Asier Garitano, coach of the Leganes, has used almost all his staff in the little month he has been directing the pepineros after his return to Butarque. Rotations have become a norm that, however, borders on five footballers. Two are goalkeepers (Risk and Count). The other three, outfield players: namely, Juan Muñoz, Dani Lasure and Brandon Thomas. The three were for the first time at par out of the call against the Cartagena. The three with different individual situations that make them the victims of the change of bench.
The most striking is the perspective of Juan Muñoz. The Sevillian striker was not a fixture for Martí, but he used to be part of the Mallorcan's plans. Either as a starter (five starting games), or as a substitute (six presences, the sixth most used reserve). Thus accumulated 472 minutes in the first 21 league games.
With the arrival of Garitano it has not been able to increase that figure. Until the duel on Friday he accumulated six calls in a row without playing. But before the black and white he was left off the list. It was the first time it had happened for technical reasons.
The Fuenlabrada option
At the winter market, this former de Alcorcón, Almería, Zaragoza or Seville Among others, he had options to leave until the last second, when several teams knocked on his door. Knowing his circumstances and that with the new coach he would have fewer minutes (Garitano plays with only a '9'), the Sevillian did not rule out this option for which he insistently called Fuenlabrada.
It was finally the Leganes the one who decided not to open the door for him in anticipation that he could use it between now and the end of the season. The desire not to reinforce a potential rival also played a role. Because then (end of January) the Fuenlabrada He was not so far from a Leganés who feared falling out of the promotion play-off. Hence, an exit that would have benefited a player who Garitano compliment, yes, making it clear that to play in this Leganes is complex.
“I see it well. He has had uncertainty in the end of the market. Got talent. You know where you have to improve. But we are talking about a very large staff. In many positions there are many people. There are people that we have not even taken out to warm up. But the requirement here forces be ready at any time“, he said at the press conference prior to the visit to Cartagena.
Lasure and a complicated course
In those same words Garitano I also cited Lasure. The Zaragoza left-back (27 just turned 27) was also able to come out at the end of the market with Fuenlabrada as one of his strongest suitors. The same happened as with Juan Muñoz, although in his case, more than to reduce the status of this left back, to prolong him in the limbo in which he was.
He signed for Leganés in September and as soon as he arrived, he made his debut. But that initial momentum soon subsided. Marti did not count on him regularly and in Cup, before him Seville, He had the ugly detail (apart from the dressing room he did not like) of leaving him out after having played the mud matches against him Ourense or the Socuéllamos. Knowing that he is not a player of the taste of Garitano and that it would be difficult to play, they looked for exit options that did not bear fruit.
A signing run over by the transition
In that last winter market Brandon thomas was the only signing of the Leganes. He arrived after a complicated operation that was closed without the certainty that the Mallorcan could join the team. A vacancy was needed that freed Dani Ojeda. This forward capable of playing as a winger arrived in the last week of Marti as coach of the Leganes.
In his epilogue game as a cucumber technician, he got to give him a few minutes against The palms. But then the replacement of the bench arrived and with it, an absence of minutes that at least did not separate him from the calls. Up to now. Against him Cartagena he was left out in part because of annoyances that, however, do not hide a complicated situation.
Its incorporation was endorsed by Marti (had it in the Girona, shared with him dressing room in the Majorca), but without him, his role is cornered to that of a footballer with few options to have a presence in the eleven: Garitano He relies more on another footballer profile to act as a '9' or extreme, in addition to believing that he is not yet physically at the top, as he already admitted in an appearance. Not to change the panorama, Brandon You risk a reversal in your status. Not to play in Osasuna not to play in Leganés, when the main reason for his move to the south of the capital was precisely to play the minutes that he could not enjoy in Pamplona.