Amid the concern for the downward dynamic in which Real Sociedad seems to be immersed in recent weeks, there is a fact that should be highlighted above the rest and that highlights the outstanding first part of the season that the team trained by Imanol Alguacil is doing. In case of winning this Saturday at Sánchez Pizjuán against Sevilla, it would improve the score with which he arrived last season at the end of the first round.
It is logical to think that if you keep the latest, you can put your hands on your head because since November only two games have been won, but there have only been three other defeats in that time. The rest have been draws. But if you look at it in perspective, counting on the spectacular start of the season that the txuri-urdin had, then you have to value more than what this first part of the royalists' campaign is doing.
Because they can reach the equator of the national league championship in Champions League positions and they have had to reconcile the matches of the domestic competition with those of the group stage of the Europa League, in which he achieved the classification for the sixteenth as second in the so-called group of death. We can say that La Real has suffered the normal bump that can occur to any team, more if one takes into account that it has coincided with the loss of some of its most important players in the offensive field. It's not by chance.
With all these components, and in a very complicated context due to the coronavirus pandemic and to which the San Sebastian team is no stranger, La Real reaches the last game of the first round of LaLiga with 30 points, which could be 33 in case of beating Sevilla in their field. This means that this Real is in a position to surpass the score of Imanol's realist team in his first season at the helm of last year's first team. So, the royalists reached the middle of the competition with 31 points and ended up qualifying at the end of the league for the Europa League.
And this year it can exceed that figure or equal it in the event of a tie, which speaks of the merit that this Real has with the load of matches it has accumulated between September and December. One piece of information reflects it: Merino has already played more minutes than he played in his first full season at Real Sociedad.. With this it is all said. Whatever happens, you have to value this first round of the royalists, but it is that on top of that it can improve on what happened last year when I didn't have to play in European competition.