Espanyol v Sevilla Preview, Sunday 1pm EST; “No Pressure”

By: Anthony | February 13th, 2009

At the beginning of the season he was our go-to guy, the man who pulled goals out of no where and won matches for us single handedly, a true leader on the pitch by action and performance. What the hell happened Enzo? Maresca after being injured for a few games back in November has failed to come back in the lineup and make a significant impact on the team both on and off the pitch. From publicly critiquing Jiménez to blatantly elbowing Lafita in our match against Depor at the beginning of January he has been a distraction to the team.

In the reverse fixture earlier this year Maresca was the man of the match, scoring the winning goal and playing solid in the midfield throughout. Espanyol also sat in first place at this point, and we all know how long that lasted. We did however hand them their first defeat and at this point we were looking unstoppable, we also know how long that lasted…

On Sunday we’ll be looking for a result going into Barcelona but we all know how hard it is expecting to come out of Montjuïc with three points. The key to this match will once again be the central midfield as both Romaric and Maresca have been weak going forward in the past few games. Duscher has been solid defensively but offensively we’re lacking quality right now.

Hopefully we took a few pointers from La Furia Roja as they disassembled England midweek in El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán with the greatest of ease.

Yesterday President José Maria del Nido gave Jiménez the vote of confidence and said that he is under contract until May so there will be no changes before then and contracts will be arranged when the summer comes. He also said he’s disappointed by the recent results but injuries combined with an average of two games a week haven’t done much to help our cause. Adriano has also come out today in defense of Manolo and said that he’s still the man to take us to the top but not to qualify for the Champions League would be a disaster.

As a few people have pointed out in previous posts, sacking the manager probably isn’t the answer to our problems, it would take all we have accomplished away and we would have to start all over again. When Manolo took over from Juande the same thing happened at first until the team adapted to new tactics implemented. I think it’s fair to wait until the end of the season to address Manolo’s position as the teams manager. The Copa del Rey is extremely important considering its out only piece of silverware we’re eligible for but Champions League qualification is vital, if Jiménez cannot deliver I don’t doubt that he won’t be in Nervión next year.

Team News
More bas news on the injury front as Lautaro Acosta is the latest to pick up a knock and as a result he will be out for the next ten days.

Also Escudé will be out 4 months with a injury he picked up last week aganst Betis in the derby.

Good news though as Luis Fabiano and Chevantón are both back to full training and will most likely feature in the squad this Sunday when we travel to Barcelona.

Abdolay Konko and Arouna Koné are both still recovering from their long term injuries but are training on and off the pitch as they work towards full fitness. We should see both of them back in then next month.

Expect to see a few Sevilla Atlético in the squad for Sunday because of the numerous injuries we have on our team. Maybe they’ll be able to do better than the first team players…