After Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona were eliminated one after another, Seville eliminated Manchester United, which had been in full swing since the second round of the Europa League semi-final. Four years later, Seville returned to the final of the Europa League, becoming the last card of the Spanish league team in the European game. In the previous La Liga, Seville and Atletico Madrid ranked fourth with the same score, and regained the Champions League qualification after two years. The last wave of 15 consecutive unbeaten rounds created a team history record. After completing the coach change last summer and bringing in 15 new players at one go in two transfer windows, why can this team achieve such a proud record in the first year of reconstruction?

The chaos of the post Emery era

From 2014 to 2016, under the leadership of Emmeri, Seville won the Europa League for three consecutive times, turning this intercontinental event into the "Seville Cup". Although that team performed excellently in European competitions, its performance in the league was very ordinary. In the three full seasons led by Emeli, it only achieved the fifth and seventh place twice, which was a big gap with the top three of the "Western Super League".

In the summer of 2016, Emery traveled to Paris, and Sampoli, who had just led Chile to win the first Copa America championship in the centennial team history, took over the coaching of Seville. Under the leadership of Sampoli, Sevilla has made great progress all the way, entered the Champions League knockout match for the first time in many years and ended the 40 unbeaten record of the season champion Real Madrid in the league. However, influenced by the fact that Sampoli is going to coach the Argentine national team, Sevilla's state of mind has obviously dropped in the second half of the season. Although it still achieved the fourth place in the end, it has achieved the highest ranking in many years. With the departure of coach Sampoli and football director Munch, the team soon entered a turbulent period of two seasons.

Despite the highlight of defeating Manchester United and reaching the last eight of the Champions League for the first time, the 2017/18 season is definitely not a success for Sevilla. The two managers, Berezzo and Montella, were dismissed due to poor performance. The team will finally keep the seventh place in the league under the leadership of Kaparos, who was appointed at the critical moment.

In the 18/19 season, Marchin, who had just led the promotion of Margirona to great achievements, became the new coach of Seville. At the beginning of his term of office, Machin's three guard system injected new vitality into the team, playing a classic example of 3-0 sweeping Real Madrid. However, the defensive problems of the team have become increasingly prominent since then. After being eliminated by the Czech team Slavia Prague in the Europa League, Marchin became the third coach to be fired by Seville in two years, and the director Kapalos was ordered to take the team to the sixth place again.

Sell your thighs and tear down powerful strikers to raise transfer funds

Before the transfer market, Seville completed two important signings. One was to invite back the former director Munci, who was frustrated in Rome. The other was to hire Lopeggi, who had failed during his tenure as Real Madrid coach, as the new coach of the team. The successful operation of the former in the transfer market and the strategy of the latter in the game became the key to the team's rejuvenation.

As a team advocating attack, Seville is used to suppressing opponents with strong attack power. For example, in the 17/18 Champions League knockout round, the number of shots in two rounds was 35-15. However, while the strength of the middle and front court is superior, there is a huge hidden danger in the back court of the team, which is often easily penetrated by opponents. The heavy attack and light defense can make the team win some games in a beautiful way, but the unstable performance seriously affects the overall performance of the team.

In the previous two seasons, Seville lost a total of 27 La Liga matches, more than 35% of the total games. The result of losing to Slavia Prague 5-6 in the two rounds of the Europa League proved that no matter how powerful the attack is, when the defense line is vulnerable, This also made the team finally determined that it would rather take down the strong front line it is proud of and also raise money to strengthen its weaknesses to achieve a balanced lineup.

In the summer of 2019, Benyeder (30 goals and 9 assists in 54 games) and Saravia (22 goals and 14 assists in 52 games), the two excellent attacking thighs, transferred to Monaco and Paris Saint Germain at the price of 40 million Euros and 18 million Euros respectively, while Muriel and Promes who failed to adapt to the team were also sold at a discount. By selling thighs and cleaning up the redundant staff, Seville has raised about 100 million euros in transfer fees, freed up salary space and paved the way for reconstruction.

FM style recruitment is outstanding, and 11 new recruits help the team eliminate Manchester United

After setting the record total price of players sold in a single transfer window in the history of the team, Seville began to recruit on a large scale and introduced 13 players at a total price of 157 million euros, with the maximum single transfer fee of only 25 million euros. As a famous football manager who used to attract young players such as Alves and Lakitic at low prices, Munch has always been known for being good at spending small money and doing big things. Last summer's excellent FM recruitment became another example of his unique vision.

On the defensive line, Seville spent 25 million Euros and 15 million Euros respectively to introduce French central defender Conde and Brazilian central defender Diego Carlos from Bordeaux and Nantes in the French first division. The total transfer value of the two players is just equal to the transfer fee when the striker Ben Yedel left the team. From the perspective of effect, this wave of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" operation is quite successful. After a season of excellent performance, the total reference value of the two men on the German "Transfer Market" has reached 80 million euros, twice as much as when they joined.

Of course, the poor performance of Seville's previous defense line was not only due to the lack of ability of the central defender, but also the lack of intercepting ability due to the clustering of technical players in the middle, which led to the opponent's ability to easily burn the flames of war into his own restricted area. To this end, Seville spent 4.5 million euros to introduce Fernando, who had previously played for Manchester City. This Brazilian iron waist gave the team an extra defense barrier, reducing the situation that our central defender was directly exposed to the fire of the other side.

This season, Sevilla only conceded 34 goals in the 38 rounds of La Liga, and the average number of goals conceded per game was the lowest since they first participated in La Liga in 1934/35. Although the number of goals scored by the team was 8 less than that of last season due to the departure of two shots from the front line, the huge improvement of the defense finally helped the team win the Champions League qualification two rounds in advance.

In the front line, Ocampos, who spent 15 million Euros to introduce from Marseille, has made no less contribution to the team than Benyeder and Saravia. The Argentine attacker has a flexible style and erratic movement. He can make breakthroughs in the positions of left and right wingers, and can also enter the restricted area to score points. So far this season, Ocampos has played 43 games for Seville with 17 goals and 5 assists, becoming the new attacking thigh of Seville.

The overall effect of the players who spent the transfer fee was good, and the three players who joined without signing and on loan were also able to fight. Goodley, who had terminated his contract with Evergrande in advance, joined Seville on a free transfer and became an important rotation player in the team's midfield. He has played 37 games on behalf of the team this season.

After former star of hope Rico joined Paris on loan, Seville signed Moroccan goalkeeper Bunu as a substitute from the recently demoted team Girona on loan. In the case of the serious injury of the main goalkeeper Vaslik, Bunu, who was in danger, saved Wolves' penalty first in the Europa League, and then made six saves against Manchester United to help the team reach the final.

Unlike Machin, who plays mainly in the three guard formation, Lopetegi, who is accustomed to the 4-3-3 formation, needs a strong full back to support the team's side attack and defense. While the old winger Hessus Navas was successfully transformed into a right back, he recruited Regillon, the former Real Madrid player, on loan. So far this season, the 23-year-old has scored three goals and sent five assists, which has returned the trust of his mentor.

Of course, it is inevitable that there will be several unsuccessful cases when 13 new reinforcements are introduced at one time, but Seville's timely stop loss disposal method is also quite appropriate. In the winter window this year, the team will join the team's center "Little Pea" Hernandez and Dabble who have only been sold for half a season, and then add two new players, Ernesli and Suso. In the end, the team got out of the dilemma of one win in six rounds at the beginning of 2020 after re running in, and has been unbeaten for 20 consecutive games.

In the semi-final of the Europa League against Manchester United, there were as many as nine new players in Lopeggi's starting line-up, and only Barnega and Navas played for more than one season in the team. Among the four players who came on as substitutes, two also joined the team last summer. In the end, 11 new players from Seville returned to the Europa League final with the goal of two new players, Suso and De Jong, 2-1. This victory also marks that the team has officially completed reconstruction and entered a new era.

Reconstruction ideas are very important, and "minor repair and minor supplement" can also win over heavy reinforcements

The previous strong performance in European competitions has become a thing of the past, and the top Spanish players have entered the reconstruction period in recent two seasons. Compared with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, which introduced Azar, Grezman and Felix with a price of more than 100 million Euros last summer, Seville's "minor repairs and minor repairs" with a maximum price of 25 million Euros is really difficult to attract the interest of visitors. However, it is these seemingly inconspicuous transactions that make the team build a new system in just one season, It has returned to its original height in the European competition.

In contrast, the top three Spanish teams that seem to have introduced big name players are actually just fine-tuning in some positions, without trying to complete the system update. In the end, the new strong reinforcements failed to perform in line with their worth in the first year, and the teams were also out early in the Champions League this season, failing to regain the glory of the past, of which Barcelona's situation is the most regrettable.

After Neymar left Paris, Barcelona spent hundreds of millions of euros in the past transfer window to try to reorganize the super attack combination. However, it cannot be denied that the trident, like "MSN", which is composed of three top attackers with different styles in the peak period, is rare in football. Any attempt to copy this case is almost inevitable. Barca, which has attracted a lot of money for several years, not only failed to regain the former glory of the front line, but also made the defense crisis more serious, which only resulted in a series of disastrous defeats in the Champions League. If Barcelona, like Seville, could change its way of thinking after a humiliating exit, would the outcome be the same?

Even in the era when "gold dollar football" was popular, it was more important to spend money than to have money. As a former representative of the offensive football genre, Seville returned to the list of European giants through the introduction operation and system reconstruction. Returning to the Europa League final may just be the beginning, and we have reason to expect that this team can bring more surprises in the future La Liga and Champions League matches.