The alarm signals are on at Athletic. Again. In Valladolid he rescued that fame that haunts him as “team aspirin.” He lost to the bottom, with a new baptism, that of Marcos André, which debuted as a scorer in First. Weighed down again by mistakes behind and inability at the top. And repeat offender. Because the rojiblanco team has already kneeled this season before another red lantern, Alavés. It had been 70 years since this double defeat occurred in the same league in the field of a last classified.
Garitano it is more than ever in the eye of the hurricane in Bilbao. Athletic has already suffered five defeats this season, the most in the League, along with Betis, seventh and its next rival, and Valladolid, now penultimate after beating the lions. He has not been able to link two consecutive victories since between June 27 and July 1 he joined them against Mallorca (3-1) and Valencia (0-2). Since then, 13 meetings have passed.
In recent weeks, when this dust was already rising, the Derio coach has stated on a couple of occasions that he knows how this football business works. Assume the rules of the game. “It is logical, when the team does not win today, the first person to look at is the coach. I accept it. We know that the coach is always the first one to sign up and it seems logical and normal for him to criticize himself when he doesn't win. If someone is at fault and responsible, I throw it on my back, when we lose it is 100% mine, “he said in the previous one with Sevilla. Before traveling to Pucela he came to say something similar.
A day before going back to the Lopetegui team, after falling with Osasuna, Garitano He showed in the El Sadar press room that he was not for jokes. Cutting. Without extending too much in his explanations. And defending, for example, the moment to make changes. The last time he was asked about his position was at the Nuevo Zorrilla on Sunday. “What do you say to the fans who believe that your project at Athletic should end now?”, An informant threw him. “I have nothing to say to that,” he settled Garitano.
The irregularity is the characteristic that is marking your step. Alternate victories with defeats. When it seems that it is on the wire the team adds a victory, as with Levante or Sevilla, and the gum stretches a little more. But that credit is decreasing. Slash the limit. It reaches the fourteenth break, with 9 points, three above the relegation zone that Levante now defines with 6. It is true that the game with Barça is postponed to January, but it happens to many others in this tournament.
After confinement due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, since the return to competition on June 14, the balance is ten defeats, two draws and seven victories. They have beaten Betis (1-0), Mallorca (3-1), Valencia (0-2), Levante (1-2), Eibar (1-2), Levante (2-0) and Sevilla (2-1 ). They have signed a draw with Atlético de Madrid (1-1) and Eibar (2-2). And they have kneeled against Barça (1-0), Real Madrid (0-1), Sevilla (1-2), Leganés (0-2), Granada (4-0), Granada (2-0), Cádiz (0-1), Alavés (1-0), Osasuna (1-0) and Valladolid (2-1). A few blushes. Last season, from the beginning of December to the beginning of March, they accumulated ten consecutive games without winning, with five lost games and five draws in that lot.
Although, beyond results, which are also the sensations. The team does not finish carbureting and the coach does not find the key. He has more or less his chosen group, it seems that they lack a march to play what he wants Garitano, a formula with which it is true that they have produced more. It already seems in another life … The technician does not find the definitive solution. He maintains his complaints about the lack of forwards. Was brought to Berenguer, to which he asked, but it is not revulsive. Upstairs, the only movement is the dance of positions between Muniain, Raúl García and Williams.
At the beginning of October, Aitor elizegi, president of the rojiblanco club, made his last public defense, and on fire, of the coach. Putting on the table once again his work removing the team from the well since December 2018 or the ticket to the Cup final, still pending. “We continue to trust that he is the person who is capable of governing this changing room in this uncertainty,” he said then. Although on your board there are opposing opinions. While, Rafa Alkorta, the sports director, had stressed a couple of days before that “he is our coach, we have to be one hundred percent with him.” In quarantine.