Opinions on Lopetegui's Sevilla

710

Before the inevitable happens vs Almeria:

I know it feels like an eternity between matchdays, wishing for the narrative to change, but the decision on the coach was made months ago, so we gotta stay the course for a bit. I don’t care how well those other teams are doing – none of them (bar Valencia) know how to keep hold of 4th spot for more than 1 season. We’re even letting them get a headstart this season and i still ain’t worried.

But i know that isn’t the only concern. We were the only team close enough to fight Madrid for the title last season, so seemingly dropping off to not even getting close to that level is tough to swallow. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to that eventually. Maintaining Top 4 status will allow us to attract players to break into that Top 3. And those teams don’t know what this struggle is like. Not even Atletico.

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711

For the sake of comparison with Atletico and the strategies + ambitions, let’s have a quick look at the results since the last team both clubs were promoted back to La Liga.

This is Atletico’s La Liga history since the last promotion:

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This is Sevilla’s La Liga history since the last promotion:

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As we can see, Atletico didn’t need to finish 4th for 10+ years in order to reach La Liga heights, win it twice and become a real fearful force both in Spain and in Europe.

And also as we can see… we were doing much better in the league before Atletico, but haven’t managed to finish 3rd since 2009. Now we have finished 4th for 3 seasons in a row for the first time ever… great. Now what? Improvement!

Imagine if Atletico would go like this after finishing 4th for 2 seasons in a row in 2007-08 and 2008-09 - then finishing 9th in 2009-10 and their President saying: “We need to consolidate the 4th spot for countless years again before trying to go for the 3rd spot or more”.

Would it sound like a viable strategy…? I don’t think so. They got a passionate manager, ex-Atletico player and provided him with the necessary finances to build his team and managed the club in the right way… or better yet, in the best possible way in order to grow like they did.

We simply haven’t done that… and until then, we’ll have all of this stuff.

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712

Plus … Barcelona are increasingly instable, opportunity is knocking.

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713

I think these comparisons with Atlético are very pointless, we always give the example of Atlético’s success. But they have so much more money that a simple comparison is not possible. When we can afford transfers around 50m, 60m, then these comparisons will be appropriate.

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714

I dunno how you can be confident of top 4 on current form. The past means nothing. I watched Villarreal and they look a proper team. It’s a night and day comparison with us. They know how to attack, counter attacks and play great football. We are boring, slow and predictable.

I hoped for top 4 as a target on the podcast but realistically we aren’t belonging in the top 4 with this current regime.

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715

It’s true that they have more money now… but it’s also true that this ‘impossible to compare’ thing is a wrong cliche. If they’ve made money from La Liga and CL success (2 times runners up) and from other trophies like the Uefa Supercup, CDR and Spanish Superucp, that’s not an excuse, but should be a motivation for our club to follow the same footsteps.

Why? Let’s have a look at these facts from Transfermarkt:

Atletico Madrid 2009-10 season, two and a half season before Simeone took over:

Arrivals: 17.25m Euros / Departures: 17.9m Euros

Atletico Madrid 2010-11 season, one and a half season before Simeone took over:

Arrivals: 34.5m Euros / Departures: 23.9m Euros

Atletico Madrid 2011-12 season, half a season before Simeone took over, he was not involved in the summer transfers planning:

Arrivals: 85.20m Euros / Departures: 85.35m Euros

Atletico Madrid 2012-13 season, the first full season with Simeone in charge:

Arrivals: 4.5m Euros / Departures: 21.35m Euros

Atletico Madrid 2013-14 season, the season where they finally make the big leap of becoming a real force in La Liga and Europe, with Simeone in charge:

Arrivals: 36.10m / Departures: 70.1m Euros

Before any incorrect conclusions are made:

Simeone didn’t benefit anything in the historical 2013-14 season from the biggest arrival in 2011/12 that was Radamel Falcao. They purchased him for 40m Euros from Porto and then ended up selling him in 2013-14 for 43m Euros to Monaco.

The replacement at that time for Falcao? David Villa. Yes, he was a goal-scoring veteran, but also a big risk at 32 years of age. His salary? Around 5m Euros. That is something an average player like Oliver gets in Sevilla. Simeone made it work.

The moral of the story is… if you manage your club well, you’ll reap the rewards. The club has been managed semi-well so far, if not poorly. It is not only necessary that this club needs to be managed much much better, in fact, it’s the only way that will guarantee a big leap to a top club and a really serious force both in La Liga and in Europe.

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716

emery
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717

lope

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718

With Emery we were constantly probing forward with flick ons, we could create 3 attacks per minute. With Sampaoli he just wanted a goalkeeper and 10 midfielders but he wanted them all to defend and attack. With Lopetegui it’s like the psychologist who tries to hypnotize a patient but the nurse falls to sleep.

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719

I don’t think that the club was poorly managed, we are in a very stable situation, having qualified for the Champions League three times. The only problem now will be how to take a step forward from this deadlock. I think it is particularly problematic that we do not have players from the academy who would play in the first team. This is where Atletico have made a difference in recent years by producing players such as: Rodri, Partey, Koke, Saul, De Gea…

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720

If you take our 2022 play so far and average it out, it’s 56 points over the course of an entire season. That’s only good enough to make top 6 once in the last 10 years if I recall correctly.

The writing is on the wall.

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721

Acuña just 1 game suspenseion.

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722

Will this week become @sterusebn 's last update of Lope’s results?

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723

Even if it’s the last of Lope’s results, the graphs will continue. I’ve already started throwing together a new concept that compares managers to each other over the last 20 years or so.

724

It’s Lope’s birthday today as well. Happy birthday! He’s not receiving the most beautiful messages for him on on socials which shows the state but is still shameful.
Maybe, new age, new Lope, new system. Just be creative, you won’t beat Barcelona and City on the standard play anyway.

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725

So, one of the things that I’ve noticed since maybe summer 2021, is that the team just doesn’t seem excited or happy to be playing together. I just get the sense that the locker room is not a fun or even agreeable place to be these days. We need a coach who does a better job with the off field psychology of players as much as the on field psychology. Another Bilardo. I feel like this tweet more or less portrays that weakness of the current team:

“It shouldn’t be Delaney, a Dane who’s been a year at Sevilla FC, who has to run into the tunnel to tell the players to go thank the fans. It shouldn’t be, but what a detail. Football is for the fans. Always.”

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726

Happy birthday Lopetegui
Julen Lopetegui Coach GIF by ElevenSportsBE

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727

Only for this, I’d keep Delaney at all costs, even as a sub.

It’s rare for players to have this kind of character even when things go wrong and to not be afraid to face the fans for a well-deserved apology.

Hats off to Delaney!

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728

And pants off to Rakitic…

Can’t find the clip to screen cap, but he went out onto the pitch pantsless to thank the players

729

Anyone want to place bets on how many more of these there will be?

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