Even though they reached the Copa del Rey final and made the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in 60 years, this season has actually been disappointing for Sevilla.
This was the first season without renowned sporting director Monchi, and Sevilla had a poor summer in terms of planning. Not only did they make the eyebrow-raising decision to hire Eduardo Berizzo to replace Jorge Sampaoli, but they also made a number of signings which haven’t worked out, such as Simon Kjaer, Guido Pizarro, Nolito and Luis Muriel.
They may have generally been earning positive results in the first half of the season, but the football wasn’t impressive and they were relying on luck much more than they should have been. They were able to get through their Champions League group, which was one of the easier groups, and they were in fifth place at Christmas, but the board decided the situation was bad enough to sack Berizzo.
The problem was that they didn’t have a replacement lined up and they seemed to panic and rush into hiring Vincenzo Montella. Things didn’t improve much under the Italian, but they did manage to knock out Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, and then defeat Leganes in the semi-final, while they also won their Champions League last 16 tie against Manchester United. Yet these Atletico and Manchester United wins were as much to do with their opponents’ failures as they were to do with Sevilla.
A nine-match winless run, which included a 5-0 loss to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, saw Montella sacked and former coach Joaquin Caparros brought in to try to salvage Europa League qualification. He managed to do that, but now Sevilla must find a new permanent coach and seriously improve their squad.
