Gary Neville’s first La Liga win for Valencia could see off Rafa Benitez
Sunday 3 January 2016 18:36, UK
Valencia boss Gary Neville is looking for his first La Liga win but it’s Rafa Benitez under pressure, writes Adam Bate...
It's the sort of game that Gary Neville presumably craved when accepting the Valencia job. There will be a packed Mestalla for the visit of Real Madrid and Neville will find himself at the heart of it, plotting a way to stop his old team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo - a player to whom he dedicated a chapter of his autobiography. "A phenomenon," according to the England coach.
However, the game will also offer a reminder of the perilous nature of the job he's taken on. As Neville told Jason Burt in a Telegraph interview recently, he's now in a profession where his future is beyond his control. The business activities and media offers will continue regardless, but Neville's managerial career could yet be snatched away. A glance at the opposition dugout will tell him that.
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Ostensibly, Neville should be the one under most pressure on Sunday. He's a month into his first job in management and his only win so far came in the second leg of a Copa del Rey tie against lower league Barakaldo.
Valencia have been eliminated from the Champions League by Lyon and scraped their way to La Liga draws against Eibar and Getafe. The derby with Villarreal was lost just days ago.
And yet, it's Rafa Benitez on the brink. Real Madrid put 10 goals past Rayo Vallecano a fortnight ago and their 3-1 win over Real Sociedad last time out briefly put them top of La Liga. They are the top scorers in Spain and the joint-top scorers in the Champions League alongside Bayern Munich. But lose at Mestalla and Benitez is likely to be sent packing back to the Wirral.
Media and fans are unconvinced by the team's style, while reports of dressing-room dissent refuse to go away. However, there's not much sympathy when, as Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino pointed out last week, 99 per cent of coaches would be happy to swap places with Benitez. Even so, it's enough to make anyone think.
After all, Neville knows very well that Benitez is a tactician to admire. He need only talk to his old Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher to hear all about that. The ex-Liverpool player says he did "more tactical work than I've done with any manager at any level in my career" under Benitez and names him as "the greatest overall influence" on him as a defender.
Of course, the Spaniard is an old adversary of Neville's given the former Manchester United captain's history of antagonising Liverpool. It's 10 years ago this month that he was criticised for his exuberant goal celebration following Rio Ferdinand's last-minute winner against Benitez's Liverpool at Old Trafford. Greater Manchester Police even wrote to United and the Football Association about it.
The irony is that Neville is a natural ally of Benitez. Indeed, he recently identified him and Jose Mourinho as the managers who helped usher in the era of English clubs dominating Europe in the Champions League.
Neville even admitted in the summer that part of him had hoped Chelsea would go on to blitz the league by 25 points so that the rest would look to emulate Mourinho's template. Organisation is his priority.
There has been some evidence of Neville's defensive emphasis thus far at Valencia. He had something to work with. This is a team that is yet to concede three goals in a league game this season and their resolve was evident in the 1-1 draw at home to Barcelona last month.
Neville has maintained that focus, even switching to a five-man defence for the trip to Villarreal.
It's fluency that's lacking. Barakaldo aside, Valencia have scored four goals in their last seven games. At least Neville appears not only aware of the problem but sees signs of progress too. "We had a good 45 minutes," he said of the game at El Madrigal. "This makes me feel better as we knew how to play in the second half and if we continue that way then it is possible to pick up the points we need.
"In the second half we played the best football since I arrived. We needed to pass the ball better. We were bunched together too much and we should have looked to attack more. When you have five at the back you can be too defensive and we were conscious of that but we didn't do it well." They'll need to get everything right against Real Madrid on Sunday.
With Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in the opposition ranks, expect Neville to focus on the defensive side once more. The opportunity to pit his wits against Benitez is one he'll surely relish. However, if Neville's first La Liga win also costs the Real Madrid coach his job, it will serve as an example of just how precarious his own position within his new profession could yet be.
