Mallorca Collapse After Promising Start Under Demichelis
After acquiring four points in his first two games, new head coach of Real Mallorca, Martin Demichelis, suffered a serious setback with a morale-sapping defeat at fellow relegation contenders Elche on Saturday, March 21st.
Home side Elche were third bottom of La Liga before the kick-off at the Estadio Martinez Valero in the province of Alicante. A victory for the islanders would have put clear distance between them and the three relegation places that were occupied pre-match by Oviedo, Levante, and their hosts.
Demichelis sprung a number of surprises, leaving right-back Maffeo on the bench and replacing him with midfielder Antonio Sanchez. That was a tactic used without success by previous coach Arrasate. Toni Lato replaced the injured Johan Mojica at left-back. Zito Luvumbo was rewarded with a starting berth after a good performance as a substitute in the home win against Espanyol.
Mallorca started brightly and, after half-time, Pablo Torre opened the scoring in the 58th minute with a well-worked goal. He was previously frozen out, but his creativity had been a key factor in the revival under Demichelis.
Defensive Errors and Late Drama Deepen Relegation Fears
Everything looked rosy for a total of four minutes until Rafa Mir capitalised on a defensive error to put the home side level. Mallorca’s season-long defensive issues came to the fore and they were all at sea on 71 minutes as Tete Morente put Elche in front.
Disaster could have been averted in the 90th minute when a penalty was awarded to the islanders after VAR detected a handball by former Mallorca player Pedro Bigas. Muriqi took the spot kick, looking to add to the eighteen goals he has scored this season. Astonishingly, he blazed his effort over the bar and the home fans celebrated as if they had won the cup as they leapfrogged Mallorca in the table.
After surrendering a winning position, at least a point would have been crucial. There was an amazing outburst by Demichelis in the press conference after first saying that the team need to learn how to defend a lead. He then rounded on a radio journalist who asked if the team was hurting emotionally.
“The team is quiet after a defeat, there is no music, there are no celebrations… it is like that. As there are no secrets and I am also up front, I will tell you, as I know you are Mallorcan, take care of your own work and not mine. Today, before I named the line-up, a player was influenced by you, telling him that he was not going to play,” said Demichelis, visibly upset.
He added that not even his coaching staff were aware of the starting eleven until shortly before kick-off.
The following day, the local press supported their colleague and relations with the head coach have taken a turn for the worse.
To rub salt in the wound, the day after the defeat Alaves started the day below Mallorca in the relegation zone. They went three-nil down before half-time at Celta Vigo but achieved the impossible by coming back to win 4–3.
Going into the international break, the islanders are now in the dreaded drop zone. To make matters worse, the next game is at home to Real Madrid on Saturday, April 4th at 16:15. It’s a daunting prospect and the team have to regroup, play as a unit, and be confident of a result.
The bright spot on the horizon is that the following two games are both at home to Rayo Vallecano and Valencia, both of whom are within touching distance of Mallorca. The season and next season’s prospects could be decided in those games.
Charles Nutter
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