Chivas lost their final game of their Spanish adventure and will now head back to Mexico and get back on the field quickly. They will be one of the teams participating in a preseason tournament organized by TV broadcaster Sky. Overall the takeaways from Chivas’ European adventure look to be positive. Although they didn’t play a great game at Getafe they got the win, and then they lost to Athletic Bilbao, but it wasn’t like they were embarrassed.
Why then do we mention that they are navigating through dangerous waters heading into the league year? Precisely because despite the fact that the results were not “bad” per se, there’s not a lot of “special” with this Chivas team. On top of that, there are virtually no exciting new players heading into next season. If they rack up a few losses in this preseason tournament there could be a lot of pressure on Paunovic even before playing a single Liga MX official match. That’s not ideal for a coach starting out.
What Are Realistic Expectations For Chivas?
This is one of the biggest issues with Chivas every single year. The media hypes up some of their players who are actually middle of the pack talent at best. Then when the season ends they claim that the team underachieved. Talent wise this Chivas team is not one of the best rosters in LigaMX. Putting them in the top 5 really seems like a stretch. Does that mean that they can’t contend for a title? Of course not, they are very much on par with a team like Toluca that got all the way to the LigaMX final last season.
With the way that LigaMX is structured it wouldn’t be a surprise if the team really did make a title run. That’s not necessarily realistic though. A good season for Chivas would be getting bounced in the quarter final round of the LigaMX playoffs as part of the last 8 teams in the tournament. Any argument claiming that would be a let-down is based more on fandom, and the old adage that Chivas is a “big club”. In reality their talent is closer to 8th in the league than they are to the top 5.
Who’s Going To Score Goals For This Team?
This is one of the biggest problems that Chivas has had for years. During the first two games of the preseason the issue still seems to be on full display. Chivas is probably going to get Jose Juan Macias back at some point in the year. Even if he’s not a fan favorite he is perhaps their best chance at finding a stable number 9 to lead this team. Ormeño and especially Zaldivar have consistently proven that they are not the answer that the team needs. Of course, any of these two can get on a hot streak and prove some of us wrong. For Chivas’ sake that would be a good thing. Right now though it seems that it’s going to be another season with more questions than answers at that number 9 spot.
Patience Is Still The Key
We mentioned last week that if Chivas is serious about this project with Fernando Hierro they need to be patient. It may actually be a good thing that they have pretty much the same roster that they had last year. Hierro does not know the local market at this point. It wouldn’t make too much sense for him to bring along a couple of players just yet. Let him play out this tournament and figure out what the true holes on the roster are. Instead of stocking up in right backs like Pelaez did for most of his tenure. With none of them being the true solution that the team needed.
