Alarm bells ring in a new year at the Calderón

Quique Sánchez Flores isn't worried. After his badly misfiring Atlético Madrid team slumped to a 1-0 defeat away at Sporting Gijón - it's sixth loss on the road this season and eighth overall - the former Almería and Valencia coach has a clear vision of what needs to be achieved over the next 18 matches: "I'm not worried about my future, I'm just concerned with leaving the team qualified for a European competition and if it's the Champions League, so much the better."

Atlético's latest demoralizing defeat, beaten by the one shot on goal Sporting had after a defensive error that would have made an amateur side blush, leaves Sánchez Flores with a 10-point deficit to claw back if Atlético is to reach Europe's elite competition again.

Defensive clangers aside, alarm bells are ringing in the corridors of the Calderón due to a lack of goals. Atlético has always had a Laurel and Hardy approach to defending, but the talents of its front men have historically dragged the side back from the brink of farce. With the run of games Atlético has coming up, Sánchez Flores is in a fine mess indeed.

"Atlético didn't have a shot on goal until the 93rd minute," observed one of La Liga's most popular coaches, Sporting's Manuel Preciados.

The rojiblancos' next seven games throw up Athletic, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Getafe and Villarreal. If Zaragoza was visiting the capital it might be considered an easy game, but Atlético's away form does not bode well, even against a relegation-threatened team that has won its last two.

And then there is the small matter of another Madrid derbi in March, a fixture Atlético has not won in league or cup competition since 1997.

Atlético will improve when Sergio Agüero and José Reyes return from injury, but whether they will prove enough to jump-start a season in danger of spluttering to a halt - or of crashing head-on into a wall - will probably determine how long Sánchez Flores remains in the driving seat. He has not been helped by Diego Godín and Filipe Luis, defenders signed in the summer to shore up his porous defense, who have both been benched recently after the 4-1 humbling Hércules administered in La Liga two weeks ago.

"People talk about the coach when results go badly and he becomes a target. But inside the club there has been no discussion of the future of the coach. We'll talk at the end of the season. I don't think Quique will have problems protecting his post," said club president Enrique Cerezo last week.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.