The ball, the hot potato of a Espanyol that fails to progress

From the match against Betis, from that 1-4 that further opened up the wound of a team that has stopped getting along with its fans after two consecutive defeats at the RCDE Stadium and the harsh elimination in the Copa del Rey, many conclusions can be drawn and put the magnifying glass on different aspects. Even the telescope, if we analyze the trajectory of a Espanyol that has not won in this 2022 and that away from home has only achieved one victory.

But in the subsequent press conference, Vicente Moreno pointed out another aspect aside from the defensive hole (12 goals in the last five games). “We lacked continuity in the circulations when we had the ball to be able to get into the opposite field quicklyAnd that, with the magnifying glass and the telescope, is being one of the great evils of the parakeet team this course, that inability to settle in the rival field, move the ball, recover up and submit the opponent with long possessions. Circumstances that have been experienced dropper.

In the first half, before the match opened 1-2 and the Blue and Whites took a step forward, Moreno’s team was only capable of making 53 successful passes in the rival field, with Manu Morlanes (9), Sergi Darder, Óscar Gil and Javi Puado (7) as the players who participated the most. In Cádiz, in the “extraordinary and exceptional” first half, as the coach described it during the week, Espanyol gave 91, with the help of 17 passes from Darder and Óscar Melendo as the main playmakers.

Betis, on the other hand, hit 176 passes in the rival field, practically double those made by the Blue and Whites at the Nuevo Mirandilla, with Álex Moreno (24), Willian Carvalho (28) or Guido Rodríguez (30) as his greatest collaborators. With 0-0, 1-0 or 1-2, Verdiblanco’s dominance was unquestionable, although it didn’t translate into clear goalscoring chances, but as the minutes went by parakeet defensive errors began to occur.

The ball, due to Espanyol’s style of play, the particularities of its squad, is at odds with the team, which is not capable of taming it to control games with superiority, as only happened sporadically in Cádiz. The improvement of the team, which has been alternating different midfields, also involves attacking better and because those circulations in the opposite field are more constant.