Real Mallorca v Málaga CF

La Liga, Jornada #3
Saturday 17th September 2011, 5pm kick off BST 

Málaga are the future superkings of Spanish football, if the prophets are to be believed. Following in the footsteps of Chelsea and Manchester City, Málaga are owned by an insanely rich entity ploughing extreme amounts of money into the club. Not a bad position to be in right now.

Some may just say it’s like cheating on Football Manager, and the comparison is hard to disagree with. How else could a club who for the majority of last season were relegation candidates sign the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Martín Demichelis, Joris Mathijsen, Jérémy Toulalan, Joaquín, Diego Buonanotte, Santi Cazorla and Valencia’s hot prospect Isco without the financial muscle newly acquired?

The new look Málaga didn’t get off to the best start in La Liga. Despite a late goal from former-Villarreal player Santi Cazorla, they were undone by a Negredo double to help Sevilla to a 2-1 win. They made up for it on Jornada #2 however, with Cazorla’s second and third of the season with a Joaquín brace gave them a healthy 4-0 win over newboys Granada.

There is no doubt that Málaga’s biggest weakness right now is the fact their first XI don’t know each other. Unfortunately for Mallorca, they are in the exact same predicament. Five of the starting XI against Real Betis were new to the club. The lineup also included Tomás Pina, who rarely played in the first team last year. Only two of the starting XI have played more than one full season for Mallorca.

In addition, there is alot of unrest at the club with Michael Laudrup’s recent criticisms of the club. It has also been reported that Laudrup has said that he isn’t picking Aki because he ‘can’t communicate with him,’ noting that Aki cannot even, ‘speak ten words of Spanish or English’.

The club were forced to release a statement downplaying Laudrup’s criticism of them, and then because of press reports, also had to post a statement saying that have had no contact with Joaquín Caparrós.

The positive news for Mallorca is the return of Michael Pereira to the squad following his injury in preseason. Until this setback, Pereira had been in good form after a summer of conditioning work instead of time off. Because he is ineligible to play for the Mallorca B team, he lacks match practice and is unlikely to start. A substitute appearance may be in order, however.

The question mark over the selection lies with Iván Ramis’ partner in central defence. Chico was roundly criticised after his performance in Betis. The question is whether Laudrup will stick with him or go with Martí Crespí. Whilst Laudrup hasn’t shown too much faith in Martí Crespí either, he did select him on several occasions over Rubén González last season.

Aouate

Zuiverloon – Ramis – Chico – Cáceres

Pina – João Victor

Alfaro – Tejera – Nsue

Hemed

It is going to be a big ask for Los Bermellones to pull off a victory in this one. A point would be a good result. They must hope their home advantage makes its mark here.

Squad

Goalkeepers: Aouate; Calatayud.
Defenders: Zuiverloon, Ramis, Chico, Cáceres, Martí Crespí, Kevin.
Midfielders: João Victor, Pina, Pereira, Nsue, Aki, Tissone, Alfaro, Tejera.
Strikers: Hemed, Víctor