Above last minute signings, the VAR, non-awarded penalties and referee decisions on pants that border on the too literal interpretation of the regulation, Espanyol still hurts, bruised by the wounds that he self-inflicted on Sunday in his hardest blow since he made the historic mistake – not an accident – of going down to Second. What if the sensations worry it is because precisely they evoke those of the worst season in history.
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* Data updated as of February 1, 2021
Today the panorama is different – the category, unfortunately, too – and Espanyol continues in direct promotion zone Despite being traced back by Rayo Vallecano a 2-0 absolutely controlled at halftime. But the leadership is already in the hands of Mallorca, with three more points, Almería – equaled 45 with the parrots – has one game left and the fourth classified, which is precisely the franjirrojos, could have been 11 points but is close to five.
It is understandable that Vicente Moreno would not even want to hear about statistics in the preview of this last game: Espanyol has lost so many games in the last four matchdays –Three, against Las Palmas, Girona and Rayo– as in the first 19. And without counting the way in which the elimination in the Cup at the hands of Osasuna took place. It is not surprising that the sports director himself, Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete, recognized as part of the problem that “this cannot happen, neither now nor in a year. We must make self-criticism, be clear, forceful and continue rowing in the direction of the objective, “he assumed this Wednesday.
The luxury elevator of the best team in the silver category, the “Second Real Madrid”, in a definition that Cornellà-El Prat did not dislike and that tried to condense the high potential of parrots into an apparently minor League, it seems trapped between two plants to which tics from the past have reappeared, some tangible like multiple mistakes in a goal-cost kickoff even when rival forwards do not reach the level of a First, and other abstract ones, such as the (in) ability to mentally break down when the match plan goes awry slightly.
“Promotion is not even a success. It is the only option. Imagine what it would be like not to succeed.”
And this tessitura occurs just when Vicente Moreno seemed to have found his gala team, at the cost of a huge wardrobe increasingly distanced from those headlines. Which produces a paradox: if the ideal eleven doesn't work either –Has repeated, except for David López's piece due to injury, in two consecutive defeats–, Will those who know themselves substitutes do it? The debate, actually, is deeper, and its origin directly attacks the irregular footbed construction.
Needs, of course, a kind of electroshock the least pressured group in short distances in history, without an audience in matches, without witnesses in training sessions, but with the moral obligation to go up yes or yes. The players must respond, but no more than the rest of the instances of a Espanyol that he should not shield himself, but show the world more than ever his ambition. With facts. The promotion is not even a success. It is the only option. Imagine what it would be like not to get it.