Real Sociedad vs Espanyol preview - McDonald not loving it

Posted Sunday, November 20, 2011 by PA

Real Sociedad midfielder McDonald Mariga insists he and his team-mates must improve - and quickly - to arrest the slump which has left them bottom of La Liga.

The San Sebastian side have taken just one point out of the last 21 available, picking up just eight in total from their 11 games so far.

They host Espanyol at the Estadio Anoeta in a match kicking off at noon local time on Sunday, with Kenya international Mariga admitting he has so far struggled to adapt to the Spanish game having signed on loan from Inter Milan in the summer.

"I'm trying to adapt to Spanish football and I think slowly I am improving my performance," he told marca.com.

"Here they play better football than in other leagues in the world. It is the best league and I have to adapt to this style."

Mariga is surprised at Sociedad's struggles given the quality of the squad.

"The situation is not good and we must play better for the team to climb up the league," he added.

"We did not expect to be so far down in the standings, because I think we have a good team. We have to fight to climb positions in the table.

"I understand that people expect more from myself and the whole team to get better."

They take on an Espanyol side who started the weekend in seventh place. The Barcelona club have taken just one point from their last two games, having won the previous three in a row.

Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino is assessing the progress of Javi Marquez and Javi Lopez on a daily basis before deciding whether one or both have recovered sufficiently from ankle injuries to play a part.

Goalkeeper Carlos Kameni is also a doubt with a hamstring injury suffered on international duty with Cameroon, while Uruguayan forward Walter Pandiani also trained away from the main group earlier this week.