There are times that reality in football pulverizes any inappropriate comments. Let them ask, for example, Rafa Benítez, the coach most idolized by … Excellence of the best Valencia of all time. From him, because of those internal struggles that the Mestalla club always suffers, it was said from the same board of directors that it was little less than a “bullfighter” instead of a coach (Benítez, the Cordoba). He did not have Benítez – Rafa – enough poster, on the role (came from Tenerife), to be the coach chosen by Javier Subirats for Valencia. Then, with that ‘bullfighter’ came the League titles and the deserved European recognition.
Carlos Corberán, fortunately for him, nobody called him a bullfighter but his name, when he was strangely announced in that midnight on Christmas Eve, aroused infinity of misgivings. Neither was understood nor conveniently well explained why he opted for a coach of the second step of the English league nor was it known how to fit the disbursement so huge that this hiring supposed in an entity affected by Meriton’s restrictions. The simple fact of listening to his name announced by megaphony in each game in Mestalla was synonymous with some skepticism. Coldness in the public
Now everything has changed. His name is applauded by the stand. In less than five months, Carlos Corberán Vallet (7-4-1983) has proven to be at a higher height even to that of the team he directs. He, for the simple but decisive fact of the numbers he has managed to gather, is the only one in this Valencia who has won the Champions League label. To reinforce this argument, just make a mathematical operation. The twelve points that Baraja 17 are subtracted and subtracted from the 42 that Valencia is currently looked at. There are 30 points that have arrived under the baton of Cheste. Is there any team that has added more points from day 17 to 34 that has been played this weekend? Yes. Four teams only: Barça, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Betis. The rest, including Atlético de Madrid by Simeone, does not reach that thirty.
Hence, doing an imagination exercise, in that fifth position that had been able to keep in the entire Corberán championship we would be talking about a classified Valencia to play the Champions League. A pity.
Second victory out
He has managed to spray all inherited records. He took a team practically without a soul and with some numbers that irremediably dragged him to the Second Division and has not only placed it virtually already in the first -year -old next year, but can allow the luxury of dreaming of only four days for the end of the championship.
That victory at the Gran Canaria stadium coincided with a particular parameter. This day 34 supposed to Corber their 17th match in the League with Valencia, the same as his predecessor in office. Rubén Baraja (11-7-1975) those 17 games that directed this campaign ended up exhausting him and almost end up consuming the title of legend he has as a footballer and with all merit. Baraja since its dismissal has remained silent. Avoid any interview and even less in a scenario like the current one. It is inevitable for the Valladolid having to look for the best digestion before a comparison with his successor that leaves him precisely in a fairly uncomfortable situation. The players are almost the same (he did not have Sadiq or Iván Jaime, since Aarons does not count for Corberán) but the global situation has changed radically.
Baraja, for example, weighed that disastrous streak that as a visitor suffered so much Valencia, unable to win from that 0-1 to Osasuna on April 15, 2024. A Corberán had a hard time getting off that brown, that’s true, but when he could do it big, winning in the Bernabéu for, four days later, win again. Valencia was almost a whole year without winning outside and now in a month already has two wins as a visitor.
Cheste’s records triple practically those of Baraja. Of course, the average points is overwhelming: 1.76, far from the 0.71 that looked deck when it was guillotined. The Valencia Corberán has surpassed the English Corberán, since until now its best medium of points was with the West Bromwich with 1.59. Put to seek similarities, that of Cheste is above the last two years of Marcelino (1.33 in those three days of 2019-20 and 1.61 in 2018-19) and also higher than that of Rafa Benítez in 2002-03 (1,58). In his first campaign Benítez obtained 1.97 and in the last (2003-04) he went to 2.03; while Marcelino’s first course (2017-18) closed with 1.92.
Another aspect that also attracts attention is that there are only three teams that have managed to win. The significant thing is that the three are precisely the greats of the League. He fell into its premiere in Mestalla against Real Madrid (which he later avenged in the second round), received the severe corrective of Barça in that 7-1 that did so much damage, while the passage of Atlético de Madrid by Mestalla also left no doubt: 0-3. It was the subject of the Cheste coach, being able to deal with one of the greats. He did it with that transcendental 1-2 of Santiago Bernabéu.
Bordalás team, the penultimate rival to pass the Mestalla
Unoi of the main fears that Corbern has is for the team to fall, as he experienced in his own meat Rubén Baraja last season. With Baraja, when Valencia practically assured its continuity in Primera, they began to arrive in cascade bad results. That is what among other things tries to avoid Corberán, which will have its first great fire test in that sense this Saturday in Mestalla. The Getafe of José Bordalás has to spend precisely that day. The Valencian expressionist is curiously just behind Valencia (42 and 39) in the classification.
Today is a year of the last game played by Jaume Doménech
The goal is one of the issues that sports management must still clear for the next season. Not in what concerns the candidate to be a starter for the departure of Mamardashvili (Dimitrievski) but in regard to the substitution. Jaume Doménech (34 years old) ends contract in June. This season has not played a single game (sometimes even discarded). In fact, the last meeting he played (34 minutes because he was injured) was on May 5, 2024, against Alavés in Mestalla.
