Let’s not make the same mistake, Athletic

It is not understood how this team systematically repeats the same mistakes when they are one step away from getting in, stalking or approaching a target like Europe. At this point it is already fictional football, but if we had won we would have Athletic two points away from the Champions League (with one more game) and they would have stayed one point behind Real Sociedad, which marks the continental border.

This data is more painful, if possible because the neighbors are the next rival and they could have been ahead of them next Sunday in the table sheltered from San Mamés, with the emotional boost that it would have meant in Bilbao and the general collapse in Donostia. It was, what they call now, a ‘win-win’.

Being defeated in Mallorca may not have entered the plans or the accounts of many, despite the absences, but we must not be tremendous. It is only the second KO of the season away from home and that at this point in the championship is a good sign. This is not an obstacle to point out that Marcelino’s message has not finished penetrating.

It may be an accident, but the face of the Careñes coach in Palma had a point of concern, or at least that’s what I intuited from the back of the press room. He knows that the team fell apart last season when he focused on the Cups and he wants to avoid, at all costs, putting all his eggs in the basket of the federation tournament so as not to relive that bitter end to the championship.

ambitious speech

Hence, the Asturian coach repeats his ambitious and winning speech every time he appears in front of a microphone regardless of the competition, the rival and the changes. A message for players, press and fans. The easiest thing is to control what he has closest, and if he can’t, we’ll go back to our old ways.

That is Marcelino’s biggest fear. Repeat the same mistakes. If to win a Cup we have to stop mentioning the Barge, we will do it. If in order to aspire to Europe we have to forget about qualifying and ignore the fact that by winning certain games they can take a giant step towards that goal, we will do that too; but I think that is not the problem.

You have to live more naturally all this. The rojiblanco coach may have sinned a bit of populism when he denied that the saturation of matches was the team’s problem and recalled that there are many families with real needs to reach the end of the month, but that does not mean that he is right and each one be clear where you are.

On Sunday we will see if Mallorca was an accident, like Rayo Vallecano or Cádiz, or if there is something else behind that defeat. This team, in general, is not criticized for losing, but for the way they do it. I don’t remember any stick after falling at the Bernabéu.

When you put 100% intensity and work hard to win, the result, for most fans, takes a backseat. It was not the case. Hopefully Marcelino’s fears don’t turn into a nightmare.