Had I known that CD Tenerife were going to play this badly I would have brought some sand bags back from Oxford to shore up our leaky defence. Maybe I could have also invited the stewardess from my return flight along to stand outside the dressing room and tell the players “your nearest exits are here and here”. The 0-4 home defeat to Alcorcon was a rude awakening for me as I caught up with the weeks footie events on the rock.
To finance wages for new players in the January transfer window, Sergio Aragoneses, Raul Llorente, and Oscar Rico had been released, they wouldn’t have played anyway but the suspended Aitor Sanz, Bruno, and Ricardo were a bigger miss. If you think I’m softening you up to explain away the poor showing, absolutely not, the whole team was awful. Bruno holds the defence together and it was clear from the start that his stand in Rigo didn’t have his authority and influence. Pacheco had pace and pulled him and Raul Camara all over the place, the Alcorcon striker hooked an early shot over but was involved in the build up after 14 minutes as unmarked Javito tucked in the opener.
The marking was ridiculous as up to three players were drawn to a visiting attacker all the time, Prendes glanced a shot off his boot but Roberto had it covered before the second goal duly arrived from an easy tuck back in the box to Javito in loads of space. At the other end Tenerife couldn’t produce any threat, the midfield offered worse service than the Oasis and Aridane was again playing a little deeper and was having a nice nap. Ayoze didn’t look sharp, maybe he is getting found out a bit now and Suso gets closed out of the game by good defenders who know his style. Two down at half time was just about redeemable partly thanks to Roberto’s save to deny Javito his hat trick before the break.
The injured Rigo was replaced by Chechu before the restart with Inigo Ros filling his role and off we went again but looking even more sluggish. The Alcorcon goalie gave us the come on with a few dodgy pick ups but no one was biting. Ayoze had a half chance with a header but his marker got up for it as well and deflected it away, Chechu launched a tempting cross, still no takers. A gamble was needed and coach Cervera gave a debut to 18 year old forward Nano in place of Raul Camara, he almost got a first touch to score as the ball was scrambled wide by the goalie. Then Roberto was found wanting, he should have intercepted a corner from Pacheco but missed horribly leaving Verdes a simple header into the net.
Alberto got some more game time taking over from the invisible Rivero, the local player is edging towards the exit but for my money he deserves a decent run in the team. It didn’t make any difference on the night, Juli finished the humiliation to make it 0-4 and the 7,937 crowd could hardly believe what a shambles they were watching. We need new strikers before the window slams shut and a ball winning play maker in midfield – well we can but hope.