Real Mallorca saw their winless run in La Liga this season stretch to five games, despite waking up and coming alive towards the end of a 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid in front of a crowd of 21,027 on Sunday evening. This was another hugely disappointing performance from the Palma side who, on this showing, didn’t score high for artistic merit.
Coach Arrasate (whose name was mentioned a lot by disgruntled fans as they exited the Son Moix) picked a five-man defence and his line-up looked for all intents and purposes all about playing for a point. Atletico were by far the better team in the opening period and came mighty close to scoring early doors when a shot cannoned off the base of the post. In the 16th minute, Atletico were awarded a dubious spot kick. Our goalkeeper Leo Roman made a brilliant full-length save from the resultant Julian Alvarez penalty and Roman more than made up for his howler last Monday night against Espanyol. Our Ibizan-born goalkeeper went on to make a string of great saves and he made all the difference between Mallorca losing and getting a point when all seemed lost.
Deep into the second half, the visitors’ big Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth came on with Antoine Greizmann in an effort to swing the game the visitors’ way. Sorloth’s time on the pitch spanned just 10 minutes when he was sent off after a VAR review for a nasty challenge on Raillo (he kneed him in the nuts!). The sending-off woke up the home crowd, who were then beginning to think we may have the chance to snatch something from the remaining minutes.
Late Mallorca attacks failed to bother Atleti’s keeper Oblak, playing in his 501st game. Then with normal time running out, Atletico broke away. Llorente’s shot was saved by Roman but ex-Chelsea player Conor Gallagher was on hand to net the spillage.
As the game was winding down, and at long last, Arrasate brought on 20-year-old winger Jan Virgili. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, this young man is box office and has fans out of their seats in expectation. He put over an inch-perfect cross after nutmegging an Atletico defender and an unmarked Muriqi powered home the equaliser, giving Mallorca a wonderful point. The Palma side have still recorded the lowest points total at this stage of a league season since 2000/01, and their run of games without a win stretching back to last season now stands at eight.
SUMMING UP: Mallorca looked a downtrodden bunch for most of this game and appeared lethargic. I lost count of the number of times the defence passed the ball sideways then back to the goalkeeper. When we won our first corner on the stroke of half time and even when we were taking throw-ins, players strolled over to take them and we looked bereft of ideas.
Our display on Sunday night had “Second Division” written all over it. After the game, Arrasate was slated in the local press and social media. Questions were asked like “Why does he repeat the five-man defence (especially at home) when since he’s been here it just doesn’t work.” Muriqi, bless him, ploughed a lone furrow up front until Virgili came on, who provided the first decent cross of the night into the box allowing the unmarked big Kosovan to do what he does best, head the ball into the net.
Young Jan Virgili, who’s now on his way to Chile to play for the Spanish Under 20s squad, for whatever reason didn’t come on soon enough. Once again we looked incapable, like last weekend against Espanyol, of being able to beat 10 men. We failed on several occasions to string two passes together. Samu Costa and Johan Mojica look shadows of the players they were last season. Many critics are questioning Arrasate regarding tactics and team selection. If we don’t pick up a win away at Real Sociedad on Wednesday night at 21:30, the mire becomes even deeper.