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| PACO RODRIGUEZ |
Disappointing, frustrating, inexcusable. A
lacklustre performance from Celta in the Galician derby handed the Turks a
reasonably comfortable victory. Lucas Perez opened the scoring inside 23
minutes before Nolito missed his chance to equalise from the penalty spot. The
second half was more of the same, with the game wrapped up late on by Jonny’s
comical (painful) own goal.
In our two previous defeats this season, I
have felt proud. Proud of my team for fighting until the end and never giving
up despite the situation nor the result. This time however, I leave with a
sense of disappointment, a feeling of what could have been. We showed no
intensity, no spark, and no quality to change the game in our favour. This was
our worst performance of the season and regrettably it came in the derby of all
games; we made an inferior Deportivo team look decent.
It’s times like these that you realise how
small our squad of players is this season. This would be fine if we had a core
group of cantera products who are ready to fill in when needed, but right now
this does not seem to be the case. Berizzo is a coach who does not usually
rotate and I have no problem with that. Therefore, it makes sense that
Torrecilla buys players based on the manager’s philosophy and this is something
that he has done pretty successfully. The problem of a lack of depth shows
itself when we have a few injuries, as any team does. For most of the season we
have had two available central defenders, forcing us to play a clearly unfit
Fontás as there is no obvious replacement.
The whole idea of having a small squad is to give younger players a
chance, but for whatever reason this doesn’t seem to be happening.
Despite the poor performance and result, I
don’t have any more worries about the future after this game. We showed little
intensity, and for that I am not happy. However, I don’t have any doubt that
next week will be different, this is not normal for Celta. I have faith in the
players and the manager to show that we can respond in the best possible manner
to make this a memorable season for all the right reasons. We’re still in 5th
position and on paper, have a set of favourable fixtures coming up; there is no
need to worry prematurely.
I am reluctant to say that next week’s game
against Sporting is a must win because of our good start to the season on the
whole, but mentally, it may be just that. We need to learn from our mistakes in
recent weeks and get back to winning ways, thereby regaining our confidence.
This should be the perfect game in order to achieve this if we remain calm and
stay true to our philosophy.
And finally, remember, we are still
undoubtedly the best team in Galicia. We’ll show them next time.
Best
regards and come on Celta!
¡Saludos y Hala Celta!
¡Saudos e Ala Celta!
