The Seville of Lopetegui
#SixCups
Sevilla have won four UEFA Europa League titles and two UEFA Cups. Six titles in fifteen years for a team in the upper-middle tier of the Spanish league, which has to reinvent itself every season to be competitive. For a team that lives in permanent fight against windmills that demand the Champions every season, although it does not dispute it.
#Confinement
The victory over Inter Milan in the Cologne final is more than just a title. Julen Lopetegui formed a compact team that suffered a setback just before the confinement. The resumption of the Spanish league presented an improved Sevilla. The break came to Banega, Diego Carlos, De Jong, Vaclik, Escudero, Reguilón, Ocampos... returned with the desire to eat the end of the season and plugged in to take advantage of the new Europa League format.
#Finals2020
Lopetegui knew that the European title was coming closer with the German finals. Such a methodical coach makes better use of that kind of situation. The league served as a shuttle to get back into shape. Although the team work that the Basque coach did was even more effective.
#Leicester
Cruyff's Dream Team players say that what they did was play football among friends. That they had fun playing and winning. There was pressure but it didn't weigh on their shoulders. Something like that is what many coaches look for when they have success with teams that are not used to winning. It happened to Claudio Ranieri's Leicester when they won the Premier in 2016, to Alaves de Mané who was a UEFA finalist in 2001 or to Hector Cúper's Mallorca when they lost the 1999 Cup Winners' Cup final to Lazio de Eriksson.
#Work
The work of the Lopetegui with Sevilla is not new. In Porto he wrote the manual that would later lead to the Spanish team. It looked good in that World Cup in Russia. Spain let us see good football, good moves, set pieces... in the first match against Portugal. But Rubiales decided to look out for his own interests, shot us in the foot and put a coach on the street who will one day return to La Roja.
#DelNido
Sevilla was not the best team for Lopetegui but to give up a club of that level is complicated. A team that lives in a permanent utopian fight with Real Madrid and Barcelona. Gritting their teeth when they visit the Sánchez Pizjuán and disappearing from the map the following Sunday. Their social mass is debated among presidents who want to get the throne of the city by presiding over the club. Del Nido is still on the warpath to take the Sánchez Pizjuán. Actions have historically flown hand in hand and football has suffered from internal guerrilla warfare.
#SellYLose
A selling club. Like everyone who isn't Real Madrid and Barcelona. Monchi made euros every time he brought unknown players who were revalued in just one season. From Baptista to Ocampos to Álves, the coffers of Sevilla have been able to be healthy in exchange for losing regularity in Spain and Europe.
#RealMadrid
Their idyllic relationship with the UEFA Cup and, above all, the UEFA Europa League has a certain resemblance to the one Real Madrid has with the Champions League. The Andalusians are already recognized in Europe by other clubs and players. The owner of the Europa League has known how to impregnate the Sevillian feeling and take advantage of the inertia of the titles. The players who land in Nervión are quick to focus on their goal when they see the cups in the windows.
#Good times
Now come good times for Sevilla. In the middle of a pandemic that can burden football for several years, Lopetegui has formed a united team with the desire to win titles. If Monchi holds the squad well while the big ones find it difficult to sign, he will be able to win titles.
#Reguilon
Lopetegui has one of the best goals in Spain with Vaclik and could improve it if Monchi negotiates well with Girona to get Bono. Banega has given his best years in Seville out of controversy. Now he will be able to go to Saudi Arabia and will leave an important gap in the midfield. Reguilón will not return to Real Madrid. It's a nonsense that Zidane prefers Marcelo, but maybe it's the white club that wants to earn some money with his sale in a year of thin cows. If Sevilla buys the lateral he will do a good business in the short term and better still in the long run with a future sale. Ocampos and De Jong ensure goals. The Dutchman has been slow to explode but on the bench he has had a mysterious person who is a specialist in squeezing the players until all the football they have inside is gone.
#Foundation
Sevilla laid the foundations of the future in Cologne. A 3-2 score against the all-powerful Inter Milan created to win on an investment basis says a lot about what Lopetegui is capable of with players involved. Now it remains that the environment respects the team. Let there be peace in the offices. Let the shareholders who are at odds with each other not raise their voices in interest. That the nearby press stops comparing the team with the greats of Europe and does not applaud the defeats when they come badly. Monchi will take care of the rest... and Julen will take care of winning.