Leganés has a hectic start to 2022 (Valladolid, Real Sociedad) with the addition of the problems arising from its new COVID outbreak. There are four confirmed positives, but three more players, seven in total, were absent from the training session yesterday.
The casualties threaten a team that, however, it seems that it will not see endanger the triumvirate of the medullary that has consolidated the new model of Mehdi Nafti. With Gaku, Recio and Rubén Pardo, Leganés is much more dangerous.
It was demonstrated by the period in which the Blue and Whites lost two of these three pieces. Without Rubén Pardo and Recio, precisely because of the first COVID outbreak suffered this course, Leganés suffered (defeat against Girona, draw against Ponferradina) and, above all, played a game less similar to the one that the cucumber technician longs for, control of the spherical as a defensive method and speed to search for the rival.
It happens that, against Malaga, on the last day of 2021, the three returned to exercise in the core and in full conditions. The result was a game of absolute dominance. Perhaps the best squandering of the pepineros so far this season, which handcuffed the rival until it left its auction counter to zero.
And all controlled not from the defensive armor of the accumulation, but with the ball as the protagonist: Recio was close to 85% effective, like Gaku. Rubén Pardo lowered the efficiency, (65%) but in return gave the assistance of 0-1, the fifth of the season, second from set pieces.
The Rioja is already by far the player who creates the most chances for his team, including precisely assists, with 33 opportunities born from his boots.
Gaku is close behind him, with 17 (5th best ratio of the pepineros) and although Recio is not a master in these struggles, he has become the Blue and White player with the best passing percentage, with 93% accuracy. The combination of the three draws a core of control and possession to play static and also against.
An efficiency that has forced Nafti to mutate his drawing. ANDhe Franco-Tunisian embraced the 4-2-3-1 that he inherited from Garitano, but soon used a 4-1-4-1 (sometimes transformed into 4-3-3) with which Leganés attacked more without stopping defend more.
La Rosaleda’s clean sheet was the fourth of eight games in the Nafti era. Previously, in the previous 10 games, Leganés only managed to leave their goal without conceding in two games. Against Burgos (0-0) and against Amorebieta (1-0)