Iñaki Williams, Athletic’s top gunner so far this season, appears in the thirty-fifth position on the list of scorers in the 2021-22 League with his three goals against Celta, Mallorca and Espanyol, respectively. There are only two Primera clubs so far, whose current top scorer appears below the record set by the rojiblanco striker. In Osasuna and Mallorca the individual ceiling is placed on two targets at this stage of the match.
Marcelino’s team, on a collective level, can boast instead of being the leader of the category in the chapter referring to fewer goals conceded. Athletic, with only eight goals against, leads this classification with a little less than Sevilla and two less than Real. Granada, their next rival in the League, has already received 20 goals against.
The problem of the lions, as reflected by these numbers, does not lie in not fitting in, but in beating rival goals. At this point in the league there are only two teams that have scored fewer goals than the Bilbao team. Alavés and Getafe have only accumulated a dozen targets. Elche, meanwhile, tied with the lions at eleven goals.
Striking facts
Some teams maintain the scoring tone thanks to the main contribution of one of their reference forwards. Raúl de Tomás, for example, has scored 7 goals at Espanyol without any other of his teammates reaching Williams’ 3 barrier. The same case can be applied in Alavés (Joselu has 6), Levante (Morales, 4), Granada (Luis Suárez, 4), Elche (Lucas Boyé, 4), Cádiz (Lozano, 4) and Getafe (Enes Unal, 4) ).
Other clubs, on the other hand, have more than one footballer who has been able to score three or more goals throughout this first leg of the competition. In La Real, for example, Oyarzabal has 6 and Elustondo and Isak 3 each. At Betis, curiously, two players who were discarded by the San Sebastian team in their day are currently with five targets each: Juanmi and Willian José. Borja Iglesias, a striker who once came to Villamarín with a heel strike from Espanyol, has the same current record as Williams.
The rojiblanco list
In Athletic, meanwhile, in addition to their current top scorer, only Munian, Raúl García and Iñigo Martínez have seen goal, twice each of them, and Vivian. The remaining goal of the eleven scored by the lions was scored by Ciss, at his own goal, during Rayo de Iraola’s visit to San Mamés.