In what is surely the biggest game of the weekend in Spain, we face our rivals in Valencia at the RSP. It is also our chance to catch up on 4th place Getafe, who lost to Leganés in the South Madrid derby yesterday. Even Alavés got slapped up by Atlético. It’s perfectly set for us to reap the rewards and climb up the table. As long as a certain Mr. Gameiro doesn’t get into his comfort zone here and spoil the party, we can be level with those blue Burger King-sponsored bastards from the capital.
Still no Pablo Sarabia, as he’s struggling to regain fitness OR possibly being held hostage until he renews his deal. But we have a similar lineup as the last match vs Espanyol, except for a noticeable change in goal. Will it be like Sergio Rico in 2015? We have 3rd-string GK Javi Díaz starting in place of the injured Vaclík & the suspended Soriano. He played the 2nd half vs Schalke last week and looked quite comfortable. Let’s hope that’ll be the case again today. The only other change is up front, where Munir deservedly replaces André Silva.
Valencia is always a tough opponent, and let’s not forget what happened with them last season. Forget that, even the reverse fixture was some bullshit. A last-minute equalizer as the fans were calling for Marcelino’s head?! These kit-stealing mongrels need to be put in their place for that crap.
I have a feeling that we can turn this around in the second half, however, we’re lacking that final shot and not very threatening in the opponent’s box. Why is Promes not shooting but wanting to cross the goal-line with the ball?
Mercado’s injury is a huge blow, hopefully he won’t be out for long and can help us again this season.
Let’s get Mudo and Gil out there and try to win the game.
Well, Valencia have the half-time lead 0-1 and it’s justifiable with their standard, even though the ref is a bit shit and apart from that Sevilla could have scored a couple. Banega is costing us the game really, foul for the penalty and I can’t understand why he didn’t get his second yellow card for the penalty. Obviously he’s off for the second half, can’t risk anymore of that and Mudo is warmin up. Amadou has been average along with Wober and Carriço, Navas good, WBY good, Gonalons quite good. Go 4-5-1. Put on Mudo and Roque Messi and leave WBY and Promes upfield
I have to say that Sevilla were disorganized in the first half apart from a couple of attacks, really average. Can’t believe that Mudo has come on for Amadou while Banega has a yellow card and is doing nothing.
Waiting for the statement from La Liga tomorrow that the penalty should have been given. But it shouldn’t have come to that. We didn’t have our shooting boots on today. And now Puta Valencia have the tiebreaker over us.
This season’s team do not deserve the CL spot, simple. Even if we get it by a miracle, we should voluntarily donate it to a team that deserved it more than us.
I would only keep 4-5 players maximum for the next season, the others can be sold, loaned out, have their contracts cancelled etc. for what I care - the majority of the players simply do not deserve the Sevilla shirt and they cannot contribute anything to the serious and ambitious project that Monchi is going to develop (I hope and assume so).
As for the match, it’s not that the players didn’t try, but we clearly lack sharpness and quality to overcome games like this and we’re way too soft to do anything vs. physical teams. Heck, even Slavia dominated us physically, which would never happen under Emery for example.
Caparros did some silly subs by removing a lot of threat like Promes and Amadou. They were quite in mood today and we could’ve done better with them longer on the pitch. Gil was good as well, but he needs a more middle-pitch role as he doesn’t have the physique to battle with the likes of Wass and Garay on the flank.
Caparros made many questionable decision, it’s not his era to coach now.
And there’s literally no difference by sacking Machin, just like replace Berizzo by Montella last year.
I won’t hold any hope for continuous 4th place or a serious long term plan under Castro.
Couldn’t watch due to other commitments but seeing the score and reading the highlight texts has got me pissed off, so I might get a bit emotional.
On a week where Getafe and Alaves, our main competitors for 4th place have lost to their opponents and left them on 46 and 44 points, we could have gone for it with a win here at home and be there for a week with our superior goal difference (Getafe: 10, Alaves: -4, Us: 11). Also add in that Valencia was on 43 points so it was really our time to show up and shine. I also remember we lost to Valencia in the away match of last season, a humiliating 4-0 rout, we also managed to lose the home fixture too (thanks Montella), an absolute travesty when we consider ourselves at least equal to them in size, ambitions and expectations. I would also love nothing more than to show up Marcelino for once, given he was in charge of Sevilla for a forgettable half-season which was dismal as ever. We could have gotten revenge in the away game had it not been for Silva showing how to fire at the post instead of an empty goal and our Colombian Wonder doing a defensive masterpiece, but I was hopeful and positive we would get a result here.
But no, we had some shots on target but they didn’t go in, add in another pathetic display by Banega to lose the penalty and we lose to Valencia again, this makes Marcelino and his middling squad look good and I have had it. The team needs to be overhauled, four pedestrian transfer windows have really left us short of quality everywhere. I have had it with Banega and Mudo and want one if not both to leave. Sarabia might want to play hardball but if he isn’t with us he can sod off too, Kjaer has not been selected since Machin left so he might be gone too. Amadou and Gonalons are good building blocks and we need physical midfielders to bully our opponents. The ironic thing is that we need capital to do some serious rebuilding and we have just shot ourselves in the foot for the best chance at getting some much-needed investment.
Yes I think Caparros made some strange choices today but that’s his perogative and he knows who’s up for the game. Strange how he left out Roque Messi after reactivating him last year, giving him confidence and it clearly resulted in a better player.
But Sevilla were disjointed and not a team today, it was an off day for a few players. If we can’t play without Sarabia that’s not good because Sarabia has a lot of off days.
I’m not too disappointed because there’s lots to play for, Valencia are a really good team right now and I have faith in Caparros to grind out results. We were hampered by a really poor referee and the injuries to Mercado and Wober who hobbled through the last 15 minutes, and also, Banega was net negative today.
I’m more concerned with Valencia on the same points than Getafe and Alaves who have more.
