Dimata-RdT, the strange couple

For the first time since February, when Nany Dimata arrived at Espanyol on loan from Anderlecht with a compulsory purchase option in case of promotion, Vicente Moreno decided that the Belgian would initially form a pair in attack with Raúl de Tomás. The Madrilenian had missed the match against Logroñés, had played the second half replacing Dimata in Castellón and now both would form the game in a 4-4-2 that modified the routine parakeet drawing, more used to playing with Óscar Melendo or Nico Melamed behind the reference in attack.

Like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the fabulous comedy of the 60s, both forwards formed a strange couple due to their characteristics. However, and after the expulsion of Nteka in minute 16, they did not have excessive problems in giving performance, especially De Tomás, author again of two goals that increase his score to 18. The statistics of both without shots, yes, especially in a first half in which the Belgian barely touched the ball and Embarba, Melamed and Darder they came into contact with the ball more than the Madrid striker.

Dimata, in the first 45 minutes, only touched four balls. The first one, the result of the lack of pacing between the two, in the 6th minute of the match, when Raúl de Tomás shot at goal from outside the area and the Belgian crossed his path and deflected the ball (he went to the post, he could be goal), in a rare move. Subsequently, the Belgian player touched three more balls in midfield, holding and unloading the game, successful. He said goodbye to the meeting in the 55th minute with two more interventions, also away from the area.

De Tomás, for his part, had more freedom or at least tactically he was required to be further away from rival centrals. He was also forced to defend more, although the context of the encounter changed radically with the expulsion. Despite this, Dimata averaged a more defensive middle position than the Madrid player, who did intervene in the game more times. RdT touched 32 balls, in which he scored two goals, and participated more with the Belgian than on the field (20 times in 55 minutes) than without him (12 in 35).

The 4-4-2 with which Moreno faced the match is a resource for the remaining ten days of the championship, although Melendo's loss due to COVID-19 led to this second option becoming the main one. With the discharge of Puado in Albacete, the logical thing would be for the Valencian coach to return to his original idea, although as he warned after the meeting “I saw them very well. I am lucky to have good players. When you play one or the other there are different variants. Other things appear. Melendo gives us many good but different things to the two forwards. We have to see what we have in front of us. “