Pellegrini's Betis find their groove
Antony's arrival has helped to mark a before and after Real Betis, but he's not the only one putting the wind in their sails.
If you’re a football fan on social media, there’s a good chance you’ll have seen some tweets about Antony in the last few months. X MAN OF THE MATCH AWARDS IN X GAMES, Antony is on 🔥🔥🔥 for Real Betis, Antony has a better minutes per goal ratio than Pelé at Santos, and so on…
In Spain, the story is less about Antony than it is about his team’s overall recovery: Real Betis have won five straight games in LaLiga.
That’s as many wins as they managed across their previous 18 league matches combined, and represents their longest run of victories in the competition since April 2018. Indeed, this current surge is notable for the fact that, beforehand, Pellegrini’s side had had an especially difficult time in stringing results together. Their form was stop-start over a long period, and they had begun to look like the sixth or seventh-best team in the country by default; never really in danger of dropping permanently into mid-table, but nowhere near threatening to rise above.
Now, all of a sudden, Betis are a winning machine. What have you done, Antony? (what have you done, Manchester United?)
The explanation for their up-tick in form — despite coinciding conveniently around his arrival — isn’t quite as simple as Antony putting a club on his back and marching them into victory land, while showing his parent club they made a big mistake in the process. The reality of all these Player of the Match awards you’ve heard about is that Antony has been the best player on the pitch in a number that is somewhere fewer than seemingly absolutely all of them. Anyway, we’re not much interested in what they might be thinking or saying in England.
The Brazilian has had a very clear and positive impact in all that’s going on at Betis, and it’s very likely that the good stuff that’s occurring wouldn’t be happening without him. Precisely what has put the electricity back into the Benito Villamarín, however, is a bit more layered than his arrival alone.
Refreshing the attacking dynamic
If you were following what they got up to in January, then it’ll come as no surprise to learn that Betis’s primary change has occurred on the attacking end. Assane Diao left for Serie A in a €12 million deal and Vitor Roque’s loan spell was ended by a bid from Palmeiras; in their places arrived Antony on loan, followed by the €13 million signing of Cucho Hernández from Columbus Crew.
These moves happened against the backdrop of Betis beginning to properly integrate 19-year-old winger Jesús Rodriguez, as well as the return of Isco from injury, who had missed almost the entirety of the first half of the season. Taken all together, it meant that, within just a matter of weeks, Pellegrini had an almost entirely new attacking core to work with. An opportunity to jolt their wandering season to life – or at least shake the tree and see what fell out – had appeared.
The Chilean wasted no time in uniting them on the pitch, and the results have been immediate. A Betis team who were averaging just over a goal per game up until January have averaged 2.1 per game since February began, while they’ve scored 2+ goals in six of their seven games in this period — almost as many times as they did through their first 17 of the season combined (7). And within their current streak, they have won all four games that Antony, Isco, Jesús Rodríguez and Cucho Hernández have started together, including a comeback victory against Real Madrid.
By some mixture of circumstance and good planning, Betis’s attack has taken on an instant glow. The question now is: how long will they be able to bask in it?
If Manuel Pellegrini was thinking about shaking the tree, he’ll be enthused by what’s falling out. Betis now look to be replete with a wide range of attributes at the top of the pitch, and their attack makes sense: Isco in a free role, wingers who dribble and drive, and a dynamic centre forward. Most crucially, however, the players who have come together to re-model the attack have looked complimentary of one another in the process. That sense they make on paper doesn’t fade when the pieces start moving and interacting.
The big effect of the new front four has been about variety of attack. Since the start of February, Betis have averaged more direct attacks per game than any other team in LaLiga (3.1), while belonging to a small group of sides who have a steady diet of both direct and build-up attacks. In other words, they have been a dangerous team at launching swift forays towards the opposition goal, without becoming stuck when the initiative falls on them and requires more precise movement of the ball to work chances.
For the opposition, Betis have become more difficult to read — and more complicated to stop.
As established, this Betis side are quick on the path to goal. Their wingers are fast and Cucho is a mobile centre forward. Through those attributes alone — speed and ball-carrying on both sides of the pitch — they’ve gained a lot that doesn’t require much explaining.
In the clip below against Las Palmas, though, note how they bring one of their direct attacks together through varying attributes of the players involved, and how they all fit together to bring about a one-v-one with the goalkeeper, from a move that began without any obvious danger.
There’s the classically evasive play from Isco; Cucho showing his ‘false nine’ toolkit by dropping to receive, spinning, and threading a through ball off his weaker foot; and Jesús Rodríguez making the outside-in run with a turn of pace none of the defenders are able to match.
Betis now have drive on both sides of the pitch through Jesús Rodríguez and Antony, and the two central players are equally hard to pin down, for differing reasons.
Armed with an ultra-free role, Isco is free to interpret the game as he sees fit and pick up on all the awkward spots where opponents don’t want to follow him, while Cucho is a striker who often looks like a no. 10 in practice, without sacrificing his presence as a scorer.
(Just look at this interplay between the two against Getafe, ending with a Harry Kane-esque switch of play on the volley…):
That’s meant that, while they always have natural speed to tee up quick attacks and race towards goal through their wingers, Betis still look fresh with their ideas when there isn’t any obvious space to attack at pace. Their assocation, equally, provides a way for them to consistently work towards goal, without getting stuck as often as you’d expect from a team that’s had half of it reformed in recent months.
Inversely, between the mobility and creativity of the wide players, supplemented by the craft and combination play afforded by both Isco and Cucho, opening up room within the opponent’s defensive shape is coming easier to them than it once did.
Here against Getafe, Antony sets the ball rolling with a dribble on the right side of the pitch, but ends up working his way to goal following a sharp combination from the left; first with opposite winger Jesús Rodríguez, and then with a quick one-two with Cucho Hernández (again, hovering in front of the opposition centre backs and linking play).
That freedom, of course, comes in large part from Manuel Pellegrini and his particular vision for those tasked with leading attacks in his team.
Really, it’s no surprise that Pellegrini wasted little time in integrating this new face of the attack. The Betis manager has never made any secret of his appreciation of individual talent, and has always backed that up by being willing to accomodate them and give them fewer positional restrictions than most other managers would. Similar to Carlo Ancelotti, he has always been more concerned with how to aid the lives of his atttacking players, rather than bogging them down with instruction. The move against Getafe — with Antony joining play on the far side of the pitch — serves as an immediate example.
Indeed, though it might look like a no-brainer now, it’s worth recalling not many clubs were falling over themselves to sign Isco after his nightmare spell at Sevilla. By all accounts, Union Berlin were the club he was closest to, before ultimately returning to the South of Spain. The fact is: not many were desperate to sign him, and almost nobody was racing to accommodate him – nevermind feature him – the way that Manuel Pellegrini has from the jump.
“I have no doubt that the most difficult part of being a manager is about managing a group of human beings. You connect with some in one way; others in another. We all have to fight for a common idea and that group management is 60% the work of a manager. The second most important is a player’s technical ability. What’s the use of having brilliant tactical movements if we then give passes away? The tactical part would be the third factor.”
Manuel Pellegrini, El País
To some degree, that bet on talent is now occurring again with Antony. And on the other side of the winter window, Betis can now count on a more complimentary group of attackers; a group who are emboldened by their manager to express the edges of their creativity, both emotionally and in their on-pitch instructions.
Though this weekend’s Gran Derbi will be billed as the moment of truth — the point at which some will decide for sure whether Betis and their attack are really all that — optimism for the future ought to be rooted in what we’ve already seen.
Betis look rejuvenated, fresh, and dynamic; that’s a good sign for a group of players with plenty still to learn about each other, and plenty of shared experience still to be acquired.
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