Osasuna vs Mallorca preview - Mallorca back to work

Posted Saturday, October 01, 2011 by PA

Mallorca have had an eventful week off the field following the resignation of manager Michael Laudrup on Tuesday.

The Danish coach and director of football Lorenzo Serra Ferrer were known to have a difficult relationship which according to Laudrup stretched back to the transfer window in January of this year with the former Barcelona and Real Madrid midfielder describing his position as `untenable'.

Miguel Angel Nadal will take temporary charge for this weekend's trip to Osasuna and captain Ivan Ramis has said the players must put the drama of the past few days behind them and concentrate on their job on the field.

"Once Laudrup and the club reach an agreement there will hopefully be some calm around the team and the club. We have to turn the page and think about Saturday, about picking up points and maintaining a good position in the league," said the skipper.

However Ramis had only good things to say of his former manager.

"I will always have good memories of him. He exuded a great calmness which he transmitted to us before the game, we had complete confidence in him," added Ramis.

"What is important though is peace around the club. After what has happened with Laudrup there has to be peace so we can talk about football and leave the problems of the club behind. We have to talk about winning on Saturday and the mentality of the team is go match by match to win or at least draw in Pamplona."

Mallorca left-back Pablo Caceres was injured in last weekend's 2-1 win over Real Sociedad and will be out for two to three months.

Osasuna also have injury worries in defence with centre-backs Sergio and Roversio out for a number of weeks along with midfielder Masoud Shojaei.

Defender Ruben Gonzalez may start for the home side due to those injuries and the ex-Mallorca player doesn't believe his old side's performance will be too badly affected by Laudrup's departure this week.

"I have spoken with a few of my former team-mates and they are surprised by the situation. They expected a change of manager but they didn't expect it to happen like this.

"They will still be dangerous, so far this season there have been a lot of strange things have gone on and it hasn't affected their performance. On the contrary it has united them even more and we have to be wary of that."