Sampaoli's Sevilla are streaking ahead
Empty words
Sevilla aren’t playing quite like Jorge Sampaoli had hoped - and promised, but in spite of that the results have been good. The team is one point ahead of Barça and Villarreal and just one point behind Real Madrid and Atlético. They are streaking ahead. In the Champions League, they gained a draw away at Juventus and beat Olympique Lyon at home. You can’t really ask much more from a team which, like every season, starts off with half a new squad and who this time last season were struggling for precisely that reason. But all is not well among the fans – many of whom don’t like the style of football the team is playing, and for practically all of them, the salesman’s pitch is starting to wear a little thin.
There’s a certain kind of patter that still doesn’t go down well in Spain - talk which arouses suspicion. For so many years we have heard the same old chestnuts reeled off: ‘We’ve got to win by hook or by crook’, or ‘it’s better to have one chance and put it away that 20 and not score’... None of that has changed despite the hugely successful glory years of Guardiola’s Barça and the Spanish national team. Sampaoli made a rousing call to arms before the UEFA Super Cup final against Madrid: “I want a Sevilla side which defends an idea more than a result...”. The following evening his team let the trophy slip from their fingers in the dying seconds and was left eating his own words for not making the result his priority.
By the Argentine coach’s side is Juan Manuel Lillo, which is why Sampaoli’s gained the nickname, ‘Sampalillo’. Lillo made a name for himself for employing a style of football which, at the time, was brand new and worked. He prefers not to talk tactics in public, but his reputation continues to follow him. That’s not the case with Sampaoli, who is a prisoner of his own words, ones which come back to haunt him. Some accuse him of dismissing results; others say he gets the results but not with the kind of football he promised. The club has asked him to tone down his expressions. On the positive side, it’s a source of debate for the fans, which is a good thing, and while both Sampaoli and the supporters wait for the team’s style to emerge, at least the results are coming. Because it’s about both things – playing quality football and winning, two things which are not incompatible, quite the opposite in fact.