Vicente del Bosque can No Longer Ignore Valdes

My last post on Valdes and Spanish National Team ended with a hope that Valdes somehow manages to get into the World Cup squad. How things have changed drastically. When I wrote my previous post I was conviced that Del Bosque was never going to pick Valdes for Spain. Such has been Valdes' performance since my post, Vicente del Bosque can no longer overlook Valdes for the World Cup squad. Last week's El Clasico saw Valdes comfortably seeing off any danger from one of the most attacking teams in La Liga. Prior to that we saw some exceptionally solid acts against the likes of Arsenal and a host of Spanish side. Valdes has been always considered as an error-prone keeper, hence it is quite surprising that I can't remember the last mistake he did. Yes, he has been playing in an error-free way for some time, completely unlike the Valdes we know. Hence it is no surprise that he is leading the Zamoras list by a comfortable margin.

Valdes has surprised everyone with his recent displays

Many times we have attributed Valdes' success to a majority of related factors - having a good defense infront of him, playing in a team which rarely gives ball to opposition etc. But it is quite unfair to marginalize Valdes' efforts on the basis of these factors. How many of the top custodians in the world football are not blessed with these? The likes of Iker, Cech, Van der Saar all have solid defense guarding them. Even the great Buffon, who is considered the best of his generation is struggling behind a fragile defense. FC Barcelona has some of the best defenders available in the world, but still defense is considered to be their weak link. It may be because of the fact that we hold a high line or may be our defenders get involved in attack more often. But whatever that exposes Valdes to unnecessary risks many times. To his credit he has withstood those tests in the past and his performance this season is behind no one. Valdes is considered the best when it comes to one on one situations and has always shoen in big matches and centre stages. His saves in Paris against Henry springs to mind whenever someone question his ability. His weakness against the aerial ball was always considered as something which stood against him in getting into national side. But to his credit he has performed well dealing with aerial balls this season, something which displays the confidence he is having.

No one expects Valdes to replace Iker Casillas in the national side. Valdes may have overshone Iker in recent matches, but that two saves off Messi in Clasico showed Casillas' class. But Valdes with his consistent performance has staked a claim to being the second choice behind Casillas. Pepe Reina has been the second choice goal keepr for Spain for some time , but Valdes has over took him interms of performance in recent matches. In my last post I wrote that Vicente del Bosque may not have any pressure to pick Valdes, but things may have changed now. If Valdes continues with his current form, the coach can no longer overlook him. There is no doubt that Valdes deserve to be on the plane that flies to South Africa this summer along with his club mates.

The Strange Saga of Victor Valdes and Spain

Victor Valdes is undoubtedy the most successful goal keeper in FC Barcelona's history. He has won 3 La Liga titles, 2 Champions League titles and had succeeded in kissing the Copa Del Rey trophy and the World Club Championship. He is undoubtedly the No.1 choice for Barca. FC Barcelona management last season tried to find a replacement for Valdes, but in the end decided that he is the best option available for Barca. He has been a part of Spanish Under - 19, Under - 20, Under - 21 squad but is still waiting for his first Spanish National Team call ups. It is quite strange to see such a successful Goal Keeper failing to make into the squad of Spain's Nationa side. Such is the abundance of Goal Keeping talents in the Spanish National side. Spainish Captain Iker Casillas remains undoubtedly the first choice and remains miles ahead of competition. Pepe Reina, a Barca Youth team product remains the second choice and rarely gets a chance due to the dominance of San Iker. Diego Lopez has been the third choice for so long and he is supported by his consistent performnace.

Victor Valdes is the best for Barca, but not good enough for Spain?

It is quite strange that when majority of the National teams in the world is struggling for a quality option in the goal, Spain is blessed with four of them( all of the same age group). I saw a comment somewhere with an English fans asking whether is there any chance of Valdes being eligible for playing in English side, quite funny. Valdes always was considered as a good goal keeper who is regularly error prone. He had a habit of throwing the ball to the wrong person, especially when Torres was in Atletico Madrid . He is also not that brilliant in air. But for all his drawbacks, he remains a better option than many of his competitors. He is undoubtedly is the best when it comes to one on one situation. The likes of Iker, Buffon, Cech may be better than him but in the rest of the pack Valdes really stands out. Valdes has impressed everyone with his consistent performance in this season. Actually his performance had made the Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque to take notice. Vicente del Bosque did not hide the dilemma he is facing when he said that "Valdes has earned the place but may not get the call".

Victor Valdes is probably the World's best when it comes to one on one

To an extent Barca's style of playing has been the bane for Valdes. We always remembered the moments when his mistakes gave goals to opponents - like giving the ball to Torres couple of season ago, or like giving the ball to Pena in last season or misjudging the trajectory of the ball in the defat against Rubin Kazan the list goes on. But we all always tempt to forget his performnce in crucial matches. He has a habit of pulling out the unexpected in big matches. Champions League final in Paris saw Valdes denying Henry from point blank range twice when the team was a goal behind. Had one of that gone in, it would have been over for Barca. But we all remember the goals from Eto'o and Belleti from that match. Last season when Madrid visited Camp Nou - Valdes was there again to deny Drenthe in a one on one situation. Recently against Valladoid he once again showed how good he is. FC Barcelona's defense always play a high line and because of that Valdes on most occasion is left alone to deal with most dangers.

Valdes recently had expressed his wish to feature in the Spanish National squad. After two really good season, he may right to demand a place. But the problem is that niether Lopez nor Reina is doing bad. Now that's a tough call for Vicente to make. Usually you replace a player from the squad when they are under-performing or some exceptional talent is knocking the door who will regularly make the first eleven. Eventhough Reina has not been anywhere near last season's form he still might hold to the second choice position and Diego Lopez also is not doing bad. With Iker present in the squad, he will always be the Numero Uno and above all he is the captain of the side. Valdes' recent performance does demand Vicente to replace Lopez with him in the squad. But at this moment del Bosque looks unwilling to take such a decision. So with all due respect to Valdes' performnace and skill, I would be surprised to see him making the squad this season. Maybe I will be delightfully proved wrong when the squad is announced - always unexpected things happen in football.

Valdes Extends Stay till 2014

Barcelona custodian, Victor Valdes has signed a new contract whihc will see him playing for the club till 2014. The contract negotiation with Barca's No.1 goal keeper and the club has been stalled in many occasion. Victor Valdes has been looking to improve his contract taking him par with the best paid players in the club. It is not yet known what will his salary but his buy-out clause has been set to 150 million Euros. There was huge drama with Valdes contract negotiations throughout last season. Valdes was looking for a better pay from the begining but in the middle of season it was rumoured that Barca were willing to part with their custodian as Valdes held firm on his demands. But the unavailability of any of the top Goal Keepers made Barca's job a tough one and they did come to a conclusion that Valdes was the best of the rest.

Victor Valdes may not be the best goal keeper around but he is still an above average one. He may not be an Iker, Buffon or Cech but he is still the best in one on one situation. So his contract extension is a great news for Barca. He is bound to make mistakes in some high profile matches but I have mentioned early - Valdes makes more match winning saves than mistakes in a season.

Victor Valdes fights for a Better Contract

Victor Valdes attempt to get himself a new much improved contract is not new. Actually few weeks back he has kind of issued an ultimatum and that resulted in Barca looking for a decent option. But recently there were reports emerging that FC Barcelona were ready to offer him what he demands. Aparently the Catalan establishment has come to a decision that "Valdes is the best of the available lot". Many of Barca fans could be annoyed with such a finding, For the fans Valdes has been the weak-link in a near-perfect side. But I always believed that he is the best we can have. My previous post emphasise on that - Being Valdes. Nobody can dis-respect his contribution to the team - especially two one on one saves he pulled up against Henry in Champions League final and another splendid save against Real Madrid earlier this season. But between these remarkable feats he has performed unbelievable blunders and that worries the fans. With Valdes we all feel that we can be never sure about a low scoring victory.

There is no doubt that a club of Barcelona's stature needs a better Goal Keeper - Someone like Buffon, Iker, Cech, Van der Saar etc. But none of these exceptional goal keeper's are available. Once you take them out of the lot, we won't be surprised why Barcelona technical team came to the before-mentioned conclusion. Victor Valdes is one of the best available when you take the Buffon's out of the pool. But Valdes' agent Gines Carvajal does not agree with me. He rated the player with the likes of Buffon and Casillas - ""He has demonstrated over the years that he is at the same level as Iker Casillas, or [Gianluigi] Buffon, or any others. I have no doubts.” I have no doubts. " It will be quite difficult for me to find people or fans who would agree with that statement. He also has hinted a possibility of Valdes moving out of the club if the disagreements over the contract could not be resolved. What will be Barcelona's reaction to such a move is not yet clear. But I feel that the club would not be too sad seeing him leave. The club has made it clear that they would like to retain the service of their current shot stopper; but I believe they would like to do that in their own terms. If pushed much they would definitely prefer to let go off the player. For the club the immediate task would be to negotiate the contract terms of two African players - Eto and Toure. But in the eventuality of Valdes moving out I believe we can find many decent replacement - Diego Lopez, Sorensen, etc would definitely relish a chance to be with one of the best club in the world. As a fan what you guys think of Valdes - Should he be retained? If no, then who would be the ideal replacement?

Being Victor Valdes

Two months ago I used to dream of a day when Victor Valdes would really keep a clean sheet. Now Valdes have kept a clean sheets for three successive matches that too against the likes of Sevilla, Valencia and Real Madrid. This would have given Victor Valdes some breathing space and a temporary stoppage from being ridiculed as the biggest blunder of FC Barcelona. Victor Valdes have played an essential part in the 2-0 victory against Real Madrid. In many fans' opinion including mine, he was deservingly the "Man of The Match" in the "El Classico". Now that's another surprise isn't it? Who would have thought that in an "El Classico" edition the Goal Keepers would come out on top?

Victor Valdes at this moment may be in a very much confused state; that too without sipping a single shot of Tequilla. Then, you can't blame him for that. Suddenly the world especially Barca fans have started to see the brightest side of him. Everyone is throwing praise at him from all sides. Do he really deserve this? His performance against Real Madrid was outstanding. If we have conceded the goal early then the outcome of the match could have been different. But then if you look at Valdes career he has been like this from the age he have started his first division career. Goal Keeper's can be categorized into five types - Legends, Great, Good, Average and 'Oh My God! How the hell is still there?' types. The Legendary ones are the likes of Yashin, Banks etc. Kahn, Buffon, Cassilas, Chilavert, Lehman, Cech all should fall in the Great list. Valdes is the Good type of Goal Keeper - by 'Good' I meant that he will be good for the majority of the match but still is bound to make a couple of blunders. These mistakes in most of the time would unharmful and sometimes could be really harming; and at that point they need the defense to come to their rescue. That was precisely Valdes biggest problem. Valdes have covered the defense many times but you cannot say the same for Barcelona defense. Each time Valdes made a mistake, the Barca defense failed to cover him up. That gives the mistake an unimaginable proportion and you can also say that whenever Valdes makes the smallest of mistake he is sure to have conceded a goal. Ok, these mistakes don't cover his certain blunders like throwing the ball in the path of players like Villa and Torres.

The problem for Valdes is that he is a part of a big club, big interms of both achievement and history. A club who can afford the best in the business and that makes Valdes life very difficult. Unjustified comparision with Buffon and Casillas are being drawn out at every juncture. FC Barcelona fans were crying for a better replacement for him not so long ago. But these fans never look into the reality of the situation. Chelsea is not goint to let Cech leave; even in the worst times Juventus held onto Buffon dearly and Cassilas moving out of Madrid and that too to Barca will happen when Armaegadon arrives; Van Der Saar will remain in ManU for rest of his career. Now with whatever options available I believe Valdes is the best option available. He is the best probably better than Casillas when it comes to one-on-one sittuation. I read an article in Goal.com saying that Drenthe did a charity by hitting the ball straight at him; tha's ridiculous. Valdes have done this many times before. If Henry was so frustrated after the Champions League final of 2006, it was because of Valdes. Henry had two great chance to put the match beyond Barca's grip but both the times he ran into Valdes. There were some stupid reasons given at that time also that Henry was tired as Arsenal was playing with 10 men. But no one remembers Valdes' contribution everyone remembers Belleti's winning goal and Eto's equaliser.

Then Goal Keeping has been the most unthankful job in the soccer proffession. After a great season with two major trophies the football Journalist fraternity never thought it is good to have Casillas in the top three of Ballon D'Or. The purpose of this article is not to project Valdes as a great keeper, simply because he is not. But he is the best at this moment we can have. It will do him a world of good if the fans accept the fact that he is bound to make some mistake in a couple of matches. It will also do him a world of good if he don't get carried away by the sudden praise, as I am pretty sure he will be commiting some silly mistakes pretty soon. Hoping heavily that the defense cover him up on his mistakes; I am stopping this article with only one prayer - "Valdes, don't throw the ball straight to the likes of Villa, Torres etc. If you do You will be screwed buddy".