Weekend off for injury-hit R.C.D. Mallorca

The Palma side have eight points from a possible 27, one win, three defeats and five draws, in 15th place. We’re now becoming the draw (X) kings on the Spanish football coupon (Quiniela) as the first quarter of the season fast approaches. At this point of the campaign last year (when we finished in a highly creditable ninth place, just missing out on a place in the European Conference League) we had nine points. That’s the optimistic view whereas the pessimistic view is saying if this run of draws continues it will be very difficult to get away from the nether regions of La Liga.

There’ve been green shoots coming through in our last three games (all draws) but we need to start winning (especially at home) as our fans are becoming restless.

Against Valencia last Saturday we lost a golden opportunity to win our first home game. Whether Mallorca were put off by Valencia wearing beige shorts (quite the most garish football pantalones cortos I’ve ever seen being worn by a football team in Spain), or for whatever other reason, we deserved more in the second half. Towards the end of the game too many Mallorca players looked knackered. Once again when we score an early goal, instead of going all out for the second against a weakened young Valencia side, we let ourselves be dominated and we were lucky not to lose when a clear penalty for Valencia was missed by the referee and the VAR numpties.

In 20 minutes of the second half we created more danger than in the entire first period. One pundit on social media said the reason a lot of Mallorca players looked exhausted before the end was they spent so long running after the ball !

There was more bad news on the injury front when creator-in-chief Sergi Darder went off near the end with what was later diagnosed as a hamstring tear, which means he’ll be out for at least a month. Sergi joins our other long-term absentees Pablo Maffeo and Antonio Raillo. These three are vital cogs in the RCD Mallorca wheel and we’ll struggle without them. Darder, after a quiet start to the season, has been showing touches of class of late.

There’s been a worrying trend of injuries in Spanish football over the last few games. Up to 12 teams were affected by players who were unable to finish matches, a lot of them similar to Darder and Maffeo, hamstring problems. The football calendar these days is brutal and even Mallorca recently had three games in eight days. The injuries seem to be multiplying and here in Spain big clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and At. Madrid have a full “infirmary” after every game.

Canadian striker, 28-year-old Cyle Larin was signed for 7.2 million euros from Valladolid in the Summer. His eight goals at the Nuevo Jose Zorilla helped to keep them in La Segunda last season. Now he couldn’t hit a cow’s ar** with a banjo ! He’s joined our other recently departed striking flops, Matthew Hoppe and Tino Kadawere in the “must do better” category. All three have one goal for Mallorca between them !

Larin has participated in all the league matches except one, but he usually has about half an hour in the second half. After two howling misses against Barcelona and Valencia, getting Larin back to form is essential. The coaching staff continue to believe in him although in the eyes of us fans our patience is wearing thin. He looks lethargic and lacking conviction and let’s just hope he can regain the form he showed a few years ago in Turkish football with Besiktas where over two seasons he scored 30 goals. His call up this weekend for Canada could see him finally get on the score sheet.

Another attacking team member showing substandard form is Amath Ndiaye. The Senegal player with his different coloured boots (pink and sky blue !) normally comes off the bench near the end and contributes zilch.

It seems the club are keen to resurrect the ladies team after the success of the national side in winning the recent World Cup. When Utz Claassen was owner between 2014/16, we did have a ladies side who, after the first team were relegated, had to be disbanded. The club have to decide which option to use to create a team capable of competing with the best in the country.