La Liga 2021/22: How Sevilla’s draw with Mallorca reflected their frustrating season – tactical analysis

As the La Liga 2021/22 was proceeding to the final stage of the season, Real Madrid secured the title and Barcelona were able to move into second place. Sevilla still had a lot to fight for because they were trying to finish above Atlético Madrid. However, this week with two games to go, they dropped to the fourth place as Julen Lopetegui’s side recorded another draw, this time against Mallorca.

There were many questions regarding whether Sevilla should stick with Lopetegui next season, and with this game, we could spot some problems of his team that occurred in this calendar year repeatedly.

This tactical analysis will explain Sevilla’s game system with possession, but also something Lopetegui was unable to solve.

Lineups

Sevilla had a good squad with many options, almost two in every position despite Fernando Reges and Suso were injured. For example, despite Ivan Rakitić, Óliver Torres, and Thomas Delaney starting on the bench, their midfield trio still looked so strong as it was formed by Nemanja Gudelj, Joan Jordán, and Papu Gómez. It was a 4-1-2-3 formation from Lopetegui but as usual, a huge scale of rotations was involved.

Mallorca were fighting to stay in the La Liga for next season, but after losing to Granada 2-6 with a 4-3-3 formation, Javier Aguirre swapped to back three to add one more man in the last line, and that made Sevilla more difficult to break them.