BETDAQ’s Greg Walker is back with a preview of Saturday’s La Liga match between Deportivo La Coruna v Malaga CF.
Greg finished 2012 17.56 points in front with 12 WINNING BETS FROM 19 !!
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He now previews tonight’s match between Deportivo La Coruna v Malaga CF….
LA LIGA Match Preview:
Deportivo La Coruna v Malaga CF
Saturday 19.00 Live on Sky Sports.
Winter Wonderland….
Spain’s La Liga returns for week Eighteen of it’s 2012/13 season after it’s short but sensible two week Christmas break. The Leagues of Spain, Italy, France and Germany(four weeks!) traditionally take this time off to give it’s players and staff a mid-season rest and this has been a bone of contention for many an England International manager past and present. Managers of English Champion’s League clubs also argue, rightly so, that this is an advantage to their European CL rivals but with the FA being a extremely traditional body I wouldn’t expect to see Sir Alex or Arsene Wenger spending Christmas in Barbados anytime soon.
Castaways….
High Flying Malaga make the long journey to Northwest Spain to visit the Galician city of A Coruna where their hosts will be bottom club Deportivo. The Galician’s struggles have been well documented of late and as the weeks go by they are getting cut further adrift at the bottom with just twelve points secured to date.
Deportivo recovered from their relegation of two seasons ago by cruising to victory in last season’s Segunda division under the guidance of Jose Luis Oltra. Senor Oltra’s extremely offensive style of play was much admired in their Segunda Division victory scoring seventy six goals that season however this style has not held up in the much tougher Primera Liga where his team has been ruthlessly punished and have already conceded an incredible thirty nine goals.
Hero to Zero….Next!…..
Deportivo’s hero coach from last Season has become their villain this Year and Oltra was given the chop by the board during the recent Winter break(happy xmas!). The new man in charge is one Domingos Paciencia and this forty four old ex- International striker will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of other successful Portuguese managers such as Jose Mourhino and Andres Villas Boas. The new coach has had a short managerial career and it seems is still learning the ropes. He guided FC Braga to the 2011 European Cup Final only to be turned over one nil by a Falcao inspired Porto but then lasted less than one season at Sporting Lisbon where he was fired in February 2012. The Portuguese man has a big job on his hands at Depor’ and whilst his priority is to save the ‘blues & whites’ from relegation, I have no doubt that he has been set longer term targets and an expected relegation won’t lead to his sacking.
Opposites attract….
Coach Paciencia’ first game in charge is at home to Malaga this weekend and here he must pit his tactical wit against one of the world’s most experienced and intelligent football managers. Fifty nine year old Manuel Pellegrini has done wonders for a cash strapped Malaga side who many, including myself, felt would finish in the bottom half of La Liga and make an early exit from the Champion’s League, how wrong we were to underestimate the canny Chilean gaffer. Malaga cruised through their group stage of the Champion’s League, sit fourth in La Liga and are coming into this game off the back of a deserved victory over the mighty Real Madrid.
Difficult Debut….
Deportivo’s new coach is in for a difficult debut and I feel even the Riazor faithful fans will forgive him should he be unable to get his new team to secure a point against the very organised and dangerous Malaga. He will also need to win over players who were loyal to Luis Oltra and sure up the leakiest defence in La Liga and he is only a week in the job! On the upside for Paciencia is that Depor’ have proven to be a ‘bogey’ team for their visitors in that Depor’ have beaten Malaga on eight of their last nine visits and over the last nineteen Liga matches between these teams the Malaga ‘anchovies’ have won only once.
The visitors went through a dodgy past last November & early December when utilising a small squad in three competitions however after La Liga’s Christmas break they will arrive in Galicia well rested and confident that they can get at Depor’s dodgy defence and under Pellegrini that they can cast their ‘bogey’ team deeper into the relegation zone.
Betting on BETDAQ – Greg’s Picks:
BACK 2 Points MALAGA to WIN @ 2.5
PROFIT TO DATE: 17.56 points
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