At the beginning of October, Sevilla’s board made the difficult decision to part ways with Julen Lopetegui after just over three years in charge of the La Liga club.
The now-Wolverhampton Wanderers boss certainly left his mark in Andalusia, guiding the Seville-based side into the UEFA Champions League in three consecutive campaigns while also putting Antonio Conte’s Internazionale to the sword in the UEFA Europa League final in 2020, lifting the continental crown for a record sixth time.
Unfortunately, performances and results had significantly dwindled by the end of the 2021/22 campaign and this hangover carried on into the current season.
His sacking didn’t come as much of a surprise in the end.
Jorge Sampaoli replaced the former Real Madrid boss in the hot seat for his second stint with the historic club, having previously managed the team during the 2016/17 season before leaving to become the head coach of his native Argentina that summer.
The appointment made sense.
Sampaoli did an excellent job last season with Marseille in Ligue 1, helping the French giants to second place behind the obscenely affluent Paris Saint-Germain, which is no failure.
Nevertheless, Sampaoli’s second term at Sevilla did not go as well as his first.
The 63-year-old lost 39 percent of his games in charge, winning just 42 percent, and, as of this week, has been dismissed from his post.
The side is sitting twelfth but merely three points above the drop zone.
This tactical analysis will explain why Sampaoli’s progressive tactics failed at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.
Jorge Sampaoli Formations and tactical style
Sampaoli was a natural progression from Lopetegui.
Where the latter implemented a system centred around positional play principles and the retention of the ball, the former’s philosophy was just a stone’s throw from his predecessor.
The Argentine coach was adamant about playing football in this same manner, although it was perhaps slightly less restricted than Lopetegui’s rigid set-up.
Unfortunately, Sevilla’s style became somewhat lethargic and tedious to watch.
It was heavily focused on having the ball, but not much was being done with it.
Possession without purpose is pointless.
As the late, great Johan Cruijff once said:
“Possession for itself is worthless if you dont know what to do with the ball later.”
A look at Sevilla’s stats from this pizza chart tells the whole story without even deep-diving into any in-game tactical observations although, dont worry, well get to those eventually in this team scout report.
Los Rojiblancos ranked extremely high compared to the rest of Spain’s top-flight division when observing metrics such as passes per 90, average possession, accurate passes, and crosses per 90.
Sadly, this didn’t
