La Liga has a thrilling title race this season, and usually there is an entertaining European race to engage the neutral, but the one area that is almost guaranteed entertainment every year is at the bottom. The relegation race is rarely cut and dried before the final matchday or two, and with nine games to go, four of the bottom five are separated by just three points in the La Liga standings.
The one side that are adrift, which is the right adjective for the aimless team at the bottom, are Real Valladolid. Having managed to come straight back up after relegation under manager Paulo Pezzolano – who took them down last season – their only real investment last summer was Raul Moro. To their credit, he has been a major shining light for La Pucela, but with owner Ronaldo Nazario checked out, Pezzolano at war with his own fans and doubts about the quality of the side returning to La Liga, it was not hard to predict their struggles. Albeit, Pucelanos would have hoped in less dramatic fashion.
Several the sides at the bottom can be accused of similar though. If not complacency, then a lack of urgency to address issues that were blatant last season. Las Palmas are 19th, and while Diego Martinez has gotten a reaction out of them since Luis Carrion’s sacking, the same problem that dogged them last season has been their downfall again.
While Oli McBurnie was brought in, he has failed to hit the back of the net, and while that is a surprising statistic, that he didn’t resolve their issues cannot be, having only made double figures in one of his last five seasons. If anything, that has slightly been offset by the surprising form of Fabio Silva, who has already hit a career best eight goals.
Above them are Leganes, who to their credit, did try to address the same matter with the loan addition of Sebastien Haller. With one of the lowest budgets in the division, the surprise Segunda champions last year were predicted to struggle, and have performed about to expectation under Borja Jimenez – particularly with the Dutch forward ending his loan spell early.
Then there is Alaves. Level on points with Leganes, out of the drop zone on goal difference, this past week the fans made it very clear what the issue was during their 2-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano at home – ‘Luis Garcia’. The name of the manager who they replaced with Chacho Coudet in December.
While Garcia was on a bad run at the time, it was abundantly clear in the previous year that their comfortable 11th-place finish was built on a body of strong work from the coaching staff. His sacking looked premature at the time, and continues to look more elongated four months on. Alaves were favoured by many to stay up under Luis Garcia Plaza, but without him, that equation has altered drastically.
Naturally, it is one thing to see an issue and another to resolve it, but certainly in those three instances, the lack of either effort or knowledge of how to do so doesn’t paint a pretty relegation battle scene for those making the decisions. At least one of them is likely to be spared though, and they have nine games to find out a way to make that happen.
