Canizares queries Los Che ‘keeper role

Santiago Canizares has questioned the role of first-choice goalkeeper at Valencia in declarations to Canal Plus.

The former Los Che stopper believes the present situation, with both Vicente Guaita and Diego Alves competing for the No 1 spot, is untenable in the medium term.

“I’ve never liked this situation. It was something I said when I was at the club and I’m saying the same thing now regarding Guaita and Alves. If you ask both players they will tell you they are certainly not comfortable with it,” said Canizares.

“At the end of last season Alves, the one who had played the least, was looking to leave Valencia because he believed he was as good as Guaita and deserved to play.

“Right now it is Guaita who has to wait for his chance and here is a situation that in the medium term cannot be sustained.

“It happened over a short period last year because they had just met each other. It was their first year together in the squad and [Unai] Emery was alternating them.

“Also, there were more injuries so the games were shared out. However, the boss has to choose between them now, although Pellegrino has had no choice because only Alves has done well and it’s normal to keep him in the side.”

Canizares also commented on the financial condition at Valencia and insisted that is something the club will soon pull through.

“It’s good the team got into the Champions League, although it is more difficult because the teams are much better than last year and right now are better than Valencia.

“Hopefully, within a month we can say the opposite but at the moment it is almost a survival state.”

On the team’s poor start, Canizares believes it is a combination of injuries in central midfield and a tough fixture list that new Coach Mauricio Pellegrino faced from the beginning of the season.

“In a sporting sense the circumstances have not helped anyone. What a new Coach wants is a long pre-season then to improve gradually, but the new term began with visits to Barcelona and Real Madrid and in Europe the first game was away from home against the strongest team in the group [Bayern Munich].

“In addition, the two central defensive midfielders were injured and that makes for no competitiveness in the middle of the pitch, with the most creative players also starting the campaign with injuries.”

Canizares, who shared a dressing room with Pellegrino in his playing days, says the new team is going through a period of adaptation but downplayed his former teammate’s lack of experience.

“Experience can help you make decisions but the team’s problems are more through absences with injury and players being transferred more than anything else.

“Pellegrino is humble, committed, hard-working and is an honourable man who knows what he is doing. The team has been weakened and these are the circumstances surrounding Valencia right now.

“However, things will improve when [David] Albelda, [Ever] Banega, [Fernando] Gago and [Sergio] Canales return,” he concluded.

Tags Canizares Diego Alves Guaita Pellegrino
La Liga - Club News