Eibar may be the smallest team in La Liga in terms of their stadium capacity and the fact that they come from a town of just 27,000 people, yet they exceeded all expectations to finish in the top half for the first time in their history. Once again they did so with an almost new squad, as each successful season leads to a summer of upheaval. However, their sporting director Fran Garagarza was able to work his magic yet again and he was able to bring in players like Pedro Leon, Florian Lejeune and Fran Rico at low cost, each of whom was mightily impressive, even if the latter eventually suffered a season-ending injury. One of the players who didn’t leave last summer was striker Sergi Enrich and he put together another excellent season, scoring 11 La Liga goals. He was joined up top by Kike, who was similarly able to put the ball in the back of the net whenever he was fit.
Credit must also go to coach Jose Luis Mendilibar, whose work makes him a candidate as the coach of the season. His 4-2-3-1 system was simple, but effective, and Eibar excelled on the wings. With the likes of Pedro Leon and Takashi Inui able to attack out wide and either drive inside or cross the ball for Enrich of Kike to score, Eibar had a winning formula and one which teams found difficult to stop, even when they knew what was coming. Defensively they were effective too, with the aforementioned Lejeune and Ivan Ramis employing a no-nonsense punt-the-ball-away style of dealing with advances and crosses into their own box.
