Obviously Sport haven't had enough time to begin to dislike him yet. 

• Building on last season's late run, Real Madrid have now won 14 straight games in the league. 

• Barcelona's visit to San Mames to take on Athletic Bilbao was a typically spicy affair that featured a lot of fluid attacking and a lot of fouling but somehow just the one goal. Ivan Rakitic's first-half header was enough to seal the points, but Barcelona's ability to deal with Athletic's press was impressive, keeping the ball deep to lure the hosts on to them before breaking into the spaces left behind. It was another example of how versatile the Catalans have become. 

• That's now 100 victories for Luis Enrique as Barcelona manager. By reaching the figure in just 126 games, Lucho has needed 13 fewer than Pep Guardiola did. It's an astonishing record. 

• Las Palmas mean business. After a 5-1 win over Granada on Sunday, the islanders are two from two, have scored nine in the process and top the table for now. Currently playing some of the best football in the country, they're strong contenders for a top-eight finish and maybe even better than that. Kevin-Prince Boateng is also two from two in the goals column. Yeah, he plays for Las Palmas now. 

• Espanyol have more goals (six) than 16 teams but fewer points (one) than 13. That's hard to do. A 90th-minute equaliser from Malaga's Charles denied them a first win of the season on Friday in Cornella. 

• Newly promoted Leganes are the only team in the division yet to concede a goal. That's even more impressive when you consider their opponents have been Celta Vigo and Atletico Madrid—top-six outfits from last season. 

• Bonkers Sevilla? They probably still are that, but Sunday night's 0-0 draw with Villarreal featured a much more restrained Sevilla with greater connection between the defence and midfield, more conservative full-backs and fewer men ahead of the ball. To take a point, though, they needed goalkeeper Sergio Rico to have a blinder.

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