Athletic 3-0 Sevilla; “Where to go from Here?”

By: Anthony | March 4th, 2009

No, literally, where do we go? This embarrassing 3-0 defeat to the hands of Athletic surely kills any morale we had from our recently strong league form. Was it embarrassing at all? I don’t even know what to think right now. Am I absolutely disgusted with my own team or more so impressed with Bilbao’s stunning all round performance?

I think it comes down to one simple fact – They wanted it way more than we did. Plain and simple really. Athletic showed what it’s really like to play with perseverance, intensity, passion and heart, we however, did anything but.

We knew going into the match that the pressure was on us because of Bilbao’s away goal and despite having the lead, it was going to be anything but a walk in the park. We found this out the hard way.

I’m not going to reminisce much on the game but three goals in the first half by Javi Martinez, Fernando Llorente and Gaizka Toquero were enough to sink us with ease and for the Basque side to reach the final.

Just a few notes on the game from my perspective though, watching this game showed me what I think I already knew but just didn’t want to admit.

1) We’re seriously lacking a leader on the pitch and it showed at more times than not, we’re absolutely lost.

2) Jiménez’ tactics once again may have possibly cost us the game. It wasn’t a massive mistake like he’s made in the past but a small stupid one. Why did Fazio start ahead of Duscher who is much more experienced and a stronger defensive player? Fazio is still young and inexperienced, I don’t understand what warranted his start, especially in a massive game like this one.

3) Our game at Sevilla lacks a lot. Without Navas and Capel or Adriano putting in crosses we are a boring side to watch. In the first half we did absolutely nothing, Adriano and Navas were contained perfectly and as a result Kanouté got no service.

4) Renato is a poor excuse for a second striker, we already know this, why Jiménez played him off Kanouté I will never understand. He hasn’t done anything at all this year playing in that role so why try him there now in such a crucial moment.

Finally, I am just really frustrated with this whole thing, a Copa to show at the end of the season would have been the perfect remedy for an under-achieved season but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.

I guess we just have to carry on with our recently solid league performances and when we travel to Almería this weekend hopefully things won’t change. Fabiano, Koné and Escudé are back and will most likely play in that game. Hopefully now with our players returning from injury we will find more consistency and have a chance of pushing up the table.

As for now I guess us Sevillistas have to look at the positives and see that we’ve got as good a chance as anyone to qualify for the Champions Leauge next year and with a bit of consistency may be the shock team of La Liga come the end of the year.