Team Focus: Racing Santander

La Liga’s first casualty of the season was confirmed on Saturday as Racing Santander were handily beaten 3-0 by Real Sociedad to mathematically ensure they were relegated.

Their failure isn’t much of a surprise given the unrest and instability at the club on and off the field this season. With an absent owner wanted by Interpol, there weren’t really the finances on hand to fund new recruits either last summer or even, with a relegation battled already assured, in the January window.

However, there was another reason not to invest in January. When they inflicted Osasuna’s first home defeat of the season two weeks into the New Year, Racing were, improbably, out of the relegation zone.

They had taken 11 points from a possible 15 and looked capable of quite literally battling their way to survival.

Those results were achieved under the tutelage of Juanjo González and they weren’t done prettily. González took charge in December after Héctor Cúper had decided one win in 13 games was enough, but at least under both Cúper and González Racing were a hard side to break down.

Of their 14 draws, 12 came in their first 24 games, and six of them were 0-0. Under Cúper and González the plan was basic but clear, keep a clean sheet and try to get goals from set-pieces and counter-attacks. Goals, however, were always the problem. In Cúper’s 13 games they managed only nine (three of those in an uncharacteristically open 4-3 defeat to Valencia on the first day of the season) meaning they averaged 0.5 goals a game in the Argentine’s other 12 matches in charge.

González’s ratio was slightly better, his tenure coincided with the return to fitness and form for Christian Stuani and the Uruguayan scored five of Racing’s 12 goals in 11 games under González that also accounted for 15 of their poultry 27 points.

However, since the kneejerk reaction to get rid of González after a 4-2 defeat to Rayo Vallecano in March, goals have flowed at one end and dried up at the other.

Eleven games under current boss Álvaro Cervera have reaped just three points with 22 goals conceded and just four scored.

Overall the Cantabrians total of just 25 goals from 36 matches (0.72) is well on course to be the lowest average goals per game in La Liga in the past five years with Espanyol’s amazing feat of finishing 11th in 2009/10 having scored just 29 goals being the current record holder.

There are though a few patterns and causes that can be attributed to such a dearth of goals. The first is the clear lack of creativity shown throughout the course of the season. All three managers have ostensibly tried to win games with the same tactics outlined above.

Of their 25 goals, four have come from penalties, five from set-pieces and six from fast-break situations, which leaves just 10 that have resulted from open play.

Unsurprisingly, Racing have attempted the joint fewest number of through balls in the league at just two per game and the fewest number of short passes. The logic continues as La Liga Team Statistics show that they have enjoyed the least amount of possession at an average of 39% and most tellingly have had fewer shots on goal than anyone else (9.6 per game, 3.2 on target).

Secondly, as can be expected when you go through three managers in a season, there has been a great amount of inconsistency in selection. It says everything about the lack of stability that a club in such financial peril has used more players (32) than any other team this season, 20 of whom have made 10 appearances or more.

And, as has been proved more often than not in La Liga this season, a change in manager rarely results in a long-term change in fortunes.

Eight sides in Spain’s top-flight have changed their coach this season. Only one, Atletico Madrid, is currently in the top nine.

By contrast, all of the bottom five have done so to varying degrees of success and Sporting Gijon and Villarreal have even followed Racing’s lead by sacking two mangers.

Moreover, even those changes that have been successful, such as Manolo Jiménez’s appointment at Zaragoza or Joaquín Caparrós at Mallorca, didn’t receive the often purported “new manager bounce” but rather after a couple of months working with the players to decide what their best team and system is.

The demand for instant success is often counterintuitive, and for Racing it has been fatal. With an insecure future off the field, it could be a long wait before they get back to the big time.