An 'eleven' from hell to heaven

The first round is over and it's time for balance sheets, like the end of a school term. On the sidelines of Espanyol's superlative season in LaLiga SmartBank, the logical thing taking into account the level of its squad and its budget, the ability of Vicente Moreno to give shape to the team and minutes to the players calls attention, although curiously the base line-up of these first 21 games is identical to the last year with the sole exception of Miguelón. A team that has gone from hell to heaven, although it must sign it in this second section.

Several footballers have gone through the line-up and have enjoyed several games. From Fran Mérida in the initial section, like Dídac Vilà, to Óscar Gil, Wu Lei or Lluís López, but the standard team of the Valencian coach is made up of Diego López, Miguelón, Fernando Calero, Leandro Cabrera, Adrià Pedrosa, Sergi Darder, David López, Óscar Melendo, Adri Embarba, Javi Puado and Raúl de Tomás.

Of these players, six of them started the 2019-20 campaign in the squad. Another three, such as Cabrera, Embarba and RdT arrived in January and only Miguelón came this summer. Mérida, who has played more minutes than Melendo, does not enter the line-up because Darder and David Lopez they are solid in position, but it is also one of the most used. It is curious to see how ten of the players who accumulate the most minutes never coincided last year on the pitch.

This lineup has a current market value of 47.6 million. In its day, Espanyol spent 58.5 million on them. Melendo, Pedrosa and Puado come directly from the quarry, a bag in which you can place David López, raised in Sant Adrià, sold to Napoli and later re-caught for a slightly lower amount. Also Diego López or Miguelón, who arrived free. Costs increase when hiring Calero (8), Cabrera (10), RdT (22.5), Embarba (10) and Sergi Darder (8), a player who was decided not to renew at the time and then signed with Olympique de Lyon.