Deportivo La Coruna flirted with relegation over the past few seasons, but this time they could not avoid the drop and they’ll be going down to the second division.
Pepe Mel was the man who saved them last year and he was allowed to start this season as the team’s coach, but he lasted just nine matches, just two of which were won, before he was sacked and replaced with B team coach Cristobal.
Despite winning his first LaLiga match in charge, it was clear that Deportivo’s defensive problems persisted and with 15 games to go they rolled the dice and hired the inexperienced-but-high-profile Clarence Seedorf as coach.
He altered the team’s 4-2-3-1 formation to a 4-3-1-2 and by the end of the season this started to bring some decent results, but it took nine matches for Seedorf to secure his first win and it was simply a case of his efforts being too little too late.
The coaches must shoulder some of the blame for Deportivo’s season, but so too must the board. The squad they put together was very imbalanced, as they had three excellent forwards in Lucas Perez, Florin Andone and Adrian Lopez, but they were very weak in defence and even more so at the goalkeeping position. In fact, over the course of the season they tried out five different players in goals, but not one of them was convincing.
It was a disappointing campaign and now Deportivo must look ahead to the second division. They’ll need to decide who their coach should be and they’ll have to build a more balanced squad and one that is ready for second division football. They are a club with sufficient resources, but they mismanaged those resources terribly.
