Valencia are currently 19th out of the 20 clubs in La Liga. Getafe occupy the closest safety spot in 17th with three points more.
Getafe have played a match more but even if Valencia won their game in hand they wouldn’t be safe to an inferior goal difference.
Losing 1-0 to Rayo Vallecano at the weekend hasn’t helped, and as well as being a bad day for Los Ches, it was a very bad day for Aston Villa owned Enzo Barrenechea.
The Argentine arrived at Aston Villa in the summer, as part of the mix of deals which saw Douglas Luiz move to Turin. Barrenechea had spent the previous season on loan at Frosinone, with the club relegated to Serie B at the end of it.
He won’t want to face the same fate again, and there’s a battle ahead to avoid that. Against Rayo Vallecano, the 23-year-old was hauled off after 60 minutes and it’s fair to say the Spanish media wasn’t impressed with his efforts.
SuperDeporte, the influential local sports newspaper for the Valencia region gave him just 3/10. No player was rated lower.
As for their wider verdict on the Aston Villa owned player, it was all about a lack of impact and ability to have control in midfield: ‘The engine room remains uncontrolled. The pivot was conspicuous by his absence from the ball and any intervention with the ball. In such a demanding position, a good level is needed.’
There’s certainly no groundswell of opinion forming which demands he spends a prolonged spell out of the team, but that’s largely due to Valencia having such poor options available to them right now.
Lionel Scaloni called Barrenechea up to the Argentina squad for the latest international break. That felt like just an opportunity to watch him in training given that he’d not even represented the country at any youth level and wasn’t given a place on the bench in either of the country’s matches.
Of course whilst this all sounds negative, the bright-side is he’s been getting regular minutes and that can only help his progression.
Valencia have been in perpetual chaos, which has to be a difficult situation for a loan player to walk into. For him to find consistency is a big ask right now.
Barrenechea will be 24-years-of-age in May and hopefully Aston Villa see enough between now and next summer to feel he can be a meaningful part of Unai Emery’s squad next season.
Right now is a rough patch… but picking up experience isn’t just about the easier times.
