Memo Ochoa suffered his worst loss as a professional over the weekend as Salernitana fell 8-2 to Atalanta. Ochoa had been highly praised by the Italian media and the fans for his performances with his new club. To be completely fair to Memo there’s really not much else that he could’ve done to prevent this debacle. It wasn’t his best outing in the sense that he was unable to make nearly impossible saves like he sometimes does. Ultimately none of the goals are completely his fault.
There’s something to be said though about a goalkeeper that gives up 8 goals. Even if Ochoa or whoever it is didn’t make terrible mistakes that led to these goals there’s still certainly a mental hurdle that he’s going to need to get over before the next game. Can this team stay in Serie A?
The Task Of Avoiding Relegation Didn’t Seem That Hard
We have to confess that when we first learned the news that Ochoa was headed to Salernitana we had to take a deep dive into recent Serie A history. Salernitana is one of those Italian clubs that’s been around forever, but seemingly never had real success or was even relevant in Serie A. One of the reasons why clubs like Salernitana are now peeking their head into Serie A may be that some of the more traditional clubs that we got used to seeing in the division like Parma or Palermo have fallen on hard times financially.
In any case, they were in the middle of the table, and seemed a lock to remain in Serie A. They’ve since gone on to lose 4 out of their last 5 with a draw mixed in there. The good thing for them is that the last 3 teams in the division have exactly half as many points as they do. They are still 3 games above relegation with 18 points to Sampdoria’s 9! This means that they still have a good chance to stay in Serie A despite the fact that they were completely embarrassed.
Ochoa Would Be Out Of Work If The Team Is Relegated
This is something that we talked about when the signing took place. If the team is relegated then Ochoa would be out on the street looking for work. However, if they are able to stay in Serie A the team is obligated to sign Ochoa to a one-year deal. With how things have gone so far though it may even be Ochoa who’ll want to re-think the automatic renewal of his contract.
So far, as we mentioned, the media and the fans seem to be happy with his performances. Even in this last loss the general consensus was that he was perhaps the least at fault. He’s getting a chance to showcase his abilities, and he could still hope to land a deal with another club for next season. Yes, he would be 38 years old, but Serie A teams have been known to not be so picky when it comes to age. Isn’t that right Zlatan?
Our Prediction
We expect this team to be able to stay afloat. Sampdoria or Hellas Verona would have to double their current point tallies to even reach Salernitana’s current total. Salernitana would have to not score a point from now until the end of the season for those 2 teams to catch up. A 3 game lead at the bottom of the table at any point in the season seems a bit too much to handle. You have to remember it’s incredibly hard for these teams to score points that’s why they are where they are. Ochoa will have to decide though if he wants to stay to suffer another season at Salernitana.
