The starting XI is in, and Montella has done a madness… after weeks of playing an almost identical team, he has gone and handed THREE debuts to Layun, Roque Mesa and Sandro!
Banega and Mercado drop out to the bench, which will mean they should be fresh for Leganes in midweek. Jesus Navas also gets a rest, whilst Ben Yedder gets the nod ahead of Muriel once again.
Sergio Rico retains his place… I think this is his last chance to not screw up, and I hope he has learned from his past mistakes and now knows how to come out for a ball and make it his. Goalkeeping 101 really.
League games wedged in the middle of two cup semi finals are always a tricky to call, and a lot will depend on if the new boys hit the ground running. Eibar carry some threat of their own, and their small ground is not the easiest of places to go. I watched them against Atletico Bilbao last weekend, and we will need to keep a sharp eye on their Chilean forward Orellana who posed a massive threat against local rivals Bilbao last week. Kike and Inui have the potential to damage us too. If we play to our best we should win, as our 3-0 victory over Eibar earlier in the season showed us.
Vamos Sevilla! Let’s hope for another positive away performance and rest!
We got a great chance to reach the cup final. However, we have to try improve in the league too. Need to build some momentum before our huge last 16 tie with Man Unires in champions league
My optimistic side tells me Mudo was dropped for a series of bad performances. The pessimistic side of my head tells me he’s being rested for the Cup game. Mercado is suspended. Vamos Roque, through the middle my son.
Navas 2 games there, Pareja months out and first time alongside Navas, Layún first time. Lenglet will have his work cut out. Forget the part about Navas, who isn’t there.
Another goal conceded within 90 seconds, neither Pareja nor Layún approached the Eibar player who had all the time in the world. Looks bad. Now we need a totally exceptional game to turn this round.
Rico not able to get to anything including a post and rebound earlier.
Our transition from defence to attack looks good with a nice mix of long ball and the Nzonzi touches but whether we can sustain an attack is yet to be seen. It’s the defence stupid.
Nail on the head about experimental back 4… Layun having big problems slotting in. it is almost looks like we are playing a pre-season friendly against a team in the middle of their season
For us to salvage anything from this game, all we can hope for is the team adapts quickly, tighens up so as not to concede any more goals, and if or when Eibar tire we take advantage of it.
Almost 3-2 but see the difference, it looked all over a goal, Layún cross, Ben Yed head, zooming toward just inside the far post, and then the goalkeeper appeared.
Nothing fantastic about that save from Rico… the ball was coming too directly at him, he couldn’t screw it up even if he wanted to. Otherwise, a joke of a keeper. A serious keeper would’ve saved at least 1 out of the 3 goals, a keeper of higher caliber could’ve saved 2, but we have a Segunda-material goalie between the sticks so anything can happen. As a matter of fact, why don’t we loan Rico to a Segunda team to get more experience?
Mesa has been quiet, Layun not fitting very well and Sandro the only one showing signs of fast adaptation.
This is the only time we’ve played with 2 strikers this season though… if we can consider Sandro to be a striker. Seems like a 4-4-2, but Pareja is absolutely off form and too slow to do anything remarkable in the defense. It is a terrible day for Lenglet too, he has been schooled by Orellana and Inui all day long. Pareja should retire soon imo.
Missing Mercado already. Is Kjaer injured or something?
Can’t even see us getting a draw out of this, but fingers crossed we’ll do that.
EL places seriously at risk. Not to be surprised if we’re out of European competitions for the next season.
I said before his injury that Pareja was past it and he’s doing nothing to change my mind. We are wide open on the right side of defence and look very poor without Mercado., they could have easily scored 4 or 5 by now.
