Numancia-Mallorca

By: Jeremy | February 13th, 2009

Despite finally hitting rock bottom last place, I am not going anywhere until we have been relegated and even if information or commentary is minimal, those few Mallorca fans out there like myself will root for our team until the end and I will have something to say even if it is brief, repetitive, and not that much indepth. Quite frankly I am sick of this team in that there is simply no excitement. No Buzz. Nothing to get you excited beyond the fact you root for a club. That is not good from a fans perspective and it is showing in the results.

What can you say about last weeks draw at home against Deportivo? We get the lead and then give it back. Maybe they were disappointed with not getting three points, but if you cant close a team out at home, even if they are a top half table team like Depor, you end up near the bottom of the standings and that is where we are now.

Things can only move up from here and this week is when we must start showing some results if we truly want to survive. Hitting the road to play Numancia is simply a must win game, even if the players arent saying so. Its true that we could be out of the zone if games go the right way this weekend, but with Osasuna on 20 points, Numancia on 20, Espanyol on 18, and us on 18, we need to win these type of games even if on the road.

Numancia has been as bad as we have been although they showed early on this year they might be better then expected. The problem with having lower level talent is inconsistent results. On any day a team like Barca can be beaten, but over time, teams end up in the standings according to their talent level. Numancia is right where they belong in the standings.

Even with all the turnover in Palma, I certainly didnt expect our talent level to be bottom of the league type talent. No matter the excuse being used, we are where we are and there is no denying that we are in trouble. We now need to hit the road and start getting some results but who can we ask to deliver it? Our lack of one superstar talent is really hurting us. If you look at the years we struggled to survive, it was always with this type of talent.

There is clearly some individual talent still left on this team ie Arango, Aduriz, Jurado, Trejo et al, but are either of these guys capable of carrying a team to victory on the basis of their peformance alone. In soccer that is rare for any player, but the winning teams have these kind of players. For all the hype and glimpses of greatness from Aduriz, the man has been a flop. Arango does not care and wants a move to a big club. Trejo has been hurt. Jurado has been the best of the bunch but his inexperience creates too much inconsistency so he cannot be counted on weekly to perform at the top level. None of these players are likely to be in Palma next year, but lets hope they have some pride as they are the guys who will decide if we surivive or if the fans will watch the total destruction of the most enjoyable team to watch in La Liga in 2007-08.

Being in a tight relegation race means that wins have all that more significance so it will be interesting if we can keep ourselves in the mindset that as bad as we have been, we are not out of it when it comes to survival. Until results show otherwise, however, I am not ready to predict road wins even against bad teams like us. Anything less then a win this weekend though is a failure considering where we need to be 10 weeks from now.

Prediction

Numancia 1-1 Mallorca