A lot can happen in two seasons in football, but even so Sevilla are testing the limits of elasticity after a hard and fast fall, having won the Europa League – again – only 18 months ago.
In truth, that victory perhaps masked the start of their demise, as they ended a run of three top-four finishes in a row to end 12th in LaLiga that campaign, and it has only gotten worse since then. Sevilla won five European trophies in the space of a decade and were often in the Champions League knockout stages in the seasons in between; this year, an away day at Las Palmas is as exciting a long-haul trip as they’ll be having, and they didn’t even win that.
So, for the uninitiated, let’s rewind a little. Sevilla, once the poster club for clever transfer work and the signpost for over-achievement in European football, finished between third and seventh in LaLiga in 17 out of 19 seasons, from 03/04 through to 21/22. They also won the Copa del Rey twice and the Uefa Cup twice more in that earlier period, highlighting the success and golden formula they’d found.
Perhaps, then, it was natural that such sustained ability to challenge couldn’t go on indefinitely, but even so, this has been a thump of a landing. After ending 12th in 22/23, last season they finished 14th. This term it could get even worse. They are 13th now, with just one away win all season, and while home form has been somewhat better, they’ve had a much easier run of games at the Sánchez Pizjuán – the top four all head to them in the second half of the year.
It isn’t that tricky to identify why they are performing poorly when watching them – often a muddled identity on the pitch, caught between pointless ball retention and defensive fragility – but the numbers offer a further clue. Sevilla rank fifth in LaLiga for average possession, for example, but 11th for shots on target, 12th for xG, 14th for big chances created. A shot conversion rate of 8.8% is also only better than four other teams in the division. At the other end, while not the be-all and end-all, an xG conceded tally of 21.7 is fairly poor, the eighth highest in LaLiga, but they’ve actually conceded more than that, with 23.
That’s as a team; individually it is similarly reflective of a side unable to translate possession into meaningful openings. Too few players create or take chances with any regularity, with the team heavily reliant on Dodi Lukebakio, who is top for goals, season xG, shots on target per 90, chances created and successful dribbles per 90, if we ignore bit-part performer Chidera Ejuke for the latter, with barely 500 minutes to his name.
And if all that wasn’t enough to make it difficult for García Pimienta’s side to be winning matches, five times this season they’ve made matters even worse by being shown red cards – no team in all of Europe’s top five leagues have had more so far this season. Confidence, tactical organisation and individual mistakes can all play a part across the season in underperformance and all three were arguably on show last time out in defeat at Atlético Madrid: 3-1 up with half an hour to play, Sevilla absolutely imploded, conceding the last in stoppage time to lose 4-3 and make it just one win in five.
It’s easy to try and pin the demise of the team on a single factor: the exit of Monchi, say. The sporting director was famed for his transfer work in his first spell at the club, but matters didn’t go well at Roma and after returning to Sevilla in 2019, it wasn’t much better. He left for Aston Villa in 2023 and the club’s dealings haven’t been stellar since then either – decision-making has been questionable at times and not enough big sales have been well reinvested. There was a time it seemed every player who left Sevilla had a big profit attached; that hasn’t happened of late. Yassine Bounou’s sale to Al Hilal brought in a chunk, certainly, and this past summer striker Youssef En Nesyri went to Fenerbahçe for €20m. But aside from those it has been loans, free transfers and low-cost deals departing the club, with mostly the same coming in. Perhaps Lukebakio, signed for around €10m 18 months ago, will buck that trend – but as noted, they’re highly reliant on him on the pitch right now.
There’s no easy turnaround for Sevilla, with financial constraints hitting many clubs in Spain, meaning selling players on is tougher – and it doesn’t look as though European football is on the horizon any time soon either. The club had a two-decade-long golden period, but the sport moves on quickly. Right now, Sevilla can only think about halting the slide.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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