No one knows better than a goalkeeper how goals are made. They are responsible for cleaning the confetti after the party, starting the ball from the net, paying for the damage. Privileged viewers of the tragedy. Julen Lopetegui (Asteasu, Guipúzcoa, 1966) hung the suit of lights on a rack and exchanged gloves for a notebook. To avoid the goals of the rival to try to build their own. Little has been learned what he learned under sticks. His Sevilla has everything except clarity in the attack. It is a compact block, solidary, delivered, but blunt. Human fault or system error? Lack of the strikers or lack of imagination from the bench? Some of these doubts will dissipate against Madrid.

Lopetegui returns to what was his home for a handful of weeks. In Madrid and suffered from droughts and obtuse attacks. He had to weather Cristiano Ronaldo's march, try to cover his huge seven with patches, and only Benzema kept the guy. Ten days of LaLiga led the white team. Four wins, four losses and two draws. Fourteen goals, although eight of them in two promising games, against Girona (1-4) and Leganés (4-1). Then, the downhill and goodbye. Already then they questioned the few opportunities given to Mariano, the only nine pure in his workforce, and how uncreative his advances were at the forefront. That stubbornness and immobility were also glimpsed in the onces, with that philosophy that the problems must be left still to be solved alone.

His Sevilla repeats the same pattern. Lopetegui teams are not great danger generators. Its strategy provides balance without edges, an obsession for not fitting that despises magic, the unexpected, a certain spark. In Porto it was a titanic Jackson Martínez who, with little, appealed to Julen: 32 goals scored the Colombian at the service of the Basque coach. But when the striker does not reach that punctual brilliance, the entire building falters. The nervous team plays contention, dominance, but in the red areas it moves urgently, impatiently and without light. Babies biting with the gums. Everything that wins back is lost up. A gradient from goal to goal. His obsocation with De Jong , a nine that is showing little, has forced the equipment to be remodeled in the winter market.

The signing of En-Nesyri

Dabbur has already left, bored and frustrated. Chicharito will be next. Neither served to question the ownership of the Dutch bigardo. The former PSV has two goals in 1,508 minutes. The end Ocampos , top scorer of the team in league with five goals, and midfielder Mudo Vázquez , with three, exceed his record. Munir , important in the Europa League, is the only one who, without being a pure center forward, has managed to convince the master, stoning some ownership. Monchi has responded by paying Leganés the 20 million clause of En-Nesyri , which could debut today and will be a new competition for the questioned De Jong, who is valued for what he brings to the game, beyond its realization. Like the one who is not handsome but falls sympathetic. As if the striker were wood in an arrow and not sharp steel. Things of modern football. De De Jong tells Lopetegui that he presses, sets centrals, lowers balls and offers himself to his teammates. Sucking on a cactus comforts if wandering through the desert.

With En-Nesyri, Sevilla are looking for a goal to make their neat football and their center-defensive strength profitable. But Lopetegui will not alter your plan. The 4-3-3 is non-negotiable. Perhaps Monchi frightens doubts with the signing of new differential players, whether Moroccan or someone else to arrive. Maybe De Jong comes out of the chrysalis. The truth is that a good team can wither in the rival area, no matter how robust it has been shown. For very good feelings that drag, if these do not come signed with victories, with the sweet pragmatism of the goal.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Real Madrid
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  • First division

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