Abelard's eleven

Even if mixed players (Raúl de Tomás or Adrián Embarba, for example, dressed in green), Abelardo Fernández gave some hints to his squad this Sunday during the dress rehearsal for the return of LaLiga. Espanyol played a training match at the same time (14:00), the same stage (RCDE Stadium) and very similar conditions (24 degrees, closed door …) as the match against Alavés next Saturday. The least mystery presents, except last minute surprise, is the alignment.

Abelardo trusts in a highly consolidated team with the Asturian in the nine days in which he led Espanyol between his signing and the pandemic. That idea was so unwavering that Only between 11 players they took up 7,029 minutes with the Asturian coach, the overwhelming 80 percent of the total. And they were not yet more for three reasons of great weight.

On the one hand, between Diego López, Dídac Vilà, Javi López, Marc Roca and David López They got lost 374 minutes per penalty. On the other, too Roca, David, as well as Bernardo Espinosa and De Tomás others stopped playing 540 minutes due to injury. And finally, the striker himself, Leandro Cabrera and Embarba signed for Espanyol with Abelardo already started, so it was impossible for them to play every minute.

The standard team is formed by Diego Lopez (802 minutes) in goal; Javi López (673 '), Bernard (720 '), Cabrera (630 ') and Didac (720 ') in defense, a medulla consisting of Sergi Darder (803 '), rock (534 '), David Lopez (516 ') and Embarks (525 '); and above, the indisputable Tomás (540 ') and Jonathan Calleri (566 '). Of these 11 footballers, up to seven formed this Sunday together, dressed in blue and white, in the drill: Javi López, Cabrera, Dídac, David, Darder, Roca and Calleri.

The latter is precisely Abelardo's only concession. While he's in the lineup with more minutes, Wu Lei has already taken away his ownership in the previous four days to the pandemic.

The Chinese (with 313 minutes) and Víctor Sánchez (354 ') are the only' substitutes' to be saved of the gap between the 11 with the most participations and the rest of the workforce. Not in vain, five players haven't even had minutes in LaLiga with Abelardo, although one of them, Oier Olazabal or Andrés Prieto, will have them against Alavés because Diego López is sanctioned. And the others will have to debut in a context of 11 days in five weeks and five changes per game.