Joan Francesc Ferrer (Vilasar de Mar, 1970), Rubi, has a hard time sleeping when he wins. When he loses, however, he does it loosely; "Because I usually have a clear conscience," he said in a recent interview. Fortunately for Real Betis, his coach's dream has ceased to be profound. The Verdiblanco team has added 10 points in four games, has left the positions in red and is already calculating to scratch European places. Now they live in the garden of the sleeper. An unthinkable situation a month ago, when Sevilla scored three points at Benito Villamarín and the coach headed for the scaffold. Rubi, like Hugh Glass. Rubi, the reborn. Surviving the football blows. Frightening the demons of Setién . Giving Betis a shy hope.

The injuries and the poor level of some soccer players have forced Rubi to change the system, but not the men. Without revulsives in the bank, without automatisms to cling to, the coach has been playing games improvising a bandage to contain, above all, defensive hemorrhage. Betis has received 29 goals in 17 days. They only have worse record in Liga el Mallorca (30) and Espanyol (32), the competition's colista. His rival this Sunday, Atlético de Madrid, has barely conceded 10. Bartra emerged, alternating his central position with the midfielder, to replace William Carvalh or during his unfathomable injury, and the team found some balance. A superb Feddal and Emerson's contribution have also improved the reliability of its rearguard. Upstairs is Loren, with his rhythm and determination towards the goal, who has kept the heliopolitanos alive, waiting for the hatching of Borja Iglesias, who is struggling to adapt to the south.

Without a sports director, without knowing very well how to make the transit between the stubborn Quique Setién system and Rubi's liquid tactics, the club had started the League wrapped in doubts, with a decompensated squad, without clarity in its objectives. The first results foreshadowed tragedy.

On the grass, Betis usually looks messy, apathetic in the spinal cord, without a hyphen or tactical chisel. It is a team that plays with shoves, like a drunk at a party, with unexpected movements, with starts of courage, surprising, discouraging, without choreography, with nothing to lose. Before Valencia, Mallorca and Athletic survived with individualities, with that shipwrecked talent in a gray sea. Channels, Fekir and Joaquin. Three players who have given their all for their coach, despite rumors that they were pressing for the leaders to give a blow in time on the bench. Nothing is further from reality. The team believes in Rubi. He is a technician who knows how to listen, who does not take refuge behind his system, who believes himself one more, and who works with ductile strategies, always seeking the comfort of his pupils, who exploit his quality, who do not feel imprisoned in a concrete architecture , from a drawing like a cage. The pineapple in the celebration after agonizing goals, the comebacks, the number of kilometers traveled per game; symptoms that Betis has no pattern, but a heart to reverse a situation that seemed definitive in November.

«Offensively hopefully we can see the Betis that we like, that has a ball, that moves quickly and makes the opponent in his area. In addition, you have to do an immaculate defensive job, ”Rubi hopes against Atlético. Twice the Catalan coach beat Simeone , with Levante in 15-16 and with Espanyol last season. A new challenge for the reborn, which even its leaders considered dead, and now intends to close the year with a victory that would make 2020 a year for redemption, illusion and, perhaps, why not, the European dream.

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