Moreno’s Black Januarys

It is not new for Vicente Moreno that January is his worst month as a coach. The entries of the year do not sit well with Massanassa, that in this 2022 he has not yet won with Espanyol in LaLiga (one draw and two losses) and has been dropped from the Copa del Rey. A year that had begun with the sweet hangover of victory, on December 31, against Valencia, the first away from home, but that in just three and a half weeks has become a penance.

The balance of the Valencian coach since the 2014-15 campaign at Nàstic is 10 wins, six draws and 11 losses in this January, a balance that, in the last four campaigns, is more worrying: three wins, two draws and nine losses. Whether due to the uncertainty of the markets, due to physical planning and due to the coincidences that come into play, the coach’s streak turned from the 2017-18 campaign.

That season he led Mallorca in Segunda B. In January, despite winning two games and drawing the third, he lost the first game of the season. The vermilion rose, like the following year, in which January was also the most damaging month. They got a win, a draw and two losses, and finished the month in eighth place, three points from the sixth place that gave access to play the playoff.

The following year, already in the First Division with a relegated Mallorca, the Balearic team won one game and lost another two, which meant that they stayed just one point above a relegation that was inevitable. Also with Espanyol the previous year, January was the month of doubts. Espanyol lost three games and won one. The Blue and Whites said goodbye to 2019 with a four-point advantage over the third, leaders of the competition, and closed January in second position tied with Almería, third.

Vicente Moreno’s team lost in Las Palmas (1-0), in Girona (1-0) and against Rayo Vallecano (2-3) and was also eliminated from the Cup against Osasuna (0-2). Without a doubt, the darkest month of a year that was redirected with the promotion, as the fans and the coaching staff expect this campaign to happen. January is behind us and February should arrive with new wings for the parakeets. This has been the history of the coach in recent years.