With the injured Vedat Muriqi and Dani Rodriguez looking on from the stands, the Palma side were bereft of ideas in the Alaves penalty area and the longer the game progressed the chances of Mallorca scoring got less and less. The opening 45 minutes were a difficult watch as neither side provided any spark of action.
The 15,000 crowd were mumbling their discontent as another numpty referee Figueroa Vazquez blew for the half-time break. It was a half without any shots on goal and the quality on the pitch was non-existent. As the players left the pitch there were audible whistles of discontent from the frustrated fans.
Coach Javier Aguirre brought on the under-performing Cyle Larin and he at last showed some neat touches but once again saw a golden chance saved by the Alaves keeper. To his credit, Larin was at the heart of everything positive but once again luck wasn’t on his side. With time running out, Mallorca became full of anxiety and nerves and the fans were getting even more restless.
SUMMING UP: the first half was terrible and for the watching TV audience an awful advert for top flight Spanish football as Aguirre’s team began to fall apart. He seems to be the man for the job according to the Real Mallorca hierarchy. I’m afraid the fans disagree. Once again in his post match press conference, he said things like “We’re getting better” and “I’m used to managing teams in this predicament.”
The truth is Aguirre is running out of time and his jacket is on a shoogly (shaky) peg. He’s unable to change the dynamic of results and one victory in 15 games is a very poor record. He claimed last week that he knows that football is a results business and said if we do not meet the objective the most likely thing is we lose our jobs, that’s the law of the game. The coach has repeated ad nauseam that what the team lack is getting it right in certain areas although now in all seriousness it’s got to the stage where it’s happening all over the pitch. Aguirre has tried every possible permutation, playing four or five at the back with two upfront, but the reality is he hasn’t found the correct solution to win.
His excuses are falling on deaf ears and drawing two games at home to direct rivals is a disaster. If we had won these two games (against Cadiz and Alaves) we would have picked up six points, which would have seen us leap up the league. Now with a cup match away in Pamplona (for me a distraction) on Wednesday night at 7pm, and Sevilla the visitors next Saturday at 9pm, the latter is a game we simply must win or Sr Aguirre will find himself in the last chance saloon.
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