By Monro Bryce
Copyright majorcadailybulletin
Real Sociedad 1 – Real Mallorca 0
Another defeat for Real Mallorca, as they went down 0-1 away at Real Sociedad in a half-empty Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastian on Wednesday night.
We were dreadful. We had difficulties in defence, zero creativity in midfield and frontmen who never received a decent pass all night. Basque coach Jagoba Arrasate’s team are going from bad to worse and we actually won our only corner kick in the 80th minute. On match day 6 (with 32 games to go!), Mallorca are a team in big trouble. We once again relied on a back five that were all over the place and once again, thanks to some goalkeeping heroics from Leo Roman, he kept the score respectable.
The most worrying aspect is the work (or lack of) shown to the fans as the team have only two points from a possible 18. Getting back up the league now is going to be a tough ask, making Saturday night’s game against Alaves in the Son Moix an early six-pointer. If we put on another lacklustre showing against a team who always punch above their weight, the white hankies will be out for sure, meaning Arrasate’s job is hanging by a thread.
Wednesday night’s game was between two misfiring sides, but at least Sociedad got a goal through Spain striker Oyarzabal in the 48th minute. Since last Christmas, this Mallorca side is battered and broken, and unrecognisable to the one that reached the Copa del Rey final in April and finished mid-table in La Liga. After the game the post-mortems began. Local commentators are saying one of the problems took place in the dressing room regarding Dani Rodriguez and they comment that his presence towards the end of Wednesday night’s game may have made a difference.
The Bulletin’s sister publication, Ultima Hora went even further in their condemnation, saying it’s all very well our Americans building us a new stadium and opening up all these business outlets in the Son Moix. The real business should be taking place on the pitch and the performance by the team on Wednesday night should see the club’s hierarchy reset the project and refocus on what really matters, STAYING IN LA LIGA.
