Parity Creates Inconsistency

By: Jeremy | October 27th, 2008

Despite the revamping of the roster and the influx of new talent in the offseason, the results in Mallorca remain frustrating and inconsistent. After yesterdays thrashing of Espanyol, Mallorca sits in eighth place with eleven points fighting to slide into that final UEFA Cup spot that typically should belong to Atletico who is off to a little bit of a shaky start this year.

While the current situation seems pretty good considering the movement of players in the offseason, fans almost have to be disappointed that we got no points against two teams(Sporting and Betis) who were at the time of the match, the bottom of La Liga. Imagine how nice it would be to sitting on 17 points and staring down the big five teams. Even average teams are supposed to win the games against the bottom level teams. So what do these inconsistent results mean? We can say its a good performance by the players one week and maybe better performances by the other team the following week. It also shows that Betis and Sporting were not as bad as their position in the standings indicated.

After the big five teams(Barca, Valencia, Madrid, Villarreal, and Sevilla), the league is wide open and any team could easily be relegated. The recent upswing of Betis and Sporting has left Osasuna and one of the most storied clubs in La Liga history, Bilbao, taking their positions at the bottom of the standings. Will they stay there? Its all just a guessing game at this point.

The real Aduriz showed up yesterday for Mallorca and showed strength with the feet and in the air sending home two goals to give Mallorca a two goal cushion, after a scoreless first half that Mallorca controlled, and allowing for Varela to finish home goal number three for a 3-0 thrashing of Espanyol, a similarly situated club. How do we go from two disappointing performances against bottom situated clubs to such a convincing win over a team that on the surface is better then Betis and Sporting. As Mazano said after the match: “We had intesnity, attitude, and focus”. Where has this been? Why this week and not last two weeks. I dont think we can answer that because all of the La Liga teams are so close in talent after the big five, that you simply dont know how the matches will go. This is unlike Serie A where you can almost predict the outcome of the standings and teams usually get points where they are supposed to. It seems like the same teams are fighting for relegation every year.

With a midweek game in the Copa against surprising Malaga and then a weekend match against Atletico, who is looking to get back into the final UEFA Cup position, we have a real chance to put our stamp as a real contender for European football. In the same sense, a couple of losses in the next two weeks puts us back into the relegation fight. Dont forget we still have matches against the big clubs so our position may not be as strong as it seems. Thus the importance of the win against Espanyol. To avoid a relegation fight, you almost have to get wins against mid table teams at home without question. We held serve this week and now the pressure drops as we hit the road.

The team that showed up Sunday is a threat to finish high in the standings this year despite the strength of La Liga. However, do not expect such spirited performances regularly and fans like myself will continue to watch with optimism but with also a better understanding that despite Manzanos efforts to find the right lineup, the league is such that inconsistent performances from teams like Mallorca all the way down to Osasuna will continue.

But for now, lets enjoy this win and hope it is a sign of bigger and better things to come from Aduriz and company.