Montella cannot be blamed, not before at least around 10 official matches with the team. He doesn’t know the players (beside a couple) and he doesn’t know La Liga, still a lot to learn for him.
I liked our attacking play, but not sure why we took the foot off the pedal when at 2-2?
Also, a fatal mistake tonight was subbing Mudo for Correa. There was no midfield and Betis held the ball for 2-3 minutes before scoring the third goal.
A shocking statistic for the sport of football showed when the result was 3-4, but continued to the end of the match, Rico and Adan = 0 saves each.
2 extremely weak and non-existent goalkeepers showcased their skills tonight, NONE!
We need a new keeper urgently in the summer if we want a serious project, otherwise we’re doomed. Sell Rico and keep Soria, that’s the only way to go. Rico might luckily save a penalty vs. a Segunda team and as Tim said, he proved that even a broken clock is right twice a day, but we definitely cannot build a serious project with a joke of a goalie.
Also the 3rd goal was 50-50 on Navas alongside Rico. Navas didn’t track the player, he simply lost sight of him and it was too late to look back after Durmisi penetrated through the box to get 1v1 with Rico… well, you know what happens on 1on1s with Rico.
It is too difficult to say that I am optimistic in this situation, conceding 5 goals to our arch rivals and losing at home against them, especially that we haven’t lost for more than a year in RSP. However, I am… at least a bit. Montella needs to know that Sarabia should be in the field more often than not, and needs to see ways on how to fix the defense.
Hell, why doesn’t he try the 3-5-2 of the Milan days. Can’t be worse right? Try it vs. Cadiz and see where it leads. At the point that we’re in, about to lose the EL places, I’d sacrifice the CDR for experimenting and focus on the league. CL is history, I just hope we don’t get utterly humiliated by Man Utd. They are white sharks for us and they are smelling blood already from a long distance.
My dear Sevilla… conceding 5 at home from Betis… you don’t deserve this, but times are tough nowadays and when you have a pathetic management who doesn’t sign pragmatic coaches that focus on defense, and doesn’t make the necessary January moves already, and we still don’t have Arana to see what he’s made of etc. etc.
Hugely missing Monchi already!