26/04 - 20:00
Julen Lopetegui was appointed manager of Sevilla Futbol Club in the summer of 2019.
In his first season in charge, he guided the Andalusians into the UEFA Champions League, finishing fourth, after they had finished sixth the year before, and also won the UEFA Europa League for the sixth time in their history – a record. Their biggest victory in the 19/20 campaign was 5-0, which happened against Escobedo in the cup.
In his second season in charge, they formed part of a four-team title race that were challenging for top spot until the final few matches in La Liga, alongside eventual champions Atletico Madrid and the Clasico rivals of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
They also reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey and the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Their biggest victory on the 20/21 campaign was 3-0, which happened on four occasions.
This season, they shared a 1-1 draw with Valencia to move them four points behind Real Madrid at the top of La Liga and eight points clear of their arch-rivals in Seville, Real Betis. Their biggest victory in the 21/22 campaign has been 3-0, which has happened once, all the way back in August.
Sevilla are a title challenger. They have been reliable, consistent and always improving under Lopetegui’s stewardship.
However, their strength may just be their weakness.
“1-0 to the Sevilla, 1-0 to the Sevilla, 1-0 to the Sevilla”
In Lopetegui’s two and a half seasons in charge, Sevilla have won 81 matches across all competitions – La Liga, the Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup.
Of those 81 wins across all competitions, 60 of them have been to nil. Of those 60 wins to nil, 52 of those matches have finished with a 1-0 or 2-0 score-line.
Sevilla have played a total of 139 matches during Lopetegui’s tenure. So, over 37% of the time that Sevilla play, they win 1-0 or 2-0.
Football is a game of chance. A 90-minute match is essentially an hour and a half of sequences, patterns and collisions. It is chaos and risk in the form. There are so many unknown and uncontrollable variables that can affect a game of football – and yet, Sevilla have eliminated all possibilities bar a 1-0 or 2-0 victory in more than a third of the games they play – THAT is coaching.
Conservatism & pragmatism gets you to the same floor – it might not take you to the same ceiling
Many of the leading teams to push the so-called ‘big three’ of Atletico, Madrid and Barca have their limitations. Those limitations tend to always revolve around a coach taking the ‘safety first’ approach.
Unai Emery’s Villarreal, for example, have almost become quite comical in their propensity to draw too many matches. The Yellow Submarine won the UEFA Europa League last season and got their back-door entry into the UEFA Champions League but the league campaign in 20/21 was an immensely frustrating one.
In their first 24 Liga matches last season, Villarreal had drawn 13 of them. This is a remarkable percentage. They had only lost three matches in the entire campaign. Whilst this was a good stat, drawing too many games meant they did not take advantage of their solidity and, eventually, lost half of their final 14 matches to finish the season in a relatively below par seventh place.
Imanol Aguacil is another manager who could be occasionally criticised for being overly conservative. Like Lopetegui and Emery, Aguacil has performed well as manager of Real Sociedad and he has taken them to a certain level – a level that, for the last three seasons has stayed the same.
La Real have started each of the last three campaigns very quickly. In nine of the first 28 gameweeks of the 19/20 campaign, they sat inside the top four. They won 14 of their opening 26 matches but then, after the COVID-19 break, returned to action to win just two of their last 12. They managed just 56 goals in 38 games and finished sixth.
In 20/21, they were top-of-the-table until six successive game weeks from matchday 6 to matchday 11 – and then even went back top on matchday 13. Seven of their 17 wins that season came in the opening ten weeks of the season. They failed to score 60 league goals and finished sixth.
After 13 games of this season, Real Sociedad were, once again, top-of-the-table – and they had been for five successive weeks. They won eight of their first 13 matches. They have now won of their last seven. They have scored just 22 goals in 20 games and sit fifth.
Real Sociedad and Villarreal are not necessarily comparable to the resilience and stamina shown by Lopetegui’s Sevilla. However, there are similarities.
This is an era whereby the Liga title could well be wide open for a few years to come, as it has been for a couple of seasons; it is ready for one of the challengers to really grow and seriously last the distance.
Sevilla will therefore hope their reliance on clean sheets and controlling of matches does not catch them out or unravel with the potential departure of centre-back Diego Carlos to Newcastle United.
