Pako Ayestaran will be an asset to Gary Neville at Valencia, says Terry Gibson
Tuesday 16 February 2016 09:47, UK
Terry Gibson believes Pako Ayestaran will be an asset to Gary Neville following his appointment to Valencia's coaching staff.
Ayestaran will work as first-team assistant coach alongside existing coaches Phil Neville and Miguel Angel Angulo, and took part in his first training session under Gary Neville on Monday.
The former Liverpool assistant spent three years at the Mestalla as Rafa Benitez's number two between 2001 and 2004, and speaking on La Liga Weekly, Gibson praised the decision to bring him back to the club.
"We know Pako, he is very diligent with what he does and I think he should be an asset to Valencia," Gibson said. "He will be a help to Gary.
"I'm not sure who is doing the translating for him now, but it will be a big help to him to have someone that knows the English football mentality, the La Liga mentality and has a good reputation at the club."
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Substitute Alvaro Negredo played a key role as Neville secured his first league win with a come-from-behind victory over Espanyol on Saturday, and Gibson believes Valencia's luck may be beginning to turn.
"I'm sure Gary will agree, they've performed better and not got the results because luck has not been on their side," Gibson added. "It wasn't a lucky win, but it could have gone either way and it was pretty frantic in the second half particularly as Espanyol missed so many chances.
"I thought the crowd would really turn on Valencia if they went behind, but to their credit they didn't. There wasn't a period when the crowd went berserk and vented their fury. They actually got behind the team and it gave the players a bit of belief.
"Gary made the right changes at the right time, although he had no choice because he needed an offensive-minded line-up."
Last week Guillem Balague suggested Neville could use extra help "with the little details of coaching" and after the Espanyol victory Neville confirmed Ayestaran's appointment will add to, rather than replace, the existing staff.
"He's finding out about his strengths and weaknesses as a coach," Balague said. "He knows that he can communicate well - when he can get his message across because there's obviously difficulties with the language - and he can lead the group.
"It's the little details of the coaching that he perhaps needs some help with so he may just bring someone in."
