Gary Neville attempts to drag improvement out of Valencia by stripping Dani Parejo of captaincy

Gary Neville's measures to get results out of Valencia have gotten even more drastic with news that he's replaced the club captain.

Dani Parejo has been stripped of the captain's armband after a dreadful run of league games that have seen them without a win in La Liga since Neville took charge in December. Striker Paco Alcacer wore the armband for Valencia's 1-1 draw at home to Las Palmas in the Copa del Rey and Neville didn't avoid the subject of the captaincy in his post-match press conference.

"I discussed it with Dani over these last two or three weeks and we came to the decision together," said Neville.

"If there was a problem between the two of us then he would not have played tonight and you would not have seen that performance from him - I thought he was our best player."

Neville has returned just five points from a possible 18 in the league since replacing Nuno Espírito Santo in December but will be hoping that new skipper Alcacer will turn his side's fortunes around when they travel to Deportivo la Coruna on Sunday.