Quique Setién, Barcelona coach, made a reasoning about the five changes before the championship resumed: “I don't know if it will harm us or benefit us. I think it will harm our way of playing. We know that we will solve many games in the final minutes. If you give an opponent the option of having fresh players come out in that time, that weakness that is generated, with tired players, will not occur. But it can also give you resources at a certain time. It is an unknown quantity and we will see how it goes, ”Quique Setién explained in an interview with the Inter-Island Football Federation of Las Palmas. Well, when everything has started, the facts indicate that the five changes favor the great …
On paper, large templates benefit from the five changes because they are more effective and much more valuable. They also benefit from playing so often, because they can do many more relays from one match to another and dose matches. To elaborate this theory we have counted how many million euros each team put on the field of play with their changes on the first day, the only one that, so far, has been played in full.
With Vinicius (45), Bale (101), Mendy (48), Militao (50) and Valverde (5), Madrid put 249 million euros on the field after the break, the most first in these circumstances in the resumption day. After him, the Barca (184 million with Junior, Semedo, Arthur, Rakitic and Luis Suárez); the Athletic (144 with Arias, Herrera, Lemar, Correa and Morata); and the Seville (almost 47 with Escudero, Banega, Franco Vázquez, Suso and En Esyri). They are by far the teams with the highest budgets. And therefore it is confirmed that there is a two-speed championship. Setien was wrong.
Madrid earn more than the others with the five changes. It probably has the best squad in Spain. The widest and the one with the best market value according to Transfermarkt: 888 million, followed by Barça with 859 and Atlético with 710 … Then there is a big jump to the fourth, Valencia, whose squad has a market value of 426 million according to the specialized website.
In the long run, with the passage of the days, that remarkable difference between the breadth of templates and the value of the same will end up noting with such a concentrated calendar. Even more when injuries start to arrive. Exceptions are always given. On this resumption day there were several, such as the draw between Valencia (he scored 28 million from the bench) and Levante (only 3.9); Villarreal's victory (14.5 million from the bench) against Celta (almost 35) in Balaídos; Or the draws between Athletic (1.25 million) and Atlético (144.5) and that of Real Sociedad (22) against Osasuna (zero euros cost with their substitutes).
Unit B or two different teams.
The Madrid squad is so vast that, under normal conditions, could form two ounces of collateral. It is what Zidane called the second Unit. In this resumption of the championship the League will be vital to the assault. He already helped the French coach sing the alirón in the double season, 2016-17.
All the games in which Zidane used that Unit B in 2016-17 were away from home. Names like Danilo, Coentrao, Kovacic, James, Asensio, Nacho, Morata, Lucas Vázquez or Mariano they gave the breast do. The sequence was as follows. First there was a glimpse of Second Unit in Eibar (1-4), but in that game he played Benzema and resolved with the team's first two goals. Then, already in April, the games resolved at home were as follows: day 30 in Leganés (2-4), day 32 in Gijón (2-3), day 34 in Riazor (2-6) and, finally, day 36 in Granada (0-4). Historical. A story that now wants to repeat itself in this kind of express league.