Former Espanyol winger Matias Vargas has complained about the state of Spanish football, claiming the football was passive and the coaches centred on themselves.
The 26-year-old Argentine winger arrived at Espanyol in 2019 for €10.5m as part of their new era, but failed to settle in Barcelona. After a loan spell at Adana Demirspor in Turkey, Vargas departed for Shanghai Port for €4m last August.
Vargas complained that when he was in Spain, he felt been inhibited by the coaches there.
“All the teams, with the exception of the big ones, want to play without mistakes. For this reason, Spanish football is so structured, passive and conservative and the games are more boring and with few goals. If you look at the table, there are twelve teams that are candidates to go down with a very short gap because everyone plays not to make mistakes.”
“All of this is based on the fact that they don’t want the improvisation, the player’s intuition. They turn it off.”
In total, Vargas made 57 appearances, scoring 5 and assisting 8 in his three seasons at Espanyol. He was keen to point out that part of his own failure to succeed was a level of maturity and ability to find his feet, rather than the coaching. But he did mention their egotistical tendencies as he saw it.
“The Spanish coaches want to be protagonists and turn off the footballer’s intuition, and take away his freedom. They try to implement a way of playing without mistakes and, in the cases that I came across, I don’t think they do so perfectly either. Perhaps I learned too much from Heinze (his coach at Velez Sarsfield), but I don’t see that they have a very good way of transmitting the idea they have in training into a match,” Vargas sentenced on Twitch stream Botines Sensibles (via MD).
Vargas perhaps goes slightly to the extreme of what Spanish coaches ask for, but the traits he mentions are clearly visible in coaches like Unai Emery or Julen Lopetegui.
Certainly concerns have been raised about how entertaining the La Liga is, but such is the disparity in recources and the impact of Diego Simeone, many have looked to emulate Vargas’ compatriot.
There is a valid reason for some clubs to play ugly football when overmatched, but when managers like Bordelas make it their signature style it’s no wonder players get frustrated.
It must also be difficult as a fan to watch your club play in a negative and uninspiring way week after week. That’s why I appreciate Pellegrini and managers like him; they’re going to actually play football no matter who the opponent is.