Sevilla manager Jose Luis Mendilibar was by his own admission watching football at home and expecting to spend the coming months waiting for a call in March, but last night masterminded victory over Manchester United in his first ever European tie. Starting his management career in the fifth tier of Spanish football, Mendilibar is in a Europa League semi-final over 450 games later.
The Sevilla side he has taken charge of has been a different one since he took over. He told Marca after the match that this will only help them to keep improving and become more consistent.
“This is going to be good for us. People believe in what they do. We haven’t played a single similar game, in Cadiz a difficult game, with one man less against Celta, in Manchester we won the lottery to draw, we didn’t play well and we won in Valencia… Today was our most complete game.”
Mendilibar was asked exactly what it was he had changed since arriving, with the likes of Ivan Rakitic admitting that the style is very different to that of previous manager Jorge Sampaoli, but that they have improved a lot.
“Simplicity, I imagine. I don’t know, I don’t ask for strange things. For some it will be a compliment and for others if you speak in a way that no one understands you, that will be the compliment. I am who I am and I am not going to change. I have been in teams of many divisions, I started at Regional [level] and now I’m in the Europa League semi-finals with a very good team and I’ve always been like that. Above all, simplicity, for me it’s one of the most important things in football.”
Despite working with a significantly smaller budget, Mendilibar played the exact same way with Eibar as he has with Sevilla, a recipe that kept them in the division for six years. Few in Spanish football have worked as hard for the opportunity.
