Marcelo Bielsa’s men continued their disappointing start to 2012/13 La Liga season with an unimpressive 0-2 defeat at the San Sebastian against Basque rivals, Real Sociedad.
The future of Athletic Bilbao is still bleak. So far nothing is going right for them and everything is just going against them.
The best way to describe the situation in Bilbao is like a rollercoaster. This is exactly how they have been since last season.
In their first five fixtures of La liga last year, they only managed two draws and lost three games.That is just two points from a maximum of 15 points.
After their slow start in La liga last season, they somehow managed to pull together and tried to put some points on the table.
They started picking up some pace and that is when they climbed the table as they just stopped losing games as they were only beaten thrice in nearly six months in the league. That is precisely 20 league games.
It then seemed that they were on the right track and that the days of inconsistency were behind them since they were finally doing well in the league and continuing their adventure in the Europa League by even dismantling Manchester
United in their last-16 tie in Bilbao.
As the end of the season was approaching, it was back to square one for Bilbao. Call it a fixture fatigue, or the fact that they were not used to this new kind of pressure, Bilbao just put on the breaks and started losing again.
Basically, their biggest problem was just lack of consistency. Of their last eight games in the league they won three, lost three, and drew two as they finished the season with a disappointing tenth position in the league.
Their Cup adventures also came to a heartbreaking end when, in the space of two weeks, they lost two final games. The first was against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 in the Copa Del Rey and again they lost to Atletico Madrid in the Europa League Final.
That was the rollercoaster season for Bilbao last year and it seemed that they were going to learn from their mistakes since they gained a lot experience from their adventures in Europe.
Bilbao have started the new season with the same fashion and attitude. They are, at the moment, sitting in the relegation zone after just collecting five points from a possible 18.
So far they have won one game lost three and drew one. It is not the start that they would have desired and their eccentric coach, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marcelo-c23554 Bielsa, is already voicing his frustration at the performance of his team.
“We are just impotent in the face of our opponents”.
Basically, there is a tremendous tension and strive on and off the field. Bielsa’s relationship with the Club president is not smooth. Even the relationship between him and some of his players is not healthy.
On Monday morning, on the training ground, Bielsa had a spat with his star player, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Llorente-c13671, that immediately led to the rumors that Llorente is on his way out of the club when the transfer window opens again in January.
The truth is that there is too much tension in the club and at the moment problems and issues are mounting which is having a huge affect on the performance of the team on the field.
It now seems that things will worsen off before they come back to normal.
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