Sevilla Blog Is Back–Christmas Present and Two-Faced

By: Ryan | December 20th, 2007

Hola Sevillistas!!

Finally I’ve come back to my lovely Spain section of The Offside. Lets just say that three weeks with ultimately no sleep finishing everything was killer for me. And now I have this lovely Christmas present on my leg.

I had Brostroms Surgery on Wednesday morning, which essentially was ligament reconstruction surgery on my right ankle brought on by years of playing soccer and basketball. I’m now the proud owner of a bionic ankle, complete with screws pins and some plate thing. Merry Christmas to me!

But this means two things. One, no more school work until January 14, and the second is I can get back to blogging again!!!!!

A Team With Two Faces

It isn’t a surprise to anyone that Sevilla actually has two teams this year. The first is the superstar team that plays in the Champions League, and the second is the uninspired lackadaisical Sevilla that we have seen in La Liga.

Look at the Champions League this season. They are 5-0-1 with 14 GF and 7 GA. The only defeat was to Arsenal, 3-0 at the Emrates. We consequently beat them 2-1 in the return leg. The Sevilla in the Champions League has been a team with tons of pace and skill, and also the first team to beat Arsenal in quite some time (8 months if I remember correctly). During the Champions League we are moving the ball around well, Keita is playing solid in the middle, our defending is stellar, and we are netting goals.

Then we move on to La Liga, where we are 6-8-2, only winning one game away from the Sanchez Pizjuan. The saving grace to all of this is we are only in 9th place on 20 points. The worst is that we are only 3 points away from relegation as the last 10 teams in La Liga are seperated by 3 points (minus Levante who are on their own).

Why the sharp decline in La Liga? Jose Maria del Nido came out and said he was worried that Sevilla has two faces.

“Estoy lógicamente preocupado y deseoso de encontrar las causas por las cuales tenemos dos imágenes del Sevilla: el de Champions y el de Liga. Y en ello estamos, pero hay que tener la tranquilidad necesaria para que ese Sevilla poderoso de Champions se muestre igual en Liga”

Basically he wants Sevilla to be the same team in the Champions League, and in La Liga. And why shouldn’t he? Is that too much to ask? It’s not as if we are playing all of our players ragged in the Champions and then not playing them in La Liga. We are just not playing in La Liga, plain and simple. We are not scoring, defending well, or even playing with any passion. It will be a sad day if we get to the round of 8 in the Champions League and then finish 15th in the table this season.

The obvious point people are making concerns our coach, Manolo Jimenez. People are talking at Nervión, and the consensus is that many feel he might not be the man for the job. I personally think he should stay, and he is the coach that we need at the helm right now. The players will even tell you, it is a problem with the team, not with the coach. Maresca echoed this point in an interview with MARCA yesterday saying that it is hard for a new coach to sync up with a new team, and vice-versa. I’m sure this is the case, but when you see Sevilla in the Champions League and then Sevilla in La Liga, one has to wonder what is going on.

Jimenez himself knows there is a large difference between the two Sevillas. He wants a team that will fight for every game, regardless of it is in Europe, or in Spain. He also knows that it could be his coaching tenure at his beloved Sevilla that lays in the balance if Sevilla do not finish in the top 6 this season.

I have a suspicion at what the problem is at Sevilla. It is something called, the January Transfer window. Why may you ask is that a problem? Here is a list of players that in all possibility could go to other clubs during the window.

Dani Alves-Chelsea (Yeah I know, but it could still happen, don’t doubt that)
Poulsen-Manchester City (Erickson has mentioned Poulsen in the past and rumors were flying not too long ago)
Kerzhakov-Dinamo Kiev (he’s all but gone.)
Boulharouz-Ajax (good, he’s WAY to injury prone)
Kanouté-Tottenham (An article 2 weeks ago linked him going back there under Juande’s guidance)
Palop-Tottenham (get rid of Robinson and get yourself a good keeper for the money, again under Juande)
Maresca-Inter Milan (Maresca has said he wouldn’t mind going back home to Italy, and with only playing 4 games this season, his time may be up)
Chevantón-Anywhere other than Sevilla (fell out of grace with Juande and he’ll be gone for sure)

With this many players sitting on possible transfers to other clubs, you wouldn’t expect them to be gelling and playing at their best. We are at a stage right now in La Liga where we play to the strength of our opponents. We rise to the occasion when called upon, but fall flat on our faces when we play a ‘weaker’ side. This is not going to win us championships. These are the types of losses that cause problems behind the scenes and cause rumors to fly about coaching and player changes.

If we do have a large turnover during the transfer window, we have the youngsters to keep us going. Lolo, Crespo, Capel, Casado are just a few that have stepped up for Sevilla this season. We have one of the best youth systems in the world, and Jimenez does not hesitate in calling up players for the first team, and starting them in their first call up. This allows us to fill in when players are injured or gone, but gives us a very young and inexperienced squad, which can hurt us in the immediate future.

With a game against Racing this weekend, we will see what Sevilla team shows up. God only hopes it is the good one, and we can go into Christmas and the Derbi with Betis on a high note.

The worst is I can deal with a team that is having a terrible year (see Estudiantes in the Spanish Basketball League, ACB) but it is 100 times worse when a team plays amazing, then two days layer, plays like absolute crap against an inferior side.