There were worse moments, with the team going through six games without winning and the coach in doubt, but never two consecutive defeats. Oviedo is going through very low hours after falling to Girona, just after the painful fall against Sanse in the Tartiere. That day there was a buzz in the stadium.
The center of the debate, usual in the world of football, was the figure of the coach. Cuco Ziganda is going through a clear moment of weakness two years after coming to the Oviedo bench. Right now, he is the main flank of sports criticism.
A sector of the fans does not seem to agree with his ideas, but in the club, at least for now, confidence in the Navarrese is maintained before the drums of war, which are already heard in the Tartiere offices.
The managers of Oviedo in the city believe that it would not make any sense to opt at this time for a replacement on the bench to seek a boost in the fight for the play-off. There has not even been talk, they say, of the possibility of a dismissal, although the unpredictability of football implies not being able to disdain any option in the event of a sporting fall that nobody wants.
At the moment there is time, club sources maintain, for Oviedo to take the necessary step forward. Although the days pass, with the team moving away from the promotion zone and the figure of Ziganda assuming a clear wear. The entity shows confidence in the coach, but there is a palpable concern with the direction of the team for some time now.
In the club they consider that Oviedo has one of the best squads in recent years and that there is plenty of block to be higher. Hence, Ziganda, a veteran on a bench prone to changes, no longer maintains the internal consensus that he did have, for example, in the summer of 2020. Confidence is dwindling. There is evidence: last year at this point Oviedo had already sounded out the renovation of Cuco. The council was its greatest defender and Mexico trusted the judgment of its leaders. There was no doubt that he was the man on whom the project should be based.
Today and now, the defenses on the Cuckoo are no longer as clear as they once were. From Mexico, the season is attended in public silence, as is customary in recent times.
What squeaks in the club and in Ziganda’s management property are some of their approaches, which they judge as too conservative for an entity with aspirations to ascend. A phrase from Ziganda last week, “we are more offensive than 90% of the players”, caused surprise in different sectors.
Meanwhile, Cuckoo chooses to shield himself from outside noise and maintain his usual temper. The Navarrese is not a coach who is going to lose his cool. He didn’t do it two years ago, with the team teetering on relegation, and he won’t do it now, with play-off options. “In hard times he draws strength from weakness and does not get confused by the noise from outside,” sources close to him maintain.
El Cuco led his 89th match with Oviedo against Girona. His background as a blue coach, which can be seen in full in the graph that accompanies this information, is 28 wins (31%), 36 draws (40%) and 25 losses (28%). The feeling is that with Ziganda you don’t suffer, but he doesn’t really aspire to higher levels either. There is time.
