Opinions on Lopetegui's Sevilla

706

Nothing delusional on my part, Ryan. I totally get that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take a lot for us to reach the level and status of some of the clubs you mention if we ever manage to. So I am realistic.

However, there’s nothing wrong with ambition. The biggest thing for me though is playing style. I can forsake us having some bad results and even getting 4th at best if the football we play is attractive and we’re building something for the future with young up and coming players with high potential like how we used to operate, not ageing 30+ players with little market value. As fans we want to be entertained and I’m afraid Lope isn’t delivering the goods and now he isn’t even getting the results and hasn’t been since the second half of last season.

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707

I’m afraid lope has lost a lot of the fans with his style of play, results are turning sour and I feel certain players aren’t happy under him now.

We were very lucky to have won a lot of games early last season. We got a lot of 1-0 wins due to great defence, Bono and teams being wasteful. Now teams have worked us out and we lost our best defenders the slide and rot is setting in.

We currently look nowhere near the likes of Villarreal or even :poop:. At moment we look on course for 7th at best. That won’t be enough to keep lope with this boring predictable play. I feel he won’t change either. It’s the time to change but he’s set in his ways sadly.

I’m grateful for what he’s achieved with us. Helping us get top 4 for 3 seasons and winning a trophy. However, the rot has set in and this season looks tough. If things don’t improve soon then lope won’t survive. If he loses the fans and players then eventually Monchi and Castro will move on from him.

I like the guy and still will have fond memories of what he’s achieved with us but I don’t see this season or ones coming going great if we keep him.

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708

Alright, alright, @TimSpence2

Maybe I went a bit too full hog Lopetegui enthusiast on that one. I’m just a “stability over nearly anything else” kind of guy. In my work, in my family, in my childhood growing up with two fighting siblings…it may be pathological, but I also think it’s a voice that is nearly absent in the Sevilla fanbase, English speaking and otherwise. So maybe I amp it up unnecessarily, but let me add one more attempt:. Atlético didn’t get where they are out of building teams that are fun to watch. I always mocked them for how lame their style is, but we all have to admit that we would gladly take that if someone told is it could take us to LaLiga trophies and UCL Finals. So yeah, give me my stability, give me my 4th place Lopetegui

709

I would agree with this to an extent if we were building and improving year to year, but this transfer season was a definite downgrade in our team. We lost our two of best players and have so-so replacements. We do not have any real prospects for our biggest gap in offense. Our wingers are aging or stagnating. Navas is great, but he doesn’t have much time left. Ocampos has lost his mojo. Our midfield is old. They have some good moments, but most are not full game players at this point. This year we are far from being able to compete for La Liga and I expect us to place outside of Europa League unless we have drastic changes.

Yeah…I am not on board with sticking with mediocrity. I would rather aim for the top and miss than have the same 4th place goal every year.

Lopetegui has been canned several times and has been found wanting at other clubs and even at the national team level. It is not delusional to look at his history and see were we currently are and make rational conclusions. Essentially in your view we are not permitted to want more and if we do go watch someone else. No thank you. I will continue to support Sevilla even when I am critical of them at times.

Small thinking = small club. Some of us would like to dream bigger. Want more money, get more attention internationally. More money draws better players. I have been watching since 1995…does that make my opinion more valid than yours? In my mind it doesn’t. My views are no more valid than the fan that started watching last year, so your statement about how long you’ve been watching seems odd.

Bottom line…Lopetgui’s time is drawing to a close. It is sad that we are on track for a mediocre rebuilding year. I am moving back to Sevilla in a few weeks and was hoping to enjoy a team on the rise. Instead I will still support and attend games even with the boring defensive kick the ball around the back play.

I want more from this team and will not apologize for having higher expectations.

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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:

atletico madrid
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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?

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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