Tomorrow however there is definitely something worth talking about as we travel to San Mamés to take on Athletic Bilbao. We resume league play after last week’s beautiful win over Atlético Madrid at home to someone cement ourselves in a Champions League spot.

This round however is going to be just as tricky as it will be the first of two encounters with the Basque side in less than a week – tomorrow in the league and Wednesday in the Copa.

In the reverse fixture we smashed them 4-0 at home but this time around of course its going to be much more difficult as we both have a lot to play for, and not to mention the resurgence of Joaquín Caparros’ men in recent times. The Copa del Rey is the only thing either team has a decent chance of winning considering we crashed out of the UEFA Cup to Sampdoria and Athletic are currently midtable and not in Europe. That being the case I think that both managers will also realize this and rest some of the bigger names tomorrow.

Jiménez being the conservative coach he is will probably field a strong midfield tomorrow rather than our favoured two-striker system and would rather go for the safe result as opposed to going all out for the kill.

Luis Fabiano and Koné are both back to full training after their serious knee problems but will not take part in tomorrow’s match and the same applies to Chevantón who last week was announced out for the season with a serious foot injury. Three of our four strikers will not take part meaning we will be extremely short up front. I can see Sevilla Atlético star Diego Perotti starting up top with “Big Fredi” considering he played extremely well last week and we do not have any other alternatives at the moment seeing as Renato is a poor excuse for a second striker, if this is not the case though then young Argentine Lautaro Acosta will definitely start up top. Escudé is also out on defense meaning Squillaci will probably partner David Prieto in the central roles with Mosquera and Adriano playing as the wing backs. Maresca is also apparently back to good fitness levels and may even get the start tomorrow in the midfield alongside either Romaric, Duscher or Renato.

I can’t really see this match being another 4-0 walloping either way and I have a feeling it will be pretty even for the most part with a 1-0 victory for either side looking pretty likely. It will more likely than not be a low scoring affair and if it does not go 1-0 either way it will be a draw with neither side really stamping their authority on the match.

Overall our team isn’t doing as bad as it seems, we’re third in the league only behind who else but Barça and Real, in the Copa del Rey semifinals and next we travel to Bilbao with the lead. We also have a decent point tally and at the half way mark of the season it was equal to the highest in Rojiblanco history. It just seems like the negative points of drawing Osasuna and Mallorca, and losing to Betis (embarrassingly), Sporting Gijón and Racing Santander have overshadowed the positives like defeat of Real in the Bernabeú, the 1-0 dismantling of Villarreal, and the victory over Deportivo when we were down a man for over half the match.

Today our sporting director, Monchi brought up a very valid point whilst talking to Spanish Newspaper rag, Marca. The questions he was asked were about our season thus far and the struggles we have encountered, specifically our humiliating defeat at home to hated rivals Betis.

Still, Monchi insists that our squad is perfectly fine and the losses of Dani Alves and Seydou Keita to Barcelona as well as Christian Poulsen to Juventus were major losses but all in all we are doing better this year than last as we currently sit 8 points ahead of where we were at this point one year ago.

Monchi also states in his interview that the media has attributed to the pressure the team are facing and that pressure has now turned into anxiety, hence our run of recent poor results.

“It makes me sad at times to read and listen to some of the things in the media, as sporting director I have cried many times, mainly in finals, but this year I have cried more than ever after normal games.”

That was his confession to the media earlier today, quite a touching statement really.

“The fans listen, read and see. The press is creating the view.”

Responded our sporting director when asked about the pressure on the team from the fans and other outside sources.

It hit me today that we’re nothing more than an above average club who is way too erratic to be considered a “footballing powerhouse”. We’re a solid side no doubt, but the difference between us and sides like Barça and Real are consistency levels. We cannot afford to lose matches to Betis, Racing, and Sporting, especially at such crucial times in the season. One must realize that it was not too long ago that we were always in the second half of the table and spent a few spells in the Segunda so to be in the position we’re in today is quite remarkable, especially in the short timeframe that it was achieved. None the less, now that we’re here we have to expect the expectations and if we want to stay in the top four and be recognized as one of Spain’s best clubs we can’t go on blaming things like the media for our piss-poor performances, that’s just sad.

I can’t deny that players must feel some self-consciousness when they read articles about their recent performances (or lack of) and while this may affect them slightly you can’t tell me that it would cause our team to not win a league match for a whole month.

We’re not showing signs of dropping out of the top four Champions League places but then again we’re not showing signs of progressing ahead of our current position into a position where we can pass the big boys of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

While this kills me to say and admit these things, I’ve done some serious thinking today about our recent performances and it’s absolutely true. We just don’t have the depth as the big two do nor do we have the leadership. Palop is a great guy but I have a certain prejudice against goalkeepers being captains, he can’t run half way up the pitch to argue a booking and then be expected to run back to the goal, I really thought Maresca was that guy but due to his hot-tempered nature it is evident he is not the one to fill the role. As Javi Navarro doesn’t look like he’ll be back very soon, or at all, we need to find a suitable leader and captain fast, for people that think this is a small deal, quite clearly you don’t know football, it is absolutely vital to have someone to lead the squad on the pitch.

We can go on making one hundred and one excuses about anything we want but at the end of the day must realize that now we’ve had several successful seasons in a row and as a result expectations of our squad are through the roof therefore meaning we have to deliver or the world and their grandmothers will be on our ass about it. It comes down to the players and where their heart is, if they value the crest on the front of the jersey rather than the name on the back we will succeed, as is evident with any other major clubs in Europe.

As a club we cannot be content with staggering in the position we are currently in, we have to show the desire to progress above and beyond what people expect, we need to shatter their expectations and show them that they need to actually set them higher because we need new goals to achieve, thats a big club mentality.

Not doing anything in the January transfer window besides shipping out Tom de Mul on loan is another worrying sign. While Monchi usually does his best work in the summer it was quite evident a couple months ago that we needed more talent in the squad to progress and considering we didn’t buy any of the numerous players we were linked to is pretty disappointing. Injuries have plagued the squad and a couple loan moves would have been ideal, hopefully now that Koné, Chevantón and Luis Fabiano are almost back to full fitness we can start scoring goals again.

This weekend we’ll need to show the Primera what exactly we’re made of when we take on a similarly struggling Atlético Madrid side at home in El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán which is a crucial match and will probably dictate where we go from here. I’m sure revenge will be on the minds of everyone who was in the squad last year as well as Jiménez because Atléti stole that last CL spot meaning we had to settle for UEFA Cup action again this year. This year though we’re in the drivers seat, not them, so let’s see what we can do when its crunch time.

Let’s face it, our run of form was pretty damn good until we took a bit of a stumble at the Mastalla which was perfectly okay, I mean we were always going to come back home and smash them anyway, but the game on the weekend against Racing, oh God… Horrible, absolutely horrible, I can’t describe in any other words what was probably our worst game ever.

No player playing the way our boys did against Racing should ever be able to wear the rojiblanco, they were a complete disgrace to Sevilla Fútbol Club.

The Copa del Rey is the only thing we have left and if we don’t win it our season is considered a failure. We aren’t going to win the league, Barça’s already done that, this is our only shot at silverware, and to show that we’re a big club, we need silverware, plain and simple.

Jiménez has been hard done by critics in recent weeks, but maybe rightfully so, we’re a top four club, anything less than a win against Osasuna, Mallorca, and Racing Santander are definitely unacceptable. It was rumoured that now Spartak Moscow coach, Michael Laudrup was in Nervión and that he would replace Manolo. That was right before we won those three matches against Deportivo la Coruña in a matter of 1 week and everything suddenly seemed back to normal. I probably wouldn’t advise sacking Señor Jiménez now anyway, but if we don’t get the result tomorrow, he better know it’s coming to him.

Knowing all of this, Jiménez has selected a strange squad to face Valencia at home.

Palop, Javi Varas, Mosquera, Squillaci, Fernando Navarro, Escudé, Adriano, Dragutinovic, Duscher, Romaric, Renato, Cordero, Jesús Navas, Capel, Perotti, Kanoute and Luis Fabiano were selected by Jiménez. Not included in the squad are Chevantón, Maresca (probably due to his comments earlier this week), David Prieto, and Crespo.

Good to see a couple Sevilla Atlético boys in there although I’m not exactly sure this is the time to play them. What surprises me most is no Cheva, I mean you would think that Manolo would have taken his experience instead of Perotti who hasn’t played for the first team before. This is exactly what I mean though, his tactics are so strange, no one ever knows what he’s going to do next. Also strange to see Pukki wasn’t included after his pretty solid debut, would have definitely loved to see him get another run out.

Some good news for us obviously as both Jesús Navas and Konko have been declared match-fit but the latter will not play. However, this will still give us a huge boost as Navas always does down the right flank.

In all honestly I expect my boys to go out and prove everyone (including myself) wrong, we’ll come out on top, I can feel it. The scoreline won’t be as high as in the first leg but I think it is clearly evident that the players will have been shook up from that absolute garbage display at home to Racing on the weekend and will want to prove their worth tomorrow.

It’s all or nothing really, this is all we have left, we lose, that’s our season right there. Sure we will still qualify for Champions League, but what is that compared to winning a major trophy?

The season starts or ends tomorrow, simple as.

¡¡Vamos mi Sevilla
Vamos Campeón!!

Navas set the tone for the game in the first minute when he struck a volley beating Fabricio. On the 23rd minute Luis Fabiano added to the Galician’s pain as he capitalized off a defensive error, stole the ball, walked it around Fabricio, and slotted it in with ease. O Fabuloso put the first nail in the coffin on the 40th minute when the two Depor defenders crashed into each other and Fabiano was there to chip it over Fabricio, the game was over before we even reached half time.

It was definitely an encouraging display of football as everyone was getting some touches in and Depor didn’t really have any promising opportunities. Once again Jesús Navas was controlling the left flank and causing havoc every time he touched the ball, and with Capel doing the exact same on the left side, Depor didn’t know what to do. Fabiano and Kanouté were in sync and always a threat to the Depor defense, Romaric and Duscher plugged up the midfield so they couldn’t attack through there and when they finally managed to penetrate that, Crespo, Escudé, Squillaci, and Fernando Navarro played solid along the back line. A all round solid performance by my boys tonight.

On the 68th minute Omar Bravo went in studs up on Romaric which meant he was ejected with a straight red. There was no end to Depor’s troubles tonight, BELIEVE ME!!

In the 75th minute came my highlight of the match. My boy Chevantón was finally back from his knee injury that has kept him sidelined since October. If you’ve read my blog since I started you’d know that I absolutely love Cheva and think he’s the best supersub since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. His return will hopefully spark some more goals to come in the future, but for now it was for something else.

Palop got a straight red on the 82nd minute for tripping up the Depor striker and was given a straight red. Since all three substitutions had already been made by Manolo Jiménez it meant that a player on the field would have to play in goal for the remaining 8 minutes plus added time and also for the penalty. Chevantón stepped up and volunteered to play in goal knowing that he would first have to face a penalty shot. Up stepped Pablo Álvarez and tried to place the goal in the bottom left corner but struck the post and then went out for a goal kick. What a series of events in the final minutes, probably the most exciting game this whole season.

The boys ended the game in style just killing time and passing the ball around. Will Depor just go away now? I’m sick of writing about them and seeing them, we’ve beat you three times, we’ve finished our business with you. We now move on to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey but are not sure who we will face yet. Whoever it is, they better watch out, because with the way they’re playing, I can’t off the top of my head think of a team that can stop us.

With 3 victories in less than a week surely our confidence must be sky rocketing by now right? We now travel back to Nervión to take on strugglers Numancia in a game that means a lot. We must build off our win last weekend to Depor and try and get our league campaign back on track and running. Barça may be out of sight but I’d consider it a great insult if Real Mierda finished ahead of us, they’ve been awful this year.

There’s some big news going on in Nervión, I meant to actually post it yesterday but I ended up doing the review for the game instead. Look out for tomorrow’s entry!!!

¡¡VAMOS MI SEVILLA
VAMOS CAMPEÓN!!

I wish these fixtures were as easy as they seem but unfortunately they aren’t. Osasuna won their game against Getafe last week in an emphatic 5-2 display. Our peformance however, not so emphatic, a 0-0 draw with struggling Mallorca is definitely something we might look back on and regret. We’re way better than that, taking nothing away from Mallorca or anything but we deserved better. We can’t afford to drop points against any of the “lower” teams if we want to keep pace with this year’s phenomenal Barcelona side.

Fabiano said it best when interviewed about tomorrow’s game. “We have an important game coming up which we should win. With respect to Osasuna, Sevilla has to be Sevilla.” I couldn’t agree more, and this is why we have lost stupidly this year and its becoming a huge concern. We have to play the style that we’re good at and comfortable with. So many times this season we’ve tried to go up the middle or put in a bunch of long high balls. That isn’t us, we play our best football down the wings utilizing Navas, Capel or Adriano and then putting in the crosses for Kanoute and Fabiano to poach upon. It’s been clear a few times this year that our strikers, especially Kanoute, have become very frustrated with their lack of opportunities, but in all honesty it’s not their fault, our midfield has been really hit or miss this season so far. We need to play simple football, the same style that won us 5 trophies in 15 months and impressed Europe and the world. Simplicity is beautiful, let’s keep it that way.

Let’s be honest here, I hate to be cocky or arrogant but we are a much better side than Osasuna is. It’s actually quite funny because it seems like just yesterday that I was watching a Sevilla v Osasuna semi-finals in the UEFA Cup semi-finals to see who would progress to the finals. I remember it being a hard match, and although we won it was no walk in the park. We have developed quite the rivalry ever since. They had a really strong team that year and since I don’t follow them I don’t understand how they have become so bad. Have they lost a bunch of key players I don’t know about? I know they did have Carlos Vela at one time, but he’s really young so surely he couldn’t have made that much of a difference. Anyhow, it doesn’t really matter, anything less than a win tomorrow isn’t acceptable, we need to take advantage of these struggling teams.

This match became more important today when Valencia handed Atletico a 3-1 defeat. This puts Valencia in second with 33 points but us in third with 31 points and hopefully with a victory tomorrow we’ll be back in second where we belong.

Some bad news however as Luis Fabiano is a doubt to play tomorrow as he has a cold which seems to be quite contagious around the football world recently. He is included in the squad but will not start. Also, Mosquera is out as well with an ankle injury that he picked up against Espanyol several weeks back. The pain has re-occurred and he will sit out one more week to hopefully be ready for the next match.

The players called up for tomorrow’s match by Jimenez are; Palop, Javi Varas, Crespo, Escudé, Squillaci, Fernando Navarro, David Prieto, Dragutinovic, Duscher, Romaric, Maresca, Renato, Jesus Navas, Capel, Fazio, Adriano, De Mul, Luis Fabiano and Kanoute.

If you’re watching the game tomorrow look out for the sea of red and white flags in the crowd as President José María del Nido requested we bring in the new year with the ever-strong support we’re known for.

A match report will follow tomorrow’s game. Hopefully it’ll be all good news for us Sevillistas.

Phew, now that rant is off my chest, its time to get back to work.

Sevilla 2 – Villarreal 0

First off, I have to say, this was a must win game for Jimenez. Even though my boy Monchi said he wants him around next year, without this win, it would have been a bit harder to get that point across to the fan loving Del Nido.

With that being said, Jimenez did the first real tactical change of the year, going with a 4-5-1. The loan striker was Luis Fabiano, and surprisingly enough, this opened the field way up for Sevilla to attack on the wings. With Adriano stuck in the middle until getting hurt (more on that later) the wings were wide open for Navas and Capel to do their things.

I never give game recaps per se, but what an amazing ball from Dani Alves to Luis Fabiano for the goal. An over the top long ball from about 50 yards away bounced twice into the box and Fabiano buried it in the back of the net.

The technical change really sparked something in Sevilla, and maybe we’ll see more of it this coming weekend. Seriously, what do we have to lose?

Defense = Hospital Unit

It’s obvious that Sevilla have overcame some pretty outstanding obstacles this season, with the death of Puerta and the departure of Juande Ramos to name a few.

But, right now, our focus must turn to the defense and the hospital unit it has become. Here’s where we currently stand in the back.

Center Backs:
Javi Navarro-Out indefinitely (hasn’t played a game all season)
Boulharouz- Played around 3 games and had surgery in Holland (what a waste he was)
Escudé – He’s in one game, out the other. Mr. Inconsistency
Mosquera – The Only Healthy One

Outside Backs:
Drago – Also had surgery and will be out for a few weeks.
Crespo – Started and in his first game got blasted in the face by Diarrá which fractured his cheekbone and left him out for 1.5 months.
Casado – Played just over an entire half against Villarreal in November, then rolled his ankle and was out for quite some time. Moved up to the first team again, to sub in for Diego Capel in the 92nd minute and didn’t even mark a minute against Recreativo in February.
Adriano – Out 3-4 weeks with an injury to his left calf suffered against Villarreal in the last game.
Dani Alves – Still kicking (knock on wood)
Fazio- Still hanging around

Now, that leaves us with newly promoted Diego Prieto. The youngster from the Cantera will stay with the first team until the end of the season. While Lolo, will not (thanks to some rule about being under 23 and he had to play against Mallorca). I personally like the kid, and when he was asked why all after all of the millionnaire signings in Sevilla, the young kids from the cantera are playing, he had this to say.

“Bueno, sí…es que hemos tenido muchos lesionados.” (Well yeah, we’ve had a lot of guys get injured

Duh.

Darth Del Nido’s Quote of the Day

Ha sido una tarde magnífica de fútbol, con mucho espectáculo. Es cierto que hemos conseguido una victoria apurada hasta el final, pero no por ocasiones. Hemos recuperado la moral en el juego, nuestra posición en el terreno de juego y la credibilidad ante los adversarios”.

It was a terrific afternoon of football, really spectacular. Its obvious that we played a pure game until the end, but not because of occasions. We recovered our moral in that game, our position in the field, and the credibility against our rivals.