The stone to Sabata by Vicente Moreno

“Nothing that has happened before is decisive, but it is clear that we would have liked to have added more points away from home”, admitted Vicente Moreno before Espanyol visited the Primera, Levante team this Saturday (2pm, M The League). The outings are the main stone in the shoes of the coach of Massanassa, who will try to break with the disastrous statistics that haunt him when traveling home. Last season, in the Second Division, Espanyol de Moreno won nine games away from RCDE Stadium. In Primera, however, the story is very different.

The figures presented by the current white-and-blue coach in the League, adding the stage of Mallorca (2019-20) with the current season at Espanyol (2021-22), vary greatly depending on whether the matches they are at home or at home: he has scored 52 of the 99 points played as a local (52%) and only 13 of the 96 (13%). The goal-scoring side of both teams also varies substantially: they score 1.4 goals per game at home and only 0.8 at home. And 1.1 fit as a local and 2 as a visitor. “We always try to do the same as locals as visitors, but usually rivals usually get more points at home than away,” said the coach.

Moreno is the league’s coach with the worst winning streak as a visitor: 6.25%. He has only won two of his 32 away matches in the top tier. With Mallorca he won one in 19 trips, in the field of Eibar, while this year he also accumulated a single victory, in Mestalla, in the 13 outings made with Espanyol. Apart from Rubén Torrecilla, who has not yet made his elite debut with Granada, there are only two coaches who have fewer victories at home than Moreno in Primera. One is Iraola, who has only added one victory in 13 games. The other is his next rival, Alessio Lisci who has also won at home (7%), but in this case in six trips (16%).

Most of the coaches in the lower part of Primera move in figures that range from 18% of victories at home to Luis García and 28% from Arrasate. Bordalás and Quique Sánchez Flores have won one in four away matches (25%), while Sergio González (21%) and Francisco Rodríguez (19%) are slightly behind. Marcelino García (29%) and Unai Emery (32%) recorded almost a third of their victories in away matches.

Above are Imanol Alguacil (34%), Manuel Pellegrini (38%), José Luis Mendilibar (40%), Julen Lopetegui (43%) and Simeone (49%). The case of the Argentine coach is one of the most outstanding if we take into account that he has accumulated a decade on the bench of Atlético. The third step of the podium is occupied by Eduardo Coudet, who has won 14 of the 27 outings he has made with Celta (51%). Xavi Hernández (55%), who is in second place, is also enjoying playing away from home in the league in his first season at Barça. Leading this list, with a lot of superiority, is Carlo Ancelotti, who has won 34 of the 51 outings made with Real Madrid (66%).

Valencia, a special city for Moreno

Moreno will set foot in Valencia this Saturday, a city he knows perfectly. Massanassa, in fact, is a village separated by only seven kilometers from the capital of the Turia. There he spent, in fact, much of his formative years, between the seedlings of Valencia and the Levant itself. Now, the Spanish coach will be looking for luck once more in the field of a team that was close to coaching in 2015. At that time, the Levante thought of the current coach of Espanyol, then at Nàstic de Tarragona to straighten the course of the team. Eventually, however, he ended up betting on Rubi. The City of Valencia, opportunity for Vicente Moreno to add the second victory at home to Primera with a Spaniard who wants the three points to leave virtually assured permanence.