Sevilla’s season started so well, but it fizzled out in the final few months. This was a concern that many had when Jorge Sampaoli took over the dugout last summer, given that his intense brand of football is known to be tiring, and it proved to be a legitimate concern. With just four wins from their final 13 LaLiga matches, Sevilla conceded third place to Atletico Madrid and they were at risk of losing fourth spot too, but managed to hold on and will now enter the Champions League qualifying round. As well as the fact that the players looked this season’s Champions League last 16 exit at the hands of Leicester City did to them. They had been so much better in the first leg and at points of the second leg, yet the English side managed to sneak through and it took Sevilla some time to recover from that setback.
Overall, though, this has to go down as a successful campaign and Sampaoli proved that he was indeed good enough to replace the PSG-bound Unai Emery, so much so that the Argentine national team have come calling and have signed him up, leaving Eduardo Berizzo in charge for next year. Sampaoli showed just how tactically flexible he can be and predicting the Sevilla lineup or formation was never an easy task. He would set his side up with a back three, a back four, with one attacker or with three, and usually his lineup was a direct response to the style of play of the opposition. For the first three quarters of the season, this worked. Once tiredness came creeping in, the team’s form collapsed.
