Deportivo la Coruña v Sevilla a.k.a. ROUND 2 – Saturday, 2pm GolTV

By: Anthony | January 9th, 2009

On Wednesday we played Depor in the Copa del Rey and beat them 2-1 at home in what for the most part was a comfortable victory. Tomorrow however it is going to be a whole different ball game. As well as we played last game, it has to be said that much of the Depor team fielded was a somewhat secondary side.

Tomorrow’s match is going to be a tricky one, the Riazor is never an easy stadium to visit and plus, most of our players played 3 days ago unlike most of Depor’s who were rested.

This is the match where we show the strength of Sevilla and who we are. There’s been a lot of controversy lately in Nervión and a huge lack of confidence in Jiménez, however, a win against Depor will see all that go away. At least temporarily. Points have been hard to come by in 2009 with us only earning 2 out of a possible 6, and against the two weakest teams in the league. Depor is definitely not a weak side, they’ve showed that all year and despite a shaky start to the season, they sit in a well deserved 6th place.

Of course the good news is that Chevantón and Acosta have both returned to full training and were said to be match fit to play tomorrow. Word is, is that Jiménez will rest them both until they get back to full fitness but you might see them for a few minutes if Manolo decides to include them in the squad.

To win this game tomorrow it is simple, we must play like the Sevilla of two years ago, even last year, the real Sevilla. None of this counter attacking nonsense, go straight for the throat. We used to counter attack because we had Dani Alves to help do so, but right now the only players fast enough are Capel and Navas, we aren’t that type of team anymore. We have an extremely offensive team with Kanouté and Fabiano always a threat and of course Navas and Capel making fools of everyone down the flanks, Romaric is always a threat on the ground and in the air, and Duscher doesn’t mind the occasional run up. We have to realize our strengths and weaknesses and when we do this we’ll see the obvious. Our defense is one of the best in the league, stats show this, but we are having trouble scoring, that’s why I think we should play Romaric alongside Renato or Maresca to see more of an attacking midfield instead of balanced one. We have to go all out, there’s no if’s and’s or but’s about it, we can’t afford to drop anymore points.

This is crunch time, if we want to secure this Champions League spot that we currently sit in and even push for a higher more respectable position in the table then we must win these games, it’s as simple as that.