Mallorca were well beaten 3-0 by a quality Betis side in front of 55,000 fans in La Cartuja stadium, Sevilla, on Sunday night. Once again, our defending was shambolic and it was no surprise when Man. Utd.’s 20-million-euro reject Antony hit a screamer past our rookie goalkeeper Bergstrom in the 10th minute. He scored with another similar effort 24 minutes later and a third came in the 37th minute when the Moroccan Abdi put the game out of sight. He then proceeded to do some keepie-uppie on the touchline enraging our coach Arrasate.
Thankfully after the break, Betis took their foot off the gas, with one eye on their imminent Europa Cup game against Dominik Greif’s Lyon on Thursday night. By now the game was all but over, despite Bergstrom almost gifting a fourth when he went AWOL in no man’s land. His lack of confidence on the big stage should, in my opinion, see him replaced by 41-year-old Cueller against Getafe next Sunday (9th) at 18:30.
Various correspondents haven’t pulled any punches as to how it’s all going wrong so far this season, commenting along the lines of: The system Arrasate uses is currently not working and too many players are far removed from what the team needs at the moment. Raillo, Mojica, Valjent and Sergi Darder were abysmal. What’s the point in approaching the opponent’s goal, only to see the movement collapse through bad passing, and throwing away good attacking options time and time again. Not only can’t we defend, but we barely create any chances, forcing our striker Muriqi to feed off scraps. Sadly, our bench doesn’t offer any alternatives.
If Mallorca want to compete at the highest level, they can’t be so feeble at the back in a defence that had more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. We all knew Betis at home would be a difficult task, but the first 45 minutes for us Mallorquinistas was a total embarrassment. I fear for RCD Mallorca at the moment.