Malaga’s campaign was a disaster from start to finish. From the third week onwards they were stuck inside the relegation zone and they deservedly finished bottom of the table.
They started off with a 1-0 defeat at home to Eibar and they didn’t win their first point until the sixth week of the season, or secure their first win until the 10th week of the season.
By the midway stage they had collected just 11 points and it was then that they finally decided to sack Michel as coach, with it having been reported that the AWOL ownership were reluctant to dismiss him beforehand because of the financial pay-out that would entail.
Malaga still had half a season to save themselves and they were just seven points from safety, but their appointment of Jose Gonzalez, who didn’t have much of a track record at this level, was underwhelming.
He started off with a couple of draws as he seemed to enjoy something of a new manager’s bounce, but the rest of the season was poor and he actually collected even fewer points, with nine, from his 19 matches in charge than Michel had from his 19 matches.
When it comes to analysing what went wrong for Malaga, the coaches are surely the main reason, given that this squad was certainly not the worst one in the division.
It’s true that Malaga suffered from more injuries than most, but they had enough talented players to have avoided relegation. A lack of leadership and a lack of a tactical plan meant that they could not win more than five matches in the whole season, so they’ll need to make an astute coaching appointment ahead of next season.
