2022 has started for Athletic. The lions have won their first two games of the year and have, at least for the moment, put their problems on hold in the face of goal. Oihan Sancet and Nico Williams have taken a step forward when it comes to scoring.
It is not the moment, in any case, to throw the bells to the flight. Osasuna, the first victim of the rojiblancos in the league, is not going through a good period at the sporting level. Beyond 1-3 last Monday, the rojillos were eliminated from the KO tournament on Thursday when they lost on their visit to Girona.
Mancha Real, no matter how much they eliminated Granada in the previous round, is still a rival that is in the relegation zone in the Second RFEF. It is not a matter of subtracting merits from Athletic’s classification, but simply of putting things in their proper place. The great merit of the lions in their visit to Jaén was to treat the rival with all the respect in the world.
Marcelino has used a total of 22 players in this start of 2022. The 16 who had minutes at El Sadar were joined on Thursday by another half a dozen ‘new’ lions. Ezkieta, Nuñez, Capa, Villalibre and Yuri, in other words, are the only members of the first team that remain to be released in the new year. Luis Bilbao, Basconia forward, has been part of the first team call-up both in the League and in the Cup, but without ever having the chance to debut.
Rotation with a lot of youth
Iñigo Martínez and Berenguer were the only two lions that repeated in the first two starting eleven of this year. The left-handed central defender, who could not fire 2021 at grass level due to the coronavirus, also completed the 180 minutes of play. His partner, on the other hand, did not conclude either of the two commitments.
Marcelino’s line-up against Mancha Real served to rest some of the most common starters and, at the same time, offer an opportunity to young people who have been in first-team dynamics for some time and to those players, such as Vivian or Nolaskoain, resulting from medium and long-term injuries, respectively.
Another fact that may go unnoticed on Thursday night, but that should be taken into account and valued in due measure is that both Lekue and Raúl García practically left their confinement due to coronavirus to the lawn of the La Juventud sports center. Zarraga also followed a more or less similar process, although in his case his appearance at grass level did not arrive until the second half. Nuñez, the other of the last affected by this wave of positives, spent the entire match on the bench.
The rookie cupbearers
The clash on the night of Reyes against Mancha Real also marked the debut as starters in the Athletic Cup of four lions. Agirrezabala practiced under sticks; Vivian, recovered from his muscular injury, returned to the axis of the rear; Petxa started on the right-hand side and Nico Serrano, at 18, was left-handed inside. The premiere of Artola completed the chapter of premieres at the KO tournament level by different components of Marcelino’s squad.