Friday, May 18th, 2012
May we welcome to the site with his first post for us, Des Norris. During the course of the season Des will be both match reporting and feature writing. On his first assignment for us, Des went to the Vicente Calderón. Also reporting we had our regular man Phil Green watching Málaga and Espanyol.
Atlético Madrid vs Real Zaragoza
All eyes were on Gregorio Manzano tonight as Atlético Madrid took on Real Zaragoza in the Vicente Calderón. The manager had come under a lot of scrutiny of late from a sizeable portion of the Rojiblanco faithful. Even within the squad, discontent towards him has been somewhat palpable – José Antonio Reyes didn’t exactly look impressed with the decision to take him off against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday night, for example.
The ex-Sevilla and Mallorca coach decided to drop the midfielder tonight as a result of his outburst. But Reyes-gate aside, recent performances have been lacking in consistency, goals and most importantly, points. Three from the last 15 available is all the Madrid contingent could claim before this weekend, in what had up until now been a floundering start to the campaign.
However, tonight that was to change, as Atleti were able to dispatch of their opponents comfortably, with a 3-1 win. Despite his team taking the spoils in quite convincing fashion, Manzano didn’t escape the now all-too-familiar expletive filled chants for him to leave from the local ultras, El Frente.
Part of what has been “Los Colchoneros” problem stems from the sheer number of unknown quantities within the squad. The summer saw a lot of comings and goings within the south Madrid club, especially towards the tail end of the transfer window so some of the “settling-in” time spilled over into the beginning of the season, which is never ideal. All the same, Manzano’s rotation policy has hardly endeared him to the supporters, especially as former stalwarts, like Álvaro Domínguez, Luis Perea and the aforementioned Reyes, have featured so little, effectively acting as bit part players.
Tonight, as well as the notable absence of Reyes, the manager decided to tinker a bit more with his starting 11: the three changes to the line up from Thursday night’s defeat in San Mamés were Adrián, Mario Suarez and Domínguez. He also chose to go with a 4-4-2 formation with two strikers (Falcao and Adrían), probably in an attempt to ensure goals and appease the fans.
And it worked. Atleti were on firing form tonight and “El Profesor” can take a lot of positives from the game. Strong performances in the middle of the park from Diego, Mario Suárez and Arda Turan, in particular, helped create plenty of openings. Also, Adrían, who has received his own fair share of stick since arriving, silenced his critics by finding the back of the net twice.
His first came in the 18th minute, when he accurately directed his header beyond the reach of Roberto after a good ball over the top from Arda, on the right. Dominguez made it two on the 30 minute mark after a nicely worked move from a corner saw Diego Godín head the ball across the face of goal for his centre half partner to meet it and finish it off from two yards out.
Atleti were cruising for the first half and Thibaut Courtois was only tested once between the sticks, when Leonardo Ponzio shot from distance requiring the Chelsea loanee to make an easy save.
The second 45 played out similarly to the first, with Atlético dominating the possession and creating the better chances. Their third goal came from a neat one-two on the left between Filipe Luis and Diego, which culminated in Adrián bagging his second of the evening.
Zaragoza got one back late on though, when some woeful defending allowed Helder Postiga to head home completely unmarked from a corner. But it was only to be a consolation for them, one that will do nothing to paint over the cracks of what looks like a club on the ropes.
In short Zaragoza look like a side in serious trouble. They were awful tonight from start to finish and their coach, Javier Aguirre, will no doubt be very concerned about what line of action to take from here.
Unlike Manzano, the “Avispa” manager has consistently stuck to the same small group of players from the outset this season, mainly due to the limitations bankruptcy imposes. The former Atleti coach’s squad is wafer thin as he pointed out after the match, “The squad is short. We have four players from the B team. We try to rotate but we can’t. It’s not a physical problem but a small squad”.
They have a tough few weeks ahead of them as well, with an on-form Sporting next, followed by Barcelona and then Sevilla. The likelihood is that they’ll find themselves near the foot of the table very soon if things don’t start to improve on the pitch.
Atlético shouldn’t get too cocky despite tonight’s showing either. They will be tested with more difficult opposition and they are still showing an over reliance on certain players to get them goals – so far only three players have scored for them in the league: Falcao, Adrián and Dominguez. But for tonight at least, Manzano can breathe a sigh of relief.
FT:Atlético Madrid 3 (Adrián 19, 75, Domínguez 31) Real Zaragoza 1 (Postiga 79)
Des Norris can be followed via Twitter here, and his own personal blog can be found here.
Málaga 2 Espanyol 1
Big spending Málaga welcomed Espanyol to La Rosaleda in a match that some would have hoped re-ignited their season.
Having suffered a loss to Rayo Vallecano, their third straight defeat, in midweek, Málaga were looking to bounce back against the team that had beaten Real Betis somewhat precariously on Thursday evening.
It took only five minutes for Málaga to get themsevles in front. The goal was created on the left-wing where Nacho Monreal slid the ball across to Salomón Rondón behind the Espanyol central defence, and the Venezuelan tapped the ball past the helpless Cristian Álvarez.
Málaga always seemed comfortable with Espanyol looking to break on the counterattack. With the pressure mounting on the Mauricio Pochettino’s side, it seemed only a matter of time before the home team would double their advantage.
However against the run of play it was Espanyol who scored the second goal of the game to go in level at half-time. Vladimir Weiss’ free-kick was swung into the Málaga box and Álvaro Vázquez – who had missed a host of chances against Betis – this time did made a good connection to flick the ball in at the back post.
The second half began with much the same pattern. Malaga were threatening to retake the lead and Santi Cazorla saw an effort come back off the post.
In an attempt to swing the match in Málaga’s favour, Manuel Pellegrini brought off Isco and Duda, and Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Apoño were brought on. However the moment that did decide the game was highly controversial. Ndri Romaric was judged to have handled the ball in the box and Apono stepped up to cooly slot home.
It finished 2-1 and the much needed victory moves Málaga back up to sixth.
FT: Málaga 2 (Rondón 4, Apoño (pen) 73) Espanyol 1 (Alvaro 45)
Phil Green can be followed on Twitter here.
Tags: Atletico Madrid, Espanyol, Malaga, Real Zaragoza
