The current season is not being easy for an Alavés who, while little by little marking distance with the descent, seeks his new identity with Pablo Machín. In these first nine days, he has gotten used to rowing against the current. In them, has been losing in a total of 147 of the 810 minutes played and, in addition, has played outnumbered 88 minutes. All this adds up to 235 minutes, which represents 29.01% of the total time. It was not possible to get ahead on the scoreboard until the fifth match, against Athletic, and they have only been winning and with eleven on the field for 108 minutes, 13.33% of the full time.
The defensive errors at the start and the expulsions have been two important sticks in the wheels in the transit of a babazorro team, also very punished by injuries. To date, he has not added a single point in the duels in which the rivals have scored first and neither has any of his opponents managed to overcome him, but draw him, when he has been ahead in the electronic.
Against Athletic
Two very clear stages are detected in the becoming babazorros. The first four days were a nightmare. In it he could only score one point and serious defensive failures condemned him. First he showed that the squad was not prepared to assimilate well the 1-3-5-2 that Pablo Machín likes so much and, later, the serious problems in creating scoring chances prevented him from scoring any goal in a braided play, something that he did not achieve. until the seventh day when, in the 55, Jota Peleteiro assisted Tomás Pina so that he established the 0-1 against a Valladolid that had been left with ten. In total, 595 minutes had to wait to beat the rival goalkeeper in self-built action.
Before, In the first four duels, he only got two goals – one every 180 minutes-. The first was the work of Joselu when he launched a direct free kick and, in the second, Edgar Méndez took advantage of an error by the rival goalkeeper.
The team had to wait until the derby against Athletic to enjoy a favorable 1-0 for the first time in this league. It was thanks to the goal signed by Rodrigo Ely in the 74th minute, the result of a foul thrown by Lucas Pérez. Thus, it took 434 minutes to meet for the first time with the current score.
From there, From the fifth to the ninth days -the second stage-, the team has started its takeoff. Machín, who already used a line of four in defense for the first time in the second part of the second league chapter in Granada, has managed to make his disciples park the serious defensive errors at the start.
Thus, leaving aside the bad match against Elche on the sixth matchday (0-2), in which he was once again very weak behind, his team has achieved eight of its nine points in five games. In this second stage, he credits two wins, two draws and a single loss. Has reached the break chaining three games without losing.
Three expulsions
The worst of all is that, once fragility is banished behind, the team has had to solve the inconvenience of finishing three of the last five games outnumbered. Against Athletic -Rubén Duarte- and in the last two days -Jota Peleteiro against Barcelona and Edgar against Levnte-, three of their players have gone to the shower before time for a double yellow.
Despite this, the team has been strong and has managed to add five points in these three stakes -Athletic (1-0), Barça (1-1) and Levante (1-1) –. To do this, he had to suffer and play for 88 minutes with one less footballer, 10.86% of the 810 minutes played in the league.
The team has only had a relatively placid victory in Valladolid, where the early expulsion of Nacho in the 29th minute, allowed him to play with one more for 61 minutes and take advantage of his numerical superiority to carve out his victory in a complete second half.