Jorge Sampaoli's new Sevilla spends its first acid test tonight at the Santiago Bernabeu against a Real Madrid on a roll, leader in the League and who count all their games of the season by victories except for two draws against Osasuna and Shakhtar.
The Seville team fired Julen Lopetegui on October 5, with the team in relegation positions and practically evicted in the Champions League. With Sampaoli at the helm, the Nervión men have experienced a clear improvement. Sevilla have played four games with the Argentine, resulting in three draws and one victory (in Son Moix against Mallorca). Now they are already twelfth in the table and although in the Champions League they need a miracle to get into the round of 16, the atmosphere in the dressing room and in Sevilla is different.
The feeling is that the jinx is over and Sevilla is taking steps towards its true potential, that of a team that clearly has to aspire to get into Champions positions.
We are already beginning to see a very tactically disciplined team at Sevilla, one of the characteristics of the teams led by Sampaoli. The biggest concern now for the Argentine coach is to give defensive consistency to his team: “There are players with certain discomforts, like Fernando or the chronic problem that Marcos Acuña has, which makes him play as well as he can. The complications in the defensive block are real and they increase with the matches. We have to have structures beyond proper names to neutralize a team that has great force. In the little time we have, we will work to close the channels that they work so well”, said the technician, who also confirmed that Marcão is available again and will travel.
Sampaoli did not want to give many clues about the possible system to be used at the Bernabeu: “We are going to evaluate the characteristics of our wingers and that of the midfielders. See what it brings you to play with one or the other, ”he said.
Today it seems that in Sampaoli's Sevilla one of the losers is Isco, required by Lopetegui and a player who easily falls into depression when he knows he is undervalued.
Although Sampaoli's football philosophy is always very different from that of Simeone (much more daring), he agrees with the Atlético coach in being a great motivator and a staunch defender of his men. For Sampaoli, a game can only be planned from audacity: “If we went to the Bernabeu scared, imagine how we would get out of there. We will try to play a game of great audacity; then development puts you in your place. Our idea of the game is not to be partners, but protagonists. And you can only star in the game from one place and it is from the illusion ".
Sampaoli did comment yesterday on what he told his players: “I've told them that Madrid is unpredictable because they take up space very well and their players don't have fixed positions. What I have asked of mine is control of the match from the game. In a game of coming and going we have very few chances”.
At Real Madrid, the great novelty is Courtois' presence on the list, having overcome his sciatica problem. Ancelotti confirmed him as a starter in a team in which he said there will be very few changes compared to the one he won at the Martínez Valero on Wednesday against Elche.
