The third life of Manolo González at Espanyol

BarcelonaThe painful defeat against Elche called into question the continuity of Manolo González at the helm of Espanyol. The Galician coach himself acknowledged in a press conference that it had been a "dreadful" match, the "worst" since he has been at the blue-and-white club. With one man down for 85 minutes, the bottom team of the League won with authority at Cornellà-El Prat (1-3) in the prelude to a 21-day international break, favorable for making a coaching change.

Despite having seven points –two above the relegation zone–, the poor image shown by the parakeets, who had already come from completing a very bad first half at Butarque, provoked internal analysis and debates within the sporting management regarding the coach's future, as advanced by La Grada. The resolution is that Monchi, the person in charge of making a decision if necessary, maintains confidence in the man from Folgoso do Courel.

The disaster of Montilivi

In more than two decades on the benches, Manolo González has never been dismissed. At Ebro, in 2018, they were about to do it, but the sporting director Ander Garitano –who is the one who recommended him to Fran Garagarza for Espanyol B– defended him before the club's owner. At Espanyol, it is the third time he has been on the tightrope. The first time was also after a resounding defeat, a humiliating thrashing at Montilivi (4-1): in the 30th minute, with periods of possession exceeding 90%, Girona was already winning 4-0 and the local crowd was chanting "To the Second Division, to the Second Division", and the visiting fans were leaving the stadium at halftime.

That Saturday night, November 23, 2024, ended with a police cordon at the sports city and a midnight meeting between members of La Curva and La Juvenil, the coach, the captains and the sporting director. To the social crisis was added the sporting dilemma about what to do with Manolo González. The ownership seriously considered dismissing him, but finally Garagarza's criteria prevailed, as he advocated for his continuity.

The recipe to take flight

Seven days later, the coach saved a match ball with the triumph against Celta, and after Christmas, Espanyol finally took flight thanks to the change of footballing paradigm instigated by Manolo: he simplified concepts and shielded his team more at the back, betting on a more recognizable and stable side, without system changes or frills. It worked for him.

It is foreseen that the formula to set the current course of Espanyol straight will be the same. Manolo González, who is a lover of associative football and who at the beginning of the season verbalized that his team would be more of a protagonist with the ball, made it clear after the defeat against Elche that it was necessary to return to the origins: “We defend poorly and we do not compete. Neither on the day of Rayo nor today have we done so. We must recover the essence and not make mistakes. Trying to be very flashy and taking the team where it belongs is not the correct path. Perhaps we play in a way that, when attacking, distracts us from the things we were doing well. We need to change our mindset”.

A practically unbearable streak

When Monchi landed in Barcelona last May, Espanyol was heading towards the precipice, towards the Second Division. They had not won in 18 matchdays, a streak practically unbearable for any coach; almost nowhere would Manolo have survived a dynamic like that. Despite the noise from the environment, the Andalusian sporting director, who has never been characterized by firing coaches, decided to keep him until the end of the season because, having taken the temperature in the locker room, he confirmed that his message was reaching the players, who believed in him.

The support of the players, also in recent judgments, has been key to the continuity of a coach with more than 100 matches with the first team and responsible for the return to La Liga, who renewed automatically until the summer of 2027 after certifying survival at Osasuna's ground. Now the Galician is once again experiencing a delicate moment at the helm of an Espanyol that, upon the return to competition, will visit the bottom of the table with the mission of winning to dispel doubts about his figure.